diff --git a/src/claire/orchestrator/bootstrap.py b/src/claire/orchestrator/bootstrap.py
index f6bf735..4c45ce8 100644
--- a/src/claire/orchestrator/bootstrap.py
+++ b/src/claire/orchestrator/bootstrap.py
@@ -578,11 +578,9 @@ def ensure_running(
                     stale = True
             if not stale:
                 return cfg.orchestrator.session_uuid
-            # Stale — kill the live session(s); fall through to spawn fresh.
-            try:
-                rcl.kill(match=slug, yes=True)
-            except RclaudeError:
-                pass  # best-effort; spawn proceeds either way
+            # Stale — fall through to spawn fresh. The kill-before-spawn below
+            # tears down this live pane (one kill point for both the stale and
+            # orphan cases).
 
     # Snapshot pre-spawn session uuids at this cwd so discovery can ignore
     # stale disk JSONLs from previous Claude runs (Claude doesn't delete