diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
index b6b1011..2362039 100644
--- a/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -255,7 +255,8 @@ their native runners. See `desktop/README.md` for the full picture.
 Dashboards are **generated by the embedded DeepSQL Agent acting as a coding agent**
 (customized Hermes runtime — see [`agent/README.md`](agent/README.md)) — it writes the whole dashboard as a single self-contained HTML document, not a JSON spec. The earlier spec+renderer model (metrics/charts/tables + a `{{placeholder}}` substitution engine + `DashboardBuilder.js`) was thrown away: the rigid `col BETWEEN {{name}}` convention couldn't express real SQL (e.g. a Unix-epoch date filter → `near '{range.start}'` syntax errors) and boxed the agent in.
 
-- `DashboardAgentService` is a thin broker: `ensureProfileForUser` → `ensureSession` (fresh session) → `sendAndAwait` with an **artifact contract**. The agent grounds on the brain/schema, verifies every query with `execute_sql`, then emits ONE HTML doc (in a ` ```html ` block). The broker extracts the HTML and returns `{version:3, renderMode:"artifact", title, html, trace}`, stored verbatim in `saved_dashboards.dashboardConfig`.
+- `DashboardAgentService` is a thin broker: `ensureProfileForUser` → `ensureSession` (fresh session) → `sendAndAwait` with an **artifact contract**. The agent grounds on the brain/schema, verifies every query with `execute_sql`, then emits ONE HTML doc (in a ` ```html ` block). The broker extracts the HTML and returns `{version:3, renderMode:"artifact", title, html, summary, trace}`, stored verbatim in `saved_dashboards.dashboardConfig`.
+- **The chat reply is the agent's own words, not a template.** The build contract ends with a required ` ```dashboard-note ` fence (1–3 sentences): what THIS turn changed, plus anything it could not do/verify or deliberately skipped, and on a correction turn whether the disputed value actually changed. `DashboardAgentService.extractSummary` reads it (and `stripNotes` removes it *before* HTML extraction, so prose can't be mistaken for the artifact); it rides in `config.summary`. Both persistence (`SavedDashboardService.buildReplyText`) and the live tab (`useDashboardChatStore.buildReplyText`) render it, falling back to `DEFAULT_BUILD_REPLY` ("Done — built and verified…") only when a turn produced no note. Before this, the contract banned prose and both sites hardcoded that constant, so every build — including one answering a user's correction ("you're showing 3k, I expected 6k+") — reported the same confident "built and verified", which is worse than templated: it claimed success over an unverified change. **The two `buildReplyText` helpers must stay textually in sync** (backend Java + frontend JS) — the live bubble and the persisted reply are read from the same `summary`.
 - The agent loads the **`dashboard-design` skill** (`agent/skills/dashboard-design/SKILL.md`, v2 — artifact contract, the `deepsql.query` runtime, composition/UX rules, an **intent checklist**, and Unix-epoch date handling).
 - **Rendering + data access**: `DashboardArtifact.jsx` renders the HTML in a **sandboxed iframe** (`sandbox="allow-scripts"`, opaque origin + a strict CSP — no external network). The artifact fetches data only through an injected `deepsql.query(sql)` bridge that `postMessage`s to the parent; the parent calls **`POST /api/dashboards/query`** (`DashboardQueryController`), which is **read-only twice over** (`McpSqlGuardService.validateReadOnlySql` + `QueryExecutionContext.api` = `READ_ONLY_ONLY`) and access-scoped via `assertCanReadConnectionContent`. So the agent's code has full creative freedom while every query stays guarded and sandboxed. The bridge also auto-sizes the iframe and forwards runtime errors.
 - Generation endpoints unchanged (`POST /api/dashboards/generate` + `/generate/stream`). `DashboardBuilder.js`/`DashboardInputs.js` remain only because `tabs/Core/PreviewTab.js` still uses them — the dashboard *creation* path no longer touches them.
diff --git a/backend/src/main/java/com/dbaagent/service/DashboardAgentService.java b/backend/src/main/java/com/dbaagent/service/DashboardAgentService.java
index 0a85f08..027431b 100644
--- a/backend/src/main/java/com/dbaagent/service/DashboardAgentService.java
+++ b/backend/src/main/java/com/dbaagent/service/DashboardAgentService.java
@@ -43,6 +43,13 @@
  * falls back to the older single-block contract if no shell/widget fences are
  * present at all, so a reply that predates this contract still works.
