diff --git a/mobile/src/session/mobile-native-chat-pending-baseline.test.ts b/mobile/src/session/mobile-native-chat-pending-baseline.test.ts
index f331f9b1762..f421cbd388c 100644
--- a/mobile/src/session/mobile-native-chat-pending-baseline.test.ts
+++ b/mobile/src/session/mobile-native-chat-pending-baseline.test.ts
@@ -41,15 +41,16 @@ describe('rebaseMobileNativeChatPendingBaselines', () => {
     expect(rebaseMobileNativeChatPendingBaselines(history, pending)).toBe(pending)
   })
 
-  it('pins an unresolved send to the loaded tail and past the rows it never saw', () => {
+  it('gives an unresolved send the loaded tail as its glue boundary', () => {
     expect(
       rebaseMobileNativeChatPendingBaselines(history, [unresolved('p1', 'run the tests')])
     ).toEqual([
       {
         id: 'p1',
         text: 'run the tests',
-        // The one row already in history is not this send's echo; it waits for the second.
-        expectedOccurrence: 2,
+        // NOT recounted against this read: the read may already carry this send's
+        // own echo, and counting it as history would strand the bubble forever.
+        expectedOccurrence: 1,
         baselineTailMessageId: 'm2',
         baselineResolved: true
       }
@@ -68,23 +69,16 @@ describe('rebaseMobileNativeChatPendingBaselines', () => {
     ])
   })
 
-  it('gives identical queued sends consecutive ordinals', () => {
+  it('keeps the ordinals the queue already assigned', () => {
     expect(
       rebaseMobileNativeChatPendingBaselines(history, [
-        unresolved('p1', 'run the tests'),
-        unresolved('p2', 'run the tests')
+        unresolved('p1', 'run the tests', 1),
+        unresolved('p2', 'run the tests', 2)
       ]).map((item) => item.expectedOccurrence)
-    ).toEqual([2, 3])
+    ).toEqual([1, 2])
   })
 
-  it('normalizes whitespace when counting a send against the loaded rows', () => {
-    expect(
-      rebaseMobileNativeChatPendingBaselines(history, [unresolved('p1', '  run   the tests \n')])[0]
-        ?.expectedOccurrence
-    ).toBe(2)
-  })
-
-  it('leaves already-resolved neighbours untouched but still counts them', () => {
+  it('leaves already-resolved neighbours untouched', () => {
     const resolved: MobileNativeChatPendingMessage = {
       id: 'p1',
       text: 'run the tests',
@@ -94,19 +88,28 @@ describe('rebaseMobileNativeChatPendingBaselines', () => {
     }
     const rebased = rebaseMobileNativeChatPendingBaselines(history, [
       resolved,
-      unresolved('p2', 'run the tests')
+      unresolved('p2', 'run the tests', 2)
     ])
     expect(rebased[0]).toBe(resolved)
-    expect(rebased[1]?.expectedOccurrence).toBe(3)
+    expect(rebased[1]).toEqual({
+      id: 'p2',
+      text: 'run the tests',
+      expectedOccurrence: 2,
+      baselineTailMessageId: 'm2',
+      baselineResolved: true
+    })
   })
 
-  it('ordinals caption-less image echoes among themselves, not against text rows', () => {
+  // An image echo counts image turns AFTER its tail, so moving the tail onto this
+  // read would discard an echo the read already carries.
+  it('keeps a caption-less image echo on its captured tail', () => {
     const images = { ...unresolved('p1', ''), images: ['file:///a.png'] }
     const rebased = rebaseMobileNativeChatPendingBaselines(history, [
       images,
-      { ...unresolved('p2', ''), images: ['file:///b.png'] }
+      { ...unresolved('p2', '', 2), images: ['file:///b.png'] }
     ])
     expect(rebased.map((item) => item.expectedOccurrence)).toEqual([1, 2])
-    expect(rebased.map((item) => item.baselineTailMessageId)).toEqual(['m2', 'm2'])
+    expect(rebased.map((item) => item.baselineTailMessageId)).toEqual([null, null])
+    expect(rebased.every((item) => item.baselineResolved)).toBe(true)
   })
 })
diff --git a/mobile/src/session/mobile-native-chat-pending-baseline.ts b/mobile/src/session/mobile-native-chat-pending-baseline.ts
index d381d9e60a0..995e3a6a650 100644
--- a/mobile/src/session/mobile-native-chat-pending-baseline.ts
+++ b/mobile/src/session/mobile-native-chat-pending-baseline.ts
@@ -1,27 +1,29 @@
 import type { NativeChatMessage } from '../../../src/shared/native-chat-types'
-import {
-  countUserTextOccurrences,
-  normalizeReconcileText
-} from './mobile-native-chat-draft-reconcile'
+import { normalizeReconcileText } from './mobile-native-chat-draft-reconcile'
 import type { MobileNativeChatPendingMessage } from './mobile-native-chat-pending-echo'
 
