diff --git a/src/main/daemon/history-reader-memory.test.ts b/src/main/daemon/history-reader-memory.test.ts
index 36e86f5f413..9a96e4e7cf8 100644
--- a/src/main/daemon/history-reader-memory.test.ts
+++ b/src/main/daemon/history-reader-memory.test.ts
@@ -22,6 +22,8 @@ import {
   TERMINAL_HISTORY_JSON_MAX_STRUCTURAL_TOKENS
 } from './terminal-history-file-reader'
 
+const RETIRED_CHECKPOINT_READ_CAP_BYTES = 16 * 1024 * 1024
+
 const directories: string[] = []
 
 function createSession(sessionId: string): { basePath: string; sessionPath: string } {
@@ -49,7 +51,7 @@ function createSparseFile(path: string, bytes: number): void {
   closeSync(descriptor)
 }
 
-function checkpoint(): string {
+function checkpoint(overrides?: Record<string, unknown>): string {
   return JSON.stringify({
     snapshotAnsi: 'safe checkpoint',
     scrollbackAnsi: '',
@@ -62,7 +64,8 @@ function checkpoint(): string {
       mouseTracking: false,
       applicationCursor: false,
       alternateScreen: false
-    }
+    },
+    ...overrides
   })
 }
 
@@ -82,12 +85,27 @@ describe('terminal history restore memory limits', () => {
     expect(restore?.snapshotAnsi).toBe('safe checkpoint')
   })
 
+  // Why: the read cap once sat at 16MiB while the writer stayed unbounded, so a big-scrollback
+  // session cold-restored to an empty terminal — checkpoint nulled, and every fallback collapsed.
+  it('restores a checkpoint larger than the retired 16MiB read cap', async () => {
+    const { basePath, sessionPath } = createSession('large-checkpoint')
+    const scrollbackAnsi = 'x'.repeat(RETIRED_CHECKPOINT_READ_CAP_BYTES + 1)
+    writeFileSync(join(sessionPath, 'checkpoint.json'), checkpoint({ scrollbackAnsi }))
+
+    const restore = await new HistoryReader(basePath).detectColdRestore('large-checkpoint')
+    expect(restore?.scrollbackAnsi).toBe(scrollbackAnsi)
+  })
+
+  // Why the cap survives at all: it bounds a corrupt/runaway file, well above legitimate output.
   it('ignores oversized checkpoint and metadata files before parsing', async () => {
     const checkpointSession = createSession('oversized-checkpoint')
-    createSparseFile(
-      join(checkpointSession.sessionPath, 'checkpoint.json'),
-      TERMINAL_HISTORY_CHECKPOINT_MAX_BYTES + 1
-    )
+    const oversizedCheckpoint = join(checkpointSession.sessionPath, 'checkpoint.json')
+    createSparseFile(oversizedCheckpoint, TERMINAL_HISTORY_CHECKPOINT_MAX_BYTES + 1)
+    // Why assert the reader directly too: detectColdRestore returns null for any unparseable
+    // checkpoint, so it would stay green with the byte cap removed entirely.
+    expect(() =>
+      readTerminalHistoryJson(oversizedCheckpoint, TERMINAL_HISTORY_CHECKPOINT_MAX_BYTES)
+    ).toThrow(/File too large/)
     expect(
       await new HistoryReader(checkpointSession.basePath).detectColdRestore('oversized-checkpoint')
     ).toBeNull()
diff --git a/src/main/daemon/terminal-history-file-limits.ts b/src/main/daemon/terminal-history-file-limits.ts
index 3a8e4a1891e..5fc4523d785 100644
--- a/src/main/daemon/terminal-history-file-limits.ts
+++ b/src/main/daemon/terminal-history-file-limits.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
 export const TERMINAL_HISTORY_META_MAX_BYTES = 64 * 1024
 export const TERMINAL_HISTORY_LOG_MAX_BYTES = 5 * 1024 * 1024
-export const TERMINAL_HISTORY_CHECKPOINT_MAX_BYTES = 16 * 1024 * 1024
+// Why deliberately generous: the checkpoint writer is unbounded, and a read cap under what it
+// can emit silently drops ALL scrollback on cold restore. This guards a corrupt/runaway file,
+// not retention — a 50k-row max preset of ordinary text serializes to ~14MB, ~15x under. Output
+// colored per cell can still exceed this; trimming the snapshot writer-side is the real fix.
+export const TERMINAL_HISTORY_CHECKPOINT_MAX_BYTES = 200_000_000
 export const TERMINAL_HISTORY_LEGACY_SCROLLBACK_MAX_BYTES = 16 * 1024 * 1024