diff --git a/.env.macmini.example b/.env.macmini.example
index c35c8c9cc..960fdc0cb 100644
--- a/.env.macmini.example
+++ b/.env.macmini.example
@@ -118,17 +118,52 @@ AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_KEY=
 
 # ─── Google Gemini ──────────────────────────────────────────
 # Used by mana-llm + several Gemini-Vision modules (planta, food).
+# GOOGLE_GEMINI_API_KEY and GOOGLE_GENAI_API_KEY are SDK-specific aliases
+# consumed by mana-research's Deep-Research provider (@google/genai) and
+# mana-ai's planner. In practice all three hold the same value.
 GEMINI_API_KEY=
+GOOGLE_GEMINI_API_KEY=
+GOOGLE_GENAI_API_KEY=
+
+# ─── Mission Grants (AI Workbench) ──────────────────────────
+# EdDSA keypair used by mana-ai to unwrap server-side decryption grants.
+# Must be Ed25519 in PEM form, base64-encoded. Generate with:
+#   openssl genpkey -algorithm Ed25519 -out key.pem
+#   openssl pkey -in key.pem -pubout -out pub.pem
+#   base64 -w0 key.pem   # → MANA_AI_PRIVATE_KEY_PEM
+#   base64 -w0 pub.pem   # → MANA_AI_PUBLIC_KEY_PEM
+# Keep the private half server-only; the public half goes into the
+# browser so users can wrap grants for specific missions.
+MANA_AI_PRIVATE_KEY_PEM=
+MANA_AI_PUBLIC_KEY_PEM=
+
+# ─── AI feature flags ───────────────────────────────────────
+# MANA_AI_DEEP_RESEARCH_ENABLED gates the async deep-research provider
+# in mana-research. PUBLIC_AI_MISSION_GRANTS surfaces the Mission-Grant
+# UI in the webapp. Both default off; set to "true" in production.
+MANA_AI_DEEP_RESEARCH_ENABLED=false
+PUBLIC_AI_MISSION_GRANTS=false
 
 # ─── Service-to-service auth keys ───────────────────────────
 # Shared secrets backends use to call each other without going through
 # user JWTs. Generate with: openssl rand -base64 32
 # MANA_SERVICE_KEY appears in compose with BOTH a default and a no-default
 # reference, so it MUST be set to a real value in production.
+# MANA_CORE_SERVICE_KEY is a legacy alias consumed by games/arcade +
+# mana-ai's internal client; keep it in sync with MANA_SERVICE_KEY until
+# the rename is finished.
 MANA_SERVICE_KEY=
+MANA_CORE_SERVICE_KEY=
 MANA_CREDITS_SERVICE_KEY=
 MEMORO_SERVICE_KEY=
 
+# ─── STT / TTS internal keys ────────────────────────────────
+# Shared secrets between mana-api and the GPU-hosted STT/TTS services
+# (see docs/WINDOWS_GPU_SERVER_SETUP.md). Required only if voice
+# features are enabled.
+STT_INTERNAL_API_KEY=
+TTS_INTERNAL_API_KEY=
+
 # ─── Memoro Supabase (legacy) ───────────────────────────────
 # Memoro still keeps recording metadata in Supabase. Move to mana_platform
 # is tracked in the Memoro CLAUDE.md.
diff --git a/scripts/mac-mini/build-app.sh b/scripts/mac-mini/build-app.sh
index 1f6a02719..8809b3e1c 100755
--- a/scripts/mac-mini/build-app.sh
+++ b/scripts/mac-mini/build-app.sh
@@ -14,8 +14,17 @@ set -e
 SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
 PROJECT_ROOT="$(cd "$SCRIPT_DIR/../.." && pwd)"
 COMPOSE_FILE="$PROJECT_ROOT/docker-compose.macmini.yml"
+ENV_FILE="$PROJECT_ROOT/.env.macmini"
 DOCKER="${DOCKER_CMD:-/usr/local/bin/docker}"
 