 /**
- * Pin the sends issued while the transcript was still hydrating onto the first
- * authoritative read of this session's history.
+ * Give the sends issued before this session's history was known the boundary
+ * they never had, on the first authoritative read.
  *
- * Such a send has no usable baseline at capture time: `messages` was empty, or
- * still the previously active tab's, so both its tail and its occurrence count
- * describe somebody else's transcript. Rebasing them here — rather than marking
- * the send permanently untrustworthy, which stranded it as a queued bubble and
- * as a glue barrier for its neighbours for the rest of the session — leaves it
- * matching exactly the rows that arrive from now on.
+ * Such a send saw no transcript, so it has no row it can judge candidates
+ * against — which held it out of matching entirely, stranding it as a queued
+ * bubble and, worse, as a permanent glue barrier for its neighbours. Recovering
+ * the tail is all that is needed: the ordinal was already counted against an
+ * empty transcript, which is exactly right for "no history was known".
  *
- * Residual: if this read was taken AFTER the send already echoed — a re-subscribe
- * on tab switch or reconnect, when the first load never completed — its own echo
- * is counted as history and the bubble waits for a row that will not come. The
- * transport writes keystrokes into a TUI, so there is no client message id to
- * tell the two apart; the send is bounded instead by serializing submits per PTY
- * so the glue never forms.
+ * The ordinal is deliberately NOT recounted against this read. The read can
+ * already carry the send's own echo — a re-subscribe after a tab switch or a
+ * reconnect returns whatever exists now — and nothing local separates that echo
+ * from an identical older prompt: the transport writes keystrokes into a TUI and
+ * carries no message id, and row timestamps come from the host while the send
+ * time comes from the phone. Counting it as history puts the ordinal one past
+ * anything the transcript can supply, which strands the bubble for the rest of
+ * the session and stops its whole run from ever gluing.
+ *
+ * A caption-less image echo keeps its captured tail: it reconciles by counting
+ * image turns AFTER that tail, so pinning the tail past this read would throw
+ * away an echo the read already carries.
  */
 export function rebaseMobileNativeChatPendingBaselines(
   messages: readonly NativeChatMessage[],
@@ -31,29 +33,12 @@ export function rebaseMobileNativeChatPendingBaselines(
     return current
   }
   const baselineTailMessageId = messages.at(-1)?.id ?? null
-  const earlierByText = new Map<string, number>()
-  let earlierImageEchoes = 0
   return current.map((item) => {
-    const normalized = normalizeReconcileText(item.text)
-    const earlier = normalized === '' ? earlierImageEchoes : (earlierByText.get(normalized) ?? 0)
-    if (normalized === '') {
-      earlierImageEchoes += item.images?.length ? 1 : 0
-    } else {
-      earlierByText.set(normalized, earlier + 1)
-    }
     if (item.baselineResolved) {
       return item
     }
-    return {
-      ...item,
-      baselineTailMessageId,
-      baselineResolved: true,
-      // Ordinals stay relative to the queue: earlier still-pending sends of the
-      // same text claim the earlier rows, so this one waits for its own.
-      expectedOccurrence:
-        normalized === ''
-          ? earlier + 1
-          : countUserTextOccurrences(messages, normalized) + earlier + 1
-    }
+    return item.images?.length || normalizeReconcileText(item.text) === ''
+      ? { ...item, baselineResolved: true }
+      : { ...item, baselineResolved: true, baselineTailMessageId }
   })
 }
diff --git a/mobile/src/session/use-mobile-native-chat-controller.ts b/mobile/src/session/use-mobile-native-chat-controller.ts
index 46012dadbe4..27ad8049c1d 100644
--- a/mobile/src/session/use-mobile-native-chat-controller.ts
+++ b/mobile/src/session/use-mobile-native-chat-controller.ts
@@ -111,7 +111,8 @@ export function useMobileNativeChatController(args: {
     // a null is indistinguishable from a host retraction, and peeking at the
     // terminal view would permanently decline the prefill.
     chatActive: showNativeChat,
-    transcriptLoading: nativeChatSession.transcriptLoading
+    transcriptLoading: nativeChatSession.transcriptLoading,
+    transcriptSettled: nativeChatSession.status === 'ready'
   })
 
