diff --git a/docs/manual-checks.md b/docs/manual-checks.md
index 911d665..ea206ea 100644
--- a/docs/manual-checks.md
+++ b/docs/manual-checks.md
@@ -1750,15 +1750,18 @@ tap of an arrow key.
 With a shell open and the software keyboard up, tap **esc**, **tab** or an arrow on the accessory row, then
 keep typing on the software keyboard.
 
-**Pass:** the keyboard does not change — not its layout, not its suggestion strip, not its height — and
+**Pass:** the keyboard settles back unchanged — same layout, same suggestion strip, same height — and
 everything typed after the tap still reaches the terminal. The accessory row stays visible above the
-keyboard throughout.
+keyboard throughout. A blink during the press itself is tolerable: the platform takes the focus on both
+halves of every touch and the return is posted right behind each theft, so the connection can visibly flap
+for the press's own duration — what it must never do is *stay* swapped after the finger lifts.
 
 **Failure means:** Android's own view focus stayed on Avalonia's input view after the tap instead of being
-handed back. This is the half `Focusable = false` cannot reach — the platform moves its focus on the touch
-itself, before Avalonia decides anything — and the symptom chain is the keyboard swapping to its no-input
-layout and the inset churn parking it over the very row that was tapped. See
-`TerminalFocus` in the Android head's Platform folder.
+handed back. This is the half `Focusable = false` cannot reach — the platform requests focus for its own
+view after dispatching every handled touch — and the symptom chain is the keyboard swapping to its no-input
+layout and the inset churn parking it over the very row that was tapped. The first fix for this failed by
+timing alone: it handed focus back from inside the very dispatch the platform re-steals it after. See
+`TerminalFocus` in the Android head's Platform folder for both the mechanism and the fix's shape.
 
 ### 11.11 Closing a connection and opening a new one both take you somewhere real
 
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Platform/TerminalFocus.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Platform/TerminalFocus.cs
index a2d4617..97b929e 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Platform/TerminalFocus.cs
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Platform/TerminalFocus.cs
@@ -10,17 +10,24 @@ namespace DodoSSH.Client.Android.Platform;
 /// <b>The sibling of <see cref="SoftKeyboard"/>, and it exists for the same reason that one does:</b> the
 /// keyboard over a terminal belongs to the WebView's own native view, which Avalonia's focus manager does
 /// not own. The accessory row's keys are already <c>Focusable=false</c> — see TerminalScreen — so Avalonia's
-/// idea of focus never leaves the terminal when one is tapped. What still moves is <em>Android's</em>: the
-/// tap lands on Avalonia's own input view, which is focusable-in-touch-mode because Avalonia's text boxes
-/// need it to be, and the platform hands that view focus on the way to delivering the touch. The WebView's
-/// input connection dies with its focus, the keyboard swaps to the layout it shows an editor that takes no
-/// text, and the inset churn that follows can leave it sitting on top of the very row that was tapped.
+/// idea of focus never leaves the terminal when one is tapped. What still moves is <em>Android's</em>:
+/// <c>AvaloniaView.DispatchTouchEvent</c> (decompiled from Avalonia.Android 12.1.1) ends every handled
+/// touch — DOWN and UP alike — with a <c>RequestFocus()</c> for Avalonia's own view. The WebView's input
+/// connection dies with its focus, the keyboard swaps to the layout it shows an editor that takes no text,
+/// and the inset churn that follows can leave it sitting on top of the very row that was tapped.
 /// </para>
 /// <para>
-/// So each accessory key hands focus straight back once its byte is on the wire. The page inside the
-/// WebView never noticed anything — its own DOM focus never moved — so regaining native focus re-establishes
-/// the same input connection and the keyboard settles back to what it was. Skipped when the WebView is still
-/// focused, which makes the call free on any platform arrangement where the steal never happened.
+/// <b>Posted, not called — the posting is the fix's second attempt, and the first one's failure is why.</b>
+/// The first version called <c>RequestFocus()</c> from the keys' own Click handlers, which fire
+/// <em>inside</em> the UP event's dispatch — and the platform's own request runs <em>after</em> dispatch
+/// returns, so it undid ours a few microseconds later and the terminal stayed unfocused. A posted runnable
+/// runs on the next main-looper message, after the platform has taken its turn, so ours is the request that
+/// sticks. The focus check lives inside the posted runnable for the same reason: the answer at call time is
+/// about to be made stale by the very mechanism this exists to counter.
+/// </para>
+/// <para>
+/// The page inside the WebView never noticed any of this — its own DOM focus never moved — so regaining
+/// native focus re-establishes the same input connection and the keyboard settles back to what it was.
 /// </para>
 /// <para>
 /// Found by walking the decor view rather than asked of the <c>NativeWebView</c> control, because the
@@ -39,10 +46,18 @@ internal static class TerminalFocus
             return;
         }
 
