diff --git a/.planning/NOTES.md b/.planning/NOTES.md
index 40ad8c7..dcc33c0 100644
--- a/.planning/NOTES.md
+++ b/.planning/NOTES.md
@@ -4429,3 +4429,61 @@ the content starts where the **row above it** ends, which is true with a
 job running and without one. An assertion against an absolute
 coordinate was quietly also asserting "and no background job exists",
 which is not something that spec is about or can arrange.
+
+## The queue was already the right rectangle; what it lacked was an entry (measured 2026-08-21)
+
+#55 asks for the queue to be "a real screen instead of a pop-open
+sidebar", and its Direction asks for a `DETAIL_LOADERS` mount. Measured
+against `880adff` at the reference device's real viewport (424x439),
+with #24's overlay open:
+
+| box | rect |
+|---|---|
+| `.main-panel` | 424 x 318 |
+| `queue-panel` host | 424 x 318 |
+| `.panel-content` | 424 x 318 |
+| `.scrim` | 424 x 318, entirely underneath the panel |
+
+So a detail-view mount would have drawn the same rectangle in the same
+place. Three things were genuinely missing, and none of them is a
+rendering:
+
+- **Back navigated the page underneath and left the queue up.** Opened
+  on Artists, pressed back: `data-active-view` went `artists` ->
+  `albums`, `open` stayed `true`. A press that changes something the
+  user cannot see, and costs them their place.
+- **The scrim has zero reachable pixels at phone width**, because
+  `panel-content` is `width: 100%` there. #24's tap-outside-to-close
+  does not exist on the device.
+- The only pointer route out was a **25x21px** button.
+
+The rule that followed is that the queue is a *place* exactly while it
+is an overlay and a *control* while it is a column, which reuses #24's
+computed mode rather than adding a breakpoint.
+
+**The containment finding is the reason the Direction was not
+followed.** Read off the running app rather than the stylesheet:
+
+| element | computed `contain` |
+|---|---|
+| `queue-panel` (open, overlay) | `layout style` |
+| `.content-area` | `layout style` |
+| `.main-panel` | `content` |
+| `.main-panel > *` (a view) | `content` |
+
+`queue-panel` has a `wa-popup` context menu, and #60's finding is that
+`position: fixed` escapes overflow but not paint containment on
+Chrome 113. Its ancestry today is paint-free to `body`; a
+`DETAIL_LOADERS` mount would have put it under two paint-containing
+ancestors. **No tier here can see that** — CI's Chromium and WebKit
+both have the Popover API — so the spec asserts the mechanism (the
+panel is not under a paint-contained ancestor) rather than the
+symptom. This is the second change in a row where the honest assertion
+was about where an element *is* rather than how it *looks*.
+
+One thing worth knowing about the spec: **three of its nine tests fail
+on the build before the change and the other six cannot.** "The entry
+is not orphaned" and "a docked column is not in the stack" are both
+vacuously true of a build that pushes no entry at all. Reverting the
+source and re-running is what established which were which, and the
+file says so in its header rather than implying all nine reproduce.
diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
index 4a22267..0e25a50 100644
--- a/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -1775,6 +1775,61 @@ along untouched. Escape closes it and returns focus, and is attached
 only while the overlay is up — it is a dismissal, not a shortcut, which
 is why it is not a panel-scoped binding.
 
+**And an overlaid queue is a place, which is the whole of #55.** The
+pixels were already right: measured at the reference device's 424×439,
+the overlaid panel is 424×318 — `.main-panel`'s rect exactly — so a
+`DETAIL_LOADERS` mount would draw the same rectangle in the same spot.
+What was missing was the navigation model, and the defect was one
+measurement: opening the queue on Artists and pressing back moved the
+page *underneath* to Albums and left the queue up. So opening an
+**overlay** queue dispatches `navigate {view: 'queue'}` and opening a
+**column** sets the attribute as it always did — `utils/open-queue.ts`
+is that one decision, and both routes end at the same `open` attribute
+on the same element.
+
+Five things about it are load-bearing.
+
+**The queue is a screen exactly while it is an overlay**, which is the
+rule above rather than a second one: a column is a thing the user
+docked, so back must not undock it and a navigation must not take it
+away, while an overlay is covering the content and has to answer the
+platform's gesture. That also inherits the *computed, not
+breakpointed* property for free — the panel is drag-resizable, so a
+viewport breakpoint would be wrong by up to 180px.
