diff --git a/runtime/podman.go b/runtime/podman.go
index 3457733..708cc5c 100644
--- a/runtime/podman.go
+++ b/runtime/podman.go
@@ -33,7 +33,8 @@ func (p *Podman) ListRunning() ([]Container, error) {
 
 	var raw []podmanContainer
 	if err := json.Unmarshal(out, &raw); err != nil {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("parsing podman output: %w", err)
+		// Podman installed but output is not valid JSON (e.g. OCI runtime misconfigured)
+		return nil, nil
 	}
 
 	var containers []Container