diff --git a/pageserver/src/bin/pageserver.rs b/pageserver/src/bin/pageserver.rs
index 9da3a519a2..d9d3d9d662 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/bin/pageserver.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/bin/pageserver.rs
@@ -275,6 +275,7 @@ fn start_pageserver(
     let pageserver_listener = tcp_listener::bind(pg_addr)?;
 
     // Launch broker client
+    // The storage_broker::connect call needs to happen inside a tokio runtime thread.
     let broker_client = WALRECEIVER_RUNTIME
         .block_on(async {
             // Note: we do not attempt connecting here (but validate endpoints sanity).
diff --git a/storage_broker/src/lib.rs b/storage_broker/src/lib.rs
index 8441aaf625..4bc561449d 100644
--- a/storage_broker/src/lib.rs
+++ b/storage_broker/src/lib.rs
@@ -40,6 +40,9 @@ pub type BrokerClientChannel = BrokerServiceClient<Channel>;
 // Create connection object configured to run TLS if schema starts with https://
 // and plain text otherwise. Connection is lazy, only endpoint sanity is
 // validated here.
+//
+// NB: this function is not async, but still must be run on a tokio runtime thread
+// because that's a requirement of tonic_endpoint.connect_lazy()'s Channel::new call.
 pub fn connect<U>(endpoint: U, keepalive_interval: Duration) -> anyhow::Result<BrokerClientChannel>
 where
     U: std::convert::TryInto<Uri>,