diff --git a/frontend/packages/agent/src/Root.tsx b/frontend/packages/agent/src/Root.tsx
index 36079502..f3b15400 100644
--- a/frontend/packages/agent/src/Root.tsx
+++ b/frontend/packages/agent/src/Root.tsx
@@ -72,17 +72,6 @@ export function Root() {
   const [openPanel, setOpenPanel] = useState<OpenPanel>(null);
   const liveStreamRef = useRef<LiveStreamHandle>(null);
 
-  // Ticks the status badge's "thinking Xm Ys" age once a second,
-  // independent of the ~4s `/api/state` poll cadence — without its own
-  // clock the age text only advances when a poll happens to land, so it
-  // visibly stair-steps instead of counting up, and freezes outright for
-  // however long a poll is delayed (e.g. a backgrounded tab).
-  const [now, setNow] = useState(() => Date.now());
-  useEffect(() => {
-    const id = setInterval(() => setNow(Date.now()), 1000);
-    return () => clearInterval(id);
-  }, []);
-
   // Browser tab title — ports app.js's setHeader logic verbatim: prefer
   // the human display name + hive_name ("iris // pr1ma") so tabs read
   // naturally; fall back to the qualified domain label for multi-hive
@@ -186,7 +175,7 @@ export function Root() {
   // idle/thinking reading from before the harness went offline).
   const effectiveTurnState = state.status === 'online' ? state.turn_state : 'offline';
   const turnDef = STATE_LABELS[effectiveTurnState] ?? { glyph: '○', text: 'offline', tone: 'negative' as BadgeTone };
-  const stateAge = fmtAge(now - state.turn_state_since * 1000);
+  const stateAge = fmtAge(Date.now() - state.turn_state_since * 1000);
   // Consolidated status badge (mara: "why do we have separate alive
   // badge? ... one badge that shows thinking / idle / paused").
   // Not online → the alive-table's own reading (rate-limited/needs-login/
diff --git a/frontend/packages/agent/src/hooks/useAgentState.ts b/frontend/packages/agent/src/hooks/useAgentState.ts
index 4893ecb1..306d8e49 100644
--- a/frontend/packages/agent/src/hooks/useAgentState.ts
+++ b/frontend/packages/agent/src/hooks/useAgentState.ts
@@ -1,10 +1,5 @@
 // useAgentState — polls `GET /api/state` every 4s and exposes the latest
-// snapshot + loading/error status. Also resyncs immediately whenever the
-// tab regains visibility: a backgrounded tab's `setTimeout` chain gets
-// throttled/frozen by the browser, so the last snapshot — and anything
-// the UI derives from it, like the turn-state badge's elapsed-time text —
-// goes stale until something proactively refetches; without this the
-// only way back to a live reading was a full page reload.
+// snapshot + loading/error status.
 import { useEffect, useRef, useState } from 'preact/hooks';
 import type { AgentState } from '../types.js';
 
@@ -23,15 +18,6 @@ export function useAgentState(): UseAgentStateResult {
   const [error, setError] = useState<string | null>(null);
   const timerRef = useRef<ReturnType<typeof setTimeout> | null>(null);
   const stoppedRef = useRef(false);
-  // Holds the mount effect's self-rescheduling `poll` so `refresh()` can
-  // invoke the *same* function instead of a parallel one-off fetch — a
-  // fresh call still runs through `poll`'s own `setTimeout(poll, …)` tail,
-  // so the loop stays alive afterwards instead of dying silently the
-  // first time something calls `refresh()` (see the review discussion on
-  // this file's PR: an earlier version of `refresh()` did its own
-  // one-off fetch with no reschedule, which permanently killed periodic
-  // polling the first time a caller invoked it).
-  const pollRef = useRef<() => void>(() => {});
 
   useEffect(() => {
     stoppedRef.current = false;
@@ -51,7 +37,6 @@ export function useAgentState(): UseAgentStateResult {
         timerRef.current = setTimeout(poll, RETRY_MS);
       }
     }
-    pollRef.current = poll;
     poll();
 
     return () => {
@@ -62,29 +47,21 @@ export function useAgentState(): UseAgentStateResult {
 
   function refresh() {
     if (timerRef.current) clearTimeout(timerRef.current);
+    // Re-trigger the same poll loop immediately; the effect's closure
+    // owns `poll`, so the simplest safe re-trigger from outside it is a
+    // fresh fetch here rather than reaching back into the effect.
     stoppedRef.current = false;
-    pollRef.current();
+    fetch('api/state')
+      .then((resp) => {
+        if (!resp.ok) throw new Error(`http ${resp.status}`);
+        return resp.json();
+      })
+      .then((s: AgentState) => {
+        setState(s);
+        setError(null);
+      })
+      .catch((err) => setError(err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err)));
   }
 
-  // A backgrounded/hidden tab has its `setTimeout` chain throttled by the
-  // browser (Chrome et al throttle nested timers heavily once hidden, and
-  // may suspend the page outright) — the `poll()` loop above effectively
-  // stalls, and everything derived from `state` (not just the fetch
-  // itself) goes stale until it happens to fire again. Force a resync the
-  // moment the tab becomes visible so switching back doesn't leave a
-  // reading that's minutes old. Empty deps: `refresh` only closes over
-  // refs and setState setters, both stable across renders, so the first
-  // render's closure stays correct for the component's whole lifetime —
-  // and, unlike re-subscribing on every render, doesn't re-attach this
-  // listener every second now that `Root`'s own 1s ticker re-renders the
-  // component that calls this hook.
-  useEffect(() => {
-    function onVisible() {
-      if (document.visibilityState === 'visible') refresh();
-    }
-    document.addEventListener('visibilitychange', onVisible);
-    return () => document.removeEventListener('visibilitychange', onVisible);
-  }, []);
-
   return { state, error, refresh };
 }