diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 6adac7f..8e65bcb 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -3,3 +3,5 @@ node_modules/
 *.log
 .env
 *.bak*
+data/
+data/
diff --git a/server.js b/server.js
index db0292c..c8912e1 100644
--- a/server.js
+++ b/server.js
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ const HOST = process.env.HOST || '127.0.0.1';
 const PORT = process.env.PORT || 3030;
 
 // ─── Paths ───
-const DATA_DIR = path.join(__dirname, 'data');
+const DATA_DIR = process.env.DATA_DIR || path.join(__dirname, 'data');
 const USERS_FILE = path.join(DATA_DIR, 'users.json');
 const SERVICES_CACHE = path.join(DATA_DIR, 'services-cache.json');
 const TOKENS_FILE = path.join(DATA_DIR, 'tokens.json');
@@ -184,7 +184,6 @@ async function syncServices() {
 
     // Build service map from inventory repos
     const newMap = {};
-    const STATE_FILE = path.join(DATA_DIR, '../api/inventory-data.json');
 
     // Also try to get the inventory state which has service URLs
     let stateData = {};