The v1.8.x sidebar/top-bar rebuild never re-rendered the unread dot, so inactive tabs showed no badge even though the counter was tracked. Draw it again top-right of the tab icon in both Sidebar and TopTabBar, gated on !active && UnreadMode != None && Unread > 0, and zero the active tab's counter every frame (1.5.6 convention) so the dot only ever shows on tabs you are not looking at.
The unread decision moves to MessageManager.ShouldCountUnread and snapshots the active tab + whether it shows the message once before the loop: Unseen suppresses unread on an inactive tab only when the active (real, post-F2) tab also shows that message. Adds SidebarUnreadDotStep (render) and UnreadDecisionStep (decision) self-tests (step count 32 -> 34).
Plugin.CurrentTab now delegates to MainWindow.ActiveTab (fallback Tabs[0]) instead of the never-assigned LastTab index, so the game hooks, unread tracking, notification sounds, InputDisabled and Foray/Eureka paths all operate on the tab the user actually has selected. The dead LastTab/WantedTab fields and both WantedTab writes are removed.
A reference-based MainWindow.ResetActiveTabIfRemoved repairs the active-tab reference on eviction/logout (immune to the SaveConfig temp-tab strip window). The worker-thread eviction path marshals it onto the framework thread so the strip mutation serializes with Draw; logout is already framework-thread. The Draw-seed gains a lazy re-seed for a wholesale config swap. Adds CurrentTabCouplingStep (headless) and the interactive CurrentTabGuidedStep self-test (step count 30 -> 32).
OnTabActivated clears the runtime tell state the game-side detour leaves on a tab (CurrentChannel tell target + partner label) when a DIFFERENT tab becomes the input surface, so a normal typed line can no longer route as a silent /tell to the old partner. Re-clicking the active tab and tabs carrying their own Tab.TellTarget binding (leg1) are preserved.
All four activation paths route through it: Sidebar, TopTabBar, ChannelPopoutPool.TryOpen, and the MainWindow draw-seed. EnsureCurrentChannel becomes a pure derive-helper reached only via OnTabActivated. Adds the TellResetOnActivateStep self-test (step count 29 -> 30).
Branch start for the LastTab-Decoupling fix cycle. csproj <Version> and repo.json AssemblyVersion + TestingAssemblyVersion go 1.8.5 -> 1.8.6. DownloadLinks and Changelog stay release-deferred on v1.5.6.
Input-bar tells went out as a bare "/t" without the target, so the game
rejected them with "you must add the World name". Rebuild the full
"/tell name@world" from the 1.5.6 target chain in a pure BuildOutgoing:
- leg2/leg3 gated on current == Tell so a stale tell target on a Say tab
can't send a say line silently as /tell (CORR-1)
- world-resolve gate: an unresolvable world falls back to the channel
prefix, never "/tell name@ text" (COMP-1)
- ResetTempChannel after the send, tell-only
Also clear the runtime tell state on PromoteToPermanent so a promoted tab
can't route a typed line to the old partner, and surface the tell partner
("-> name@world") in the channel pill so a misfire stays visible. Adds
tell-routing and pill-transparency self tests.
JonKazama-Hellion