diff --git a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/CommandHQ/CommandHqDetail.tsx b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/CommandHQ/CommandHqDetail.tsx
index ed93cab0..0213c923 100644
--- a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/CommandHQ/CommandHqDetail.tsx
+++ b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/CommandHQ/CommandHqDetail.tsx
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import type { ChatMessage } from '../Chat/types';
 import { categoryFromParam, commandHqListPath, commandHqSessionPath } from './command-hq-routes';
 import { useCommandHqCategories, useCommandHqCommander, useCommandHqCommanderActions } from './useCommandHq';
 import { formatCommanderCost, formatTokens } from './format';
+import { NEW_COMMANDER_GUIDE } from './newCommanderGuide';
 
 // Right panel of the /command-hq workspace. Three states, chosen by the URL alone (no channel — panels
 // read the route directly, per `docs/navigation-audit.md`):
@@ -32,6 +33,37 @@ function EmptyState() {
   );
 }
 
+/**
+ * The instructions shown in an empty new-commander pane.
+ *
+ * Deliberately plain and deliberately unfinished — see `newCommanderGuide.ts`. A `provisional` section
+ * carries a visible marker so a guide that is still being written cannot be mistaken for one that is done,
+ * which matters because this ships on every deploy whether the copy is ready or not.
+ */
+const NewCommanderGuide = () => (
+  <div className="shrink-0 overflow-y-auto border-b border-border px-5 py-4">
+    <div className="mx-auto flex max-w-2xl flex-col gap-4">
+      {NEW_COMMANDER_GUIDE.map((section) => (
+        <section key={section.title}>
+          <h3 className="flex items-center gap-2 text-sm font-semibold text-foreground">
+            {section.title}
+            {section.provisional && (
+              <span className="rounded bg-warning/15 px-1.5 py-0.5 text-[10px] font-medium uppercase tracking-wide text-warning">
+                draft
+              </span>
+            )}
+          </h3>
+          {section.body.map((paragraph) => (
+            <p key={paragraph} className="mt-1 text-sm leading-relaxed text-muted-foreground">
+              {paragraph}
+            </p>
+          ))}
+        </section>
+      ))}
+    </div>
+  </div>
+);
+
 /**
  * A commander started in THIS pane, and it keeps the same live chat for as long as the pane is open.
  *
@@ -103,6 +135,9 @@ function NewCommander({
           `useEmbeddableChat(params)` builds the manager from these props, and `manager.context` is what the
           composer reads to decide whether to offer "exit and hand back, then re-arm". Passing it to the hook
           and not to the component left that radio hidden inside a commander — the one place it exists for. */}
+      {/* Before the first message, the pane explains itself. `EmbeddableChat`'s own empty state is "Send a
+          message to start", which is true and tells a first-time user nothing about what to send. */}
+      {chat.messages.length === 0 && <NewCommanderGuide />}
       <EmbeddableChat chat={chat} sessionId={undefined} context="command-hq" className="min-h-0 flex-1" />
     </div>
   );
diff --git a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/CommandHQ/newCommanderGuide.ts b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/CommandHQ/newCommanderGuide.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4f8335ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/CommandHQ/newCommanderGuide.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+/*
+  What the pane says before a new commander has been spoken to.
+
+  ── Why this is data, and why it is a skeleton ──
+
+  The creation flow is being rebuilt. Starting a commander currently means knowing to open the background-job
+  dialog and arm a watcher from it, which is not discoverable and reads as configuration when it is really
+  just "talk to it" — so the dialog stops being the way in, and this pane explains the way in instead.
+
+  The copy is NOT written yet, by agreement: the instructions have to describe a flow that does not exist
+  yet, and writing them before the flow is decided produces text that is wrong in a way nobody notices.
+  What is here is the structure plus the parts that are already TRUE regardless of what the flow becomes —
+  what a commander is, and that it begins as an ordinary conversation.
+
+  Sections marked `provisional` render with a visible marker, so a half-written guide cannot ship looking
+  finished. Removing the flag is the last step of writing one, not a formatting choice.
+*/
+
+export type GuideSection = {
+  title: string;
+  /** One paragraph per entry. Kept as an array so a section can grow without touching the renderer. */
+  body: string[];
+  /** True until the copy is settled. Renders a marker; the whole point is that it is visible. */
+  provisional?: boolean;
+};
+
+export const NEW_COMMANDER_GUIDE: GuideSection[] = [
+  {
+    title: 'What a commander is',
+    body: [
+      'An agent that keeps working when you are not here — it waits for something to happen, acts on it, and reports back.',
+      'It is an ordinary conversation. You start by telling it what to watch for and what to do about it, in your own words.',
+    ],
+  },
+  {
+    title: 'Starting one',
+    provisional: true,
+    body: [
+      'Describe the job here, as you would to anybody. Say what it should watch, where, and what to do when it fires.',
+      'TODO: the concrete steps, once the creation flow is settled. This replaces "open the background-job dialog and arm a watcher", which nobody could be expected to guess.',
+    ],
+  },
+  {
+    title: 'While it runs',
+    provisional: true,
+    body: [
+      'TODO: what the owner sees — where its cost shows, how to read what its spawned agents are doing, and how to stop it.',
+    ],
+  },
+];