diff --git a/rust/crates/rusty-claude-cli/src/main.rs b/rust/crates/rusty-claude-cli/src/main.rs
index 4daa3de..41777a1 100644
--- a/rust/crates/rusty-claude-cli/src/main.rs
+++ b/rust/crates/rusty-claude-cli/src/main.rs
@@ -578,6 +578,27 @@ fn parse_args(args: &[String]) -> Result<CliAction, String> {
 
     if rest.is_empty() {
         let permission_mode = permission_mode_override.unwrap_or_else(default_permission_mode);
+        // When stdin is not a terminal (pipe/redirect) and no prompt is given on the
+        // command line, read stdin as the prompt and dispatch as a one-shot Prompt
+        // rather than starting the interactive REPL (which would consume the pipe and
+        // print the startup banner, then exit without sending anything to the API).
+        if !std::io::stdin().is_terminal() {
+            let mut buf = String::new();
+            let _ = std::io::Read::read_to_string(&mut std::io::stdin(), &mut buf);
+            let piped = buf.trim().to_string();
+            if !piped.is_empty() {
+                return Ok(CliAction::Prompt {
+                    model,
+                    prompt: piped,
+                    allowed_tools,
+                    permission_mode,
+                    output_format,
+                    compact: false,
+                    base_commit,
+                    reasoning_effort,
+                });
+            }
+        }
         return Ok(CliAction::Repl {
             model,
             allowed_tools,