diff --git a/src/ui/app.rs b/src/ui/app.rs
index 613ccf56..f4ff9554 100644
--- a/src/ui/app.rs
+++ b/src/ui/app.rs
@@ -5548,6 +5548,7 @@ impl Tty7App {
         // and the machine stops the panes: a kill from here would drop the
         // screens a reopen restores from. That happens in the sync the
         // `save_session` below runs, once the tab is gone from the window.
+        crate::ui::tree_sync::intend_close(cx, self.workspace, closing);
         let remembered = crate::ui::tree_sync::remembers_closed_tab(cx, self.workspace, closing);
         let remote = WorkspaceStore::all(cx)
             .get(self.workspace)
@@ -12738,6 +12739,93 @@ mod ssh_rebuild_gpui_tests {
         });
     }
 
+    /// Two tabs on pane 1 and pane 2, with the window's sync primed on them the
+    /// way a landed pull leaves it.
+    fn primed_two_tab_window(
+        cx: &mut TestAppContext,
+    ) -> (
+        gpui::Entity<super::Tty7App>,
+        gpui::VisualTestContext,
+        Vec<crate::daemon::transport::Stream>,
+    ) {
+        let (app, mut vcx, first) = harness_with_pane(cx);
+        let second = app.update_in(&mut vcx, |app, window, cx| {
+            let (view, stream) = crate::terminal::view::quiet_test_pane(2, window, cx);
+            app.tabs
+                .push(super::Tab::new(Pane::leaf(PaneSlot::Ready(view))));
+            let tabs = app
+                .tabs
+                .iter()
+                .zip([1u64, 2])
+                .map(|(tab, pane)| TreeTab {
+                    id: tab.tree_id.get(),
+                    name: None,
+                    group: None,
+                    last_auto: None,
+                    root: PaneNode::Leaf { pane },
+                    hibernated: false,
+                })
+                .collect();
+            WorkspaceStore::install_for_test(
+                cx,
+                WindowViews {
+                    views: vec![WindowView {
+                        id: app.workspace,
+                        ..WindowView::default()
+                    }],
+                    active: None,
+                },
+            );
+            crate::ui::tree_sync::prime_for_test(cx, app.workspace, tabs);
+            stream
+        });
+        (app, vcx, vec![first, second])
+    }
+
+    fn queued_closes(
+        app: &super::Tty7App,
+        cx: &mut gpui::App,
+    ) -> Vec<tty7_core::core::machine::TabId> {
+        use tty7_core::daemon::control::ControlRequest;
+        crate::ui::tree_sync::queued_for_test(cx, app.workspace)
+            .into_iter()
+            .filter_map(|op| match op {
+                ControlRequest::TabClose { tab, .. }
+                | ControlRequest::TabCloseRemembered { tab, .. } => Some(tab),
+                _ => None,
+            })
+            .collect()
+    }
+
+    /// Restart Server empties the window and waits out the handoff, and every
+    /// delta that lands meanwhile syncs the emptied window. A window missing
+    /// its tabs is not a user closing them.
