diff --git a/clusters/base/apps.yaml b/clusters/base/apps.yaml
index 4159c72..b55cff2 100644
--- a/clusters/base/apps.yaml
+++ b/clusters/base/apps.yaml
@@ -10,7 +10,11 @@ spec:
   interval: 10m
   retryInterval: 2m
   timeout: 5m
-  prune: true
+  # CUTOVER STEP 1 (temporary): prune disabled so that when this `apps` Kustomization object is
+  # removed in the wave-split commit, Flux does NOT garbage-collect the resources it owns (notably
+  # the CNPG database Clusters -> PVCs). The apps-wave-* Kustomizations then adopt them in place.
+  # This whole file is deleted in the follow-up wave-split commit.
+  prune: false
   wait: true
   # Ordering: the full platform (controllers + their configs) must be healthy first.
   # platform-config dependsOn platform, so depending on platform-config transitively waits for both.