diff --git a/lib/db.js b/lib/db.js
index 7a103482..dd7bd571 100644
--- a/lib/db.js
+++ b/lib/db.js
@@ -20,9 +20,26 @@ const pool = mysql.createPool({
    charset: "utf8mb4",
 });
 
+// MySQL closes a connection after wait_timeout seconds without a query (60 on
+// prod), and the pool only finds out when the next query on it fails with
+// errno 4031 ("disconnected by the server because of inactivity"). The
+// server closed the connection before that query arrived, so the query never
+// ran and one retry on a fresh connection is safe, writes included. Any other
+// error, a connection lost mid-query among them, is passed on unchanged.
+const SERVER_CLOSED_IDLE = 4031;
+
+export async function retryIfIdleClosed(run) {
+   try {
+      return await run();
+   } catch (err) {
+      if (err?.errno !== SERVER_CLOSED_IDLE) throw err;
+      return run();
+   }
+}
+
 export default {
    query: function (query, params) {
-      return pool.query(query, params)
+      return retryIfIdleClosed(() => pool.query(query, params))
          .then((result) => result[0]); // [rows, fields]
    },
    // The refresh-* bins call this to close the pool so the process can exit
diff --git a/test/db-retry.test.js b/test/db-retry.test.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..32a482d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/db-retry.test.js
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+import { test } from 'node:test';
+import assert from 'node:assert/strict';
+import { retryIfIdleClosed } from '../lib/db.js';
+
+const idleClosed = Object.assign(new Error('disconnected by the server'), { errno: 4031 });
+
+test('a query on a connection MySQL closed for idling runs once more', async () => {
+   let calls = 0;
+   const rows = await retryIfIdleClosed(async () => {
+      calls++;
+      if (calls === 1) throw idleClosed;
+      return 'rows';
+   });
+   assert.equal(rows, 'rows');
+   assert.equal(calls, 2);
+});
+
+test('any other error is not retried', async () => {
+   let calls = 0;
+   const lost = Object.assign(new Error('lost'), { code: 'PROTOCOL_CONNECTION_LOST' });
+   await assert.rejects(
+      retryIfIdleClosed(async () => {
+         calls++;
+         throw lost;
+      }),
+      lost
+   );
+   assert.equal(calls, 1);
+});
+
+test('it retries only once', async () => {
+   let calls = 0;
+   await assert.rejects(
+      retryIfIdleClosed(async () => {
+         calls++;
+         throw idleClosed;
+      }),
+      idleClosed
+   );
+   assert.equal(calls, 2);
+});