diff --git a/k8s/apps/api/kong-values.yaml b/k8s/apps/api/kong-values.yaml
index 117285e..ac69f34 100644
--- a/k8s/apps/api/kong-values.yaml
+++ b/k8s/apps/api/kong-values.yaml
@@ -29,6 +29,18 @@ fullnameOverride: kong
 # stateless in DB-less mode, so replicas are pure redundancy.
 replicaCount: 2
 
+# Opt in to the `llm-serving-default-deny` NetworkPolicy, which admits port 8080
+# only from pods carrying this label. That policy is a compensating control, not
+# hygiene: vLLM v0.11.0 is frozen on Volta and will never receive patches for
+# several remote/unauthenticated advisories, so it must not be broadly reachable.
+#
+# Without this label Cilium DROPS the packets rather than refusing them, so the
+# symptom is a request that hangs until the client's timeout — not a connection
+# error. /v1/models still worked while this was missing, because
+# request-termination answers inside Kong and never touches an upstream.
+podLabels:
+  llm-client: "true"
+
 env:
   # DB-less. Config comes from Kubernetes objects via the ingress controller, so
   # git stays the source of truth. A Postgres-backed Kong would put live routing