diff --git a/sentry-android-integration-tests/sentry-uitest-android/src/androidTest/java/io/sentry/uitest/android/ReplayTest.kt b/sentry-android-integration-tests/sentry-uitest-android/src/androidTest/java/io/sentry/uitest/android/ReplayTest.kt
index 5ea12ddbbc8..3827561e37c 100644
--- a/sentry-android-integration-tests/sentry-uitest-android/src/androidTest/java/io/sentry/uitest/android/ReplayTest.kt
+++ b/sentry-android-integration-tests/sentry-uitest-android/src/androidTest/java/io/sentry/uitest/android/ReplayTest.kt
@@ -21,6 +21,9 @@ class ReplayTest : BaseUiTest() {
     // we can't run on GH actions emulator, because they don't allow capturing screenshots properly
     @Suppress("KotlinConstantConditions")
     assumeThat(BuildConfig.ENVIRONMENT != "github", `is`(true))
+    // crash on swallowed Compose masking errors (e.g. broken obfuscated internals) so regressions
+    // fail this on-device test instead of silently under-masking (see SentryReplayDebug)
+    System.setProperty("io.sentry.replay.compose.fail-fast", "true")
   }
 
   @Test
diff --git a/sentry-android-integration-tests/sentry-uitest-android/src/androidTestReplay/java/io/sentry/uitest/android/ReplaySnapshotTest.kt b/sentry-android-integration-tests/sentry-uitest-android/src/androidTestReplay/java/io/sentry/uitest/android/ReplaySnapshotTest.kt
index 1d82a3f8bc0..6d45b2d1f9c 100644
--- a/sentry-android-integration-tests/sentry-uitest-android/src/androidTestReplay/java/io/sentry/uitest/android/ReplaySnapshotTest.kt
+++ b/sentry-android-integration-tests/sentry-uitest-android/src/androidTestReplay/java/io/sentry/uitest/android/ReplaySnapshotTest.kt
@@ -23,6 +23,9 @@ class ReplaySnapshotTest : BaseUiTest() {
     // GH Actions emulators don't support capturing screenshots for replay
     @Suppress("KotlinConstantConditions")
     assumeThat(BuildConfig.ENVIRONMENT != "github", `is`(true))
+    // crash on swallowed Compose masking errors (e.g. broken obfuscated internals) so regressions
+    // fail this on-device test instead of silently under-masking (see SentryReplayDebug)
+    System.setProperty("io.sentry.replay.compose.fail-fast", "true")
   }
 
   @Test
diff --git a/sentry-android-replay/proguard-rules.pro b/sentry-android-replay/proguard-rules.pro
index 42e3cb30a42..6ce45c1ef5d 100644
--- a/sentry-android-replay/proguard-rules.pro
+++ b/sentry-android-replay/proguard-rules.pro
@@ -29,3 +29,9 @@
 # Rules to detect a PreviewView view to later mask it
 -dontwarn androidx.camera.view.PreviewView
 -keepnames class androidx.camera.view.PreviewView
+# Rules to walk the Compose Node tree.
+-keep class androidx.compose.ui.node.LayoutNode {
+    *** getChildren*(...);
+    *** getOuterCoordinator*(...);
+    *** getCollapsedSemantics*(...);
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/sentry-android-replay/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/replay/util/SentryReplayDebug.kt b/sentry-android-replay/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/replay/util/SentryReplayDebug.kt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..966428f84c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sentry-android-replay/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/replay/util/SentryReplayDebug.kt
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+package io.sentry.android.replay.util
+
+/**
+ * Internal, undocumented escape hatch used to make Session Replay fail fast instead of silently
+ * degrading masking when an exception is swallowed (e.g. unsupported/obfuscated Compose internals).
+ *
+ * It is intended to be enabled only in our own sample/UI-test apps that run on real devices in CI
+ * (which are release/obfuscated builds, so [io.sentry.android.replay.BuildConfig.DEBUG] can't be
+ * used), so that regressions surface as crashes rather than under-masked replays. Customers should
+ * never set this.
+ *
+ * Enable via:
+ * ```
+ * System.setProperty("io.sentry.replay.compose.fail-fast", "true")
+ * ```
+ */
+internal object SentryReplayDebug {
+  private const val FAIL_FAST_PROPERTY = "io.sentry.replay.compose.fail-fast"
+
+  /**
+   * Read live (not cached) so it's only evaluated on the error path and unit tests can toggle it
+   * between cases.
+   */
+  val failFast: Boolean
+    get() = "true".equals(System.getProperty(FAIL_FAST_PROPERTY), ignoreCase = true)
+}
diff --git a/sentry-android-replay/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/replay/viewhierarchy/ComposeViewHierarchyNode.kt b/sentry-android-replay/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/replay/viewhierarchy/ComposeViewHierarchyNode.kt
index a0312b69cd0..2b6bc3fc08e 100644
--- a/sentry-android-replay/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/replay/viewhierarchy/ComposeViewHierarchyNode.kt
+++ b/sentry-android-replay/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/replay/viewhierarchy/ComposeViewHierarchyNode.kt
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import io.sentry.SentryLevel
 import io.sentry.SentryMaskingOptions
 import io.sentry.android.replay.SentryReplayModifiers
 import io.sentry.android.replay.util.ComposeTextLayout
+import io.sentry.android.replay.util.SentryReplayDebug
 import io.sentry.android.replay.util.boundsInWindow
 import io.sentry.android.replay.util.findPainter
 import io.sentry.android.replay.util.findTextColor
@@ -147,6 +148,12 @@ internal object ComposeViewHierarchyNode {
         )
       }
 
+      // fail fast in our own sample/UI-test apps (see SentryReplayDebug), so regressions surface
+      // as crashes instead of silently degrading masking
+      if (SentryReplayDebug.failFast) {
+        throw t
+      }
+
       // If we're unable to retrieve the semantics configuration
       // we should play safe and mask the whole node.
       return GenericViewHierarchyNode(
@@ -291,6 +298,11 @@ internal object ComposeViewHierarchyNode {
         """
           .trimIndent(),
       )
+      // fail fast in our own sample/UI-test apps (see SentryReplayDebug), so regressions surface
+      // as crashes instead of silently skipping the whole Compose subtree (i.e. not masking it)
+      if (SentryReplayDebug.failFast) {
+        throw e
+      }
       return false
     }
 
diff --git a/sentry-samples/sentry-samples-android/src/main/java/io/sentry/samples/android/MyApplication.java b/sentry-samples/sentry-samples-android/src/main/java/io/sentry/samples/android/MyApplication.java
index 572c4cdba72..f074901f4f0 100644
--- a/sentry-samples/sentry-samples-android/src/main/java/io/sentry/samples/android/MyApplication.java
+++ b/sentry-samples/sentry-samples-android/src/main/java/io/sentry/samples/android/MyApplication.java
@@ -9,6 +9,11 @@ public class MyApplication extends Application {
 
   @Override
   public void onCreate() {
+    // Make Session Replay fail fast instead of silently degrading masking when an exception is
+    // swallowed (e.g. unsupported/obfuscated Compose internals). This way regressions surface as
+    // crashes in our release/obfuscated builds that run on real devices in CI. Only meant for our
+    // own sample/UI-test apps, customers should never set this.
+    System.setProperty("io.sentry.replay.compose.fail-fast", "true");
     Sentry.startProfiler();
     strictMode();
     super.onCreate();