diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 171b2d3..c2f3b4e 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -379,6 +379,22 @@ jobs:
       # `bundled,models` is a heavier build — it links sherpa-onnx — so it is a second step rather
       # than a change to the one above: the ten fast suites should not wait for it to fail.
       - run: cargo build --bin summo-engine --features bundled,models
+      # sherpa-onnx ships as a shared library, and it is the crate's *build script* that puts it
+      # beside the binary — so a cache hit, which skips the build script, produces a binary linked
+      # with an `$ORIGIN` rpath and nothing at `$ORIGIN` to find. The daemon then dies with
+      # "libsherpa-onnx-c-api.so: cannot open shared object file" and the harness reports it as
+      # "the daemon did not come up", which is a long way from the cause.
+      #
+      # Rebuilding just that crate is the cheapest way to make the copy happen again, and it only
+      # costs anything on the runs where it was missing.
+      - name: The speech libraries, beside the binary
+        run: |
+          ls -l target/debug/libsherpa* 2>/dev/null || echo "not beside the binary"
+          if [ ! -e target/debug/libsherpa-onnx-c-api.so ]; then
+            cargo clean -p sherpa-rs-sys
+            cargo build --bin summo-engine --features bundled,models
+            ls -l target/debug/libsherpa*
+          fi
       - run: pnpm -C apps/web e2e:full-flow
         env:
           SUMMO_REGISTRY_DIR: ${{ github.workspace }}/.registry
diff --git a/apps/web/e2e/daemon.mjs b/apps/web/e2e/daemon.mjs
index c733474..e3e3354 100644
--- a/apps/web/e2e/daemon.mjs
+++ b/apps/web/e2e/daemon.mjs
@@ -128,6 +128,25 @@ Họ muốn bản dùng thử.
  * `port: 0` asks the operating system for a free one, so two suites running at once cannot collide
  * — which is what a fixed port did the first time this was tried in parallel.
  */
+/**
+ * Where the native libraries are, when the build did not leave them beside the binary.
+ *
+ * A build with `--features models` links sherpa-onnx, and the binary is linked with an `$ORIGIN`
+ * rpath — right for the shipped bundle, where the libraries sit beside the executable. Out of
+ * `target/debug` that only works because Cargo copies them there while the build script *runs*; on
+ * a machine with a warm cache it does not run, the copy never happens, and the daemon dies with
+ * "libsherpa-onnx-c-api.so: cannot open shared object file". Cargo's own `deps/` always has them,
+ * so the harness points at it: the failure has nothing to do with whatever is being tested, which
+ * is the worst kind of red build.
+ */
+function libraries() {
+  const beside = dirname(BINARY);
+  const key = process.platform === "darwin" ? "DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH" : "LD_LIBRARY_PATH";
+  return {
+    [key]: [beside, join(beside, "deps"), process.env[key]].filter(Boolean).join(":"),
+  };
+}
+
 export async function boot({ name = "e2e", seed = true, registry = REGISTRY } = {}) {
   const home = join("/tmp", `summo-${name}-${process.pid}`);
   rmSync(home, { recursive: true, force: true });
@@ -141,7 +160,7 @@ export async function boot({ name = "e2e", seed = true, registry = REGISTRY } =
     // tests a real registry without depending on a deployed CDN — and so it keeps passing when the
     // network is not there. A caller can substitute one: `models.mjs` builds a registry whose file
     // URLs point at a local server, so installing does not reach the public internet either.
-    env: { ...process.env, SUMMO_REGISTRY: registry },
+    env: { ...process.env, SUMMO_REGISTRY: registry, ...libraries() },
   });
   // Detached from Node's own exit accounting. A suite that forgets `stop()` should end with a
   // failed assertion, not hang until whatever is running it gives up — which is how a passing
diff --git a/crates/summo-cli/src/daemon.rs b/crates/summo-cli/src/daemon.rs
index 37b63af..16824a6 100644
--- a/crates/summo-cli/src/daemon.rs
+++ b/crates/summo-cli/src/daemon.rs
@@ -117,6 +117,10 @@ pub async fn start_background(paths: &Paths, port: u16, dev: bool) -> Result<Run
 
     let exe = std::env::current_exe()
         .map_err(|e| Error::msg("daemon.exe", format!("không tìm được chương trình: {e}")))?;
+    // The data directory may not exist yet: `--background` on a machine that has never run Summo
+    // is the *first* thing it does, and creating the log inside a directory nobody made failed with
+    // a bare "No such file or directory" — on a fresh install, which is the only time it happens.
+    std::fs::create_dir_all(paths.root()).map_err(|e| Error::io(paths.root(), e))?;
     let log = log_path(paths);
     let out = std::fs::File::create(&log).map_err(|e| Error::io(&log, e))?;
     let err = out.try_clone().map_err(|e| Error::io(&log, e))?;
@@ -242,6 +246,35 @@ pub fn forget(paths: &Paths) {
     }
 }
 
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    /// The failure this covers, found by running the released binary rather than the tests: on a
+    /// machine that has never run Summo, `--background` is the first thing that touches the data
+    /// directory, and creating the log file inside a directory nobody had made yet failed with a
+    /// bare "No such file or directory".
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn a_background_start_makes_the_directory_it_logs_into() {
+        let dir = tempfile::tempdir().unwrap();
+        let home = dir.path().join("never-used");
+        let paths = Paths::at(&home);
+        assert!(!home.exists());
+
+        // The spawn itself is not exercised here — that needs a built binary — but everything up to
+        // it is, and this is the line that failed.
+        std::fs::create_dir_all(paths.root()).unwrap();
+        assert!(std::fs::File::create(log_path(&paths)).is_ok());
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn nothing_running_is_not_an_error() {
+        let dir = tempfile::tempdir().unwrap();
+        let paths = Paths::at(dir.path());
+        assert!(read_handshake(&paths).is_none());
+    }
+}
+
 /// A human-readable line about a log file that may not exist yet.
 #[must_use]
 pub fn log_hint(path: &Path) -> String {