diff --git a/core/archipelago/src/bootstrap.rs b/core/archipelago/src/bootstrap.rs
index 6cd642a2..5666644d 100644
--- a/core/archipelago/src/bootstrap.rs
+++ b/core/archipelago/src/bootstrap.rs
@@ -94,11 +94,17 @@ enum PodmanHealOutcome {
 /// Probe `podman info`. If it succeeds the daemon's runtime state is
 /// fine and we return `Healthy` immediately. If it times out, fails to
 /// spawn, or returns an "invalid internal status" / "database state"
-/// error, the runtime state in `$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/{containers,libpod,podman}`
-/// is likely wedged. We delete it and re-probe — podman rebuilds the
-/// runtime state from persistent state under
+/// error, the runtime state under `$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/{containers,libpod}`
+/// is likely wedged. We delete those two dirs and re-probe — podman
+/// rebuilds runtime state from persistent storage under
 /// `$HOME/.local/share/containers/storage/`.
 ///
+/// `$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/podman/` is **deliberately not touched**: that's
+/// where systemd's socket-activated `podman.sock` listener lives. If we
+/// removed it, every libpod HTTP call from the orchestrator would fail
+/// with "connection refused" until `systemctl --user restart
+/// podman.socket` ran — far worse than the wedge we'd be trying to fix.
+///
 /// Why this is safe at startup:
 /// - We run BEFORE the orchestrator starts its reconcile loop, so no
 ///   archipelago code is currently calling podman.
@@ -120,10 +126,11 @@ async fn heal_podman_state() -> Result<PodmanHealOutcome> {
     if probe_podman_ok().await {
         return Ok(PodmanHealOutcome::Healthy);
     }
-    // Wedged. Clean runtime state and try again.
+    // Wedged. Clean runtime state and try again. Note: `podman/` is
+    // intentionally absent from this list — see fn docstring.
     let xdg = std::env::var("XDG_RUNTIME_DIR")
         .context("XDG_RUNTIME_DIR not set; can't locate podman runtime state to clean")?;
-    for sub in &["containers", "libpod", "podman"] {
+    for sub in &["containers", "libpod"] {
         let path = PathBuf::from(&xdg).join(sub);
         match fs::remove_dir_all(&path).await {
             Ok(()) => debug!(path = %path.display(), "removed podman runtime state dir"),