diff --git a/src/renderer/src/components/dashboard-popout/AgentTerminalPreview.tsx b/src/renderer/src/components/dashboard-popout/AgentTerminalPreview.tsx
index 733ae805e16..8da354166f7 100644
--- a/src/renderer/src/components/dashboard-popout/AgentTerminalPreview.tsx
+++ b/src/renderer/src/components/dashboard-popout/AgentTerminalPreview.tsx
@@ -227,7 +227,8 @@ export function AgentTerminalPreview({
           macOptionAsAlt: macOptionAsAltRef.current,
           keybindings: useAppStore.getState().keybindings,
           terminalInput: terminalInputRef.current,
-          kittyKeyboardActive: () => kittyKeyboardModes.flags > 0
+          kittyKeyboardActive: () => kittyKeyboardModes.flags > 0,
+          terminalShortcutPolicy: settingsRef.current?.terminalShortcutPolicy
         })
       })
     }
diff --git a/src/renderer/src/components/dashboard-popout/preview-terminal-shortcuts.test.ts b/src/renderer/src/components/dashboard-popout/preview-terminal-shortcuts.test.ts
index 4baee390db0..b76c7c14699 100644
--- a/src/renderer/src/components/dashboard-popout/preview-terminal-shortcuts.test.ts
+++ b/src/renderer/src/components/dashboard-popout/preview-terminal-shortcuts.test.ts
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ function contextFor(
     keybindings: undefined,
     terminalInput: LOCAL_MAC,
     kittyKeyboardActive: () => overrides.kitty === true,
+    terminalShortcutPolicy: 'orca-first',
     ...overrides
   }
 }
@@ -110,6 +111,34 @@ describe('resolvePreviewShortcutAction', () => {
     ).toEqual({ type: 'splitActivePane', direction: 'vertical' })
   })
 
+  // Why: a terminal-first user remapped terminal.closePane away, so only the
+  // tab.close alias still matches Ctrl+W — which the shell owns as a word-kill.
+  // The pane yields it; the preview must not swallow it.
+  it('follows the terminal shortcut policy for the tab.close pane-close alias', () => {
+    const keybindings = {
+      'terminal.closePane': ['Mod+Shift+W'],
+      'tab.close': ['Ctrl+W']
+    } as unknown as PreviewShortcutContext['keybindings']
+    const chord = (): KeyboardEvent => keydown({ key: 'w', code: 'KeyW', ctrlKey: true })
+    expect(
+      resolvePreviewShortcutAction(
+        chord(),
+        contextFor({ clientPlatform: 'linux', terminalInput: null, keybindings })
+      )
+    ).toEqual({ type: 'closeActivePane' })
+    expect(
+      resolvePreviewShortcutAction(
+        chord(),
+        contextFor({
+          clientPlatform: 'linux',
+          terminalInput: null,
+          keybindings,
+          terminalShortcutPolicy: 'terminal-first'
+        })
+      )
+    ).toBeNull()
+  })
+
   it('leaves ordinary typing to xterm', () => {
     expect(
       resolvePreviewShortcutAction(keydown({ key: 'a', code: 'KeyA' }), contextFor())
diff --git a/src/renderer/src/components/dashboard-popout/preview-terminal-shortcuts.ts b/src/renderer/src/components/dashboard-popout/preview-terminal-shortcuts.ts
index b2956452ec5..e235c8d4992 100644
--- a/src/renderer/src/components/dashboard-popout/preview-terminal-shortcuts.ts
+++ b/src/renderer/src/components/dashboard-popout/preview-terminal-shortcuts.ts
@@ -5,7 +5,11 @@ import {
 } from '@/components/terminal-pane/terminal-shortcut-policy'
 import { getLayoutBaseCharacterForCode } from '@/lib/keyboard-layout/layout-base-character'
 import type { DashboardCardTerminalInput } from '../../../../shared/dashboard-snapshot'
-import type { KeybindingOverrides } from '../../../../shared/keybindings'
+import {
+  normalizeTerminalShortcutPolicy,
+  type KeybindingOverrides,
+  type TerminalShortcutPolicy
+} from '../../../../shared/keybindings'
 
 export type PreviewShortcutContext = {
   clientPlatform: NodeJS.Platform
@@ -17,6 +21,8 @@ export type PreviewShortcutContext = {
   terminalInput: DashboardCardTerminalInput | null
   /** Live kitty-protocol flags mirrored from this pty's output. */
   kittyKeyboardActive: () => boolean
+  /** The user's setting; terminal-first yields the tab.close alias to the shell. */
+  terminalShortcutPolicy: TerminalShortcutPolicy | null | undefined
 }
 
 /**
@@ -44,6 +50,9 @@ export function resolvePreviewShortcutAction(
     getLayoutBaseCharacterForCode,
     () => context.terminalInput?.windowsShiftEnterEncoding ?? 'alt-enter',
     // Why: byte protocols follow the pty's host, which differs from the client OS on remote runtimes.
-    () => hostPlatform === 'win32'
+    () => hostPlatform === 'win32',
+    // Why: without it a terminal-first user's remapped tab.close chord — Ctrl+W
+    // is a shell word-kill — reaches the shell in the pane but is swallowed here.
+    normalizeTerminalShortcutPolicy(context.terminalShortcutPolicy)
   )
 }