diff --git a/src/lembas/web/templates/chat/_composer.html b/src/lembas/web/templates/chat/_composer.html
index c535df8..71490b9 100644
--- a/src/lembas/web/templates/chat/_composer.html
+++ b/src/lembas/web/templates/chat/_composer.html
@@ -354,9 +354,19 @@
            `agent_jobs` table, and the composer is rendered on every page load
            and after every reply. One request five seconds later costs nothing;
            a query on the render path costs it every time. #}
+        {# `hx-target="this"` is load-bearing and is the whole of a bug that
+           blanked every agent chat. htmx INHERITS `hx-target` from ancestors,
+           and this sits inside the composer's form, which carries
+           `hx-target="#thread"` so that a sent message appends a bubble. Without
+           a target of its own, this element's request resolved to `#thread` --
+           and with `outerHTML` it replaced the entire transcript with the chip.
+           The reply rendered and then vanished, prompt and all.
+
+           Anything in here that fetches must say where the answer goes. There
+           is a test. #}
         {% if jobs_enabled %}
         <div hx-get="/api/chats/{{ chat.id }}/jobs" hx-trigger="load"
-             hx-swap="outerHTML"></div>
+             hx-target="this" hx-swap="outerHTML"></div>
         {% endif %}
         {% endif %}
 
diff --git a/src/lembas/web/templates/chat/_jobs_chip.html b/src/lembas/web/templates/chat/_jobs_chip.html
index 1b48f65..cdecbec 100644
--- a/src/lembas/web/templates/chat/_jobs_chip.html
+++ b/src/lembas/web/templates/chat/_jobs_chip.html
@@ -10,10 +10,17 @@
 
   Swapped `outerHTML` onto itself, so the reply is the whole element including
   the trigger. Every response has to be a complete chip for the same reason.
+
+  `hx-target="this"`, explicitly, because this element lives inside the
+  composer's form and htmx INHERITS `hx-target` from ancestors -- that form
+  carries `hx-target="#thread"` so a sent message appends a bubble, and without
+  a target of its own this poll resolved there and replaced the whole transcript
+  with itself every five seconds. It blanked every agent chat.
 #}
 <div class="composer__jobs" id="jobs-chip"
      hx-get="/api/chats/{{ chat.id }}/jobs"
      hx-trigger="every 5s"
+     hx-target="this"
      hx-swap="outerHTML">
   {% if running %}
   <div class="picker picker--up" data-picker>
diff --git a/tests/test_chat.py b/tests/test_chat.py
index 314c149..66dd1f3 100644
--- a/tests/test_chat.py
+++ b/tests/test_chat.py
@@ -975,3 +975,44 @@ def test_the_finished_bubble_carries_no_live_containers():
     )
 
     assert "sse-swap" not in html
+
+
+def test_nothing_inside_the_composer_form_fetches_without_saying_where_it_lands():
+    """The bug that blanked every agent chat, and the reason it was invisible.
+
+    htmx INHERITS `hx-target` from ancestors. The composer's form carries
+    `hx-target="#thread"` so that sending a message appends a bubble to the
+    transcript -- so anything inside that form which fetches, and does not name
+    its own target, aims at `#thread` too. The background-jobs chip did exactly
+    that with `hx-swap="outerHTML"`: on load it replaced the entire transcript
+    with itself, and the reply appeared and then vanished, the reader's own
+    prompt with it.
+
+    Asserted as the property rather than by rendering, because the markup was
+    never wrong -- `hx-swap="outerHTML"` on an element with no target reads as
+    "swap yourself", and it means that only when nothing above it disagrees.
+    Same family as the trigger bound where the event does not go.
+    """
+    import re
+    from pathlib import Path
+
+    import lembas
+
+    source = (
+        Path(lembas.__file__).parent / "web/templates/chat/_composer.html"
+    ).read_text()
+
+    opened = source.index('<form class="composer__form"')
+    closed = source.index("</form>", opened)
+    inside = source[opened:closed]
+    # The form's own attributes are the ones being inherited; skip its tag.
+    inside = inside[inside.index(">") + 1 :]
+
+    for tag in re.finditer(r"<[a-z]+\s[^>]*>", inside):
+        markup = tag.group()
+        if not re.search(r'hx-(get|post|put|patch|delete)=', markup):
+            continue
+        assert "hx-target=" in markup or 'hx-swap="none"' in markup, (
+            "this fetches from inside a form targeting #thread and does not say "
+            f"where its answer goes:\n{markup}"
+        )