diff --git a/deploy/lib/release.sh b/deploy/lib/release.sh
index 4cd9117..3300009 100644
--- a/deploy/lib/release.sh
+++ b/deploy/lib/release.sh
@@ -38,8 +38,17 @@ release_manifest_commit() {
 # failed in between leaves a newer number on disk than is serving. Deciding
 # "is there something newer" against the file would then offer nothing, because
 # the checkout already claims to be the version it never finished installing.
+#
+# `|| true` at the end, same idiom as release_version()'s `|| echo '0.0.0'`:
+# guarantee a zero exit status regardless of what happened upstream. Without
+# it, a missing manifest — an ordinary state before the first install — makes
+# `sed` exit 2, `pipefail` carries that out of the pipeline, and the caller's
+# `DEPLOYED_VERSION="$(release_manifest_version)"` is a bare assignment: under
+# `set -e` that ends the agent on every tick, before it ever writes a status.
+# Empty output either way, so the caller's existing fallback to
+# release_version() still fires exactly as before.
 release_manifest_version() {
-    sed -n 's/.*"version"[[:space:]]*:[[:space:]]*"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p' "$MANIFEST_FILE" 2>/dev/null | head -1
+    sed -n 's/.*"version"[[:space:]]*:[[:space:]]*"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p' "$MANIFEST_FILE" 2>/dev/null | head -1 || true
 }
 
 # release_version_gt A B — true when A is strictly a higher version than B.
diff --git a/tests/Feature/ReleaseComparisonTest.php b/tests/Feature/ReleaseComparisonTest.php
index 4042b1a..fccd3ca 100644
--- a/tests/Feature/ReleaseComparisonTest.php
+++ b/tests/Feature/ReleaseComparisonTest.php
@@ -115,6 +115,21 @@ it('answers with nothing, and cleanly, when there are no releases yet', function
         ->and(trim($process->getOutput()))->toBe('[0]');
 });
 
+it('survives a missing manifest instead of taking the agent down with it', function () {
+    // Kein storage/app/deployment.json in diesem Wegwerf-Repo — der Zustand
+    // eines frischen Checkouts vor der ersten Installation. `sed` auf einer
+    // fehlenden Datei liefert Status 2; die Zeile, die diese Funktion in
+    // update-agent.sh tatsaechlich verbraucht — eine reine Zuweisung,
+    // `DEPLOYED_VERSION="$(release_manifest_version)"` — reicht diesen
+    // Status unter `pipefail` an `set -e` weiter. Ohne Absicherung stirbt der
+    // Agent bei JEDEM Tick, bevor er je eine Statusdatei schreibt — dieselbe
+    // Fehlerklasse wie bei sync_vpn_certificate und einem fehlenden `.env`.
+    $process = runRelease('DEPLOYED_VERSION="$(release_manifest_version)"; echo "[$?][$DEPLOYED_VERSION]"');
+
+    expect($process->getExitCode())->toBe(0)
+        ->and(trim($process->getOutput()))->toBe('[0][]');
+});
+
 it('orders by version, not alphabetically', function () {
     // v1.10.0 is newer than v1.9.0 and sorts earlier as a string. Getting this
     // wrong means a server sitting on 1.9.0 is told it is current.