diff --git a/apps/macos/Package.swift b/apps/macos/Package.swift
index 7f020f4cb..ee9aef66f 100644
--- a/apps/macos/Package.swift
+++ b/apps/macos/Package.swift
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ let package = Package(
             ]),
         .testTarget(
             name: "ClawdisIPCTests",
-            dependencies: ["ClawdisIPC", "Clawdis"],
+            dependencies: ["ClawdisIPC", "Clawdis", "ClawdisProtocol"],
             swiftSettings: [
                 .enableUpcomingFeature("StrictConcurrency"),
                 .enableExperimentalFeature("SwiftTesting"),
diff --git a/apps/macos/Sources/ClawdisProtocol/GatewayModels.swift b/apps/macos/Sources/ClawdisProtocol/GatewayModels.swift
index a9651511f..e1737d652 100644
--- a/apps/macos/Sources/ClawdisProtocol/GatewayModels.swift
+++ b/apps/macos/Sources/ClawdisProtocol/GatewayModels.swift
@@ -500,7 +500,12 @@ public enum GatewayFrame: Codable {
     }
 
     private static func decodePayload<T: Decodable>(_ type: T.Type, from raw: [String: AnyCodable]) throws -> T {
-        let data = try JSONSerialization.data(withJSONObject: raw)
+        // Re-encode the already-decoded map using `JSONEncoder` instead of
+        // `JSONSerialization` because `AnyCodable` values are not bridged to
+        // Objective-C types and `JSONSerialization` throws an ObjC exception,
+        // crashing the app (seen on macOS 26.1). `JSONEncoder` understands
+        // `Encodable` values and stays in Swift land.
+        let data = try JSONEncoder().encode(raw)
         let decoder = JSONDecoder()
         return try decoder.decode(T.self, from: data)
     }
diff --git a/apps/macos/Tests/ClawdisIPCTests/GatewayFrameDecodeTests.swift b/apps/macos/Tests/ClawdisIPCTests/GatewayFrameDecodeTests.swift
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..40405f459
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/macos/Tests/ClawdisIPCTests/GatewayFrameDecodeTests.swift
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+import Foundation
+import Testing
+import ClawdisProtocol
+
+@Suite struct GatewayFrameDecodeTests {
+    @Test func decodesEventFrameWithAnyCodablePayload() throws {
+        let json = """
+        {
+          "type": "event",
+          "event": "presence",
+          "payload": { "foo": "bar", "count": 1 },
+          "seq": 7
+        }
+        """
+
+        let frame = try JSONDecoder().decode(GatewayFrame.self, from: Data(json.utf8))
+
+        #expect({
+            if case .event = frame { true } else { false }
+        }(), "expected .event frame")
+
+        guard case let .event(evt) = frame else {
+            return
+        }
+
+        let payload = evt.payload?.value as? [String: AnyCodable]
+        #expect(payload?["foo"]?.value as? String == "bar")
+        #expect(payload?["count"]?.value as? Int == 1)
+        #expect(evt.seq == 7)
+    }
+}