diff --git a/packages/coding-agent/src/cli.ts b/packages/coding-agent/src/cli.ts
index 184766db1..8492b05c6 100755
--- a/packages/coding-agent/src/cli.ts
+++ b/packages/coding-agent/src/cli.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,12 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bun
-import { APP_NAME, getActiveProfile, MIN_BUN_VERSION, setProfile, VERSION } from "@oh-my-pi/pi-utils/dirs";
+import {
+	APP_NAME,
+	getActiveProfile,
+	MIN_BUN_VERSION,
+	normalizeProfileName,
+	setProfile,
+	VERSION,
+} from "@oh-my-pi/pi-utils/dirs";
 
 // Strip macOS malloc-stack-logging env vars before any subprocess is spawned.
 // Keep this local instead of importing `@oh-my-pi/pi-utils/procmgr`: that module
@@ -60,6 +67,13 @@ export async function runCli(argv: string[]): Promise<void> {
 		resolvedArgv = extracted.argv;
 		if (extracted.profile !== undefined) {
 			setProfile(extracted.profile);
+		} else {
+			// No explicit --profile: re-validate any OMP_PROFILE/PI_PROFILE inherited
+			// from the environment. Module-load resolution deliberately swallows an
+			// invalid value to avoid an uncaught throw before this try/catch is in
+			// scope (see `readProfileFromEnvSafe` in dirs.ts). Surfacing it here turns
+			// `OMP_PROFILE=.. omp --version` into a clean error instead of a stack trace.
+			normalizeProfileName(process.env.OMP_PROFILE || process.env.PI_PROFILE);
 		}
 		if (extracted.aliasName !== undefined) {
 			const profile = extracted.profile ?? getActiveProfile();
diff --git a/packages/coding-agent/test/profile-cli.test.ts b/packages/coding-agent/test/profile-cli.test.ts
index 2edd62842..720e7e733 100644
--- a/packages/coding-agent/test/profile-cli.test.ts
+++ b/packages/coding-agent/test/profile-cli.test.ts
@@ -168,4 +168,53 @@ describe("global --profile flag", () => {
 			await fs.rm(root, { recursive: true, force: true });
 		}
 	});
+
+	it("surfaces an invalid OMP_PROFILE env as a clean error, not an import crash", async () => {
+		const root = await fs.mkdtemp(path.join(os.tmpdir(), "omp-profile-cli-env-bad-"));
+		try {
+			const home = path.join(root, "home");
+			await fs.mkdir(home, { recursive: true });
+
+			const probePath = path.join(root, "probe.ts");
+			await Bun.write(
+				probePath,
+				[
+					`import { runCli } from ${JSON.stringify(url.pathToFileURL(cliEntry).href)};`,
+					'await runCli(["--version"]);',
+					// Reached only if the module import did NOT throw — i.e. the invalid
+					// env was deferred to runCli's error handler instead of crashing the
+					// process during the static import of dirs.ts.
+					'process.stdout.write("HANDLED");',
+				].join("\n"),
+			);
+
+			const childEnv: Record<string, string | undefined> = {
+				...process.env,
+				HOME: home,
+				PI_CONFIG_DIR: ".omp-profile-cli-env-bad",
+				OMP_PROFILE: "..",
+				NO_COLOR: "1",
+			};
+			delete childEnv.PI_PROFILE;
+			delete childEnv.PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR;
+
+			const proc = Bun.spawn([process.execPath, probePath], {
+				cwd: repoRoot,
+				stdout: "pipe",
+				stderr: "pipe",
+				env: childEnv,
+			});
+			const [stdout, stderr, exitCode] = await Promise.all([
+				readStream(proc.stdout as ReadableStream<Uint8Array>),
+				readStream(proc.stderr as ReadableStream<Uint8Array>),
+				proc.exited,
+			]);
+
+			expect(stdout, stderr).toContain("HANDLED");
+			expect(stderr).toContain("Invalid OMP profile");
+			expect(exitCode).toBe(1);
+		} finally {
+			await fs.rm(root, { recursive: true, force: true });
+		}
+	});
 });