diff --git a/changelog.d/1638-approval-dock-room-card.fixed.md b/changelog.d/1638-approval-dock-room-card.fixed.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..454dc460e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/1638-approval-dock-room-card.fixed.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+A room's own pending approval card is no longer announced as "Waiting for the owner's approval": the dock also reads the room's own `pendingApprovals` — the array its `pendingCount` counts — so the one 5 s poll where its own lists are behind stays quiet instead of hiding your own Approve / Reject buttons, while a card it never draws (decided on its reply bubble or in the Bot's chat) keeps the waiting line ([#1638](https://github.com/ThinkFlowLab/FlyBot/issues/1638)).
diff --git a/docs/subsystems/social.md b/docs/subsystems/social.md
index dc7a9b3fb..26fcaca31 100644
--- a/docs/subsystems/social.md
+++ b/docs/subsystems/social.md
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ pins the list. The authority for the list is Bot Social's README and `docs/FACE_
 ### Inline approvals and compact Friends' Bots (#114, #115)
 
 - A held send is never without a place (#371): the approval carries the Bot Social identity that wrote it (`approvalView` → `botId`; `pendingApprovals` maps it to the local Bot as `fromId`) and Bot Social's DLP categories (`holdReasons`: `commitment`, `pii.phone`, `pii.email`, `money`, `owner.sensitive_term`, `calendar.details`; the plain "all outbound needs approval" reason is not one). When the friend's chat is hidden, gone, home-level or not in the roster (`listedFriendChat`), the sender Bot's own chat draws the card; a listed friend chat alone shows it (#278). The card's second line reads `Held for your approval: contains commitment language` (host `t`, so zh in a zh UI) and the held text stays on the card, the bubble says only that it waits. The sender Bot's row also takes the wait dot (the `chatApprovals` provider answers for local Bots by `fromId`). No message is posted into a Bot's chat for this: it would reach the Bot's model.
-- Held Bot Social drafts (`social/status`, `social/decide-approval`) and matching local `flybot/approvals` holds show as a compact in-chat card (`flybot.session.dock`, max-width ~460px, right-aligned like a bubble — not full chat width; a Bot's held reply to a friend has its card on that reply's bubble instead, invariant 8): **Waiting for approval**, one `Name → Name` line (real names, never raw `@handle` / `bot_01…`), a 3-line clamped preview with **Show more**, and **Approve** / **Reject** buttons plus a quiet **Always approve** link on one row for the owner (#260). **Always approve** is owner-only: it approves this card and turns on the existing Auto-send for that pair (per-friend `social/auto-accept`, or in a face room the writing Bot's own `social/face-auto` switch, #457) so later messages on that pair are not held; it does not decide a different sender/recipient hold and is off by default. A toast says **Auto-send on for X → Y. Change it anytime in settings.** **Approve all** sits above the cards when several are waiting; anyone else sees **Waiting for the owner's approval** with no buttons — and only once both lists this dock reads (`social/status` and `flybot/approvals`) have answered and neither holds a card for this room (#1607); before that the dock draws nothing, because an empty list is one 5 s poll behind as often as it is another owner's card. The owner does not get a waiting bubble in their 1:1; composer holds are labelled **You**. New friends start with **Auto-send** off. The owner's click is consent (`confirm_code` in the same `decide_approval` / `set_auto_approve` call). After a decision the card reads Approved or Rejected. The social strip "N to approve" block is a one-line jump list (chat name + truncated text, no explainer, no wrapping one word per line). Auto-send of face-room posts is one compact checkbox per Bot of mine on the open room's overview (#457) — not on each pending row or room card, and not duplicated on a Face-to-face rooms header. A local hold that failed (`status: 'failed'`) draws as **Not sent** with its error, never Approve / Reject, and offers **Retry** (the core `decide` `retry`) only while trying again could work: the error a sender marks with `noRetry` — a friend's Bot no longer shared with this home, where Bot Social answers `bot_not_found` (#954) — arrives as `retry: false` and the card draws no button, so no click repeats a refusal that cannot change; **Approve all** covers Bot Social holds (`status: 'pending'`) as well as local ones and leaves a failed hold to Retry, and a failed decision says why instead of throwing silently. The "Waiting for the owner's approval" ledger (`settings.approvalNotices`) keeps one entry per still-pending hold and drops a hold's entry as soon as it leaves the pending queue, so the persisted settings file does not grow with every hold the install ever had.