+
+**It is in neither `VIEW_TAGS` nor `DETAIL_LOADERS`**, because there is
+nothing to mount; the panel is already in the document. That is not
+tidiness. `.main-panel > *` is paint-contained under a `.main-panel`
+that is, and `contain: paint` clips the `position: fixed` a `wa-popup`
+falls back to on the reference device's Chrome 113 (#60) — so the
+detail-view mount asked for in #55's Direction would have broken
+`queue-panel`'s working context menu on the one device the issue is
+about. Measured: the panel's ancestry is `layout style` all the way to
+`body`; a view inside the main panel is `content` under `content`.
+**No tier here can see that consequence** — CI's Chromium and WebKit
+both have the Popover API — so `queue-as-a-screen.spec.ts` asserts the
+*mechanism*, that the panel is not under a paint-contained ancestor.
+
+**A navigation to `queue` deliberately writes neither
+`dataset.activeView` nor `searchStore.setCurrentView`**, because both
+describe what is *in* the main panel and the queue covers that panel
+without replacing it. It publishes itself through `activeViewStore`
+with `isPrimary: false`, so the tab it was opened from stays lit —
+the same rule a detail view gets.
+
+**The entry is unwound from the panel's `open` attribute**, in the
+mutation observer `index.ts` already ran for `aria-expanded`, rather
+than at each of the four ways out. Escape, the scrim, the close button
+and the toggle all take that route, and a fifth added later gets it
+free. Without it the entry is orphaned and the *next* back press is the
+one that closes the queue — the reported defect moved one press later,
+which looks exactly like a press that did nothing.
+
+**And the way out is 44px on a phone.** With the panel spanning the
+whole width the scrim has no uncovered pixels at all, so the close
+button is the only pointer route out of a full-screen surface; it was
+**25×21px**.
+
 What this does **not** fix is `page-header` overflowing on its own:
 at 900×600 "New Smart Playlist" is still clipped to 114 of 162px with
 the queue *closed*. That is #69, and it cannot be fixed in
diff --git a/e2e/specs/queue-as-a-screen.spec.ts b/e2e/specs/queue-as-a-screen.spec.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f6de2fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/e2e/specs/queue-as-a-screen.spec.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,270 @@
+import { test, expect } from '../support/fixtures.js';
+
+/**
+ * #55 — the queue is a *place* while it covers the content, and a
+ * *control* while it sits beside it.
+ *
+ * #24 already made the pixels right: measured at the reference device's
+ * 424×439, the overlaid panel is 424×318, which is `.main-panel`'s rect
+ * exactly. What was missing was the navigation model, and the defect was
+ * measurable in one line — opening the queue on Artists and pressing
+ * back moved the page *underneath* to Albums and left the queue up. A
+ * back press that changes something the user cannot see, and costs them
+ * their place, is the whole of "it does not flow".
+ *
+ * **These assert the entry, not the attribute.** The temptation is to
+ * check `#queue-button[aria-expanded]` and stop, which is the shell's
+ * own bookkeeping and was right throughout the bug: what has to be true
+ * is that *one* back press closes the queue and the *next* one
+ * navigates. Asserting only the first would pass on a build that
+ * orphans the entry, which is the defect moved one press later — the
+ * same trap `back-navigation.spec.ts` documents about `data-active-view`
+ * and `layout-overflow.spec.ts` set for #69.
+ *
+ * **Three of these nine fail on the build before #55**, and the other
+ * six cannot, which is worth knowing before trusting them: "the entry
+ * is not orphaned" and "the column is not in the stack" are both
+ * vacuously true of a build that pushes no entry at all, and the
+ * containment assertion pins the mount that was *not* taken. They guard
+ * the next change rather than reproducing this one — the three that
+ * reproduce it are the two back-press tests and the touch target.
