diff --git a/server/src/agents/pool/start/spawn.rs b/server/src/agents/pool/start/spawn.rs
index 43238e64..946d6b24 100644
--- a/server/src/agents/pool/start/spawn.rs
+++ b/server/src/agents/pool/start/spawn.rs
@@ -463,10 +463,19 @@ pub(super) async fn run_agent_spawn(
                         reason,
                     });
                 } else {
+                    // Prune session_store entries for this story so the next
+                    // spawn starts cold (no `--resume` flag). The crash likely
+                    // came from claude-code choking on the bloated stdio
+                    // replay; resuming again would re-trigger the same abort.
+                    crate::agents::session_store::remove_sessions_for_story(
+                        &project_root_clone,
+                        &sid,
+                    );
                     slog!(
                         "[agents] CLI crashed before session for '{sid}:{aname}' \
                          (abort respawn {count}/{ABORT_RESPAWN_CAP}). \
-                         Respawning without consuming a retry slot."
+                         Pruned session_store and respawning cold without \
+                         consuming a retry slot."
                     );
                     let agents_for_respawn = Arc::clone(&agents_ref);
                     let watcher_for_respawn = watcher_tx_clone.clone();
diff --git a/server/src/agents/session_store.rs b/server/src/agents/session_store.rs
index 0a3f2c03..717e556f 100644
--- a/server/src/agents/session_store.rs
+++ b/server/src/agents/session_store.rs
@@ -73,8 +73,12 @@ pub fn lookup_session(
     read_store(project_root).get(&key).cloned()
 }
 
-/// Remove all session entries for a story (called when a story reaches done/archived).
-#[cfg(test)]
+/// Remove all session entries for a story.
+///
+/// Called when the story reaches done/archived, OR when claude-code keeps
+/// crashing on session resume — in the latter case the next spawn must start
+/// cold (no `--resume` flag) so the bloated stdio replay doesn't re-trigger
+/// the same abort. See bug 882 follow-up.
 pub fn remove_sessions_for_story(project_root: &Path, story_id: &str) {
     let mut data = read_store(project_root);
     let prefix = format!("{story_id}:");