diff --git a/src/renderer/src/lib/host-mirror-handle-gap-resume.test.ts b/src/renderer/src/lib/host-mirror-handle-gap-resume.test.ts
index 2101451b32e..baefdbe624e 100644
--- a/src/renderer/src/lib/host-mirror-handle-gap-resume.test.ts
+++ b/src/renderer/src/lib/host-mirror-handle-gap-resume.test.ts
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import {
   clearRuntimeEnvironmentConnectionGenerationsForTests,
   setRuntimeEnvironmentConnectionGenerationForTests
 } from '@/store/slices/runtime-status'
+import type { RuntimeEnvironmentStatus } from '@/store/slices/runtime-status-types'
 import {
   HOST_MIRROR_HANDLE_GAP_DEADLINE_MS,
   countParkedHostMirrorHandleGapPanesForTests,
@@ -190,6 +191,23 @@ function seedActiveSleepingRecord(worktreeId: string): string {
   return seedActiveSleepingRecordFor(worktreeId, WEB_TAB_ID, LEAF_ID, 'handle-gap-session')
 }
 
+/** A recorded status entry whose runtime answered nothing: the shape a dropped link leaves behind. */
+function setRuntimeEnvironmentDisconnectedForTests(environmentId: string): void {
+  const disconnected: RuntimeEnvironmentStatus = { status: null, checkedAt: 0 }
+  useAppStore.setState({
+    runtimeStatusByEnvironmentId: new Map(useAppStore.getState().runtimeStatusByEnvironmentId).set(
+      environmentId,
+      disconnected
+    )
+  })
+}
+
+function clearRuntimeEnvironmentStatusEntryForTests(environmentId: string): void {
+  const next = new Map(useAppStore.getState().runtimeStatusByEnvironmentId)
+  next.delete(environmentId)
+  useAppStore.setState({ runtimeStatusByEnvironmentId: next })
+}
+
 describe('resume across the mirror handle gap', () => {
   beforeEach(() => {
     vi.useFakeTimers()
@@ -412,6 +430,41 @@ describe('resume across the mirror handle gap', () => {
     expect(Object.keys(useAppStore.getState().automaticAgentResumeClaimsByTabId)).toHaveLength(1)
   })
 
+  // The journey: the network drops mid-turn on a paired runtime. Nothing is unpaired and no
+  // reconnect has happened, so the connection generation has not moved — runtime-status.ts
+  // advances it on the *reconnect*, under a new runtime id. The deadline therefore fires with a
+  // generation that still matches, and its silence is about the outage, not about the host. A
+  // verdict recorded there resumes the agent the host is still running (#19735 through the
+  // disconnect door, docs/reference/ssh-execution-boundary.md).
+  it('does not turn an outage into a verdict when the environment dropped mid-park', () => {
+    const worktree = makeRuntimeOwnedWorktree()
+    seedMirroredWorkspace(worktree)
+    const paneKey = seedActiveSleepingRecord(worktree.id)
+    markHostSessionMirrorHydrated(RUNTIME_ENV_ID)
+    expect(resumeSleepingAgentSessionsForWorktree(worktree.id)).toBe(0)
+
+    vi.advanceTimersByTime(HOST_MIRROR_HANDLE_GAP_DEADLINE_MS / 2)
+    setRuntimeEnvironmentDisconnectedForTests(RUNTIME_ENV_ID)
+    vi.advanceTimersByTime(HOST_MIRROR_HANDLE_GAP_DEADLINE_MS)
+
+    const during = useAppStore.getState()
+    expect(during.sleepingAgentSessionsByPaneKey[paneKey]).toBeDefined()
+    expect(Object.keys(during.automaticAgentResumeClaimsByTabId)).toHaveLength(0)
+    expect((during.tabsByWorktree[worktree.id] ?? []).map((tab) => tab.id)).toEqual([WEB_TAB_ID])
+    // Held, not abandoned: something is still armed to decide once contact returns.
+    expect(countParkedHostMirrorHandleGapPanesForTests()).toBe(1)
+
+    // Contact returns and the host still publishes no handle for the pane. That silence IS
+    // evidence, so the next full budget decides — a hold that outlives the outage would be the
+    // latch-that-never-releases defect this module exists to avoid.
+    clearRuntimeEnvironmentStatusEntryForTests(RUNTIME_ENV_ID)
+    vi.advanceTimersByTime(HOST_MIRROR_HANDLE_GAP_DEADLINE_MS)
+
+    const after = useAppStore.getState()
+    expect(after.sleepingAgentSessionsByPaneKey[paneKey]).toBeUndefined()
+    expect(Object.keys(after.automaticAgentResumeClaimsByTabId)).toHaveLength(1)
+  })
+
   it('releases only the pane whose handle landed when two panes share the environment', () => {
     const worktree = makeRuntimeOwnedWorktree()
     seedMirroredWorkspace(worktree)
diff --git a/src/renderer/src/lib/host-mirror-handle-gap-wait.ts b/src/renderer/src/lib/host-mirror-handle-gap-wait.ts
index e2d3a58367d..076ba8fefa1 100644
--- a/src/renderer/src/lib/host-mirror-handle-gap-wait.ts
+++ b/src/renderer/src/lib/host-mirror-handle-gap-wait.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@ import { useAppStore } from '@/store'
 import { getRuntimeEnvironmentConnectionGeneration } from '@/store/slices/runtime-status'
 import { WEB_SESSION_TAB_RPC_TIMEOUT_MS } from '@/runtime/web-session-tab-rpc-timeout'
 import { parseRemoteRuntimePtyId } from '../../../shared/remote-runtime-pty-id'
+import {
+  isDisconnectedRuntimeHostState,
+  runtimeHostConnectionStateForEntry
+} from '@/runtime/runtime-host-connection-state'
 
