diff --git a/infrastructure/docker/nginx-spa.conf b/infrastructure/docker/nginx-spa.conf
index 787990d..d775db5 100644
--- a/infrastructure/docker/nginx-spa.conf
+++ b/infrastructure/docker/nginx-spa.conf
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@ server {
     listen 80;
     server_name _;
 
+    # Use Docker's embedded DNS resolver so nginx re-resolves upstream hostnames
+    # dynamically instead of caching IPs at startup (prevents 502 after container restarts).
+    resolver 127.0.0.11 valid=10s ipv6=off;
+
     root /usr/share/nginx/html;
     index index.html;
 
@@ -19,7 +23,11 @@ server {
     # Proxy API requests to the backend service
     # The api container is reachable via Docker internal DNS as "api" on port 8000
     location /api/ {
-        proxy_pass http://api:8000/api/;
+        # Use a variable so nginx applies the resolver on every request.
+        # With a variable in proxy_pass, nginx passes the full request URI as-is
+        # (no path stripping), so the upstream receives /api/... correctly.
+        set $api_upstream api;
+        proxy_pass http://$api_upstream:8000;
         proxy_http_version 1.1;
         proxy_set_header Host $host;
         proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;