-        if (FindWebView(decor) is { IsFocused: false } webView)
+        if (FindWebView(decor) is not { } webView)
         {
-            webView.RequestFocus();
+            return;
         }
+
+        webView.Post(() =>
+        {
+            if (!webView.IsFocused)
+            {
+                webView.RequestFocus();
+            }
+        });
     }
 
     private static View? FindWebView(ViewGroup parent)
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Theme/Phone.axaml b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Theme/Phone.axaml
index 5ee8c3c..725e1dd 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Theme/Phone.axaml
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Theme/Phone.axaml
@@ -116,11 +116,27 @@
     <Setter Property="FontWeight" Value="SemiBold" />
   </Style>
 
-  <!-- A row in a list: the whole row is the target, and it is 54 tall because a thumb is not a mouse. -->
+  <!--
+    A row in a list: the whole row is the target, and it is 54 tall because a thumb is not a mouse.
+
+    ◆ VerticalContentAlignment, because that height is the whole point of this class and Avalonia's default
+    for content alignment is Stretch — so the content presenter stretched the caption to the full row and a
+    TextBlock draws its line at the TOP of what it is given. Most rows here never showed it, having a
+    StackPanel or a Grid of already-centred children in them, which is what made the four that did look
+    like four unrelated mistakes: the breadcrumb chips and the up-one-directory button on FilesScreen, and
+    TerminalScreen's CLOSE THIS TAB, each a bare TextBlock in a row 36 or 44 tall with no vertical padding.
+    Measured at those numbers, the caption sat flush against the top edge with 21 to 33 pixels below it.
+
+    The desktop head's App.axaml carries the same setter on its own shapes for the same reason, and excludes
+    two of them — see the remark on Button.ghost there. Nothing is excluded here: no row's content depends
+    on being stretched, there being no full-height strip inside any of the thirty-three, and the Grids that
+    stop filling hold only children that already centre themselves, so they land where they always did.
+  -->
   <Style Selector="Button.row">
     <Setter Property="MinHeight" Value="54" />
     <Setter Property="HorizontalAlignment" Value="Stretch" />
     <Setter Property="HorizontalContentAlignment" Value="Stretch" />
+    <Setter Property="VerticalContentAlignment" Value="Center" />
     <Setter Property="Background" Value="Transparent" />
     <Setter Property="BorderThickness" Value="0" />
     <Setter Property="CornerRadius" Value="10" />
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/TerminalScreen.axaml.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/TerminalScreen.axaml.cs
index 3e2d417..916637a 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/TerminalScreen.axaml.cs
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/TerminalScreen.axaml.cs
@@ -139,29 +139,27 @@ internal sealed partial class TerminalScreen : UserControl
     {
         var row = this.FindControl<StackPanel>("AccessoryKeys")!;
 
+        // Both halves of a press steal Android's own focus — the platform requests it for Avalonia's view
+        // after dispatching every handled touch, DOWN and UP alike; TerminalFocus carries the decompiled
+        // citation. Countered at the row rather than inside each key's Click, and for two reasons: Click
+        // only exists for the UP half, so a keyboard detached at DOWN would stay detached for the whole
+        // length of the press; and the Return is posted past the current dispatch, so its ordering against
+        // the key's own handler does not matter — which is what lets one pair of handlers cover ten keys.
+        row.AddHandler(PointerPressedEvent, (_, _) => TerminalFocus.Return(), RoutingStrategies.Tunnel);
+        row.AddHandler(PointerReleasedEvent, (_, _) => TerminalFocus.Return(), RoutingStrategies.Tunnel);
+
         foreach (var (label, bytes, latches) in Keys)
         {
             var key = CreateKey(label);
 
