diff --git a/Plugin/unraid/css/varaverk.css b/Plugin/unraid/css/varaverk.css
index 66e16ac..7adc7d8 100644
--- a/Plugin/unraid/css/varaverk.css
+++ b/Plugin/unraid/css/varaverk.css
@@ -667,37 +667,19 @@ body.vv-fullscreen #displaybox { padding-left: 1rem !important; padding-top: .5r
 .vv-sug-configured { color: #4caf50; font-size: 11px; }
 /* Info sections inside Scheduler Information panel */
 /* ── Assistant dock (scheduler right panel) ────────────────────────────────────────────────── */
-#vv-ai-dock      { border: 1px solid #262626; border-radius: 6px; background: #0e0e0e;
-                   margin-top: 6px; flex-shrink: 0; }
-#vv-ai-dock-bar  { display: flex; align-items: center; gap: 7px; padding: 6px 8px; }
-#vv-ai-dock-chip { white-space: nowrap; max-width: 240px; overflow: hidden;
-                   text-overflow: ellipsis; }
-/* The button around it is .vv-ai-chip and carries the colour, border and padding. */
+/* The frame only. Everything the dock used to style for itself — its bar, input, transcript,
+   question and answer rows, sources, separators, its own grow button — is the shared chat
+   component's now, drawn from the same rules as the AI tab and the Monitor card. What is left is
+   the box the panel puts it in. */
+#vv-ai-dock { border: 1px solid #262626; border-radius: 6px; background: #0e0e0e;
+              margin-top: 6px; flex-shrink: 0; padding: 6px 8px; }
+/* The chip states profile and subject together here, and a long script name would otherwise push
+   the action group off the end of a narrow panel. */
+#vv-ai-dock .vv-ai-chip { max-width: 240px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; }
+/* Flashed when the subject moves under text already typed — see vvAiDockScope(). */
 .vv-ai-chip-flash { animation: vvAiChipFlash .9s ease-out 2; }
 @keyframes vvAiChipFlash { 0%,100% { background:#12191d; color:#5a7a8a; }
                            50%     { background:#2a2312; color:#d8b25a; } }
-#vv-ai-dock-input { flex: 1; min-width: 0; background: #0a0a0a; border: 1px solid #262626;
-                    border-radius: 4px; color: #c8c8c8; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px;
-                    padding: 5px 9px; }
-#vv-ai-dock-input:focus { outline: none; border-color: #2d4a6a; }
-#vv-ai-dock-body { border-bottom: 1px solid #1c1c1c; padding: 9px 10px; overflow-y: auto;
-                   font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.55; }
-/* Always present, unlike the collapse button next to it — the size of the conversation is worth
-   changing before there is one, when you already know the answer will be long. */
-.vv-ai-dock-grow      { flex-shrink: 0; min-width: 26px; }
-.vv-ai-dock-grow-on   { color: #8fb0c4; border-color: #2d4a6a; background: #12191d; }
-.vv-ai-dock-q   { color: #8fb0c4; margin: 0 0 5px; }
-.vv-ai-dock-q::before { content: '› '; color: #3a5a6a; }
-.vv-ai-dock-a   { color: #b8b8b8; margin: 0 0 11px; white-space: normal; }
-.vv-ai-dock-a code { background: #1a1a1a; border: 1px solid #333; border-radius: 2px;
-                     padding: 0 4px; font-size: 11px; color: #9ab; }
-.vv-ai-dock-a strong { color: #ddd; }
-.vv-ai-dock-wait { color: #5a5a5a; font-style: italic; }
-.vv-ai-dock-err  { color: #e57; }
-.vv-ai-dock-src  { margin-top: 6px; padding-top: 5px; border-top: 1px solid #1c1c1c;
-                   font-size: 10px; color: #4a4a4a; font-family: monospace; }
-.vv-ai-dock-sep  { margin: 4px 0 9px; font-size: 10px; color: #4a4a4a; text-align: center;
-                   border-top: 1px solid #1c1c1c; padding-top: 6px; }
 
 .vv-info-block .vv-sug-title { color: #9ab; }
 /* Depth switch on the help header. Outlined rather than filled — it changes what you are
@@ -1208,15 +1190,11 @@ code.vv-unknown-var { color: #ff9800; background: #1f130d; }
 .vv-rsync-save-btn { background: #1a2e1a; border-color: #2a4a2a; color: #6aaa6a; }
 .vv-rsync-save-btn:hover { background: #22382a; }
 
-/* ── AI profile picker ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-   Global rather than emitted with the chat widget, because both surfaces that show it are
-   styled differently in every other respect: the Monitor card renders a full transcript from
-   include/ai_chat.php, the Scheduler dock renders its own one-line bar and loads none of that
-   stylesheet. The picker is the one control they share, so it lives where .vv-ai-dock-* already
-   does instead of being emitted twice. */
-/* ── Profile picker ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────── */
-/* The chip borrows the Scheduler dock's language deliberately — same muted blue, same weight,
-   same 10px — so the two surfaces read as one control that happens to appear in two places. */
+/* ── Profile picker ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+   Global rather than emitted with the chat component. It was shared out here when the Scheduler
+   drew its own bar and loaded none of the component's stylesheet; that is no longer true — all
+   three surfaces render the same markup now — but the picker is also used by the menus around it
+   and reads more naturally beside them than inside the component's own block. */
 .vv-ai-picker { position:relative; flex-shrink:0; }
 .vv-ai-chip { display:inline-flex; align-items:center; gap:5px; font-size:10px; color:#5a7a8a;
               background:#12191d; border:1px solid #24343d; border-radius:3px; padding:3px 8px;
diff --git a/Plugin/unraid/include/ai_chat.php b/Plugin/unraid/include/ai_chat.php
index 2e6b7d2..69199ea 100644
--- a/Plugin/unraid/include/ai_chat.php
+++ b/Plugin/unraid/include/ai_chat.php
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 <?php
 // ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
 // PURPOSE
-//   The conversation surface itself — profile bar, transcript, composer, source viewer and the
-//   stored-chat list — rendered wherever a full chat belongs. Currently the AI tab and the
-//   Monitor tab's AI row.
+//   The conversation surface itself — transcript, composer, profile and history pickers, source
+//   viewer and the stored-chat list — rendered wherever a chat belongs. All three surfaces use
+//   it: the AI tab, the Monitor tab's AI row, and the Scheduler's right-hand panel.
 //
 // WHY THIS IS AN INCLUDE
 //   There were two places that needed a real transcript and one implementation, which meant the
@@ -12,10 +12,18 @@
 //   teardown of a stale instance across an Unraid tab swap — is subtle because each of them
 //   already cost a diagnosis session once. A copy inherits none of the fixes that come after it.
 //
-//   The Scheduler tab's dock is deliberately NOT built on this. It is a one-line bar that follows
-//   the view you have open, with its own scope chip, fix flow and incident capture; it is a
-//   different component that happens to talk to the same endpoint. Folding it in here would mean
-//   one widget with two personalities and a mode flag deciding which.
+//   The Scheduler panel used to be exactly that copy: its own bar, send loop, poll and store
+//   handling. It proved the point — a thread there died on reload while the other two were saved,
+//   and its bar drifted into a different shape from the same control everywhere else. It is an
+//   instance now. What was genuinely particular to it turned into options rather than a second
+//   implementation: `scope` as a function for a subject that follows the open view, `beforeSend`
+//   for the one reply that is recorded rather than asked, `think` for reasoning on diagnosis only,
+//   `setHeights()` for a placement whose size is a share of a panel and not knowable until layout.
+//
+// WHAT A PLACEMENT MAY CHOOSE
+//   How much room it gets, and which extra controls belong to that surface. Not the shape: the
+//   control row, its order, and what the buttons do are fixed. A chat that rearranges itself per
+//   tab is three components wearing one name, which is the state this replaced.
 //
 // INSTANCES
 //   Every id is composed from a prefix, so two chats can coexist on one page. Each instance
@@ -69,10 +77,10 @@ require_once __DIR__ . '/ai_profiles.php';
 
 // The conversation store, on its own, with no styling and no chat widget attached.
 //
-// Emitted separately because the surface that most needs it is the one that does not want the
-// rest: the Scheduler dock draws its own one-line bar, with its own scope chip and fix flow, and
-// pulling in the full transcript stylesheet to reach a save function would restyle a component
-// that was deliberately built to look different.
+// Emitted separately because a page may want the store without the component — a list of saved
+// conversations, or a save, with no transcript rendered. Every surface currently takes both, but
+// the two are not the same dependency and pulling in a stylesheet to reach a save function is how
+// they would become one.
 //
 // Where a conversation lives is not a presentation decision, so it gets one answer for every
 // surface. Anything added to the store — a new field, a new cap, a changed prune rule — arrives
@@ -132,8 +140,8 @@ function vv_ai_chat_assets(): void {
 .vv-ai-input:focus { outline:none; border-color:#2d4a6a; }
 .vv-ai-toggle { font-size:11px; color:#6a6a6a; display:flex; align-items:center; gap:5px; cursor:pointer; }
 
-/* Profile picker styling lives in css/varaverk.css — the Scheduler dock uses the same control
-   and loads none of this stylesheet. */
+/* Profile picker styling lives in css/varaverk.css, alongside the menus it shares its shape
+   with, rather than here. */
 .vv-ai-switch { text-align:center; font-size:10px; color:#3a3a3a; margin:10px 0;
                 border-top:1px dashed #1e1e1e; padding-top:8px; }
 
@@ -222,9 +230,9 @@ function vv_ai_chat_assets(): void {
                            background:#161616; border-color:#333; }
 .vv-ai-c .vv-ai-input:focus { border-color:#6495ed; }
 
-/* Styled after the Scheduler dock: 12px, tighter leading, questions marked with a chevron rather
-   than a role label. The role labels cost a line each and say the same two things forever — on a
-   card this size that is a third of the visible transcript spent on "You" and "Varaverk". */
+/* 12px, tighter leading, questions marked with a chevron rather than a role label. The role
+   labels cost a line each and say the same two things forever — in a space this size that is a
+   third of the visible transcript spent on "You" and "Varaverk". */
 .vv-ai-c .vv-ai-role { display:none; }
 .vv-ai-c .vv-ai-body { font-size:12px; line-height:1.55; }
 .vv-ai-c .vv-ai-msg.user .vv-ai-body { color:#8fb0c4; }
@@ -300,7 +308,7 @@ function vv_ai_chat_assets(): void {
 <?php
 // The profile registry, served rather than restated. This used to be a literal table in the
 // script below that had already drifted from the PHP — it knew three profiles where the server
-// knew four, which is why troubleshoot could not be offered here and the Scheduler dock had to
+// knew four, which is why troubleshoot could not be offered here and the Scheduler had to
 // hand-roll its own labels.
 vv_ai_profiles_script();
 ?>
@@ -493,6 +501,12 @@ vv_ai_profiles_script();
       const q = $('input').value.trim();
       if (!q) return;
 