+    #[gpui::test]
+    fn emptying_the_window_closes_nothing_on_the_machine(cx: &mut TestAppContext) {
+        let (app, mut vcx, _streams) = primed_two_tab_window(cx);
+        let closes = app.update_in(&mut vcx, |app, _, cx| {
+            app.tabs.clear();
+            app.save_session(cx);
+            queued_closes(app, cx)
+        });
+        assert!(
+            closes.is_empty(),
+            "this is the regression: Restart Server closed all sixteen tabs of a workspace, \
+             unremembered, and left their shells running with no tab to hold them"
+        );
+    }
+
+    #[gpui::test]
+    fn closing_a_tab_closes_it_and_only_it_on_the_machine(cx: &mut TestAppContext) {
+        let (app, mut vcx, _streams) = primed_two_tab_window(cx);
+        let (closed, closes) = app.update_in(&mut vcx, |app, window, cx| {
+            let closed = app.tabs[1].tree_id.get();
+            app.close_tab_inner(1, true, window, cx);
+            (closed, queued_closes(app, cx))
+        });
+        assert_eq!(closes, vec![closed]);
+    }
+
     #[gpui::test]
     fn a_pure_native_ssh_tab_is_invisible_to_the_tree_not_held(cx: &mut TestAppContext) {
         let (app, mut vcx, _remote_pane_stream) = harness_with_pane(cx);
diff --git a/src/ui/tree_sync.rs b/src/ui/tree_sync.rs
index 7f442690..32c36d58 100644
--- a/src/ui/tree_sync.rs
+++ b/src/ui/tree_sync.rs
@@ -110,6 +110,42 @@ pub(crate) struct Retiring {
     pub route: crate::terminal::PaneRoute,
 }
 
+/// Records that the user closed `tab` in this window, which is what lets the
+/// next sync close it on the machine.
+///
+/// A sync never reads a tab's absence from the window as a close. A window can
+/// be missing tabs for many reasons that are not the user's — emptied while a
+/// restart hands the server over, a layout that would not rebuild, state left
+/// from an earlier visit — and every one of those, read as a close, deleted
+/// tabs whose shells kept running with nothing left to hold them (#554, #579,
+/// #672, #716, and Restart Server emptying a workspace with sixteen agents in
+/// it). Absence alone now only ever leaves the machine's tab where it is.
+pub(crate) fn intend_close(cx: &mut App, client_ws: WorkspaceId, tab: TabId) {
+    let closing = &mut cx
+        .default_global::<TreeSync>()
+        .windows
+        .entry(client_ws)
+        .or_default()
+        .closing;
+    if !closing.contains(&tab) {
+        closing.push(tab);
+    }
+}
+
+/// The machine's tabs a sync must leave alone: every one the window is not
+/// showing that the user did not close here. `closing` is pruned on the way to
+/// the intents the mirror still has a tab for — the rest have been carried out,
+/// or were never the machine's to begin with.
+fn unaccounted(mirror: &WsMirror, desired: &[DesiredTab], closing: &mut Vec<TabId>) -> Vec<TabId> {
+    closing.retain(|id| mirror.tabs.iter().any(|t| t.id == *id));
+    mirror
+        .tabs
+        .iter()
+        .map(|t| t.id)
+        .filter(|id| !desired.iter().any(|d| d.id == *id) && !closing.contains(id))
+        .collect()
+}
+
 /// Hand a closing tab to the next sync, which tells the machine to remember it
 /// rather than forget it. See [`take_unsent_retirement`] for the other half.
 pub(crate) fn retire_tab(cx: &mut App, client_ws: WorkspaceId, retiring: Retiring) {
@@ -1264,6 +1300,9 @@ struct WsState {
     /// Tabs closed since the last sync, waiting for it to tell the machine to
     /// remember them — see [`retire_tab`].
     retiring: Vec<Retiring>,
+    /// Tabs the user closed in this window that the machine still holds —
+    /// the only tabs a sync may close. See [`intend_close`].
+    closing: Vec<TabId>,
     /// Remembered closes the sync has queued and the machine has not yet
     /// answered, kept so a close that fails can still end its panes.
