diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 87a8011..5926349 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -159,7 +159,19 @@ cells are a fixed number of characters wide and ellipsized, so the dock's width
depend on what a value reads: the **who** cell of a cursor line is 5 characters (the full text is its
tooltip), a value cell 9 (its tooltip is the full text). The dock and the pages show **one string**:
`update_cursors_pane()` and `update_measures()` format each value once and hand that variable to the
-page's label and to the dock's, so the two cannot disagree. The **Events** block is a heading with a
+page's label and to the dock's, so the two cannot disagree. **When the dock is not on screen** -- hidden
+with the dock button, or the window narrow enough (< 900 px) for the dock to be a collapsed overlay that is
+not currently open -- the same readouts appear on **one line under the plot**, above the badge bar (the
+*readouts strip*): a **Cursors** button (opens the `cursors` page) and one chip per cursor line (its name and
+its *delta* value), then a **Measures** button (opens the `measure` page) and one chip per measurement (the
+signal's colour chip, the type, the value; a click opens its dialog; "no measurements" when there are none).
+It is a **fixed 26 px** high and its chips are as wide as the dock's cells (name 6 characters, type 10, value
+9, the full text in the tooltip); what does not fit scrolls sideways with no bar taking height. With the
+cursors off the chips are insensitive and read `--`, as the dock's cells do. It is the **third reader of the
+same strings** (the setters that write the dock's labels write the strip's), and it is hidden whenever the
+dock is shown, so the plot never loses its 26 px to both. **Known limit:** a *collapsed* window whose dock
+button is still on has the dock overlaid over the plot (the app re-asserts the button's wish every frame, so
+the overlay cannot be swiped away), and then the strip is hidden; it shows once the dock button is off. The **Events** block is a heading with a
**Manage** button over a short list of the cached events, newest first -- one compact row each, never a
picture -- and one click on a row replays that event (see "Captured events"). The full list, with the
pictures and the comparison actions, is the `events` slide-over page that **Manage** opens. There is no
diff --git a/docs/USER-GUIDE.md b/docs/USER-GUIDE.md
index b5e9651..9987c26 100644
--- a/docs/USER-GUIDE.md
+++ b/docs/USER-GUIDE.md
@@ -21,7 +21,8 @@ The window is a plot with three things around it:
never resizes the plot;
- the **dock** on the right, which the dock button in the header bar (`s`) shows and hides: read-only
**Readouts** of the cursors and of the measurements, each with an **Edit** button that opens its
- page, and an **Events** block.
+ page, and an **Events** block. With the dock hidden, the readouts show in a one-line strip under the
+ plot instead (the cursors' deltas and each measurement's value; **Cursors** and **Measures** open the pages).
## 1. Connecting
diff --git a/docs/claude/architecture.md b/docs/claude/architecture.md
index c6d344e..6b54ceb 100644
--- a/docs/claude/architecture.md
+++ b/docs/claude/architecture.md
@@ -134,6 +134,18 @@ touching the data path.
kind's panels (those are slide-over pages). The window's measurement editor is a dialog
(`open_measure_dialog()`), not part of the `measure` page.
+ **The readouts strip** (`readouts_strip` in `main-window.ui`, between `plot_overlay` and `badge_bar` in
+ `left_column`; filled by `ui_dock.cpp`) carries the same readouts when the dock is not on screen: a flat
+ **Cursors** button and one chip (`who` + delta) per cursor line, then a **Measures** button and one chip per
+ measurement. `sync_readouts_strip()` shows it exactly when `adw_overlay_split_view_get_show_sidebar()` is
+ false; the tick calls it right after re-asserting `sidebar_wanted` and *before* `set_collapsed()` (so the
+ split view's own collapse-time `show-sidebar` write is never read, and the strip does not flash on a
+ narrowing). Its labels (`strip_cursor_who`, `strip_cursor_deltas`, `strip_measure_labels`) are rebuilt by
+ `dock_rebuild_cursors()` / `dock_rebuild_measures()` and written by `dock_cursor_cell()` /
+ `dock_measure_value()` from the same argument as the dock's, so there is no second formatter;
+ `dock_set_cursors_sensitive()` is the one writer of the cursor readouts' sensitivity (the dock's grid and
+ the strip's chip box).
+
The **Events** block (`build_events_dock()`, also `ui_dock.cpp`) is a heading with a **Manage** button
(`open_events_page()`) over a short list (`dock_events_list`, 112 px, scrolled, no thumbnails): one compact
row per `EventRecord`, newest first, capped at `kDockEventsMax` (24) with a dim "... N more, see Manage"
diff --git a/docs/claude/invariants-plot-and-layout.md b/docs/claude/invariants-plot-and-layout.md
index a1e2dbc..aa73b92 100644
--- a/docs/claude/invariants-plot-and-layout.md
+++ b/docs/claude/invariants-plot-and-layout.md
@@ -148,6 +148,18 @@ Part of [CLAUDE.md](../../CLAUDE.md). These are rules that cost a defect to lear
characters, which made the readouts' minimum width 304 px; that pushed the sidebar to 304 px
(`dock_w=304`) and defeated the 280 pin. Widening any cell is the same
trap -- read `[readouts] ... dock_w=` (must be 280) and the `dock cursors:` / `dock measures:` `fits=`, and for the Events block `dock events: ... dock_w=` (268).
