diff --git a/src/main/runtime/relay/relay-auth-coordinator-recovery.test.ts b/src/main/runtime/relay/relay-auth-coordinator-recovery.test.ts
index 30f8424bcb3..21e7f9aadec 100644
--- a/src/main/runtime/relay/relay-auth-coordinator-recovery.test.ts
+++ b/src/main/runtime/relay/relay-auth-coordinator-recovery.test.ts
@@ -39,6 +39,32 @@ describe('RelayAuthCoordinator transient recovery', () => {
     expect(statuses.at(-1)).toBe('registered')
   })
 
+  it('retries when cloud-session refresh fails before identity can be read', async () => {
+    vi.useFakeTimers()
+    const broker = { closeNow: vi.fn() }
+    const readContext = vi
+      .fn()
+      .mockRejectedValueOnce(new Error('temporary cloud session refresh failure'))
+      .mockResolvedValueOnce(context)
+    const openBroker = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(broker)
+    const coordinator = new RelayAuthCoordinator({
+      readContext,
+      openBroker,
+      onStatus: vi.fn(),
+      random: () => 0.5
+    })
+
+    coordinator.reconcile()
+    await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(0)
+    expect(readContext).toHaveBeenCalledOnce()
+    expect(openBroker).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
+
+    await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(501)
+    expect(readContext).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(2)
+    expect(openBroker).toHaveBeenCalledOnce()
+    expect(coordinator.getActiveBroker()).toBe(broker)
+  })
+
   it('backs a sustained outage off to the five-minute jitter cap', async () => {
     vi.useFakeTimers()
     const openBroker = vi.fn().mockRejectedValue(new Error('temporary control open failure'))
diff --git a/src/main/runtime/relay/relay-auth-coordinator.ts b/src/main/runtime/relay/relay-auth-coordinator.ts
index 4754db8d546..7f97e33dc41 100644
--- a/src/main/runtime/relay/relay-auth-coordinator.ts
+++ b/src/main/runtime/relay/relay-auth-coordinator.ts
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ export class RelayAuthCoordinator {
   }
 
   private async reconcileEpoch(epoch: number, expectedIdentityKey?: string): Promise<void> {
-    let retryIdentityKey: string | null = null
+    let retryIdentityKey: string | undefined
     try {
       const context = await this.options.readContext()
       if (!this.isEpochCurrent(epoch)) {
@@ -182,14 +182,14 @@ export class RelayAuthCoordinator {
     } catch (error) {
       if (this.isEpochCurrent(epoch)) {
         this.options.onStatus('offline')
-        if (retryIdentityKey && shouldRetryRelayConnectionError(error)) {
+        if (shouldRetryRelayConnectionError(error)) {
           this.scheduleRetry(epoch, retryIdentityKey)
         }
       }
     }
   }
 
-  private scheduleRetry(epoch: number, expectedIdentityKey: string): void {
+  private scheduleRetry(epoch: number, expectedIdentityKey?: string): void {
     if (this.retryTimer || !this.isEpochCurrent(epoch)) {
       return
     }