additional changes

api/Makefile

@@ -4,6 +4,20 @@
 # `api-*` convenience targets).
 
 CARGO ?= cargo
+ROOT  := ..
+
+# Normalize API_ENV_FILE / API_DESI_DATA (given relative to the repo root) to
+# absolute paths so the API process can open them regardless of its working
+# directory. "override" is required because they are usually passed as
+# command-line/env vars, which would otherwise override any assignment here.
+define normalize_path
+ifdef $1
+ifneq ($(abspath $($1)),$($1))
+override $1 := $(abspath $(ROOT)/$($1))
+endif
+endif
+endef
+$(foreach v,API_ENV_FILE API_DESI_DATA,$(eval $(call normalize_path,$v)))
 
 .PHONY: help setup run build test check fmt clean