diff --git a/lib/mgmt_msg.h b/lib/mgmt_msg.h
index 5352b455271f..c5031c60feb4 100644
--- a/lib/mgmt_msg.h
+++ b/lib/mgmt_msg.h
@@ -155,8 +155,14 @@ msg_client_init(struct msg_client *client, struct event_loop *tm,
 
 /*
  * Server-side Connections
+ *
+ * MGMTD_MAX_CONN is the listen(2) backlog for the mgmtd frontend and
+ * backend UNIX sockets. It bounds the kernel's accept queue, not the
+ * number of concurrent connections mgmtd will handle. SOMAXCONN defers
+ * to the platform default (Linux: net.core.somaxconn), matching the
+ * convention already used by bgpd, bfdd, and pimd.
  */
-#define MGMTD_MAX_CONN 32
+#define MGMTD_MAX_CONN SOMAXCONN
 
 PREDECL_LIST(msg_server_list);