diff --git a/web/GiteaFrame.tsx b/web/GiteaFrame.tsx
index 3d120e6..e8f8f4a 100644
--- a/web/GiteaFrame.tsx
+++ b/web/GiteaFrame.tsx
@@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
 import { useEffect, useState } from 'react';
-import { Link, useParams } from 'react-router';
-import { ExternalLink, Loader2, Plug, TriangleAlert } from 'lucide-react';
+import { useParams } from 'react-router';
+import { Loader2, TriangleAlert } from 'lucide-react';
 import { useClient } from 'hooks/useClient';
-import { Button } from '@/components/ui/button';
 import { GiteaConnection, type ConnectionState } from './GiteaConnection';
 
 // Gitea's own web interface, rendered in place.
@@ -99,22 +98,6 @@ export const GiteaFrame = () => {
       {/* The escape hatch, and it is not an admission of defeat: the whole point of proxying an app that
           already has a UI is that its own UI stays available. Anything the frame handles badly, this
           opens properly. */}
-      <div className="absolute right-3 top-3 z-10 flex gap-1.5 opacity-60 transition-opacity hover:opacity-100">
-        {/* A real link, not a button: it is navigation, and it should be cmd-clickable like any other. */}
-        <Button size="sm" variant="outline" asChild title="Connection settings">
-          <Link to="/gitea/connection">
-            <Plug className="h-3.5 w-3.5" />
-          </Link>
-        </Button>
-        <Button
-          size="sm"
-          variant="outline"
-          onClick={() => window.open(FRAME_SRC, '_blank', 'noopener')}
-          title="Open Gitea in a new tab"
-        >
-          <ExternalLink className="h-3.5 w-3.5" />
-        </Button>
-      </div>
       <iframe
         src={FRAME_SRC}
         title="Gitea"
diff --git a/web/GiteaViewHeader.tsx b/web/GiteaViewHeader.tsx
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..89e4901
--- /dev/null
+++ b/web/GiteaViewHeader.tsx
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+import { Link, useParams } from 'react-router';
+import { ExternalLink, GitBranch, Plug } from 'lucide-react';
+
+// The panel header, which is where the settings live.
+//
+// They were floating buttons over the top-right of the iframe first, and that was wrong twice: they sit
+// on top of Gitea's own controls, and an overlay on an application that fills its panel is invisible
+// until you already know it is there. The header is the platform's own furniture — always present, never
+// competing with the content underneath.
+
+const FRAME_SRC = '/api/gitea/_web/';
+
+export const GiteaViewHeader = () => {
+  const { section } = useParams();
+  const onConnection = section === 'connection';
+
+  return (
+    <>
+      <GitBranch className="h-3.5 w-3.5 shrink-0" />
+      <span className="flex-1 truncate text-xs font-medium">{onConnection ? 'Gitea — connection' : 'Gitea'}</span>
+
+      {/* Real links, so they are cmd-clickable like any other navigation. */}
+      <Link
+        to={onConnection ? '/gitea' : '/gitea/connection'}
+        title={onConnection ? 'Back to Gitea' : 'Connection settings'}
+        className="rounded p-1 text-muted-foreground transition-colors hover:bg-muted hover:text-foreground"
+      >
+        <Plug className="h-3.5 w-3.5" />
+      </Link>
+      <a
+        href={FRAME_SRC}
+        target="_blank"
+        rel="noopener"
+        title="Open Gitea in a new tab"
+        className="rounded p-1 text-muted-foreground transition-colors hover:bg-muted hover:text-foreground"
+      >
+        <ExternalLink className="h-3.5 w-3.5" />
+      </a>
+    </>
+  );
+};
diff --git a/web/panels.ts b/web/panels.ts
index 37864db..5ecb064 100644
--- a/web/panels.ts
+++ b/web/panels.ts
@@ -1,11 +1,22 @@
 import type { AppRegistryMeta } from 'officerdev';
 import { GitBranch } from 'lucide-react';
 import { GiteaFrame } from './GiteaFrame';
+import { GiteaViewHeader } from './GiteaViewHeader';
 
 // ONE panel, where the old screen had seventeen files behind two.
 //
 // There is no nav panel because Gitea has its own, inside the frame. A second navigation beside it would
 // be two things claiming to say where you are, and the one that could not actually move you.
 export const appRegistryMetas: AppRegistryMeta[] = [
-  { key: 'gitea-frame', name: 'Gitea', icon: GitBranch, component: GiteaFrame, availableOnPanel: false },
+  {
+    key: 'gitea-frame',
+    name: 'Gitea',
+    icon: GitBranch,
+    component: GiteaFrame,
+    // The settings live in the HEADER, not floating over the frame: an overlay on an application that
+    // fills its own panel sits on top of that application's controls, and is invisible until you already
+    // know it is there.
+    header: GiteaViewHeader,
+    availableOnPanel: false,
+  },
 ];