diff --git a/sdk/src/cli/run.ts b/sdk/src/cli/run.ts
index a3fb1519a..d78c3ddb7 100644
--- a/sdk/src/cli/run.ts
+++ b/sdk/src/cli/run.ts
@@ -167,7 +167,11 @@ export async function connect(
   }
 }
 
-async function classifyOutcome(
+/// Exported for tests. The `running`-with-no-identifiable-step branch (#179)
+/// only occurs in a sub-second window against a live daemon, so pinning it
+/// needs a stubbed client rather than a real run -- the integration test that
+/// found it reproduced the bug roughly 1 time in 12.
+export async function classifyOutcome(
   client: JournalClient,
   command: RunCommand,
   outcome: RunOutcome,
@@ -178,6 +182,7 @@ async function classifyOutcome(
   let current = outcome;
   let parkedStep: ParkedStep | undefined;
   let needsHuman = false;
+  let unclassifiedPolls = 0;
   while (current.status === 'parked') {
     const inspection = await inspectOutOfBandStep(client, current.run_id);
     if (inspection?.parkedStep !== undefined) {
@@ -194,6 +199,36 @@ async function classifyOutcome(
       current = await client.runResume(current.run_id);
       continue;
     }
+    // The run is still RUNNING but no step is identifiable at this instant.
+    //
+    // That is a healthy state, not a protocol error. It happens when a worker
+    // has just completed the step this run parked on and the daemon has not yet
+    // finished driving what follows: nothing is `needs_human`, `runnable` or
+    // `running` for a moment, while the snapshot's own status is `running`.
+    // Breaking here left `status === 'parked'` with no `parkedStep`, so the
+    // tail reported `parked without a classifiable completion` -- a spurious
+    // failure on a run that was about to succeed (#179). Reproduced 1 in 4-15
+    // locally; the probe that caught it printed
+    // `inspection={"status":"running","needsHuman":false}`.
+    //
+    // So poll it, bounded. Resuming immediately would spin, since the daemon
+    // needs a moment to advance.
+    if (inspection?.status === 'running' && unclassifiedPolls < MAX_UNCLASSIFIED_POLLS) {
+      unclassifiedPolls += 1;
+      // `delay(ms, signal)`, not a bare setTimeout: every other wait in this
+      // file is cancel-aware, and an uncancellable one here would keep polling
+      // the daemon for up to 2s after a Ctrl-C or a lifecycle abort.
+      throwIfCanceled(options.signal, current.run_id);
+      await delay(UNCLASSIFIED_POLL_MS, options.signal);
+      // Redundant resumes are safe: `run.resume` is idempotent on a run that
+      // is already progressing -- it returns the current state rather than
+      // re-dispatching. This loop leans on that up to MAX_UNCLASSIFIED_POLLS
+      // times while the daemon is mid-transition.
+      current = await client.runResume(current.run_id);
+      continue;
+    }
+    // Fail closed rather than loop forever: if it never resolves, the original
+    // error below still fires and says so.
     break;
   }
 
@@ -253,6 +288,12 @@ interface RunningStep extends ParkedStep {
   leaseDeadlineMs: number;
 }
 
+// Bound on re-polling a run that reports `running` with no identifiable step.
+// 40 x 50ms = 2s, far longer than the sub-second window observed in #179, and
+// short enough that a genuinely stuck run still reports rather than hangs.
+const MAX_UNCLASSIFIED_POLLS = 40;
+const UNCLASSIFIED_POLL_MS = 50;
+
 async function inspectOutOfBandStep(
   client: JournalClient,
   runId: string,
diff --git a/sdk/tests/classify-outcome.test.ts b/sdk/tests/classify-outcome.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..95a5d9be2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sdk/tests/classify-outcome.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
+
+import { classifyOutcome } from '../src/cli/run.js';
+import type { JournalClient } from '../src/journal-client.js';
+import type { RunGetResult, RunOutcome } from '../src/protocol.js';
+
+const RUN_ID = 'run-179';
+
+const parked: RunOutcome = {
+  run_id: RUN_ID,
+  status: 'parked',
+  completion_reason: null,
+  completed_steps: 1,
+};
+
+const base = {
+  command: 'run' as const,
+  ok: true,
+  specPath: 'spec.yaml',
+  diagnostics: [],
+};
+
+/// A client that answers `run.get` from a scripted queue and always reports the
+/// run as still parked on `run.resume` -- which is what the daemon does while a
+/// worker completion is being driven.
+function clientReturning(snapshots: RunGetResult[]): { client: JournalClient; resumes: () => number } {
+  let index = 0;
+  let resumes = 0;
+  const fake = {
+    runGet: async (): Promise<RunGetResult> =>
+      snapshots[Math.min(index++, snapshots.length - 1)]!,
+    runResume: async (): Promise<RunOutcome> => {
+      resumes += 1;
+      return parked;
+    },
+  };
+  return { client: fake as unknown as JournalClient, resumes: () => resumes };
+}
+
+const runningNoStep: RunGetResult = {
+  run_id: RUN_ID,
+  status: 'running',
+  steps: {},
+  budget: { tokens_in: 0, tokens_out: 0, dollars: '0' },
+};
+
+const parkedOnLlm: RunGetResult = {
+  run_id: RUN_ID,
+  status: 'parked',
+  steps: { answer: { type: 'llm', state: 'runnable' } as never },
+  budget: { tokens_in: 0, tokens_out: 0, dollars: '0' },
+};
+
+describe('classifyOutcome', () => {
+  /// #179. A run that reports `running` with no identifiable step is mid-stride,
+  /// not broken: a worker has just completed the step the run parked on and the
+  /// daemon has not yet driven what follows. Treating that instant as terminal
+  /// failed healthy runs with `parked without a classifiable completion`.
+  it('waits out a running run with no identifiable step instead of failing it', async () => {
+    const { client, resumes } = clientReturning([
+      runningNoStep,
+      runningNoStep,
+      runningNoStep,
+      parkedOnLlm,
+    ]);
+
+    const execution = await classifyOutcome(client, 'run', parked, base as never, '/tmp/sock', {});
+
+    expect(
+      execution.report.diagnostics.map((d) => d.kind),
+      JSON.stringify(execution.report.diagnostics),
+    ).not.toContain('protocol_error');
+    expect(execution.exitCode).toBe(3);
+    expect(execution.report.parkedStep?.id).toBe('answer');
+    expect(resumes()).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+  });
+
+  /// The bound must hold: a run that NEVER resolves still reports rather than
+  /// polling forever. Fail closed is the point of keeping the original break.
+  it('gives up and reports when a running run never becomes classifiable', async () => {
+    const { client } = clientReturning([runningNoStep]);
+
+    const execution = await classifyOutcome(client, 'run', parked, base as never, '/tmp/sock', {});
+
+    expect(execution.exitCode).not.toBe(0);
+    expect(execution.report.parkedStep).toBeUndefined();
+  });
+});