diff --git a/.changeset/storage-count-cap-cost-docs.md b/.changeset/storage-count-cap-cost-docs.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5a309906
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/storage-count-cap-cost-docs.md
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+---
+---
+
+docs(storage): state the count cap's cost as a decode per key past it, not per repeated key (#1081)
+
+ADR 0011 and the comments in `lmdb/events.rs` said the cap on a tag count's id set costs
+"a body decode per repeated key past it". `counted_earlier` reads the row's body for every
+key the set does not answer past the cap, unless the range is the family's first exact
+criterion, so the cost is not confined to repeated keys: a `{"#t":["zz","a"]}` filter,
+one key a row and no repeats, costs 5.7× its uncapped walk at 20,000 rows. The record
+and its copies now say so, and qualify "below the cap the walk reads no body" to a walk
+over a single tag family, since a second family decodes there too.
+
+Comment and prose only: no code changes and no behaviour change.
diff --git a/crates/nostream-storage/src/lmdb/events.rs b/crates/nostream-storage/src/lmdb/events.rs
index b262a842..ea5dc6ef 100644
--- a/crates/nostream-storage/src/lmdb/events.rs
+++ b/crates/nostream-storage/src/lmdb/events.rs
@@ -755,7 +755,8 @@ struct Plan<'a> {
     /// `tag_ranges` builds one range per criterion that fits a key, carrying that criterion. A
     /// key in these ranges has already proved that family, so the row's body is decoded only for
     /// the filter's other tag families, and a `tags` count holds one id per row its matcher
-    /// accepts until the set is full, then reads a repeated key's body instead.
+    /// accepts until the set is full, then reads the body of every key the set does not answer
+    /// outside the family's first exact criterion.
     tag: Option<(&'a str, &'a [String])>,
 }
 
@@ -935,9 +936,11 @@ fn count_matches_bounded(
     // A single exact criterion names one key per row, so only a second criterion or a `#g`
     // prefix can walk one row twice, and only then is the id set paid for.
     //
-    // shortcut: the set holds at most `MAX_PAGE_KEYS` ids; a repeated key past that reads the
-    // row's body to ask whether an earlier key of this walk already answered for it, against a
-    // slot per repeated row. Upgrade when a count past the cap must decode nothing, which needs
+    // shortcut: the set holds at most `MAX_PAGE_KEYS` ids; every key past that the set does
+    // not answer, outside the family's first exact criterion, reads the row's body to ask whether
+    // an earlier key of this walk already answered for it, not only a repeated one, against a slot
+    // per repeated row.
+    // Upgrade when a count past the cap must decode nothing, which needs
     // an index order that visits a row once.
     let mut counted_ids = HashSet::new();
     let dedupe = plan.tag.is_some_and(|(name, criteria)| {
@@ -3229,9 +3232,10 @@ mod tests {
         );
     }
 
-    /// A count's total does not depend on how many ids its walk may hold: past the cap a
-    /// repeated key reads the row's body to tell an earlier key from a first one, and this runs
-    /// that walk and the one the set alone answers over one corpus.
+    /// A count's total does not depend on how many ids its walk may hold: past the cap a key
+    /// the set does not answer, outside the family's first exact criterion, reads the row's body
+    /// to tell an earlier key from a first one, and this runs that walk and the one the set alone
+    /// answers over one corpus.
     #[test]
     fn a_count_past_its_id_cap_totals_what_the_unbounded_walk_totals() {
         let _serial = counting();
diff --git a/docs/rewrite/decisions/0011-lmdb-backend.md b/docs/rewrite/decisions/0011-lmdb-backend.md
index c8f34cf4..ceba6a9a 100644
--- a/docs/rewrite/decisions/0011-lmdb-backend.md
+++ b/docs/rewrite/decisions/0011-lmdb-backend.md
@@ -197,15 +197,20 @@ as the capture's does.
 
