diff --git a/.changeset/steady-actor-identity.md b/.changeset/steady-actor-identity.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3d044be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/steady-actor-identity.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"effect-machine": patch
+---
+
+Run actor startup once across concurrent and repeated calls. Preserve terminal lifecycle when start is called after stop. Keep replacement actors registered when an earlier owner scope closes.
diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
index 3c3e543..6f2fc8d 100644
--- a/AGENTS.md
+++ b/AGENTS.md
@@ -279,6 +279,8 @@ const count = yield* actor.ask(Event.GetCount);  // number
 
 ## Gotchas
 
+- `actor.start` shares one startup result across concurrent and repeated calls, including failure or interruption. Stop the actor and spawn a new actor to retry initialization. It cannot restart a terminal actor.
+- ActorScope cleanup must match the registered actor identity before removing an ID. A later actor can reuse that ID.
 - `Machine.spawn` returns an **unstarted** actor — must call `yield* actor.start`. `system.spawn` auto-starts.
 - Never `throw` in Effect.gen — use `yield* Effect.fail()`
 - `yield* Effect.yieldNow` after `send()` to let effects run
diff --git a/src/actor.ts b/src/actor.ts
index 04666cc..2e4f598 100644
--- a/src/actor.ts
+++ b/src/actor.ts
@@ -142,6 +142,8 @@ export interface ActorRef<State extends { readonly _tag: string }, Event, Output
   /**
    * Start the actor — fork event loop, background effects, spawn effects.
    * Idempotent: first caller runs initialization, subsequent callers await completion.
+   * The first failure or interruption is retained. Stop that actor and spawn a new
+   * actor to retry initialization.
    * Events sent before start() are queued and processed when start() runs.
    *
    * Called automatically by `system.spawn`. For `Machine.spawn`, the caller
@@ -1076,6 +1078,7 @@ export const createActor = Effect.fn("effect-machine.actor.spawn")(function* <
 
   // Build actor start — runs recovery, emits @machine.spawn, arms supervisor, then delegates to runtime.start
   const startActor = Effect.fn("effect-machine.actor.start")(function* () {
+    if (yield* Ref.get(stoppedRef)) return;
     yield* SubscriptionRef.set(lifecycleRef, {
       _tag: "Starting",
       generation: generation.current,
@@ -1148,7 +1151,10 @@ export const createActor = Effect.fn("effect-machine.actor.spawn")(function* <
       }
     }
   });
-  const start = startActor().pipe(Effect.provide(serviceContext), Effect.asVoid);
+  // oxlint-disable-next-line effect/noPerCallCacheConstruction -- Actor allocation owns one startup result for this actor.
+  const start = yield* Effect.cached(
+    startActor().pipe(Effect.provide(serviceContext), Effect.asVoid),
+  );
 
   return buildActorRefCore(cell, stop, start, serviceContext);
 });
@@ -1236,8 +1242,10 @@ const make = Effect.fn("effect-machine.actorSystem.make")(function* () {
       yield* Scope.addFinalizer(
         maybeScope.value,
         Effect.gen(function* () {
-          // Guard: only emit if still registered (system.stop may have already removed it)
-          if (MutableHashMap.has(actorsMap, id)) {
+          // A later actor can reuse this ID before the original owner scope closes.
+          const registered = MutableHashMap.get(actorsMap, id);
+          if (Option.isSome(registered) && registered.value === actorRef) {
+            MutableHashMap.remove(actorsMap, id);
             // Scope cleanup — use Stopped as the exit reason.
             // The authoritative exit is on actor.awaitExit, not here.
             yield* emitSystemEvent({
@@ -1246,7 +1254,6 @@ const make = Effect.fn("effect-machine.actorSystem.make")(function* () {
               actor: actorRef,
               exit: { _tag: "Stopped" } as ActorExit<unknown>,
             });
-            MutableHashMap.remove(actorsMap, id);
           }
           yield* actor.stop;
         }),
diff --git a/test/actor-lifecycle.test.ts b/test/actor-lifecycle.test.ts
index f9a5c04..92f895b 100644
--- a/test/actor-lifecycle.test.ts
+++ b/test/actor-lifecycle.test.ts
@@ -1,8 +1,15 @@
 // @effect-diagnostics strictEffectProvide:off - tests are entry points
-import { Deferred, Effect, Option } from "effect";
+import { Deferred, Effect, Exit, Fiber, Option, Scope } from "effect";
 import { describe, expect, it } from "effect-bun-test";
 
-import { ActorSystemDefault, ActorSystemService, Event, Machine, State } from "../src/index.js";
+import {
+  ActorScope,
+  ActorSystemDefault,
+  ActorSystemService,
+  Event,
+  Machine,
+  State,
+} from "../src/index.js";
 
 const TestState = State({ Idle: {}, Done: {} });
 const TestEvent = Event({ Finish: {} });
@@ -16,6 +23,138 @@ const machine = Machine.make({
   .final(TestState.Done);
 
