diff --git a/.taskmaster/tasks/tasks.json b/.taskmaster/tasks/tasks.json
index 38550db..4c8aab5 100644
--- a/.taskmaster/tasks/tasks.json
+++ b/.taskmaster/tasks/tasks.json
@@ -24,11 +24,35 @@
         "subtasks": [],
         "dependencies": [],
         "createdAt": "2026-04-24T15:47:00Z"
+      },
+      {
+        "id": 3,
+        "title": "feat(kb/search): LLM query expansion so ranked-by-title docs don't crowd everything else out (shira-hermes)",
+        "description": "User reports searching 'מהי תקנה 37' returns only the תקנה 37 circular and the law — never ספר הליקויים, even though that's where the underlying medical content lives. Root cause is a single-shot retrieval where any document whose title contains the query terms wins by a huge margin. Fix: ask the LLM (via ai-gateway) for up to 3 alternative phrasings, retrieve candidates for the original + each variant in parallel, merge by chunk_id keeping best RRF score, then rerank the union against the ORIGINAL query. After fix: src 29 (ספר הליקויים) shows up with 2 hits in the same query.",
+        "status": "done",
+        "priority": "high",
+        "details": "Lives in espocrm-extensions/shira-hermes commit 1441a41. /kb/search now has expand=true by default, agent path (search_insurance_kb tool) keeps expand=false because the agent already does multi-query via tool calls.",
+        "testStrategy": "POST /kb/search {query:'מהי תקנה 37', top_k:8} should return hits from at least 2 distinct source_ids, including src 29 (ספר הליקויים) and src 26 (תקנה 37 חוזר).",
+        "subtasks": [],
+        "dependencies": [],
+        "createdAt": "2026-04-25T10:00:00Z"
+      },
+      {
+        "id": 4,
+        "title": "fix: ask survives view switch via module-level promise + sessionStorage",
+        "description": "User reports asking Shira a question and switching to a different EspoCRM view loses the in-flight request — coming back shows a blank screen as if nothing was asked. Cause: the Espo.Ajax promise was view-bound, so handlers fired against a detached DOM after re-mount. Fix: hoist {question, promise, startedAt} to a module-level _activeAsk; afterRender re-attaches handlers and resumes the progress UI with the original startedAt; completed answers persist to sessionStorage and replay on remount or a hard reload.",
+        "status": "done",
+        "priority": "high",
+        "details": "All client-side, files/client/custom/modules/knowledge-base/src/views/kb/index.js. State is intentionally session-scoped — kept in sessionStorage so the next browser session starts clean.",
+        "testStrategy": "Ask a question; while the spinner shows, click Contacts (or any other navbar item); wait until the request would have finished; click back to בסיס ידע — the answer (or active spinner with correct elapsed-time) should be there.",
+        "subtasks": [],
+        "dependencies": [],
+        "createdAt": "2026-04-25T10:00:00Z"
       }
     ],
     "metadata": {
       "created": "2026-04-24T15:47:00Z",
-      "updated": "2026-04-24T15:47:00Z",
+      "updated": "2026-04-25T10:30:00Z",
       "description": "KnowledgeBase extension tasks"
     }
   }
diff --git a/files/client/custom/modules/knowledge-base/src/views/kb/index.js b/files/client/custom/modules/knowledge-base/src/views/kb/index.js
index 613c8e2..28478ac 100644
--- a/files/client/custom/modules/knowledge-base/src/views/kb/index.js
+++ b/files/client/custom/modules/knowledge-base/src/views/kb/index.js
@@ -1,5 +1,34 @@
 define('modules/knowledge-base/views/kb/index', ['view'], function (Dep) {
 
+    // Module-level state survives view unmount/remount within a single
+    // SPA session so a user can fire an ask, navigate elsewhere, and come
+    // back to the answer (or to the still-spinning request) without losing
+    // it. sessionStorage backs the last completed answer so a hard reload
+    // also recovers it. None of this leaks to the next browser session —
+    // ask history is intentionally ephemeral.
+    let _activeAsk = null;   // {question, promise} while a request is in flight
+    let _lastAsk = null;     // {question, text, sources, completedAt} after success
+
+    const SS_KEY = 'kb-last-ask';
+
+    function _loadLastFromSession() {
+        try {
+            const raw = sessionStorage.getItem(SS_KEY);
+            if (!raw) return null;
+            const parsed = JSON.parse(raw);
+            if (parsed && typeof parsed.question === 'string') return parsed;
+        } catch (e) { /* corrupted, ignore */ }
+        return null;
+    }
+    function _saveLastToSession(entry) {
+        try { sessionStorage.setItem(SS_KEY, JSON.stringify(entry)); }
+        catch (e) { /* quota or disabled, fine */ }
+    }
+    function _clearLastInSession() {
+        try { sessionStorage.removeItem(SS_KEY); } catch (e) { /* ignore */ }
+    }
+    if (!_lastAsk) _lastAsk = _loadLastFromSession();
+
     return Dep.extend({
 
