diff --git a/src/lib/components/chat/XTerminal.svelte b/src/lib/components/chat/XTerminal.svelte
index eae497a500..e10ba02596 100644
--- a/src/lib/components/chat/XTerminal.svelte
+++ b/src/lib/components/chat/XTerminal.svelte
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 	export let connected = false;
 	export let connecting = false;
 	let resizeObserver: ResizeObserver | null = null;
+	let pingInterval: ReturnType<typeof setInterval> | null = null;
 
 	// Resolve the active terminal server's info for the WebSocket URL
 	const getTerminalInfo = (): { serverId: string; baseUrl: string } | null => {
@@ -108,6 +109,13 @@
 				if (term && ws) {
 					ws.send(JSON.stringify({ type: 'resize', cols: term.cols, rows: term.rows }));
 				}
+				// Keepalive ping to prevent idle timeout from proxies/LBs
+				if (pingInterval) clearInterval(pingInterval);
+				pingInterval = setInterval(() => {
+					if (ws && ws.readyState === WebSocket.OPEN) {
+						ws.send(JSON.stringify({ type: 'ping' }));
+					}
+				}, 25000);
 			};
 
 			ws.onmessage = (event) => {
@@ -141,6 +149,10 @@
 	};
 
 	const disconnect = () => {
+		if (pingInterval) {
+			clearInterval(pingInterval);
+			pingInterval = null;
+		}
 		if (ws) {
 			ws.close();
 			ws = null;
@@ -229,8 +241,10 @@
 		});
 		resizeObserver.observe(terminalEl);
 
-		// Auto-connect
-		connect();
+		// Connection is handled by the reactive block below (which fires
+		// when `term` is set here), so we intentionally do NOT call
+		// connect() to avoid creating a duplicate WebSocket whose onclose
+		// handler would write a spurious "[Connection closed]" message.
 	};
 
 	// Reconnect when the selected terminal changes