diff --git a/scripts/install-stack-startup-task.ps1 b/scripts/install-stack-startup-task.ps1
index 9718e03..f055a83 100644
--- a/scripts/install-stack-startup-task.ps1
+++ b/scripts/install-stack-startup-task.ps1
@@ -57,7 +57,9 @@ $taskNameValue = if (-not [string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($TaskName)) {
 }
 
 $action = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute "wscript.exe" -Argument "//B //nologo `"$hiddenLauncher`" -NoProfile -NonInteractive -WindowStyle Hidden -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File `"$startScript`""
+$action.WorkingDirectory = $repoRoot
 $trigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -AtLogOn -User "$env:USERDOMAIN\$env:USERNAME"
+$trigger.Delay = "PT2M"
 $settings = New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet -StartWhenAvailable -AllowStartIfOnBatteries -DontStopIfGoingOnBatteries -ExecutionTimeLimit (New-TimeSpan -Minutes 30)
 $principal = New-ScheduledTaskPrincipal -UserId "$env:USERDOMAIN\$env:USERNAME" -LogonType Interactive -RunLevel Limited
 $description = "Starts the VoidBot stack when this workstation user logs on so bot and worker do not stay dead after a reboot."
diff --git a/scripts/start-voidbot-stack.ps1 b/scripts/start-voidbot-stack.ps1
index 84e0e3d..75eed17 100644
--- a/scripts/start-voidbot-stack.ps1
+++ b/scripts/start-voidbot-stack.ps1
@@ -3,9 +3,27 @@ $ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"
 
 $repoRoot = Split-Path -Parent $PSScriptRoot
 $envFile = Join-Path $repoRoot ".env"
+$startupLogDir = Join-Path $repoRoot ".voidbot\logs"
+$startupLogPath = Join-Path $startupLogDir "start-voidbot-stack.log"
 . (Join-Path $PSScriptRoot "voidbot-operations-dashboard-lib.ps1")
 Set-Location -LiteralPath $repoRoot
 
+New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $startupLogDir | Out-Null
+
+try {
+  Start-Transcript -Path $startupLogPath -Append | Out-Null
+} catch {
+}
+
+trap {
+  try {
+    Stop-Transcript | Out-Null
+  } catch {
+  }
+
+  throw
+}
+
 function Read-DotEnv {
   param(
     [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
@@ -215,11 +233,10 @@ function Ensure-DockerOnPath {
     throw "Docker CLI is not available on PATH."
   }
 
-  & docker version *> $null
-
-  if ($LASTEXITCODE -ne 0) {
-    throw "Docker is installed but the daemon is not ready."
-  }
+  Wait-Until -Condition {
+    & docker version *> $null
+    return ($LASTEXITCODE -eq 0)
+  } -FailureMessage "Docker is installed but the daemon is not ready." -Attempts 45 -SleepSeconds 2
 }
 
 function Ensure-Qdrant {
@@ -617,3 +634,8 @@ Write-Host "VoidBot stack is up."
 Write-Host "Status: $statusPath"
 Write-Host "Bot log: $botOut"
 Write-Host "Worker log: $workerOut"
+
+try {
+  Stop-Transcript | Out-Null
+} catch {
+}
diff --git a/state/evidence.jsonl b/state/evidence.jsonl
index b84e753..b1e521e 100644
--- a/state/evidence.jsonl
+++ b/state/evidence.jsonl
@@ -68,3 +68,4 @@
 {"ts":"2026-05-09T18:08:46Z","type":"implementation","status":"ok","note":"Moderation rumination mojibake came from UTF-8 boundaries in the PowerShell runner, not corrupted canonical state. Explicitly decode redirected Codex stdout/stderr as UTF-8, read the saved final-message file as UTF-8, and write stdin through a UTF-8 StreamWriter for Windows PowerShell 5.1 compatibility."}
 {"ts":"2026-05-10T15:36:28Z","type":"implementation","status":"ok","note":"Heartbeat repo weather was re-injecting the same four-day commit window on every run because the repo-activity helper had no per-repo cursor. The helper now uses moderation state as an incremental cursor store, persists repo commit cutoffs through the canonical MessagePack-backed state seam, and suppresses already-injected commits by default so repeated sweeps return only genuinely new motion."}
 {"ts":"2026-05-11T01:27:37Z","type":"implementation","status":"ok","note":"Heartbeat Portuguese mojibake had two sources: the unattended send path was letting human text pass through Windows shell encoding, and PowerShell Get-Content stdout was still mangling UTF-8 moderation surfaces even when the underlying files were fine. Fixed by adding scripts/send-discord-message.ps1 plus BOM-aware content-file reads in scripts/send-discord-message.mjs, and steering the moderation loop through node scripts/export-moderation-context.mjs instead of raw Get-Content for doctrine/state bundles."}
+{"ts":"2026-05-12T11:47:57Z","type":"implementation","status":"ok","note":"Logon startup failures were dying without a durable transcript and likely firing before Docker finished waking up after reboot. The stack startup script now appends .voidbot/logs/start-voidbot-stack.log, stops the transcript on failure, waits up to 90 seconds for docker version before giving up, and the logon task now runs with an explicit working directory plus a two-minute delay after logon."}