diff --git a/terraform/github/labels.tf b/terraform/github/labels.tf
index 21144f7..db1ba0b 100644
--- a/terraform/github/labels.tf
+++ b/terraform/github/labels.tf
@@ -1,6 +1,17 @@
 resource "github_issue_label" "standard" {
   for_each = local.repo_labels
 
+  # each.value.repository is a plain string (repo name), not a reference to
+  # module.repository — without this explicit depends_on, Terraform has no
+  # graph edge between the two and may schedule label creation in parallel
+  # with a brand-new repository's own creation. Observed in practice: 9 of
+  # 17 labels for a freshly-created repo failed with
+  # "POST .../labels: 404 Not Found" because the GitHub API hadn't finished
+  # propagating the new repo yet. Existing repos never hit this (their
+  # labels already exist, so it's a no-op diff), which is why it went
+  # unnoticed until the next brand-new repository.
+  depends_on = [module.repository]
+
   repository  = each.value.repository
   name        = each.value.name
   color       = each.value.color