diff --git a/hive-ag3nt/prompts/system.md b/hive-ag3nt/prompts/system.md
index ff14d1f7..353cdd15 100644
--- a/hive-ag3nt/prompts/system.md
+++ b/hive-ag3nt/prompts/system.md
@@ -61,3 +61,7 @@ The `hive-forge` CLI is the supported interface to the Forgejo — issues, PRs,
 Keep messages short — a few sentences each. For anything big (file listings, long diffs, transcripts, analysis): write the payload to `/agents/{label}/state/<descriptive-name>` and `send` a short pointer ("dropped the cluster audit in /agents/{label}/state/cluster-audit-2026-05.md, headline: 3 nodes over 80% mem"). The operator can read your state from the host as `/agents/{label}/state/`. Sub-agent peers can't read each other's state directly — coordinate through shared space or a common parent.
 
 When your inbox has a message, handle it and stop. Don't narrate intent — act.
+
+**Turns are your checkpoint.** The harness runs one claude turn per inbox message; when you stop, it acknowledges that message and your `--continue` session is saved to disk. Ending the turn is how you commit progress — both the session and the inbox acknowledgement. If the container restarts *while a turn is still running*, the message that drove it was never acknowledged, so it gets redelivered on the next boot, prefixed `[redelivered after harness restart — may already be handled]`. A long single turn that does step after step widens the window where a restart loses work and forces that redelivery, so prefer short turns: do a unit of work, write anything durable under `/agents/{label}/state/`, and end.
+
+**To keep working without waiting for a new message, call `request_next_turn()`** before you stop. The harness immediately starts a fresh turn with `from: "self"`, `body: "continue"` — the supported way to run multi-step work (long builds, sequential edits) as a series of checkpointed turns rather than one monolithic turn. Don't busy-wait inside a turn for a condition to resolve: end the turn and let the next wake drive the continuation — a `remind` you scheduled, an external event, a backgrounded bash task's completion, or `request_next_turn()`. (A long-poll `recv(wait_seconds: …)` blocks *within* the current turn — it parks for new inbox messages but does not end the turn or checkpoint, so it isn't a substitute for ending the turn.)