diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/deploy.yml b/.gitea/workflows/deploy.yml
index d4e52f1..bd565b0 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/deploy.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/deploy.yml
@@ -31,4 +31,5 @@ jobs:
           scp -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa www/html/wordle/* ${{ vars.REMOTE_USER }}@${{ vars.REMOTE_SERVER }}:/var/www/html/wordle/
 
       - name: Clean up SSH key
+        if: always()  # remove the key even if a transfer failed
         run: rm -rf ~/.ssh