diff --git a/src/commands/branch/create.test.ts b/src/commands/branch/create.test.ts
index 26edee1..598c181 100644
--- a/src/commands/branch/create.test.ts
+++ b/src/commands/branch/create.test.ts
@@ -570,6 +570,40 @@ describe('branch create', () => {
     expect(String(spinnerMock.stop.mock.calls.at(-1)?.[0])).not.toContain('creation failed');
   });
 
+  it('adopts a branch that was created despite a 502 response', async () => {
+    const { getProjectConfig } = await import('../../lib/config.js');
+    (getProjectConfig as Mock).mockReturnValue({
+      project_id: 'p1',
+      project_name: 'parent',
+      org_id: 'o1',
+    });
+    const { createBranchApi, listBranchesApi } = await import('../../lib/api/platform.js');
+    (createBranchApi as Mock).mockRejectedValueOnce(
+      new CLIError('Request failed: 502', 1, undefined, 502),
+    );
+    (listBranchesApi as Mock).mockResolvedValueOnce([
+      {
+        id: 'branch-id',
+        parent_project_id: 'p1',
+        organization_id: 'o1',
+        name: 'feat-x',
+        appkey: 'p1ky-x9p',
+        region: 'us-east',
+        branch_state: 'creating',
+        branch_created_at: new Date().toISOString(),
+        branch_metadata: { mode: 'schema-only' },
+      },
+    ]);
+    const program = new Command().exitOverride();
+    program.option('--json').option('--api-url <url>').option('-y, --yes');
+    registerBranchCreateCommand(program);
+    await program
+      .parseAsync(['create', 'feat-x', '--mode', 'schema-only', '--no-switch'], { from: 'user' })
+      .catch(() => {});
+    expect(listBranchesApi as Mock).toHaveBeenCalledWith('p1', undefined);
+    expect(String(spinnerMock.stop.mock.calls.at(-1)?.[0])).not.toContain('creation failed');
+  });
+
   it('does NOT adopt a same-name branch created with a DIFFERENT mode', async () => {
     // A collaborator's same-name branch landing in the skew window — at the same
     // moment our own request loses its response leg — must not be adopted, or a
diff --git a/src/commands/branch/create.ts b/src/commands/branch/create.ts
index d5b6be2..5e2c607 100644
--- a/src/commands/branch/create.ts
+++ b/src/commands/branch/create.ts
@@ -189,8 +189,8 @@ export function registerBranchCreateCommand(branch: Command): void {
 }
 
 /**
- * Create the branch, and if the request fails WITHOUT an answer from the API
- * itself, check whether it was created anyway before giving up.
+ * Create the branch, and if the request fails ambiguously at the transport or
+ * gateway layer, check whether it was created anyway before giving up.
  *
  * `createBranchApi` carries no idempotency key, and a reset on the RESPONSE leg
  * leaves a fully created, billing branch behind while the CLI exits non-zero.
@@ -199,15 +199,14 @@ export function registerBranchCreateCommand(branch: Command): void {
  * authoritative here, and it is a control-plane call, so it still works while
  * the branch's own host is unreachable.
  *
- * Three guards keep this from adopting something it did not create — a duplicate
- * name is a REJECTION, not a lost response, and adopting on it would switch the
- * caller into someone else's branch with a different mode and different data:
+ * Two guards keep this from adopting something it did not create — a duplicate
+ * name is a REJECTION, not an ambiguous failure, and adopting on it would
+ * switch the caller into someone else's branch with a different mode and
+ * different data:
  *
- *   1. only an ambiguous failure is eligible — a transport reset, or one of the
- *      PROXY-level statuses, which is the edge reporting that IT could not
- *      complete the round trip and says nothing about what the backend did.
- *      Every answer the API itself authored — a duplicate name, a quota, auth,
- *      any other 4xx, and a plain 500 — rethrows untouched;
+ *   1. only a tagged transport failure or a 502/503/504 gateway failure is
+ *      eligible; other HTTP/API rejections (duplicate name, quota, auth)
+ *      rethrow untouched;
  *   2. the branch must have been created at or after the moment we sent the
  *      request, so a pre-existing same-name branch is never a candidate;
  *   3. the branch's mode must match what we asked for.
@@ -218,8 +217,9 @@ export function registerBranchCreateCommand(branch: Command): void {
  * and with the default `--switch` that would silently move local context onto
  * their branch. Requiring a mode match makes that require an even more specific
  * coincidence (same name AND same mode AND the same ~60s AND our transport
- * failure). The real fix is a server-issued idempotency/request token on
- * `createBranchApi`; until that exists, this is the tightest client-side guard.
+ * or gateway failure). The real fix is a server-issued idempotency/request token
+ * on `createBranchApi`; until that exists, this is the tightest client-side
+ * guard.
  * Reported upstream: InsForge/InsForge#1790.
  *
  * When no matching branch turns up, the original error is rethrown unchanged —
diff --git a/src/lib/api/platform.ts b/src/lib/api/platform.ts
index 61b7e6e..ccb5c89 100644
--- a/src/lib/api/platform.ts
+++ b/src/lib/api/platform.ts
@@ -120,13 +120,9 @@ export async function platformFetch(
       return retryRes;
     }
     if (!retryRes.ok) {
-      const err = await retryRes.json().catch(() => ({})) as { error?: string };
-      throw new CLIError(
-        err.error ?? `Request failed: ${retryRes.status}`,
-        retryRes.status === 403 ? 5 : 1,
-        undefined,
-        retryRes.status,
-      );
+      const err = await retryRes.json().catch(() => ({})) as { error?: string; message?: string };
+      const message = err.message ? `${err.error ?? retryRes.status}: ${err.message}` : (err.error ?? `Request failed: ${retryRes.status}`);
+      throw new CLIError(message, retryRes.status === 403 ? 5 : 1, undefined, retryRes.status);
     }
     return retryRes;
   }