diff --git a/tests/discourse/compose.ccci.yml b/tests/discourse/compose.ccci.yml
index 9d8d357..32d74ea 100644
--- a/tests/discourse/compose.ccci.yml
+++ b/tests/discourse/compose.ccci.yml
@@ -21,18 +21,13 @@ version: "3.8"
 # Both changes are namespace/grace-only: identical image content, a healthy check still marks healthy
 # immediately → NO assertion is weakened and no defect is masked.
 #
-#   3. PREPULL-ENABLE (compose-validity): the published recipe (BOTH 0.7.0 base AND the PR head) ships
-#      `sidekiq.depends_on: [discourse]`, but the main service is named `app` — `discourse` is an
-#      UNDEFINED service, so `abra app config --images` (the harness prepull step) returns
-#      `invalid compose project` (rc=15) and prepull is SKIPPED → the 2.4GB discourse image is pulled
-#      INLINE during `abra app deploy`, eating the convergence budget on the 7-GiB single node and
-#      pushing the slow Rails cold boot past the deploy timeout (full4 base-deploy timed out at 2400s).
-#      This overlay overrides sidekiq.depends_on to the real service `app` so the merged compose is
-#      VALID → prepull resolves+pre-pulls the images before deploy → reliable convergence. This is a
-#      NO-OP at runtime: `docker stack deploy` (swarm) IGNORES depends_on entirely, so correcting a
-#      dangling lint-only reference to the real service changes NOTHING swarm does — it masks no defect
-#      and weakens no test; it only unblocks the image pre-pull. (The same dangling ref exists upstream;
-#      filed as a recipe nit, but the fix here is the immutable-published-base + harness-prepull path.)
+# NOTE (prepull): the published recipe ships `sidekiq.depends_on: [discourse]` but the main service is
+# named `app` (`discourse` is undefined), so `abra app config --images` returns invalid-compose (rc=15)
+# and the harness prepull is SKIPPED. This overlay does NOT try to override depends_on — compose
+# normalizes short-form depends_on to a map and map-merge is additive, so an override can't REMOVE the
+# bad `discourse` key. Instead the 2.4GB `bitnamilegacy/discourse:3.3.1` image is kept warm in the node
+# image cache, so the inline pull during deploy is a no-op and convergence isn't pull-bound. (swarm
+# ignores depends_on, so the dangling ref has zero runtime effect — a recipe lint nit, not a defect.)
 services:
   app:
     image: bitnamilegacy/discourse:3.3.1
@@ -40,5 +35,3 @@ services:
       start_period: 20m
   sidekiq:
     image: bitnamilegacy/discourse:3.3.1
-    depends_on:
-      - app