   const nativeChatStatus = activeChatResolution ? activeSessionTab?.agentStatus : null
diff --git a/mobile/src/session/use-mobile-native-chat-drafts-glued-pending.test.ts b/mobile/src/session/use-mobile-native-chat-drafts-glued-pending.test.ts
index d0df3f0faaa..7a1cf46cbe7 100644
--- a/mobile/src/session/use-mobile-native-chat-drafts-glued-pending.test.ts
+++ b/mobile/src/session/use-mobile-native-chat-drafts-glued-pending.test.ts
@@ -52,10 +52,12 @@ describe('useMobileNativeChatDrafts glued pending sends', () => {
 
   function Harness({
     messages,
-    transcriptLoading = false
+    transcriptLoading = false,
+    transcriptSettled = !transcriptLoading
   }: {
     messages: NativeChatMessage[]
     transcriptLoading?: boolean
+    transcriptSettled?: boolean
   }): null {
     state = useMobileNativeChatDrafts({
       hostId: 'host',
@@ -63,19 +65,30 @@ describe('useMobileNativeChatDrafts glued pending sends', () => {
       tabId: 'tab',
       sessionId: 'session',
       messages,
-      transcriptLoading
+      transcriptLoading,
+      transcriptSettled
     })
     return null
   }
 
-  async function mount(messages: NativeChatMessage[], transcriptLoading = false): Promise<void> {
+  async function mount(
+    messages: NativeChatMessage[],
+    transcriptLoading = false,
+    transcriptSettled = !transcriptLoading
+  ): Promise<void> {
     await act(async () => {
-      renderer = create(createElement(Harness, { messages, transcriptLoading }))
+      renderer = create(createElement(Harness, { messages, transcriptLoading, transcriptSettled }))
     })
   }
 
-  async function update(messages: NativeChatMessage[], transcriptLoading = false): Promise<void> {
-    await act(async () => renderer?.update(createElement(Harness, { messages, transcriptLoading })))
+  async function update(
+    messages: NativeChatMessage[],
+    transcriptLoading = false,
+    transcriptSettled = !transcriptLoading
+  ): Promise<void> {
+    await act(async () =>
+      renderer?.update(createElement(Harness, { messages, transcriptLoading, transcriptSettled }))
+    )
   }
 
   function send(text: string): void {
@@ -213,17 +226,71 @@ describe('useMobileNativeChatDrafts glued pending sends', () => {
       expect(state?.pending).toEqual([])
     })
 
-    it('does not retire a hydration-time send against history it never saw', async () => {
+    // The read that resolves a hydration-time send can already contain that
+    // send's own echo — a re-subscribe returns whatever exists now — and nothing
+    // local tells that echo from an identical older prompt. Claiming the row is
+    // the safe direction: being wrong costs one round trip of invisibility,
+    // while holding costs a queued bubble that never clears and a run that can
+    // never glue again.
+    it('retires a hydration-time send whose echo arrives with the read', async () => {
       await mount([], true)
       act(() => send('run the tests'))
 
