diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b81e2e6d..a2154f74 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Changed
 
+* State-kind reactive accessors (e.g., `map.bounds()`, `plot.camera()`, `grid.view_config()`) now attach to the widget at render time instead of on first read. An interaction made before the accessor's first read -- for example, a pan or selection made before a chat handler or LLM tool first reads the accessor -- is now reflected in that first read instead of being lost. Event-kind accessors (e.g., plotly's `selected()`/`clicked()`) still attach on first read; if their first reader runs late, read them once at startup in a `@reactive.effect` to attach immediately.
 * shinywidgets now requires ipywidgets 8.1 or newer, and the bundled JavaScript widget manager (`@jupyter-widgets/html-manager`) was upgraded from 0.20 to 1.0. Together these fix a wide range of long-standing issues with ipywidgets 8 (see the bug fixes below). (#237, #259)
 * shinywidgets now requires plotly >= 5.12 (the first release whose `FigureWidget` frontend supports ipywidgets 8). Constructing a plotly widget with an older plotly raises an error explaining how to upgrade, instead of rendering a blank output with no error. (#332)
 * shinywidgets now requires shiny 1.9.0 or newer, which sends widget updates made outside the reactive graph (e.g., from a background thread) to the browser right away. (#377)
diff --git a/shinywidgets/_accessors.py b/shinywidgets/_accessors.py
index 10cad86f..53b1be10 100644
--- a/shinywidgets/_accessors.py
+++ b/shinywidgets/_accessors.py
@@ -60,6 +60,13 @@ class AccessorSpec:
     eager
         Attach during render rather than on first read, for widgets whose
         events are lost unless a handler exists before the view is created.
+        The default is True for ``kind="state"`` (attaching seeds the current
+        value, so a change made before the first read -- e.g. a lasso drawn
+        before a chat handler's first read -- is not lost) and False for
+        ``kind="event"``. An event-kind accessor stays lazy unless it opts
+        in, so an app whose first reader is gated (a chat handler, an LLM
+        tool) should warm it up with a ``@reactive.effect`` that reads the
+        accessor once, unconditionally, at startup.
     not_ready
         True for raw values that mean "the widget hasn't reported yet"; reads
         then cancel (`req(False)`) instead of returning a value.
@@ -72,10 +79,14 @@ class AccessorSpec:
     priority: Literal["input", "event"] = "input"
     rate_policy: Optional[RatePolicy] = None
     rate_delay: float = 0.25
-    eager: bool = False
+    # None resolves to kind == "state" in __post_init__ (a frozen dataclass
+    # can't default one field from another)
+    eager: Optional[bool] = None
     not_ready: Callable[[Any], bool] = never_ready_check
 
     def __post_init__(self) -> None:
+        if self.eager is None:
+            object.__setattr__(self, "eager", self.kind == "state")
         if self.name == "value":
             raise ValueError(
                 "An accessor can't be named `value`: renderers already use it for the rendered object."
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_accessors.py b/tests/unit/test_accessors.py
index dd7c3037..481140ed 100644
--- a/tests/unit/test_accessors.py
+++ b/tests/unit/test_accessors.py
@@ -238,6 +238,39 @@ def test_eager_attach_in_on_render() -> None:
     assert cap.attached == 1
 
 
+def test_eager_defaults_to_kind() -> None:
+    # State accessors attach at render (a change before the first read -- a
+    # lasso drawn before a chat handler's first read -- is then not lost);
+    # event accessors stay lazy
+    state = acc.AccessorSpec(name="zoom", kind="state", attach=noop_attach)
+    event = acc.AccessorSpec(name="clicked", kind="event", attach=noop_attach)
+    assert state.eager is True and event.eager is False
+
+
+def test_state_attach_is_eager_by_default() -> None:
+    cap = Capture()
+    spec = acc.AccessorSpec(name="zoom", kind="state", attach=cap.attach)
+    a = acc.Accessors([spec], schedule=FakeSchedule())
+    a.on_render(object())
+    assert cap.attached == 1  # attached at render, with no read
+
+
+def test_event_attach_stays_lazy_by_default() -> None:
+    a, cap, _ = make()  # make() builds a kind="event" spec
+    a.on_render(object())
+    assert cap.attached == 0
+
+
+def test_eager_false_keeps_a_state_accessor_lazy() -> None:
+    cap = Capture()
+    spec = acc.AccessorSpec(name="zoom", kind="state", attach=cap.attach, eager=False)
+    a = acc.Accessors([spec], schedule=FakeSchedule())
+    a.on_render(object())
+    assert cap.attached == 0
+    a.read("zoom")
+    assert cap.attached == 1
+
+
 def test_event_publishes_and_resets_on_render() -> None:
     a, cap, _ = make()
     a.on_render(object())