diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 76119edf..6971242d 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 
 ## Unreleased
 
+- Set the Windows title-bar icon from the embedded exe resource. WinUI shows a generic placeholder in the title bar unless the window is handed an icon explicitly, so every shipped host ran with a foreign default glyph while taskbar and shortcuts showed the real brand icon — the icon was compiled into the exe (resource ID 1 since #283) but nothing ever loaded it. The host template now loads it with `LoadIconW` and hands it to `AppWindow.SetIcon` at construction; projects without a `windows-icon` declaration keep the placeholder. Existing products carry the same lines in their own `MainWindow` constructor (podlens landed it first).
+
 - Add the release gate. `raco rivet generate --check` regenerates every client file in memory and fails when the tree differs — the writer and the gate share one regeneration, so a hand-edited version stamp or a forgotten regeneration (four shipped-repo incidents in one week) cannot merge. `raco rivet doctor --release` validates in one command and one exit code: generated freshness, the committed schema baseline, hand-written host sources calling `fetch-update-manifest`/`select-update`/`download-update`/`fetch-sibling-asset` only with keywords the installed rivet accepts (read via `procedure-keywords` from the live functions, closing the payback `#:redirections` class), and every `rivet.git#...` pin being non-empty and consistent with the installed release (the autarx empty-ref incident). The update API keyword contract is a documented, test-guarded stable surface, and `docs/ci.md` warns about the empty `URL#` footgun.
 
 - Own the Linux runtime layout discovery and ship the GTK main-thread bridge. `rivet::linux_runtime::discover_layout()` locates `runtime/*.boot` plus `res/core.zo` beside the executable (an explicit-root overload serves tests), `layout_error_hint()` is the remediation message hosts display, and the host template consumes the library instead of carrying a private copy — the staged-versus-packaged layout is Rivet's contract, so the code that knows it lives with it. The template also ships `rpc_bridge.hpp`: `unpack` flattens a generated `Result<T>` (including `Result<void>`) into a value-or-error decided on the reader thread, and `post_to_main` runs the closure on the GTK main loop, freeing it there. A new GTK host starts with the correct pattern instead of rediscovering thread affinity the hard way.
diff --git a/platform/windows/host/MainWindow.xaml.cpp b/platform/windows/host/MainWindow.xaml.cpp
index 2dc65843..7f2407ee 100644
--- a/platform/windows/host/MainWindow.xaml.cpp
+++ b/platform/windows/host/MainWindow.xaml.cpp
@@ -5,8 +5,11 @@
 #endif
 #include "GeneratedBackend.hpp"
 
+#include <cstdint>
 #include <stdexcept>
 
+#include <winrt/Microsoft.UI.Windowing.h>
+
 namespace winrt::RivetHost::implementation {
 namespace {
 
@@ -64,6 +67,16 @@ rivet::windows::RacketRuntimeConfig runtime_config() {
 MainWindow::MainWindow() {
   InitializeComponent();
   Title(L"Rivet — Racket + WinUI 3");
+  // WinUI shows a generic placeholder in the title bar unless the
+  // window is handed an icon explicitly; rivet embeds the project
+  // icon in the exe at resource ID 1 (rivet-cli/build.rkt), so
+  // surface it here. Projects without a windows-icon declaration
+  // keep the placeholder.
+  if (HICON const icon =
+          ::LoadIconW(::GetModuleHandleW(nullptr), MAKEINTRESOURCEW(1))) {
+    AppWindow().SetIcon(winrt::Microsoft::UI::IconId{
+        static_cast<std::uint64_t>(reinterpret_cast<UINT_PTR>(icon))});
+  }
   // Ordinary window close and OS session end (logoff/shutdown) both funnel
   // into the same orderly backend stop. The console-control callback runs
   // on its own thread, so it only touches the thread-safe stop() — never