diff --git a/cmd/serve.go b/cmd/serve.go
index 031ac3f..1a1a74a 100644
--- a/cmd/serve.go
+++ b/cmd/serve.go
@@ -30,6 +30,10 @@ var serveCmd = &cobra.Command{
 	Use:   "serve",
 	Short: "Launches the api servers",
 	Run: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
+		// PORT is the port the HTTP gateway dials to reach the in-process gRPC server.
+		// It is NOT a listen port: both the gRPC server (:10000) and HTTP gateway (:11000) listen
+		// ports are hardcoded in servers/server.go. PORT must match the hardcoded gRPC port (10000)
+		// for the gateway-to-gRPC dial to succeed.
 		server := servers.New(fmt.Sprintf("0.0.0.0:%s", viper.GetString("port")))
 		server.Start()
 	},
diff --git a/middleware/cache.go b/middleware/cache.go
index 97dd5b1..b3717ed 100644
--- a/middleware/cache.go
+++ b/middleware/cache.go
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ var (
 
 func CacheMiddleware(cache *cache.RedisCache, next http.Handler) http.Handler {
 	return http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
-		if strings.HasPrefix(r.URL.Path, "/api/v1/tickets") {
+		if r.URL.Path == "/api/v1/tickets" || strings.HasPrefix(r.URL.Path, "/api/v1/tickets/") {
 			next.ServeHTTP(w, r)
 			return
 		}
diff --git a/servers/server.go b/servers/server.go
index 54711cf..b1ccd9b 100644
--- a/servers/server.go
+++ b/servers/server.go
@@ -52,6 +52,9 @@ type MicroServer struct {
 }
 
 // New initializes a new Backend struct.
+// addr is the gRPC dial target consumed by the HTTP gateway (from $PORT).
+// Listen ports for both gRPC (:10000) and HTTP (:11000) are hardcoded in Start();
+// addr must match the gRPC literal for the gateway-to-gRPC dial to succeed.
 func New(addr string) *MicroServer {
 
 	return &MicroServer{
@@ -80,8 +83,7 @@ func setupRedis() *cache.RedisCache {
 
 	redisPassword := viper.GetString("REDIS_PASSWORD")
 	if redisPassword == "" {
-		Error.Println("no redis password provided")
-		os.Exit(1)
+		Info.Println("REDIS_PASSWORD empty — connecting without AUTH")
 	}
 
 	return cache.NewRedisCache(redisHost, redisPort, redisPassword)
@@ -136,7 +138,7 @@ func (server *MicroServer) Start() {
 	httpL, err := net.Listen("tcp", "0.0.0.0:11000")
 
 	if err != nil {
-		Error.Fatalf("Failed to listen on %s: %w", server.addr, err)
+		Error.Fatalf("Failed to listen on %s: %v", server.addr, err)
 	}
 
 	ds := setupDatasource()
@@ -180,7 +182,7 @@ func servGRPC(server *MicroServer, lis net.Listener, grpcOpts []grpc.ServerOptio
 	milpacs.RegisterTicketsServiceServer(server.grpcServer, ticketsService)
 
 	if err := server.grpcServer.Serve(lis); err != nil {
-		Error.Fatalf("unable to start external gRPC servers: ", err)
+		Error.Fatalf("unable to start external gRPC servers: %v", err)
 	}
 }
 
@@ -188,7 +190,7 @@ func servHTTP(server *MicroServer, lis net.Listener, ds datastores.Datastore) {
 	service := httpServices.Service{Address: server.addr, Cache: server.cache, Datastore: ds}
 	server.httpServer = service.Server()
 	if err := server.httpServer.Serve(lis); err != nil {
-		Error.Fatalf("unable to start HTTP servers: ", err)
+		Error.Fatalf("unable to start HTTP servers: %v", err)
 	}
 }