diff --git a/dankclaw/observability/quadlet/grafana.container b/dankclaw/observability/quadlet/grafana.container
index c9e31c3..a790d89 100644
--- a/dankclaw/observability/quadlet/grafana.container
+++ b/dankclaw/observability/quadlet/grafana.container
@@ -62,9 +62,16 @@ HealthRetries=3
 HealthStartPeriod=60s
 
 [Service]
-# systemd-side only: supplies ${GRAFANA_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET} for expansion
-# above. The container does not receive this file.
-EnvironmentFile=/home/dank/serverAppConfigs/.env
+# systemd-side only: supplies ${GRAFANA_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET} for the expansion
+# above. The container never receives this file.
+#
+# It is the per-service env file the deployer seeds from dankclaw/.env — the
+# fleet convention (caddy, pihole, copyparty, romm and seerr all read one).
+# The repo-root .env that the compose service happened to pick up is a gluetun
+# env file: it carries HOME=/root and the WireGuard keys, and importing it into
+# this service makes podman look for its configuration under /root, which it
+# cannot read, so the unit fails to start. Seed the value into dankclaw/.env.
+EnvironmentFile=/home/dank/Containers/grafana/env
 Restart=always
 RestartSec=10
 
diff --git a/scripts/deploy-remote.sh b/scripts/deploy-remote.sh
index 887325e..7a67348 100755
--- a/scripts/deploy-remote.sh
+++ b/scripts/deploy-remote.sh
@@ -378,6 +378,24 @@ deploy_compose_service() {
     esac
 }
 
+# grafana is the one observability service that holds a credential: the
+# Authentik OAuth2 client secret. It is seeded into a per-service env file (the
+# fleet convention: caddy, pihole, copyparty, romm, seerr) instead of being
+# imported from the repo .env wholesale. The repo-root .env that the compose
+# service used to pick up is a gluetun env file — it also carries HOME=/root
+# and the WireGuard keys, and an EnvironmentFile of that file sets HOME for the
+# service, which makes podman look for its config under /root and fail.
+seed_grafana_env() {
+    local dest=/home/dank/Containers/grafana/env
+    mkdir -p /home/dank/Containers/grafana
+    if [[ ! -f "$dest" ]]; then
+        awk -F= '/^GRAFANA_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET=/ { print }' dankclaw/.env > "$dest"
+        chmod 600 "$dest"
+    fi
+    grep -q '^GRAFANA_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET=.' "$dest" \
+        || { echo "grafana env missing GRAFANA_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET; set it in dankclaw/.env" >&2; return 1; }
+}
+
 # The five observability containers left compose on 2026-09-11 (they were
 # started by hand with podman-compose and never came back after a reboot).
 # They are ordinary rootless Quadlet units now: same images, same mounts, same
@@ -399,7 +417,10 @@ deploy_observability() {
             copy_alloy_config
             build_compose_image alloy
             ;;
-        grafana|node-exporter)
+        grafana)
+            seed_grafana_env || return 1
+            ;;
+        node-exporter)
             ;;
         *)
             echo "unknown observability service: $service" >&2
diff --git a/tests/observability_quadlet.bats b/tests/observability_quadlet.bats
index 32052e4..e20b592 100755
--- a/tests/observability_quadlet.bats
+++ b/tests/observability_quadlet.bats
@@ -146,17 +146,32 @@ service_section() {
     done
 }
 
-@test "grafana receives the OAuth client secret without receiving the whole .env" {
-    # systemd expands ${GRAFANA_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET} in [Container] from the
-    # [Service] EnvironmentFile. Putting that file in [Container] would hand
-    # the container every fleet secret in it (Porkbun keys, Authentik keys,
-    # the sudo password file's neighbours) for the sake of one value.
+@test "grafana gets its OAuth client secret without getting a whole env file" {
+    # systemd expands ${GRAFANA_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET} for the [Container]
+    # Environment= line from the [Service] EnvironmentFile, which keeps the
+    # file out of the container entirely. That file is the per-service one the
+    # deployer seeds (fleet convention: caddy, pihole, copyparty, romm, seerr)
+    # — NOT a repo .env. The repo-root .env the compose service happened to
+    # read is a gluetun env file carrying HOME=/root and the WireGuard keys;
+    # importing it sets HOME for this service and podman then looks for its
+    # configuration under /root and refuses to start.
     local unit="$UNIT_DIR/grafana.container"
-    service_section "$unit" | grep -q '^EnvironmentFile=/home/dank/serverAppConfigs/.env$'
+    service_section "$unit" | grep -q '^EnvironmentFile=/home/dank/Containers/grafana/env$'
+    ! service_section "$unit" | grep -q 'serverAppConfigs'
     ! container_section "$unit" | grep -q '^EnvironmentFile='
     container_section "$unit" | grep -q '^Environment=GF_AUTH_GENERIC_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET=\${GRAFANA_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET}$'
 }
 
+@test "the deployer seeds exactly one value into the grafana env file" {
+    # The single-variable filter is the point: a whole-file copy is how the
+    # HOME=/root failure got in.
+    grep -q '^seed_grafana_env() {' "$REMOTE_DEPLOY"
+    grep -q '^    local dest=/home/dank/Containers/grafana/env$' "$REMOTE_DEPLOY"
+    grep -q "awk -F= '/^GRAFANA_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET=/ { print }' dankclaw/.env > \"\$dest\"" "$REMOTE_DEPLOY"
+    grep -q "grep -q '\^GRAFANA_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET=\.' \"\$dest\"" "$REMOTE_DEPLOY"
+    grep -q 'seed_grafana_env || return 1' "$REMOTE_DEPLOY"
+}
+
 @test "observability units hold no literal secret material" {
     # A secret-named setting is allowed only when its value is a ${VAR}
     # reference resolved from an EnvironmentFile systemd reads; a literal value