+ */
+type Page = import('@playwright/test').Page;
+
+/** The reference device's real viewport, not a resized desktop. */
+const DEVICE = { width: 424, height: 439 };
+
+/** Wide enough that the queue is a column: 1280 − 200 − 320 ≥ 480. */
+const DESKTOP = { width: 1280, height: 800 };
+
+const activeView = (page: Page) => page.getByTestId('main-content');
+const queue = (page: Page) => page.locator('#queue-panel');
+const toggle = (page: Page) => page.locator('#queue-button');
+
+async function expectQueue(page: Page, open: boolean): Promise<void> {
+  await expect(toggle(page)).toHaveAttribute(
+    'aria-expanded',
+    String(open),
+  );
+}
+
+test.describe('the queue is a screen where it covers the content', () => {
+  test.beforeEach(async ({ app }) => {
+    await app.setViewportSize(DEVICE);
+    await app.getByTestId('tab-albums').click();
+    await expect(activeView(app)).toHaveAttribute('data-active-view', 'albums');
+  });
+
+  test('back closes the queue and leaves the page where it was', async ({
+    app,
+  }) => {
+    await expect(queue(app)).toHaveAttribute('overlay', '');
+
+    await toggle(app).click();
+    await expectQueue(app, true);
+
+    await app.goBack();
+
+    await expectQueue(app, false);
+    // The page underneath is untouched. Before #55 this was the
+    // *previous* view, because the queue was not in the stack at all
+    // and back spent an entry navigating something nobody could see.
+    await expect(activeView(app)).toHaveAttribute('data-active-view', 'albums');
+  });
+
+  test('costs exactly one entry, so the next press navigates', async ({
+    app,
+  }) => {
+    await toggle(app).click();
+    await expectQueue(app, true);
+
+    await app.goBack();
+    await expectQueue(app, false);
+
+    await app.goBack();
+
+    // Whatever the launch page is, it is not Albums — the point is that
+    // this press moved the app rather than being swallowed by a queue
+    // that had already closed.
+    await expect(activeView(app)).not.toHaveAttribute(
+      'data-active-view',
+      'albums',
+    );
+  });
+
+  /**
+   * Every route out unwinds the entry, and they do it through the
+   * panel's own `open` attribute rather than each knowing about
+   * history — which is why a fourth route added later gets this free.
+   *
+   * The failure this pins is silent: close by button, and if the entry
+   * is orphaned the app looks correct until the next back press does
+   * nothing at all. It is a guard rather than a reproduction — a build
+   * with no entry to orphan passes it — and it is paired with the two
+   * above, which do reproduce.
+   */
+  for (const [name, dismiss] of [
+    [
+      'the close button',
+      async (app: Page) => {
+        await app.getByRole('button', { name: 'Close queue' }).click();
+      },
+    ],
+    [
+      'Escape',
+      async (app: Page) => {
+        await app.keyboard.press('Escape');
+      },
+    ],
+    [
+      'the toggle it was opened from',
+      async (app: Page) => {
+        await toggle(app).click();
+      },
+    ],
+  ] as Array<[string, (app: Page) => Promise<void>]>) {
+    test(`${name} leaves no entry behind`, async ({ app }) => {
+      await toggle(app).click();
+      await expectQueue(app, true);
+
+      await dismiss(app);
+      await expectQueue(app, false);
+
+      await app.goBack();
+
+      await expect(activeView(app)).not.toHaveAttribute(
+        'data-active-view',
+        'albums',
+      );
+    });
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * A detail view leaves the destination it was opened from lit
+   * (`active-view-store`, #72), and the queue inherits that — it is
+   * published with `isPrimary: false`, so `isActive('albums')` is still
+   * true underneath it.
+   *
+   * `aria-current` rather than a class, for the reason
+   * `back-navigation.spec.ts` gives: the class was right throughout the
+   * bug that rule exists for.
+   */
+  test('leaves the tab it was opened from highlighted', async ({ app }) => {
+    await expect(
+      app.getByRole('button', { name: 'Albums', exact: true }),
+    ).toHaveAttribute('aria-current', 'page');
+
+    await toggle(app).click();
+    await expectQueue(app, true);
+
+    await expect(
+      app.getByRole('button', { name: 'Albums', exact: true }),
+    ).toHaveAttribute('aria-current', 'page');
+  });
+
+  /**
+   * With the panel spanning the whole width the scrim has no uncovered
+   * pixels, so the close button is the only pointer route out of a
+   * full-screen surface. Measured at 424×439 before #55: **25×21px**.
