diff --git a/bin/omarchy-shell b/bin/omarchy-shell
index 3cc7eaaa..93312327 100755
--- a/bin/omarchy-shell
+++ b/bin/omarchy-shell
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ fi
 # positionals. qs reports connection failures with a nonzero exit, but IPC-level
 # failures (unknown target/function, bad arguments) go to stdout with exit 0.
 ipc_timeout=${OMARCHY_SHELL_IPC_TIMEOUT:-2s}
-output=$(timeout --kill-after=1s "$ipc_timeout" qs -p "$OMARCHY_PATH/shell" ipc call -- "$@" 2>/dev/null)
+output=$(timeout --kill-after=1s "$ipc_timeout" qs ipc -n -p "$OMARCHY_PATH/shell" call -- "$@" 2>/dev/null)
 ipc_status=$?
 
 if (( ipc_status == 124 || ipc_status == 137 )); then
diff --git a/test/shell.d/restart-shell-test.sh b/test/shell.d/restart-shell-test.sh
index ce83312b..bd834fb2 100755
--- a/test/shell.d/restart-shell-test.sh
+++ b/test/shell.d/restart-shell-test.sh
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ touch "$wrapper_root/shell/shell.qml"
 cat >"$wrapper_bin/qs" <<'SH'
 #!/bin/bash
 
+[[ -n ${OMARCHY_TEST_QS_ARGS:-} ]] && printf '%s\n' "$*" >"$OMARCHY_TEST_QS_ARGS"
+
 if [[ ${OMARCHY_TEST_QS_HANG:-0} == 1 ]]; then
   sleep 5
 else
@@ -31,6 +33,15 @@ wrapper_error=$(PATH="$wrapper_bin:$PATH" \
 [[ $wrapper_error == "omarchy-shell is not responding" ]] || fail "hung shell IPC reports that the shell is unresponsive" "$wrapper_error"
 pass "shell IPC calls time out when Quickshell is unresponsive"
 
+wrapper_args="$test_tmp/wrapper-args"
+PATH="$wrapper_bin:$PATH" \
+OMARCHY_PATH="$wrapper_root" \
+OMARCHY_TEST_QS_ARGS="$wrapper_args" \
+  "$ROOT/bin/omarchy-shell" shell ping >/dev/null
+
+grep -F -- 'ipc -n -p' "$wrapper_args" >/dev/null || fail "shell IPC targets the newest live Quickshell instance"
+pass "shell IPC targets the newest live Quickshell instance"
+
 restart_root="$test_tmp/restart-root"
 restart_bin="$restart_root/bin"
 restart_state="$test_tmp/restart-pids"