diff --git a/src/providers/codex.ts b/src/providers/codex.ts
index 60b9999..8ba0235 100644
--- a/src/providers/codex.ts
+++ b/src/providers/codex.ts
@@ -71,14 +71,26 @@ function sanitizeProject(cwd: string): string {
   return cwd.replace(/^\//, '').replace(/\//g, '-')
 }
 
+// Cap how many bytes we'll read while looking for the first newline. Real
+// Codex session_meta lines are ~22-27 KB; this leaves plenty of headroom while
+// keeping memory bounded if a corrupt file has no newline at all.
+const FIRST_LINE_READ_CAP = 1024 * 1024
+
 async function readFirstLine(filePath: string): Promise<CodexEntry | null> {
   // Codex CLI 0.128+ writes a session_meta line that can exceed 20 KB because
   // it embeds the full base_instructions / system prompt. A fixed-size buffer
   // would miss the trailing newline and reject the session as invalid.
-  // Stream the file via readline to read the first line regardless of length.
-  const stream = createReadStream(filePath, { encoding: 'utf-8' })
+  // Stream the file via readline so we can read the first line regardless of
+  // length, with `end` capping the read to keep memory bounded.
+  const stream = createReadStream(filePath, {
+    encoding: 'utf-8',
+    start: 0,
+    end: FIRST_LINE_READ_CAP - 1,
+  })
   const rl = createInterface({ input: stream, crlfDelay: Infinity })
   let firstLine: string | undefined
+  let streamError: unknown
+  stream.once('error', (err) => { streamError = err })
   try {
     for await (const line of rl) {
       firstLine = line
@@ -90,7 +102,7 @@ async function readFirstLine(filePath: string): Promise<CodexEntry | null> {
     rl.close()
     stream.destroy()
   }
-  if (!firstLine || !firstLine.trim()) return null
+  if (streamError || !firstLine || !firstLine.trim()) return null
   try {
     return JSON.parse(firstLine) as CodexEntry
   } catch {
diff --git a/tests/providers/codex.test.ts b/tests/providers/codex.test.ts
index cdf0dda..b1fa2d3 100644
--- a/tests/providers/codex.test.ts
+++ b/tests/providers/codex.test.ts
@@ -147,6 +147,43 @@ describe('codex provider - session discovery', () => {
     const sessions = await provider.discoverSessions()
     expect(sessions).toHaveLength(1)
     expect(sessions[0]!.path).toContain('rollout-big.jsonl')
+    // Confirm the large meta line was actually parsed (cwd extracted),
+    // not just that some path was registered.
+    expect(sessions[0]!.project).toBe('Users-test-big')
+  })
+
+  it('handles a session_meta line without trailing newline', async () => {
+    const [year, month, day] = '2026-05-02'.split('-')
+    const sessionDir = join(tmpDir, 'sessions', year!, month!, day!)
+    await mkdir(sessionDir, { recursive: true })
+    // Write a single session_meta line, deliberately without a trailing \n.
+    await writeFile(
+      join(sessionDir, 'rollout-no-nl.jsonl'),
+      JSON.stringify({
+        type: 'session_meta',
+        timestamp: '2026-05-02T00:00:00Z',
+        payload: {
+          cwd: '/Users/test/nonl',
+          originator: 'codex-tui',
+          session_id: 'sess-nonl',
+          model: 'gpt-5.5',
+        },
+      }),
+    )
+    const provider = createCodexProvider(tmpDir)
+    const sessions = await provider.discoverSessions()
+    expect(sessions).toHaveLength(1)
+    expect(sessions[0]!.project).toBe('Users-test-nonl')
+  })
+
+  it('returns no sessions for an empty rollout file', async () => {
+    const [year, month, day] = '2026-05-02'.split('-')
+    const sessionDir = join(tmpDir, 'sessions', year!, month!, day!)
+    await mkdir(sessionDir, { recursive: true })
+    await writeFile(join(sessionDir, 'rollout-empty.jsonl'), '')
+    const provider = createCodexProvider(tmpDir)
+    const sessions = await provider.discoverSessions()
+    expect(sessions).toHaveLength(0)
   })
 
   it('skips files without codex session_meta', async () => {