diff --git a/DEVELOPING.md b/DEVELOPING.md
index ae9c84e..1eb669b 100644
--- a/DEVELOPING.md
+++ b/DEVELOPING.md
@@ -2,7 +2,8 @@
 
 Working on the running infrastructure. Assumes `AWS_PROFILE=lance-blue` and a
 checkout of this repo; run `tofu` commands from `envs/lance.blue`. The scripts
-under `scripts/` set their own `AWS_PROFILE` and ignore yours.
+under `scripts/` use whatever working credentials you already have — env var,
+SSO session, instance role, named profile — and fail fast if there are none.
 
 ## A shell on the api host