diff --git a/internal/cli/cli.go b/internal/cli/cli.go
index 6652587..24ace50 100644
--- a/internal/cli/cli.go
+++ b/internal/cli/cli.go
@@ -596,7 +596,7 @@ func execFork(ctx context.Context, src session.Source, model string, stdin io.Re
 	cmd.Stdin = stdin
 	cmd.Stdout = stdout
 	cmd.Stderr = stderr
-	return cmd.Run()
+	return launchError(cmd.Run())
 }
 
 type intoRunner func(ctx context.Context, name string, args []string, stdin io.Reader, stdout, stderr io.Writer) error
@@ -608,7 +608,35 @@ func execInto(ctx context.Context, name string, args []string, stdin io.Reader,
 	cmd.Stdin = stdin
 	cmd.Stdout = stdout
 	cmd.Stderr = stderr
-	return cmd.Run()
+	return launchError(cmd.Run())
+}
+
+// ExitError is a launched agent's own exit status on its way out to main,
+// which exits with the same number.
+//
+// A fork hands the terminal to another program, so that program's failure is
+// not catchup's: it has already printed whatever it wanted to say, and the
+// only thing left to carry is the code a caller's script reads. Reporting it
+// as a catchup error instead — the "exit status 3" line this replaces, on top
+// of a flattened exit 1 — both hid which program failed and told a wrapper
+// that catchup had.
+type ExitError struct{ Code int }
+
+func (e *ExitError) Error() string { return fmt.Sprintf("exit status %d", e.Code) }
+
+// launchError converts the result of running a launched agent. Only a clean
+// non-zero exit becomes an ExitError; a failure to start it at all — a binary
+// that is not on PATH, an argv the OS refuses — is catchup's own error and
+// keeps its message. A signal leaves no code to pass on, so it stays a plain
+// failure.
+func launchError(err error) error {
+	var exit *exec.ExitError
+	if errors.As(err, &exit) {
+		if code := exit.ExitCode(); code > 0 {
+			return &ExitError{Code: code}
+		}
+	}
+	return err
 }
 
 // forkInto is the cross-agent half of fork: it cannot transplant one agent's
diff --git a/internal/cli/exit_test.go b/internal/cli/exit_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..08e5f00
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/cli/exit_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+package cli
+
+import (
+	"errors"
+	"os/exec"
+	"runtime"
+	"strconv"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// exitCmd is a command that exits with code and nothing else — the shortest
+// way to get a genuine *exec.ExitError from the OS rather than a hand-built
+// stand-in that could not prove the conversion works.
+func exitCmd(code int) *exec.Cmd {
+	if runtime.GOOS == "windows" {
+		return exec.Command("cmd", "/c", "exit", strconv.Itoa(code))
+	}
+	return exec.Command("sh", "-c", "exit "+strconv.Itoa(code))
+}
+
+func TestLaunchErrorCarriesTheAgentsExitCode(t *testing.T) {
+	var exit *ExitError
+	got := launchError(exitCmd(3).Run())
+	if !errors.As(got, &exit) {
+		t.Fatalf("a launched agent's non-zero exit must survive as an ExitError, got %v", got)
+	}
+	if exit.Code != 3 {
+		t.Errorf("want the agent's own code 3, got %d", exit.Code)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestLaunchErrorLeavesCatchupsOwnFailuresAlone(t *testing.T) {
+	// Failing to start the agent at all is catchup's error to report: there
+	// is no exit status, because nothing ran.
+	notFound := exec.Command("catchup-no-such-agent-binary").Run()
+	if notFound == nil {
+		t.Fatal("expected the missing binary to fail")
+	}
+	if got := launchError(notFound); !errors.Is(got, notFound) {
+		t.Errorf("a failure to launch must keep its own message, got %v", got)
+	}
+	// A clean exit is not an error, and must not become one.
+	if got := launchError(exitCmd(0).Run()); got != nil {
+		t.Errorf("want nil for a successful agent, got %v", got)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index 5558285..6349269 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ package main
 import (
 	"context"
 	_ "embed"
+	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"os"
 
@@ -40,6 +41,14 @@ func main() {
 	skillDirs := session.ResolveSkillDirs(roots, home)
 
 	if err := cli.Run(ctx, os.Args[1:], roots, current, skillDirs, skillMD, version, cwd, os.Stdin, os.Stdout, os.Stderr); err != nil {
+		// A fork replaces this terminal's occupant with another agent, so
+		// that agent's exit status is the run's answer and is passed through
+		// unannounced: it has already reported itself, and a wrapper reading
+		// the code needs the number it actually returned.
+		var exit *cli.ExitError
+		if errors.As(err, &exit) {
+			os.Exit(exit.Code)
+		}
 		fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, "catchup:", err)
 		os.Exit(1)
 	}