diff --git a/bin/mana_coordinator b/bin/mana_coordinator
index bca19ee70..155fa9052 100755
--- a/bin/mana_coordinator
+++ b/bin/mana_coordinator
@@ -13,11 +13,14 @@ dir=`dirname $0`
 options=""
 verbose=0
 help=0
+persistent=0
 while [ -n "$1" ]; do
   if [ "$1" = --verbose ]; then
     verbose=1
   elif [ "$1" = --help ]; then
     help=1
+  elif [ "$1" = --persistent ]; then
+    persistent=1
   else
     options="$options $1"
   fi
@@ -60,7 +63,11 @@ else
   MANA_RC=$HOME/.mana.rc
 fi
 
-$dir/dmtcp_coordinator $options --exit-on-last -q --daemon --status-file $MANA_RC && coordinator_found=1
+exit_on_last_option="--exit-on-last"
+if [ "$persistent" -eq 1 ]; then
+  exit_on_last_option=""
+fi
+$dir/dmtcp_coordinator $options $exit_on_last_option -q --daemon --status-file "$MANA_RC" && coordinator_found=1
 set +x
 if [ $coordinator_found -eq 0 ]; then
   exit 3
diff --git a/ci/test-mana-coordinator.py b/ci/test-mana-coordinator.py
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..4e440fbda
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ci/test-mana-coordinator.py
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+import os
+import shutil
+import subprocess
+import tempfile
+import unittest
+from pathlib import Path
+
+ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1]
+WRAPPER = ROOT / "bin" / "mana_coordinator"
+
+class CoordinatorWrapperTest(unittest.TestCase):
+    def setUp(self):
+        self.temp = tempfile.TemporaryDirectory(prefix="mana-coordinator-test-")
+        self.root = Path(self.temp.name)
+        self.fake_bin = self.root / "fake-mana" / "bin"
+        self.fake_bin.mkdir(parents=True)
+        self.home = self.root / "home"
+        self.home.mkdir()
+        self.capture = self.root / "args.txt"
+        shutil.copy2(WRAPPER, self.fake_bin / "mana_coordinator")
+        os.chmod(self.fake_bin / "mana_coordinator", 0o755)
+        fake = self.fake_bin / "dmtcp_coordinator"
+        fake.write_text(
+            "#!/bin/sh\n"
+            'printf "%s\\n" "$@" > "$MANA_TEST_CAPTURE"\n'
+            'previous=""\nstatus_file=""\n'
+            'for argument in "$@"; do\n'
+            '  if [ "$previous" = "--status-file" ]; then status_file="$argument"; fi\n'
+            '  previous="$argument"\n'
+            'done\n'
+            'if [ -n "$status_file" ]; then printf "Host: localhost\\nPort: 7780\\n" > "$status_file"; fi\n'
+            'exit 0\n', encoding="utf-8")
+        os.chmod(fake, 0o755)
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        self.temp.cleanup()
+
+    def run_wrapper(self, *args):
+        env = os.environ.copy()
+        env["HOME"] = str(self.home)
+        env["MANA_TEST_CAPTURE"] = str(self.capture)
+        env.pop("SLURM_JOB_ID", None)
+        result = subprocess.run([str(self.fake_bin / "mana_coordinator"), *args], env=env, text=True, capture_output=True, check=False, timeout=30)
+        self.assertEqual(result.returncode, 0, result.stdout + result.stderr)
+        return self.capture.read_text(encoding="utf-8").splitlines()
+
+    def test_default_includes_exit_on_last(self):
+        self.assertIn("--exit-on-last", self.run_wrapper())
+
+    def test_persistent_omits_exit_on_last(self):
+        self.assertNotIn("--exit-on-last", self.run_wrapper("--persistent"))
+
+    def test_options_preserved(self):
+        args = self.run_wrapper("--persistent", "--port", "7780", "--interval", "0")
+        for item in ("--port", "7780", "--interval", "0"):
+            self.assertIn(item, args)
+
+    def test_status_file_created(self):
+        self.run_wrapper("--persistent")
+        rc = self.home / ".mana.rc"
+        self.assertTrue(rc.is_file())
+        self.assertIn("Host: localhost", rc.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    unittest.main()
diff --git a/ci/unit-test.sh b/ci/unit-test.sh
index 31d424764..d5e4c7dba 100644
--- a/ci/unit-test.sh
+++ b/ci/unit-test.sh
@@ -21,3 +21,6 @@ cd $SCRIPT_DIR/../mpi-proxy-split/unit-test
 make || exit 1
 make clean
 make check || exit 1
+
+# Additional wrapper regression test.
+python3 ci/test-mana-coordinator.py -v || exit 1