docs(release): clarify nginx reload is only for nginx config changes, not every deploy

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

docs/release.md

@@ -46,6 +46,17 @@ without explicit user confirmation.**
    errors from prior pids).
 9. Clean up tarballs locally and in `/tmp/` on the server.
 
+**nginx is NOT part of a normal release.** nginx is only a reverse proxy in
+front of the pm2 app (`proxy_pass` → `127.0.0.1:3001`); a code release changes
+app code, which `pm2 restart app-ts` picks up — nginx has nothing new to read.
+Do **not** run `sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx` every deploy. Run
+it ONLY when you actually edit nginx config (`/etc/nginx/…` — `server_name`,
+ports, `proxy_pass` upstream, TLS cert paths, locations/redirects/headers,
+`client_max_body_size`, rate limits, etc.). When you do change it, always
+`nginx -t` first (validates syntax, changes nothing) THEN `systemctl reload
+nginx` (graceful re-read, keeps active connections; a bad config on reload is
+rejected and the old one keeps running).
+
 Risky releases (framework jumps, FK/constraint-altering migrations) get a
 read-only pre-flight first: `prisma migrate status` on prod, verify FK
 constraint names the migration DROPs, check no data violates new