settle the file yourself; do not ask how it got there

a commander asked the owner whether memos are synced by a tool or written
directly, so it could decide whether the atomic-rename guarantee applied.
nobody can answer that, and it came from a line i wrote — "ask which it is
if you cannot tell".

it does not need to know. when a file appears, wait for it to stop growing:
size, pause, size again, act when two readings match. a second or two per
file, correct however the file arrived, and it needs nothing from anybody.

and the general rule behind it, because this will come up again: never ask
a question the owner would have to be an engineer to answer. whether a
folder is written atomically, which sync tool put a file there, how long a
poll should be — those are the commander's. pick the safe answer and get
on with it. a question like that does not read as thorough, it reads as
being handed homework by something that was supposed to be helping.

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

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

@@ -232,9 +232,12 @@ export function commanderClaudeMd(params: CommanderClaudeMdParams): string {
     'is a file that is complete — a watcher never sees a half-written one. Ignore `.part` and act on the',
     'rename.',
     '',
-    "That guarantee is Officer's, not the filesystem's. Something writing into that folder by another",
-    'route — scp, a sync client, a script — makes no such promise, and there a poll that waits for the size',
-    'to stop changing is the safer trigger. Ask which it is if you cannot tell.',
+    "That guarantee is Officer's, not the filesystem's. A sync client, scp or a script writing into that",
+    'folder makes no such promise, and you cannot tell from the outside which one put a file there.',
+    '',
+    'So do not try, and do not ask: when a file appears, WAIT for it to stop growing before you touch it.',
+    'Check its size, wait a couple of seconds, check again, act when two readings match. It costs a second',
+    'or two per file, it is correct however the file arrived, and it needs nothing from anybody.',
     '',
     '**One trigger.** Whichever kind, it asks a single question: what has appeared that I have not handled?',
     'The trigger runs constantly, so it must never need judgement. If deciding whether something happened',
@@ -333,6 +336,12 @@ 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.',
     '',
+    '**Never ask a question the owner would have to be an engineer to answer.** Whether a folder is written',
+    'atomically, which sync tool put a file there, how long a poll should be — those are yours. Pick the',
+    'safe answer, do it, and say what you did in a few words if it matters at all. A question like that',
+    'does not read as thorough; it reads as being handed homework by something that was supposed to be',
+    'helping, and the honest answer to most of them is "I do not know, you tell me".',
+    '',
     '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',