diff --git a/docs/jobq.md b/docs/jobq.md
index fd96a960..43d0e2be 100644
--- a/docs/jobq.md
+++ b/docs/jobq.md
@@ -1,14 +1,40 @@
 # The job queue, for operators
 
 Every container operation — rebuild, first-spawn, a config-PR deploy,
-power changes — runs through one shared job queue. This page explains what
-you see when you watch it: the **BU1LDS** page's R3BU1LD QU3U3 (see
-[`web-ui/dashboard.md`](web-ui/dashboard.md)) and swarm-ui's `/jobs` page
-both render the same underlying graph. For the engineering internals
+power changes — runs through one shared job queue. This page has two
+parts: what the job queue *is*, as a general idea, and what hive-c0re
+specifically uses it for — the step labels you actually see on the
+**BU1LDS** page's R3BU1LD QU3U3 (see
+[`web-ui/dashboard.md`](web-ui/dashboard.md)) and swarm-ui's `/jobs` page,
+which both render the same underlying graph. For the engineering internals
 (scheduler, leases, resource windows) see [`coordinator.md`](coordinator.md)
 instead — this page stays at the level of "what does this step mean," not
 "how is it implemented."
 
+## What the job queue is, in the abstract
+
+"jobq" is a generic engine for running many interdependent jobs under
+limited concurrency — it has no idea what a "container" or a "rebuild" is.
+Two ideas are all there is to it:
+
+- **A job is a small graph of steps**, not one opaque blob. Steps can
+  depend on each other (this step only starts once that one finishes), so
+  a big operation is really a short, ordered sequence — not a single
+  black box that's either "done" or "not done."
+- **A step can need a shared resource**, which only so many steps can hold
+  at once (a "slot"). If every currently-running step already holds the
+  slots it needs, a new step that wants the same one waits its turn —
+  that's the whole reason things queue instead of all firing at once.
+
+The engine's whole job is: whenever a step's ordering and resource needs
+are both satisfied, run it. It has no opinion on what the steps *do* —
+that's supplied by whoever builds the graph. hive-c0re is the one thing
+building graphs on it today (there's nothing stopping another subsystem
+from using the same engine for its own unrelated queue), and it always
+builds them from one fixed catalogue of step kinds — that catalogue is
+"the core-specific nodes" in the next section, and is as close to the
+implementation as this page gets.
+
 ## Operations and steps
 
 Each **row** in the queue view is one operation you asked for (or that the
@@ -30,7 +56,10 @@ shows one of:
 A step's label is a short, fixed word — `Prebuild`, `Swap`, `Reconcile`,
 and so on. The table below is what each one means, in plain terms.
 
-## What each step does
+## The core-specific nodes
+
+Every step you'll actually see comes from hive-c0re's fixed catalogue —
+what each one means, in plain terms, no internals:
 
 | Label                | What it means                                                                                             |
 | --------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |