diff --git a/frontend/src/lib/components/copilot/chat/AIChatManager.svelte.ts b/frontend/src/lib/components/copilot/chat/AIChatManager.svelte.ts
index 085680d69d..ec51de219f 100644
--- a/frontend/src/lib/components/copilot/chat/AIChatManager.svelte.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/lib/components/copilot/chat/AIChatManager.svelte.ts
@@ -1949,6 +1949,14 @@ export class AIChatManager {
 		// a Retry that is refused charges them against the conversation's budget
 		// for the lifetime of the manager.
 		this.#releaseOutgoingReservation(options.resendReservationKey)
+		// A synthetic send carries none of the user's text, but the auto-resume set
+		// `this.instructions` before calling it and only sendRequestImpl clears
+		// them. Its own arming check bails while they are non-empty, so leaving
+		// them here disarms every later auto-resume for this session.
+		if (options.synthetic) {
+			this.instructions = ''
+			return
+		}
 		if (options.queued) return
 		const restored = this.aiChatInput?.restoreInstructions(
 			options.instructions ?? '',
@@ -1957,9 +1965,15 @@ export class AIChatManager {
 			options.files ?? []
 		)
 		// No composer mounted (a programmatic send): park it on the queue so it is
-		// still the user's to send rather than silently gone.
+		// still the user's to send rather than silently gone. The queue holds plain
+		// text, so the pastes are expanded into it — parked as bare tokens they
+		// would point at blobs nothing holds any more.
 		if (restored !== true && options.instructions) {
-			this.restoreToInput(options.instructions, options.images, options.files)
+			this.restoreToInput(
+				expanded(chatDraft(options.instructions, options.pastes ?? [])),
+				options.images,
+				options.files
+			)
 		}
 	}
 
diff --git a/frontend/src/lib/components/copilot/chat/AIChatManager.test.ts b/frontend/src/lib/components/copilot/chat/AIChatManager.test.ts
index 4560c9c655..6b536dee04 100644
--- a/frontend/src/lib/components/copilot/chat/AIChatManager.test.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/lib/components/copilot/chat/AIChatManager.test.ts
@@ -420,6 +420,24 @@ describe('AIChatManager.sendOrQueue', () => {
 		expect(manager.queuedMessage).toBe('')
 	})
 
+	// The auto-resume writes its prompt into `this.instructions` before sending,
+	// and only sendRequestImpl clears them. A refusal that returns before that
+	// leaves them set, and the arming check bails while they are non-empty — so
+	// one refused resume disarms every later one for the session.
+	it('leaves nothing behind when a synthetic auto-resume is refused', async () => {
+		const manager = new AIChatManager()
+		manager.isSessionChat = true
+		manager.sessionId = 'session-synthetic-refusal'
+		onDriverLost(() => {})
+		noteDriverAlive('session-synthetic-refusal', false)
+		manager.instructions = 'A background job just finished.'
+
+		await manager.sendRequest({ synthetic: true })
+
+		expect(mocks.runChatLoop).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
+		expect(manager.instructions).toBe('')
+	})
+
 	// These senders have no draft of their own, so a refusal that keeps nothing
 	// loses what the user typed.
 	it('hands a programmatic prompt back instead of queueing it for another tab', () => {
diff --git a/frontend/src/lib/components/copilot/chat/HistoryManager.svelte.ts b/frontend/src/lib/components/copilot/chat/HistoryManager.svelte.ts
index dabaf96157..15b640e33b 100644
--- a/frontend/src/lib/components/copilot/chat/HistoryManager.svelte.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/lib/components/copilot/chat/HistoryManager.svelte.ts
@@ -588,11 +588,12 @@ export default class HistoryManager {
 		this.pruneImageIds(this.currentChatId)
 	}
 
