diff --git a/deploy/README.md b/deploy/README.md
index ddb0474..6f61a0b 100644
--- a/deploy/README.md
+++ b/deploy/README.md
@@ -98,6 +98,11 @@ loginctl disable-linger $USER   # only if nothing else of yours should survive l
 
 ## Notes
 
+- A release that fails to build is not retried until either repo gets a new
+  commit (`state/last-failed` guards against a 10 s rebuild loop). To force a
+  retry of the SAME release (e.g. after fixing `bin/build.sh` itself):
+  `rm ~/ctao-portal-demo/state/last-failed`.
+
 - **Only pushes to the machine's Gitea auto-deploy** (code and content repos
   alike). Changes to `deploy/*` need a manual
   re-copy: `build.sh` → `bin/`, `nginx.conf` → `config/` +