diff --git a/fleetd/src/main/java/dev/ltms/fleet/member/HerdrPeerLauncher.java b/fleetd/src/main/java/dev/ltms/fleet/member/HerdrPeerLauncher.java
index 8e9fe6c..a4fd26b 100644
--- a/fleetd/src/main/java/dev/ltms/fleet/member/HerdrPeerLauncher.java
+++ b/fleetd/src/main/java/dev/ltms/fleet/member/HerdrPeerLauncher.java
@@ -947,7 +947,14 @@ public abstract class HerdrPeerLauncher implements PeerLauncher {
             // person can go close by hand.
             try {
                 spaces.closeTab(loc.tabId());
-            } catch (HerdrException e) {
+            } catch (RuntimeException e) {
+                // Caught as RuntimeException, not HerdrException, to match releaseZdotdir's own
+                // guard five lines below. Today the two are the same set — HerdrCodec wraps every
+                // encode/decode failure and UnixSocketHerdrClient wraps every IOException, so
+                // HerdrException is all closeTab can actually throw. Narrowing to it anyway would
+                // leave this step guarded against the expected failure and bare against any other,
+                // which is the exact asymmetry fleetd #293 exists to remove. No behaviour change
+                // today; it stops a later change inside WorkspaceControl.closeTab reopening it.
                 log.warn("tab.close({}) failed — the pane is already torn down, so continuing; the "
                         + "tab may need manual cleanup: {}", loc.tabId(), e.getMessage());
             }