diff --git a/bin/rclaude b/bin/rclaude
index 0bc63ad..d2ec117 100755
--- a/bin/rclaude
+++ b/bin/rclaude
@@ -207,6 +207,24 @@ case $perms in
     *)      flag="--permission-mode $perms" ;;
 esac
 
+# Inner command for the tmux pane. If claude exits nonzero OR ends in under
+# 2 seconds (usually a misconfig: missing dir, locked session, crashed
+# claude), the pane stays open with the exit code visible instead of
+# silently dying and dragging the whole tmux session + ssh transport down
+# with it. A real interactive session lasts much longer than 2s, so a clean
+# /exit closes the pane normally.
+build_inner() {
+    # Single-line, single-quote-safe. Variables prefixed with rc_ to avoid
+    # collision with anything in the user's shell.
+    printf '%s' \
+        "cd ${1} && rc_t=\$(date +%s); claude --continue ${flag}; rc_ec=\$?; " \
+        "rc_e=\$(date +%s); rc_d=\$((rc_e - rc_t)); " \
+        "if [ \$rc_ec -ne 0 ] || [ \$rc_d -lt 2 ]; then " \
+        "printf '\\n[rclaude] claude exited in %ds with code %d\\n' \$rc_d \$rc_ec; " \
+        "printf '[rclaude] press enter to close pane (or Ctrl-b d to detach)... '; " \
+        "read rc_; fi"
+}
+
 if is_local "$host"; then
     if ! command -v tmux >/dev/null 2>&1; then
         echo "rclaude: tmux not installed locally — install via 'brew install tmux' (macOS) or your package manager" >&2
@@ -216,13 +234,12 @@ if is_local "$host"; then
         echo "rclaude: local directory not found: $dir" >&2
         exit 1
     fi
-    exec tmux new-session -A -s "$session" "exec claude --continue ${flag}"
+    exec tmux new-session -A -s "$session" "$(build_inner "$dir")"
 fi
 
-# Remote: pre-flight the directory on the remote host so a typo or missing
-# path fails loudly here instead of silently killing the tmux pane and
-# closing the ssh transport (which looks like a generic "connection closed"
-# error to the user).
+# Remote: pre-flight the directory so a typo or missing path fails loudly
+# here instead of silently killing the tmux pane and closing the ssh
+# transport (which looks like a generic 'Connection closed' to the user).
 if ! ssh -o BatchMode=yes -o ConnectTimeout=5 "$host" "test -d ${dir}" 2>/dev/null; then
     echo "rclaude: directory not found on $host: $dir" >&2
     case $dir in
@@ -234,5 +251,5 @@ if ! ssh -o BatchMode=yes -o ConnectTimeout=5 "$host" "test -d ${dir}" 2>/dev/nu
     exit 1
 fi
 
-inner="cd ${dir} && exec claude --continue ${flag}"
+inner=$(build_inner "$dir")
 exec ssh -t "$host" "tmux new-session -A -s '${session}' \"${inner}\""