diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/wsl/DesktopWslEnvironment.test.ts b/apps/desktop/src/wsl/DesktopWslEnvironment.test.ts
index cdb3fc78286..895d246e368 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/wsl/DesktopWslEnvironment.test.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/wsl/DesktopWslEnvironment.test.ts
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import {
   formatNodePtyProbeFailureReason,
   formatWslShellTransportFailureReason,
   parseNodePath,
+  parseNodeVersion,
   parseResolvedPath,
   parseToolchainReport,
   probeWslDistros,
@@ -173,6 +174,29 @@ describe("parseNodePath", () => {
   });
 });
 
+describe("parseNodeVersion", () => {
+  it("extracts the node version from a nodeVersion: line", () => {
+    expect(parseNodeVersion("nodeVersion:24.10.0")).toBe("24.10.0");
+  });
+
+  it("returns null when the version value is empty", () => {
+    expect(parseNodeVersion("nodeVersion:")).toBeNull();
+  });
+
+  it("returns null when there is no nodeVersion line at all", () => {
+    expect(parseNodeVersion("nodePath:/usr/bin/node\nresolvedPath:/usr/bin")).toBeNull();
+  });
+
+  it("ignores surrounding noise and trims whitespace", () => {
+    const stdout = [
+      "some preamble noise",
+      "  nodeVersion:22.16.0  ",
+      "nodePath:/usr/bin/node",
+    ].join("\n");
+    expect(parseNodeVersion(stdout)).toBe("22.16.0");
+  });
+});
+
 describe("parseResolvedPath", () => {
   it("preserves spaces and apostrophes in the resolved login-shell PATH", () => {
     const resolvedPath = "/home/test user/bin:/opt/test's tools/bin:/usr/bin:/bin";
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/wsl/DesktopWslEnvironment.ts b/apps/desktop/src/wsl/DesktopWslEnvironment.ts
index b38675f0e1f..c6c274d8500 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/wsl/DesktopWslEnvironment.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/wsl/DesktopWslEnvironment.ts
@@ -32,7 +32,11 @@ export interface EnsureWslNodePtyOptions {
 }
 
 export type EnsureWslNodePtyResult =
-  | { readonly ok: true; readonly nodePath: string; readonly resolvedPath: string }
+  | {
+      readonly ok: true;
+      readonly nodePath: string;
+      readonly resolvedPath: string;
+    }
   | {
       readonly ok: false;
       readonly reason: string;
@@ -222,6 +226,7 @@ export const formatNodePtyProbeFailureReason = (exitCode: number): string | null
 const NODE_PTY_PROBE_SCRIPT = (
   linuxServerDir: string,
 ) => `printf 'nodePath:%s\\n' "$(command -v node 2>/dev/null)"
+printf 'nodeVersion:%s\\n' "$(node -p 'process.versions.node' 2>/dev/null)"
 printf 'resolvedPath:%s\\n' "$PATH"
 cd ${shellQuote(linuxServerDir)} && node <<'NODE' >/dev/null 2>&1
 // The server bundle externalizes its deps to node_modules, and the WSL Node
@@ -318,6 +323,16 @@ export const parseNodePath = (stdout: string): string | null => {
   return path ?? null;
 };
 
+export const parseNodeVersion = (stdout: string): string | null => {
+  const version = stdout
+    .split("\n")
+    .map((line) => line.trim())
+    .filter((line) => line.startsWith("nodeVersion:"))
+    .map((line) => line.slice("nodeVersion:".length).trim())
+    .find((value) => value.length > 0);
+  return version ?? null;
+};
+
 // Captures the login-shell PATH after the shared resolver has loaded version
 // managers. Preserve the value byte-for-byte apart from a Windows-style CR so
 // paths containing spaces or apostrophes can be forwarded as one env argv.
@@ -404,7 +419,11 @@ const ensureNodePtyImpl = (
 
     const transportFailureReason = formatWslShellTransportFailureReason(probe.transportFailure);
     if (transportFailureReason !== null) {
-      return { ok: false, reason: transportFailureReason, fatal: false } as const;
+      return {
+        ok: false,
+        reason: transportFailureReason,
+        fatal: false,
+      } as const;
     }
 
     // No node at all, even after the shared resolver repaired PATH. Surface
@@ -457,12 +476,31 @@ const ensureNodePtyImpl = (
       } as const;
     }
 
-    if (probe.exitCode === 0) return { ok: true, nodePath, resolvedPath } as const;
+    if (probe.exitCode === 0) {
+      const rawVersion = parseNodeVersion(probe.stdout);
+      if (
+        rawVersion !== null &&
+        options.nodeEngineRange &&
+        !satisfiesSemverRange(rawVersion, options.nodeEngineRange.trim())
+      ) {
+        const range = options.nodeEngineRange.trim();
+        return {
+          ok: false,
+          reason: `WSL Node.js ${rawVersion} does not satisfy the server's required engine range (${range}). Install a compatible version, and restart the desktop app.`,
+          fatal: true,
+        } as const;
+      }
+      return { ok: true, nodePath, resolvedPath } as const;
+    }
 
     if (options.allowBuild !== true) {
       const packagedProbeFailure = formatNodePtyProbeFailureReason(probe.exitCode);
       if (packagedProbeFailure !== null) {
-        return { ok: false, reason: packagedProbeFailure, fatal: true } as const;
+        return {
+          ok: false,
+          reason: packagedProbeFailure,
+          fatal: true,
+        } as const;
       }
     }