diff --git a/manifests/loadtest/k6-tokamak-script.yaml b/manifests/loadtest/k6-tokamak-script.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..47ac009
--- /dev/null
+++ b/manifests/loadtest/k6-tokamak-script.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,134 @@
+apiVersion: v1
+kind: ConfigMap
+metadata:
+  name: k6-tokamak-script
+  namespace: loadtest
+data:
+  tokamak.js: |
+    // Staircase load test for the tokamak public API.
+    // Setup harvests real IDs from the list endpoints, then iterations fan out
+    // across the whole endpoint collection, weighted so light calls dominate
+    // and the two heavy data endpoints are sampled less often.
+    //
+    // Env: BASE_URL, TOKAMAK_API_KEY, START_RPS, STEP_RPS, STEP_DURATION, STEPS
+    import http from 'k6/http';
+    import { check, fail } from 'k6';
+    import exec from 'k6/execution';
+
+    const BASE = __ENV.BASE_URL;
+    const auth = { headers: { Authorization: 'Bearer ' + __ENV.TOKAMAK_API_KEY } };
+
+    const startRps = parseInt(__ENV.START_RPS || '5');
+    const stepRps = parseInt(__ENV.STEP_RPS || '5');
+    const stepDurMs = ms(__ENV.STEP_DURATION || '1m');
+    const steps = parseInt(__ENV.STEPS || '4');
+    const rampMs = 5000;
+
+    function ms(s) {
+      const m = /^(\d+)(ms|s|m)$/.exec(String(s));
+      if (!m) throw new Error('bad duration: ' + s);
+      return +m[1] * ({ ms: 1, s: 1000, m: 60000 })[m[2]];
+    }
+    function ms2str(n) { return n + 'ms'; }
+
+    // staircase stages + per-step windows (5s ramp + hold each)
+    const stages = [];
+    const windows = [];
+    let clock = 0;
+    for (let i = 0; i < steps; i++) {
+      const rate = startRps + i * stepRps;
+      stages.push({ duration: ms2str(rampMs), target: rate });
+      clock += rampMs;
+      const wStart = clock;
+      stages.push({ duration: ms2str(stepDurMs), target: rate });
+      clock += stepDurMs;
+      windows.push([wStart, clock, 'step' + (i + 1) + ' @ ' + rate + ' rps']);
+    }
+    const totalMs = clock;
+    const maxRate = startRps + (steps - 1) * stepRps;
+    const vus = Math.max(10, Math.ceil(maxRate * 1.5));
+
+    export const options = {
+      discardResponseBodies: false,
+      scenarios: {
+        staircase: {
+          executor: 'ramping-arrival-rate',
+          startRate: 0,
+          preAllocatedVUs: vus,
+          maxVUs: vus,
+          stages: stages,
+        },
+      },
+      thresholds: { http_req_failed: ['rate<0.05'] },
+    };
+
+    // defensive id harvesting - handle data/items/results/root-array shapes
+    function idsOf(json) {
+      if (!json) return [];
+      const arr = json.data || json.items || json.results
+        || json.brands || json.cohorts || json.metrics || json.frameworks || json;
+      if (!Array.isArray(arr)) return [];
+      return arr.map(function (x) {
+        return x && (x.id || x.brand_id || x.cohort_id || x.metric_id || x.framework_id);
+      }).filter(Boolean);
+    }
+
+    export function setup() {
+      const me = http.get(BASE + '/me', auth);
+      if (me.status !== 200) {
+        fail('auth check failed: /me returned ' + me.status + ' - check API key and environment');
+      }
+      const brands = idsOf(http.get(BASE + '/brands?per_page=100', auth).json());
+      const cohorts = idsOf(http.get(BASE + '/cohorts?per_page=100', auth).json());
+      const metrics = idsOf(http.get(BASE + '/metrics', auth).json());
+      const frameworks = idsOf(http.get(BASE + '/frameworks', auth).json());
+      console.log('harvested: brands=' + brands.length + ' cohorts=' + cohorts.length
+        + ' metrics=' + metrics.length + ' frameworks=' + frameworks.length);
+      if (!brands.length) fail('no brand ids harvested - cannot build data calls');
+      return { brands: brands, cohorts: cohorts, metrics: metrics, frameworks: frameworks };
+    }
+
+    // weighted call pool: light lists and detail reads, heavy data sampled less
+    function pickCall(d, i) {
+      const b = d.brands[i % d.brands.length];
+      const c = d.cohorts.length ? d.cohorts[i % d.cohorts.length] : null;
+      const m = d.metrics.length ? d.metrics[i % d.metrics.length] : null;
+      const f = d.frameworks.length ? d.frameworks[i % d.frameworks.length] : null;
+      const r = Math.random();
+      if (r < 0.10) return { name: 'getStatus', path: '/' };
+      if (r < 0.20) return { name: 'getMe', path: '/me' };
+      if (r < 0.32) return { name: 'listBrands', path: '/brands?per_page=25' };
+      if (r < 0.42) return { name: 'listMetrics', path: '/metrics' };
+      if (r < 0.50) return { name: 'listFrameworks', path: '/frameworks' };
+      if (r < 0.62) return { name: 'getBrand', path: '/brands/' + b };
+      if (r < 0.70) return c
+        ? { name: 'getCohort', path: '/cohorts/' + c }
+        : { name: 'listBrands', path: '/brands?per_page=25' };
+      if (r < 0.76) return c
+        ? { name: 'listCohortBrands', path: '/cohorts/' + c + '/brands?per_page=25' }
+        : { name: 'listCohorts', path: '/cohorts?per_page=25' };
+      if (r < 0.78) return f
