diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/lib/chat-messages.test.ts b/apps/desktop/src/lib/chat-messages.test.ts
index 6ddabbe9b38..d6bfd77525a 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/lib/chat-messages.test.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/lib/chat-messages.test.ts
@@ -220,6 +220,19 @@ describe('toChatMessages', () => {
     expect(chatMessageText(message)).toBe('@file:foo.ts\n\nlook')
   })
 
+  it('leaves an inline @ ref in place instead of hoisting a duplicate', () => {
+    const [message] = toChatMessages([
+      {
+        role: 'user',
+        content:
+          'summarize @file:`src/main.ts` for me\n\n--- Attached Context ---\n\n📄 @file:`src/main.ts` (10 tokens)\n```ts\nconst x = 1\n```',
+        timestamp: 1
+      }
+    ])
+
+    expect(chatMessageText(message)).toBe('summarize @file:`src/main.ts` for me')
+  })
+
   it('projects durable timeline kinds without inspecting their text', () => {
     const messages = toChatMessages([
       { role: 'user', content: 'real user turn', timestamp: 1 },
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/lib/chat-messages.ts b/apps/desktop/src/lib/chat-messages.ts
index f0d8e2b7c64..13cca5b511b 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/lib/chat-messages.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/lib/chat-messages.ts
@@ -311,7 +311,12 @@ function displayContentForMessage(role: SessionMessage['role'], content: unknown
   const attachedContext = textContent.slice(marker.index + marker[0].length)
   const refs = [...new Set(Array.from(attachedContext.matchAll(CONTEXT_REF_RE)).map(match => match[0]))]
 
-  return [refs.join('\n'), visibleText].filter(Boolean).join('\n\n') || visibleText
+  // The prose keeps the `@file:` token the user typed, so it already chips in
+  // place. Only hoist a ref the prose is missing — a turn persisted by an older
+  // backend that stripped the tokens. Re-listing an inline ref would chip twice.
+  const missing = refs.filter(ref => !visibleText.includes(ref))
+
+  return [missing.join('\n'), visibleText].filter(Boolean).join('\n\n') || visibleText
 }
 
 function transcriptContent(displayKind: SessionMessage['display_kind'], content: string): string | null {