diff --git a/deployment/config/nginx-smoke/default.conf b/deployment/config/nginx-smoke/default.conf
index 3f1fa75ff..3bf12ca13 100644
--- a/deployment/config/nginx-smoke/default.conf
+++ b/deployment/config/nginx-smoke/default.conf
@@ -29,8 +29,8 @@ server {
 
     # ── DBAL API — proxied to real C++ daemon ─────────────────────────────
 
-    location /api {
-        proxy_pass         http://dbal:8080;
+    location /api/ {
+        proxy_pass         http://dbal:8080/;
         proxy_set_header   Host $host;
         proxy_set_header   X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
         proxy_read_timeout 30s;
diff --git a/e2e/deployment-smoke.spec.ts b/e2e/deployment-smoke.spec.ts
index a8a218431..f27da07b1 100644
--- a/e2e/deployment-smoke.spec.ts
+++ b/e2e/deployment-smoke.spec.ts
@@ -51,14 +51,12 @@ test.describe('Deployment Smoke Tests', () => {
   test.describe('API Services', () => {
     test('DBAL health endpoint responds', async ({ request }) => {
       const resp = await request.get(`${GATEWAY}/api/health`)
-      // In CI smoke stacks the DBAL daemon may not be running;
-      // accept 200 (healthy) or 502/404 (gateway has no upstream yet)
-      expect(resp.status()).not.toBe(0)
+      expect(resp.ok()).toBeTruthy()
     })
 
     test('DBAL version endpoint responds', async ({ request }) => {
       const resp = await request.get(`${GATEWAY}/api/version`)
-      expect(resp.status()).not.toBe(0)
+      expect(resp.ok()).toBeTruthy()
     })
   })