diff --git a/docs/dev/benchmarks.md b/docs/dev/benchmarks.md
index a14a2af..203afee 100644
--- a/docs/dev/benchmarks.md
+++ b/docs/dev/benchmarks.md
@@ -58,8 +58,13 @@ Two of those rows carry a qualifier, and the qualifiers are the point.
 
 **NFR-P1 — catalog open under 2 s.** The measured span is the four things the
 library view cannot paint without: `Catalog::open` (which connects, migrates and
-**backfills**, and the backfill is three passes over the images table on every
-open), `count`, the first 400-row `window`, and the monthly `timeline`. Tagged
+**backfills**, and the backfill is passes over the whole images table), `count`,
+the first 400-row `window`, and the monthly `timeline`. Since 0.17.0 the
+backfill runs on the first open of a catalog in a process and is skipped by
+later ones while nothing has changed ([catalog.md §2](catalog.md)), so
+`catalog_open_ms` includes it and `catalog_open_warm_ms`, the second open in
+the same process, does not — which is what a library reopened in the same
+session costs. Tagged
 `TRACES: NFR-P1` in [`tools/bench/src/catalog_open.rs`](../../tools/bench/src/catalog_open.rs),
 because a build that breaks it fails this gate.
 
diff --git a/tools/bench/src/catalog_open.rs b/tools/bench/src/catalog_open.rs
index 791cc53..f84c40d 100644
--- a/tools/bench/src/catalog_open.rs
+++ b/tools/bench/src/catalog_open.rs
@@ -14,9 +14,9 @@
 //! without:
 //!
 //! 1. [`Catalog::open`] — connect, migrate if needed, and **backfill**. The
-//!    backfill is the interesting one: `schema::backfill` runs on every open
-//!    and is three passes over the images table, so it is O(library) work on a
-//!    path whose budget is stated in absolute seconds.
+//!    backfill is the interesting one: O(library) passes over the images table
+//!    on a path whose budget is in absolute seconds. Since 0.17.0 it runs on the
+//!    first open in a process and is skipped while nothing changed (`backfilled`).
 //! 2. [`Catalog::count`] — the total, which is what sizes the scrollbar.
 //! 3. [`Catalog::window`] — the first screenful of rows.
 //! 4. [`Catalog::timeline`] — the scrubber's buckets, drawn beside the grid