diff --git a/src/databases/officer_db/src/command-hq/index.ts b/src/databases/officer_db/src/command-hq/index.ts
index 32838350..ec2ad5c8 100644
--- a/src/databases/officer_db/src/command-hq/index.ts
+++ b/src/databases/officer_db/src/command-hq/index.ts
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ export {
   getCommandHqSessionById,
   listCommandHqSessions,
   listCommandHqSessionIds,
+  listCommandHqOwnedSessionIds,
   getCommandHqSession,
   setCommandHqSessionCategory,
   deleteCommandHqSession,
diff --git a/src/databases/officer_db/src/command-hq/queries.ts b/src/databases/officer_db/src/command-hq/queries.ts
index d97f23f8..160d19f8 100644
--- a/src/databases/officer_db/src/command-hq/queries.ts
+++ b/src/databases/officer_db/src/command-hq/queries.ts
@@ -186,6 +186,30 @@ export async function listCommandHqSessionIds(userId: number): Promise<Set<strin
   return new Set(rows.map((r) => r.sessionId!));
 }
 
+/**
+ * Every transcript that belongs to a commander: the commanders themselves AND the agents they spawned.
+ *
+ * What `/chat`'s list hides. The set above is not enough — it holds the commanders, and a commander that
+ * fires once an hour spawns a child per run, each with its own transcript titled after whatever its first
+ * message happened to be. Thirteen of them under one directory was what made this obvious: twelve reading
+ * `Read /home/.../procedures/classify-t…`, filling the conversation list with a loop's bookkeeping.
+ *
+ * Separate from `listCommandHqSessionIds` rather than replacing it, because a CHILD is not a commander —
+ * `isCommander` on a session must stay false for one, or the composer would offer it the handoff watcher.
+ */
+export async function listCommandHqOwnedSessionIds(userId: number): Promise<Set<string>> {
+  const [commanders, children] = await Promise.all([
+    listCommandHqSessionIds(userId),
+    db
+      .select({ id: commandHqSpawned.spawnedSessionId })
+      .from(commandHqSpawned)
+      .innerJoin(commandHqSessions, eq(commandHqSessions.id, commandHqSpawned.sessionRowId))
+      .where(eq(commandHqSessions.userId, userId)),
+  ]);
+  for (const row of children) commanders.add(row.id);
+  return commanders;
+}
+
 // drizzle's `eq` cannot express `IS NOT NULL` either.
 const isNotNullSessionId = () => sql`${commandHqSessions.sessionId} is not null`;
 
diff --git a/src/servers/api/chat/chat.ts b/src/servers/api/chat/chat.ts
index f04a262d..e28f428f 100644
--- a/src/servers/api/chat/chat.ts
+++ b/src/servers/api/chat/chat.ts
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import {
   getChatSessionModel,
   getChatSessionModels,
   listCommandHqSessionIds,
+  listCommandHqOwnedSessionIds,
   getChatNotifyPreference,
   getChatNotifyPreferences,
   setChatNotifyPreference,
@@ -156,7 +157,7 @@ chatRouter.get('/sessions', async (ctx) => {
     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 filed = await listCommandHqOwnedSessionIds(user.id).catch(() => new Set<string>());
   const sessions = merged.filter((s) => !filed.has(s.id));
 
   /*