Start by telling Claude what failed and what you expected. Claude can inspect the pod's live state, run Podbay's diagnostics, read service logs, and apply supported safe repairs.

The preview stopped loading after the last change. Diagnose it, restore the app if safe, and tell me what failed.

This morning's report never arrived. Check whether the job ran, preserve the evidence, and fix the schedule if the cause is clear.

You do not need to know the underlying diagnostic commands. The exceptions below cover cases where Claude itself cannot respond.

Claude does not open from the app

Open the pod in the Podbay dashboard.
Confirm the pod is running rather than suspended or updating.
Check whether the Claude card asks you to finish sign-in.
Resume or restart the pod if the dashboard recommends it, then choose Open in Claude again.
Use the browser terminal only if the guided controls cannot recover the session.

The app link is blank or unavailable

Ask Claude to check the application process, its recent logs, and the preview configuration. If Claude is unavailable too, confirm that the pod is running and inspect the health notices on its dashboard page.

Managed Podbay exposes one application preview per pod today. A self-hosted preview currently opens only from the Docker host.

A worker or database disappeared

A process started for a quick test is not automatically permanent. Ask Claude to restore it, verify that it works, and mark it as a service that should return after a crash or pod restart.

Important local data must also live in the persistent workspace. If it was written only to temporary storage, it may not be recoverable after an update.

Scheduled work did not happen

Check whether the pod was suspended at the scheduled time. A stopped pod cannot work in the background. Daily work may catch up after a same-day resume, but a pod that must report on time needs to remain running.

Ask Claude to inspect the run history. Podbay can distinguish a task that never started from one that started without reporting a result. A run interrupted by a pod restart is recorded but does not currently raise a stalled-run warning after the restart.

Claude cannot reach a website

Cloud datacenter access differs from access on your laptop. Ask Claude to use Podbay's supported web research path and explain which source refused access. If the request is permitted and needs your normal network or signed-in browser, connect Podbay Relay.

Do not add an improvised VPN or proxy inside the pod. It may disappear on restart and can make the source of network traffic unclear.

Before updating or deleting

Commit and push valuable source changes. Export databases, uploads, generated reports, and other data you cannot recreate. Updating keeps the persistent workspace; deleting a pod removes it.

Current product limits

Podbay is in private alpha and pod images may include breaking changes.
Suspending a pod stops Claude, schedules, services, and previews until the pod resumes.
A pod's persistent workspace is not an independent backup.
Specialist skills and prepared monitors vary by environment.
Managed previews currently expose one application endpoint per pod.
Self-hosted networking and preview behavior differ from the managed service.

If a problem remains reproducible, report what you asked for, what happened, and any diagnosis Claude can provide. Remove secrets, private repository content, and authentication links before sharing it.

Troubleshooting and limits