diff --git a/server/src/app.ts b/server/src/app.ts
index 74325ca..73cf701 100644
--- a/server/src/app.ts
+++ b/server/src/app.ts
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import { adminRouter } from './routes/admin.js'
 import { statsRouter } from './routes/stats.js'
 import { arcadeRouter } from './routes/arcade.js'
 import { rateLimit } from './middleware/rate-limit.js'
+import { arenaProxy } from './middleware/arena-proxy.js'
 
 import { existsSync, readFileSync } from 'fs'
 import { join, dirname } from 'path'
@@ -92,6 +93,10 @@ app.use('/api/docs/*', async (c, next) => {
   if (c.req.method === 'GET') c.header('Cache-Control', 'public, max-age=3600')
 })
 
+// When ARENA_UPSTREAM_URL is set, forward every /api/* request to the
+// canonical arena instead of the local routers (BOT-03). No-ops otherwise.
+app.use('/api/*', arenaProxy)
+
 app.get('/api/health', (c) => c.json({ status: 'ok', name: 'botfights' }))
 
 app.route('/api/auth', authRouter)
diff --git a/server/src/middleware/arena-proxy.test.ts b/server/src/middleware/arena-proxy.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1c880b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/src/middleware/arena-proxy.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,177 @@
+import { describe, it, expect, beforeAll, afterAll, afterEach } from 'vitest'
+import { Hono } from 'hono'
+import { serve, type ServerType } from '@hono/node-server'
+import type { AddressInfo } from 'node:net'
+import { gzipSync } from 'node:zlib'
+import { arenaProxy } from './arena-proxy.js'
+
+// --- Real upstream "arena" server: a second, independent Hono app --------
+const registeredBots: { id: string; secret: string; name: string }[] = []
+
+const upstream = new Hono()
+
+upstream.post('/api/bots', async (c) => {
+  const body = await c.req.json().catch(() => ({}))
+  const bot = { id: `bot-${registeredBots.length + 1}`, secret: 'shh', name: body.name ?? 'unnamed' }
+  registeredBots.push(bot)
+  return c.json(bot)
+})
+
+upstream.get('/api/bots', (c) => c.json(registeredBots))
+
+upstream.get('/api/echo', (c) => {
+  return c.json({
+    method: c.req.method,
+    path: new URL(c.req.url).pathname,
+    query: new URL(c.req.url).search,
+    host: c.req.header('host') ?? null,
+  })
+})
+
+upstream.post('/api/echo', async (c) => {
+  const body = await c.req.json().catch(() => null)
+  return c.json({
+    method: c.req.method,
+    path: new URL(c.req.url).pathname,
+    query: new URL(c.req.url).search,
+    body,
+    host: c.req.header('host') ?? null,
+    xff: c.req.header('x-forwarded-for') ?? null,
+  })
+})
+
+upstream.get('/api/gzip-lie', (c) => {
+  // Upstream actually gzip-compresses the body and declares content-encoding
+  // for the COMPRESSED bytes. undici transparently decompresses on the
+  // proxy's fetch() before this code ever sees the response, so by the time
+  // the proxy builds its own Response, the stale content-encoding/
+  // content-length (describing the compressed representation) would corrupt
+  // what the caller receives if copied through verbatim — the proxy must
+  // strip them, not forward them.
+  const compressed = gzipSync(Buffer.from(JSON.stringify({ ok: true })))
+  return new Response(compressed, {
+    status: 200,
+    // content-length deliberately omitted — the underlying Node HTTP server
+    // computes and sends the real one automatically.
+    headers: {
+      'content-type': 'application/json',
+      'content-encoding': 'gzip',
+    },
+  })
+})
+
+let upstreamServer: ServerType
+let upstreamUrl: string
+
+beforeAll(async () => {
+  await new Promise<void>((resolve) => {
+    upstreamServer = serve({ fetch: upstream.fetch, port: 0 }, (info) => {
+      upstreamUrl = `http://127.0.0.1:${(info as AddressInfo).port}`
+      resolve()
+    })
+  })
+})
+
+afterAll(async () => {
+  await new Promise<void>((resolve) => upstreamServer.close(() => resolve()))
+})
+
+// --- Proxying app under test ----------------------------------------------
+function buildProxyingApp() {
+  const app = new Hono()
+  app.use('/api/*', arenaProxy)
+  app.get('/api/health', (c) => c.json({ status: 'ok', name: 'botfights' }))
+  app.get('/api/sentinel', (c) => c.json({ sentinel: true }))
+  return app
+}
+
+describe('arenaProxy', () => {
+  const originalEnv = process.env.ARENA_UPSTREAM_URL
+
+  afterEach(() => {
+    if (originalEnv === undefined) delete process.env.ARENA_UPSTREAM_URL
+    else process.env.ARENA_UPSTREAM_URL = originalEnv
+  })
+
+  it('registers a bot upstream and reads it back through the proxy', async () => {
+    process.env.ARENA_UPSTREAM_URL = upstreamUrl
+    const app = buildProxyingApp()
+
+    const postRes = await app.request('/api/bots', {
+      method: 'POST',
+      headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
+      body: JSON.stringify({ name: 'cross-node-bot' }),
+    })
+    expect(postRes.status).toBe(200)
+    const posted = await postRes.json() as { name: string }
+    expect(posted.name).toBe('cross-node-bot')
+
+    const getRes = await app.request('/api/bots')
+    expect(getRes.status).toBe(200)
+    const list = await getRes.json() as { name: string }[]
+    expect(list.some((b) => b.name === 'cross-node-bot')).toBe(true)
+  })
+
+  it('falls through to local routers when ARENA_UPSTREAM_URL is unset', async () => {
+    delete process.env.ARENA_UPSTREAM_URL
+    const app = buildProxyingApp()
+
+    const res = await app.request('/api/sentinel')
