diff --git a/k8s/apps/llm-serving/clef-candle.yaml b/k8s/apps/llm-serving/clef-candle.yaml
index 248bccb..44e42ae 100644
--- a/k8s/apps/llm-serving/clef-candle.yaml
+++ b/k8s/apps/llm-serving/clef-candle.yaml
@@ -7,7 +7,12 @@ metadata:
     app.kubernetes.io/part-of: llm-serving
     app: clef-candle
 spec:
-  replicas: 1
+  # HOLD AT 0 until candle-vllm:sm70 contains the GDN conv fix (candle-vllm PR #5).
+  # An older :sm70 zeroes the key channel band, starves the delta rule and makes
+  # every linear-attention layer return zero. The response is still HTTP 200 and
+  # well formed, so the failure is silent. Raise to 1 only after CI publishes a
+  # :sm70 build from the merge that carries the fix.
+  replicas: 0
   strategy:
     # One replica holds one GPU, so Recreate keeps the rollout to a single
     # weights load instead of needing a second card for a surge pod.