diff --git a/src/renderer/src/components/activity/activity-thread-presentation.ts b/src/renderer/src/components/activity/activity-thread-presentation.ts
index 55c5b4145af..93d69c7688a 100644
--- a/src/renderer/src/components/activity/activity-thread-presentation.ts
+++ b/src/renderer/src/components/activity/activity-thread-presentation.ts
@@ -143,13 +143,15 @@ export function activityThreadRowCopy(thread: AgentPaneThread): ActivityThreadRo
     responsePreview: thread.responsePreview
   })
   const liveState = thread.currentAgentState ?? thread.latestEvent?.state ?? null
+  const toolPreviewState = liveState === 'monitoring' ? null : liveState
   const state = threadAgentState(thread)
   const needsAttention = state === 'waiting' || state === 'blocked' || state === 'permission'
   if (renderedPreview && !previewDuplicatesIdentity(renderedPreview, taskTitle, workspaceLabel)) {
     return {
       taskTitle,
       statusLine: renderedPreview,
-      statusKind: showsAgentToolPreview(liveState) ? 'tool' : 'message',
+      // Monitoring is a distinct live state, not a tool-running row state.
+      statusKind: showsAgentToolPreview(toolPreviewState) ? 'tool' : 'message',
       needsAttention,
       workspaceLabel
     }
diff --git a/src/renderer/src/components/activity/useActivityUnreadCount.test.ts b/src/renderer/src/components/activity/useActivityUnreadCount.test.ts
index 9c1330a2cd5..62c423ce1bd 100644
--- a/src/renderer/src/components/activity/useActivityUnreadCount.test.ts
+++ b/src/renderer/src/components/activity/useActivityUnreadCount.test.ts
@@ -88,3 +88,24 @@ describe('countActivityUnread with Clear completed cutoffs', () => {
     expect(countActivityUnread(source)).toBe(1)
   })
 })
+
+describe('countActivityUnread source overlap', () => {
+  it('counts an overlapping live and retained pane only once', () => {
+    const entry = makeEntry({})
+    const source = {
+      acknowledgedAgentsByPaneKey: { [PANE]: 0 },
+      agentStatusByPaneKey: { [PANE]: entry },
+      retainedAgentsByPaneKey: {
+        [PANE]: {
+          entry,
+          worktreeId: 'wt-1',
+          tab: {} as never,
+          agentType: 'claude',
+          startedAt: 1_000
+        }
+      },
+      migrationUnsupportedByPtyId: {}
+    }
+    expect(countActivityUnread(source)).toBe(1)
+  })
+})
diff --git a/src/renderer/src/components/activity/useActivityUnreadCount.ts b/src/renderer/src/components/activity/useActivityUnreadCount.ts
index fb1628db559..3a3074d24e9 100644
--- a/src/renderer/src/components/activity/useActivityUnreadCount.ts
+++ b/src/renderer/src/components/activity/useActivityUnreadCount.ts
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ function isUnreadAgentState(state: AgentStatusState): boolean {
 /** Counts unread done/blocked/waiting events for the Activity page titlebar badge. */
 export function countActivityUnread(source: ActivityUnreadCountSource): number {
   let count = 0
+  const seenPaneKeys = new Set<string>()
 
   // Why no worktree.isUnread here: Activity lists only agent threads, so a worktree
   // unread would light a badge with no row to read and no way to clear it.
@@ -50,14 +51,21 @@ export function countActivityUnread(source: ActivityUnreadCountSource): number {
   }
 
   for (const [paneKey, entry] of Object.entries(source.agentStatusByPaneKey)) {
+    seenPaneKeys.add(paneKey)
     countEntry(entry, source.acknowledgedAgentsByPaneKey[paneKey] ?? 0)
   }
   for (const [paneKey, retained] of Object.entries(source.retainedAgentsByPaneKey)) {
+    // Live status is the primary source; retained is a handoff cache and may briefly overlap it.
+    if (seenPaneKeys.has(paneKey)) {
+      continue
+    }
+    seenPaneKeys.add(paneKey)
     countEntry(retained.entry, source.acknowledgedAgentsByPaneKey[paneKey] ?? 0)
   }
   for (const unsupported of Object.values(source.migrationUnsupportedByPtyId)) {
     const entry = migrationUnsupportedToAgentStatusEntry(unsupported)
-    if (entry) {
+    if (entry && !seenPaneKeys.has(entry.paneKey)) {
+      seenPaneKeys.add(entry.paneKey)
       countEntry(entry, source.acknowledgedAgentsByPaneKey[entry.paneKey] ?? 0)
     }
   }