-	/** Returns once the row is actually gone, for the one caller that has to know:
-	 *  a rolled-back turn announces its end to the other tabs, and they re-read
-	 *  this chat from the store. Dropped in flight, that read still finds the
-	 *  transcript the rollback exists to remove. Everywhere else the removal is
-	 *  visible from `savedChats` at once and the promise can be ignored. */
+	/** Returns once the delete has had its turn on the write queue, which orders
+	 *  it before a rolled-back turn announces its end and the other tabs re-read
+	 *  this chat. Ordering, not a guarantee: like every write here it is dropped
+	 *  when the store is unavailable, so a watcher whose own read still succeeds
+	 *  can find the transcript the rollback meant to remove. Everywhere else the
+	 *  removal shows in `savedChats` at once and the promise can be ignored. */
 	deletePastChat(id: string): Promise<void> {
 		this.savedChats = Object.fromEntries(
 			Object.entries(this.savedChats).filter(([key]) => key !== id)
diff --git a/frontend/src/lib/components/sessions/sessionRunOwner.svelte.ts b/frontend/src/lib/components/sessions/sessionRunOwner.svelte.ts
index 37cdb20ac6..35394a33e4 100644
--- a/frontend/src/lib/components/sessions/sessionRunOwner.svelte.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/lib/components/sessions/sessionRunOwner.svelte.ts
@@ -83,24 +83,12 @@ export function noteDriverAlive(sessionId: string, planMode: boolean): void {
 	ensureReaper()
 }
 
-/** The driver says its turn is over. The re-read that follows is what actually
- *  frees this tab, so the position moves to `catchingUp` rather than to idle —
- *  but only where something can perform that re-read.
- *
- *  The channel calls this from module scope in every tab that has it, including
- *  ones that never load sessionRuntime (a page carrying the session sidebar with
- *  no session open). Only sessionRuntime can call {@link noteCaughtUp}, so
- *  entering `catchingUp` there would be entering a state with nothing able to
- *  leave it — and `mirroringRemoteRun` reads true for as long as it lasts, which
- *  locks the composer against a run that has already ended and drops the edits
- *  mask and background-job writes that expect the re-read to reseed them. With
- *  no runtime there is no mirrored transcript to be out of step with, so idle is
- *  the truthful position rather than merely the convenient one. */
+/** The driver says its turn is over. The re-read that follows is what frees this
+ *  tab, so the position moves to `catchingUp` — but only where a runtime exists
+ *  to perform it. The channel runs this in every tab that loads it, and one with
+ *  no runtime would sit in a state nothing can leave. */
 export function noteRemoteTurnEnded(sessionId: string): void {
 	if (runPosition(sessionId).state !== 'watching') return
-	// Deleted rather than set to idle: a missing entry already reads as idle, and
-	// the tab this branch exists for has no runtime, so nothing in it would ever
-	// call clearRunPosition to take the entry back out again.
 	if (!canCompleteCatchUp()) {
 		positions.delete(sessionId)
 		return
@@ -232,9 +220,8 @@ export function onDriverLost(fn: (sessionId: string) => void): void {
 	driverLost = fn
 }
 
-/** Whether a module that can finish a catch-up is loaded in this tab. It is the
- *  same registration either way: sessionRuntime owns both the re-read and the
- *  handler, so having one means having the other. */
+/** sessionRuntime owns both the re-read and this handler, so registering one
+ *  means having the other. */
 function canCompleteCatchUp(): boolean {
 	return driverLost !== undefined
 }
diff --git a/frontend/src/lib/components/sessions/sessionRunOwner.test.ts b/frontend/src/lib/components/sessions/sessionRunOwner.test.ts
index 236cf4ec27..9e23f85733 100644
--- a/frontend/src/lib/components/sessions/sessionRunOwner.test.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/lib/components/sessions/sessionRunOwner.test.ts
@@ -46,13 +46,7 @@ describe('withSessionRunLock with no lock to take', () => {
 	})
 })
 
-// The channel runs these transitions in every tab that loads it, including ones
-// that never load sessionRuntime — a page carrying the session sidebar with no
-// session open. Only sessionRuntime performs the re-read that leaves
-// `catchingUp`, so parking there would strand the session: `mirroringRemoteRun`
-// stays true, which locks the composer against a run that already ended and
-// drops the edits-mask and background-job writes that expect the re-read to
-// reseed them. A fresh module instance is the only honest way to test it — the
+// A fresh module instance is the only honest way to test this: the runtime's
 // registration is process-wide and one-way, exactly as it is in a real tab.
 describe('a turn ending in a tab with no session runtime', () => {
 	it('settles to idle rather than waiting for a re-read nobody can do', async () => {