diff --git a/docs/tools/subagent.md b/docs/tools/subagent.md
index e53a465c..b4b7dda5 100644
--- a/docs/tools/subagent.md
+++ b/docs/tools/subagent.md
@@ -214,8 +214,10 @@ no progress left to describe.
 `continue` looks for the session before it spawns anything. The lookup is
 the live session titled the name in the project directory of the `dir` in
 effect: the one passed, or else the one the daemon remembers for the name.
-No such session refuses the call — nothing spawns and the name stays free
-for a retry — and the error names the directory searched:
+No such session refuses the call — nothing spawns, the name stays free
+for a retry, and the session keeps its `status` (stop reason and turn
+budget) and its remembered `dir` — and the error names the directory
+searched:
 
 ```
 continue error: no session titled `n` under /home/agent/.claude/projects/-home-agent-work; pass the `dir` the session was started in
diff --git a/hive-subagent-mcp/src/session.rs b/hive-subagent-mcp/src/session.rs
index c263e470..8466f8a0 100644
--- a/hive-subagent-mcp/src/session.rs
+++ b/hive-subagent-mcp/src/session.rs
@@ -678,13 +678,11 @@ impl State {
     /// could.
     ///
     /// ⚠️ **Callers must only call this once the call is known to proceed**
-    /// (i.e. after `reserve` has already succeeded in `start`/`continue_`) —
-    /// see `peek_dir` for the non-committing variant a call that might still
-    /// be refused (or that shouldn't persist its `dir` at all, like
-    /// `status`) needs instead. This one argus caught in review: calling it
-    /// unconditionally before `reserve`'s check meant a *rejected* concurrent
-    /// call still overwrote the remembered `dir` for the name it was refused
-    /// against.
+    /// — after `reserve` in `start`, after the session lookup in a
+    /// `continue` (`begin_continue`) — so a refused call never changes what
+    /// a later bare `continue` resolves to. `peek_dir` is the non-committing
+    /// variant for a call that might still be refused, or that shouldn't
+    /// persist its `dir` at all, like `status`.
     fn resolve_dir(&self, name: &str, dir: Option<&str>) -> Option<String> {
         let mut dirs = self.dirs.lock().unwrap_or_else(PoisonError::into_inner);
         match dir {
@@ -778,6 +776,16 @@ impl State {
         }
     }
 
+    /// Commit a `continue` whose session has been found: remember its `dir`
+    /// (see `resolve_dir`), drop the stop reason that described the run
+    /// before it, and give a goal session its allowance back (see
+    /// `restart_turns`).
+    fn begin_continue(&self, name: &str, dir: Option<&str>) {
+        self.resolve_dir(name, dir);
+        self.clear_stop(name);
+        self.restart_turns(name);
+    }
+
     /// `(turn, max_turns)` for `name`. `None` for a session with no goal,
     /// which has no turn budget to be partway through — reporting `1 of 1`
     /// there would invent a cap that isn't enforced.
@@ -1389,23 +1397,15 @@ pub async fn continue_(
     // Read before the spawn, which clears the record as soon as the new turn
     // is confirmed — this reply is the last chance to mention it.
     let killed = state.killed_by(name);
-    // Only commit the remembered `dir` now that `reserve` has actually
-    // claimed `name` — see `resolve_dir`'s doc for why the order matters.
-    let dir = state.resolve_dir(name, dir);
-    // A new turn supersedes why the last run stopped, and gives a
-    // goal-continued session its allowance back — see `restart_turns`.
-    state.clear_stop(name);
-    state.restart_turns(name);
     let (tx, rx) = oneshot::channel();
     let verdict: VerdictTx = Arc::new(Mutex::new(Some(tx)));
-    let started =
-        match continue_reserved(state, name, prompt, model, effort, dir.as_deref(), &verdict) {
-            Ok(spawned) => spawned,
-            Err(e) => {
-                state.release_reservation(name);
-                return Err(e);
-            }
-        };
+    let started = match continue_reserved(state, name, prompt, model, effort, dir, &verdict) {
+        Ok(spawned) => spawned,
+        Err(e) => {
+            state.release_reservation(name);
+            return Err(e);
+        }
+    };
     // Nothing to release on this path either way: a turn that ended inside
     // the grace has already been through `finish_turn`, which clears the
     // tracking the spawn put there, and one that a goal carried into another
@@ -1467,7 +1467,8 @@ fn note_resumed_after_kill(msg: &str, killed: Option<i32>) -> String {
 
 /// The slow, fallible part of `continue_`, run only after `reserve` has
 /// already closed the TOCTOU window — same split rationale as
-/// `start_reserved`.
+/// `start_reserved`. `dir` is the caller's own, not yet resolved against the
+/// remembered one.
 fn continue_reserved(
     state: &Arc<State>,
     name: &str,
@@ -1480,12 +1481,24 @@ fn continue_reserved(
     // A fresh URL for the resumed run, not the one the last run was handed:
     // a token is per run, and this is a new one.
     let signal_url = state.mint_signal_url(name);
-    let config = build_config(name, model, effort, None, dir, Some(&signal_url));
-    continue_on_runtime(state, name, config, prompt, verdict)
+    let resolved = state.peek_dir(name, dir);
+    let config = build_config(
+        name,
+        model,
+        effort,
+        None,
+        resolved.as_deref(),
+        Some(&signal_url),
+    );
+    continue_on_runtime(state, name, config, dir, prompt, verdict)
 }
 
 /// Resume `name`'s session on the daemon's runtime for one more run.
