diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 0d73aa6..2c988d5 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -13,11 +13,13 @@ certctl is a self-hosted platform that automates the entire TLS certificate life
 
 The CA/Browser Forum's [Ballot SC-081v3](https://cabforum.org/2025/04/11/ballot-sc081v3-introduce-schedule-of-reducing-validity-and-data-reuse-periods/) caps public TLS certificates at **200 days by March 2026**, **100 days by 2027**, and **47 days by 2029**. At 47-day lifespans, a team managing 100 certificates is processing 7+ renewals per week, every week, forever. Manual workflows stop being a choice.
 
-> **Status: Early-access.** The certificate lifecycle core is production-quality, including [RBAC](docs/operator/rbac.md).
-
-> v2.1.0 adds [OIDC SSO](docs/operator/oidc-runbooks/index.md), server-side sessions, and break-glass admin.
-
-> Production welcome — [file issues](https://github.com/certctl-io/certctl/issues) when something's off, especially against your IdP.
+> **Status: Early-access — actively looking for design partners.**
+>
+> The certificate lifecycle core is production-quality today: Local CA, ACME, agent deployment, audit, [role-based access control](docs/operator/rbac.md) with auditor split and four-eyes approval. v2.1.0 adds federated identity on top — [OIDC SSO](docs/operator/oidc-runbooks/index.md), server-side sessions, back-channel logout, and a break-glass admin path for SSO-outage recovery.
+>
+> If your team runs PKI infrastructure that could use real automation, we'd love to have you on certctl. Lab and dev deployments are great. Production is welcome too — especially on the federated-identity surface, where real-world IdP shapes are exactly the exposure we can't manufacture in CI. Battle-testing certctl in your environment is genuinely valuable to us.
+>
+> [File issues](https://github.com/certctl-io/certctl/issues) liberally. Every IdP quirk, every connector edge, every doc gap you hit — that's how the platform earns the right to drop the "early-access" label. The faster the loop, the faster everyone benefits.
 
 > **Actively maintained, shipping weekly.** [Open an issue](https://github.com/certctl-io/certctl/issues) if something breaks. CI runs the full test suite with race detection, static analysis, and vulnerability scanning on every commit.