diff --git a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/CommandHQ/CommandHqDetail.tsx b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/CommandHQ/CommandHqDetail.tsx
index eb0eb709..6583d7bb 100644
--- a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/CommandHQ/CommandHqDetail.tsx
+++ b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/CommandHQ/CommandHqDetail.tsx
@@ -41,20 +41,28 @@ function EmptyState() {
 function NewCommander({ category }: { category: number | 'none' | undefined }) {
   const navigate = useNavigate();
   const chat = useChat(undefined, undefined, { replaceUrl: false, context: 'command-hq' });
-  const { setCategory } = useCommandHqCommanderActions(chat.sessionId ?? '');
+  // Also the transcript id: `command_hq_sessions` is keyed on it, so an action addressed by officer's key
+  // updates nothing and says nothing. Same root cause as the navigate below.
+  const { setCategory } = useCommandHqCommanderActions(chat.claudeSessionId ?? '');
   const [filed, setFiled] = useState(false);
 
   useEffect(() => {
-    if (!chat.sessionId || filed) return;
+    // `claudeSessionId`, NOT `sessionId`. The commander is filed under Claude's transcript id
+    // (`fileAsCommander` in websocket.ts), and this URL has to match or the detail pane fetches an id
+    // nothing knows. `sessionId` arrives FIRST — `session:init` sets it to officer's own key — so
+    // navigating on it sent the page to an id that 404s, and `filed` then blocked the correction when the
+    // real one arrived. A commander that had run and answered correctly rendered as "Send a message to
+    // start". Waiting for the transcript id costs one more round trip and is the only id that works.
+    if (!chat.claudeSessionId || filed) return;
     setFiled(true);
     // `fileAsCommander` (websocket.ts) always files with no category — it has no way to know one was
     // requested from here. The same race the `/commanders/new` HTTP route resolves server-side by always
     // running its UPDATE last; done client-side here for the same reason, since the web composer goes
     // through the websocket path instead.
     if (typeof category === 'number') void setCategory.mutateAsync(category).catch(() => {});
-    navigate(commandHqSessionPath(chat.sessionId, category), { replace: true });
+    navigate(commandHqSessionPath(chat.claudeSessionId, category), { replace: true });
     // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/exhaustive-deps
-  }, [chat.sessionId, filed]);
+  }, [chat.claudeSessionId, filed]);
 
   return (
     <div className="flex h-full flex-col">
diff --git a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/hooks/useChat.ts b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/hooks/useChat.ts
index 7f397701..c1988807 100644
--- a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/hooks/useChat.ts
+++ b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/hooks/useChat.ts
@@ -185,6 +185,19 @@ export function useChat(initialSessionId?: string, initialModel?: string | null,
   // `session:claude` (start of turn) and `result` (end), so a chat started in this tab becomes
   // reattachable the moment the harness names its transcript rather than when the turn finishes.
   const claudeSessionIdRef = useRef<string | null>(resumeSessionId ?? null);
+  /**
+   * The same value as state, for callers that have to RENDER or navigate on it.
+   *
+   * The ref above cannot serve that: it is deliberately a ref so the reconnect handshake can read it
+   * synchronously, which means writing it triggers no re-render and nothing outside can react to it.
+   *
+   * Command HQ needed exactly that and could not have it. `NewCommander` navigates once the transcript
+   * id is known, so a refresh resumes the same conversation — but the only id it could see was
+   * `sessionId`, which `session:init` sets to OFFICER's key. So it navigated to the wrong id, the
+   * commander was filed under the transcript id, and every fetch for that page 404'd: a commander that
+   * had genuinely run, cost money and answered correctly showed "Send a message to start".
+   */
+  const [claudeSessionId, setClaudeSessionId] = useState<string | null>(resumeSessionId ?? null);
 
   const client = useClient();
 
@@ -391,6 +404,7 @@ export function useChat(initialSessionId?: string, initialModel?: string | null,
         // (`msg.sessionId || randomUUID()`) that `/chat/sessions/:id` cannot resolve.
         if (msg.claudeSessionId) {
           claudeSessionIdRef.current = msg.claudeSessionId;
+          setClaudeSessionId(msg.claudeSessionId);
           if (replaceUrl) writePermalink(msg.claudeSessionId);
         }
         commitStreaming();
@@ -830,6 +844,8 @@ export function useChat(initialSessionId?: string, initialModel?: string | null,
     isConnected,
     isGenerating,
     sessionId,
+    /** Claude's own transcript id — what a commander is filed under, and what a permalink must use. */
+    claudeSessionId,
     model,
     selectedModel,
     hasStarted,