Keeping the devmode telnet server running when nickel is killed

Hi,
When developing my app (kobo-gemini) I find it useful to have some kind of remote access into the kobo. I used to do this using koreader's ssh, but now I'm running my app from inside nickel rather than inside koreader (as this is the intended way for it to by run in the future). Nickel has "devmodeon", which enables telnet access.
However, as I am killing nickel when I start my app, the telnet access also dies along with nickel, so I can't look at my app's logs. Is there a way to make the devmode telnet server (or some other kind of remote access without starting koreader) stay running when nickel dies?

Thanks