diff --git a/src/components/ui/button-group.tsx b/src/components/ui/button-group.tsx
index 49507d9..0b38b06 100644
--- a/src/components/ui/button-group.tsx
+++ b/src/components/ui/button-group.tsx
@@ -6,11 +6,35 @@ import { cn } from "@/lib/utils";
  * Segmented container for controls that belong to one object — a primary
  * action plus the menu that configures it.
  *
- * The composer toolbar is otherwise chrome-free, so two adjacent ghost buttons
- * read as two unrelated controls. Joining them under one hairline outline and
- * squaring the inner corners is what says "one control, two halves": the outer
- * radius lives on the group, and clipping keeps the halves from rounding away
- * from each other no matter what radius a segment carries.
+ * Deliberately chrome-free at rest. The composer toolbar it lives in is a row
+ * of bare ghost buttons, so a permanent outline made these controls read as
+ * form fields dropped among plain text buttons rather than as peers of them.
+ * The outline is therefore an interaction state, not the control's identity:
+ * at rest a group weighs exactly what the single-segment ghost button beside it
+ * weighs, and hovering, focusing, or opening it draws the halves together.
+ *
+ * `border-transparent` rather than no border at all, matching the shared
+ * `Button` base: the box is always laid out, so revealing it cannot shift the
+ * toolbar. Squaring the inner corners is what keeps the halves from rounding
+ * away from each other once the divider appears, no matter what radius a
+ * segment carries.
+ *
+ * The outline and divider are the whole reveal; there is deliberately no group
+ * background behind them. A `muted/25` wash measured at under 0.02 lightness
+ * against both the light and dark composer surface — imperceptible, while each
+ * segment's own hover tint is the thing that actually reads. The enclosing
+ * border is what says "one object".
+ *
+ * `/70` rather than the `/55` this carried while it was permanent: an outline
+ * that only exists during interaction can afford to be decisive, and the extra
+ * weight is what keeps it legible in the lowest-contrast built-in theme
+ * (`solarized-light`, where `border` sits 0.055 OKLab lightness from `card` —
+ * `/45` landed at 0.025, below the threshold where a hairline reads).
+ *
+ * The open state matches `[aria-expanded=true]` explicitly rather than relying
+ * on Tailwind's bare `aria-expanded` variant, so the intent is legible next to
+ * the `data-*` reveals elsewhere in this file's consumers — where presence and
+ * truth genuinely differ.
  */
 export function ButtonGroup({ className, ...props }: ComponentProps<"div">) {
   return (
@@ -18,7 +42,10 @@ export function ButtonGroup({ className, ...props }: ComponentProps<"div">) {
       role="group"
       data-slot="button-group"
       className={cn(
-        "inline-flex w-fit items-stretch overflow-hidden rounded-md border border-border/55 bg-transparent",
+        "group/button-group inline-flex w-fit items-stretch overflow-hidden rounded-md",
+        "border border-transparent bg-transparent transition-colors duration-150",
+        "hover:border-border/70 focus-within:border-border/70",
+        "has-[[aria-expanded=true]]:border-border/70",
         "[&>*]:rounded-none",
         className,
       )}
@@ -27,7 +54,11 @@ export function ButtonGroup({ className, ...props }: ComponentProps<"div">) {
   );
 }
 
-/** Hairline between two segments. Decorative: the segments name themselves. */
+/**
+ * Hairline between two segments. Decorative — the segments name themselves —
+ * and revealed with the group's outline, so the seam only appears once the
+ * user is looking at the control.
+ */
 export function ButtonGroupSeparator({
   className,
   ...props
@@ -36,7 +67,13 @@ export function ButtonGroupSeparator({
     <div
       aria-hidden="true"
       data-slot="button-group-separator"
-      className={cn("w-px shrink-0 self-stretch bg-border/55", className)}
+      className={cn(
+        "w-px shrink-0 self-stretch bg-transparent transition-colors duration-150",
+        "group-hover/button-group:bg-border/70",
+        "group-focus-within/button-group:bg-border/70",
+        "group-has-[[aria-expanded=true]]/button-group:bg-border/70",
+        className,
+      )}
       {...props}
     />
   );