diff --git a/src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts b/src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts
index d59b6648..8df9067a 100644
--- a/src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts
+++ b/src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts
@@ -335,10 +335,9 @@ export function commanderClaudeMd(params: CommanderClaudeMdParams): string {
     '',
     '## Talking to the owner',
     '',
-    "**In the owner's language.** `GET /api/user/settings` returns `languages.default` — that is the",
-    'language they chose for this platform, and everything you say to them goes in it: your messages, your',
-    'questions, the options on them, and what you write in `JOB.md`. Read it on your first turn and do not',
-    'assume it is English.',
+    "**In the owner's language**, which the first message of your first turn names. Everything you say to",
+    'them goes in it: your messages, your questions, the options on them, and what you write in `JOB.md`.',
+    'If you ever need to check it, `GET /api/user/settings` has it as `languages.default`.'
     '',
     'Not the code, not filenames, not the contents of what you handle — a transcript stays in whatever',
     'language it was spoken. Only the words you address to them.',
diff --git a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/CommandHQ/CommandHqDetail.tsx b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/CommandHQ/CommandHqDetail.tsx
index 7ac23bfb..555675ac 100644
--- a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/CommandHQ/CommandHqDetail.tsx
+++ b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/CommandHQ/CommandHqDetail.tsx
@@ -93,7 +93,24 @@ const NewCommanderGuide = () => {
  * before asking anything at all, all live in the Commanders skill — which is re-read from disk every run, so
  * it can be reworded without a deploy. Duplicating any of it here would create a second copy to drift.
  */
-const startBrief = (name: string, referencePath: string): string =>
+/**
+ * The locale as a name the model will act on.
+ *
+ * Told, not fetched. The first version pointed the commander at `GET /api/user/settings` and it never
+ * called it — its brief says the first message is what it found plus one question and nothing else, so an
+ * errand before speaking is exactly what it skips. The platform already knows the answer; making the agent
+ * go and get it is a request it is right to weigh against everything else it was told.
+ */
+const LANGUAGE_NAMES: Record<string, string> = {
+  'en-GB': 'English',
+  'pt-PT': 'European Portuguese',
+  'es-ES': 'Spanish',
+  'de-DE': 'German',
+  'fr-FR': 'French',
+  'sv-SE': 'Swedish',
+};
+
+const startBrief = (name: string, referencePath: string, locale: string): string =>
   [
     // i18n-exempt: agent brief — the MODEL reads this; the transcript shows displayText to the person
     `You have been named "${name}". Look in \`${referencePath}\` and see whether there is anything there`,
@@ -104,7 +121,8 @@ const startBrief = (name: string, referencePath: string): string =>
     '',
     'Ask it with AskUserQuestion, so I can answer by picking rather than by typing.',
     '',
-    'And talk to me in MY language — `GET /api/user/settings`, `languages.default`. Do not assume English.',
+    `Talk to me in ${LANGUAGE_NAMES[locale] ?? locale} — every message, every question, every option on`,
+    'one. Not the code, not filenames.',
     '',
     'That is the whole of your first message: what you found, and that question. Nothing else.',
   ].join('\n');
@@ -285,7 +303,7 @@ function ActiveNewCommander({
   category: number | 'none' | undefined;
   onStarted: (id: string) => void;
 }) {
-  const { t, tUi } = useTranslation();
+  const { t, tUi, locale } = useTranslation();
   const navigate = useNavigate();
 
   // Sonnet, not the account's default. A commander is long-running and mostly repeats one settled job, so
@@ -312,7 +330,7 @@ function ActiveNewCommander({
     if (sentRef.current) return;
     sentRef.current = true;
     chat.sendPrompt(
-      startBrief(commander.name ?? '', commander.referencePaths[0] ?? ''),
+      startBrief(commander.name ?? '', commander.referencePaths[0] ?? '', locale),
       undefined,
       undefined,
       { path: commander.cwd },