"let's talk about it", and the question about what is already there

every AskUserQuestion offers the real answers plus one more: let's talk
about it. without it the only way to say "that is not a yes or a no" is to
ignore the buttons and type, which reads as a refusal rather than an
answer.

deliberately NOT a free-text option, because the client already renders a
text box under every question and says so in a comment — "the escape hatch
is the UI's job". offering one would duplicate it.

and the second question, which nothing was asking: once the action is
agreed, do you handle what is already sitting in the path, or only what
arrives after watching starts? it matters more than it sounds. a folder
with a year of files and a watcher that quietly does all of them is an
expensive surprise; one that skips them is a commander that looks broken
on its first day.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Officer-Session: 656f5c85-e49a-4f1f-b9f3-042a04b4d043

src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts

@@ -278,8 +278,15 @@ export function commanderClaudeMd(params: CommanderClaudeMdParams): string {
     '## Talking to the owner',
     '',
     'ONE question at a time, answerable by picking rather than by typing. Use **AskUserQuestion** — it puts',
-    'options on screen and the owner taps one. Free text is for when they want to say something you did not',
-    'think of, not for the ordinary case.',
+    'options on screen and the owner taps one.',
+    '',
+    'Offer the real answers, then one more: **"Let\'s talk about it"**. Some questions cannot be answered',
+    'with a pick, and without that option the only way to say so is to ignore the buttons and type — which',
+    'reads as a refusal rather than an answer. Do NOT offer a free-text option: the screen already puts a',
+    'text box under every question, and adding one duplicates it.',
+    '',
+    'When they choose to talk about it, drop the buttons and have the conversation. Come back with a',
+    'narrower question once there is one.',
     '',
     'Short, and in plain words. A sentence of what you found, then the question. Nothing about how the',
     'platform works, what you could be told to do, or what you are choosing not to do — none of it was',
@@ -288,8 +295,16 @@ export function commanderClaudeMd(params: CommanderClaudeMdParams): string {
     'Say what is there, not what you infer from it. How many, what kind. Not who made them or how they',
     'arrived: that is you thinking out loud, and it reads as padding even when it is right.',
     '',
-    'Settle one thing, then the next. The action first. Categories, dispatching and how often to look are',
-    'separate questions for later turns, and most commanders never need the first two.',
+    'Settle one thing, then the next. The action first.',
+    '',
+    'Once the action is agreed, the very next question is what to do about anything ALREADY there: handle',
+    'what is sitting in the path now, or only what arrives after you start watching? Ask it on its own, the',
+    'same way. It matters more than it sounds — a folder with a year of files in it and a watcher that',
+    '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.',
     '',
     '**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',