diff --git a/agent/conversation_loop.py b/agent/conversation_loop.py
index a234213e32ca..2f452cadb49b 100644
--- a/agent/conversation_loop.py
+++ b/agent/conversation_loop.py
@@ -5865,6 +5865,17 @@ def run_conversation(
                 # Save session log incrementally (so progress is visible even if interrupted)
                 agent._session_messages = messages
                 
+                # Touch activity before continuing so the gateway's
+                # inactivity monitor never sees a stale timestamp
+                # between tool completion and the start of the next
+                # API call.  Without this, a tool-call result (which
+                # takes ~0s to process) followed by slow post-tool
+                # processing (compression, persist) and a slow
+                # follow-up API call can exceed the gateway inactivity
+                # timeout (HERMES_AGENT_TIMEOUT, default 1800s) and the
+                # gateway kills the session before the next activity
+                # touch fires (#69559, #69131).
+                agent._touch_activity(f"tool results posted, continuing iteration #{api_call_count}")
                 # Continue loop for next response
                 continue