diff --git a/apps/api/src/auth/auth.service.spec.ts b/apps/api/src/auth/auth.service.spec.ts
index bc60214..ca72b8e 100644
--- a/apps/api/src/auth/auth.service.spec.ts
+++ b/apps/api/src/auth/auth.service.spec.ts
@@ -426,6 +426,21 @@ describe("AuthService", () => {
       });
     });
 
+    it("should preserve raw cookie token value without URL re-encoding", async () => {
+      const auth = service.getAuth();
+      const mockGetSession = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(mockSessionData);
+      auth.api = { getSession: mockGetSession } as any;
+
+      const result = await service.verifySession("tok/with+=chars=");
+
+      expect(result).toEqual(mockSessionData);
+      expect(mockGetSession).toHaveBeenCalledWith({
+        headers: {
+          cookie: "__Secure-better-auth.session_token=tok/with+=chars=",
+        },
+      });
+    });
+
     it("should fall back to Authorization header when cookie-based lookups miss", async () => {
       const auth = service.getAuth();
       const mockGetSession = vi
diff --git a/apps/api/src/auth/auth.service.ts b/apps/api/src/auth/auth.service.ts
index 6a4906d..44f5a6c 100644
--- a/apps/api/src/auth/auth.service.ts
+++ b/apps/api/src/auth/auth.service.ts
@@ -150,22 +150,20 @@ export class AuthService {
   }
 
   private buildSessionHeaderCandidates(token: string): SessionHeaderCandidate[] {
-    const encodedToken = encodeURIComponent(token);
-
     return [
       {
         headers: {
-          cookie: `__Secure-better-auth.session_token=${encodedToken}`,
+          cookie: `__Secure-better-auth.session_token=${token}`,
         },
       },
       {
         headers: {
-          cookie: `better-auth.session_token=${encodedToken}`,
+          cookie: `better-auth.session_token=${token}`,
         },
       },
       {
         headers: {
-          cookie: `__Host-better-auth.session_token=${encodedToken}`,
+          cookie: `__Host-better-auth.session_token=${token}`,
         },
       },
       {
diff --git a/docs/scratchpads/362-auth-session-chain-debug.md b/docs/scratchpads/362-auth-session-chain-debug.md
index a06d488..abf2168 100644
--- a/docs/scratchpads/362-auth-session-chain-debug.md
+++ b/docs/scratchpads/362-auth-session-chain-debug.md
@@ -112,3 +112,42 @@ Completed items:
 Remaining step (requires deploy):
 
 - Redeploy API with this patch and rerun live Playwright flow on `app.mosaicstack.dev` to confirm `/auth/session` returns `200` after callback.
+
+## Playwright Re-Check (2026-02-19, later run)
+
+Live flow evidence after previous deploy attempt:
+
+1. OAuth callback succeeds:
+   - `GET https://api.mosaicstack.dev/auth/oauth2/callback/authentik?code=...&state=...` -> `302`
+   - Redirect target observed: `https://app.mosaicstack.dev/`
+   - Browser cookie jar includes:
+     - `__Secure-better-auth.session_token` on `api.mosaicstack.dev` (HttpOnly, Secure, SameSite=Lax)
+
+2. Session bootstrap still fails immediately:
+   - `GET https://api.mosaicstack.dev/auth/session` -> `500`
+   - Response body shape:
+     - `{"success":false,"message":"An unexpected error occurred","errorId":"...","path":"/auth/session","statusCode":500}`
+   - Web app returns to login because session fetch fails.
+
+3. Frontend version mismatch observed:
+   - Live `POST /auth/sign-in/oauth2` response from login flow still shows callback URL pointing to `/dashboard`.
+   - Current repository login page uses callback URL `/`.
+   - This indicates deployed web image is older than current `develop` code (or stale image tag in runtime).
+
+## Additional Code Fix Applied Locally (pending push/deploy)
+
+Refined cookie candidate construction in API session verification:
+
+- File: `apps/api/src/auth/auth.service.ts`
+  - Removed URL-encoding of session token when constructing cookie headers.
+  - Cookie candidates now pass raw token value exactly as extracted from incoming cookie.
+
+Why:
+
+- BetterAuth cookie tokens can contain characters like `/`, `+`, and `=`.
+- Re-encoding these values can mutate token bytes and cause lookup/parse failures.
+
+Regression test added:
+
+- File: `apps/api/src/auth/auth.service.spec.ts`
+  - `should preserve raw cookie token value without URL re-encoding`