diff --git a/codex-rs/app-server/tests/common/test_app_server.rs b/codex-rs/app-server/tests/common/test_app_server.rs
index 3b9f774d8f..d5b969b44c 100644
--- a/codex-rs/app-server/tests/common/test_app_server.rs
+++ b/codex-rs/app-server/tests/common/test_app_server.rs
@@ -257,10 +257,20 @@ impl TestAppServer {
             }
         }
 
-        let mut process = cmd
-            .kill_on_drop(true)
-            .spawn()
-            .context("codex-mcp-server proc should start")?;
+        cmd.kill_on_drop(true);
+        let mut retries = 0;
+        let mut process = loop {
+            let process = cmd.spawn();
+            if !process
+                .as_ref()
+                .is_err_and(|error| error.kind() == std::io::ErrorKind::ExecutableFileBusy)
+                || retries == 2
+            {
+                break process.context("codex-mcp-server proc should start")?;
+            }
+            retries += 1;
+            tokio::time::sleep(Duration::from_millis(10)).await;
+        };
         let stdin = process
             .stdin
             .take()