diff --git a/cli/src/utils/machineHealth.test.ts b/cli/src/utils/machineHealth.test.ts
index bdfb2070..b3fab5bc 100644
--- a/cli/src/utils/machineHealth.test.ts
+++ b/cli/src/utils/machineHealth.test.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
 import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest'
-import { collectMachineHealth, readLinuxMemoryUsedPercent, resetMachineHealthSamplerForTests } from './machineHealth'
+import {
+    collectMachineHealth,
+    readDarwinMemoryUsedPercent,
+    readLinuxMemoryUsedPercent,
+    resetMachineHealthSamplerForTests
+} from './machineHealth'
 
 describe('readLinuxMemoryUsedPercent', () => {
     it('uses MemAvailable, not MemFree, so page cache does not read as pressure', () => {
@@ -15,6 +20,107 @@ Cached:          9758076 kB
     })
 })
 
+describe('readDarwinMemoryUsedPercent', () => {
+    it('reports App+Wired+Compressed used memory, not total-minus-free (real Apple Silicon capture)', () => {
+        // Verbatim `vm_stat` capture from a 16GB Mac mini (M-series, macOS 26.4, hw.memsize
+        // 17179869184). `top` reported the same moment as "15G used (1952M wired, 5204M
+        // compressor)"; anonymous 370327 pages ≈ 5.65GB App Memory. Activity Monitor's
+        // "Memory Used" = App + Wired + Compressed ≈ 12.6GB → 79%.
+        // The pre-fix path (`total - os.freemem()`) reported 99% here and drove the tooltip to
+        // "High pressure — avoid spawning more here", because os.freemem() counts reclaimable
+        // file cache as used. Summing only anonymous + wired + compressor yields 79%, matching
+        // the number a user sees in Activity Monitor.
+        const vmStat = `
+Mach Virtual Memory Statistics: (page size of 16384 bytes)
+Pages free:                               15078.
+Pages active:                            269344.
+Pages inactive:                          269559.
+Pages speculative:                         1623.
+Pages throttled:                              0.
+Pages wired down:                        124928.
+Pages purgeable:                           6245.
+"Translation faults":                6794924000.
+Pages copy-on-write:                  151784964.
+Pages zero filled:                   6137372590.
+Pages reactivated:                     57500663.
+Pages purged:                          11350044.
+File-backed pages:                       170199.
+Anonymous pages:                         370327.
+Pages stored in compressor:              785407.
+Pages occupied by compressor:            333030.
+Decompressions:                        49937944.
+Compressions:                          60303007.
+Pageins:                               30419969.
+Pageouts:                                124211.
+Swapins:                                    288.
+Swapouts:                                 12228.
+`.trim()
+
+        const totalBytes = 17179869184
+        expect(readDarwinMemoryUsedPercent(vmStat, totalBytes)).toBe(79)
+    })
+
+    it('parses page size from the header instead of hardcoding it (Intel, 4KB pages)', () => {
+        const vmStat = `
+Mach Virtual Memory Statistics: (page size of 4096 bytes)
+Pages free:                               48576.
+Pages active:                             900000.
+Pages inactive:                           900000.
+Pages speculative:                       100000.
+Pages throttled:                               0.
+Pages wired down:                         200000.
+Pages purgeable:                            1000.
+Anonymous pages:                         800000.
+Pages occupied by compressor:             48576.
+`.trim()
+
+        // 8GB total (2097152 pages of 4096B), chosen so anonymous+wired+compressor pages ==
+        // exactly half of total pages — verifies the header page size is used, not hardcoded.
+        const totalBytes = 8589934592
+        expect(readDarwinMemoryUsedPercent(vmStat, totalBytes)).toBe(50)
+    })
+
+    it('returns undefined when a required page count is missing, so callers fall back', () => {
+        // Valid header and two of the three required counts present, but "Anonymous pages" is
+        // absent — must fail safe to the caller's os.freemem() path, not compute from partial data.
+        const vmStat = `
+Mach Virtual Memory Statistics: (page size of 16384 bytes)
+Pages wired down:                        124928.
+Pages occupied by compressor:            333030.
+`.trim()
+
+        expect(readDarwinMemoryUsedPercent(vmStat, 17179869184)).toBeUndefined()
+    })
+
+    it('returns undefined for entirely unparseable input', () => {
+        expect(readDarwinMemoryUsedPercent('not a vm_stat output at all', 17179869184)).toBeUndefined()
+    })
+
+    it('returns undefined when totalBytes is not positive', () => {
+        const vmStat = `
+Mach Virtual Memory Statistics: (page size of 16384 bytes)
+Pages free:                               10000.
+Pages inactive:                           150000.
+Pages speculative:                          9125.
+`.trim()
+
+        expect(readDarwinMemoryUsedPercent(vmStat, 0)).toBeUndefined()
+    })
+
+    it('falls back (undefined) when the page-size header is missing instead of guessing 4096', () => {
+        // Required page counts are all present, but no "page size of N bytes" header. Guessing
+        // 4096 would 4x-underestimate used bytes on Apple Silicon and re-introduce the
+        // false-high-pressure bug, so this must fail safe to the caller's os.freemem() path.
+        const vmStat = `
+Pages wired down:                        124928.
+Anonymous pages:                         370327.
+Pages occupied by compressor:            333030.
+`.trim()
+
+        expect(readDarwinMemoryUsedPercent(vmStat, 17179869184)).toBeUndefined()
+    })
+})
+
 describe('collectMachineHealth', () => {
     it('returns schema-valid health with memory, uptime, and cpu count', () => {
         resetMachineHealthSamplerForTests()
diff --git a/cli/src/utils/machineHealth.ts b/cli/src/utils/machineHealth.ts
index 53d837e2..94c98051 100644
--- a/cli/src/utils/machineHealth.ts
+++ b/cli/src/utils/machineHealth.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import { execSync } from 'node:child_process'
 import { readFileSync } from 'node:fs'
 import { availableParallelism, cpus, freemem, loadavg, platform, totalmem, uptime } from 'node:os'
 import type { MachineHealth } from '@hapi/protocol/types'
@@ -72,6 +73,64 @@ export function readLinuxMemoryUsedPercent(meminfo: string): number | undefined
     return Math.max(0, Math.min(100, Math.round(((total - approxAvailable) / total) * 100)))
 }
 
