diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 862a68323b..1cdbb02424 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 - Grok: add an Auto / Grok CLI / SuperGrok OAuth / Browser cookies source picker, support pasted SuperGrok bearers and grok.com cookies in token accounts, and open `~/.grok/auth.json` from Open token file (#3010). Thanks @oakimov!
 
 ### Fixed
+- Codex: classify app-server request timeouts before terminating the subprocess, so timeouts no longer surface as misleading EOF/malformed-response errors (#3022). Thanks @Chipagosfinest!
 - OpenCode Go: surface expired selected session tokens instead of silently replacing failed server usage with local quota estimates (#2993). Thanks @Niclassslua!
 - Claude spend: price bare first-party model IDs from their models.dev vendor catalog, preserve explicit routes, and leave ambiguous cross-vendor matches unpriced (#3002). Thanks @Yuxin-Qiao!
 - Menu: prevent the system menu highlight from painting behind provider detail cards on macOS 27 beta (#2998). Thanks @Tan1103!
diff --git a/Sources/CodexBarCore/UsageFetcher.swift b/Sources/CodexBarCore/UsageFetcher.swift
index e5f98b69bc..0f7b10217a 100644
--- a/Sources/CodexBarCore/UsageFetcher.swift
+++ b/Sources/CodexBarCore/UsageFetcher.swift
@@ -831,6 +831,11 @@ enum RPCWireError: Error, LocalizedError {
     }
 }
 
+private enum RPCRequestRaceResult<Value: Sendable>: Sendable {
+    case value(Value)
+    case timedOut
+}
+
 /// RPC helper used on background tasks; safe because we confine it to the owning task.
 private final class CodexRPCClient: @unchecked Sendable {
     // Provider-specific by design: Codex RPC owns its dedicated subprocess log category.
@@ -1007,24 +1012,29 @@ private final class CodexRPCClient: @unchecked Sendable {
         method: String,
         body: @escaping @Sendable () async throws -> T) async throws -> T
     {
-        try await withThrowingTaskGroup(of: T.self) { group in
+        try await withThrowingTaskGroup(of: RPCRequestRaceResult<T>.self) { group in
             group.addTask {
-                try await body()
+                try await .value(body())
             }
-            group.addTask { [weak self] in
+            group.addTask {
                 try await Task.sleep(for: .seconds(seconds))
-                self?.terminateProcessForTimeout(method: method)
-                throw RPCWireError.timeout(method: method)
+                return .timedOut
             }
-            do {
-                guard let result = try await group.next() else {
-                    throw RPCWireError.timeout(method: method)
-                }
-                group.cancelAll()
-                return result
-            } catch {
+
+            guard let result = try await group.next() else {
                 group.cancelAll()
-                throw error
+                throw RPCWireError.timeout(method: method)
+            }
+            group.cancelAll()
+
+            switch result {
+            case let .value(value):
+                return value
+            case .timedOut:
+                // Terminating the process closes stdout. Classify that expected EOF as a
+                // timeout by selecting the timer before requesting process termination.
+                self.terminateProcessForTimeout(method: method)
+                throw RPCWireError.timeout(method: method)
             }
         }
     }
diff --git a/Tests/CodexBarTests/ProviderArchitectureGatekeeperTests.swift b/Tests/CodexBarTests/ProviderArchitectureGatekeeperTests.swift
index 895c6aacaa..3f5ed2939f 100644
--- a/Tests/CodexBarTests/ProviderArchitectureGatekeeperTests.swift
+++ b/Tests/CodexBarTests/ProviderArchitectureGatekeeperTests.swift
@@ -1503,7 +1503,7 @@ struct ProviderArchitectureGatekeeperTests {
             reason: "This tagged diagnostic payload encodes MiniMax details under the matching wire key."),
         SuppressedProviderReference(
             path: "Sources/CodexBarCore/UsageFetcher.swift",
-            line: 1480,
+            line: 1490,
             anchor: "providerID: .codex,",
             expectedProviderIDs: ["codex"],
             reason: "This provider-specific core branch passes its already-selected identity to a shared helper."),