# 084 — Diagnosis

*2026-09-22.* Worse than reported. The controller's "merge" of the runtime's file merges an
operator's settings into the module's content. The host then writes the result **whole**, so a
machine's own runtime settings, including its data directory, are replaced, not added to.
Measured on a lab machine: the runtime takes a new trusted-registry list on a reload, and a
running container without a restart policy survives it. Decided in
[ADR 0102](../../02-DECISIONS/0102-the-mesh-writes-into-a-shared-file-never-over-it.md): the
runtime's file is written into and the runtime reloaded. The hosts file stays a whole file, held
until networking is taken.