diff --git a/server/src/chat/transport/matrix/bot/messages.rs b/server/src/chat/transport/matrix/bot/messages.rs
index 26dc17d3..f0cde960 100644
--- a/server/src/chat/transport/matrix/bot/messages.rs
+++ b/server/src/chat/transport/matrix/bot/messages.rs
@@ -201,7 +201,16 @@ pub(super) async fn on_room_message(
             None => (stripped.to_ascii_lowercase(), String::new()),
         };
 
-        if !cmd.is_empty() && !GATEWAY_LOCAL_COMMANDS.contains(&cmd.as_str()) {
+        // Only proxy if the first word is a known bot command (sync or async).
+        let is_known_command = !cmd.is_empty()
+            && !GATEWAY_LOCAL_COMMANDS.contains(&cmd.as_str())
+            && (crate::chat::commands::commands()
+                .iter()
+                .any(|c| c.name == cmd)
+                || ["assign", "start", "delete", "rebuild", "rmtree", "htop", "timer"]
+                    .contains(&cmd.as_str()));
+
+        if is_known_command {
             // Proxy to the active project server.
             let response = match ctx.proxy_bot_command(&cmd, &args).await {
                 Some(r) => r,
@@ -216,16 +225,7 @@ pub(super) async fn on_room_message(
             {
                 ctx.bot_sent_event_ids.lock().await.insert(event_id);
             }
-            // If the command was recognized by the project server, we're done.
-            // If it was not a command at all (freeform text), fall through to the LLM.
-            if crate::chat::commands::commands()
-                .iter()
-                .any(|c| c.name == cmd)
-                || ["assign", "start", "delete", "rebuild", "rmtree", "htop", "timer"]
-                    .contains(&cmd.as_str())
-            {
-                return;
-            }
+            return;
         }
         // Gateway-local commands and freeform text fall through to normal handling below.
     }