diff --git a/kitty/launch.py b/kitty/launch.py
index d5b4203fb..8dc756c38 100644
--- a/kitty/launch.py
+++ b/kitty/launch.py
@@ -1010,6 +1010,17 @@ class EditCmd:
 
     def on_edit_window_close(self, window: Window) -> None:
         self.check_status()
+        if self.editor_exit_code is None:
+            # The PID death callback fires in the same main-loop tick as the
+            # window-close callback (report_reaped_pids runs after parse_input).
+            # Schedule a short-interval fallback timer in case the PID was not
+            # registered in time (e.g., editor crashed before monitor_pid ran).
+            add_timer(self._fallback_done, 0.1, False)
+
+    def _fallback_done(self, timer_id: int | None = None) -> None:
+        if self.editor_exit_code is None:
+            self.editor_exit_code = 0
+        self.check_status()
 
     def check_status(self, timer_id: int | None = None) -> None:
         if self.abort_signaled:
@@ -1155,7 +1166,9 @@ def remote_edit(msg: str, window: Window) -> None:
             try:
                 get_boss().monitor_pid(editor_pid, on_editor_pid_death)
             except RuntimeError:
-                c.editor_exit_code = 0  # monitoring table full, assume success
+                # PID monitoring table is full. The fallback timer in
+                # on_edit_window_close will set editor_exit_code to 0.
+                log_error('edit-in-kitty: PID monitoring table full, editor exit code will not be tracked')
         else:
             c.editor_exit_code = 0
         c.schedule_check()
diff --git a/tools/cmd/edit_in_kitty/main.go b/tools/cmd/edit_in_kitty/main.go
index 02819bb96..5d8bafade 100644
--- a/tools/cmd/edit_in_kitty/main.go
+++ b/tools/cmd/edit_in_kitty/main.go
@@ -52,6 +52,10 @@ func edit_loop(data_to_send string, kill_if_signaled bool, on_data OnDataCallbac
 				if line == "KITTY_DATA_END" {
 					lp.QueueWriteString(update_type + "\r\n")
 					if update_type == "DONE" {
+						// Parse the editor exit code from the data payload.
+						// Decoding errors are intentionally ignored: if the data is
+						// missing or malformed (e.g. from an older kitty server),
+						// we fall back to exit_code=0 for backward compatibility.
 						if data.Len() > 0 {
 							if b, err2 := base64.StdEncoding.DecodeString(data.String()); err2 == nil {
 								if n, err3 := strconv.Atoi(strings.TrimSpace(string(b))); err3 == nil {