diff --git a/src/servers/api/chat/chat.ts b/src/servers/api/chat/chat.ts
index cd8f4dcc..78cd7aaa 100644
--- a/src/servers/api/chat/chat.ts
+++ b/src/servers/api/chat/chat.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import type { Context } from 'hono';
 import { createRouter } from '../../create-router';
+import * as sidecar from '@@/sidecar-registry';
 import { getUserSettings } from 'officerdb';
 import {
   getGeneralChatSessionsCwd,
@@ -91,6 +92,18 @@ chatRouter.get('/sessions/:id', async (ctx) => {
   });
 });
 
+// GET /chat/live — the sessions the agent has a process behind RIGHT NOW, as opposed to the transcripts
+// on disk that `/chat/sessions` lists. Asked over the wire because only the agent can answer: officer's
+// own session records are in memory and die with `pm2 restart officer`, while the agent is a PM2 peer
+// and keeps running. Without this a surviving session is invisible until a browser reconnects to it by
+// id, which is a thing you can only do if you already knew the id.
+//
+// `pendingTasks` is background work started but not yet notified — with `isGenerating` it is what the
+// agent's own idle GC consults, so a caller can tell "busy" from "merely open" the same way it does.
+chatRouter.get('/live', async (ctx) => {
+  return ctx.json({ sessions: await sidecar.listLiveClaudeSessions() });
+});
+
 // DELETE /chat/sessions/:id[?cwd=] — remove a conversation from the owning harness's store. For a
 // Claude `/clear` chain that is every part of it: the list shows the chain as one conversation, so
 // deleting it deletes one conversation.
diff --git a/src/servers/sidecar-registry.ts b/src/servers/sidecar-registry.ts
index 1f04343f..c6339b57 100644
--- a/src/servers/sidecar-registry.ts
+++ b/src/servers/sidecar-registry.ts
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import type {
   ClaudeSpawnParams,
   ClaudeSpawnStreamingParams,
   ClaudeCodeResult,
+  LiveClaudeSession,
   OpenCodeRunParams,
   VncStartParams,
 } from './sidecar/protocol';
@@ -307,6 +308,31 @@ export function interruptClaude(sessionKey: string): void {
  * it is still typing is worse than leaving a spinner up a little longer. Only a registered agent that
  * says "no", or no agent at all, counts as dead.
  */
+/**
+ * Every session the agent is holding IN MEMORY right now — distinct from `listClaudeSessions` in
+ * `api/chat/claude-sessions`, which lists conversations from transcripts on disk. Those are the history;
+ * these are the ones with a process behind them.
+ *
+ * Officer's own session records live in memory and die with `pm2 restart officer`, while the agent — a
+ * PM2 peer, not a child — keeps running and keeps committing to chat_session_events. Until this existed
+ * a surviving session was invisible: `adoptOrphanedSession` only fires when a browser reconnects to one
+ * *by id*, so nothing could answer "what is still running".
+ *
+ * Fails *toward empty*, unlike `isClaudeGenerating` which fails toward alive. The asymmetry is
+ * deliberate: there, not knowing means leaving a spinner up; here, not knowing would mean inventing
+ * sessions, and an enumeration that reports things that may not exist is worse than a short one.
+ */
+export async function listLiveClaudeSessions(): Promise<LiveClaudeSession[]> {
+  const sc = findSidecarByCapability('claude');
+  if (!sc) return [];
+  try {
+    const res = await sendCommandToSidecar(sc, { type: 'claude:list', id: nextId() });
+    return res.type === 'claude:sessions' ? res.sessions : [];
+  } catch {
+    return [];
+  }
+}
+
 export async function isClaudeGenerating(sessionKey: string): Promise<boolean> {
   const sc = findSidecarByCapability('claude');
   if (!sc) return false;
diff --git a/src/servers/sidecar/claude/claude-manager.ts b/src/servers/sidecar/claude/claude-manager.ts
index f3c050e3..15b067a3 100644
--- a/src/servers/sidecar/claude/claude-manager.ts
+++ b/src/servers/sidecar/claude/claude-manager.ts
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ import { homedir } from 'node:os';
 import { join } from 'node:path';
 import { query, type Query } from '@anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk';
 import type { ChatEvent, PromptImage } from '../../api/chat/types';
-import type { ClaudeSpawnParams, ClaudeSpawnStreamingParams, ClaudeCodeResult } from '../protocol';
+import type { ClaudeSpawnParams, ClaudeSpawnStreamingParams, ClaudeCodeResult, LiveClaudeSession } from '../protocol';
 import { setClaudeSession, clearClaudeSession, getClaudeSession } from './state';
 import { createParseState, processMessage } from './stream-parser';
 
