diff --git a/reticulum-daemon/build.sh b/reticulum-daemon/build.sh
index 3d8a5a3b..f99642d3 100755
--- a/reticulum-daemon/build.sh
+++ b/reticulum-daemon/build.sh
@@ -43,9 +43,15 @@ echo "Built dist/archy-reticulum-daemon ($(du -h dist/archy-reticulum-daemon | c
 # motivated shipping it as a first-class OS tool rather than an ad hoc script.
 RNODECONF_SRC="$(find .venv/lib -maxdepth 5 -path '*/site-packages/RNS/Utilities/rnodeconf.py' -print -quit)"
 if [ -n "$RNODECONF_SRC" ] && [ -f "$RNODECONF_SRC" ]; then
+    # --runtime-hook: rnodeconf's own graceful_exit() calls the bare
+    # exit()/quit() builtins, which only exist in interactive Python (site.py
+    # injects them) — a frozen app hits NameError right as it tries to quit
+    # cleanly, after all the real work already succeeded. See
+    # pyi_rthook_exit_builtins.py.
     .venv/bin/pyinstaller --onefile --name archy-rnodeconf --clean --noconfirm \
         --collect-submodules RNS \
         --collect-data RNS \
+        --runtime-hook pyi_rthook_exit_builtins.py \
         -d noarchive \
         "$RNODECONF_SRC"
     echo "Built dist/archy-rnodeconf ($(du -h dist/archy-rnodeconf | cut -f1))"
diff --git a/reticulum-daemon/pyi_rthook_exit_builtins.py b/reticulum-daemon/pyi_rthook_exit_builtins.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..0b999229
--- /dev/null
+++ b/reticulum-daemon/pyi_rthook_exit_builtins.py
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+# PyInstaller runtime hook — see build.sh.
+#
+# `exit()`/`quit()` aren't part of the language; they're `site.Quitter`
+# instances the interactive interpreter injects into builtins at startup
+# (site.py). A frozen PyInstaller app never runs that interactive-mode
+# init, so any bundled script that calls bare `exit()` (RNS's own
+# rnodeconf.py does, in its graceful_exit() cleanup path) hits
+# `NameError: name 'exit' is not defined` right as it tries to quit
+# cleanly — the real work above it already completed, but the process
+# still exits 1, which is a foot-gun for anything scripting off the exit
+# code. Pre-define both as sys.exit so that path is a no-op crash-wise.
+import builtins
+import sys
+
+if not hasattr(builtins, "exit"):
+    builtins.exit = sys.exit
+if not hasattr(builtins, "quit"):
+    builtins.quit = sys.exit