+- Held Bot Social drafts (`social/status`, `social/decide-approval`) and matching local `flybot/approvals` holds show as a compact in-chat card (`flybot.session.dock`, max-width ~460px, right-aligned like a bubble — not full chat width; a Bot's held reply to a friend has its card on that reply's bubble instead, invariant 8): **Waiting for approval**, one `Name → Name` line (real names, never raw `@handle` / `bot_01…`), a 3-line clamped preview with **Show more**, and **Approve** / **Reject** buttons plus a quiet **Always approve** link on one row for the owner (#260). **Always approve** is owner-only: it approves this card and turns on the existing Auto-send for that pair (per-friend `social/auto-accept`, or in a face room the writing Bot's own `social/face-auto` switch, #457) so later messages on that pair are not held; it does not decide a different sender/recipient hold and is off by default. A toast says **Auto-send on for X → Y. Change it anytime in settings.** **Approve all** sits above the cards when several are waiting; anyone else sees **Waiting for the owner's approval** with no buttons — and only once both lists this dock reads (`social/status` and `flybot/approvals`) have answered, neither holds a card for this room, and the room's own list (`room.pendingApprovals`, the very array its `pendingCount` counts) holds no card this dock would draw — a card decided elsewhere keeps the line, on its own reply bubble (#418) or in the Bot's chat (#254) (#1607, #1638); before that the dock draws nothing, because an empty list is one 5 s poll behind as often as it is another owner's card, and a room's own card is never narrated as another owner's. The owner does not get a waiting bubble in their 1:1; composer holds are labelled **You**. New friends start with **Auto-send** off. The owner's click is consent (`confirm_code` in the same `decide_approval` / `set_auto_approve` call). After a decision the card reads Approved or Rejected. The social strip "N to approve" block is a one-line jump list (chat name + truncated text, no explainer, no wrapping one word per line). Auto-send of face-room posts is one compact checkbox per Bot of mine on the open room's overview (#457) — not on each pending row or room card, and not duplicated on a Face-to-face rooms header. A local hold that failed (`status: 'failed'`) draws as **Not sent** with its error, never Approve / Reject, and offers **Retry** (the core `decide` `retry`) only while trying again could work: the error a sender marks with `noRetry` — a friend's Bot no longer shared with this home, where Bot Social answers `bot_not_found` (#954) — arrives as `retry: false` and the card draws no button, so no click repeats a refusal that cannot change; **Approve all** covers Bot Social holds (`status: 'pending'`) as well as local ones and leaves a failed hold to Retry, and a failed decision says why instead of throwing silently. The "Waiting for the owner's approval" ledger (`settings.approvalNotices`) keeps one entry per still-pending hold and drops a hold's entry as soon as it leaves the pending queue, so the persisted settings file does not grow with every hold the install ever had.
 - Live face-to-face rooms and friends' Bots sit in the core `TeamSidebar` list (globe / people mark), not a second **Friends' Bots** section. Closed, left, and ended matching rooms sit under **Past rooms**; the whole row opens the room (#304). The list does not say "The number is no longer valid." 1:1 friend chats get the same wait badge as rooms (`flybot.chatApprovals.setProvider` → `bot.pendingCount`). The social strip is **N to approve**, the + panels, and Past rooms — no **+ Add**, no per-friend groups, no Copy-handle row. **Add friend** and **Face-to-face room** are `flybot.new-chat.action` rows on the sidebar **+**. Add friend opens the join panel (handle, invite link, or code). Settings → **Bot Social** opens that same panel (#1074); it does not add a second one. Per-friend **Auto-send** and **Remove this Bot** live on that friend's Bot settings (`flybot.bot.details`).
