diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
index 196a4f1..60c9b1c 100644
--- a/AGENTS.md
+++ b/AGENTS.md
@@ -105,6 +105,9 @@ Ruixen has hit real stale-process races more than once. The house rules:
   synchronous call on the render thread.
 - Bound search/output/cache work — no unbounded scans, unbounded output
   buffers, or unbounded cache growth.
+- GUI lifecycle jobs must survive their launching plugin being reloaded
+  during deployment, before the final restart. Detach the whole worker
+  with independent stdio (see `lib/settings-update.sh`), not just its tail.
 
 Don't reinvent this from scratch. `ruixen.launcher/search/WorkerPool.js` (see
 `tests/js/WorkerPool.test.js`) and `ruixen.wallpaper/GenerationGuard.js`
diff --git a/docs/INSTALLATION.md b/docs/INSTALLATION.md
index 19da130..6c2b286 100644
--- a/docs/INSTALLATION.md
+++ b/docs/INSTALLATION.md
@@ -93,6 +93,12 @@ and `uninstall.sh` accept it, and reject any option they don't recognize
 ./update.sh
 ```
 
+Settings' Update button runs the same updater in an independent worker,
+so replacing the Settings plugin cannot interrupt its own installation
+or final shell restart. Its latest output is saved in
+`~/.local/state/ruixen/settings-update.log`, including failures that happen
+after Settings has reloaded.
+
 `./update.sh --dry-run` previews it first: current vs. candidate revision,
 then the same install plan above for whatever is currently on disk
 (pulling itself is skipped, so it can't preview code not yet checked out —
diff --git a/lib/settings-update.sh b/lib/settings-update.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3e217d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/settings-update.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Keep the ENTIRE GUI update alive when deployment reloads Settings, not
+# just install.sh's final restart. Only this waiting relay belongs to QML.
+set -Eeuo pipefail
+
+repo_dir="$(cd -- "$(dirname -- "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/.." && pwd)"
+state_dir="$HOME/.local/state/ruixen"
+mkdir -p "$state_dir"
+
+# A reloaded Settings instance can click Update again while the first
+# worker is still alive. Preserve its log; the normal lifecycle lock
+# inside update.sh still protects against CLI install/update/uninstall.
+exec 9>"$state_dir/settings-update.lock"
+if ! flock -n 9; then
+  echo 'A Settings update is already running; wait for it to finish.' >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+log_file="$state_dir/settings-update.log"
+# New session AND independent stdio: losing the QML Process must neither
+# kill the worker's process group nor give it SIGPIPE on its next print.
+# shellcheck disable=SC2016 # $1 expands in the independent child shell.
+setsid bash -c 'cd -- "$1" && exec ./update.sh --acknowledge-interrupted' \
+  -- "$repo_dir" </dev/null >"$log_file" 2>&1 &
+worker_pid=$!
+status=0
+wait "$worker_pid" || status=$?
+if (( status != 0 )); then
+  tail -n 20 "$log_file" >&2
+fi
+exit "$status"
diff --git a/ruixen.launcher/extensions/settings/services/PluginService.qml b/ruixen.launcher/extensions/settings/services/PluginService.qml
index 89cfdd5..3549cc7 100644
--- a/ruixen.launcher/extensions/settings/services/PluginService.qml
+++ b/ruixen.launcher/extensions/settings/services/PluginService.qml
@@ -160,12 +160,10 @@ Item {
     stderr: StdioCollector {
       waitForEnd: true
       onStreamFinished: {
-        // A successful run never gets here to report success --
-        // update.sh ends with `omarchy restart shell`, which tears down
-        // and reloads this very plugin instance before this handler
-        // would ever fire. Only a failure that happens BEFORE that
-        // point (network down, git pull conflict, etc.) leaves this
-        // instance alive long enough to actually show the error.
+        // The relay reports failures while this instance is alive.
+        // Deployment itself can reload Settings BEFORE the final shell
+        // restart; the independent worker survives either teardown and
+        // keeps its output in ~/.local/state/ruixen/settings-update.log.
         if (updateProc.exitCode !== 0) {
           var raw = String(text || "").trim()
           var interrupted = raw.indexOf("--acknowledge-interrupted") !== -1
@@ -197,7 +195,7 @@ Item {
     // GUI updates should be one-click recoverable. The flag is a no-op
     // when no stale lifecycle journal exists; when one does, the lock
     // still guarantees there is no real concurrent lifecycle operation.
-    updateProc.command = ["bash", "-c", "cd '" + safePath + "' && ./update.sh --acknowledge-interrupted"]
+    updateProc.command = ["bash", "-c", "exec bash '" + safePath + "/lib/settings-update.sh'"]
     updateProc.running = true
   }
 
@@ -252,7 +250,8 @@ Item {
   // Omarchy's own default if there was none), and restarts the shell.
   //
   // Deliberately fired via Quickshell.execDetached, not a lifecycle-
-  // bound Process like updateProc above -- the script's own last real
+  // bound Process -- updateProc above uses an independent worker too.
