diff --git a/docker/sylph-port b/docker/sylph-port
index 8d756913..e0c94aab 100755
--- a/docker/sylph-port
+++ b/docker/sylph-port
@@ -145,9 +145,12 @@ case "${1:-}" in
   remote)
     echo "waiting for the session to register" >&2
     for _ in $(seq 60); do
-      url=$(docker exec "$NAME" sh -c \
-        'grep -ho "https://claude.ai/code/session_[A-Za-z0-9]*" \
-           /sylph-home/port/.claude/**/*.jsonl 2>/dev/null | tail -1' 2>/dev/null || true)
+      # Read the container LOG, not the session transcript. The transcript
+      # records every command run inside the container -- including this
+      # lookup -- so grepping it matched our own pattern string back.
+      url=$(docker logs "$NAME" 2>&1 \
+        | grep -aoE 'https://claude\.ai/code/session_[A-Za-z0-9]+' \
+        | tail -1 || true)
       [ -n "$url" ] && { echo "$url"; exit 0; }
       sleep 2
     done