diff --git a/frontend/packages/dashboard/src/dashboard.css b/frontend/packages/dashboard/src/dashboard.css
index 4a3a34bb..bb2a59ca 100644
--- a/frontend/packages/dashboard/src/dashboard.css
+++ b/frontend/packages/dashboard/src/dashboard.css
@@ -298,41 +298,22 @@ hive-agent-menu {
   align-self: flex-start;
   margin-top: 0.3em;
 }
-.agent-menu-btn {
-  display: block;
-  background: none;
-  border: none;
-  color: var(--subtext0);
-  font-size: 1.1em;
-  line-height: 1;
-  cursor: pointer;
-  padding: 0.1em 0.4em;
-  border-radius: 4px;
-  opacity: var(--menu-btn-opacity, 0);
-  transition: opacity 120ms, background 120ms, color 120ms;
-}
-.agent-menu-btn:hover,
-.agent-menu-btn:focus-visible {
-  background: color-mix(in srgb, var(--purple) 10%, transparent);
-  color: var(--purple);
-  outline: none;
-}
-.agent-menu-btn:focus-visible {
-  outline: 1px solid var(--purple);
-}
-/* Positioning (`position`/`top`/`right`/`z-index`) is generic and lives
-   on `<hive-menu>`'s own `.menu-dropdown` wrapper instead — this is just
-   the item list's visual chrome. */
+/* .agent-menu-btn carries no styling of its own anymore — the trigger is
+   a top-level `slot="trigger"` node inside <hive-menu>'s shadow tree, so
+   its base icon-button chrome now lives in hive-menu.css's
+   `::slotted([slot='trigger'])` rules instead (reachable and genuinely
+   generic — any <hive-menu> trigger gets the same treatment). The class
+   itself stays, just as an identification hook (aria-label/title
+   already carry the real semantics). */
+/* Box chrome (background/border/radius/shadow/min-width/white-space) now
+   lives on <hive-menu>'s own `.menu-dropdown` wrapper (shadow-DOM-owned
+   markup, no slotting constraint) — this is just the `<ul>`'s own
+   list-reset + item padding, which only the caller (owning the actual
+   list markup) can set. */
 .agent-menu-dropdown {
-  background: var(--bg-elev);
-  border: 1px solid var(--purple-dim);
-  border-radius: 6px;
-  box-shadow: 0 4px 16px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);
   list-style: none;
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0.3em 0;
-  min-width: 10em;
-  white-space: nowrap;
 }
 .agent-menu-item {
   display: block;
diff --git a/frontend/packages/shared/src/hive-menu/hive-menu.css b/frontend/packages/shared/src/hive-menu/hive-menu.css
index 043c5161..e29d3a0a 100644
--- a/frontend/packages/shared/src/hive-menu/hive-menu.css
+++ b/frontend/packages/shared/src/hive-menu/hive-menu.css
@@ -4,22 +4,17 @@
    inside the shadow root — see @hive/shared/shadow-css.js's header
    comment for why a plain <style> tag and not adoptedStyleSheets.
 
-   `:host` carries only the one truly generic requirement: it's the
-   containing block for the shadow tree's absolutely-positioned dropdown
-   — a shadow host is the containing block for its own shadow tree's
-   positioned descendants, exactly like any other positioned ancestor in
-   the flat tree. Any *layout* role the host plays in a particular
-   caller's own flex row (e.g. <hive-agent-menu>'s placement in
-   `.container-row`) is caller-specific and lives in the caller's own
-   stylesheet instead, not here.
-
-   `.menu-dropdown` is the generic positioning box wrapping the caller's
-   opaque `content` node (projected in via `<slot name="content">` — see
-   hive-menu.js). Only position/z-index/visibility live here; the
-   button/item-row *visual* styling (colors, fonts, hover states) is
-   presentational content the caller's own trigger/content nodes carry,
-   so it lives in the caller's own stylesheet — `<hive-menu>` never sees
-   those class names, only the opaque nodes handed to it. */
+   Two kinds of rules live here, split by what they can actually reach:
+   `:host`/`.menu-dropdown` style shadow-DOM-owned markup this element
+   builds itself (no slotting constraint at all); `::slotted(...)` rules
+   reach the caller's *top-level* trigger/content nodes (the ones with a
+   `slot` attribute) since those are true light-DOM children, just
+   rendered here. What can NOT live here: anything inside the content
+   node (e.g. individual dropdown item rows) — `::slotted()` only
+   matches directly-slotted elements, not their descendants, and no CSS
+   mechanism pierces further than that. That's a hard Shadow DOM
+   architecture limit, not a scope choice — item-level styling stays in
+   the caller's own stylesheet regardless of how generic it looks. */
 
 :host {
   position: relative;
@@ -29,4 +24,35 @@
   right: 0;
   top: calc(100% + 2px);
   z-index: 50;
+  background: var(--bg-elev);
+  border: 1px solid var(--purple-dim);
+  border-radius: 6px;
+  box-shadow: 0 4px 16px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);
+  min-width: 10em;
+  white-space: nowrap;
+}
+/* The trigger is the top-level `slot="trigger"` node — reachable, so its
+   base icon-button chrome (invisible until hover/open, via
+   `--menu-btn-opacity`) lives here rather than duplicated per caller. */
+::slotted([slot='trigger']) {
+  display: block;
+  background: none;
+  border: none;
+  color: var(--subtext0);
+  font-size: 1.1em;
+  line-height: 1;
+  cursor: pointer;
+  padding: 0.1em 0.4em;
+  border-radius: 4px;
+  opacity: var(--menu-btn-opacity, 0);
+  transition: opacity 120ms, background 120ms, color 120ms;
+}
+::slotted([slot='trigger']:hover),
+::slotted([slot='trigger']:focus-visible) {
+  background: color-mix(in srgb, var(--purple) 10%, transparent);
+  color: var(--purple);
+  outline: none;
+}
+::slotted([slot='trigger']:focus-visible) {
+  outline: 1px solid var(--purple);
 }