diff --git a/ansible/services/forgejo/deploy_forgejo_playbook.yml b/ansible/services/forgejo/deploy_forgejo_playbook.yml
index f908586..29009ca 100644
--- a/ansible/services/forgejo/deploy_forgejo_playbook.yml
+++ b/ansible/services/forgejo/deploy_forgejo_playbook.yml
@@ -66,6 +66,10 @@
         owner: "{{ forgejo_user }}"
         group: "{{ forgejo_user }}"
         mode: '0644'
+        # Fresh install only: the web installer then writes the real config
+        # (INTERNAL_TOKEN, JWT secrets, DB path, ROOT_URL) into this file.
+        # Without force: false every re-run replaced it with this stub.
+        force: false
   
     - name: Download Forgejo systemd service file
       get_url:
diff --git a/ansible/services/lnbits/deploy_lnbits_playbook.yml b/ansible/services/lnbits/deploy_lnbits_playbook.yml
index 7b89f33..d0e1a77 100644
--- a/ansible/services/lnbits/deploy_lnbits_playbook.yml
+++ b/ansible/services/lnbits/deploy_lnbits_playbook.yml
@@ -85,6 +85,10 @@
         owner: "{{ ansible_user }}"
         group: "{{ ansible_user }}"
         mode: '0644'
+        # Seed a fresh install only. Without this every re-run replaced the real
+        # .env (AUTH_SECRET_KEY and all) with the example, logging every user
+        # out - and would have clobbered a restored one.
+        force: false
 
 
     - name: Configure LNBits environment variables
diff --git a/ansible/services/personal-blog/deploy_personal_blog_playbook.yml b/ansible/services/personal-blog/deploy_personal_blog_playbook.yml
index 21d8b43..d3a9951 100644
--- a/ansible/services/personal-blog/deploy_personal_blog_playbook.yml
+++ b/ansible/services/personal-blog/deploy_personal_blog_playbook.yml
@@ -45,6 +45,9 @@
         owner: "{{ ansible_user }}"
         group: www-data
         mode: '0664'
+        # Only on a fresh web root. Without this, every re-run (and site.yml)
+        # overwrote the real deployed index.html with the placeholder.
+        force: false
 
     - name: Publish the blog through Caddy
       ansible.builtin.include_role: