diff --git a/src/anchor/pdf-viewer-adapter-spike.tsx b/src/anchor/pdf-viewer-adapter-spike.tsx
index 5f9b967..8578289 100644
--- a/src/anchor/pdf-viewer-adapter-spike.tsx
+++ b/src/anchor/pdf-viewer-adapter-spike.tsx
@@ -14,7 +14,15 @@
  * will build the real PDFViewerAdapter on top of this lessons-learned.
  */
 
-import { useEffect, useMemo, useRef, useState, type ReactNode } from "react";
+import {
+  createContext,
+  useCallback,
+  useContext,
+  useEffect,
+  useMemo,
+  useRef,
+  type ReactNode,
+} from "react";
 import {
   PdfHighlighter,
   PdfLoader,
@@ -116,39 +124,38 @@ function captureFromPdfSelection(sel: PdfSelection): PdfSelectionCapture {
   };
 }
 
-/**
- * Trivial container that renders every stored highlight as a TextHighlight.
- * For the spike, no editing tooling — just visual proof of "did the saved
- * coordinates land on the right passage on the right page after reload?"
- */
-interface HighlightContainerProps {
-  readonly activeAnnotationId: string | null | undefined;
-  readonly onHighlightClicked: ((annotationId: string) => void) | undefined;
-}
+const ActiveAnnotationContext = createContext<string | null | undefined>(
+  undefined,
+);
+const HighlightClickContext = createContext<((annotationId: string) => void) | undefined>(
+  undefined,
+);
 
-function makeSpikeHighlightContainer(props: HighlightContainerProps) {
-  return function SpikeHighlightContainer(): ReactNode {
-    const { highlight, isScrolledTo } = useHighlightContainerContext();
-    const isActive = props.activeAnnotationId === highlight.id;
-    return (
-      <div
-        data-highlight-id={highlight.id}
-        data-ce-active={isActive ? "true" : "false"}
-        style={{ display: "contents" }}
-        onClickCapture={(e) => {
-          // Click-capture so the click registers before the library's
-          // built-in selection-clearing logic eats it. Stop propagation
-          // so the highlight click doesn't also start a new selection.
-          e.stopPropagation();
-          props.onHighlightClicked?.(highlight.id);
-        }}
-      >
-        <MonitoredHighlightContainer>
-          <TextHighlight highlight={highlight} isScrolledTo={isScrolledTo} />
-        </MonitoredHighlightContainer>
-      </div>
-    );
-  };
+/**
+ * Stable highlight row — component type never changes so PdfHighlighter does
+ * not remount highlight layers on activation changes (which disturbs scroll).
+ * Active/focus styling reads from context instead.
+ */
+function SpikeHighlightContainer(): ReactNode {
+  const activeAnnotationId = useContext(ActiveAnnotationContext);
+  const onHighlightClicked = useContext(HighlightClickContext);
+  const { highlight, isScrolledTo } = useHighlightContainerContext();
+  const isActive = activeAnnotationId === highlight.id;
+  return (
+    <div
+      data-highlight-id={highlight.id}
+      data-ce-active={isActive ? "true" : "false"}
+      style={{ display: "contents" }}
+      onClickCapture={(e) => {
+        e.stopPropagation();
+        onHighlightClicked?.(highlight.id);
+      }}
+    >
+      <MonitoredHighlightContainer>
+        <TextHighlight highlight={highlight} isScrolledTo={isScrolledTo} />
+      </MonitoredHighlightContainer>
+    </div>
+  );
 }
 
