diff --git a/src/servers/api/chat/websocket.ts b/src/servers/api/chat/websocket.ts
index bbe432f6..908fa75b 100644
--- a/src/servers/api/chat/websocket.ts
+++ b/src/servers/api/chat/websocket.ts
@@ -33,6 +33,8 @@ import {
 import { resolveHomeDir } from '@@/user-home';
 import { renameClaudeSession, type ChatIdentity } from './claude-sessions';
 import { chatIdentity } from './chat';
+import { commanderBlock } from '../command-hq/commander-block';
+import { getClaudeSession } from '../../sidecar/claude/state';
 import { claudeLoginState } from '@@/os-user-claude';
 import { mkdirSync } from 'node:fs';
 import { logger } from './logger';
@@ -902,6 +904,14 @@ export type ClaudeTurnOutcome = { ok: true; transcriptId: string } | { ok: false
  * generic timeout: the reasons below (member not signed in, Claude not installed, spawn failure) are the
  * same reasons a websocket caller already sees via `sendToClient`, just mirrored to a second listener.
  */
+/**
+ * Sessions already told what they are and where to record it.
+ *
+ * In memory, keyed on officer's session id: a restart re-briefs, which costs a few hundred tokens on one
+ * turn and is the safe direction — a commander that was never told is one that cannot be stopped.
+ */
+const briefedSessions = new Set<string>();
+
 export async function startClaudeTurn(params: {
   email: string;
   username: string;
@@ -927,7 +937,36 @@ export async function startClaudeTurn(params: {
   effectivePrompt: string;
   onOutcome?: (outcome: ClaudeTurnOutcome) => void;
 }): Promise<void> {
-  const { email, username, userId, ws, sessionId, model, msg, effectivePrompt, onOutcome } = params;
+  const { email, username, userId, ws, sessionId, model, msg, onOutcome } = params;
+
+  /*
+    A commander is told its record paths ON A TURN, not in the system preamble.
+
+    The preamble is built inside `createSession`, which runs ONCE — on a conversation's first turn. For a
+    commander that is precisely the turn where the block cannot exist: it has no `command_hq_sessions` row
+    and no transcript id yet, so `commanderBlock` returns null, and every later turn reuses the same session
+    and never rebuilds the preamble. So a commander never received the block at all, and its loop had no
+    paths to record itself at. Its own test caught it: it armed a perfectly good watcher and wrote no
+    `loop-pid`.
+
+    Riding `effectivePrompt` instead. That is the string the model sees; `displayText` is what the transcript
+    shows — the same seam the background-job dialog already uses to send a hidden preamble — so this reaches
+    the agent without appearing in the conversation.
+
+    Once per session, on the first turn where the block resolves, which is the first turn after the commander
+    is filed. It stays available afterwards because it is in the conversation's own history from then on.
+  */
+  let effectivePrompt = params.effectivePrompt;
+  if (!briefedSessions.has(sessionId)) {
+    const block = await commanderBlock({
+      userId,
+      sessionId: getClaudeSession(sessionId, userId) ?? msg.resumeSessionId ?? null,
+    });
+    if (block) {
+      briefedSessions.add(sessionId);
+      effectivePrompt = `${block}\n\n---\n\n${effectivePrompt}`;
+    }
+  }
   const fail = (error: string) => {
     sendToClient(ws, { type: 'error', message: error });
     onOutcome?.({ ok: false, error });
diff --git a/src/servers/sidecar/claude/claude-manager.ts b/src/servers/sidecar/claude/claude-manager.ts
index 53d105be..5b1824c8 100644
--- a/src/servers/sidecar/claude/claude-manager.ts
+++ b/src/servers/sidecar/claude/claude-manager.ts
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@ import { query, type Query, type SpawnOptions, type SpawnedProcess } from '@anth
 import type { ChatEvent, PromptImage } from '../../api/chat/types';
 import { affordanceBlock } from '../../affordances/load';
 import { skillsBlock } from '../../skills/load';
-import { commanderBlock } from '../../api/command-hq/commander-block';
 import type { ClaudeSpawnParams, ClaudeSpawnStreamingParams, ClaudeCodeResult, LiveClaudeSession } from '../protocol';
 import { setClaudeSession, clearClaudeSession, getClaudeSession } from './state';
 import { countsAsOutput, diagnoseExit, stderrReason } from './exit-diagnosis';
@@ -541,11 +540,6 @@ function createSession(
   params: ClaudeSpawnStreamingParams,
   onEvent: (event: ChatEvent) => void,
   onNotify: (kind: 'turn-ended' | 'input-needed') => void,
-  /**
-   * The commander block, or null. Passed IN because building it needs two database reads and this function
-   * is synchronous — hoisted to `spawnClaudeStreaming`, which is async and already has the account.
-   */
-  commander: string | null,
 ): PersistentSession {
   const { sessionKey } = params;
   const input = makeInputQueue();
@@ -621,8 +615,14 @@ function createSession(
     preamble, which is where this used to live and which an agent arming itself never sees. See
     `api/command-hq/commander-block.ts`.
   */
-  // `commander` is a parameter, not computed here — see the note on it.
-  const preamble = [affordances, skills, commander].filter(Boolean).join('\n\n') || null;
+  /*
+    No commander block here, deliberately.
+
+    It used to be composed in, and could never arrive: this runs once per session, and a commander's first
+    turn has no row and no transcript id, so the block resolved to null and no later turn rebuilt the
+    preamble. It rides `effectivePrompt` instead — see `startClaudeTurn` in api/chat/websocket.ts.
+  */
+  const preamble = [affordances, skills].filter(Boolean).join('\n\n') || null;
 
   const q = query({
     prompt: input.gen as AsyncIterable<SdkUserMessage>,
@@ -894,16 +894,7 @@ export async function spawnClaudeStreaming(
     await applyModelChange(session, params.model);
     await applyPlanModeChange(session, params.planMode);
   } else {
-    /*
-      The commander block is built here, before the session exists, because it needs the database and
-      `createSession` is synchronous. It resolves the row for this transcript id and returns null for
-      anything that is not a commander — which is every ordinary chat, at the cost of one indexed lookup.
-    */
-    const commander = await commanderBlock({
-      userId: params.userId,
-      sessionId: getClaudeSession(params.sessionKey, params.userId) ?? params.resumeSessionId ?? null,
-    });
-    session = createSession(params, onEvent, onNotify, commander);
+    session = createSession(params, onEvent, onNotify);
   }
   session.pushTurn(params.prompt, params.images);
 }