diff --git a/dev/dev-agent.sh b/dev/dev-agent.sh
index c401efd..c534dbd 100755
--- a/dev/dev-agent.sh
+++ b/dev/dev-agent.sh
@@ -264,10 +264,15 @@ export FORGE_REMOTE
 log "forge remote: ${FORGE_REMOTE}"
 
 # Generate unique branch name per attempt to avoid collision with failed attempts
+# Only apply when not in recovery mode (RECOVERY_MODE branch is already set from existing PR)
 # First attempt: fix/issue-N, subsequent: fix/issue-N-1, fix/issue-N-2, etc.
-ATTEMPT=$(git ls-remote --heads "$FORGE_REMOTE" "fix/issue-${ISSUE}*" 2>/dev/null | wc -l)
-if [ "$ATTEMPT" -gt 0 ]; then
-  BRANCH="fix/issue-${ISSUE}-${ATTEMPT}"
+if [ "$RECOVERY_MODE" = false ]; then
+  # Count only branches matching fix/issue-N, fix/issue-N-1, fix/issue-N-2, etc. (exact prefix match)
+  ATTEMPT=$(git ls-remote --heads "$FORGE_REMOTE" "refs/heads/fix/issue-${ISSUE}" 2>/dev/null | grep -c "refs/heads/fix/issue-${ISSUE}$" || echo 0)
+  ATTEMPT=$((ATTEMPT + $(git ls-remote --heads "$FORGE_REMOTE" "refs/heads/fix/issue-${ISSUE}-*" 2>/dev/null | wc -l)))
+  if [ "$ATTEMPT" -gt 0 ]; then
+    BRANCH="fix/issue-${ISSUE}-${ATTEMPT}"
+  fi
 fi
 log "using branch: ${BRANCH}"