diff --git a/skills/subagent-driven-development/SKILL.md b/skills/subagent-driven-development/SKILL.md
index cc4ad113..5a7da97b 100644
--- a/skills/subagent-driven-development/SKILL.md
+++ b/skills/subagent-driven-development/SKILL.md
@@ -198,12 +198,15 @@ prints back — stays resident in your context for the rest of the session
 and is re-read on every later turn. Hand artifacts over as files.
 
 **Waiting on dispatched subagents:** never poll a wait interface with
-short timeouts. While you have local work — ledger updates, packaging
-the next review, reading reports — keep working; child results arrive
-on their own. Wait only when you are genuinely idle, and then issue one
-long wait (fifteen minutes or more, where your platform allows it)
-instead of many short ones: a long wait wakes just as fast and costs
-one call instead of dozens.
+short timeouts, and never sit in one silent, open-ended wait either.
+While you have local work — ledger updates, packaging the next review,
+reading reports — keep working; child results arrive on their own.
+When you are genuinely idle, wait in bounded stretches (five to ten
+minutes, where your platform allows), and between stretches post one
+line of status and reconcile your live children: list them, and chase
+any that finished without reporting. A bounded stretch keeps nearly
+all of a long wait's efficiency while guaranteeing a stuck or lost
+child is noticed within minutes, not at the end of the session.
 
 ### 1. Dispatch the implementer
 
diff --git a/skills/using-superpowers/references/codex-tools.md b/skills/using-superpowers/references/codex-tools.md
index cf2b70ee..077550e0 100644
--- a/skills/using-superpowers/references/codex-tools.md
+++ b/skills/using-superpowers/references/codex-tools.md
@@ -47,13 +47,17 @@ two-thirds of all wait calls were short polls that timed out.
 - While you still have local work, do not wait at all. A completed
   child's final answer is pushed into your mailbox and arrives with
   your next turn.
-- When you are genuinely idle with children outstanding, issue ONE
-  `wait_agent` with a long `timeout_ms` — 900000 (15 minutes) or more —
-  and let the event wake you.
+- When you are genuinely idle with children outstanding, wait in
+  bounded stretches: `wait_agent` with `timeout_ms` 300000-600000
+  (5-10 minutes). After each stretch — wake or timeout — post one
+  status line, run `list_agents`, and chase any child that finished
+  without reporting. Never stack polls shorter than five minutes; the
+  event subscription wakes a bounded stretch just as fast as a short
+  one.
 - Completion mail cannot wake an idle controller (it is delivered
   without triggering a turn); covering that idle window is
-  `wait_agent`'s only job. If a long wait times out, check
-  `list_agents` for stuck children — do not fall back to short polls.
+  `wait_agent`'s only job. A stretch that times out with no activity
+  is your cue to reconcile, not to shorten the next stretch.
 
 ## Environment Detection