diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 931739a7..a49a1d81 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -100,6 +100,12 @@ backup/
 # Local artifacts from browser tooling
 .playwright-mcp/
 
+# Local-only E2E suite (never pushed; runs as pre-push gate on this machine)
+tests/e2e/local/
+playwright-local-results/
+e2e-test.log
+scripts/e2e-local.sh
+
 # Local SQLite files in backend
 backend/*.sqlite*
 backend/*.db
diff --git a/backend/server.js b/backend/server.js
index 5bd6f1b4..ba62cc4a 100644
--- a/backend/server.js
+++ b/backend/server.js
@@ -486,21 +486,24 @@ app.get('/robots.txt', async (req, res) => {
   }
 });
 
-// Health check endpoint
+// Health check endpoint. `pid` + `uptime` let monitors (and the local E2E
+// watchdog) detect a silent process restart between two checks.
 app.get('/health', async (req, res) => {
   try {
-    // Check database connectivity
     await db.raw('SELECT 1');
-
     res.json({
       status: 'ok',
-      timestamp: new Date().toISOString()
+      timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
+      pid: process.pid,
+      uptime: process.uptime()
     });
   } catch (error) {
     logger.error('Health check failed:', error);
     res.status(503).json({
       status: 'error',
-      timestamp: new Date().toISOString()
+      timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
+      pid: process.pid,
+      uptime: process.uptime()
     });
   }
 });