diff --git a/hive-agent-mcp/src/main.rs b/hive-agent-mcp/src/main.rs
index 2eae80a9..4b2fd049 100644
--- a/hive-agent-mcp/src/main.rs
+++ b/hive-agent-mcp/src/main.rs
@@ -43,6 +43,10 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
             tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::try_from_default_env()
                 .unwrap_or_else(|_| tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::new("info")),
         )
+        // This is a systemd-managed daemon — stdout always goes to journald,
+        // never a human terminal, and journald doesn't strip ANSI escapes:
+        // they land in victorialogs as raw byte-array spam otherwise.
+        .with_ansi(false)
         .init();
 
     let cli = Cli::parse();
diff --git a/hive-agent/src/main.rs b/hive-agent/src/main.rs
index 26619a86..9c8dbc9e 100644
--- a/hive-agent/src/main.rs
+++ b/hive-agent/src/main.rs
@@ -96,6 +96,10 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
             tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::try_from_default_env()
                 .unwrap_or_else(|_| tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::new("info")),
         )
+        // This is a systemd-managed daemon — stdout always goes to journald,
+        // never a human terminal, and journald doesn't strip ANSI escapes:
+        // they land in victorialogs as raw byte-array spam otherwise.
+        .with_ansi(false)
         .init();
 
     let cli = Cli::parse();
diff --git a/hive-bash-mcp/src/main.rs b/hive-bash-mcp/src/main.rs
index a29de536..e928b406 100644
--- a/hive-bash-mcp/src/main.rs
+++ b/hive-bash-mcp/src/main.rs
@@ -24,6 +24,10 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
             tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::try_from_env("RUST_LOG")
                 .unwrap_or_else(|_| tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::new("info")),
         )
+        // This is a systemd-managed daemon — stdout always goes to journald,
+        // never a human terminal, and journald doesn't strip ANSI escapes:
+        // they land in victorialogs as raw byte-array spam otherwise.
+        .with_ansi(false)
         .init();
 
     let cli = Cli::parse();
diff --git a/hive-c0re/src/main.rs b/hive-c0re/src/main.rs
index 1cfa654a..9477bf2a 100644
--- a/hive-c0re/src/main.rs
+++ b/hive-c0re/src/main.rs
@@ -147,6 +147,10 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
             tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::try_from_default_env()
                 .unwrap_or_else(|_| tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::new("info")),
         )
+        // This is a systemd-managed daemon — stdout always goes to journald,
+        // never a human terminal, and journald doesn't strip ANSI escapes:
+        // they land in victorialogs as raw byte-array spam otherwise.
+        .with_ansi(false)
         .init();
 
     let cli = Cli::parse();
diff --git a/hive-forge-notify/src/lib.rs b/hive-forge-notify/src/lib.rs
index 1554b00c..95f1cf2d 100644
--- a/hive-forge-notify/src/lib.rs
+++ b/hive-forge-notify/src/lib.rs
@@ -55,6 +55,10 @@ pub fn init_tracing() {
             tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::try_from_env("RUST_LOG")
                 .unwrap_or_else(|_| tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::new("info")),
         )
+        // This is a systemd-managed daemon — stdout always goes to journald,
+        // never a human terminal, and journald doesn't strip ANSI escapes:
+        // they land in victorialogs as raw byte-array spam otherwise.
+        .with_ansi(false)
         .init();
 }
 
diff --git a/hive-matrix-mcp/src/main.rs b/hive-matrix-mcp/src/main.rs
index 3bbb77ab..cb435f02 100644
--- a/hive-matrix-mcp/src/main.rs
+++ b/hive-matrix-mcp/src/main.rs
@@ -73,6 +73,10 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
                 .unwrap_or_else(|_| tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::new("info")),
         )
         .with_writer(std::io::stderr)
+        // This is a systemd-managed daemon — stderr always goes to journald,
+        // never a human terminal, and journald doesn't strip ANSI escapes:
+        // they land in victorialogs as raw byte-array spam otherwise.
+        .with_ansi(false)
         .init();
 
     let cli = Cli::parse();
diff --git a/hive-priv/src/main.rs b/hive-priv/src/main.rs
index 7ab4d2ba..6d0799b3 100644
--- a/hive-priv/src/main.rs
+++ b/hive-priv/src/main.rs
@@ -42,6 +42,10 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
         .with_env_filter(
             tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::try_from_default_env().unwrap_or_else(|_| "info".into()),
         )
+        // This is a systemd-managed daemon — stdout always goes to journald,
+        // never a human terminal, and journald doesn't strip ANSI escapes:
+        // they land in victorialogs as raw byte-array spam otherwise.
+        .with_ansi(false)
         .init();
 
     let listener = socket_listener()?;
diff --git a/hive-screen-mcp/src/main.rs b/hive-screen-mcp/src/main.rs
index 1cdd7727..481e4170 100644
--- a/hive-screen-mcp/src/main.rs
+++ b/hive-screen-mcp/src/main.rs
@@ -348,6 +348,10 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
                 .unwrap_or_else(|_| tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::new("warn")),
         )
         .with_writer(std::io::stderr)
+        // This is a systemd-managed daemon — stderr always goes to journald,
+        // never a human terminal, and journald doesn't strip ANSI escapes:
+        // they land in victorialogs as raw byte-array spam otherwise.
+        .with_ansi(false)
         .init();
 
     let service = ScreenMcp.serve(stdio()).await?;
diff --git a/swarm-authelia-bridge/src/main.rs b/swarm-authelia-bridge/src/main.rs
index 3210edea..7dcf3a9e 100644
--- a/swarm-authelia-bridge/src/main.rs
+++ b/swarm-authelia-bridge/src/main.rs
@@ -103,6 +103,10 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
         .with_env_filter(
             tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::try_from_default_env().unwrap_or_else(|_| "info".into()),
         )
+        // This is a systemd-managed daemon — stdout always goes to journald,
+        // never a human terminal, and journald doesn't strip ANSI escapes:
+        // they land in victorialogs as raw byte-array spam otherwise.
+        .with_ansi(false)
         .init();
 
     let config = Config::from_env()?;
diff --git a/swarm-controller/src/main.rs b/swarm-controller/src/main.rs
index c058c696..1b4477f6 100644
--- a/swarm-controller/src/main.rs
+++ b/swarm-controller/src/main.rs
@@ -1090,6 +1090,10 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
             tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::try_from_default_env()
                 .unwrap_or_else(|_| tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::new("info")),
         )
+        // This is a systemd-managed daemon — stdout always goes to journald,
+        // never a human terminal, and journald doesn't strip ANSI escapes:
+        // they land in victorialogs as raw byte-array spam otherwise.
+        .with_ansi(false)
         .init();
 
     let path = socket_path();
diff --git a/swarm-nats-auth/src/main.rs b/swarm-nats-auth/src/main.rs
index 61fceabb..103ef8d0 100644
--- a/swarm-nats-auth/src/main.rs
+++ b/swarm-nats-auth/src/main.rs
@@ -121,6 +121,10 @@ async fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
             tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::try_from_default_env()
                 .unwrap_or_else(|_| tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::new("info")),
         )
+        // This is a systemd-managed daemon — stdout always goes to journald,
+        // never a human terminal, and journald doesn't strip ANSI escapes:
+        // they land in victorialogs as raw byte-array spam otherwise.
+        .with_ansi(false)
         .init();
     let args = Args::parse();