  *
+ * <p>A final {@code dashboard-note} fence carries the agent's own account of the
+ * turn — what changed, and what it could not do or verify — which becomes the
+ * chat reply. Before this, the contract banned prose and the UI showed a
+ * hardcoded "Done — built and verified against your data" on every build, so a
+ * turn that ignored the user's correction still reported success. The note is
+ * stripped before HTML extraction and falls back to that constant if absent.
+ *
  * <p>The old JSON-spec contract (metrics/charts/tables + a {{placeholder}}
  * substitution engine + a fixed renderer) is gone: it couldn't express real SQL
  * (e.g. a Unix-epoch date filter) and boxed the agent in.
@@ -146,7 +153,8 @@ sessionId, buildTask(connectionId, prompt, currentConfig),
                 "The agent couldn't build the dashboard: " + (reply.error() == null ? "it ended early" : reply.error()));
         }
 
-        String html = extractHtml(reply.text());
+        String summary = extractSummary(reply.text());
+        String html = extractHtml(stripNotes(reply.text()));
         if (html == null || html.isBlank()) {
             log.warn("Dashboard agent returned no HTML artifact. Reply head: {}",
                 reply.text() == null ? "null" : reply.text().substring(0, Math.min(300, reply.text().length())));
@@ -165,6 +173,7 @@ sessionId, buildTask(connectionId, prompt, currentConfig),
         cfg.put("renderMode", "artifact");
         cfg.put("title", title);
         cfg.put("html", html);
+        if (summary != null) cfg.put("summary", summary);
         cfg.put("trace", trace);
         return cfg;
     }
@@ -321,9 +330,22 @@ database jargon anywhere visible (titles, labels, descriptions, captions, errors
               --ds-shadow). Do NOT import fonts or set font-family. Stay monochrome; use a subtle soft color/gradient
               ONLY to highlight the 1–2 most important KPIs. Clean, minimal, lots of whitespace — not dark or neon.
 
-            Output your FINAL message as ONLY the fenced blocks described in step 5 above (one ```dashboard-shell```
-            first, then one ```dashboard-widget id="..."``` per widget) — no prose, no tool calls after the last one.
-            Do NOT wrap the whole thing in a single ```html block — the shell and each widget are SEPARATE fences.""");
+            Output your FINAL message as ONLY fenced blocks (one ```dashboard-shell``` first, then one
+            ```dashboard-widget id="..."``` per widget, then the ```dashboard-note``` below) — no loose prose
+            outside a fence, no tool calls after the last one.
+            Do NOT wrap the whole thing in a single ```html block — the shell and each widget are SEPARATE fences.
+
+            7. END with a ```dashboard-note``` fence: 1-3 sentences to the person who asked, in the same plain
+               business language as the two hard rules above (a note naming a table, a column, SQL, or the
+               connection id breaks the same security requirement the dashboard itself is bound by).
+               Say what THIS turn actually changed — not that a dashboard exists. Then, in the same note:
+               - State anything you could NOT do, could not verify, or chose to skip, and why. A build that
+                 partly worked must say so. Never claim a number is correct because a query returned it.
+               - If the user was correcting or disputing something (a wrong figure, a chart that didn't load),
+                 say plainly whether it is now fixed, and what the value/behaviour is now versus what they
+                 reported. If you could not reproduce or resolve their complaint, say THAT — do not answer a
+                 correction with a description of what you built.
+               Write it as you would to a colleague: specific and short. Never open with "Done".""");
         return sb.toString();
     }
 
@@ -337,6 +359,28 @@ database jargon anywhere visible (titles, labels, descriptions, captions, errors
         "```dashboard-(shell|widget)(?:\\s+id=\"([^\"]+)\")?\\s*\\n(.*?)\\n```",
         Pattern.DOTALL);
 
+    // The agent's own account of the turn. Stripped before HTML extraction runs:
+    // prose mentioning a tag would otherwise be a candidate for extractHtml's
+    // looks-like-markup fallback.
