diff --git a/deploy/publish-web.sh b/deploy/publish-web.sh
index b3b5509..3da1de2 100755
--- a/deploy/publish-web.sh
+++ b/deploy/publish-web.sh
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ site="/home/jay/srv/sites/upbeatbytes"
 echo "→ building frontend"
 ( cd "$repo/frontend" && npm run build )
 
-echo "→ syncing static site to $site"
-rsync -a --delete "$repo/frontend/build/" "$site/"
+echo "→ syncing static site to $site (assets first, shell + SW last)"
+bash "$repo/deploy/sync-static.sh" "$repo/frontend/build" "$site"
 
 echo "✓ Published frontend → https://upbeatbytes.com"
diff --git a/deploy/publish.sh b/deploy/publish.sh
index cadd5d6..f20c870 100755
--- a/deploy/publish.sh
+++ b/deploy/publish.sh
@@ -10,8 +10,8 @@ api_compose="/home/jay/srv/upbeatbytes/compose.yaml"
 echo "→ building frontend"
 ( cd "$repo/frontend" && npm run build )
 
-echo "→ syncing static site to $site"
-rsync -a --delete "$repo/frontend/build/" "$site/"
+echo "→ syncing static site to $site (assets first, shell + SW last)"
+bash "$repo/deploy/sync-static.sh" "$repo/frontend/build" "$site"
 
 echo "→ rebuilding/refreshing API container"
 docker compose -f "$api_compose" up -d --build
diff --git a/deploy/sync-static.sh b/deploy/sync-static.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..d523672
--- /dev/null
+++ b/deploy/sync-static.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Sync the built static site to the live root in an order that avoids deploy-race
+# blank screens. rsync isn't atomic, so a naïve `rsync --delete` can briefly serve
+# a NEW index.html that points at chunks not synced yet (→ failed load), or delete
+# old chunks an in-flight client still needs. Instead:
+#   1. new hashed chunks first, and DON'T prune old ones (grace window)
+#   2. other static assets (version.json, env.js, icons…), pruning removed files
+#   3. the shell HTML — only once its chunks already exist
+#   4. the service worker last — a returning client adopts it only after the rest
+# Old immutable chunks are pruned after a grace window to bound disk growth.
+set -euo pipefail
+src="$1"; site="$2"
+
+rsync -a "$src/_app/immutable/" "$site/_app/immutable/"
+rsync -a --delete \
+  --exclude='_app/immutable/***' --exclude='index.html' --exclude='service-worker.js' \
+  "$src/" "$site/"
+rsync -a "$src/index.html" "$site/index.html"
+rsync -a "$src/service-worker.js" "$site/service-worker.js"
+find "$site/_app/immutable" -type f -mtime +14 -delete 2>/dev/null || true