diff --git a/app/globals.css b/app/globals.css
index e17e287..eeb3716 100644
--- a/app/globals.css
+++ b/app/globals.css
@@ -104,7 +104,6 @@
 	   code-block chrome + mermaid-error + demo-card all use them. */
 	--font-ui: var(--font-jetbrains), ui-monospace, SFMono-Regular, monospace;
 	--font-prose: var(--font-sans3), ui-sans-serif, system-ui, sans-serif;
-	--font-title: "lh-cmu", serif;
 	--font-mono: var(--font-jetbrains), ui-monospace, SFMono-Regular, monospace;
 	--font-sans: var(--font-sans3), ui-sans-serif, system-ui, sans-serif;
 	/* The modular type ladder — each size carries its own line-height.
@@ -114,6 +113,12 @@
 	   legibility floor; quiet labels get their quiet from color +
 	   tracking, not a notch of size. Reading prose = the 16px rung via
 	   --lh-prose-size.) */
+	/* --font-title lives in the NON-inline @theme below: inline tokens get
+	   their literal values baked into the utilities (.font-title{font-family:
+	   lh-cmu,serif}), which made the appearance "session names in serif"
+	   toggle write a runtime --font-title no consumer ever read (owner, fix
+	   wave: toggle looked dead). Non-inline emits :root { --font-title: … }
+	   and the utility reads var(--font-title) — appearance overrides win. */
 	--text-xs: 11px;
 	--text-xs--line-height: 1.4;
 	--text-sm: 12.5px;
@@ -444,3 +449,10 @@ body {
 .lh-electron .lh-closed-toggle {
 	margin-left: 92px;
 }
+
+/* --font-title deliberately NOT @theme inline (see comment above): the
+   session-name-serif toggle overrides this var at runtime, so the
+   .font-title utility must read it through var(), not carry a baked copy. */
+@theme {
+	--font-title: "lh-cmu", serif;
+}
diff --git a/components/settings/appearance-section.tsx b/components/settings/appearance-section.tsx
index ed4bb0b..6b12247 100644
--- a/components/settings/appearance-section.tsx
+++ b/components/settings/appearance-section.tsx
@@ -73,6 +73,13 @@ export function AppearanceSection({
 					ariaLabel="prose font size"
 					testid="input-prose-size"
 					onCommit={(v) => {
+						// Empty = factory default (owner, fix wave): omit the key so the record
+						// UNSETS and the field stays empty (absence, not null, is the
+						// unset for numbers). Number("") is 0, so the old clamp wrote 12.
+						if (v === "") {
+							onSectionChange({ ...appearance, proseFontSize: undefined });
+							return;
+						}
 						const n = Number(v);
 						if (!Number.isFinite(n)) return; // bad input: no write, factory stays
 						onSectionChange({ ...appearance, proseFontSize: Math.min(24, Math.max(12, Math.round(n))) });
@@ -94,6 +101,12 @@ export function AppearanceSection({
 					ariaLabel="heading weight"
 					testid="input-heading-weight"
 					onCommit={(v) => {
+						// Empty = factory default (owner, fix wave): Number("") is 0, so
+						// Absence is the unset representation — the old clamp wrote 100.
+						if (v === "") {
+							onSectionChange({ ...appearance, mdRendering: { ...md, headingWeight: undefined } });
+							return;
+						}
 						const n = Number(v);
 						if (!Number.isFinite(n)) return;
 						onSectionChange({