     retired: Vec<Retiring>,
@@ -1297,6 +1336,7 @@ impl Default for WsState {
             unsent_groups: None,
             retiring: Vec::new(),
             retired: Vec::new(),
+            closing: Vec::new(),
             said_why_empty: false,
         }
     }
@@ -1354,6 +1394,16 @@ pub(crate) fn sync_window(app: &Tty7App, cx: &mut App) {
                 .not_rebuilt
                 .retain(|id| mirror.tabs.iter().any(|t| t.id == *id));
             held.extend(state.not_rebuilt.iter().copied());
+            let mut missing = unaccounted(mirror, &desired, &mut state.closing);
+            missing.retain(|id| !held.contains(id));
+            if scope == SyncScope::Full && !missing.is_empty() {
+                log::warn!(
+                    "workspace {client_ws}: the window is not showing {} tab(s) the user did not \
+                     close here; leaving them on the machine",
+                    missing.len()
+                );
+            }
+            held.extend(missing);
             let mut ops = diff(machine_ws, mirror, &desired, desired_active, scope, &held);
             let sent = remember_closes(&mut ops, &mut state.retiring);
             let remembered: Vec<TabId> = sent.iter().map(|r| r.tab).collect();
@@ -1607,6 +1657,33 @@ pub(crate) fn name_new_workspace(cx: &mut App, client_ws: WorkspaceId, name: Str
     rename_workspace(cx, client_ws, Some(name));
 }
 
+/// Puts `client_ws` in the state a window is in once its pull has landed:
+/// primed on `tabs` and speaking for the machine in full. Marked in flight, so
+/// what a sync queues stays queued for [`queued_for_test`] to read.
+#[cfg(test)]
+pub(crate) fn prime_for_test(cx: &mut App, client_ws: WorkspaceId, tabs: Vec<TreeTab>) {
+    let state = cx
+        .default_global::<TreeSync>()
+        .windows
+        .entry(client_ws)
+        .or_default();
+    state.sync = SyncPhase::Primed(WsMirror {
+        tabs,
+        ..Default::default()
+    });
+    state.informed = true;
+    state.inflight = true;
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+pub(crate) fn queued_for_test(cx: &mut App, client_ws: WorkspaceId) -> Vec<ControlRequest> {
+    cx.default_global::<TreeSync>()
+        .windows
+        .get(&client_ws)
+        .map(|state| state.queue.iter().cloned().collect())
+        .unwrap_or_default()
+}
+
 /// The name parked for a create that has not run yet, for tests that need to
 /// see it got that far.
 #[cfg(test)]
@@ -4138,6 +4215,57 @@ mod tests {
         });
     }
 
+    /// A sync closes only what the user closed here. Restart Server empties
+    /// the window and waits out the handoff while deltas keep arriving, each
+    /// ending in a `Full` sync of no tabs; reading the absence as a close sent
+    /// `TabClose` for all sixteen tabs of a workspace and orphaned their shells.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_sync_closes_only_the_tabs_the_user_closed() {
+        let ws = WorkspaceId::new();
+        let tab = |pane| TreeTab {
+            id: TabId::new(),
+            name: None,
+            group: None,
+            last_auto: None,
+            root: PaneNode::Leaf { pane },
+            hibernated: false,
+        };
+        let mirror = WsMirror {
+            tabs: vec![tab(1), tab(2)],
+            ..Default::default()
+        };
+        let (a, b) = (mirror.tabs[0].id, mirror.tabs[1].id);
+        let sync = |closing: &mut Vec<TabId>| {
+            let mut mirror = mirror.clone();
+            let held = unaccounted(&mirror, &[], closing);
+            diff(ws, &mut mirror, &[], None, SyncScope::Full, &held)
+        };
+
+        assert!(
+            sync(&mut Vec::new()).is_empty(),
+            "this is the regression: an emptied window closed every tab on the machine"
+        );
+
+        let mut closing = vec![b];
+        assert_eq!(
+            sync(&mut closing),
+            vec![ControlRequest::TabClose {
+                workspace: ws,
+                tab: b
+            }],
+            "the tab the user closed goes; the one merely missing stays"
+        );
+        assert_ne!(a, b);
+
+        let mut closing = vec![TabId::new(), b];
+        let _ = sync(&mut closing);
+        assert_eq!(
+            closing,
+            vec![b],
+            "an intent the machine has no tab for is spent; one it still has stays until it lands"
+        );
+    }
+
     /// #554: Restart Server empties the window *before* it tries the handoff,
     /// and a refused handoff leaves the daemon exactly as it was, still serving
     /// every pane the window just dropped.