diff --git a/pkg/tools/mcp_tool.go b/pkg/tools/mcp_tool.go
index fa153226c..87ee9a40a 100644
--- a/pkg/tools/mcp_tool.go
+++ b/pkg/tools/mcp_tool.go
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp"
 
+	"github.com/sipeed/picoclaw/pkg/logger"
 	"github.com/sipeed/picoclaw/pkg/media"
 )
 
@@ -352,13 +353,14 @@ func (t *MCPTool) persistLargeTextArtifact(text string) *ToolResult {
 	if limit <= 0 {
 		limit = maxMCPInlineTextRunes
 	}
-	if text == "" || utf8.RuneCountInString(text) <= limit || t.workspace == "" {
+	size := utf8.RuneCountInString(text)
+	if text == "" || size <= limit || t.workspace == "" {
 		return nil
 	}
 
 	dir := filepath.Join(t.workspace, ".artifacts", "mcp")
 	if err := os.MkdirAll(dir, 0o700); err != nil {
-		return nil
+		return t.largeTextArtifactFallback(text, err)
 	}
 
 	pattern := fmt.Sprintf(
@@ -368,28 +370,44 @@ func (t *MCPTool) persistLargeTextArtifact(text string) *ToolResult {
 	)
 	tmpFile, err := os.CreateTemp(dir, pattern)
 	if err != nil {
-		return nil
+		return t.largeTextArtifactFallback(text, err)
 	}
 	path := tmpFile.Name()
 	if _, err = tmpFile.WriteString(text); err != nil {
 		_ = tmpFile.Close()
 		_ = os.Remove(path)
-		return nil
+		return t.largeTextArtifactFallback(text, err)
 	}
 	if err = tmpFile.Close(); err != nil {
 		_ = os.Remove(path)
-		return nil
+		return t.largeTextArtifactFallback(text, err)
 	}
 
 	return &ToolResult{
 		ForLLM: fmt.Sprintf(
 			"[MCP returned a large text result (%d chars); omitted from model context and saved as a local artifact.]",
-			utf8.RuneCountInString(text),
+			size,
 		),
 		ArtifactTags: []string{"[file:" + path + "]"},
 	}
 }
 
+func (t *MCPTool) largeTextArtifactFallback(text string, err error) *ToolResult {
+	size := utf8.RuneCountInString(text)
+	logger.WarnCF("tool", "Failed to persist large MCP text artifact", map[string]any{
+		"server": t.serverName,
+		"tool":   t.tool.Name,
+		"chars":  size,
+		"error":  err.Error(),
+	})
+	return &ToolResult{
+		ForLLM: fmt.Sprintf(
+			"[MCP returned a large text result (%d chars); omitted from model context because artifact persistence failed.]",
+			size,
+		),
+	}
+}
+
 func (t *MCPTool) storeEmbeddedResource(ctx context.Context, content *mcp.EmbeddedResource) (string, string, string) {
 	if content == nil || content.Resource == nil {
 		return "", "[MCP returned an embedded resource without data.]", ""
diff --git a/pkg/tools/mcp_tool_test.go b/pkg/tools/mcp_tool_test.go
index 816ac712a..bc9edb6e1 100644
--- a/pkg/tools/mcp_tool_test.go
+++ b/pkg/tools/mcp_tool_test.go
@@ -749,3 +749,37 @@ func TestMCPTool_Execute_CustomInlineTextThreshold(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("expected text to be omitted from ForLLM, got %q", result.ForLLM)
 	}
 }
+
+func TestMCPTool_Execute_LargeTextArtifactFailureStillOmitsContext(t *testing.T) {
+	workspaceRoot := t.TempDir()
+	workspaceFile := filepath.Join(workspaceRoot, "not-a-directory")
+	if err := os.WriteFile(workspaceFile, []byte("x"), 0o600); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("failed to create workspace file: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	largeText := strings.Repeat("This is a large MCP text payload.\n", 800)
+	manager := &MockMCPManager{
+		callToolFunc: func(ctx context.Context, serverName, toolName string, arguments map[string]any) (*mcp.CallToolResult, error) {
+			return &mcp.CallToolResult{
+				Content: []mcp.Content{
+					&mcp.TextContent{Text: largeText},
+				},
+			}, nil
+		},
+	}
+
+	mcpTool := NewMCPTool(manager, "test_server", &mcp.Tool{Name: "dump_payload"})
+	mcpTool.SetWorkspace(workspaceFile)
+
+	result := mcpTool.Execute(context.Background(), nil)
+
+	if strings.Contains(result.ForLLM, "This is a large MCP text payload") {
+		t.Fatalf("expected large MCP text to be omitted from ForLLM, got %q", result.ForLLM)
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(result.ForLLM, "artifact persistence failed") {
+		t.Fatalf("expected persistence failure note, got %q", result.ForLLM)
+	}
+	if len(result.ArtifactTags) != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("expected no artifact tags on persistence failure, got %+v", result.ArtifactTags)
+	}
+}