diff --git a/web/src/lib/components/Shell.svelte b/web/src/lib/components/Shell.svelte
index e32f8530..6d505911 100644
--- a/web/src/lib/components/Shell.svelte
+++ b/web/src/lib/components/Shell.svelte
@@ -9,6 +9,24 @@
   let { children } = $props<{ children: import('svelte').Snippet }>();
 
   let menuOpen = $state(false);
+  let menuRef: HTMLElement | undefined = $state();
+  let menuButtonRef: HTMLElement | undefined = $state();
+
+  // Close the dropdown when the click was outside both the button and the menu.
+  // The previous implementation used onclick={(e) => e.stopPropagation()} on the
+  // menu container, which kept the window-level close-on-outside-click handler
+  // from firing — but it also blocked SvelteKit's document-level link-click
+  // interceptor, so clicking Admin/Settings inside the dropdown fell through
+  // to the browser's native navigation (a full-page reload). On a hard reload,
+  // /admin/+layout.ts's load function ran before bootstrap() settled the user
+  // store, so the admin guard saw user.value === null and redirected to /.
+  function handleWindowClick(e: MouseEvent) {
+    if (!menuOpen) return;
+    const target = e.target as Node | null;
+    if (!target) return;
+    if (menuRef?.contains(target) || menuButtonRef?.contains(target)) return;
+    menuOpen = false;
+  }
 
   async function handleLogout() {
     menuOpen = false;
@@ -34,7 +52,7 @@
   ];
 </script>
 
-<svelte:window onclick={() => (menuOpen = false)} onkeydown={(e) => e.key === 'Escape' && (menuOpen = false)} />
+<svelte:window onclick={handleWindowClick} onkeydown={(e) => e.key === 'Escape' && (menuOpen = false)} />
 
 <div class="grid h-screen grid-cols-[auto_1fr] grid-rows-[auto_1fr_auto] bg-background text-text-primary">
   <header class="col-span-2 flex items-center gap-4 border-b border-border bg-surface px-4 py-3">
@@ -44,17 +62,17 @@
     </div>
     <div class="relative">
       <button
+        bind:this={menuButtonRef}
         type="button"
         class="rounded px-3 py-1 hover:bg-surface-hover"
-        onclick={(e) => { e.stopPropagation(); menuOpen = !menuOpen; }}
+        onclick={() => (menuOpen = !menuOpen)}
       >
         {user.value?.username ?? ''}
       </button>
       {#if menuOpen}
         <div
+          bind:this={menuRef}
           class="absolute right-0 z-50 mt-1 w-40 rounded border border-border bg-surface shadow"
-          onclick={(e) => e.stopPropagation()}
-          onkeydown={(e) => e.stopPropagation()}
           role="menu"
           tabindex="-1"
         >