diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index c79a674..a4912b7 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,28 @@
+# corteza 0.6.6.1
+
+## Interrupt key
+
+* Pressing the interrupt key during an in-flight agent turn now aborts
+  the turn cleanly and returns control to the prompt instead of
+  escaping the REPL entirely. Both `corteza::chat()` and the
+  `~/bin/corteza` CLI catch the R-level interrupt.
+* In the CLI, if the interrupt arrives while a tool call is running
+  inside the `callr` worker subprocess, the worker is sent SIGINT so
+  the in-flight tool (e.g. a long `bash` or `run_r` call) actually
+  stops. The worker is recycled only if it doesn't return to idle.
+* The aborted exchange is recorded in history with an
+  `[Interrupted by user before completing.]` marker so the next turn's
+  model sees that the prior turn ended early.
+* In `corteza::chat()` running under RStudio, Esc fires the interrupt
+  as expected. In the terminal CLI, only Ctrl+C is an interrupt —
+  terminals send raw `^[` for Esc, which is not a signal.
+
+## Other
+
+* `load_saber_briefing()` now wraps `saber::briefing()` in
+  `suppressMessages()` so the briefing text no longer leaks to the
+  user's terminal every time a subagent calls `session_setup()`.
+
 # corteza 0.6.6
 
 ## Async subagent queries
diff --git a/R/chat.R b/R/chat.R
index b1b8c3f..730f4f0 100644
--- a/R/chat.R
+++ b/R/chat.R
@@ -698,6 +698,21 @@ chat <- function(provider = NULL, model = NULL, tools = NULL, session = NULL,
         pre_turn_len <- length(turn_session$history %||% list())
         result <- tryCatch(
                            turn(prompt, turn_session),
+                           interrupt = function(c) {
+            cat(sprintf("\n%sInterrupted.%s\n", color$yellow, color$reset))
+            # turn() didn't return, so its history update never landed.
+            # Stitch the user prompt and an interruption marker into
+            # turn_session$history so the next turn's LLM call sees
+            # this exchange was aborted instead of silently dropping it.
+            marker <- "[Interrupted by user before completing.]"
+            turn_session$history <- c(
+                                      turn_session$history %||% list(),
+                                      list(list(role = "user", content = prompt),
+                                           list(role = "assistant", content = marker))
+            )
+            transcript_append(disk_session$session, "assistant", marker)
+            NULL
+        },
                            error = function(e) {
             message(sprintf("%sError:%s %s",
                             color$bright_magenta, color$reset, e$message))
diff --git a/R/context.R b/R/context.R
index 6459b99..68cae09 100644
--- a/R/context.R
+++ b/R/context.R
@@ -181,9 +181,14 @@ load_saber_briefing <- function(cwd) {
     project <- basename(cwd)
     scan_dir <- dirname(cwd)
     tryCatch({
-        # Suppress saber's cat() to stdout - we want the return value only
+        # saber::briefing() emits its full text via message(); without
+        # suppressMessages it leaks to the user's terminal every time a
+        # subagent calls session_setup, which masquerades as a session
+        # restart. capture.output() handles any stdout cat() too.
         utils::capture.output(
-                              text <- saber::briefing(project = project, scan_dir = scan_dir)
+                              text <- suppressMessages(
+                    saber::briefing(project = project, scan_dir = scan_dir)
+                )
         )
         if (is.null(text) || nchar(trimws(text)) == 0L) {
             NULL
diff --git a/inst/bin/corteza b/inst/bin/corteza
index 292e407..8d9fc22 100755
--- a/inst/bin/corteza
+++ b/inst/bin/corteza
@@ -1760,6 +1760,44 @@ Tool output:
         history = turn_session$history,
         usage = r$usage
       )
+    }, interrupt = function(c) {
+      cat(sprintf("\n%sInterrupted.%s\n", color$yellow, color$reset))
+      # Only touch the worker if a tool call was actually in flight
+      # (state "busy"). When the interrupt arrived during the LLM
+      # round-trip the worker is "idle" and should be left alone —
+      # otherwise we'd needlessly drop worker-local state like the
+      # background-process registry.
+      if (!is.null(worker) && !is.null(worker$session)) {
+        state <- tryCatch(worker$session$get_state(),
+                          error = function(e) "unknown")
+        if (identical(state, "busy")) {
+          tryCatch(worker$session$interrupt(),
+                   error = function(e) NULL)
+          # Drain any queued result so the state machine returns to idle.
+          tryCatch(worker$session$read(), error = function(e) NULL)
+          state <- tryCatch(worker$session$get_state(),
+                            error = function(e) "unknown")
+          if (!identical(state, "idle")) {
+            # Worker didn't recover from SIGINT; recycle it.
+            suppressWarnings(tryCatch(cli_worker_close(worker),
+                                      error = function(e) NULL))
+            worker <<- tryCatch(
+              cli_worker_connect(opts$port, cwd = cwd,
+                                 tools_filter = opts$tools),
+              error = function(e2) NULL
+            )
+          }
+        }
+      }
+      # Record the interruption against the persistent session so the
+      # next turn's api_history shows an assistant placeholder where
+      # the aborted reply would have been. The user message was
+      # already saved before turn() ran.
+      marker <- "[Interrupted by user before completing.]"
+      session <<- corteza:::session_add_message(session, "assistant", marker)
+      corteza:::transcript_append(session, "assistant", marker)
+      corteza:::session_save(session)
+      NULL
     }, error = function(e) {
       cat(sprintf("%sError: %s%s\n", color$bright_magenta, e$message, color$reset))
       NULL