diff --git a/hermes_cli/foreign_sessions.py b/hermes_cli/foreign_sessions.py
index e34fca7505..4c1983028c 100644
--- a/hermes_cli/foreign_sessions.py
+++ b/hermes_cli/foreign_sessions.py
@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ def _message_turn(message: Any) -> Optional[Tuple[str, str]]:
 
 def _first_user_line(turns: List[Tuple[str, str]]) -> Optional[str]:
     for role, text in turns:
-        if role == "user" and (line := text.strip().splitlines()[0].strip()):
+        if role == "user" and (line := text.strip().partition("\n")[0].strip()):
             return line[:_TITLE_MAX * 2]
     return None
 
diff --git a/tests/hermes_cli/test_foreign_sessions.py b/tests/hermes_cli/test_foreign_sessions.py
index a522068971..5004776be1 100644
--- a/tests/hermes_cli/test_foreign_sessions.py
+++ b/tests/hermes_cli/test_foreign_sessions.py
@@ -258,3 +258,20 @@ def test_leading_assistant_gets_single_stub(tmp_path):
     _assert_alternating(parsed["turns"])
     assert len(parsed["turns"]) == 2
     assert parsed["turns"][0]["role"] == "user"
+
+
+def test_whitespace_only_user_turn_does_not_break_discovery(tmp_path):
+    """A blank user message (image-only / tool-only turn) must not crash listing; the title
+    comes from the first non-blank user line and the blank turn is dropped."""
+    project = tmp_path / ".claude" / "projects" / "p"
+    project.mkdir(parents=True)
+    f = project / "blank.jsonl"
+    lines = [
+        {"type": "user", "sessionId": "w", "message": {"role": "user", "content": "   \n  "}},
+        {"type": "assistant", "sessionId": "w", "message": {"role": "assistant", "content": "hi"}},
+        {"type": "user", "sessionId": "w", "message": {"role": "user", "content": "real question"}},
+    ]
+    f.write_text("\n".join(json.dumps(line) for line in lines) + "\n", encoding="utf-8")
+    listed = _list_sessions("claude", project.parent)
+    assert [s.title_guess for s in listed] == ["real question"]
+    assert listed[0].turn_count == 3  # leading assistant reply gets the user stub