diff --git a/policies/kv/service/vault/au/syd1/secret_backend/gitea/config_write.yaml b/policies/kv/service/vault/au/syd1/secret_backend/gitea/config_write.yaml
index d325a0b..973e4d6 100644
--- a/policies/kv/service/vault/au/syd1/secret_backend/gitea/config_write.yaml
+++ b/policies/kv/service/vault/au/syd1/secret_backend/gitea/config_write.yaml
@@ -7,16 +7,22 @@
 # write side for terraform-git's own identity.
 ---
 rules:
+  # delete is required for taint recovery and destroy (the resource got tainted
+  # by pipeline 107's failed post-create read and replace = delete+create).
+  # The seed's write-once semantics are enforced by lifecycle ignore_changes in
+  # terraform-git, not by withholding delete here.
   - path: "kv/data/service/vault/au/syd1/secret_backend/gitea/config"
     capabilities:
       - create
       - read
       - update
+      - delete
   # vault_kv_secret_v2 also reads the kv-v2 metadata path on every plan/apply
   # (403 here broke the terraform-git main apply, pipeline 107).
   - path: "kv/metadata/service/vault/au/syd1/secret_backend/gitea/config"
     capabilities:
       - read
+      - delete
 
 auth:
   approle: