diff --git a/terraform/do/cloud-init/backend.yaml b/terraform/do/cloud-init/backend.yaml
index be70ccb..cb890ff 100644
--- a/terraform/do/cloud-init/backend.yaml
+++ b/terraform/do/cloud-init/backend.yaml
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ packages:
   - git
   - curl
   - ufw
+  - unzip          # bun installer needs it to unpack
+  - redis-server   # macsync job/cache queue (REDIS_URL=redis://127.0.0.1:6379)
 
 write_files:
   # WireGuard wg1 - joins the existing mesh. Hub pubkey + the [Peer] block are
@@ -41,15 +43,29 @@ runcmd:
   - umask 077; wg genkey | tee /etc/wireguard/wg1.key | wg pubkey > /root/wg1.pub
   - sed "s#__PRIVATE_KEY__#$(cat /etc/wireguard/wg1.key)#" /etc/wireguard/wg1.conf.tmpl > /etc/wireguard/wg1.conf
   - chmod 600 /etc/wireguard/wg1.conf
-  # Host firewall mirrors the DO cloud firewall: WG + SSH only, deny the rest.
+  # Host firewall: WG + SSH for management, plus the public HTTPS edge (Caddy).
   - ufw --force reset
   - ufw default deny incoming
   - ufw default allow outgoing
   - ufw allow 22/tcp
   - ufw allow ${wg_listen_port}/udp
+  - ufw allow 80/tcp       # Caddy ACME http-01 + redirect
+  - ufw allow 443/tcp      # macsync public TLS edge
   - ufw --force enable
   # wg1 is enabled but stays down until the hub [Peer] block is added.
   - systemctl enable wg-quick@wg1 || true
   - echo "WG public key for hub peer list:" && cat /root/wg1.pub
+  # --- macsync runtime (RUNTIME ONLY — no secrets, no app code). Secrets
+  #     (DB pw, SERVICE_TOKEN, Spaces keys) are metadata-readable in user-data,
+  #     so they are pushed separately over SSH by macsync/deploy/deploy-server.sh.
+  #     This only makes a rebuilt droplet ready for a one-command deploy. ---
+  - mkdir -p /opt/mac-sync-server/data/blobs /etc/mac-sync-server
+  - systemctl enable --now redis-server || true
+  # bun runtime -> /root/.bun (matches ExecStart=/root/.bun/bin/bun in the unit).
+  - test -x /root/.bun/bin/bun || (export BUN_INSTALL=/root/.bun; curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash)
+  # caddy from the cloudsmith stable repo (not in default apt repos).
+  - curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/gpg.key' | gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/caddy-stable-archive-keyring.gpg
+  - curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/debian.deb.txt' | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/caddy-stable.list
+  - apt-get update -qq && apt-get install -y caddy
 
 final_message: "backend bootstrap done. Add /root/wg1.pub to vps-0 hub, append the [Peer] block to /etc/wireguard/wg1.conf, then: systemctl start wg-quick@wg1"