diff --git a/decnet/engine/deployer.py b/decnet/engine/deployer.py
index 20a62765..fd0c91eb 100644
--- a/decnet/engine/deployer.py
+++ b/decnet/engine/deployer.py
@@ -429,6 +429,83 @@ def _emit_lifecycle_event(
                     decky_name, trigger, exc)
 
 
+def _run_async(coro_factory) -> None:
+    """Run an async coroutine from a sync context, even when an event loop
+    is already running on this thread.
+
+    ``deploy()`` / ``teardown()`` are sync, but the API handler at
+    ``web.router.fleet.api_deploy_deckies`` calls them from inside its own
+    event loop.  ``asyncio.run`` refuses to run nested, so we always punt
+    to a fresh thread — small overhead, but deploy is already a heavy op.
+    """
+    import threading
+    err: list[BaseException] = []
+
+    def _runner() -> None:
+        try:
+            asyncio.run(coro_factory())
+        except BaseException as exc:  # noqa: BLE001
+            err.append(exc)
+
+    t = threading.Thread(target=_runner, daemon=False)
+    t.start()
+    t.join()
+    if err:
+        raise err[0]
+
+
+def _mirror_fleet_deploy_to_db(config: DecnetConfig) -> None:
+    """Mirror fleet rows into the ``fleet_deckies`` DB table.
+
+    Best-effort: a DB outage on a CLI-only host must not abort deploy.
+    The JSON state file (``decnet-state.json``) remains the canonical
+    artifact for every consumer that runs without the API daemon
+    (``decnet status``, ``decnet teardown``, sniffer, collector).
+
+    State defaults to ``running`` to mirror what the dashboard already
+    assumes about JSON-only fleet rows; the reconciler corrects drift
+    by polling ``docker inspect``.
+    """
+    try:
+        from decnet.web.db.factory import get_repository
+        from decnet.web.db.models import LOCAL_HOST_SENTINEL
+        repo = get_repository()
+
+        async def _go() -> None:
+            for d in config.deckies:
+                await repo.upsert_fleet_decky({
+                    "host_uuid": d.host_uuid or LOCAL_HOST_SENTINEL,
+                    "name": d.name,
+                    "services": list(d.services),
+                    "decky_config": d.model_dump(mode="json"),
+                    "decky_ip": d.ip,
+                    "state": "running",
+                })
+
+        _run_async(_go)
+    except Exception as exc:  # noqa: BLE001
+        log.warning("fleet DB mirror (deploy) failed (best-effort): %s", exc)
+
+
+def _mirror_fleet_teardown_to_db(deckies) -> None:
+    """Remove fleet rows from the DB.  Best-effort, same rationale."""
+    try:
+        from decnet.web.db.factory import get_repository
+        from decnet.web.db.models import LOCAL_HOST_SENTINEL
+        repo = get_repository()
+
+        async def _go() -> None:
+            for d in deckies:
+                await repo.delete_fleet_decky(
+                    host_uuid=d.host_uuid or LOCAL_HOST_SENTINEL,
+                    name=d.name,
+                )
+
+        _run_async(_go)
+    except Exception as exc:  # noqa: BLE001
+        log.warning("fleet DB mirror (teardown) failed (best-effort): %s", exc)
+
+
 @_traced("engine.deploy")
 def deploy(config: DecnetConfig, dry_run: bool = False, no_cache: bool = False, parallel: bool = False) -> None:
     log.info("deployment started n_deckies=%d interface=%s subnet=%s dry_run=%s", len(config.deckies), config.interface, config.subnet, dry_run)
@@ -476,6 +553,7 @@ def deploy(config: DecnetConfig, dry_run: bool = False, no_cache: bool = False,
         return
 
     save_state(config, compose_path)
+    _mirror_fleet_deploy_to_db(config)
 
     # Emit one creation event per decky so the correlation graph has a
     # well-formed lifecycle start (old_services=[] ⇒ new_services=<initial>).
@@ -546,6 +624,7 @@ def teardown(decky_id: str | None = None) -> None:
         )
         _compose("stop", *svc_names, compose_file=compose_path)
         _compose("rm", "-f", *svc_names, compose_file=compose_path)
+        _mirror_fleet_teardown_to_db([decky])
     else:
         for decky in config.deckies:
             _emit_lifecycle_event(
@@ -564,6 +643,7 @@ def teardown(decky_id: str | None = None) -> None:
             teardown_host_macvlan(decky_range)
         remove_macvlan_network(client)
         clear_state()
+        _mirror_fleet_teardown_to_db(config.deckies)
 
         net_driver = "IPvlan" if config.ipvlan else "MACVLAN"
         log.info("teardown complete all deckies removed network_driver=%s", net_driver)
diff --git a/tests/fleet/test_deployer.py b/tests/fleet/test_deployer.py
index 8caf98dc..8068e9b4 100644
--- a/tests/fleet/test_deployer.py
+++ b/tests/fleet/test_deployer.py
@@ -15,6 +15,19 @@ import pytest
 from decnet.config import DeckyConfig, DecnetConfig
 
