diff --git a/desktop/src/shared/styles/globals/composer.css b/desktop/src/shared/styles/globals/composer.css
index 781ac8a1968..5ebe4b57757 100644
--- a/desktop/src/shared/styles/globals/composer.css
+++ b/desktop/src/shared/styles/globals/composer.css
@@ -96,6 +96,7 @@
   @apply text-message font-normal tracking-normal;
   outline: none;
   min-height: 1lh;
+  padding-block: 0.0625rem;
 }
 
 .rich-text-composer .tiptap p {
@@ -260,8 +261,14 @@
    caret into their decorated range and swallows the trailing space after an
    @mention. Composer Buzz links are atom nodes, but their labels may still
    fragment between characters; only the icon and leading label fragment stay
-   together. */
+   together. The line-height keeps each inline decoration box tall enough to
+   paint both block-padding edges without clipping. */
 .rich-text-composer .tiptap .mention-chip {
   display: inline;
   min-height: 0;
+  line-height: calc(
+    1em +
+    var(--inline-chip-padding-block-start) +
+    var(--inline-chip-padding-block-end)
+  );
 }
diff --git a/desktop/src/shared/styles/globals/markdown.css b/desktop/src/shared/styles/globals/markdown.css
index 9d0c382ac3a..135c036e74c 100644
--- a/desktop/src/shared/styles/globals/markdown.css
+++ b/desktop/src/shared/styles/globals/markdown.css
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 .message-markdown {
-  --inline-chip-padding-block-start: 0.1875rem;
+  --inline-chip-padding-block-start: 0.125rem;
   --inline-chip-padding-block-end: 0.125rem;
   --inline-chip-padding-inline: 0.25rem;
   --inline-chip-min-height: calc(
@@ -101,15 +101,11 @@
 }
 
 .message-markdown .mention-chip.buzz-link-unavailable,
-.message-markdown .mention-chip.buzz-link-unavailable:hover {
-  background: hsl(var(--secondary));
-  color: hsl(var(--secondary-foreground) / 0.7);
-}
-
+.message-markdown .mention-chip.buzz-link-unavailable:hover,
 .message-markdown .mention-chip.buzz-link-deleted,
 .message-markdown .mention-chip.buzz-link-deleted:hover {
-  background: hsl(var(--destructive) / 0.12);
-  color: hsl(var(--destructive));
+  background: hsl(var(--secondary));
+  color: hsl(var(--secondary-foreground) / 0.7);
 }
 
 .message-markdown .mention-chip.inbox-channel-chip {
@@ -336,6 +332,7 @@
 }
 
 .message-markdown .inline-chip-icon-human::before {
+  transform: translateY(calc(-50% + 0.0625rem));
   -webkit-mask:
     url("data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' width='24' height='24' viewBox='0 0 24 24' fill='none' stroke='%23000' stroke-width='2' stroke-linecap='round' stroke-linejoin='round'%3E%3Ccircle cx='12' cy='12' r='4'/%3E%3Cpath d='M16 8v5a3 3 0 0 0 6 0v-1a10 10 0 1 0-4 8'/%3E%3C/svg%3E")
     center / contain no-repeat;
diff --git a/desktop/tests/e2e/entity-link-recipient-cards.spec.ts b/desktop/tests/e2e/entity-link-recipient-cards.spec.ts
index 056b059b0e7..6ca502c3462 100644
--- a/desktop/tests/e2e/entity-link-recipient-cards.spec.ts
+++ b/desktop/tests/e2e/entity-link-recipient-cards.spec.ts
@@ -662,6 +662,10 @@ test("deleted reply links identify deletion and fall back to their thread root",
 test("deleted top-level message links identify deletion and fall back to channel navigation", async ({
   page,
 }) => {
+  await page.addInitScript(() => {
+    window.localStorage.setItem("buzz-theme", "buzz-dark");
+    window.localStorage.setItem("buzz-accent-color", "#c0a2f1");
+  });
   const missingMessageId = "d".repeat(64);
   const channelId = "9dae0116-799b-5071-a0a8-fdd30a91a35d";
   const link = `buzz://message?channel=${channelId}&id=${missingMessageId}`;
@@ -685,6 +689,33 @@ test("deleted top-level message links identify deletion and fall back to channel
   );
   await expect(deletedLink).toHaveClass(/buzz-link-deleted/);
   await expect(deletedLink).not.toHaveClass(/buzz-link-unavailable/);
+  const unavailableColors = await linkMessage.evaluate((message) => {
+    const probe = document.createElement("span");
+    probe.className = "mention-chip buzz-link-unavailable";
+    message.querySelector(".message-markdown")?.append(probe);
+    const styles = getComputedStyle(probe);
+    const colors = {
+      backgroundColor: styles.backgroundColor,
+      color: styles.color,
+    };
+    probe.remove();
+    return colors;
+  });
+  await expect
+    .poll(() =>
+      deletedLink.evaluate((element) => {
+        const styles = getComputedStyle(element);
+        return {
+          backgroundColor: styles.backgroundColor,
+          color: styles.color,
+        };
+      }),
+    )
+    .toEqual(unavailableColors);
+  await waitForAnimations(page);
+  await linkMessage.screenshot({
+    path: `${SHOTS}/deleted-message-link-after.png`,
+  });
   await deletedLink.hover();
   await expect(page.getByRole("tooltip")).toHaveText("Message deleted");
 
diff --git a/desktop/tests/e2e/mentions.spec.ts b/desktop/tests/e2e/mentions.spec.ts
index ad1acf87c34..e80bc21aea0 100644
--- a/desktop/tests/e2e/mentions.spec.ts
+++ b/desktop/tests/e2e/mentions.spec.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 import { expect, test } from "@playwright/test";
 
