@@ -81,16 +81,20 @@ URL, in terminal scrollback, and in whatever got pasted while asking for help. T
 
 So a server configured with `--external-host` enforces a **12-hour session lifetime on its own
 side of the wire**. It is checked before the token, so an expired session and a wrong one get the
-same refusal. There are two exceptions, and both are for the stop. A halt that carries the
-session cookie and the halt token is accepted past the lifetime (#983): a console left running
-overnight must still be able to stop trading. And a read of Pulse (`/api/pulse`) that carries
-this session's cookie is refused as expired, but the refusal carries the HALT control's inputs,
-so a console reloaded after the lifetime still shows HALT (#985). Only the holder of the real
-session token sees the difference. Nothing else is reopened: no release, no setup write, no other
-read, and the release token is still served nowhere. A browser with no cached console is refused
-the page itself; it can stop trading with `keel kill` at the terminal. A loopback-only server has
-no lifetime, and that asymmetry is the argument rather than an exemption. Restarting `keel serve`
-remains the instant revocation gesture in both postures.
+same refusal. There are three exceptions, and all of them are for the stop. A halt that carries
+the session cookie and the halt token is accepted past the lifetime (#983): a console left running
+overnight must still be able to stop trading. A read of Pulse (`/api/pulse`) that carries this
+session's cookie is refused as expired, but the refusal carries the HALT control's inputs, so a
+console reloaded after the lifetime still shows HALT (#985). And the console's own files (the
+page, its scripts, stylesheet and icons) are served past the lifetime to a request carrying this
+session's cookie (#1006), so a browser with no cached console — or one that opens the address
+`keel serve` printed, which sets the cookie — loads the page and reaches that HALT. Those files
+are the package's own, unaltered: no data and no token. Only the holder of the real session token
+sees any of the difference. Nothing else is reopened: no release, no setup write, no other read,
+and the release token is still served nowhere. A browser without the cookie is refused the page
+exactly as before the lifetime ended; it can stop trading with `keel kill` at the terminal. A
+loopback-only server has no lifetime, and that asymmetry is the argument rather than an
+exemption. Restarting `keel serve` remains the instant revocation gesture in both postures.
 
 ## Capability-increasing actions are refused unless the bind is loopback
 
 
@@ -203,9 +203,11 @@ class UngatedAction:
 #: serves a console still showing a Pulse from before the lifetime ended, whose memory holds the
 #: token, or any client that holds it. A RELOADED console gets the token from `/api/pulse`'s
 #: expiry refusal, which carries `{halt_token, resume_command}` to a request bearing this
-#: session's cookie and to nothing else (`server._expired_pulse_halt`, #985); that refusal still
-#: names `keel kill`. A leaked halt token can at worst halt, which `keel resume` at
-#: a terminal undoes, and it opens no release (#968).
+#: session's cookie and to nothing else (`server._expired_pulse_halt`, #985); the shell that
+#: reads it is served past the lifetime to that cookie too, so a browser with no cached console
+#: reaches it (`server._is_a_sessioned_shell_read`, #1006). That refusal still names
+#: `keel kill`. A leaked halt token can at worst halt, which `keel resume` at a terminal
+#: undoes, and it opens no release (#968).
 HALT = UngatedAction(operation=engage_kill_switch, done=KILL_ENGAGED_LINE)
 
 
 
@@ -130,8 +130,10 @@
 #: the token. A reloaded console gets the token from the expiry refusal itself: on `/api/pulse`,
 #: and for a request carrying this session's cookie only, that refusal carries the HALT control's
 #: `{halt_token, resume_command}` (`server.KeelHandler._expired_pulse_halt`, #985). It re-opens
-#: no read and no other endpoint serves the token. The refusal still names `keel kill`, for a
-#: browser with no cached shell, which is refused the page that would draw the button.
+#: no read and no other endpoint serves the token. A browser with no cached shell is served the
+#: shell's static files past the lifetime, for this session's cookie only, so it reaches that
+#: refusal (`server.KeelHandler._is_a_sessioned_shell_read`, #1006); they carry no data and no
+#: token. The refusal still names `keel kill`, for a browser without the cookie.
 REMOTE_SESSION_MAX_AGE_SECONDS = 12 * 60 * 60
 
 #: ⛔ THE BRUTE-FORCE ARITHMETIC, WRITTEN DOWN SO NOBODY ADDS A RATE LIMITER FOR THE WRONG
 
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@
 from http.server import BaseHTTPRequestHandler, ThreadingHTTPServer
 from pathlib import Path
 from typing import Any
-from urllib.parse import parse_qs, urlsplit
+from urllib.parse import parse_qs, unquote, urlsplit
 
 from keel.web import api, events, runtime, staticfiles
 from keel.web.security import (
@@ -708,7 +708,10 @@ def _admitted(self, *, outlives_the_lifetime: bool = False) -> bool:
 
