macOS restacks an ordinary-level window of a non-active app behind the active app's frontmost window about 20ms after it is shown, so a page opened from the palette while another app is frontmost blinked and vanished behind it. A raise request that arrives while the app is inactive and carries no user intent now marks its target `heldAboveOtherApps` when it is a visible base-layer content page-host (`window-kernel.ts admitsHoldAboveOtherApps`). `AppActivated` clears the mark on every record and `WindowHidden` clears it on the record leaving the screen. `react` diffs the mark into one `HoldAboveOtherApps` or `ReleaseFromAboveOtherApps` effect, which the executor sends to the port's `pinAlwaysOnTop`; the Electron backend realizes it as the floating level on the existing window. Both effects are skipped under headless, where a window is transparent but still takes clicks. The raise request is the trigger because it is what separates an ordinary open (show plus raise) from a session-restore or `show: false` open (show alone), so restore never holds. The declared `layer` is untouched: it also selects the overlay attach target, the stacking band and the app-resign sweep. `isAppResignSweepEligible` excludes a held window outright and `holdsAppOnScreen` still counts it. window-rules.md gains the term and G1/F6 no longer say an application window opening brings the app forward.