diff --git a/docs/src/bootc-via-api.md b/docs/src/bootc-via-api.md
index fdfdf793..94438b13 100644
--- a/docs/src/bootc-via-api.md
+++ b/docs/src/bootc-via-api.md
@@ -4,27 +4,67 @@ At the current time, bootc is primarily intended to be
 driven via a fork/exec model. The core CLI verbs
 are stable and will not change.
 
-## Using `bootc edit` and `bootc status --json`
+The core API is meant to be used as a "state machine": run a command,
+such as `bootc upgrade --check` or `bootc switch`, and then query the
+updated state with `bootc status --json`. The status command contains all
+relevant state about the current deployment, including cached results
+from `bootc upgrade --check`.
+
+## `bootc status` JSON Schema
+
+`bootc status --json --format-version=1` outputs a machine-readable JSON
+that contains all relevant information about the current
+deployment. This API is considered stable. You can find a
+[JSON schema](https://json-schema.org/) describing the
+version `org.containers.bootc/v1` here:
+[host-v1.schema.json](host-v1.schema.json). This schema was generated
+directly from the Rust bootc code.
+You can either reference or feed it to a code generator such as
+[go-jsonschema](https://github.com/omissis/go-jsonschema) to generate
+client bindings.
+
+In order to be forwards compatible with a future introduction of
+a v2 or newer format, please include an explicit version in your
+status request with `--format-version=1` as referenced above.
+(Available since bootc 0.1.15, `--format-version=0` in bootc 0.1.14).
+
+## Interactive progress with `--json-fd`
+
+While the `bootc status` tooling allows a client to discover the state
+of the system, during interactive changes such as `bootc upgrade`
+or `bootc switch` it is possible to monitor the status of downloads
+or other operations at a fine-grained level with `--json-fd`.
+
+The format of data output over `--json-fd` is [JSON Lines](https://jsonlines.org)
+which is a series of JSON objects separated by newlines (the intermediate
+JSON content is guaranteed not to contain a literal newline).
+
+The current API version is `org.containers.bootc/progress/v1`. You can find
+the JSON schema describing this version here:
+[progress-v1.schema.json](progress-v1.schema.json).
+
+Deploying a new image with either switch or upgrade consists
+of three stages: `pulling`, `importing`, and `staging`. The `pulling` step
+downloads the image from the registry, offering per-layer and progress in
+each message. The `importing` step imports the image into storage and consists
+of a single step. Finally, `staging` runs a variety of staging
+tasks. Currently, they are staging the image to disk, pulling bound images,
+and removing old images.
+
+Note that new stages or fields may be added at any time.
+
+Importing and staging are affected by disk speed and the total image size. Pulling
+is affected by network speed and how many layers invalidate between pulls.
+Therefore, a large image with a good caching strategy will have longer
+importing and staging times, and a small bespoke container image will have
+negligible importing and staging times.
+
+## Using `bootc edit`
 
 While bootc does not depend on Kubernetes, it does currently
-also offere a Kubernetes *style* API, especially oriented
+also offer a Kubernetes *style* API, especially oriented
 towards the [spec and status and other conventions](https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/using-api/api-concepts/).
 
 In general, most use cases of driving bootc via API are probably
 most easily done by forking off `bootc upgrade` when desired,
 and viewing `bootc status --json --format-version=1`.
-
-## JSON Schema
-
-The current API `org.containers.bootc/v1` is stable.
-In order to support the future introduction of a v2
-or newer format, please change your code now to explicitly
-request `--format-version=1` as referenced above. (Available
-since bootc 0.1.15, `--format-version=0` in bootc 0.1.14).
-
-There is a [JSON schema](https://json-schema.org/) generated from
-the Rust source code available here: [host-v1.schema.json](host-v1.schema.json).
-
-A common way to use this is to run a code generator such as
-[go-jsonschema](https://github.com/omissis/go-jsonschema) on the
-input schema.