+      // A page may claim what was typed instead of asking it. The Scheduler does this once, after
+      // an offer is accepted, when the next thing typed is the fix being recorded rather than a
+      // question. Checked here rather than in a wrapper the page calls, because Ask and Ctrl+Enter
+      // both land here directly and a wrapper would only catch the ones routed through it.
+      if (o.beforeSend && o.beforeSend(q)) { $('input').value = ''; return; }
+
       busy = true;
       $('send').disabled = true;
       addUser(q);
@@ -516,7 +530,12 @@ vv_ai_profiles_script();
           question: q,
           history:  JSON.stringify(sendable()),
           kind:     (PROFILES[profile].kind && kindEl) ? kindEl.value : '',
-          think:    (thinkEl ? thinkEl.checked : true) ? '1' : '0',
+          // A checkbox where the page offers one, otherwise whatever the page decides from the
+          // profile, otherwise on. The Scheduler reasons only when diagnosing: working out what a
+          // log means is worth waiting ~15s for, and a lookup like "what does this setting do" is
+          // not — an inline answer that stalls reads as broken.
+          think:    (typeof o.think === 'function' ? o.think(profile)
+                     : thinkEl ? thinkEl.checked : true) ? '1' : '0',
         });
         res = fetch(API, { method: 'POST', headers: POST_HEAD, body });
       } catch (e) {
@@ -966,7 +985,7 @@ vv_ai_profiles_script();
         box.innerHTML = '<div class="vv-ai-none">no saved conversations yet</div>';
         return;
       }
-      // The scope is shown, not just stored. A Scheduler dock thread is about one script or log,
+      // The scope is shown, not just stored. A Scheduler thread is about one script or log,
       // and a list of titles alone makes "why does this one talk about a log I never opened"
       // an unanswerable question.
       // Tagged only when the tag says something. A scope always does; a profile does unless it
diff --git a/Plugin/unraid/pages/scheduler.php b/Plugin/unraid/pages/scheduler.php
index f4ed163..652026a 100644
--- a/Plugin/unraid/pages/scheduler.php
+++ b/Plugin/unraid/pages/scheduler.php
@@ -65,8 +65,8 @@
 require_once dirname(__DIR__) . '/include/scheduler.php';
 require_once dirname(__DIR__) . '/include/docs.php';
 require_once dirname(__DIR__) . '/include/ai_profiles.php';
-// For vv_ai_chat_store_script() only — this page renders no chat widget. The store is shared;
-// the presentation deliberately is not.
+// The chat component itself now, not only the store: the assistant panel in the right-hand pane
+// is an instance of it rather than a second implementation.
 require_once dirname(__DIR__) . '/include/ai_chat.php';
 