@@ -501,8 +501,19 @@ export function clearSession(sessionKey: string): void {
   clearClaudeSession(sessionKey);
 }
 
-export function getActiveSessionKeys(): string[] {
-  return Array.from(sessions.keys());
+/**
+ * Everything this process is holding, with the two facts that decide whether it is busy.
+ *
+ * Replaces a `getActiveSessionKeys` that returned bare keys and was never called by anything — the keys
+ * alone could not distinguish a session mid-turn from one merely open, which is the whole question a
+ * caller has. These are the same two fields `armIdle` consults before collecting a session.
+ */
+export function listSessions(): LiveClaudeSession[] {
+  return Array.from(sessions.values()).map((session) => ({
+    sessionKey: session.sessionKey,
+    isGenerating: session.isGenerating,
+    pendingTasks: session.pendingTasks.size,
+  }));
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/src/servers/sidecar/claude/user-instance.ts b/src/servers/sidecar/claude/user-instance.ts
index 603bf69f..1068a5a6 100644
--- a/src/servers/sidecar/claude/user-instance.ts
+++ b/src/servers/sidecar/claude/user-instance.ts
@@ -215,6 +215,10 @@ async function handleCommand(cmd: SidecarCommand, reply: ReplyFn) {
       reply({ type: 'claude:interrupted', id: cmd.id });
       break;
 
+    case 'claude:list':
+      reply({ type: 'claude:sessions', id: cmd.id, sessions: claudeManager.listSessions() });
+      break;
+
     case 'claude:is-generating':
       reply({ type: 'claude:generating', id: cmd.id, generating: claudeManager.isSessionGenerating(cmd.sessionKey) });
       break;
diff --git a/src/servers/sidecar/protocol.ts b/src/servers/sidecar/protocol.ts
index e2b865a4..bc9d7d07 100644
--- a/src/servers/sidecar/protocol.ts
+++ b/src/servers/sidecar/protocol.ts
@@ -4,6 +4,19 @@ import type { MessageCost, PromptImage, TurnMessage } from '../api/chat/types';
 
 export type SidecarMessage = SidecarCommand | SidecarEvent;
 
+/**
+ * A session the agent is holding in memory right now — the ground truth about what is alive.
+ *
+ * `pendingTasks` is background work started but not yet notified, and it is the field worth having:
+ * together with `isGenerating` it is exactly what the agent's own idle GC consults before deciding a
+ * session may be collected, so a caller can tell "busy" from "merely open" the same way it does.
+ */
+export type LiveClaudeSession = {
+  sessionKey: string;
+  isGenerating: boolean;
+  pendingTasks: number;
+};
+
 // ── Commands (API server → sidecar) ──
 
 export type SidecarCommand =
@@ -23,6 +36,11 @@ export type SidecarCommand =
   // Which session key owns this transcript? The map lives on the agent's disk, so only it can answer —
   // see `findClaudeSessionKey` in sidecar-registry, and `attach` in the chat socket for why it is asked.
   | { type: 'claude:find-session'; id: string; claudeSessionId: string }
+  // Everything the agent is holding right now. `claude:is-generating` answers for a session you can
+  // already name; this is for the case where officer has forgotten every name it had — its session
+  // records are in memory and die with `pm2 restart officer`, while the agent keeps running. Without it
+  // a live session is invisible until a browser happens to reconnect to it by id.
+  | { type: 'claude:list'; id: string }
   // OpenCode — drive a turn via `opencode run … --format json` (tools re-anchored to cwd via --dir)
   | { type: 'opencode:run-streaming'; id: string; params: OpenCodeRunParams }
   | { type: 'opencode:kill'; id: string; sessionKey: string }
@@ -51,6 +69,7 @@ export type SidecarEvent =
   | { type: 'claude:session-cleared'; id: string }
   | { type: 'claude:generating'; id: string; generating: boolean }
   | { type: 'claude:session-key'; id: string; sessionKey: string | null }
+  | { type: 'claude:sessions'; id: string; sessions: LiveClaudeSession[] }
   // VNC
   | { type: 'vnc:started'; id: string; port: number; display: number }
   | { type: 'vnc:password'; id: string; password: string }