diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 6905142..e4bd24c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -3,12 +3,11 @@
 All notable changes to this project are documented here, following
 [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/) and semantic versioning.
 
-## [0.1.17] - 2026-09-23
+## [0.1.18] - 2026-09-23
 
 ### Fixed
 
-- Recognize AVIF, HEIC, HEIF, APNG, WebM, Ogg, FLAC and M4A as binary assets, avoiding text reads and inflated token estimates.
-- Repair unresolved merge markers in the package lockfile while updating release metadata.
+- Report ignore-file write failures with a concise error and exit code 2 instead of an uncaught stack trace.
 
 ## [0.1.16] - 2026-09-17
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 6b38317..768356a 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -99,6 +99,8 @@ errors (exit code 2), detected before scanning or writing files.
 
 **Ignore files it writes** (all real formats the tools honor): `.cursorignore` (Cursor), `.aiexclude` (Gemini Code Assist / Firebase Studio), `.aiignore` (generic). Writes are **idempotent** — a managed block between markers, so your own rules are preserved and re-runs just update the block.
 
+If an ignore file cannot be read or written, the command prints a concise error and exits with code 2 without reporting success. Targets written before a later failure remain updated; writes are not rolled back.
+
 Repeated names in `--targets` are ignored; each ignore file is written and reported once, in the order first requested.
 
 ## What it is (and isn't)
diff --git a/package-lock.json b/package-lock.json
index 4f11004..e9fe25e 100644
--- a/package-lock.json
+++ b/package-lock.json
@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 {
   "name": "ctxtrim",
-  "version": "0.1.17",
+  "version": "0.1.18",
   "lockfileVersion": 3,
   "requires": true,
   "packages": {
     "": {
       "name": "ctxtrim",
-      "version": "0.1.17",
+      "version": "0.1.18",
       "license": "MIT",
       "bin": {
         "ctxtrim": "bin/ctxtrim.js"
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 726111b..f5ec970 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "ctxtrim",
-  "version": "0.1.17",
+  "version": "0.1.18",
   "description": "Trim what bloats your AI coding context. Scan a repo, find the high-cost/low-value files ballooning your Claude Code / Cursor / Codex context, and write ignore files to cut token cost. Zero dependencies.",
   "type": "module",
   "bin": {
diff --git a/src/cli.js b/src/cli.js
index 90eb5e6..e002b67 100644
--- a/src/cli.js
+++ b/src/cli.js
@@ -89,7 +89,9 @@ export function run(argv, { version }) {
   try { scan = scanRepo(target, { maxTokens: o.maxTokens }); }
   catch (error) { process.stderr.write(`ctxtrim: ${error.message}\n`); return 2; }
   let wrote = null;
-  if (o.write && scan.patterns.length) wrote = writeIgnores(scan.root, scan.patterns, targets);
+  try {
+    if (o.write && scan.patterns.length) wrote = writeIgnores(scan.root, scan.patterns, targets);
+  } catch (error) { process.stderr.write(`ctxtrim: ${error.message}\n`); return 2; }
 
   if (o.format === "json") process.stdout.write(jsonReport(scan, { price: o.price, wrote }) + "\n");
   else process.stdout.write(textReport(scan, { price: o.price, top: o.top, wrote }));
diff --git a/test/write-errors.test.js b/test/write-errors.test.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4470688
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/write-errors.test.js
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+import fs from "node:fs";
+import { syncBuiltinESMExports } from "node:module";
+import { tmpdir } from "node:os";
+import { join } from "node:path";
+import { test } from "node:test";
+import assert from "node:assert/strict";
+import { run } from "../src/cli.js";
+
+for (const format of ["text", "json"]) {
+  for (const failTarget of [".cursorignore", ".aiexclude"]) {
+    test(`CLI reports write failure cleanly (${format}, ${failTarget})`, (t) => {
+      const root = fs.mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), "ctxtrim-write-error-"));
+      t.after(() => fs.rmSync(root, { recursive: true, force: true }));
+      fs.writeFileSync(join(root, "package-lock.json"), "{}\n");
+      const originalWrite = fs.writeFileSync;
+      let stdout = "", stderr = "";
+      t.mock.method(process.stdout, "write", (chunk) => { stdout += chunk; return true; });
+      t.mock.method(process.stderr, "write", (chunk) => { stderr += chunk; return true; });
+      t.mock.method(fs, "writeFileSync", (file, ...args) => {
+        if (file === join(root, failTarget)) {
+          const error = new Error(`EACCES: permission denied, open '${file}'`);
+          error.code = "EACCES";
+          throw error;
+        }
+        return originalWrite(file, ...args);
+      });
+      syncBuiltinESMExports();
+      let code;
+      try { code = run([root, "--write", "--format", format], { version: "test" }); }
+      finally { t.mock.restoreAll(); syncBuiltinESMExports(); }
+
+      assert.equal(code, 2);
+      assert.equal(stdout, "");
+      assert.equal(stderr, `ctxtrim: EACCES: permission denied, open '${join(root, failTarget)}'\n`);
+      assert.equal(fs.existsSync(join(root, failTarget)), false);
+      // Earlier targets can already have been written; error handling is not rollback.
+      assert.equal(fs.existsSync(join(root, ".cursorignore")), failTarget === ".aiexclude");
+    });
+  }
+}