diff --git a/api/kubernetes/worker-deployment.yaml b/api/kubernetes/worker-deployment.yaml
index 90e3eab..98f8ac0 100644
--- a/api/kubernetes/worker-deployment.yaml
+++ b/api/kubernetes/worker-deployment.yaml
@@ -20,6 +20,11 @@ spec:
           env:
             - name: MANAGER_SOCKET_URL
               value: "http://optima-api.optima.svc.cluster.local:8671"
+            - name: API_DATABASE_URL
+              valueFrom:
+                secretKeyRef:
+                  name: api-env-secret
+                  key: DATABASE_URL
           envFrom:
             - secretRef:
                 name: api-env-secret
diff --git a/dalpuri/src/sync.ts b/dalpuri/src/sync.ts
index 441d734..1695dce 100644
--- a/dalpuri/src/sync.ts
+++ b/dalpuri/src/sync.ts
@@ -107,6 +107,20 @@ const resolveApiDatabaseUrl = (): string => {
   if (process.env.OPTIMA_API_DATABASE_URL)
     return process.env.OPTIMA_API_DATABASE_URL;
 
+  // Worker/runtime fallback:
+  // In Kubernetes we often provide CW via CW_DATABASE_URL and API Postgres via
+  // DATABASE_URL. Only use DATABASE_URL as API when we can safely infer that.
+  if (process.env.CW_DATABASE_URL && process.env.DATABASE_URL) {
+    return process.env.DATABASE_URL;
+  }
+
+  if (
+    process.env.DATABASE_URL &&
+    /^(postgres|postgresql):\/\//i.test(process.env.DATABASE_URL)
+  ) {
+    return process.env.DATABASE_URL;
+  }
+
   const candidates = [
     resolve(import.meta.dir, "../../api/.env"),
     resolve(process.cwd(), "../api/.env"),