diff --git a/crates/worker/src/feature/builtin/ticket.rs b/crates/worker/src/feature/builtin/ticket.rs
index 28ec53e7..6fd4292e 100644
--- a/crates/worker/src/feature/builtin/ticket.rs
+++ b/crates/worker/src/feature/builtin/ticket.rs
@@ -313,7 +313,6 @@ impl FeatureModule for TicketFeature {
 struct WorkspaceHttpTicketBackend {
     workspace_id: String,
     base_url: String,
-    client: reqwest::blocking::Client,
 }
 
 impl WorkspaceHttpTicketBackend {
@@ -321,7 +320,6 @@ impl WorkspaceHttpTicketBackend {
         Self {
             workspace_id,
             base_url: base_url.trim_end_matches('/').to_string(),
-            client: reqwest::blocking::Client::new(),
         }
     }
 
@@ -335,13 +333,27 @@ impl WorkspaceHttpTicketBackend {
     fn invoke(
         &self,
         operation: TicketBackendOperation,
+    ) -> TicketResult<TicketBackendOperationResult> {
+        let endpoint = self.endpoint();
+        if tokio::runtime::Handle::try_current().is_ok() {
+            return std::thread::spawn(move || Self::invoke_http(endpoint, operation))
+                .join()
+                .map_err(|_| {
+                    TicketError::Conflict("ticket backend request thread panicked".to_string())
+                })?;
+        }
+        Self::invoke_http(endpoint, operation)
+    }
+
+    fn invoke_http(
+        endpoint: String,
+        operation: TicketBackendOperation,
     ) -> TicketResult<TicketBackendOperationResult> {
         let body = serde_json::to_string(&operation).map_err(|error| {
             TicketError::Conflict(format!("serialize ticket operation: {error}"))
         })?;
-        let response = self
-            .client
-            .post(self.endpoint())
+        let response = reqwest::blocking::Client::new()
+            .post(endpoint)
             .header(reqwest::header::CONTENT_TYPE, "application/json")
             .body(body)
             .send()
@@ -981,6 +993,20 @@ provider = "github"
         assert!(!root.join("closed").exists());
     }
 
+    #[tokio::test(flavor = "multi_thread")]
+    async fn workspace_http_backend_invoke_is_safe_inside_async_context() {
+        let backend =
+            WorkspaceHttpTicketBackend::new("workspace-a".to_string(), "not-a-url".to_string());
+
+        let error = backend
+            .invoke(TicketBackendOperation::DefaultIntakeReadyStateChangeBody {
+                from: "planning".to_string(),
+            })
+            .unwrap_err();
+
+        assert!(error.to_string().contains("ticket backend request failed"));
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn workspace_http_backend_executes_ticket_create_operation() {
         let listener = TcpListener::bind("127.0.0.1:0").unwrap();
diff --git a/scripts/dev-workspace.sh b/scripts/dev-workspace.sh
index 5017796b..c7c6533d 100755
--- a/scripts/dev-workspace.sh
+++ b/scripts/dev-workspace.sh
@@ -318,7 +318,7 @@ start_runtime() {
     return 1
   fi
   start_service runtime "$ROOT_DIR" "$port" \
-    "$runtime_bin" --bind "$RUNTIME_BIND"
+    env RUST_BACKTRACE="${RUST_BACKTRACE:-1}" "$runtime_bin" --bind "$RUNTIME_BIND"
 }
 
 start_backend() {