diff --git a/clone-backup.sh b/clone-backup.sh
index cefd1c7c..caecb1e7 100755
--- a/clone-backup.sh
+++ b/clone-backup.sh
@@ -373,15 +373,17 @@ transfer_backup() {
     if $SSH_CMD "$DEST_HOST" "which screen" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
         echo "Starting screen listener on port $port..."
         
-        # Start listener in screen session with proper escaping
-        # The backup file is already zstd compressed, so we just decompress and extract
-        # Use tar_extract_opts which may include --skip-old-files for SLOWDISK mode
-        $SSH_CMD "$DEST_HOST" "
-            screen -dmS transfer_${key} bash -c '
-                nc -l -p $port | zstd -d | tar $tar_extract_opts 2>/tmp/transfer_${key}.err
-                echo \$? > /tmp/transfer_${key}.done
-            '
-        "
+        # Ship the listener as a SCRIPT FILE. tar_extract_opts can contain quoted
+        # --transform expressions with '|' which inline bash -c quoting cannot
+        # survive across the ssh+screen layers (broke the katana retry,
+        # 2026-07-11). The heredoc expands locally; the target parses the script
+        # exactly once.
+        $SSH_CMD "$DEST_HOST" "cat > /tmp/transfer_${key}.sh && chmod +x /tmp/transfer_${key}.sh" <<LISTENER
+#!/bin/bash
+nc -l -p $port | zstd -d | tar $tar_extract_opts 2>/tmp/transfer_${key}.err
+echo \$? > /tmp/transfer_${key}.done
+LISTENER
+        $SSH_CMD "$DEST_HOST" "screen -dmS transfer_${key} /tmp/transfer_${key}.sh"
         
         # Give it time to start
         sleep 2
@@ -395,15 +397,13 @@ transfer_backup() {
     else
         echo "Screen not available, using nohup method..."
         
-        # Use nohup with proper backgrounding
-        # Use tar_extract_opts which may include --skip-old-files for SLOWDISK mode
-        $SSH_CMD "$DEST_HOST" "
-            nohup bash -c '
-                nc -l -p $port | zstd -d | tar $tar_extract_opts 2>/tmp/transfer_${key}.err
-                echo \$? > /tmp/transfer_${key}.done
-            ' > /tmp/transfer_${key}.log 2>&1 < /dev/null &
-            echo \$! > /tmp/transfer_${key}.pid
-        "
+        # Script-file listener for the same quoting reason as the screen branch.
+        $SSH_CMD "$DEST_HOST" "cat > /tmp/transfer_${key}.sh && chmod +x /tmp/transfer_${key}.sh" <<LISTENER
+#!/bin/bash
+nc -l -p $port | zstd -d | tar $tar_extract_opts 2>/tmp/transfer_${key}.err
+echo \$? > /tmp/transfer_${key}.done
+LISTENER
+        $SSH_CMD "$DEST_HOST" "nohup /tmp/transfer_${key}.sh > /tmp/transfer_${key}.log 2>&1 < /dev/null & echo \$! > /tmp/transfer_${key}.pid"
         
         sleep 2