diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/plugins/hermes-bots/plugin.js b/apps/desktop/src/plugins/hermes-bots/plugin.js
index 7b6b6690a596..02ca344fed48 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/plugins/hermes-bots/plugin.js
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/plugins/hermes-bots/plugin.js
@@ -4683,6 +4683,32 @@ function botBackendProfileScope(route, fallbackProfile = 'default') {
 
 /** Gateway RPC on the bot's OWN source. Source-scoped rows always use the
  * explicit descriptor, including a registered local source. */
+/** The (connection, profile) route of the ACTIVE bot, or null when the
+ *  active gateway is the plain local/legacy one. Restored from 9b7ab9d65a:
+ *  the #90006 reconciliation merge (0404020f7b) dropped this definition
+ *  while keeping both call sites, so every roster fetch threw ReferenceError
+ *  and useRoster's retry masked it as a permanent "Waking up ..." spinner. */
+async function activeBotRoute() {
+  if (typeof host.profileRoutes !== 'function') {
+    return null
+  }
+
+  const profile = String(host.state.profile?.get?.() || 'default').trim() || 'default'
+  const connectionId = String(
+    host.state.connectionId?.get?.() ||
+    (typeof host.activeConnectionId === 'function' ? host.activeConnectionId() : '') ||
+    'local'
+  ).trim() || 'local'
+  const routes = await host.profileRoutes()
+  const route = routes.find(candidate => candidate?.connectionId === connectionId && candidate?.profile === profile)
+
+  if (!route && typeof host.agents === 'function') {
+    throw new Error(`No route for active bot ${connectionId}::${profile}`)
+  }
+
+  return route || null
+}
+
 async function requestForBot(bot, method, params = {}) {
   const route = botConnectionRoute(bot)
 
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/plugins/hermes-bots/tests/active-bot-route.test.mjs b/apps/desktop/src/plugins/hermes-bots/tests/active-bot-route.test.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..338838b1e0d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/plugins/hermes-bots/tests/active-bot-route.test.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+import assert from 'node:assert/strict'
+import { readFileSync } from 'node:fs'
+import test from 'node:test'
+import vm from 'node:vm'
+
+const source = readFileSync(new URL('../plugin.js', import.meta.url), 'utf8')
+
+// Extract the REAL function. This extraction is itself the regression guard:
+// the #90006 reconciliation merge (0404020f7b) dropped this definition while
+// keeping both call sites (useRoster's queryFn and sweepBotProfileSessions),
+// so every roster fetch threw ReferenceError and react-query's retry masked
+// it as a permanent "Waking up ..." spinner — the Bots tab never populated.
+// Nothing else can catch that class of loss here: plugin.js is outside the
+// eslint file set (*.{ts,tsx} only), outside tsc, and the vm tests exercise
+// slices rather than the whole module.
+function loadActiveBotRoute(host) {
+  const start = source.indexOf('async function activeBotRoute()')
+  assert.notEqual(start, -1, 'activeBotRoute must be DEFINED in plugin.js, not just called')
+  const end = source.indexOf('\n}', start) + 2
+  const context = { host }
+  vm.createContext(context)
+  vm.runInContext(`${source.slice(start, end)}\nglobalThis.__fn = activeBotRoute`, context)
+
+  return context.__fn
+}
+
+function hostWith({ profile, connectionId, routes, agents }) {
+  return {
+    profileRoutes: routes ? async () => routes : undefined,
+    agents,
+    activeConnectionId: () => connectionId,
+    state: {
+      profile: { get: () => profile },
+      connectionId: { get: () => connectionId }
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+test('resolves the active (connection, profile) pair to its route', async () => {
+  const route = { connectionId: 'mini', profile: 'researcher' }
+  const fn = loadActiveBotRoute(hostWith({ profile: 'researcher', connectionId: 'mini', routes: [route] }))
+
+  assert.equal(await fn(), route)
+})
+
+test('legacy host without profileRoutes resolves to null (local path)', async () => {
+  const fn = loadActiveBotRoute({ state: {} })
+
+  assert.equal(await fn(), null)
+})
+
+test('a multi-source host with no route for the active bot fails loudly', async () => {
+  const fn = loadActiveBotRoute(
+    hostWith({ profile: 'researcher', connectionId: 'mini', routes: [], agents: async () => [] })
+  )
+
+  await assert.rejects(fn(), /No route for active bot mini::researcher/)
+})
+
+test('a single-source host with no matching route falls back to null', async () => {
+  const fn = loadActiveBotRoute(hostWith({ profile: 'default', connectionId: 'local', routes: [] }))
+
+  assert.equal(await fn(), null)
+})