         `outlives_the_lifetime` skips the LIFETIME and nothing else, and exactly one caller sets
         it: `_post`, for a halt that carries this session's halt token (`_is_a_tokened_halt`,
-        #983). Every other request -- a release, a setup write, every read -- keeps it.
+        #983). The one other request that skips it is decided here rather than by `do_GET`, so
+        that handler is untouched: a read of the shell carrying this session's cookie
+        (`_is_a_sessioned_shell_read`, #1006). Every other request -- a release, a setup write,
+        every `/api/` read -- keeps it.
         """
         if not self.cfg.host_policy.permits(self.headers.get("Host")):
             # DNS rebinding lands exactly here: the packet arrived on loopback, so the bind check
@@ -721,13 +724,16 @@ def _admitted(self, *, outlives_the_lifetime: bool = False) -> bool:
             )
             return False
         # #648: an ENFORCED lifetime, checked before the token so an expired session cannot be
-        # distinguished from a wrong one by which refusal comes back -- with one exception since
-        # #985: on a GET or HEAD of `/api/pulse` a request bearing THIS session's cookie gets a
-        # refusal that carries `halt`, and a wrong or missing cookie gets `halt: null`. That is
-        # acceptable because only the holder of the real 256-bit session token can see the
-        # difference, and it tells them nothing they could not already use (`_is_a_tokened_halt`
-        # admits that halt anyway). Every other request still cannot tell the two apart. Only a
-        # remote-configured server has a lifetime -- see `ServeConfig.session_expired_at`.
+        # distinguished from a wrong one by which refusal comes back -- with two exceptions. Since
+        # #985, on a GET or HEAD of `/api/pulse` a request bearing THIS session's cookie gets a
+        # refusal that carries `halt`, and a wrong or missing cookie gets `halt: null`. Since
+        # #1006, a GET or HEAD of the shell bearing THIS session's cookie is served it, and a
+        # wrong or missing cookie is refused as expired. Both are acceptable because only the
+        # holder of the real 256-bit session token can see the difference, and it tells them
+        # nothing they could not already use (`_is_a_tokened_halt` admits that halt anyway, and
+        # the shell is the package's files). Every other request still cannot tell the two
+        # apart. Only a remote-configured server has a lifetime -- see
+        # `ServeConfig.session_expired_at`.
         #
         # #983, the owner's decision: the halt is exempt. A console left running past the lifetime
         # refused its own stop, and refusing a stop is the one failure mode this surface must not
@@ -738,10 +744,17 @@ def _admitted(self, *, outlives_the_lifetime: bool = False) -> bool:
         # It serves a console still showing a Pulse from before the lifetime ended (the token is
         # in its memory), or any client that holds the token. A RELOADED console gets the token
         # back from this refusal itself, on `/api/pulse` and for this session's cookie only
-        # (#985, `_expired_pulse_halt`). The refusal still names `keel kill`: a browser with no
-        # cached shell is refused the page that would draw the button.
+        # (#985, `_expired_pulse_halt`). A browser with no cached shell gets the page from this
+        # server past the lifetime too, for this session's cookie only (#1006,
+        # `_is_a_sessioned_shell_read`), so it reaches that refusal. The refusal still names
+        # `keel kill`, for a browser without the cookie, which is refused the page as before.
         expires = self.cfg.session_expired_at
-        if expires is not None and not outlives_the_lifetime and time.time() >= expires:
+        if (
+            expires is not None
+            and not outlives_the_lifetime
+            and time.time() >= expires
+            and not self._is_a_sessioned_shell_read()
+        ):
             self._refuse(
                 403,
                 "Session expired",
@@ -778,6 +791,52 @@ def _admitted(self, *, outlives_the_lifetime: bool = False) -> bool:
             return False
         return True
 
