diff --git a/src/commands/autopilot.ts b/src/commands/autopilot.ts
index 118f97165..58e742d05 100644
--- a/src/commands/autopilot.ts
+++ b/src/commands/autopilot.ts
@@ -172,7 +172,10 @@ export function shouldSpawnAutopilotWorker(args: string[]): boolean {
  *     the unknown-positional error with the canonical alternatives.
  *   - At most one positional allowed; multiple positionals fail loud.
  */
-const AUTOPILOT_VALUE_FLAGS = new Set(['--repo', '--interval']);
+// Every flag that consumes the NEXT argv token. Missing one here makes the
+// translator misread the flag's value as a positional subcommand and exit 2
+// (e.g. `--install --target linux-cron`). Keep in sync with parseArg call sites.
+const AUTOPILOT_VALUE_FLAGS = new Set(['--repo', '--interval', '--target']);
 const AUTOPILOT_POSITIONAL_ALIASES: Record<string, string | null> = {
   status: '--status',
   install: '--install',
diff --git a/test/autopilot-positional-subcommands.test.ts b/test/autopilot-positional-subcommands.test.ts
index 9da19dbf7..f8ea8a223 100644
--- a/test/autopilot-positional-subcommands.test.ts
+++ b/test/autopilot-positional-subcommands.test.ts
@@ -67,6 +67,20 @@ describe('translatePositionalSubcommands — flag/positional interleaving', () =
     if (r.ok) expect(r.args).toEqual(['--interval', '300', '--install']);
   });
 
+  test('`--install --target linux-cron` does not mis-classify the target as positional', () => {
+    // --target is installDaemon's value flag; its value must never be read
+    // as a positional subcommand (regression guard for the review fix).
+    const r = translatePositionalSubcommands(['--install', '--target', 'linux-cron']);
+    expect(r.ok).toBe(true);
+    if (r.ok) expect(r.args).toEqual(['--install', '--target', 'linux-cron']);
+  });
+
+  test('`install --target macos` keeps the alias translation and the target value', () => {
+    const r = translatePositionalSubcommands(['install', '--target', 'macos']);
+    expect(r.ok).toBe(true);
+    if (r.ok) expect(r.args).toEqual(['--install', '--target', 'macos']);
+  });
+
   test('value-flag at end of argv with missing value passes through (so parseArg can report it)', () => {
     const r = translatePositionalSubcommands(['--repo']);
     expect(r.ok).toBe(true);