diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
index ba56666..392f746 100644
--- a/.env.example
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -16,6 +16,9 @@ DATABASE_URL=postgres://eventsnap:CHANGE_ME_use_a_strong_password@db:5432/events
 POSTGRES_USER=eventsnap
 POSTGRES_PASSWORD=CHANGE_ME_use_a_strong_password
 POSTGRES_DB=eventsnap
+# Connection pool size. Default 10. For a busy event (~100 guests polling the feed
+# + SSE + uploads at once) raise to ~30 so requests don't queue on a pool permit.
+DATABASE_MAX_CONNECTIONS=30
 
 # ── Authentication ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 # Generate with: openssl rand -hex 64
@@ -40,19 +43,25 @@ MEDIA_PATH=/media
 # /media is publicly served, so exports here would be downloadable without auth.
 EXPORT_PATH=/exports
 
-# ── Upload limits ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-DEFAULT_MAX_IMAGE_SIZE_MB=20
-DEFAULT_MAX_VIDEO_SIZE_MB=500
-
-# ── Rate limiting ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-DEFAULT_UPLOAD_RATE_PER_HOUR=10
-DEFAULT_FEED_RATE_PER_MIN=60
-DEFAULT_EXPORT_RATE_PER_DAY=3
-
-# ── Capacity ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-DEFAULT_ESTIMATED_GUEST_COUNT=100
-# Fraction of total storage that triggers the "low storage" warning (0.0–1.0)
-DEFAULT_QUOTA_TOLERANCE=0.75
+# ── Runtime settings (upload limits, rate limits, capacity) ───────────────────
+# NOTE: These are NOT environment variables. Upload size caps, rate limits, guest
+# count and quota tolerance are stored in the database `config` table (seeded once
+# at first boot) and changed at runtime from the ADMIN DASHBOARD — the backend does
+# not read them from .env. Setting them here has no effect. Current seeded defaults:
+#   upload rate      100 / hour / guest   (raised from 10 by migration 015)
+#   feed rate         60 / minute
+#   export rate        3 / day
+#   max image size    20 MB
+#   max video size   500 MB
+#   estimated guests 100
+#   quota tolerance  0.75  (fraction of disk that triggers the low-storage warning)
+# Adjust these in the admin UI before the event if needed.
 
 # ── Workers ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+# Number of parallel image/video compression workers. Default 2. This is the main
+# throughput bottleneck: with 2 workers a burst of uploads can take ~5s to appear.
+# For a large event (100+ guests) 4 is a good target — but each worker can run an
+# ffmpeg transcode, so if you raise this ALSO raise the app container's memory limit
+# in docker-compose.yml (`app.deploy.resources.limits.memory`) from 1G to ~2G, or a
+# burst of large videos can OOM the box and take Postgres down with it.
 COMPRESSION_WORKER_CONCURRENCY=2
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 8cb810a..7e26de9 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -46,7 +46,11 @@ services:
     expose:
       - "3000"
     healthcheck:
-      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "wget -q -O- http://localhost:3000/health || exit 1"]
+      # Use 127.0.0.1, NOT localhost: the app binds IPv4 (0.0.0.0) but `localhost`
+      # resolves to ::1 (IPv6) first inside the container, so a localhost probe gets
+      # "connection refused" and the container never turns healthy — which would leave
+      # Caddy (gated on `condition: service_healthy` below) blocked forever on boot.
+      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "wget -q -O- http://127.0.0.1:3000/health || exit 1"]
       interval: 10s
       timeout: 5s
       retries: 5
@@ -73,7 +77,9 @@ services:
     expose:
       - "3001"
     healthcheck:
-      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "wget -q -O- http://localhost:3001/ >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 1"]
+      # 127.0.0.1, not localhost — see the app healthcheck note above (IPv4 bind vs
+      # ::1 resolution would leave this container permanently unhealthy).
+      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "wget -q -O- http://127.0.0.1:3001/ >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 1"]
       interval: 10s
       timeout: 5s
       retries: 5
@@ -86,6 +92,12 @@ services:
   caddy:
     image: caddy:2-alpine
     restart: unless-stopped
+    environment:
+      # The Caddyfile's site address is `{$DOMAIN}`, read from THIS container's env.
+      # Without it, `{$DOMAIN}` expands to empty, the site block collapses, and Caddy
+      # serves nothing / fails to obtain a TLS cert. `env_file` alone wouldn't help —
+      # Caddy needs it in `environment`, and this keeps the Caddyfile the single source.
+      DOMAIN: ${DOMAIN}
     ports:
       - "80:80"
       - "443:443"