diff --git a/src/app/globals.css b/src/app/globals.css
index 197986b2..e7e0f585 100644
--- a/src/app/globals.css
+++ b/src/app/globals.css
@@ -3926,10 +3926,18 @@
   .ui-control-project-detail {
     @apply order-1 min-w-0 lg:order-none;
   }
-  /* The rail list is a capped scroll pane on EVERY breakpoint — on phones an
-     uncapped list rendered all rows full-height (~3 screens of idle projects). */
+  /* Capped and scrollable from `lg`, where the rail sits beside the detail and
+     must not run past it.
+     On a phone it is NOT capped, and that is the point. The 50dvh cap was
+     correct while the list shared the screen with the detail card, but it made
+     a scroller inside a scroller: measured at 671px tall, a 336px window
+     holding 1835px of rows, inside a page with 1746px of its own scroll. A
+     drag near the list scrolled the list; a drag anywhere else scrolled the
+     page; neither was predictable. Now the list is the WHOLE phone screen when
+     it is showing, so the page scroll is the only scroll — one gesture, one
+     result. */
   .ui-control-project-list {
-    @apply flex max-h-[50dvh] flex-col gap-2 overflow-y-auto p-2 lg:block lg:max-h-[calc(100dvh-20rem)] lg:space-y-1;
+    @apply flex flex-col gap-2 p-2 lg:block lg:max-h-[calc(100dvh-20rem)] lg:space-y-1 lg:overflow-y-auto;
   }
   @media (min-width: 64rem) {
     .ui-control-project-list {
diff --git a/src/components/control/ControlPanel.tsx b/src/components/control/ControlPanel.tsx
index 4b9af27b..a0a197e4 100644
--- a/src/components/control/ControlPanel.tsx
+++ b/src/components/control/ControlPanel.tsx
@@ -80,6 +80,20 @@ export function ControlPanel() {
   };
   const [activityOpen, setActivityOpen] = useState(false);
   const [selectedTab, setSelectedTab] = useState<string | null>(null);
+  /**
+   * Has the operator OPENED a project, as opposed to one being auto-selected?
+   *
+   * `selectedTab` cannot answer that: the guard below forces a selection
+   * whenever it is null, because the desktop two-column layout must never
+   * render an empty detail pane. Correct there, wrong on a phone — it meant
+   * /control opened on one project's controls before you had chosen anything,
+   * with the chooser below it. Tapping a row then changed only a highlight,
+   * because the thing it selects was already on screen three scrolls up.
+   *
+   * So the phone needs its own answer to "am I looking at the list, or at a
+   * project?", and this is it. Desktop ignores it entirely.
+   */
+  const [projectOpenOnPhone, setProjectOpenOnPhone] = useState(false);
   const [highlightTab, setHighlightTab] = useState<string | null>(null);
   const [liveTargetTab, setLiveTargetTab] = useState<string | null>(null);
   const livePanelRef = useRef<HTMLElement>(null);
@@ -253,6 +267,11 @@ export function ControlPanel() {
 
     // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/set-state-in-effect -- Deep-link handler: an App Router param change only surfaces as a re-render, so this effect IS the event handler for /control?focus=…. It resolves the target once, atomically, then selects + highlights + scrolls + clears the params; the requestKey ref already guarantees it runs once per navigation. Splitting the setStates into render-time adjustments would resolve the target twice against possibly-different data mid-refresh.
     if (snapshotTab) setSelectedTab(snapshotTab);
+    // A deep link names a project, so on a phone it must LAND on that project
+    // rather than on the list — arriving from a push notification or the
+    // failure banner's "Open on Control" and being shown the roster instead
+    // would make the link useless exactly when it matters.
+    setProjectOpenOnPhone(true);
     setHighlightTab(resolvedTab);
     setLiveTargetTab(resolvedTab);
     if (liveDetailsRef.current) liveDetailsRef.current.open = true;
@@ -507,7 +526,12 @@ export function ControlPanel() {
       <ProjectOperationsView
         snapshots={snapshots}
         selectedTab={selectedTab}
-        onSelect={setSelectedTab}
+        onSelect={(tab) => {
+          setSelectedTab(tab);
+          setProjectOpenOnPhone(true);
+        }}
+        projectOpenOnPhone={projectOpenOnPhone}
+        onBackToList={() => setProjectOpenOnPhone(false)}
         cardProps={cardProps}
         automationMode={automationPolicy.mode}
         onBulkNotice={(msg) => {
diff --git a/src/components/control/ProjectOperationsView.tsx b/src/components/control/ProjectOperationsView.tsx
index 1a5142b7..eadffcc1 100644
--- a/src/components/control/ProjectOperationsView.tsx
+++ b/src/components/control/ProjectOperationsView.tsx
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 "use client";
 