+function parseVmStatPagesValue(vmStat: string, label: string): number | undefined {
+    for (const line of vmStat.split('\n')) {
+        const trimmed = line.trim()
+        if (!trimmed.startsWith(`${label}:`)) {
+            continue
+        }
+        const match = trimmed.match(/(\d+)\.?\s*$/)
+        if (!match) {
+            return undefined
+        }
+        const pages = Number(match[1])
+        return Number.isFinite(pages) ? pages : undefined
+    }
+    return undefined
+}
+
+function parseVmStatPageSize(vmStat: string): number | undefined {
+    const match = vmStat.match(/page size of (\d+) bytes/)
+    if (!match) {
+        return undefined
+    }
+    const size = Number(match[1])
+    return Number.isFinite(size) && size > 0 ? size : undefined
+}
+
+/**
+ * Darwin used-memory percent, matching Activity Monitor's "Memory Used" figure:
+ * App Memory + Wired + Compressed. It sums the anonymous (non-file-backed) resident
+ * pages, the wired-down pages, and the pages occupied by the compressor — the
+ * genuinely-occupied memory. Free and reclaimable file cache (inactive/speculative
+ * file-backed pages) are simply not part of that sum.
+ *
+ * os.freemem() (total - free) instead counts reclaimable file cache as used, which is why
+ * the pre-fix path reported a stuck ~99% "High pressure" on macOS. Summing occupied pages
+ * keeps parity with the Linux branch, whose total - MemAvailable likewise treats reclaimable
+ * cache as available and anonymous/wired memory as used. The three fields were validated on a
+ * real Mac mini against `top`'s wired/compressor byte figures.
+ *
+ * Any unparseable required field — including the page-size header — returns undefined so the
+ * caller falls back to os.freemem() rather than reporting a wrong-but-plausible percent.
+ */
+export function readDarwinMemoryUsedPercent(vmStat: string, totalBytes: number): number | undefined {
+    if (!totalBytes || totalBytes <= 0) {
+        return undefined
+    }
+
+    const pageSize = parseVmStatPageSize(vmStat)
+    const anonymous = parseVmStatPagesValue(vmStat, 'Anonymous pages')
+    const wired = parseVmStatPagesValue(vmStat, 'Pages wired down')
+    const compressor = parseVmStatPagesValue(vmStat, 'Pages occupied by compressor')
+    if (pageSize === undefined || anonymous === undefined || wired === undefined || compressor === undefined) {
+        return undefined
+    }
+
+    const used = (anonymous + wired + compressor) * pageSize
+    return Math.max(0, Math.min(100, Math.round((used / totalBytes) * 100)))
+}
+
 function computeMemoryPercent(): number | undefined {
     if (platform() === 'linux') {
         try {
@@ -84,6 +143,18 @@ function computeMemoryPercent(): number | undefined {
         }
     }
 
+    if (platform() === 'darwin') {
+        try {
+            const vmStat = execSync('vm_stat', { encoding: 'utf8', timeout: 1000 })
+            const fromVmStat = readDarwinMemoryUsedPercent(vmStat, totalmem())
+            if (fromVmStat !== undefined) {
+                return fromVmStat
+            }
+        } catch {
+            // fall through to os.freemem()
+        }
+    }
+
     const total = totalmem()
     if (total <= 0) {
         return undefined