diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index e7678a62..41ece0ce 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -4088,6 +4088,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "futures",
  "homedir",
  "ignore",
+ "libc",
  "libsqlite3-sys",
  "matrix-sdk",
  "mime_guess",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 1adad894..b3263f9f 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -40,3 +40,4 @@ pulldown-cmark = { version = "0.13.3", default-features = false, features = [
     "html",
 ] }
 regex = "1"
+libc = "0.2"
diff --git a/server/Cargo.toml b/server/Cargo.toml
index 1b51db48..bb3608b7 100644
--- a/server/Cargo.toml
+++ b/server/Cargo.toml
@@ -38,6 +38,9 @@ regex = { workspace = true }
 libsqlite3-sys = { version = "0.35.0", features = ["bundled"] }
 wait-timeout = "0.2.1"
 
+[target.'cfg(unix)'.dependencies]
+libc = { workspace = true }
+
 [dev-dependencies]
 tempfile = { workspace = true }
 tokio-tungstenite = { workspace = true }
diff --git a/server/src/main.rs b/server/src/main.rs
index d957c081..a35037c4 100644
--- a/server/src/main.rs
+++ b/server/src/main.rs
@@ -124,6 +124,19 @@ fn resolve_path_arg(path_str: Option<&str>, cwd: &std::path::Path) -> Option<Pat
 
 #[tokio::main]
 async fn main() -> Result<(), std::io::Error> {
+    // Reap zombie grandchildren on Unix (for native deployments without tini/init).
+    // Docker containers with `init: true` in docker-compose.yml already have tini
+    // as PID 1 for this. For native macOS/Linux, poll waitpid(-1, WNOHANG) in a
+    // background thread so orphaned grandchildren don't accumulate as zombies.
+    #[cfg(unix)]
+    std::thread::spawn(|| loop {
+        // SAFETY: waitpid(-1, ...) with WNOHANG is always safe to call.
+        unsafe {
+            while libc::waitpid(-1, std::ptr::null_mut(), libc::WNOHANG) > 0 {}
+        }
+        std::thread::sleep(std::time::Duration::from_secs(5));
+    });
+
     let app_state = Arc::new(SessionState::default());
     let cwd = std::env::current_dir().unwrap_or_else(|_| PathBuf::from("."));
     let store = Arc::new(