diff --git a/cardano_node_tests/cluster_scripts/testnets/start-cluster b/cardano_node_tests/cluster_scripts/testnets/start-cluster
index d1a0c6b2c..6c98862e9 100644
--- a/cardano_node_tests/cluster_scripts/testnets/start-cluster
+++ b/cardano_node_tests/cluster_scripts/testnets/start-cluster
@@ -179,7 +179,11 @@ tn_start_node() {
 
   echo "Waiting until replay is finished"
   sleep 10
-  while tail -n 10 "${STATE_CLUSTER}/relay1.stdout" | grep -E -q "replay progress|IPSubscriptionTarget"; do
+  # No `-q`: it exits on the first match, leaving `tail` writing into a closed pipe, and
+  # `pipefail` would promote that SIGPIPE status and end the wait early. Plain `grep` scans
+  # all of its input, so `tail` always finishes writing.
+  while tail -n 10 "${STATE_CLUSTER}/relay1.stdout" |
+    grep -E "replay progress|IPSubscriptionTarget" > /dev/null; do
     sleep 10
   done
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index e53b355fe..8de2ac3bb 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ classifiers = [
 dependencies = [
     "allure-pytest (>=2.15.2,<3.0.0)",
     "cardano-clusterlib (>=0.10.5,<0.11.0)",
-    "cardonnay (>=0.4.3,<0.5.0)",
+    "cardonnay (>=0.4.4,<0.5.0)",
     "cbor2 (>=5.7.1,<6.0.0)",
     "filelock (>=3.20.0,<4.0.0)",
     "hypothesis (>=6.148.7,<7.0.0)",
diff --git a/runner/runc.sh b/runner/runc.sh
index a690bca7c..bcc2547f2 100755
--- a/runner/runc.sh
+++ b/runner/runc.sh
@@ -142,7 +142,9 @@ add_worktree_git_mount() {
   local gitdir main_git_dir
 
   [ -f "$repo_dir/.git" ] || return 0
-  gitdir="$(sed -n 's/^gitdir: //p' "$repo_dir/.git" | head -n 1)"
+  # `exit` after the first match keeps this to the first `gitdir:` line. One process, so the
+  # status is awk's own and an unreadable `.git` still aborts under `errexit`.
+  gitdir="$(awk '/^gitdir: /{print substr($0, 9); exit}' "$repo_dir/.git")"
   if [ -z "$gitdir" ]; then
     echo "Warning: '$repo_dir/.git' has no 'gitdir:' line; git will not work inside the container." >&2
     return 0
diff --git a/scripts/postgres-start.sh b/scripts/postgres-start.sh
index 86db1b897..8fbfec9de 100755
--- a/scripts/postgres-start.sh
+++ b/scripts/postgres-start.sh
@@ -23,8 +23,9 @@ is_postgres_pid() {
   local cmdline
   cmdline="$(ps -o args= -p "$pid" 2>/dev/null || echo "")"
   # verify process is postgres serving expected data directory
-  # use grep -F for literal string match (glob metacharacters in pg_dir are safe)
-  [[ "$cmdline" == *postgres* ]] && printf '%s' "$cmdline" | grep -qF "$pg_dir/data"
+  # the quoted right-hand side makes this a literal match, so glob metacharacters in
+  # pg_dir are safe
+  [[ "$cmdline" == *postgres* && "$cmdline" == *"$pg_dir/data"* ]]
 }
 
 kill_postgres() {
diff --git a/uv.lock b/uv.lock
index 52bba4112..2fd5b9a7b 100644
--- a/uv.lock
+++ b/uv.lock
@@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ docs = [
 requires-dist = [
     { name = "allure-pytest", specifier = ">=2.15.2,<3.0.0" },
     { name = "cardano-clusterlib", specifier = ">=0.10.5,<0.11.0" },
-    { name = "cardonnay", specifier = ">=0.4.3,<0.5.0" },
+    { name = "cardonnay", specifier = ">=0.4.4,<0.5.0" },
     { name = "cbor2", specifier = ">=5.7.1,<6.0.0" },
     { name = "filelock", specifier = ">=3.20.0,<4.0.0" },
     { name = "hypothesis", specifier = ">=6.148.7,<7.0.0" },
@@ -173,7 +173,7 @@ docs = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "cardonnay"
-version = "0.4.3"
+version = "0.4.4"
 source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }
 dependencies = [
     { name = "click" },
@@ -183,9 +183,9 @@ dependencies = [
     { name = "setuptools" },
     { name = "supervisor" },
 ]
-sdist = { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/80/36/9efccb9119a1b30790eb9c01ffdb357d8be385684d2895c5f8d4cdb8545f/cardonnay-0.4.3.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:13c5cf797f933c76dca765b4ecf0d4f83934493e52899e8ca7957cccf654466b", size = 101269, upload-time = "2026-08-18T15:33:24.435Z" }
+sdist = { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/51/2b/290f2615bec116b30756ba248bf388cc919c9098d9b25941bb891aabd8be/cardonnay-0.4.4.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:50e02ea987f74bb9ec18fb2905e5bca1a044c6a7edf1a9b4b949bfb9fa29776e", size = 101541, upload-time = "2026-08-20T20:25:43.285Z" }
 wheels = [
-    { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/44/75/682c9713ba21d4ef8bee590bc4a999475b8a98587a69e3edbef502b63181/cardonnay-0.4.3-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:84d37f92ae2bff4e633957def4bd9999fc81d3715ed06e38f28872f9b84a9c2a", size = 105898, upload-time = "2026-08-18T15:33:22.886Z" },
+    { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/de/d2/93b6b349c055ed89bba79c4f69f45a94c7ccae2003296e2c713d08f60417/cardonnay-0.4.4-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:f3e95e7937cb5fadba4b9d6b3e6e77c1422d7cfc21eb88874e7c0a1214ad3800", size = 106211, upload-time = "2026-08-20T20:25:41.767Z" },
 ]
 
 [[package]]