         template: 'knowledge-base:kb/index',
@@ -68,6 +97,25 @@ define('modules/knowledge-base/views/kb/index', ['view'], function (Dep) {
             } else if (this._sources) {
                 this.renderSourcesList();
             }
+
+            // Recover ask state across view remounts (user navigated away and
+            // back). _activeAsk wins — there's still a request in flight, so
+            // re-show the progress panel and re-bind handlers. Otherwise
+            // _lastAsk replays the most recent answer in this browser session.
+            if (this.mode === 'ask') {
+                if (_activeAsk) {
+                    const $input = this.$el.find('input[data-name="query"]');
+                    if ($input.length) $input.val(_activeAsk.question);
+                    this.setLoading(true);
+                    this.startAskProgress(_activeAsk.startedAt);
+                    this._attachAskHandlers(_activeAsk);
+                } else if (_lastAsk) {
+                    const $input = this.$el.find('input[data-name="query"]');
+                    if ($input.length) $input.val(_lastAsk.question);
+                    this.renderAskAnswer(_lastAsk.text, _lastAsk.sources);
+                }
+            }
+
             // Focus the input on every render so users can start typing right away.
             const $input = this.$el.find('input[data-name="query"]');
             if ($input.length) $input.trigger('focus');
@@ -102,30 +150,65 @@ define('modules/knowledge-base/views/kb/index', ['view'], function (Dep) {
         },
 
         runAsk: function (message) {
+            // A new ask invalidates whatever last-result was on screen.
+            _lastAsk = null;
+            _clearLastInSession();
+
             this.setLoading(true);
-            this.startAskProgress();
             // Ask goes through the full agent loop (search + rerank + LLM),
             // which routinely takes 30-90s. The default jQuery Ajax timeout
             // is too short; override it here so the browser doesn't give up
             // before shira-hermes responds.
-            Espo.Ajax.postRequest('KnowledgeBase/action/ask', {
+            const promise = Espo.Ajax.postRequest('KnowledgeBase/action/ask', {
                 message: message,
-            }, {timeout: 240000}).then(res => {
-                this.stopAskProgress();
-                this.setLoading(false);
-                this.renderAskAnswer(res.text || '', res.sources || []);
+            }, {timeout: 240000});
+            _activeAsk = {question: message, promise: promise, startedAt: Date.now()};
+            this.startAskProgress(_activeAsk.startedAt);
+            this._attachAskHandlers(_activeAsk);
+        },
+
+        // Wire .then/.catch on a (possibly module-level) ask promise to
+        // whichever view is currently mounted. Called from runAsk for the
+        // initial bind and from afterRender when the user navigates back to
+        // the KB view while an earlier request is still in flight.
+        _attachAskHandlers: function (ask) {
+            const self = this;
+            ask.promise.then(res => {
+                const entry = {
+                    question: ask.question,
+                    text: res.text || '',
+                    sources: res.sources || [],
+                    completedAt: Date.now(),
+                };
+                _lastAsk = entry;
+                _saveLastToSession(entry);
+                if (_activeAsk === ask) _activeAsk = null;
+                if (self.$el && self.$el.length) {
+                    self.stopAskProgress();
+                    self.setLoading(false);
+                    if (self.mode === 'ask') {
+                        self.renderAskAnswer(entry.text, entry.sources);
+                    }
+                }
             }).catch(err => {
-                this.stopAskProgress();
-                this.setLoading(false);
-                this.showError(err);
+                if (_activeAsk === ask) _activeAsk = null;
+                if (self.$el && self.$el.length) {
+                    self.stopAskProgress();
+                    self.setLoading(false);
+                    self.showError(err);
+                }
             });
         },
 
-        startAskProgress: function () {
+        startAskProgress: function (startedAt) {
             // Show a live elapsed-time indicator so users know the request
             // is still running rather than stuck. Typical answers arrive in
-            // 30-90s; we warn after 2 minutes.
+            // 30-90s; we warn after 2 minutes. `startedAt` is passed in so
+            // a request that began before a view re-mount keeps showing the
+            // accumulated elapsed time, not 0.
             if (this.mode !== 'ask') return;
+            this.stopAskProgress();
+            startedAt = startedAt || Date.now();
             const $results = this.$el.find('.kb-results');
             $results.html(
                 '<div class="kb-ask-progress panel panel-info">' +
@@ -144,8 +227,7 @@ define('modules/knowledge-base/views/kb/index', ['view'], function (Dep) {
                 '  </div>' +
                 '</div>'
             );
-            const startedAt = Date.now();
-            this._askTimer = setInterval(() => {
+            const tick = () => {
                 const sec = Math.round((Date.now() - startedAt) / 1000);
                 const $elapsed = this.$el.find('.kb-elapsed');
                 if ($elapsed.length) $elapsed.text(sec);
@@ -155,7 +237,9 @@ define('modules/knowledge-base/views/kb/index', ['view'], function (Dep) {
                         'לוקח יותר זמן מהרגיל. עדיין ממתינים…</div>'
                     );
                 }
-            }, 1000);
+            };
+            tick();
+            this._askTimer = setInterval(tick, 1000);
         },
 
         stopAskProgress: function () {
diff --git a/manifest.json b/manifest.json
index 2a65b37..950749f 100644
--- a/manifest.json
+++ b/manifest.json
@@ -1,14 +1,14 @@
 {
     "name": "KnowledgeBase",
     "module": "KnowledgeBase",
-    "version": "0.1.8",
+    "version": "0.1.9",
     "acceptableVersions": [
         ">=8.0.0"
     ],
     "php": [
         ">=8.1"
     ],
-    "releaseDate": "2026-04-24",
+    "releaseDate": "2026-04-25",
     "author": "klear",
     "description": "Knowledge Base — Israeli National Insurance law, regulations, and circulars. Hybrid search + ask-shira, powered by shira-hermes KB."
 }
\ No newline at end of file