diff --git a/app/pubspec.yaml b/app/pubspec.yaml
index ba3d439..0b659e4 100644
--- a/app/pubspec.yaml
+++ b/app/pubspec.yaml
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ name: diet_guard_app
 description: "Companion phone app for diet_guard: log meals on the go."
 publish_to: 'none'
 
-version: 1.0.59+1
+version: 1.0.60+1
 
 environment:
   sdk: ^3.12.2
diff --git a/diet_guard/_constants.py b/diet_guard/_constants.py
index 5cfc995..7ed68c7 100644
--- a/diet_guard/_constants.py
+++ b/diet_guard/_constants.py
@@ -134,13 +134,17 @@ KUCHNIA_COMPANY: str = "kuchniavikinga"
 KUCHNIA_LAUNCHER_TYPE: str = "BROWSER_PANEL"
 # Credentials the user writes by hand, mode 600: e-mail on line 1, password on
 # line 2. Nothing in this package ever writes it, exactly as with
-# SYNC_TOKEN_FILE. Under ~/.config, not DATA_DIR, so it is outside the synced
-# tree -- a credential must never leave the machine it was entered on.
+# SYNC_TOKEN_FILE, and it acts as a local override that wins over the synced
+# copy. Under ~/.config rather than DATA_DIR so it is off the food-log sync
+# path -- but note the credential itself DOES travel between devices now, as
+# its own document (diet_guard.sync_merge._kuchnia); the phone runs its own
+# catering importer and cannot fetch without it.
 KUCHNIA_CREDENTIALS_FILE: Path = (
     Path.home() / ".config" / "diet_guard" / "kuchnia_credentials"
 )
-# The cached SESSION cookie, so a refresh does not re-login every time. Also
-# outside the synced tree, for the same reason.
+# The cached SESSION cookie, so a refresh does not re-login every time. This
+# one genuinely never leaves the machine: it is regenerable from the password,
+# so syncing it would widen exposure and buy nothing.
 KUCHNIA_SESSION_FILE: Path = (
     Path.home() / ".config" / "diet_guard" / "kuchnia_session.json"
 )
diff --git a/diet_guard/_sync_kuchnia.py b/diet_guard/_sync_kuchnia.py
index 4bc2401..af5ba54 100644
--- a/diet_guard/_sync_kuchnia.py
+++ b/diet_guard/_sync_kuchnia.py
@@ -47,20 +47,39 @@ _logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 def _local_credential_log() -> Log:
     """Return this device's contribution to the credential merge.
 
-    Prefers the synced cache, and falls back to the hand-written
-    ``kuchnia_credentials`` when there is no cache yet.  That fallback is what
-    bootstraps the whole feature: the PC is where the password is typed, so
-    without it the PC would never publish and the phone would never receive.
+    Sourced from the synced cache, which carries a real edit time.  Returns an
+    empty ``Log`` when there is no cache, so a device that has never merged
+    contributes nothing rather than competing on a made-up clock.
 
-    The hand-written file's mtime is its edit time.  It is a coarse clock, but
-    it is the only one that file has, and it only has to beat the epoch that an
-    unset peer contributes.
+    The hand-written ``kuchnia_credentials`` deliberately does **not** feed
+    this; see :func:`_bootstrap_credential_log`.
     """
     synced = read_synced_credential()
-    if synced is not None:
-        username, password, edited_at = synced
-        return credential_to_log(username, password, edited_at)
+    if synced is None:
+        return {}
+    username, password, edited_at = synced
+    return credential_to_log(username, password, edited_at)
 
