diff --git a/app/server/modules/agents/agents-manager.ts b/app/server/modules/agents/agents-manager.ts
index 962a4e03..690ef7e1 100644
--- a/app/server/modules/agents/agents-manager.ts
+++ b/app/server/modules/agents/agents-manager.ts
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import type { BackupRunPayload, VolumeCommand, VolumeCommandResult } from "@zero
 import { Effect } from "effect";
 import { config } from "../../core/config";
 import { createAgentManagerRuntime, type AgentManagerEvent } from "./controller/server";
+import { LOCAL_AGENT_ID } from "./constants";
 import { spawnLocalAgentProcess, stopLocalAgentProcess } from "./local/process";
 import type { BackupExecutionProgress, BackupExecutionResult } from "./helpers/runtime-state";
 import { createAgentRuntimeState } from "./helpers/runtime-state";
@@ -286,7 +287,16 @@ export const agentManager = {
 };
 
 export const startLocalAgent = async () => {
-	await spawnLocalAgentProcess(getAgentRuntimeState());
+	const runtime = getAgentRuntimeState();
+	await spawnLocalAgentProcess(runtime);
+
+	if (!runtime.agentManager) {
+		return;
+	}
+
+	if (!(await runtime.agentManager.waitForAgentReady(LOCAL_AGENT_ID))) {
+		throw new Error("Local agent did not become ready before startup");
+	}
 };
 
 // fallow-ignore-next-line unused-export
diff --git a/app/server/modules/agents/controller/server.ts b/app/server/modules/agents/controller/server.ts
index 995ba237..f1c55e3b 100644
--- a/app/server/modules/agents/controller/server.ts
+++ b/app/server/modules/agents/controller/server.ts
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ class StopAgentManagerServerError extends Data.TaggedError("StopAgentManagerServ
 export function createAgentManagerRuntime(onEvent: (event: AgentManagerEvent) => void) {
 	let sessions = new Map<string, ControllerAgentSessionHandle>();
 	let runtimeScope: Scope.CloseableScope | null = null;
+	const sleep = (ms: number) => new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, ms));
 
 	const closeSession = (sessionHandle: ControllerAgentSessionHandle) =>
 		Effect.gen(function* () {
@@ -79,6 +80,11 @@ export function createAgentManagerRuntime(onEvent: (event: AgentManagerEvent) =>
 	const getSessionHandle = (agentId: string) => sessions.get(agentId);
 	const getSession = (agentId: string) => getSessionHandle(agentId)?.session;
 
+	const isAgentReady = (agentId: string) => {
+		const session = getSession(agentId);
+		return !!session && Effect.runSync(session.isReady());
+	};
+
 	const handleSessionEvent = (params: { agentId: string; agentName: string; sessionId: string }) => {
 		const { agentId, agentName } = params;
 
@@ -290,6 +296,19 @@ export function createAgentManagerRuntime(onEvent: (event: AgentManagerEvent) =>
 
 	return {
 		start,
+		waitForAgentReady: async (agentId: string, timeoutMs = 10_000) => {
+			const deadline = Date.now() + timeoutMs;
+
+			while (Date.now() < deadline) {
+				if (isAgentReady(agentId)) {
+					return true;
+				}
+
+				await sleep(50);
+			}
+
+			return isAgentReady(agentId);
+		},
 		sendBackup: (agentId: string, payload: BackupRunPayload) =>
 			Effect.gen(function* () {
 				const session = getSession(agentId);