diff --git a/ops/watchdog/dashcaddy-watchdog b/ops/watchdog/dashcaddy-watchdog
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..52ad9f8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ops/watchdog/dashcaddy-watchdog
@@ -0,0 +1,267 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# /usr/local/bin/dashcaddy-watchdog — self-healing guard for DashCaddy on DNS2.
+#
+# Heals four failure classes that have actually knocked DashCaddy down:
+#   1. Container down/unhealthy/removed          -> docker start / bash start.sh
+#   2. Rogue host node process stealing :3001    -> kill it, restart container
+#   3. Caddyfile wiped by a foreign generator    -> restore known-good, restart caddy
+#   4. Caddy down or not serving                 -> restart caddy
+#
+# Runs from dashcaddy-watchdog.service (systemd timer, every 30s) or manually.
+# Alerts go to Telegram (Sami) on every corrective action; rate-limited per
+# action class (default 15 min) to avoid spam during flapping. All state in
+# /var/lib/dashcaddy-watchdog/ so restarts of the watchdog never flap.
+#
+# Exit codes: 0 = healthy or healed cleanly. Healing never exits non-zero —
+# a permanently-failed unit would pollute systemctl --failed monitoring.
+
+set -u
+
+CONTAINER="dashcaddy-api"
+START_SH="/opt/dashcaddy/start.sh"
+CADDYFILE="/etc/caddy/Caddyfile"
+KNOWN_GOOD="/var/lib/dashcaddy-watchdog/known-good-Caddyfile"
+STATE_DIR="/var/lib/dashcaddy-watchdog"
+LOG="/var/log/dashcaddy-watchdog.log"
+ALERT_COOLDOWN=$((15 * 60))   # seconds between alerts of the same class
+LOG_MAX=1048576               # 1 MiB
+# Caddyfile integrity gates (adversarial review: markers alone can be
+# satisfied by a damaged file). Size floor excludes the 4952-byte foreign-
+# generator file from the 2026-08-13 incident; service-block floor excludes
+# marker-duplication damage.
+CADDYFILE_MIN_BYTES=10000
+CADDYFILE_MIN_SITES=10
+
+mkdir -p "$STATE_DIR"
+touch "$LOG"
+
+log() { echo "$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ) $*" >> "$LOG"; }
+
+# --- Telegram alerting (best-effort; a notify failure never blocks healing) ---
+notify() {  # notify <class> <message>
+  local class="$1" msg="$2"
+  local now last elapsed
+  now=$(date +%s)
+  local stamp="$STATE_DIR/alert-$class"
+  if [ -f "$stamp" ]; then
+    last=$(cat "$stamp" 2>/dev/null | tr -cd '0-9')
+    last="${last:-0}"
+    elapsed=$(( now - last ))
+    if [ "$elapsed" -lt "$ALERT_COOLDOWN" ]; then
+      log "ALERT-SUPPRESSED class=$class (${elapsed}s < ${ALERT_COOLDOWN}s)"
+      return 0
+    fi
+  fi
+  local token chat sent
+  token=$(grep -E '^HERMES_ENV_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=' /root/.hermes/.env | head -1 | cut -d= -f2-)
+  chat="637130179"
+  if [ -z "$token" ]; then
+    log "ALERT-NO-TOKEN class=$class msg=$msg"
+    return 0
+  fi
+  sent=$(curl -s -m 10 -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot${token}/sendMessage" \
+    -d chat_id="$chat" -d text="🛡️ DashCaddy watchdog (DNS2): $msg" \
+    2>/dev/null | grep -c '"ok":true')
+  if [ "${sent:-0}" -ge 1 ]; then
+    date +%s > "$stamp"
+    log "ALERT-SENT class=$class msg=$msg"
+  else
+    log "ALERT-SEND-FAILED class=$class (cooldown NOT burned)"
+  fi
+}
+
+log_rotate() {
+  [ -f "$LOG" ] || return 0
+  local size
+  size=$(stat -c%s "$LOG" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
+  if [ "$size" -gt "$LOG_MAX" ]; then
+    tail -c $((LOG_MAX / 2)) "$LOG" > "${LOG}.tmp" && mv "${LOG}.tmp" "$LOG"
+  fi
+}
+
+# --- Health probes -----------------------------------------------------------
+container_running() {
+  docker ps --filter "name=^${CONTAINER}$" --format '{{.Names}}' 2>/dev/null | grep -q "^${CONTAINER}$"
+}
+
+container_healthy() {
+  local st started age
+  st=$(docker inspect -f '{{.State.Health.Status}}' "$CONTAINER" 2>/dev/null) || return 1
+  if [ "$st" = "healthy" ]; then return 0; fi
+  if [ "$st" = "starting" ]; then
+    # Max-starting-age guard (adversarial review): never park forever on a
+    # container stuck in 'starting'. StartPeriod is 10s; allow 90s slack.
