diff --git a/docs/operator-community-deletion.md b/docs/operator-community-deletion.md
index 9ddb5dc21d..d4689006d5 100644
--- a/docs/operator-community-deletion.md
+++ b/docs/operator-community-deletion.md
@@ -157,11 +157,15 @@ current `status` at any stage, including after membership purge, and admits no
 new work. Clients recover an ambiguous submission by resending it. The same
 UUID with a different tuple returns `409 deletion_request_conflict`.
 
-The acknowledgement version is validated before the UUID lookup, so resend
-recovery only works while the relay still accepts the version the request was
-made under. Retiring a version makes resends of pending requests created under
-it fail with `400 unsupported_acknowledgement_version`; keep the old version
-accepted for replay until no client can hold a pending request made with it.
+The acknowledgement version is a compile-time constant
+(`OWNER_DELETION_ACKNOWLEDGEMENT_VERSION`), not operator configuration.
+Admission validates it before the UUID lookup, and the executor claims and
+leases only requests carrying the current version. Raising it therefore makes
+resends of pending requests made under the old version fail with
+`400 unsupported_acknowledgement_version`, and leaves already-admitted
+old-version requests unclaimed in `submitted`. A version bump must ship code
+that keeps admitting replays of, and executing, requests at the prior version
+until none remain in a non-terminal stage.
 
 ## Owner quota