diff --git a/docs/deployment/clustering.mdx b/docs/deployment/clustering.mdx
index 5382eb2..f0f73b3 100644
--- a/docs/deployment/clustering.mdx
+++ b/docs/deployment/clustering.mdx
@@ -31,6 +31,25 @@ FLO_CLUSTER_SEEDS=10.0.1.10:9000,10.0.1.11:9000
 FLO_NODE_ID=1
 ```
 
+### Ports
+
+A clustered node binds an additional Raft port for inter-node traffic:
+
+| Port | Purpose |
+|------|---------|
+| `listen_port` | Client wire protocol |
+| `listen_port + 500` | Raft RPC between nodes (9500 by default) |
+| `listen_port + 600` | Gossip, only when `gossip_port` is set |
+
+The Raft port is bound **only when the node can actually have peers** — when
+any of `[cluster] enabled = true`, `seeds`, an explicit `raft_port`, or
+`replication_factor > 1` is configured. A single-node server leaves it unbound,
+so it is not a port operators need to declare to an orchestrator. The startup
+banner reports either the bound port or `not listening (single-node)`.
+
+Raft and gossip ports carry unauthenticated inter-node traffic and must not be
+exposed outside the cluster's private network.
+
 ### Bootstrap
 
 The first node in a cluster bootstraps automatically when no seeds respond. Subsequent nodes join by contacting any existing member.
diff --git a/docs/deployment/docker.mdx b/docs/deployment/docker.mdx
index 538d1b7..1a28b3e 100644
--- a/docs/deployment/docker.mdx
+++ b/docs/deployment/docker.mdx
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ docker pull ghcr.io/floruntime/flo:latest
 ```bash
 docker run -d \
   --name flo \
+  --security-opt seccomp=unconfined \
   -p 9000:9000 \
   -p 9001:9001 \
   -p 9002:9002 \
@@ -21,11 +22,60 @@ docker run -d \
   ghcr.io/floruntime/flo:latest
 ```
 
+:::note
+`--security-opt seccomp=unconfined` is required on Linux hosts. Flo's event
+loop uses io_uring, which Docker's default seccomp profile blocks — without it
+the server starts, logs `topology manifest created`, and then exits. See
+[io_uring and seccomp](#io-uring-and-seccomp) for the details and for a
+narrower profile.
+:::
+
 | Port | Purpose |
 |------|---------|
 | 9000 | Binary wire protocol (client traffic) |
-| 9001 | Prometheus metrics |
-| 9002 | Dashboard REST API |
+| 9001 | Prometheus metrics — only when `[metrics] enabled = true` |
+| 9002 | Dashboard REST API — only when `[dashboard] enabled = true` |
+
+Flo does **not** listen on any other port in a single-node deployment. In
+particular the Raft port (`listen_port + 500`, so 9500) is bound only when the
+node is actually clustered — see [Clustering](/deployment/clustering).
+
+## io_uring and seccomp
+
+On Linux, Flo's event loop is built on io_uring. Docker's default seccomp
+profile does not allow the `io_uring_setup`, `io_uring_enter` and
+`io_uring_register` syscalls, so under that profile Flo cannot start:
+
+```
+INF topology manifest created: shards=1 partitions=0 path=/data
+ERR io_uring is unavailable (PermissionDenied). ...
+Error starting runtime: error.PermissionDenied
+```
+
+The simplest fix is to run unconfined:
+
+```bash
+--security-opt seccomp=unconfined
+```
+
+If you would rather not drop the whole profile, copy Docker's
+[default profile](https://github.com/moby/moby/blob/master/profiles/seccomp/default.json)
+and add the three syscalls to its allowlist:
+
+```json
+{
+  "names": ["io_uring_setup", "io_uring_enter", "io_uring_register"],
+  "action": "SCMP_ACT_ALLOW"
+}
+```
+
+Then run with `--security-opt seccomp=/path/to/flo-seccomp.json`.
+
+:::note
+io_uring requires **Linux 5.1 or newer**. On older kernels Flo cannot start at
+all, and no seccomp profile will help. Kubernetes, Podman and containerd apply
+their own seccomp defaults — the same allowance is needed there.
+:::
 
 ## Docker Compose — Single Node
 
@@ -34,6 +84,8 @@ version: "3.8"
 services:
   flo:
     image: ghcr.io/floruntime/flo:latest
+    security_opt:
+      - seccomp:unconfined
     ports:
       - "9000:9000"
       - "9001:9001"
@@ -56,6 +108,8 @@ version: "3.8"
 services:
   flo-1:
     image: ghcr.io/floruntime/flo:latest
+    security_opt:
+      - seccomp:unconfined
     hostname: flo-1
     ports:
       - "9000:9000"
@@ -71,6 +125,8 @@ services:
 
   flo-2:
     image: ghcr.io/floruntime/flo:latest
+    security_opt:
+      - seccomp:unconfined
     hostname: flo-2
     ports:
       - "9010:9000"
@@ -86,6 +142,8 @@ services:
 
   flo-3:
     image: ghcr.io/floruntime/flo:latest
+    security_opt:
+      - seccomp:unconfined
     hostname: flo-3
     ports:
       - "9020:9000"
@@ -122,6 +180,8 @@ All `flo.toml` settings can be overridden with `FLO_` prefixed environment varia
 
 ## Health Check
 
+For a **liveness** probe inside the container, the CLI is enough:
+
 ```yaml
 healthcheck:
   test: ["CMD", "flo", "server", "status"]
@@ -130,6 +190,25 @@ healthcheck:
   retries: 3
 ```
 
+For an orchestrator **readiness** probe that comes from outside the container,
+use `GET /health` on the dashboard port (see
+[REST API](/reference/rest-api#cluster-metrics)) — and set the dashboard's bind
+address, because it defaults to localhost only:
+
+```toml
+[dashboard]
+enabled = true
+bind = "0.0.0.0"
+```
+
+:::note
+`[dashboard] bind` defaults to `127.0.0.1`. A probe originating outside the
+container cannot reach a listener bound to loopback, so leaving the default in
+an orchestrated deployment presents as a service that never becomes ready —
+which reads like a broken health check rather than a bind address. Bind to
+`0.0.0.0` only where the dashboard port is not publicly routable.
+:::
+
 ## Volumes and Data Persistence
 
 Always mount a volume at `/data` to persist data across container restarts:
diff --git a/docs/getting-started/configuration.mdx b/docs/getting-started/configuration.mdx
index 8b23d39..6672391 100644
--- a/docs/getting-started/configuration.mdx
+++ b/docs/getting-started/configuration.mdx
@@ -48,11 +48,28 @@ hot_buffer_capacity = 67108864   # Per-partition ring buffer size in bytes (64 M
 
 Durability modes:
 
-| Mode | Behaviour |
-|------|-----------|
-| `sync` | `fsync` after every write — strongest guarantee, lowest throughput |
-| `async_flush` | Background flush every ~1 ms — default, highest throughput |
-| `ephemeral` | Skip WAL entirely — for caches or temporary data |
+| Mode | Behaviour | At risk on abrupt termination |
+|------|-----------|-------------------------------|
+| `sync` | Segment written and `fsync`ed before the write is acknowledged | Nothing |
+| `async_flush` | Segments written and `fsync`ed by a background task, **at most once per second** — the default | Up to ~1 second of acknowledged writes |
+| `ephemeral` | Never written to disk | Everything |
+
+**What `async_flush` risks, concretely.** An acknowledged write lives only in
+memory until the next segment flush, which runs at most once per second. If the
+process is killed (`SIGKILL`, OOM kill, power loss, host failure) you can lose
+up to roughly the last second of acknowledged writes. Everything older is on
+disk, `fsync`ed and published by atomic rename, so the store is never left
+torn or half-written — the loss is a clean tail truncation, not corruption.
+
+A **graceful** shutdown (`SIGTERM`, `docker stop`, `flo server stop`) flushes
+before exiting, so a normal restart loses nothing. The one-second window only
+applies when the process dies without running its shutdown path.
+
+:::note
+This window is **not** governed by `hot_flush_seconds`. That setting controls
+hot → warm tier migration, which is a storage-layout concern and does not
+affect what survives a crash.
+:::
 
 ### `[logging]`
 
@@ -88,9 +105,12 @@ pong_timeout_ms = 10000       # Close connection if no pong within this time
 [metrics]
 enabled = true
 # port = 0                # 0 = auto (listen_port + 1), so 9001 by default
-# bind = "0.0.0.0"
+# bind = "127.0.0.1"      # Localhost only by default
 ```
 
+Binds only when `enabled = true`. For a Prometheus server scraping from outside
+the container, set `bind = "0.0.0.0"` — the default is loopback-only.
+
 ### `[dashboard]`
 
 ```toml
@@ -101,6 +121,14 @@ enabled = true
 # cors_origins = "http://localhost:5173"
 ```
 
+:::note
+`bind` defaults to `127.0.0.1`. In an orchestrated deployment a readiness probe
+originating outside the container cannot reach a loopback listener, so the
+default presents as a service that never becomes ready. Set `bind = "0.0.0.0"`
+where the port is not publicly routable. See
+[Docker → Health Check](/deployment/docker#health-check).
+:::
+
 ### `[cluster]`
 
 ```toml
@@ -115,6 +143,12 @@ enabled = false
 # heartbeat_interval_ms = 50
 ```
 
+The Raft port is bound only when this node can actually have peers — that is,
+when any of `enabled = true`, `seeds`, an explicit `raft_port`, or
+`replication_factor > 1` is set. A plain single-node server does **not** listen
+on `listen_port + 500`, so there is no undeclared port to account for. The
+startup banner reports which of the two applies.
+
 ### `[cold_storage]`
 
 ```toml
diff --git a/docs/reference/rest-api.mdx b/docs/reference/rest-api.mdx
index d61408a..11009ec 100644
--- a/docs/reference/rest-api.mdx
+++ b/docs/reference/rest-api.mdx
@@ -88,7 +88,32 @@ Aggregated metrics in JSON (Prometheus metrics are exposed separately on port 90
 
 ### `GET /health`
 
-Always-public liveness check (served at the root, not under `/api/v1`).
+Liveness and readiness check. Served at the root, not under `/api/v1`, and
+always public — it is never gated by the admin token, so it is safe to point an
+orchestrator probe at it without provisioning credentials.
+
+```json
+{ "status": "ok" }
+```
+
+A `200` means the dashboard server is up and serving. Any other status, or a
+refused connection, means the node is not ready.
+
+**Stability:** `GET /health` is a stable endpoint. The path, its public status,
+and the `200` + `"status": "ok"` contract will not change within a major
+version. Fields may be *added* to the object, so parse it leniently rather than
+matching the body exactly — checking the HTTP status alone is the most durable
+probe.
+
+:::note
+This is served on the **dashboard** port (`listen_port + 2`, so 9002 by
+default), which requires `[dashboard] enabled = true`. `[dashboard] bind`
+defaults to `127.0.0.1`, so a probe from outside the container needs
+`bind = "0.0.0.0"` — see [Docker](/deployment/docker#health-check).
+
+The Prometheus exporter serves its own separate `/health` on `listen_port + 1`,
+which additionally reports the shard count.
+:::
 
 ---