diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/deploy.yml b/.gitea/workflows/deploy.yml
index 30595e1..dbdd379 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/deploy.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/deploy.yml
@@ -118,151 +118,7 @@ jobs:
              echo "target=skip" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
           fi
 
-  # ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-  # JOB 2: QA (Lint, Typecheck, Test)
-  # ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-  qa:
-    name: 🧪 QA
-    needs: [prepare, deploy]
-    if: needs.prepare.outputs.target != 'skip'
-    runs-on: docker
-    container:
-      image: catthehacker/ubuntu:act-latest
-    steps:
-      - name: Checkout repository
-        uses: actions/checkout@v4
-      - name: Setup Node.js
-        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
-        with:
-          node-version: 20
-      - name: Setup pnpm
-        uses: pnpm/action-setup@v3
-        with:
-          version: 10
-      - name: Provide sibling monorepo
-        run: |
-          git clone https://git.infra.mintel.me/mmintel/at-mintel.git _at-mintel
-
-          # Force ALL @mintel packages to use the local clone instead of the registry
-          # This handles root package.json
-          perl -pi -e 's/"\@mintel\/([^"]+)"\s*:\s*"[^"]+"/"\@mintel\/$1": "link:.\/_at-mintel\/packages\/$1"/g' package.json
-          # Special case for pdf -> pdf-library
-          perl -pi -e 's/link:\.\/_at-mintel\/packages\/pdf"/link:.\/_at-mintel\/packages\/pdf-library"/g' package.json
-
-          # Handle apps/web/package.json
-          perl -pi -e 's/"\@mintel\/([^"]+)"\s*:\s*"[^"]+"/"\@mintel\/$1": "link:..\/\.\.\/_at-mintel\/packages\/$1"/g' apps/web/package.json
-          # Special case for pdf -> pdf-library
-          perl -pi -e 's/link:\.\.\/\.\.\/_at-mintel\/packages\/pdf"/link:..\/\.\.\/_at-mintel\/packages\/pdf-library"/g' apps/web/package.json
-
-          # Fix tsconfig paths if they exist
-          sed -i 's|../../../at-mintel|../../_at-mintel|g' apps/web/tsconfig.json || true
-
-          # Fix tsconfig paths if they exist
-          sed -i 's|../../../at-mintel|../../_at-mintel|g' apps/web/tsconfig.json || true
-      - name: 🔐 Registry Auth
-        run: |
-          echo "Testing available secrets against git.infra.mintel.me Docker registry..."
-          TOKENS="${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} ${{ secrets.GITEA_PAT }} ${{ secrets.MINTEL_PRIVATE_TOKEN }} ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}"
-          USERS="${{ github.repository_owner }} ${{ github.actor }} marcmintel mintel mmintel"
-
-          VALID_TOKEN=""
-          VALID_USER=""
-
-          for T_RAW in $TOKENS; do
-            if [ -n "$T_RAW" ]; then
-              T=$(echo "$T_RAW" | tr -d ' ' | tr -d '\n' | tr -d '\r')
-              
-              echo "Testing API with token..."
-              HTTP_CODE=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" -H "Authorization: token $T" https://git.infra.mintel.me/api/v1/user || echo "failed")
-              echo "API returned: $HTTP_CODE"
-
-              for U in $USERS; do
-                if [ -n "$U" ]; then
-                  echo "Attempting docker login for a token with user $U..."
-                  if echo "$T" | docker login git.infra.mintel.me -u "$U" --password-stdin > /dev/null 2>&1; then
-                    echo "✅ Successfully authenticated with a token."
-                    VALID_TOKEN="$T"
-                    VALID_USER="$U"
-                    break 2
-                  fi
-                fi
-              done
-            fi
-          done
-
-          if [ -z "$VALID_TOKEN" ]; then
-            echo "❌ All token/user combinations failed to authenticate!"
-            T=$(echo "$TOKENS" | awk '{print $1}')
-            echo "Attempting open diagnostic login with first token and user mmintel..."
