diff --git a/cli/__tests__/poll-retry.test.mjs b/cli/__tests__/poll-retry.test.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..289fe6a4a4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cli/__tests__/poll-retry.test.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+/**
+ * TASK-025: the run loop had a circuit-breaker for auth errors and none for
+ * network errors, so a failed fetch retried at a flat interval forever with
+ * one indistinct log line per attempt.
+ *
+ * Each case below pins a property the flat-retry version got wrong. The
+ * escalation cases matter most: the measured outage was 797 consecutive
+ * failures whose only trace was 797 identical lines, so "does a sustained
+ * outage announce itself" is the actual defect, not the delay curve.
+ */
+import { describe, expect, it } from '@jest/globals';
+import {
+  POLL_ESCALATE_AT,
+  POLL_RETRY_MAX_MS,
+  pollRetryPolicy,
+} from '../src/lib/poll-retry.js';
+
+const at = (n, over = {}) => pollRetryPolicy({
+  consecutiveFailures: n,
+  intervalMs: 5000,
+  ...over,
+});
+
+describe('pollRetryPolicy', () => {
+  it('costs a single blip nothing — the first retry is still the poll interval', () => {
+    expect(at(1).delayMs).toBe(5000);
+  });
+
+  it('backs off exponentially after that, which flat retry never did', () => {
+    expect(at(2).delayMs).toBe(10000);
+    expect(at(3).delayMs).toBe(20000);
+    expect(at(4).delayMs).toBe(40000);
+  });
+
+  it('bounds the backoff, so a long outage does not schedule a retry past the ceiling', () => {
+    // 2^30 * 5s is ~178 years without the clamp.
+    const far = at(30);
+    expect(far.delayMs).toBe(POLL_RETRY_MAX_MS);
+    expect(far.atCeiling).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it('escalates on the declared thresholds and stays quiet between them', () => {
+    // The whole point: 797 failures must not produce 797 equally loud lines.
+    expect(at(3).escalate).toBe(true);
+    expect(at(10).escalate).toBe(true);
+    expect(at(4).escalate).toBe(false);
+    expect(at(9).escalate).toBe(false);
+    expect(at(797).escalate).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it('escalates a bounded number of times across a very long outage', () => {
+    const loud = Array.from({ length: 800 }, (_, i) => at(i + 1))
+      .filter((r) => r.escalate).length;
+    expect(loud).toBe(POLL_ESCALATE_AT.length);
+  });
+
+  it('applies anti-herd jitter, clamped so a bad caller cannot widen the window', () => {
+    expect(at(2, { jitterRatio: 0.2 }).delayMs).toBe(12000);
+    // Over the cap: clamped to 0.2 rather than honoured.
+    expect(at(2, { jitterRatio: 5 }).delayMs).toBe(12000);
+    expect(at(2, { jitterRatio: -1 }).delayMs).toBe(10000);
+    expect(at(2, { jitterRatio: NaN }).delayMs).toBe(10000);
+  });
+
+  it('falls back to a sane interval rather than NaN when the caller passes junk', () => {
+    expect(pollRetryPolicy({ consecutiveFailures: 1, intervalMs: 0 }).delayMs).toBe(5000);
+    expect(pollRetryPolicy({ consecutiveFailures: 1, intervalMs: -1 }).delayMs).toBe(5000);
+    expect(pollRetryPolicy({ consecutiveFailures: 0, intervalMs: 5000 }).delayMs).toBe(5000);
+    expect(pollRetryPolicy({ intervalMs: 5000 }).delayMs).toBe(5000);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/cli/package.json b/cli/package.json
index f3fff2bb59..c0683914a8 100644
--- a/cli/package.json
+++ b/cli/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "@commonlyai/cli",
-  "version": "0.1.15",
+  "version": "0.1.16",
   "license": "Apache-2.0",
   "description": "The Commonly CLI \u2014 connect agents, manage pods, iterate fast",
   "type": "module",
diff --git a/cli/src/commands/agent.js b/cli/src/commands/agent.js
index 224243870c..0aca631ada 100644
--- a/cli/src/commands/agent.js
+++ b/cli/src/commands/agent.js
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ import {
   recordHandledEvent,
 } from '../lib/session-store.js';
 import { readLongTerm, syncBack } from '../lib/memory-bridge.js';
+import { pollRetryPolicy } from '../lib/poll-retry.js';
 import { detectMemorySources, composeImport, importMemory } from '../lib/memory-import.js';
 import { detectSkills, importSkills } from '../lib/skills-import.js';
 import { parseEnvironmentFile, resolveWorkspace } from '../lib/environment.js';
@@ -732,6 +733,7 @@ export const performRun = ({
   // reprovision-all; 5+ wastes rate-limit budget after the real-revoke case.
   let consecutiveAuthErrors = 0;
   const MAX_AUTH_ERRORS = 3;
+  let consecutivePollFailures = 0;
   let consecutiveSpawnFailures = 0;
   const spawnJitterRatio = retryJitterRatio ?? spawnRetryJitter(agentName);
   // Per-seat cascade state — lives with the process, like the session store.
