diff --git a/app/androidApp/src/main/kotlin/com/example/aiapp/SessionScreen.kt b/app/androidApp/src/main/kotlin/com/example/aiapp/SessionScreen.kt
index 1b26881..b3ae262 100644
--- a/app/androidApp/src/main/kotlin/com/example/aiapp/SessionScreen.kt
+++ b/app/androidApp/src/main/kotlin/com/example/aiapp/SessionScreen.kt
@@ -1375,13 +1375,7 @@ private fun UserBubble(
             modifier = Modifier.align(Alignment.CenterEnd).padding(start = 48.dp),
         ) {
             Column(Modifier.padding(12.dp)) {
-                // Above the words, in the order they were composed: the picture was attached
-                // before the sentence about it was typed, and it is what the sentence refers to.
-                images.forEach { ref ->
-                    SessionImage(settings, sessionId, ref)
-                    Spacer(Modifier.height(4.dp))
-                }
-                // A message can be nothing but an attachment, and an empty line under a picture
+                // A message can be nothing but an attachment, and an empty line above a picture
                 // is a bubble with a gap in it for a sentence nobody wrote.
                 if (text.isNotEmpty()) {
                     Text(
@@ -1391,6 +1385,13 @@ private fun UserBubble(
                             else MaterialTheme.colorScheme.onPrimaryContainer,
                     )
                 }
+                // Under the words: what somebody wrote is what the bubble is, and the picture is
+                // what they attached to it. It also keeps the first line of every bubble at the
+                // same place down the transcript, whether or not there is an image in it.
+                images.forEachIndexed { index, ref ->
+                    if (index > 0 || text.isNotEmpty()) Spacer(Modifier.height(4.dp))
+                    SessionImage(settings, sessionId, ref)
+                }
             }
         }
     }
diff --git a/server/src/session/claude.rs b/server/src/session/claude.rs
index ed57340..5d1ad50 100644
--- a/server/src/session/claude.rs
+++ b/server/src/session/claude.rs
@@ -448,7 +448,21 @@ impl ClaudeDriver {
     /// saying so here would be this side's guess standing in for its
     /// measurement.
     fn local_command(&self, text: String) {
-        self.queue.lock().unwrap().running = true;
+        let mut queue = self.queue.lock().unwrap();
+        // The same check `send_user_message` makes, for the same reason: a
+        // line written into a fifo nothing is reading goes nowhere and looks
+        // exactly like one that arrived. `Commands::submit` refuses a
+        // session already known to have exited, so what this catches is the
+        // process going away between that check and this write.
+        if queue.closed {
+            drop(queue);
+            let _ = self.sink.send(Event::Error {
+                message: format!("this session's process has exited, so it can't run {text}"),
+            });
+            return;
+        }
+        queue.running = true;
+        drop(queue);
         self.send_line(
             json!({"type": "user", "message": {"role": "user", "content": [
                 {"type": "text", "text": text}
diff --git a/server/src/session/mod.rs b/server/src/session/mod.rs
index 478fe8d..406f7c0 100644
--- a/server/src/session/mod.rs
+++ b/server/src/session/mod.rs
@@ -194,11 +194,28 @@ struct Commands {
 }
 
 impl Commands {
-    /// Runs `command` now if the session is between turns, and otherwise
-    /// holds it until it is. Either way the phone is told which happened.
+    /// Runs `command` now if the session is between turns, holds it until
+    /// it is, and refuses it outright if there will never be one. Whichever
+    /// happened, the phone is told.
     fn submit(&self, command: SessionCommand, status: SessionStatus) {
         let id = random_hex();
         let text = command.label();
+        // A session whose process is gone has no next boundary, so holding
+        // this would hold it forever: the phone draws a waiting bubble that
+        // nothing will ever resolve, and nothing anywhere says why. The
+        // message path has always answered this case -- see
+        // `ClaudeDriver::send_user_message` -- and a command owes the same
+        // answer, since what makes it unanswerable is the same fact.
+        //
+        // `Unknown` is not refused. It means nobody could find out whether
+        // the process is alive, and it resolves itself, so refusing on it
+        // would turn "we don't know" into "it's gone".
+        if status == SessionStatus::Exited {
+            let _ = self.sink.send(Event::Error {
+                message: format!("this session's process has exited, so it can't run {text}"),
+            });
+            return;
+        }
         if status == SessionStatus::Idle {
             let _ = self.sink.send(Event::CommandSent { id, text });
             command.apply(self.driver.as_ref());
@@ -1553,6 +1570,48 @@ mod tests {
         assert!(!DriverKind::LlamaCpp.keeps_own_transcript());
     }
 
+    /// A command sent to a session whose process is gone says so, rather
+    /// than waiting for a boundary that will never come.
+    ///
+    /// Held commands drain at the next idle, and an exited session has no
+    /// next idle -- so this used to leave a `/clear` in the queue forever,
+    /// drawn on the phone as a waiting bubble with nothing to resolve it and
+    /// nothing anywhere saying why. A *message* sent to the same session
+    /// reported the exit immediately, which is what made the silence on the
+    /// command path visible: the same session answered one and swallowed the
+    /// other.
+    ///
+    /// `Unknown` still waits, deliberately: nobody could find out whether
+    /// the process is there, and refusing on it would turn "we don't know"
+    /// into "it's gone".
+    #[test]
+    fn a_command_is_refused_when_there_can_be_no_boundary() {
+        let dir = tempfile::tempdir().expect("tempdir");
+        let (sink, mut events) = mpsc::unbounded_channel();
+        let commands = Commands {
+            driver: Arc::new(EchoDriver::new(sink.clone(), dir.path().to_path_buf())),
+            sink,
+            waiting: Mutex::new(VecDeque::new()),
+        };
+
+        // The driver announces itself when it is built; that is not what
+        // this test is about.
+        while events.try_recv().is_ok() {}
+
+        commands.submit(SessionCommand::Clear, SessionStatus::Exited);
+        assert!(
+            matches!(events.try_recv(), Ok(Event::Error { .. })),
+            "an exited session held the command instead of refusing it"
+        );
+        assert!(commands.waiting.lock().unwrap().is_empty());
+
+        commands.submit(SessionCommand::Clear, SessionStatus::Running);
+        assert!(matches!(events.try_recv(), Ok(Event::CommandQueued { .. })));
+        commands.submit(SessionCommand::Clear, SessionStatus::Unknown);
+        assert!(matches!(events.try_recv(), Ok(Event::CommandQueued { .. })));
+        assert_eq!(commands.waiting.lock().unwrap().len(), 2);
+    }
+
     /// The two transitions worth interrupting somebody for, and the ones
     /// that look like them and are not.
     ///