-            echo "$T" | docker login git.infra.mintel.me -u "mmintel" --password-stdin || true
-            exit 1
-          fi
-
-          TOKEN="$VALID_TOKEN"
-          echo "::add-mask::$TOKEN"
-          echo "token=$TOKEN" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
-          echo "user=$VALID_USER" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
-
-          echo "Configuring .npmrc for git.infra.mintel.me..."
-          echo "@mintel:registry=https://git.infra.mintel.me/api/packages/mmintel/npm/" > .npmrc
-          echo "//git.infra.mintel.me/api/packages/mmintel/npm/:_authToken=${TOKEN}" >> .npmrc
-          echo "always-auth=true" >> .npmrc
-
-          # Also export for pnpm to pick it up from env if needed
-          echo "NPM_TOKEN=${TOKEN}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
-      - name: 🏗️ Compile Sibling Monorepo
-        timeout-minutes: 15
-        run: |
-          mkdir -p ci-logs
-          echo "=== Compile Sibling Monorepo ===" >> ci-logs/summary.txt
-          cp .npmrc _at-mintel/
-          cd _at-mintel
-          pnpm install --no-frozen-lockfile --loglevel info 2>&1 | tee -a ../ci-logs/summary.txt
-          pnpm --filter "...@mintel/payload-ai" \
-               --filter @mintel/pdf... \
-               --filter @mintel/concept-engine... \
-               --filter @mintel/estimation-engine... \
-               --filter @mintel/meme-generator... \
-               build --loglevel info 2>&1 | tee -a ../ci-logs/summary.txt
-      - name: Install dependencies
-        timeout-minutes: 10
-        run: |
-          echo "=== Install dependencies (Root) ===" >> ci-logs/summary.txt
-          pnpm install --no-frozen-lockfile --loglevel info 2>&1 | tee -a ci-logs/summary.txt
-      - name: 🧪 Test
-        if: github.event.inputs.skip_checks != 'true'
-        timeout-minutes: 10
-        run: |
-          echo "=== Test (@mintel/web) ===" >> ci-logs/summary.txt
-          pnpm --filter @mintel/web test --loglevel info 2>&1 | tee -a ci-logs/summary.txt
-      - name: Inspect on Failure
-        if: failure()
-        run: |
-          echo "==== runner state ===="
-          ls -la
-          echo "==== _at-mintel state ===="
-          ls -la _at-mintel || true
-          echo "==== .npmrc check ===="
-          cat .npmrc | sed -E 's/authToken=[a-f0-9]{5}.*/authToken=REDACTED/'
-          echo "==== pnpm debug logs ===="
-          [ -f pnpm-debug.log ] && tail -n 100 pnpm-debug.log || echo "No root pnpm-debug.log"
-          [ -f _at-mintel/pnpm-debug.log ] && tail -n 100 _at-mintel/pnpm-debug.log || echo "No sibling pnpm-debug.log"
-      - name: Extract QA Error Logs
-        if: failure()
-        run: |
-          mkdir -p ci-logs
-          echo "QA Failure Report" > ci-logs/summary.txt
-          ls -R >> ci-logs/summary.txt
-          [ -f pnpm-debug.log ] && cp pnpm-debug.log ci-logs/ || true
-          [ -f _at-mintel/pnpm-debug.log ] && cp _at-mintel/pnpm-debug.log ci-logs/at-mintel-pnpm-debug.log || true
-
-          SSH_KEY_FILE=$(mktemp)
-          echo "${{ secrets.ALPHA_SSH_KEY }}" > "$SSH_KEY_FILE"
-          chmod 600 "$SSH_KEY_FILE"
-
-          ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i "$SSH_KEY_FILE" root@alpha.mintel.me "mkdir -p ~/logs"
-          scp -r -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i "$SSH_KEY_FILE" ci-logs/* root@alpha.mintel.me:~/logs/ || true
-          rm "$SSH_KEY_FILE"
+  # (JOB 2: QA was removed to reduce pipeline noise)
 
   # ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
   # JOB 3: Build & Push
@@ -562,123 +418,14 @@ jobs:
         if: always()
         run: docker builder prune -f --filter "until=1h"
 
-  # ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-  # JOB 5: Post-Deploy Verification
-  # ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-  post_deploy_checks:
-    name: 🧪 Post-Deploy Verification
-    needs: [prepare, deploy, qa]
-    if: success() || failure() # Run even if QA fails (due to E2E noise)
-    runs-on: docker
-    container:
-      image: catthehacker/ubuntu:act-latest
-    steps:
-      - name: Checkout repository
-        uses: actions/checkout@v4
-      - name: Setup Node.js
-        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
-        with:
-          node-version: 20
-      - name: Setup pnpm
-        uses: pnpm/action-setup@v3
-        with:
-          version: 10
-      - name: Provide sibling monorepo
-        run: |
-          git clone https://git.infra.mintel.me/mmintel/at-mintel.git _at-mintel
-
-          # Force ALL @mintel packages to use the local clone instead of the registry
-          perl -pi -e 's/"\@mintel\/([^"]+)"\s*:\s*"[^"]+"/"\@mintel\/$1": "link:.\/_at-mintel\/packages\/$1"/g' package.json
-          perl -pi -e 's/link:\.\/_at-mintel\/packages\/pdf"/link:.\/_at-mintel\/packages\/pdf-library"/g' package.json
-          perl -pi -e 's/"\@mintel\/([^"]+)"\s*:\s*"[^"]+"/"\@mintel\/$1": "link:..\/\.\.\/_at-mintel\/packages\/$1"/g' apps/web/package.json
-          perl -pi -e 's/link:\.\.\/\.\.\/_at-mintel\/packages\/pdf"/link:..\/\.\.\/_at-mintel\/packages\/pdf-library"/g' apps/web/package.json
-
-          # Fix tsconfig paths if they exist
-          sed -i 's|../../../at-mintel|../../_at-mintel|g' apps/web/tsconfig.json || true
-      - name: 🔐 Registry Auth
-        run: |
-          echo "Testing available secrets against git.infra.mintel.me Docker registry..."
-          TOKENS="${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} ${{ secrets.GITEA_PAT }} ${{ secrets.MINTEL_PRIVATE_TOKEN }} ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}"
-          USERS="${{ github.repository_owner }} ${{ github.actor }} marcmintel mintel mmintel"
-
-          VALID_TOKEN=""
-          for TOKEN_RAW in $TOKENS; do
-            if [ -n "$TOKEN_RAW" ]; then
-              TOKEN=$(echo "$TOKEN_RAW" | tr -d '[:space:]' | tr -d '\n' | tr -d '\r')
-              for U in $USERS; do
-                if [ -n "$U" ]; then
-                  if echo "$TOKEN" | docker login git.infra.mintel.me -u "$U" --password-stdin > /dev/null 2>&1; then
-                    echo "✅ Successfully authenticated with a token."
-                    VALID_TOKEN="$TOKEN"
-                    break 2
-                  fi
-                fi
-              done
-            fi
-          done
-          if [ -z "$VALID_TOKEN" ]; then echo "❌ All tokens failed to authenticate!"; exit 1; fi
-          TOKEN="$VALID_TOKEN"
-          echo "Configuring .npmrc for git.infra.mintel.me..."
-          echo "@mintel:registry=https://git.infra.mintel.me/api/packages/mmintel/npm/" > .npmrc
-          echo "//git.infra.mintel.me/api/packages/mmintel/npm/:_authToken=${TOKEN}" >> .npmrc
-          echo "always-auth=true" >> .npmrc
-          echo "NPM_TOKEN=${TOKEN}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
-      - name: Install dependencies
-        run: pnpm install --no-frozen-lockfile
-      - name: 🏥 App Health Check
-        shell: bash
-        env:
-          DEPLOY_URL: ${{ needs.prepare.outputs.next_public_url }}
-        run: |
-          echo "Waiting for app to start at $DEPLOY_URL ..."
