diff --git a/docs/operations/config-reference.md b/docs/operations/config-reference.md
index 4c598aab..38827d1b 100644
--- a/docs/operations/config-reference.md
+++ b/docs/operations/config-reference.md
@@ -253,6 +253,9 @@ Environment variables:
 - `CITADEL_TMUX_SOCKET` — tmux socket name used by the daemon and terminal bridge.
 - `CITADEL_TMUX_HISTORY_LIMIT` — tmux scrollback lines per pane (default `20000`, clamped to `1000`-`100000`).
 - `CITADEL_SHELL_BIN` — shell used when Citadel creates shell-first tmux sessions (default `$SHELL` then `/bin/bash`).
+- `CITADEL_AGENT_LOW_PRIORITY` — set to `0`, `false`, `no`, or `off` to disable the default low-priority wrapper for agent runtimes.
+- `CITADEL_AGENT_IONICE` — set to `off` to skip `ionice -c3`; by default Citadel uses it when available so agent disk IO yields to interactive work.
+- `CITADEL_AGENT_NICE` — agent niceness value, default `10`, clamped to `0`-`19`.
 
 Lifecycle:
 
diff --git a/packages/terminal/src/index.ts b/packages/terminal/src/index.ts
index 261dffe5..cf7366fd 100644
--- a/packages/terminal/src/index.ts
+++ b/packages/terminal/src/index.ts
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ export { keyForControlCharacter, keyForEscapeSequence, tokenizeTerminalInput } f
 export type { InputToken } from "./input-tokens.js";
 
 import { captureTmuxSnapshot, waitForTerminalIdle } from "./capture.js";
+import { agentResourcePrefixArgs } from "./resource-priority.js";
 export {
   attachTerminalWebSocket,
   attachTmuxPty,
@@ -151,6 +152,7 @@ export {
   sweepLegacyAgentSentinels,
 } from "./pane-lifecycle.js";
 export type { AgentExitHint, PanePidProcess, SweepLegacySentinelsResult } from "./pane-lifecycle.js";
+export { agentNiceValue, agentResourcePrefixArgs } from "./resource-priority.js";
 
 // Path of the "agent still running" sentinel file for a given tmux session.
 // The wrapper script touches this before exec'ing the agent and removes it
@@ -255,7 +257,14 @@ export async function ensureTmuxSessionRaw(input: RawTerminalSessionRequest) {
   // tmux new-session takes a single `shell-command` string and hands it to
   // /bin/sh -c. Build it ourselves with shellQuote so an arg with spaces is
   // preserved correctly.
-  const shellCommand = [...commandEnvironmentPrefix(input.env), input.command, ...input.args].map(shellQuote).join(" ");
+  const shellCommand = [
+    ...commandEnvironmentPrefix(input.env),
+    ...agentResourcePrefixArgs(),
+    input.command,
+    ...input.args,
+  ]
+    .map(shellQuote)
+    .join(" ");
   await execFileAsync(
     "tmux",
     [...tmuxPrefix(input.socketName), "new-session", "-d", "-s", input.sessionName, "-c", input.cwd, shellCommand],
diff --git a/packages/terminal/src/pane-lifecycle.ts b/packages/terminal/src/pane-lifecycle.ts
index c7f837cf..96c69db4 100644
--- a/packages/terminal/src/pane-lifecycle.ts
+++ b/packages/terminal/src/pane-lifecycle.ts
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import fs from "node:fs";
 import os from "node:os";
 import path from "node:path";
 import { shellQuote, tmuxPrefix, waitForPaneCommand, waitForTerminalIdle } from "./index.js";
+import { agentResourcePrefixArgs } from "./resource-priority.js";
 
