diff --git a/.github/workflows/e2e-api-smoke.yml b/.github/workflows/e2e-api-smoke.yml
index e8be1f0..7186a16 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/e2e-api-smoke.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/e2e-api-smoke.yml
@@ -68,6 +68,32 @@ jobs:
           pip install -r backend/requirements.txt
           pip install pytest
 
+      - name: Wait for PostgreSQL service
+        run: |
+          python - <<'PY'
+          import asyncio
+          import asyncpg
+
+          async def wait_for_db():
+              dsn = "postgresql://nexapg:nexapg@127.0.0.1:5432/nexapg?sslmode=disable"
+              last_err = None
+              for attempt in range(1, 61):
+                  try:
+                      conn = await asyncpg.connect(dsn=dsn, timeout=3)
+                      try:
+                          await conn.execute("SELECT 1")
+                      finally:
+                          await conn.close()
+                      print(f"PostgreSQL ready after {attempt} attempt(s).")
+                      return
+                  except Exception as exc:
+                      last_err = exc
+                      await asyncio.sleep(2)
+              raise RuntimeError(f"PostgreSQL not ready after retries: {last_err}")
+
+          asyncio.run(wait_for_db())
+          PY
+
       - name: Run Alembic migrations
         working-directory: backend
         run: alembic upgrade head