+    def _is_a_sessioned_shell_read(self) -> bool:
+        """Whether this request is a GET (or HEAD) of the client shell carrying this session's
+        cookie -- the read the remote session lifetime does not bind (#1006).
+
+        **Why.** Since #985 an expired `/api/pulse` refusal carries the HALT control to this
+        session's cookie, but only a console that is already loaded can read it. A browser with no
+        cached console -- a first visit after the lifetime, through the printed `?token=` address,
+        or a browser whose cached files were cleared -- was refused the page itself, so it never
+        drew the button and its only stop was `keel kill` at a terminal.
+
+        **What it re-opens: files, never data.** The shell is `staticfiles.STATIC_ROOT` byte for
+        byte -- `_serve_static` reads and sends it unaltered, there is no template -- so it carries
+        no reading of the ledger and no token; the halt token still comes only from the
+        cookie-matched Pulse refusal (#985), and `gates_token` is served nowhere (#968). The test
+        is membership in `staticfiles.shell_request_paths`, the paths `_serve_static` answers with
+        a file: a shipped asset or a name in `CLIENT_ROUTES` / `RETIRED_CLIENT_ROUTES`. The request
+        path is only compared against that package-side list, never passed to a filesystem call,
+        so this adds no second user-controlled path flow. The list is walked per call, which is
+        acceptable because this is reached only once the lifetime has expired. A spelling
+        `_serve_static` would still resolve (`/js/../js/main.js`) is not in the list, so it is
+        NOT exempted and is refused as expired: stricter, and fine. Everything under `API_PREFIX`
+        (`EVENTS_PATH` included) and `SWITCH_PREFIX` is excluded by name first, so no later file
+        under the static root can shadow one; an unmapped path keeps the lifetime and is refused as
+        expired, not 404ed.
+
+        **Why this session's cookie, and not any browser (#1006's held question, ruled here).**
+        Before the lifetime, a request without the cookie is refused the shell
+        (`test_static_assets_are_behind_the_same_admission_as_every_other_page`: "not exempted
+        ... just because it holds no secrets today"). Serving it to anyone after expiry would make
+        an EXPIRED session more open to a stranger than a live one, and a browser without the
+        cookie gains nothing from the page: the Pulse refusal draws HALT only for the cookie. A
+        browser that has only the printed address gets the cookie from the token exchange, which
+        `do_GET` performs before admission, so the first visit is covered. So, as for #985: only
+        the holder of the real session token can see the difference, and it tells them nothing
+        they could not already use.
+        """
+        if self.command not in ("GET", "HEAD"):
+            return False
+        path = urlsplit(self.path).path
+        if path.startswith((API_PREFIX, SWITCH_PREFIX)):
+            return False
+        if unquote(path) not in staticfiles.shell_request_paths(staticfiles.STATIC_ROOT):
+            return False
+        cookies = parse_cookie_header(self.headers.get("Cookie"))
+        return tokens_match(cookies.get(SESSION_COOKIE), self.cfg.token)
+
     def _expired_pulse_halt(self) -> dict[str, str] | None:
         """The HALT control's inputs for the expired-session refusal, or `None` (#985).
 
 
@@ -193,7 +193,12 @@ def resolve_client_route(root: Path, url_path: str) -> Path | None:
     **This is a read, and it widens nothing.** It maps the names in `CLIENT_ROUTES` and
     `RETIRED_CLIENT_ROUTES` onto one file that is already served at
     `STATIC_PREFIX + CLIENT_ENTRY`; the same session cookie and the same `Host` check gate it,
-    because `server.do_GET` checks both before any static path is looked at.
+    because `server.do_GET` checks both before any static path is looked at. The one difference
+    from an `/api/` read is the remote session lifetime: a path this function or
+    `resolve_static_asset` answers is served past it to this session's cookie (#1006,
+    `server.KeelHandler._is_a_sessioned_shell_read`, which asks `shell_request_paths`, the list of
+    the paths these two functions answer), because the shell is files and the expired Pulse
+    refusal it reads is what carries the HALT (#985).
     """
     if not url_path.startswith(STATIC_PREFIX):
         return None
@@ -209,3 +214,28 @@ def resolve_client_route(root: Path, url_path: str) -> Path | None:
     if not shell.is_file():
         return None
     return shell
+
+
+def shell_request_paths(root: Path) -> frozenset[str]:
+    """Every request path the shell answers, spelled out (#1006).
+
+    `STATIC_PREFIX + relpath` for each file under `root` that `content_type_for` can label (the
+    files `resolve_static_asset` would serve), `STATIC_PREFIX` itself, and `STATIC_PREFIX` plus
+    each name in `CLIENT_ROUTES` and `RETIRED_CLIENT_ROUTES` (the paths `resolve_client_route`
+    answers with the shell).
+
+    **Why enumerate rather than resolve.** `server.KeelHandler._is_a_sessioned_shell_read` asks
+    "is this request path one the shell answers" and compares against this set, so the request
+    path is only ever COMPARED, never handed to a filesystem call: what is built here comes from
+    the package's own directory listing. Resolving the path instead would be a second
+    user-controlled flow into `resolve_static_asset`. The walk is per call, which is cheap
+    enough because its one caller is reached only once the remote session lifetime has expired.
+    """
+    names = {
+        STATIC_PREFIX + path.relative_to(root).as_posix()
+        for path in root.rglob("*")
+        if path.is_file() and content_type_for(path) is not None
+    }
+    names.add(STATIC_PREFIX)
+    names.update(STATIC_PREFIX + name for name in (*CLIENT_ROUTES, *RETIRED_CLIENT_ROUTES))
+    return frozenset(names)