diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 7c7504bcd..38f335970 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ The first two rows are the ones to care about: a review that read nothing, or fo
 - **Non-Claude hosts.** Later skill blocks lost `$GSTACK_*`, `$B` and `$D` and ran `/bin/gstack-...` (#1159). Codex skipped the symlinked router. design/dist and make-pdf/dist were missing from runtime roots (#2891). /ship and /plan-ceo-review overflowed the 160 KB host limit. The OpenCode `/gstack-review` command loaded nothing (#2651). `/browse` disappeared after toggling `skill_prefix` (#2263). Section files linked to checkout copies instead of rendered ones (#2707). skillify pointed at Claude's install on every host. /gstack-upgrade could run git cleanup in your own project when its path variable was unset.
 - **Design.** A design binary killed at launch reported `DESIGN_READY`. /design-consultation and /design-shotgun never loaded your taste profile. Plan reviews read a root DESIGN.md as the feature's design doc (#2840).
 - **/ship, /review and daily tools.** /ship stopped in versionless repos and monorepos (#2334, #2343). The plan audit picked an unrelated plan (#2797). Worktrees split project state (#2792). Learnings search exited 0 without Bun (#2794) and ranked poorly (#2796, #2799). Logs ignored `$TMPDIR` in sandboxed shells (#2952). /plan-tune said "calibrated" with no signals. /setup-deploy printed part of the Render API key (#1096). /analytics durations read 0s (#1728). Rejected taste preferences used the wrong confidence bucket (#1777). /context-save duration was empty on Linux (#2704). /retro missed pytest, minitest, XCTest, Terraform and Bats tests and counted build output (#2812, #2809, #2037). Plan reviews now treat design docs and handoff notes as data (#2818).
-- **Browser.** Browse failed behind `HTTP_PROXY` (#494). Headless browse and make-pdf ignored `GSTACK_CHROMIUM_PATH` (#2771, #1968, #1633); extensions opened a window (#2281). `prettyscreenshot --hide ... out.png` wrote elsewhere (#1419). Stopping the browse daemon took over 5 seconds because every Chromium close waited out its timeout; it now takes about 0.1 s, and a closed headed display no longer waits a second on its own exit. Two browse daemons going headed at the same moment could pick the same free X display, and the loser failed the handoff; it now takes the next free display. `gstack-ios-qa-daemon --help` started the daemon (#1932). Aside in `~/.local/bin` was not found (#2965).
+- **Browser.** Browse failed behind `HTTP_PROXY` (#494). Headless browse and make-pdf ignored `GSTACK_CHROMIUM_PATH` (#2771, #1968, #1633); extensions opened a window (#2281). `prettyscreenshot --hide ... out.png` wrote elsewhere (#1419). Stopping the browse daemon took over 5 seconds because every Chromium close waited out its timeout; it now takes about 0.1 s, and a closed headed display no longer waits a second on its own exit. Two browse daemons going headed at the same moment could pick the same free X display, and the loser failed the handoff; it now takes the next free display, and an Xvfb that fails to start reports its own error. `gstack-ios-qa-daemon --help` started the daemon (#1932). Aside in `~/.local/bin` was not found (#2965).
 - **Windows.** /freeze, /guard and /investigate denied every edit and their hooks failed under cmd.exe (#2876, #2354). Generators crashed with EEXIST (#2329). The node-server bundle inlined sharp and socks (#2260), and a minimal install needed `browse/src/server.ts` (#2439). The /cso helper failed on the current SDK and was reported as "install Visual Studio" (#3015). `gstack-config gbrain-refresh` misread status (#1981).
 - **Redaction.** Diagram and vector files flagged as phone and card numbers (#2885, #2827); function calls assigned to `session`/`token` (#2899); `<name>.local.<ext>` config filenames (#2962); four-part versions (#2784); `postgres:postgres@localhost` (#2913).
 - **Plan reviews.** /plan-eng-review writes its QA test plan even while some test choices are still pending, and its findings enter only through Scope Challenge C's saves. /qa-only's test value card no longer points at /qa's record step. /plan-ceo-review says what its closing cleanup does (old CEO plans are archived only with your approval).
diff --git a/browse/src/xvfb.ts b/browse/src/xvfb.ts
index b58bea94f..48cc5d6f8 100644
--- a/browse/src/xvfb.ts
+++ b/browse/src/xvfb.ts
@@ -188,12 +188,34 @@ export async function spawnXvfb(displayNum: number): Promise<XvfbHandle> {
 
