diff --git a/tests/tools/test_bot_relay_windows_paths.py b/tests/tools/test_bot_relay_windows_paths.py
index 01064b313f..e6123a7371 100644
--- a/tests/tools/test_bot_relay_windows_paths.py
+++ b/tests/tools/test_bot_relay_windows_paths.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-"""Windows-path viability and venv CLI resolution for bot relay (#93590).
+r"""Windows-path viability and venv CLI resolution for bot relay (#93590).
 
 Two failures on a Windows desktop install talking to a remote gateway:
 
@@ -102,10 +102,26 @@ def test_local_delivery_resolves_sibling_hermes(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
     assert argv[argv.index("--query-file") + 1] == "query.json"
 
 
+def test_local_delivery_uses_shutil_which_when_no_sibling(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
+    """Without a venv sibling, a PATH hit (shutil.which) wins next —
+    interactive shells keep resolving exactly what they resolve today."""
+    empty = tmp_path / "nowhere"
+    empty.mkdir(parents=True)
+    monkeypatch.setattr("sys.executable", str(empty / "python"))
+    which_hit = str(tmp_path / "usr-local-bin" / "hermes")
+    monkeypatch.setattr(
+        bot_relay.shutil, "which", lambda name: which_hit if name == "hermes" else None
+    )
+
+    argv = bot_relay.local_delivery_command("ops", "query.json")
+    assert argv[0] == which_hit
+
+
 def test_local_delivery_falls_back_to_bare_name(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
     empty = tmp_path / "nowhere"
     empty.mkdir(parents=True)
     monkeypatch.setattr("sys.executable", str(empty / "python"))
+    monkeypatch.setattr(bot_relay.shutil, "which", lambda name: None)
 
     argv = bot_relay.local_delivery_command("ops", "query.json")
     assert argv[0] == "hermes"
diff --git a/tests/tui_gateway/test_bot_relay_methods.py b/tests/tui_gateway/test_bot_relay_methods.py
index 7b70ec7b86..fb6d357744 100644
--- a/tests/tui_gateway/test_bot_relay_methods.py
+++ b/tests/tui_gateway/test_bot_relay_methods.py
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ def test_deliver_validates_profile_and_runs_transport(home, monkeypatch):
 
     def _fake_run(argv, **kwargs):
         calls["argv"] = argv
+        calls["kwargs"] = kwargs
         return _Proc()
 
     monkeypatch.setattr("subprocess.run", _fake_run)
@@ -77,6 +78,12 @@ def test_deliver_validates_profile_and_runs_transport(home, monkeypatch):
         srv._methods["bot_relay.deliver"](1, {"profile": "ops", "message": "ping"})
     )
     assert out["reply"] == "pong from ops"
+    # Decoding is pinned (#93590 sibling defect): without encoding= the
+    # child's UTF-8 output is decoded with the locale codec — cp1252/GBK on
+    # Windows — mangling non-ASCII replies; errors="replace" keeps a bad
+    # byte from raising instead of delivering.
+    assert calls["kwargs"]["encoding"] == "utf-8"
+    assert calls["kwargs"]["errors"] == "replace"
     argv = calls["argv"]
     # argv[0] may be a resolved venv path (#93590) — match by basename.
     assert argv[1:3] == ["-p", "ops"]
diff --git a/tools/bot_relay.py b/tools/bot_relay.py
index 8abc53762e..08c6d3b044 100644
--- a/tools/bot_relay.py
+++ b/tools/bot_relay.py
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ import logging
 import os
 import re
 import shlex
+import shutil
 import sys
 import tempfile
 import time
@@ -542,12 +543,19 @@ def _hermes_cli() -> str:
     entrypoint. A bare ``"hermes"`` relies on PATH, which is exactly what
     service contexts (systemd units, desktop launchers, non-login SSH
     shells) do not provide, so delivery died with ENOENT there (#93590).
-    Falls back to the bare name when no sibling exists (e.g. running from
-    a source tree without an installed script), preserving PATH lookup.
+    When no sibling exists (e.g. running from a source tree without an
+    installed script), a ``shutil.which`` lookup runs next — it honors
+    whatever PATH the process does have — before falling back to the bare
+    name, preserving today's behavior for interactive shells.
     """
     exe = Path(sys.executable or "")
-    sibling = exe.parent / ("hermes.exe" if os.name == "nt" else "hermes")
-    return str(sibling) if sibling.is_file() else "hermes"
+    sibling = exe.parent / ("hermes.exe" if sys.platform == "win32" else "hermes")
+    if sibling.is_file():
+        return str(sibling)
+    found = shutil.which("hermes")
+    if found:
+        return found
+    return "hermes"
 
 
 def local_delivery_command(profile: str, query_file: str) -> list[str]:
diff --git a/tui_gateway/methods_bot_relay.py b/tui_gateway/methods_bot_relay.py
index 0e853f857f..b1baa40964 100644
--- a/tui_gateway/methods_bot_relay.py
+++ b/tui_gateway/methods_bot_relay.py
@@ -125,6 +125,8 @@ def _(rid, params: dict) -> dict:
                     local_delivery_command(resolved, tmp),
                     capture_output=True,
                     text=True,
+                    encoding="utf-8",
+                    errors="replace",
                     timeout=600,
                 )
                 if proc.returncode != 0:
@@ -147,6 +149,8 @@ def _(rid, params: dict) -> dict:
                             local_delivery_command(resolved, tmp),
                             capture_output=True,
                             text=True,
+                            encoding="utf-8",
+                            errors="replace",
                             timeout=600,
                         )
         finally: