diff --git a/TODO.md b/TODO.md
index 257282a..0decc12 100644
--- a/TODO.md
+++ b/TODO.md
@@ -34,3 +34,4 @@
 
 - ~~**Pending message wake-up**~~ ✓ fixed (e423d57) — subscribe-before-check race in `broker.recv_blocking` meant a send landing between the initial `recv()` and `subscribe()` was missed; agent then sat on the 180s long-poll until another, unrelated message woke it. Now subscribe first.
 - **Post-rebuild system-message missed wake**: at 09:13:14 the dashboard showed `system → damocles container rebuilt` as ✓ delivered, but the agent harness never ran a turn for it (no claude invocation, no operator-visible activity). A subsequent `recv()` from inside the agent returned `(empty)`, confirming the message was popped + marked delivered server-side — yet drove no turn. Most likely cause: the agent_server `serve_agent_stdio` task is up and answering MCP/socket calls, but the `hive-ag3nt::serve` long-poll loop that drives `drive_turn` either died silently during rebuild or never restarted. Investigate: (a) does hive-ag3nt's serve loop survive `nixos-container update` cleanly, or does its tokio runtime get torn down mid-loop? (b) is there an early-exit path on a transient socket error during rebuild that drops the serve task without notifying the manager? (c) compare timeline with manager's own post-rebuild wake to see if this is rebuilt-agents-only or universal. Could be related to the `recv_blocking` fix in `e423d57` if the rebuild restarts the broker mid-subscribe.
+- **`LiveEvent::Note(String)` never reaches the browser**: the enum is `#[serde(tag = "kind", rename_all = "snake_case")]` with `Note(String)` as a newtype variant — `serde_json::to_string` errors at runtime with `cannot serialize tagged newtype variant containing a string`. The SSE handler's `filter_map(... .ok()? ...)` silently drops the event; the sqlite history persists it as the literal string `"null"`. Every `bus.emit(LiveEvent::Note(...))` call site has been a no-op since the variant was added, and the JS terminal's `note` renderer is dead code. Fix: convert to a struct variant `Note { text: String }` (matches what the JS already reads via `ev.text`) and verify the existing call sites still type-check. While there, audit the sqlite-stored `"null"` rows so history-replay doesn't trip on them.
diff --git a/hive-c0re/assets/app.js b/hive-c0re/assets/app.js
index 6e5558c..bafe380 100644
--- a/hive-c0re/assets/app.js
+++ b/hive-c0re/assets/app.js
@@ -736,14 +736,29 @@
         denyForm,
       );
       li.append(row);
-      if (a.diff_html) {
+      if (a.diff) {
         const details = el('details', {
           'data-restore-key': 'approval-diff:' + a.id,
         });
         details.append(el('summary', {}, 'diff vs applied'));
-        // diff_html is pre-rendered server-side (per-line class spans inside
-        // a <pre>); inject as innerHTML.
-        const pre = el('pre', { class: 'diff', html: a.diff_html });
+        // Server ships the raw unified diff; classify each line by its
+        // leading char so `.diff-add` / `.diff-del` / `.diff-hunk` /
+        // `.diff-file` / `.diff-ctx` colour the output. Building spans
+        // here (instead of innerHTML-ing pre-rendered markup) keeps
+        // the snapshot wire format text-only and one less HTML-escape
+        // surface server-side.
+        const pre = el('pre', { class: 'diff' });
+        for (const raw of a.diff.split('\n')) {
+          let cls = 'diff-ctx';
+          if (raw.startsWith('--- ') || raw.startsWith('+++ ')) cls = 'diff-file';
+          else if (raw.startsWith('@')) cls = 'diff-hunk';
+          else if (raw.startsWith('+'))  cls = 'diff-add';
+          else if (raw.startsWith('-'))  cls = 'diff-del';
+          const span = document.createElement('span');
+          span.className = cls;
+          span.textContent = raw + '\n';
+          pre.appendChild(span);
+        }
         details.append(pre);
         li.append(details);
       }
diff --git a/hive-c0re/src/dashboard.rs b/hive-c0re/src/dashboard.rs
index d324137..d6f06e0 100644
--- a/hive-c0re/src/dashboard.rs
+++ b/hive-c0re/src/dashboard.rs
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
 //! repo, plus approve/deny buttons), and the manager.
 