+   */
+  test('offers a way out a thumb can hit', async ({ app }) => {
+    await toggle(app).click();
+
+    const box = await app
+      .getByRole('button', { name: 'Close queue' })
+      .boundingBox();
+
+    expect(box).not.toBeNull();
+    expect(box!.width).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(44);
+    expect(box!.height).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(44);
+  });
+});
+
+/**
+ * **The mechanism, because no tier here can see the consequence.**
+ *
+ * #55's Direction asked for a `DETAIL_LOADERS` mount, which would put
+ * the panel inside `.main-panel > *`. That box is paint-contained under
+ * a `.main-panel` that is too, and `contain: paint` makes an element a
+ * containing block for fixed descendants *and clips them* — which is
+ * what a `wa-popup` falls back to on the reference device's Chrome 113,
+ * where the Popover API does not exist (#60, `.planning/NOTES.md`).
+ * `queue-panel` has a context menu, so that mount would have broken a
+ * working menu on the one device this issue is about.
+ *
+ * CI's Chromium and WebKit both *have* the Popover API, so the menu is
+ * top-layered and correct here either way: a spec asserting "the menu is
+ * not clipped" is green on the broken build. What a browser can answer
+ * honestly is where the element is, so that is what this asks.
+ */
+test('the panel stays out of the paint-contained region', async ({ app }) => {
+  await app.setViewportSize(DEVICE);
+
+  // Open, because that is the only state in which a menu can be opened
+  // from it — and because the host drops `paint` from its own
+  // containment deliberately in overlay mode, so a closed panel answers
+  // a different question.
+  await toggle(app).click();
+  await expectQueue(app, true);
+
+  const ancestry = await app.evaluate(() => {
+    const chain: Array<{ tag: string; contain: string }> = [];
+
+    for (
+      let el = document.getElementById('queue-panel');
+      el && el !== document.documentElement;
+      el = el.parentElement
+    ) {
+      chain.push({
+        tag: el.tagName.toLowerCase(),
+        contain: getComputedStyle(el).contain,
+      });
+    }
+
+    return chain;
+  });
+
+  expect(ancestry.length).toBeGreaterThan(1);
+  expect(ancestry.some((a) => a.tag === 'main')).toBe(false);
+
+  for (const { tag, contain } of ancestry) {
+    expect(
+      `${tag}: ${contain}`,
+      'a paint-contained ancestor clips a fixed-positioned popup on Chrome 113',
+    ).not.toMatch(/paint|content|strict/);
+  }
+});
+
+/**
+ * The column is not a place. Somebody docked it; back must not undock
+ * it, and navigating to another view must not take it away.
+ *
+ * This is the half a viewport breakpoint would get wrong: the mode is
+ * computed from the panel's own drag-resizable width, so the queue
+ * becomes a screen exactly when it stops being affordable as a column.
+ */
+test.describe('a docked queue is not in the back stack', () => {
+  test.beforeEach(async ({ app }) => {
+    await app.setViewportSize(DESKTOP);
+  });
+
+  test('survives a navigation, and back navigates the page', async ({
+    app,
+  }) => {
+    await app.getByTestId('nav-albums').click();
+    await expect(activeView(app)).toHaveAttribute('data-active-view', 'albums');
+
+    await toggle(app).click();
+    await expectQueue(app, true);
+    await expect(queue(app)).not.toHaveAttribute('overlay', '');
+
+    await app.getByTestId('nav-artists').click();
+    await expect(activeView(app)).toHaveAttribute('data-active-view', 'artists');
+    await expectQueue(app, true);
+
+    await app.goBack();
+
+    await expect(activeView(app)).toHaveAttribute('data-active-view', 'albums');
+    await expectQueue(app, true);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/frontend/index.ts b/frontend/index.ts
index cdaf1c9..f5b1f6b 100644
--- a/frontend/index.ts
+++ b/frontend/index.ts
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ import '@store/theme-store';
 import './src/services/keyboard-shortcut-service';
 import { activateView, deactivateView } from '@utils/view-lifecycle';
 import { installLongPressContextMenu } from '@utils/long-press';
+import { openQueue, queuePanelElement } from '@utils/open-queue';
 import { installTopBarFit } from './src/services/top-bar-fit';
 import {
     hasTrackPayload,
@@ -336,6 +337,33 @@ window.addEventListener('popstate', (e: PopStateEvent) => {
     void handleNavigate({ ...nav, _isBack: true });
 });
 
+/**
+ * The queue, while it is a screen (#55).
