diff --git a/apps/api-daemon/src/capture/streamIngest.ts b/apps/api-daemon/src/capture/streamIngest.ts
index 143b5a2..2e46b05 100644
--- a/apps/api-daemon/src/capture/streamIngest.ts
+++ b/apps/api-daemon/src/capture/streamIngest.ts
@@ -10,6 +10,20 @@ import { ytdlpAntiBotArgs } from "../ytdlpCookies";
 
 const SEGMENT_LIST_POLL_MS = 5_000;
 
+/**
+ * Coolify's /logs endpoint can't reliably isolate one docker-compose
+ * service's stdout, so the last capture attempt's yt-dlp/ffmpeg stderr tail
+ * is kept here and surfaced via GET /status for debugging.
+ */
+export const lastCaptureDebug = new Map<string, string[]>();
+
+function appendCaptureDebug(sessionId: string, line: string) {
+  const lines = lastCaptureDebug.get(sessionId) ?? [];
+  lines.push(line);
+  if (lines.length > 40) lines.shift();
+  lastCaptureDebug.set(sessionId, lines);
+}
+
 interface SegmentListEntry {
   fileName: string;
   startSec: number;
@@ -97,9 +111,16 @@ async function runCapture(job: Job<StreamIngestJob>): Promise<void> {
   );
 
   ytdlp.stdout.pipe(ffmpeg.stdin);
-  ytdlp.stderr.on("data", (chunk) => console.error(`[yt-dlp:${sessionId}]`, chunk.toString().trim()));
-  ffmpeg.stderr.on("data", () => {
-    /* ffmpeg logs are extremely verbose; only surface on error below */
+  ytdlp.on("error", (err) => appendCaptureDebug(sessionId, `[yt-dlp spawn error] ${err.message}`));
+  ytdlp.stderr.on("data", (chunk) => {
+    const text = chunk.toString().trim();
+    console.error(`[yt-dlp:${sessionId}]`, text);
+    appendCaptureDebug(sessionId, `[yt-dlp] ${text}`);
+  });
+  ffmpeg.on("error", (err) => appendCaptureDebug(sessionId, `[ffmpeg spawn error] ${err.message}`));
+  ffmpeg.stderr.on("data", (chunk) => {
+    /* ffmpeg logs are extremely verbose; keep only the tail for debugging */
+    appendCaptureDebug(sessionId, `[ffmpeg] ${chunk.toString().trim().split("\n").pop()}`);
   });
 
   let lastProcessedIndex = 0;
diff --git a/apps/api-daemon/src/server.ts b/apps/api-daemon/src/server.ts
index 18c6d4c..451a6b8 100644
--- a/apps/api-daemon/src/server.ts
+++ b/apps/api-daemon/src/server.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import express from "express";
 import { prisma } from "@streamclipper/db";
 import { env } from "./env";
 import { lastPollErrors } from "./youtubePolling";
+import { lastCaptureDebug } from "./capture/streamIngest";
 
 export function startServer() {
   const app = express();
@@ -32,6 +33,10 @@ export function startServer() {
     });
   });
 
+  app.get("/debug/capture/:sessionId", (req, res) => {
+    res.json({ lines: lastCaptureDebug.get(req.params.sessionId) ?? [] });
+  });
+
   app.listen(env.port, () => {
     console.log(`[server] api-daemon listening on :${env.port}`);
   });