+
+def _bootstrap_credential_log() -> Log:
+    """Return the hand-written credential, for use only when no peer has one.
+
+    The PC is where the password is first typed, so without a bootstrap no
+    device would ever publish and the phone would never receive one.  But this
+    file has no edit time of its own -- only an mtime, which ``git checkout``,
+    a backup restore, or re-running the ``install -m 600`` setup line all bump
+    forward without the credential changing.
+
+    So it is a fallback of *last resort*, applied only when the merge came back
+    empty, rather than a competitor in the LWW race.  Letting it compete on
+    mtime meant a PC whose file had merely been touched could overwrite a
+    password the user had just typed on the phone -- reproduced before this
+    split existed, and now pinned by
+    ``test_a_touched_handwritten_file_cannot_clobber_a_peer``.
+
+    Its stamp is the mtime all the same: something has to go on the wire, and
+    once this has been published the synced cache takes over permanently.
+    """
     # Reached through the module rather than imported by value:
     # `conftest._isolate_state` redirects this attribute on `_kuchnia_config`,
     # and importing the constant straight from `_constants` silently bypasses
@@ -108,6 +127,12 @@ def _sync_kuchnia_credential(
                 device_id,
             )
 
+    if not merged:
+        # Nobody -- not this device's cache, not any peer -- has a credential
+        # yet. Only now does the hand-written file get to speak, so its
+        # untrustworthy mtime can never outrank a real edit from a peer.
+        merged = _bootstrap_credential_log()
+
     resolved = log_to_credential(merged)
     if resolved is None:
         return
diff --git a/diet_guard/tests/test_sync_kuchnia.py b/diet_guard/tests/test_sync_kuchnia.py
index 7e2a55a..4f0cbc3 100644
--- a/diet_guard/tests/test_sync_kuchnia.py
+++ b/diet_guard/tests/test_sync_kuchnia.py
@@ -11,13 +11,18 @@ The behaviours worth pinning are the ones whose failure is silent:
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import json
+import time
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
 from unittest.mock import MagicMock
 
 from crdt_sync import Hlc, Record
 
 import diet_guard._kuchnia_credential_store as store
-from diet_guard._sync_kuchnia import _local_credential_log, _sync_kuchnia_credential
+from diet_guard._sync_kuchnia import (
+    _bootstrap_credential_log,
+    _local_credential_log,
+    _sync_kuchnia_credential,
+)
 from diet_guard.sync_merge._kuchnia import (
     KUCHNIA_RECORD_ID,
     PASSWORD_FIELD_NAME,
@@ -145,11 +150,11 @@ def test_a_missing_peer_file_is_skipped() -> None:
     )
 
 
-def test_the_synced_cache_wins_over_the_handwritten_file() -> None:
-    """Once a merge has resolved, that is what this device contributes.
+def test_the_synced_cache_is_what_this_device_contributes() -> None:
+    """The hand-written file never competes in the merge.
 
-    Otherwise the hand-written file -- a deliberately *local* override -- would
-    be republished to every peer on every tick.
+    It is a deliberately *local* override; republishing it on every tick would
+    push a machine-local value to every peer.
     """
     store.write_synced_credential("synced@example.com", "synced-pass", _EDITED)
     _write_handwritten("local@example.com\nlocal-pass\n")
@@ -157,16 +162,60 @@ def test_the_synced_cache_wins_over_the_handwritten_file() -> None:
     assert log[KUCHNIA_RECORD_ID].fields[USERNAME_FIELD_NAME][0] == "synced@example.com"
 
 
-def test_a_malformed_handwritten_file_contributes_nothing() -> None:
+def test_no_cache_contributes_nothing() -> None:
+    """A device that has never merged competes on no clock at all."""
+    _write_handwritten("local@example.com\nlocal-pass\n")
+    assert _local_credential_log() == {}
+
+
+def test_a_malformed_handwritten_file_bootstraps_nothing() -> None:
     """A one-line credentials file is unusable, not a crash."""
     _write_handwritten("only-a-username\n")
-    assert _local_credential_log() == {}
+    assert _bootstrap_credential_log() == {}
 
 
-def test_no_handwritten_file_and_no_cache_contributes_nothing() -> None:
-    """A device that has never seen the password contributes an empty log.
+def test_no_handwritten_file_bootstraps_nothing() -> None:
+    """The normal state of a freshly installed second device."""
+    assert _bootstrap_credential_log() == {}
 
