diff --git a/.changeset/tame-timers-brake.md b/.changeset/tame-timers-brake.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..990ee0137f4d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/tame-timers-brake.md
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+---
+"wrangler": patch
+---
+
+fix: don't exit on initial Pages Functions compilation failure
+
+Previously, we'd exit the `wrangler pages dev` process if we couldn't immediately compile a Worker from the `functions` directory. We now log the error, but don't exit the process. This means that proxy processes can be cleaned up cleanly on SIGINT and SIGTERM, and it matches the behavior of if a compilation error is introduced once already running (we don't exit then either).
diff --git a/packages/wrangler/src/pages.tsx b/packages/wrangler/src/pages.tsx
index 602de9ac293b..609b2cb29d97 100644
--- a/packages/wrangler/src/pages.tsx
+++ b/packages/wrangler/src/pages.tsx
@@ -805,13 +805,15 @@ export const pages: BuilderCallback<unknown, unknown> = (yargs) => {
 
           console.log(`Compiling worker to "${scriptPath}"...`);
 
-          await buildFunctions({
-            scriptPath,
-            functionsDirectory,
-            sourcemap: true,
-            watch: true,
-            onEnd: () => scriptReadyResolve(),
-          });
+          try {
+            await buildFunctions({
+              scriptPath,
+              functionsDirectory,
+              sourcemap: true,
+              watch: true,
+              onEnd: () => scriptReadyResolve(),
+            });
+          } catch {}
 
           watch([functionsDirectory], {
             persistent: true,