 One read keeps a second thing resident, and it is a count's rather than a page's: a `tags` count
 whose criteria can select one row twice holds an id per row its matcher accepts, and that set is
-bounded by `MAX_PAGE_KEYS` — the same 5 000. Below the cap the walk reads no body; at the cap it
-stops inserting and decides each further key with a bounded-memory check instead: a repeated key
-reads the row's body and asks whether an earlier key of the walk already answered for it, an
-earlier criterion that matches one of its tags or, within one `#g` prefix range, a smaller value
-the prefix matches. The total is therefore the same at every corpus size, and the set is a
-constant 270 352 B once full (measured live: 5 000 ids at a `HashSet` capacity of 7 168 slots,
-against 1 081 360 B for the same 20 000-row corpus with the set unbounded). The price of the
-cap is a body decode per repeated key past it; an index order that visits each row once is what
-would remove that too.
+bounded by `MAX_PAGE_KEYS` — the same 5 000. Below the cap a walk over a single tag family reads
+no body (a second family decodes there too, as below); at the cap it stops inserting and decides
+each further key with a bounded-memory check instead: a key the set does not answer, outside the
+family's first exact criterion, reads the row's body and asks whether an earlier key of the walk
+already answered for it, an earlier criterion that matches one of its tags or, within one `#g`
+prefix range, a smaller value the prefix matches. The total is therefore the same at every corpus
+size, and the set is a constant 270 352 B once full (measured live: 5 000 ids at a `HashSet`
+capacity of 7 168 slots, against 1 081 360 B for the same 20 000-row corpus with the set
+unbounded). Past the cap every key the set does not answer, outside the family's first exact
+criterion, reads the row's body — a later criterion's key to ask whether an earlier criterion
+matched the row, a `#g` prefix's key to ask whether a smaller value did — not only a repeated one,
+while the first criterion's own keys decode nothing. The walk costs 5.3× to 5.7× its uncapped time
+at 20,000 rows for that reason. An index order that visits each row once is what would remove that
+cost.
 
 The index is chosen from the filter, and which ranges can stop early follows from the key:
 
@@ -254,9 +259,10 @@ Two consequences of the same bound:
   row two criteria — or two values of a `#g` prefix — both select is counted at the first key
   the walk reaches and skipped at the rest without a body decode, while the set has room: the
   ranges run in the criteria's order, so that key is not necessarily the row's smallest matching
-  one. Once the set is full the walk reads the body of a repeated key instead and asks whether
-  an earlier key of the walk already answered for it — an earlier criterion, or a smaller value
-  of the same prefix — so the count stays exact and its resident set stays a constant. Only those
+  one. Once the set is full the walk reads the body of every key the set does not answer,
+  outside the family's first exact criterion, instead and asks whether an earlier key of the walk
+  already answered for it — an earlier criterion, or a smaller value of the same prefix — so the
+  count stays exact and its resident set stays a constant. Only those
   two shapes hold the set, whose population is one id per row its matcher accepts: a single exact
   criterion names one key per row. The tags index has no order that visits each row once, which
   is why the cap trades a slot past it for a body decode.
@@ -357,8 +363,9 @@ its op is one of the five above — so the list cannot grow without the diff sho
 - A page is bounded by `MAX_PAGE_KEYS` and a read holds a page rather than a range; a count
   materialises no result set, and the ids it holds for a tag walk that can select a row twice
   are bounded by the same `MAX_PAGE_KEYS` — 270 352 B of resident set once full, however large
-  the corpus, with a body decode per repeated key past the cap. So a client cannot choose how
-  much a request materialises.
+  the corpus, with a body decode per key past the cap that the set does not answer and
+  that lies outside the family's first exact criterion, not only per repeated one. So a client
+  cannot choose how much a request materialises.
   The price is that a `#g`-prefix page walks its whole (time-bounded) range, an author page
   without kinds reads the created-at index, and so does an author × kind filter whose
   composition passes `MAX_PAGE_KEYS` ranges; an `ids` read whose criteria are exact is bounded