diff --git a/dotfiles/quickshell/hyprchrome/widgets/ChromeBackdrop.qml b/dotfiles/quickshell/hyprchrome/widgets/ChromeBackdrop.qml
index 4de1703..da5857a 100644
--- a/dotfiles/quickshell/hyprchrome/widgets/ChromeBackdrop.qml
+++ b/dotfiles/quickshell/hyprchrome/widgets/ChromeBackdrop.qml
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ PanelWindow {
 
     visible: scrim.opacity > 0
 
+    WlrLayershell.namespace: "hyprchrome-scrim"
     WlrLayershell.layer: WlrLayer.Top
     WlrLayershell.keyboardFocus: WlrKeyboardFocus.None
     exclusionMode: ExclusionMode.Ignore
diff --git a/dotfiles/quickshell/hyprchrome/widgets/HyprChromeBar.qml b/dotfiles/quickshell/hyprchrome/widgets/HyprChromeBar.qml
index 1177859..341a28f 100644
--- a/dotfiles/quickshell/hyprchrome/widgets/HyprChromeBar.qml
+++ b/dotfiles/quickshell/hyprchrome/widgets/HyprChromeBar.qml
@@ -62,44 +62,33 @@ Scope {
 
     // One layer above the scrim, so the stacking is guaranteed rather than
     // dependent on surface creation order. See ChromeBackdrop.
+    // Own namespace so a layerrule can exempt the rail from Hyprland's layer
+    // animation without also catching the launchers, which share the default
+    // "quickshell" namespace and do want their fade.
+    WlrLayershell.namespace: "hyprchrome-bar"
     WlrLayershell.layer: WlrLayer.Overlay
 
     property int margin: 12
 
-    // Where the panels will SETTLE, not where they are mid-transition. Binding
-    // the surface to the animated height instead resizes the layer surface —
-    // and, with the automatic exclusive zone, relayouts every tiled window on
-    // this output — on every frame of the animation.
+    // The surface never resizes: it is always tall enough for the expanded
+    // rail, and only the exclusive zone tracks the current state. Resizing a
+    // layer surface makes Hyprland animate the change, which showed up as the
+    // panels twitching a pixel or two the moment the collapse finished.
+    //
+    // The zone still follows the target height, so tiled windows reflow once
+    // per toggle, at the start, and slide while the panels animate.
+    readonly property real expandedContent: Math.max(hostPanel.expandedHeight, vitalsPanel.expandedHeight, trayPanel.expandedHeight) + window.margin * 2
     readonly property real contentHeight: Math.max(hostPanel.targetHeight, vitalsPanel.targetHeight, trayPanel.targetHeight) + window.margin * 2
 
-    // The surface and the exclusive zone move on different clocks. The zone is
-    // the desktop-visible half: set it to the target immediately, so the tiled
-    // windows reflow ONCE, at the start, and slide while the bar animates.
-    // The surface itself grows before the panels do but shrinks only after they
-    // have finished, because a surface that shrank immediately would clip the
-    // panels still animating inside it.
-    property real barHeight: 0
+    implicitHeight: Math.round(window.expandedContent)
 
     exclusionMode: ExclusionMode.Normal
     exclusiveZone: Math.round(window.contentHeight)
 
-    implicitHeight: window.barHeight
-
-    onContentHeightChanged: {
-      if (window.contentHeight > window.barHeight)
-        window.barHeight = window.contentHeight;
-      else
-        shrink.restart();
-    }
-
-    Component.onCompleted: window.barHeight = window.contentHeight
-
-    Timer {
-      id: shrink
-
-      // Longer than the panel's own collapse (200ms body + 110ms fade-in).
-      interval: 340
-      onTriggered: window.barHeight = window.contentHeight
+    // Only the panels take input. Without this the surface would keep eating
+    // clicks across its full height while the rail is collapsed.
+    mask: Region {
+      item: panelRow
     }
 
     anchors { top: true; left: true; right: true; }
diff --git a/dotfiles/quickshell/hyprchrome/widgets/panels/BarPanel.qml b/dotfiles/quickshell/hyprchrome/widgets/panels/BarPanel.qml
index 422462f..bcedb43 100644
--- a/dotfiles/quickshell/hyprchrome/widgets/panels/BarPanel.qml
+++ b/dotfiles/quickshell/hyprchrome/widgets/panels/BarPanel.qml
@@ -93,16 +93,24 @@ Item {
     property real bodyBottom: detail.y + detail.height
     property real bodyEndPadding: panel.padding
 
-    implicitHeight: Math.max(panel.minimumHeight, panel.bodyBottom + panel.bodyEndPadding)
+    // Rounded: bodyBottom and bodyEndPadding are animated reals, so the sum
+    // spends the tail of every transition on a fraction. A layout rounds that
+    // UP, then drops a pixel the moment the animation lands on its exact
+    // value — a 1px hop after the motion has visibly finished.
+    implicitHeight: Math.round(Math.max(panel.minimumHeight, panel.bodyBottom + panel.bodyEndPadding))
 
-    // Where the panel will settle in its current state, skipping the values
-    // the transition passes through. A window sized to this reconfigures once
-    // per toggle rather than once per animation frame — which, for a
-    // layer-shell bar with an automatic exclusive zone, is the difference
-    // between one relayout of the desktop and a dozen.
-    readonly property real targetHeight: Math.max(panel.minimumHeight, panel.expanded
-        ? detail.y + detail.height + panel.padding
-        : panel.collapsedHeight)
+    // Where the panel settles in each state, skipping the values the transition
+    // passes through: a host sizes its surface and its exclusive zone from these
+    // rather than from the animated height, so the desktop is relaid out once per
+    // toggle instead of once per animation frame.
+    // Height of the expanded body regardless of the current state — what a
+    // host needs to size a surface that must not resize when panels collapse.
+    readonly property real expandedHeight: Math.round(Math.max(panel.minimumHeight,
+        detail.y + detail.height + panel.padding))
+
+    readonly property real targetHeight: panel.expanded
+        ? panel.expandedHeight
+        : Math.round(Math.max(panel.minimumHeight, panel.collapsedHeight))
 
 
     // The two chamfer cuts (top-right at y=chamfer, bottom-left at