diff --git a/src/servers/api/agent-status/router.ts b/src/servers/api/agent-status/router.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d581eadf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/servers/api/agent-status/router.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+import { getUserById } from 'officerdb';
+import { claudeLoginState } from '@@/os-user-claude';
+import { resolveHomeDir } from '@@/user-home';
+import { createRouter } from '../../create-router';
+
+// Can this account actually run an agent, and if not, what does it need to do about it?
+//
+// ── Why this is not in `api/chat` ──
+//
+// It would be the obvious home, and it cannot go there: `chat.ts:49` refuses every non-owner wholesale, so an
+// endpoint on that router could not be read by the accounts that most need it. The refusal is right — reads
+// there leak the owner's project directory names — but it means the answer to "why is my agent not working"
+// has to live somewhere a member can reach.
+//
+// So this is its own router under the `chat` capability. Same grant, no owner gate, and nothing here reports
+// on anyone but the caller: two booleans about their own home. Denying it would not restrict an account, it
+// would just replace an explanation with a silence.
+//
+// ── Why the platform cannot fix `loggedIn` for them ──
+//
+// `claude` authenticates interactively against an Anthropic account, so logging in is the member's own act.
+// The alternative — pointing them at the owner's credential proxy — spends the owner's subscription on their
+// turns, which is the thing the whole per-user design exists to avoid. What the UI does with a `false` here is
+// render a terminal and tell them to run `claude` once themselves.
+
+export const agentStatusRouter = createRouter();
+
+type AgentStatus = {
+  /** Their own `claude` is installed in their home. */
+  installed: boolean;
+  /** They have logged in, so a turn can actually run. */
+  loggedIn: boolean;
+  /** True for the owner, whose agent has always worked and who needs no instructions. */
+  isOwner: boolean;
+  /** Null unless something is missing — the one thing to tell them, already resolved to their case. */
+  instruction: string | null;
+};
+
+agentStatusRouter.get('/', async (ctx) => {
+  const user = ctx.get('user');
+
+  const resolved = await resolveHomeDir(user.id);
+  if (!resolved.ok) {
+    // No Linux account means nothing is confined and nothing can run — the same refusal the file browser
+    // gives, reported rather than thrown because this endpoint exists to explain, not to gate.
+    return ctx.json<AgentStatus>({
+      installed: false,
+      loggedIn: false,
+      isOwner: false,
+      instruction: resolved.reason,
+    });
+  }
+
+  // The owner runs in their real login home with the credential the proxy already holds. There is no member
+  // account to `runAs`, and nothing to instruct.
+  if (resolved.isOwner) {
+    return ctx.json<AgentStatus>({ installed: true, loggedIn: true, isOwner: true, instruction: null });
+  }
+
+  const row = await getUserById(user.id);
+  if (!row?.osUser) {
+    return ctx.json<AgentStatus>({
+      installed: false,
+      loggedIn: false,
+      isOwner: false,
+      instruction: 'This account has no Linux user on this machine yet — ask the server owner to provision it.',
+    });
+  }
+
+  const state = await claudeLoginState({ email: row.email, osUser: row.osUser });
+
+  const instruction = !state.installed
+    ? 'Claude is not installed in your home yet — ask the server owner to reprovision your account.'
+    : !state.loggedIn
+      ? 'Open a terminal and run `claude` once to sign in with your own Anthropic account. It stays signed in.'
+      : null;
+
+  return ctx.json<AgentStatus>({ ...state, isOwner: false, instruction });
+});
diff --git a/src/servers/capabilities/registry.ts b/src/servers/capabilities/registry.ts
index 5a9528f6..788c82d1 100644
--- a/src/servers/capabilities/registry.ts
+++ b/src/servers/capabilities/registry.ts
@@ -282,7 +282,11 @@ export const CAPABILITIES: Capability[] = [
     label: 'Chat',
     description: 'The agent',
     kind: 'confined',
-    api: ['/chat'],
+    // `/agent-status` is on this grant but deliberately NOT on `chatRouter`, because that router refuses
+    // non-owners wholesale — so an endpoint there could not be read by the accounts that need it. It reports
+    // two booleans about the caller's own home and nothing about anyone else, which is what lets a member be
+    // told "run `claude` once to sign in" instead of being shown a tile that 403s.
+    api: ['/chat', '/agent-status'],
     ws: ['chat'],
     routes: ['/chat'],
   },
diff --git a/src/servers/hono.ts b/src/servers/hono.ts
index 52cd9177..8066a6a1 100644
--- a/src/servers/hono.ts
+++ b/src/servers/hono.ts
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ import { emailRouter } from './api/email/router';
 import { browserRouter } from './api/browser/router';
 import { desktopRouter } from './api/desktop/rest';
 import { bugReportRouter } from './api/bug-report/bug-report';
+import { agentStatusRouter } from './api/agent-status/router';
 import { chatRouter } from './api/chat/chat';
 import { pipelineJobsRouter } from './api/tasks/pipeline-jobs-routes';
 import { CustomError } from './custom-errors';
@@ -226,6 +227,7 @@ const PROTECTED_MOUNTS: [prefix: string, router: ReturnType<typeof createRouter>
   ['/email', emailRouter],
   ['/browser', browserRouter],
   ['/bug-report', bugReportRouter],
+  ['/agent-status', agentStatusRouter],
   ['/chat', chatRouter],
   ['/pipeline-jobs', pipelineJobsRouter],
   ['/jobs', pipelineJobsRouter], // unified jobs API (script + pipeline); /pipeline-jobs kept for the existing UI