diff --git a/browse/src/error-handling.ts b/browse/src/error-handling.ts
index 3be921fa2..90bfb17f2 100644
--- a/browse/src/error-handling.ts
+++ b/browse/src/error-handling.ts
@@ -36,7 +36,15 @@ export function safeKill(pid: number, signal: NodeJS.Signals | number): void {
   }
 }
 
-/** Check if a PID is alive. Pure boolean probe — returns false for ALL errors. */
+/**
+ * Check if a PID is alive. Pure boolean probe — never throws.
+ *
+ * EPERM means the process EXISTS but we lack rights to signal it. That is
+ * alive — returning false there makes callers that validate liveness before
+ * killing (killAgentByRecord, the terminal-agent watchdog) skip the kill and
+ * respawn around a survivor, leaking one process per watchdog tick (#2414,
+ * #2295).
+ */
 export function isProcessAlive(pid: number): boolean {
   if (IS_WINDOWS) {
     try {
@@ -52,7 +60,7 @@ export function isProcessAlive(pid: number): boolean {
   try {
     process.kill(pid, 0);
     return true;
-  } catch {
-    return false;
+  } catch (err: any) {
+    return err?.code === 'EPERM';
   }
 }
diff --git a/test/egress-lib.test.ts b/test/egress-lib.test.ts
index 2cfb51c45..faa0f63b7 100644
--- a/test/egress-lib.test.ts
+++ b/test/egress-lib.test.ts
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ import * as os from 'os';
 import * as path from 'path';
 import { listReceipts, sha256Hex } from '../lib/egress-receipt';
 
-const ROOT = path.resolve(new URL(import.meta.url).pathname, '..', '..');
+const ROOT = path.resolve(import.meta.path, '..', '..');
 const LIB = path.join(ROOT, 'bin', 'gstack-egress-lib.sh');
 
 const received: string[] = [];
diff --git a/test/egress-receipt-wiring.test.ts b/test/egress-receipt-wiring.test.ts
index 484a1e1ff..0ac0ae67e 100644
--- a/test/egress-receipt-wiring.test.ts
+++ b/test/egress-receipt-wiring.test.ts
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ import { describe, test, expect } from 'bun:test';
 import * as fs from 'fs';
 import * as path from 'path';
 
-const ROOT = path.resolve(new URL(import.meta.url).pathname, '..', '..');
+const ROOT = path.resolve(import.meta.path, '..', '..');
 
 function read(rel: string): string {
   return fs.readFileSync(path.join(ROOT, rel), 'utf-8');
diff --git a/test/egress-receipt.test.ts b/test/egress-receipt.test.ts
index 64e6f3928..233d7695d 100644
--- a/test/egress-receipt.test.ts
+++ b/test/egress-receipt.test.ts
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ import {
   writeReceipt,
 } from '../lib/egress-receipt';
 
-const ROOT = path.resolve(new URL(import.meta.url).pathname, '..', '..');
+const ROOT = path.resolve(import.meta.path, '..', '..');
 
 let home: string;
 
diff --git a/test/gstack-egress-cli.test.ts b/test/gstack-egress-cli.test.ts
index 4881de80f..6d9f19f8d 100644
--- a/test/gstack-egress-cli.test.ts
+++ b/test/gstack-egress-cli.test.ts
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ import {
   writeReceipt,
 } from '../lib/egress-receipt';
 
-const ROOT = path.resolve(new URL(import.meta.url).pathname, '..', '..');
+const ROOT = path.resolve(import.meta.path, '..', '..');
 const BIN = path.join(ROOT, 'bin', 'gstack-egress');
 
 let home: string;
diff --git a/test/pty-skill-seeding-wiring.test.ts b/test/pty-skill-seeding-wiring.test.ts
index 01f5999ce..bd715a9b4 100644
--- a/test/pty-skill-seeding-wiring.test.ts
+++ b/test/pty-skill-seeding-wiring.test.ts
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ import { describe, test, expect } from 'bun:test';
 import * as fs from 'fs';
 import * as path from 'path';
 
-const ROOT = path.resolve(new URL(import.meta.url).pathname, '..', '..');
+const ROOT = path.resolve(import.meta.path, '..', '..');
 
 /** A PTY send whose payload starts with a slash command (`/name`, optionally
  * followed by `\r`, whitespace, or the closing quote). A second slash right
diff --git a/test/skill-census.test.ts b/test/skill-census.test.ts
index b9bb21578..f2ea7e5c8 100644
--- a/test/skill-census.test.ts
+++ b/test/skill-census.test.ts
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ import * as fs from 'fs';
 import * as path from 'path';
 import { frontmatterName, skillCensus } from './helpers/skill-census';
 
-const ROOT = path.resolve(new URL(import.meta.url).pathname, '..', '..');
+const ROOT = path.resolve(import.meta.path, '..', '..');
 const census = skillCensus(ROOT);
 
 describe('skillCensus', () => {