 // Live values for the `$VAR` markers in pages/readme/*.md. Conf variables, plus the derived
@@ -1060,49 +1060,36 @@ Still the same two servers, two households, the same media stack running itself.
            them: the Scheduler Info card is only on screen in the suggestions view, so a chat box
            living there would vanish exactly when the context — a conf, a log, a script — is most
            worth asking about.
-           At rest it is one input row. Answers expand it upward and the views above shrink to
-           suit, which is why vvFitRight() subtracts its height. It pushes rather than overlays
-           so the thing you are asking about stays on screen. Collapsing keeps the conversation. -->
+           It takes a share of the panel and the views above shrink to suit, which is why
+           vvFitRight() subtracts its height. It pushes rather than overlays, so the thing being
+           asked about stays on screen; ⤢ trades more of the panel for the conversation and back. -->
       <?php
-      // The registry and the conversation store — not the chat widget. This dock draws its own
-      // bar and must keep looking like itself; what it must not have is its own answer to where
-      // a conversation lives.
+      // The registry, the store, and now the component itself. vv_ai_chat_assets() is what
+      // defines VvAiChat and carries the transcript and composer styling — without it the markup
+      // below renders as inert boxes with no factory to bring them to life. It was absent while
+      // this panel drew its own bar.
       vv_ai_profiles_script();
       vv_ai_chat_store_script();
+      vv_ai_chat_assets();
       ?>
+      <!-- The same component the AI tab and the Monitor card render, at this panel's size. It
+           used to be a second implementation with its own bar, send loop and poll — which is how
+           a thread here died on reload while the other two were stored, and how this bar drifted
+           into a different shape from the same control everywhere else.
+
+           The wrapper keeps the #vv-ai-dock id: vvAiDockOn() reads its presence to decide whether
+           to draw the "why?" buttons on the activity rows, and vvFitRight() measures it.
+
+           Heights are set at runtime, not here — see vvFitRight(). This panel's share of the page
+           is not a number that exists until layout has run. -->
       <div id="vv-ai-dock">
-        <div id="vv-ai-dock-body" style="display:none"></div>
-        <div id="vv-ai-dock-bar">
-          <!-- The chip is now the trigger for the profile picker as well as the scope readout.
-               #vv-ai-dock-chip stays the label span it always was, so every existing write to
-               its textContent still lands; the button around it carries the decoration. -->
-          <div class="vv-ai-picker" id="vv-ai-dock-picker">
-            <button class="vv-ai-chip" id="vv-ai-dock-chipbtn" type="button"
-                    aria-haspopup="listbox" aria-expanded="false"
-                    title="What the assistant will answer about — follows the view you have open. Click to change profile.">
-              <span id="vv-ai-dock-chip">Assistant · Scheduler</span><span class="vv-ai-chip-c">▾</span>
-            </button>
-            <div class="vv-ai-menu" id="vv-ai-dock-menu" role="listbox">
-              <?php foreach (vv_ai_profiles_ui() as $key => $def): ?>
-              <button class="vv-ai-opt" data-prof="<?= htmlspecialchars($key, ENT_QUOTES) ?>"
-                      type="button" role="option">
-                <span class="vv-ai-opt-l"><?= htmlspecialchars($def['label']) ?></span>
-                <span class="vv-ai-opt-h"><?= htmlspecialchars($def['hint']) ?></span>
-              </button>
-              <?php endforeach; ?>
-            </div>
-          </div>
-          <input type="text" id="vv-ai-dock-input" autocomplete="off"
-                 placeholder="Ask about what is on screen…"
-                 onkeydown="if(event.key==='Enter'){event.preventDefault();vvAiDockSend();}">
-          <button class="vv-btn-sm" id="vv-ai-dock-send" onclick="vvAiDockSend()">Ask</button>
-          <button class="vv-btn-sm" id="vv-ai-dock-fix" onclick="vvAiFixStart()"
-                  style="display:none" title="Record what actually fixed this, against this script">Save fix</button>
-          <button class="vv-btn-sm" id="vv-ai-dock-hide" onclick="vvAiDockCollapse()"
-                  style="display:none" title="Collapse — the conversation is kept">▾</button>
-          <button class="vv-btn-sm vv-ai-dock-grow" id="vv-ai-dock-grow" onclick="vvAiDockGrow()"
-                  title="Give the conversation more of the panel">⤢</button>
-        </div>
+        <?php vv_ai_chat_markup('vv-sched-ai', [
+            'profile'     => 'varaverk',
+            'compact'     => true,
+            'scopeLabel'  => 'Scheduler',
+            'empty'       => 'Ask about what is on screen.',
+            'placeholder' => 'Ask about what is on screen…',
+        ]); ?>
       </div>
       <?php endif; ?>
       <div class="vv-sched-footer vv-sched-info vv-snap-footer" id="vv-sched-info-footer">
@@ -1205,11 +1192,6 @@ function vvPost(url, data) {
   }).then(r => r.json());
 }
 
-// Whether the assistant dock is holding the larger share of the panel. Persisted: someone working
-// through a long answer wants it to still be big after a reload, not to re-expand every visit.
-// Declared here rather than with the other dock state because vvFitRight() below reads it.
-let vvAiDockBig = localStorage.getItem('vv-ai-dock-big') === '1';
-
 function vvFitRight() {
   const right = document.getElementById('vv-sched-right');
   if (!right.classList.contains('vv-panel-visible')) return;
@@ -1245,10 +1227,14 @@ function vvFitRight() {
   // Expanded takes most of the panel rather than all of it. The view above is what the question
   // is usually about — a log, a conf, a script — and a chat that covers it entirely turns every
   // follow-up into a round trip through the collapse button.
-  const dockBody = document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-body');
-  const dockCap  = vvAiDockBig ? 0.82 : 0.4;
-  if (dockBody) dockBody.style.maxHeight = Math.max(90, Math.round(availH * dockCap)) + 'px';
-  // Measured after the cap is applied, so this reads the clamped height, not the natural one.
+  // Both heights handed to the chat rather than one cap applied to it, because the component owns
+  // which of the two it is currently at. Recomputed on every fit so a resize while expanded stays
+  // expanded at the new panel size instead of snapping back to the resting share.
+  if (vvSchedChat) {
+    vvSchedChat.setHeights(Math.max(90, Math.round(availH * 0.40)) + 'px',
+                           Math.max(90, Math.round(availH * 0.82)) + 'px');
+  }
+  // Measured after the heights are applied, so this reads the clamped height, not the natural one.
   const dock  = document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock');
   const dockH = dock ? dock.offsetHeight : 0;
   const contentH = Math.max(80, availH - dockH);
@@ -2377,48 +2363,42 @@ function vvClickCog(el) {
 let vvAiProfile = 'varaverk';
 let vvAiScope   = 'Scheduler';
 let vvAiScopeLabel = 'Scheduler';  // what the chip reads; the target is the id behind it
-let vvAiHist    = [];          // what the model is told; reset when the scope changes
-let vvAiChatId  = "";          // the stored conversation this thread is appending to
-let vvAiBusy    = false;
-let vvAiPoll    = null;
+let vvSchedChat = null;            // the shared chat instance, once the row has rendered
 