+ *
+ * It is *not* in `VIEW_TAGS` and *not* in `DETAIL_LOADERS`: there is
+ * nothing to mount, because the panel is already in the document and,
+ * as an overlay, already occupies `.main-panel`'s rect exactly. What a
+ * navigation adds is the two things that make a screen a screen — a
+ * history entry, so the platform's back gesture answers it, and a
+ * destination to leave, so navigating anywhere else takes it away.
+ *
+ * Keeping it out of both tables is what keeps its context menu working
+ * on the reference device: `.main-panel > *` is paint-contained and a
+ * `wa-popup` falls back to `position: fixed` on Chrome 113, which
+ * escapes overflow but not containment (#60). The panel stays in
+ * `.content-area`, which is not paint-contained, exactly as it is
+ * today.
+ */
+const QUEUE_VIEW = 'queue';
+
+/** Close a queue that is being navigated away from. A *column* is not
+ *  a place, so it survives a navigation the way the sidebar does. */
+function dismissQueueScreen(): void {
+    const panel = queuePanelElement();
+
+    if (panel?.hasAttribute('overlay')) panel.removeAttribute('open');
+}
+
 async function handleNavigate(
     detail: { view: string; [key: string]: any },
 ): Promise<void> {
@@ -347,6 +375,25 @@ async function handleNavigate(
 
     if (!detail._isBack) recordNavigation(detail);
 
+    if (view === QUEUE_VIEW) {
+        // The shell says where the user is; `false` because the queue is
+        // not a primary view, so nothing in either nav lights while it
+        // is up -- the same rule a detail view gets, and the reason the
+        // tab the queue was opened from stays lit.
+        activeViewStore.setView(view, false);
+        queuePanelElement()?.setAttribute('open', '');
+
+        // Deliberately not `searchStore.setCurrentView` and not
+        // `dataset.activeView`: both describe what is *in the main
+        // panel*, and the queue covers that panel without replacing it.
+        // Overwriting either would disable the search box belonging to
+        // the page underneath and make every `data-active-view`
+        // selector in the suite disagree with the element it names.
+        return;
+    }
+
+    dismissQueueScreen();
+
     // Bookkeeping stays synchronous with the click: the search box's
     // scope and the active-view attribute describe the navigation that
     // was *asked for*, and are what the rest of the app and the e2e
@@ -631,13 +678,17 @@ const queuePanel = document.getElementById('queue-panel') as HTMLElement | null;
 
 if (queueButton && queuePanel) {
     queueButton.addEventListener('click', () => {
-        const isOpen = queuePanel.hasAttribute('open');
-
-        if (isOpen) {
+        if (queuePanel.hasAttribute('open')) {
+            // Closing goes through the panel either way; where the queue
+            // is a screen the observer below is what unwinds its history
+            // entry, so this button, Escape, the scrim and the close
+            // button all take the same route out.
             queuePanel.removeAttribute('open');
-        } else {
-            queuePanel.setAttribute('open', '');
+
+            return;
         }
+
+        openQueue();
     });
 
     // The button says whether the panel is open, and it learns that
@@ -655,7 +706,39 @@ if (queueButton && queuePanel) {
         );
     };
 
-    new MutationObserver(reflectQueueState).observe(queuePanel, {
+    /**
+     * Keep the back stack honest about a queue that closed itself.
+     *
+     * Where the queue is a screen its `open` attribute and the current
+     * history entry are two statements of one fact, and the panel can
+     * change its half on its own -- Escape, the scrim, the close button,
+     * and anything added later. Reconciling here rather than at each of
+     * those is the same reason this observer already exists for
+     * `aria-expanded`: the attribute is the one fact, and a state kept
+     * beside a click is right until something else changes it.
+     *
+     * Without this the entry is orphaned and the *next* back press is
+     * the one that closes the queue -- a press that appears to do
+     * nothing, which is the defect this issue is about, moved one press
+     * later.
+     *
+     * `history.back()` rather than a stack of our own, for the reason
+     * `navigate-back` does: two stacks is how a component's own way out
+     * and the phone's gesture come to disagree about what one press
+     * means.
