diff --git a/deploy/deploy.yaml b/deploy/deploy.yaml
index 5ac749c0..de4e2375 100644
--- a/deploy/deploy.yaml
+++ b/deploy/deploy.yaml
@@ -852,6 +852,7 @@ lanes:
           HWLAB_KAFKA_AGENTRUN_EVENT_CONSUME_ENABLED: "true"
           HWLAB_KAFKA_DIRECT_PUBLISH_ENABLED: "true"
           HWLAB_WORKBENCH_LIVE_KAFKA_SSE_ENABLED: "true"
+          HWLAB_WORKBENCH_KAFKA_REFRESH_REPLAY_ENABLED: "true"
           HWLAB_KAFKA_TRANSACTIONAL_PROJECTOR_ENABLED: "false"
           HWLAB_KAFKA_PROJECTION_OUTBOX_RELAY_ENABLED: "false"
           HWLAB_WORKBENCH_PROJECTION_REALTIME_ENABLED: "false"
diff --git a/internal/cloud/kafka-event-bridge.test.ts b/internal/cloud/kafka-event-bridge.test.ts
index 68b5ecd2..0bfd118c 100644
--- a/internal/cloud/kafka-event-bridge.test.ts
+++ b/internal/cloud/kafka-event-bridge.test.ts
@@ -48,6 +48,16 @@ const LIVE_ENV = Object.freeze({
   HWLAB_KAFKA_HWLAB_EVENT_GROUP_ID: "hwlab-live-fanout-fixed"
 });
 
+const LIVE_REFRESH_ENV = Object.freeze({
+  ...LIVE_ENV,
+  HWLAB_WORKBENCH_KAFKA_REFRESH_REPLAY_ENABLED: "true",
+  HWLAB_WORKBENCH_KAFKA_REFRESH_REPLAY_GROUP_PREFIX: "hwlab-live-refresh-test",
+  HWLAB_WORKBENCH_KAFKA_REFRESH_REPLAY_TIMEOUT_MS: "30000",
+  HWLAB_WORKBENCH_KAFKA_REFRESH_REPLAY_SCAN_LIMIT: "1000000",
+  HWLAB_WORKBENCH_KAFKA_REFRESH_REPLAY_MATCHED_EVENT_LIMIT: "2000",
+  HWLAB_WORKBENCH_KAFKA_REFRESH_REPLAY_LIVE_BUFFER_LIMIT: "2000"
+});
+
 test("projects AgentRun assistant_message Kafka event into HWLAB trace event", () => {
   const projected = projectAgentRunKafkaEventToHwlabEvent({
     schema: "agentrun.event.v1",
@@ -357,6 +367,36 @@ test("live Kafka startup does not touch transactional v8 readiness", async () =>
   await bridge.stop();
 });
 
+test("Cloud API starts with all six Kafka capabilities and without transactional v8 schema", async () => {
+  let transactionalV8Reads = 0;
+  const runtimeStore = new Proxy({}, {
+    get(_target, property) {
+      if (["assertWorkbenchTransactionalRealtimeReady", "workbenchTransactionalRealtimeReadiness"].includes(String(property))) {
+        transactionalV8Reads += 1;
+        throw new Error("transactional v8 schema must not gate live Kafka Cloud API startup");
+      }
+      return undefined;
+    }
+  });
+  const kafkaFactory = () => ({
+    consumer() { return { async connect() {}, async subscribe() {}, async run() {}, async stop() {}, async disconnect() {} }; },
+    producer() { return { async connect() {}, async send() {}, async disconnect() {} }; }
+  });
+  let bunServeCalls = 0;
+  const cloud = await createCloudApiBunServer({
+    env: { ...LIVE_REFRESH_ENV },
+    runtimeStore,
+    kafkaFactory,
+    accessController: { async ensureBootstrap() {}, async authenticate() { return { ok: false }; } },
+    bunServe() { bunServeCalls += 1; return { port: 31888, stop() {} }; },
+    installSignalHandlers: false,
+    logger: { log() {}, info() {}, warn() {}, error() {} }
+  });
+  assert.equal(bunServeCalls, 1);
+  assert.equal(transactionalV8Reads, 0);
+  await cloud.stop("test");
+});
+
 test("projects AgentRun run-created envelope even when no source event is present", () => {
   const projected = projectAgentRunKafkaEventToHwlabEvent({
     schema: "agentrun.event.v1",
diff --git a/scripts/gitops-render.test.ts b/scripts/gitops-render.test.ts
index 531707e8..af3f13f6 100644
--- a/scripts/gitops-render.test.ts
+++ b/scripts/gitops-render.test.ts
@@ -689,6 +689,7 @@ test("v03 render keeps node identity as data instead of generated structure", as
     assert.equal(cloudApiEnv.get("HWLAB_KAFKA_AGENTRUN_EVENT_CONSUME_ENABLED"), "true");
     assert.equal(cloudApiEnv.get("HWLAB_KAFKA_DIRECT_PUBLISH_ENABLED"), "true");
     assert.equal(cloudApiEnv.get("HWLAB_WORKBENCH_LIVE_KAFKA_SSE_ENABLED"), "true");
+    assert.equal(cloudApiEnv.get("HWLAB_WORKBENCH_KAFKA_REFRESH_REPLAY_ENABLED"), "true");
     assert.equal(cloudApiEnv.get("HWLAB_KAFKA_TRANSACTIONAL_PROJECTOR_ENABLED"), "false");
     assert.equal(cloudApiEnv.get("HWLAB_KAFKA_PROJECTION_OUTBOX_RELAY_ENABLED"), "false");
     assert.equal(cloudApiEnv.get("HWLAB_WORKBENCH_PROJECTION_REALTIME_ENABLED"), "false");
diff --git a/scripts/runtime-realtime-capabilities-config.test.mjs b/scripts/runtime-realtime-capabilities-config.test.mjs
index b24f08b1..e9fe59c6 100644
--- a/scripts/runtime-realtime-capabilities-config.test.mjs
+++ b/scripts/runtime-realtime-capabilities-config.test.mjs
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import { readStructuredFile } from "./src/structured-config.mjs";
 const CLOUD_API_ARCHITECTURE_ENV = Object.freeze({
   HWLAB_KAFKA_DIRECT_PUBLISH_ENABLED: "true",
   HWLAB_WORKBENCH_LIVE_KAFKA_SSE_ENABLED: "true",
+  HWLAB_WORKBENCH_KAFKA_REFRESH_REPLAY_ENABLED: "true",
   HWLAB_KAFKA_TRANSACTIONAL_PROJECTOR_ENABLED: "false",
   HWLAB_KAFKA_PROJECTION_OUTBOX_RELAY_ENABLED: "false",
   HWLAB_WORKBENCH_PROJECTION_REALTIME_ENABLED: "false"