Make a container action tell the truth about what happened

The response was discarded, so a refused stop looked like a completed one, and the payload the
card redraws from is cached for 300s with no invalidation — the container carried on showing as
running until the once-a-minute writer caught up. Stop now confirms; start still does not.

Plugin/unraid/api/docker_action.php

@@ -127,8 +127,15 @@ if ($check !== $name) {
     echo json_encode(['ok' => false, 'error' => 'Container not found']); exit;
 }
 
+// Every arm below drops the monitor cache once the container state has actually changed. That
+// payload carries the container list the dashboard draws, is served with a 300s window, and is
+// otherwise only rewritten by the once-a-minute cache writer — so without this the operator stops
+// a container, watches the card, and sees it running for up to a minute with no hint as to why.
+// Cleared after the command rather than before, so a failed action does not throw away a payload
+// that is still accurate.
 if ($action === 'start' || $action === 'stop') {
     exec(($action === 'start' ? 'docker start' : 'docker stop') . ' ' . escapeshellarg($name) . ' 2>&1', $out, $rc);
+    if ($rc === 0) vv_cache_clear('monitor');
     echo json_encode(['ok' => $rc === 0, 'output' => implode("\n", $out)]); exit;
 }
 
@@ -142,6 +149,7 @@ if ($action === 'restart') {
         $out = array_merge($o1, $o2);
         $rc  = ($rc1 === 0 && $rc2 === 0) ? 0 : 1;
     }
+    if ($rc === 0) vv_cache_clear('monitor');
     echo json_encode(['ok' => $rc === 0, 'output' => implode("\n", $out)]); exit;
 }
 

Plugin/unraid/api/docker_pull_worker.php

@@ -92,6 +92,10 @@ if (PHP_SAPI !== 'cli') {
 
 if (!$name || !$jobFile || !$image) exit(1);
 
+// Only for vv_cache_clear() below. Required after the CLI guard, so a stray web request is turned
+// away before this process loads anything at all.
+require_once dirname(__DIR__) . '/include/config.php';
+
 function jw(string $f, array $d): void { file_put_contents($f, json_encode($d)); }
 
 shell_exec('docker pull ' . escapeshellarg($image) . ' 2>&1');
@@ -115,6 +119,10 @@ if ($rebuild && is_executable($rebuild)) {
     $rc = ($rc1 === 0 && $rc2 === 0) ? 0 : 1;
 }
 
+// The container was stopped and started to get here whether or not the rebuild reported success,
+// so the cached container list is out of date either way.
+vv_cache_clear('monitor');
+
 jw($jobFile, $rc === 0
     ? ['ok' => true,  'status' => 'done', 'updated' => true,  'message' => 'Updated and rebuilt']
     : ['ok' => false, 'status' => 'done', 'error'   => 'Rebuild failed after pull']

Plugin/unraid/include/config.php

@@ -456,6 +456,17 @@ function vv_cache_write(string $key, array $data): void {
     rename($tmp, $f);
 }
 
+// Drop a cached payload so the next read collects fresh. For use by endpoints that change the
+// very state a cache describes: without it the UI polls a payload that cannot yet know about the
+// action it just took, and the operator sees a container they stopped still running until the
+// background writer next comes round.
+//
+// Best-effort by design. A cache that could not be removed is a stale read, which is what would
+// have happened anyway — never a reason to fail the action that was actually requested.
+function vv_cache_clear(string $key): void {
+    @unlink(VV_CACHE_DIR . '/' . $key . '.json');
+}
+
 // ── Shared utility functions (used across include/ and api/ files) ────────────
 
 // Format seconds into "2d 3h 15m".

Plugin/unraid/pages/monitor.php

@@ -27,8 +27,15 @@
 //       the page reported healthy unconditionally (fixed 2026-08-02). If this panel looks
 //       suspiciously green, verify the paths before believing it.
 //
-//   Container actions are confirmed and routed through the action endpoint, which validates
+//   Stopping a container is confirmed; starting one is not, and the endpoint validates every
-//   against real inventory.
+//   action against real inventory regardless. Failures are surfaced rather than swallowed — the
+//   response used to be discarded, which made a refused stop indistinguishable from a completed
+//   one.
+//
+//   An action that changes container state clears the monitor cache.
+//       api/docker_action.php and the pull worker both drop it, so the next poll collects
+//       instead of re-reading a payload written before the action. Without that the card
+//       contradicted the button for up to a minute.
 //
 //   All remote and container-supplied strings render escaped.
 //       Through vvEscHtml()/vvEscAttr() from Varaverk.page — media titles and usernames from
@@ -2249,13 +2256,27 @@ function vvDockerAction(action, name, webui) {
       encodeURIComponent('/boot/config/plugins/dockerMan/templates-user/my-' + name + '.xml') + '&update=true';
     return;
   }
+  // Stopping is confirmed; starting is not. The asymmetry is the point — start is recoverable by
+  // clicking the other button, stop takes a service away from whoever is using it, and these
+  // buttons sit inside a dense grid where the row under the cursor is easy to misjudge.
+  if (action === 'stop' && !confirm('Stop ' + name + '?')) return;
+
   const fd = new URLSearchParams();
   fd.set('action', action);
   fd.set('name',   name);
   fetch('/plugins/varaverk/api/docker_action.php', { method: 'POST', body: fd })
     .then(r => r.json())
-    .then(() => { vvDfActive = null; setTimeout(vvPollMonitor, 1500); })
+    .then(d => {
-    .catch(() => {});
+      // The endpoint reports refusals as ok:false with a reason — container not found, a non-zero
+      // docker exit. Discarding that made a failed stop look exactly like a successful one, since
+      // the card it would have changed is redrawn from a payload either way.
+      if (!d || !d.ok) alert('Container ' + action + ' failed: ' + ((d && (d.error || d.output)) || 'unknown error'));
+      vvDfActive = null;
+      // The endpoint drops the monitor cache on success, so this poll collects fresh rather than
+      // re-reading the payload that was written before the action happened.
+      setTimeout(vvPollMonitor, 1500);
+    })
+    .catch(() => alert('Container ' + action + ' failed: request error'));
 }
 
 function vvRenderDockerFolders(data) {