diff --git a/include/ircd/stdinc.h b/include/ircd/stdinc.h
index 34c0da9c8..22e05d9ed 100644
--- a/include/ircd/stdinc.h
+++ b/include/ircd/stdinc.h
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ extern "C"
 #include <RB_INC_QUEUE
 #include <RB_INC_SSTREAM
 #include <RB_INC_FSTREAM
-#include <RB_INC_IOSTREAM
+#include <RB_INC_IOSFWD
 #include <RB_INC_IOMANIP
 #include <RB_INC_CSTDIO
 #include <RB_INC_CHRONO
@@ -128,6 +128,17 @@ namespace std
 }
 #endif
 
+// Forward declare the existence of these in std:: to allow their immediate
+// use throughout the project as a developer convenience. <iostream> is not
+// included here because it generates naive initialization code in every unit,
+// whereas we conduct it once for libircd in the right place.
+namespace std
+{
+	extern istream cin;
+	extern ostream cout;
+	extern ostream cerr;
+}
+
 // OpenSSL
 // Additional forward declarations in the extern namespace are introduced
 // by ircd/openssl.h
diff --git a/ircd/logger.cc b/ircd/logger.cc
index ccf7e2adb..64be9711d 100644
--- a/ircd/logger.cc
+++ b/ircd/logger.cc
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@
 // copyright notice and this permission notice is present in all copies. The
 // full license for this software is available in the LICENSE file.
 
+#include <RB_INC_IOSTREAM
+// <iostream> inclusion here runs std::ios_base::Init() statically as this unit
+// is initialized (GNU initialization order given in Makefile).
+
 namespace ircd::log
 {
 	// Option toggles