diff --git a/bin/hermes-web-ui.mjs b/bin/hermes-web-ui.mjs
index 7099867..12a52d9 100755
--- a/bin/hermes-web-ui.mjs
+++ b/bin/hermes-web-ui.mjs
@@ -419,7 +419,14 @@ function startDaemon(port) {
 }
 
 function stopDaemon() {
-  const pid = getPid()
+  const pidFromFile = readPidFile()
+  if (pidFromFile && !isRunning(pidFromFile)) {
+    removePid()
+    console.log(`  ✓ hermes-web-ui was not running (cleaned stale PID: ${pidFromFile})`)
+    return
+  }
+
+  const pid = pidFromFile ?? recoverPidFromPort()
   if (!pid) {
     console.log('  ✗ hermes-web-ui is not running')
     process.exit(1)
@@ -442,7 +449,11 @@ function stopDaemon() {
     } catch {}
     // Force kill if still alive
     if (isRunning(pid)) {
-      process.kill(pid, 'SIGKILL')
+      try {
+        process.kill(pid, 'SIGKILL')
+      } catch (err) {
+        if (err?.code !== 'ESRCH') throw err
+      }
     }
     removePid()
     console.log(`  ✓ hermes-web-ui stopped (PID: ${pid})`)
@@ -701,4 +712,5 @@ export {
   getListeningPids,
   parseUnixNetstatListeningPids,
   resetDefaultLogin,
+  stopDaemon,
 }
diff --git a/tests/server/cli-port-detection.test.ts b/tests/server/cli-port-detection.test.ts
index 907d4aa..f6c9a50 100644
--- a/tests/server/cli-port-detection.test.ts
+++ b/tests/server/cli-port-detection.test.ts
@@ -125,6 +125,22 @@ describe('CLI port detection', () => {
     }
   })
 
+  it('cleans a stale server PID file during stop', async () => {
+    const home = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), 'hermes-web-ui-cli-stale-pid-'))
+    process.env.HERMES_WEB_UI_HOME = home
+    const pidFile = join(home, 'server.pid')
+    writeFileSync(pidFile, '999999999\n')
+
+    try {
+      const { stopDaemon } = await loadCli()
+      stopDaemon()
+
+      expect(existsSync(pidFile)).toBe(false)
+    } finally {
+      rmSync(home, { recursive: true, force: true })
+    }
+  })
+
   it('resets an existing admin user to the default password', async () => {
     const home = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), 'hermes-web-ui-cli-default-login-'))
     process.env.HERMES_WEB_UI_HOME = home