diff --git a/internal/adapter/templates/templates/components/service/cmd/server/main.go.tmpl b/internal/adapter/templates/templates/components/service/cmd/server/main.go.tmpl
index 1ef61c9..1532773 100644
--- a/internal/adapter/templates/templates/components/service/cmd/server/main.go.tmpl
+++ b/internal/adapter/templates/templates/components/service/cmd/server/main.go.tmpl
@@ -173,9 +173,11 @@ func main() {
 	}
 	logger.Info("email renderer loaded", "templates", len(emailRenderer.Purposes()))
 
-	// Create email sender — notify service in production (NOTIFY_URL set), log-only for dev.
+	// Create email sender — notify service in production (NOTIFY_URL + NOTIFY_API_KEY set), log-only for dev.
+	// NOTIFY_URL is a global platform credential; NOTIFY_API_KEY is project-scoped and may not be
+	// provisioned yet. If either is missing, fall back to log-only mode instead of crashing.
 	var emailSender port.EmailSender
-	if cfg.NotifyURL != "" {
+	if cfg.NotifyURL != "" && cfg.NotifyAPIKey != "" {
 		notifyClient, err := notify.NewClient(notify.Config{
 			URL:    cfg.NotifyURL,
 			APIKey: cfg.NotifyAPIKey,
@@ -189,7 +191,11 @@ func main() {
 		logger.Info("email sender initialized (notify)", "url", cfg.NotifyURL, "host", cfg.NotifyHost)
 	} else {
 		emailSender = emailadapter.NewLogSender(logger)
-		logger.Info("email sender initialized (log-only dev mode)")
+		if cfg.NotifyURL != "" {
+			logger.Warn("email sender in log-only mode (NOTIFY_API_KEY not set)")
+		} else {
+			logger.Info("email sender initialized (log-only dev mode)")
+		}
 	}
 
 	// Create services (business logic)