diff --git a/src/renderer/src/hooks/remote-workspace-session-merge-local-survival.test.ts b/src/renderer/src/hooks/remote-workspace-session-merge-local-survival.test.ts
index 361493b34ef..95b4004fa72 100644
--- a/src/renderer/src/hooks/remote-workspace-session-merge-local-survival.test.ts
+++ b/src/renderer/src/hooks/remote-workspace-session-merge-local-survival.test.ts
@@ -353,6 +353,39 @@ describe('local rows the snapshot carries no answer for', () => {
     expect(merged.tabsByWorktree[WORKTREE]).toEqual([])
   })
 
+  it('keeps the user standing in the workspace they emptied', () => {
+    // Same row, one level up. `localActiveWorkspaceSurvives` counted tabs, so the workspace the
+    // user had just closed the last terminal in read as "did not survive the merge" and the host's
+    // null active worktree was taken literally — the home screen, for closing a tab.
+    const current = sessionState({ tabsByWorktree: { [WORKTREE]: [] } })
+    const remote = sessionState({
+      activeWorktreeId: null,
+      activeWorkspaceKey: null,
+      activeRepoId: null,
+      tabsByWorktree: { [WORKTREE]: [] }
+    })
+
+    const merged = merge(current, remote, { [WORKTREE]: [] })
+
+    expect(merged.activeWorktreeId).toBe(WORKTREE)
+    expect(merged.activeWorkspaceKey).toBe(worktreeWorkspaceKey(WORKTREE))
+    expect(merged.activeRepoId).toBe('repo-1')
+  })
+
+  it('still lets the host move the user off a workspace it does name one for', () => {
+    // The counterweight: presence must not turn into "never follow the host". A host that names an
+    // active worktree still wins over the emptied local one.
+    const current = sessionState({ tabsByWorktree: { [WORKTREE]: [] } })
+    const remote = sessionState({
+      activeWorktreeId: OTHER_WORKTREE,
+      tabsByWorktree: { [WORKTREE]: [] }
+    })
+
+    const merged = merge(current, remote, { [WORKTREE]: [] })
+
+    expect(merged.activeWorktreeId).toBe(OTHER_WORKTREE)
+  })
+
   it('invents no row for a worktree neither side has one for', () => {
     // The counterweight: presence has to come from a real local row, not from membership in the
     // replace set, or a never-initialized workspace gets a tombstone it never earned.
diff --git a/src/renderer/src/hooks/remote-workspace-session-merge.ts b/src/renderer/src/hooks/remote-workspace-session-merge.ts
index fa247d8bbbd..71b4e7d1884 100644
--- a/src/renderer/src/hooks/remote-workspace-session-merge.ts
+++ b/src/renderer/src/hooks/remote-workspace-session-merge.ts
@@ -258,10 +258,14 @@ export function mergeDirectSshRemoteWorkspaceSession(
   // the workspace or its path did not resolve to a local id, and taking that literally drops the
   // user onto the home screen while their terminals keep running. So it is only overridden when the
   // workspace they are standing in demonstrably still exists in the merged result.
+  // Why presence and not length, the same reading `hasLocalTabsRow` above already gives: an
+  // explicit empty row is the record that the user closed the last terminal, and a workspace they
+  // emptied still exists in the merged result. Counting rows sent them to the home screen for
+  // having closed their last tab.
   const localActiveWorkspaceSurvives =
     current.activeWorktreeId != null &&
     replaceWorktreeIds.has(current.activeWorktreeId) &&
-    (tabsByWorktree[current.activeWorktreeId]?.length ?? 0) > 0
+    Object.hasOwn(tabsByWorktree, current.activeWorktreeId)
   const preservedActiveWorktreeId = localActiveWorkspaceSurvives ? current.activeWorktreeId : null
   // The three active-* fields have to describe ONE workspace, so they are all derived from whichever
   // worktree wins rather than each choosing a source. Taking the repo from the host while the