+     */
+    const reconcileQueueHistory = () => {
+        if (queuePanel.hasAttribute('open')) return;
+
+        const state = history.state as NavState | null;
+
+        if (state?.yjNav?.view === QUEUE_VIEW) history.back();
+    };
+
+    new MutationObserver(() => {
+        reflectQueueState();
+        reconcileQueueHistory();
+    }).observe(queuePanel, {
         attributes: true,
         attributeFilter: ['open'],
     });
diff --git a/frontend/src/components/now-playing-view/now-playing-view.ts b/frontend/src/components/now-playing-view/now-playing-view.ts
index ac55cd7..d426dd3 100644
--- a/frontend/src/components/now-playing-view/now-playing-view.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/components/now-playing-view/now-playing-view.ts
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import { FavoritesController } from '@store/controllers/favorites-controller';
 import { designTokens } from '../../styles/tokens.css';
 import { srOnly } from '../../styles/sr-only.css';
 import { ICON_QUEUE } from '@utils/icon-language';
+import { openQueue as showQueue } from '@utils/open-queue';
 
 /**
  * What is playing, at the size a phone has room for (plan 016 B2,
@@ -226,13 +227,15 @@ export class NowPlayingView extends LitElement {
      *
      * This view hides the bottom bar (index.css), and the bar is where
      * the queue button lives -- so without this, going full-screen
-     * would take the queue away. It toggles the same `open` attribute
+     * would take the queue away. It goes through the same helper
      * `index.ts` does, because the panel's state is an attribute on one
      * element and a second mechanism for it is a second thing to keep
-     * in step.
+     * in step -- which is exactly what this button was: it set `open`
+     * directly, so on a phone it produced a queue with no history entry
+     * behind it and back moved the page underneath instead (#55).
      */
     private openQueue() {
-        document.getElementById('queue-panel')?.setAttribute('open', '');
+        showQueue();
     }
 
     private toggleFavorite() {
diff --git a/frontend/src/components/queue-panel/queue-panel.ts b/frontend/src/components/queue-panel/queue-panel.ts
index 86434c3..1621817 100644
--- a/frontend/src/components/queue-panel/queue-panel.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/components/queue-panel/queue-panel.ts
@@ -410,6 +410,22 @@ export class QueuePanel
             :host([overlay]) .panel-content {
                 width: 100%;
             }
+
+            /* A screen's way out has to be hittable with a thumb.
+               Measured at 424x439 before #55: these were **25x21px**,
+               and with the panel spanning the whole width the scrim
+               underneath has no uncovered pixels at all -- so it was
+               the only pointer route out of a full-screen surface.
+               Back answers it now as well, which is the other half.
+
+               Sized only in overlay mode: inline these sit in a 320px
+               column beside the content, where a mouse is what reaches
+               them and 44px of header is 44px the queue does not get. */
+            :host([overlay]) .header-action-button {
+                min-width: 44px;
+                min-height: 44px;
+                justify-content: center;
+            }
         }
 
         .resize-handle {
diff --git a/frontend/src/utils/open-queue.ts b/frontend/src/utils/open-queue.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..65e7d33
--- /dev/null
+++ b/frontend/src/utils/open-queue.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+/**
+ * Opening the queue, from the two buttons that do it.
+ *
+ * **The queue is a place while it is covering the content, and a
+ * control while it sits beside it** (#55). Those are not two components
+ * and not two mount points — they are the two presentations #24 already
+ * computes, and this is the one line that turns that measurement into a
+ * navigation decision.
+ *
+ * A column is a thing the user docked: back must not undock it, and
+ * navigating to Albums must not take it away. An overlay is a screen —
+ * at the reference device's 424x439 it is 424x318, which is
+ * `.main-panel`'s rect exactly — so it needs the two things a screen
+ * has and this one did not: an entry in the back stack, and a way out
+ * that answers the platform's own gesture. Measured before this existed:
+ * opening the queue on Artists and pressing back moved the page
+ * *underneath* to Albums and left the queue up.
+ *
+ * The mode is read off the panel rather than from a viewport width, for
+ * the reason `queue-panel.overlay` is computed at all: the panel is
+ * drag-resizable between 200 and 500px and persisted, so a breakpoint
+ * is wrong by up to 180px in the direction that hurts.
+ */
+export function queuePanelElement(): HTMLElement | null {
+    return document.getElementById('queue-panel');
+}
+
+/** Whether the queue is currently a screen rather than a column. */
+export function queueIsAScreen(): boolean {
+    return queuePanelElement()?.hasAttribute('overlay') ?? false;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Show the queue: a navigation where it is a screen, an attribute where
+ * it is a column.
