diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/store/coding-status.ts b/apps/desktop/src/store/coding-status.ts
index fa52453023..9c725f963a 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/store/coding-status.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/store/coding-status.ts
@@ -11,7 +11,13 @@ import {
   ALL_PROJECTS,
   projectRootCwd
 } from './projects'
-import { $busy, $currentCwd, $selectedStoredSessionId } from './session'
+import {
+  $busy,
+  $currentCwd,
+  $selectedStoredSessionId,
+  $workspaceCwdOwner,
+  workspaceCwdBelongsToSelectedSession
+} from './session'
 import { $focusedRuntimeId, $sessionStates } from './session-states'
 import { $workspaceChangeTick } from './workspace-events'
 
@@ -40,10 +46,13 @@ export const $repoWorktreesByCwd = atom<Record<string, HermesGitWorktree[]>>({})
 // The PRIMARY (main pane) view — the active session's slice of the per-cwd
 // truth. Existing consumers (keybind gate, base-branch picker, file tree) keep
 // reading these; only surfaces that can live in ANOTHER worktree (tile rails)
-// need the per-cwd accessors below.
+// need the per-cwd accessors below. During a conversation switch `$currentCwd`
+// can still name the previous conversation's path, so ownership hides only this
+// primary slice; the per-cwd cache stays available to any tile that genuinely
+// owns that worktree (#71254).
 export const $repoStatus: ReadableAtom<HermesRepoStatus | null> = computed(
-  [$repoStatusByCwd, $currentCwd],
-  (byCwd, cwd) => byCwd[normalizeCwd(cwd) ?? ''] ?? null
+  [$repoStatusByCwd, $currentCwd, $selectedStoredSessionId, $workspaceCwdOwner],
+  (byCwd, cwd) => (workspaceCwdBelongsToSelectedSession() ? (byCwd[normalizeCwd(cwd) ?? ''] ?? null) : null)
 )
 
 export const $repoStatusLoading = atom(false)
@@ -51,8 +60,9 @@ export const $repoStatusLoading = atom(false)
 // The repo's real worktrees (for the coding rail's "jump to a worktree" menu).
 // Refreshed on the same edges as the status probe; empty off a repo.
 export const $repoWorktrees: ReadableAtom<HermesGitWorktree[]> = computed(
-  [$repoWorktreesByCwd, $currentCwd],
-  (byCwd, cwd) => byCwd[normalizeCwd(cwd) ?? ''] ?? EMPTY_WORKTREES
+  [$repoWorktreesByCwd, $currentCwd, $selectedStoredSessionId, $workspaceCwdOwner],
+  (byCwd, cwd) =>
+    workspaceCwdBelongsToSelectedSession() ? (byCwd[normalizeCwd(cwd) ?? ''] ?? EMPTY_WORKTREES) : EMPTY_WORKTREES
 )
 
 // Reference-stable per-cwd slices, so any number of rails can each subscribe
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/store/session.ts b/apps/desktop/src/store/session.ts
index b21fa6875e..24a0b8beff 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/store/session.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/store/session.ts
@@ -505,6 +505,28 @@ export const $currentFastMode = atom(storedBoolean(COMPOSER_FAST_KEY, false))
 // reflection of the truth the gateway reports rather than its own store.
 export const $yoloActive = atom(false)
 export const $currentCwd = atom(getRememberedWorkspaceCwd())
+
+// Which conversation the live `$currentCwd` is known to describe. Three
+// inhabitants, and the difference between the last two is load-bearing:
+// a stored-session id (that conversation owns the path), `null` (the fresh-draft
+// state, which MATCHES a null selection and therefore reads as OWNED — a draft's
+// workspace is immediately usable), and the released marker
+// `WORKSPACE_CWD_UNOWNED` below, which matches no selection and so reads as
+// owned by nobody. `null` cannot double as the release value precisely because
+// it matches: releasing to `null` while a draft is selected would hand the
+// leftover path to the draft as its own workspace.
+//
+// A conversation switch publishes the new stored id immediately, but the new
+// workspace only arrives when the resume settles, so for that whole window
+// `$currentCwd` still holds the PREVIOUS conversation's folder. Without a way to
+// say "this path is not this conversation's yet", workspace-derived surfaces
+// treat the leftover path as authoritative and show the old repo's cached Git
+// facts under the newly selected chat (#71254).
+//
+// Ownership, not emptiness, is what makes the switch atomic: clearing the path
+// would collapse the workspace panes and drop file-tree state on every switch,
+// so the path stays put and is simply marked as not-yet-owned.
+export const $workspaceCwdOwner = atom<null | string>(null)
 export const $newChatWorkspaceTarget = atom<NewChatWorkspaceTarget>(undefined)
 export const $newChatWorkspaceTargetGeneration = atom(0)
 export const $currentBranch = atom('')
@@ -628,6 +650,49 @@ export const setCurrentCwd = (next: Updater<string>) => {
 
 export const setCurrentCwdTransient = (next: Updater<string>) => updateAtom($currentCwd, next)
 
+// Released-ownership marker: the live path belongs to no conversation. `null`
+// cannot serve as the release value because it MATCHES a fresh draft (whose
+// selected id is also null), which would declare a leftover path to be the
+// draft's own workspace — #71254, one selection over. Kept here beside the atom
+// and the comparison so a release site cannot reinvent a subtly different value.
+const WORKSPACE_CWD_UNOWNED = 'desktop:workspace-cwd-unowned'
+
+/** Mark the live workspace as belonging to `storedSessionId`.
+ *
+ *  Call this wherever a cwd is established for a conversation (resume settling,
+ *  a warm switch, an explicit folder pick). Until it is called for the newly
+ *  selected conversation, primary workspace-derived selectors hide the previous
+ *  conversation's cached facts rather than publishing them (#71254).
+ */
+export const setWorkspaceCwdOwner = (storedSessionId: null | string) => updateAtom($workspaceCwdOwner, storedSessionId)
+
+/** Declare that no conversation owns the live workspace path.
+ *
+ *  For a conversation whose workspace is not known yet: the path on screen is
+ *  provably still the previous conversation's, so workspace-derived surfaces must
+ *  hide it rather than adopt it. The path itself is deliberately left alone —
+ *  clearing it would collapse the workspace/review panes and drop file-tree
+ *  state on every switch.
+ */
+export const releaseWorkspaceCwdOwner = () => updateAtom($workspaceCwdOwner, WORKSPACE_CWD_UNOWNED)
+
+/** Commit `cwd` as the workspace of the conversation the user is looking at.
+ *
+ *  The single primitive for "this path IS the selected conversation's" — a folder
+ *  pick, a project entry, the agent relocating itself. Prefer it over a bare
+ *  `setCurrentCwd`, which moves the path while leaving ownership naming whatever
+ *  held it before; workspace-derived slices then stay hidden even though the
+ *  path is correct (#71254).
+ */
+export const commitWorkspaceCwdForSelectedSession = (cwd: string) => {
+  setCurrentCwd(cwd)
+  setWorkspaceCwdOwner($selectedStoredSessionId.get())
+}
+
+/** True when `$currentCwd` is known to describe the selected conversation. */
+export const workspaceCwdBelongsToSelectedSession = (): boolean =>
+  ($workspaceCwdOwner.get() ?? null) === ($selectedStoredSessionId.get() ?? null)
+
 export const setNewChatWorkspaceTarget = (next: NewChatWorkspaceTarget): number => {
   const generation = $newChatWorkspaceTargetGeneration.get() + 1
   $newChatWorkspaceTarget.set(next)