diff --git a/frontend-modern/src/api/__tests__/aiChat.test.ts b/frontend-modern/src/api/__tests__/aiChat.test.ts
index 76f709c83..abc7e9390 100644
--- a/frontend-modern/src/api/__tests__/aiChat.test.ts
+++ b/frontend-modern/src/api/__tests__/aiChat.test.ts
@@ -323,6 +323,67 @@ describe('AIChatAPI', () => {
     });
   });
 
+  it('runs the status-boundary dev stream fixture without opening a provider request', async () => {
+    const onEvent = vi.fn();
+
+    await AIChatAPI.chat(
+      '/fixture status-boundary',
+      undefined,
+      'openrouter:qwen/qwen3.7-plus',
+      onEvent,
+    );
+
+    expect(apiFetchMock).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(onEvent.mock.calls.map(([event]) => event.type)).toEqual([
+      'session',
+      'workflow_state',
+      'workflow_state',
+      'tool_start',
+      'tool_end',
+      'workflow_state',
+      'content',
+      'done',
+    ]);
+    expect(onEvent.mock.calls[2][0]).toMatchObject({
+      type: 'workflow_state',
+      data: {
+        phase: 'context',
+        message: 'Reading current Pulse inventory with pulse_query.',
+        tool: 'pulse_query',
+      },
+    });
+    expect(onEvent.mock.calls[4][0]).toMatchObject({
+      type: 'tool_end',
+      data: {
+        id: 'fixture-tool-status-boundary',
+        name: 'pulse_query',
+        output: expect.stringContaining('"devices":3'),
+        success: true,
+      },
+    });
+    expect(onEvent.mock.calls[5][0]).toMatchObject({
+      type: 'workflow_state',
+      data: {
+        phase: 'provider_start',
+        message: 'Sent request to OpenRouter; waiting for the first token.',
+        model: 'openrouter:qwen/qwen3.7-plus',
+      },
+    });
+    expect(onEvent.mock.calls[6][0]).toMatchObject({
+      type: 'content',
+      data: {
+        text: expect.stringContaining('inventory status row stable'),
+      },
+    });
+    expect(onEvent.mock.calls[7][0]).toMatchObject({
+      type: 'done',
+      data: {
+        session_id: 'dev-fixture-status-boundary',
+        model: 'openrouter:qwen/qwen3.7-plus',
+      },
+    });
+  });
+
   it('fails unknown dev fixture prompts locally instead of sending them to a provider', async () => {
     const onEvent = vi.fn();
 
diff --git a/frontend-modern/src/api/aiChatDevStreamFixture.ts b/frontend-modern/src/api/aiChatDevStreamFixture.ts
index 650912b3f..66fa9783e 100644
--- a/frontend-modern/src/api/aiChatDevStreamFixture.ts
+++ b/frontend-modern/src/api/aiChatDevStreamFixture.ts
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ export const AI_CHAT_DEV_STREAM_FIXTURE_PROMPTS = [
   '/fixture assistant-stream',
   '/fixture tool-burst',
   '/fixture context-group',
+  '/fixture status-boundary',
   '/fixture pending-tool',
   '/fixture provider-retry',
   '/fixture stream-idle',
@@ -372,6 +373,71 @@ const buildContextGroupFixtureEvents = (model?: string): AIChatStreamEvent[] =>
   },
 ];
 
