diff --git a/prometheus-stack/k8s/grafana-values.yaml b/prometheus-stack/k8s/grafana-values.yaml
index 2a2f436..56acb32 100644
--- a/prometheus-stack/k8s/grafana-values.yaml
+++ b/prometheus-stack/k8s/grafana-values.yaml
@@ -60,6 +60,10 @@ grafana:
 
 prometheus:
   prometheusSpec:
+    # VM trial: vmagent scrapes and remote-writes to VictoriaMetrics, so the
+    # Prometheus server itself stands down. Encoded here (not a kubectl patch)
+    # so helm keeps owning spec.replicas and upgrades do not conflict on it.
+    replicas: 0
     retention: 60d
     retentionSize: 32GB
     storageSpec: