diff --git a/src/renderer/src/app/App.tsx b/src/renderer/src/app/App.tsx
index a2808267..d6bb8b49 100644
--- a/src/renderer/src/app/App.tsx
+++ b/src/renderer/src/app/App.tsx
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import { StartupScreen } from "./StartupScreen";
 import type { Focus } from "../pages/types";
 import { Fragment, useEffect, useMemo, useState } from "react";
 import { Shell, type RouteId } from "../shared/Shell";
@@ -17,7 +18,7 @@ import { SettingsPage } from "../pages/SettingsPage";
 import { OfficePage } from "../pages/OfficePage";
 
 export function App() {
-  const { snapshot, actions } = useSnapshot();
+  const { snapshot, syncFailure, actions } = useSnapshot();
   const [route, setRoute] = useState<RouteId>("home");
   const [focus, setFocus] = useState<Focus | null>(null);
   // Opening a page for an object remembers it; plain navigation forgets it.
@@ -61,7 +62,8 @@ export function App() {
   }, [theme]);
 
   if (!snapshot) {
-    return <div className="app-shell" style={{ display: "grid", placeItems: "center" }} />;
+    // A failed manual retry is already recorded in syncFailure, which the screen shows.
+    return <StartupScreen failure={syncFailure} onRetry={() => void actions.reload().catch(() => undefined)} />;
   }
   // A company exists from Launch on, but its setup is unfinished until the connectors step is done; that is stored, so a restart resumes it.
   const unfinished = snapshot.organizations.find((organization) => organization.setupCompletedAt === null) ?? null;
diff --git a/src/renderer/src/app/StartupScreen.tsx b/src/renderer/src/app/StartupScreen.tsx
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b6104620
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/renderer/src/app/StartupScreen.tsx
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+import { Button } from "../shared/ui";
+import { t } from "../i18n/i18n";
+import type { SyncFailure } from "./useSnapshot";
+
+/** What the window shows before the first data arrives: starting, or why loading failed and that it keeps retrying. */
+export function StartupScreen({ failure, onRetry }: { failure: SyncFailure | null; onRetry: () => void }) {
+  return (
+    <div className="app-shell" style={{ display: "grid", placeItems: "center", padding: 24 }}>
+      {failure ? (
+        <div role="alert" style={{ maxWidth: 480, display: "grid", gap: 12, textAlign: "center" }}>
+          <strong>{t("AgentCompany could not load its data.")}</strong>
+          <div className="mono" style={{ fontSize: 12, color: "var(--text-2)", wordBreak: "break-word" }}>{failure.message}</div>
+          <div style={{ fontSize: 13, color: "var(--text-3)" }}>{t("Retrying every few seconds (attempt {count}).", { count: failure.attempts })}</div>
+          <div><Button onClick={onRetry}>{t("Retry now")}</Button></div>
+        </div>
+      ) : (
+        <div role="status" style={{ color: "var(--text-3)" }}>{t("Starting AgentCompany…")}</div>
+      )}
+    </div>
+  );
+}
diff --git a/src/renderer/src/app/useSnapshot.ts b/src/renderer/src/app/useSnapshot.ts
index de20e5f3..06443036 100644
--- a/src/renderer/src/app/useSnapshot.ts
+++ b/src/renderer/src/app/useSnapshot.ts
@@ -7,16 +7,31 @@ export interface SnapshotActions {
   reload(): Promise<void>;
 }
 
+/** The latest failed load since the last success, and how many loads in a row have failed. */
+export interface SyncFailure {
+  message: string;
+  attempts: number;
+}
+
 export function useSnapshot(): {
   snapshot: AppSnapshot | null;
+  syncFailure: SyncFailure | null;
   actions: SnapshotActions;
 } {
   const [snapshot, setSnapshot] = useState<AppSnapshot | null>(null);
+  const [syncFailure, setSyncFailure] = useState<SyncFailure | null>(null);
 
   const load = useCallback(async () => {
-    const result = await window.agentCompany.loadSnapshot();
-    if (!result.ok) throw new Error(result.error.message);
-    setSnapshot(result.data);
+    try {
+      const result = await window.agentCompany.loadSnapshot();
+      if (!result.ok) throw new Error(result.error.message);
+      setSnapshot(result.data);
+      setSyncFailure(null);
+    } catch (error) {
+      const message = error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error);
+      setSyncFailure((current) => ({ message, attempts: (current?.attempts ?? 0) + 1 }));
+      throw error;
+    }
   }, []);
 
