diff --git a/apps/desktop/scripts/diag-jump.mjs b/apps/desktop/scripts/diag-jump.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f02183cc172
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/desktop/scripts/diag-jump.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,115 @@
+// Wrap the thread scroller's properties and observe pin/scroll/RO events
+// in real time during a submit, then print the timeline.
+const list = await (await fetch('http://127.0.0.1:9222/json/list')).json()
+const tgt = list.find(t => t.type === 'page' && t.url.startsWith('http'))
+const ws = new WebSocket(tgt.webSocketDebuggerUrl)
+let id = 0
+const pending = new Map()
+ws.addEventListener('message', ev => {
+  const m = JSON.parse(ev.data)
+  if (m.id != null && pending.has(m.id)) {
+    pending.get(m.id)(m)
+    pending.delete(m.id)
+  }
+})
+await new Promise(r => ws.addEventListener('open', r))
+const send = (m, p = {}) =>
+  new Promise(r => {
+    const i = ++id
+    pending.set(i, r)
+    ws.send(JSON.stringify({ id: i, method: m, params: p }))
+  })
+const evalP = async expr => {
+  const r = await send('Runtime.evaluate', { expression: expr, returnByValue: true })
+  if (r.result?.exceptionDetails) throw new Error(r.result.exceptionDetails.text)
+  return r.result.result.value
+}
+
+await evalP(`(() => {
+  const v = document.querySelector('[data-slot="aui_thread-viewport"]')
+  if (v) v.scrollTop = v.scrollHeight
+})()`)
+await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 300))
+
+await evalP(`(() => {
+  const el = document.querySelector('[data-slot="composer-rich-input"]')
+  el.focus()
+  const r = document.createRange(); r.selectNodeContents(el); r.collapse(false)
+  window.getSelection().removeAllRanges(); window.getSelection().addRange(r)
+})()`)
+
+const text = 'short follow-up'
+for (const c of text) {
+  await send('Input.dispatchKeyEvent', { type: 'char', text: c, unmodifiedText: c })
+  await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 10))
+}
+await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 300))
+
+// Hook into the viewport scrollTop setter + scroll + RO so we see every event
+await evalP(`(() => {
+  const v = document.querySelector('[data-slot="aui_thread-viewport"]')
+  const events = []
+  window.__threadEvents = events
+  const t0 = performance.now()
+  const push = (kind, detail) => events.push({ t: performance.now() - t0, kind, ...detail })
+
+  // intercept scrollTop writes
+  const desc = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(Element.prototype, 'scrollTop')
+  Object.defineProperty(v, 'scrollTop', {
+    get() { return desc.get.call(this) },
+    set(val) {
+      push('scrollTop=', { val, fromScrollHeight: this.scrollHeight, stackTop: (new Error()).stack.split('\\n').slice(2, 5).map(s => s.trim()).join(' | ') })
+      desc.set.call(this, val)
+    },
+    configurable: true
+  })
+
+  // scroll event
+  v.addEventListener('scroll', () => {
+    push('scroll', { scrollTop: v.scrollTop, scrollHeight: v.scrollHeight })
+  }, { passive: true, capture: true })
+
+  // RO on the viewport itself
+  const ro = new ResizeObserver((entries) => {
+    for (const e of entries) {
+      push('RO', { target: e.target.getAttribute('data-slot') || e.target.tagName, h: e.contentRect.height })
+    }
+  })
+  ro.observe(v)
+  if (v.firstElementChild) ro.observe(v.firstElementChild)
+
+  // mutationobserver on the viewport
+  const mo = new MutationObserver((muts) => {
+    push('mut', { count: muts.length, added: muts.reduce((s, m) => s + m.addedNodes.length, 0), removed: muts.reduce((s, m) => s + m.removedNodes.length, 0) })
+  })
+  mo.observe(v, { childList: true, subtree: true, characterData: true })
+
+  window.__teardown = () => { ro.disconnect(); mo.disconnect() }
+  return true
+})()`)
+
+// fire Enter
+await send('Input.dispatchKeyEvent', {
+  type: 'rawKeyDown', windowsVirtualKeyCode: 13, key: 'Enter', code: 'Enter', text: '\r', unmodifiedText: '\r'
+})
+await send('Input.dispatchKeyEvent', { type: 'keyUp', windowsVirtualKeyCode: 13, key: 'Enter', code: 'Enter' })
+
+await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 1200))
+
+const events = JSON.parse(await evalP(`JSON.stringify(window.__threadEvents || [])`))
+console.log(`\n${events.length} events:`)
+for (const e of events) {
+  const t = String(e.t.toFixed(0)).padStart(5)
+  const { kind, t: _t, ...rest } = e
+  console.log(`  ${t}ms  ${kind.padEnd(12)} ${JSON.stringify(rest)}`)
+}
+
+await evalP(`window.__teardown?.()`)
+// Cancel running agent
+await evalP(`(() => {
+  for (const b of document.querySelectorAll('button')) {
+    if ((b.getAttribute('aria-label') || '').toLowerCase().includes('stop')) { b.click(); return 'stopped' }
+  }
+})()`)
+
+ws.close()
diff --git a/apps/desktop/scripts/measure-jump.mjs b/apps/desktop/scripts/measure-jump.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..1b5d88f722b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/desktop/scripts/measure-jump.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
+// Measure scroll position before and after Enter on a long thread.
