diff --git a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/hooks/useChat.ts b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/hooks/useChat.ts
index 0e60fdde..631343b7 100644
--- a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/hooks/useChat.ts
+++ b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/hooks/useChat.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { useState, useEffect, useRef, useCallback } from 'react';
+import { useQueryClient } from '@tanstack/react-query';
 import { useChatWebSocket } from 'hooks/useChatWebSocket';
 import { useClient } from 'hooks/useClient';
 import { useSettings } from 'state/useSettings';
@@ -200,6 +201,26 @@ export function useChat(initialSessionId?: string, initialModel?: string | null,
   const [claudeSessionId, setClaudeSessionId] = useState<string | null>(resumeSessionId ?? null);
 
   const client = useClient();
+  const queryClient = useQueryClient();
+
+  /*
+    Tell the session LISTS that this conversation exists.
+
+    The chat header resolves its own title by finding this session in the cached list —
+    `sessions.find((s) => s.id === sessionId)`. A newborn conversation is not in that list: it has
+    `staleTime: 30s` and nothing invalidated it, so for up to half a minute the header read "New chat" and
+    the rename control was absent, because rename is a per-row action on a list the session was not in yet.
+    Navigating away and back fixed it, which is what made it look like a rendering bug rather than a stale
+    cache.
+
+    Fired when the transcript id arrives — the START of the turn, not the end — because that is the moment
+    the session becomes real on disk and the server can already name it from the first user message. Fired
+    again when a turn finishes, because the harness writes its own `ai-title` while the turn runs.
+  */
+  const announceSession = useCallback(() => {
+    void queryClient.invalidateQueries({ queryKey: ['CLAUDE_SESSIONS'] });
+    void queryClient.invalidateQueries({ queryKey: ['CHAT_PWDS'] });
+  }, [queryClient]);
 
   // Fetch the next older window and prepend it. The scroll container restores its position from the
   // height delta so the view stays put. Guarded against overlap and against running once fully paged in.
@@ -343,6 +364,8 @@ export function useChat(initialSessionId?: string, initialModel?: string | null,
         claudeSessionIdRef.current = msg.claudeSessionId;
         setClaudeSessionId(msg.claudeSessionId);
         if (replaceUrl) writePermalink(msg.claudeSessionId);
+        // The lists do not know this conversation exists yet — see `announceSession`.
+        announceSession();
         break;
 
       case 'assistant:delta':
@@ -420,6 +443,9 @@ export function useChat(initialSessionId?: string, initialModel?: string | null,
         const hadTools = toolCallsInTurnRef.current;
         toolCallsInTurnRef.current = false;
         onTurnCompleteRef.current?.(hadTools);
+        // Every turn end: the harness writes its own `ai-title` while a turn runs, so the name the lists are
+        // showing may now be bettered by the one on disk.
+        announceSession();
         break;
       }