diff --git a/src/notifications/popup.rs b/src/notifications/popup.rs
index 394e136..a45e402 100644
--- a/src/notifications/popup.rs
+++ b/src/notifications/popup.rs
@@ -172,9 +172,21 @@ fn create_window() -> gtk4::Window {
     window.init_layer_shell();
     window.set_namespace(Some("breadbar-notif"));
     crate::surface::apply(&window, "breadbar-notif");
-    // OnDemand so an inline-reply GtkEntry can take keys without the popup
-    // stealing every keystroke the rest of the time.
-    window.set_keyboard_mode(KeyboardMode::OnDemand);
+    // Toasts are purely informational: they never grab keyboard focus...
+    window.set_keyboard_mode(KeyboardMode::None);
+    // ...and click through entirely, via an empty input region — every
+    // pointer event passes straight to whatever's underneath instead of
+    // hitting the toast. `make_card` below does build action buttons and,
+    // when a notification carries INLINE_REPLY_KEY, a reply `GtkEntry` —
+    // but with no input region reaching the toast at all, neither is ever
+    // clickable or focusable from here regardless of keyboard mode, so
+    // OnDemand would grant a focus capability nothing can trigger. Those
+    // controls are only reachable from the history window (history.rs),
+    // which is opened deliberately and correctly keeps OnDemand + normal
+    // hit-testing. If the toast itself grows real click interactivity
+    // later, this needs to become a real (non-empty) input region sized to
+    // just the interactive rows, not a blanket revert to OnDemand.
+    crate::surface::click_through(&window);
     crate::theme::bind_auto(&window);
     window
 }
diff --git a/src/surface.rs b/src/surface.rs
index 4b69705..10adcdc 100644
--- a/src/surface.rs
+++ b/src/surface.rs
@@ -86,3 +86,28 @@ pub fn apply(window: &gtk4::Window, namespace: &str) {
         window.set_size_request(px, -1);
     }
 }
+
+/// Makes `window` fully click-through: an empty layer-shell input region
+/// means every pointer event passes to whatever is underneath instead of
+/// being consumed by this surface. Deliberately opt-in, not part of
+/// `apply()` — like `exclusive` zone and `keyboard` mode (see the module
+/// doc comment), this isn't a `[surfaces.*]` schema concept, and most of
+/// breadbar's satellites (history, the panel, the dismiss-scrim) genuinely
+/// need real hit-testing. Only a purely-informational surface — today just
+/// the notification toast — should call this.
+///
+/// Must be applied in a `connect_map` handler: the surface (and therefore
+/// `window.surface()`) doesn't exist until the window is mapped.
+///
+/// This exists so a future migration of a surface's window-setup code
+/// (like the one from hand-rolled layer-shell calls to this module) can't
+/// silently drop a click-through requirement the way `breadbar-notif` did
+/// once already — see the git history of `notifications/popup.rs` around
+/// the "stop toast popups from stealing focus or blocking clicks" fix.
+pub fn click_through(window: &gtk4::Window) {
+    window.connect_map(|win| {
+        if let Some(surface) = win.surface() {
+            surface.set_input_region(Some(&gtk4::cairo::Region::create()));
+        }
+    });
+}