diff --git a/.github/workflows/artifacts.yml b/.github/workflows/artifacts.yml
index 87e08fe..a4470b6 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/artifacts.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/artifacts.yml
@@ -70,11 +70,18 @@ jobs:
           printf '{"a": 1, "b": [2, 4]}' > "$RUNNER_TEMP/to.json"
           exit_status=0
           bindist/dist/graphtage --no-status --format yaml \
-            "$RUNNER_TEMP/from.json" "$RUNNER_TEMP/to.json" || exit_status=$?
+            "$RUNNER_TEMP/from.json" "$RUNNER_TEMP/to.json" 2> "$RUNNER_TEMP/stderr.txt" || exit_status=$?
           if [ "$exit_status" -ne 1 ]; then
             echo "Expected exit status 1 (differences found), got $exit_status" >&2
             exit 1
           fi
+          # A frozen binary can produce a correct diff and still write a traceback, if something it imports
+          # re-executes sys.executable -- which is the binary itself. `--no-status` promises an empty stderr.
+          if [ -s "$RUNNER_TEMP/stderr.txt" ]; then
+            echo "Expected --no-status to leave stderr empty. It wrote:" >&2
+            cat "$RUNNER_TEMP/stderr.txt" >&2
+            exit 1
+          fi
 
       # `gh release upload` can only add assets to a release that already exists, so a stray tag
       # cannot publish a release of its own. It uploads to a draft just as well as to a published
diff --git a/graphtage/progress.py b/graphtage/progress.py
index 245a053..49ec2ab 100644
--- a/graphtage/progress.py
+++ b/graphtage/progress.py
@@ -2,12 +2,19 @@
 
 import io
 import sys
+import threading
 from collections.abc import Iterable, Iterator
 from types import TracebackType
 from typing import IO, AnyStr, TextIO
 
 from tqdm import tqdm, trange
 
+# Graphtage draws its progress bars from a single process, so tqdm's default multiprocessing lock guards nothing.
+# Building that lock registers a semaphore with multiprocessing.resource_tracker, which starts a helper process by
+# re-executing sys.executable with the interpreter's own flags. Under PyInstaller sys.executable is the Graphtage
+# binary, so the helper re-runs Graphtage with flags that belong to a Python interpreter.
+tqdm.set_lock(threading.RLock())
+
 
 class StatusWriter(IO[str]):
     """A writer compatible with the :class:`graphtage.printer.Writer` protocol that can print status.
diff --git a/test/test_progress.py b/test/test_progress.py
index ff9f84d..dc53bac 100644
--- a/test/test_progress.py
+++ b/test/test_progress.py
@@ -17,6 +17,19 @@
 
 PROGRESS_BAR = b"Diffing:"
 
+HELPER_PROCESS_PROBE = """
+import multiprocessing.resource_tracker as resource_tracker
+
+from graphtage.progress import StatusWriter
+
+writer = StatusWriter(quiet=False)
+with writer.tqdm(desc="probe", total=1, leave=False) as bar:
+    bar.update(1)
+writer.flush(final=True)
+print(resource_tracker._resource_tracker._pid)
+"""
+"""Draws one progress bar the way :mod:`graphtage.__main__` does, then reports the resource tracker's process ID."""
+
 
 def run_graphtage(*args: str) -> tuple[bytes, bytes]:
     """Runs the command line in a subprocess and returns what it wrote to stdout and to stderr.
@@ -84,3 +97,25 @@ def test_replacement_printer_reaches_every_progress_bar(self):
                 )
         finally:
             printer.set_default_printer(original)
+
+    def test_drawing_a_progress_bar_starts_no_helper_process(self):
+        """Drawing a progress bar must not start a :mod:`multiprocessing.resource_tracker` helper process.
+
+        tqdm builds a :class:`multiprocessing.RLock` for its default write lock. Registering that lock's semaphore
+        starts the resource tracker, which re-executes :attr:`sys.executable` with the interpreter's own flags. Under
+        PyInstaller :attr:`sys.executable` is the Graphtage binary, so the helper re-ran Graphtage with ``-B -S -I``
+        and every diff through the macOS binary printed a traceback to stderr. Graphtage never uses multiprocessing,
+        so it installs a threading lock instead.
+
+        The sibling tests here cannot catch this: from a source checkout the helper is a real interpreter and exits
+        quietly, so stderr stays empty either way. This asserts on the mechanism, in a subprocess because the tracker
+        is process-wide and starts at most once.
+
+        """
+        result = subprocess.run([sys.executable, "-c", HELPER_PROCESS_PROBE], capture_output=True, text=True)
+        self.assertEqual(result.returncode, 0, result.stderr)
+        self.assertEqual(
+            "None",
+            result.stdout.strip(),
+            "the resource tracker was started, so tqdm most likely built a multiprocessing lock",
+        )