diff --git a/src/__tests__/alexandria-beta.test.ts b/src/__tests__/alexandria-beta.test.ts
index 83d7332bbf..3cc1456ea0 100644
--- a/src/__tests__/alexandria-beta.test.ts
+++ b/src/__tests__/alexandria-beta.test.ts
@@ -904,3 +904,43 @@ it('fails clearly on an unknown thread', async () => {
   expect(malformed.code).toBe(1);
   expect(requests).toHaveLength(1);
 });
+
+it('falls back to category browsing after an unknown provider, but preserves other failures', async () => {
+  responseFor = (body) =>
+    body.alexandria[0].options.providers
+      ? {
+          success: true,
+          scrape_id: 'discovery-1',
+          data: {
+            creditsCost: 0,
+            alexandria: [
+              {
+                provider: 'firecrawl',
+                capability: 'find-tools',
+                error: {
+                  status: 400,
+                  code: 'invalid_request',
+                  message:
+                    'Unknown or unavailable providers. Browse the catalogue for accessible IDs; use query for natural-language search.',
+                },
+              },
+            ],
+          },
+        }
+      : catalogue('providers', [{ id: 'amazon-com', provider: 'amazon-com' }]);
+  const result = await cli(['list', 'shopping', '--json']);
+  expect(result.code, JSON.stringify(result)).toBe(0);
+  expect(requests.map(({ body }) => body.alexandria[0].options)).toEqual([
+    { providers: ['shopping'], level: 'tools', limit: 20 },
+    { categories: ['shopping'], level: 'providers', limit: 20 },
+  ]);
+  expect(result.stdout).toContain('amazon-com');
+  requests.length = 0;
+  responseFor = () => ({
+    success: false,
+    error: 'Rate limit exceeded',
+    code: 'rate_limited',
+  });
+  expect((await cli(['list', 'shopping', '--json'])).code).toBe(1);
+  expect(requests).toHaveLength(1);
+});
diff --git a/src/commands/list.ts b/src/commands/list.ts
index 9dbdfe6565..4f095a81f1 100644
--- a/src/commands/list.ts
+++ b/src/commands/list.ts
@@ -371,13 +371,30 @@ export async function handleList(
       }
       let scope: Selectors = { providers: [path[0]] };
       let remaining = path.slice(1);
-      let result = options.category
-        ? undefined
-        : await fetchPage({
+      let result;
+      if (!options.category) {
+        try {
+          result = await fetchPage({
             ...scope,
             level: remaining.length ? 'providers' : 'tools',
             limit,
           });
+        } catch (error) {
+          const envelope =
+            error instanceof DiscoveryFailure ? error.envelope : undefined;
+          const failure = envelope?.data?.alexandria?.[0]?.error ?? envelope;
+          const message = failure?.message ?? failure?.error;
+          // An unknown provider can still be a category; other failures must surface.
+          if (
+            failure?.code !== 'unknown_provider' &&
+            !(
+              typeof message === 'string' &&
+              message.startsWith('Unknown or unavailable providers.')
+            )
+          )
+            throw error;
+        }
+      }
       if (!result?.page.total) {
         scope = { categories: [path[0]] };
         result = await fetchPage({ ...scope, level: 'providers', limit });