diff --git a/crates/buzz-relay/src/handlers/event.rs b/crates/buzz-relay/src/handlers/event.rs
index f655ae0572..a9e784413c 100644
--- a/crates/buzz-relay/src/handlers/event.rs
+++ b/crates/buzz-relay/src/handlers/event.rs
@@ -241,13 +241,53 @@ pub async fn fan_out_pubsub_event(state: &Arc<AppState>, channel_event: buzz_pub
     }
 }
 
-/// Publish a stored event to subscribers and kick off async side effects.
+/// Schedule post-commit delivery/side effects for a stored event.
+///
+/// This intentionally returns after spawning the post-commit task: NIP-01 `OK`
+/// means the event was durably accepted, not that Redis publish, local fan-out,
+/// audit enqueue, or workflow triggering have completed. The spawned task still
+/// runs the same guarded fan-out path, Redis publish, `mark_local_event` echo
+/// dedupe, and delivery metrics as the former inline path.
 pub(crate) async fn dispatch_persistent_event(
     tenant: &TenantContext,
     state: &Arc<AppState>,
     stored_event: &StoredEvent,
     kind_u32: u32,
     actor_pubkey_hex: &str,
+) -> usize {
+    let tenant = tenant.clone();
+    let state = Arc::clone(state);
+    let stored_event = stored_event.clone();
+    let actor_pubkey_hex = actor_pubkey_hex.to_owned();
+    let event_id_hex = stored_event.event.id.to_hex();
+
+    metrics::counter!("buzz_post_commit_dispatch_scheduled_total").increment(1);
+    tokio::spawn(async move {
+        let recipients = dispatch_persistent_event_inner(
+            &tenant,
+            &state,
+            &stored_event,
+            kind_u32,
+            &actor_pubkey_hex,
+        )
+        .await;
+        debug!(
+            event_id = %event_id_hex,
+            recipients,
+            "post-commit dispatch complete"
+        );
+    });
+
+    0
+}
+
+/// Run post-commit delivery/side effects for a stored event.
+async fn dispatch_persistent_event_inner(
+    tenant: &TenantContext,
+    state: &Arc<AppState>,
+    stored_event: &StoredEvent,
+    kind_u32: u32,
+    actor_pubkey_hex: &str,
 ) -> usize {
     // No `crate::conformance` emit here — the spec doesn't have a
     // separate fan-out action. Acceptance was already recorded at the
@@ -285,8 +325,15 @@ pub(crate) async fn dispatch_persistent_event(
         "Fan-out"
     );
 
-    let event_json = serde_json::to_string(&stored_event.event)
-        .expect("nostr::Event serialization is infallible for well-formed events");
+    let event_json = match serde_json::to_string(&stored_event.event) {
+        Ok(json) => json,
+        Err(e) => {
+            error!(event_id = %event_id_hex, "Failed to serialize event for fan-out: {e}");
+            metrics::counter!("buzz_post_commit_dispatch_errors_total", "stage" => "serialize")
+                .increment(1);
+            return 0;
+        }
+    };
     // For viewer-private snapshots (kind:30622), live fan-out must reach only the
     // owner — a kindless `ids:[…]` subscription can otherwise match it. Pull paths
     // (HTTP /query, WS historical) are gated separately by reader_authorized_for_event.
@@ -1459,7 +1506,7 @@ mod tests {
             let event_id_hex = event.id.to_hex();
             let stored = StoredEvent::new(event, None);
 
-            super::super::dispatch_persistent_event(
+            super::super::dispatch_persistent_event_inner(
                 &tenant,
                 &state,
                 &stored,
@@ -1559,7 +1606,7 @@ mod tests {
                 "test precondition: the two events must have distinct ids"
             );
 
-            super::super::dispatch_persistent_event(
+            super::super::dispatch_persistent_event_inner(
                 &ta,
                 &state,
                 &a_stored,
@@ -1567,7 +1614,7 @@ mod tests {
                 &actor_hex,
             )
             .await;
-            super::super::dispatch_persistent_event(
+            super::super::dispatch_persistent_event_inner(
                 &tb,
                 &state,
                 &b_stored,