diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 75723dbd..5c0cc230 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -81,6 +81,9 @@ All notable changes to vouch are documented here. Format follows
   KB under `eval/fixture-kb/`, and an `eval` workflow gating retrieval changes
   (#226).
 ### Fixed
+- `review-ui` health checks now stay alive when a pending proposal YAML file is
+  corrupt or contains invalid control characters, so desktop launchers do not
+  time out waiting for `/healthz`.
 - `parse_since` (the `--since` parser behind `vouch metrics`/`vouch audit`) now raises a clean `MetricsError` for a duration too large to represent (e.g. `--since 1000000000000d`), instead of letting an uncaught `OverflowError` traceback escape — restoring the documented "clean error, not a traceback" contract.
 - `sync_apply` now loads the sync source exactly once and passes the same `_SyncSource` instance into `sync_check`, closing a TOCTOU window where a bundle replaced on disk between the two `_load_source` calls could cause the validation and write phases to operate on different snapshots. Also eliminates redundant directory walks (KB sources) and triple tarball opens (bundle sources). Fixes #217.
 - `vault_to_kb` now passes `slug_hint=page_id` to `propose_page` so vault edit proposals target the existing page id from frontmatter instead of a slugified copy of the title (fixes #219).
diff --git a/src/vouch/web/server.py b/src/vouch/web/server.py
index 2473fadb..e94c078e 100644
--- a/src/vouch/web/server.py
+++ b/src/vouch/web/server.py
@@ -201,6 +201,11 @@ def _pending_page(store: KBStore, page: int, page_size: int
     return proposals, page, pages, total
 
 
+def _pending_count(store: KBStore) -> int:
+    proposed_dir = store.kb_dir / "proposed"
+    return len(list(proposed_dir.glob("*.yaml"))) if proposed_dir.is_dir() else 0
+
+
 # --- auth -----------------------------------------------------------------
 
 
@@ -369,7 +374,7 @@ def healthz() -> dict[str, Any]:
         return {
             "ok": True,
             "kb": str(store.root),
-            "pending": len(store.list_proposals(ProposalStatus.PENDING)),
+            "pending": _pending_count(store),
             "auth": auth.enabled,
             "clients": hub.client_count,
         }
diff --git a/tests/test_web.py b/tests/test_web.py
index e44a7fc8..893887b3 100644
--- a/tests/test_web.py
+++ b/tests/test_web.py
@@ -239,6 +239,22 @@ def test_healthz(client: TestClient, store: KBStore) -> None:
     assert body["pending"] == 1
 
 
+def test_healthz_survives_unreadable_pending_yaml(
+    client: TestClient, store: KBStore,
+) -> None:
+    (store.kb_dir / "proposed" / "bad.yaml").write_text(
+        "id: bad\npayload: '\x80'\n",
+        encoding="utf-8",
+    )
+
+    r = client.get("/healthz")
+
+    assert r.status_code == 200
+    body = r.json()
+    assert body["ok"] is True
+    assert body["pending"] == 1
+
+
 # --- bring-up errors ------------------------------------------------------