diff --git a/Backend/src/plugin_runtime/node_instance.rs b/Backend/src/plugin_runtime/node_instance.rs
index 0fa5156..8a9ef87 100644
--- a/Backend/src/plugin_runtime/node_instance.rs
+++ b/Backend/src/plugin_runtime/node_instance.rs
@@ -78,7 +78,12 @@ impl NodeRpcProcess {
         self.next_request_id = self
             .next_request_id
             .checked_add(1)
-            .ok_or_else(|| "rpc request id overflow".to_string())?;
+            .ok_or_else(|| {
+                format!(
+                    "plugin '{}' exhausted RPC request IDs after {} calls; restart of plugin runtime required",
+                    plugin_id, request_id
+                )
+            })?;
 
         let request = RpcRequest {
             jsonrpc: "2.0".to_string(),
@@ -536,7 +541,13 @@ impl NodePluginRuntimeInstance {
         let config_value = if config.is_empty() {
             Value::Object(serde_json::Map::new())
         } else {
-            serde_json::from_slice(config).unwrap_or_else(|_| Value::Object(serde_json::Map::new()))
+            match serde_json::from_slice(config) {
+                Ok(v) => v,
+                Err(e) => {
+                    log::warn!("Failed to parse VCS open config as JSON, using empty object instead: {}", e);
+                    Value::Object(serde_json::Map::new())
+                }
+            }
         };
         let result: OpenSessionResponse = self.rpc_call(
             Methods::VCS_OPEN,