diff --git a/Plugin/unraid/Tools/ai_chat_worker.php b/Plugin/unraid/Tools/ai_chat_worker.php
index da713d7..8f53b9a 100644
--- a/Plugin/unraid/Tools/ai_chat_worker.php
+++ b/Plugin/unraid/Tools/ai_chat_worker.php
@@ -403,6 +403,16 @@ if ($diagnostic) {
     }
 }
 
+// The machine itself, separate from the AI subsystem's own health above. Read from the cache the
+// WebGUI already writes, so it costs a file read rather than a docker ps and a disk sweep.
+if ($can('system_state')) {
+    $state = vv_ai_system_state();
+    if ($state !== '') {
+        $attached['system'] = 'machine state';
+        $diagBlock .= $state;
+    }
+}
+
 // The troubleshooting profile gets the actual tail of the one log the operator is looking at,
 // warnings and ordinary lines alike. The fleet-wide WARN/ERROR sweep above cannot answer "why
 // did this one stop" — the last line a script printed before dying is usually not labelled.
@@ -628,6 +638,18 @@ if ($profile === 'chat') {
             . "which line shows it. 'This looks like a Varaverk problem' with nothing behind it "
             . "sends someone hunting through code they did not write and cannot fix, which is "
             . "the least useful place you can send them.\n\n"
+            . "TELL THEM WHERE TO CLICK, NOT WHICH FILE TO EDIT\n"
+            . "You cannot change any setting yourself in this mode, and that is the point: the "
+            . "fix is theirs to make. Nearly every setting has a control in the web UI, and the "
+            . "passages include a map of where each one lives — use it. Give the route the way "
+            . "you would say it out loud: which tab, which card, which control.\n\n"
+            . "  Daily container updates are off now. Scheduler tab → Daily Sync Maintenance → "
+            . "Steps → toggle Docker Update off.\n\n"
+            . "Name the conf key as well, so they can confirm they changed the right thing — but "
+            . "the route comes first and the file is the footnote. Telling someone to edit "
+            . "master.conf over SSH when a switch exists is worse advice: it is slower, it skips "
+            . "the backup and the syntax check that the UI write does for them, and it is how a "
+            . "typo takes the array down. Say a setting has no control only when the map says so.\n\n"
             . "Do not suggest editing conf files by hand. Settings on this page have controls, "
             . "and the operator is reading this inside the WebGUI. Name the control.\n\n"
             . "IF IT REALLY IS A DEFECT, FILE IT\n"
diff --git a/Plugin/unraid/include/ai.php b/Plugin/unraid/include/ai.php
index 5f24aa2..96b8a74 100644
--- a/Plugin/unraid/include/ai.php
+++ b/Plugin/unraid/include/ai.php
@@ -1372,6 +1372,87 @@ function vv_ai_bug_report(array $b): string {
     return $out;
 }
 
