diff --git a/docs/REUSE.md b/docs/REUSE.md
index f8dbb79..280dc29 100644
--- a/docs/REUSE.md
+++ b/docs/REUSE.md
@@ -72,6 +72,8 @@ it cannot.
   that run is green.
 - `release.yml` — tag, test, build, publish, then read the feed back with no
   credentials to prove a shop can download it.
+- `ci/update-smoke.sh` — install the previous version into a throwaway shop and
+  let WordPress update it by itself. The only check that proves the whole chain.
 - `ci/workflows-in-sync.sh` — fails when the two workflow roots drift, which is
   the only way to notice that a workflow stopped running on Gitea.
 
@@ -88,6 +90,13 @@ and a release with no zip attached both produce a page that looks perfect to
 anyone logged in, and an update that no shop is ever offered. A check that
 sends a token is the false positive that hides exactly that.
 
+**A forge's own download URL is not the address your users can reach.**
+`browser_download_url` is built from the forge's configured root URL;
+`gitea.nolimit.dk` reports `http://57.129.89.117:25001/...` there. The updater
+rebuilds the address from the `Update URI` header and keeps only the path. This
+one hides particularly well: a CI job on the same network reaches that raw IP,
+so following the reported URL goes green and only a real client outside fails.
+
 ## Candidates already in the fleet
 
 `spool` and `subscriptions` are both WooCommerce plugins with some of this
diff --git a/docs/TESTING-AND-RELEASES.md b/docs/TESTING-AND-RELEASES.md
index fee13c4..aef789b 100644
--- a/docs/TESTING-AND-RELEASES.md
+++ b/docs/TESTING-AND-RELEASES.md
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ Three questions, answered by three things in this repository.
 ci/static.sh                  # syntax, hygiene, versions, headers — seconds
 ci/site-test.sh               # a real WordPress + WooCommerce — a few minutes
 ci/build-zip.sh               # what a shop actually installs
+FROM_VERSION=1.4.0 \
+  ci/update-smoke.sh          # let WordPress update itself from the live feed
 ```
 
 `ci/site-test.sh` takes three knobs:
@@ -110,6 +112,31 @@ Two things in there are guards against bugs that are invisible without them:
 
 ---
 
+## Proving an update actually arrives
+
+`ci/update-smoke.sh` installs the **previous** version into a throwaway shop
+and then gets out of the way: WordPress's own update check finds the new one,
+downloads it and installs it.
+
+```sh
+FROM_VERSION=1.4.0 ci/update-smoke.sh
+```
+
+Nothing else can stand in for it. Every piece of the chain can be individually
+correct and the update still not arrive:
+
+- a package URL on an address the shop cannot reach,
+- a zip whose top-level directory is not the plugin slug — which installs a
+  *second* copy beside the first and leaves the old one active,
+- a version WordPress does not consider newer than what is installed.
+
+It checks all three, plus that the plugin is still active afterwards and that
+WordPress stops offering the update once it is applied.
+
+Run it after a release.
+
+---
+
 ## How the automatic updates work
 
 The plugin header carries:
@@ -149,6 +176,28 @@ If you would rather keep the source private, create a separate public repo that
 holds only releases and point `Update URI` at that instead — the updater
 derives everything else from the header, so that is a one-line change.
 
+### The download address is rebuilt, not taken
+
+The updater ignores the `browser_download_url` the API hands back and builds
+the address from the `Update URI` header instead.
+
+That field is filled from the forge's own configured root URL, which is not
+necessarily the address the outside world reaches it on. `gitea.nolimit.dk`
+returns `http://57.129.89.117:25001/...` there — plain HTTP, a raw IP, a
+non-standard port, and around the Cloudflare tunnel in front of it. A shop
+handed that would be downloading plugin code over an unencrypted connection to
+an address nothing guarantees will keep working.
+
+The paths Gitea reports are correct; only the host is wrong. So the host comes
+from the header — the one place that already had to be right for any of this
+to work — and the path is kept.
+
+This is worth knowing because of *how* it hides: a CI job on the same network
+reaches that raw IP perfectly well, so a verification step that follows the
+reported URL goes green. Only a real client outside fails. The release check
+therefore downloads the address **the plugin builds**, and opens the zip to
+confirm it is the plugin rather than an error page with a 200 on it.
+
 ### It reports nothing
 
 The update check sends a plain unauthenticated GET for a file every visitor to