diff --git a/packages/server/src/server/agent/providers/claude/agent.thinking-display.real.e2e.test.ts b/packages/server/src/server/agent/providers/claude/agent.thinking-display.real.e2e.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..977de58971
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/server/src/server/agent/providers/claude/agent.thinking-display.real.e2e.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+import { beforeAll, beforeEach, describe, expect, test } from "vitest";
+import pino from "pino";
+
+import type { AgentStreamEvent, AgentSession } from "../../agent-sdk-types.js";
+import {
+  canRunRealProvider,
+  createRealProviderClient,
+} from "../../../daemon-e2e/real-provider-test-config.js";
+import { streamSession } from "../test-utils/session-stream-adapter.js";
+
+// Adaptive thinking is the model's choice, so the prompt has to be hard enough
+// that it always reasons. A trivial sum does not think at all.
+const THINKING_PROMPT =
+  "You have 12 identical-looking balls; exactly one has a different weight (you do not " +
+  "know if heavier or lighter). Using a balance scale only 3 times, give the complete " +
+  "decision procedure that always identifies the odd ball AND whether it is heavy or " +
+  "light. Work out every branch.";
+
+function isTerminalEvent(event: AgentStreamEvent): boolean {
+  return (
+    event.type === "turn_completed" ||
+    event.type === "turn_failed" ||
+    event.type === "turn_canceled"
+  );
+}
+
+async function collectUntilTerminal(session: AgentSession): Promise<AgentStreamEvent[]> {
+  const events: AgentStreamEvent[] = [];
+  for await (const event of streamSession(session, THINKING_PROMPT)) {
+    events.push(event);
+    if (isTerminalEvent(event)) {
+      return events;
+    }
+  }
+  return events;
+}
+
+function reasoningTexts(events: AgentStreamEvent[]): string[] {
+  return events.flatMap((event) =>
+    event.type === "timeline" && event.item.type === "reasoning" ? [event.item.text] : [],
+  );
+}
+
+describe("Claude thinking display (real)", () => {
+  let canRun = false;
+
+  beforeAll(async () => {
+    canRun = await canRunRealProvider("claude");
+  });
+
+  beforeEach((context) => {
+    if (!canRun) {
+      context.skip();
+    }
+  });
+
+  test("emits reasoning timeline items when thinking is enabled", async () => {
+    const client = createRealProviderClient("claude", pino({ level: "silent" }));
+    const session = await client.createSession({
+      provider: "claude",
+      cwd: process.cwd(),
+      modeId: "bypassPermissions",
+      model: "claude-sonnet-5",
+      thinkingOptionId: "high",
+    });
+
+    try {
+      const events = await collectUntilTerminal(session);
+      const failure = events.find((event) => event.type === "turn_failed");
+      expect(failure, JSON.stringify(failure)).toBeUndefined();
+
+      const reasoning = reasoningTexts(events);
+      expect(reasoning.length).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+      expect(reasoning.join("").trim().length).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+    } finally {
+      await session.close().catch(() => undefined);
+    }
+  }, 180_000);
+});