diff --git a/.loom/event-log.md b/.loom/event-log.md
index a59503e..54cf87c 100644
--- a/.loom/event-log.md
+++ b/.loom/event-log.md
@@ -688,3 +688,29 @@ external, discard does not mean the change goes away** — *the upstream moved
 whatever we do* — **so discarding is really "knowingly stale", and nothing
 currently records that choice.** *If people discard often, that silence is the
 next defect.*
+
+## 2026-09-07 — declined: a separate `adopt` verb `marmalade`
+
+**Considered:** *`loomctl external adopt <path> <url>`* — **a command whose job is
+to say "this copy came from there"**, *for a document that is present but
+unlocked.* **Both parties reached the deadlock independently and this was the
+other way out.**
+
+**Not done, because the byte comparison makes the verb unnecessary.** *Whatever
+the command is called, it must not trust the claim* — **it has to fetch and
+compare, because the whole point is that nobody knows whether the local copy is
+still a copy.** *Once it does that, it is `add` with an origin supplied, and the
+user's intent in both cases is the same sentence: **I depend on this document and
+here is where it lives.***
+
+**And a verb earns its place by naming an act, not a state.** *"Present but
+unlocked" is a condition a repository is temporarily in* — **a permanent command
+for it advertises a transitional situation as a normal one.**
+
+**Belief that could be shown wrong:** *that the condition is transitional.* **If
+people and agents keep dropping documents into `externals/` by hand — and they
+will — it is a recurring category and not a migration**, *and then it deserves its
+own word, discoverable in `--help` rather than found in a hint.*
+
+*The domain word survives regardless: `externals` says adopting is fetching a URL,
+and the tool says `adopted` throughout.*
diff --git a/internal/external/external.go b/internal/external/external.go
index fa0c285..a2ac422 100644
--- a/internal/external/external.go
+++ b/internal/external/external.go
@@ -311,7 +311,7 @@ func checkUnlocked(cfg *config.Config, root, rel string, locks *lock.Set, open b
 	// Without a lock we have no origin, and the path does not round-trip to a
 	// URL, so there is nothing to ask and nowhere to ask it. Supplying the URL
 	// through add is the only way out.
-	return Status{rel, "unlocked", "no origin recorded — `loomctl external add <url>` supplies it"}, 0
+	return Status{rel, "unlocked", "no origin recorded — `loomctl external add <url>` supplies it without rewriting this copy"}, 0
 }
 
 func usagesNote(root, rel string) string {