diff --git a/config/systemd-user/singularity-session.target b/config/systemd-user/singularity-session.target
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..13cc26f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config/systemd-user/singularity-session.target
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+[Unit]
+Description=Singularity Desktop session
+BindsTo=graphical-session.target
+Wants=graphical-session-pre.target
+After=graphical-session-pre.target
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index c7f6c75..c04e84c 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -18,3 +18,14 @@ install_data(
   install_dir: get_option('datadir') / 'singularity' / 'labwc',
   install_mode: 'rwxr-xr-x',
 )
+
+# BindsTo=graphical-session.target so starting it pulls the target in as a
+# side effect -- graphical-session.target itself is systemd-hardened against
+# direct manual start (RefuseManualStart), by design: it must be reached via
+# a bound unit. singularity-desktop-session starts this unit; that is the
+# only thing that makes every WantedBy=graphical-session.target unit (our
+# own xdg-desktop-portal-singularity.service among them) launch at all.
+install_data(
+  'config/systemd-user/singularity-session.target',
+  install_dir: get_option('prefix') / 'lib' / 'systemd' / 'user',
+)
diff --git a/src/singularity-desktop-session b/src/singularity-desktop-session
index 6a602e1..c95eb0e 100755
--- a/src/singularity-desktop-session
+++ b/src/singularity-desktop-session
@@ -61,6 +61,28 @@ nohup "$BIN/singularity-polkit-agent" >> "$_STATE/polkit.log" 2>&1 &
 if [ -x "$BIN/ush-broker" ]; then
     nohup "$BIN/ush-broker" >> "$_STATE/ush-broker.log" 2>&1 &
 fi
+# Pull in graphical-session.target so every systemd --user unit declaring
+# WantedBy=graphical-session.target actually launches: our own
+# xdg-desktop-portal-singularity.service among them, plus foot-server.
+# Without this the target sits permanently inactive and those units never
+# start at all, regardless of anything the portal ROUTER does below --
+# confirmed live on O6N 2026-08-27: xdg-desktop-portal correctly resolved
+# and routed Screenshot requests to the singularity backend (portals.conf
+# staging from 2026-08-25 was working fine), but the backend process
+# itself never started because nothing had ever started
+# graphical-session.target on this system.
+#
+# graphical-session.target itself refuses direct manual start
+# (systemd-hardened, RefuseManualStart) -- it must be reached via a unit
+# that BindsTo= it. labwc ships labwc-session.target for exactly this
+# (its own docs/autostart recommends starting it), but that unit is not
+# actually installed by this build, so singularity-session.target
+# (config/systemd-user/, installed by this repo's own meson.build) plays
+# the same role: BindsTo=graphical-session.target,
+# Wants=graphical-session-pre.target, so starting it gets the pre-target
+# sequencing for free too.
+systemctl --user --no-block start singularity-session.target 2>/dev/null || true
+
 # Restart the portal so it picks up the live session environment, but do NOT
 # block on it: xdg-desktop-portal can hang ~25s on its settings-proxy timeout
 # waiting for our portal backend, which would delay the shell launch below.