diff --git a/src/servers/api/command-hq/commander-block.ts b/src/servers/api/command-hq/commander-block.ts
index 022ffefb..44d5eafb 100644
--- a/src/servers/api/command-hq/commander-block.ts
+++ b/src/servers/api/command-hq/commander-block.ts
@@ -51,10 +51,12 @@ function accountFromCommandersCwd(cwd: string): string | null {
  * The block, or null when this session is not a commander.
  *
  * **A brand-new commander's FIRST turn gets no block**, because there is no transcript id yet — the harness
- * mints it as that turn begins, and nothing can be told a path keyed on an id that does not exist. In
- * practice the first turn is the conversation about what to watch, and the loop is started on a later one,
- * by which point every turn carries it. Worth knowing rather than discovering: a commander that somehow
- * armed itself on its very first message would not have been told where to record.
+ * mints it as that turn begins, and nothing can be told a path keyed on an id that does not exist.
+ *
+ * That is not a gap, because arming on the first turn is not permitted: the first turn is for agreeing what
+ * to watch, and a watcher armed before that agreement is a guess. So the two facts interlock rather than
+ * conflict — an agent with no paths is by definition on its first turn, which is the turn it must not arm on
+ * anyway. The block says so explicitly, so the absence reads as a signal rather than as something missing.
  *
  * Keyed on the cwd rather than a database lookup, and deliberately: `isCommandersDir` is the same test the
  * sessions list, `/chat/live` and the detail route all use, so a session cannot be a commander in one place
@@ -80,5 +82,10 @@ export function commanderBlock(params: CommanderBlockParams): string | null {
     '',
     'The platform cannot find your process and cannot recover a spawned agent id after it exits, so this',
     'record is the only one. Without it, deleting this commander leaves your loop running.',
+    '',
+    '**Never arm a watcher on your first turn.** The first turn is for settling what to watch and what to do',
+    'about it — arming before that is arming a guess, and a wrong condition either never fires or fires',
+    'constantly and is found out days later. If you were given no paths above, you ARE on your first turn:',
+    'that is what their absence means. Ask, and arm once it is agreed.',
   ].join('\n');
 }