diff --git a/scripts/deb/uce.service b/scripts/deb/uce.service
index 170955a..c16c65b 100644
--- a/scripts/deb/uce.service
+++ b/scripts/deb/uce.service
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ StateDirectory=uce
 CacheDirectory=uce
 ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/mkdir -p /var/cache/uce/work /var/lib/uce/uploads /var/lib/uce/sessions
 ExecStart=/usr/lib/uce/bin/uce_fastcgi.linux.bin
+ExecStartPost=/usr/bin/bash /usr/lib/uce/scripts/systemd/wait-ready.sh
 Restart=always
 RestartSec=2
 TimeoutStopSec=30
diff --git a/scripts/systemd/uce.service b/scripts/systemd/uce.service
index cc5521f..6ceae84 100644
--- a/scripts/systemd/uce.service
+++ b/scripts/systemd/uce.service
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ CacheDirectory=uce
 ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/mkdir -p /var/cache/uce/work /var/lib/uce/uploads /var/lib/uce/sessions
 ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/bash /Code/uce.openfu.com/uce/scripts/build_linux.sh
 ExecStart=/Code/uce.openfu.com/uce/bin/uce_fastcgi.linux.bin
+ExecStartPost=/usr/bin/bash /Code/uce.openfu.com/uce/scripts/systemd/wait-ready.sh
 Restart=always
 RestartSec=2
 TimeoutStopSec=30
diff --git a/scripts/systemd/wait-ready.sh b/scripts/systemd/wait-ready.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..d2427dd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/systemd/wait-ready.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -euo pipefail
+
+socket_path="/run/uce/cli.sock"
+if [[ -r /etc/uce/settings.cfg ]]; then
+	configured_socket=$(awk -F= '/^[[:space:]]*CLI_SOCKET_PATH[[:space:]]*=/ {gsub(/^[[:space:]]+|[[:space:]]+$/, "", $2); print $2; exit}' /etc/uce/settings.cfg)
+	if [[ -n "${configured_socket:-}" ]]; then
+		socket_path="$configured_socket"
+	fi
+fi
+
+for ((attempt = 0; attempt < 200; attempt++)); do
+	if [[ -S "$socket_path" ]]; then
+		exit 0
+	fi
+	sleep 0.05
+done
+
+echo "UCE CLI socket did not become ready: $socket_path" >&2
+exit 1