diff --git a/docs/STORAGE.md b/docs/STORAGE.md
index db1e918..e25a78e 100644
--- a/docs/STORAGE.md
+++ b/docs/STORAGE.md
@@ -45,7 +45,19 @@ Before `configure-storage`:
    policy, website endpoint, CDN behavior, or public hostname to the inbox.
 3. Configure a public HTTPS URL for the published bucket. Disable caching, or
    use a deliberately short TTL, for mutable `state/*`. Cache immutable
-   `blob/*` indefinitely.
+   `blob/*` indefinitely. The stale-pointer failure mode is why `state/*` must
+   never be cached: `state/<id>/<phase>/head.json` is a mutable pointer at a
+   fixed key, and a CDN that serves a stale copy leaves participants seeing
+   "not your turn" and witnesses missing the closure window while nothing
+   reports an error. Verify freshness once per origin before a ceremony:
+   write a probe object under `state/`, read it through the public URL,
+   overwrite it, and confirm the very next read returns the new bytes. As
+   measured on 2026-08-20, both guided setups are already safe by
+   construction — CloudFront provisioned with the `CachingDisabled` managed
+   policy and Cloudflare's `r2.dev` origin do not cache at all — which also
+   means neither offloads `blob/*`; enabling `blob/*` caching is a pure
+   optimization, and any change to caching requires re-running the probe
+   check for `state/*`.
 4. Create a coordinator runtime credential that can read, write, and delete in
    the published bucket and list, read, write, and delete in the inbox. Deletes
    are needed only for disposable preflight probes.
@@ -144,6 +156,18 @@ For production, map an ordinary HTTPS hostname controlled by the coordinator,
 such as `https://ceremony.example.org`, to the published bucket. Cloudflare's
 generated `r2.dev` URL is rate-limited and intended for development.
 
+The custom domain is an availability and longevity requirement, not an
+integrity one: every published artifact is content-addressed and verified
+against proof-tool signatures, so no URL can forge anything — it can only
+fail to serve. What the coordinator-controlled hostname buys is immunity to
+`r2.dev` rate limits during timed windows (each participant pulls the full
+prefix and each auditor pulls the whole transcript), and a stable public
+location for the transcript that survives bucket or provider moves for as
+long as audits reference it. A rehearsal on `r2.dev` is fine. Note that a
+custom domain routes through the zone's cache configuration while `r2.dev`
+does not cache at all, so switching to one requires re-running the `state/*`
+freshness check from the common prerequisites.
+
 For a rehearsal, `configure-storage` refreshes the Wrangler OAuth token only
 for its one-time inbox privacy check; later grants and uploads do not require
 Wrangler. Its value is never written to the Machine 1 `.env`. For production
diff --git a/scripts/three-machine-rehearsal/03-coordinator-issue-participant-grant.sh b/scripts/three-machine-rehearsal/03-coordinator-issue-participant-grant.sh
index 2356396..640671f 100755
--- a/scripts/three-machine-rehearsal/03-coordinator-issue-participant-grant.sh
+++ b/scripts/three-machine-rehearsal/03-coordinator-issue-participant-grant.sh
@@ -25,8 +25,8 @@ trap clear_r2_parent_token EXIT
   --storage "$STORAGE_CONFIG" \
   --role participant \
   --identity "$participant_id" \
-  --credential-ttl 1h \
-  --minimum-upload-window 15m \
+  --credential-ttl "${PARTICIPANT_GRANT_TTL:-1h}" \
+  --minimum-upload-window "${PARTICIPANT_GRANT_MIN_UPLOAD_WINDOW:-15m}" \
   --out "$out"
 
 chmod 0600 "$out"
diff --git a/scripts/three-machine-rehearsal/11-coordinator-issue-evidence-grant.sh b/scripts/three-machine-rehearsal/11-coordinator-issue-evidence-grant.sh
index 62f6aaf..24d18b1 100755
--- a/scripts/three-machine-rehearsal/11-coordinator-issue-evidence-grant.sh
+++ b/scripts/three-machine-rehearsal/11-coordinator-issue-evidence-grant.sh
@@ -29,8 +29,8 @@ trap clear_r2_parent_token EXIT
   --storage "$STORAGE_CONFIG" \
   --role "$role" \
   --identity "$identity" \
-  --credential-ttl 1h \
-  --minimum-upload-window 15m \
+  --credential-ttl "${EVIDENCE_GRANT_TTL:-1h}" \
+  --minimum-upload-window "${EVIDENCE_GRANT_MIN_UPLOAD_WINDOW:-15m}" \
   --enrollment "$enrollment" \
   --enrollment-signature "$enrollment_signature" \
   --out "$out"
diff --git a/scripts/three-machine-rehearsal/machine-1/.env.example b/scripts/three-machine-rehearsal/machine-1/.env.example
index 7684def..b901d58 100644
--- a/scripts/three-machine-rehearsal/machine-1/.env.example
+++ b/scripts/three-machine-rehearsal/machine-1/.env.example
@@ -37,6 +37,17 @@ COORDINATOR_PROFILE=relay-ceremony
 # Machines 2 and 3 to observe the closure before the beacon exists.
 REHEARSAL_WITNESS_BUFFER_SECONDS=120
 
+# Grant lifetimes. The tiny rehearsal completes each turn in seconds, so the
+# defaults are deliberately short-lived. A production-sized (K=21) turn can
+# spend the better part of an hour on the contribution alone before its
+# upload starts: raise these accordingly (for example 4h / 30m) when driving
+# a production-sized ceremony with these scripts. R2 grants must stay within
+# the 168h provider limit.
+PARTICIPANT_GRANT_TTL=1h
+PARTICIPANT_GRANT_MIN_UPLOAD_WINDOW=15m
+EVIDENCE_GRANT_TTL=1h
+EVIDENCE_GRANT_MIN_UPLOAD_WINDOW=15m
+
 # AWS-only values. The wrapper reads the region and account ID through AWS CLI
 # and constructs GRANT_ROLE_ARN from GRANT_ROLE_NAME.
 # Recommended: set AWS_REGION explicitly to the region the buckets live in.