diff --git a/deploy/README.md b/deploy/README.md
index 304e5496..25dc64a3 100644
--- a/deploy/README.md
+++ b/deploy/README.md
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ Next DEV deploy smoke commands, for a separately authorized deployment task:
 
 ```sh
 npm run check
-node -e "JSON.parse(require('node:fs').readFileSync('deploy/deploy.yaml','utf8'))"
+node --input-type=module -e "import { readDeployConfig } from './scripts/src/deploy-config.mjs'; await readDeployConfig(process.cwd())"
 KUBECONFIG=/etc/rancher/k3s/k3s.yaml kubectl apply --dry-run=server -k deploy/k8s/dev
 curl -fsS http://74.48.78.17:16667/health/live
 node scripts/dev-edge-health-smoke.mjs --live --report /tmp/hwlab-dev-gate/report.json