diff --git a/scripts/plugins-check.ts b/scripts/plugins-check.ts
index 4ea24a82..54728c19 100644
--- a/scripts/plugins-check.ts
+++ b/scripts/plugins-check.ts
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
   that running the check can never be the thing that changes your tree.
 */
 
-import { readdirSync, existsSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { readdirSync, existsSync, statSync } from 'node:fs';
 import { join } from 'node:path';
 
 /*
@@ -52,7 +52,19 @@ type Problem = { plugin: string; what: string; fix?: () => void };
 const problems: Problem[] = [];
 
 const dirs = readdirSync(PLUGINS_DIR, { withFileTypes: true })
-  .filter((e) => e.isDirectory() && !e.name.startsWith('.') && e.name !== 'node_modules')
+  // `statSync().isDirectory()`, not the dirent's — a Dirent for a SYMLINK to a directory answers false to
+  // `isDirectory()` and true to `isSymbolicLink()`, so filtering on the dirent silently skips every
+  // symlinked plugin. `platform/plugins/` is symlinks into the workspace clones since 2026-08-27, which
+  // would have made this report "0 plugin repositories, all well-formed" — a green check over nothing.
+  // `discover.ts` already does it this way, at line 239, for the same reason.
+  .filter((e) => !e.name.startsWith('.') && e.name !== 'node_modules')
+  .filter((e) => {
+    try {
+      return statSync(join(PLUGINS_DIR, e.name)).isDirectory();
+    } catch {
+      return false; // a broken symlink, which the checks below have nothing useful to say about
+    }
+  })
   .map((e) => e.name)
   .filter((name) => existsSync(join(PLUGINS_DIR, name, '.git')))
   .sort();
diff --git a/src/servers/app-store/pm2.ts b/src/servers/app-store/pm2.ts
index c8f8136f..8e6a7d67 100644
--- a/src/servers/app-store/pm2.ts
+++ b/src/servers/app-store/pm2.ts
@@ -63,6 +63,8 @@ export async function startProcess(name: string, cwd: string): Promise<Pm2Result
 
   const { code, out } = await pm2(args, cwd);
   if (code !== 0) return { ok: false, error: out || `pm2 ${args.join(' ')} exited ${code}` };
+  // The list changed, so the dump has to. See `saveProcessList`.
+  await saveProcessList(cwd);
   return { ok: true };
 }
 
@@ -105,9 +107,34 @@ export async function deleteProcess(name: string, cwd: string): Promise<Pm2Resul
   if (code !== 0 && !/not found|doesn't exist/i.test(out)) {
     return { ok: false, error: out || `pm2 delete ${name} exited ${code}` };
   }
+  // Saved on REMOVAL too, or the dump keeps resurrecting a sidecar whose plugin is gone — which comes
+  // back after a reboot as a crash-looping process for code that is no longer on the machine.
+  await saveProcessList(cwd);
   return { ok: true };
 }
 
+/**
+ * Persist the process list, so a reboot brings back what is actually installed.
+ *
+ * ── Why this is not optional ──
+ *
+ * PM2 resurrects from `~/.pm2/dump.pm2`, written only by `pm2 save`. Nothing in the plugin system ever
+ * called it, so the dump was whatever a human last happened to save — on 2026-08-27 it was five days old
+ * and held 13 processes while 26 were running. A reboot would have silently lost every sidecar installed
+ * since, and the symptom is the worst kind: the machine comes up, the platform is fine, and thirteen
+ * features are simply gone with nothing saying why.
+ *
+ * ── Best effort, and never fatal ──
+ *
+ * A failed save leaves the estate correct and only the dump stale, which is exactly where things were
+ * before this existed. Failing an install over it would trade a working plugin for a bookkeeping error.
+ * It is logged rather than returned for the same reason.
+ */
+export async function saveProcessList(cwd: string): Promise<void> {
+  const { code, out } = await pm2(['save'], cwd);
+  if (code !== 0) console.error(`[pm2] could not save the process list — a reboot may not restore it: ${out}`);
+}
+
 /** 'online' | 'stopped' | 'errored' | … , or null when PM2 has never heard of it. */
 export async function processStatus(name: string, cwd: string): Promise<string | null> {
   const { code, out } = await pm2(['jlist'], cwd);