diff --git a/setup/service-renderers.ts b/setup/service-renderers.ts
index 85287b4..99e609f 100644
--- a/setup/service-renderers.ts
+++ b/setup/service-renderers.ts
@@ -113,6 +113,15 @@ WorkingDirectory=${projectRoot}
 Restart=always
 RestartSec=5
 RestartPreventExitStatus=${STARTUP_PRECONDITION_EXIT_CODE}
+# Per-turn agent runners do heavy file I/O (git clone, builds, video/ffmpeg
+# scratch) inside this service cgroup. The kernel keeps those reads as
+# reclaimable page cache, which makes systemd's MemoryCurrent climb to several
+# GB even though real (anon) usage stays a few hundred MB. MemoryHigh applies
+# gentle reclaim pressure so that cache is dropped before the number balloons,
+# while MemoryMax stays unset (infinity) so a legitimate burst is never
+# OOM-killed — it is throttled at worst.
+MemoryAccounting=yes
+MemoryHigh=3G
 ${envLines.join('\n')}
 StandardOutput=append:${projectRoot}/logs/${def.logName}.log
 StandardError=append:${projectRoot}/logs/${def.logName}.error.log
diff --git a/setup/service.test.ts b/setup/service.test.ts
index 61de7cd..a940465 100644
--- a/setup/service.test.ts
+++ b/setup/service.test.ts
@@ -111,6 +111,20 @@ describe('systemd unit generation', () => {
     expect(unit).toContain('RestartPreventExitStatus=78');
   });
 
+  it('bounds reclaimable page cache with a soft memory limit', () => {
+    const unit = buildSystemdUnit(
+      baseServiceDef,
+      '/home/user/ejclaw',
+      '/usr/bin/node',
+      '/home/user',
+      false,
+    );
+    expect(unit).toContain('MemoryAccounting=yes');
+    expect(unit).toContain('MemoryHigh=3G');
+    // MemoryMax must stay unset so a real burst is throttled, never OOM-killed.
+    expect(unit).not.toContain('MemoryMax=');
+  });
+
   it('sets correct ExecStart', () => {
     const unit = buildSystemdUnit(
       baseServiceDef,