diff --git a/haiku_rag_slim/haiku/rag/ingester/app.py b/haiku_rag_slim/haiku/rag/ingester/app.py
index 70c5a673..2e0e5d3d 100644
--- a/haiku_rag_slim/haiku/rag/ingester/app.py
+++ b/haiku_rag_slim/haiku/rag/ingester/app.py
@@ -205,6 +205,15 @@ class IngesterApp:
                     counts = await self._jobs.counts_by_status()
                     if not counts.get("queued") and not counts.get("claimed"):
                         break
+                    if self._pool.live_workers == 0:
+                        outstanding = counts.get("queued", 0) + counts.get("claimed", 0)
+                        logger.error(
+                            "All workers have died with %d outstanding job(s) "
+                            "— aborting batch; stranded jobs will be reaped "
+                            "on next start",
+                            outstanding,
+                        )
+                        break
                     await asyncio.sleep(0.1)
                 completed = await self._jobs.counts_by_status_since(started_at)
                 return BatchReport(
diff --git a/tests/ingester/test_run_batch.py b/tests/ingester/test_run_batch.py
index 8edd461d..0491916e 100644
--- a/tests/ingester/test_run_batch.py
+++ b/tests/ingester/test_run_batch.py
@@ -235,6 +235,39 @@ async def test_run_batch_empty_source_returns_immediately(tmp_path, use_client):
     client.create_document_from_source.assert_not_awaited()
 
 
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_run_batch_aborts_when_all_workers_die(
+    tmp_path, use_client, monkeypatch, caplog
+):
+    """If all workers crash with outstanding jobs, run_batch should break
+    out of the drain loop instead of spinning forever."""
+    (tmp_path / "a.md").write_text("hello")
+
+    client = _mock_client()
+    use_client(client)
+    config = _config(tmp_path)
+
+    config.ingester.workers.worker_count = 1
+
+    # Patch _process to raise an unhandled exception, simulating a hard
+    # worker crash.  _process only catches CancelledError, PermanentError,
+    # and TransientError — anything else propagates and kills the task.
+    monkeypatch.setattr(
+        WorkerPool,
+        "_process",
+        AsyncMock(side_effect=Exception("worker crash")),
+    )
+
+    with caplog.at_level("ERROR", logger="haiku.rag.ingester.app"):
+        report = await asyncio.wait_for(
+            IngesterApp(config=config, db_path=tmp_path / "db.lancedb").run_batch(),
+            timeout=10.0,
+        )
+
+    assert report is not None
+    assert "All workers have died" in caplog.text
+
+
 async def _wait_until(predicate, *, timeout: float = 5.0):
     deadline = asyncio.get_running_loop().time() + timeout
     while not predicate():