@@ -1175,6 +1177,7 @@ export const performRun = ({
         agentName, instanceId, limit: 10,
       });
       consecutiveAuthErrors = 0;
+      consecutivePollFailures = 0;
       for (const event of events) {
         if (!running) break;
         let result;
@@ -1265,6 +1268,33 @@ export const performRun = ({
           running = false;
           return;
         }
+      } else {
+        // TASK-025: everything that is not an auth rejection used to fall
+        // through to `onError` with `nextPollDelayMs` still at `intervalMs`,
+        // because that variable is only reassigned in the spawn-retry branch
+        // above and a failed fetch never reaches it. So a network outage
+        // retried flat at the poll interval, forever, with one indistinct
+        // line per attempt — 797 consecutive `fetch failed` across three
+        // seats, ~66 minutes, and nothing that read as an outage.
+        //
+        // Deliberately NOT a stop. `MAX_AUTH_ERRORS` halts because a rejected
+        // token cannot heal itself; a network failure usually can, and a seat
+        // that stops on one is dead until a human notices.
+        consecutivePollFailures += 1;
+        const retry = pollRetryPolicy({
+          consecutiveFailures: consecutivePollFailures,
+          intervalMs,
+          jitterRatio: spawnJitterRatio,
+        });
+        nextPollDelayMs = retry.delayMs;
+        if (retry.escalate) {
+          log(
+            `poll failed ${consecutivePollFailures}x in a row `
+            + `(${err?.message || 'unknown error'}) — backing off to `
+            + `${formatRetryDelay(retry.delayMs)}`
+            + `${retry.atCeiling ? ', at the ceiling' : ''}`,
+          );
+        }
       }
       onError?.(err);
     }
diff --git a/cli/src/lib/poll-retry.js b/cli/src/lib/poll-retry.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3cab9f04b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cli/src/lib/poll-retry.js
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+/**
+ * Retry policy for the run loop's own FETCH failures (TASK-025).
+ *
+ * `spawn-retry.js` bounds failures of the subprocess a poll produces. This
+ * bounds failures of the poll itself — the request to
+ * `/api/agents/runtime/events` that has to succeed before there is anything to
+ * spawn. They are different failures with different remedies and, until now,
+ * only one of them had a policy.
+ *
+ * The gap, measured: `agent run`'s tick set `nextPollDelayMs = intervalMs` and
+ * only ever reassigned it inside the spawn-retry branch. A fetch that threw
+ * never reached that branch, so a network failure retried at a flat 5s
+ * forever — no backoff, no ceiling, and no escalation. 797 consecutive
+ * `fetch failed` ran across three seats that way: ~66 minutes at 5s, and the
+ * only trace was one `onError` line per attempt in a log nobody was tailing.
+ *
+ * Two deliberate differences from the auth path directly above it:
+ *
+ * 1. NO STOP. `MAX_AUTH_ERRORS` halts the loop because a rejected token does
+ *    not heal on its own — retrying is pure cost and the operator must act.
+ *    A network failure is usually transient, and a seat that stops on one is
+ *    dead until someone notices. So this backs off and stays alive.
+ *
+ * 2. ESCALATION IS THE POINT. The harm in the measured outage was not the
+ *    retry rate, it was that 797 failures produced no signal distinguishable
+ *    from one failure. `escalate` fires on a small set of thresholds so a
+ *    sustained outage announces itself at widening intervals instead of
+ *    disappearing into per-attempt noise.
+ */
+
+// Same ceiling as the spawn path: past this, more waiting buys nothing and a
+// human is the only thing that resolves it.
+export const POLL_RETRY_MAX_MS = 15 * 60 * 1000;
+
+// Backoff starts only after the first failure has been retried once at the
+// normal interval, so a single blip costs nothing.
+export const POLL_BACKOFF_AFTER = 1;
+
+// Failure counts that emit a loud line. Chosen against the measured outage:
+// at intervalMs=5000 these land at roughly 15s, 1min, 5min, 20min and 1h of
+// sustained failure, so an operator reading the log sees the shape of the
+// outage rather than 797 identical lines.
+export const POLL_ESCALATE_AT = Object.freeze([3, 10, 30, 60, 120]);
+
+/**
+ * Next poll delay after a failed fetch, and whether this attempt should be
+ * announced loudly.
+ *
+ * Exponential from `intervalMs`, bounded by POLL_RETRY_MAX_MS. Jitter is the
+ * same anti-herd offset the spawn path uses — without it, every seat that lost
+ * the same upstream retries in lockstep and re-creates the thundering herd on
+ * recovery.
+ */
+export const pollRetryPolicy = ({
+  consecutiveFailures,
+  intervalMs,
+  jitterRatio = 0,
+}) => {
+  const safeIntervalMs = Number.isFinite(intervalMs) && intervalMs > 0 ? intervalMs : 5000;
+  const failureCount = Number.isInteger(consecutiveFailures) && consecutiveFailures > 0
+    ? consecutiveFailures
+    : 1;
+
+  const steps = Math.max(0, failureCount - POLL_BACKOFF_AFTER);
+  const raw = safeIntervalMs * (2 ** steps);
+  const bounded = Math.min(POLL_RETRY_MAX_MS, raw);
+
+  // Clamp rather than trust the caller: a jitterRatio above the cap would
+  // widen the herd window instead of narrowing it.
+  const safeJitter = Number.isFinite(jitterRatio)
+    ? Math.min(0.2, Math.max(0, jitterRatio))
+    : 0;
+
+  return {
+    delayMs: Math.round(bounded * (1 + safeJitter)),
+    escalate: POLL_ESCALATE_AT.includes(failureCount),
+    atCeiling: bounded >= POLL_RETRY_MAX_MS,
+  };
+};
+
+export default pollRetryPolicy;