diff --git a/src/agents/auth-profiles/order.ts b/src/agents/auth-profiles/order.ts
index 677c29069..d5c954147 100644
--- a/src/agents/auth-profiles/order.ts
+++ b/src/agents/auth-profiles/order.ts
@@ -4,6 +4,26 @@ import { listProfilesForProvider } from "./profiles.js";
 import type { AuthProfileStore } from "./types.js";
 import { isProfileInCooldown } from "./usage.js";
 
+/*
+ * Profile Ordering Design
+ * ───────────────────────
+ * Profile ordering is intentionally MODEL-AGNOSTIC. This module answers:
+ * "Which auth profiles should we try for this provider?"
+ *
+ * Per-model cooldown filtering happens DOWNSTREAM in model-fallback.ts,
+ * which calls isProfileInCooldown(store, profileId, model) for each candidate.
+ *
+ * Why two layers?
+ * 1. Profile layer (here): Selects credentials based on provider, type preference,
+ *    round-robin (lastUsed), and profile-level cooldowns (auth failures).
+ * 2. Model layer (model-fallback.ts): Filters by per-model rate limits before
+ *    each API call attempt.
+ *
+ * This separation exists because:
+ * - Auth credentials (API keys/tokens) are profile-level
+ * - Rate limits are often model-level (e.g., gpt-5.2 has quota, gpt-5-mini unlimited)
+ */
+
 function resolveProfileUnusableUntil(stats: {
   cooldownUntil?: number;
   disabledUntil?: number;
diff --git a/src/agents/auth-profiles/usage.ts b/src/agents/auth-profiles/usage.ts
index 0514ccc8d..2cab9a729 100644
--- a/src/agents/auth-profiles/usage.ts
+++ b/src/agents/auth-profiles/usage.ts
@@ -87,7 +87,13 @@ export function isProfileInCooldown(
 /**
  * Mark a profile as successfully used. Resets error count and updates lastUsed.
  * Uses store lock to avoid overwriting concurrent usage updates.
- * When model is provided, also clears the per-model cooldown.
+ *
+ * Success metrics (lastUsed, lastGood) are ALWAYS updated at the profile level,
+ * regardless of which model was used. This is intentional: if ANY model works,
+ * the credentials are valid and the profile should be remembered as "good".
+ *
+ * When model is provided, also clears the per-model cooldown (if one exists).
+ * This allows a recovered model to be used immediately without waiting for expiry.
  */
 export async function markAuthProfileUsed(params: {
   store: AuthProfileStore;