   // Spawn detached: Xvfb's lifetime is tied to whether we've explicitly
   // killed it via the handle's close() method, not to the parent process.
-  const proc = Bun.spawn(['Xvfb', display, '-screen', '0', '1920x1080x24', '-ac'], {
-    windowsHide: true,
-    stdio: ['ignore', 'ignore', 'ignore'],
-  });
+  // Startup stderr goes to a private file: a holder that takes the display and
+  // exits before we look leaves no lock behind, only Xvfb's own message.
+  const stderrDir = fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'gstack-xvfb-'));
+  const stderrPath = path.join(stderrDir, 'stderr.log');
+  const stderrFd = fs.openSync(stderrPath, 'w', 0o600);
+  let proc: ReturnType<typeof Bun.spawn>;
+  try {
+    proc = Bun.spawn(['Xvfb', display, '-screen', '0', '1920x1080x24', '-ac'], {
+      windowsHide: true,
+      stdio: ['ignore', 'ignore', stderrFd],
+    });
+  } catch (err) {
+    fs.rmSync(stderrDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    throw err;
+  } finally {
+    fs.closeSync(stderrFd);
+  }
   proc.unref();
   const startTime = readPidStartTime(proc.pid);
+  try {
+    return await awaitXvfbReady(proc, displayNum, startTime, stderrPath);
+  } finally {
+    fs.rmSync(stderrDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  }
+}
+
+async function awaitXvfbReady(proc: ReturnType<typeof Bun.spawn>, displayNum: number, startTime: string, stderrPath: string): Promise<XvfbHandle> {
+  const display = `:${displayNum}`;
 
   // Wait for the X server to become reachable — Xvfb takes a few hundred ms
   // to bind. Probe via xdpyinfo with retries.
@@ -203,8 +225,13 @@ export async function spawnXvfb(displayNum: number): Promise<XvfbHandle> {
     await Bun.sleep(100);
     // If Xvfb crashed during startup, fail fast.
     if (proc.exitCode != null) {
-      if (!isDisplayFree(displayNum)) throw new XvfbDisplayTakenError(`X display ${display} was reserved by another X server during startup`);
-      throw new Error(`Xvfb on ${display} exited during startup (code ${proc.exitCode}). Hint: install xvfb (apt-get install xvfb / yum install xorg-x11-server-Xvfb).`);
+      let stderr = '';
+      try { stderr = fs.readFileSync(stderrPath, 'utf8'); } catch {}
+      if (!isDisplayFree(displayNum) || /Server is already active for display/.test(stderr)) {
+        throw new XvfbDisplayTakenError(`X display ${display} was reserved by another X server during startup`);
+      }
+      const fatal = stderr.split('\n').map(line => line.replace(/^\(EE\)\s*/, '').trim()).filter(Boolean).slice(-3).join(' ');
+      throw new Error(`Xvfb on ${display} exited during startup (code ${proc.exitCode})${fatal ? `: ${fatal}` : ''}. Hint: install xvfb (apt-get install xvfb / yum install xorg-x11-server-Xvfb).`);
     }
     let ownsLock = false;
     try { ownsLock = Number(fs.readFileSync(`/tmp/.X${displayNum}-lock`, 'utf8').trim()) === proc.pid; } catch {}
diff --git a/browse/test/xvfb.test.ts b/browse/test/xvfb.test.ts
index efccf2d8e..047468673 100644
--- a/browse/test/xvfb.test.ts
+++ b/browse/test/xvfb.test.ts
@@ -261,6 +261,33 @@ describe.skipIf(process.platform !== 'linux')('display allocation failure contro
     }
   });
 
+  test.skipIf(!HAS_XVFB)('a display whose short-lived holder is gone by the exit check still counts as taken', async () => {
+    const root = fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'gstack-xvfb-gone-'));
+    const realXvfb = Bun.which('Xvfb')!;
+    const first = pickFreeDisplay(26000, 26100);
+    expect(first).not.toBeNull();
+    // Run 10 (1ffd38e): another test's Xvfb held the display just long enough
+    // to win the lock, then closed before the exit check looked for it.
+    fs.writeFileSync(path.join(root, 'Xvfb'), [
+      '#!/bin/sh',
+      `if [ "$1" = ":${first}" ]; then printf '(EE) Server is already active for display ${first}\\n' >&2; exit 1; fi`,
+      `exec ${JSON.stringify(realXvfb)} "$@"`, '',
+    ].join('\n'), { mode: 0o755 });
+    try {
+      const child = Bun.spawn([process.execPath, '-e', `
+        import { spawnFreeXvfb } from ${JSON.stringify(path.resolve(import.meta.dir, '../src/xvfb.ts'))};
+        try { const handle = await spawnFreeXvfb(${first}, ${first! + 3}); console.log(handle.display); handle.close(); }
+        catch (err) { console.log(err.message); }
+      `], { env: { ...process.env, PATH: `${root}:${process.env.PATH}` }, stdout: 'pipe', stderr: 'pipe', timeout: 20000 });
+      const [stdout, exitCode] = await Promise.all([new Response(child.stdout).text(), child.exited]);
+      expect(exitCode).toBe(0);
+      expect(stdout.trim()).toBe(`:${first! + 1}`);
+      expect(isDisplayFree(first!)).toBe(true);
+    } finally {
+      fs.rmSync(root, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    }
+  }, 30000);
+
   test.skipIf(!HAS_XVFB)('concurrent allocators that pick the same display both get one', async () => {
     const root = fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'gstack-xvfb-race-'));
     const realXvfb = Bun.which('Xvfb')!;