+  // The script's own last real
   // step disables/removes ruixen.launcher itself (this very plugin),
   // which would tear down this QML instance (and, plausibly, any
   // Process objects it owns) mid-script if that happened before the
diff --git a/tests/run-all.sh b/tests/run-all.sh
index 0d502c4..6fd5e0a 100755
--- a/tests/run-all.sh
+++ b/tests/run-all.sh
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ suites=(
   "$script_dir/lifecycle-journal-recovery.sh"
   "$script_dir/lifecycle-flag-parsing.sh"
   "$script_dir/settings-update-interruption.sh"
+  "$script_dir/settings-update-worker.sh"
   "$script_dir/install-restart-detached-tail.sh"
   "$script_dir/install-theme-overlays.sh"
   "$script_dir/lifecycle-lock.sh"
diff --git a/tests/settings-update-interruption.sh b/tests/settings-update-interruption.sh
index 5d509d2..4f7abdc 100755
--- a/tests/settings-update-interruption.sh
+++ b/tests/settings-update-interruption.sh
@@ -36,8 +36,10 @@ check "PluginService uses a distinct interrupted update status" \
   "$(grep -c 'pluginUpdateStatus = interrupted ? "interrupted" : "error"' "$service_qml")" "1"
 check "PluginService keeps more generic error context than the old three-line truncation" \
   "$(grep -c 'errLines.length - 5' "$service_qml")" "1"
-check "PluginService GUI update always passes --acknowledge-interrupted" \
-  "$(grep -c './update.sh --acknowledge-interrupted' "$service_qml")" "1"
+check "PluginService GUI update uses the independent worker relay" \
+  "$(grep -c '/lib/settings-update.sh' "$service_qml")" "1"
+check "GUI worker always passes --acknowledge-interrupted" \
+  "$(grep -c './update.sh --acknowledge-interrupted' "$repo_dir/lib/settings-update.sh")" "1"
 check "PluginService clears stale check status when update starts" \
   "$(awk '/function updateRuixenShell/ { in_fn = 1 } in_fn && /function checkForUpdates/ { in_fn = 0 } in_fn && /pluginCheckStatus = ""|pluginCheckError = ""/ { count++ } END { print count + 0 }' "$service_qml")" "2"
 check "PluginService clears stale update status when check starts" \
diff --git a/tests/settings-update-worker.sh b/tests/settings-update-worker.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..79bc173
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/settings-update-worker.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Exercise the GUI relay with a real detached worker, then destroy its
+# launching process group BEFORE the fake install reaches its restart.
+set -Eeuo pipefail
+repo_dir="$(cd -- "$(dirname -- "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/.." && pwd)"
+tmp="$(mktemp -d)"
+trap 'rm -rf "$tmp"' EXIT
+checkout="$tmp/repo with a ' quote"
+mkdir -p "$checkout/lib" "$tmp/home"
+cp "$repo_dir/lib/settings-update.sh" "$checkout/lib/"
+export HOME="$tmp/home"
+cat >"$checkout/update.sh" <<'WORKER'
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -Eeuo pipefail
+[[ "$1" == --acknowledge-interrupted ]]
+echo 'worker output before Settings reload'
+touch "$HOME/started"
+for ((i=0; i<200; i++)); do
+  if [[ -e "$HOME/release" ]]; then
+    echo 'restart and cleanup completed after Settings reload'
+    touch "$HOME/completed"
+    exit 0
+  fi
+  sleep 0.05
+done
+exit 1
+WORKER
+chmod +x "$checkout/update.sh"
+
+wait_for() {
+  local i
+  for ((i=0; i<200; i++)); do
+    [[ -e "$1" ]] && return 0
+    sleep 0.05
+  done
+  echo "FAIL - timed out waiting for $1" >&2
+  return 1
+}
+
+setsid bash "$checkout/lib/settings-update.sh" >"$tmp/relay.out" 2>&1 &
+relay_pid=$!
+wait_for "$HOME/started"
+# A replacement Settings instance must not overwrite the active log.
+if bash "$checkout/lib/settings-update.sh" >"$tmp/second.out" 2>&1; then
+  echo 'FAIL - concurrent GUI update was accepted' >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+grep -q 'already running' "$tmp/second.out"
+grep -q 'worker output before' "$HOME/.local/state/ruixen/settings-update.log"
+echo 'ok - concurrent GUI update refused without truncating the worker log'
+
+kill -TERM -- "-$relay_pid"
+wait "$relay_pid" 2>/dev/null || true
+touch "$HOME/release"
+wait_for "$HOME/completed"
+grep -q 'restart and cleanup completed' "$HOME/.local/state/ruixen/settings-update.log"
+echo 'ok - worker survives losing its launching process group and output listener'
+
+# A failure before reload must still reach the existing QML error handler.
+cat >"$checkout/update.sh" <<'WORKER'
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+echo 'simulated git pull failure' >&2
+exit 23
+WORKER
+# The marker precedes worker exit by a few instructions; wait for its lock.
+for ((i=0; i<200; i++)); do
+  if flock -n "$HOME/.local/state/ruixen/settings-update.lock" true; then break; fi
+  sleep 0.05
+done
+status=0
+bash "$checkout/lib/settings-update.sh" >"$tmp/failure.out" 2>&1 || status=$?
+[[ "$status" == 23 ]]
+grep -q 'simulated git pull failure' "$tmp/failure.out"
+grep -q 'simulated git pull failure' "$HOME/.local/state/ruixen/settings-update.log"
+echo 'ok - worker exit status and failure output reach the GUI relay and persistent log'