diff --git a/kubernetes/apps/trmnl/renderer.yaml b/kubernetes/apps/trmnl/renderer.yaml
index 0ee7b019..88f47ea4 100644
--- a/kubernetes/apps/trmnl/renderer.yaml
+++ b/kubernetes/apps/trmnl/renderer.yaml
@@ -154,13 +154,18 @@ spec:
               set -eu
               # obtained_at is stamped at write time, in MILLISECONDS.
               # It is not cosmetic: the scheduler derives token age from
-              # it, and a literal 0 in the template made the app treat
-              # freshly-minted tokens as ancient and refuse to push —
+              # it, and a literal 0 made the app treat freshly-minted
+              # tokens as ancient and skip the webhook entirely —
               #   "BYOS tokens ... expired beyond the refresh window"
-              # — with no render attempt and no error, just a warning at
-              # startup. Stamping it here is honest enough: stock
-              # Terminus disables session expiry and issues effectively
-              # permanent tokens, so age is not load-bearing.
+              #
+              # Stamping it "now" is only safe because Terminus is
+              # configured with API_ACCESS_TOKEN_PERIOD = 10 years (see
+              # terminus.yaml). Against the 30-minute default it would be
+              # actively harmful: the app would believe a stale token had
+              # 30 fresh minutes left, skip its proactive refresh, and
+              # then be unable to recover, because refreshing requires a
+              # still-valid token. If that setting is ever reverted, this
+              # must become a real mint time carried alongside the tokens.
               jq --arg at "$BYOS_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
                  --arg rt "$BYOS_REFRESH_TOKEN" \
                  '(.[].webhook_format.byosConfig.auth.access_token) = $at
diff --git a/kubernetes/apps/trmnl/terminus.yaml b/kubernetes/apps/trmnl/terminus.yaml
index 339d7ee3..5cc5d3bc 100644
--- a/kubernetes/apps/trmnl/terminus.yaml
+++ b/kubernetes/apps/trmnl/terminus.yaml
@@ -18,6 +18,41 @@ data:
   # pool (fd99::/120) and the LAN ULA — without it every IPv6 client,
   # including the device and Traefik, is rate-limited as if it were remote.
   RACK_ATTACK_ALLOWED_SUBNETS: "10.0.0.0/8,172.16.0.0/12,192.168.0.0/16,127.0.0.1,::1,fc00::/7"
+  # 10 years, against a default of 1800s (30 minutes).
+  #
+  # Documented upstream in doc/configuration.adoc:
+  #   API_ACCESS_TOKEN_PERIOD — "The amount of time, in seconds, the JWT
+  #   access token remains valid before needing to refresh your access
+  #   token." Default: 1,800 seconds (30 minutes).
+  # Corroborated on this instance: a token minted here was rejected about
+  # thirty minutes later, i.e. the documented default behaving as written.
+  #
+  # This exists for the renderer, which pushes screens to /api/screens with
+  # a JWT held in OpenBao. At the default period that arrangement cannot
+  # work unattended, and it fails in a way that has no recovery: minting a
+  # replacement token via POST /api/jwt requires a still-VALID access token
+  # in the Authorization header, so once one expires it cannot be refreshed
+  # from itself. Observed exactly that on first deploy —
+  #   [webhook] Webhook failed: 400 {"error":"expired JWT access token"}
+  #   [webhook] BYOS auth: refresh failed (400) {"error":"expired JWT ..."}
+  # — the refresh attempt being rejected by the very expiry it was trying
+  # to repair.
+  #
+  # The renderer's own code assumes "stock Terminus disables session
+  # expiration and issues effectively permanent tokens". That is simply not
+  # true of this deployment, so the assumption is made true here rather
+  # than worked around in the client.
+  #
+  # The trade is deliberate: a long-lived JWT with full Terminus API rights
+  # now sits in OpenBao. Accepted because the alternative was putting the
+  # Terminus account PASSWORD into the cluster so an init container could
+  # mint a short-lived token on every pod start, which is a strictly worse
+  # secret to hold. The token is revocable by rotating the account's
+  # credentials; it grants access only to this LAN-only instance.
+  #
+  # NOTE: the period is fixed at mint time. Changing this does not extend
+  # tokens that already exist — they must be re-minted afterwards.
+  API_ACCESS_TOKEN_PERIOD: "315360000"
 ---
 apiVersion: apps/v1
 kind: Deployment
@@ -26,6 +61,20 @@ metadata:
   namespace: trmnl
   labels:
     app.kubernetes.io/name: terminus
+  annotations:
+    # terminus-config is consumed via envFrom, and env vars are read ONCE at
+    # container start — Kubernetes does not hot-reload them. The ConfigMap is
+    # a plain resource, not a configMapGenerator, so editing it does not
+    # change the pod template hash and Flux will not roll the pods either.
+    # Without this annotation a ConfigMap-only change (such as raising
+    # API_ACCESS_TOKEN_PERIOD) applies to git and to the ConfigMap object
+    # while the running app keeps the old value indefinitely — a silent
+    # no-op, with the manifest and reality disagreeing.
+    #
+    # Named per-ConfigMap rather than the blanket `reloader.stakater.com/
+    # auto: "true"`, matching mosquitto-deployment.yaml: enrolling anything
+    # further stays a visible, reviewable edit to this line.
+    configmap.reloader.stakater.com/reload: terminus-config
 spec:
   replicas: 1
   # RWO PVC shared by both containers in this pod, and APP_SETUP runs
diff --git a/kubernetes/infrastructure/openbao/rotation/kustomization.yaml b/kubernetes/infrastructure/openbao/rotation/kustomization.yaml
index dc26fe3f..5eaf696d 100644
--- a/kubernetes/infrastructure/openbao/rotation/kustomization.yaml
+++ b/kubernetes/infrastructure/openbao/rotation/kustomization.yaml
@@ -59,3 +59,22 @@ resources:
   - review-bot.yaml
   - claude-oauth.yaml
   - mosquitto-health.yaml
+# NOT ROTATED, deliberately — recorded here because the whole point of this
+# directory is that unrotated credentials should be a visible choice:
+#
+#   homelab/apps/trmnl/renderer → BYOS_ACCESS_TOKEN / BYOS_REFRESH_TOKEN
+#     Terminus API JWTs used by the e-ink renderer to push screens. Terminus
+#     is configured with API_ACCESS_TOKEN_PERIOD = 10 years
+#     (kubernetes/apps/trmnl/terminus.yaml), so nothing will ever expire
+#     these or prompt a rotation. That is deliberate: the alternative was
+#     holding the Terminus account password in-cluster to mint short-lived
+#     tokens per pod start. There is no rotator because minting requires the
+#     account password, which is exactly what we declined to store.
+#     Rotate BY HAND whenever the Terminus account password changes, by
+#     re-running POST /login and re-seeding both keys.
+#
+#     HA_ACCESS_TOKEN in the same path is a dedicated Home Assistant
+#     long-lived token. `ha-token` mode in secret-rotator already handles
+#     this class (see home-assistant.yaml) — enrolling it is a genuine
+#     follow-up, not a limitation, and would leave only the BYOS pair
+#     unrotated.