-function vvAiDockOn() { return !!document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock'); }
+// Presence of the instance, not of an element. Everything that guards on this — the "why?" buttons
+// on the activity rows, the panel fit — needs a working chat, and on a host without the AI row
+// there is neither.
+function vvAiDockOn() { return !!vvSchedChat; }
 
-// ── Profile picker ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-// The chip states the contract and the thing being asked about; clicking it changes the first
-// without moving the second. Same control as the Monitor card's, same stylesheet — the dock keeps
-// its own bar because that is a real difference, but which profile answers is not a per-surface
-// idea and should not have a per-surface control.
-//
-// Routes through vvAiDockScope() rather than assigning vvAiProfile, so a profile change gets the
-// history reset and the on-screen marker that a scope change already gets. Picking a new contract
-// mid-thread and silently feeding it the previous one's turns is the bug that rule exists for.
-(function vvAiPickerInit() {
-  const picker = document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-picker');
-  if (!picker) return;
-  const btn  = document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-chipbtn');
-  const menu = document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-menu');
-  const close = () => { picker.classList.remove('open'); btn.setAttribute('aria-expanded', 'false'); };
-
-  btn.addEventListener('click', e => {
-    e.stopPropagation();
-    const open = picker.classList.toggle('open');
-    btn.setAttribute('aria-expanded', open ? 'true' : 'false');
-    menu.querySelectorAll('.vv-ai-opt').forEach(o =>
-      o.classList.toggle('active', o.dataset.prof === vvAiProfile));
+// The profile picker, the send loop, the poll, the transcript and the store are all the component's
+// now. What stays here is the part that is genuinely this tab's: which script, log or conf the
+// question is about, and how that follows the view the operator has open.
+if (document.getElementById('vv-sched-ai-chat')) {
+  vvSchedChat = VvAiChat({
+    prefix:     'vv-sched-ai',
+    profile:    vvAiProfile,
+    scopeLabel: vvAiScopeLabel,
+    // Re-read at send time rather than captured, because the operator moves around this tab
+    // between asking and sending.
+    scope:      () => vvAiScope,
+    // Reasoning for diagnosis only — see the note in the component's ask payload.
+    think:      p => p === 'troubleshoot',
+    // The picker is the component's, so this is how the page learns the contract changed.
+    onProfile:  p => { vvAiProfile = p; },
+    // Claims what was typed rather than asking it, once, after a fix offer is accepted. Also the
+    // one place that reliably sees every question, so it is where the symptom is remembered.
+    beforeSend: q => {
+      if (vvAiFixPending) { vvAiFixSave(q); return true; }
+      vvAiLastQ = q;
+      return false;
+    },
+    onTurn:     () => { vvAiFixArm(); requestAnimationFrame(vvFitRight); },
+    onOffer:    (kind, yes) => { if (kind === 'fix') vvAiFixAnswer(yes); },
   });
-  menu.addEventListener('click', e => {
-    const o = e.target.closest('.vv-ai-opt');
-    if (!o) return;
-    close();
-    vvAiDockScope(o.dataset.prof, vvAiScopeLabel, vvAiScope);
-  });
-  document.addEventListener('click', e => { if (!picker.contains(e.target)) close(); });
-  document.addEventListener('keydown', e => { if (e.key === 'Escape') close(); });
-})();
+}
 
 // Called by every view switch. Profile and scope are derived from what is open and shown on the
-// chip — never chosen, never hidden. If the user can see what it thinks it is looking at, a
+// chip — never chosen, never hidden. If the operator can see what it thinks it is looking at, a
 // wrong inference costs a glance instead of a confidently wrong answer.
 // label is what the chip shows; target is what the worker resolves. They differ for logs, where
 // the chip wants "daily_sync_maintenance log" and the worker needs the script id it can turn
@@ -2428,179 +2408,107 @@ function vvAiDockScope(profile, label, target) {
   target = target || label;
   if (profile === vvAiProfile && target === vvAiScope) return;
 
-  const had = vvAiHist.length > 0;
-  vvAiProfile = profile;
-  vvAiScope   = target;
-  vvAiScopeLabel = label;   // kept so the picker can change profile without moving the scope
-  // Short label from the registry, not a literal map. The map that used to be here was the
-  // fifth place a profile got defined, and it silently fell back to "Assistant" for any id it
-  // had not been told about — so a new profile would have shown up in the chip as the strict one.
-  const _p = (window.VvAiProfiles || {})[profile];
-  document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-chip').textContent =
-    (_p ? _p.short : profile) + ' · ' + label;
+  vvAiProfile    = profile;
+  vvAiScope      = target;
+  vvAiScopeLabel = label;
+  // One call for both, so changing profile and subject together leaves one line in the transcript
+  // rather than two saying nearly the same thing. The component keeps the transcript and moves
+  // only the floor the model is told about.
+  vvSchedChat.retarget(profile, label, 'now looking at ' + label);
+  // A fix offer belongs to the thing it was diagnosed against; moving the subject abandons it.
+  vvAiFixWatch = null;
 
