diff --git a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Chat/ChatPanelWrapper.tsx b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Chat/ChatPanelWrapper.tsx
index 222c5924..fa542d1b 100644
--- a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Chat/ChatPanelWrapper.tsx
+++ b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Chat/ChatPanelWrapper.tsx
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ import { EmbeddableChat } from './EmbeddableChat';
 import { AgentIdentityBar } from './AgentIdentityBar';
 import { useAgentPanel, type UseAgentPanelType } from './useAgentPanel';
 import { usePanelSession } from './use-panel-session';
+import { useChatPwds, useClaudeSessions } from 'state/useClaudeSessions';
+import { cwdToPath } from '../../components/Workspace';
 
 type ChatPanelInnerProps = {
   scoped: boolean;
@@ -40,9 +42,15 @@ const ChatPanelInner = ({
 
   useEffect(() => {
     setActiveSession(chat.sessionId);
-    // A new chat starts with no id and is named by the harness on the first turn. Recording it here is
-    // what makes "New chat, say something, reload" come back to that conversation instead of a third one.
-    onSessionId?.(chat.sessionId);
+    // Only a REAL id, never null.
+    //
+    // A new chat is nameless until the harness names it on the first turn, and recording that id is what
+    // makes "New chat, say something, reload" return to that conversation instead of a third one. But
+    // `chat.sessionId` is also null for a moment while a resumed session connects — and writing that null
+    // would turn "this panel has never chosen" into "the user asked for a new chat", so the next reload
+    // would open blank. Asking for a new conversation is something the header says explicitly; this
+    // effect only ever reports what the harness decided.
+    if (chat.sessionId) onSessionId?.(chat.sessionId);
   }, [chat.sessionId]);
 
   return (
@@ -106,7 +114,28 @@ export const ChatPanelWrapper = ({ panelId, promptPrefix }: ChatPanelWrapperProp
   // picker is for the ordinary case where a dashboard simply holds several conversations about the
   // directory it is rooted in.
   const [panelSessionId, setPanelSessionId] = usePanelSession(panelId, workspace);
-  const selectedSessionId = agentPanel.agent?.sessionKey ?? panelSessionId ?? undefined;
+
+  /**
+   * A panel that has never chosen continues the newest conversation in its directory.
+   *
+   * Opening a dashboard onto a folder that already has history and starting a blank chat is the wrong
+   * default — the history is the reason you are there. This is also the case that prompted it: the
+   * conversation existed before the panel did.
+   *
+   * `undefined` from the hook means "never chosen" and `null` means "the user asked for a new one", which
+   * is why those are not the same value. Collapsing them would make New chat snap back to the newest.
+   *
+   * The absolute path, not the home-relative one — chat's cwd is the directory a turn really ran in, and
+   * `defaultCwd` is that home as the server sees it. Same join the header does.
+   */
+  const { defaultCwd } = useChatPwds();
+  const relativeCwd = cwdToPath(cwd);
+  const absoluteCwd = relativeCwd === '/' ? null : defaultCwd ? `${defaultCwd.replace(/\/$/, '')}${relativeCwd}` : null;
+  const { sessions, isLoading: sessionsLoading } = useClaudeSessions(absoluteCwd);
+
+  const neverChose = panelSessionId === undefined;
+  const selectedSessionId =
+    agentPanel.agent?.sessionKey ?? (neverChose ? sessions[0]?.id : (panelSessionId ?? undefined));
 
   // The key has to be decided before `useChat` mounts — the hook seeds its state from the first
   // `initialSessionId` it sees, and the socket's resume handshake sends whatever is in that state on
@@ -118,6 +147,11 @@ export const ChatPanelWrapper = ({ panelId, promptPrefix }: ChatPanelWrapperProp
   // start a throwaway session and stream the answer into a transcript nobody can find again.
   if (agentPanel.isLoading) return null;
 
+  // And until the session list has answered, a panel that has never chosen must not mount either: it
+  // would start a NEW conversation, then the list would arrive, the default would apply, and the chat
+  // would remount onto something else — throwing away whatever had been typed or sent in between.
+  if (neverChose && !agentPanel.agent && sessionsLoading) return null;
+
   return (
     <ChatPanelInner
       key={key}
diff --git a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Chat/use-panel-session.ts b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Chat/use-panel-session.ts
index 183da270..f12c2e34 100644
--- a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Chat/use-panel-session.ts
+++ b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Chat/use-panel-session.ts
@@ -16,8 +16,17 @@ import { panelStateKey, type WorkspaceIdentity } from '../../components/Workspac
  * Persistence comes free: it is dashboard state under `ws-chat-{dashboardId}`, keyed by panel, so it
  * survives a reload for the same reason the editor's tabs do.
  *
- * `null` means "a new conversation" — the body mounts a fresh chat and records the id the harness mints
- * as soon as it exists, so a reload after the first message comes back to the same transcript.
+ * ── Three states, not two ──
+ *
+ *   undefined  this panel has never chosen. Pick a sensible default — the newest conversation in the
+ *              directory — because a dashboard opened onto a folder that already has history should
+ *              continue it rather than ignore it.
+ *   null       the user asked for a NEW conversation. Not the same as never having chosen, and
+ *              collapsing the two would make "New chat" snap straight back to the newest one.
+ *   string     that conversation.
+ *
+ * The body records the id the harness mints for a new chat as soon as it exists, so a reload after the
+ * first message comes back to the same transcript rather than a third one.
  */
 export type ChatPanelSession = { sessionId: string | null };
 
@@ -29,13 +38,14 @@ export function usePanelSession(panelId: string | undefined, workspace: Workspac
     EMPTY,
   );
 
-  const sessionId = panelId ? (bag[panelId]?.sessionId ?? null) : null;
+  // `undefined` when this panel has no entry at all — see the three states above.
+  const sessionId = panelId ? bag[panelId]?.sessionId : undefined;
 
   const setSessionId = useCallback(
     (next: string | null) => {
       if (!panelId) return;
       setBag((prev) => {
-        if ((prev[panelId]?.sessionId ?? null) === next) return prev;
+        if (panelId in prev && prev[panelId]?.sessionId === next) return prev;
         return { ...prev, [panelId]: { sessionId: next } };
       });
     },