diff --git a/stl/inc/xmemory b/stl/inc/xmemory
index 54bdc1445d..20fb875f50 100644
--- a/stl/inc/xmemory
+++ b/stl/inc/xmemory
@@ -1208,6 +1208,28 @@ struct _Iterator_base0 {
     static constexpr bool _Unwrap_when_unverified = true;
 };
 
+// The machinery below implements iterator debugging (informally "IDL", after the _ITERATOR_DEBUG_LEVEL macro,
+// where "L" stands for "level"). It lets a container invalidate ("orphan") its iterators without either side
+// needing to know about the other directly, by routing everything through a shared proxy object. Invariants:
+//
+// * Every container owns a dynamically allocated _Container_proxy at all times, including in its
+//   default-constructed and moved-from states. This is TRANSITION, ABI: allocating the proxy separately (instead
+//   of, say, storing it inline) is the major reason many containers' allocator-extended move constructors and
+//   move assignment operators aren't unconditionally noexcept -- reloading the proxy when allocators compare
+//   unequal can throw. We intend to revisit this strategy in vNext (see #169).
+// * A container and its proxy always point to each other (_Container_base12::_Myproxy and
+//   _Container_proxy::_Mycont, respectively), regardless of whether IDL is enabled; if a proxy exists, this holds.
+// * Every valid iterator holds a non-owning pointer to its parent container's proxy (_Iterator_base12::_Myproxy).
+//   An orphaned iterator has a null _Myproxy.
+// * The proxy's _Myfirstiter, together with each iterator's _Mynextiter, forms an intrusive singly linked list of
+//   iterators rooted at the proxy. Every valid iterator belonging to a container is reachable through this list;
+//   there are no valid "free-floating" iterators.
+// * Whenever the proxies and the intrusive list are manipulated at runtime, the debug lock (_Lockit(_LOCK_DEBUG))
+//   is held. During constant evaluation, we skip the lock entirely and go straight to the unlocked paths (see the
+//   is_constant_evaluated() checks below), since constant evaluation is inherently single-threaded and _Lockit
+//   isn't usable there. The only other things we do outside of the lock at runtime are things like iterator
+//   compatibility checks that compare proxy pointers: those pointers don't change even if the containers are
+//   being swapped concurrently (only the proxies' data members change, not their addresses).
 struct _Container_base12;
 struct _Container_proxy { // store head of iterator chain and back pointer
     _CONSTEXPR20 _Container_proxy() noexcept = default;