diff --git a/src/resources/extensions/gsd/gsd-db.ts b/src/resources/extensions/gsd/gsd-db.ts
index b25b820f9..e440bdb44 100644
--- a/src/resources/extensions/gsd/gsd-db.ts
+++ b/src/resources/extensions/gsd/gsd-db.ts
@@ -778,6 +778,7 @@ let currentDb: DbAdapter | null = null;
 let currentPath: string | null = null;
 let currentPid: number = 0;
 let _exitHandlerRegistered = false;
+let _dbOpenAttempted = false;
 
 export function getDbProvider(): ProviderName | null {
   loadProvider();
@@ -788,7 +789,18 @@ export function isDbAvailable(): boolean {
   return currentDb !== null;
 }
 
+/**
+ * Returns true if openDatabase() has been called at least once this session.
+ * Used to distinguish "DB not yet initialized" from "DB genuinely unavailable"
+ * so that early callers (e.g. before_agent_start context injection) don't
+ * trigger a false degraded-mode warning.
+ */
+export function wasDbOpenAttempted(): boolean {
+  return _dbOpenAttempted;
+}
+
 export function openDatabase(path: string): boolean {
+  _dbOpenAttempted = true;
   if (currentDb && currentPath !== path) closeDatabase();
   if (currentDb && currentPath === path) return true;
 
diff --git a/src/resources/extensions/gsd/state.ts b/src/resources/extensions/gsd/state.ts
index f6170522b..9dddc53e6 100644
--- a/src/resources/extensions/gsd/state.ts
+++ b/src/resources/extensions/gsd/state.ts
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ import { extractVerdict } from './verdict-parser.js';
 
 import {
   isDbAvailable,
+  wasDbOpenAttempted,
   getAllMilestones,
   getMilestone,
   getMilestoneSlices,
@@ -271,7 +272,12 @@ export async function deriveState(basePath: string): Promise<GSDState> {
       _telemetry.markdownDeriveCount++;
     }
   } else {
-    logWarning("state", "DB unavailable — using filesystem state derivation (degraded mode)");
+    // Only warn when DB initialization was attempted and failed — not when
+    // the DB simply hasn't been opened yet (e.g. during before_agent_start
+    // context injection which runs before any tool invocation opens the DB).
+    if (wasDbOpenAttempted()) {
+      logWarning("state", "DB unavailable — using filesystem state derivation (degraded mode)");
+    }
     result = await _deriveStateImpl(basePath);
     _telemetry.markdownDeriveCount++;
   }