+    private static final Pattern NOTE_FENCE = Pattern.compile(
+        "```dashboard-note\\s*\\n(.*?)\\n```", Pattern.DOTALL);
+
+    private static final int MAX_SUMMARY_CHARS = 600;
+
+    /** The agent's summary of this turn, or null if it emitted no note. */
+    private String extractSummary(String text) {
+        if (text == null || text.isBlank()) return null;
+        Matcher m = NOTE_FENCE.matcher(text);
+        String note = null;
+        while (m.find()) note = m.group(1).trim();
+        if (note == null || note.isBlank()) return null;
+        return trim(note, MAX_SUMMARY_CHARS);
+    }
+
+    private String stripNotes(String text) {
+        return text == null ? null : NOTE_FENCE.matcher(text).replaceAll("");
+    }
+
     /**
      * Assembles the final document from the agent's shell + widget chunks (the
      * progressive-render contract), substituting each widget's HTML+script into
diff --git a/backend/src/main/java/com/dbaagent/service/SavedDashboardService.java b/backend/src/main/java/com/dbaagent/service/SavedDashboardService.java
index beab8bd..1be80bd 100644
--- a/backend/src/main/java/com/dbaagent/service/SavedDashboardService.java
+++ b/backend/src/main/java/com/dbaagent/service/SavedDashboardService.java
@@ -36,6 +36,9 @@ public class SavedDashboardService {
     // unbounded snapshot table. Oldest beyond this count are pruned on each write.
     private static final int MAX_VERSIONS_PER_DASHBOARD = 50;
 
+    static final String DEFAULT_BUILD_REPLY =
+        "Done — built and verified against your data. Saved as a draft — tell me what to change.";
+
     @Autowired
     private SavedDashboardRepository savedDashboardRepository;
 
@@ -409,11 +412,21 @@ public SavedDashboard completeBuildTurn(UUID dashboardId, Map<String, Object> co
             dashboard.setName(String.valueOf(title));
         }
         List<Map<String, Object>> messages = parseMessages(dashboard.getChatMessages());
-        messages.add(chatMessage("agent", "Done — built and verified against your data. Saved as a draft — tell me what to change."));
+        messages.add(chatMessage("agent", buildReplyText(config)));
         dashboard.setChatMessages(writeMessages(messages));
         return finishRunning(dashboard);
     }
 
+    // The agent's own dashboard-note. Falls back to the old constant only when a
+    // turn produced no note, so an agent still on the previous contract works.
+    private String buildReplyText(Map<String, Object> config) {
+        Object summary = config == null ? null : config.get("summary");
+        if (summary != null && !String.valueOf(summary).isBlank()) {
+            return String.valueOf(summary).trim();
+        }
+        return DEFAULT_BUILD_REPLY;
+    }
+
     /** Turn finished as a real generation failure (not a client disconnect — see controller). */
     @Transactional
     public SavedDashboard appendErrorReply(UUID dashboardId, String errorText) {
diff --git a/src/lib/stores/useDashboardChatStore.js b/src/lib/stores/useDashboardChatStore.js
index d5ddcaf..b29c307 100644
--- a/src/lib/stores/useDashboardChatStore.js
+++ b/src/lib/stores/useDashboardChatStore.js
@@ -3,6 +3,16 @@ import { useShallow } from 'zustand/react/shallow'
 import { generateDashboardStream } from '@/lib/dashboardGenerator'
 import { savedDashboardsAPI } from '@/lib/api/client'
 
+// Mirrors SavedDashboardService.buildReplyText — this tab renders the reply
+// live, the backend persists its own copy, and the two must read the same.
+const DEFAULT_BUILD_REPLY =
+  'Done — built and verified against your data. Saved as a draft — tell me what to change.'
+
+const buildReplyText = (config) => {
+  const summary = config?.summary
+  return typeof summary === 'string' && summary.trim() ? summary.trim() : DEFAULT_BUILD_REPLY
+}
+
 // Keeps each dashboard workspace's in-flight generation (chat messages,
 // streaming steps, the built config, the abort fn) alive in memory across
 // component mount/unmount. DashboardWorkspace used to hold all of this in
@@ -282,7 +292,7 @@ export const useDashboardChatStore = create((set, get) => ({
             liveShell: null,
             liveWidget: null,
             liveWidgets: null,
-            messages: [...cur.messages, { role: 'agent', text: 'Done — built and verified against your data. Saved as a draft — tell me what to change.' }],
+            messages: [...cur.messages, { role: 'agent', text: buildReplyText(next) }],
           }
         })
         // completeBuildTurn (the backend's own persistence for this turn) just