diff --git a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Dashboards/DashboardPreview.tsx b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Dashboards/DashboardPreview.tsx
index 0feaa44f..7e4d9d96 100644
--- a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Dashboards/DashboardPreview.tsx
+++ b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Dashboards/DashboardPreview.tsx
@@ -308,20 +308,40 @@ const CreatePanel = () => {
         ),
       );
 
-      const wsLayout = templates[templateIdx]?.layout() ?? createDefaultLayout();
       const currentState = queryClient.getQueryData<Record<string, unknown>>(['DASHBOARD_STATE']) ?? {};
       const newLayoutKey = `ws-layout-${newId}`;
 
+      // Rebuild from the template only when the user actually picked a different one. This ran
+      // unconditionally, so renaming a dashboard — or fixing a typo in its description — threw away
+      // however its panels had been arranged and whichever apps were in them. A template is a seed
+      // chosen once at creation; it is not a description of the dashboard as it now stands.
+      const kept = currentState[`ws-layout-${editingId}`];
+      const templateChanged = dashboards.find((w) => w.id === editingId)?.templateIdx !== templateIdx;
+      const keepable = !!kept && typeof kept === 'object' && !Array.isArray(kept);
+      const wsLayout =
+        !templateChanged && keepable ? kept : (templates[templateIdx]?.layout() ?? createDefaultLayout());
+
       if (idChanged) {
+        // A rename is the same dashboard under a new key, so everything keyed on the old id moves with it.
+        // Dropping the terminal maps without carrying them over abandoned every shell the dashboard held:
+        // the panels came back empty and the processes stayed alive with nothing pointing at them.
+        const carried: Record<string, unknown> = { [newLayoutKey]: wsLayout };
+        for (const prefix of ['ws-terminals', 'ws-host-terminals']) {
+          const value = currentState[`${prefix}-${editingId}`];
+          if (value !== undefined) carried[`${prefix}-${newId}`] = value;
+        }
         const oldKeys = [`ws-layout-${editingId}`, `ws-terminals-${editingId}`, `ws-host-terminals-${editingId}`];
         const cleaned = { ...currentState };
         for (const k of oldKeys) delete cleaned[k];
-        queryClient.setQueryData(['DASHBOARD_STATE'], { ...cleaned, [newLayoutKey]: wsLayout });
+        queryClient.setQueryData(['DASHBOARD_STATE'], { ...cleaned, ...carried });
 
-        const patch: Record<string, unknown> = { [newLayoutKey]: wsLayout };
+        // Key order is load-bearing: the server walks this object in insertion order, `ws-layout-<new>`
+        // upserts the row and `ws-terminals-<new>` only *updates* one, so the new key must be written
+        // before the old `ws-layout-<old>: null` deletes the row it was copied from.
+        const patch: Record<string, unknown> = { ...carried };
         for (const k of oldKeys) patch[k] = null;
         persistDashboardState(client, queryClient, patch);
-      } else {
+      } else if (wsLayout !== kept) {
         queryClient.setQueryData(['DASHBOARD_STATE'], { ...currentState, [newLayoutKey]: wsLayout });
         persistDashboardState(client, queryClient, { [newLayoutKey]: wsLayout });
       }