diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
index 9925ed8..ccab0bc 100644
--- a/.env.example
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ JARVIS_PORT=8080
 #
 # If they are missing or too short the instance says so loudly in its logs and leaves setup
 # OUTSTANDING rather than completing — an instance marked installed with no account is one nobody
-# can ever get into, and the claim window is gated on setup being unfinished, so there would be no
+# can ever get into, and the claim is gated on setup being unfinished, so there would be no
 # way back. Falling through to the ordinary install screen is strictly better than that.
 #
 #JARVIS_ADMIN_EMAIL=
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 5fb4c80..8487bf2 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -9,6 +9,21 @@ one of them changed. An entry says which artefact and which version, so `web 0.1
 Every version published to a channel appears here. Nothing is written from memory afterwards: a build
 cannot be published without its entry.
 
+## 2026-08-24 — The claim no longer expires `api 0.89.0` `web 0.112.0`
+
+**The thirty-minute window on the install screen is gone.** There is no countdown, no "the window
+has closed", and no more restarting the api container to open another one. The first account created
+still owns the instance; it can now be created whenever you get to it.
+
+**Which means the exposure is yours to manage, and we would rather say so than let a timer imply it.**
+Until somebody creates that first account, anyone who reaches this instance can. The gap that matters
+is between `docker compose up -d` and you opening a browser — so keep it short, and prefer pointing
+a public hostname at the instance _after_ you have installed rather than before.
+
+Everything else about the claim is unchanged, including the part that protects you where a timer
+never did: an instance whose database has gone missing still costs the last characters of your vault
+master key to claim, because from the outside it is indistinguishable from a new one.
+
 ## 2026-08-24 — Losing your database no longer puts your instance up for grabs `api 0.88.0` `web 0.111.0`
 
 **If your database is ever lost or replaced, your instance was claimable by whoever loaded the page
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 3b0f3a8..8f5941c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -193,27 +193,25 @@ else has a "later" that costs nothing.
 Everything it asks is a setting you can change afterwards from an ordinary screen. Nothing it asks
 needs a container restart to change.
 
-### The claim window
+### Install it when you deploy it
 
-**A brand-new instance can be claimed for 30 minutes after it starts, and the first account created
-owns it.** That is why the install screen shows a countdown.
+**Until somebody creates the first account, anyone who reaches this instance can.** There is no
+deadline on that and no token to find: the first account created owns the instance, and the claim is
+open for as long as nobody has taken it.
 
-This replaces something worse. Jarvis used to accept exactly one registration on an instance with no
-users and make that account super-admin — so a freshly deployed instance reachable from the internet
-belonged to whoever found it first, on a product that holds SSH keys and opens shells on your
-clients' servers. The window closes that.
+So the gap that matters is between `docker compose up -d` and you opening a browser. Keep it short.
+If you are pointing a public hostname at this, point it after you have installed, or install through
+the host's own address first — the setting is editable afterwards.
 
-If you miss it, nothing is lost. Restart the api container to open another:
-
-```sh
-docker compose restart api
-```
+If you would rather it were not open at all until you say so, do not publish the address yet: the
+install screen is served by the same web container as everything else, and a Jarvis nobody can reach
+is a Jarvis nobody can claim.
 
 **Losing your database does not put your instance up for grabs.** An instance whose database has gone
 missing looks exactly like a brand-new one from the outside — no accounts, no completed setup — while
-sitting on a hostname the world already knows. On that instance the window still opens, so you can
-get back in, but creating the first administrator costs the last characters of your vault master key.
-You have it; nobody else does. A genuine first installation is never asked for it.
+sitting on a hostname the world already knows. On that one the claim still opens, so you can get back
+in, but creating the first administrator costs the last characters of your vault master key. You have
+it; nobody else does. A genuine first installation is never asked for it.
 
 ### The one thing to do afterwards
 
@@ -439,7 +437,6 @@ wrong on the screen that asks for it.
 | Symptom | Cause |
 | --- | --- |
 | Every page redirects to an install screen | This instance has not been installed yet. That is the wizard, not an error. |
-| The install screen says the claim window has closed | Nobody claimed it within 30 minutes of boot. `docker compose restart api` opens another. |
 | The assistant answers "this instance has no model configured" | Exactly that. **Settings → Platform → Model**, where the test button will tell you what the provider thinks. |
 | api restarts in a loop, logs `Invalid environment configuration` | A value you set yourself is wrong. Only the database, Redis and the vault key are validated at boot now. |
 | The sign-in page loads but cannot sign in | The stored public address is not the one the browser used, scheme included. Change it under **Settings → Platform**. |
@@ -507,10 +504,9 @@ SQL
 Enrol a new factor as soon as you are back in, and note that this leaves no audit trail of its own —
 the trail is your shell history.
 
-**Re-running the install wizard is not a recovery route.** Its claim window only opens on an instance
-with no users and no completed setup, so on a working deployment it will refuse — and making it
-refuse less by clearing those columns by hand would hand your live instance to whoever reaches it
-first.
+**Re-running the install wizard is not a recovery route.** The claim is open only on an instance with
+no users and no completed setup, so on a working deployment it refuses — and making it refuse less by
+clearing those columns by hand would hand your live instance to whoever reaches it first.
 
 ### Moving the instance to a new address