diff --git a/crates/client/src/main.rs b/crates/client/src/main.rs
index d6ad3a4..bdc5628 100644
--- a/crates/client/src/main.rs
+++ b/crates/client/src/main.rs
@@ -226,26 +226,10 @@ async fn main() {
                             let shell_clone = Arc::clone(&shell);
 
                             tokio::spawn(async move {
-                                // Catch panics so a single bad command never kills the client.
-                                let response = std::panic::AssertUnwindSafe(
-                                    handle_message(server_msg.clone(), shell_clone)
-                                );
-                                let response = match std::panic::catch_unwind(|| {
-                                    // We can't catch async panics with catch_unwind directly,
-                                    // so we wrap the whole spawn in AssertUnwindSafe and rely
-                                    // on tokio's per-task panic isolation instead.
-                                    // The real guard is that handle_message never panics —
-                                    // it uses ? / map_err everywhere.
-                                    drop(response);
-                                }) {
-                                    Ok(()) => handle_message(server_msg, shell_clone).await,
-                                    Err(_) => {
-                                        log_err!("Panic in handle_message — recovered");
-                                        // We can't easily get the request_id here so send a
-                                        // Hello as a no-op keep-alive.
-                                        ClientMessage::Hello { label: None }
-                                    }
-                                };
+                                // tokio isolates panics per task — a panic here won't kill
+                                // the main loop. handle_message uses map_err everywhere so
+                                // it should never panic in practice.
+                                let response = handle_message(server_msg, shell_clone).await;
                                 let json = match serde_json::to_string(&response) {
                                     Ok(j) => j,
                                     Err(e) => {