diff --git a/architecture/sandbox.md b/architecture/sandbox.md
index b1169ca64e..a8a09310d0 100644
--- a/architecture/sandbox.md
+++ b/architecture/sandbox.md
@@ -131,6 +131,11 @@ When the admitted main process exits, its status and retained terminal output
 remain available. The confirmed sandbox and supervisor-owned access plane continue
 to serve policy-authorized exec and loopback forwarding until explicit stop or
 delete tears down the boundary and terminates any remaining workload processes.
+When the sandbox is PID 1, it reaps adopted workload children after child-exit
+notifications, with a low-frequency recovery sweep. Children owned by an
+explicit process waiter remain registered and are never consumed by the orphan
+reaper. This keeps idle sandboxes from scanning procfs continuously while
+preserving wait results and eventual zombie cleanup.
 
 Completed exec output handles can be reclaimed, but execution request IDs remain
 reserved for the boundary generation. The sandbox accepts at most 4,096 exec
diff --git a/crates/openshell-sandbox/src/managed_children.rs b/crates/openshell-sandbox/src/managed_children.rs
index d224176e97..adbfdb62de 100644
--- a/crates/openshell-sandbox/src/managed_children.rs
+++ b/crates/openshell-sandbox/src/managed_children.rs
@@ -9,9 +9,11 @@
 //! from incidental zombies.
 
 #![cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+#![allow(unsafe_code)]
 
 use std::collections::{HashMap, HashSet};
 use std::io;
+use std::sync::atomic::AtomicI32;
 use std::sync::atomic::{AtomicU64, Ordering};
 use std::sync::{LazyLock, Mutex, MutexGuard};
 use std::time::Duration;
@@ -19,6 +21,22 @@ use std::time::Duration;
 static MANAGED_CHILDREN: LazyLock<Mutex<HashMap<i32, u64>>> =
     LazyLock::new(|| Mutex::new(HashMap::new()));
 static NEXT_GENERATION: AtomicU64 = AtomicU64::new(1);
+static REAPER_EVENT_FD: AtomicI32 = AtomicI32::new(-1);
+const REAPER_RECOVERY_INTERVAL: Duration = Duration::from_secs(30);
+#[cfg(test)]
+static REAPER_SCAN_COUNT: AtomicU64 = AtomicU64::new(0);
+
+extern "C" fn notify_reaper_on_sigchld(_: libc::c_int) {
+    let fd = REAPER_EVENT_FD.load(Ordering::Acquire);
+    if fd >= 0 {
+        let wakeup = 1_u64;
+        // SAFETY: write is async-signal-safe; the process-lifetime eventfd is
+        // nonblocking, so a full counter cannot stall the signal handler.
+        unsafe {
+            libc::write(fd, (&raw const wakeup).cast(), size_of::<u64>());
+        }
+    }
+}
 
 /// Identity of one registry entry. The generation prevents an old waiter from
 /// removing a newer child that reused the same numeric PID after reap.
@@ -110,22 +128,87 @@ pub fn wait_until_terminal(pid: u32) -> io::Result<()> {
 /// Explicitly managed children remain owned by their normal waiters. Only
 /// unregistered children adopted from the workload process tree are reaped.
 pub fn start_orphan_reaper() -> io::Result<()> {
+    // This is installed before the boundary starts its runtime threads or
+    // workload children. The descriptor and handler live until process exit.
+    // SAFETY: eventfd has scalar arguments and returns a new descriptor.
+    let fd = unsafe { libc::eventfd(0, libc::EFD_CLOEXEC | libc::EFD_NONBLOCK) };
+    if fd < 0 {
+        return Err(io::Error::last_os_error());
+    }
+    REAPER_EVENT_FD.store(fd, Ordering::Release);
+    let action = nix::sys::signal::SigAction::new(
+        nix::sys::signal::SigHandler::Handler(notify_reaper_on_sigchld),
+        nix::sys::signal::SaFlags::SA_RESTART | nix::sys::signal::SaFlags::SA_NOCLDSTOP,
+        nix::sys::signal::SigSet::empty(),
+    );
+    // SAFETY: the handler only reads a lock-free atomic and writes to the
+    // nonblocking eventfd, both valid for the remaining process lifetime.
+    unsafe { nix::sys::signal::sigaction(nix::sys::signal::Signal::SIGCHLD, &action) }
+        .map_err(io::Error::other)?;
     std::thread::Builder::new()
         .name("openshell-orphan-reaper".to_string())
-        .spawn(|| {
+        .spawn(move || {
             loop {
                 if let Err(error) = reap_unmanaged_children_once() {
                     tracing::debug!(%error, "orphan reaper scan failed");
                 }
-                std::thread::sleep(Duration::from_millis(50));
+                if let Err(error) = wait_for_reaper_event(fd) {
+                    tracing::debug!(%error, "orphan reaper notification failed");
+                    std::thread::sleep(REAPER_RECOVERY_INTERVAL);
+                }
             }
         })
         .map(|_| ())
 }
 
