diff --git a/index.html b/index.html
index d0a761c..1e360ba 100644
--- a/index.html
+++ b/index.html
@@ -696,11 +696,26 @@
         align-items: center;
         gap: var(--s1) var(--s3);
         font-size: 10px;
+        /* Was unset, so it inherited the body's and a wrapped chip drew its
+           second line straight through the chip beneath it. The rail sits over a
+           moving scene and cannot rely on a background to hide the collision. */
+        line-height: 1.5;
         letter-spacing: 0.04em;
+        /* The rail is a corner, not a column. Without a ceiling it grew to meet
+           the mode pill in the middle of the screen. */
+        max-width: min(30rem, 42vw);
         color: var(--ink-2);
         text-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(3, 6, 10, 0.8);
       }
-      .hint__chip { display: inline-flex; align-items: center; gap: 5px; }
+      /* One chip is one line. Wrapping happens *between* chips, which the flex
+         container already does; a chip that wraps inside itself is the thing
+         that made this unreadable. */
+      .hint__chip {
+        display: inline-flex;
+        align-items: center;
+        gap: 5px;
+        white-space: nowrap;
+      }
       .hint__label { color: var(--ink-3); }
       kbd {
         font: inherit;
diff --git a/src/test/ui/shortcuts.test.ts b/src/test/ui/shortcuts.test.ts
index ee3309b..e4080a5 100644
--- a/src/test/ui/shortcuts.test.ts
+++ b/src/test/ui/shortcuts.test.ts
@@ -244,3 +244,60 @@ describe("the rail hint", () => {
     }
   });
 });
+
+/**
+ * The rail is a glance, not a reference.
+ *
+ * Every hint the rail can show reused `meaning` — a full sentence written for
+ * the `?` sheet. In a `flex-wrap` container over a live 3D board that wrapped,
+ * and the wrapped line drew straight through the chip beneath it: on the
+ * deployed build "Fly to a chapter of the tour, or to a viewpoint inside a
+ * studio" and "Walk into the studio, or step back out to the city" overlapped
+ * and neither could be read. Nothing failed; it just looked broken.
+ *
+ * So: every id `railHints` is capable of returning must carry a short `rail`
+ * label, and it must be short enough to stay on one line.
+ */
+describe("rail hint labels", () => {
+  /** Every mode the rail is asked about, from `controlMode.ts`. */
+  const MODES = [
+    "overview",
+    "drive",
+    "actor",
+    "aircraft",
+    "office-overview",
+    "office-walk",
+  ] as const;
+
+  it("gives every rail-selectable shortcut a short label of its own", () => {
+    for (const mode of MODES) {
+      for (const entry of railHints(mode, false)) {
+        assert.ok(
+          entry.rail !== undefined,
+          `${mode}: shortcut "${entry.id}" can reach the rail with no rail label, ` +
+            `so it would fall back to its ${entry.meaning.length}-character sentence`,
+        );
+        assert.ok(
+          entry.rail.length <= 16,
+          `${mode}: rail label "${entry.rail}" is ${entry.rail.length} characters; ` +
+            `the rail has room for a glance, not a clause`,
+        );
+        assert.ok(
+          !entry.rail.includes(","),
+          `${mode}: rail label "${entry.rail}" carries a clause; that belongs in meaning`,
+        );
+      }
+    }
+  });
+
+  it("keeps the long form for the sheet, which is where it reads correctly", () => {
+    const [chapters] = railHints("overview", false);
+    assert.ok(chapters !== undefined);
+    assert.notEqual(chapters.rail, chapters.meaning);
+    assert.ok(chapters.meaning.length > 20, "the sheet should still get the sentence");
+  });
+
+  it("shows nothing at all on a coarse pointer, which has no keys to press", () => {
+    for (const mode of MODES) assert.deepEqual(railHints(mode, true), []);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/src/ui/chromeState.ts b/src/ui/chromeState.ts
index bca3af4..9a9e847 100644
--- a/src/ui/chromeState.ts
+++ b/src/ui/chromeState.ts
@@ -565,7 +565,10 @@ export function chromeState(inputs: ChromeInputs): ChromeState {
   const hints = railHints(mode, touchFirst).map((entry) => ({
     id: entry.id,
     keys: entry.keys,
-    label: entry.meaning,
+    // `rail`, not `meaning`: the sheet gets the sentence, the rail gets the
+    // glance. See the field's note in `shortcuts.ts` for what reusing the
+    // sentence here actually looked like on screen.
+    label: entry.rail ?? entry.meaning,
   }));
 
   // ---- The honesty line ---------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/src/ui/shortcuts.ts b/src/ui/shortcuts.ts
index 6450e54..ea60d56 100644
--- a/src/ui/shortcuts.ts
+++ b/src/ui/shortcuts.ts
@@ -95,6 +95,21 @@ export interface Shortcut {
   gesture?: string;
   /** What it does, in one clause, true in every mode the scope admits. */
   meaning: string;
+  /**
+   * The two-or-three-word form, for the rail in the corner of the scene.
+   *
+   * `meaning` is written for the `?` sheet, where a full sentence is exactly
+   * right — it is a reference somebody is reading. The rail is a glance over a
+   * moving 3D board with room for one line, and reusing the sentence there put
+   * "Fly to a chapter of the tour, or to a viewpoint inside a studio" in a
+   * flex-wrap container: it wrapped, the wrapped line collided with the chip
+   * below it, and both were illegible over a bright sky. Two labels for two
+   * jobs, rather than one label doing neither well.
+   *
+   * Optional: a shortcut the rail never selects does not need one, and
+   * `railHints` only ever picks from a fixed set of ids.
+   */
+  rail?: string;
   section: ShortcutSection;
   scope: ShortcutScope;
   /**
@@ -128,6 +143,7 @@ export const KEYMAP: readonly Shortcut[] = [
     id: "move",
     keys: ["W", "A", "S", "D"],
     meaning: "Move: drive, walk, or fly whatever you are controlling",
+    rail: "Move",
     section: "move",
     scope: "play",
     control: "forward",
@@ -142,6 +158,7 @@ export const KEYMAP: readonly Shortcut[] = [
      * in one of the four modes it fires in.
      */
     meaning: "The primary action of whatever you are controlling — sprint, handbrake, throttle, climb",
+    rail: "Boost",
     section: "move",
     scope: "play",
     control: "primary",
@@ -151,6 +168,7 @@ export const KEYMAP: readonly Shortcut[] = [
     id: "altitude",
     keys: ["Q", "E"],
     meaning: "Descend / climb, flying as a crow or an aircraft",
+    rail: "Altitude",
     section: "move",
     scope: "fly",
     control: "ascend",
@@ -160,6 +178,7 @@ export const KEYMAP: readonly Shortcut[] = [
     id: "pitch",
     keys: ["I", "K"],
     meaning: "Pitch the nose up / down while flying",
+    rail: "Pitch",
     section: "move",
     scope: "fly",
     control: "pitch-up",
@@ -175,6 +194,7 @@ export const KEYMAP: readonly Shortcut[] = [
      */
     keys: ["G"],
     meaning: "Glide — stop beating and hold the air, as a crow",
+    rail: "Glide",
     section: "move",
     scope: "crow",
     control: "secondary",
@@ -184,6 +204,7 @@ export const KEYMAP: readonly Shortcut[] = [
     id: "assist",
     keys: ["P"],
     meaning: "Hand the vehicle or aircraft back to its assisted route",
+    rail: "Autopilot",
     section: "move",
     scope: "drive",
     edge: "assist",
@@ -213,6 +234,7 @@ export const KEYMAP: readonly Shortcut[] = [
     id: "office",
     keys: ["O"],
     meaning: "Walk into the studio, or step back out to the city",
+    rail: "Studio",
     section: "world",
     scope: "always",
     onScreen: "the door button at the top of the left column",
@@ -221,6 +243,7 @@ export const KEYMAP: readonly Shortcut[] = [
     id: "walk",
     keys: ["V"],
     meaning: "Take control of a body — walk inside a studio, explore outside one",
+    rail: "Take control",
     section: "world",
     scope: "always",
     onScreen: "Walk / Explore in the left column, or the mode dock",
@@ -237,6 +260,7 @@ export const KEYMAP: readonly Shortcut[] = [
     id: "chapters",
     keys: ["1", "…", "9"],
     meaning: "Fly to a chapter of the tour, or to a viewpoint inside a studio",
+    rail: "Chapters",
     section: "world",
     scope: "always",
     onScreen: "the numbered list in the left column",