diff --git a/artifacts/api-server/src/app.ts b/artifacts/api-server/src/app.ts
index d415685..82f2a4b 100644
--- a/artifacts/api-server/src/app.ts
+++ b/artifacts/api-server/src/app.ts
@@ -79,7 +79,15 @@ const towerDist = (() => {
   return path.join(process.cwd(), "the-matrix", "dist");
 })();
 app.use("/tower", express.static(towerDist));
-app.get("/tower/*splat", (_req, res) => res.sendFile(path.join(towerDist, "index.html")));
+app.get("/tower/*splat", (req, res, next) => {
+  // Never serve the SPA shell for requests that should hit the API or WS endpoint.
+  // The *splat wildcard would otherwise swallow paths like /tower/api/ws and return
+  // index.html, preventing the WebSocket upgrade from reaching the ws server.
+  const splatArr = (req.params as Record<string, string[]>)["splat"] ?? [];
+  const sub = splatArr.join("/");
+  if (sub === "api" || sub.startsWith("api/")) return next();
+  res.sendFile(path.join(towerDist, "index.html"));
+});
 
 // Vite builds asset references as absolute /assets/... paths.
 // Mirror them at the root so the browser can load them from /tower.