 describe("actor lifecycle observation", () => {
+  it.scopedLive("retains an interrupted first start until the actor is stopped", () =>
+    Effect.gen(function* () {
+      const entered = yield* Deferred.make<void>();
+      let recoveries = 0;
+      const actor = yield* Machine.spawn(machine, {
+        lifecycle: {
+          recovery: {
+            resolve: () =>
+              Effect.gen(function* () {
+                recoveries++;
+                yield* Deferred.succeed(entered, undefined);
+                return yield* Effect.never;
+              }),
+          },
+        },
+      });
+      const first = yield* actor.start.pipe(Effect.forkScoped);
+      yield* Deferred.await(entered);
+      yield* Fiber.interrupt(first);
+      expect(Exit.hasInterrupts(yield* actor.start.pipe(Effect.exit))).toBe(true);
+      expect(recoveries).toBe(1);
+      yield* actor.stop;
+      expect(actor.client.getLifecycle()._tag).toBe("Stopped");
+    }).pipe(Effect.provide(ActorSystemDefault)),
+  );
+
+  it.scopedLive("keeps a replacement registered by a scope cleanup listener", () =>
+    Effect.gen(function* () {
+      const system = yield* ActorSystemService;
+      const owner = yield* Scope.make();
+      const original = yield* system
+        .spawn("reentrant", machine)
+        .pipe(Effect.provideService(ActorScope, owner));
+      const replacement = yield* Deferred.make<typeof original>();
+      const unsubscribe = system.subscribe((event) => {
+        if (event._tag !== "ActorStopped" || event.id !== "reentrant") return;
+        unsubscribe();
+        // @effect-diagnostics-next-line runEffectInsideEffect:off -- A synchronous system listener can start Effect work inline.
+        Effect.runFork(
+          system.stop("reentrant").pipe(
+            Effect.andThen(system.spawn("reentrant", machine)),
+            Effect.flatMap((actor) => Deferred.succeed(replacement, actor)),
+            Effect.orDie,
+          ),
+        );
+      });
+      yield* Effect.addFinalizer(() => Effect.sync(unsubscribe));
+      yield* Scope.close(owner, Exit.void);
+      const actor = yield* Deferred.await(replacement);
+      expect(Object.is(system.actors.get("reentrant"), actor)).toBe(true);
+      yield* actor.send(TestEvent.Finish);
+      expect((yield* actor.awaitExit)._tag).toBe("Final");
+    }).pipe(Effect.provide(ActorSystemDefault)),
+  );
+
+  it.scopedLive("runs recovery once for concurrent and repeated starts", () =>
+    Effect.gen(function* () {
+      const entered = yield* Deferred.make<void>();
+      const release = yield* Deferred.make<void>();
+      let recoveries = 0;
+      const actor = yield* Machine.spawn(machine, {
+        lifecycle: {
+          recovery: {
+            resolve: () =>
+              Effect.gen(function* () {
+                recoveries++;
+                yield* Deferred.succeed(entered, undefined);
+                yield* Deferred.await(release);
+                return Option.none();
+              }),
+          },
+        },
+      });
+      const first = yield* actor.start.pipe(Effect.forkScoped);
+      yield* Deferred.await(entered);
+      const second = yield* actor.start.pipe(Effect.forkScoped);
+      yield* Deferred.succeed(release, undefined);
+      yield* Fiber.join(first);
+      yield* Fiber.join(second);
+      yield* actor.start;
+      expect(recoveries).toBe(1);
+      expect(actor.client.getLifecycle()._tag).toBe("Active");
+      yield* actor.stop;
+    }).pipe(Effect.provide(ActorSystemDefault)),
+  );
+
+  it.scopedLive("keeps terminal lifecycle when start is called again", () =>
+    Effect.gen(function* () {
+      const unstarted = yield* Machine.spawn(machine);
+      yield* unstarted.stop;
+      const unstartedExit = yield* unstarted.awaitExit;
+      yield* unstarted.start;
+      expect(unstarted.client.getLifecycle()).toBe(unstartedExit);
+
+      const stopped = yield* Machine.spawn(machine);
+      yield* stopped.start;
+      yield* stopped.stop;
+      const stoppedExit = yield* stopped.awaitExit;
+      yield* stopped.start;
+      expect(stopped.client.getLifecycle()).toBe(stoppedExit);
+
+      const finished = yield* Machine.spawn(machine);
+      yield* finished.start;
+      yield* finished.send(TestEvent.Finish);
+      const finalExit = yield* finished.awaitExit;
+      yield* finished.start;
+      expect(finished.client.getLifecycle()).toBe(finalExit);
+    }).pipe(Effect.provide(ActorSystemDefault)),
+  );
+
+  it.scopedLive("keeps a replacement actor when the previous owner scope closes", () =>
+    Effect.gen(function* () {
+      const system = yield* ActorSystemService;
+      const owner = yield* Scope.make();
+      yield* system.spawn("reused", machine).pipe(Effect.provideService(ActorScope, owner));
+      yield* system.stop("reused");
+      const replacement = yield* system.spawn("reused", machine);
+      const registeredReplacement = system.actors.get("reused");
+      expect(Object.is(registeredReplacement, replacement)).toBe(true);
+      const stoppedIds: string[] = [];
+      const unsubscribe = system.subscribe((event) => {
+        if (event._tag === "ActorStopped") stoppedIds.push(event.id);
+      });
+      yield* Effect.addFinalizer(() => Effect.sync(unsubscribe));
+      yield* Scope.close(owner, Exit.void);
+      expect(system.actors.get("reused")).toBe(registeredReplacement);
+      expect(stoppedIds).toEqual([]);
+      yield* replacement.send(TestEvent.Finish);
+      expect((yield* replacement.awaitExit)._tag).toBe("Final");
+    }).pipe(Effect.provide(ActorSystemDefault)),
+  );
+
   it.scopedLive("keeps lifecycle and latest transition after final exit", () =>
     Effect.gen(function* () {
       const actor = yield* Machine.spawn(machine);
@@ -25,7 +164,6 @@ describe("actor lifecycle observation", () => {
 
       yield* actor.send(TestEvent.Finish);
       yield* actor.awaitExit;
-      yield* Effect.yieldNow;
 
       expect(actor.client.getLifecycle()._tag).toBe("Final");
       const latest = actor.client.getLatestTransition();