diff --git a/docker/android/package.sh b/docker/android/package.sh
index 7c8fa1b..f23de76 100755
--- a/docker/android/package.sh
+++ b/docker/android/package.sh
@@ -68,11 +68,36 @@ SO="${CACHE}/target/jniLibs/${ABI}/libdarkroom.so"
 # at /work and the cache's target directory at /work/target-android, so every
 # default in that script already points at the right place.
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+#
+# Release signing, when asked for. assemble-apk.sh selects it by the presence
+# of KEYSTORE_PASS (see its header), and the keystore has to be reachable from
+# inside the container, so a host path in KEYSTORE is copied under the mounted
+# target directory for the duration of the build and removed after. The
+# passwords travel as environment, never as arguments -- docs/android-signing.md
+# has the incantation.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 echo "==> packaging APK"
+SIGNING_ENV=()
+CONTAINER_KEYSTORE=""
+if [[ -n "${KEYSTORE_PASS:-}" ]]; then
+    [[ -f "${KEYSTORE:-}" ]] || { echo "error: KEYSTORE_PASS is set but KEYSTORE is not a file" >&2; exit 1; }
+    install -m 600 "${KEYSTORE}" "${CACHE}/target/release.keystore"
+    CONTAINER_KEYSTORE="${CACHE}/target/release.keystore"
+    SIGNING_ENV=(
+        KEYSTORE=/work/target-android/release.keystore
+        KEYSTORE_PASS="${KEYSTORE_PASS}"
+        KEY_PASS="${KEY_PASS:-${KEYSTORE_PASS}}"
+        KEY_ALIAS="${KEY_ALIAS:?KEY_ALIAS is required when KEYSTORE_PASS is set}"
+    )
+fi
 "${HERE}/build.sh" env \
     ABI="${ABI}" RUST_TARGET="${RUST_TARGET}" \
     DARKROOM_DEBUGGABLE="${DARKROOM_DEBUGGABLE:-}" \
+    "${SIGNING_ENV[@]}" \
     /work/docker/android/assemble-apk.sh
+if [[ -n "${CONTAINER_KEYSTORE}" ]]; then
+    rm -f "${CONTAINER_KEYSTORE}"
+fi
 
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # 3. Install from the host.
diff --git a/docs/android-signing.md b/docs/android-signing.md
index 2bffe84..e9a61d4 100644
--- a/docs/android-signing.md
+++ b/docs/android-signing.md
@@ -35,6 +35,22 @@ beyond telling everybody to uninstall and reinstall.
 line, which keeps them out of shell history. Back the `.jks` up somewhere that
 is not this repository and not the machine that builds it.
 
+**The key exists, since 2026-09-11.** It was made as above, with a random
+password, and the four secrets are loaded. The local copy is at
+`~/.config/darkroom/signing/` on the development desktop — `darkroom-release.jks`
+beside `storepass` and `keypass`, all mode 600 in a mode 700 directory. That
+copy is what `package.sh` can sign with locally:
+
+    D=~/.config/darkroom/signing
+    KEYSTORE="$D/darkroom-release.jks" KEYSTORE_PASS="$(cat "$D/storepass")" \
+        KEY_ALIAS=darkroom ./docker/android/package.sh --install
+
+Before it existed, every build — CI and local alike — was signed with a
+throwaway debug key, and a debug key is exactly as durable as the cache
+directory it lives in: the local one was regenerated the night the cache was
+cleared, at which point no build anywhere could install over the device's copy.
+Any device that received a build from before this date has to uninstall once.
+
 ## Loading the secrets
 
     base64 -w0 darkroom-release.jks > /tmp/ks.b64