-  // Transcript stays, history sent to the model resets — the same rule the AI tab's profile
-  // buttons already use. A troubleshooting thread carrying log excerpts must not bleed into a
-  // question about a conf key, but hiding that the earlier exchange happened is worse.
-  if (had) {
-    vvAiHist = [];
-    // A new stored conversation too, not a continuation of the last one. The scope is part of
-    // the record, so appending turns about a different thing to the same row would produce a
-    // conversation whose stored scope describes only its first half.
-    vvAiChatId = '';
-    vvAiDockAppend('<div class="vv-ai-dock-sep">now looking at ' + vvEscHtml(label) + '</div>');
-  }
   // The scope moved under text already typed. Not blocked — just never silent.
-  const input = document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-input');
-  if (input.value.trim() !== '') {
+  const input = document.getElementById('vv-sched-ai-input');
+  if (input && input.value.trim() !== '') {
     // The button, not the label span inside it. The flash animates a background, and the
-    // background moved to the button when the chip became the picker's trigger.
-    const chip = document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-chipbtn');
-    chip.classList.remove('vv-ai-chip-flash');
-    void chip.offsetWidth;
-    chip.classList.add('vv-ai-chip-flash');
+    // background lives on the button that triggers the picker.
+    const chip = document.getElementById('vv-sched-ai-chip');
+    if (chip) {
+      chip.classList.remove('vv-ai-chip-flash');
+      void chip.offsetWidth;
+      chip.classList.add('vv-ai-chip-flash');
+    }
   }
 }
 
-// Anything that changes what is in the dock has to re-run the fit, or the dock keeps the height
-// the new content wants and pushes the panel past the bottom of the page.
-function vvAiDockAppend(html) {
-  const body = document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-body');
-  body.insertAdjacentHTML('beforeend', html);
-  body.scrollTop = body.scrollHeight;
-  requestAnimationFrame(vvFitRight);
-}
-
-function vvAiDockExpand() {
-  document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-body').style.display = '';
-  document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-hide').style.display = '';
-  vvAiDockApplyGrow();
-  requestAnimationFrame(vvFitRight);
-}
-
-// One control, two jobs, decided by what is on screen: grow the conversation, or — once it is
-// already holding the panel — close it. A dedicated shrink-back would be a third state nobody
-// asked for; at full size the only thing left to want is the view above.
-//
-// Closing from expanded also gives the size back. Without that, 82% is a one-way door: the next
-// question reopens at 82%, the button is a collapse again, and nothing ever restores the 40%.
-function vvAiDockGrow() {
-  const open = vvAiDockBodyOpen();
-  vvAiDockBig = !(vvAiDockBig && open);
-  localStorage.setItem('vv-ai-dock-big', vvAiDockBig ? '1' : '0');
-  if (vvAiDockBig) vvAiDockExpand();
-  else             vvAiDockCollapse();
-}
-
-function vvAiDockBodyOpen() {
-  const b = document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-body');
-  return !!b && b.style.display !== 'none';
-}
-
-// Called by expand and collapse as well as on load, so the button always describes the action it
-// will actually perform. A stored "expanded" preference with the conversation shut still reads as
-// grow — collapsing something already closed is not an action worth offering.
-function vvAiDockApplyGrow() {
-  const b = document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-grow');
-  if (!b) return;
-  const collapses = vvAiDockBig && vvAiDockBodyOpen();
-  b.textContent = collapses ? '▾' : '⤢';
-  b.title       = collapses ? 'Collapse — the conversation is kept'
-                            : 'Give the conversation more of the panel';
-  b.classList.toggle('vv-ai-dock-grow-on', collapses);
-  // Two collapse buttons side by side is one too many. While this one collapses, the other hides.
-  const hide = document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-hide');
-  if (hide && collapses) hide.style.display = 'none';
-}
-
-// Collapse is not clear. Re-expanding shows the same conversation, so you can shrink it to read
-// the conf the answer was about and open it again without paying for the turn twice.
-function vvAiDockCollapse() {
-  document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-body').style.display = 'none';
-  document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-hide').style.display = 'none';
-  // Closing hands the panel back, whichever button did it, so the next question opens at the
-  // ordinary size instead of inheriting a decision made about a different answer.
-  vvAiDockBig = false;
-  localStorage.setItem('vv-ai-dock-big', '0');
-  vvAiDockApplyGrow();
-  requestAnimationFrame(vvFitRight);
-}
 
 // ── Recording a fix ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 // The symptom is taken from the question that was being asked; the fix is typed by the operator.
 // The model's diagnosis is deliberately not saved — it is a reading of evidence, and writing a
 // hypothesis into institutional memory as settled fact is how a wrong answer outlives the
 // incident it came from. What gets remembered is what actually worked.
-let vvAiFixMode = false;
-let vvAiLastQ   = '';
+//
+// Offered, not buttoned. This used to be a "Save fix" button that appeared after any answer that
+// was not an error, which meant it was on screen after nearly every question — so it read as
+// furniture and was mostly ignored. The offer instead waits for the one fact that says the
+// trouble is actually over: the script that was being diagnosed runs again and exits clean. That
+// arrives once per episode, at the moment it is true, and it comes from the run record rather
+// than from a guess about the conversation.
+let vvAiFixWatch = null;   // { scope, symptom, since } while a diagnosis is waiting on a good run
+let vvAiFixAsk   = null;   // { scope, symptom } while the offer is open and awaiting an answer
 