 /**
  * Per-pane park for the frame between a host's tab rows and its PTY handles.
@@ -162,6 +166,27 @@ function liveTabIds(): Set<string> {
   return tabIds
 }
 
+/**
+ * True only when the client positively knows it is out of contact — the link dropped, or its
+ * replacement is still being established.
+ *
+ * Why not `isConnectedRuntimeHostState`: that reads a host nobody has probed yet as not
+ * connected, and a never-probed host is not the outage this guards. Narrowing to the two states
+ * an outage actually produces keeps the guard to the case where silence provably means "we could
+ * not ask" rather than "the host had nothing to say".
+ *
+ * Why this and not the connection generation: a plain disconnect leaves the generation where it
+ * was — runtime-status.ts advances it on the *reconnect*, under a new runtime id — so a wait that
+ * expires mid-outage is indistinguishable, to the generation guard, from one that expired on a
+ * healthy connection.
+ */
+function environmentContactIsLost(environmentId: string): boolean {
+  const connectionState = runtimeHostConnectionStateForEntry(
+    useAppStore.getState().runtimeStatusByEnvironmentId.get(environmentId)
+  )
+  return isDisconnectedRuntimeHostState(connectionState) || connectionState === 'reconnecting'
+}
+
 function recordExpiredWait(environmentId: string, key: string): void {
   const generation = getRuntimeEnvironmentConnectionGeneration(environmentId)
   // TWO rules with DIFFERENT scopes, deliberately. Flattening them to one scope is wrong either
@@ -348,9 +373,16 @@ export function parkUntilHostMirrorHandleLands(
     // milliseconds before the reconnect authorize a resume on the new one — the #19735
     // fork with an extra step. Release without a verdict instead; the replay re-parks
     // and the new connection gets its own full budget.
+    //
+    // Why contact is checked too: an environment that dropped mid-park publishes nothing,
+    // so the deadline measures the outage rather than the host. Loss of contact is never
+    // evidence about a process (docs/reference/ssh-execution-boundary.md), and a verdict
+    // recorded here authorizes the resume that forks the agent the host is still running.
+    // The generation cannot stand in for it — a plain disconnect never advances it.
     if (
+      !environmentContactIsLost(environmentId) &&
       waitersByPane.get(key)?.generation ===
-      getRuntimeEnvironmentConnectionGeneration(environmentId)
+        getRuntimeEnvironmentConnectionGeneration(environmentId)
     ) {
       recordExpiredWait(environmentId, key)
     }