 // Shell-first pane lifecycle helpers. The tmux pane PID is `bash -l`; the
 // agent runs as a child of the shell. Killing the agent (Ctrl+C, /quit,
@@ -94,6 +95,7 @@ export async function launchAgentInSession(
   if (!runtimeBinary) throw new Error("launchAgentInSession requires a runtimeBinary");
   await waitForTerminalIdle(sessionName, { timeoutMs: 1500, idleMs: 200, socketName: options.socketName ?? null });
   const launchCmd = [
+    ...agentResourcePrefixArgs(),
     "env",
     ...envUnsetArgs(options.env),
     ...COLOR_ENV_UNSETS.flatMap((key) => ["-u", key]),
diff --git a/packages/terminal/src/resource-priority.test.ts b/packages/terminal/src/resource-priority.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6ca13409
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/terminal/src/resource-priority.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
+import { agentNiceValue, agentResourcePrefixArgs } from "./resource-priority.js";
+
+describe("agent resource priority", () => {
+  it("wraps agent launches with idle IO and lower CPU priority by default", () => {
+    expect(agentResourcePrefixArgs({ commandExists: () => true, env: {} })).toEqual([
+      "ionice",
+      "-c3",
+      "nice",
+      "-n",
+      "10",
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  it("can be disabled for environments that need unmodified agent launches", () => {
+    expect(
+      agentResourcePrefixArgs({
+        commandExists: () => true,
+        env: { CITADEL_AGENT_LOW_PRIORITY: "false" },
+      }),
+    ).toEqual([]);
+  });
+
+  it("omits unavailable wrappers instead of failing the launch", () => {
+    expect(
+      agentResourcePrefixArgs({
+        commandExists: (command) => command === "nice",
+        env: {},
+      }),
+    ).toEqual(["nice", "-n", "10"]);
+  });
+
+  it("supports disabling ionice while keeping nice", () => {
+    expect(
+      agentResourcePrefixArgs({
+        commandExists: () => true,
+        env: { CITADEL_AGENT_IONICE: "off", CITADEL_AGENT_NICE: "7" },
+      }),
+    ).toEqual(["nice", "-n", "7"]);
+  });
+
+  it("clamps nice values to the unprivileged priority-lowering range", () => {
+    expect(agentNiceValue("-5")).toBe(0);
+    expect(agentNiceValue("12")).toBe(12);
+    expect(agentNiceValue("99")).toBe(19);
+    expect(agentNiceValue("invalid")).toBe(10);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/terminal/src/resource-priority.ts b/packages/terminal/src/resource-priority.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6f9051fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/terminal/src/resource-priority.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+import { execFileSync } from "node:child_process";
+
+const DEFAULT_AGENT_NICE = 10;
+const MAX_NICE = 19;
+const DISABLED_VALUES = new Set(["0", "false", "no", "off", "disabled", "none"]);
+const commandCache = new Map<string, boolean>();
+
+type AgentResourcePrefixOptions = {
+  env?: NodeJS.ProcessEnv;
+  commandExists?: (command: string) => boolean;
+};
+
+export function agentResourcePrefixArgs(options: AgentResourcePrefixOptions = {}): string[] {
+  const env = options.env ?? process.env;
+  if (isDisabled(env.CITADEL_AGENT_LOW_PRIORITY)) return [];
+
+  const exists = options.commandExists ?? commandAvailable;
+  const args: string[] = [];
+  if (!isDisabled(env.CITADEL_AGENT_IONICE) && exists("ionice")) args.push("ionice", "-c3");
+
+  const niceValue = agentNiceValue(env.CITADEL_AGENT_NICE);
+  if (niceValue > 0 && exists("nice")) args.push("nice", "-n", String(niceValue));
+  return args;
+}
+
+export function agentNiceValue(raw: string | undefined): number {
+  if (raw === undefined || raw.trim() === "") return DEFAULT_AGENT_NICE;
+  const parsed = Number.parseInt(raw.trim(), 10);
+  if (!Number.isFinite(parsed)) return DEFAULT_AGENT_NICE;
+  return Math.min(MAX_NICE, Math.max(0, parsed));
+}
+
+function isDisabled(raw: string | undefined): boolean {
+  return raw !== undefined && DISABLED_VALUES.has(raw.trim().toLowerCase());
+}
+
+function commandAvailable(command: string): boolean {
+  if (!/^[A-Za-z0-9_.-]+$/.test(command)) return false;
+  const cached = commandCache.get(command);
+  if (cached !== undefined) return cached;
+  try {
+    execFileSync("sh", ["-lc", `command -v ${command}`], {
+      stdio: "ignore",
+      timeout: 1000,
+    });
+    commandCache.set(command, true);
+    return true;
+  } catch {
+    commandCache.set(command, false);
+    return false;
+  }
+}