diff --git a/.gitea/actions/quickstack-oci/deploy.mjs b/.gitea/actions/quickstack-oci/deploy.mjs
index 1748658..b166fb9 100644
--- a/.gitea/actions/quickstack-oci/deploy.mjs
+++ b/.gitea/actions/quickstack-oci/deploy.mjs
@@ -101,7 +101,10 @@ export function createQuickStackClient({ baseUrl, token, fetchImpl = fetch }) {
     });
     const parsed = await readBody(response);
     if (!response.ok) {
-      throw new Error(`${method} ${pathname} failed with HTTP ${response.status}: ${parsed?.detail ?? response.statusText}`);
+      throw Object.assign(
+        new Error(`${method} ${pathname} failed with HTTP ${response.status}: ${parsed?.detail ?? response.statusText}`),
+        { statusCode: response.status },
+      );
     }
     return parsed;
   }
@@ -118,7 +121,17 @@ export function createQuickStackClient({ baseUrl, token, fetchImpl = fetch }) {
 
 async function waitForDeployment(client, appId, deploymentId, sleep) {
   for (let attempt = 1; attempt <= 180; attempt += 1) {
-    const deployment = await client.getDeployment(appId, deploymentId);
+    let deployment;
+    try {
+      deployment = await client.getDeployment(appId, deploymentId);
+    } catch (error) {
+      if (error?.statusCode === 404) {
+        console.log(`QuickStack deployment ${deploymentId}: NOT_VISIBLE_YET (${attempt}/180)`);
+        await sleep(5_000);
+        continue;
+      }
+      throw error;
+    }
     const status = String(deployment?.status ?? "UNKNOWN").toUpperCase();
     console.log(`QuickStack deployment ${deploymentId}: ${status} (${attempt}/180)`);
     if (SUCCESS.has(status)) return deployment;
diff --git a/.gitea/actions/quickstack-oci/deploy.test.mjs b/.gitea/actions/quickstack-oci/deploy.test.mjs
index bb17127..245cabf 100644
--- a/.gitea/actions/quickstack-oci/deploy.test.mjs
+++ b/.gitea/actions/quickstack-oci/deploy.test.mjs
@@ -147,3 +147,35 @@ test("transient QuickStack deployment failures retry the desired immutable image
   assert.equal(current.sourceType, "CONTAINER");
   assert.equal(current.containerImageSource, image);
 });
+
+test("a newly created deployment may be briefly unavailable without triggering rollback", async () => {
+  let current = app();
+  let deployments = 0;
+  let lookups = 0;
+  const image = `gitea.example/owner/app@sha256:${"c".repeat(64)}`;
+  const client = {
+    getApp: async () => current,
+    saveApp: async (payload) => { current = { ...current, ...payload }; },
+    deployApp: async () => ({ deploymentId: `deployment-${++deployments}` }),
+    getDeployment: async (_appId, deploymentId) => {
+      lookups += 1;
+      if (lookups === 1) throw Object.assign(new Error("not visible"), { statusCode: 404 });
+      return { deploymentId, status: "DEPLOYED" };
+    },
+  };
+
+  const result = await deployExactImage({
+    client,
+    appId: "app-one",
+    image,
+    registryUsername: "deploy",
+    registryToken: "token",
+    sha: "3".repeat(40),
+    sleep: async () => {},
+  });
+
+  assert.equal(deployments, 1);
+  assert.equal(lookups, 2);
+  assert.equal(result.image, image);
+  assert.equal(current.sourceType, "CONTAINER");
+});