diff --git a/docs/web-ui/dashboard.md b/docs/web-ui/dashboard.md
index 5c630084..6db14749 100644
--- a/docs/web-ui/dashboard.md
+++ b/docs/web-ui/dashboard.md
@@ -321,6 +321,11 @@ charts): ST4TS is the swarm-level rollup.
 - **Busiest agents** table — one row per agent (most turns first):
   turns, input / output / cache-read tokens, est cost.
 - **Model mix** — turns per model across the swarm, as CSS bars.
+- **Favorite tools** — most-run normalised bash-command heads across the
+  swarm (top 10, as CSS bars), aggregated from each agent's
+  `bash_commands` table (written by the hive-bash-mcp capture). The
+  header + list stay hidden until at least one agent has recorded a
+  command, so the section never shows an empty block on a fresh hive.
 
 Backed by `GET /api/stats-hive?window=<w>` in `hive-c0re`
 (`hive_stats.rs`): for every name from
diff --git a/frontend/packages/dashboard/src/dashboard.html b/frontend/packages/dashboard/src/dashboard.html
index ad1b9c68..e4f5c44a 100644
--- a/frontend/packages/dashboard/src/dashboard.html
+++ b/frontend/packages/dashboard/src/dashboard.html
@@ -289,6 +289,11 @@
       <div id="hive-stats-agents"><p class="meta">loading…</p></div>
       <h3>◇ model mix (turns across the swarm)</h3>
       <div id="hive-stats-models"></div>
+      <!-- "favorite tools": most-run bash commands across the swarm.
+           Header + list hidden until the hive-bash-mcp capture has
+           recorded data, so the section never shows an empty block. -->
+      <h3 id="hive-stats-bash-h" hidden>◇ favorite tools (bash commands across the swarm)</h3>
+      <div id="hive-stats-bash" hidden></div>
     </section>
 
     <!-- FL0W: lives on its own page now (`/flow.html`). The
diff --git a/frontend/packages/dashboard/src/tabs.js b/frontend/packages/dashboard/src/tabs.js
index 7e7287e7..d9522ad1 100644
--- a/frontend/packages/dashboard/src/tabs.js
+++ b/frontend/packages/dashboard/src/tabs.js
@@ -4216,6 +4216,36 @@ window.marked = marked;
         }
       }
     }
+
+    // "favorite tools": most-run bash commands across the swarm. Hidden
+    // (header + list) until the capture has recorded data, so the
+    // section never shows an empty block while capture is pre-data.
+    const bh = $('hive-stats-bash');
+    const bhH = $('hive-stats-bash-h');
+    if (bh) {
+      const bmix = s.bash_mix || [];
+      if (!bmix.length) {
+        bh.replaceChildren();
+        bh.hidden = true;
+        if (bhH) bhH.hidden = true;
+      } else {
+        bh.hidden = false;
+        if (bhH) bhH.hidden = false;
+        bh.replaceChildren();
+        const max = bmix[0].count || 1;
+        for (const kc of bmix) {
+          const row = document.createElement('div'); row.className = 'hive-stats-bar';
+          const lbl = document.createElement('span'); lbl.className = 'lbl'; lbl.textContent = kc.key;
+          const track = document.createElement('span'); track.className = 'track';
+          const fill = document.createElement('span'); fill.className = 'fill';
+          fill.style.width = Math.max(2, Math.round(100 * kc.count / max)) + '%';
+          track.append(fill);
+          const cnt = document.createElement('span'); cnt.className = 'cnt'; cnt.textContent = hsFmtInt(kc.count);
+          row.append(lbl, track, cnt);
+          bh.append(row);
+        }
+      }
+    }
   }
 
   async function refreshHiveStats() {
diff --git a/hive-c0re/src/hive_stats.rs b/hive-c0re/src/hive_stats.rs
index 3951fb40..82115e2a 100644
--- a/hive-c0re/src/hive_stats.rs
+++ b/hive-c0re/src/hive_stats.rs
@@ -194,6 +194,11 @@ pub struct HiveStats {
     pub agents: Vec<AgentRollup>,
     /// Turns per model across the whole swarm, busiest first.
     pub model_mix: Vec<KeyCount>,
+    /// Most-run normalised bash-command heads ("favorite tools") across
+    /// the whole swarm, busiest first, capped to 10. Empty until the
+    /// hive-bash-mcp capture has recorded `bash_commands` rows on at
+    /// least one active agent.
+    pub bash_mix: Vec<KeyCount>,
 }
 
 #[derive(Default)]
@@ -205,6 +210,10 @@ struct AgentAgg {
     cache_creation: u64,
     cost: f64,
     models: HashMap<String, u64>,
+    /// Normalised bash-command head → invocation count, from the agent's
+    /// `bash_commands` table (written by hive-bash-mcp). Empty when that
+    /// capture hasn't run for this agent (table absent).
+    bash: HashMap<String, u64>,
 }
 
 fn now_secs() -> i64 {
@@ -268,9 +277,38 @@ fn read_agent(path: &Path, from: i64, prices: &PriceTable) -> rusqlite::Result<A
         }
         *agg.models.entry(model).or_insert(0) += 1;
     }
+    agg.bash = read_bash_heads(&conn, from);
     Ok(agg)
 }
 
