diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index bfa44b22..28d77aa1 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -478,7 +478,7 @@ checksum = "fc652a48c352aef3ea3aed32080501cf3ef6ed5da78602a020c991775b0aff04"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "c0mpute-api"
-version = "0.2.69"
+version = "0.2.70"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
  "c0mpute-proto",
@@ -493,7 +493,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "c0mpute-bench"
-version = "0.2.69"
+version = "0.2.70"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
  "blake3",
@@ -504,7 +504,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "c0mpute-cli"
-version = "0.2.69"
+version = "0.2.70"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
  "axum",
@@ -534,7 +534,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "c0mpute-core"
-version = "0.2.69"
+version = "0.2.70"
 dependencies = [
  "aes-gcm",
  "anyhow",
@@ -578,7 +578,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "c0mpute-doctor"
-version = "0.2.69"
+version = "0.2.70"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
  "serde",
@@ -590,7 +590,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "c0mpute-envelope"
-version = "0.2.69"
+version = "0.2.70"
 dependencies = [
  "blake3",
  "bs58",
@@ -603,7 +603,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "c0mpute-gateway"
-version = "0.2.69"
+version = "0.2.70"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
  "axum",
@@ -625,7 +625,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "c0mpute-market"
-version = "0.2.69"
+version = "0.2.70"
 dependencies = [
  "c0mpute-envelope",
  "serde",
@@ -635,7 +635,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "c0mpute-net"
-version = "0.2.69"
+version = "0.2.70"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
  "async-trait",
@@ -652,7 +652,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "c0mpute-placement"
-version = "0.2.69"
+version = "0.2.70"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
  "async-trait",
@@ -673,7 +673,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "c0mpute-proto"
-version = "0.2.69"
+version = "0.2.70"
 dependencies = [
  "blake3",
  "hex",
@@ -685,7 +685,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "c0mpute-secure-chat"
-version = "0.2.69"
+version = "0.2.70"
 dependencies = [
  "aes-gcm",
  "anyhow",
@@ -708,7 +708,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "c0mpute-store"
-version = "0.2.69"
+version = "0.2.70"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
  "blake3",
@@ -726,7 +726,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "c0mpute-transcode"
-version = "0.2.69"
+version = "0.2.70"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
  "c0mpute-proto",
@@ -739,7 +739,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "c0mpute-update"
-version = "0.2.69"
+version = "0.2.70"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
  "hex",
@@ -753,7 +753,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "c0mpute-verify"
-version = "0.2.69"
+version = "0.2.70"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
  "blake3",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index ad2f4b8b..351c4881 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ members = [
 ]
 
 [workspace.package]
-version = "0.2.69"
+version = "0.2.70"
 edition = "2024"
 license = "MIT"
 repository = "https://github.com/profullstack/c0mpute"
diff --git a/apps/tui/package.json b/apps/tui/package.json
index 20af29f9..d1811219 100644
--- a/apps/tui/package.json
+++ b/apps/tui/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "@c0mpute/tui",
-  "version": "0.2.69",
+  "version": "0.2.70",
   "private": true,
   "type": "module",
   "bin": {
diff --git a/apps/web/package.json b/apps/web/package.json
index d6f0c692..5125e622 100644
--- a/apps/web/package.json
+++ b/apps/web/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "c0mpute",
-  "version": "0.2.69",
+  "version": "0.2.70",
   "private": true,
   "type": "module",
   "scripts": {
diff --git a/apps/web/src/app/releases/latest.json/route.ts b/apps/web/src/app/releases/latest.json/route.ts
index e3cf4e21..022faa53 100644
--- a/apps/web/src/app/releases/latest.json/route.ts
+++ b/apps/web/src/app/releases/latest.json/route.ts
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ export const dynamic = "force-dynamic";
  * this in sync with the workspace version in `Cargo.toml` on each release so a
  * freshly built CLI reports "already latest" rather than a phantom upgrade.
  */
-const FALLBACK_VERSION = "0.2.69";
+const FALLBACK_VERSION = "0.2.70";
 const FALLBACK_MIN_REQUIRED = "0.0.1";
 
 type Channel = "stable" | "beta" | "nightly";
diff --git a/node/crates/c0mpute-core/src/diffusion.rs b/node/crates/c0mpute-core/src/diffusion.rs
index b79bd88d..30a7849f 100644
--- a/node/crates/c0mpute-core/src/diffusion.rs
+++ b/node/crates/c0mpute-core/src/diffusion.rs
@@ -156,6 +156,26 @@ pub fn can_serve(config: &crate::config::DiffusionConfig) -> bool {
         && installed()
         && fast_enough(config)
         && has_headroom_with(config, memory())
+        && idle_enough_with(load_avg_1m(), logical_cpus())
+        && node_slot().available_permits() > 0
+}
+
+/// Busiest a box may be (1-minute load average per logical CPU) and still
+/// take a render. A render needs half the box for ~2 minutes; on a box
+/// already this busy it takes 10+ and the buyer is better told "no worker".
+pub const MAX_LOAD_PER_CPU: f64 = 0.75;
+
+/// Pure decision: is the box idle enough to start an image now?
+pub fn idle_enough_with(load_1m: f64, cpus: usize) -> bool {
+    cpus > 0 && load_1m.is_finite() && load_1m < cpus as f64 * MAX_LOAD_PER_CPU
+}
+
+fn load_avg_1m() -> f64 {
+    sysinfo::System::load_average().one
+}
+
+fn logical_cpus() -> usize {
+    std::thread::available_parallelism().map(|n| n.get()).unwrap_or(1)
 }
 
 fn now_secs() -> u64 {
@@ -708,6 +728,15 @@ mod tests {
         assert_eq!(parse_stat("garbage"), None);
     }
 
+    #[test]
+    fn a_busy_box_does_not_take_images() {
+        assert!(idle_enough_with(4.0, 16));
+        assert!(!idle_enough_with(26.5, 16), "seed2 at load 26 on 16 vCPUs");
+        assert!(!idle_enough_with(12.0, 16), "75% is the line");
+        assert!(!idle_enough_with(f64::NAN, 16));
+        assert!(!idle_enough_with(0.0, 0));
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn png_magic_is_checked() {
         assert!(is_png(b"\x89PNG\r\n\x1a\n0000"));
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 39a45243..ec48caae 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "c0mpute-monorepo",
-  "version": "0.2.69",
+  "version": "0.2.70",
   "private": true,
   "workspaces": [
     "apps/*",
diff --git a/packages/shared/package.json b/packages/shared/package.json
index 8b7d7451..2bf0ee27 100644
--- a/packages/shared/package.json
+++ b/packages/shared/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "@c0mpute/shared",
-  "version": "0.2.69",
+  "version": "0.2.70",
   "private": true,
   "type": "module",
   "main": "./dist/index.js",
diff --git a/plugins/ad-generator-agent/module.toml b/plugins/ad-generator-agent/module.toml
index b787771e..1e19a15e 100644
--- a/plugins/ad-generator-agent/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/ad-generator-agent/module.toml
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "ad-generator-agent"
 name        = "Ad Generator Agent — every ad type from one URL"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "service"
 category    = "applications"
 status      = "available"
diff --git a/plugins/ads-manager/module.toml b/plugins/ads-manager/module.toml
index 58c8f925..b9d39516 100644
--- a/plugins/ads-manager/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/ads-manager/module.toml
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "ads-manager"
 name        = "Ads Manager — shared ad operations layer"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "service"
 category    = "applications"
 status      = "coming-soon"
diff --git a/plugins/coinpay/module.toml b/plugins/coinpay/module.toml
index 022a2427..215628d5 100644
--- a/plugins/coinpay/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/coinpay/module.toml
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "coinpay"
 name        = "CoinPay — DID, payments, escrow, reputation"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "service"
 category    = "applications"
 status      = "available"
diff --git a/plugins/crawl/module.toml b/plugins/crawl/module.toml
index e8fcda29..d969ebcd 100644
--- a/plugins/crawl/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/crawl/module.toml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "crawl"
 name        = "Crawl — distributed web fetching"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "workload"
 category    = "data"
 status      = "available"
diff --git a/plugins/ctv-ads/module.toml b/plugins/ctv-ads/module.toml
index 8adc3ef5..e2cf1816 100644
--- a/plugins/ctv-ads/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/ctv-ads/module.toml
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "ctv-ads"
 name        = "CTV Ads — Connected TV ad marketplace"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "service"
 category    = "applications"
 status      = "coming-soon"
diff --git a/plugins/diffusion/module.toml b/plugins/diffusion/module.toml
index 9bc71ff5..f6adeca4 100644
--- a/plugins/diffusion/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/diffusion/module.toml
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "diffusion"
 name        = "Diffusion — image generation"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "workload"
 category    = "ai"
 status      = "available"
diff --git a/plugins/embed/module.toml b/plugins/embed/module.toml
index ec5dda8d..f290de42 100644
--- a/plugins/embed/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/embed/module.toml
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "embed"
 name        = "Embeddings — vector generation"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "workload"
 category    = "ai"
 status      = "coming-soon"
diff --git a/plugins/gameserver/module.toml b/plugins/gameserver/module.toml
index 18ee8ad2..0c6cffcf 100644
--- a/plugins/gameserver/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/gameserver/module.toml
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "gameserver"
 name        = "Game server — Minecraft / Factorio / Valheim"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "workload"
 category    = "infrastructure"
 status      = "coming-soon"
diff --git a/plugins/hosting/module.toml b/plugins/hosting/module.toml
index 074393d1..a9c7fb30 100644
--- a/plugins/hosting/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/hosting/module.toml
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "hosting"
 name        = "Hosting — censorship-resistant static sites"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "workload"
 category    = "data"
 status      = "coming-soon"
diff --git a/plugins/infernet/module.toml b/plugins/infernet/module.toml
index cccb287a..59bda752 100644
--- a/plugins/infernet/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/infernet/module.toml
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "infernet"
 name        = "Infernet Protocol — AI inference"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "workload"
 category    = "ai"
 status      = "partial"
diff --git a/plugins/live-stream/module.toml b/plugins/live-stream/module.toml
index a8e9b4bf..3a1d3cf2 100644
--- a/plugins/live-stream/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/live-stream/module.toml
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "live-stream"
 name        = "Live Stream — p2p HLS live streaming"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "service"
 category    = "media"
 status      = "coming-soon"
diff --git a/plugins/ocr/module.toml b/plugins/ocr/module.toml
index 7814667f..daf12861 100644
--- a/plugins/ocr/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/ocr/module.toml
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "ocr"
 name        = "OCR — document text extraction"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "workload"
 category    = "ai"
 status      = "coming-soon"
diff --git a/plugins/podcast-ads/module.toml b/plugins/podcast-ads/module.toml
index bfd4bec1..ef07118b 100644
--- a/plugins/podcast-ads/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/podcast-ads/module.toml
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "podcast-ads"
 name        = "Podcast Ads — audio ad marketplace"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "service"
 category    = "applications"
 status      = "coming-soon"
diff --git a/plugins/podcasting/module.toml b/plugins/podcasting/module.toml
index 3e46a93b..4353052d 100644
--- a/plugins/podcasting/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/podcasting/module.toml
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "podcasting"
 name        = "Podcasting — p2p podcast publishing"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "service"
 category    = "media"
 status      = "coming-soon"
diff --git a/plugins/podcasts/module.toml b/plugins/podcasts/module.toml
index 8f313be3..9bfa3fee 100644
--- a/plugins/podcasts/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/podcasts/module.toml
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "podcasts"
 name        = "Podcasts — p2p podcast listener"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "service"
 category    = "media"
 status      = "coming-soon"
diff --git a/plugins/render/module.toml b/plugins/render/module.toml
index f84386b7..4aa247d2 100644
--- a/plugins/render/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/render/module.toml
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "render"
 name        = "Render — Blender 3D rendering"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "workload"
 category    = "media"
 status      = "coming-soon"
diff --git a/plugins/secure-chat/module.toml b/plugins/secure-chat/module.toml
index aa0df69a..e732fbaf 100644
--- a/plugins/secure-chat/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/secure-chat/module.toml
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "secure-chat"
 name        = "Secure Chat — E2E encrypted p2p messaging"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "service"
 category    = "applications"
 status      = "partial"
diff --git a/plugins/storage/module.toml b/plugins/storage/module.toml
index 22c86d22..f2b29942 100644
--- a/plugins/storage/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/storage/module.toml
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "storage"
 name        = "Storage — Reed-Solomon shard service"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "service"
 category    = "data"
 status      = "available"
diff --git a/plugins/train/module.toml b/plugins/train/module.toml
index 19b4517e..3ad1558d 100644
--- a/plugins/train/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/train/module.toml
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "train"
 name        = "Fine-tune — LoRA/QLoRA training"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "workload"
 category    = "ai"
 status      = "coming-soon"
diff --git a/plugins/transcode/module.toml b/plugins/transcode/module.toml
index 23c4e00e..29c02bba 100644
--- a/plugins/transcode/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/transcode/module.toml
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "transcode"
 name        = "FFmpeg Transcoding"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "workload"
 category    = "media"
 status      = "available"
diff --git a/plugins/tts/module.toml b/plugins/tts/module.toml
index 34de01f4..67cbf8ec 100644
--- a/plugins/tts/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/tts/module.toml
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "tts"
 name        = "TTS — text-to-speech"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "workload"
 category    = "ai"
 status      = "available"
diff --git a/plugins/video/module.toml b/plugins/video/module.toml
index 89a03a1e..7ef2321a 100644
--- a/plugins/video/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/video/module.toml
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "video"
 name        = "Video — generation (Wan 2.2, LTX-2.3 with audio)"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "workload"
 category    = "ai"
 status      = "partial"
diff --git a/plugins/webhook/module.toml b/plugins/webhook/module.toml
index 86f54d66..b630204f 100644
--- a/plugins/webhook/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/webhook/module.toml
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "webhook"
 name        = "Webhooks — paid, end-to-end encrypted delivery"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "workload"
 category    = "infrastructure"
 status      = "available"
diff --git a/plugins/whisper/module.toml b/plugins/whisper/module.toml
index 3dc34928..fb968530 100644
--- a/plugins/whisper/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/whisper/module.toml
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "whisper"
 name        = "Whisper — speech-to-text"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "workload"
 category    = "ai"
 status      = "available"
diff --git a/plugins/workflow-step/module.toml b/plugins/workflow-step/module.toml
index 818a0aae..49421db3 100644
--- a/plugins/workflow-step/module.toml
+++ b/plugins/workflow-step/module.toml
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 [module]
 id          = "workflow-step"
 name        = "Workflow step — webhook workflow steps (meshhook)"
-version     = "0.2.69"
+version     = "0.2.70"
 kind        = "workload"
 category    = "infrastructure"
 status      = "available"