+// The user's complaint: pressing Enter to submit makes the view "jump up".
+//
+// Steps:
+//   1. Scroll to the bottom of the thread
+//   2. Type a short message
+//   3. Record scroll position
+//   4. Hit Enter
+//   5. Record scroll position every 10ms for 1.5s after Enter
+//   6. Report deltas
+//
+// Usage:  node apps/desktop/scripts/measure-jump.mjs
+
+const list = await (await fetch('http://127.0.0.1:9222/json/list')).json()
+const tgt = list.find(t => t.type === 'page' && t.url.startsWith('http'))
+const ws = new WebSocket(tgt.webSocketDebuggerUrl)
+let id = 0
+const pending = new Map()
+ws.addEventListener('message', ev => {
+  const m = JSON.parse(ev.data)
+  if (m.id != null && pending.has(m.id)) {
+    pending.get(m.id)(m)
+    pending.delete(m.id)
+  }
+})
+await new Promise(r => ws.addEventListener('open', r))
+const send = (m, p = {}) =>
+  new Promise(r => {
+    const i = ++id
+    pending.set(i, r)
+    ws.send(JSON.stringify({ id: i, method: m, params: p }))
+  })
+const evalP = async expr => {
+  const r = await send('Runtime.evaluate', { expression: expr, returnByValue: true })
+  if (r.result?.exceptionDetails) throw new Error(r.result.exceptionDetails.text)
+  return r.result.result.value
+}
+
+// Scroll to bottom
+await evalP(`(() => {
+  const v = document.querySelector('[data-slot="aui_thread-viewport"]')
+  if (v) v.scrollTop = v.scrollHeight
+})()`)
+await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 300))
+
+// Focus composer and type
+await evalP(`(() => {
+  const el = document.querySelector('[data-slot="composer-rich-input"]')
+  el.focus()
+  const r = document.createRange(); r.selectNodeContents(el); r.collapse(false)
+  window.getSelection().removeAllRanges(); window.getSelection().addRange(r)
+})()`)
+
+const text = 'short follow-up message'
+for (const c of text) {
+  await send('Input.dispatchKeyEvent', { type: 'char', text: c, unmodifiedText: c })
+  await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 10))
+}
+await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 300))
+
+// Set up sampling — sample scroll position every animation frame
+await evalP(`(() => {
+  const v = document.querySelector('[data-slot="aui_thread-viewport"]')
+  window.__jumpSamples = []
+  window.__jumpStart = performance.now()
+  const tick = () => {
+    if (!v) return
+    window.__jumpSamples.push({
+      t: performance.now() - window.__jumpStart,
+      scrollTop: v.scrollTop,
+      scrollHeight: v.scrollHeight,
+      clientHeight: v.clientHeight,
+      distFromBottom: v.scrollHeight - v.scrollTop - v.clientHeight
+    })
+    if (performance.now() - window.__jumpStart < 2000) {
+      requestAnimationFrame(tick)
+    }
+  }
+  requestAnimationFrame(tick)
+})()`)
+
+// Fire Enter
+await send('Input.dispatchKeyEvent', {
+  type: 'rawKeyDown', windowsVirtualKeyCode: 13, key: 'Enter', code: 'Enter', text: '\r', unmodifiedText: '\r'
+})
+await send('Input.dispatchKeyEvent', { type: 'keyUp', windowsVirtualKeyCode: 13, key: 'Enter', code: 'Enter' })
+
+await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 2200))
+
+const samples = JSON.parse(await evalP(`JSON.stringify(window.__jumpSamples || [])`))
+console.log(`\n${samples.length} samples over 2s`)
+console.log(`\n  t(ms)  scrollTop  scrollHeight  clientHeight  distFromBottom`)
+let prev = null
+for (const s of samples) {
+  const marker = prev && Math.abs(s.scrollTop - prev.scrollTop) > 5 ? '  ← jump' : ''
+  console.log(`  ${String(s.t.toFixed(0)).padStart(5)}  ${String(s.scrollTop).padStart(9)}  ${String(s.scrollHeight).padStart(12)}  ${String(s.clientHeight).padStart(12)}  ${String(s.distFromBottom).padStart(14)}${marker}`)
+  prev = s
+}
+
+// Cancel any running agent
+await evalP(`(() => {
+  for (const b of document.querySelectorAll('button')) {
+    if ((b.getAttribute('aria-label') || '').toLowerCase().includes('stop')) { b.click(); return 'stopped' }
+  }
+  return 'no-stop'
+})()`).then(r => console.log('\ncancel:', r))
