diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
index 7efee44..f94d2fb 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -577,6 +577,16 @@ jobs:
           if [ "${REVIEW_HTTP}" -lt 200 ] || [ "${REVIEW_HTTP}" -ge 300 ]; then
             echo "::notice::Failed to request reviewers for cartsnitch/infra PR #${PR_NUM} (HTTP ${REVIEW_HTTP}); continuing"
           fi
+          # CAR-1216: the in-job merge attempt is a best-effort fast-path only.
+          # `cartsnitch/infra` main requires a human approving review (immutable
+          # branch protection); the CI bot (`CI_GITEA_TOKEN`) can never self-
+          # approve, so this merge call structurally cannot succeed in the
+          # general case. Any non-merged outcome (approvals pending, checks
+          # pending, any other Gitea message) is the GitOps approval gate, not
+          # a CI failure — the PR is already opened and `cs_savannah` is
+          # requested as reviewer above. Surface the response as a notice and
+          # exit success. The only hard-fail (`exit 1`) in this step remains
+          # the empty-`PR_NUM` check (PR could not be created at all).
           MERGE_RESP=$(curl -sS -X POST \
             -H "Authorization: token ${CI_GITEA_TOKEN}" \
             -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
@@ -585,17 +595,9 @@ jobs:
           MERGED=$(echo "$MERGE_RESP" | jq -r '.merged // false')
           if [ "$MERGED" = "true" ]; then
             echo "PR #${PR_NUM} merged into cartsnitch/infra main"
-          elif echo "$MERGE_RESP" | grep -qi 'does not have enough approvals'; then
-            # GitOps approval gate: the PR is correctly opened and surfaces in
-            # the CTO queue via the reviewers request above. Treat as success
-            # (exit 0) so the deploy job does not hard-fail on the approvals
-            # requirement that only a human maintainer can satisfy.
-            echo "::notice::infra PR #${PR_NUM} opened and awaiting CTO (cs_savannah) approve+merge — GitOps approval gate, not a failure"
-            exit 0
           else
-            echo "::error::Auto-merge of cartsnitch/infra PR #${PR_NUM} failed: $MERGE_RESP"
-            echo "::error::Reassign to cs_savannah (authorized merger for cartsnitch/infra main) for backstop merge."
-            exit 1
+            echo "::notice::infra PR #${PR_NUM} opened and awaiting CTO (cs_savannah) approve+merge — GitOps approval gate, not a failure: $MERGE_RESP"
+            exit 0
           fi
 
   deploy-uat:
@@ -721,6 +723,16 @@ jobs:
           if [ "${REVIEW_HTTP}" -lt 200 ] || [ "${REVIEW_HTTP}" -ge 300 ]; then
             echo "::notice::Failed to request reviewers for cartsnitch/infra PR #${PR_NUM} (HTTP ${REVIEW_HTTP}); continuing"
           fi
+          # CAR-1216: the in-job merge attempt is a best-effort fast-path only.
+          # `cartsnitch/infra` main requires a human approving review (immutable
+          # branch protection); the CI bot (`CI_GITEA_TOKEN`) can never self-
+          # approve, so this merge call structurally cannot succeed in the
+          # general case. Any non-merged outcome (approvals pending, checks
+          # pending, any other Gitea message) is the GitOps approval gate, not
+          # a CI failure — the PR is already opened and `cs_savannah` is
+          # requested as reviewer above. Surface the response as a notice and
+          # exit success. The only hard-fail (`exit 1`) in this step remains
+          # the empty-`PR_NUM` check (PR could not be created at all).
           MERGE_RESP=$(curl -sS -X POST \
             -H "Authorization: token ${CI_GITEA_TOKEN}" \
             -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
@@ -729,15 +741,7 @@ jobs:
           MERGED=$(echo "$MERGE_RESP" | jq -r '.merged // false')
           if [ "$MERGED" = "true" ]; then
             echo "PR #${PR_NUM} merged into cartsnitch/infra main"
-          elif echo "$MERGE_RESP" | grep -qi 'does not have enough approvals'; then
-            # GitOps approval gate: the PR is correctly opened and surfaces in
-            # the CTO queue via the reviewers request above. Treat as success
-            # (exit 0) so the deploy job does not hard-fail on the approvals
-            # requirement that only a human maintainer can satisfy.
-            echo "::notice::infra PR #${PR_NUM} opened and awaiting CTO (cs_savannah) approve+merge — GitOps approval gate, not a failure"
-            exit 0
           else
-            echo "::error::Auto-merge of cartsnitch/infra PR #${PR_NUM} failed: $MERGE_RESP"
-            echo "::error::Reassign to cs_savannah (authorized merger for cartsnitch/infra main) for backstop merge."
-            exit 1
+            echo "::notice::infra PR #${PR_NUM} opened and awaiting CTO (cs_savannah) approve+merge — GitOps approval gate, not a failure: $MERGE_RESP"
+            exit 0
           fi