+/// Tally normalised bash-command heads from the agent's `bash_commands`
+/// table (`ts INTEGER, head TEXT`, written by hive-bash-mcp) over
+/// `[from, now]`. Best-effort + isolated from `read_agent`'s error path:
+/// a missing table (capture hasn't run for this agent) or any read error
+/// yields an empty map rather than propagating, so the favorite-tools
+/// rollup simply omits that agent and never fails the whole endpoint.
+/// `ts` is unix seconds, matching the `from` cutoff.
+fn read_bash_heads(conn: &Connection, from: i64) -> HashMap<String, u64> {
+    let mut out: HashMap<String, u64> = HashMap::new();
+    let Ok(mut stmt) =
+        conn.prepare("SELECT head, COUNT(*) FROM bash_commands WHERE ts >= ?1 GROUP BY head")
+    else {
+        return out;
+    };
+    let Ok(rows) = stmt.query_map([from], |row| {
+        Ok((
+            row.get::<_, String>(0)?,
+            u64_from_i64(row.get::<_, i64>(1)?),
+        ))
+    }) else {
+        return out;
+    };
+    for (head, count) in rows.flatten() {
+        *out.entry(head).or_insert(0) += count;
+    }
+    out
+}
+
 /// Build the swarm-wide rollup. Best-effort: a missing or unreadable
 /// per-agent db is skipped (logged), never fatal.
 #[must_use]
@@ -280,6 +318,7 @@ pub fn hive_snapshot(window: Window, prices: &PriceTable) -> HiveStats {
 
     let mut agents: Vec<AgentRollup> = Vec::new();
     let mut model_mix: HashMap<String, u64> = HashMap::new();
+    let mut bash_mix: HashMap<String, u64> = HashMap::new();
     let mut total_turns = 0u64;
     let mut total_input = 0u64;
     let mut total_output = 0u64;
@@ -313,6 +352,9 @@ pub fn hive_snapshot(window: Window, prices: &PriceTable) -> HiveStats {
         for (m, c) in &agg.models {
             *model_mix.entry(m.clone()).or_insert(0) += c;
         }
+        for (h, c) in &agg.bash {
+            *bash_mix.entry(h.clone()).or_insert(0) += c;
+        }
         agents.push(AgentRollup {
             name,
             turns: agg.turns,
@@ -333,6 +375,14 @@ pub fn hive_snapshot(window: Window, prices: &PriceTable) -> HiveStats {
         .collect();
     model_mix.sort_by(|a, b| b.count.cmp(&a.count).then_with(|| a.key.cmp(&b.key)));
 
+    // Busiest commands first, capped to a top-10 "favorite tools" list.
+    let mut bash_mix: Vec<KeyCount> = bash_mix
+        .into_iter()
+        .map(|(key, count)| KeyCount { key, count })
+        .collect();
+    bash_mix.sort_by(|a, b| b.count.cmp(&a.count).then_with(|| a.key.cmp(&b.key)));
+    bash_mix.truncate(10);
+
     HiveStats {
         window: window.label(),
         from,
@@ -346,5 +396,45 @@ pub fn hive_snapshot(window: Window, prices: &PriceTable) -> HiveStats {
         est_cost_usd: total_cost,
         agents,
         model_mix,
+        bash_mix,
+    }
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    /// `read_bash_heads` tallies per-head counts over the window and is
+    /// isolated from a missing table (returns empty, never errors).
+    #[test]
+    fn bash_heads_tally_and_window() {
+        let conn = Connection::open_in_memory().unwrap();
+        conn.execute_batch("CREATE TABLE bash_commands (ts INTEGER NOT NULL, head TEXT NOT NULL);")
+            .unwrap();
+        let now = now_secs();
+        for (ts, head) in [
+            (now - 100, "cargo"),
+            (now - 200, "cargo"),
+            (now - 300, "git"),
+            (now - 10_000, "rg"), // outside a 1h-ish cutoff below
+        ] {
+            conn.execute(
+                "INSERT INTO bash_commands (ts, head) VALUES (?1, ?2)",
+                rusqlite::params![ts, head],
+            )
+            .unwrap();
+        }
+        let heads = read_bash_heads(&conn, now - 3600);
+        assert_eq!(heads.get("cargo").copied(), Some(2));
+        assert_eq!(heads.get("git").copied(), Some(1));
+        assert_eq!(heads.get("rg").copied(), None); // window cutoff excludes it
+    }
+
+    /// A missing `bash_commands` table degrades to an empty tally rather
+    /// than erroring — the pre-capture window on a fresh agent.
+    #[test]
+    fn bash_heads_missing_table_is_empty() {
+        let conn = Connection::open_in_memory().unwrap();
+        assert!(read_bash_heads(&conn, 0).is_empty());
     }
 }