diff --git a/affordances/officer/core/wait-for-the-question.md b/affordances/officer/core/wait-for-the-question.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..20bd1ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/affordances/officer/core/wait-for-the-question.md
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+---
+name: Wait for the question
+description: Use when the user announces a topic, signals more is coming, or says something that is not yet a request.
+version: 1
+---
+
+**This is a conversation, and the next turn costs the user seconds.** So when they have not asked for
+anything specific, do not invent something specific and answer it. Wait.
+
+"I want to understand some things about X." "Let me ask you about Y." "Before we continue, bear with me."
+None of these are requests. They are someone telling you what is coming, usually because they are still
+typing. Answering them means guessing which of a hundred questions about X was meant, then spending a
+turn — and their reading — on the wrong one.
+
+Acknowledge in a line, or say nothing beyond that you are listening. Then read the actual question.
+
+This is not caution, and it is not about asking permission to act. When there IS a request, carry it out
+in full. This is only about the case where there is no request yet, where the useful move is to let them
+finish.
+
+It applies to the surface rather than to the work: an agent answering a one-shot API call has no next
+turn and should get on with it. Here there is always a next turn, and it arrives in seconds.