 
 ### Face-to-face waiting grid, leave, and social + (#124, #125, #126)
diff --git a/plugins/social/client.js b/plugins/social/client.js
index d93795b0f..35ab627e2 100644
--- a/plugins/social/client.js
+++ b/plugins/social/client.js
@@ -2430,11 +2430,13 @@ window.__ModuleLoader__.load({
         return () => claim([])
       }, [shownIds, sessionId])
       // A card for this room that this chat does not draw is still ours: it is decided on its own bubble
-      // (#418) or in the Bot's chat. "Waiting for the owner's approval" therefore needs both lists answered
-      // and neither holding one for this room (#1607); until then the dock stays quiet, never guesses.
-      const roomIds = new Set([room?.id, room?.face?.roomId].filter(Boolean))
-      const thisRoomHeld = held.some(item => item.roomId && roomIds.has(item.roomId))
-      const waitingOthers = mine.length === 0 && statusLoaded && listLoaded && !thisRoomHeld && (room?.pendingCount ?? 0) > 0
+      // (#418) or in the Bot's chat (#254). "Waiting for the owner's approval" therefore needs both lists
+      // answered, neither holding one for this room (#1607), and no card in the room's own list that this
+      // dock would draw. That list is the very array the room's `pendingCount` counts (channel.js), so it
+      // knows our card one 5 s poll before these two do: that beat stays quiet, never "another owner's"
+      // (#1638). A card the dock never draws keeps the line, because there the sentence is true.
+      const roomCards = approvalsForOpenChat((room?.pendingApprovals ?? []).filter(item => !item.inline), session)
+      const waitingOthers = mine.length === 0 && statusLoaded && listLoaded && roomCards.length === 0 && (room?.pendingCount ?? 0) > 0
       if (!mine.length && !waitingOthers) return null
       const decide = async (item, decision) => {
         setBusy(item.id)
diff --git a/plugins/social/test/approval-dock.test.js b/plugins/social/test/approval-dock.test.js
index 27a1e4af7..485cb40ef 100644
--- a/plugins/social/test/approval-dock.test.js
+++ b/plugins/social/test/approval-dock.test.js
@@ -129,3 +129,89 @@ test('#1607: an answered, empty list keeps the honest "another owner" card for a
     assert.doesNotMatch(tree, /Approve/, 'no decision is offered for a card we cannot see')
   } finally { delete globalThis.__flybot__ }
 })
+
+// #1638: the room object the dock is handed already carries `pendingApprovals` — in
+// `core/src/host/channel.js` that array is the very one `pendingCount` counts — so the room view knows
+// it holds a card while the dock's own two polls are still a beat behind. A card this dock would draw
+// is never called somebody else's just because those 5 s lists have not caught up; a card the dock
+// never draws (decided on its own bubble or in the Bot's chat) keeps the line, because there the
+// sentence is true.
+//
+// The room's list is Bot Social's own (`plugins/social/src/social.js` `pendingApprovals` through the
+// room provider), not the host's `flybot/approvals` wrapper: a held line of this face room is
+// `kind: 'face_room_message'` with the room id in `roomId` and no `request` envelope.
+const roomLine = () => ({ id: 'a1', kind: 'face_room_message', status: 'pending', roomId: 'frm1', from: 'SelfTest A2', to: 'the room', text: 'hello room' })
+const roomWithCard = () => ({ ...room(), pendingApprovals: [roomLine()] })
+
+test('#1638: a room holding its own pending card is never announced as another owner waiting', async () => {
+  const app = loadDock()
+  const { state, inst } = harness()
+  inst.props.room = roomWithCard()
+  try {
+    render(app.ChatApprovalDock, inst)
+    runEffects(inst)
+    // One beat behind: both of the dock's own lists answer without this room's card (the lagging poll).