+# Explicit --env-file flag keeps this script aligned with deploy.sh /
+# restart.sh / the CD workflow (all use .env.macmini). Without it compose
+# falls back to .env in the project root — which used to be a separate
+# file holding a superset of secrets, and missing that file meant mana-
+# auth started with an empty MANA_AUTH_KEK. Server was reconciled
+# 2026-04-23; this flag keeps it that way.
+COMPOSE_ARGS=(-f "$COMPOSE_FILE" --env-file "$ENV_FILE")
+
 # Minimum free memory (in MB) needed for a Docker build
 BUILD_MEM_THRESHOLD_MB=3000
 
@@ -188,7 +197,7 @@ build_services() {
   done
 
   echo "=== Building: ${services[*]} ==="
-  $DOCKER compose -f "$COMPOSE_FILE" build --no-cache "${services[@]}" 2>&1
+  $DOCKER compose "${COMPOSE_ARGS[@]}" build --no-cache "${services[@]}" 2>&1
   echo ""
   echo "=== Restarting: ${services[*]} ==="
   # Tear down existing containers BEFORE the up cycle. We hit "container
@@ -206,13 +215,13 @@ build_services() {
   #   3. `up -d --remove-orphans` then creates a clean new container
   #      and silences the "Found orphan containers" warning we kept
   #      seeing for the unrelated mana-game-whopixels leftover.
-  $DOCKER compose -f "$COMPOSE_FILE" rm -fs "${services[@]}" 2>&1 \
+  $DOCKER compose "${COMPOSE_ARGS[@]}" rm -fs "${services[@]}" 2>&1 \
     | grep -v 'No stopped containers' || true
   for svc in "${services[@]}"; do
     # Map compose service name → container_name from the compose config.
     # Falls back to the service name itself if container_name isn't set.
     local cname
-    cname=$($DOCKER compose -f "$COMPOSE_FILE" config 2>/dev/null \
+    cname=$($DOCKER compose "${COMPOSE_ARGS[@]}" config 2>/dev/null \
       | awk -v s="$svc:" '
           $0 ~ "^  "s {found=1; next}
           found && /^  [a-z]/ {found=0}
@@ -228,7 +237,7 @@ build_services() {
       echo "$orphans" | xargs -r $DOCKER rm -f 2>/dev/null || true
     fi
   done
-  $DOCKER compose -f "$COMPOSE_FILE" up -d --no-deps --remove-orphans "${services[@]}" 2>&1
+  $DOCKER compose "${COMPOSE_ARGS[@]}" up -d --no-deps --remove-orphans "${services[@]}" 2>&1
 }
 
 # --- Main ---
@@ -273,7 +282,7 @@ case "$1" in
   --all-web)
     build_base_images
     # Find all web services in compose
-    WEB_SERVICES=$($DOCKER compose -f "$COMPOSE_FILE" config --services 2>/dev/null | grep '\-web$' || true)
+    WEB_SERVICES=$($DOCKER compose "${COMPOSE_ARGS[@]}" config --services 2>/dev/null | grep '\-web$' || true)
     if [ -n "$WEB_SERVICES" ]; then
       build_services $WEB_SERVICES
     else
@@ -291,7 +300,7 @@ echo "=== Build complete ==="
 # Show status of built services
 for svc in "$@"; do
   if [ "$svc" != "--base" ] && [ "$svc" != "--all-web" ]; then
-    STATUS=$($DOCKER compose -f "$COMPOSE_FILE" ps --format '{{.Name}}\t{{.Status}}' "$svc" 2>/dev/null || echo "$svc: unknown")
+    STATUS=$($DOCKER compose "${COMPOSE_ARGS[@]}" ps --format '{{.Name}}\t{{.Status}}' "$svc" 2>/dev/null || echo "$svc: unknown")
     echo "  $STATUS"
   fi
 done