diff --git a/src/servers/api/chat/chat.ts b/src/servers/api/chat/chat.ts
index 13eb167c..50f1b770 100644
--- a/src/servers/api/chat/chat.ts
+++ b/src/servers/api/chat/chat.ts
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@ import {
   listClaudePwds,
   listClaudeSessions,
   listAllClaudeSessions,
-  withCommanderFlag,
   loadClaudeSession,
   loadClaudeSessionById,
   deleteClaudeSession,
@@ -130,15 +129,10 @@ chatRouter.get('/sessions', async (ctx) => {
   // the row renderer) is indifferent to which directories the rows came from.
   const all = ctx.req.query('all') === '1';
 
-  // Which of these are commanders comes from the ROWS, not from where the transcript lives — a commander
-  // chooses its own working directory now, so the directory answers nothing. One query for the whole set.
-  const commanderIds = await listCommandHqSessionIds(user.id);
-  const claude = withCommanderFlag(all ? listAllClaudeSessions(who) : listClaudeSessions(who, cwd), commanderIds).map(
-    (s) => ({
-      ...s,
-      harness: 'claude' as const,
-    }),
-  );
+  const claude = (all ? listAllClaudeSessions(who) : listClaudeSessions(who, cwd)).map((s) => ({
+    ...s,
+    harness: 'claude' as const,
+  }));
   // OpenCode's store is shared and unscoped, so for anyone but the owner this list is other people's
   // conversations. Empty rather than filtered: there is no per-user field to filter ON.
   //
@@ -157,6 +151,12 @@ chatRouter.get('/sessions', async (ctx) => {
 
     Never fatal — a database hiccup on a feature /chat does not otherwise depend on must not take the whole
     conversation list down with it, the same posture `getChatSessionModels` below already takes.
+
+    This route does NOT report `isCommander` on its rows, and that is not an omission. It used to: rows were
+    tagged from this same set a few lines above and then removed by it here, so the flag was false on every
+    row that survived — a field that could only ever lie, plus a second identical query to produce it. A list
+    that excludes commanders has nothing to say about which of its rows is one. `/chat/live` is where the
+    flag is real, because that route keeps both kinds.
   */
   const filed = await listCommandHqSessionIds(user.id).catch(() => new Set<string>());
   const sessions = merged.filter((s) => !filed.has(s.id));
@@ -366,7 +366,36 @@ chatRouter.get('/live', async (ctx) => {
     };
   });
 
-  return ctx.json({ sessions: [...sessions, ...openCodeSessions] });
+  const rows = [...sessions, ...openCodeSessions];
+
+  /*
+    `?kind=agent|commander` — the split, done here rather than by each client.
+
+    The classification was already server-side; what was not was the FILTER, so every client repeated it.
+    That is fine for the web list, which has both tabs on screen, and wrong for the iPhone app, which swipes
+    between live chats, has no room for tabs, and must simply never be handed a commander.
+
+    Counts always describe the WHOLE set, filtered or not. The web tabs show `Agents (n) / Commanders (n)`
+    side by side and both numbers have to be right whichever tab is open — a filter that also hid the other
+    count would force a second request to render one screen, which is how a server-side filter usually ends
+    up costing more than the client-side one it replaced.
+
+    An unrecognised `kind` is a 400, never "everything". The plural forms are accepted because the client's
+    own type is already `'agents' | 'commanders'`, and the failure that silence would buy is precise: a
+    mistyped `?kind=agents` returning commanders is exactly the swipe-order bug this exists to prevent.
+  */
+  const kind = ctx.req.query('kind');
+  const counts = {
+    agents: rows.filter((s) => !s.isCommander).length,
+    commanders: rows.filter((s) => s.isCommander).length,
+  };
+  if (kind !== undefined && !['agent', 'agents', 'commander', 'commanders'].includes(kind)) {
+    return ctx.json({ error: `Unknown kind '${kind}' — expected 'agent' or 'commander'` }, 400);
+  }
+  const wantCommanders = kind === 'commander' || kind === 'commanders';
+  const shown = kind === undefined ? rows : rows.filter((s) => s.isCommander === wantCommanders);
+
+  return ctx.json({ sessions: shown, counts });
 });
 
 // DELETE /chat/sessions/:id[?cwd=] — remove a conversation from the owning harness's store. For a
diff --git a/src/servers/api/chat/claude-sessions.ts b/src/servers/api/chat/claude-sessions.ts
index dba70740..a959e41e 100644
--- a/src/servers/api/chat/claude-sessions.ts
+++ b/src/servers/api/chat/claude-sessions.ts
@@ -997,7 +997,7 @@ function scanGroup(who: ChatIdentity, cwd: string): TranscriptSummary[] {
  *
  * Identity is now the `command_hq_sessions` row, which is the only thing that survives the cwd being free.
  * It is applied by the CALLER, because that requires a database read and this function is synchronous over a
- * directory scan — see `withCommanderFlag`.
+ * directory scan.
  */
 export function listClaudeSessions(who: ChatIdentity, cwd: string): ClaudeSessionSummary[] {
   return mergeChains(scanGroup(who, cwd))
@@ -1005,17 +1005,6 @@ export function listClaudeSessions(who: ChatIdentity, cwd: string): ClaudeSessio
     .sort((a, b) => b.updatedAt.localeCompare(a.updatedAt));
 }
 
-/**
- * Mark which of these are commanders, from the rows rather than from where they live.
- *
- * One query per request rather than one per session: `listCommandHqSessionIds` returns the whole set for an
- * account, and a set membership test is what the per-row decoration needs. Commanders are few, so the set is
- * small; the alternative — a lookup per transcript — would turn one list into fifty queries.
- */
-export function withCommanderFlag<T extends { id: string }>(rows: T[], commanderIds: ReadonlySet<string>): T[] {
-  return rows.map((row) => (commanderIds.has(row.id) ? { ...row, isCommander: true } : row));
-}
-
 /**
  * Is this the default commanders directory?
  *