diff --git a/app/globals.css b/app/globals.css
index 12b4b32..53558b0 100644
--- a/app/globals.css
+++ b/app/globals.css
@@ -313,15 +313,15 @@ body {
    in the plain browser — it keys off <html class="lh-electron">, which
    SidebarProvider sets after mount when it detects the Electron shell.
 
-   - .lh-drag        window-drag region (must sit on pointer-receiving els)
+   - .lh-drag        window-drag region — on a dedicated mask div in
+                       home.tsx placed FIRST in the page DOM (the mask
+                       resolves by DOM order, not z-index: no-drag subtracts
+                       only regions added earlier in the tree)
    - .lh-no-drag     carve-out for interactive elements inside a drag band
    - .lh-lights-gutter  the sidebar LH band's traffic-light gutter: lights
                        end at x≈68, the wordmark starts at 80px (5rem)
    - .lh-closed-toggle  same gutter for the sidebar toggle when the sidebar
                        is closed — the lights are static, the toggle moves
-   - .lh-float-drag  the home header strip floats pointer-events-none over
-                       the graph; only in Electron does it claim events and
-                       become the drag surface for that page
    ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── */
 .lh-electron .lh-drag {
 	-webkit-app-region: drag;
@@ -337,7 +337,3 @@ body {
 .lh-electron .lh-closed-toggle {
 	margin-left: 92px;
 }
-.lh-electron .lh-float-drag {
-	pointer-events: auto;
-	-webkit-app-region: drag;
-}
diff --git a/components/home.tsx b/components/home.tsx
index 4ea95de..e7a5c1e 100644
--- a/components/home.tsx
+++ b/components/home.tsx
@@ -51,6 +51,17 @@ export function Home() {
 
 	return (
 		<div className="relative h-dvh">
+			{/* Window-drag strip (merged chrome, owner 2026-09-17): a dedicated
+			    mask element, deliberately FIRST in the DOM. Electron's app-region
+			    mask resolves by DOM order — a no-drag element subtracts only drag
+			    regions that came EARLIER in the tree — not by z-index, so the
+			    header's old inline drag region (after <main>) re-added itself over
+			    the graph chrome row's carve-out and the buttons dragged the window.
+			    Placed first, every carved control (chrome row, node detail card,
+			    the toggle) comes later and subtracts correctly. Pure mask: it
+			    never needs to receive events — the mask routes the pixels. */}
+			<div className="lh-drag absolute inset-x-0 top-0 h-13" aria-hidden="true" />
+
 			{/* Graph — the main view, full-bleed (owner, graph-view round 1): no
 			    padding on any side; the canvas runs from the sidebar to the right
 			    edge and from the bottom to the top, under everything else. */}
@@ -59,8 +70,11 @@ export function Home() {
 			</main>
 
 			{/* Header floats over the graph — pointer-events-none except the
-			    toggle, so the canvas stays draggable/hoverable around it. */}
-			<header className="lh-float-drag pointer-events-none absolute inset-x-0 top-0 flex items-center gap-2 px-3 py-2">
+			    toggle, so the canvas stays draggable/hoverable around it. Carries
+			    no app-region of its own: the strip's drag comes from the mask
+			    div above, and the toggle's lh-no-drag subtracts from it (it is
+			    later in the tree, so the subtraction sticks). */}
+			<header className="pointer-events-none absolute inset-x-0 top-0 flex items-center gap-2 px-3 py-2">
 				<div className="pointer-events-auto">
 					<SidebarToggle />
 				</div>