 
+@pytest.fixture(autouse=True)
+def _stub_fleet_db_mirror(request):
+    """The DB-mirror helpers are exercised in :class:`TestMirrorFleetToDb`;
+    every other test in this file mocks filesystem + docker but not the DB,
+    so we no-op the mirrors elsewhere to keep the suite self-contained."""
+    if "MirrorFleetToDb" in request.node.nodeid:
+        yield
+        return
+    with patch("decnet.engine.deployer._mirror_fleet_deploy_to_db"), \
+         patch("decnet.engine.deployer._mirror_fleet_teardown_to_db"):
+        yield
+
+
 # ── Helpers ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
 def _decky(name: str = "decky-01", ip: str = "192.168.1.10",
@@ -557,3 +570,95 @@ class TestPrintStatus:
         from decnet.engine.deployer import _print_status
         config = _config(deckies=[_decky(), _decky("decky-02", "192.168.1.11")])
         _print_status(config)  # should not raise
+
+
+# ── DB mirror (engine ↔ fleet_deckies) ────────────────────────────────────────
+
+class TestMirrorFleetToDb:
+    """The mirror helpers are best-effort: they replicate fleet state into
+    the ``fleet_deckies`` table so DB-only consumers (orchestrator, web,
+    REST API) see the same view as JSON consumers, but a DB failure must
+    never abort a CLI deploy."""
+
+    def _make_repo(self):
+        repo = MagicMock()
+
+        async def _upsert(data):
+            self.upserts.append(data)
+        async def _delete(*, host_uuid, name):
+            self.deletes.append((host_uuid, name))
+
+        repo.upsert_fleet_decky = MagicMock(side_effect=_upsert)
+        repo.delete_fleet_decky = MagicMock(side_effect=_delete)
+        return repo
+
+    def setup_method(self) -> None:
+        self.upserts: list[dict] = []
+        self.deletes: list[tuple[str, str]] = []
+
+    @patch("decnet.web.db.factory.get_repository")
+    def test_deploy_mirror_upserts_each_decky(self, mock_get_repo):
+        from decnet.engine.deployer import _mirror_fleet_deploy_to_db
+        mock_get_repo.return_value = self._make_repo()
+        cfg = _config(deckies=[
+            _decky(name="d1", ip="10.0.0.1", services=["ssh"]),
+            _decky(name="d2", ip="10.0.0.2", services=["http", "ftp"]),
+        ])
+        _mirror_fleet_deploy_to_db(cfg)
+        assert len(self.upserts) == 2
+        names = sorted(u["name"] for u in self.upserts)
+        assert names == ["d1", "d2"]
+        u1 = next(u for u in self.upserts if u["name"] == "d1")
+        assert u1["host_uuid"] == "local"
+        assert u1["services"] == ["ssh"]
+        assert u1["state"] == "running"
+        assert u1["decky_ip"] == "10.0.0.1"
+        assert u1["decky_config"]["name"] == "d1"
+
+    @patch("decnet.web.db.factory.get_repository")
+    def test_deploy_mirror_honors_explicit_host_uuid(self, mock_get_repo):
+        from decnet.engine.deployer import _mirror_fleet_deploy_to_db
+        mock_get_repo.return_value = self._make_repo()
+        d = _decky()
+        d.host_uuid = "remote-host-abc"
+        _mirror_fleet_deploy_to_db(_config(deckies=[d]))
+        assert self.upserts[0]["host_uuid"] == "remote-host-abc"
+
+    @patch("decnet.web.db.factory.get_repository")
+    def test_deploy_mirror_swallows_db_failure(self, mock_get_repo):
+        from decnet.engine.deployer import _mirror_fleet_deploy_to_db
+        mock_get_repo.side_effect = RuntimeError("db down")
+        _mirror_fleet_deploy_to_db(_config())  # must not raise
+
+    @patch("decnet.web.db.factory.get_repository")
+    def test_teardown_mirror_deletes_each_decky(self, mock_get_repo):
+        from decnet.engine.deployer import _mirror_fleet_teardown_to_db
+        mock_get_repo.return_value = self._make_repo()
+        deckies = [
+            _decky(name="d1", ip="10.0.0.1"),
+            _decky(name="d2", ip="10.0.0.2"),
+        ]
+        _mirror_fleet_teardown_to_db(deckies)
+        assert sorted(self.deletes) == [("local", "d1"), ("local", "d2")]
+
+    @patch("decnet.web.db.factory.get_repository")
+    def test_teardown_mirror_swallows_db_failure(self, mock_get_repo):
+        from decnet.engine.deployer import _mirror_fleet_teardown_to_db
+        mock_get_repo.side_effect = RuntimeError("db down")
+        _mirror_fleet_teardown_to_db([_decky()])  # must not raise
+
+    def test_run_async_works_with_running_loop(self):
+        """``_run_async`` must work even when the caller is already inside
+        an asyncio loop (the API path calls deploy() from a FastAPI handler)."""
+        import asyncio
+        from decnet.engine.deployer import _run_async
+
+        result: list[int] = []
+
+        async def caller() -> None:
+            async def work() -> None:
+                result.append(42)
+            _run_async(work)
+
+        asyncio.run(caller())
+        assert result == [42]