diff --git a/packages/tui/src/components/v-stack.ts b/packages/tui/src/components/v-stack.ts
index 8e13b07c1..ce7b9292d 100644
--- a/packages/tui/src/components/v-stack.ts
+++ b/packages/tui/src/components/v-stack.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { Stack, type StackChild, type StackOptions, visibleStackEntries } from "./stack.ts";
+import { allocateStackSizes, Stack, type StackChild, type StackOptions, visibleStackEntries } from "./stack.ts";
 
 export class VStack extends Stack {
 	protected readonly layoutType = "vstack" as const;
@@ -10,12 +10,21 @@ export class VStack extends Stack {
 	override render(width: number): string[] {
 		const viewport = { width: Math.max(1, width), height: Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER };
 		const entries = visibleStackEntries(this.entries, viewport);
+		const rendered = entries.map((entry) => entry.component.render(viewport.width));
+		const sizes = allocateStackSizes(
+			entries,
+			rendered.map((lines) => lines.length),
+			undefined,
+			this.gap,
+		);
 		const lines: string[] = [];
 		for (let index = 0; index < entries.length; index++) {
 			if (index > 0) {
 				for (let gap = 0; gap < this.gap; gap++) lines.push("");
 			}
-			lines.push(...entries[index]!.component.render(viewport.width));
+			const childLines = rendered[index]!.slice(0, sizes[index]);
+			lines.push(...childLines);
+			for (let padding = childLines.length; padding < sizes[index]!; padding++) lines.push("");
 		}
 		return lines;
 	}
diff --git a/packages/tui/test/layout.test.ts b/packages/tui/test/layout.test.ts
index 147247338..856954271 100644
--- a/packages/tui/test/layout.test.ts
+++ b/packages/tui/test/layout.test.ts
@@ -86,6 +86,36 @@ describe("viewport layout", () => {
 		assert.deepStrictEqual(visibleLines(frame.lines), ["a1", "b1", "b2", "b3"]);
 	});
 
+	it("includes nested minimum sizes in intrinsic stack measurement", () => {
+		const dock = new VStack([
+			new Text("top1\ntop2\ntop3", 0, 0),
+			{ component: new Text("selector", 0, 0), minSize: 3 },
+			new Text("below", 0, 0),
+			{ component: new Text("footer", 0, 0), minSize: 1 },
+		]);
+		const frame = renderLayoutFrame(
+			new VStack([
+				{ component: new Text("body", 0, 0), basis: 0, grow: 1, minSize: 1 },
+				{ component: dock, basis: "auto", minSize: 1 },
+			]),
+			10,
+			9,
+			() => {},
+		);
+
+		assert.deepStrictEqual(visibleLines(frame.lines), [
+			"body",
+			"top1",
+			"top2",
+			"top3",
+			"selector",
+			"",
+			"",
+			"below",
+			"footer",
+		]);
+	});
+
 	it("omits gaps around invisible entries", () => {
 		const stack = new VStack(
 			[new Text("one", 0, 0), { component: new Text("hidden", 0, 0), visible: () => false }, new Text("two", 0, 0)],