+    started=$(docker inspect -f '{{.State.StartedAt}}' "$CONTAINER" 2>/dev/null)
+    age=$(( $(date +%s) - $(date -d "${started:-1970-01-01}" +%s 2>/dev/null || echo 0) ))
+    [ "$age" -le 90 ]
+    return
+  fi
+  return 1
+}
+
+rogue_on_port() {
+  # any listener on 127.0.0.1:3001 that is NOT docker-proxy
+  ss -H -tlnp 'sport = :3001' 2>/dev/null | grep -v docker-proxy | grep -q .
+}
+
+caddy_up() {
+  systemctl is-active --quiet caddy
+}
+
+caddy_serving() {
+  # status.sami via loopback; internal CA cert -> -k
+  curl -sk -m 8 -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' --resolve status.sami:443:127.0.0.1 https://status.sami/ 2>/dev/null | grep -qE '^[23]'
+}
+
+caddyfile_intact() {
+  # Integrity gates (adversarial review hardened): markers + size floor +
+  # service-block floor + caddy syntax validation.
+  [ -f "$CADDYFILE" ] || return 1
+  local refs ca bytes sites
+  refs=$(grep -c 'dashcaddy_auth' "$CADDYFILE" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
+  ca=$(grep -c 'sami-ca' "$CADDYFILE" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
+  bytes=$(stat -c%s "$CADDYFILE" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
+  sites=$(grep -cE '^[a-z0-9.-]+\.(sami|net|com|me|org)[^a-z0-9-]*\{$' "$CADDYFILE" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
+  [ "$refs" -ge 8 ] && [ "$ca" -ge 1 ] && [ "$bytes" -ge "$CADDYFILE_MIN_BYTES" ] && [ "$sites" -ge "$CADDYFILE_MIN_SITES" ]
+}
+
+refresh_known_good() {
+  # Refuse to refresh within 10 minutes of a caddyfile heal (prevents the
+  # partial-write / post-heal window from poisoning the snapshot).
+  local heal_stamp="$STATE_DIR/last-caddyfile-heal"
+  if [ -f "$heal_stamp" ]; then
+    local since=$(( $(date +%s) - $(cat "$heal_stamp" | tr -cd '0-9' || echo 0) ))
+    if [ "$since" -lt 600 ]; then
+      return 0
+    fi
+  fi
+  if caddyfile_intact; then
+    if [ -f "$KNOWN_GOOD" ] && cmp -s "$CADDYFILE" "$KNOWN_GOOD"; then
+      return 0  # unchanged — keep existing snapshot (preserves mtime)
+    fi
+    cp -a "$CADDYFILE" "$KNOWN_GOOD"
+    log "KNOWN-GOOD refreshed ($(stat -c%s "$KNOWN_GOOD" 2>/dev/null || echo '?') bytes)"
+  fi
+}
+
+# --- Remediation --------------------------------------------------------------
+heal_container_start() {
+  log "HEAL container-start"
+  docker start "$CONTAINER" >/dev/null 2>&1
+  if ! container_running; then
+    log "HEAL container-start failed; falling back to start.sh"
+    bash "$START_SH" >> "$LOG" 2>&1
+  fi
+  notify container "container was down — restarted it"
+}
+
+heal_container_recreate() {
+  log "HEAL container-recreate (start.sh)"
+  bash "$START_SH" >> "$LOG" 2>&1
+  notify container "container unhealthy — recreated via start.sh"
+}
+
+heal_rogue_port() {
+  local pids
+  pids=$(ss -H -tlnp 'sport = :3001' 2>/dev/null | grep -v docker-proxy | grep -oP 'pid=\K[0-9]+' | sort -u)
+  log "HEAL rogue-port pids=$pids"
+  for pid in $pids; do
+    [ "$pid" = "$$" ] && continue
+    local cmdline
+    cmdline=$(cat /proc/$pid/cmdline 2>/dev/null | tr '\0' ' ')
+    case "$cmdline" in
+      *docker-proxy*|*dashcaddy-watchdog*) continue ;;
+    esac
+    # PID recycling guard: the process must still be listening on :3001
+    if ! ss -H -tlnp 'sport = :3001' 2>/dev/null | grep -q "pid=$pid"; then
+      continue
+    fi
+    log "KILL pid=$pid cmd=$cmdline"
+    kill "$pid" 2>/dev/null || true
+  done
+  sleep 3
+  ss -H -tlnp 'sport = :3001' | grep -q docker-proxy || docker restart "$CONTAINER" >/dev/null 2>&1
+  notify rogue-port "rogue host process was holding port 3001 — killed it, container restarted"
+}
+
+heal_caddyfile() {
+  log "HEAL caddyfile-restore"
+  if [ -f "$KNOWN_GOOD" ]; then
+    cp -a "$KNOWN_GOOD" "$CADDYFILE"
+    chown caddy:caddy "$CADDYFILE" 2>/dev/null || true
+    systemctl restart caddy
+    notify caddyfile "Caddyfile was wiped/overwritten by a foreign generator — restored known-good and restarted Caddy"
+  else
+    notify caddyfile "Caddyfile damaged and no known-good snapshot exists — MANUAL ACTION NEEDED"
+  fi
+  # Post-heal grace stamp: caddy_serving() skipped for 60s after this point.
