diff --git a/docs/specs/standalone.md b/docs/specs/standalone.md
index c2289c2aa..68bf1419d 100644
--- a/docs/specs/standalone.md
+++ b/docs/specs/standalone.md
@@ -461,6 +461,26 @@ workspaces-rollout scope (`docs/specs/layout.md` → `## Future`); restoring
 VS Code-style recovery here later is flipping that gate plus adding capture to the
 quit teardown, which already has the right ordering (flush → kill → flush → drain).
 
+The browser-dev harness carries the same gate, for the same reason plus one of its
+own: `BrowserSidecarAdapter.PERSIST_SESSION` is `false`, so `saveState` is a no-op,
+`getState` returns null, and `persistsSession` is `false`. Its `init()` also
+**deletes** the `dormouse.browser-sidecar.session` key rather than ignoring it —
+snapshots carry transcripts, and `localStorage` is keyed by browser profile rather
+than by the per-run temp state directory the harness gives every other slot
+(`standalone/scripts/dev-agent-browser.mjs`), so a blob written before the gate
+existed would otherwise outlive every run. Flip both `PERSIST_SESSION` flags
+together; a harness that restored panes across a reload would be debugging a
+save/restore path the shipped app does not take.
+
+What the gate costs on reload is the *layout*, not the Sessions. Nothing wires
+`shutdown()` to `beforeunload`, so the sidecar and its PTYs outlive a page reload
+and `lib/src/lib/reconnect.ts` still resumes over them — but it reads `getState()`
+for the saved resume plan, and with the gate on there is none, so every live PTY
+lands in one tab group with doors and saved titles dropped. Real standalone has
+always behaved this way across a WebView reload and the harness now matches it;
+the cost is just more visible here, since enabling `abDebugLogs` means reloading
+(`.claude/skills/debug-standalone-agent-browser/SKILL.md`).
+
 ## Quit flow
 
 Source of truth: `standalone/src-tauri/src/lib.rs` (`QuitState`, `request_quit`,
diff --git a/docs/specs/transport.md b/docs/specs/transport.md
index 374c52178..9d7dc8f2e 100644
--- a/docs/specs/transport.md
+++ b/docs/specs/transport.md
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ The gate runs before routing and before any body read, and an unauthorized calle
 
 The remote Host rides the same shim: `remote_host_command` is one more invoke that writes `remoteHost:command` to the sidecar, and the sidecar's `remoteHost:*` events arrive on the SSE stream, so the harness runs a real Host against a per-run temp state directory (`docs/specs/standalone.md` → "Remote Host service").
 
-The harness may omit native-only desktop chrome such as window controls and update checks, but it must preserve the `PlatformAdapter` PTY, control-request, clipboard, iframe-proxy, remote-Host, and agent-browser contracts used by the app. Tauri APIs must not be required at static module-evaluation time when `VITE_DORMOUSE_BROWSER_DEV_HOST` is set, because the page is loaded by a normal browser rather than the Tauri WebView.
+The harness may omit native-only desktop chrome such as window controls and update checks, but it must preserve the `PlatformAdapter` PTY, control-request, clipboard, iframe-proxy, remote-Host, and agent-browser contracts used by the app. It also mirrors standalone's Session-persistence answer rather than choosing its own: `BrowserSidecarAdapter` carries the same `PERSIST_SESSION = false` gate as `TauriAdapter`, reports `persistsSession: false`, and deletes any pre-gate `localStorage` blob on `init()` (`docs/specs/standalone.md` → "Standalone persists no Session state"). Persisting here would restore panes across a reload that the real app drops, and would run the record build and its per-pane `getCwd` round trip on a path production never takes. Tauri APIs must not be required at static module-evaluation time when `VITE_DORMOUSE_BROWSER_DEV_HOST` is set, because the page is loaded by a normal browser rather than the Tauri WebView.
 
 ## PTY lifecycle
 
@@ -225,8 +225,11 @@ something ends it:
 Standalone therefore **persists no Session state at all.** A clean quit has nothing
 to clear and a crash has nothing to recover; the write path itself is removed rather
 than written-then-ignored, since the blob it wrote was the transcript-bearing one.
-Live resume within a running app is unaffected — it reads the sidecar's live PTY
-list, not disk. A legacy blob found at boot is deleted, not read.
+The *Sessions* survive a reload within a running app — resume reads the sidecar's
+live PTY list, not disk — but the layout does not: `lib/src/lib/reconnect.ts` reads
+`getState()` for the saved resume plan, so with nothing persisted every live PTY
+lands in one tab group with doors and saved titles dropped. A legacy blob found at
+boot is deleted, not read.
 
