diff --git a/src/app/p/[secret]/layout.tsx b/src/app/p/[secret]/layout.tsx
index 586009f..480e9fe 100644
--- a/src/app/p/[secret]/layout.tsx
+++ b/src/app/p/[secret]/layout.tsx
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import { createTRPCCaller } from "@/trpc/server";
 import { timingSafeStringEqual } from "@/lib/timing-safe-compare";
 import { AdminMobileNav } from "@/components/admin/AdminMobileNav";
 import { AdminSidebarNav } from "@/components/admin/AdminSidebarNav";
+import { ClerkThemeProvider } from "@/components/providers/ClerkThemeProvider";
 import {
   LayoutDashboard,
   Users,
@@ -80,31 +81,43 @@ export default async function AdminLayout({ children, params }: AdminLayoutProps
   }));
 
   return (
-    // Admin stays permanently dark regardless of the visitor site's theme
-    // toggle — a moderator's ops tool, not a marketing surface — but now
-    // pinned to PawFeed's own dark palette (the `dark` class resolves the
-    // real design tokens) instead of a generic, disconnected zinc scaffold.
-    <div className="dark flex min-h-screen flex-col bg-background text-foreground md:flex-row">
-      {/* Mobile topbar + drawer — hidden md: and up */}
-      <AdminMobileNav nav={navForMobile} base={base} />
+    // ClerkThemeProvider mounts Clerk's client SDK, which keeps the short-lived
+    // __session cookie refreshed in the background. Without it (as before),
+    // this route tree never renewed the token client-side — the initial page
+    // load kept working (Clerk's server-side "handshake" reissues the token on
+    // full document navigations) but subsequent tRPC XHRs (e.g. legal.publish)
+    // started failing with UNAUTHORIZED/401 a few minutes into a session, since
+    // that handshake only runs for navigations, not fetch calls. This does
+    // re-add the ~240 KiB Clerk client bundle that (app)/layout.tsx's
+    // SpeedUp-Plan P0 deliberately kept off non-admin routes — acceptable here
+    // since the admin panel is an internal ops tool, not perf-critical.
+    <ClerkThemeProvider>
+      {/* Admin stays permanently dark regardless of the visitor site's theme
+          toggle — a moderator's ops tool, not a marketing surface — but now
+          pinned to PawFeed's own dark palette (the `dark` class resolves the
+          real design tokens) instead of a generic, disconnected zinc scaffold. */}
+      <div className="dark flex min-h-screen flex-col bg-background text-foreground md:flex-row">
+        {/* Mobile topbar + drawer — hidden md: and up */}
+        <AdminMobileNav nav={navForMobile} base={base} />
 
-      {/* Sidebar — hidden below md:, permanent from md: up */}
-      <aside className="hidden md:flex w-56 shrink-0 border-r border-border flex-col py-6 px-4 gap-1 h-screen sticky top-0 overflow-y-auto">
-        <AdminSidebarNav base={base} nav={navForMobile} />
+        {/* Sidebar — hidden below md:, permanent from md: up */}
+        <aside className="hidden md:flex w-56 shrink-0 border-r border-border flex-col py-6 px-4 gap-1 h-screen sticky top-0 overflow-y-auto">
+          <AdminSidebarNav base={base} nav={navForMobile} />
 
-        <div className="mt-auto pt-3 border-t border-border">
-          <Link
-            href="/feed"
-            className="flex items-center gap-2.5 px-3 py-2 rounded-lg text-sm text-muted-foreground hover:bg-muted hover:text-foreground transition-colors"
-          >
-            <ArrowLeft className="h-4 w-4 shrink-0" />
-            Zurück
-          </Link>
-        </div>
-      </aside>
+          <div className="mt-auto pt-3 border-t border-border">
+            <Link
+              href="/feed"
+              className="flex items-center gap-2.5 px-3 py-2 rounded-lg text-sm text-muted-foreground hover:bg-muted hover:text-foreground transition-colors"
+            >
+              <ArrowLeft className="h-4 w-4 shrink-0" />
+              Zurück
+            </Link>
+          </div>
+        </aside>
 
-      {/* Content */}
-      <main className="min-w-0 flex-1 overflow-auto p-4 md:p-8">{children}</main>
-    </div>
+        {/* Content */}
+        <main className="min-w-0 flex-1 overflow-auto p-4 md:p-8">{children}</main>
+      </div>
+    </ClerkThemeProvider>
   );
 }
diff --git a/src/app/p/[secret]/legal/page.tsx b/src/app/p/[secret]/legal/page.tsx
index c0aa1a6..964e641 100644
--- a/src/app/p/[secret]/legal/page.tsx
+++ b/src/app/p/[secret]/legal/page.tsx
@@ -45,7 +45,18 @@ export default function AdminLegalPage() {
         toast.success("Veröffentlicht — Owner sehen die Meldung beim nächsten Laden der App");
         setChangeSummary("");
       },
-      onError: () => toast.error("Veröffentlichung fehlgeschlagen"),
+      // UNAUTHORIZED means the Clerk session cookie went stale (see
+      // ClerkThemeProvider in layout.tsx for the background-refresh fix) —
+      // distinct from every other failure, so surface it with an actionable
+      // message instead of the generic one. The typed text is preserved
+      // (no setChangeSummary("") here) so a reload doesn't lose it.
+      onError: (error) => {
+        if (error.data?.code === "UNAUTHORIZED") {
+          toast.error("Session abgelaufen — bitte Seite neu laden und erneut versuchen");
+        } else {
+          toast.error("Veröffentlichung fehlgeschlagen");
+        }
+      },
     })
   );