A live `docker inspect` of an engine container and two redispatch
runs with `docker events` captured confirm:
- Engine has no `com.docker.compose.*` labels and `AutoRemove=false`,
so `--remove-orphans` cannot reap it.
- Two consecutive `dev-deploy.yaml` redispatches with an engine
already running emitted `die` / `destroy` events only for
`galaxy-dev-{backend,api,caddy}` — never for the engine.
- The reconciler tick that fires 60s after backend recreate
correctly matched the surviving engine in both cases
(`status=running` in both `games` and `runtime_records`).
- `runtime.Service` has no `Shutdown` that proactively removes
engine containers, so a graceful backend exit also leaves them
alone.
The repro window therefore needs a separate trigger that removed
the engine container outside of compose. The new hypotheses point
at host-side `docker prune` jobs, a `dockerd` restart that lost the
container, or an early `Engine.Init` failure that exited the engine
before `status=running` reached the runtime row. The investigation
list now leads with `journalctl -u docker` and the host crontab —
those are the cheapest checks to confirm or rule out next.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Ilia Denisov
cadb72b412