diff --git a/selfhost/cmd/ww/main.combined.ww b/selfhost/cmd/ww/main.combined.ww
index 32961e17..cc9c93cd 100644
--- a/selfhost/cmd/ww/main.combined.ww
+++ b/selfhost/cmd/ww/main.combined.ww
@@ -2986,8 +2986,11 @@ fn joinpathlit(dir: *u8, name: str) *u8 = {
 // ---- Subprocess plumbing ----------------------------------------------
 
 // procrun — fork, execve `path` with `argv` (NULL-terminated), wait.
-// Returns 0 on clean exit-0, 1 on any non-zero exit or signal kill,
-// -1 on fork/wait failure.
+// Returns the child's real exit code on clean exit, 1 on signal kill,
+// -1 on fork/wait failure. Mirrors cmd/ww/main.c:do_run WEXITSTATUS:
+// the build-step callers only test `!= 0`, so propagating the exact
+// non-zero code leaves them unaffected while `dorun` reports the true
+// program exit status (was collapsing every non-zero exit to 1; fix #16).
 fn procrun(path: *u8, argv: **u8) i32 = {
 	let pid: i32 = os.fork();
 	if (pid < 0) {
@@ -3009,8 +3012,7 @@ fn procrun(path: *u8, argv: **u8) i32 = {
 	// next byte = exit code.
 	if ((status & 127i32) != 0) { return 1; };
 	let code: i32 = (status >> 8i32) & 255i32;
-	if (code != 0) { return 1; };
-	return 0;
+	return code;
 };
 
 // ---- `use` resolution + source concatenation --------------------------
diff --git a/selfhost/cmd/ww/main.ww b/selfhost/cmd/ww/main.ww
index 344a5930..e9136ea4 100644
--- a/selfhost/cmd/ww/main.ww
+++ b/selfhost/cmd/ww/main.ww
@@ -152,8 +152,11 @@ fn joinpathlit(dir: *u8, name: str) *u8 = {
 // ---- Subprocess plumbing ----------------------------------------------
 
 // procrun — fork, execve `path` with `argv` (NULL-terminated), wait.
-// Returns 0 on clean exit-0, 1 on any non-zero exit or signal kill,
-// -1 on fork/wait failure.
+// Returns the child's real exit code on clean exit, 1 on signal kill,
+// -1 on fork/wait failure. Mirrors cmd/ww/main.c:do_run WEXITSTATUS:
+// the build-step callers only test `!= 0`, so propagating the exact
+// non-zero code leaves them unaffected while `dorun` reports the true
+// program exit status (was collapsing every non-zero exit to 1; fix #16).
 fn procrun(path: *u8, argv: **u8) i32 = {
 	let pid: i32 = os.fork();
 	if (pid < 0) {
@@ -175,8 +178,7 @@ fn procrun(path: *u8, argv: **u8) i32 = {
 	// next byte = exit code.
 	if ((status & 127i32) != 0) { return 1; };
 	let code: i32 = (status >> 8i32) & 255i32;
-	if (code != 0) { return 1; };
-	return 0;
+	return code;
 };
 
 // ---- `use` resolution + source concatenation --------------------------
diff --git a/test/wcc/993_ww_ww.c b/test/wcc/993_ww_ww.c
index c215eb2e..fccb0581 100644
--- a/test/wcc/993_ww_ww.c
+++ b/test/wcc/993_ww_ww.c
@@ -113,6 +113,27 @@ diff_one(const char *bin, const char *cwd, const char *label,
 	return rc;
 }
 
+/* Stage a program whose main() returns `code`, build+exec it via the
+ * named driver's `run` subcommand, and return the propagated exit code
+ * (-1 on staging/spawn failure). #16: ww_ww must report the child's real
+ * exit code, not collapse every non-zero exit to 1. */
+static int
+run_exit_code(const char *bin, const char *driver, int code)
+{
+	char src[64];
+	snprintf(src, sizeof src, "/tmp/ww_rc_%d_%d.ww", getpid(), code);
+	FILE *f = fopen(src, "w");
+	if (!f) return -1;
+	fprintf(f, "export fn main() i32 = {\n\treturn %d;\n};\n", code);
+	fclose(f);
+
+	char cmd[256];
+	snprintf(cmd, sizeof cmd, "%s/%s run %s 2>/dev/null", bin, driver, src);
+	int rc = runwait(cmd);
+	unlink(src);
+	return rc;
+}
+
 int
 main(void)
 {
@@ -171,11 +192,38 @@ main(void)
 		n++;
 	}
 	unlink(hello_src);
-	if (fail) {
-		fprintf(stderr, "ww_ww: %d/%d diff(s) failed\n", fail, n);
+
+	/* #16: `ww_ww run` must propagate the child program's real exit code
+	 * (the shared procrun helper was collapsing every non-zero exit to 1).
+	 * Table-driven; the non-zero rows fail under the old collapse-to-1.
+	 * The C ww driver is the reference (do_run -> WEXITSTATUS); assert
+	 * ww_ww matches it row-for-row. */
+	static const int exit_codes[] = { 0, 7, 42 };
+	int nrc = (int)(sizeof exit_codes / sizeof exit_codes[0]);
+	int rcfail = 0;
+	for (int i = 0; i < nrc; i++) {
+		int want = exit_codes[i];
+		int cww  = run_exit_code(bin, "ww",    want);
+		int wwww = run_exit_code(bin, "ww_ww", want);
+		if (cww != want) {
+			fprintf(stderr, "ww_ww FAIL: C ww run returned %d, "
+			    "want %d\n", cww, want);
+			rcfail++;
+		}
+		if (wwww != want) {
+			fprintf(stderr, "ww_ww FAIL: ww_ww run returned %d, "
+			    "want %d (exit-code propagation, #16)\n", wwww, want);
+			rcfail++;
+		}
+	}
+
+	if (fail || rcfail) {
+		fprintf(stderr, "ww_ww: %d/%d diff(s) failed, %d exit-code "
+		    "row(s) failed\n", fail, n, rcfail);
 		return 1;
 	}
 	printf("ww_ww: byte-identical to C ww on %d corpus builds "
-	    "(single-file + selfhost/wwdump multi-import)\n", n);
+	    "(single-file + selfhost/wwdump multi-import); "
+	    "run exit-code propagated on %d rows (#16)\n", n, nrc);
 	return 0;
 }