Inspector 0.9.4: containers without a health check recover properly

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -7,6 +7,26 @@ Version numbers follow [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html
 
 ---
 
+## [0.9.4] — 2026-10-28
+
+### Fixed
+
+- **Containers without a Docker health check now "recover" properly.** Many images
+  don't define a health check, so Docker reports them as `NO HEALTH CHECK` even when
+  they work. Inspector only treated `HEALTHY` as back to normal, so for these
+  containers:
+  - the error count never reset, and one-off failures days apart added up to a restart;
+  - no "recovered" alert was sent;
+  - with *Restart, then redeploy*, the next unrelated problem skipped the restart and
+    redeployed the whole stack.
+
+  Now `NO HEALTH CHECK` counts as working (unless you made it a restart trigger): the
+  count resets, the "recovered" alert is sent ("back to running (no health check)"),
+  and the next problem starts with a plain restart. Containers with a health check
+  behave exactly as before.
+
+---
+
 ## [0.9.3] — 2026-10-28
 
 ### Changed

src/inspector/__init__.py

@@ -1 +1 @@
-__version__ = "0.9.3"
+__version__ = "0.9.4"

src/inspector/main.py

@@ -63,6 +63,19 @@ def _request_stop(signum, _frame):
     _stop = True
 
 
+def _is_normal(status: str | None, container_config: ContainerConfig) -> bool:
+    """True when `status` means the container is working.
+
+    HEALTHY always counts. NO HEALTH CHECK (running, but the image defines no
+    health check) counts too, unless the user made it a restart trigger.
+    Many images have no health check, and without this their error count and
+    restart episode would never reset.
+    """
+    if status == HEALTHY:
+        return True
+    return status == NO_HEALTH_CHECK and NO_HEALTH_CHECK not in container_config.restart_on
+
+
 def _apply_reachability_override(
     container_config: ContainerConfig,
     result: HealthResult,
@@ -158,17 +171,23 @@ def _check_one(
             message=result.message,
         )
 
+    is_normal = _is_normal(state.current_status, container_config)
     if (
         state.previous_status is not None
-        and state.previous_status != HEALTHY
+        and not _is_normal(state.previous_status, container_config)
-        and state.current_status == HEALTHY
+        and is_normal
+        # HEALTHY here means "a recovery was already announced", for either status.
         and state.last_notification_state != HEALTHY
     ):
-        log.info("%-*s recovered: %s -> HEALTHY", width, name, state.previous_status)
+        log.info("%-*s recovered: %s -> %s", width, name, state.previous_status, state.current_status)
+        back_to = (
+            "**HEALTHY**" if state.current_status == HEALTHY
+            else "**running** (no health check)"
+        )
         notifier.notify(
             title=f"✅ Inspector: {name} recovered",
             message=(
-                f"**{name}** is back to **HEALTHY** (was *{state.previous_status}*).\n\n"
+                f"**{name}** is back to {back_to} (was *{state.previous_status}*).\n\n"
                 f"- Errors before recovery: **{state.error_count}**\n"
                 f"- Time: {format_timestamp(now, with_zone=True)}"
             ),
@@ -178,7 +197,7 @@ def _check_one(
             container=name,
             event_type=EVENT_RECOVERY,
             old_status=state.previous_status,
-            new_status=HEALTHY,
+            new_status=state.current_status,
             error_count=state.error_count,
         )
         state.last_notification_state = HEALTHY
@@ -253,9 +272,9 @@ def _check_one(
                 message=result.message,
             )
             state.last_notification_state = result.status
-    elif result.status == HEALTHY:
+    elif is_normal:
         if state.error_count != 0:
-            log.info("%-*s healthy again; resetting error count", width, name)
+            log.info("%-*s back to normal; resetting error count", width, name)
         state.error_count = 0
         state.restarted_this_episode = False
 

src/inspector/recovery.py

@@ -175,7 +175,8 @@ def _perform_restart_then_redeploy(
       - the container is still failing on a later recovery cycle
         (`state.restarted_this_episode` is already set), meaning the restart didn't stick.
 
-    The episode flag resets when the container is next seen HEALTHY (see main._check_one).
+    The episode flag resets when the container is next seen working: HEALTHY, or
+    NO HEALTH CHECK when that isn't a restart trigger (see main._is_normal).
     """
     name = container_config.name