diff --git a/packages/ui/src/lib/chunkLoadRecovery.test.ts b/packages/ui/src/lib/chunkLoadRecovery.test.ts
index 5dd0eea7..7d79e9dc 100644
--- a/packages/ui/src/lib/chunkLoadRecovery.test.ts
+++ b/packages/ui/src/lib/chunkLoadRecovery.test.ts
@@ -3,6 +3,41 @@ import { describe, expect, test } from 'bun:test';
 import { importWithChunkRecovery } from './chunkLoadRecovery';
 
 describe('importWithChunkRecovery', () => {
+  test('preserves the import error without navigating the VS Code webview', async () => {
+    const previousWindow = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(globalThis, 'window');
+    let reloadCount = 0;
+    let markerWrites = 0;
+    Object.defineProperty(globalThis, 'window', {
+      configurable: true,
+      writable: true,
+      value: {
+        __VSCODE_CONFIG__: { workspaceFolder: 'C:/repo', workspaceFolders: [] },
+        sessionStorage: {
+          getItem: () => null,
+          setItem: () => { markerWrites += 1; },
+        },
+        setTimeout: (callback: () => void) => { callback(); return 0; },
+        location: { reload: () => { reloadCount += 1; } },
+      },
+    });
+
+    const failure = new Error('Failed to fetch dynamically imported module');
+    let attempts = 0;
+    try {
+      const caught = await importWithChunkRecovery(async () => {
+        attempts += 1;
+        throw failure;
+      }).catch((error: Error) => error);
+      expect(caught).toBe(failure);
+      expect(attempts).toBe(2);
+      expect(reloadCount).toBe(0);
+      expect(markerWrites).toBe(0);
+    } finally {
+      if (previousWindow) Object.defineProperty(globalThis, 'window', previousWindow);
+      else Reflect.deleteProperty(globalThis, 'window');
+    }
+  });
+
   test('schedules recovery reload when stored reload marker is corrupt', async () => {
     const globalWithWindow = globalThis as unknown as { window?: unknown };
     const previousWindow = globalWithWindow.window;
diff --git a/packages/ui/src/lib/chunkLoadRecovery.ts b/packages/ui/src/lib/chunkLoadRecovery.ts
index 6dd0a480..b948218d 100644
--- a/packages/ui/src/lib/chunkLoadRecovery.ts
+++ b/packages/ui/src/lib/chunkLoadRecovery.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { lazy } from 'react';
+import { isVSCodeRuntime } from './desktop';
 
 declare const __APP_VERSION__: string | undefined;
 
@@ -42,6 +43,9 @@ function reloadMarkerSignature(error: unknown): string {
 
 function scheduleReloadOnce(error: unknown): void {
   if (typeof window === 'undefined') return;
+  // VS Code owns webview navigation. Keep the import failure available to the
+  // error boundary instead of replacing the app with an unsupported reload.
+  if (isVSCodeRuntime()) return;
 
   const now = Date.now();
   const signature = reloadMarkerSignature(error);
diff --git a/packages/vscode/src/DOCUMENTATION.md b/packages/vscode/src/DOCUMENTATION.md
index b02d1977..21980107 100644
--- a/packages/vscode/src/DOCUMENTATION.md
+++ b/packages/vscode/src/DOCUMENTATION.md
@@ -110,6 +110,10 @@ opening a connection. Session sync still uses the OpenCode SSE bridge and
 global session polling. Sending the control stream to the webview origin caused
 repeated `403` responses and URL-token requests to `/auth/url-token`.
 
+Shared lazy imports retry a failed chunk load, but skip browser-navigation
+recovery in VS Code. `window.location.reload()` is unsupported inside webviews;
+the original import error must reach the UI error boundary instead.
+
 ## Extension guideline
 
 When adding new bridge route families: