diff --git a/src/databases/officer_db/src/command-hq/index.ts b/src/databases/officer_db/src/command-hq/index.ts
index 5c70d26f..d7cff72b 100644
--- a/src/databases/officer_db/src/command-hq/index.ts
+++ b/src/databases/officer_db/src/command-hq/index.ts
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ export {
   disarmCommandHqWatcher,
   recordCommandHqTurn,
   ingestSpawnedChildren,
+  parentCommanderOf,
   recordSpawnedOutcome,
   getCommandHqCostSummary,
   listCommandHqTurns,
diff --git a/src/databases/officer_db/src/command-hq/queries.ts b/src/databases/officer_db/src/command-hq/queries.ts
index 1bfec196..0b503030 100644
--- a/src/databases/officer_db/src/command-hq/queries.ts
+++ b/src/databases/officer_db/src/command-hq/queries.ts
@@ -475,3 +475,44 @@ export async function recordSpawnedOutcome(
       and(eq(commandHqSpawned.sessionRowId, sessionRowId), eq(commandHqSpawned.spawnedSessionId, spawnedSessionId)),
     );
 }
+
+export type SpawnParent = {
+  /** The commander's transcript id — what `/command-hq/<id>` opens. */
+  sessionId: string;
+  /** What the owner called it, or null for a commander filed before the column existed. */
+  name: string | null;
+  firstSeenAt: string;
+  finishedAt: string | null;
+};
+
+/**
+ * Which commander spawned this session, if any.
+ *
+ * The same row `ingestSpawnedChildren` writes, read from the other end — so this needed no new table and no
+ * new write path. A commander's children were already recorded because deleting one has to take them with
+ * it; that record answers "who is my parent" for free, and nothing was asking.
+ *
+ * Null for almost every session, and that is the normal case rather than a miss: a chat somebody opened
+ * themselves has no parent, and a session spawned by anything other than a commander has no row here. The
+ * caller must treat absence as "not spawned", never as "lookup failed".
+ */
+export async function parentCommanderOf(spawnedSessionId: string): Promise<SpawnParent | null> {
+  const [row] = await db
+    .select({
+      sessionId: commandHqSessions.sessionId,
+      name: commandHqSessions.name,
+      firstSeenAt: commandHqSpawned.firstSeenAt,
+      finishedAt: commandHqSpawned.finishedAt,
+    })
+    .from(commandHqSpawned)
+    .innerJoin(commandHqSessions, eq(commandHqSessions.id, commandHqSpawned.sessionRowId))
+    .where(eq(commandHqSpawned.spawnedSessionId, spawnedSessionId))
+    .limit(1);
+  if (!row) return null;
+  return {
+    sessionId: row.sessionId,
+    name: row.name,
+    firstSeenAt: row.firstSeenAt.toISOString(),
+    finishedAt: row.finishedAt ? row.finishedAt.toISOString() : null,
+  };
+}
diff --git a/src/servers/api/chat/chat.ts b/src/servers/api/chat/chat.ts
index 3b78ea61..6d4f3401 100644
--- a/src/servers/api/chat/chat.ts
+++ b/src/servers/api/chat/chat.ts
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import {
   getChatNotifyPreferences,
   setChatNotifyPreference,
   forgetChatSessions,
+  parentCommanderOf,
 } from 'officerdb';
 import type { NotifyPreference } from 'officerdb/types';
 import { setNudge, getNudge, cancelNudge } from 'officerdb';
@@ -273,6 +274,15 @@ chatRouter.get('/sessions/:id', async (ctx) => {
       travels with the conversation.
     */
     isCommander: (await listCommandHqSessionIds(user.id)).has(id),
+    /*
+      Which commander spawned this, if any — the row `ingestSpawnedChildren` writes, read from the other
+      end. A spawned agent has always been fully readable here; what it could never say was who started
+      it, so opening one gave no way back to the conversation that owns it.
+    
+      Null for almost every session and that is the normal case, not a miss: a chat somebody opened
+      themselves has no parent. Never fatal — a session must render when this lookup will not.
+    */
+    spawnedBy: await parentCommanderOf(id).catch(() => null),
   });
 });
 
diff --git a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Chat/ChatPanelWrapper.tsx b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Chat/ChatPanelWrapper.tsx
index adc809d2..90951c2d 100644
--- a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Chat/ChatPanelWrapper.tsx
+++ b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Chat/ChatPanelWrapper.tsx
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { useCallback, useEffect, useState } from 'react';
+import { Link } from 'react-router';
 import { useWorkspace } from '../../components/Workspace';
 import { useActiveChatSession, useFilesRefresh, usePreviewRefresh } from '../../channels';
 import { useChat } from '../../hooks/useChat';
@@ -21,8 +22,30 @@ type ResumeState = {
   offset: number;
   /** Carried so the composer offers a commander's own controls here, not only in Command HQ. */
   isCommander: boolean;
+  /** The commander that started this, when one did — see `SpawnedByBar`. */
+  spawnedBy?: { sessionId: string; name: string | null } | null;
 };
 
+/**
+ * "Started by <commander>", above a transcript that was spawned rather than opened.
+ *
+ * A spawned agent has always rendered here perfectly — it writes an ordinary transcript and this view reads
+ * it like any other. What it could never say was where it came from, so somebody who followed a link into
+ * one had no way back to the conversation that owns it, and no way to tell it apart from a chat they had
+ * started themselves and forgotten.
+ *
+ * Renders nothing for the overwhelming majority of sessions, which have no parent. That is the normal case
+ * and it does not want a bar saying so.
+ */
+const SpawnedByBar = ({ parent }: { parent: { sessionId: string; name: string | null } }) => (
+  <div className="shrink-0 border-b border-border px-3 py-1.5 text-xs text-muted-foreground">
+    Started by{' '}
+    <Link to={`/command-hq/${parent.sessionId}`} className="text-foreground/80 underline hover:text-foreground">
+      {parent.name ?? 'a commander'}
+    </Link>
+  </div>
+);
+
 // Transcripts get extremely long, so only the tail is loaded up front; the chat pages older messages in
 // on scroll. Matches the /chat screen.
 const CHAT_TAIL = 20;
@@ -105,6 +128,7 @@ const ChatPanelInner = ({
   return (
     <div className="flex h-full min-h-0 flex-col">
       <AgentIdentityBar panel={agentPanel} />
+      {resume?.spawnedBy && <SpawnedByBar parent={resume.spawnedBy} />}
       <EmbeddableChat
         className="min-h-0 flex-1"
         chat={chat}
@@ -234,6 +258,7 @@ export const ChatPanelWrapper = ({ panelId, promptPrefix }: ChatPanelWrapperProp
           total: detail.total,
           offset: detail.offset,
           isCommander: detail.isCommander === true,
+          spawnedBy: detail.spawnedBy ?? null,
         });
       } catch {
         // A stale id — the transcript was deleted or pruned from under us. Open a NEW conversation rather
diff --git a/src/workspaces/state/src/useClaudeSessions.ts b/src/workspaces/state/src/useClaudeSessions.ts
index ec6d486a..9ed74eb4 100644
--- a/src/workspaces/state/src/useClaudeSessions.ts
+++ b/src/workspaces/state/src/useClaudeSessions.ts
@@ -104,6 +104,14 @@ export type ClaudeSessionDetail = {
    * to decide it from the route, so the same commander opened in /chat quietly lost it.
    */
   isCommander?: boolean;
+  /**
+   * The commander that spawned this session, if one did.
+   *
+   * Read from the row a commander already keeps of its children — so this is the parent side of a link that
+   * existed for a different reason (deleting a commander has to take its children with it). Absent for
+   * almost every conversation, and absence means "nobody spawned this", never "the lookup failed".
+   */
+  spawnedBy?: { sessionId: string; name: string | null; firstSeenAt: string; finishedAt: string | null } | null;
 };
 
 export type ClaudePwd = { cwd: string; sessionCount: number; updatedAt: string; isDefault: boolean };