diff --git a/platform/velero/helmrelease.yaml b/platform/velero/helmrelease.yaml
index 27a794b..2817cd1 100644
--- a/platform/velero/helmrelease.yaml
+++ b/platform/velero/helmrelease.yaml
@@ -179,6 +179,29 @@ spec:
           excludedNamespaces:
             - monitoring        # volume DATA excluded here; resources captured by schedule (2)
             - unifi
+            # velero ITSELF (added 2026-09-19). Not a sizing decision — a correctness one. Velero runs
+            # transient kopia repository-maintenance Jobs in its own namespace, one per BackupRepository
+            # (`<ns>-default-kopia-maintain-job-<ts>`), each with `plugins` and `scratch` emptyDir volumes.
+            # Under defaultVolumesToFsBackup:true the backup tries to fs-backup those volumes, the Job
+            # completes, its pod disappears mid-backup, and the PodVolumeBackup FAILS. Measured on prod:
+            # velero-daily-20260919030041 came back PartiallyFailed with exactly 2 errors, both PVBs for
+            # `plugins` + `scratch` on homepage-default-kopia-maintain-job-1789786837269-qhsvh, with 4 such
+            # PVB failures accumulated. 3079/3079 items were backed up — nothing real was missed — but
+            # PartiallyFailed does not advance velero_backup_last_successful_timestamp, so
+            # VeleroNoRecentBackup fired CRITICAL over a backup that had in fact protected everything. A
+            # backup alert that cries wolf nightly is how a real backup failure gets ignored.
+            #
+            # SAFE BY INSPECTION: ns velero holds NO PVCs (verified live), so there is no volume data here
+            # to lose. Its RESOURCES still matter for DR (BSL, credentials, Backup CRs) and are captured by
+            # schedule (2) — which is why `velero` is added there too.
+            #
+            # NARROWER THAN THE GENERAL RULE, deliberately. The general fix is a volume policy skipping
+            # emptyDir outright (the property: emptyDir never holds durable state), covering a transient Job
+            # in any namespace. That needs Velero's `volumeTypes` policy condition, unproven here on 1.18.1,
+            # and a policies.yaml Velero cannot parse breaks EVERY backup — a far worse failure than the one
+            # being fixed. All 4 observed failures were kopia-maintain pods in ns velero, so this uses only
+            # mechanisms already proven in this repo. Revisit if the shape shows up elsewhere.
+            - velero
       # (2) monitoring + unifi: RESOURCES ONLY (defaultVolumesToFsBackup:false → no volume data). Their
       #     PVCs are reconstructable and excluded from data backup per the sizing decision:
       #       - monitoring: the Prometheus TSDB PVC (ephemeral/reconstructable) and the Loki 72h-log PVC
@@ -198,6 +221,7 @@ spec:
           includedNamespaces:
             - monitoring
             - unifi
+            - velero              # resources only (BSL/credentials/Backup CRs); see schedule (1)
     # --- SCRAPE THE BACKUP CONTROLLER, or its failures are silent (added 2026-09-12) ------------
     # platform/monitoring/alerts.yaml already ships VeleroBackupFailure (critical),
     # VeleroBackupPartialFailure and VeleroNoRecentBackup — and NONE of them could ever fire,