diff --git a/apps/agent-zero/agent-zero.yaml b/apps/agent-zero/agent-zero.yaml
index 67b2ddf..b23cfeb 100644
--- a/apps/agent-zero/agent-zero.yaml
+++ b/apps/agent-zero/agent-zero.yaml
@@ -264,6 +264,12 @@ spec:
               MODELCFG
               # Strip heredoc indentation
               sed -i 's/^              //' /a0/usr/plugins/_model_config/config.json
+              # Phase 0 Chat MCP pilot: Agent Zero does not interpolate env vars
+              # inside A0_SET_mcp_servers JSON, so build the final JSON here from
+              # the secret-backed CHAT_MCP_API_KEY env var before initialize.sh.
+              if [ -n "${CHAT_MCP_API_KEY:-}" ]; then
+                export A0_SET_mcp_servers="{\"mcpServers\":{\"fc-chat\":{\"type\":\"http\",\"url\":\"https://chat.iamworkin.lan/mcp\",\"headers\":{\"X-Api-Key\":\"${CHAT_MCP_API_KEY}\"}}}}"
+              fi
               # Run the original entrypoint
               exec /exe/initialize.sh $BRANCH
           ports:
@@ -332,6 +338,13 @@ spec:
             # Speech-to-text disabled (no GPU for Whisper)
             - name: A0_SET_stt_model_size
               value: "tiny"
+            # FlowerCore.Chat MCP pilot (Phase 0)
+            - name: CHAT_MCP_API_KEY
+              valueFrom:
+                secretKeyRef:
+                  name: chat-mcp-api-key
+                  key: api-key
+                  optional: true
             # Print.Web — Thermal printer service on edge2
             - name: PRINT_WEB_URL
               value: "http://10.0.57.16:5200"