diff --git a/hermes_cli/kanban_db.py b/hermes_cli/kanban_db.py
index f593a4279f..560def8a57 100644
--- a/hermes_cli/kanban_db.py
+++ b/hermes_cli/kanban_db.py
@@ -33,6 +33,19 @@ _log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 # --- Shared micro-helpers (row access, JSON, env, git) ---
 
+def _lossy_text(value: Any) -> Any:
+    """``bytes`` -> ``str`` with U+FFFD for undecodable sequences; anything else passes through.
+
+    Installed as every board connection's ``text_factory`` (a TEXT cell holding
+    invalid UTF-8 otherwise aborts the whole ``fetchall`` with "Could not decode
+    to UTF-8") and applied to BLOB-typed cells in :meth:`Task.from_row`, so one
+    corrupt row degrades to replacement characters instead of taking the board
+    listing down."""
+    if isinstance(value, bytes):
+        return value.decode("utf-8", errors="replace")
+    return value
+
+
 def _row_get(row: Any, col: str, default: Any = None) -> Any:
     """``row[col]`` tolerant of the column being absent from the SELECT / schema."""
     if row is None or col not in row.keys():
@@ -716,11 +729,11 @@ class Task:
 
     @classmethod
     def from_row(cls, row: sqlite3.Row) -> "Task":
-        g = lambda col, default=None: _row_get(row, col, default)  # noqa: E731
+        g = lambda col, default=None: _lossy_text(_row_get(row, col, default))  # noqa: E731
         parsed = _json_or(g("skills"))
         skills_value = [str(s) for s in parsed if s] if isinstance(parsed, list) else None
         return cls(
-            **{col: row[col] for col in _TASK_REQUIRED_COLUMNS},
+            **{col: _lossy_text(row[col]) for col in _TASK_REQUIRED_COLUMNS},
             **{col: g(col) for col in _TASK_OPTIONAL_COLUMNS},
             **{col: g(col) or None for col in _TASK_EMPTY_IS_NULL_COLUMNS},
             # Pre-migration fallbacks (spawn_failures / last_spawn_error) are only
diff --git a/hermes_cli/kanban_db_connect.py b/hermes_cli/kanban_db_connect.py
index 998d96abbb..1f863ecd4a 100644
--- a/hermes_cli/kanban_db_connect.py
+++ b/hermes_cli/kanban_db_connect.py
@@ -639,6 +639,7 @@ def _open_configured(path: Path, under_lock) -> tuple[sqlite3.Connection, Any]:
     conn = _sqlite_connect(path)
     try:
         conn.row_factory = sqlite3.Row
+        conn.text_factory = _kb._lossy_text
         with _INIT_LOCK:
             # WAL doesn't work on network filesystems; the helper falls back to
             # DELETE with one ERROR log (see hermes_state_wal._WAL_INCOMPAT_MARKERS).
@@ -678,6 +679,7 @@ def connect(db_path: Optional[Path] = None, *, board: Optional[str] = None) -> s
         # missing board or migrate on a descendant's behalf; the owner initializes it.
         conn = sqlite3.connect(path.resolve().as_uri() + "?mode=ro", uri=True)
         conn.row_factory = sqlite3.Row
+        conn.text_factory = _kb._lossy_text
         if not _schema_is_present(conn):
             conn.close()
             raise PermissionError("Kanban descendants require an initialized board; ask its owner to initialize it")
diff --git a/tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_list_undecodable_text.py b/tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_list_undecodable_text.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..517d020493
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_list_undecodable_text.py
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+"""Invariant: one task row with an undecodable text field cannot take down the
+board listing (issue #111743).
+
+A ``body`` stored as TEXT holding invalid UTF-8 made sqlite3 abort the whole
+``fetchall`` ("Could not decode to UTF-8 column 'body'"), so ``hermes kanban list``
+failed for every card until the row was deleted by hand; a BLOB-typed body came
+back as ``bytes`` and crashed ``--json``. Board connections now decode lossily
+(U+FFFD) and ``Task.from_row`` coerces BLOB cells the same way.
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import dataclasses
+import json
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import pytest
+
+from hermes_cli import kanban_db as kb
+from hermes_cli import kanban_db_connect as kbc
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def board(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
+    home = tmp_path / ".hermes"
+    home.mkdir()
+    monkeypatch.setenv("HERMES_HOME", str(home))
+    monkeypatch.setattr(Path, "home", lambda: tmp_path)
+    db_path = kb.kanban_db_path(board="default")
+    kb._INITIALIZED_PATHS.discard(str(db_path.resolve()))
+    kb.init_db()
+    return db_path
+
+
+def test_list_survives_undecodable_and_blob_text_cells(board):
+    with kbc.connect() as conn:
+        good = kb.create_task(conn, title="good card", assignee="coder")
+        conn.execute(
+            "INSERT INTO tasks (id, title, body, assignee, status, priority, created_by, created_at) "
+            "VALUES ('t_text_bad', 'text invalid', CAST(X'FFFEABCD00' AS TEXT), 'coder', 'ready', 0, 'user', 1000)"
+        )
+        conn.execute(
+            "INSERT INTO tasks (id, title, body, assignee, status, priority, created_by, created_at) "
+            "VALUES ('t_blob_bad', 'blob body', X'FFFEABCD00', 'coder', 'ready', 0, 'user', 1000)"
+        )
+
+    with kbc.connect() as conn:
+        tasks = {t.id: t for t in kb.list_tasks(conn, status="ready")}
+        assert {good, "t_text_bad", "t_blob_bad"} <= set(tasks)
+        for tid in ("t_text_bad", "t_blob_bad"):
+            body = tasks[tid].body
+            assert isinstance(body, str) and "\ufffd" in body
+            json.dumps(dataclasses.asdict(tasks[tid]))  # the --json path
+        assert kb.get_task(conn, "t_text_bad").title == "text invalid"