-            // TerminalFocus.Return in both, after the key has done its work: by Click time the touch has
-            // already moved Android's own focus onto Avalonia's input view, and leaving it there is what
-            // swaps the keyboard out from over the terminal. Returning it is free when nothing moved.
             if (latches)
             {
                 controlKey = key;
-                key.Click += (_, _) =>
-                {
-                    ToggleControl();
-                    TerminalFocus.Return();
-                };
+                key.Click += (_, _) => ToggleControl();
             }
             else
             {
-                key.Click += (_, _) =>
-                {
-                    SendAsync(bytes);
-                    TerminalFocus.Return();
-                };
+                key.Click += (_, _) => SendAsync(bytes);
             }
 
             row.Children.Add(key);
@@ -213,8 +211,9 @@ internal sealed partial class TerminalScreen : UserControl
             // At the Avalonia layer, that is. Android keeps a focus of its own, and the touch that
             // presses one of these keys hands it to Avalonia's input view regardless of what Avalonia
             // decides about its element — taking the keyboard's input connection off the terminal and
-            // swapping its layout mid-typing. The Click wiring in BuildAccessoryRow hands that half
-            // back; see TerminalFocus for the whole story.
+            // swapping its layout mid-typing. The row's own pointer handlers in BuildAccessoryRow hand
+            // that half back; see TerminalFocus for the whole story, including why the handing back has
+            // to be posted rather than done inline.
             Focusable = false,
         };
 
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/App.axaml b/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/App.axaml
index 546d9b8..fdae27b 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/App.axaml
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/App.axaml
@@ -153,6 +153,7 @@
       <Setter Property="CornerRadius" Value="6" />
       <Setter Property="Padding" Value="6,2" />
       <Setter Property="MinHeight" Value="0" />
+      <Setter Property="VerticalContentAlignment" Value="Center" />
       <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{StaticResource TextDim}" />
       <Setter Property="FontFamily" Value="{StaticResource MonoFont}" />
       <Setter Property="FontWeight" Value="Medium" />
@@ -463,6 +464,7 @@
       <Setter Property="Padding" Value="13,7" />
       <Setter Property="HorizontalAlignment" Value="Stretch" />
       <Setter Property="HorizontalContentAlignment" Value="Left" />
+      <Setter Property="VerticalContentAlignment" Value="Center" />
       <Setter Property="CornerRadius" Value="12" />
     </Style>
     <Style Selector="Button.navuser /template/ ContentPresenter#PART_ContentPresenter">
@@ -482,6 +484,7 @@
     <Style Selector="Button.poprow">
       <Setter Property="HorizontalAlignment" Value="Stretch" />
       <Setter Property="HorizontalContentAlignment" Value="Stretch" />
+      <Setter Property="VerticalContentAlignment" Value="Center" />
       <Setter Property="Padding" Value="11,4" />
       <Setter Property="CornerRadius" Value="8" />
       <Setter Property="MinHeight" Value="20" />
@@ -671,6 +674,7 @@
     -->
     <Style Selector="Button.choice">
       <Setter Property="Padding" Value="10,5" />
+      <Setter Property="VerticalContentAlignment" Value="Center" />
       <Setter Property="FontFamily" Value="{StaticResource MonoFont}" />
       <Setter Property="FontSize" Value="10.5" />
       <Setter Property="LetterSpacing" Value="0.5" />
@@ -1120,6 +1124,7 @@
     <Style Selector="Button.panechip">
       <Setter Property="Padding" Value="8,4" />
       <Setter Property="MinHeight" Value="0" />
+      <Setter Property="VerticalContentAlignment" Value="Center" />
       <Setter Property="FontFamily" Value="{StaticResource MonoFont}" />
       <Setter Property="FontSize" Value="11" />
       <Setter Property="FontWeight" Value="Medium" />
diff --git a/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Layout.Tests/ButtonCaptionTests.cs b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Layout.Tests/ButtonCaptionTests.cs
index 35c9e72..dbdcf5a 100644
--- a/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Layout.Tests/ButtonCaptionTests.cs
+++ b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Layout.Tests/ButtonCaptionTests.cs
@@ -1,13 +1,14 @@
 using System.Globalization;
 using Avalonia;
 using Avalonia.Controls;
+using Avalonia.Controls.Presenters;
 using Avalonia.Layout;
 using Avalonia.VisualTree;
 
 namespace DodoSSH.Client.App.Layout.Tests;
 
