diff --git a/desktop/src-tauri/Cargo.toml b/desktop/src-tauri/Cargo.toml
index 7485168..73de985 100644
--- a/desktop/src-tauri/Cargo.toml
+++ b/desktop/src-tauri/Cargo.toml
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ dashmap = { workspace = true }
 uuid = { workspace = true }
 base64 = { workspace = true }
 tracing = { workspace = true }
+tracing-subscriber = { workspace = true }
 secrecy = { workspace = true }
 
 # Browser automation (existing)
diff --git a/desktop/src-tauri/src/lib.rs b/desktop/src-tauri/src/lib.rs
index f92fe40..7bd5c2f 100644
--- a/desktop/src-tauri/src/lib.rs
+++ b/desktop/src-tauri/src/lib.rs
@@ -49,6 +49,45 @@ mod dev_server;
 
 #[cfg_attr(mobile, tauri::mobile_entry_point)]
 pub fn run() {
+    // Initialize tracing subscriber for structured logging
+    tracing_subscriber::fmt()
+        .with_env_filter(
+            tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::try_from_default_env()
+                .unwrap_or_else(|_| tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::new("info")),
+        )
+        .with_thread_ids(true)
+        .with_file(true)
+        .with_line_number(true)
+        .init();
+
+    // Install panic hook to capture crash info for diagnostics
+    std::panic::set_hook(Box::new(|info| {
+        let location = info.location().map(|l| format!("{}:{}", l.file(), l.line()))
+            .unwrap_or_else(|| "unknown".into());
+        let payload = if let Some(s) = info.payload().downcast_ref::<&str>() {
+            s.to_string()
+        } else if let Some(s) = info.payload().downcast_ref::<String>() {
+            s.clone()
+        } else {
+            "unknown panic payload".into()
+        };
+        tracing::error!(location = %location, payload = %payload, "PANIC — application crashed");
+
+        // Write crash log to disk for post-mortem analysis
+        if let Some(app_dir) = dirs::data_local_dir()
+            .or_else(|| dirs::data_dir())
+        {
+            let crash_dir = app_dir.join("zclaw").join("crash-reports");
+            let _ = std::fs::create_dir_all(&crash_dir);
+            let timestamp = chrono::Local::now().format("%Y%m%d_%H%M%S");
+            let crash_file = crash_dir.join(format!("crash_{}.log", timestamp));
+            let _ = std::fs::write(&crash_file, format!(
+                "ZCLAW Crash Report\n==================\nTime: {}\nLocation: {}\nPayload: {}\n\n{:?}",
+                chrono::Local::now().to_rfc3339(), location, payload, info,
+            ));
+        }
+    }));
+
     // Start development server when dev-server feature is enabled
     #[cfg(feature = "dev-server")]
     {
diff --git a/desktop/src/constants/api-urls.ts b/desktop/src/constants/api-urls.ts
index 230ec08..48b0718 100644
--- a/desktop/src/constants/api-urls.ts
+++ b/desktop/src/constants/api-urls.ts
@@ -50,8 +50,8 @@ export const LLM_PROVIDER_URLS = {
  * ZCLAW Gateway default URLs
  */
 export const GATEWAY_URLS = {
-  DEFAULT_HTTP: 'http://127.0.0.1:50051',
-  DEFAULT_WS: 'ws://127.0.0.1:50051/ws',
+  DEFAULT_HTTP: import.meta.env.VITE_GATEWAY_HTTP || 'http://127.0.0.1:50051',
+  DEFAULT_WS: import.meta.env.VITE_GATEWAY_WS || 'ws://127.0.0.1:50051/ws',
   FALLBACK_HTTP: 'http://127.0.0.1:4200',
   FALLBACK_WS: 'ws://127.0.0.1:4200/ws',
 } as const;
diff --git a/desktop/src/lib/gateway-storage.ts b/desktop/src/lib/gateway-storage.ts
index f43d7ab..2903f32 100644
--- a/desktop/src/lib/gateway-storage.ts
+++ b/desktop/src/lib/gateway-storage.ts
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ export function isLocalhost(url: string): boolean {
 
 // ZCLAW endpoints (port 50051 - actual running port)
 // Note: REST API uses relative path to leverage Vite proxy for CORS bypass
-export const DEFAULT_GATEWAY_URL = `${DEFAULT_WS_PROTOCOL}127.0.0.1:50051/ws`;
+export const DEFAULT_GATEWAY_URL = import.meta.env.VITE_GATEWAY_WS || `${DEFAULT_WS_PROTOCOL}127.0.0.1:50051/ws`;
 export const REST_API_URL = ''; // Empty = use relative path (Vite proxy)
 export const FALLBACK_GATEWAY_URLS = [
   DEFAULT_GATEWAY_URL,