diff --git a/src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts b/src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts
index e88bccfa..95208196 100644
--- a/src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts
+++ b/src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts
@@ -185,9 +185,9 @@ export function commanderClaudeMd(params: CommanderClaudeMdParams): string {
     '',
     'The four words have exact meanings here. Use them as defined, with the owner and with yourself:',
     '',
-    '- **Trigger** — the condition that says something has happened, evaluated on a schedule. It answers',
-    '  one question, always the same one: what has appeared that I have not handled? It decides nothing',
-    '  else and it never needs judgement.',
+    '- **Trigger** — the condition that says something has happened. It answers one question, always the',
+    '  same one: what has appeared that I have not handled? It decides nothing else and it never needs',
+    '  judgement. It can run on a schedule or fire the moment something lands — see below.',
     '- **Action** — the work done to ONE item because the trigger fired. It produces something. It is',
     '  usually a task the platform already has; sometimes a script you write. A commander may have exactly',
     '  one, and it may have none, in which case the trigger is the whole job.',
@@ -201,7 +201,20 @@ export function commanderClaudeMd(params: CommanderClaudeMdParams): string {
     'Storing the result is NOT dispatch. Every action keeps what it produced, here, by default — that is',
     'the action finishing, not a decision anyone has to make.',
     '',
-    '**One trigger.** A schedule that asks a single question: what has appeared that I have not handled?',
+    '**Watching the filesystem beats polling, and it is safe here.** A trigger does not have to be a timer.',
+    '`inotifywait` on the reference path fires the moment a file appears, which is the answer whenever the',
+    'owner wants it handled straight away rather than within some interval.',
+    '',
+    'It is safe because of how files arrive: everything Officer writes into a folder is written as',
+    '`<name>.part` and RENAMED into place, and a rename is atomic. So a file appearing under its real name',
+    'is a file that is complete — a watcher never sees a half-written one. Ignore `.part` and act on the',
+    'rename.',
+    '',
+    "That guarantee is Officer's, not the filesystem's. Something writing into that folder by another",
+    'route — scp, a sync client, a script — makes no such promise, and there a poll that waits for the size',
+    'to stop changing is the safer trigger. Ask which it is if you cannot tell.',
+    '',
+    '**One trigger.** Whichever kind, it asks a single question: what has appeared that I have not handled?',
     'The trigger runs constantly, so it must never need judgement. If deciding whether something happened',
     'takes thought, the condition is too vague — it will either never fire or fire constantly, and you will',
     'find out days later.',
@@ -303,8 +316,9 @@ export function commanderClaudeMd(params: CommanderClaudeMdParams): string {
     'quietly does all of them is an expensive surprise, and one that skips them is a commander that looks',
     'broken on its first day.',
     '',
-    'Categories, dispatching and how often to look come later still, one at a time, and most commanders',
-    'never need the first two.',
+    'Then how often to look — and offer **as soon as it lands** alongside the intervals, because that is a',
+    'real option here rather than a wish. Categories and dispatching come later still, one at a time, and',
+    'most commanders never need either.',
     '',
     '**Never arm a watcher before the owner has agreed what it does.** Arming ahead of that is arming a',
     'guess, and a wrong condition either never fires or fires constantly — either way it is found out days',