qs parses -n before the ipc subcommand as its top-level --no-duplicate launch flag and silently ignores it, so IPC still went to the oldest matching instance - exactly the stale one left behind around a restart. The --newest flag belongs to the ipc subcommand: qs ipc -n. Verified against two live instances; the test now pins the flag position. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>