+    expect(res.status).toBe(200)
+    const body = await res.json() as { sentinel: boolean }
+    expect(body.sentinel).toBe(true)
+  })
+
+  it('answers /api/health locally even in proxy mode', async () => {
+    // Point at a port with nothing listening.
+    process.env.ARENA_UPSTREAM_URL = 'http://127.0.0.1:1'
+    const app = buildProxyingApp()
+
+    const res = await app.request('/api/health')
+    expect(res.status).toBe(200)
+    const body = await res.json() as { status: string }
+    expect(body.status).toBe('ok')
+  })
+
+  it('forwards method, query string and JSON body unchanged', async () => {
+    process.env.ARENA_UPSTREAM_URL = upstreamUrl
+    const app = buildProxyingApp()
+
+    const res = await app.request('/api/echo?a=1&b=2', {
+      method: 'POST',
+      headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
+      body: JSON.stringify({ hello: 'world' }),
+    })
+    expect(res.status).toBe(200)
+    const body = await res.json() as { method: string; path: string; query: string; body: unknown }
+    expect(body.method).toBe('POST')
+    expect(body.path).toBe('/api/echo')
+    expect(body.query).toBe('?a=1&b=2')
+    expect(body.body).toEqual({ hello: 'world' })
+  })
+
+  it('does not forward the inbound Host header', async () => {
+    process.env.ARENA_UPSTREAM_URL = upstreamUrl
+    const app = buildProxyingApp()
+
+    const res = await app.request('/api/echo', {
+      headers: { Host: 'caller-node.example.com' },
+    })
+    expect(res.status).toBe(200)
+    const body = await res.json() as { host: string | null }
+    expect(body.host).not.toBe('caller-node.example.com')
+    expect(body.host).toBe(new URL(upstreamUrl).host)
+  })
+
+  it('strips response content-encoding and content-length', async () => {
+    process.env.ARENA_UPSTREAM_URL = upstreamUrl
+    const app = buildProxyingApp()
+
+    const res = await app.request('/api/gzip-lie')
+    expect(res.status).toBe(200)
+    expect(res.headers.get('content-encoding')).toBeNull()
+    expect(res.headers.get('content-length')).toBeNull()
+    const body = await res.json() as { ok: boolean }
+    expect(body.ok).toBe(true)
+  })
+})
diff --git a/server/src/middleware/arena-proxy.ts b/server/src/middleware/arena-proxy.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a7492a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/src/middleware/arena-proxy.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+import type { Context, Next } from 'hono'
+
+// Requests answered locally even when ARENA_UPSTREAM_URL is set — the manifest
+// health check must never depend on the canonical arena being reachable, or a
+// perfectly healthy node container gets marked unhealthy and restart-looped.
+const LOCAL_BYPASS_PATHS = new Set(['/api/health'])
+
+// Headers that must never be copied verbatim between hops (either because
+// they're connection-scoped, or because copying a stale value corrupts the
+// forwarded/returned message — e.g. content-length after undici recomputes
+// the body, or content-encoding after undici already decoded it).
+const HOP_BY_HOP = new Set([
+  'host',
+  'connection',
+  'keep-alive',
+  'transfer-encoding',
+  'upgrade',
+  'proxy-authorization',
+  'proxy-connection',
+  'te',
+  'trailer',
+  'content-length',
+])
+
+function buildTargetUrl(upstream: string, path: string, search: string): URL {
+  // Build from the base + path + the ORIGINAL query string. Do not round-trip
+  // through URLSearchParams — that reorders and re-escapes repeated keys.
+  return new URL(path + search, upstream)
+}
+
+function copyForwardHeaders(c: Context): Headers {
+  const headers = new Headers()
+  for (const [key, value] of c.req.raw.headers) {
+    if (HOP_BY_HOP.has(key.toLowerCase())) continue
+    headers.append(key, value)
+  }
+  // Ask the upstream for an uncompressed body — Node's fetch already handles
+  // decoding for us, and forwarding compression bookkeeping is unnecessary.
+  headers.set('accept-encoding', 'identity')
+  return headers
+}
+
+function copyResponseHeaders(upstreamHeaders: Headers): Headers {
+  const headers = new Headers()
+  for (const [key, value] of upstreamHeaders) {
+    if (HOP_BY_HOP.has(key.toLowerCase())) continue
+    if (key.toLowerCase() === 'content-encoding') continue
+    headers.append(key, value)
+  }
+  return headers
+}
+
+export async function arenaProxy(c: Context, next: Next) {
+  // Read the env var on every call — a module-level constant would be
+  // captured at import time and could never be toggled by tests or by a
+  // container restart-free config change.
+  const upstream = process.env.ARENA_UPSTREAM_URL
+  if (!upstream) return next() // standalone mode — today's code path, untouched
+
+  const path = c.req.path
+  if (LOCAL_BYPASS_PATHS.has(path)) return next()
+
+  const search = new URL(c.req.url).search
+  const target = buildTargetUrl(upstream, path, search)
+  const headers = copyForwardHeaders(c)
+  const method = c.req.method
+
+  const upstreamRes = await fetch(target, {
+    method,
+    headers,
+    body: method === 'GET' || method === 'HEAD' ? undefined : c.req.raw.body,
+    redirect: 'manual',
+    // Node's undici fetch requires `duplex` whenever a streamed body is sent.
+    // `@types/node` 22.13.14 already includes `duplex` on RequestInit.
+    duplex: 'half',
+  })
+
+  return new Response(upstreamRes.body, {
+    status: upstreamRes.status,
+    headers: copyResponseHeaders(upstreamRes.headers),
+  })
+}