diff --git a/docs/reviews/003-wave-5-general-review.md b/docs/reviews/003-wave-5-general-review.md
index 3bf8c4e..20b6dfe 100644
--- a/docs/reviews/003-wave-5-general-review.md
+++ b/docs/reviews/003-wave-5-general-review.md
@@ -40,6 +40,32 @@ SKIP posture, but reviewers should set the env before believing a pg
 claim: this review's first baseline run reported zero pg tests executed
 (25 suite tests "passing" in 0.02 s).
 
+## Env-variable boundary (verified — family posture)
+
+The alk* family rule is "nothing important goes in env vars" (alkvault
+README), with the alkhttp spelling as the wire-facing case ("no handler
+reads `std::env::var`"). Verified this session by grep across the whole
+workspace: **every `env::var` read lives in a test target** — the pg
+gate modules (`store/*_tests.rs`, `tests/schema_tests.rs`,
+`tests/contract_suite.rs`). Production paths (`alkstore/src`, both
+engines' machinery, the contract suite, the constructors) are env-free
+— the only `std::env` uses in the other crates are `std::env::temp_dir()`
+inside test modules for temp-file paths, not configuration.
+Configuration reaches production exclusively through `PgOpts` /
+`SqliteOpts` / DSN arguments passed by the caller's own config layer
+(`engine-postgres.md`, ADR-008 §6; deployment.md's config table carries
+no env entry) — the engines never consult the process environment, so
+no credential (or any setting) can arrive implicitly.
+
+For wave 6 (release readiness / prepublish) this boundary is an
+explicit re-check item, not a settled fact: re-run the
+no-env-in-production grep, and pin the boundary in the engine specs /
+deployment matrix in one sentence ("env reads are harness-only;
+production configuration is the opts-constructor surface"). Should a
+future consumer-facing surface ever want env conveniences, the family
+pattern is caller-side: the app's own config layer reads env (or
+vault/config file) and hands the store's opts its values.
+
 ## Verdict
 
 **No correctness or security defects found; wave 5's deliverables are
@@ -214,4 +240,6 @@ No changes required to keep wave 5's verdict standing. For wave 6's
 window: Finding 1 is a decomposable small task (transient-fault seam +
 retry/exhaustion pin); Findings 2–3 can ride the same task or be
 accepted with the code-read as their pin — either way the disposition
-should be recorded. Findings 4–5 need no work.
\ No newline at end of file
+should be recorded. Findings 4–5 need no work. The env-variable
+boundary section above folds into wave 6's release-readiness pass as a
+verified-now / re-check-at-prepublish item.
\ No newline at end of file