+
+ws.close()
diff --git a/apps/desktop/scripts/probe-thread.mjs b/apps/desktop/scripts/probe-thread.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..51b5965a724
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/desktop/scripts/probe-thread.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+// Probe the cloud shadows thread state — count messages, turn pairs,
+// thread height, composer state
+const list = await (await fetch('http://127.0.0.1:9222/json/list')).json()
+const tgt = list.find(t => t.type === 'page' && t.url.startsWith('http'))
+const ws = new WebSocket(tgt.webSocketDebuggerUrl)
+let id = 0
+const pending = new Map()
+ws.addEventListener('message', ev => {
+  const m = JSON.parse(ev.data)
+  if (m.id != null && pending.has(m.id)) {
+    pending.get(m.id)(m)
+    pending.delete(m.id)
+  }
+})
+await new Promise(r => ws.addEventListener('open', r))
+const send = (m, p = {}) =>
+  new Promise(r => {
+    const i = ++id
+    pending.set(i, r)
+    ws.send(JSON.stringify({ id: i, method: m, params: p }))
+  })
+
+const r = await send('Runtime.evaluate', {
+  expression: `JSON.stringify({
+    url: location.href,
+    title: document.title,
+    turnPairs: document.querySelectorAll('[data-slot="aui_turn-pair"]').length,
+    assistantMsgs: document.querySelectorAll('[data-slot="aui_assistant-message-root"]').length,
+    userMsgs: document.querySelectorAll('[data-message-role="user"], [data-slot="aui_user-message-root"]').length,
+    totalDomNodes: document.querySelectorAll('*').length,
+    threadViewportScrollHeight: document.querySelector('[data-slot="aui_thread-viewport"]')?.scrollHeight ?? null,
+    threadViewportClientHeight: document.querySelector('[data-slot="aui_thread-viewport"]')?.clientHeight ?? null,
+    threadViewportScrollTop: document.querySelector('[data-slot="aui_thread-viewport"]')?.scrollTop ?? null,
+    composer: !!document.querySelector('[data-slot="composer-rich-input"]'),
+    busy: !!document.querySelector('[aria-label*="Stop"]')
+  })`,
+  returnByValue: true
+})
+console.log(JSON.parse(r.result.result.value))
+ws.close()
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/components/assistant-ui/thread-virtualizer.tsx b/apps/desktop/src/components/assistant-ui/thread-virtualizer.tsx
index bfb7a26aa47..21cfa66f6eb 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/components/assistant-ui/thread-virtualizer.tsx
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/components/assistant-ui/thread-virtualizer.tsx
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import { ThreadPrimitive, useAuiEvent, useAuiState } from '@assistant-ui/react'
 import { useVirtualizer, type Virtualizer } from '@tanstack/react-virtual'
-import { type ComponentProps, type FC, type ReactNode, useCallback, useEffect, useMemo, useRef } from 'react'
+import { type ComponentProps, type FC, type ReactNode, useCallback, useEffect, useLayoutEffect, useMemo, useRef } from 'react'
 
 import { cn } from '@/lib/utils'
 import { setThreadScrolledUp } from '@/store/thread-scroll'
@@ -182,9 +182,25 @@ function useThreadScrollAnchor({ enabled, groupCount, scrollerRef, sessionKey, v
   // user-driven upward scroll; re-armed when they reach bottom again.
   const armedRef = useRef(true)
   const lastTopRef = useRef(0)
+  // Counter that tracks how many scroll events we expect to be ours rather
+  // than the user's. `pinToBottom` writes `el.scrollTop`, which fires an
+  // async `scroll` event; without this guard the on-scroll handler can race
+  // with the programmatic write (because content also grew, the *resulting*
+  // scrollTop can be lower than `lastTopRef` from the previous frame) and
+  // misread the programmatic pin as the user scrolling up — which disarms
+  // sticky-bottom and the user's just-submitted message slides above the
+  // fold. See `apps/desktop/scripts/measure-jump.mjs` for the repro
+  // (distFromBottom 0 → 49 within one frame, sticking forever).