+const buildStatusBoundaryFixtureEvents = (model?: string): AIChatStreamEvent[] => [
+  {
+    type: 'session',
+    data: { id: 'dev-fixture-status-boundary' },
+  },
+  {
+    type: 'workflow_state',
+    data: {
+      phase: 'request_start',
+      message: 'Preparing Pulse context.',
+    },
+  },
+  {
+    type: 'workflow_state',
+    data: {
+      phase: 'context',
+      message: 'Reading current Pulse inventory with pulse_query.',
+      tool: 'pulse_query',
+    },
+  },
+  {
+    type: 'tool_start',
+    data: {
+      id: 'fixture-tool-status-boundary',
+      name: 'pulse_query',
+      input: '{"query":"devices"}',
+      raw_input: 'pulse_query(query="devices")',
+    },
+  },
+  {
+    type: 'tool_end',
+    data: {
+      id: 'fixture-tool-status-boundary',
+      name: 'pulse_query',
+      input: '{"query":"devices"}',
+      raw_input: 'pulse_query(query="devices")',
+      output: '{"devices":3,"source":"fixture"}',
+      success: true,
+    },
+  },
+  {
+    type: 'workflow_state',
+    data: {
+      phase: 'provider_start',
+      message: 'Sent request to OpenRouter; waiting for the first token.',
+      model: assistantFixtureModel(model),
+    },
+  },
+  {
+    type: 'content',
+    data: {
+      text: 'The status-boundary fixture kept the inventory status row stable before the provider wait row.',
+    },
+  },
+  {
+    type: 'done',
+    data: {
+      session_id: 'dev-fixture-status-boundary',
+      model: assistantFixtureModel(model),
+      input_tokens: 74,
+      output_tokens: 21,
+    },
+  },
+];
+
 const buildPendingToolFixtureEvents = (model?: string): AIChatStreamEvent[] => [
   {
     type: 'session',
@@ -717,6 +783,9 @@ const buildFixtureEvents = (prompt: string, model?: string): AIChatStreamEvent[]
   if (normalized === '/fixture context-group') {
     return buildContextGroupFixtureEvents(model);
   }
+  if (normalized === '/fixture status-boundary') {
+    return buildStatusBoundaryFixtureEvents(model);
+  }
   if (normalized === '/fixture pending-tool') {
     return buildPendingToolFixtureEvents(model);
   }
diff --git a/frontend-modern/src/components/AI/Chat/MessageItem.tsx b/frontend-modern/src/components/AI/Chat/MessageItem.tsx
index 140f1d974..ca129e349 100644
--- a/frontend-modern/src/components/AI/Chat/MessageItem.tsx
+++ b/frontend-modern/src/components/AI/Chat/MessageItem.tsx
@@ -27,10 +27,6 @@ import { getAssistantAnswerText } from './assistantAnswerText';
 import { stripAssistantOutputArtifacts } from './assistantOutputHygiene';
 import { formatAssistantWorkflowStatus, isInitialRequestStartStatus } from './activeTurnStatus';
 import { groupStreamEventsForDisplay } from './streamEventGrouping';
-import {
-  latestWorkflowStatus,
-  normalizeWorkflowStatusSequence,
-} from './workflowStatusPresentation';
 import type {
   ChatMessage,
   ModelRouteRecoveryOption,
@@ -383,19 +379,6 @@ export const MessageItem: Component<MessageItemProps> = (props) => {
   const workflowStatusText = createMemo(() =>
     formatWorkflowStatus(props.message.workflowStatus, true),
   );
-  const workflowStatusSequence = (status?: WorkflowStatus) =>
-    normalizeWorkflowStatusSequence([...(props.message.workflowStatusHistory || []), status]);
-  const WorkflowStatusText: Component<{
-    status?: WorkflowStatus;
-    includeElapsed?: boolean;
-  }> = (statusProps) => {
-    const statuses = createMemo(() => workflowStatusSequence(statusProps.status));
-    const displayedStatus = createMemo(() => latestWorkflowStatus(statuses()));
-    const text = createMemo(() =>
-      formatWorkflowStatus(displayedStatus(), statusProps.includeElapsed),
-    );
-    return <>{text()}</>;
-  };
   const shouldShowHeaderWorkflowStatus = () =>
     props.message.isStreaming &&
     !isWaitingForFirstToken() &&
@@ -511,9 +494,7 @@ export const MessageItem: Component<MessageItemProps> = (props) => {
                   aria-live="polite"
                 >
                   <span class="h-1.5 w-1.5 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-blue-500 animate-pulse" />
-                  <span class="truncate">
-                    <WorkflowStatusText status={props.message.workflowStatus} includeElapsed />
-                  </span>
+                  <span class="truncate">{workflowStatusText()}</span>
                 </span>
               </Show>
               <Show when={canCopy()}>
@@ -549,9 +530,7 @@ export const MessageItem: Component<MessageItemProps> = (props) => {
                     />
                   </span>
                   <Show when={workflowStatusText()} fallback={<span>Thinking...</span>}>
-                    <span>
-                      <WorkflowStatusText status={props.message.workflowStatus} includeElapsed />
-                    </span>
+                    <span>{workflowStatusText()}</span>
                   </Show>
                 </div>
               </Show>
@@ -599,10 +578,7 @@ export const MessageItem: Component<MessageItemProps> = (props) => {
                               aria-hidden="true"
                             />
                             <span class="min-w-0 truncate">
-                              <WorkflowStatusText
-                                status={evt?.workflowStatus}
-                                includeElapsed={props.message.isStreaming}
-                              />
+                              {formatWorkflowStatus(evt?.workflowStatus, props.message.isStreaming)}
                             </span>
                           </div>
                         </Match>
diff --git a/frontend-modern/src/components/AI/Chat/__tests__/MessageItem.test.tsx b/frontend-modern/src/components/AI/Chat/__tests__/MessageItem.test.tsx
index eaede5b56..1f6ad9560 100644
--- a/frontend-modern/src/components/AI/Chat/__tests__/MessageItem.test.tsx
+++ b/frontend-modern/src/components/AI/Chat/__tests__/MessageItem.test.tsx
@@ -789,6 +789,65 @@ describe('MessageItem', () => {
       ).toBeInTheDocument();
     });
 
+    it('keeps separated transcript workflow rows tied to their own streamed status', () => {
+      vi.useFakeTimers();
+      vi.setSystemTime(2_000);
+
+      const workflowStatusHistory = [
+        {
+          phase: 'context',
+          message: 'Reading current Pulse inventory with pulse_query.',
+          tool: 'pulse_query',
+          startedAt: 1_100,
+        },
+        {
+          phase: 'provider_start',
+          message: 'Sent request to OpenRouter; waiting for the first token.',
+          startedAt: 1_300,
+        },
+      ];
+
+      render(() => (
+        <MessageItem
+          message={makeMessage({
+            role: 'assistant',
+            content: '',
+            isStreaming: true,
+            pendingTools: [],
+            workflowStatusHistory,
+            streamEvents: [
+              {
+                type: 'workflow_status',
+                workflowStatus: workflowStatusHistory[0],
+              },
+              {
+                type: 'tool',
+                tool: {
+                  name: 'pulse_query',
+                  input: '{}',
+                  output: '3 devices found',
+                  success: true,
+                },
+              },
+              {
+                type: 'workflow_status',
+                workflowStatus: workflowStatusHistory[1],
+              },
+            ],
+            workflowStatus: workflowStatusHistory[1],
+          })}
+          {...makeHandlers()}
+        />
+      ));
+
+      expect(screen.getByText('Reading current Pulse inventory.')).toBeInTheDocument();
+      expect(screen.getByText('3 devices found')).toBeInTheDocument();
+      expect(
+        screen.getByText('Sent request to OpenRouter; waiting for the first token.'),
+      ).toBeInTheDocument();
+      expect(screen.queryByText(/pulse_query/)).not.toBeInTheDocument();
+    });
+
     it('hides stale workflow progress after visible content starts', () => {
       render(() => (
         <MessageItem