diff --git a/tools/public/fpagent/install.sh b/tools/public/fpagent/install.sh
index f1ec1fd..e4d72a3 100755
--- a/tools/public/fpagent/install.sh
+++ b/tools/public/fpagent/install.sh
@@ -51,10 +51,18 @@ for arg in "$@"; do
 	esac
 done
 
-for cmd in curl tar sha256sum python3; do
+for cmd in curl tar sha256sum python3 find; do
 	command -v "$cmd" >/dev/null 2>&1 || die "$cmd is required but not installed"
 done
 
+tmpbase="${TMPDIR:-/tmp}"
+# Sweep scratch left by an earlier run that was SIGKILLed: the EXIT trap cannot
+# run then (that is the one signal it cannot catch). Scoped to our own prefix,
+# this user, and dirs older than a day, so a concurrent install is never touched.
+# Runs before any network work so cleanup is not skipped when the fetch fails.
+find "$tmpbase" -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -type d -uid "$(id -u)" \
+	-name 'fpagent-install.*' -mtime +0 -exec rm -rf {} + 2>/dev/null || true
+
 # Offline bundles ship the libfprint .deb closure for a specific Ubuntu
 # release; prefer the one matching this machine, else fall back to the generic
 # online bundle (whose installer apt-get's the dependency).
@@ -85,7 +93,7 @@ asset="${readout#*$'\t'}"
 say "  release ${tag}"
 say "  bundle  ${asset}"
 
-tmp="$(mktemp -d)"
+tmp="$(mktemp -d "$tmpbase/fpagent-install.XXXXXXXX")"
 trap 'rm -rf "$tmp"' EXIT
 
 get() { curl -fsSL "$1" -o "$2" || die "download failed: $1"; }
diff --git a/tools/test/fpagent-install.test.js b/tools/test/fpagent-install.test.js
index 5564d44..f87d4cc 100644
--- a/tools/test/fpagent-install.test.js
+++ b/tools/test/fpagent-install.test.js
@@ -4,11 +4,21 @@
 import test from 'node:test';
 import assert from 'node:assert/strict';
 import { execFileSync } from 'node:child_process';
+import fs from 'node:fs';
+import os from 'node:os';
 import path from 'node:path';
 import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
 import { createApp, FPAGENT_REPO } from '../server.js';
 import { startServer, stopServer, urlOf } from './helpers.js';
 
+const SCRIPT = path.join(
+  path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)),
+  '..',
+  'public',
+  'fpagent',
+  'install.sh'
+);
+
 const TOKEN = 'release-install-secret';
 const TAG = 'v9.9.9';
 const ARCHIVE = 'fpagent-deadbee-linux-x86_64.tar.gz';
@@ -150,12 +160,37 @@ test('install.sh is served publicly at /fpagent/install.sh', async () => {
 });
 
 test('install.sh is valid bash', () => {
-  const script = path.join(
-    path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)),
-    '..',
-    'public',
-    'fpagent',
-    'install.sh'
-  );
-  execFileSync('bash', ['-n', script], { stdio: 'pipe' });
+  execFileSync('bash', ['-n', SCRIPT], { stdio: 'pipe' });
+});
+
+test('install.sh sweeps only its own stale scratch dirs', () => {
+  const base = fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'fpagent-sweep-test-'));
+  const stale = path.join(base, 'fpagent-install.oldoldold');
+  const fresh = path.join(base, 'fpagent-install.freshfresh');
+  const unrelated = path.join(base, 'someone-else.oldold');
+  for (const dir of [stale, fresh, unrelated]) fs.mkdirSync(dir);
+  const old = new Date(Date.now() - 2 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
+  fs.utimesSync(stale, old, old);
+  fs.utimesSync(unrelated, old, old);
+
+  try {
+    // The base URL is unreachable, so the run fails after the sweep: enough to
+    // exercise the cleanup without downloading anything.
+    let failed = false;
+    try {
+      execFileSync('bash', [SCRIPT], {
+        stdio: 'pipe',
+        env: { ...process.env, TMPDIR: base, FPAGENT_BASE_URL: 'http://127.0.0.1:9' },
+      });
+    } catch {
+      failed = true;
+    }
+    assert.equal(failed, true, 'the installer should fail on the unreachable base');
+
+    assert.equal(fs.existsSync(stale), false, 'stale fpagent scratch should be removed');
+    assert.equal(fs.existsSync(fresh), true, 'fresh (possibly concurrent) scratch should survive');
+    assert.equal(fs.existsSync(unrelated), true, 'another prefix should never be touched');
+  } finally {
+    fs.rmSync(base, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  }
 });