diff --git a/src/servers/api/chat/websocket.test.ts b/src/servers/api/chat/websocket.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..94e1a2fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/servers/api/chat/websocket.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'bun:test';
+import { decideResume } from './websocket';
+
+// The first test in api/chat, which had none.
+//
+// It covers the harness decision on reconnect — the one place where guessing wrong writes something
+// permanent. `endTurnIfAgentIsGone` appends a durable `cut-off` row, so a session misidentified here
+// gets "the agent went away" written into a turn that is running normally, and it survives every reload
+// because surviving reloads is what that row is for.
+//
+// The old code was `msg.model || DEFAULT_MODEL` with `DEFAULT_MODEL = 'claude-code'`, and it was masked
+// only by the client always happening to send `model`. These tests exist so the default cannot come back.
+
+describe('decideResume', () => {
+  it("takes the server's own record over the client's claim", () => {
+    // The socket does not get to re-declare a session's harness. This is the direction that matters:
+    // believing the claim is how an OpenCode session ends up subscribed to the Claude sidecar.
+    expect(decideResume('opencode/big-pickle', 'claude-code')).toEqual({
+      kind: 'known',
+      model: 'opencode/big-pickle',
+    });
+  });
+
+  it('adopts on the claim only when this process has no record of the session', () => {
+    // An officer restart drops the in-memory session while the agent carries on, so the client is the
+    // only one left who knows. Trusting it here is not the same as trusting it above.
+    expect(decideResume(undefined, 'opencode/big-pickle')).toEqual({ kind: 'adopt', model: 'opencode/big-pickle' });
+    expect(decideResume(undefined, 'claude-code')).toEqual({ kind: 'adopt', model: 'claude-code' });
+  });
+
+  it('stays unknown rather than defaulting to claude, which is the whole bug', () => {
+    // No record and no claim. Previously this became `claude-code` and was indistinguishable from a real
+    // Claude session; now it declines to adopt and declines to run the cut-off check.
+    expect(decideResume(undefined, undefined)).toEqual({ kind: 'replay-only' });
+    expect(decideResume(undefined, '')).toEqual({ kind: 'replay-only' });
+  });
+
+  it('never reports replay-only once anything is known, so a live turn is always re-bound', () => {
+    // The failure mode in the other direction: declining to adopt a session we could have identified
+    // would silently drop the reconnect that makes turn output resume.
+    expect(decideResume('claude-code', undefined).kind).toBe('known');
+    expect(decideResume('', 'claude-code').kind).toBe('adopt');
+  });
+});
diff --git a/src/servers/api/chat/websocket.ts b/src/servers/api/chat/websocket.ts
index 683d472f..32236343 100644
--- a/src/servers/api/chat/websocket.ts
+++ b/src/servers/api/chat/websocket.ts
@@ -614,11 +614,22 @@ async function handleResumeCursor(
   msg: { sessionId: string; cursor: number; model?: string; cwd?: string; generating?: boolean },
 ): Promise<void> {
   const { sessionId, cursor } = msg;
-  const model = msg.model || DEFAULT_MODEL;
-  if (!sessionManager.getSession(sessionId)) {
-    adoptOrphanedSession(ws, sessionId, model, msg.cwd ?? '');
+
+  const known = sessionManager.getSession(sessionId);
+  const decision = decideResume(known?.model, msg.model);
+  const model = decision.kind === 'replay-only' ? null : decision.model;
+
+  if (decision.kind === 'adopt') {
+    adoptOrphanedSession(ws, sessionId, decision.model, msg.cwd ?? '');
+  } else if (decision.kind === 'replay-only') {
+    // Replay the durable log and stop there. Not adopting costs a live re-subscription; adopting on a
+    // guess cost correctness — see decideResume.
+    logger.warn('resume-cursor names a session this process does not know, and no model; replaying only', {
+      sessionId,
+    });
   }
-  sessionManager.attachWs(sessionId, ws);
+
+  sessionManager.attachWs(sessionId, ws); // a no-op when adoption was skipped
   wsToSessionMap.set(ws as any, sessionId);
   try {
     const events = await getChatEventsSince(sessionId, cursor ?? 0);
@@ -628,7 +639,42 @@ async function handleResumeCursor(
   } catch (err) {
     logger.error('Failed to replay chat events on resume-cursor', { sessionId, error: String(err) });
   }
-  if (msg.generating) await endTurnIfAgentIsGone(ws, sessionId, model);
+  // Only ask when the harness is actually known. The check writes a DURABLE row, so a wrong answer here
+  // is permanent — silence is the safe failure.
+  if (msg.generating && model) await endTurnIfAgentIsGone(ws, sessionId, model);
+}
+
+export type ResumeDecision =
+  | { kind: 'known'; model: string }
+  | { kind: 'adopt'; model: string }
+  | { kind: 'replay-only' };
+
+/**
+ * Which harness a resuming session belongs to, and what that permits.
+ *
+ * This used to be `msg.model || DEFAULT_MODEL`, and `DEFAULT_MODEL` is `claude-code`. So a resume-cursor
+ * that omitted `model` declared every session — OpenCode ones included — to be Claude, with three
+ * consequences that all read as something else:
+ *
+ *  - **Adopted into the wrong harness.** `adoptOrphanedSession` subscribes to the sidecar bus for that
+ *    model and pins `session.model` for the rest of its life, so an OpenCode turn's output never
+ *    arrived, and stopping it called `killClaude` on a key that sidecar had never held — a dead stop
+ *    button, silently.
+ *  - **A durable false `cut-off`.** `endTurnIfAgentIsGone` asked the Claude sidecar whether it was
+ *    generating, was told `false` because it had never heard of the session, and wrote "the agent went
+ *    away" into a turn that was running normally. It survives reload, which is the whole point of
+ *    writing it durably, and is therefore unrecoverable from the UI.
+ *  - Masked, never fixed, by the client always happening to send `model` next to `sessionId`.
+ *
+ * Two rules. **The server's own record beats the client's claim** — a session in memory already knows its
+ * harness, and letting a socket re-declare it is how the wrong sidecar gets a session in the first place.
+ * **An unknown harness stays unknown**: no adoption, no cut-off check, just the replay. Defaulting is
+ * what made a guess indistinguishable from knowledge.
+ */
+export function decideResume(knownModel: string | undefined, claimedModel: string | undefined): ResumeDecision {
+  if (knownModel) return { kind: 'known', model: knownModel };
+  if (claimedModel) return { kind: 'adopt', model: claimedModel };
+  return { kind: 'replay-only' };
 }
 
 /**
@@ -683,6 +729,10 @@ async function handleAttach(ws: ServerWebSocket<WSData>, msg: { claudeSessionId:
   // An officer restart takes the in-memory session with it while the agent carries on, so the key can
   // resolve to a session this process has never heard of. Adopting re-subscribes it to the sidecar's bus,
   // which is what makes the rest of the turn arrive.
+  // `DEFAULT_MODEL` is right here and wrong in resume-cursor, which is worth being explicit about since
+  // it was just removed there: this path reached `sessionId` by asking the CLAUDE sidecar to resolve a
+  // `claudeSessionId`, so the harness is not a guess — only Claude could have answered. Attach is
+  // Claude-only by construction. If an OpenCode reattach verb ever lands, this stops being safe.
   const existing = sessionManager.getSession(sessionId);
   const session = existing ?? adoptOrphanedSession(ws, sessionId, DEFAULT_MODEL, '');