diff --git a/ralph-loop.sh b/ralph-loop.sh
index 596d602..63b9558 100755
--- a/ralph-loop.sh
+++ b/ralph-loop.sh
@@ -185,8 +185,20 @@ normalize_memory_max() {
 rotate_logs() {
   local log_dir=$1
   local max_logs=$2
-
-  ls -t "$log_dir"/*.log 2>/dev/null | tail -n +"$((max_logs + 1))" | xargs -r rm -f --
+  local -a logs=()
+  local line
+
+  # Newest first. NUL-delimited so workspace paths with spaces (or other
+  # whitespace) stay one entry; xargs would split them into separate paths.
+  while IFS= read -r -d '' line; do
+    logs+=("${line#*$'\t'}")
+  done < <(find "$log_dir" -maxdepth 1 -type f -name '*.log' -printf '%T@\t%p\0' 2>/dev/null | sort -z -t $'\t' -k1,1nr)
+
+  # Only ever remove entries inside $log_dir, and only the ones past max_logs.
+  local f
+  for f in "${logs[@]:max_logs}"; do
+    rm -f -- "$f"
+  done
 }
 
 find_stop_file() {
diff --git a/tests/ralph-loop.bats b/tests/ralph-loop.bats
index a306b7e..3d73006 100644
--- a/tests/ralph-loop.bats
+++ b/tests/ralph-loop.bats
@@ -71,3 +71,49 @@ teardown() {
   # The stop file must NOT be deleted.
   [ -f stop.md ]
 }
+
+# Log rotation runs once per iteration. These tests use a fake CLI so the loop
+# can run to completion without any real tool installed.
+write_env() {
+  local ws=$1 max_logs=$2
+  mkdir -p "$ws/.ralph"
+  cat > "$ws/.ralph/.env" <<CFG
+RALPH_TOOL=codex
+RALPH_MODEL_CAPABILITY=med
+RALPH_THINKING=false
+RALPH_SWITCH_ON_EXHAUSTION=false
+RALPH_MEMORY_MAX=
+RALPH_CODEX_COMMAND=$WORK/faketool
+RALPH_CODEX_FLAGS="--noop"
+RALPH_LOOP_MAX_LOGS=$max_logs
+CFG
+  printf 'do a thing\n' > "$ws/p.md"
+}
+
+setup_fake_tool() {
+  cat > "$WORK/faketool" <<'SH'
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+cat >/dev/null
+echo "faketool $*"
+SH
+  chmod +x "$WORK/faketool"
+}
+
+@test "log rotation still trims when the workspace path contains a space" {
+  setup_fake_tool
+  ws="$WORK/my ws"
+  write_env "$ws" 1
+  cd "$ws"
+  run bash "$SCRIPT" 3 p.md
+  [ "$(find "$ws/.ralph/logs" -name '*.log' | wc -l)" -eq 1 ]
+}
+
+@test "log rotation never removes a file outside the log directory" {
+  setup_fake_tool
+  ws="$WORK/my ws"
+  write_env "$ws" 1
+  : > "$WORK/my"
+  cd "$ws"
+  run bash "$SCRIPT" 3 p.md
+  [ -e "$WORK/my" ]
+}