diff --git a/plan.org b/plan.org
index 51d0994..49ef49d 100644
--- a/plan.org
+++ b/plan.org
@@ -266,8 +266,9 @@ Compile-time overload resolution on argument types. No precedence lists, no meth
 combination, no MOP, no runtime dispatch table — see Types.
 
 ** Macros
-- Needs a ~&env~ equivalent: macros must see lexical environment (names of
-  locals in scope). Required by the step debugger. Decide now, painful to retrofit.
+- ~&env~ equivalent: macros seeing the lexical environment (names of locals in
+  scope). No longer urgent — its "decide now" status came from the
+  instrumentation-based step debugger, which is cut (see Tooling). Milestone 5.
 - Hygiene model: open decision.
 
 * Host language
@@ -542,10 +543,66 @@ Clojure-coupled) — reference it. ~clojure-mode~-derived major mode, overlay
 rendering, hydra for stepping bindings (~transient~ is the maintained
 alternative).
 
-** Step debugger
-Instrumentation-based, like CIDER's — macroexpansion wraps subforms with a
-breakpoint that messages the editor and blocks. No native debug info needed.
-Limit: only instrumented code.
+** Debugging: two layers, two protocols
+Do not extend nREPL with registers or memory. The protocol is the easy part —
+adding an op is trivial; /implementing/ it means becoming a debugger (ptrace,
+trap handling, frame unwinding), duplicating an enormous existing project.
+
+| Capability                               | DAP (lldb-dap + dape) | nREPL |
+|------------------------------------------+-----------------------+-------|
+| Registers, memory, native stack           | yes                   | never |
+| Breakpoints, watchpoints, stepping        | yes                   | —     |
+| Eval Flan expressions with real semantics | no                    | yes   |
+| Redefine a function and continue          | no                    | yes   |
+| Invoke a restart                          | no                    | yes   |
+| Pause /before/ unwinding                  | no                    | yes   |
+
+Neither covers the other's column, so this is not a choice between them.
+
+*DAP is nearly free.* No debug adapter is written: emit DWARF from the LLVM
+backend and point ~lldb-dap~ at the binary; dape speaks to that. lldb and gdb
+both ship DAP interfaces already.
+
+This is where /no object headers/ pays off a second time. Flan structs *are* C
+structs — real machine types, no tag words, no boxing — so DWARF describes them
+with no impedance mismatch and lldb shows a ~Cursor~ correctly with no plugin
+and no formatters.
+
+*** Reload and DAP
+Mostly automatic. lldb watches the loader rendezvous structure, so a ~dlopen~'d
+generation is noticed and its DWARF read; and lldb keeps breakpoints as
+unresolved /specs/, re-resolving them against newly loaded modules, so a
+breakpoint on ~sand.flan:85~ binds to the new function by itself.
+
+*The gotcha is our own never-unload rule.* After N redefinitions there are N
+copies of a function, each with DWARF claiming ~sand.flan:85~, so one breakpoint
+resolves to N locations and stops in stale generations. Needs glue, and it is
+small: give each generation a distinct source identity in its DWARF
+(~sand.flan#7~), and have the reload agent disable breakpoint locations in
+superseded modules on each reload. This is the one piece that cannot just be
+wired up and left alone.
+
+Not available at any price: if execution is paused /inside/ the old function,
+redefinition does not move it — register allocation belongs to the old
+compilation (see "What redefinition cannot do"). The current frame finishes in
+the old code; the next call enters the new one. Also, dape reads source from
+disk, so editing further after a generation was compiled drifts the highlighted
+line from what is executing.
+
+*** Cut: the instrumentation-based step debugger
+Previously planned as CIDER's model — macroexpansion wrapping subforms with
+breakpoints. Dropped. It is the most expensive piece of milestone 8
+(instrumentation, an overlay protocol, ~&env~, a bespoke Emacs client) and
+DAP+DWARF covers most of its use. What DAP cannot cover — pausing before the
+stack unwinds with restarts available — comes from ~handler-bind~ over nREPL.
+
+Consequences: *~&env~ loses its urgency* (its "decide now" status came from the
+step debugger requiring it — now an ordinary milestone-5 decision), and *the
+shadow stack shrinks* to serving only nREPL backtraces and restart enumeration.
+
+Forcing the live-programming workflow into DAP would repeat the CIDER mistake in
+the other direction: DAP's model is stop/step/inspect, with no vocabulary for
+"invoke ~use-placeholder~ and resume". That stays on nREPL.
 
 ** Pause on exception
 Better than CIDER's, because ~handler-bind~ has not unwound the stack. Dev-mode