diff --git a/manifests/core/kustomization.yaml b/manifests/core/kustomization.yaml
index 4efa8db..67f0244 100644
--- a/manifests/core/kustomization.yaml
+++ b/manifests/core/kustomization.yaml
@@ -14,4 +14,8 @@ resources:
   - workers.yaml
   - worker-pdb.yaml
   - ingress-unified.yaml
-  - traefik-middlewares.yaml
+  # traefik-middlewares.yaml intentionally excluded - this cluster's
+  # Traefik has no Middleware CRD installed under any API group, so this
+  # can never apply. The router.middlewares annotation referencing it on
+  # the Ingress has been a pre-existing no-op; actual CORS handling comes
+  # from nginx-queue-proxy.conf and the apps' own CORS middleware.