diff --git a/content/ecosystem.mdx b/content/ecosystem.mdx
index c6ea394..8419a74 100644
--- a/content/ecosystem.mdx
+++ b/content/ecosystem.mdx
@@ -25,7 +25,8 @@ and the reason the ecosystem exists.
 ### Notary: shipped
 
 A native NIP-46 signer for macOS: Zig, no Electron, no WebView. Your key lives in
-a local daemon, nothing gets signed quietly, and your `nsec` never leaves it.
+a local daemon, nothing gets signed quietly, and your `nsec` never leaves it
+unless you ask for it.
 → [`zig-nostr/notary`](https://github.com/zig-nostr/notary) · [read more](/signer)
 
 ### Plaza: shipped
diff --git a/content/index.mdx b/content/index.mdx
index c195b0c..9ad7f0e 100644
--- a/content/index.mdx
+++ b/content/index.mdx
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ title: The Nostr protocol, natively in Zig
   <div className="zn-card">
     <div className="zn-icon">🛡️</div>
     <h3>Native remote signer</h3>
-    <p>Notary is a NIP-46 bunker that signs for any client while your nsec never leaves the daemon. A downloadable macOS app.</p>
+    <p>Notary is a NIP-46 bunker that signs for any client while your nsec never leaves the daemon unless you ask for it. A downloadable macOS app.</p>
   </div>
   <div className="zn-card">
     <div className="zn-icon">🧭</div>
diff --git a/content/plaza.mdx b/content/plaza.mdx
index 77bc60a..5f99859 100644
--- a/content/plaza.mdx
+++ b/content/plaza.mdx
@@ -59,6 +59,11 @@ moment at which Plaza has held one. The ceremony that mints or imports runs in
 its own window, which is how you get to see the process that is about to hold
 your key at the moment it starts holding it.
 
+Backing the key up happens in that window too, and for the same reason. A key
+you cannot take a copy of is not yours, but Plaza asking for one so it could
+show it to you would make Plaza a process that holds a key. So the window that
+minted it is the one that hands it back.
+
 One honest exception, and the app says it out loud rather than in a footnote: a
 bare source build has no ceremony window, so pasting an existing key there lands
 in Plaza itself and is written to `~/.plaza`. In that state the sign-in card
diff --git a/content/signer.mdx b/content/signer.mdx
index e628839..4876b82 100644
--- a/content/signer.mdx
+++ b/content/signer.mdx
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 drawing its own pixels, with no Electron and no WebView anywhere. It implements
 the NIP-46 "bunker" protocol, so your `nsec` lives in a local daemon on a machine
 you control. Nothing gets signed quietly: you see what a client is asking for
-before it happens, and the key never leaves the daemon.
+before it happens, and the key never leaves the daemon unless you ask for it.
 
 <img
   src="/notary/hero.jpg"
@@ -39,6 +39,23 @@ before it happens, and the key never leaves the daemon.
 - Clients connect with a `bunker://` URL. It works end-to-end over public
   relays, including those that require NIP-42 authentication.
 
+## Your key is yours to take
+
+A nostr key cannot be replaced. If the only copy is on one Mac, losing the Mac
+loses the account, so Notary will hand the key back: **Back up your key**, the
+passphrase, then one of two forms.
+
+The **encrypted key** is the NIP-49 `ncryptsec1…` exactly as it sits on disk,
+still behind your passphrase, so it is safe to keep in a password manager or on
+paper. Keep the passphrase somewhere else.
+
+The **secret key** is the `nsec1…` itself. Anyone who reads it becomes you, for
+good.
+
+The passphrase is asked for either way, including the encrypted form that does
+not strictly need it: an unlocked signer is the normal state, and whoever is at
+the keyboard then is not necessarily the person who set it up.
+
 ## Install (macOS, Apple Silicon)
 
 ```sh