 /**
@@ -279,9 +286,21 @@ export function PdfSpikeViewer(props: PdfSpikeViewerProps) {
     hideAnnotationLayer,
     hideXfaLayer,
   } = props;
-  const HighlightContainer = useMemo(
-    () => makeSpikeHighlightContainer({ activeAnnotationId, onHighlightClicked }),
-    [activeAnnotationId, onHighlightClicked],
+  const onHighlightClickedRef = useRef(onHighlightClicked);
+  onHighlightClickedRef.current = onHighlightClicked;
+  const handleHighlightClicked = useCallback((annotationId: string) => {
+    onHighlightClickedRef.current?.(annotationId);
+  }, []);
+  const pdfLoaderDocument = useMemo(
+    () => ({
+      url: pdfUrl,
+      // PdfLoader's effect depends on `document` by reference — must be
+      // stable across re-renders or the PDF reloads and scroll resets to top.
+      cMapUrl: "/cmaps/",
+      cMapPacked: true,
+      standardFontDataUrl: "/standard_fonts/",
+    }),
+    [pdfUrl],
   );
   const wrapperClasses = [
     debugTextLayer ? "ce-debug-textlayer" : null,
@@ -322,6 +341,17 @@ export function PdfSpikeViewer(props: PdfSpikeViewerProps) {
   const highlightsRef = useRef(highlights);
   highlightsRef.current = highlights;
 
+  const highlightsSignature = useMemo(
+    () => highlights.map((h) => h.id).join(","),
+    [highlights],
+  );
+
+  // Re-render highlight layers when focus moves so `data-ce-active` updates.
+  const highlightsForViewer = useMemo(
+    () => highlights,
+    [highlights, activeAnnotationId],
+  );
+
   useEffect(() => {
     const requestKey = scrollRequestKey ?? scrollToAnnotationId ?? null;
     if (!requestKey || !scrollToAnnotationId) return;
@@ -348,51 +378,42 @@ export function PdfSpikeViewer(props: PdfSpikeViewerProps) {
       },
       scrollStateRef.current,
     );
-  }, [scrollToAnnotationId, scrollRequestKey, highlights, debugTextLayer]);
+  }, [scrollToAnnotationId, scrollRequestKey, highlightsSignature, debugTextLayer]);
 
   return (
     <div
       className={wrapperClasses.length > 0 ? wrapperClasses : undefined}
       style={{ height: "100%" }}
     >
-      <PdfLoader
-        document={{
-          url: pdfUrl,
-          // Without these two, PDFs with CID fonts (most CJK + many
-          // European court documents) or unembedded standard fonts get
-          // rendered with substitute metrics, which shifts every
-          // text-layer span out of alignment with the canvas glyphs.
-          // vite.config.ts copies both directories from pdfjs-dist into
-          // the served root.
-          cMapUrl: "/cmaps/",
-          cMapPacked: true,
-          standardFontDataUrl: "/standard_fonts/",
-        }}
-      >
+      <PdfLoader document={pdfLoaderDocument}>
         {(pdfDocument) => (
-          <PdfHighlighter
-            pdfDocument={pdfDocument}
-            highlights={highlights}
-            utilsRef={(u) => {
-              utilsRef.current = u;
-            }}
-            onSelection={(selection) => {
-              const capture = captureFromPdfSelection(selection);
-              const selectors = selectorsFromPdfCapture(capture);
-              if (debugTextLayer) {
-                console.log("[ce] onSelection", {
-                  text: capture.text,
-                  page: capture.page,
-                  rects: capture.rects,
-                  selectorTypes: selectors.map((s) => s.type),
-                  raw: selection,
-                });
-              }
-              onSelectionCaptured(capture, selectors);
-            }}
-          >
-            <HighlightContainer />
-          </PdfHighlighter>
+          <ActiveAnnotationContext.Provider value={activeAnnotationId}>
+            <HighlightClickContext.Provider value={handleHighlightClicked}>
+              <PdfHighlighter
+                pdfDocument={pdfDocument}
+                highlights={highlightsForViewer}
+                utilsRef={(u) => {
+                  utilsRef.current = u;
+                }}
+                onSelection={(selection) => {
+                  const capture = captureFromPdfSelection(selection);
+                  const selectors = selectorsFromPdfCapture(capture);
+                  if (debugTextLayer) {
+                    console.log("[ce] onSelection", {
+                      text: capture.text,
+                      page: capture.page,
+                      rects: capture.rects,
+                      selectorTypes: selectors.map((s) => s.type),
+                      raw: selection,
+                    });
+                  }
+                  onSelectionCaptured(capture, selectors);
+                }}
+              >
+                <SpikeHighlightContainer />
+              </PdfHighlighter>
+            </HighlightClickContext.Provider>
+          </ActiveAnnotationContext.Provider>
         )}
       </PdfLoader>
     </div>