diff --git a/claudetool/bash_zombies_linux.go b/claudetool/bash_zombies_linux.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c832caa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/claudetool/bash_zombies_linux.go
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+//go:build linux
+
+package claudetool
+
+import (
+	"log/slog"
+	"os"
+	"syscall"
+	"time"
+
+	"golang.org/x/sys/unix"
+)
+
+// reapZombies attempts to reap zombie child processes from the specified
+// process group that may have been left behind after a process group cleanup.
+// This is important when running as PID 1 (init process) since no other process
+// will reap zombies.
+//
+// This function reaps zombies until the process group is empty or no more
+// zombies are available.
+func reapZombies(pgid int) {
+	if os.Getpid() != 1 {
+		return // not running as init (e.g. -unsafe), no need to reap
+	}
+	// Quick exit for the common case.
+	if !processGroupHasProcesses(pgid) {
+		return // no processes in the group, nothing to reap
+	}
+
+	// Reap in the background.
+	go func() {
+		maxAttempts := 1000 // shouldn't ever hit this, so be generous, this isn't particularly expensive
+
+		for range maxAttempts {
+			if !processGroupHasProcesses(pgid) {
+				return
+			}
+
+			var wstatus unix.WaitStatus
+			pid, err := unix.Wait4(-pgid, &wstatus, unix.WNOHANG, nil)
+
+			switch err {
+			case syscall.EINTR:
+				// interrupted, retry
+				continue
+			case syscall.ECHILD:
+				// no children, therefore no zombies
+				return
+			case nil:
+				// fall through to handle pid
+			default:
+				slog.Debug("unexpected error in reapZombies", "error", err, "pgid", pgid)
+				return
+			}
+
+			if pid == 0 {
+				// No zombies available right now, wait and check again
+				// There's no great rush, so give it some time.
+				time.Sleep(100 * time.Millisecond)
+				continue
+			}
+
+			slog.Debug("reaped zombie process", "pid", pid, "pgid", pgid, "status", wstatus)
+		}
+	}()
+}