Quick Answer

Docker queue worker container dies randomly? Exit code 137 = OOM kill. Exit code 143 = SIGTERM not handled. Run docker inspect to confirm which one.
Supervisor Docker container exits unexpectedly? Your supervisord.conf is missing autorestart=true. One worker crash takes down the whole container.
SaaS billing problems killing your queue? Stripe and Paddle webhooks in 2026 time out at 30s. If your worker waits without a timeout ceiling, it hangs then dies.
Claude API enterprise integration challenges? Rate limits and 529 Overloaded responses inside queue workers cause uncaught exceptions that exit the container silently.

Docker Queue Worker Container Exits Randomly — SaaS Billing, Payment Gateway & Claude API Fix 2026

Whether it's a supervisor crash, an OOM kill, or a payment gateway API timeout hanging your job loop — these are solvable problems. I'm in Encinitas, North County San Diego, and I'll tell you the exact fix in one text.

Text PJ the error — 858-461-8054

Most questions answered in one text. Free. No pitch. Just the fix.

What People Are Searching (And Why This Page Exists)

Why does my Docker queue worker container exit randomly or unexpectedly in 2026?
How do I fix a supervisor Docker container that keeps exiting with a queue worker?
What are the main SaaS billing problems causing queue failures in 2025 / 2026?
Why is my payment gateway integration timing out inside a Dockerized worker?
Claude API enterprise integration challenges — what breaks inside background job containers?
How do I keep a Docker queue worker alive when a third-party API is slow?
What does Docker exit code 137 mean for a queue worker?

Six Fix Cards — Real Answers

Exit Code 137 — OOM Kill

Exit code 137 means the Linux kernel killed your process. Confirm it:

docker inspect <id> --format='{{.State.OOMKilled}}'
If true: set --memory=512m or raise the limit
Watch live with docker stats
Add --max-jobs=50 to Laravel/PHP worker to limit memory growth

Supervisor Container Exits Randomly

supervisord exits the container if a child process dies and autorestart isn't set. Fix your supervisord.conf:

autorestart=true
startretries=10
stopwaitsecs=60
Run as PID 1: CMD ["/usr/bin/supervisord","-n"]

SaaS Billing Problems Killing Your Queue

Stripe, Paddle, and Recurly calls that hang cause queue workers to stall until Docker's health check kills them. SaaS billing problems in 2026 are mostly retry storms with no ceiling. Fix:

Set timeout=20 on every billing API call
Catch ConnectionError and push to a retry queue
Add exponential backoff — never raw retry loops

Payment Gateway Problems in Docker

Payment gateway DNS failures inside containers aren't code bugs — they're container networking issues. Check:

docker exec <worker> curl https://api.stripe.com
Add --dns 8.8.8.8 to your run command
Mount certs: -v /etc/ssl/certs:/etc/ssl/certs:ro
Add extra_hosts in compose if behind a proxy

Claude API Enterprise Integration Challenges

Claude API calls inside Docker workers fail silently on rate limits. Enterprise integration challenges in 2026 come from no retry logic on error responses. Fix:

Catch 529 Overloaded — sleep and retry with backoff
Set a hard timeout=60 on streaming calls
Push failed jobs to dead-letter queue, not /dev/null
Log the full response body on non-200 status

SIGTERM Not Handled — Graceful Shutdown

Docker sends SIGTERM when you scale down or redeploy. If your worker ignores it, Docker waits 10 seconds then sends SIGKILL — exit code 137. Fix:

Trap SIGTERM in your worker entry point
Add to compose: stop_grace_period: 60s
Or: --stop-timeout=60 on docker run
Finish the current job before exiting — never mid-job

One text. Real answer. No fluff.

Send me your exit code, your stack (Laravel, Python, Node, whatever), and the last three lines of your logs. I'll tell you the fix — usually in under five minutes.

Text PJ — 858-461-8054

⭐ Helpful? Leave PJ a Google review — takes 30 seconds.