diff --git a/sites/sh1pt.com/app/api/health/route.ts b/sites/sh1pt.com/app/api/health/route.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..46653376
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sites/sh1pt.com/app/api/health/route.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+// Public health check for status.profullstack.com: one HEAD select against
+// profiles, capped at 3s. Never returns error details.
+
+import { NextResponse } from 'next/server';
+import { getSupabaseServiceClient } from '@/lib/supabase/service';
+
+export const runtime = 'nodejs';
+export const dynamic = 'force-dynamic';
+
+const HEADERS = { 'Cache-Control': 'no-store' };
+
+export async function GET() {
+  try {
+    const { error } = await getSupabaseServiceClient()
+      .from('profiles')
+      .select('id', { head: true })
+      .limit(1)
+      .abortSignal(AbortSignal.timeout(3000));
+    if (error) throw error;
+    return NextResponse.json({ status: 'ok', db: 'ok' }, { headers: HEADERS });
+  } catch {
+    return NextResponse.json(
+      { status: 'error', db: 'down' },
+      { status: 503, headers: HEADERS },
+    );
+  }
+}
diff --git a/sites/sh1pt.com/middleware.ts b/sites/sh1pt.com/middleware.ts
index 7d95a3ae..5823a9c7 100644
--- a/sites/sh1pt.com/middleware.ts
+++ b/sites/sh1pt.com/middleware.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@ import { gate } from "@/lib/crawl-gateway";
 import { NextResponse, type NextRequest } from 'next/server';
 
 export async function middleware(request: NextRequest) {
+  // The status page's health check is never gated or redirected.
+  if (request.nextUrl.pathname === '/api/health') return NextResponse.next();
+
   // Crawl gateway first: AI training crawlers get 402 Payment Required (or the
   // sales page at /crawl) unless they present a paid pass. People, Googlebot
   // and retrieval crawlers fall through to everything below.