diff --git a/cli/src/main/java/com/labwatcher/config/ConfigLoader.java b/cli/src/main/java/com/labwatcher/config/ConfigLoader.java
index 1ab3932..c1b350e 100644
--- a/cli/src/main/java/com/labwatcher/config/ConfigLoader.java
+++ b/cli/src/main/java/com/labwatcher/config/ConfigLoader.java
@@ -12,7 +12,11 @@
 /** Loads {@link AppConfig} from a TOML file with {@code ${VAR}} interpolation. */
 public final class ConfigLoader {
 
-    private static final Pattern VAR = Pattern.compile("\\$\\{([A-Z0-9_]+)}");
+    // Match POSIX-style env var names: letters (either case), digits and
+    // underscore, not starting with a digit. The previous uppercase-only
+    // pattern silently skipped lowercase vars like ${home} or ${my_token}.
+    private static final Pattern VAR =
+        Pattern.compile("\\$\\{([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*)}");
 
     private final Function<String, String> envLookup;
 
diff --git a/cli/src/main/java/com/labwatcher/dispatch/SlackDispatcher.java b/cli/src/main/java/com/labwatcher/dispatch/SlackDispatcher.java
index f83e88a..7d7380c 100644
--- a/cli/src/main/java/com/labwatcher/dispatch/SlackDispatcher.java
+++ b/cli/src/main/java/com/labwatcher/dispatch/SlackDispatcher.java
@@ -54,6 +54,12 @@ public boolean dispatch(FileSummary summary) {
             }
             LOG.error("slack: HTTP {} body={}", resp.statusCode(), resp.body());
             return false;
+        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
+            // Preserve interrupt status so the surrounding shutdown flow
+            // (FileProcessor's executor drain) can observe it and stop.
+            Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
+            LOG.warn("slack: dispatch interrupted");
+            return false;
         } catch (Exception e) {
             LOG.error("slack: dispatch failed: {}", e.getMessage());
             return false;
diff --git a/cli/src/main/java/com/labwatcher/state/SqliteStateRepository.java b/cli/src/main/java/com/labwatcher/state/SqliteStateRepository.java
index b0cd66a..e446490 100644
--- a/cli/src/main/java/com/labwatcher/state/SqliteStateRepository.java
+++ b/cli/src/main/java/com/labwatcher/state/SqliteStateRepository.java
@@ -112,8 +112,13 @@ public Optional<ProcessedFile> findByHash(String sha256) {
 
     @Override
     public List<ProcessedFile> recent(int limit) {
+        // processed_at is stored as second-precision ISO strings, so two
+        // files ingested in the same second would sort non-deterministically
+        // and could even be swapped between calls. Break ties on the
+        // monotonic primary key so recent() matches the dashboard's
+        // id-ordered `recent` query.
         final String sql = "SELECT * FROM processed_files "
-                         + "ORDER BY processed_at DESC LIMIT ?";
+                         + "ORDER BY processed_at DESC, id DESC LIMIT ?";
         try (PreparedStatement ps = conn.prepareStatement(sql)) {
             ps.setInt(1, limit);
             try (ResultSet rs = ps.executeQuery()) {
diff --git a/dashboard/src/routes/api.ts b/dashboard/src/routes/api.ts
index 2e2db67..fcf5134 100644
--- a/dashboard/src/routes/api.ts
+++ b/dashboard/src/routes/api.ts
@@ -11,8 +11,12 @@ export function apiRouter(db: StateDb): Router {
 
   r.get("/files/:id", (req, res) => {
     const id = Number(req.params.id);
-    if (!Number.isFinite(id)) {
-      res.status(400).json({ error: "id must be a number" });
+    // The SQLite primary key is a positive integer; reject fractional,
+    // negative, zero and non-numeric inputs up front instead of handing
+    // them to better-sqlite3 (which would coerce 1.5 -> 1 silently or
+    // throw for NaN).
+    if (!Number.isInteger(id) || id <= 0) {
+      res.status(400).json({ error: "id must be a positive integer" });
       return;
     }
     const row = db.byId(id);
diff --git a/engine/src/validator.cpp b/engine/src/validator.cpp
index cc6dced..f6db605 100644
--- a/engine/src/validator.cpp
+++ b/engine/src/validator.cpp
@@ -119,6 +119,18 @@ ValidationReport validate(const ParseResult& parsed, const SchemaSpec& schema) {
                         ", got: " + cell));
                     continue;
                 }
+                if (col.type == ColumnType::INTEGER) {
+                    // strtod happily accepts "1.5" / "1e-3" / NaN / Inf for
+                    // an INTEGER column; reject any value that isn't a
+                    // finite integral number.
+                    double int_part;
+                    if (!std::isfinite(v) || std::modf(v, &int_part) != 0.0) {
+                        report.errors.push_back(make_err(line, col.name,
+                            ErrorCode::TYPE_MISMATCH, Severity::ERROR_,
+                            "expected integer, got: " + cell));
+                        continue;
+                    }
+                }
                 if (col.min_value && v < *col.min_value) {
                     std::ostringstream m;
                     m << "value " << v << " below min " << *col.min_value;