diff --git a/deploy/qa/docker-compose.qa.yml b/deploy/qa/docker-compose.qa.yml
index 0cb9807..a4b4e99 100644
--- a/deploy/qa/docker-compose.qa.yml
+++ b/deploy/qa/docker-compose.qa.yml
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 name: novelly
 
 # Persistent LAN deployment, pulled and recreated by CI on every push to main.
-# Unlike a throwaway QA stack, this one keeps its data volume across deploys — `down`
-# is run without `-v` so the author's novel data survives a redeploy.
+# Unlike a throwaway QA stack, this one keeps its data across deploys — `down` is run
+# without `-v` and /data is a bind mount to /mnt/storage/app/novelly/data on the host,
+# not a docker-managed volume, so the author's novel data survives a redeploy.
 services:
 
   api:
@@ -13,7 +14,7 @@ services:
       Cors__Origins__0: "http://localhost:${WEB_PORT:-6173}"
       ANTHROPIC_API_KEY: ${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY:-}
     volumes:
-      - novelly-data:/data
+      - /mnt/storage/app/novelly/data:/data
     networks:
       - novelly
     healthcheck:
@@ -43,7 +44,7 @@ services:
     environment:
       ConnectionStrings__Novel: "Data Source=/data/novel.db"
     volumes:
-      - novelly-data:/data
+      - /mnt/storage/app/novelly/data:/data
     networks:
       - novelly
     profiles: ["tools"]
@@ -51,7 +52,3 @@ services:
 networks:
   novelly:
     name: novelly-net
-
-volumes:
-  novelly-data:
-    name: novelly-data