diff --git a/infrastructure/docker-compose.yml b/infrastructure/docker-compose.yml
index ae26310..30e455c 100644
--- a/infrastructure/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/infrastructure/docker-compose.yml
@@ -46,10 +46,10 @@ services:
         condition: service_completed_successfully
     healthcheck:
       test: ["CMD-SHELL", "wget -qO- http://localhost:3001/api/v1/health || exit 1"]
-      interval: 15s
+      interval: 10s
       timeout: 5s
-      retries: 3
-      start_period: 30s
+      retries: 10
+      start_period: 60s
     networks:
       - app-network
       - proxy
@@ -95,8 +95,11 @@ services:
       - "traefik.http.routers.studioflow-frontend.priority=1"
       - "traefik.http.services.studioflow-frontend.loadbalancer.server.port=3000"
     depends_on:
+      # service_started, not service_healthy: a slow/unhealthy api shouldn't block the
+      # whole `compose up` (and Portainer tearing down what it created) - the frontend
+      # itself doesn't need api to be ready at container-start time.
       api:
-        condition: service_healthy
+        condition: service_started
     networks:
       - app-network
       - proxy