diff --git a/frontend/packages/agent/src/app.js b/frontend/packages/agent/src/app.js
index 09fa5d70..7075344d 100644
--- a/frontend/packages/agent/src/app.js
+++ b/frontend/packages/agent/src/app.js
@@ -1886,11 +1886,12 @@ window.marked = marked;
       return false;
     }
     // Coalescing target for the live `thinking_tokens` counter.
-    // Holds the row currently showing the running estimate so consecutive
-    // ticks update in place instead of appending a note each. Reset
-    // implicitly: we only reuse it while it's still the last row rendered
-    // (see the nextElementSibling check), so any other event starts fresh.
+    // Holds the row + its text node so consecutive ticks update in place
+    // instead of appending a note each. Reset implicitly: we only reuse
+    // it while it's still the last row rendered (nextElementSibling ===
+    // null), so any other event starts fresh.
     let thinkingTokensRow = null;
+    let thinkingTokensText = null;
     function renderStream(v, api) {
       // Drop claude's result line and rate-limit — noise. TurnEnd
       // communicates pass/fail; rate-limit events are noisy status chatter.
@@ -1930,15 +1931,11 @@ window.marked = marked;
             + (n != null ? '~' + Number(n).toLocaleString() + ' tokens' : '');
           if (thinkingTokensRow && thinkingTokensRow.isConnected
               && thinkingTokensRow.nextElementSibling === null) {
-            // Update only the text portion after the icon glyph
-            // (textContent would clobber the .row-glyph span).
-            const glyph = thinkingTokensRow.querySelector('.row-glyph');
-            [...thinkingTokensRow.childNodes].forEach((node) => {
-              if (node !== glyph) thinkingTokensRow.removeChild(node);
-            });
-            thinkingTokensRow.appendChild(document.createTextNode(text));
+            thinkingTokensText.nodeValue = text;
           } else {
-            thinkingTokensRow = api.row('note', text, '🧠');
+            thinkingTokensRow = api.row('note', '', '🧠');
+            thinkingTokensText = document.createTextNode(text);
+            thinkingTokensRow.appendChild(thinkingTokensText);
           }
           return;
         }