diff --git a/bin/rclaude b/bin/rclaude
index 375b63d..0bc63ad 100755
--- a/bin/rclaude
+++ b/bin/rclaude
@@ -212,9 +212,27 @@ if is_local "$host"; then
         echo "rclaude: tmux not installed locally — install via 'brew install tmux' (macOS) or your package manager" >&2
         exit 1
     fi
-    cd "$dir"
+    if ! cd "$dir" 2>/dev/null; then
+        echo "rclaude: local directory not found: $dir" >&2
+        exit 1
+    fi
     exec tmux new-session -A -s "$session" "exec claude --continue ${flag}"
 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).
+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
+        *@proj/*|*@apps/*|*@pkg/*)
+            echo "  hint: '@proj/@apps/@pkg' are Claude-instruction aliases, not real shell paths." >&2
+            echo "  See ~/.claude/instructions/project-paths.md for the real ~/Code/<bucket>/<project> mapping." >&2
+            ;;
+    esac
+    exit 1
+fi
+
 inner="cd ${dir} && exec claude --continue ${flag}"
 exec ssh -t "$host" "tmux new-session -A -s '${session}' \"${inner}\""