From ba80fac36cb070c94de99e3153d87808afa1a1a9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: l5y <220195275+l5yth@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2025 11:05:08 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Document federation refresh cadence (#401)

---
 README.md | 6 ++++++
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ed8becc..ed6a71b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -113,6 +113,12 @@ ignored and the ingestor will skip discovery tasks. Private mode still takes
 precedence; when `PRIVATE=1`, federation features remain disabled regardless of
 the `FEDERATION` value.
 
+When federation is enabled, PotatoMesh automatically refreshes entries from
+known peers every eight hours to keep the directory current. Instances that
+stop responding are considered stale and are removed from the web frontend after
+72 hours, ensuring visitors only see active deployments in the public
+directory.
+
 ### API
 
 The web app contains an API: