diff --git a/services/control-plane/src/methods.ts b/services/control-plane/src/methods.ts
index 8c7ec0bf..029cc446 100644
--- a/services/control-plane/src/methods.ts
+++ b/services/control-plane/src/methods.ts
@@ -197,11 +197,17 @@ function firstDevnetMap(state: LoadedControlPlaneState, keys: string[]): Record<
 }
 
 function devnetBlocksArray(state: LoadedControlPlaneState): JsonObject[] {
-  const candidate = asJsonArray(state.devnet?.blocks).length > 0
-    ? asJsonArray(state.devnet?.blocks)
-    : asJsonArray(state.devnetControlPlaneHandoff?.blocks).length > 0
-      ? asJsonArray(state.devnetControlPlaneHandoff?.blocks)
-      : asJsonArray(state.devnetIndexerHandoff?.blocks);
+  const sources = [
+    asJsonArray(state.devnet?.blocks),
+    asJsonArray(state.devnetControlPlaneHandoff?.blocks),
+    asJsonArray(state.devnetIndexerHandoff?.blocks),
+  ];
+  const candidate = sources.find((blocks) =>
+    blocks.some((entry) => {
+      const block = asJsonObject(entry);
+      return block !== null && stringList(block.txIds).length > 0;
+    }),
+  ) ?? sources.find((blocks) => blocks.length > 0) ?? [];
   return candidate
     .map((entry) => asJsonObject(entry))
     .filter((entry): entry is JsonObject => entry !== null);
diff --git a/services/control-plane/src/smoke.ts b/services/control-plane/src/smoke.ts
index 5e085334..ca82c922 100644
--- a/services/control-plane/src/smoke.ts
+++ b/services/control-plane/src/smoke.ts
@@ -5,8 +5,18 @@ import { loadControlPlaneState } from "./fixture-state.ts";
 import type { ControlPlanePaths, JsonObject, RpcErrorResponse, RpcSuccessResponse } from "./types.ts";
 
 function firstDevnetBlock(state: ReturnType<typeof loadControlPlaneState>): JsonObject {
-  const blocks = Array.isArray(state.devnet?.blocks) ? state.devnet.blocks : [];
-  const block = blocks[0];
+  const blocksResponse = dispatchJsonRpc(
+    { jsonrpc: "2.0", id: "blocks-prefetch", method: "block_list", params: { limit: 10 } },
+    { state },
+  ) as RpcSuccessResponse;
+  const blocks = (blocksResponse.result as JsonObject).blocks;
+  const blockRows = Array.isArray(blocks) ? blocks : [];
+  const block = blockRows.find((entry) => {
+    if (entry === null || typeof entry !== "object" || Array.isArray(entry)) {
+      return false;
+    }
+    return Array.isArray((entry as JsonObject).txIds) && ((entry as JsonObject).txIds as unknown[]).length > 0;
+  }) ?? blockRows[0];
   if (block === null || typeof block !== "object" || Array.isArray(block)) {
     throw new Error("control-plane smoke requires at least one local devnet block");
   }
diff --git a/services/control-plane/test/control-plane.test.ts b/services/control-plane/test/control-plane.test.ts
index 09b3518e..050d0778 100644
--- a/services/control-plane/test/control-plane.test.ts
+++ b/services/control-plane/test/control-plane.test.ts
@@ -420,6 +420,35 @@ test("smoke client queries the complete local lifecycle surface", () => {
   rmSync(dir, { recursive: true, force: true });
 });
 
+test("smoke client ignores stale local devnet blocks without transactions", () => {
+  const dir = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), "flowmemory-control-plane-stale-devnet-"));
+  try {
+    const staleDevnetPath = join(dir, "state.json");
+    writeFileSync(staleDevnetPath, JSON.stringify({
+      schema: "flowmemory.local_devnet.state.v0",
+      blocks: [{
+        schema: "flowmemory.local_devnet.block.v0",
+        blockNumber: "1",
+        blockHash: "0x1909a47bfaaabbfe51d371173d550fcdaff1abaedeea1045bfb77a496bdb8695",
+        txIds: [],
+        receipts: [],
+      }],
+    }));
+
+    const smoke = runControlPlaneSmoke({
+      localDevnetPath: staleDevnetPath,
+      txIntakePath: join(dir, "transactions.ndjson"),
+      bridgeObservationIntakePath: join(dir, "bridge-observations.ndjson"),
+    });
+
+    assert.equal(smoke.schema, "flowmemory.control_plane.smoke.v0");
+    assert.equal(smoke.ok, true);
+    assert.equal(typeof (smoke.queried as Record<string, unknown>).txId, "string");
+  } finally {
+    rmSync(dir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  }
+});
+
 test("HTTP server exposes browser-safe health and state endpoints", async () => {
   const server = startControlPlaneServer({ host: "127.0.0.1", port: 0 });