diff --git a/go/cli/cli.go b/go/cli/cli.go
index 16d2a2a..0b2bf3f 100644
--- a/go/cli/cli.go
+++ b/go/cli/cli.go
@@ -140,7 +140,15 @@ func AskWith(ctx context.Context, socket string, req Request) (Answer, error) {
 		_ = conn.SetDeadline(deadline)
 	}
 	if err := WriteRequest(conn, req); err != nil {
-		return Answer{}, fmt.Errorf("asking the node-engine: %w", err)
+		// The engine may have answered before it read the request — a refusal (busy, an unknown account) written
+		// and the connection closed — and the write then fails on the close. That answer is already waiting, and
+		// it says why where the write error says only that the pipe broke (novox/hq issue 444, found under issue
+		// 434). So read it, within the deadline the connection already has, and only when none came say the write.
+		a, rerr := ReadAnswer(conn)
+		if rerr != nil {
+			return Answer{}, fmt.Errorf("asking the node-engine: %w; and no answer came (%v)", err, rerr)
+		}
+		return a, nil
 	}
 	a, err := ReadAnswer(conn)
 	if err != nil {
diff --git a/go/cli/refusal_test.go b/go/cli/refusal_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e804bfc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/go/cli/refusal_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+package cli
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"net"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// anEngineThatClosesFirst listens like the node-engine before mesh-host#80: it writes its answer, if any, and
+// closes without reading the request (novox/hq issue 434). It answers one connection.
+func anEngineThatClosesFirst(t *testing.T, answer *Answer) string {
+	t.Helper()
+	socket := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "cli.sock")
+	l, err := net.Listen("unix", socket)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Skipf("no unix socket here: %v", err)
+	}
+	t.Cleanup(func() { l.Close() })
+	go func() {
+		conn, err := l.Accept()
+		if err != nil {
+			return
+		}
+		if answer != nil {
+			_ = WriteAnswer(conn, *answer)
+		}
+		conn.Close()
+	}()
+	return socket
+}
+
+// aLineTheSocketCannotHold is a request larger than a unix socket buffers, so its write cannot finish before
+// the engine reads it — and an engine that closes first makes it fail every time, not only when it loses a race.
+func aLineTheSocketCannotHold() []string { return []string{"status", strings.Repeat("x", 4<<20)} }
+
+// An engine that refuses and closes before reading the request is heard: its refusal reaches the caller, not
+// the broken pipe its close left the client's write (novox/hq issue 444).
+func TestARefusalWrittenBeforeTheRequestIsReadReachesTheCaller(t *testing.T) {
+	busy := Refusal("the node-engine is busy: too many lines at once")
+	socket := anEngineThatClosesFirst(t, &busy)
+	a, err := Ask(context.Background(), socket, aLineTheSocketCannotHold())
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("the engine said %q and the caller heard: %v", busy.Refused, err)
+	}
+	if a.Refused != busy.Refused || a.Exit != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("the engine said %q and the caller heard %+v", busy.Refused, a)
+	}
+}
+
+// When the write fails and no answer is waiting, the error says both: what failed, and that no answer came.
+func TestAFailedWriteWithNoAnswerSaysBoth(t *testing.T) {
+	socket := anEngineThatClosesFirst(t, nil)
+	start := time.Now()
+	_, err := Ask(context.Background(), socket, aLineTheSocketCannotHold())
+	if err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("a request the engine never read, and never answered, came back without an error")
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "asking the node-engine") || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "no answer came") {
+		t.Fatalf("the error does not say what failed and that no answer came: %v", err)
+	}
+	if waited := time.Since(start); waited > 30*time.Second {
+		t.Fatalf("waited %s on a connection the engine had closed", waited)
+	}
+}