diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/app/chat/session-status-dot.tsx b/apps/desktop/src/app/chat/session-status-dot.tsx
index 1f457c10154dd..ab808866a8b91 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/app/chat/session-status-dot.tsx
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/app/chat/session-status-dot.tsx
@@ -66,6 +66,15 @@ const DOT_VARIANTS: Record<SessionDotState, DotVariant> = {
     role: 'status',
     title: r => r.finishedUnread
   },
+  // Hollow grey, the faintest ink the app has — nothing has ever run here. It
+  // shares the outline with `background` because both mean "open, not
+  // producing", and sits a shade dimmer because a draft is the one state that
+  // has yet to do anything at all.
+  draft: {
+    ariaLabel: r => r.draftSession,
+    className: `${DOT_BASE} border border-(--ui-text-quaternary)`,
+    title: r => r.draftSession
+  },
   // Settled: the project color, or nothing at all. An uncolored session used to
   // get a grey dot, which put a mark of the same weight as a status next to
   // every resting row and made "no color" look like a state of its own.
@@ -78,8 +87,11 @@ export interface SessionStatusDotProps {
   /** The STORED session id — the key every live-state atom (working /
    *  attention / stalled / unread / background) is keyed by, on BOTH surfaces:
    *  the sidebar row's `session.id` and a pane tile's `storedSessionId` are the
-   *  same stored id (`$workingSessionIds` et al. map `storedSessionId`). */
-  storedSessionId: string
+   *  same stored id (`$workingSessionIds` et al. map `storedSessionId`).
+   *
+   *  Null on a new chat that has yet to reach the backend — no id to key by,
+   *  and no turn behind it, which is the draft state by definition. */
+  storedSessionId: null | string
   /** The session row for color resolution — recents OR the project tree. Both
    *  call sites already hold it; passing it lets the idle dot inherit the
    *  project color even for a session older than the paginated recents page
@@ -112,7 +124,9 @@ export function SessionStatusDot({ storedSessionId, session, branchStem, classNa
 
   // Selector, not a plain useStore: the map is rebuilt whenever any session's
   // status changes, but a given dot only repaints when ITS OWN state flips.
-  const dotState = useStoreSelector($sessionDotStateById, states => states[storedSessionId] ?? 'idle')
+  const dotState = useStoreSelector($sessionDotStateById, states =>
+    storedSessionId ? (states[storedSessionId] ?? 'idle') : 'draft'
+  )
   const variant = DOT_VARIANTS[dotState]
 
   return (
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/i18n/ar.ts b/apps/desktop/src/i18n/ar.ts
index 9a6853609d06c..e2663ecef881e 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/i18n/ar.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/i18n/ar.ts
@@ -1644,6 +1644,7 @@ export const ar = defineLocale({
       needsInput: 'تحتاج إدخالا',
       waitingForAnswer: 'بانتظار إجابة',
       backgroundRunning: 'تعمل في الخلفية',
+      draftSession: 'مسودة — لم تُرسل بعد',
       finishedUnread: 'اكتملت وفيها جديد',
       hideTabBar: 'إخفاء شريط التبويبات',
       openInNewTab: 'فتح في تبويب جديد',
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/i18n/en.ts b/apps/desktop/src/i18n/en.ts
index 3c5ce76723559..cb3ac391fedb6 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/i18n/en.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/i18n/en.ts
@@ -1966,6 +1966,7 @@ export const en: Translations = {
       waitingForAnswer: 'Waiting for your answer',
       finishedUnread: 'Finished — unread',
       backgroundRunning: 'Background task running',
+      draftSession: 'Draft — nothing sent yet',
       handoffOrigin: platform => `Handed off from ${platform}`,
       ownedByProfile: profile => `Profile: ${profile}`,
       renamed: 'Renamed',
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/i18n/ja.ts b/apps/desktop/src/i18n/ja.ts
index 1d8ebb907e00f..8742c3f0dce8b 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/i18n/ja.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/i18n/ja.ts
@@ -1784,6 +1784,7 @@ export const ja = defineLocale({
       waitingForAnswer: '回答を待っています',
       finishedUnread: '完了 — 未読',
       backgroundRunning: 'バックグラウンドタスク実行中',
+      draftSession: '下書き — 未送信',
       handoffOrigin: platform => `${platform} から引き継ぎ`,
       ownedByProfile: profile => `プロファイル: ${profile}`,
       renamed: '名前を変更しました',
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/i18n/types.ts b/apps/desktop/src/i18n/types.ts
index c68958353600f..6a33c3631a52b 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/i18n/types.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/i18n/types.ts
@@ -1658,6 +1658,7 @@ export interface Translations {
       waitingForAnswer: string
       finishedUnread: string
       backgroundRunning: string
+      draftSession: string
       handoffOrigin: (platform: string) => string
       ownedByProfile: (profile: string) => string
       renamed: string
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/i18n/zh-hant.ts b/apps/desktop/src/i18n/zh-hant.ts
index b614fe8abbfd8..977eacb4e4077 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/i18n/zh-hant.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/i18n/zh-hant.ts
@@ -1726,6 +1726,7 @@ export const zhHant = defineLocale({
       waitingForAnswer: '等待您的回答',
       finishedUnread: '已完成 — 未讀',
       backgroundRunning: '背景任務執行中',
+      draftSession: '草稿 — 尚未傳送',
       handoffOrigin: platform => `從 ${platform} 轉接`,
       ownedByProfile: profile => `設定檔：${profile}`,
       renamed: '已重新命名',
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/i18n/zh.ts b/apps/desktop/src/i18n/zh.ts
index 92b7bf5cd109c..45c1b7bb7aa8c 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/i18n/zh.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/i18n/zh.ts
@@ -2158,6 +2158,7 @@ export const zh: Translations = {
       waitingForAnswer: '正在等待你的回答',
       finishedUnread: '已完成 — 未读',
       backgroundRunning: '后台任务运行中',
+      draftSession: '草稿 — 尚未发送',
       handoffOrigin: platform => `从 ${platform} 转接`,
       ownedByProfile: profile => `配置档：${profile}`,
       renamed: '已重命名',
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/store/session-dot-state.ts b/apps/desktop/src/store/session-dot-state.ts
index 3a27e41172171..2d8a56a0f7575 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/store/session-dot-state.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/store/session-dot-state.ts
@@ -23,9 +23,9 @@ import { stableRecord } from '@/lib/stable-array'
 
