diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 7a58b8b..ab587a4 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ Three honest caveats, with the full detail in `man party`:
 | `party who [--short]` | Show invited and attached users for the current party. |
 | `party status` | Show the caller's own state: hosting, attached, or idle. |
 | `party close` | Tear down the party server and its roster entry. Host-only. |
-| `party clean` | Remove the caller's own dead party dirs: crash leftovers whose tmux server is gone. |
+| `party clean` | Remove the caller's own dead party dirs: crash leftovers whose tmux server is gone. Rescues a non-empty transcript first. |
 | `party log [--stop]` | Record the party into its private dir via `tmux pipe-pane` (host only), group-readable. `--stop` ends it. |
 | `party join [name] [--passive]` | Join a party. Auto-attaches when one is running; picker otherwise. `--passive` attaches read-only to the host's view (watcher mode). Read-only invitees always join passive. |
 | `party leave` | Detach and clean up the per-guest session. |
diff --git a/party b/party
index ada8c15..6339573 100755
--- a/party
+++ b/party
@@ -1005,6 +1005,21 @@ EOF
             echo "party clean: skipping $d (server is live; use party close)." >&2
             continue
         fi
+
+        # A crash-orphaned transcript is the same "lost the night's log"
+        # accident cmd_close's rescue exists for; the server here is
+        # already confirmed dead by the liveness check above, so unlike
+        # close there's no pipe-pane `cat` still draining and no
+        # quiescence poll is needed before moving it.
+        if [ -s "$d/log" ]; then
+            _cn_name=${d##*"party-$USER:"}
+            _cn_name=${_cn_name%.d}
+            _cn_dest="$HOME/party-$_cn_name-$(date -u '+%Y%m%d-%H%M%S').log"
+            if mv "$d/log" "$_cn_dest" 2>/dev/null; then
+                echo "party clean: transcript saved to $_cn_dest"
+            fi
+        fi
+
         rm -rf "$d"
         echo "removed $d"
         removed=$((removed+1))
diff --git a/party.1 b/party.1
index 61b3afd..96cd041 100644
--- a/party.1
+++ b/party.1
@@ -146,6 +146,9 @@ Host-only.
 Remove the caller's own dead party directories: crash leftovers whose
 tmux server no longer answers.
 Never touches live parties, other users' directories, or symlinks.
+A non-empty transcript left by
+.Cm log
+is saved to the caller's home directory first.
 .It Cm log Op Fl -stop Op Fl -party Ar name
 Record the party into
 .Pa log
diff --git a/tests/85-clean.bats b/tests/85-clean.bats
index a4fe68f..d326843 100644
--- a/tests/85-clean.bats
+++ b/tests/85-clean.bats
@@ -22,6 +22,18 @@ teardown() { teardown_party_sandbox; }
   [ ! -d "$PARTY_SOCKET_DIR/party-$USER:ghost.d" ]
 }
 
+@test "clean rescues a non-empty transcript before removing the dir" {
+  export HOME="$PARTY_TMP/home"
+  mkdir -p "$HOME"
+  ensure_party_dir "$USER" crashed
+  printf 'the night\n' > "$PARTY_SOCKET_DIR/party-$USER:crashed.d/log"
+  run "$PARTY_BIN" clean
+  [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+  [[ "$output" == *"transcript saved to"* ]]
+  [ ! -d "$PARTY_SOCKET_DIR/party-$USER:crashed.d" ]
+  grep -q "the night" "$HOME"/party-crashed-*.log
+}
+
 @test "clean removes a crash-before-bind dir (no sock at all)" {
   mkdir "$PARTY_SOCKET_DIR/party-$USER:stillborn.d"
   run "$PARTY_BIN" clean