diff --git a/tools/reliability/fake-worker.mjs b/tools/reliability/fake-worker.mjs
index c6527a851..5f6b41ea8 100755
--- a/tools/reliability/fake-worker.mjs
+++ b/tools/reliability/fake-worker.mjs
@@ -29,6 +29,9 @@ import { createInterface } from 'node:readline';
 if (process.argv.includes('--list')) {
   const m = (() => { try { return require('node:fs').readFileSync(process.env.FAKE_WORKER_CTL, 'utf8').trim().split(/\s+/)[0]; } catch { return 'ok'; } })();
   const n = m === 'absent' ? 0 : (() => { try { const l = require('node:fs').readFileSync(process.env.FAKE_WORKER_CTL, 'utf8').split('\n').map(x => x.trim().split(/\s+/)).find(f => f[0] === 'devices'); return l ? Number(l[1]) : 1; } catch { return 1; } })();
+  // the real worker's header line: the engine reads a listing without it as "the tool did not answer" and removes
+  // no card on it (src/detect.rs parse_opencl_list), which is right for a crashed driver and wrong for a stand-in
+  process.stdout.write(`OpenCL devices (${n}):\n`);
   for (let i = 0; i < n; i++) {
     process.stdout.write(`[${i}] Fake GPU ${i + 1}  |  Fake Platform (OpenCL 1.2)\n    GPU, vendor Fake Silicon, driver 1.0.0, OpenCL C 1.2, 8 compute units, 8192 MB\n`);
   }