diff --git a/examples/todo/tests/bundled-supervisor.sh b/examples/todo/tests/bundled-supervisor.sh
index 06b215c..007a5ac 100755
--- a/examples/todo/tests/bundled-supervisor.sh
+++ b/examples/todo/tests/bundled-supervisor.sh
@@ -145,7 +145,11 @@ fi
 # fresh-mount situation), assert /healthz comes back up.
 step "tear down + relaunch from fresh staging (regression: cache-baked-mount-path)"
 kill -TERM "$PID" 2>/dev/null || true
-for _ in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10; do
+# 3s grace: teardownChild itself waits up to 2s for frankenphp to finish
+# after sending it SIGTERM, so the host can take ~2.x seconds to exit
+# cleanly. A 2s loop here was right at the boundary and triggered the
+# fallback SIGKILL on slower runners.
+for _ in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15; do
     kill -0 "$PID" 2>/dev/null || break
     sleep 0.2
 done
diff --git a/framework/qml/src/BackendConnection.cpp b/framework/qml/src/BackendConnection.cpp
index 7982f6a..8838689 100644
--- a/framework/qml/src/BackendConnection.cpp
+++ b/framework/qml/src/BackendConnection.cpp
@@ -11,12 +11,15 @@
 #include <QProcessEnvironment>
 #include <QQmlEngine>
 #include <QRandomGenerator>
+#include <QSocketNotifier>
 #include <QStandardPaths>
 #include <QTimer>
 #include <QUrl>
 
 #include <csignal>
+#include <fcntl.h>
 #include <sys/prctl.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
 
 namespace PhpQml::Bridge {
 
@@ -28,6 +31,53 @@ constexpr int kProbeIntervalMs  = 5000;
 constexpr int kProbeTimeoutMs   = 2000;
 constexpr int kMigrateTimeoutMs = 60000;
 constexpr int kBootProbeMaxMs   = 10000;
+
+// Self-pipe used to relay SIGTERM/SIGINT into the Qt event loop. The
+// signal handler can only call async-signal-safe functions, so it just
+// writes one byte to the pipe; a QSocketNotifier on the read end picks
+// it up in the main thread and calls QCoreApplication::quit(), which
+// fires aboutToQuit → teardownChild → frankenphp gets a clean SIGTERM
+// while the event loop is still running. Without this, `kill -TERM`
+// to the host bypasses Qt entirely and the supervisor never gets to
+// reap the child.
+int g_signalPipe[2] = {-1, -1};
+
+extern "C" void shutdownSignalHandler(int signum)
+{
+    const char b = static_cast<char>(signum & 0xff);
+    // write() is async-signal-safe; failure is ignored — best effort.
+    [[maybe_unused]] auto _ = ::write(g_signalPipe[1], &b, 1);
+}
+
+void installShutdownSignalRelay()
+{
+    if (g_signalPipe[0] != -1) return; // already installed
+    if (::pipe2(g_signalPipe, O_CLOEXEC | O_NONBLOCK) != 0) {
+        qCWarning(lcBundled) << "shutdown signal pipe creation failed; SIGTERM will not run teardownChild cleanly";
+        return;
+    }
+
+    // QSocketNotifier needs a parent that outlives any signal delivery.
+    // QCoreApplication is the natural anchor.
+    auto* notifier = new QSocketNotifier(g_signalPipe[0], QSocketNotifier::Read,
+                                          QCoreApplication::instance());
+    QObject::connect(notifier, &QSocketNotifier::activated, [](QSocketDescriptor) {
+        char buf[16];
+        while (::read(g_signalPipe[0], buf, sizeof(buf)) > 0) {
+            // drain — content is just the signum, we don't care which
+        }
+        if (auto* app = QCoreApplication::instance()) {
+            app->quit();
+        }
+    });
+
+    struct sigaction sa{};
+    sa.sa_handler = &shutdownSignalHandler;
+    sigemptyset(&sa.sa_mask);
+    sa.sa_flags = SA_RESTART;
+    ::sigaction(SIGTERM, &sa, nullptr);
+    ::sigaction(SIGINT, &sa, nullptr);
+}
 } // namespace
 
 BackendConnection::BackendConnection(QObject* parent)
@@ -46,9 +96,16 @@ BackendConnection::BackendConnection(QObject* parent)
     // starts unwinding the stack. Without this, teardownChild only runs from
     // ~BackendConnection — by then the QQmlEngine is already mid-destruction
     // and Qt warns "QProcess: Destroyed while process is still running".
+    //
+    // aboutToQuit only fires when something *calls* quit() — Qt does not
+    // install a default SIGTERM handler. installShutdownSignalRelay() bridges
+    // SIGTERM/SIGINT into a quit() call so `kill -TERM` from a service
+    // manager / launcher / test harness goes through the same teardown path
+    // as a window-close.
     if (QCoreApplication::instance()) {
         connect(QCoreApplication::instance(), &QCoreApplication::aboutToQuit,
                 this, &BackendConnection::teardownChild);
+        installShutdownSignalRelay();
     }
 
     const QString explicitUrl = QString::fromUtf8(qgetenv("BRIDGE_URL"));