diff --git a/launcher.sh b/launcher.sh
index 4135713..883b73c 100755
--- a/launcher.sh
+++ b/launcher.sh
@@ -18,11 +18,11 @@ LIB_DIR="$BASE_DIR/lib"
 CONFIG_DIR="$BASE_DIR/config"
 
 # Load core libraries
-source "$LIB_DIR/common-functions.sh" || { echo "ERROR: Failed to load common-functions.sh"; exit 1; }
-source "$LIB_DIR/system-detect.sh" || { echo "ERROR: Failed to load system-detect.sh"; exit 1; }
-source "$LIB_DIR/domain-discovery.sh" || { echo "ERROR: Failed to load domain-discovery.sh"; exit 1; }
-source "$LIB_DIR/user-manager.sh" || { echo "ERROR: Failed to load user-manager.sh"; exit 1; }
-source "$LIB_DIR/reference-db.sh" || { echo "ERROR: Failed to load reference-db.sh"; exit 1; }
+source "$LIB_DIR/common-functions.sh" || { echo "ERROR: Failed to load common-functions.sh"; return 1; }
+source "$LIB_DIR/system-detect.sh" || { echo "ERROR: Failed to load system-detect.sh"; return 1; }
+source "$LIB_DIR/domain-discovery.sh" || { echo "ERROR: Failed to load domain-discovery.sh"; return 1; }
+source "$LIB_DIR/user-manager.sh" || { echo "ERROR: Failed to load user-manager.sh"; return 1; }
+source "$LIB_DIR/reference-db.sh" || { echo "ERROR: Failed to load reference-db.sh"; return 1; }
 
 # Color codes
 RED='\033[0;31m'
@@ -663,10 +663,9 @@ startup_detection() {
         echo "  Database: $SYS_DB_TYPE $SYS_DB_VERSION"
         echo ""
 
-        local user_count=$(grep -c "^USER|" "$SYSREF_DB" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
-        local domain_count=$(grep -c "^DOMAIN|" "$SYSREF_DB" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
-        local db_count=$(grep -c "^DB|" "$SYSREF_DB" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
-        local wp_count=$(grep -c "^WP|" "$SYSREF_DB" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
+        # Count records in database with single awk pass (instead of 4 separate grep -c calls)
+        local counts=$(awk -F'|' '{a[$1]++} END {printf "%d %d %d %d", a["USER"]+0, a["DOMAIN"]+0, a["DB"]+0, a["WP"]+0}' "$SYSREF_DB" 2>/dev/null || echo "0 0 0 0")
+        read -r user_count domain_count db_count wp_count <<< "$counts"
 
         echo -e "Server Content:"
         echo "  Users: $user_count"
@@ -679,7 +678,9 @@ startup_detection() {
         echo ""
 
         # Read from terminal (use /dev/tty directly)
-        read -p "Press Enter to continue..." </dev/tty || true
+        if ! read -p "Press Enter to continue..." </dev/tty 2>/dev/null; then
+            true  # Continue even if read fails
+        fi
     fi
 }
 
@@ -688,7 +689,13 @@ startup_detection() {
 #############################################################################
 
 main() {
-    init_directories
+    # Initialize directories once at startup
+    init_directories || {
+        echo "ERROR: Failed to initialize directories"
+        return 1
+    }
+
+    # Detect system configuration (builds database if cache expired)
     startup_detection
 
     while true; do
@@ -710,12 +717,12 @@ main() {
             7) run_module "maintenance" "cleanup-toolkit-data.sh" ;;
             0)
                 echo ""
-                read -p "Clean history and remove traces? (yes/no): " clean_hist < /dev/tty
+                if ! read -p "Clean history and remove traces? (yes/no): " clean_hist </dev/tty 2>/dev/null; then
+                    return 0  # Exit if read fails
+                fi
 
                 if [ "$clean_hist" = "yes" ]; then
-                    # Use secure temp file creation to prevent symlink attacks
-                    CLEANUP_FILE=$(mktemp -t server-toolkit-cleanup.XXXXXX 2>/dev/null) || CLEANUP_FILE="/tmp/.cleanup_requested"
-                    touch "$CLEANUP_FILE" 2>/dev/null || true
+                    touch /tmp/.cleanup_requested 2>/dev/null || true
                     echo ""
                     echo "Cleanup will happen automatically..."
                     echo ""
diff --git a/run.sh b/run.sh
index 04769e9..0c3e39c 100755
--- a/run.sh
+++ b/run.sh
@@ -30,7 +30,10 @@ if [[ "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" == "${0}" ]]; then
 fi
 
 # Run the launcher (source in current shell, don't execute in subshell)
-source "$SCRIPT_DIR/launcher.sh"
+source "$SCRIPT_DIR/launcher.sh" || {
+    echo "ERROR: Failed to load launcher.sh"
+    return 1
+}
 
 # Check if cleanup is requested
 if [ -f /tmp/.cleanup_requested ]; then