 import { useMemo, useState } from "react";
-import { Search } from "lucide-react";
+import { ChevronLeft, Search } from "lucide-react";
 import { cn } from "@/lib/utils";
 import { compactRelativeDate } from "@/lib/dates";
 import { postJson } from "@/lib/api/fetch";
@@ -35,6 +35,8 @@ export function ProjectOperationsView({
   snapshots,
   selectedTab,
   onSelect,
+  projectOpenOnPhone = false,
+  onBackToList,
   cardProps,
   automationMode,
   onBulkNotice,
@@ -42,6 +44,11 @@ export function ProjectOperationsView({
   snapshots: ProjectOperationsSnapshot[] | null;
   selectedTab: string | null;
   onSelect: (tab: string) => void;
+  /** Phone only: is the operator looking at a project, or at the roster?
+   *  Ignored from `lg` up, where both panes are on screen together. */
+  projectOpenOnPhone?: boolean;
+  /** Phone only: return to the roster. */
+  onBackToList?: () => void;
   cardProps: (project: ProjectState) => CardBaseProps;
   automationMode: AutoInjectMode;
   /** Toast after bulk build/pause on the selected rail rows. */
@@ -182,7 +189,16 @@ export function ProjectOperationsView({
 
   return (
     <section id="control-projects" className="ui-control-workspace scroll-mt-24">
-      <aside className="ui-control-project-rail">
+      {/* ONE PANE AT A TIME ON A PHONE.
+          Both panes are full-width and stacked below `lg`, so whichever sits
+          second is off-screen. Ordering them was tried both ways and neither
+          works: list-first buried the working agent under 20 idle rows, and
+          detail-first (the previous fix) opened on a project you had not
+          chosen, with the chooser below it — so tapping a row appeared to do
+          nothing, because the pane it drives was already three scrolls above.
+          Showing one at a time is the fix the ordering was standing in for.
+          From `lg` both are visible side by side and this changes nothing. */}
+      <aside className={cn("ui-control-project-rail", projectOpenOnPhone && "max-lg:hidden")}>
         <div className="border-b border-border-subtle px-4 pb-3 pt-4">
           <h2 className="text-sm font-semibold text-text-primary">Projects</h2>
           {/* Vocabulary matches the row badges and the fleet chips: "awaiting
@@ -341,7 +357,22 @@ export function ProjectOperationsView({
         </div>
       </aside>
 
-      <div className="ui-control-project-detail">
+      <div className={cn("ui-control-project-detail", !projectOpenOnPhone && "max-lg:hidden")}>
+        {/* The way back. A phone that swaps one full-screen pane for another
+            owes you an exit, and the browser's Back button is not it — the
+            selection is component state, not a route, so Back would leave
+            /control entirely. Named, not a bare chevron: it says where it
+            returns you to. */}
+        {onBackToList && (
+          <button
+            type="button"
+            onClick={onBackToList}
+            className="ui-btn-ghost ui-btn-xs mb-2 gap-1 lg:hidden"
+          >
+            <ChevronLeft className="h-3.5 w-3.5" />
+            All projects
+          </button>
+        )}
         <ProjectCard
           key={selected.project.tab}
           {...cardProps(selected.project)}