diff --git a/hive-agent/src/events.rs b/hive-agent/src/events.rs
index 1d2538ec..f0393774 100644
--- a/hive-agent/src/events.rs
+++ b/hive-agent/src/events.rs
@@ -677,9 +677,18 @@ impl Bus {
     /// never touches the session. It exists because the harness is
     /// otherwise blind to the init event — the only place claude reports
     /// MCP-server status — so a dropped/failed stdio bridge (e.g. matrix
-    /// after a core bounce) went silent. Emitted every degraded turn on
-    /// purpose: whether it persists across fresh turns is the signal that
-    /// picks the real fix.
+    /// after a core bounce) went silent.
+    ///
+    /// `pending` is deliberately NOT treated as degraded: it's the claude
+    /// CLI's normal init-event race for a freshly spawned stdio server
+    /// (status is reported before the handshake completes, then flips to
+    /// `connected` moments later in the same turn — see the upstream
+    /// claude-agent-sdk-typescript repo, issue number 368, for confirmation).
+    /// Flagging it fired on nearly every turn for all three configured
+    /// servers with zero actual impact (confirmed: tools kept working),
+    /// which is why the MCP-dropped-after-restart tracker issue's
+    /// persistent-vs-one-turn repro question looked answered "persistent"
+    /// when it wasn't — that was this false positive, not the real bug.
     pub(crate) fn observe_mcp_health(&self, v: &serde_json::Value) {
         if v.get("type").and_then(|t| t.as_str()) != Some("system")
             || v.get("subtype").and_then(|s| s.as_str()) != Some("init")
@@ -886,8 +895,11 @@ impl Default for Bus {
 /// Compare the configured MCP server names against the `{name -> status}`
 /// map parsed from the init event, returning display strings for the
 /// degraded ones: a configured server absent from the report was dropped
-/// entirely; one present with a non-`connected` status failed to register.
-/// Pure so it's unit-testable without a live `Bus`.
+/// entirely; one present with a non-`connected`, non-`pending` status
+/// failed to register. `pending` is excluded — it's the CLI's normal
+/// init-event race for a server still completing its handshake, not a
+/// failure (see the doc comment on `observe_mcp_health`). Pure so it's
+/// unit-testable without a live `Bus`.
 fn degraded_mcp_servers(
     configured: &[String],
     reported: &std::collections::HashMap<&str, &str>,
@@ -895,7 +907,7 @@ fn degraded_mcp_servers(
     configured
         .iter()
         .filter_map(|name| match reported.get(name.as_str()).copied() {
-            Some("connected") => None,
+            Some("connected" | "pending") => None,
             Some(status) => Some(format!("{name} ({status})")),
             None => Some(format!("{name} (absent)")),
         })
@@ -963,4 +975,18 @@ mod tests {
             .collect();
         assert!(super::degraded_mcp_servers(&configured, &reported).is_empty());
     }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn degraded_mcp_servers_ignores_pending() {
+        // `pending` is the CLI's normal init-event race for a stdio server
+        // still completing its handshake (flips to `connected` moments
+        // later in the same turn) — not a real failure, per the
+        // MCP-dropped-after-restart tracker issue.
+        use std::collections::HashMap;
+        let configured = ["hyperhive".to_owned(), "matrix".to_owned()];
+        let reported: HashMap<&str, &str> = [("hyperhive", "pending"), ("matrix", "pending")]
+            .into_iter()
+            .collect();
+        assert!(super::degraded_mcp_servers(&configured, &reported).is_empty());
+    }
 }