diff --git a/backend/.env.example b/backend/.env.example
index e775e68..4e4c1e0 100644
--- a/backend/.env.example
+++ b/backend/.env.example
@@ -89,3 +89,16 @@ AI_MAX_TOKENS=1024
 # before the answer starts, and at 1024 the reply was all thinking with the
 # JSON truncated away.
 AI_COACH_MAX_TOKENS=4000
+
+# --- AI coach job queue ---
+# The gateway runs `gunicorn -w 1 --threads 4` and is shared with fam-edge and
+# the camera project: four concurrent requests for everyone, while one of ours
+# holds a thread for 2-5 minutes. So this consumer runs one job at a time
+# across the whole deployment (not one per Gunicorn worker) and waits between
+# jobs. Raising either of these makes the backfill finish sooner at the cost of
+# the shared box — a 502 there is a 502 for the other two projects as well.
+AI_JOB_CONCURRENCY=1
+AI_JOB_GAP_SECONDS=20
+# Set AI_JOBS=false to stop consuming entirely (screens then show the computed
+# figures with no model reading).
+AI_JOBS=true
diff --git a/backend/services/jobs.py b/backend/services/jobs.py
index 2c12c55..6ef4db1 100644
--- a/backend/services/jobs.py
+++ b/backend/services/jobs.py
@@ -37,6 +37,20 @@ POLL_SECONDS = float(os.environ.get("AI_JOB_POLL_SECONDS") or 2)
 
 MAX_ATTEMPTS = int(os.environ.get("AI_JOB_MAX_ATTEMPTS") or 3)
 
+# The gateway is not ours alone. It runs `gunicorn -w 1 --threads 4` on the
+# Oracle box and is shared with fam-edge and the camera project, so it can
+# serve four requests at a time in total — while one of ours occupies a thread
+# for two to five minutes, and up to seventeen when its NVIDIA chain retries
+# (its own README, known issue #3).
+#
+# So this consumer deliberately runs one job at a time across the whole
+# deployment, not one per Gunicorn worker, and leaves a gap between jobs. A
+# backfill of eight scopes is background work; taking the shared box down to
+# finish it sooner is not a trade worth making — and a 502 there is a 502 for
+# the other two projects too.
+MAX_CONCURRENT = int(os.environ.get("AI_JOB_CONCURRENCY") or 1)
+GAP_SECONDS = float(os.environ.get("AI_JOB_GAP_SECONDS") or 20)
+
 # How long a job that exhausted its attempts stays given up on before it is
 # tried again. Without this a transient upstream outage is permanent: three
 # quick failures while the gateway is unreachable would retire that screen's
@@ -200,6 +214,18 @@ def _claim_next():
     the one that has waited longest goes first.
     """
     cutoff = _iso(_now() - datetime.timedelta(seconds=CLAIM_TIMEOUT_SECONDS))
+
+    # Concurrency is counted across the deployment, not per process: two
+    # Gunicorn workers each running "one job" is two concurrent calls into a
+    # gateway that has four threads for three projects.
+    running = query_one(
+        "SELECT COUNT(*) AS n FROM ai_jobs WHERE status = 'running' "
+        "AND claimed_at IS NOT NULL AND claimed_at >= ?",
+        [cutoff],
+    )
+    if (running or {}).get("n", 0) >= MAX_CONCURRENT:
+        return None
+
     rows = query_all(
         "SELECT * FROM ai_jobs WHERE status = 'pending' "
         "OR (status = 'running' AND (claimed_at IS NULL OR claimed_at < ?)) "
@@ -254,11 +280,11 @@ def run_once():
 def _loop():
     while True:
         try:
-            # Straight on to the next job when one was just run: after a
-            # sync there is a whole backfill waiting, and sleeping between
-            # each would add hours to it for no reason.
-            if not run_once():
-                time.sleep(POLL_SECONDS)
+            # A gap after each job, not just when idle. Running them
+            # back-to-back is what saturates the shared gateway: a backfill
+            # finishing twenty minutes later costs nobody anything, a gateway
+            # that stops answering costs all three projects.
+            time.sleep(GAP_SECONDS if run_once() else POLL_SECONDS)
         except Exception as e:  # noqa: BLE001 - the loop must outlive any failure
             print(f"[ai-jobs] worker error: {e}")
             time.sleep(POLL_SECONDS)
diff --git a/backend/tests/test_coach.py b/backend/tests/test_coach.py
index a8175a5..c1475b4 100644
--- a/backend/tests/test_coach.py
+++ b/backend/tests/test_coach.py
@@ -1073,3 +1073,35 @@ class TestHighlightsReadAlone:
                 f"{name}: 折叠态只显示 detail，但它没提到 {title!r}: "
                 f"{first['detail']!r}"
             )
+
+
+class TestGatewayCourtesy:
+    """The gateway runs one worker with four threads and is shared with two
+    other projects. This consumer must not be able to saturate it."""
+
+    def test_only_one_job_runs_at_a_time_across_the_deployment(self, db, user):
+        jobs.enqueue(user["id"], "health", "a")
+        jobs.enqueue(user["id"], "sleep", "b")
+        assert jobs._claim_next() is not None
+        assert jobs._claim_next() is None, \
+            "a second Gunicorn worker must not start a second gateway call"
+
+    def test_a_finished_job_frees_the_slot(self, db, user):
+        jobs.enqueue(user["id"], "health", "a")
+        jobs.enqueue(user["id"], "sleep", "b")
+        first = jobs._claim_next()
+        jobs._finish(first["id"])
+        assert jobs._claim_next() is not None
+
+    def test_an_abandoned_claim_does_not_block_the_queue_forever(self, db, user):
+        jobs.enqueue(user["id"], "health", "a")
+        jobs.enqueue(user["id"], "sleep", "b")
+        jobs._claim_next()
+        stale = jobs._now() - jobs.datetime.timedelta(
+            seconds=jobs.CLAIM_TIMEOUT_SECONDS + 60)
+        db.execute("UPDATE ai_jobs SET claimed_at = ?", [jobs._iso(stale)])
+        assert jobs._claim_next() is not None
+
+    def test_there_is_a_gap_between_jobs(self):
+        """Back-to-back is what saturates a four-thread box."""
+        assert jobs.GAP_SECONDS > 0