 import { $backgroundRunningSessionIds } from './composer-status'
 import { $sessions, $unreadFinishedSessionIds, lineageAliases } from './session'
-import { $attentionSessionIds, $stalledSessionIds, $workingSessionIds } from './session-states'
+import { $attentionSessionIds, $draftSessionIds, $stalledSessionIds, $workingSessionIds } from './session-states'
 
-export type SessionDotState = 'background' | 'idle' | 'needs-input' | 'stalled' | 'unread' | 'working'
+export type SessionDotState = 'background' | 'draft' | 'idle' | 'needs-input' | 'stalled' | 'unread' | 'working'
 
 /** The sidebar row's arc. A quiet turn is still authoritatively running, so
  *  `stalled` keeps it; a blocking prompt drops it, because the amber dot is the
@@ -46,9 +46,10 @@ export const $sessionDotStateById = computed(
     $stalledSessionIds,
     $backgroundRunningSessionIds,
     $unreadFinishedSessionIds,
+    $draftSessionIds,
     $sessions
   ],
-  (attention, working, stalled, background, unread, sessions) => {
+  (attention, working, stalled, background, unread, draft, sessions) => {
     const next: Record<string, SessionDotState> = {}
 
     const claim = (ids: readonly string[], state: SessionDotState) => {
@@ -62,6 +63,10 @@ export const $sessionDotStateById = computed(
     // Weakest claim first — each pass overwrites the one above it, so the order
     // below IS the priority order. A blocking prompt outranks everything: it is
     // the only state that needs the user.
+    //
+    // Draft is weakest of all: it says only "no turn has happened here yet", so
+    // the first thing that does happen speaks over it.
+    claim(draft, 'draft')
     claim(unread, 'unread')
     claim(background, 'background')
     claim(working, 'working')
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/store/session-states.ts b/apps/desktop/src/store/session-states.ts
index d127d6bcfc583..79020f0450bbd 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/store/session-states.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/store/session-states.ts
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ import {
   $sessions,
   $unreadFinishedSessionIds,
   lineageAliases,
+  sessionMatchesStoredId,
   setActiveSessionStoredIdRotation
 } from './session'
 import { isSecondaryWindow } from './windows'
@@ -308,6 +309,38 @@ export const $attentionSessionIds = computed(
     ))
 )
 
+// An open session nothing has ever been sent to — the ⌘T tab whose backend
+// session exists but is unlisted, or a tile still waiting on its first send.
+// `blankDraftTile`'s predicate, read as a status rather than as a slot to spend.
+//
+// The row's own `message_count` is the tiebreaker, and it is load-bearing: a
+// session RESUMING also holds an empty message list for the moment between
+// binding its runtime and loading its transcript, and calling that a draft
+// would flash the wrong mark on a conversation with years of history in it.
+let draftIds: readonly string[] = []
+export const $draftSessionIds = computed([$sessionStates, $sessions], (states, sessions) => {
+  const unsent = (state: ClientSessionState) => {
+    if (state.busy || state.messages.length > 0) {
+      return false
+    }
+
+    const storedId = state.storedSessionId
+
+    // No stored id is the ⌘T tab that hasn't reached the backend yet: a draft
+    // by definition, and no row to consult. Asking anyway would match a row on
+    // an empty lineage root.
+    if (!storedId) {
+      return true
+    }
+
+    const row = sessions.find(session => sessionMatchesStoredId(session, storedId))
+
+    return !row || row.message_count === 0
+  }
+
+  return (draftIds = stableArray(draftIds, storedIds(states, sessions, unsent)))
+})
+
 // ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 // Session tiles.
 // ---------------------------------------------------------------------------