diff --git a/libs/layer_map/src/inmem_imm_historic_imm.rs b/libs/layer_map/src/inmem_imm_historic_imm.rs
index 23c7b685b1..ffb25a29fb 100644
--- a/libs/layer_map/src/inmem_imm_historic_imm.rs
+++ b/libs/layer_map/src/inmem_imm_historic_imm.rs
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+//! Design with **immutable in-memory** and **immutable historic** stuff.
+
 use std::{marker::PhantomData, time::Duration};
 
 use utils::seqwait::{self, Advance, SeqWait, Wait};
diff --git a/libs/layer_map/src/inmem_shared_historic_imm.rs b/libs/layer_map/src/inmem_shared_historic_imm.rs
index 49f4a7e3a5..951749d2fb 100644
--- a/libs/layer_map/src/inmem_shared_historic_imm.rs
+++ b/libs/layer_map/src/inmem_shared_historic_imm.rs
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+//! Design with **mutable in-memory** and **immutable historic** stuff.
+
 use std::{
     marker::PhantomData,
     sync::{Arc, Mutex},
diff --git a/libs/layer_map/src/lib.rs b/libs/layer_map/src/lib.rs
index 48ccea78fe..038474d3de 100644
--- a/libs/layer_map/src/lib.rs
+++ b/libs/layer_map/src/lib.rs
@@ -1,5 +1,61 @@
-mod inmem_imm_historic_imm;
-mod inmem_shared_historic_imm;
+//! Generic implementation of WAL record data flows.
+//!
+//! # Overview
+//!
+//! This crate implements the core data flows inside pageserver:
+//!
+//! 1. WAL records from `walreceiver`, via in-memory layers, into on-disk L0 layers.
+//! 2. Data re-shuffeling through compaciton.
+//! 3. Page image creation & garbage collection through GC.
+//! 4. `GetPage@LSN`: retrieval of WAL records and page images for feeding into WAL redo.
+//!
+//! The implementation assumes the following concepts,
+//! but is fully generic over their implementation in order to facilitate unit testing:
+//!
+//! - **Delta Records**: data is written into the system in the form of self-descriptive deltas.
+//!   For the Pageserver use case, these deltas are derived from Postgres WAL records.
+//! - **Page Numbers**: Delta Records always affect a single key.
+//!   That key is called page number, because, in the Pageserver use case, the Postgres table page numbers are the keys.
+//! - **LSN**: When writing Delta Records into the system, they are associated with a monotonically increasing LSN.
+//!   Subsequently written Delta Records must have increasing LSNs.
+//! - **Page Images**: Delta Records for a given page can be used to reconstruct the page. Think of it like squashing diffs.
+//!   - When sorting the Delta Records for a given key by their LSN, any prefix of that sorting can be squashed into a page image.
+//!   - Delta Records following such a squash can be squashed into that page image.
+//!   - In Pageserver, WAL redo implements the (pure) function of squashing.
+//! - **In-Memory Layer**: an object that represents an "unfinished" L0 layer file, holding Delta Records in insertion order.
+//!   "Unfinished" means that we're still writing Delta Records to that file.
+//! - **Historic Layer**: an object that represents a "finished" layer file, at any compaction level.
+//!   Such objects reside on disk and/or in remote storage.
+//!   They may contain Delta Records, Page Images, or a mixture thereof. It doesn't matter.
+//! - **HistoricStuff**: an efficient lookup data structure to find the list of Historic Layer objects
+//!   that hold the Delta Records / PageImages required to reconstruct a Page Image at a given LSN.
+//!
+//! In addition to above concepts, this crate provides two different flavors of the generic implementation.
+//!
+//! * Concurrent data structures with shared mutable state; may use multi-versioning internally for improved concurrency, but, can also just use a simple mutex.
+//! * Immutable data structures; multi-versioned;
+//!
+//! As an example, take the case where we add a new Historic Layer to HistoricStuff.
+//! In the *concurrent data structures* flavor, that could mean acquiring RwLock in write mode, and modifying a lookup data structure to accomodate the new layer.
+//! Conversely, in the *immutable data structures* flavor, we would create a new version (aka snapshot) of the lookup data structure and make new reads use it.
+//! Old ongoing reads would continue to use the old version(s).
+//! Internally, the new snapshot would reference the same Historic Layer objects as the old snapshots, plus the newly added version.
+//!
+//! # API
+//!
+//! The common idea for both flavors is that there is a Read-end and a ReadWrite-end.
+//!
+//! The ReadWrite-end is used to push new `DeltaRecord @ LSN`s into the system.
+//! In Pageserver, this is used by the `WalReceiver`.
+//!
+//! The Read-end provides the `GetPage@LSN` API.
+//! In the current iteration, we actually return something called `ReconstructWork`,
+//! i.e., we leave the work of reading the values from the layers, and the WAL redo invocation
+//! to the caller. This is to keep the scope limited, and to prepare for clustered pageservers (aka "sharding").
+
+
+pub mod inmem_imm_historic_imm;
+pub mod inmem_shared_historic_imm;
 
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests_common;