diff --git a/.agents/scripts/dispatch-dedup-helper.sh b/.agents/scripts/dispatch-dedup-helper.sh
index a82bcaa27..210f7bb33 100755
--- a/.agents/scripts/dispatch-dedup-helper.sh
+++ b/.agents/scripts/dispatch-dedup-helper.sh
@@ -84,8 +84,15 @@ extract_keys() {
 	fi
 
 	# Pattern 4: Branch-style "issue-NNN-" or "pr-NNN-" (from worktree names)
+	# Use a portable fallback chain: rg (ripgrep) → ggrep -P (GNU grep on macOS) → grep -E
 	local branch_issue_nums
-	branch_issue_nums=$(printf '%s' "$lower_title" | grep -oE 'issue-([0-9]+)' | grep -oE '[0-9]+' || true)
+	if command -v rg &>/dev/null; then
+		branch_issue_nums=$(printf '%s' "$lower_title" | rg -o 'issue-([0-9]+)' | grep -oE '[0-9]+' || true)
+	elif command -v ggrep &>/dev/null && ggrep -P '' /dev/null 2>/dev/null; then
+		branch_issue_nums=$(printf '%s' "$lower_title" | ggrep -oP 'issue-\K[0-9]+' || true)
+	else
+		branch_issue_nums=$(printf '%s' "$lower_title" | grep -oE 'issue-([0-9]+)' | grep -oE '[0-9]+' || true)
+	fi
 	if [[ -n "$branch_issue_nums" ]]; then
 		while IFS= read -r num; do
 			[[ -n "$num" ]] && keys+=("issue-${num}")
@@ -124,31 +131,32 @@ normalize_title() {
 # Returns: one "pid|key" pair per line on stdout
 #######################################
 list_running_keys() {
-	local worker_procs
-	# Get full command lines of running worker processes
-	# macOS ps -eo pid,args works; Linux ps -eo pid,args works too
-	# shellcheck disable=SC2009  # Need ps+grep for full cmdline; pgrep can't return args
-	worker_procs=$(ps -eo pid,args 2>/dev/null | grep -E '/full-loop|opencode run|claude.*run' | grep -v grep || true)
-
-	if [[ -z "$worker_procs" ]]; then
+	# Get PIDs of running worker processes using portable pgrep -f (no -a flag).
+	# pgrep -f matches against the full command line on both Linux and macOS.
+	# We then resolve the full command line per PID via ps -p <pid> -o args=
+	# which is POSIX-compatible and works on Linux, macOS, and BSD.
+	local worker_pids=""
+	worker_pids=$(pgrep -f '/full-loop|opencode run|claude.*run' || true)
+
+	if [[ -z "$worker_pids" ]]; then
 		return 0
 	fi
 
-	while IFS= read -r proc_line; do
-		[[ -z "$proc_line" ]] && continue
-		local pid
-		pid=$(printf '%s' "$proc_line" | awk '{print $1}')
-		local cmdline
-		cmdline=$(printf '%s' "$proc_line" | sed 's/^[[:space:]]*[0-9]*[[:space:]]*//')
+	while IFS= read -r pid; do
+		[[ -z "$pid" ]] && continue
+		local cmdline=""
+		# ps -p <pid> -o args= prints only the command line (no header, no PID prefix)
+		cmdline=$(ps -p "$pid" -o args= 2>/dev/null || true)
+		[[ -z "$cmdline" ]] && continue
 
-		local keys
-		keys=$(extract_keys "$cmdline")
-		if [[ -n "$keys" ]]; then
+		local extracted_keys=""
+		extracted_keys=$(extract_keys "$cmdline")
+		if [[ -n "$extracted_keys" ]]; then
 			while IFS= read -r key; do
 				[[ -n "$key" ]] && printf '%s|%s\n' "$pid" "$key"
-			done <<<"$keys"
+			done <<<"$extracted_keys"
 		fi
-	done <<<"$worker_procs"
+	done <<<"$worker_pids"
 
 	return 0
 }