diff --git a/.beans/claudbg-gtu4--tui-message-count-always-0-because-tui-never-syncs.md b/.beans/claudbg-gtu4--tui-message-count-always-0-because-tui-never-syncs.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..67be3d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.beans/claudbg-gtu4--tui-message-count-always-0-because-tui-never-syncs.md
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+---
+# claudbg-gtu4
+title: 'TUI: message count always 0 because TUI never syncs sessions to DB'
+status: completed
+type: bug
+priority: normal
+created_at: 2026-04-01T17:37:06Z
+updated_at: 2026-04-01T17:38:26Z
+---
+
+The TUI startup queries message_count from the sessions DB table, but never calls ensure_synced first. If the user opens the TUI without having run sessions list or index previously, the DB is empty and all message counts show 0.
+
+Fix: call ensure_synced for each session_ref inside the block_in_place block before the SELECT query in run_tui().
+
+## Summary of Changes
+
+In `src/tui/run.rs`: changed `session_refs.into_iter()` to `session_refs.iter()` so the vec is not consumed before DB sync. Added a loop inside the `block_in_place` block to call `ensure_synced` for each session before querying `message_count` from the DB. This ensures the DB is populated even if the user opens the TUI without having previously run `sessions list` or `index`.
diff --git a/src/tui/run.rs b/src/tui/run.rs
index b73ac02..47bdece 100644
--- a/src/tui/run.rs
+++ b/src/tui/run.rs
@@ -217,7 +217,7 @@ pub fn run_tui() -> Result<()> {
     // Sort most-recent-first before converting to display items.
     session_refs.sort_by(|a, b| b.modified_at.cmp(&a.modified_at));
     state.sessions = session_refs
-        .into_iter()
+        .iter()
         .map(|sr| {
             let short_id = sr.session_id.chars().take(8).collect();
             let full_id = sr.session_id.clone();
@@ -252,6 +252,10 @@ pub fn run_tui() -> Result<()> {
                     Ok(d) => d,
                     Err(_) => return HashMap::new(),
                 };
+                // Sync each session so message counts are up to date.
+                for sr in &session_refs {
+                    let _ = crate::db::sync::ensure_synced(&db, sr).await;
+                }
                 let conn = match db.connect() {
                     Ok(c) => c,
                     Err(_) => return HashMap::new(),