diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
index 3a2e8fa1..b857e9be 100644
--- a/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ link-focusable). Half the app still does this; none of the new code should.
 
 - **Addressable state goes in the URL** (`useParams` / `useSearchParams`), never in a channel.
   `usePanelChannel` is for genuine signals and refresh buses (`preview:refresh`,
-  `files:refresh-signal`, `SLSKD_REFRESH_CHANNEL`, `MUSIC_RESYNC_CHANNEL`, `FILE_VIEWER_CHANNEL`).
+  `files:refresh-signal`, `SLSKD_REFRESH_CHANNEL`, `MUSIC_RESYNC_CHANNEL`).
   "Which thing is open" is a URL. Panels each read the URL rather than passing it between themselves.
 - **Rows and nav items are real links.** `<Link>` for rows (exemplar: the `/chat` session list,
   `f35c145`); **react-router's `<NavLink>`** for nav chrome, so active state comes from the router.
diff --git a/docs/navigation-audit.md b/docs/navigation-audit.md
index 51e15b47..b43b969b 100644
--- a/docs/navigation-audit.md
+++ b/docs/navigation-audit.md
@@ -124,7 +124,9 @@ This is the primary surface to convert to URL-driven selection.
 | local `useState` selections | search / room / conversation / peer / open file / preview slug | respective nested routes | `SearchView`, `SoulseekRooms`, `SoulseekChat`, `SoulseekUsers`, `CodeEditor/useEditorState`, `PreviewProvider` |
 
 **Excluded — event-bus / refresh signals, NOT selection:** `preview:refresh`, `files:refresh-signal`,
-`SLSKD_REFRESH_CHANNEL`, `MUSIC_RESYNC_CHANNEL`, `FILE_VIEWER_CHANNEL`, `chat:active-session` (embedded-chat signal).
+`SLSKD_REFRESH_CHANNEL`, `MUSIC_RESYNC_CHANNEL`, `chat:active-session` (embedded-chat signal).
+(`FILE_VIEWER_CHANNEL` was listed here too; it had no publisher and has been deleted — the file viewer
+reads `?view=` from the URL.)
 
 ---
 
diff --git a/docs/workspace-panel-todo.md b/docs/workspace-panel-todo.md
index 1c29cd21..ff8cc4ae 100644
--- a/docs/workspace-panel-todo.md
+++ b/docs/workspace-panel-todo.md
@@ -536,13 +536,34 @@ work disagree permanently about the roster, with neither told — a direct contr
       providing `localStorage`, and `MusicPlayer/useLyricsOpen.ts` reads it at *import* time, so the
       whole app graph was unimportable from a test. That is now fixed, which unblocks testing anything
       else that pulls in a panel app.
-- [ ] **Seeding depends on undocumented mount ordering.** Three call sites call `useAppRegistry()` with
+- [x] **Seeding depends on undocumented mount ordering.** Three call sites call `useAppRegistry()` with
       no argument, defaulting to `[]`. It works only because `<AppRegistry />` sits at `frontend.tsx:32`,
       above `<App />` at `:34`. Mount a `WorkspaceView` above that and every panel renders empty.
-- [ ] **`officerdev/file-viewer` is a dead registration.** Its provider reads
+      **Resolved `9fcc9c2`** — and the mechanism is worse than "ordering", which is why the fix is not
+      "move the component up". `<AppRegistry />` seeded through `useGlobal`'s `initialData`, and
+      **`initialData` is not a write**: it applies only to whichever component reads the slot first. A
+      `WorkspaceView` that rendered first would create the slot as `{}` and the seeder had no second
+      chance — every panel on that screen an empty box, for a reason visible nowhere near it.
+      Both registries are now written into the query cache by `seedAppRegistry` / `seedWidgetRegistry`
+      before `createRoot().render()`, so there is no ordering to depend on. They take the `QueryClient`
+      rather than running as a module-scope side effect because the app list imports every panel app and
+      every panel app imports the Workspace framework; keeping the call in `frontend.tsx` — the one
+      module that is nobody's dependency — is what stops that being an import cycle. (Making
+      `useAppRegistry` simply default to the static list was the obvious fix and is exactly that cycle.)
+      `registerApp` and `registerWidget` are deleted with the components: nothing ever called either, and
+      a registry that can be added to at runtime is a registry whose contents depend on what has mounted.
+- [x] **`officerdev/file-viewer` is a dead registration.** Its provider reads
       `usePanelChannel('file-viewer:' + panelId)` and **nothing in the repo writes that channel**. Also
       `availableOnPanel: false`, so it can't be picked. If it ever appeared in a layout it would say
       "No file selected" forever.
+      **Resolved `9fcc9c2`** — traced and confirmed dead, then removed rather than repaired. The file
+      viewer that users actually see is mounted by `useFileViewerPanels` as an *ephemeral* panel, which
+      supplies `FileViewerBody`/`FileViewerHeader` itself with a provider reading the path from
+      `?view=`/`?ephemeral=` — it never touched the registry. No stored layout referenced the key
+      (checked across `dashboards`, `screens`, `dashboard_defaults`, `user_state`, `user_settings`: zero
+      rows), so the meta and `FileViewerPanelWrapper.tsx` are gone. Side effect worth knowing: no app in
+      the registry now uses the `provider` field. It is kept, because the ephemeral path
+      (`PanelComponentEntry.provider`) still does and `PanelSlot` resolves the two symmetrically.
 - [ ] **`dashboard-list` is pickable in every panel on every dashboard.** `apps/Dashboards/index.ts:12-16`
       omits `availableOnPanel` while its sibling `dashboard-preview` sets `false`. Almost certainly
       unintended — the flag is opt-_out_, and 12 of 44 metas omit it. Consider making it opt-_in_.
diff --git a/docs/workspace-panels.md b/docs/workspace-panels.md
index bb0382d7..04e421c0 100644
--- a/docs/workspace-panels.md
+++ b/docs/workspace-panels.md
@@ -131,9 +131,10 @@ library location, so no album is linkable), `soulseek:section` and `soulseek:use
 workspace has no URL), `chat:selected-session`, `monitor:scope`. Two are view toggles where a channel is
 genuinely fine (`music:favorites`, `music:lyrics`).
 
-Three are wired to nobody: `preview:refresh` and `chat:active-session` have publishers and no
-subscribers; `file-viewer:<panelId>` has a subscriber and no publisher, which is why the registry-mounted
-`officerdev/file-viewer` app renders "No file selected" forever.
+Two are wired to nobody: `preview:refresh` and `chat:active-session` have publishers and no subscribers.
+A third, `file-viewer:<panelId>`, had a subscriber and no publisher — it is gone, along with the
+`officerdev/file-viewer` registration it fed, which would have rendered "No file selected" forever. The
+file viewer users actually see is an *ephemeral* panel from `useFileViewerPanels` and reads the URL.
 
 Four channel names are **bare string literals with no shared constant**, repeated across up to four
 files. A typo does not error — you silently get a fresh channel stuck on its initial value. And because