diff --git a/orchestrate/skills/orchestrate/scripts/__tests__/kickoff-dedupe.test.ts b/orchestrate/skills/orchestrate/scripts/__tests__/kickoff-dedupe.test.ts
index bc7cc2f..0814586 100644
--- a/orchestrate/skills/orchestrate/scripts/__tests__/kickoff-dedupe.test.ts
+++ b/orchestrate/skills/orchestrate/scripts/__tests__/kickoff-dedupe.test.ts
@@ -75,6 +75,30 @@ describe("kickoff dedupe", () => {
     expect(active).toBeNull();
   });
 
+  test("does not adopt a planner whose slug only shares a prefix", async () => {
+    const now = Date.parse("2026-05-01T16:00:00.000Z");
+    const active = await findActiveRootPlanner(
+      {
+        async list() {
+          return {
+            items: [
+              {
+                agentId: "bc-refactor-ui",
+                name: "refactor-ui-root",
+                createdAt: now - 1_000,
+                latestRun: { id: "run-refactor-ui", status: "running" },
+              },
+            ],
+          };
+        },
+      },
+      "refactor",
+      now
+    );
+
+    expect(active).toBeNull();
+  });
+
   test("falls back to listRuns when list omits latest run", async () => {
     const now = Date.parse("2026-05-01T16:00:00.000Z");
     const active = await findActiveRootPlanner(
diff --git a/orchestrate/skills/orchestrate/scripts/cli/task.ts b/orchestrate/skills/orchestrate/scripts/cli/task.ts
index cd3284e..b23c115 100644
--- a/orchestrate/skills/orchestrate/scripts/cli/task.ts
+++ b/orchestrate/skills/orchestrate/scripts/cli/task.ts
@@ -478,10 +478,13 @@ export async function findActiveRootPlanner(
   nowMs: number = Date.now()
 ): Promise<ActiveRootPlanner | null> {
   const list = await agentApi.list({ runtime: "cloud", limit: 50 });
+  // Exact match, not startsWith: a prefix slug would otherwise adopt another
+  // goal's `<slug>-root` planner (e.g. "auth" adopting "auth-ui-root").
+  const rootPlannerName = `${rootSlug}-root`;
   for (const item of listItems(list)) {
     const name = stringField(item, "name");
     if (!name) continue;
-    if (!name.startsWith(rootSlug)) continue;
+    if (name !== rootPlannerName) continue;
     const createdAt = timeMs(field(item, "createdAt"));
     if (createdAt === null || nowMs - createdAt > MAX_BOOT_MS) continue;
     const agentId =