diff --git a/cookbooks/zwave-js-ui/README.md b/cookbooks/zwave-js-ui/README.md
index 2cc9904..763c72a 100644
--- a/cookbooks/zwave-js-ui/README.md
+++ b/cookbooks/zwave-js-ui/README.md
@@ -27,7 +27,8 @@ This cookbook:
 - Supports automatic container image updates via Podman auto-update.
 
 The image is `ghcr.io/zwave-js/zwave-js-ui:11`, a multi-architecture manifest (amd64 +
-arm64, verified 2026-09-26, version 11.24.1).
+arm64, verified 2026-09-26, version 11.24.1). It is named in the container unit rather than in
+a `.image` unit — see the deviations below, and the reason is boot resilience, not taste.
 
 ## What this cookbook does NOT do
 
@@ -198,6 +199,17 @@ a restart loop fixes.
   artifact. What the external file buys is not secrecy: it is that the authoritative copy lives
   outside the application, is restorable from a vault, and cannot be edited from the web
   interface.
+- **No `.image` unit: the image is named in the container.** A `.image` unit runs
+  `podman image pull`, which contacts the registry even when the image is already in local
+  storage. A machine that boots before its network does — a power cut, a switch slower than the
+  machine, a cable plugged in after power-on — fails that pull with
+  `Temporary failure in name resolution`, and the `Requires=` that quadlet generates on the
+  `.image` unit takes the container down with it. **A failed dependency is never retried**:
+  `Restart=always` only ever applies to a unit that started at least once, so the service stays
+  down until someone notices. Naming the image in the container instead lets podman resolve it
+  at start with its default `--pull=missing`: the local image starts with no registry involved,
+  and a genuinely missing image fails the container, which `Restart=` then retries until the
+  network is there. Auto-update is unaffected — it reads the container's label.
 - **Only `external-settings.json` is mounted into the container, never the configuration
   directory.** `:Z` relabels what it mounts to `container_file_t`, recursively and on disk, and
   `init.sh` lives in that directory. Mounting the directory therefore leaves a script systemd
diff --git a/cookbooks/zwave-js-ui/zwave-js-ui.container b/cookbooks/zwave-js-ui/zwave-js-ui.container
index 38e5e26..5879a0e 100644
--- a/cookbooks/zwave-js-ui/zwave-js-ui.container
+++ b/cookbooks/zwave-js-ui/zwave-js-ui.container
@@ -21,7 +21,21 @@ PartOf=zwave-js-ui.target
 
 [Container]
 ContainerName=zwave-js-ui
-Image=zwave-js-ui.image
+# The image reference, and NOT a zwave-js-ui.image unit -- the one deviation from
+# the convention of this repository, for a reason this cookbook has already paid
+# for. A .image unit runs `podman image pull`, which contacts the registry even
+# when the image is already in local storage. A radio head that boots before its
+# network does -- a power cut, a switch that is slower than it is, a cable
+# plugged in after the machine -- therefore fails that pull, and the generated
+# `Requires=` on it takes the container down with it. A failed dependency is
+# never retried: Restart=always only ever applies to a unit that started once.
+#
+# Named here instead, podman resolves the image at container start with its
+# default --pull=missing: the local image starts with no registry involved, and a
+# genuinely missing image fails the container, which Restart= below then retries
+# until the network is there. Auto-update still works -- it reads the label of
+# the container, not the .image unit.
+Image=ghcr.io/zwave-js/zwave-js-ui:11
 AutoUpdate=registry
 
 # No need for root privileges: the image has no entrypoint script, it execs node
diff --git a/cookbooks/zwave-js-ui/zwave-js-ui.image b/cookbooks/zwave-js-ui/zwave-js-ui.image
deleted file mode 100644
index 0e57b7c..0000000
--- a/cookbooks/zwave-js-ui/zwave-js-ui.image
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,12 +0,0 @@
-[Unit]
-Description=podman pull ghcr.io/zwave-js/zwave-js-ui
-Documentation=https://zwave-js.github.io/zwave-js-ui/
-
-[Image]
-# Multi-architecture manifest (amd64 + arm64, verified 2026-09-26 on tag 11 ->
-# 11.24.1), so the cookbook installs on an aarch64 host as well as on the x86_64
-# radio head. The tag is the major version: Z-Wave JS UI ships the zwave-js
-# driver and its Z-Wave JS Server, whose schema version is what Home Assistant
-# negotiates. A major bump is the one that can break that handshake, so it is
-# the one an operator has to opt into.
-Image=ghcr.io/zwave-js/zwave-js-ui:11