diff --git a/pageserver/page_api/proto/page_service.proto b/pageserver/page_api/proto/page_service.proto
index 2b1045a283..9612d8eb91 100644
--- a/pageserver/page_api/proto/page_service.proto
+++ b/pageserver/page_api/proto/page_service.proto
@@ -1,9 +1,12 @@
-// Page service presented by pageservers, for computes.
+// Page service, presented by pageservers for computes.
+//
+// This is the compute read path. It primarily serves page versions at given
+// LSNs, but also base backups, SLRU segments, and relation metadata.
 //
 // Request metadata:
 // - authorization: JWT token ("Bearer <token>"), if auth is enabled
 // - neon-tenant-id: tenant ID ("7c4a1f9e3bd6470c8f3e21a65bd2e980")
-// - neon-shard-id: shard ID, as <number><count> in hex ("0b10" = shard 11 of 16)
+// - neon-shard-id: shard ID, as <number><count> in hex ("0b10" = shard 11 of 16, 0-based)
 // - neon-timeline-id: timeline ID ("f08c4e9a2d5f76b1e3a7c2d8910f4b3e")
 //
 // TODO: write implementation guidance on
@@ -30,14 +33,19 @@ service PageService {
   // This is implemented as a bidirectional streaming RPC for performance. Unary
   // requests incur costs for e.g. HTTP/2 stream setup, header parsing,
   // authentication, and so on -- with streaming, we only pay these costs during
-  // the initial stream setup. This ~doubles throughput in benchmarks.
+  // the initial stream setup. This ~doubles throughput in benchmarks. Other
+  // requests use regular unary requests, since they are not as frequent and
+  // performance-critical, and this simplifies implementation.
   //
-  // NB: a status response (e.g. for errors) will terminate the stream. The
-  // stream may be shared by e.g. multiple Postgres backends, so we should avoid
-  // this. Most errors are instead propagated in the GetPageResponse.
+  // NB: a status response (e.g. errors) will terminate the stream. The stream
+  // may be shared by e.g. multiple Postgres backends, so we should avoid this.
+  // Most errors are therefore sent as GetPageResponse.status instead.
   rpc GetPages (stream GetPageRequestBatch) returns (stream GetPageResponse);
 
   // Fetches an SLRU segment.
+  //
+  // TODO: can these be significantly larger than 256 KB (8 pages)? If so,
+  // consider streaming the response instead.
   rpc GetSlruSegment (GetSlruSegmentRequest) returns (GetSlruSegmentResponse);
 
   // Returns whether a relation exists.
@@ -48,11 +56,16 @@ service PageService {
 
 }
 
+// Common request fields.
 message RequestCommon {
+  // The LSN to read at.
   uint64 request_lsn = 1;
+  // If given, the caller guarantees that the page has not been modified
+  // since this LSN.
   uint64 not_modified_since_lsn = 2;
 }
 
+// A relation identifier.
 message RelTag {
     uint32 spc_oid = 1;
     uint32 db_oid = 2;
@@ -60,32 +73,45 @@ message RelTag {
     uint32 fork_number = 4;
 }
 
-message RelExistsRequest {
+// Requests the size of a database, as # of bytes. This is only accurate on
+// shard 0; other shards will return their view of the database according to
+// which pages they have.
+message DbSizeRequest {
   RequestCommon common = 1;
-  RelTag rel = 2;
+  uint32 db_oid = 2;
 }
 
-message RelExistsResponse {
-  bool exists = 1;
+message DbSizeResponse {
+  uint64 num_bytes = 1;
 }
 
-message RelSizeRequest {
+// Requests a base backup at a given LSN.
+message GetBaseBackupRequest {
+  // The LSN to fetch a base backup at.
   RequestCommon common = 1;
-  RelTag rel = 2;
+  // If true, logical replication slots will not be created.
+  bool replica = 2;
 }
 
-message RelSizeResponse {
-  uint32 num_blocks = 1;
+// Base backup response chunk, returned as an ordered stream.
+message GetBaseBackupResponseChunk {
+  // A basebackup data chunk. The size is undefined, but bounded by the 4 MB
+  // gRPC message size limit.
+  bytes chunk = 1;
 }
 
-// A single GetPage request.
+// Requests a single page.
 message GetPageRequest {
   // A request ID. Will be included in the response. Should be unique for
   // in-flight requests on the stream.
   uint64 id = 1;
+  // The LSN to read at.
   RequestCommon common = 2;
+  // The relation to read from.
   RelTag rel = 3;
+  // The page number to read. Must belong to the remote shard.
   uint32 block_number = 4;
+  // The request class.
   GetPageClass class = 5;
 }
 
@@ -113,8 +139,6 @@ message GetPageRequestBatch {
 }
 
 // A GetPage response. May be emitted out of order.
-//
-// TODO: should this include page metadata, like reltag, LSN, and block number?
 message GetPageResponse {
   // The original request's ID.
   uint64 id = 1;
@@ -144,30 +168,41 @@ enum GetPageStatus {
   GET_PAGE_STATUS_SLOW_DOWN = 4;
 }
 
-message DbSizeRequest {
-  RequestCommon common = 1;
-  uint32 db_oid = 2;
-}
-
-message DbSizeResponse {
-  uint64 num_bytes = 1;
-}
-
-message GetBaseBackupRequest {
-  RequestCommon common = 1;
-  bool replica = 2;
-}
-
-message GetBaseBackupResponseChunk {
-  bytes chunk = 1;
-}
-
+// Requests an SLRU segment.
 message GetSlruSegmentRequest {
   RequestCommon common = 1;
   uint32 kind = 2;
   uint32 segno = 3;
 }
 
+// Returns an SLRU segment.
+//
+// TODO: can these be significantly larger than 256 KB (8 pages)? If so,
+// consider chunking and streaming the response instead.
 message GetSlruSegmentResponse {
   bytes segment = 1;
+}
+
+// Checks whether a relation exists, at the given LSN. This is only accurate on
+// shard 0; other shards will return their view of the relation according to
+// which pages they have.
+message RelExistsRequest {
+  RequestCommon common = 1;
+  RelTag rel = 2;
+}
+
+message RelExistsResponse {
+  bool exists = 1;
+}
+
+// Fetches the size of a relation at a given LSN, as # of blocks. This is only
+// accurate on shard 0; other shards will return their view of the relation
+// according to which pages they have.
+message RelSizeRequest {
+  RequestCommon common = 1;
+  RelTag rel = 2;
+}
+
+message RelSizeResponse {
+  uint32 num_blocks = 1;
 }
\ No newline at end of file