diff --git a/scripts/setup/officer-setup.sh b/scripts/setup/officer-setup.sh
index 7b63f30f..a6148ab3 100755
--- a/scripts/setup/officer-setup.sh
+++ b/scripts/setup/officer-setup.sh
@@ -141,6 +141,26 @@ info "Account:  ${USERNAME} (home ${USER_HOME})"
 info "Officer:  ${OFFICER_ROOT}"
 [[ -n "$MACHINE_ROLE" ]] && info "Role:     ${MACHINE_ROLE}"
 
+# ── recover what earlier runs already decided ──
+#
+# A skipped section leaves its variables unset, and later sections read them. On
+# a resume that is every section before the one it stopped at, so Build announced
+# "PUBLIC_URL <not set — run the Environment section first>" on a machine whose
+# .env had been written twenty minutes earlier.
+#
+# Read back here, once, from the file that already holds the answers, rather than
+# per-section — three variables cross a section boundary (ENV_PORT and
+# ENV_PUBLIC_URL from Environment, POSTGRES_URL from Database) and the next one
+# added would have to remember to do this again.
+#
+# Only fills what is EMPTY, so a variable passed in on the command line still
+# wins, and a section that runs for real still overwrites it with its own answer.
+if [[ -f "$(env_file)" ]]; then
+  ENV_PORT="${ENV_PORT:-$(env_get PORT)}"
+  ENV_PUBLIC_URL="${ENV_PUBLIC_URL:-$(env_get PUBLIC_URL)}"
+  POSTGRES_URL="${POSTGRES_URL:-$(env_get POSTGRES_URL)}"
+fi
+
 # ── is the machine actually ready ──
 #
 # Checked and reported together. Finding out about a missing bun three sections
@@ -640,10 +660,6 @@ if ! skip; then
   echo "     To change it later: bun gen:index https://your.new.url"
   echo ""
 
-  if [[ -z "${ENV_PUBLIC_URL:-}" ]]; then
-    ENV_PUBLIC_URL="$(env_get PUBLIC_URL)"
-  fi
-
   if [[ -z "$ENV_PUBLIC_URL" ]]; then
     warn "PUBLIC_URL is not in $(env_file) — run the Environment section, then this one"
     SUMMARY+=("Build: SKIPPED — no PUBLIC_URL")