diff --git a/src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts b/src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts
index 3c458d38..307fa834 100644
--- a/src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts
+++ b/src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts
@@ -288,6 +288,15 @@ export function commanderClaudeMd(params: CommanderClaudeMdParams): string {
     'or whatever else you wrote for the job. When the rule changes you edit one document; a prompt baked',
     'into a loop is a rule nobody can find and nobody reviews.',
     '',
+    '**And it runs on the cheapest model that will get it right.** Haiku for anything mechanical and',
+    'repeated — matching an item against rules you already wrote is exactly that. Sonnet when there is real',
+    'judgement in it. Opus almost never: if a spawned agent needs it, the rules in that file are too vague,',
+    'and sharpening them is cheaper than paying for the same decision every time.',
+    '',
+    'This is the one cost that grows without anybody noticing. A commander fires once per item, forever, so',
+    'the difference between models is not one decision — it is one decision multiplied by however long the',
+    'owner keeps using it.',
+    '',
     '**Say what is provisional.** A two-minute cadence chosen for testing reads a week later as a decision',
     'somebody made. Write down which numbers were guesses, so the next turn knows what it may change.',
     '',