-function vvAiFixStart() {
-  const input = document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-input');
-  vvAiFixMode = true;
-  input.placeholder = 'What actually fixed it? (saved against ' + vvAiScope + ')';
-  input.value = '';
-  input.focus();
-  document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-send').textContent = 'Save';
-  document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-fix').style.display = 'none';
+// Armed when a troubleshoot turn finishes. The question is the symptom; the scope is whatever was
+// being diagnosed. `since` guards against a run that had already completed before the diagnosis
+// started being read as proof that the diagnosis worked.
+function vvAiFixArm() {
+  if (vvAiProfile !== 'troubleshoot' || !vvAiScope) return;
+  vvAiFixWatch = {
+    scope:   vvAiScope,
+    symptom: vvAiLastQ || 'diagnosed from the log',
+    since:   Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000),
+  };
 }
 
-function vvAiFixCancel() {
-  vvAiFixMode = false;
-  const input = document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-input');
-  input.placeholder = 'Ask about what is on screen…';
-  document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-send').textContent = 'Ask';
-  if (vvAiLastQ) document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-fix').style.display = '';
+// Called from the activity poll with each completed run. One offer per episode: the watch is
+// cleared as it fires.
+function vvAiFixRunOk(id, startedAt) {
+  const w = vvAiFixWatch;
+  if (!w || !vvAiDockOn()) return;
+  if (id !== w.scope || startedAt < w.since) return;
+  vvAiFixWatch = null;
+  vvAiFixAsk   = { scope: w.scope, symptom: w.symptom };
+  // Raw, not escaped — offer() renders through the component's fmt(), which escapes first.
+  vvSchedChat.offer('fix', id + ' just ran clean. Want me to record what fixed it?');
 }
 
+function vvAiFixAnswer(yes) {
+  const ask = vvAiFixAsk;
+  vvAiFixAsk = null;
+  if (!yes || !ask) return;
+  // The fix itself is still typed, because only the operator knows what they actually changed.
+  // The next thing sent is captured as the fix rather than asked as a question.
+  vvAiFixPending = ask;
+  const input = document.getElementById('vv-sched-ai-input');
+  if (input) {
+    input.placeholder = 'What actually fixed it? (saved against ' + ask.scope + ')';
+    input.focus();
+  }
+}
+
+let vvAiFixPending = null;
+
 function vvAiFixSave(text) {
+  const ask = vvAiFixPending;
+  vvAiFixPending = null;
+  const input = document.getElementById('vv-sched-ai-input');
+  if (input) input.placeholder = 'Ask about what is on screen…';
+  if (!ask) return;
   fetch('/plugins/varaverk/api/ai.php', {
     method: 'POST',
     headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8' },
-    body: new URLSearchParams({ action: 'incident_add', scope: vvAiScope,
-                                symptom: vvAiLastQ, fix: text }),
+    body: new URLSearchParams({ action: 'incident_add', scope: ask.scope,
+                                symptom: ask.symptom, fix: text }),
   }).then(r => r.json()).then(d => {
-    vvAiDockAppend(d.ok
-      ? '<div class="vv-ai-dock-sep">saved against ' + vvEscHtml(vvAiScope)
-        + ' — it will be shown next time this is diagnosed</div>'
-      : '<div class="vv-ai-dock-a vv-ai-dock-err">Could not save: '
-        + vvEscHtml(d.error || 'unknown') + '</div>');
-  }).catch(e => vvAiDockAppend('<div class="vv-ai-dock-a vv-ai-dock-err">Save failed: '
-        + vvEscHtml(String(e)) + '</div>'));
-  vvAiFixCancel();
+    vvSchedChat.note(d.ok
+      ? 'saved against ' + ask.scope + ' — it will be shown next time this is diagnosed'
+      : 'could not save: ' + (d.error || 'unknown'));
+  }).catch(e => vvSchedChat.note('save failed: ' + e));
 }
 
-function vvAiDockSend() {
-  if (vvAiBusy) return;
-  const input = document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-input');
-  const q = input.value.trim();
-  if (!q) return;
-  if (vvAiFixMode) { input.value = ''; vvAiFixSave(q); return; }
-  input.value = '';
-  vvAiBusy = true;
-  document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-send').disabled = true;
-
-  vvAiDockExpand();
-  vvAiDockAppend('<div class="vv-ai-dock-q">' + vvEscHtml(q) + '</div>'
-               + '<div class="vv-ai-dock-a vv-ai-dock-wait" id="vv-ai-dock-pending">thinking…</div>');
-
-  fetch('/plugins/varaverk/api/ai.php', {
-    method: 'POST',
-    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8' },
-    body: new URLSearchParams({
-      action: 'ask', question: q, profile: vvAiProfile, scope: vvAiScope,
-      // Thinking on for diagnosis only. Working out what a log means is reasoning, and it is
-      // the one thing here worth waiting ~15s for; a lookup like "what does this setting do"
-      // is not, and inline answers that stall feel broken.
-      think: vvAiProfile === 'troubleshoot' ? '1' : '0',
-      history: JSON.stringify(vvAiHist),
-    }),
-  }).then(r => r.json()).then(d => {
-    if (!d.ok || !d.token) return vvAiDockDone(d.error || 'Could not start.', true);
-    vvAiHist.push({ role: 'user', content: q });
-    vvAiLastQ = q;
-    vvAiDockPoll(d.token);
-  }).catch(e => vvAiDockDone('Request failed: ' + e, true));
-}
+// The last question asked, kept so a fix filed later has a symptom to go with it. Written by the
+// component's beforeSend hook, which is the one place every question passes through.
+let vvAiLastQ = '';
 
