diff --git a/docker-compose.farm-smoke-override.yml b/docker-compose.farm-smoke-override.yml
index 29cb2d93..72c4286b 100644
--- a/docker-compose.farm-smoke-override.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.farm-smoke-override.yml
@@ -24,6 +24,12 @@ services:
       com.farm.compose.profile: "farm-smoke-override"
 
   api:
+    # Base compose scales api to 3 replicas (production shape). The smoke stack
+    # publishes a single fixed host port 127.0.0.1:13000 → :3000, which can only
+    # be bound by one container. Collapse to a single replica for smoke so the
+    # second/third replica does not fail with "port is already allocated".
+    deploy:
+      replicas: 1
     ports:
       - "127.0.0.1:13000:3000"
     environment: