diff --git a/Sources/ContainerCommands/System/SystemStop.swift b/Sources/ContainerCommands/System/SystemStop.swift
index 164dd90fd..929ce046d 100644
--- a/Sources/ContainerCommands/System/SystemStop.swift
+++ b/Sources/ContainerCommands/System/SystemStop.swift
@@ -49,8 +49,7 @@ extension Application {
                 }
             )
 
-            let launchdDomainString = try ServiceManager.getDomainString()
-            let fullLabel = "\(launchdDomainString)/\(prefix)apiserver"
+            let apiserverLabel = "\(prefix)apiserver"
 
             var running = true
             do {
@@ -85,24 +84,47 @@ extension Application {
                         }
                         try await Task.sleep(for: .seconds(1))
                     }
-
-                    log.info("stopping service", metadata: ["label": "\(fullLabel)"])
-                    try ServiceManager.deregister(fullServiceLabel: fullLabel)
                 } catch {
                     log.warning("failed to wait for all containers", metadata: ["error": "\(error)"])
                 }
             }
 
-            // Note: The assumption here is that we would have registered the launchd services
-            // in the same domain as `launchdDomainString`. This is a fairly sane assumption since
-            // if somehow the launchd domain changed, XPC interactions would not be possible.
+            // Stopping the services is what this command is for, so it
+            // happens whether or not the containers could be waited for, and
+            // whether or not the API server answered its health check at all.
+            // Asking the API server about its containers is asking the
+            // service being stopped, and it is when that service is in a
+            // bad way that stopping it matters most: leaving it running
+            // because it could not answer leaves the one process that
+            // needed stopping.
+            log.info("stopping service", metadata: ["label": "\(apiserverLabel)"])
+            do {
+                if try !ServiceManager.deregisterAnyDomain(serviceLabel: apiserverLabel) {
+                    log.warning(
+                        "failed to stop service",
+                        metadata: ["label": "\(apiserverLabel)", "error": "no launchd domain holds it"])
+                }
+            } catch {
+                log.warning("failed to stop service", metadata: ["label": "\(apiserverLabel)", "error": "\(error)"])
+            }
+
+            // The domain a service was registered in is the one belonging to
+            // the session that started it, which is not necessarily this one:
+            // a system brought up from a terminal no window server owns sits
+            // in `user/<uid>`, and this command run from a login session looks
+            // in `gui/<uid>`. Either session can drive the other's services,
+            // so a mismatch does not announce itself as a failure to reach
+            // them; it announces itself as a stop that says it stopped
+            // everything while every service it named is still running.
             try ServiceManager.enumerate()
                 .filter { $0.hasPrefix(prefix) }
-                .filter { $0 != fullLabel }
-                .map { "\(launchdDomainString)/\($0)" }
+                .filter { $0 != apiserverLabel }
                 .forEach {
                     log.info("stopping service", metadata: ["label": "\($0)"])
-                    try? ServiceManager.deregister(fullServiceLabel: $0)
+                    let stopped = (try? ServiceManager.deregisterAnyDomain(serviceLabel: $0)) ?? false
+                    if !stopped {
+                        log.warning("failed to stop service", metadata: ["label": "\($0)"])
+                    }
                 }
         }
     }
diff --git a/Sources/ContainerPlugin/ServiceManager.swift b/Sources/ContainerPlugin/ServiceManager.swift
index 4d2c36246..b9ab06b03 100644
--- a/Sources/ContainerPlugin/ServiceManager.swift
+++ b/Sources/ContainerPlugin/ServiceManager.swift
@@ -49,6 +49,30 @@ public struct ServiceManager {
         status = try runLaunchctlCommand(args: ["bootout", label])
     }
 
+    /// Deregister a service by its bare label, from whichever domain holds it.
+    ///
+    /// The domain a service sits in belongs to the session that registered it,
+    /// not to the session asking about it now: `register` bootstraps into the
+    /// domain of whoever called it, so a system started from a terminal no
+    /// window server owns lands in `user/<uid>`, and the same command from a
+    /// login session lands in `gui/<uid>`. Either one can drive the other's
+    /// services afterwards, because reaching them is a matter of the Mach
+    /// namespace rather than of the domain they were bootstrapped into.
+    ///
+    /// Returns whether a domain gave the service up, so that a caller looking
+    /// in the wrong place is told so rather than left to assume it was heard.
+    @discardableResult
+    public static func deregisterAnyDomain(serviceLabel label: String) throws -> Bool {
+        for domain in try Self.getDomainStrings() {
+            var status: Int32 = -1
+            try Self.deregister(fullServiceLabel: "\(domain)/\(label)", status: &status)
+            if status == 0 {
+                return true
+            }
+        }
+        return false
+    }
+
     /// Restart a service by a launchd label.
     public static func kickstart(fullServiceLabel label: String) throws {
         _ = try runLaunchctlCommand(args: ["kickstart", "-k", label])
@@ -121,6 +145,14 @@ public struct ServiceManager {
         return outputText.trimmingCharacters(in: .whitespacesAndNewlines)
     }
 
+    /// Every launchd domain a service of this user's could be registered in,
+    /// the caller's own first so that the common case is answered first.
+    public static func getDomainStrings() throws -> [String] {
+        let own = try Self.getDomainString()
+        let userDomains = ["user/\(getuid())", "gui/\(getuid())"]
+        return [own] + userDomains.filter { $0 != own }
+    }
+
     public static func getDomainString() throws -> String {
         let currentSessionType = try getLaunchdSessionType()
         switch currentSessionType {