 // Asks about one run from the Recent Activity list, in a single click.
 //
@@ -2614,68 +2522,11 @@ function vvAiDockSend() {
 // request, so what was asked on their behalf is never a mystery.
 function vvAiAskRun(id, failed, ev) {
   if (ev) ev.stopPropagation();
-  if (!vvAiDockOn() || vvAiBusy) return;
+  if (!vvAiDockOn() || vvSchedChat.busy()) return;
   vvOpenRight(id);
-  const input = document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-input');
+  const input = document.getElementById('vv-sched-ai-input');
   input.value = failed ? 'Why did this run fail?' : 'How did this run go?';
-  vvAiDockSend();
-}
-
-function vvAiDockPoll(token, started) {
-  started = started || Date.now();
-  clearTimeout(vvAiPoll);
-  if (Date.now() - started > 300000) return vvAiDockDone('Timed out waiting for a response.', true);
-  vvAiPoll = setTimeout(() => {
-    fetch('/plugins/varaverk/api/ai.php?action=poll&token=' + encodeURIComponent(token))
-      .then(r => r.json()).then(d => {
-        if (!d.ok) return vvAiDockDone(d.error || 'Poll failed', true);
-        const j = d.job || {};
-        if (j.status === 'done') {
-          vvAiHist.push({ role: 'assistant', content: j.answer || '' });
-          vvAiDockDone(j.answer || '(empty answer)', false, j.sources || []);
-          // Same store as the AI tab and the Monitor row, through the same writer. This dock
-          // kept its conversation in a JavaScript array and nothing else, so a thread died on
-          // reload — including the troubleshooting ones, which are the most expensive to have
-          // had and the most annoying to lose. The scope goes with it so reopening the thread
-          // restores what it was reasoned about rather than continuing it against whatever
-          // happens to be on screen.
-          if (window.VvAiChatSave) {
-            window.VvAiChatSave(vvAiHist, vvAiProfile, vvAiScope, vvAiChatId)
-              .then(id => { if (id) vvAiChatId = id; });
-          }
-          fetch('/plugins/varaverk/api/ai.php', { method: 'POST',
-            headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8' },
-            body: new URLSearchParams({ action: 'clear', token }) }).catch(() => {});
-          return;
-        }
-        if (j.status === 'error') return vvAiDockDone(j.error || 'Unknown error', true);
-        vvAiDockPoll(token, started);
-      }).catch(e => vvAiDockDone('Poll failed: ' + e, true));
-  }, 1000);
-}
-
-function vvAiDockDone(text, isErr, sources) {
-  const pending = document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-pending');
-  let html = vvEscHtml(text)
-    .replace(/`([^`]+)`/g, '<code>$1</code>')
-    .replace(/\*\*([^*]+)\*\*/g, '<strong>$1</strong>')
-    .replace(/\n/g, '<br>');
-  if (sources && sources.length) {
-    html += '<div class="vv-ai-dock-src">' + sources.slice(0, 4).map(s =>
-      vvEscHtml([s.path, s.section, s.heading].filter(Boolean).join(' › '))).join('<br>') + '</div>';
-  }
-  if (pending) {
-    pending.classList.remove('vv-ai-dock-wait');
-    if (isErr) pending.classList.add('vv-ai-dock-err');
-    pending.innerHTML = html;
-    pending.removeAttribute('id');
-  }
-  vvAiBusy = false;
-  document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-send').disabled = false;
-  // Offered only once there is something to attach a fix to.
-  if (!isErr && vvAiLastQ) document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-fix').style.display = '';
-  const body = document.getElementById('vv-ai-dock-body');
-  requestAnimationFrame(() => { vvFitRight(); body.scrollTop = body.scrollHeight; });
+  vvSchedChat.send();
 }
 
 // ── Advanced mode toggle ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
@@ -3315,6 +3166,10 @@ function vvLoadRecentActivity() {
         const cls = r.status === 'ok' ? 'vv-stat-ok' : r.status === 'warn' ? 'vv-stat-warn' : 'vv-stat-error';
         const bad = r.status !== 'ok' && r.status !== 'skipped';
         if (bad) errors++;
+        // The one fact that says a diagnosis worked: the script it was about ran again and exited
+        // clean. This poll is already watching for it, so the offer costs a comparison rather than
+        // a second source of truth.
+        if (r.status === 'ok') vvAiFixRunOk(r.id, r.start);
         // The question is on the row because that is where the operator already is when they want
         // it. Reaching the same answer otherwise means noticing the red dot, clicking through to
         // the log, finding the dock, and typing out what the row already knows.
@@ -5058,7 +4913,6 @@ document.querySelectorAll('.vv-sched-card').forEach(card => {
 
 requestAnimationFrame(function() {
   vvRestoreInvert();
-  vvAiDockApplyGrow();
   vvRestoreAdvancedMode();
   vvRestoreSugStates();
   vvApplyHighlighting();