+        ? { name: 'getFramework', path: '/frameworks/' + f }
+        : { name: 'listFrameworks', path: '/frameworks' };
+      if (r < 0.90) return m
+        ? { name: 'getMetricData', path: '/metric/data/' + m + '/' + b }
+        : { name: 'listMetrics', path: '/metrics' };
+      return f
+        ? { name: 'getFrameworkData', path: '/framework/data/' + f + '/' + b }
+        : { name: 'listFrameworks', path: '/frameworks' };
+    }
+
+    export default function (d) {
+      const elapsed = exec.scenario.progress * totalMs;
+      let step = 'ramp-up';
+      for (const w of windows) {
+        if (elapsed >= w[0] && elapsed < w[1]) { step = w[2]; break; }
+      }
+      const call = pickCall(d, exec.scenario.iterationInTest);
+      const res = http.get(BASE + call.path, {
+        headers: auth.headers,
+        tags: { name: call.name, step: step },
+        timeout: '30s',
+      });
+      check(res, { ok: function (r) { return r.status < 300; } });
+    }
diff --git a/manifests/monitoring/grafana-dashboards.yaml b/manifests/monitoring/grafana-dashboards.yaml
index ef11fbd..e879f43 100644
--- a/manifests/monitoring/grafana-dashboards.yaml
+++ b/manifests/monitoring/grafana-dashboards.yaml
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ data:
             {"expr": "k6_http_req_duration_p95", "legendFormat": "p95"},
             {"expr": "k6_http_req_duration_p99", "legendFormat": "p99"}
           ],
-          "fieldConfig": {"defaults": {"unit": "ms"}, "overrides": []}
+          "fieldConfig": {"defaults": {"unit": "s"}, "overrides": []}
         },
         {
           "id": 3, "type": "timeseries", "title": "p95 latency per step",
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ data:
           "targets": [
             {"expr": "k6_http_req_duration_p95", "legendFormat": "{{step}}"}
           ],
-          "fieldConfig": {"defaults": {"unit": "ms"}, "overrides": []}
+          "fieldConfig": {"defaults": {"unit": "s"}, "overrides": []}
         },
         {
           "id": 4, "type": "timeseries", "title": "p95 latency per endpoint",
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ data:
           "targets": [
             {"expr": "k6_http_req_duration_p95", "legendFormat": "{{name}}"}
           ],
-          "fieldConfig": {"defaults": {"unit": "ms"}, "overrides": []}
+          "fieldConfig": {"defaults": {"unit": "s"}, "overrides": []}
         },
         {
           "id": 5, "type": "timeseries", "title": "Error rate",
diff --git a/scripts/tokamak-load.sh b/scripts/tokamak-load.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..6d29f53
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/tokamak-load.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# Staircase load test against the tokamak public API (prod or dev).
+# Usage: ./scripts/tokamak-load.sh <start-rps> <step-rps> <step-duration> <steps> [env]
+# Example (gentle first run):
+#   ./scripts/tokamak-load.sh 2 2 1m 4
+set -euo pipefail
+
+START=${1:?start rps required}
+STEP=${2:?step rps required}
+DUR=${3:?step duration required, e.g. 2m}
+STEPS=${4:?number of steps required}
+ENVIRONMENT=${5:-prod}
+NAME="tokamak-$(date +%s)"
+PROM_RW="http://prometheus.monitoring.svc:9090/api/v1/write"
+
+case "$ENVIRONMENT" in
+  prod) BASE="https://api.blueocean.ai/public/v1" ;;
+  dev)  BASE="https://api.dev.blueocean.ai/public/v1" ;;
+  *) echo "env must be prod or dev"; exit 1 ;;
+esac
+
+kubectl -n loadtest apply -f - <<EOF
+apiVersion: batch/v1
+kind: Job
+metadata:
+  name: $NAME
+spec:
+  parallelism: 1
+  ttlSecondsAfterFinished: 1800
+  template:
+    spec:
+      restartPolicy: Never
+      containers:
+        - name: k6
+          image: grafana/k6:1.4.0
+          command: ["k6", "run", "/scripts/tokamak.js", "-o", "experimental-prometheus-rw", "--tag", "testid=$NAME"]
+          env:
+            - {name: BASE_URL, value: "$BASE"}
+            - {name: START_RPS, value: "$START"}
+            - {name: STEP_RPS, value: "$STEP"}
+            - {name: STEP_DURATION, value: "$DUR"}
+            - {name: STEPS, value: "$STEPS"}
+            - {name: K6_PROMETHEUS_RW_SERVER_URL, value: "$PROM_RW"}
+            - {name: K6_PROMETHEUS_RW_TREND_STATS, value: "avg,p(50),p(95),p(99),min,max"}
+            - name: TOKAMAK_API_KEY
+              valueFrom: {secretKeyRef: {name: tokamak-api-key, key: api-key}}
+          resources:
+            requests: {cpu: 200m, memory: 256Mi}
+            limits: {memory: 1Gi}
+          volumeMounts:
+            - {name: scripts, mountPath: /scripts}
+      volumes:
+        - name: scripts
+          configMap: {name: k6-tokamak-script}
+EOF
+
+MAX=$(( START + (STEPS - 1) * STEP ))
+echo "tokamak staircase '$NAME' against $ENVIRONMENT ($BASE)"
+echo "  $STEPS steps: $START -> $MAX rps (+$STEP each), $DUR holds"
+echo "  auth: k8s secret tokamak-api-key"
+echo "Watch:  Grafana -> 'k6 Step Load' dashboard (filter testid=$NAME)"
+echo "Logs:   kubectl -n loadtest logs -f job/$NAME"
+echo "Stop:   kubectl -n loadtest delete job $NAME"