diff --git a/build.sh b/build.sh
index 6a176a0c..3a065e43 100755
--- a/build.sh
+++ b/build.sh
@@ -1,17 +1,15 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
-# Build the owpengram-server container image (stamping the current git state into
-# the binary - .containerignore excludes .git, so go build can't see the repo and
-# the values are passed in here), then recreate and start the pod containers.
+# Build the owpengram-server container image, stamping the current git state
+# into the binary (shows up in telesrv's startup log as git_commit/git_branch/
+# git_tree_state/build_time). .containerignore excludes .git, so go build's
+# automatic VCS stamping can't see the repo - the values are passed in here.
 #
 # Usage:  ./build.sh [extra podman build args...]
-#   IMAGE=my/tag ./build.sh     override the image tag   (default: owpengram-server)
-#   POD=name ./build.sh         override the pod name    (default: owpengram)
-#   NO_DEPLOY=1 ./build.sh      build the image only, don't touch containers
+#   IMAGE=my/tag ./build.sh            # override the image tag (default: owpengram-server)
 set -euo pipefail
 cd "$(dirname "$0")"
 
 IMAGE="${IMAGE:-owpengram-server}"
-POD="${POD:-owpengram}"
 
 podman build \
   --build-arg GIT_COMMIT="$(git rev-parse HEAD)" \
@@ -22,29 +20,3 @@ podman build \
   -f Containerfile \
   "$@" \
   .
-
-if [ "${NO_DEPLOY:-0}" = "1" ]; then
-  echo "built $IMAGE (NO_DEPLOY=1, containers unchanged)"
-  exit 0
-fi
-
-if ! podman pod exists "$POD"; then
-  echo "error: pod '$POD' does not exist - create it first, e.g.:" >&2
-  echo "  podman pod create --name $POD -p 127.0.0.1:2401:2401" >&2
-  exit 1
-fi
-if [ ! -f .env ]; then
-  echo "error: .env not found (containers are created with --env-file .env)" >&2
-  exit 1
-fi
-
-podman create --replace --pod "$POD" --name owpengram-server --restart unless-stopped \
-  --pull never --env-file .env -v owpengram_serverdata:/data \
-  "$IMAGE"
-
-podman create --replace --pod "$POD" --name owpengram-admin --restart unless-stopped \
-  --pull never --env-file .env --entrypoint /app/telesrv-admin \
-  "$IMAGE"
-
-podman start owpengram-server owpengram-admin
-podman ps --pod --filter "pod=$POD" --format 'table {{.Names}} {{.Status}} {{.Image}}'