diff --git a/doc/USAGE.md b/doc/USAGE.md
index f4fc913..cbc7641 100644
--- a/doc/USAGE.md
+++ b/doc/USAGE.md
@@ -99,22 +99,13 @@ Valid spec keys: `name` (auto-generated if omitted), `cwd` (required), `agent`,
 
 ## AI pipelines
 
-`b/q` reads its prompt from args or stdin — not both. When args are present, stdin is
-ignored. This shapes how pipelines compose:
+`b/q` and `b/job` write to stdout and compose naturally with Unix pipes. When both args
+and stdin are present, args are treated as the instruction and stdin as the content:
 
 ```sh
-# prompt from stdin: works
-echo "write a haiku about filesystems" | $OLLIE/b/q
-
-# pipe b/q output through shell tools, then into another b/q via stdin
-$OLLIE/b/q "list 5 blog post ideas" | grep -v "^$" | head -3 | $OLLIE/b/q
-
-# capture output, build next prompt explicitly
-ideas=$($OLLIE/b/q "list 5 blog post ideas" | grep -v "^$" | head -3)
-$OLLIE/b/q "expand the best of these ideas: $ideas"
-
-# pipe file content as the prompt
-cat error.log | $OLLIE/b/q
+echo "write a haiku about filesystems" | $OLLIE/b/q | wc -w
+cat error.log | $OLLIE/b/q "what is causing this?" | $OLLIE/b/q "suggest a fix"
+$OLLIE/b/q "list 5 blog post ideas" | grep -v "^$" | head -3 | $OLLIE/b/q "expand the best one"
 ```
 
 `u/optimize` is a worked example — it generates N candidate prompts in parallel via
@@ -124,11 +115,11 @@ cat error.log | $OLLIE/b/q
 $OLLIE/u/optimize -n 3 -cm qwen/qwen3-8b -jm anthropic/claude-opus-4-6 "explain recursion"
 ```
 
-Progress goes to stderr; capture the output to use in a subsequent call:
+Progress goes to stderr; pipe the optimized prompt with content into a subsequent call:
 
 ```sh
 prompt=$($OLLIE/u/optimize "translate this to Spanish" 2>/dev/null)
-{ echo "$prompt"; cat document.txt; } | $OLLIE/b/q
+cat document.txt | $OLLIE/b/q "$prompt"
 ```
 
 ## Alternative front-ends
diff --git a/scripts/b/job b/scripts/b/job
index 8d234dd..b3eb2b8 100755
--- a/scripts/b/job
+++ b/scripts/b/job
@@ -64,8 +64,10 @@ while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
     shift
 done
 
-# Prompt from remaining args or stdin.
-if [ $# -gt 0 ]; then
+# Prompt from args, stdin, or both (args as instruction, stdin as content).
+if [ $# -gt 0 ] && ! [ -t 0 ]; then
+    prompt="$*"$'\n'"$(cat)"
+elif [ $# -gt 0 ]; then
     prompt="$*"
 elif ! [ -t 0 ]; then
     prompt=$(cat)