-      // The read lands carrying an older identical prompt: not this send's echo.
+      const echoed = [userTurn('m1', 'run the tests', 1000), assistantTurn('m2', 'passed', 1100)]
+      await update(echoed)
+      expect(state?.pending).toEqual([])
+    })
+
+    // The same read seen one reconnect later: the send left, the agent echoed it,
+    // and only then did the first authoritative read land.
+    it('retires a hydration-time send after a reconnect delivered the read late', async () => {
+      await mount([], true)
+      act(() => send('run the tests'))
+      // Still loading: the first read never arrived before the drop.
+      await update([], true)
+
+      const afterReconnect = [
+        userTurn('m1', 'run the tests', 5000),
+        assistantTurn('m2', 'ok', 5100)
+      ]
+      await update(afterReconnect)
+      expect(state?.pending).toEqual([])
+
+      // Nothing later resurrects it, and the run stays glue-capable.
+      await update([...afterReconnect, assistantTurn('m3', 'all green', 6000)])
+      expect(state?.pending).toEqual([])
+    })
+  })
+
+  // A read that failed is not a boundary: `messages` is empty because the history
+  // is unknown, not because the conversation is. Without that distinction the
+  // empty list reads as "the transcript was empty", and any row the successful
+  // read finally brings can claim these sends.
+  describe('sends issued before any read settled', () => {
+    it('keeps both bubbles when the late read carries only an older glue-alike', async () => {
+      await mount([], false, false)
+      rapidSend('fix the', 'bug')
+
       const olderIdentical = [
-        userTurn('m1', 'run the tests', 1000),
-        assistantTurn('m2', 'passed', 1100)
+        userTurn('m1', 'fix the bug', 1000),
+        assistantTurn('m2', 'fixed', 1100)
       ]
       await update(olderIdentical)
-      expect(pendingTexts()).toEqual(['run the tests'])
+      expect(pendingTexts()).toEqual(['fix the', 'bug'])
+      expect(renderedPendingTexts(olderIdentical, state)).toEqual(['fix the', 'bug'])
+    })
+
+    it('still retires them once their own glued row lands', async () => {
+      await mount([], false, false)
+      rapidSend('fix the', 'bug')
+      const olderIdentical = [
+        userTurn('m1', 'fix the bug', 1000),
+        assistantTurn('m2', 'fixed', 1100)
+      ]
+      await update(olderIdentical)
+
+      await update([...olderIdentical, userTurn('m3', 'fix the bug', 5000)])
+      expect(state?.pending).toEqual([])
     })
   })
 })
diff --git a/mobile/src/session/use-mobile-native-chat-drafts.ts b/mobile/src/session/use-mobile-native-chat-drafts.ts
index 2a68bb6bd06..64cdf7cdc99 100644
--- a/mobile/src/session/use-mobile-native-chat-drafts.ts
+++ b/mobile/src/session/use-mobile-native-chat-drafts.ts
@@ -47,6 +47,10 @@ export function useMobileNativeChatDrafts(args: {
    *  transcript still belongs to the previously active tab), so it cannot be
    *  trusted to decline or retire the seed. */
   transcriptLoading?: boolean
+  /** `messages` is this session's own settled history — so an empty one really
+   *  is an empty conversation, not a read that failed or never ran. Only then
+   *  does a send's captured tail describe a real boundary. */
+  transcriptSettled?: boolean
 }): {
   composerText: string
   setComposerText: Dispatch<SetStateAction<string>>
@@ -80,7 +84,8 @@ export function useMobileNativeChatDrafts(args: {
     launchDraft,
     launchDraftCreatedAt,
     chatActive = true,
-    transcriptLoading
+    transcriptLoading,
+    transcriptSettled = !transcriptLoading
   } = args
   const draftKey = mobileNativeChatScopeKey(hostId, worktreeId, tabId)
   const pendingKey = draftKey && sessionId ? `${draftKey}\0${sessionId}` : null
@@ -139,12 +144,13 @@ export function useMobileNativeChatDrafts(args: {
         normalizedText,
         baselineOccurrences: countUserTextOccurrences(messagesRef.current, normalizedText),
         baselineTailMessageId: messagesRef.current.at(-1)?.id ?? null,
-        // A hydrating transcript is not yet this session's, so this baseline is
-        // a placeholder the first authoritative read rebases.
-        baselineResolved: !transcriptLoading
+        // Only a settled read makes this a boundary. Anything else — hydrating,
+        // or a read that failed — hands back an empty list that reads as "the
+        // conversation was empty", which lets any row claim this send later.
+        baselineResolved: transcriptSettled
       }
     },
-    [draftKey, pendingKey, transcriptLoading]
+    [draftKey, pendingKey, transcriptSettled]
   )
 
   // Why: over relay the send RPC can take seconds (or lose only its ack), and a
@@ -294,11 +300,11 @@ export function useMobileNativeChatDrafts(args: {
     }
     setPendingBySession((previous) => {
       const current = previous[pendingKey] ?? []
-      // Rebase before retiring: a hydration-time send has to own a real boundary
-      // before any row can be judged against it.
-      const rebased = transcriptLoading
-        ? current
-        : rebaseMobileNativeChatPendingBaselines(messages, current)
+      // Rebase before retiring: a send captured before the history was known has
+      // to own a real boundary before any row can be judged against it.
+      const rebased = transcriptSettled
+        ? rebaseMobileNativeChatPendingBaselines(messages, current)
+        : current
       const next = retireLandedMobileNativeChatPending(messages, rebased, landedImagePendingIds)
       if (next === current) {
         return previous
@@ -310,7 +316,7 @@ export function useMobileNativeChatDrafts(args: {
       delete remaining[pendingKey]
       return remaining
     })
-  }, [messages, pending, pendingKey, transcriptLoading])
+  }, [messages, pending, pendingKey, transcriptSettled])
 
   return {
     composerText: draftKey ? (drafts[draftKey] ?? '') : '',