diff --git a/examples/basic-app/app/queues/welcome-email.ts b/examples/basic-app/app/queues/welcome-email.ts
index b1d9f952..2c494fec 100644
--- a/examples/basic-app/app/queues/welcome-email.ts
+++ b/examples/basic-app/app/queues/welcome-email.ts
@@ -1,13 +1,28 @@
-import { defineJob } from "@wrnexus/queue";
+import { defineQueue } from "@wrnexus/queue";
 
 export interface WelcomeEmailPayload {
   userId: number;
   email: string;
 }
 
-export default defineJob<WelcomeEmailPayload>({
+/*
+ * A file under app/queues must default-export defineQueue(...) -- the loader
+ * refuses anything else rather than registering a queue that would never run.
+ * This example used the older defineJob() shape and so failed to load, which
+ * took the whole example app down with it.
+ */
+export default defineQueue({
   name: "welcome-email",
-  async run(job) {
-    console.log(`Welcome email queued for ${job.data.email}`);
+  jobs: {
+    send: {
+      validate: (data: unknown): data is WelcomeEmailPayload =>
+        typeof data === "object" &&
+        data !== null &&
+        Number.isInteger((data as { userId?: unknown }).userId) &&
+        typeof (data as { email?: unknown }).email === "string",
+      run: async ({ email }: WelcomeEmailPayload) => {
+        console.log(`Welcome email queued for ${email}`);
+      },
+    },
   },
 });
diff --git a/packages/queue/src/durable.ts b/packages/queue/src/durable.ts
index 9509ddf3..83e705f6 100644
--- a/packages/queue/src/durable.ts
+++ b/packages/queue/src/durable.ts
@@ -357,7 +357,18 @@ export function createDurableQueue(options: DurableQueueOptions = {}): DurableQu
     },
 
     start() {
-      if (!accepting) throw new Error("WRN-QUEUE-CLOSED: queue is shutting down");
+      /*
+       * Starting is an explicit intent to run, so it reopens a queue that was
+       * shut down rather than refusing for ever. Without this a queue is
+       * single-use, which breaks any process that boots more than one app --
+       * a test suite closing one harness and opening the next, a hot reload,
+       * a multi-tenant host. The failure lands far from its cause: the SECOND
+       * app to boot throws, because an unrelated one shut down earlier.
+       *
+       * `add()` keeps its guard, so work offered to a queue that is shutting
+       * down is still refused until someone deliberately starts it again.
+       */
+      accepting = true;
       if (timer) return;
       timer = setInterval(() => {
         void this.drain().catch(async (error: unknown) => {
diff --git a/packages/queue/test/defined.test.ts b/packages/queue/test/defined.test.ts
index b6e99663..39cc7a2a 100644
--- a/packages/queue/test/defined.test.ts
+++ b/packages/queue/test/defined.test.ts
@@ -63,3 +63,32 @@ test("defineQueue validates payloads before persistence", async () => {
   });
   await expect(queue.number.add("no" as never)).rejects.toThrow("WRN-QUEUE-PAYLOAD");
 });
+
+// `shutdown()` used to close a queue permanently: it set `accepting = false`
+// and `start()` refused for ever after. That made a queue single-use, which
+// breaks any process that boots more than one app -- a test suite closing one
+// harness and opening the next, a hot reload, a multi-tenant host. The failure
+// was remote from its cause: the SECOND app to boot threw WRN-QUEUE-CLOSED out
+// of the dev server, so a perfectly good app failed because an unrelated one
+// had shut down earlier in the same process.
+test("a queue that was shut down can be started again", async () => {
+  const { createDurableQueue, memoryQueueStore } = await import("../src/index.ts");
+  const queue = createDurableQueue({ pollMs: 5, store: memoryQueueStore() });
+
+  queue.start();
+  await queue.shutdown();
+  expect(queue.health ? (await queue.health()).accepting : false).toBe(false);
+
+  // The explicit intent to run again reopens it.
+  queue.start();
+  expect((await queue.health()).accepting).toBe(true);
+
+  // And it genuinely works, rather than merely reporting that it does.
+  const done: string[] = [];
+  queue.process("work", async (job: { data: { id: string } }) => void done.push(job.data.id));
+  await queue.add("work", { id: "after-restart" });
+  await queue.drain();
+  expect(done).toEqual(["after-restart"]);
+
+  await queue.shutdown();
+});