diff --git a/src/app/layout.tsx b/src/app/layout.tsx
index 672b4ed..03a5767 100644
--- a/src/app/layout.tsx
+++ b/src/app/layout.tsx
@@ -25,6 +25,15 @@ export const metadata: Metadata = {
 
 export const viewport: Viewport = {
   colorScheme: "dark light",
+  // Matches the light/dark backgrounds in globals.css so mobile browser
+  // chrome (the address/status bar) doesn't clash with the page the
+  // instant it loads — without this, browsers fall back to their own
+  // default (usually white), which visibly contradicts a near-black dark
+  // mode page (#224).
+  themeColor: [
+    { media: "(prefers-color-scheme: light)", color: "#fbfbfd" },
+    { media: "(prefers-color-scheme: dark)", color: "#0a0a0f" },
+  ],
 };
 
 export default function RootLayout({
diff --git a/src/components/dashboard/DashboardShell.tsx b/src/components/dashboard/DashboardShell.tsx
index 1f07793..5760cce 100644
--- a/src/components/dashboard/DashboardShell.tsx
+++ b/src/components/dashboard/DashboardShell.tsx
@@ -71,7 +71,16 @@ export function DashboardShell({
           </p>
           <nav className="mt-3 space-y-1">
             {items.map((item) => {
-              const active = pathname === item.href;
+              // Overview links (/dashboard/*) use exact matching so they
+              // don't stay highlighted while browsing unrelated sections.
+              // Every other item (e.g. /issues, /milestones) also matches
+              // its nested routes (/issues/abc123), so drilling into a
+              // specific bounty/milestone keeps its parent section
+              // highlighted instead of the sidebar appearing to have
+              // nothing selected (#220).
+              const active =
+                pathname === item.href ||
+                (!item.href.startsWith("/dashboard/") && pathname.startsWith(`${item.href}/`));
               return (
                 <Link
                   key={item.label}
diff --git a/src/components/layout/CopyrightYear.tsx b/src/components/layout/CopyrightYear.tsx
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..32106d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/components/layout/CopyrightYear.tsx
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+"use client";
+
+import { useEffect, useState } from "react";
+
+/**
+ * Footer is a Server Component with no dynamic API usage of its own, so
+ * Next.js can statically optimize routes that render it — new Date() called
+ * server-side is then evaluated once, at build time, not per-request. On a
+ * statically-optimized route this silently froze the displayed year at
+ * whatever `next build` was run, with nothing correcting it for the rest of
+ * that build's lifetime (#221).
+ *
+ * Isolating just the year into this small Client Component lets it
+ * self-correct on every page load: the initial render (SSR/build-time) uses
+ * whatever Date.now() was available then, but the effect below always runs
+ * client-side, on every hydration, and re-reads the browser's actual
+ * current date — so a stale build-time year gets fixed the moment any
+ * visitor's browser hydrates the page, rather than staying wrong until the
+ * next deploy.
+ */
+export function CopyrightYear() {
+  const [year, setYear] = useState(() => new Date().getFullYear());
+
+  useEffect(() => {
+    // Corrects a stale build-time year on mount — the same pattern used
+    // elsewhere in this app for reconciling client-only state after hydration.
+    // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/set-state-in-effect
+    setYear(new Date().getFullYear());
+  }, []);
+
+  return <>{year}</>;
+}
diff --git a/src/components/layout/Footer.tsx b/src/components/layout/Footer.tsx
index ab4f57b..aa2647b 100644
--- a/src/components/layout/Footer.tsx
+++ b/src/components/layout/Footer.tsx
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import Link from "next/link";
 import { GitMerge } from "lucide-react";
+import { CopyrightYear } from "./CopyrightYear";
 
 const columns = [
   {
@@ -56,7 +57,9 @@ export function Footer() {
           ))}
         </div>
         <div className="mt-12 flex flex-col items-center justify-between gap-4 border-t border-slate-100 pt-6 text-sm text-slate-400 dark:border-slate-800 dark:text-slate-500 sm:flex-row">
-          <p>© {new Date().getFullYear()} MergeFi. All rights reserved.</p>
+          <p>
+            © <CopyrightYear /> MergeFi. All rights reserved.
+          </p>
           <p>Where open source meets finance.</p>
         </div>
       </div>
diff --git a/src/components/layout/Navbar.tsx b/src/components/layout/Navbar.tsx
index b768467..eb29d9f 100644
--- a/src/components/layout/Navbar.tsx
+++ b/src/components/layout/Navbar.tsx
@@ -39,11 +39,22 @@ export function Navbar() {
               </Link>
             ))}
             <div className="group relative">
-              <button className="flex items-center gap-1 hover:text-slate-900 dark:hover:text-white">
+              <button
+                aria-haspopup="menu"
+                className="flex items-center gap-1 hover:text-slate-900 dark:hover:text-white"
+              >
                 Dashboards
                 <ChevronDown className="h-3.5 w-3.5" />
               </button>
-              <div className="invisible absolute left-0 top-full pt-3 opacity-0 transition-all group-hover:visible group-hover:opacity-100">
+              {/* group-focus-within alongside group-hover: the submenu was
+                  only reachable via mouse hover — a keyboard user tabbing
+                  to the trigger never made it visible, and the links
+                  inside stayed in the tab order (invisible/opacity-0, not
+                  display: none) so focus could land on an invisible link
+                  (#222). focus-within keeps it open while focus is
+                  anywhere inside this wrapper, including on the links
+                  themselves. */}
+              <div className="invisible absolute left-0 top-full pt-3 opacity-0 transition-all group-hover:visible group-hover:opacity-100 group-focus-within:visible group-focus-within:opacity-100">
                 <div className="w-44 rounded-xl border border-slate-200 bg-white p-1.5 shadow-lg shadow-slate-900/5 dark:border-slate-800 dark:bg-slate-900">
                   {dashboardLinks.map((link) => (
                     <Link