diff --git a/core/archipelago/src/api/rpc/package/dependencies.rs b/core/archipelago/src/api/rpc/package/dependencies.rs
index 663ae7f4..9cea4e48 100644
--- a/core/archipelago/src/api/rpc/package/dependencies.rs
+++ b/core/archipelago/src/api/rpc/package/dependencies.rs
@@ -376,16 +376,31 @@ pub(super) fn startup_order(package_id: &str) -> &'static [&'static str] {
 /// order for the given app. Unknown containers sort to the end.
 pub(super) async fn ordered_containers_for_start(package_id: &str) -> Result<Vec<String>> {
     let containers = get_containers_for_app(package_id).await?;
+    Ok(order_present_containers(package_id, containers))
+}
+
+/// Order the *actually-present* containers of an app by its dependency-aware
+/// startup order. Containers whose name is unknown to the order list sort to
+/// the end, preserving their relative input order.
+///
+/// This deliberately does NOT inject order entries that aren't live
+/// containers. `startup_order` is a union of container-name variants across
+/// install generations (e.g. `mysql-mempool` vs `archy-mempool-db`), so any
+/// single install only ever has a subset of those names. Injecting a phantom
+/// name makes the start path fail on a "no such object" inspect — and because
+/// `do_orchestrator_package_start` propagates the unknown-app-id fallback
+/// error via `?`, every later member (the api + frontend) is then skipped,
+/// leaving the stack down until the health monitor recovers it minutes later.
+/// That was the source of mempool gate flakes #73 (frontend) / #74 (api).
+fn order_present_containers(package_id: &str, containers: Vec<String>) -> Vec<String> {
+    if containers.is_empty() {
+        // Nothing is live under any known name. Fall back to the package id so
+        // a single-container app whose container matches its id still gets one
+        // start attempt; multi-container stacks with no live members are
+        // surfaced as "no containers" by the caller's emptiness check.
+        return vec![package_id.to_string()];
+    }
     let order = startup_order(package_id);
-    if order.is_empty() && containers.is_empty() {
-        return Ok(vec![package_id.to_string()]);
-    }
-    let mut sorted = containers;
-    for required in order {
-        if !sorted.iter().any(|name| name == required) {
-            sorted.push((*required).to_string());
-        }
-    }
     // If no special order is defined, fall back to mempool order for legacy
     // multi-container names that may still be returned by config lookups.
     let effective_order: &[&str] = if order.is_empty() {
@@ -393,8 +408,14 @@ pub(super) async fn ordered_containers_for_start(package_id: &str) -> Result<Vec
     } else {
         order
     };
-    sorted.sort_by_key(|c| effective_order.iter().position(|o| *o == c).unwrap_or(99));
-    Ok(sorted)
+    let mut sorted = containers;
+    sorted.sort_by_key(|c| {
+        effective_order
+            .iter()
+            .position(|o| *o == c)
+            .unwrap_or(usize::MAX)
+    });
+    sorted
 }
 
 /// Configure Fedimint Gateway to use LND instead of LDK.
@@ -452,7 +473,48 @@ pub(super) fn configure_fedimint_lnd(
 
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
-    use super::{requires_unpruned_bitcoin, startup_order};
+    use super::{order_present_containers, requires_unpruned_bitcoin, startup_order};
+
+    #[test]
+    fn order_present_containers_never_injects_phantom_stack_members() {
+        // The live mempool stack on a node: db + api + frontend. These are the
+        // only real container names; the startup_order list also contains
+        // variant/legacy names (mysql-mempool, archy-mempool-api, ...) that are
+        // NOT live here and must never appear in the result — a phantom name in
+        // the start list aborts the orchestrator start mid-sequence (gate
+        // #73/#74).
+        let present = vec![
+            "mempool".to_string(),
+            "mempool-api".to_string(),
+            "archy-mempool-db".to_string(),
+        ];
+        let ordered = order_present_containers("mempool", present);
+        // Dependency order: db -> api -> frontend.
+        assert_eq!(ordered, vec!["archy-mempool-db", "mempool-api", "mempool"]);
+        // No phantom variants leaked in.
+        for phantom in ["mysql-mempool", "archy-mempool-api", "archy-mempool-web"] {
+            assert!(
+                !ordered.iter().any(|c| c == phantom),
+                "phantom {phantom} must not be injected"
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn order_present_containers_orders_known_before_unknown() {
+        let present = vec!["mempool".to_string(), "some-sidecar".to_string()];
+        let ordered = order_present_containers("mempool", present);
+        // The known frontend sorts ahead of an unknown sidecar.
+        assert_eq!(ordered, vec!["mempool", "some-sidecar"]);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn order_present_containers_empty_falls_back_to_package_id() {
+        assert_eq!(
+            order_present_containers("mempool", vec![]),
+            vec!["mempool".to_string()]
+        );
+    }
 
     #[test]
     fn btcpay_start_order_includes_required_stack_members() {
diff --git a/tests/lifecycle/bats/bitcoin-knots.bats b/tests/lifecycle/bats/bitcoin-knots.bats
index 175a3f0e..4024e30d 100644
--- a/tests/lifecycle/bats/bitcoin-knots.bats
+++ b/tests/lifecycle/bats/bitcoin-knots.bats
@@ -36,11 +36,21 @@ teardown_file() {
 }
 
 @test "container-list reports a valid state for bitcoin-knots" {
-  run rpc_result container-list
-  [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
-  local state
-  state=$(echo "$output" | jq -r '.[] | select(.name == "bitcoin-knots") | .state')
-  [[ "$state" =~ ^(running|stopped|exited|created|paused)$ ]]
+  # Poll briefly: a container caught mid-reconcile can momentarily report a
+  # transient state ("restarting"/"configured"/"removing") or no state at all.
+  # A genuinely-stuck container never settles, so this still catches real
+  # breakage; it only absorbs churn (e.g. another container bouncing right
+  # before the read-only tier runs).
+  local state="" deadline=$(( $(date +%s) + 30 ))
+  while (( $(date +%s) < deadline )); do
+    run rpc_result container-list
+    [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+    state=$(echo "$output" | jq -r '.[] | select(.name == "bitcoin-knots") | .state')
+    [[ "$state" =~ ^(running|stopped|exited|created|paused)$ ]] && return 0
+    sleep 3
+  done
+  echo "bitcoin-knots never reported a settled valid state within 30s (last: '$state')" >&2
+  return 1
 }
 
 @test "container-status returns a valid status object for bitcoin-knots" {