diff --git a/supervisor/src/docker.ts b/supervisor/src/docker.ts
index 6938bb954..daf2ecde4 100644
--- a/supervisor/src/docker.ts
+++ b/supervisor/src/docker.ts
@@ -308,7 +308,19 @@ export type EnsureOptions = {
    * a test that wants an answer in seconds.
    */
   readyTimeoutMs?: number;
-  pidsLimit?: number;
+  /**
+   * A ceiling on the container's own process count. Defaults to 512 when left unset.
+   *
+   * Explicit `null` omits the field entirely rather than falling back to the default — for a
+   * host whose Docker daemon cannot register a PID cgroup limit at all (a rootless daemon whose
+   * systemd cgroup driver cannot complete a scope registration is a known case: creation fails
+   * with an OCI runtime error before the computer ever starts, not a soft degradation). Losing
+   * this control on such a host is a real reduction in defense-in-depth, not a free choice — a
+   * deployment disabling it is expected to compensate elsewhere (run timeouts, per-run
+   * concurrency ceilings, a watchdog that kills leaked containers, host-level process-count
+   * alerting), not merely to make computer creation succeed.
+   */
+  pidsLimit?: number | null;
   /**
    * The volume holding the SPIRE agent's Workload API socket, mounted read-only into each computer
    * so it can ask what it is. Unset means no identity, which is a deployment choice rather than a
@@ -361,7 +373,9 @@ function hostConfig(names: ComputerNames, options: EnsureOptions) {
     CapDrop: ["ALL"],
     // A runaway Bot is a resource problem for itself, not for every other Bot on the host.
     ...(options.memoryBytes ? { Memory: options.memoryBytes } : {}),
-    PidsLimit: options.pidsLimit ?? 512,
+    ...(options.pidsLimit === null
+      ? {}
+      : { PidsLimit: options.pidsLimit ?? 512 }),
     // Chromium's sandbox wants shared memory and will crash on the 64MB default.
     ShmSize: 1_073_741_824,
   };
diff --git a/supervisor/src/index.ts b/supervisor/src/index.ts
index 41fc2e08c..5953031f1 100644
--- a/supervisor/src/index.ts
+++ b/supervisor/src/index.ts
@@ -57,6 +57,19 @@ const runtime = process.env.COMPUTER_RUNTIME;
 const memoryBytes = process.env.COMPUTER_MEMORY_BYTES
   ? Number.parseInt(process.env.COMPUTER_MEMORY_BYTES, 10)
   : undefined;
+/**
+ * Unset (the variable absent) leaves the 512 default in `docker.ts`. Set to the literal empty
+ * string, it means "this daemon cannot honour a PID limit" and is passed through as `null`,
+ * which omits the field from the container's HostConfig entirely rather than failing creation —
+ * see the `pidsLimit` doc comment in `docker.ts` for what a deployment must compensate with
+ * before disabling this.
+ */
+const pidsLimit =
+  process.env.COMPUTER_PIDS_LIMIT === ""
+    ? null
+    : process.env.COMPUTER_PIDS_LIMIT
+      ? Number.parseInt(process.env.COMPUTER_PIDS_LIMIT, 10)
+      : undefined;
 const spireSocketVolume = process.env.SPIRE_AGENT_SOCKET_VOLUME;
 
 /**
@@ -127,6 +140,7 @@ app.post("/computers/:botId/ensure", async (context) => {
       ...(network ? { network } : {}),
       ...(runtime ? { runtime } : {}),
       ...(memoryBytes ? { memoryBytes } : {}),
+      ...(pidsLimit === undefined ? {} : { pidsLimit }),
       ...(spireSocketVolume ? { spireSocketVolume } : {}),
     });
     return context.json({
diff --git a/supervisor/tests/docker.integration.test.ts b/supervisor/tests/docker.integration.test.ts
index 57653c1ee..67ea46d4d 100644
--- a/supervisor/tests/docker.integration.test.ts
+++ b/supervisor/tests/docker.integration.test.ts
@@ -157,6 +157,46 @@ describe.skipIf(runtime === null)("a computer that never answers", () => {
   }, 90_000);
 });
 
+describe.skipIf(runtime === null)(
+  "the PID limit a computer is created with",
+  () => {
+    /*
+     * A rootless Docker daemon whose systemd cgroup driver cannot register a scope for a PID
+     * limit fails container creation outright — an OCI runtime error, not a soft degradation
+     * (found running this supervisor against a rootless enclave, #20). `pidsLimit: null` is the
+     * escape hatch: omit the field so creation does not depend on that cgroup path at all, rather
+     * than silently keep asking for a limit the daemon cannot grant.
+     */
+    test("defaults to 512", async () => {
+      await withDocker().supervisor.ensure(names, {
+        image: IMAGE,
+        environment: [],
+      });
+
+      const info = await withDocker()
+        .docker.getContainer(names.container)
+        .inspect();
+      expect(info.HostConfig?.PidsLimit).toBe(512);
+    }, 90_000);
+
+    test("explicit null omits it rather than falling back to the default", async () => {
+      await withDocker().supervisor.ensure(names, {
+        image: IMAGE,
+        environment: [],
+        pidsLimit: null,
+      });
+
+      const info = await withDocker()
+        .docker.getContainer(names.container)
+        .inspect();
+      // "No limit configured", not the 512 default — this daemon reports that as `null` rather
+      // than `0`, which is itself daemon-version-dependent, so the assertion is on the absence of
+      // a limit rather than pinning a specific sentinel value.
+      expect(info.HostConfig?.PidsLimit).toBeFalsy();
+    }, 90_000);
+  },
+);
+
 describe.skipIf(runtime === null)(
   "a computer built from an older image",
   () => {