diff --git a/tests/lifecycle/bats/use-quadlet-backends-install.bats b/tests/lifecycle/bats/use-quadlet-backends-install.bats
index cbb23298..4730e478 100644
--- a/tests/lifecycle/bats/use-quadlet-backends-install.bats
+++ b/tests/lifecycle/bats/use-quadlet-backends-install.bats
@@ -50,6 +50,22 @@ backend_quadlet_units() {
   done
 }
 
+# A unit file on disk does NOT imply the app should be running: an
+# explicitly user-stopped app keeps its .container file (e.g. the inactive
+# half of the bitcoin-core/bitcoin-knots multi-version pair), and its
+# .service being inactive / container absent is the CORRECT state. The
+# orchestrator persists that intent in user-stopped.json; honour it here so
+# the active-state assertions below don't false-fail on stopped-on-purpose
+# apps (gate tests 123/124, .228 2026-07-09).
+USER_STOPPED_FILE="${ARCHY_DATA_DIR:-/var/lib/archipelago}/user-stopped.json"
+
+is_user_stopped() {
+  local name="$1"
+  [[ -r "$USER_STOPPED_FILE" ]] || return 1
+  jq -e --arg n "$name" --arg s "${name#archy-}" \
+    'index($n) != null or index($s) != null' "$USER_STOPPED_FILE" >/dev/null 2>&1
+}
+
 # Read the cgroup path of a running container's main process. For
 # rootless podman the conmon-run target lands the container's pid1 in
 # the cgroup that owns its supervising .service.
@@ -127,6 +143,7 @@ require_quadlet_backends() {
   require_quadlet_backends
   while read -r name; do
     [[ -z "$name" ]] && continue
+    is_user_stopped "$name" && continue
     run systemctl --user is-active "$name.service"
     [[ "$status" -eq 0 ]] || fail "$name.service is '$output' — expected 'active'"
   done < <(backend_quadlet_units)
@@ -136,6 +153,7 @@ require_quadlet_backends() {
   require_quadlet_backends
   while read -r name; do
     [[ -z "$name" ]] && continue
+    is_user_stopped "$name" && continue
     run sh -c "podman inspect --format '{{.State.Running}}' '$name'"
     [[ "$status" -eq 0 ]] || fail "$name not present in podman"
     [[ "$output" == "true" ]] || fail "$name container exists but not running (state=$output)"