diff --git a/packages/mosaic/framework/tools/wake/digest.sh b/packages/mosaic/framework/tools/wake/digest.sh
index fbbab01f..7d7173d2 100755
--- a/packages/mosaic/framework/tools/wake/digest.sh
+++ b/packages/mosaic/framework/tools/wake/digest.sh
@@ -488,6 +488,19 @@ _dlq_alarm_offhost() {
 # A dead-letter write failure is itself alarmed (both legs) but never aborts the
 # drain — the good entries MUST still deliver (availability is the whole point of
 # #920).
+#
+# RETENTION IS LOAD-BEARING (#953) — read BEFORE adding rotation/pruning/caps:
+# this ledger is append-only history AND the SOLE evidence base for
+# store.sh quarantine-audit's conviction predicate (#946): a false
+# consumed-hashes witness row is provable ONLY while its matching entry
+# survives HERE. Any rotation, pruning, or size cap — however locally correct
+# — silently converts provable rows into unprovable ones, and the audit's
+# clean sweep reads IDENTICALLY before and after the evidence disappears (no
+# signal at either end; the audit never guesses, by design). If retention
+# limits ever become genuinely necessary, they MUST ship with (a) a loud
+# signal at prune time naming what evidence is being given up, and (b) the
+# audit's residual-class reporting updated IN THE SAME CHANGE. Until then:
+# nothing prunes this file, and that is a recorded decision, not an omission.
 _quarantine_entry() {
   local line="$1" seq="$2" dlq="$STATE_DIR/dead-letter.jsonl"
   if [ ! -f "$dlq" ] || ! grep -qxF "$line" "$dlq" 2>/dev/null; then