diff --git a/frontend/packages/agent/src/app.js b/frontend/packages/agent/src/app.js
index 48d33a6c..e1f3881d 100644
--- a/frontend/packages/agent/src/app.js
+++ b/frontend/packages/agent/src/app.js
@@ -2011,12 +2011,17 @@ window.marked = marked;
         // Bare `status` ticks (claude's own generic "still working" signal,
         // no detail beyond the label) — collapse consecutive ticks into one
         // updating row instead of a fresh note each (see `makeCoalescer`
-        // above). These are the only signal we get during a compaction pass
-        // (no dedicated "compacting…" event from claude), so without
-        // collapsing a compaction looked like a wall of identical `⚙ status`
-        // rows followed by silence.
+        // above). When the harness state is `compacting` (set by the
+        // `turn_state_changed` SSE event), show elapsed time via `stateSince`
+        // — the same source the state badge uses — so the terminal reflects
+        // compaction progress; otherwise fall back to the generic label.
         if (v.subtype === 'status') {
-          updateStatus(api, '⚙ status');
+          let label = '⚙ status';
+          if (stateName === 'compacting') {
+            const elapsed = Math.round((Date.now() - stateSince) / 1000);
+            label = '⚙ compact · ' + elapsed + 's…';
+          }
+          updateStatus(api, label);
           return;
         }
         // Other system subtypes (context_window_exceeded, etc.) — render a