diff --git a/public/index.html b/public/index.html
index c6f9878..1c7c4a4 100644
--- a/public/index.html
+++ b/public/index.html
@@ -1071,9 +1071,14 @@
     }
 
     function connectSSE() {
+      // Clean up any prior connection attempt
       if (state.eventSource) {
         state.eventSource.close();
       }
+      if (state.reconnectTimeout) {
+        clearTimeout(state.reconnectTimeout);
+        state.reconnectTimeout = null;
+      }
 
       const es = new EventSource('/events');
 
@@ -1091,6 +1096,7 @@
         console.debug('SSE error, reconnecting...');
         setStatus(false);
         es.close();
+        state.eventSource = null;
         if (!state.reconnectTimeout) {
           state.reconnectTimeout = setTimeout(() => connectSSE(), 2000);
         }
@@ -1419,7 +1425,18 @@
         // Append only new content since last render
         const newChunk = session.output.slice(session.outputRenderedLength);
         if (newChunk) {
-          $output.innerHTML += newChunk;
+          // More efficient than innerHTML += as it avoids reparsing existing content
+          $output.insertAdjacentHTML('beforeend', newChunk);
+          session.outputRenderedLength = session.output.length;
+        }
+
+        // Soft cap to prevent unbounded growth in DOM and memory
+        const MAX_OUTPUT_CHARS = 200000; // ~200KB of HTML per session
+        if (session.output.length > MAX_OUTPUT_CHARS) {
+          const start = session.output.length - MAX_OUTPUT_CHARS;
+          session.output = session.output.slice(start);
+          // Reset DOM to trimmed content and sync rendered length
+          $output.innerHTML = session.output;
           session.outputRenderedLength = session.output.length;
         }