 > Reserved: the workspaces-rollout scope (`docs/specs/layout.md` → `## Future`)
 > assumes a persisted `PersistedWindow` in standalone. Reconciling multi-Workspace
diff --git a/standalone/src/browser-sidecar-adapter.test.ts b/standalone/src/browser-sidecar-adapter.test.ts
index 4ef659657..165dd06d0 100644
--- a/standalone/src/browser-sidecar-adapter.test.ts
+++ b/standalone/src/browser-sidecar-adapter.test.ts
@@ -37,3 +37,50 @@ describe("BrowserSidecarAdapter capability surface", () => {
     expect(typeof adapter.onFilesDropped).toBe("function");
   });
 });
+
+// The harness must not persist Session state that production standalone drops
+// (docs/specs/standalone.md -> "Standalone persists no Session state").
+describe("BrowserSidecarAdapter session persistence", () => {
+  const KEY = "dormouse.browser-sidecar.session";
+
+  it("reports the same persistsSession as TauriAdapter", () => {
+    const harness: PlatformAdapter = new BrowserSidecarAdapter(
+      new BrowserSidecarHost("http://localhost:1234"),
+    );
+    const tauri: PlatformAdapter = new TauriAdapter();
+    expect(harness.persistsSession).toBe(tauri.persistsSession);
+    expect(harness.persistsSession).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it("does not write session state to localStorage", () => {
+    localStorage.removeItem(KEY);
+    const adapter: PlatformAdapter = new BrowserSidecarAdapter(
+      new BrowserSidecarHost("http://localhost:1234"),
+    );
+    adapter.saveState({ version: 3, panes: [], lathLayout: null });
+    expect(localStorage.getItem(KEY)).toBeNull();
+  });
+
+  it("does not restore a stale blob left by an earlier run", () => {
+    localStorage.setItem(KEY, JSON.stringify({ version: 3, panes: [], lathLayout: null }));
+    const adapter: PlatformAdapter = new BrowserSidecarAdapter(
+      new BrowserSidecarHost("http://localhost:1234"),
+    );
+    expect(adapter.getState()).toBeNull();
+    localStorage.removeItem(KEY);
+  });
+
+  it("deletes a pre-gate blob on init", async () => {
+    localStorage.setItem(KEY, JSON.stringify({ version: 3, panes: [], lathLayout: null }));
+    const host = new BrowserSidecarHost("http://localhost:1234");
+    vi.spyOn(host, "init").mockResolvedValue(undefined);
+    vi.spyOn(host, "onEvent").mockReturnValue(() => {});
+    // Claim the console-forwarder flag so init() doesn't patch console.* on the
+    // shared jsdom window for every later test in this file.
+    (window as typeof window & { __DORMOUSE_BROWSER_CONSOLE_PATCHED__?: boolean })
+      .__DORMOUSE_BROWSER_CONSOLE_PATCHED__ = true;
+    const adapter = new BrowserSidecarAdapter(host);
+    await adapter.init();
+    expect(localStorage.getItem(KEY)).toBeNull();
+  });
+});
diff --git a/standalone/src/browser-sidecar-adapter.ts b/standalone/src/browser-sidecar-adapter.ts
index f154bb092..dc893a694 100644
--- a/standalone/src/browser-sidecar-adapter.ts
+++ b/standalone/src/browser-sidecar-adapter.ts
@@ -94,6 +94,7 @@ export class BrowserSidecarAdapter implements PlatformAdapter {
   }
 
   async init(): Promise<void> {
+    this.clearPersistedState();
     await this.host.init();
     this.unlistenHost = this.host.onEvent(({ event, data }) => this.handleHostEvent(event, data));
     this.installConsoleForwarder();
@@ -253,15 +254,23 @@ export class BrowserSidecarAdapter implements PlatformAdapter {
 
   private static STATE_KEY = 'dormouse.browser-sidecar.session';
 
+  // Mirrors TauriAdapter's gate (docs/specs/standalone.md -> "Standalone persists
+  // no Session state"); flip both flags together.
+  private static PERSIST_SESSION = false;
+
+  readonly persistsSession = BrowserSidecarAdapter.PERSIST_SESSION;
+
   // See TauriAdapter: PersistedWindow when the workspaces flag is on, bare
   // PersistedSession when off; the helpers own the translation + JSON/storage
   // plumbing (docs/specs/transport.md).
   saveState(state: unknown): void {
+    if (!BrowserSidecarAdapter.PERSIST_SESSION) return;
     try { saveSessionState(localStorage, BrowserSidecarAdapter.STATE_KEY, state); }
     catch { console.error('[browser-sidecar] Failed to save session state'); }
   }
 
   getState(): unknown {
+    if (!BrowserSidecarAdapter.PERSIST_SESSION) return null;
     try {
       return loadSessionState(localStorage, BrowserSidecarAdapter.STATE_KEY);
     } catch {
@@ -269,6 +278,14 @@ export class BrowserSidecarAdapter implements PlatformAdapter {
     }
   }
 
+  // Delete (not just ignore) pre-gate blobs: they carry transcripts and localStorage
+  // outlives the harness's per-run temp state dir.
+  private clearPersistedState(): void {
+    if (BrowserSidecarAdapter.PERSIST_SESSION) return;
+    try { localStorage.removeItem(BrowserSidecarAdapter.STATE_KEY); }
+    catch { /* private-mode storage: nothing to clear */ }
+  }
+
   private handleHostEvent(event: string, data: unknown): void {
     if (event === "pty:data") {
       const { id, data: text } = data as { id: string; data: string };