1 files changed, 29 insertions, 18 deletions
diff --git a/docs/MESHBAY_DESIGN.md b/docs/MESHBAY_DESIGN.md
index e721cb2..c443955 100644
--- a/docs/MESHBAY_DESIGN.md
+++ b/docs/MESHBAY_DESIGN.md
@@ -651,15 +651,27 @@ which were a second oracle when their key came from the passphrase alone.
 
 A bundle copied to another node, or served for another account, does not open.
 The recovery copy (§3.6) has the same format under the recovery key, with pepper
-version 0. **Nothing else is read**: a bundle in an earlier format — sealed under
-the passphrase alone — is refused by name, never opened and never replaced by a
-new identity behind the member's back, which would leave the node pinning a key
-nobody holds. The client says so, and the way out is the operator's: `member
-unpin` (which drops the bundle) and a fresh code. That was the flag day of 0.17.0
-(§5.6).
+version 0. **Nothing else is written.** One earlier format is still read, once,
+to be replaced (*transitional*): `MBK2` — `"MBK2" ‖ nonce ‖ AES-GCM(A, {skEd, skX})`,
+no associated data — sealed under the passphrase's Argon2 key alone. The Argon2
+run that makes `M` makes `A` anyway, so a session keeps `A` too, as a
+decrypt-only key (in IndexedDB beside `M`; in the desktop application beside `M`
+in its key storage, until sign-out). A client that meets an `MBK2` bundle opens
+it with that key — or its recovery copy with the recovery key — and stores the
+same identity as `MBK3` once the connection is made; the desktop application
+stores it, or withdraws it, as the account's browser access says. Keeping `A`
+for a session adds nothing a node does not already hold: the `MBK2` bundle on its
+disk is the same oracle, until it is replaced. A session that has no `A` — one
+opened before it was kept, a device sign-in — asks for the passphrase once. A
+legacy key that does not open it means a bundle sealed under an older passphrase,
+treated like a current bundle that does not open. Anything older than `MBK2` is
+refused by name, never opened and never replaced by a new identity behind the
+member's back, which would leave the node pinning a key nobody holds; the way
+out is the operator's, `member unpin` and a fresh code. The `MBK2` reader goes
+once no node holds one.
 
 **What a session keeps is `M`**, non-extractable, in IndexedDB until sign-out.
-Not the pepper and not `A`. So the hub is asked for the pepper once per sign-in,
+Not the pepper, and `A` only as the transitional decrypt-only key above. So the hub is asked for the pepper once per sign-in,
 inside the sign-in response, and never again while the session lasts: reloads,
 reconnections and new nodes derive nothing.
 
@@ -1411,17 +1423,16 @@ reachable on every node, which is exactly what "no compatibility switch" forbids
 So the floor moved to 4.0, `client.minimum` moved to the release that carries the
 new client, and the hub, node and SPA deploy together.
 
-**0.17.0 is a flag day with no protocol change at all**, and it follows the same
-rule. The keypair bundle is opaque to the node, so MNP did not move; what changed
-is what a client writes into it and reads out of it (`MBK3`, §3.7). A client that
-still read the older format would keep it reachable, and an older client would
-still write it — the passphrase-only seal that the pepper exists to replace. So
-the client refuses the old format by name, and `client.minimum` moved to 0.17.0
-so that no desktop client can go on writing it; the browser takes the new client
-from the hub on reload. What it costs is stated rather than migrated: each
-identity sealed in the old format is re-created on its node after `member unpin`
-and a fresh code, and a playlist the node alone held is lost — any copy a browser
-or the application still has is sealed again over it.
+**0.17.0 is a flag day**, and it follows the same rule. What a client writes into
+the keypair bundle is `MBK3` (§3.7); an older client would go on writing the
+passphrase-only seal the pepper exists to replace, so `client.minimum` is 0.17.0
+and the browser takes the new client from the hub on reload. An `MBK2` bundle is
+read once and replaced (§3.7), so no identity has to be re-created; a playlist the
+node alone held under the old key is lost — any copy a browser or the application
+still has is sealed again over it. And retiring a device is signed under a
+transcript of its own (`meshbay:device_revoke:v1`, §3.3), so a 0.17 client and a
+0.16 node, or the reverse, cannot retire devices with each other: hub, nodes and
+clients move together.
 
 **Every *requirement* is true of every peer the client can reach.** The floor moves
 with each MAJOR, so `check_version` refuses at the handshake any peer that cannot