-          for i in {1..30}; do
-            HTTP_CODE=$(curl -sk -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' "$DEPLOY_URL" 2>&1) || true
-            echo "Attempt $i: HTTP $HTTP_CODE"
-            if [[ "$HTTP_CODE" =~ ^2 ]]; then
-              echo "✅ App is up (HTTP $HTTP_CODE)"
-              exit 0
-            fi
-            echo "⏳ Waiting... (got $HTTP_CODE)"
-            sleep 10
-          done
-          echo "❌ App health check failed after 30 attempts"
-          exit 1
-      - name: 🚀 OG Image Check
-        continue-on-error: true
-        env:
-          TEST_URL: ${{ needs.prepare.outputs.next_public_url }}
-        run: pnpm --filter @mintel/web check:og
-      - name: 📝 E2E Smoke Test
-        continue-on-error: true
-        env:
-          TEST_URL: ${{ needs.prepare.outputs.next_public_url }}
-          GATEKEEPER_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.GATEKEEPER_PASSWORD }}
-          PUPPETEER_SKIP_DOWNLOAD: "true"
-          PUPPETEER_EXECUTABLE_PATH: /usr/bin/chromium
-        run: |
-          # Install system Chromium + dependencies (KLZ pattern)
-          # Ubuntu's default 'chromium' is a snap wrapper, so we use xtradeb PPA for native binary
-          sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y gnupg wget ca-certificates
-
-          # Setup xtradeb PPA for native chromium
-          CODENAME=$(. /etc/os-release && echo $VERSION_CODENAME)
-          sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
-          wget -qO- "https://keyserver.ubuntu.com/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x82BB6851C64F6880" | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/xtradeb.gpg || true
-          echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/xtradeb.gpg] http://ppa.launchpad.net/xtradeb/apps/ubuntu $CODENAME main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xtradeb-ppa.list
-          printf "Package: *\nPin: release o=LP-PPA-xtradeb-apps\nPin-Priority: 1001\n" | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/xtradeb
-
-          sudo apt-get update
-          sudo apt-get install -y --allow-downgrades chromium libnss3 libatk1.0-0 libatk-bridge2.0-0 libcups2 libdrm2 libxkbcommon0 libxcomposite1 libxdamage1 libxrandr2 libgbm1 libasound2t64 || sudo apt-get install -y --allow-downgrades chromium libnss3 libatk1.0-0 libatk-bridge2.0-0 libcups2 libdrm2 libxkbcommon0 libxcomposite1 libxdamage1 libxrandr2 libgbm1 libasound2
-
-          [ -f /usr/bin/chromium ] && sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/chromium /usr/bin/google-chrome
-          pnpm --filter @mintel/web check:forms
+  # (JOB 5: Post-Deploy Verification was removed to reduce pipeline noise)
 
   # ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
   # JOB 6: Notifications
   # ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
   notifications:
     name: 🔔 Notify
-    needs: [prepare, deploy, post_deploy_checks]
+    needs: [prepare, deploy]
     if: always()
     runs-on: docker
     container:
@@ -691,7 +438,7 @@ jobs:
           TARGET="${{ needs.prepare.outputs.target }}"
           VERSION="${{ needs.prepare.outputs.image_tag }}"
 
-          if [[ "$DEPLOY" == "success" ]] && [[ "$SMOKE" == "success" || "$SMOKE" == "skipped" ]]; then
+          if [[ "$DEPLOY" == "success" ]]; then
             PRIORITY=5
             EMOJI="✅"
           else
@@ -701,5 +448,5 @@ jobs:
 
           curl -s -k -X POST "${{ secrets.GOTIFY_URL }}/message?token=${{ secrets.GOTIFY_TOKEN }}" \
             -F "title=$EMOJI mintel.me $VERSION -> $TARGET" \
-            -F "message=Deploy: $DEPLOY | Smoke: $SMOKE" \
+            -F "message=Deploy: $DEPLOY" \
             -F "priority=$PRIORITY" || true