 /// <summary>
-/// The three button shapes centre their caption inside a button taller than the caption.
+/// The button shapes that centre their caption do, and the two that deliberately do not still fill.
 /// </summary>
 /// <remarks>
 /// <para>
@@ -41,6 +42,15 @@ namespace DodoSSH.Client.App.Layout.Tests;
 /// action — so an absolute expectation would be a font metric written down in a test file, and it would move
 /// the day the face does. "Centred" survives both.
 /// </para>
+/// <para>
+/// The five shapes beyond the original three were swept in afterwards, and none of them was misbehaving
+/// when it was: every one is content-sized everywhere it is used today, so <c>Stretch</c> and <c>Center</c>
+/// agreed and the change moved nothing — 113 buttons across 29 screens measured byte-identical before and
+/// after. What the sweep buys is that the day any of them is given a height, it is already right. That is
+/// also why <see cref="AStretchingShapeStillFillsItsButton"/> matters more than it looks: the same
+/// reasoning applied to <c>flat</c> or <c>cat</c> would break a pill and a strip that are currently
+/// correct.
+/// </para>
 /// </remarks>
 public sealed class ButtonCaptionTests
 {
@@ -61,6 +71,11 @@ public sealed class ButtonCaptionTests
     [InlineData("ghost")]
     [InlineData("accent")]
     [InlineData("danger")]
+    [InlineData("navuser")]
+    [InlineData("poprow")]
+    [InlineData("panechip")]
+    [InlineData("chiptoggle")]
+    [InlineData("choice")]
     public async Task ACaptionIsCentredInAButtonTallerThanItself(string shape)
     {
         await MeasureAsync(
@@ -96,6 +111,72 @@ public sealed class ButtonCaptionTests
                 "the caption should sit high, which is the defect this suite was written for"));
     }
 
+    /// <summary>
+    /// <c>flat</c> and <c>cat</c> are excluded from the rule above, and must stay excluded.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// Both stretch their content on purpose, and both would be silently broken by a later pass that
+    /// "finished" the sweep the rest of these classes belong to — which is exactly why this is a test and
+    /// not a comment.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// <c>flat</c> carries the titlebar's search pill, a <c>Border.searchpill</c> with no height of its own
+    /// that is meant to fill all 35 pixels of the button; the usage states
+    /// <c>HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch"</c> and relies on the vertical default matching it. Centring
+    /// from the style would shrink that pill to its caption's line box inside a button twice as tall.
+    /// <c>cat</c> carries the keychain rail's accent strip, a <c>Border.rowmark</c> whose style sets
+    /// <c>Width="2"</c> and no height at all — "at full row height", says the rule's own remark — so its
+    /// height is the stretch and nothing else.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// Asserted as "the content fills the button", not as "the caption is off-centre": what these two need
+    /// is the fill, and a test phrased the other way would still pass if the fill broke in some new way.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    [Theory]
+    [InlineData("flat")]
+    [InlineData("cat")]
+    public async Task AStretchingShapeStillFillsItsButton(string shape)
+    {
+        await LayoutHarness.OnTheUiThreadAsync(
+            () =>
+            {
+                // A bare Border is what both of them actually hold: no height, sized only by its parent.
+                var fill = new Border();
+                var button = new Button { Content = fill, Height = FixedHeight };
+                button.Classes.Add(shape);
+
+                var window = LayoutHarness.HostAtMinimumSize(
+                    button, LayoutHarness.MinimumWidth, LayoutHarness.MinimumHeight);
+
+                try
+                {
+                    // The slot read off the presenter rather than recomputed from the button's Padding:
+                    // these shapes differ in whether their presenter also draws a border, and a hand-rolled
+                    // sum was two pixels out on Button.cat for exactly that reason.
+                    var presenter = button.GetVisualDescendants()
+                        .OfType<ContentPresenter>()
+                        .Single(p => string.Equals(p.Name, "PART_ContentPresenter", StringComparison.Ordinal));
+
+                    var slot = presenter.Bounds.Height
+                        - presenter.Padding.Top - presenter.Padding.Bottom
+                        - presenter.BorderThickness.Top - presenter.BorderThickness.Bottom;
+
+                    fill.Bounds.Height.ShouldBe(
+                        slot,
+                        Tolerance,
+                        $"Button.{shape} must stretch its content — the search pill and the rail's accent "
+                        + "strip have no height of their own");
+                }
+                finally
+                {
+                    window.Close();
+                }
+            },
+            Token);
+    }
+
     private static Task MeasureAsync(
         string shape, VerticalAlignment? alignment, Action<double, double> assert) =>
         LayoutHarness.OnTheUiThreadAsync(