diff --git a/src/daemon/admin/index.ts b/src/daemon/admin/index.ts
index a54ad60..36764bb 100644
--- a/src/daemon/admin/index.ts
+++ b/src/daemon/admin/index.ts
@@ -127,8 +127,15 @@ class AdminInterface {
         const sk = secretKeyBytes(this.adminNsec);
         const pool = new RelayPool(['wss://blastr.f7z.xyz', 'wss://nostr.mutinywallet.com'], {});
         pool.start();
-        // Give the connections a moment to come up before publishing.
-        await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 2500));
+        // Wait until at least one relay is actually connected (capped), rather
+        // than a fixed sleep — these external public relays can be slow to come
+        // up, and a too-short fixed wait made the DM publish fail on boot. Still
+        // best-effort: if none connect in time we fall through and dmUser logs
+        // the publish failure without affecting the daemon. (#48)
+        const deadline = Date.now() + 8000;
+        while (pool.connectedCount() === 0 && Date.now() < deadline) {
+            await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 100));
+        }
 
         for (const npub of this.npubs || []) {
             await dmUser(sk, npub, `nsecBunker has started; use ${connectionString} to connect to it and unlock your key(s)`, pool);