diff --git a/agent/agent_init.py b/agent/agent_init.py
index 69d814f47dcc..95161f8cdee5 100644
--- a/agent/agent_init.py
+++ b/agent/agent_init.py
@@ -1952,8 +1952,12 @@ def init_agent(
     # parent_session_id chain, no `name #N` renumber). See #38763 and
     # agent/conversation_compression.py. Consumed by compress_context(), not the
     # compressor, so it rides on the agent.
+    # Default True must match DEFAULT_CONFIG["compression"]["in_place"]
+    # (#38763). default=False here previously flipped agents into rotation
+    # mode whenever the merged config omitted the key (partial configs,
+    # load_config failure → {}), re-arming the pre-lease drift abort.
     compression_in_place = is_truthy_value(
-        _compression_cfg.get("in_place"), default=False
+        _compression_cfg.get("in_place"), default=True
     )
     codex_app_server_auto_compaction = str(
         _compression_cfg.get("codex_app_server_auto", "native") or "native"
diff --git a/hermes_cli/dump.py b/hermes_cli/dump.py
index 9b6685ae5e7c..e8ed12963e69 100644
--- a/hermes_cli/dump.py
+++ b/hermes_cli/dump.py
@@ -243,6 +243,7 @@ def _config_overrides(config: dict) -> dict[str, str]:
         ("browser", "allow_private_urls"),
         ("compression", "enabled"),
         ("compression", "threshold"),
+        ("compression", "in_place"),
         ("display", "streaming"),
         ("display", "skin"),
         ("display", "show_reasoning"),