+ *
+ * Both routes end at the same `open` attribute on the same element —
+ * `index.ts` handles `navigate {view: 'queue'}` by setting it — because
+ * the panel's state is one fact and a second mechanism for it is a
+ * second thing to keep in step.
+ */
+export function openQueue(): void {
+    if (queueIsAScreen()) {
+        document.dispatchEvent(new CustomEvent('navigate', {
+            bubbles: true,
+            composed: true,
+            detail: { view: 'queue' },
+        }));
+
+        return;
+    }
+
+    queuePanelElement()?.setAttribute('open', '');
+}
diff --git a/frontend/test/utils/open-queue.test.ts b/frontend/test/utils/open-queue.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..03ed5cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/frontend/test/utils/open-queue.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+/**
+ * Opening the queue is a *navigation* where the queue is a screen, and
+ * an *attribute* where it is a column (#55).
+ *
+ * This is the one decision in that change, so it is pinned at the tier
+ * that can state it without a shell: the mode is read off the panel's
+ * own `overlay` attribute — which #24 computes from the measured widths
+ * — and never from a viewport breakpoint. A breakpoint would silently
+ * assume the default 320px panel and be wrong by up to 180px for a user
+ * who has dragged it wide, in the direction that hurts.
+ *
+ * What this tier cannot see is the other half: that the entry is
+ * unwound when the panel closes, which lives in the shell's mutation
+ * observer. `e2e/specs/queue-as-a-screen.spec.ts` is where that is
+ * asserted, and it is asserted as *two* back presses rather than one.
+ */
+import { afterEach, describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
+
+import { openQueue, queueIsAScreen } from '@utils/open-queue';
+
+function panel(overlay: boolean): HTMLElement {
+    const el = document.createElement('div');
+
+    el.id = 'queue-panel';
+    if (overlay) el.setAttribute('overlay', '');
+    document.body.appendChild(el);
+
+    return el;
+}
+
+function recordNavigations(): string[] {
+    const seen: string[] = [];
+    const listener = (e: Event) => {
+        seen.push((e as CustomEvent).detail.view);
+    };
+
+    document.addEventListener('navigate', listener);
+    cleanup.push(() => document.removeEventListener('navigate', listener));
+
+    return seen;
+}
+
+const cleanup: Array<() => void> = [];
+
+afterEach(() => {
+    while (cleanup.length) cleanup.pop()!();
+    document.getElementById('queue-panel')?.remove();
+});
+
+describe('opening the queue', () => {
+    it('navigates where the queue covers the content', () => {
+        const el = panel(true);
+        const seen = recordNavigations();
+
+        expect(queueIsAScreen()).toBe(true);
+
+        openQueue();
+
+        expect(seen).toEqual(['queue']);
+        // The shell answers the navigation by setting the attribute, so
+        // the helper deliberately does *not* set it as well: two
+        // mechanisms for one fact is two things to keep in step, which
+        // is what `now-playing-view`'s copy of this button was.
+        expect(el.hasAttribute('open')).toBe(false);
+    });
+
+    it('sets the attribute where the queue is a column', () => {
+        const el = panel(false);
+        const seen = recordNavigations();
+
+        expect(queueIsAScreen()).toBe(false);
+
+        openQueue();
+
+        // A column is a thing the user docked. Back must not undock it,
+        // so it is not a history entry and therefore not a navigation.
+        expect(seen).toEqual([]);
+        expect(el.hasAttribute('open')).toBe(true);
+    });
+
+    it('follows the panel rather than the viewport', () => {
+        const el = panel(false);
+        const seen = recordNavigations();
+
+        openQueue();
+        expect(seen).toEqual([]);
+
+        // Nothing about the window changed; the panel got wider, which
+        // is exactly the case a media query cannot express.
+        el.removeAttribute('open');
+        el.setAttribute('overlay', '');
+
+        openQueue();
+        expect(seen).toEqual(['queue']);
+    });
+
+    it('says the queue is not a screen when there is no panel at all', () => {
+        expect(queueIsAScreen()).toBe(false);
+        expect(() => openQueue()).not.toThrow();
+    });
+});