+    state.resolveApprovals([])
+    await tick()
+    const tree = drawn(render(app.ChatApprovalDock, inst))
+    assert.doesNotMatch(tree, /Waiting for the owner's approval/, "the room's own card is never narrated as another owner waiting")
+    assert.doesNotMatch(tree, /\[no-buttons\]/, 'the lagging poll draws no buttonless card')
+  } finally { delete globalThis.__flybot__ }
+})
+
+// A card this dock never draws, whatever list names it: a held reply is decided on its own bubble (#418),
+// and the dock's own list drops it by that marker (`held`, `!item.inline`). Bot Social's room list carries
+// no such marker today (only the host's `localHoldView` sets it), so this pins that the two rules agree if
+// one ever arrives: a card already on screen is not silenced as "somebody else's" nor as nothing.
+test('#1638: a room card drawn on its own bubble keeps the waiting line', async () => {
+  const app = loadDock()
+  const { state, inst } = harness()
+  inst.props.room = { ...room(), pendingApprovals: [{ ...roomLine(), inline: 's9' }] }
+  try {
+    render(app.ChatApprovalDock, inst)
+    runEffects(inst)
+    state.resolveApprovals([])
+    await tick()
+    const tree = drawn(render(app.ChatApprovalDock, inst))
+    assert.match(tree, /Waiting for the owner's approval/, 'a card drawn on its bubble keeps the honest line here')
+    assert.doesNotMatch(tree, /Approve/, 'the dock does not decide a card it never draws')
+  } finally { delete globalThis.__flybot__ }
+})
+
+// The line is not silenced wholesale, or a room that counts a card this chat never draws would lose
+// its only honest voice: our Bot's held direct message to a friend is decided in the Bot's chat
+// (#254, #418), and the room's provider counts it by the sender's handle (`social.js` `roomApprovals`),
+// so the room holds it while this dock draws nothing (#1607). Marking it "another owner's" would be
+// wrong, but "waiting for the owner's approval" is true.
+test('#1638: a room card this chat never draws keeps the waiting line', async () => {
+  const app = loadDock()
+  const { state, inst } = harness()
+  // A group room with the Bot that wrote the held line among its participants; the hold is an
+  // `outbound_message` to a friend, which `pendingApprovals` tags with the local Bot's `fromId`.
+  inst.props.room = {
+    id: 'g1',
+    pendingCount: 1,
+    pendingApprovals: [{ id: 'b1', kind: 'outbound_message', status: 'pending', from: '@self.home', fromId: 'bot1', to: '@friend.home', text: 'a line to a friend' }],
+    participants: [{ kind: 'bot', remote: true, handle: '@self.home' }],
+  }
+  try {
+    render(app.ChatApprovalDock, inst)
+    runEffects(inst)
+    state.resolveApprovals([])
+    await tick()
+    const tree = drawn(render(app.ChatApprovalDock, inst))
+    assert.match(tree, /Waiting for the owner's approval/, 'a card decided elsewhere keeps the honest line')
+    assert.doesNotMatch(tree, /Approve/, 'no decision is offered where the card is not drawn')
+  } finally { delete globalThis.__flybot__ }
+})
+
+// A quiet room (nothing pending) still draws nothing at all.
+test('#1638: a room with no pending card and a zero count draws no card', () => {
+  const app = loadDock()
+  const { inst } = harness()
+  inst.props.room = { ...room(), pendingCount: 0, pendingApprovals: [] }
+  try {
+    const tree = drawn(render(app.ChatApprovalDock, inst))
+    assert.equal(tree, '', 'a quiet room draws no card')
+  } finally { delete globalThis.__flybot__ }
+})