Ms Burn has previously indicated through a lawyer that she gave no orders, directions, advice or guidance during the siege.

On Thursday, the commander of the police terrorism intelligence unit said he had been asked to provide a profile of gunman Man Haron Monis to Ms Burn on December 15, 2014.

"What role did you understand she was playing?" counsel assisting the inquest, Sophie Callan, asked.

"I didn't understand what role she was playing, I was just asked to provide a copy to her," the commander said.

Ms Burn addressed media as Monis held hostages in the cafe and she was praised by Premier Mike Baird for her work.

"I worked alongside Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn throughout the entire siege," he said.

"I have nothing but admiration, respect and gratitude for the incredible work she did. That goes for the other police officers involved, all the way up to Commissioner Andrew Scipione."

Mr Scipione has also indicated he gave no advice or orders on the day.

Coroner Michael Barnes is yet to make a decision on whether Mr Scipione and Ms Burn should be called as witnesses. Both are preparing written statements and have said they are willing to appear before the inquest. But police barrister Ian Freckelton, QC, said their in-person testimony would be of little use to the coroner.

In other evidence, the inquest heard the police forward command post had received next to no timely information from the joint intelligence group comprising different agencies and levels of government.

The liaison officer in charge of relaying the information had had trouble entering the computer system, he said in a statement. At one point he required all his group's major intelligence reports to be emailed to himself.

The liaison officer's statement suggested that when he joined the forward command post about 1.30pm, the officers there had more intelligence than he did.

"Does that surprise you?" Ms Callan asked the intelligence commander, who also led the joint group.

"It does surprise me, yes," he said.

The commander was also asked about the identification of Monis. A homicide detective recognised Monis from media images about noon and the information was passed on to other police in an urgent memo, the inquest has heard. But it did not reach the intelligence commander.

A 4pm report referred to "multiple uncorroborated sources" identifying the gunman as Monis.

In another communication error, a Lindt cafe worker due to work on the day called 000 to offer police information at 10.30am, only to be listed as a possible hostage that evening.

Monis shot cafe manager Tori Johnson dead at 2.13am on December 16. Barrister Katrina Dawson was killed by police bullet fragments after a tactical assault team entered the cafe.

The inquest continues.