+  date +%s > "$STATE_DIR/last-caddyfile-heal"
+}
+
+heal_caddy_down() {
+  log "HEAL caddy-restart"
+  systemctl restart caddy
+  notify caddy "caddy was down — restarted it"
+}
+
+heal_caddy_5xx() {
+  log "HEAL caddy-5xx"
+  systemctl restart caddy
+  notify caddy "caddy was not serving status.sami (non-2xx/3xx) — restarted it"
+}
+
+# --- Main ----------------------------------------------------------------------
+log_rotate
+ACTION_TAKEN=0
+
+# 0. Maintain known-good Caddyfile snapshot whenever current file is intact.
+refresh_known_good
+
+# 3. Caddyfile integrity (before caddy health so restore happens first).
+if ! caddyfile_intact && [ -f "$KNOWN_GOOD" ]; then
+  heal_caddyfile
+  ACTION_TAKEN=1
+fi
+
+# 4. Caddy up + serving
+if ! caddy_up; then
+  heal_caddy_down
+  ACTION_TAKEN=1
+fi
+if ! caddy_serving; then
+  # Skip if we JUST restarted caddy this cycle (post-heal grace).
+  if [ -f "$STATE_DIR/last-caddyfile-heal" ]; then
+    local_grace=$(( $(date +%s) - $(cat "$STATE_DIR/last-caddyfile-heal" | tr -cd '0-9' || echo 0) ))
+    if [ "$local_grace" -lt 60 ]; then
+      log "caddy_serving skipped (post-caddyfile-heal grace ${local_grace}s)"
+    else
+      heal_caddy_5xx
+      ACTION_TAKEN=1
+    fi
+  else
+    heal_caddy_5xx
+    ACTION_TAKEN=1
+  fi
+fi
+
+# 2. Rogue host process on :3001
+if rogue_on_port; then
+  heal_rogue_port
+  ACTION_TAKEN=1
+fi
+
+# 1. Container down/unhealthy (last: start.sh recreates and re-binds 3001)
+if ! container_running; then
+  heal_container_start
+  ACTION_TAKEN=1
+elif ! container_healthy; then
+  heal_container_recreate
+  ACTION_TAKEN=1
+fi
+
+if [ "$ACTION_TAKEN" = "1" ]; then
+  log "cycle complete: corrective action taken"
+else
+  log "cycle complete: healthy"
+fi
+exit 0
diff --git a/ops/watchdog/dashcaddy-watchdog.service b/ops/watchdog/dashcaddy-watchdog.service
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5697549
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ops/watchdog/dashcaddy-watchdog.service
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+[Unit]
+Description=DashCaddy self-healing watchdog (container, port 3001, Caddyfile, caddy)
+After=docker.service network-online.target
+Wants=network-online.target
+
+[Service]
+Type=oneshot
+ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/dashcaddy-watchdog
+TimeoutStartSec=90
+StandardOutput=journal
+StandardError=journal
diff --git a/ops/watchdog/dashcaddy-watchdog.timer b/ops/watchdog/dashcaddy-watchdog.timer
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bb80cf6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ops/watchdog/dashcaddy-watchdog.timer
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+[Unit]
+Description=Run DashCaddy watchdog every 30 seconds
+
+[Timer]
+OnBootSec=2min
+OnUnitActiveSec=30s
+AccuracySec=5s
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=timers.target