+// The machine as it is right now — hardware, containers, storage — summarised small enough to
+// sit in a prompt.
+//
+// Read from the cache the WebGUI already writes every minute rather than measured here. A
+// question must not cost a docker ps across fifty containers plus a disk sweep; the numbers move
+// on their own schedule and one minute stale is the same answer. The age is stated so the model
+// can say "a minute ago" rather than implying it looked just now.
+//
+// Strictly read-only, and there is no counterpart that changes any of it. Knowing a container is
+// down is what lets an explanation be about this machine instead of about Unraid in general;
+// restarting it is a decision that belongs to a person looking at the screen.
+function vv_ai_system_state(): string {
+    $p = '/tmp/varaverk/api/monitor.json';
+    if (!is_readable($p)) return '';
+    $d = json_decode((string) @file_get_contents($p), true);
+    if (!is_array($d)) return '';
+
+    $age = time() - (int) @filemtime($p);
+    $s   = "LIVE MACHINE STATE (read-only, measured " . ($age < 90 ? 'under a minute' : round($age / 60) . ' minutes')
+         . " ago — you cannot change any of it)\n";
+
+    $sys = $d['system'] ?? [];
+    if ($sys) {
+        $s .= '- host: ' . ($sys['cpu_model'] ?? '?') . ', ' . ($sys['cpu_threads'] ?? '?') . " threads\n";
+    }
+    if (!empty($d['cpu']['overall'])) $s .= '- cpu: ' . $d['cpu']['overall'] . "% overall\n";
+
+    $r = $d['resources'] ?? [];
+    if (!empty($r['ram_total_mb'])) {
+        $used = (int) $r['ram_total_mb'] - (int) ($r['ram_free_mb'] ?? 0);
+        $s .= sprintf("- memory: %d of %d MB used\n", $used, (int) $r['ram_total_mb']);
+    }
+
+    foreach ((array) ($d['gpus'] ?? []) as $g) {
+        $s .= sprintf("- gpu %d: %s, %d/%d MB, %d%% util, %d°C\n", $g['index'] ?? 0, $g['name'] ?? '?',
+                      $g['memory_used'] ?? 0, $g['memory_total'] ?? 0, $g['utilization'] ?? 0,
+                      $g['temperature'] ?? 0);
+    }
+
+    // Named individually only when something is wrong with them. Fifty healthy container names is
+    // the bulk of this block and none of it is ever the answer; the handful that are not are.
+    //
+    // Taken from the payload's own `stopped` list rather than derived. There is no state field on
+    // a container row — only `status`, which reads "Up 15 hours (healthy)" — so an earlier version
+    // of this looked for "run", found it nowhere, and reported all fifty as down. A block that
+    // confidently lists healthy containers as stopped is worse than no block: it is exactly the
+    // sort of thing the model would build a whole wrong explanation on.
+    $ctrs    = (array) ($d['containers'] ?? []);
+    $stopped = (array) ($d['stopped'] ?? []);
+    $down = array_values(array_filter(array_map(
+        fn($c) => trim((string) (is_array($c) ? ($c['name'] ?? '') : $c)), $stopped)));
+
+    // Up, but failing its own healthcheck. Running is not the same as working, and this is the
+    // state that produces "it is started, so why is nothing happening".
+    $sick = [];
+    foreach ($ctrs as $c) {
+        if (stripos((string) ($c['status'] ?? ''), 'unhealthy') !== false) $sick[] = (string) ($c['name'] ?? '?');
+    }
+
+    $s .= '- containers: ' . count($ctrs) . ' running';
+    $s .= $down ? ', STOPPED: ' . implode(', ', array_slice($down, 0, 12)) : ', none stopped';
+    $s .= $sick ? '; UNHEALTHY: ' . implode(', ', array_slice($sick, 0, 8)) : '';
+    $s .= "\n";
+
+    foreach ((array) ($d['storage'] ?? []) as $pool) {
+        if (empty($pool['name'])) continue;
+        $s .= sprintf("- pool %s: %s%% used\n", $pool['name'], $pool['used_pct'] ?? $pool['pct'] ?? '?');
+    }
+
+    $par = $d['parity'] ?? [];
+    if ($par) {
+        $s .= '- array: ' . (($par['num_missing'] ?? 0) ? $par['num_missing'] . ' disks MISSING' : 'no missing disks')
+            . (($par['num_disabled'] ?? 0) ? ', ' . $par['num_disabled'] . ' disabled' : '')
+            . (!empty($par['in_progress']) ? ', parity operation in progress' : '') . "\n";
+    }
+    if (!empty($d['ups']['available'])) {
+        $s .= '- ups: ' . ($d['ups']['status'] ?? '?') . "\n";
+    }
+    return $s . "\n";
+}
+
 // Where a report can go from this install, resolved once so the page and the sender agree.
 //
 // Local is opt-in and off by default, because a default that files into the operator's own
diff --git a/Plugin/unraid/include/ai_profiles.php b/Plugin/unraid/include/ai_profiles.php
index b92dae5..155107e 100644
--- a/Plugin/unraid/include/ai_profiles.php
+++ b/Plugin/unraid/include/ai_profiles.php
@@ -113,7 +113,11 @@ const VV_AI_PROFILES_DEF = [
         'hint'  => 'Reasons from evidence — the log you have open, or one you name. Says so when there is none.',
         'turns' => 2,
         'ui'    => true,
-        'caps'  => ['retrieve', 'health', 'run_evidence', 'scoped_log', 'incidents', 'conf_lookup', 'file_bugs'],
+        // system_state is read-only and shared with repair. Both need to know a container is down
+        // or a pool is full to explain anything about this machine rather than about Unraid in
+        // general; neither gets a way to act on it, and only repair can change a setting.
+        'caps'  => ['retrieve', 'health', 'system_state', 'run_evidence', 'scoped_log',
+                    'incidents', 'conf_lookup', 'file_bugs'],
     ],
     // The only profile that may change a setting, and the only one not offered as a button.
     //
@@ -132,8 +136,8 @@ const VV_AI_PROFILES_DEF = [
         'hint'  => 'Works through a finding with you, and can apply a fix you approve.',
         'turns' => 3,
         'ui'    => false,
-        'caps'  => ['retrieve', 'health', 'run_evidence', 'scoped_log', 'incidents', 'conf_lookup',
-                    'conf_write', 'probe', 'file_findings', 'phrasebook', 'past_fixes'],
+        'caps'  => ['retrieve', 'health', 'system_state', 'run_evidence', 'scoped_log', 'incidents',
+                    'conf_lookup', 'conf_write', 'probe', 'file_findings', 'phrasebook', 'past_fixes'],
     ],
 ];
 
@@ -142,7 +146,8 @@ const VV_AI_PROFILES_DEF = [
 const VV_AI_CAP_MEANING = [
     'retrieve'     => 'retrieval passages from the documentation index',
     'kind_filter'  => 'the retrieval kind filter the page exposes',
-    'health'       => 'live health sweep measured at question time',
+    'health'       => 'live health sweep measured at question time — the AI subsystem only',
+    'system_state' => 'read-only view of the machine: hardware, containers, pools, array, UPS',
     'run_evidence' => 'run record and log tail for a script named in the question',
     'scoped_log'   => 'log tail for whatever the operator currently has open',
     'incidents'    => 'operator-written history of what previously went wrong with this thing',