diff --git a/skills/hotdata/SKILL.md b/skills/hotdata/SKILL.md
index ad2c4ee..e583437 100644
--- a/skills/hotdata/SKILL.md
+++ b/skills/hotdata/SKILL.md
@@ -301,7 +301,9 @@ hotdata ingest create --datasource-id ds_01J --type one-time \
 # selector.json is family-specific (what subset to read) — its fields, and the
 #   write modes this family accepts: hotdata ingest sources fields <family>.
 # destination.json is {"database_id", "schema", "table", "write_mode"} —
-#   write_mode: replace | upsert (upsert needs a continuous bucket ingest).
+#   write_mode (default replace): replace|append work on any table; the key-based
+#   modes upsert|update|delete need the destination table to have a declared key.
+#   `hotdata ingest sources fields <family>` reports which modes the family accepts.
 #   Selector and destination are both IMMUTABLE after creation.
 # CREATE STARTS NOTHING, for every type. It returns no run id, and
 # `ingest logs <id>` is EMPTY until the scheduler claims the ingest — normal,
@@ -328,7 +330,9 @@ hotdata ingest create --source "prod postgres" --table orders --schema public \
 #   --limit N              stop after N source rows
 # Destination flags instead of --destination:
 #   --database-id (required)  --dest-table (defaults to the single --table)
-#   --dest-schema (default public)  --write-mode (default replace)
+#   --dest-schema (default public)
+#   --write-mode replace|append|upsert|update|delete (default replace; upsert/
+#                update/delete need the destination table to have a declared key)
 
 hotdata ingest create --datasource-id ds_01J --database-id db_123 \
   --sql "SELECT id, status FROM public.orders WHERE status = 'open' LIMIT 1000"
diff --git a/src/commands/ingest.rs b/src/commands/ingest.rs
index d3a1e48..0846e18 100644
--- a/src/commands/ingest.rs
+++ b/src/commands/ingest.rs
@@ -238,15 +238,19 @@ pub enum IngestCommands {
         #[arg(long = "dest-schema")]
         dest_schema: Option<String>,
 
-        /// How each run writes (default: replace). `upsert` needs a family
-        /// whose load path stamps a row key — today that is a continuous bucket
-        /// ingest, and `hotdata ingest sources fields <family>` reports which modes
-        /// a family accepts for which type.
-        ///
-        /// The two listed are the two the destination accepts anywhere. Offering
-        /// a third would be offering a request that is refused on arrival, which
-        /// costs the user a round trip to learn what `--help` could have said.
-        #[arg(long = "write-mode", value_parser = ["replace", "upsert"])]
+        /// How each run writes (default: `replace`). `replace` and `append` work
+        /// on any destination table; the key-based modes `upsert`, `update`, and
+        /// `delete` match rows by the table's declared key and are rejected on a
+        /// keyless table. This list is the service-wide vocabulary — clap catches a
+        /// typo up front — but which of these a *given* family or table accepts is
+        /// reported by `hotdata ingest sources fields <family>`, the authoritative
+        /// source; a mode the family or table does not support is refused on
+        /// arrival. (The old list `[replace, upsert]` both omitted `append` — which
+        /// families advertise — and offered `upsert` as if universal: see #278.)
+        #[arg(
+            long = "write-mode",
+            value_parser = ["replace", "append", "upsert", "update", "delete"]
+        )]
         write_mode: Option<String>,
 
         /// Schedule as JSON (inline, @file.json, or @-):