+  const programmaticScrollPendingRef = useRef(0)
   const prevSessionKeyRef = useRef(sessionKey)
   const prevGroupCountRef = useRef(0)
 
+  // Track repins-in-a-row to break runaway loops during rapid layout churn.
+  // In healthy paths this drains to zero between frames; we only need the
+  // ceiling for pathological streaming bursts where content height keeps
+  // growing every frame.
+  const inFlightPinDepthRef = useRef(0)
+
   const pinToBottom = useCallback(() => {
     const el = scrollerRef.current
 
@@ -192,6 +208,8 @@ function useThreadScrollAnchor({ enabled, groupCount, scrollerRef, sessionKey, v
       return
     }
 
+    // Hold the disarm gate across the scroll event the next line will fire.
+    programmaticScrollPendingRef.current += 1
     el.scrollTop = el.scrollHeight
     lastTopRef.current = el.scrollTop
   }, [scrollerRef])
@@ -228,6 +246,45 @@ function useThreadScrollAnchor({ enabled, groupCount, scrollerRef, sessionKey, v
     const onScroll = () => {
       const top = el.scrollTop
 
+      // If this scroll event is the consequence of `pinToBottom` writing
+      // `el.scrollTop`, treat it as ours: never disarm, just consume the
+      // gate. If we landed short of bottom (because content also grew in
+      // the same frame and the browser clamped our scrollTop = scrollHeight
+      // write to the now-stale scrollHeight - clientHeight), schedule
+      // another pin on the next frame. Without this the post-pin scrollTop
+      // gets misread as the user scrolling up, disarming sticky-bottom
+      // permanently and leaving the just-submitted message below the fold.
+      if (programmaticScrollPendingRef.current > 0) {
+        programmaticScrollPendingRef.current -= 1
+        lastTopRef.current = top
+        // Stay armed regardless — sticky-bottom should hold through clamp
+        // races.
+        armedRef.current = true
+        const atBottom = el.scrollHeight - (top + el.clientHeight) <= AT_BOTTOM_THRESHOLD
+        setThreadScrolledUp(!atBottom)
+
+        if (atBottom) {
+          inFlightPinDepthRef.current = 0
+        } else if (inFlightPinDepthRef.current < 8) {
+          // Re-pin synchronously: the browser already laid out for this
+          // scroll event, so reading scrollHeight now gives us the up-to-date
+          // value and writing scrollTop lands us at the actual bottom in the
+          // same frame. Doing this in a rAF causes a 1-frame visual flicker
+          // (distFromBottom briefly nonzero), so we accept one extra
+          // synchronous pin cycle (which goes back through this very
+          // handler with the counter incremented and arm preserved). The
+          // depth guard prevents pathological runaway loops if content
+          // height keeps growing every frame; 8 is generous for any
+          // realistic rendering pattern.
+          inFlightPinDepthRef.current += 1
+          pinToBottom()
+        } else {
+          inFlightPinDepthRef.current = 0
+        }
+
+        return
+      }
+
       if (top + 1 < lastTopRef.current) {
         armedRef.current = false
       }
@@ -302,5 +359,23 @@ function useThreadScrollAnchor({ enabled, groupCount, scrollerRef, sessionKey, v
     }
   }, [enabled, groupCount, jumpToBottom, sessionKey])
 
+  // Pre-paint pin: when groupCount increases while armed (optimistic user
+  // message insert, streaming assistant turn arriving, etc.), pin BEFORE
+  // the browser commits the layout to screen. Using useLayoutEffect rather
+  // than useEffect so this runs synchronously after React commits the DOM
+  // mutation but before the browser paints. Without this, there's a ~50ms
+  // visual window where the new message sits below the fold while we wait
+  // for the ResizeObserver / scroll event chain to fire and re-pin.
+  const prevGroupCountForLayoutRef = useRef(groupCount)
+  useLayoutEffect(() => {
+    if (!enabled) {
+      return
+    }
+    if (groupCount > prevGroupCountForLayoutRef.current && armedRef.current) {
+      pinToBottom()
+    }
+    prevGroupCountForLayoutRef.current = groupCount
+  }, [enabled, groupCount, pinToBottom])
+
   useAuiEvent('thread.runStart', jumpToBottom)
 }