 use std::convert::Infallible;
-use std::fmt::Write as _;
 use std::net::SocketAddr;
 use std::path::Path;
 use std::sync::Arc;
@@ -256,8 +255,13 @@ struct ApprovalView {
     kind: &'static str,
     /// First 12 chars of the `commit_ref`, for `ApplyCommit` only.
     sha_short: Option<String>,
-    /// Pre-rendered syntax-coloured diff HTML, for `ApplyCommit` only.
-    diff_html: Option<String>,
+    /// Raw unified diff text, for `ApplyCommit` only. The client splits
+    /// on `\n` and per-line classifies (`+` / `-` / `@@` / `--- ` / `+++ `
+    /// → diff-add / diff-del / diff-hunk / diff-file). Shipping raw
+    /// instead of pre-rendered HTML saves bytes on the wire (no
+    /// per-line `<span>` markup) and removes the only HTML-escape
+    /// surface from the snapshot.
+    diff: Option<String>,
     /// Manager-supplied description shown on the approval card.
     #[serde(skip_serializing_if = "Option::is_none")]
     description: Option<String>,
@@ -639,7 +643,7 @@ async fn build_approval_views(approvals: Vec<Approval>) -> Vec<ApprovalView> {
                     agent: a.agent.clone(),
                     kind: "apply_commit",
                     sha_short: Some(sha),
-                    diff_html: Some(render_diff_lines(&diff)),
+                    diff: Some(diff),
                     description: a.description,
                 }
             }
@@ -648,7 +652,7 @@ async fn build_approval_views(approvals: Vec<Approval>) -> Vec<ApprovalView> {
                 agent: a.agent,
                 kind: "spawn",
                 sha_short: None,
-                diff_html: None,
+                diff: None,
                 description: a.description,
             },
         });
@@ -1345,29 +1349,6 @@ fn gc_orphans(coord: &Coordinator, approvals: Vec<Approval>) -> Vec<Approval> {
         .collect()
 }
 
-/// Render a unified diff with per-line CSS classes so the dashboard can
-/// colour adds / dels / hunk headers / context. Each line becomes a
-/// `<span>` tagged by its leading character; the wrapping `<pre>` keeps
-/// whitespace intact.
-fn render_diff_lines(diff: &str) -> String {
-    let mut out = String::new();
-    for raw in diff.lines() {
-        let cls = match raw.as_bytes().first() {
-            // file headers (`--- a/...` / `+++ b/...`) come before any
-            // line starting with a single `+`/`-`. similar-rs emits them
-            // with the doubled prefix.
-            _ if raw.starts_with("--- ") => "diff-file",
-            _ if raw.starts_with("+++ ") => "diff-file",
-            Some(b'@') => "diff-hunk",
-            Some(b'+') => "diff-add",
-            Some(b'-') => "diff-del",
-            _ => "diff-ctx",
-        };
-        let _ = writeln!(out, "<span class=\"{cls}\">{}</span>", html_escape(raw),);
-    }
-    out
-}
-
 /// Host-side mirror of `hive_ag3nt::login::has_session`. Returns true if the
 /// agent's bound `~/.claude/` dir on disk contains any regular file. The
 /// dashboard reads this each render so logins driven from the agent web UI
@@ -1415,8 +1396,3 @@ async fn git_diff_main_to(applied_dir: &Path, target_ref: &str) -> Result<String
     Ok(String::from_utf8_lossy(&out.stdout).into_owned())
 }
 
-fn html_escape(s: &str) -> String {
-    s.replace('&', "&amp;")
-        .replace('<', "&lt;")
-        .replace('>', "&gt;")
-}