diff --git a/services/comms/atlasbot-deployment.yaml b/services/comms/atlasbot-deployment.yaml
index 7a258ac..fe1e906 100644
--- a/services/comms/atlasbot-deployment.yaml
+++ b/services/comms/atlasbot-deployment.yaml
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ spec:
       labels:
         app: atlasbot
       annotations:
-        checksum/atlasbot-configmap: manual-atlasbot-6
+        checksum/atlasbot-configmap: manual-atlasbot-7
         vault.hashicorp.com/agent-inject: "true"
         vault.hashicorp.com/role: "comms"
         vault.hashicorp.com/agent-inject-secret-turn-secret: "kv/data/atlas/comms/turn-shared-secret"
diff --git a/services/comms/scripts/atlasbot/bot.py b/services/comms/scripts/atlasbot/bot.py
index 69c1b84..b2ac1c9 100644
--- a/services/comms/scripts/atlasbot/bot.py
+++ b/services/comms/scripts/atlasbot/bot.py
@@ -625,12 +625,14 @@ def sync_loop(token: str, room_id: str):
                     continue
 
                 lower_body = body.lower()
-                if re.search(r"\\bhow many nodes\\b|\\bnode count\\b|\\bnumber of nodes\\b", lower_body):
+                if re.search(r"\bhow many nodes\b|\bnode count\b|\bnumber of nodes\b", lower_body):
                     if any(word in lower_body for word in ("cluster", "atlas", "titan")):
                         summary = nodes_summary("Atlas")
-                        if summary:
-                            send_msg(token, rid, summary)
+                        if not summary:
+                            send_msg(token, rid, "I couldn’t reach the cluster API to count nodes. Try again in a moment.")
                             continue
+                        send_msg(token, rid, summary)
+                        continue
 
                 # Only do live cluster/metrics introspection in DMs.
                 allow_tools = is_dm