diff --git a/hermes_cli/voice.py b/hermes_cli/voice.py
index 4deee8636..0a355ce4f 100644
--- a/hermes_cli/voice.py
+++ b/hermes_cli/voice.py
@@ -44,9 +44,18 @@ def _debug(msg: str) -> None:
     which createGatewayEventHandler shows as an Activity line — exactly
     what we need to diagnose "why didn't the loop auto-restart?" in the
     user's real terminal without shipping a separate debug RPC.
+
+    Any OSError / BrokenPipeError is swallowed because this fires from
+    background threads (silence callback, TTS daemon, beep) where a
+    broken stderr pipe must not kill the whole gateway — the main
+    command pipe (stdin+stdout) is what actually matters.
     """
-    if os.environ.get("HERMES_VOICE_DEBUG", "").strip() == "1":
+    if os.environ.get("HERMES_VOICE_DEBUG", "").strip() != "1":
+        return
+    try:
         print(f"[voice] {msg}", file=sys.stderr, flush=True)
+    except (BrokenPipeError, OSError):
+        pass
 
 
 def _beeps_enabled() -> bool:
diff --git a/tui_gateway/entry.py b/tui_gateway/entry.py
index 9974ccbeb..7eac6057e 100644
--- a/tui_gateway/entry.py
+++ b/tui_gateway/entry.py
@@ -44,7 +44,16 @@ def _log_signal(signum: int, frame) -> None:
     sys.exit(0)
 
 
-signal.signal(signal.SIGPIPE, _log_signal)
+# SIGPIPE: ignore, don't exit. The old SIG_DFL killed the process
+# silently whenever a *background* thread (TTS playback chain, voice
+# debug stderr emitter, beep thread) wrote to a pipe the TUI had gone
+# quiet on — even though the main thread was perfectly fine waiting on
+# stdin.  Ignoring the signal lets Python raise BrokenPipeError on the
+# offending write (write_json already handles that with a clean
+# sys.exit(0) + _log_exit), which keeps the gateway alive as long as
+# the main command pipe is still readable.  Terminal signals still
+# route through _log_signal so kills and hangups are diagnosable.
+signal.signal(signal.SIGPIPE, signal.SIG_IGN)
 signal.signal(signal.SIGTERM, _log_signal)
 signal.signal(signal.SIGHUP, _log_signal)
 signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, signal.SIG_IGN)