diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 99f6d032..ddcaf602 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 - **`packageManager` pinned to pnpm@10.33.0** — a different pnpm major regenerated `pnpm-lock.yaml` incompatibly (one contributor diff silently dropped the entire security `overrides` block); the pin plus a CONTRIBUTING note make the wrong-pnpm case fail fast, and the workflows read the pin instead of duplicating a version (#478)
 
 ### Fixed
+- **Proxy-init failure reports the attempts actually made** — a launch that fast-failed on attempt 2 (worker exited, retries pointless — #515's early break) still said "Failed to initialize proxy after 6 attempts"; the count is the first thing a reader uses to judge how long the launch spent trying, so the fast-fail path now says "after 2 attempts (proxy exited; further retries skipped)" while genuine exhaustion keeps the full count (#517)
 - **Ruby launches survive rdbg's dropped `initialize` response** — rdbg can process `initialize` (provably: it emits the `initialized` event 34ms later) yet never send the response, and the proxy awaited that response unconditionally — so the launch sat silent until the 30s init deadline killed it blaming adapter startup, even though an immediate retry always worked. Ruby launch initialization now races the response against the `initialized` event plus a 2s grace period: when the event wins, the launch proceeds with unknown capabilities (a late response still captures them) and a warning names what happened. Attach sessions and other adapters are unchanged (#492)
 - **The 30s proxy-init timeout now says what actually stalled instead of blaming adapter installation** — the old message ("the debug adapter failed to start or is not properly configured — check that it is installed") was written for the nothing-ever-connected case and was confidently wrong for every other stage, sending agents to verify healthy toolchains with nowhere to go next (#492's incident: adapter spawned, connected, and emitted events — one response frame was missing). The worker now reports init progress to the parent (process spawned + PID, DAP transport connected, which handshake request is in flight), and the timeout message reflects the reached stage — e.g. *connected to the debug adapter, but the "initialize" request never received a response; the adapter process is running (PID N); an adapter-side protocol stall, not a missing install* — with the structured facts (`initProgress`, `proxyLogPath`) included in the failed `start_debugging` result's `data`, where the agent can actually see them. The install hint survives only for the case it correctly describes (#493)
 - **An adopted thread anchor survives `list_threads` and follow-up inspection calls** — the anchor adopted by `get_stack_trace`'s frameless-thread fallback (or an explicit `get_stack_trace {threadId}`, #465) was silently reverted to the stale stopped-event thread by the functional-core state echo on the very next DAP response or event: `list_threads` clobbered it, and even the documented `threadId` recovery survived exactly one inspection call because that call's own response reverted it — so stack → threads → locals answered about the frameless thread and returned nothing. The echo no longer overwrites the live anchor (the imperative fast path is authoritative), and adoptions are mirrored into the functional-core snapshot so the two stores can't disagree again (#496)
diff --git a/src/proxy/proxy-manager.ts b/src/proxy/proxy-manager.ts
index 1f8a6436..21b002ab 100644
--- a/src/proxy/proxy-manager.ts
+++ b/src/proxy/proxy-manager.ts
@@ -723,6 +723,11 @@ export class ProxyManager extends EventEmitter implements IProxyManager {
         const timer = setTimeout(() => settle(false), ms);
       });
 
+    // Attempts actually made, for the failure message: a fast-fail on a dead
+    // worker must not report the full retry budget as spent (issue #517)
+    let attemptsMade = 0;
+    let failedFast = false;
+
     try {
       for (let attempt = 0; attempt <= maxRetries; attempt++) {
         if (acked) {
@@ -730,6 +735,7 @@ export class ProxyManager extends EventEmitter implements IProxyManager {
           return;
         }
         const timeoutMs = delays[Math.min(attempt, delays.length - 1)];
+        attemptsMade = attempt + 1;
 
         let sendFailed = false;
         try {
@@ -744,6 +750,7 @@ export class ProxyManager extends EventEmitter implements IProxyManager {
           // fail fast with the detailed exit message instead of burning the
           // remaining retries against a process that is gone (issue #512)
           if (this.lastExitDetails) {
+            failedFast = true;
             break;
           }
         }
@@ -775,7 +782,13 @@ export class ProxyManager extends EventEmitter implements IProxyManager {
       this.removeListener('init-received', onAck);
     }
 
-    let detailMessage = `Failed to initialize proxy after ${maxRetries + 1} attempts. ${
+    // Report the attempts actually made: "after 6 attempts" on a launch that
+    // fast-failed on attempt 2 misreads how long the launch spent trying
+    // (issue #517)
+    const attemptSummary = failedFast
+      ? `after ${attemptsMade} attempt${attemptsMade === 1 ? '' : 's'} (proxy exited; further retries skipped)`
+      : `after ${attemptsMade} attempts`;
+    let detailMessage = `Failed to initialize proxy ${attemptSummary}. ${
       lastError ? `Last error: ${lastError.message}` : 'Init command not acknowledged'
     }`;
 
diff --git a/tests/unit/proxy/proxy-manager.handshake.test.ts b/tests/unit/proxy/proxy-manager.handshake.test.ts
index 8d488a30..b691ec3a 100644
--- a/tests/unit/proxy/proxy-manager.handshake.test.ts
+++ b/tests/unit/proxy/proxy-manager.handshake.test.ts
@@ -135,7 +135,11 @@ describe('ProxyManager sendInitWithRetry', () => {
     const initPromise = (manager as unknown as { sendInitWithRetry: (command: object) => Promise<void> }).sendInitWithRetry(
       { cmd: 'init' }
     );
-    const rejection = expect(initPromise).rejects.toThrow('Proxy exit details -> code=1');
+    // The message reports the attempts actually made, flagged as a fast-fail
+    // (issue #517), and still carries the exit details
+    const rejection = expect(initPromise).rejects.toThrow(
+      /after 2 attempts \(proxy exited; further retries skipped\)[\s\S]*Proxy exit details -> code=1/
+    );
 
     vi.advanceTimersByTime(500); // attempt 1 window expires
     await Promise.resolve();
@@ -175,7 +179,9 @@ describe('ProxyManager sendInitWithRetry', () => {
       }
     }
 
-    await expect(initPromise).rejects.toThrow('Failed to initialize proxy');
+    // Exhaustion reports the full count without the fast-fail suffix — every
+    // one of the 6 attempts was really made (issue #517)
+    await expect(initPromise).rejects.toThrow(/Failed to initialize proxy after 6 attempts\./);
     expect(sendCommandMock).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(6);
   });
 });
diff --git a/tests/unit/proxy/proxy-manager.start.test.ts b/tests/unit/proxy/proxy-manager.start.test.ts
index 181930c6..d6cd9128 100644
--- a/tests/unit/proxy/proxy-manager.start.test.ts
+++ b/tests/unit/proxy/proxy-manager.start.test.ts
@@ -512,7 +512,9 @@ describe('ProxyManager.start', () => {
       // from an exited worker) — the failure surfaces on attempt 2's failed
       // send instead of burning ~15s of retries (issue #512), and carries
       // the exit details.
-      const rejection = expect(startPromise).rejects.toThrow(/Failed to initialize proxy after 6 attempts\. Last error: Proxy process not available[\s\S]*code=12 signal=SIGTERM/);
+      // The message reports the attempts actually made — 2, not the full
+      // retry budget of 6 the loop never spent (issue #517)
+      const rejection = expect(startPromise).rejects.toThrow(/Failed to initialize proxy after 2 attempts \(proxy exited; further retries skipped\)\. Last error: Proxy process not available[\s\S]*code=12 signal=SIGTERM/);
       await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(8000);
 
       await rejection;