diff --git a/tractor/_spawn.py b/tractor/_spawn.py
index e55e59f..2936220 100644
--- a/tractor/_spawn.py
+++ b/tractor/_spawn.py
@@ -204,6 +204,21 @@ async def do_hard_kill(
     # terminate_after: int = 99999,
 
 ) -> None:
+    '''
+    Un-gracefully terminate an OS level `trio.Process` after timeout.
+
+    Used in 2 main cases:
+
+    - "unknown remote runtime state": a hanging/stalled actor that
+      isn't responding after sending a (graceful) runtime cancel
+      request via an IPC msg.
+    - "cancelled during spawn": a process who's actor runtime was
+      cancelled before full startup completed (such that
+      cancel-request-handling machinery was never fully
+      initialized) and thus a "cancel request msg" is never going
+      to be handled.
+
+    '''
     # NOTE: this timeout used to do nothing since we were shielding
     # the ``.wait()`` inside ``new_proc()`` which will pretty much
     # never release until the process exits, now it acts as
@@ -219,6 +234,9 @@ async def do_hard_kill(
         # and wait for it to exit. If cancelled, kills the process and
         # waits for it to finish exiting before propagating the
         # cancellation.
+        #
+        # This code was originally triggred by ``proc.__aexit__()``
+        # but now must be called manually.
         with trio.CancelScope(shield=True):
             if proc.stdin is not None:
                 await proc.stdin.aclose()
@@ -234,10 +252,14 @@ async def do_hard_kill(
                 with trio.CancelScope(shield=True):
                     await proc.wait()
 
+    # XXX NOTE XXX: zombie squad dispatch:
+    # (should ideally never, but) If we do get here it means
+    # graceful termination of a process failed and we need to
+    # resort to OS level signalling to interrupt and cancel the
+    # (presumably stalled or hung) actor. Since we never allow
+    # zombies (as a feature) we ask the OS to do send in the
+    # removal swad as the last resort.
     if cs.cancelled_caught:
-        # XXX: should pretty much never get here unless we have
-        # to move the bits from ``proc.__aexit__()`` out and
-        # into here.
         log.critical(f"#ZOMBIE_LORD_IS_HERE: {proc}")
         proc.kill()
 
@@ -252,10 +274,13 @@ async def soft_wait(
     portal: Portal,
 
 ) -> None:
-    # Wait for proc termination but **dont' yet** call
-    # ``trio.Process.__aexit__()`` (it tears down stdio
-    # which will kill any waiting remote pdb trace).
-    # This is a "soft" (cancellable) join/reap.
+    '''
+    Wait for proc termination but **dont' yet** teardown
+    std-streams (since it will clobber any ongoing pdb REPL
+    session). This is our "soft" (and thus itself cancellable)
+    join/reap on an actor-runtime-in-process.
+
+    '''
     uid = portal.channel.uid
     try:
         log.cancel(f'Soft waiting on actor:\n{uid}')
@@ -278,7 +303,13 @@ async def soft_wait(
                 await wait_func(proc)
                 n.cancel_scope.cancel()
 
+            # start a task to wait on the termination of the
+            # process by itself waiting on a (caller provided) wait
+            # function which should unblock when the target process
+            # has terminated.
             n.start_soon(cancel_on_proc_deth)
+
+            # send the actor-runtime a cancel request.
             await portal.cancel_actor()
 
             if proc.poll() is None:  # type: ignore