 ///
+/// The session is looked up before any of `name`'s records change, so a
+/// refused call leaves `status` and the remembered `dir` as they were; only
+/// a session that is there gets `State::begin_continue`.
+///
 /// # Errors
 ///
 /// On claude, a name with no session in `config`'s project dir (see
@@ -1496,6 +1509,7 @@ fn continue_on_runtime(
     state: &Arc<State>,
     name: &str,
     config: Config,
+    dir: Option<&str>,
     prompt: String,
     verdict: &VerdictTx,
 ) -> anyhow::Result<String> {
@@ -1508,6 +1522,7 @@ fn continue_on_runtime(
                 session.display()
             );
         }
+        state.begin_continue(name, dir);
         let runtime = acp_runtime(command.clone(), sessions, name);
         return spawn_and_track_acp(
             state,
@@ -1523,6 +1538,7 @@ fn continue_on_runtime(
     // for a session that vanishes between the lookup and the spawn. See this
     // module's doc.
     let id = resume_target(&config, name)?;
+    state.begin_continue(name, dir);
     spawn_and_track(
         state,
         name,
@@ -4396,7 +4412,7 @@ echo '{"type":"result","subtype":"success","is_error":false}'
         assert!(state.reserve("n"));
         let (tx, rx) = oneshot::channel();
         let verdict: VerdictTx = Arc::new(Mutex::new(Some(tx)));
-        continue_on_runtime(&state, "n", config(&here), "again".into(), &verdict)
+        continue_on_runtime(&state, "n", config(&here), None, "again".into(), &verdict)
             .expect("the fake claude spawns");
         await_resume(rx)
             .await
@@ -4448,8 +4464,9 @@ echo '{"type":"result","subtype":"success","is_error":false}'
         assert!(state.reserve("n"));
         let (tx, rx) = oneshot::channel();
         let verdict: VerdictTx = Arc::new(Mutex::new(Some(tx)));
-        let refused = continue_on_runtime(&state, "n", config(&here), "again".into(), &verdict)
-            .expect_err("no session titled `n` under `here`");
+        let refused =
+            continue_on_runtime(&state, "n", config(&here), None, "again".into(), &verdict)
+                .expect_err("no session titled `n` under `here`");
         assert_eq!(
             refused.to_string(),
             format!(
@@ -4472,6 +4489,46 @@ echo '{"type":"result","subtype":"success","is_error":false}'
         std::fs::remove_dir_all(&root).ok();
     }
 
+    #[test]
+    fn a_refused_continue_leaves_the_sessions_records_as_they_were() {
+        // A capped goal session on its last turn, stopped on a signal, with a
+        // remembered `dir`; the `continue` names a dir holding no session.
+        let root = scratch_dir("refused-keeps-records");
+        let state = Arc::new(State::new(PathBuf::from("/dev/null"), signal_url()));
+        state.set_goal("n", Some("g".into()), 3);
+        state.plan_after_turn("n");
+        state.plan_after_turn("n");
+        state.record_stop("n", StopReason::NeedHelp("blocked on X".into()));
+        state.resolve_dir("n", Some("/remembered"));
+        assert_eq!(state.turns("n"), Some((3, 3)));
+
+        assert!(state.reserve("n"));
+        let (tx, _rx) = oneshot::channel();
+        let verdict: VerdictTx = Arc::new(Mutex::new(Some(tx)));
+        continue_on_runtime(
+            &state,
+            "n",
+            claude_config(&root),
+            root.to_str(),
+            "again".into(),
+            &verdict,
+        )
+        .expect_err("no session under the scratch dir");
+
+        assert_eq!(
+            state.stop_reason("n"),
+            Some(StopReason::NeedHelp("blocked on X".into())),
+            "`status` still says why the session stopped"
+        );
+        assert_eq!(state.turns("n"), Some((3, 3)), "the budget is not reset");
+        assert_eq!(
+            state.peek_dir("n", None),
+            Some("/remembered".to_owned()),
+            "the refused call's dir is not remembered"
+        );
+        std::fs::remove_dir_all(&root).ok();
+    }
+
     #[tokio::test]
     async fn an_acp_parent_runs_its_subagents_on_its_acp_agent() {
         let dir = scratch_dir("runtime-acp");
@@ -4509,6 +4566,7 @@ echo '{"type":"result","subtype":"success","is_error":false}'
             &state,
             "n",
             claude_config(&dir),
+            None,
             "TRIGGER-TWO".into(),
             &verdict,
         )
@@ -4542,8 +4600,15 @@ echo '{"type":"result","subtype":"success","is_error":false}'
         let (tx, _rx) = oneshot::channel();
         let verdict: VerdictTx = Arc::new(Mutex::new(Some(tx)));
 
-        let err = continue_on_runtime(&state, "n", claude_config(&dir), "go".into(), &verdict)
-            .expect_err("nothing to resume");
+        let err = continue_on_runtime(
+            &state,
+            "n",
+            claude_config(&dir),
+            None,
+            "go".into(),
+            &verdict,
+        )
+        .expect_err("nothing to resume");
         assert!(err.to_string().contains("no ACP session"), "{err}");
         assert!(
             !dir.join("prompts.methods").exists(),