+- **The readouts strip is a fixed 26 px, scrolls sideways, and is shown only without the dock.**
+ `readouts_strip` (a `GtkScrolledWindow`, `height-request` 26, horizontal `external`, vertical `never`) sits
+ in `left_column` between `plot_overlay` and `badge_bar`. Its height is a request and not a measurement of
+ its chips (the buttons are trimmed by `button.udpscope-strip-button` in `ui_widgets.cpp`, or Adwaita's
+ 34 px flat button would push it past 26), the chips' cells are fixed-width ellipsized labels like the
+ dock's, and an overflow scrolls with no bar taking height: "layout must not depend on content" for the
+ strip, the same as for the badge bar. It is *visible* exactly when `show-sidebar` is false
+ (`sync_readouts_strip()`, from the tick after the wish is re-asserted and before `set_collapsed()` --
+ read after the collapse it would show for a frame each time the window narrowed), and hidden when the dock
+ is on screen, overlaid included, so the plot's 26 px go to one pane of readouts and never both. The plot
+ is 26 px shorter while it shows; that is the dock's state moving the layout, not content. Reading
+ `h=26` with `visible=1` (and `h=0` with `visible=0`) in `strip:` is the assertion.
- **Trace slots are identified by signal name, not channel index.** Enabling a signal
or a new CONFIG renumbers the channel list, so an index would silently re-point a
trace at another signal.
diff --git a/docs/claude/invariants-readouts-and-cursors.md b/docs/claude/invariants-readouts-and-cursors.md
index 20c36bf..09c9ab2 100644
--- a/docs/claude/invariants-readouts-and-cursors.md
+++ b/docs/claude/invariants-readouts-and-cursors.md
@@ -57,6 +57,18 @@ Part of [CLAUDE.md](../../CLAUDE.md). These are rules that cost a defect to lear
pin). `[cursors-probe] ... dock cursors:` and `[measures-probe] ... dock measures:` assert it: `same_text=1`
compares `gtk_label_get_text()` (the untruncated text) of every dock label with the page's, and
`fits=1` that the Readouts box is no wider than the dock.
+- **The readouts strip is a third reader of the same string, never a second formatter.** When the dock is
+ not on screen the readouts are shown in the strip under the plot (`readouts_strip`, `src/ui_dock.cpp`): the
+ cursor chips' `who` and *delta* labels and the measurement chips' value labels. They are written **in the
+ same call** as the dock's -- `dock_cursor_cell()` and `dock_measure_value()` set the strip's label from the
+ argument they were handed, and `dock_rebuild_cursors()` / `dock_rebuild_measures()` rebuild its chips
+ beside the dock's lines -- so a value is still formatted once, into one local, and a feature that writes a
+ dock cell without going through those two setters leaves the strip stale. The strip keeps the dock's
+ rules: the same fixed-width ellipsized cells (who 6, type 10, value 9 characters, full text in the
+ tooltip), the delta cell reads `--` on the same branches, and the cursor chips are *insensitive* with the
+ cursors off and never hidden -- through `dock_set_cursors_sensitive()`, which writes the dock's grid and the
+ strip's chip box together; a second `gtk_widget_set_sensitive()` on either is two spellings of one state.
+ `[cursors-probe]` / `[measures-probe]` `strip: ... same_text=1` asserts it.
- **`format_measure()` is the one formatter for both panes, and its SI prefix does not depend on
there being a unit.** The cursors pane's values and the measurements pane's `text=` go through
it, so a change reaches both. The prefix ladder used to be inside `if (!unit.empty())`, which
diff --git a/docs/claude/probe-readings.md b/docs/claude/probe-readings.md
index b06ff12..c4e7773 100644
--- a/docs/claude/probe-readings.md
+++ b/docs/claude/probe-readings.md
@@ -1842,6 +1842,24 @@ These ride on the `[cursors-probe]` readings (every state line gets a `dock curs
- **`dock_sensitive=1`** (cursors only): the dock's cursor grid is live whenever the stream has signals; `0` before them ("disable, do not hide"), `0` with signals is the dock never coming back.
- On a session with no cursors line, or with no measurements, `lines=0 page_lines=0 same_text=1` is correct: the dock then shows `no measurements` for the measurements (one non-value label, not counted in `lines`).
+## `strip:` (the readouts strip)
+
+```
+[cursors-probe]