   const run = useCallback(async <T extends AppSnapshot | null>(
@@ -72,5 +87,5 @@ export function useSnapshot(): {
   }, [load]);
 
   const actions = useMemo<SnapshotActions>(() => ({ run, reload: load }), [run, load]);
-  return { snapshot, actions };
+  return { snapshot, syncFailure, actions };
 }
diff --git a/src/renderer/src/i18n/zh.ts b/src/renderer/src/i18n/zh.ts
index a8e5db2c..ab11df3e 100644
--- a/src/renderer/src/i18n/zh.ts
+++ b/src/renderer/src/i18n/zh.ts
@@ -694,6 +694,10 @@ export const zh: Record<string, string> = {
   "Resets {date} (UTC)": "{date} 重置（UTC）",
   "Unsaved": "未保存",
   "Working language": "工作语言",
+  "AgentCompany could not load its data.": "AgentCompany 无法加载数据。",
+  "Retrying every few seconds (attempt {count}).": "每隔几秒重试一次（第 {count} 次）。",
+  "Retry now": "立即重试",
+  "Starting AgentCompany…": "正在启动 AgentCompany…",
   "Direct: only its members take part, and every message wakes the other members. As the board, you can read it even when you are not a member.": "私聊：只有成员参与，每条消息都会唤醒其他成员。作为董事会，即使你不是成员也能阅读。",
   "Company, division, department, project, pod and ad-hoc are labels for finding the conversation; they behave the same. An agent replies when @mentioned or already in the thread; a message that names no one goes to the most senior agent member.": "公司、事业部、部门、项目、小组和临时只是便于查找的标签，行为相同。Agent 在被 @提及或已在该话题中时回复；没有指名任何人的消息交给级别最高的 Agent 成员。",
   "Workspace: everyone in the company is a member, including agents hired later, and any agent can read it.": "工作区：公司里的每个人都是成员，包括之后招聘的 Agent，任何 Agent 都能读取。",
diff --git a/tests/e2e/startup-failure.spec.ts b/tests/e2e/startup-failure.spec.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..31749621
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/e2e/startup-failure.spec.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+import { _electron as electron, expect, test } from "@playwright/test";
+import { mkdirSync } from "node:fs";
+import { tmpdir } from "node:os";
+import { join, resolve } from "node:path";
+import { randomUUID } from "node:crypto";
+import { DatabaseSync } from "node:sqlite";
+
+test("a first load that fails says why, keeps retrying, and recovers", async () => {
+  const profileDir = join(tmpdir(), `agentcompany-new-e2e-startup-${randomUUID()}`);
+  mkdirSync(profileDir, { recursive: true });
+  const launch = () => electron.launch({
+    args: [resolve("out/main/index.js")],
+    env: { ...process.env, AGENTCOMPANY_NEW_PROFILE_DIR: profileDir, AGENTCOMPANY_NEW_AUTORUN: "0" },
+  });
+  const setDraft = (json: string | null) => {
+    const db = new DatabaseSync(join(profileDir, "agentcompany.db"));
+    db.prepare("update app_state set onboarding_draft_json = ? where id = 1").run(json);
+    db.close();
+  };
+
+  let app = await launch();
+  let page = await app.firstWindow();
+  await expect(page.getByRole("heading", { name: "Welcome" })).toBeVisible();
+  await app.close();
+
+  // A stored value the snapshot cannot read makes every load fail.
+  setDraft("{");
+  app = await launch();
+  page = await app.firstWindow();
+  const failure = page.getByRole("alert");
+  await expect(failure).toContainText("AgentCompany could not load its data.");
+  await expect(failure).toContainText("JSON");
+  await expect(failure).toContainText(/attempt [2-9]/);
+
+  setDraft(null);
+  await page.getByRole("button", { name: "Retry now" }).click();
+  await expect(page.getByRole("heading", { name: "Welcome" })).toBeVisible();
+  await app.close();
+});