+fn wait_for_reaper_event(fd: libc::c_int) -> io::Result<()> {
+    let mut notification = libc::pollfd {
+        fd,
+        events: libc::POLLIN,
+        revents: 0,
+    };
+    // SAFETY: poll receives one valid pollfd for the process-lifetime eventfd.
+    let ready = unsafe {
+        libc::poll(
+            &raw mut notification,
+            1,
+            i32::try_from(REAPER_RECOVERY_INTERVAL.as_millis()).unwrap(),
+        )
+    };
+    if ready < 0 {
+        let error = io::Error::last_os_error();
+        if error.kind() == io::ErrorKind::Interrupted {
+            return Ok(());
+        }
+        return Err(error);
+    }
+    if ready == 0 {
+        return Ok(());
+    }
+    if notification.revents & libc::POLLIN == 0 {
+        return Err(io::Error::other("orphan reaper eventfd is not readable"));
+    }
+    let mut count = 0_u64;
+    // Drain before scanning: a SIGCHLD arriving during the next scan remains
+    // queued and triggers another pass. A single read drains coalesced writes.
+    // SAFETY: read writes one u64 into valid storage; the fd is nonblocking.
+    let read = unsafe { libc::read(fd, (&raw mut count).cast(), size_of::<u64>()) };
+    if read == isize::try_from(size_of::<u64>()).expect("u64 size fits isize")
+        || (read < 0 && io::Error::last_os_error().kind() == io::ErrorKind::WouldBlock)
+    {
+        Ok(())
+    } else if read < 0 {
+        Err(io::Error::last_os_error())
+    } else {
+        Err(io::Error::other("short orphan reaper eventfd read"))
+    }
+}
+
 fn reap_unmanaged_children_once() -> io::Result<usize> {
     use nix::sys::wait::{WaitPidFlag, WaitStatus, waitpid};
 
+    #[cfg(test)]
+    REAPER_SCAN_COUNT.fetch_add(1, Ordering::Relaxed);
     let children = direct_child_pids()?;
     let registry = lock();
     let mut reaped = 0;
@@ -170,7 +253,89 @@ mod tests {
     use nix::unistd::Pid;
     use std::process::Command;
     use std::sync::mpsc;
-    use std::time::Duration;
+    use std::time::{Duration, Instant};
+
+    fn fork_exiting_child() -> i32 {
+        // SAFETY: the child does not run Rust code after fork; it exits through
+        // libc immediately, avoiding inherited test-harness locks.
+        let pid = unsafe { libc::fork() };
+        if pid == 0 {
+            // SAFETY: terminate without unwinding or touching Rust state.
+            unsafe { libc::_exit(0) };
+        }
+        assert!(pid > 0, "fork failed: {}", io::Error::last_os_error());
+        pid
+    }
+
+    fn wait_until(mut condition: impl FnMut() -> bool) {
+        let deadline = Instant::now() + Duration::from_secs(5);
+        while !condition() {
+            assert!(Instant::now() < deadline, "condition did not become true");
+            std::thread::sleep(Duration::from_millis(10));
+        }
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn orphan_reaper_waits_while_idle_and_reaps_only_unmanaged_children() {
+        const HELPER_ENV: &str = "OPENSHELL_ORPHAN_REAPER_TEST_HELPER";
+        if std::env::var_os(HELPER_ENV).is_none() {
+            let output = Command::new(std::env::current_exe().unwrap())
+                .args([
+                    "--exact",
+                    "managed_children::tests::orphan_reaper_waits_while_idle_and_reaps_only_unmanaged_children",
+                    "--nocapture",
+                ])
+                .env(HELPER_ENV, "1")
+                .output()
+                .expect("start isolated reaper test process");
+            assert!(
+                output.status.success(),
+                "reaper test failed: {}",
+                String::from_utf8_lossy(&output.stdout)
+            );
+            return;
+        }
+
+        start_orphan_reaper().expect("start orphan reaper");
+        wait_until(|| REAPER_SCAN_COUNT.load(Ordering::Relaxed) > 0);
+        let idle_scan_count = REAPER_SCAN_COUNT.load(Ordering::Relaxed);
+        std::thread::sleep(Duration::from_millis(150));
+        assert_eq!(REAPER_SCAN_COUNT.load(Ordering::Relaxed), idle_scan_count);
+
+        let mut registry = lock();
+        let managed_pid = fork_exiting_child();
+        let managed = registry
+            .register(u32::try_from(managed_pid).unwrap())
+            .unwrap();
+        drop(registry);
+        wait_until(|| {
+            matches!(
+                waitid(
+                    Id::Pid(Pid::from_raw(managed_pid)),
+                    WaitPidFlag::WEXITED | WaitPidFlag::WNOHANG | WaitPidFlag::WNOWAIT
+                ),
+                Ok(WaitStatus::Exited(..))
+            )
+        });
+        wait_until(|| REAPER_SCAN_COUNT.load(Ordering::Relaxed) > idle_scan_count);
+        assert!(matches!(
+            waitpid(Pid::from_raw(managed_pid), None),
+            Ok(WaitStatus::Exited(..))
+        ));
+        unregister(managed);
+
+        let orphan_pids: Vec<i32> = (0..8).map(|_| fork_exiting_child()).collect();
+        wait_until(|| {
+            let children = direct_child_pids().expect("inspect direct children");
+            orphan_pids.iter().all(|pid| !children.contains(pid))
+        });
+        for pid in orphan_pids {
+            assert_eq!(
+                waitpid(Pid::from_raw(pid), Some(WaitPidFlag::WNOHANG)),
+                Err(nix::errno::Errno::ECHILD)
+            );
+        }
+    }
 
     #[test]
     fn fast_child_remains_waitable_after_orphan_reap_attempt() {