diff --git a/docs/changes/unreleased/863-greeting-spend-crosses-midnight.md b/docs/changes/unreleased/863-greeting-spend-crosses-midnight.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d20f0a6d74
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/changes/unreleased/863-greeting-spend-crosses-midnight.md
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+---
+kind: fixed
+title: the greeting's spend fixture no longer fails between midnight and one
+pr: 863
+surface: [chat]
+invalidates:
+  - "`TestTheGreetingsFirstFrameCarriesTheSpend` (#842) dated the row it means to be TODAY'S at `now.Add(-time.Hour)`, which is yesterday for the first hour of any day — so `internal/tui3` was red on a clean `dev` every night between 00:00 and 01:00 and green again by morning. If you saw that failure and recorded it as a flake, it was the calendar."
+  - "`internal/tui3` has a second red this does not touch: `TestADecayedBeliefDrawsNoTail` sets its belief from the real `time.Now()` and reads the view at the fixed `timeNow()` test clock, so the decay stops firing once real time passes that date. It fails identically on a clean `origin/dev@84bf71d61`."
+---
+
+The current instant is the only time that is always inside today.
+
+Third fixture on this work to fail with no change under it, after #759's legacy cache aged past
+its TTL overnight. A test whose result depends on the wall clock reports the calendar.
diff --git a/internal/tui3/home_test.go b/internal/tui3/home_test.go
index adeb98eedd..c0b830467d 100644
--- a/internal/tui3/home_test.go
+++ b/internal/tui3/home_test.go
@@ -1805,8 +1805,13 @@ func TestTheGreetingsFirstFrameCarriesTheSpend(t *testing.T) {
 	now := time.Now()
 	mine := lab.session("-tmp-alpha", "aaaa000000000001", "the one the door picked", "/tmp/alpha", now)
 	lab.session("-tmp-alpha", "aaaa000000000002", "yesterday's chat", "/tmp/alpha", now.Add(-20*time.Hour))
+	// TODAY'S ROW IS DATED NOW, NOT AN HOUR AGO. An hour before now is
+	// YESTERDAY for the first hour of any day, so this test failed every night
+	// between midnight and one — the greeting read today as 0 because the row
+	// meant to be today's had fallen out of the day. The current instant is the
+	// only time that is always inside today.
 	writeUsageLines(t, filepath.Join(lab.root, session.UsageLedgerName), []session.UsageLine{
-		{At: now.Add(-time.Hour), USD: 1.25, Calls: 1, Model: "anthropic/claude-opus-5"},
+		{At: now, USD: 1.25, Calls: 1, Model: "anthropic/claude-opus-5"},
 		{At: now.AddDate(0, 0, -3), USD: 2.00, Calls: 1, Model: "anthropic/claude-opus-5"},
 	})