diff --git a/src/servers/api/chat/websocket.ts b/src/servers/api/chat/websocket.ts
index 41b80af2..a0f2a602 100644
--- a/src/servers/api/chat/websocket.ts
+++ b/src/servers/api/chat/websocket.ts
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ import {
 import { resolveHomeDir } from '@@/user-home';
 import { renameClaudeSession, type ChatIdentity } from './claude-sessions';
 import { claudeLoginState } from '@@/os-user-claude';
-import { mkdirSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { mkdirSync, existsSync } from 'node:fs';
 import { logger } from './logger';
 import { isSuperAdmin } from '@@/super-admin';
 import { snapshotClaudeUsage } from './usage-store';
@@ -201,8 +201,25 @@ async function resolveChatCwd(
         `[command-hq] no commander row for ${msg.commanderId !== undefined ? `id ${msg.commanderId}` : `session ${msg.resumeSessionId ?? '(none given)'}`} — falling back to the account home`,
       );
     }
-    const dir = row ? getCommanderDir(email, row.dirName) : home;
-    mkdirSync(dir, { recursive: true });
+    if (!row) return home;
+
+    /*
+      The directory must already exist. `POST /command-hq/commanders` creates it with its `CLAUDE.md`
+      before any turn spawns, so a missing one means the commander was DELETED — and a late turn from the
+      conversation that outlived it would otherwise recreate it here.
+
+      That happened: an empty `commanders/46` reappeared after a clean delete, from one in-flight turn
+      calling this. An empty directory is worse than none, because it is a commander with no CLAUDE.md
+      that knows nothing about itself, and it shows up in the file browser as something that still exists.
+
+      So: no mkdir. Fall back to the home, and say so — the same degradation the missing-row branch above
+      reports, for the same reason.
+    */
+    const dir = getCommanderDir(email, row.dirName);
+    if (!existsSync(dir)) {
+      console.warn(`[command-hq] ${row.dirName}: directory is gone — deleted mid-turn? Falling back to the home.`);
+      return home;
+    }
     return dir;
   }
   if (msg.context === 'email') return resolveEmailCwd(email, msg.contextId);
diff --git a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/CommandHQ/CommandHqDetail.tsx b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/CommandHQ/CommandHqDetail.tsx
index 8ebd019f..6dd139ed 100644
--- a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/CommandHQ/CommandHqDetail.tsx
+++ b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/CommandHQ/CommandHqDetail.tsx
@@ -676,7 +676,14 @@ function ResumedCommander({ sessionId, resume }: { sessionId: string; resume: Re
     <div className="flex h-full flex-col">
       <MetaBar
         sessionId={sessionId}
-        title={resume.title ?? undefined}
+        /*
+          The commander's NAME, not the transcript's title.
+
+          The harness titles its own summary record from the first prompt, so this header read "You have
+          been named "Voice Memos". Look in `/home/…`" — the opening brief, verbatim — on a commander whose
+          name was right everywhere else. The list route already prefers `row.name`; this did not.
+        */
+        title={commander?.name ?? resume.title ?? undefined}
         isConnected={chat.isConnected}
         isGenerating={chat.isGenerating}
         onDisconnect={chat.disconnectSession}