diff --git a/bot/src/index.ts b/bot/src/index.ts
index fe96549..f72eefd 100644
--- a/bot/src/index.ts
+++ b/bot/src/index.ts
@@ -184,10 +184,43 @@ async function handleStatus(i: ChatInputCommandInteraction) {
   );
 }
 
+// Block until the brain bridge reports the TTS voice (MeloTTS worker) is warm.
+// The bot, bridge and melo worker all boot together; the voice model takes tens
+// of seconds to load. If we log in and auto-join the voice channel before
+// MeloTTS is ready, the first reply synthesises to nothing and is silently
+// dropped. Gating login on TTS readiness guarantees the first spoken turn has
+// audio. We deliberately do NOT wait on brain_ready: the reply engine / Whisper
+// load lazily on the first turn (so brain_ready stays false on an idle boot) —
+// a slow first turn is fine, a silent one is the bug. After `maxMs` we proceed
+// anyway so a TTS load failure degrades to text-only rather than taking the
+// whole bot offline.
+async function waitForBridgeReady(maxMs = 180_000): Promise<void> {
+  const start = Date.now();
+  let announced = false;
+  while (Date.now() - start < maxMs) {
+    try {
+      const h = await health();
+      if (h.tts_ready) {
+        console.log("✓ 음성(MeloTTS) 준비 완료 — 로그인 진행");
+        return;
+      }
+      if (!announced) {
+        console.log("⏳ MeloTTS 준비 대기 중 (음성 모델 로딩)...");
+        announced = true;
+      }
+    } catch {
+      /* bridge not listening yet — keep polling */
+    }
+    await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 2000));
+  }
+  console.warn("⚠️ MeloTTS 준비 시간 초과 — 음성(TTS) 없이 진행합니다.");
+}
+
 // Mode select: a USER account is the only kind Discord lets Go Live, so when
 // there's no normal-bot token but a selfbot token is present, run as a userbot
 // (voice + broadcast on one user account). Otherwise run the legacy normal bot.
 (async () => {
+  await waitForBridgeReady();
   if (!config.botToken && config.selfbotToken) {
     const { runUserbot } = await import("./userbot.ts");
     await runUserbot();
diff --git a/bridge/server.py b/bridge/server.py
index 367ab0b..4e80e9b 100644
--- a/bridge/server.py
+++ b/bridge/server.py
@@ -255,6 +255,29 @@ def _piper_synthesize(text: str) -> Optional[bytes]:
     return buf.getvalue()
 
 
+def _tts_ready() -> bool:
+    """Whether the configured TTS voice can synthesise right now.
+
+    The bot polls this before logging in so the very first spoken reply is not
+    silently dropped while the voice is still warming up. For MeloTTS the worker
+    only binds its HTTP port AFTER the model is loaded (``main()`` warms the
+    model before ``serve_forever()``), so a successful /health ping is a precise
+    "voice is warm" signal. Piper loads on first synth and was never gated, so
+    it reports ready. TTS disabled means there is nothing to wait for.
+    """
+    if not TTS_ENABLED:
+        return True
+    if TTS_ENGINE == "melo":
+        import urllib.request
+
+        try:
+            with urllib.request.urlopen(f"{MELO_WORKER_URL}/health", timeout=2) as resp:
+                return resp.status == 200
+        except Exception:
+            return False
+    return True
+
+
 def synthesize(text: str) -> Optional[bytes]:
     """Synthesize text to a 16-bit PCM WAV. The primary voice is MeloTTS
     (Korean speaker, speed 1.5) served by the warm melo worker; Piper is a
@@ -286,6 +309,7 @@ def health():
             "brain_error": _brain_error,
             "tts_enabled": TTS_ENABLED,
             "tts_engine": TTS_ENGINE,
+            "tts_ready": _tts_ready(),
         }
     )