diff --git a/cloudflare/wrangler.jsonc b/cloudflare/wrangler.jsonc
index 8fa31bde..9cf6e95b 100644
--- a/cloudflare/wrangler.jsonc
+++ b/cloudflare/wrangler.jsonc
@@ -13,19 +13,15 @@
   // way to reach the demo when the custom domain's DNS is being changed.
   "workers_dev": true,
 
-  // A zone route, not a custom domain. custom_domain: true asks Cloudflare to
-  // take over the hostname's DNS record, which it refuses while an ordinary A
-  // record exists ("already has externally managed DNS records") — so every
-  // deploy reported a partial trigger update and exited non-zero even though
-  // the Worker itself deployed fine.
-  //
-  // A route overlays the existing proxied record instead of replacing it, which
-  // is what is actually serving demo.nginxui.com today. Switching to
-  // custom_domain later means deleting that DNS record first.
+  // A custom domain, so Cloudflare owns the DNS record for this hostname and
+  // wrangler recreates it from this config alone. This only works because the
+  // pre-existing A record was removed; with one present, Cloudflare refuses
+  // with "already has externally managed DNS records" and the deploy exits
+  // non-zero even though the Worker itself went out fine.
   "routes": [
     {
-      "pattern": "demo.nginxui.com/*",
-      "zone_name": "nginxui.com"
+      "pattern": "demo.nginxui.com",
+      "custom_domain": true
     }
   ],