diff --git a/backup/backup-k8s-apps.sh b/backup/backup-k8s-apps.sh
index 7b059ce..b029442 100755
--- a/backup/backup-k8s-apps.sh
+++ b/backup/backup-k8s-apps.sh
@@ -156,8 +156,14 @@ check_resources() {
     # management-platform pod's minimal image, /proc/meminfo always is.
     avail_mb=$(awk '/^MemAvailable:/{printf "%d", $2/1024}' /proc/meminfo)
     avail_gb=$(df -BG / | awk 'NR==2{gsub("G","",$4); print $4}')
-    if [ "$avail_mb" -lt 1536 ]; then
-        echo "   ❌ RAM available ${avail_mb}MB < 1536MB threshold — aborting."
+    # Threshold lowered 1536->1024MB 2026-08-21: this host's steady-state
+    # available RAM sits ~1.3-1.5GB even when idle (k3s + Jenkins + Docker
+    # monitoring/wazuh stack + dev tooling baseline) — investigated, no
+    # single runaway process, just genuine multi-service baseline. 1536MB
+    # was tripping on ordinary single-app backups. 1024MB still leaves
+    # real headroom above what a pg_dump/mysqldump/tar op actually needs.
+    if [ "$avail_mb" -lt 1024 ]; then
+        echo "   ❌ RAM available ${avail_mb}MB < 1024MB threshold — aborting."
         log_status "FAILED" "$BACKUP_NAME" "resource_safety_ram_${avail_mb}mb"
         exit 1
     fi
diff --git a/backup/restore-k8s-apps.sh b/backup/restore-k8s-apps.sh
index 21e2bc4..33d8535 100755
--- a/backup/restore-k8s-apps.sh
+++ b/backup/restore-k8s-apps.sh
@@ -122,7 +122,10 @@ check_resources() {
     # management-platform pod's minimal image, /proc/meminfo always is.
     avail_mb=$(awk '/^MemAvailable:/{printf "%d", $2/1024}' /proc/meminfo)
     avail_gb=$(df -BG / | awk 'NR==2{gsub("G","",$4); print $4}')
-    if [ "$avail_mb" -lt 1536 ] || [ "$avail_gb" -lt 10 ]; then
+    # Threshold lowered 1536->1024MB 2026-08-21 — see backup-k8s-apps.sh
+    # check_resources() comment for the investigation (baseline host RAM,
+    # not a leak).
+    if [ "$avail_mb" -lt 1024 ] || [ "$avail_gb" -lt 10 ]; then
         echo "   ❌ Resource safety threshold hit (RAM=${avail_mb}MB, Disk=${avail_gb}GB) — aborting."
         exit 1
     fi