diff --git a/deploy/README.md b/deploy/README.md
index 54f77ab..befabdd 100644
--- a/deploy/README.md
+++ b/deploy/README.md
@@ -104,6 +104,8 @@ Notes:
 - Replace `yourdomain.com` with your real domain.
 - Script copies `deploy/apache/chgrid-vhost-snippet.conf`, runs `rebuildhttpdconf`, then restarts Apache via WHM restart command.
 - Snippet now includes no-cache headers for `/chgrid/` and `/chgrid/index.html` so client updates are not stuck on stale HTML.
+- `deploy_client.sh` also installs `/chgrid/.htaccess` from `deploy/apache/chgrid-public-htaccess`
+  to force no-cache on `index.html` and `version.js` in shared-host setups.
 
 ## 7) Optional HTTPS relay for HTTP radio streams
 
diff --git a/deploy/apache/chgrid-public-htaccess b/deploy/apache/chgrid-public-htaccess
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..16f039f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/deploy/apache/chgrid-public-htaccess
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+# Chat Grid publish-dir cache policy.
+# Applied to /chgrid/.htaccess by deploy_client.sh.
+
+<IfModule mod_headers.c>
+  <FilesMatch "^(index\.html|version\.js)$">
+    Header set Cache-Control "no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate"
+    Header set Pragma "no-cache"
+    Header set Expires "0"
+  </FilesMatch>
+</IfModule>
diff --git a/deploy/scripts/deploy_client.sh b/deploy/scripts/deploy_client.sh
index 730aed1..d40cc9a 100755
--- a/deploy/scripts/deploy_client.sh
+++ b/deploy/scripts/deploy_client.sh
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ PUBLISH_DIR="${2:-/home/bestmidi/public_html/chgrid}"
 BASE_PATH="${3:-/chgrid/}"
 CLIENT_DIR="$REPO_ROOT/client"
 PHP_PROXY_DIR="$REPO_ROOT/deploy/php"
+PUBLIC_HTACCESS_SRC="$REPO_ROOT/deploy/apache/chgrid-public-htaccess"
 
 if [[ ! -d "$CLIENT_DIR" ]]; then
   echo "error: client directory not found: $CLIENT_DIR" >&2
@@ -28,6 +29,10 @@ if [[ -d "$PHP_PROXY_DIR" ]]; then
   rsync -a "$PHP_PROXY_DIR/" "$PUBLISH_DIR/"
 fi
 
+if [[ -f "$PUBLIC_HTACCESS_SRC" ]]; then
+  cp "$PUBLIC_HTACCESS_SRC" "$PUBLISH_DIR/.htaccess"
+fi
+
 # Normalize publish permissions for restrictive shared-host PHP handlers.
 # - Directories must be executable/traversable.
 # - PHP/static files must not be group-writable.