diff --git a/sidecar/tea-config.ts b/sidecar/tea-config.ts
index 8376d26..3b17bbe 100644
--- a/sidecar/tea-config.ts
+++ b/sidecar/tea-config.ts
@@ -35,6 +35,20 @@ export type TeaLogin = { name: string; url: string; user: string | null; hasToke
 /** The owner IS this process, so no escalation — and no sudo prompt on a machine that has no sudo. */
 const isOwnerUser = (osUser: string | null): boolean => !osUser || osUser === process.env.USER;
 
+/**
+ * `tea`, by absolute path.
+ *
+ * NOT by bare name. PM2 hands this sidecar a login-less PATH that does not include `~/.local/bin`, which
+ * is precisely where the platform installs a release binary — so `tea whoami` failed with "not
+ * installed" on a machine where `tea` was sitting in the owner's home and working perfectly from a
+ * shell. The same trap caught the agent's PATH an hour earlier.
+ *
+ * Resolved once per call rather than cached: an install can add it while this process is running, and a
+ * cached "missing" would outlive the thing that fixed it.
+ */
+const teaBinary = (): string =>
+  Bun.which('tea', { PATH: `${join(homedir(), '.local', 'bin')}:${process.env.PATH ?? ''}` }) ?? 'tea';
+
 const configPathFor = (home: string): string => join(home, '.config', 'tea', 'config.yml');
 
 /**
@@ -120,7 +134,7 @@ export async function writeTeaLogin(
   token: string,
 ): Promise<{ ok: boolean; error?: string }> {
   const osUser = await osUserFor(userId);
-  const command = ['tea', 'login', 'add', '--name', LOGIN_NAME, '--url', instanceUrl, '--token', token];
+  const command = [teaBinary(), 'login', 'add', '--name', LOGIN_NAME, '--url', instanceUrl, '--token', token];
 
   try {
     const proc = isOwnerUser(osUser)
@@ -154,7 +168,7 @@ export async function writeTeaLogin(
  */
 export async function testTeaLogin(userId: number): Promise<{ ok: boolean; user?: string; error?: string }> {
   const osUser = await osUserFor(userId);
-  const out = await asUser(osUser, ['tea', 'whoami']);
+  const out = await asUser(osUser, [teaBinary(), 'whoami']);
   if (out === null) {
     return { ok: false, error: 'tea could not authenticate — the token may be wrong, or tea is not installed' };
   }