diff --git a/frontend/src/components/EditorLayout.tsx b/frontend/src/components/EditorLayout.tsx
index 4fbb1da2..4a761179 100644
--- a/frontend/src/components/EditorLayout.tsx
+++ b/frontend/src/components/EditorLayout.tsx
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import { useState, useEffect, useRef, useMemo, useCallback, Suspense } from 'rea
 
 type Theme = 'light' | 'dark' | 'auto';
 import { Editor } from '@/lib/monacoLoader';
+import { useImageUpdates } from '@/hooks/useImageUpdates';
 import TerminalComponent from './Terminal';
 import ErrorBoundary from './ErrorBoundary';
 import HomeDashboard from './HomeDashboard';
@@ -354,7 +355,7 @@ export default function EditorLayout() {
 
 
   // Image update checker state
-  const [stackUpdates, setStackUpdates] = useState<Record<string, boolean>>({});
+  const { stackUpdates, refresh: fetchImageUpdates } = useImageUpdates(activeNode?.id);
   const [autoUpdateSettings, setAutoUpdateSettings] = useState<Record<string, boolean>>({});
   const isAdmiral = license?.variant === 'admiral';
 
@@ -824,13 +825,10 @@ export default function EditorLayout() {
     }
 
     refreshStacks();
-    fetchImageUpdates();
+    // Image-update fetching + 5-minute poll are owned by useImageUpdates,
+    // which mirrors this effect's activeNode.id dependency.
     fetchAutoUpdateSettings();
     refreshGitSourcePending();
-
-    // Poll for image update results every 5 minutes so background checks are picked up
-    const imageUpdateInterval = setInterval(fetchImageUpdates, 5 * 60 * 1000);
-    return () => clearInterval(imageUpdateInterval);
   }, [activeNode?.id]); // eslint-disable-line react-hooks/exhaustive-deps
 
   const fetchNotifications = async () => {
@@ -878,18 +876,6 @@ export default function EditorLayout() {
     return () => clearInterval(id);
   }, []);
 
-  const fetchImageUpdates = async () => {
-    try {
-      const res = await apiFetch('/image-updates');
-      if (res.ok) {
-        const data = await res.json();
-        setStackUpdates(data);
-      }
-    } catch (e: unknown) {
-      console.error('[ImageUpdates] fetch failed:', e);
-    }
-  };
-
   const fetchAutoUpdateSettings = async () => {
     try {
       const res = await apiFetch('/stacks/auto-update-settings');
diff --git a/frontend/src/hooks/useImageUpdates.ts b/frontend/src/hooks/useImageUpdates.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a2aa1ee5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/frontend/src/hooks/useImageUpdates.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+import { useState, useEffect, useCallback, useRef } from 'react';
+import { apiFetch } from '@/lib/api';
+
+const IMAGE_UPDATE_POLL_MS = 5 * 60 * 1000;
+
+/**
+ * Owns the stack-image-update state and its 5-minute background poll.
+ * Re-fetches whenever `activeNodeId` changes; consumers can also call
+ * `refresh()` to force a refetch (e.g. after a deploy or a manual
+ * registry-check trigger).
+ *
+ * Extracted from EditorLayout so the polling lifecycle and its state
+ * live next to each other instead of being spread across a 3000-line
+ * component. The dependency on `apiFetch` keeps the call routed
+ * through the active-node header just like before.
+ */
+export function useImageUpdates(activeNodeId: number | undefined) {
+  const [stackUpdates, setStackUpdates] = useState<Record<string, boolean>>({});
+
+  const refresh = useCallback(async () => {
+    try {
+      const res = await apiFetch('/image-updates');
+      if (res.ok) {
+        const data = await res.json() as Record<string, boolean>;
+        setStackUpdates(data);
+      }
+    } catch (e: unknown) {
+      console.error('[ImageUpdates] fetch failed:', e);
+    }
+  }, []);
+
+  // Pin the interval to the latest closure without retriggering it on
+  // every render the way putting `refresh` into the deps array would.
+  const refreshRef = useRef(refresh);
+  refreshRef.current = refresh;
+
+  useEffect(() => {
+    void refreshRef.current();
+    const id = setInterval(() => { void refreshRef.current(); }, IMAGE_UPDATE_POLL_MS);
+    return () => clearInterval(id);
+  }, [activeNodeId]);
+
+  return { stackUpdates, refresh };
+}