+import { waitForAnimations } from "../helpers/animations";
+
 import {
   installMockBridge,
   openChannelBrowser,
@@ -837,6 +839,9 @@ test("mention autocomplete caps global people search at 50 results", async ({
 test("selecting a person mention inserts @Name into input", async ({
   page,
 }) => {
+  await page.addInitScript(() => {
+    window.localStorage.setItem("buzz-theme", "buzz-dark");
+  });
   await page.goto("/");
   await page.getByTestId("channel-general").click();
   await expect(page.getByTestId("chat-title")).toHaveText("general");
@@ -865,6 +870,114 @@ test("selecting a person mention inserts @Name into input", async ({
     ),
   );
   expect(iconMask).toContain("data:image/svg+xml");
+  await expect(mentionChip).toHaveCSS("line-height", "18px");
+  const scrollViewport = page.getByTestId("message-input-scroll");
+  const paintedBounds = await mentionChip.evaluate((element) => {
+    const chip = element.getBoundingClientRect();
+    const viewport = element
+      .closest("[data-testid='message-input-scroll']")
+      ?.getBoundingClientRect();
+    if (!viewport)
+      throw new Error("Mention chip is missing its scroll viewport");
+    return {
+      chipTop: chip.top,
+      chipBottom: chip.bottom,
+      viewportTop: viewport.top,
+      viewportBottom: viewport.bottom,
+    };
+  });
+  expect(paintedBounds.chipTop).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(
+    paintedBounds.viewportTop,
+  );
+  expect(paintedBounds.chipBottom).toBeLessThanOrEqual(
+    paintedBounds.viewportBottom,
+  );
+  const humanIconTranslateY = await mentionChip.evaluate(
+    (element) =>
+      new DOMMatrix(getComputedStyle(element, "::before").transform).m42,
+  );
+  const channelIconTranslateY = await input.evaluate((composer) => {
+    const probe = document.createElement("span");
+    probe.className =
+      "mention-chip inline-chip-with-icon inline-chip-icon-channel";
+    composer.append(probe);
+    const translateY = new DOMMatrix(
+      getComputedStyle(probe, "::before").transform,
+    ).m42;
+    probe.remove();
+    return translateY;
+  });
+  expect(humanIconTranslateY - channelIconTranslateY).toBeCloseTo(1);
+
+  await input.fill("@bo");
+  await dropdown.getByText("bob").click();
+  await input.press("Shift+Enter");
+  await page.keyboard.type("@bo");
+  await dropdown.getByText("bob").click();
+  await input.press("Shift+Enter");
+  await page.keyboard.type("@bo");
+  await dropdown.getByText("bob").click();
+  const multilineChips = input.locator(".human-mention-highlight");
+  await expect(multilineChips).toHaveCount(3);
+  const multilinePaintBounds = await multilineChips.evaluateAll((elements) => {
+    const viewport = elements[0]
+      ?.closest("[data-testid='message-input-scroll']")
+      ?.getBoundingClientRect();
+    if (!viewport) {
+      throw new Error("Mention chips are missing their scroll viewport");
+    }
+    return elements.map((element) => {
+      const chip = element.getBoundingClientRect();
+      return {
+        chipTop: chip.top,
+        chipBottom: chip.bottom,
+        viewportTop: viewport.top,
+        viewportBottom: viewport.bottom,
+      };
+    });
+  });
+  for (const bounds of multilinePaintBounds) {
+    expect(bounds.chipTop).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(bounds.viewportTop);
+    expect(bounds.chipBottom).toBeLessThanOrEqual(bounds.viewportBottom);
+  }
+
+  await scrollViewport.evaluate((element) => {
+    element.style.width = "8rem";
+  });
+  await input.fill("A deliberately long prefix that forces @bo");
+  await dropdown.getByText("bob").click();
+  const wrappedChip = input.locator(".human-mention-highlight", {
+    hasText: "bob",
+  });
+  const wrappedPaintBounds = await wrappedChip.evaluate((element) => {
+    const chip = element.getBoundingClientRect();
+    const viewport = element
+      .closest("[data-testid='message-input-scroll']")
+      ?.getBoundingClientRect();
+    if (!viewport)
+      throw new Error("Mention chip is missing its scroll viewport");
+    return {
+      chipTop: chip.top,
+      chipBottom: chip.bottom,
+      viewportTop: viewport.top,
+      viewportBottom: viewport.bottom,
+    };
+  });
+  expect(wrappedPaintBounds.chipTop).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(
+    wrappedPaintBounds.viewportTop,
+  );
+  expect(wrappedPaintBounds.chipBottom).toBeLessThanOrEqual(
+    wrappedPaintBounds.viewportBottom,
+  );
+  await expect(input).toHaveCSS("height", /^(?!20px$)/);
+  await scrollViewport.evaluate((element) => {
+    element.style.removeProperty("width");
+  });
+
+  await waitForAnimations(page);
+  await page.getByTestId("message-composer").screenshot({
+    path: "test-results/inline-chip-polish/composer-after.png",
+  });
 });
 
 test("immediate ArrowLeft after a person mention is not bounced past the trailing space", async ({