-    Distinct from the malformed-file case below: here the file is absent
-    entirely, which is the normal state of a freshly installed second device.
+
+def test_a_touched_handwritten_file_cannot_clobber_a_peer() -> None:
+    """A bumped mtime must not overwrite a password just set on the phone.
+
+    ``git checkout``, a backup restore, or re-running the ``install -m 600``
+    setup line all move the credentials file's mtime forward without the
+    credential changing. When that mtime competed in the LWW race, the PC won
+    it against a genuinely newer phone edit and the user's new password
+    silently reverted -- reproduced before the bootstrap was split out of
+    ``_local_credential_log``.
     """
-    assert _local_credential_log() == {}
+    # A hand-written file "touched" just now, and no local cache yet.
+    _write_handwritten("pc@example.com\nstale-pc-pass\n")
+    assert store.read_synced_credential() is None
+
+    # The phone set a new password an hour ago -- older wall time, newer edit.
+    phone_ms = int((time.time() - 3600) * 1000)
+    client = _client(
+        {
+            "diet-guard-sync/devices/phone/kuchnia.json": _peer_push(
+                "phone@example.com", "new-phone-pass", phone_ms
+            )
+        }
+    )
+    _sync_kuchnia_credential(client, ["phone"])
+
+    cached = store.read_synced_credential()
+    assert cached is not None
+    assert cached[1] == "new-phone-pass", (
+        "the PC's touched credentials file outranked a real phone edit"
+    )
+
+
+def test_the_bootstrap_still_runs_when_no_peer_has_one() -> None:
+    """Last resort, but still a resort: someone has to publish first."""
+    _write_handwritten("pc@example.com\nhunter2\n")
+    client = _client()
+    _sync_kuchnia_credential(client, ["phone"])
+    cached = store.read_synced_credential()
+    assert cached is not None
+    assert cached[1] == "hunter2"
diff --git a/docs/kuchnia-wikinga.md b/docs/kuchnia-wikinga.md
index e551874..bdfa618 100644
--- a/docs/kuchnia-wikinga.md
+++ b/docs/kuchnia-wikinga.md
@@ -87,9 +87,36 @@ the parser refuses rather than importing a plausible-looking lie.
 
 ## Credentials
 
-Two files under `~/.config/diet_guard/`, both mode 600, both **outside** the
-synced tree — a password and a live session cookie must not travel to another
-device.
+Three files under `~/.config/diet_guard/`, all mode 600. They are outside
+`DATA_DIR` so they stay off the *food-log* sync path — but one of them, the
+credential itself, **does travel between devices**.
+
+**The password syncs, in plaintext.** The phone runs its own importer and
+cannot fetch without it, and a phone that has been wiped needs it back without
+the user digging out the original. It rides its own document
+(`diet_guard/sync_merge/_kuchnia.py`, `devices/<id>/kuchnia.json`), not the
+budget record — `budget.json` is written back at default permissions, so a
+password inside it would be readable by anything that reads the budget. Nothing
+encrypts it, and the rest of the synced state is not encrypted either, so do
+not describe it as "encrypted like everything else". This is a deliberate
+trade: the alternative was a phone that cannot fetch at all, and the blast
+radius is a catering menu and a delivery address.
+
+**The session cookie does not sync.** It is regenerable from the password, so
+copying it around would widen exposure and buy nothing.
+
+| file | written by | syncs? |
+|---|---|---|
+| `kuchnia_credentials` | the user, by hand | no — a local override, and the bootstrap for the first push |
+| `kuchnia_synced_credential.json` | the sync layer | **yes**, as its own record |
+| `kuchnia_session.json` | the client, on login | no |
+
+`kuchnia_credentials` wins over the synced copy when present, so a machine-local
+override always works. It is never *pushed*, though — only used to bootstrap
+when no device has published a credential yet. Its mtime is the only edit time
+it has, and `git checkout`, a backup restore or re-running the `install` line
+below all bump it without the credential changing; letting that compete in the
+merge let a merely-touched file overwrite a password just typed on the phone.
 
 ```bash
 install -m 600 /dev/null ~/.config/diet_guard/kuchnia_credentials