diff --git a/docs/requirements.md b/docs/requirements.md
index 9fc6466..7c6aed5 100644
--- a/docs/requirements.md
+++ b/docs/requirements.md
@@ -571,12 +571,12 @@ The panel shows exactly one **content** at a time, picked from the catalog in RE
   - an **input** chip shows the per-cycle amount below the count (the items consumed per run, e.g. `/ 2 per cycle`), or the count alone when the building has no selected recipe or schematic to give one;
   - an **output** chip shows the count against the output buffer's capacity as `a / b` (REQ-MAT-OUTPUT-BUFFER), with the item's name below.
 
-  Input and output chips form separately captioned sections, each shown only while it holds something (REQ-UI-SELECTION-CARD). The production section (REQ-UI-PRODUCTION-PROGRESS) sits **between them**, so the card reads in the direction the materials flow: what goes in, what is being made of it, what has come out. For a selected construction site the buffer sections are omitted (REQ-BLD-SITE-CONFIG).
+  Input and output chips form separately captioned sections (REQ-UI-SELECTION-CARD). A section lists a chip for **every item the building's cycle involves**, and for an auto-recipe building every item it handles at all, whether or not the buffer currently holds any: an empty buffer reads `0` rather than its chip disappearing, so the card keeps one shape while the building runs. A section left with no chips at all is not shown. The production section (REQ-UI-PRODUCTION-PROGRESS) sits **between them**, so the card reads in the direction the materials flow: what goes in, what is being made of it, what has come out. For a selected construction site the buffer sections are omitted (REQ-BLD-SITE-CONFIG).
 
   **Only unlocked items are listed.** A building's buffers may carry entries for items the player cannot make yet — an auto-recipe building's buffers are sized over *every* recipe of its type (REQ-BLD-SMELTER, REQ-BLD-REPROCESSING), including recipes that are still locked. Those entries are left out of both sections, consistent with the rest of the UI hiding what is not unlocked yet (REQ-LOCK-UI-RECIPE, REQ-LOCK-UI-SPLITTER), so a Smelter shows the ores it can actually smelt rather than every ore in the game.
 
   **An idle auto-recipe building still shows what it handles.** Having no selected recipe (REQ-BLD-SMELTER, REQ-BLD-REPROCESSING), it would otherwise show empty sections whenever it happens to be between cycles. Its input and output sections instead list the unlocked items of every recipe of its type — the same union its buffers were sized over — with a count and no per-cycle denominator, since no one recipe is in force. While a cycle is running, that cycle's recipe supplies the denominators as for any other building.
-- REQ-UI-RECIPE-SUMMARY: Below the recipe/schematic selection control, a building running a recipe or schematic shows a one-line **recipe summary**: each input item's icon with its per-cycle amount, an arrow, each output item's icon with its per-cycle amount, and the cycle time in seconds. It restates what the building will do without opening the selection dialog, and it is the panel's only display of the cycle time. For a Shipyard the summary is built from the schematic's materials and production time including the placed modules' contributions (REQ-BLD-SHIPYARD, REQ-MOD-STAT-CALC), matching the buffers beneath it. Auto-recipe buildings (Smelter, Reprocessing Plant — REQ-BLD-SMELTER, REQ-BLD-REPROCESSING) have no player-selected recipe and so show no selection control; they show the summary of the recipe currently in production, and none while idle. A building with no recipe or schematic selected shows no summary.
+- REQ-UI-RECIPE-SUMMARY: Below the recipe/schematic selection control, a building running a recipe or schematic shows a one-line **recipe summary**: each input item's icon with its per-cycle amount, an arrow, each output item's icon with its per-cycle amount, and the cycle time in seconds. It restates what the building will do without opening the selection dialog, and it is the panel's only display of the cycle time. For a Shipyard the summary is built from the schematic's materials and production time including the placed modules' contributions (REQ-BLD-SHIPYARD, REQ-MOD-STAT-CALC), matching the buffers beneath it. Auto-recipe buildings (Smelter, Reprocessing Plant — REQ-BLD-SMELTER, REQ-BLD-REPROCESSING) have no player-selected recipe and so show no selection control; they show the summary of the recipe currently in production and, while between cycles, of the one they ran last. They keep it rather than dropping it, because a summary that came and went with each cycle would resize the card in step with the building's status (REQ-UI-SELECTION-STATUS), which is the one thing the panel must not do while the player is reading it (REQ-UI-SELECTION-PANEL). Such a building shows no summary only until it has run its first cycle. A building with no recipe or schematic selected shows no summary.
 - REQ-UI-PRODUCTION-PROGRESS: For buildings that produce items or ships (miner, smelter, assembler, reprocessing plant, shipyard), the panel's runtime group shows a captioned **production section** between the input and output buffer sections (REQ-UI-SINGLE-SELECTION): a horizontal progress bar filled to the completion of the active production cycle, with that completion beside the caption as an integer percentage (e.g. `72%`), or the text `idle` in place of the percentage and an empty bar when no production cycle is active. The cycle time is shown in the recipe summary (REQ-UI-RECIPE-SUMMARY) rather than repeated here. When no recipe or schematic is selected, the production section is not shown at all.
 - REQ-UI-MULTI-SELECT: The player selects multiple objects by box-drag or by Ctrl+clicking individual objects to add or remove them from the selection. Multi-select operates within a single category (REQ-UI-SELECTION-CATEGORIES). A box-drag that covers at least one building selects buildings (any field objects within the box are ignored — buildings win); a box-drag that covers no building but does cover ships, defence stations, or debris selects all of those field objects together (REQ-UI-ENTITY-CLICK-SELECT, REQ-UI-DEBRIS-MULTI-SELECT).
 - REQ-UI-MULTI-SELECTION: When multiple buildings are selected and the selection does not aggregate (REQ-UI-SELECTION-AGGREGATE), the panel shows a count summary. Its header names the size of the selection as `<n> buildings` in place of an object name, and carries no symbol and nothing in its right slot. Below it is one row per selected building type — the type's symbol, its name, and the number selected as `x<count>` — one type per row, and no per-building detail. A final row shows the **total building block cost** of the selection, captioned `Total cost` with the value followed by the `building_block` item icon (REQ-UI-BLOCKS-ICON, REQ-UI-ITEM-ICON): the sum of each selected building's placement cost (`buildings.toml [[building]].cost`, per REQ-BLD-COST), counting only player-placeable buildings (buildings with a button in the build button bar); non-player-placeable buildings (the HQ and defence stations) are excluded from the total, consistent with the blueprint total (REQ-UI-BLUEPRINT-CARD). Construction sites count at their building type's full placement cost regardless of construction progress.
diff --git a/src/ui/selection/AutoProductionContent.cpp b/src/ui/selection/AutoProductionContent.cpp
index e44429d..63a418f 100644
--- a/src/ui/selection/AutoProductionContent.cpp
+++ b/src/ui/selection/AutoProductionContent.cpp
@@ -41,13 +41,22 @@ BufferedBuildingContent::CycleInfo AutoProductionContent::getCycleInfo(
         }
     }
 
-    if (!target.building || !target.building->production.has_value())
+    // Which recipe describes the cycle: the one running, or -- between cycles -- the one
+    // that ran last. Dropping it while idle would take the summary row and the chips'
+    // per-cycle amounts away and bring them back with every cycle, resizing the card in
+    // step with the building's status (REQ-UI-RECIPE-SUMMARY). Only a building that has
+    // never run has nothing to describe.
+    if (target.building && target.building->production.has_value())
+    {
+        m_lastRecipeId = target.building->production->recipeId;
+    }
+    if (!target.building || m_lastRecipeId.empty())
     {
         return info;
     }
 
-    const RecipeDef* recipe = getContext().config->recipes.findRecipeDef(
-        target.building->production->recipeId, target.type);
+    const RecipeDef* recipe =
+        getContext().config->recipes.findRecipeDef(m_lastRecipeId, target.type);
     if (!recipe)
     {
         return info;
diff --git a/src/ui/selection/AutoProductionContent.h b/src/ui/selection/AutoProductionContent.h
index b172218..63e8183 100644
--- a/src/ui/selection/AutoProductionContent.h
+++ b/src/ui/selection/AutoProductionContent.h
@@ -1,12 +1,14 @@
 #pragma once
 
+#include <string>
+
 #include "BufferedBuildingContent.h"
 #include "SelectionContentFactory.h"
 
 // The card for a Smelter or a Reprocessing Plant (REQ-UI-SELECTION-CONTENT). Both
 // auto-process whatever they receive and have no player-facing recipe selection
 // (REQ-BLD-SMELTER, REQ-BLD-REPROCESSING), so the card has no configuration group at
-// all; its cycle is whichever recipe is currently in production.
+// all; its cycle is whichever recipe is in production, or the last one that was.
 class AutoProductionContent : public BufferedBuildingContent
 {
     Q_OBJECT
@@ -17,4 +19,11 @@ public:
 
 protected:
     CycleInfo getCycleInfo(const BuildingTarget& target) const override;
+
+private:
+    // The recipe last seen in production, which keeps describing the cycle while the
+    // building sits between cycles (REQ-UI-RECIPE-SUMMARY). Mutable because it is a
+    // record of what getCycleInfo() has observed rather than state of its own: the card
+    // shows the same thing whether or not it has been asked before.
+    mutable std::string m_lastRecipeId;
 };
diff --git a/src/ui/selection/BufferedBuildingContent.h b/src/ui/selection/BufferedBuildingContent.h
index 6210be7..9fded6a 100644
--- a/src/ui/selection/BufferedBuildingContent.h
+++ b/src/ui/selection/BufferedBuildingContent.h
@@ -44,8 +44,9 @@ protected:
         // REQ-BLD-SALVAGE-BAY) or has no recipe or schematic selected yet: the
         // production section is then not shown (REQ-UI-PRODUCTION-PROGRESS).
         bool runsProduction = false;
-        // 0 while an auto-recipe building sits between cycles, when no single recipe
-        // names a cycle time; the progress line then reads "idle".
+        // 0 only when no recipe describes the cycle at all -- an auto-recipe building
+        // that has yet to run one (REQ-UI-RECIPE-SUMMARY). The progress line reads
+        // "idle" whenever no cycle is actually running, whatever this says.
         double durationSeconds = 0.0;
     };