diff --git a/apps/api/alembic/env.py b/apps/api/alembic/env.py
index 3b4d1c2..d345090 100644
--- a/apps/api/alembic/env.py
+++ b/apps/api/alembic/env.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import os
 from logging.config import fileConfig
-from urllib.parse import unquote
+from urllib.parse import unquote, urlparse, parse_qs, urlencode
 
 from sqlalchemy import create_engine, pool
 
@@ -13,10 +13,17 @@ config = context.config
 # Override sqlalchemy.url from environment if set
 database_url = os.environ.get("DATABASE_URL")
 if database_url:
-    # Alembic/sync driver needs postgresql:// (not postgresql+asyncpg://)
+    # Alembic needs the synchronous driver
     database_url = database_url.replace("postgresql+asyncpg://", "postgresql://")
     # Decode URL-encoded characters
     database_url = unquote(database_url)
+    # Strip sslmode query param (not supported by psycopg2)
+    parsed = urlparse(database_url)
+    if parsed.query:
+        params = parse_qs(parsed.query)
+        params.pop("sslmode", None)
+        new_query = urlencode(params, doseq=True)
+        database_url = parsed._replace(query=new_query).geturl()
     config.set_main_option("sqlalchemy.url", database_url)
 
 # Set up Python logging from the config file
@@ -41,12 +48,21 @@ def run_migrations_offline() -> None:
 
 
 def run_migrations_online() -> None:
-    """Run migrations in 'online' mode."""
-    # Always use DATABASE_URL env var directly, bypassing alembic.ini
-    # This avoids ConfigParser mangling special chars in URLs
+    """Run migrations in 'online' mode.
+
+    Always use DATABASE_URL env directly, bypassing alembic.ini,
+    to avoid ConfigParser mangling special chars in passwords.
+    """
     raw_url = os.environ.get("DATABASE_URL", "")
     url = raw_url.replace("postgresql+asyncpg://", "postgresql://")
     url = unquote(url)
+    # Strip sslmode (not supported by psycopg2)
+    parsed = urlparse(url)
+    if parsed.query:
+        params = parse_qs(parsed.query)
+        params.pop("sslmode", None)
+        new_query = urlencode(params, doseq=True)
+        url = parsed._replace(query=new_query).geturl()
 
     connectable = create_engine(url, poolclass=pool.NullPool)