diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a0885cdd..4d12f592 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -331,6 +331,17 @@ env = MyTeacherEnv(
 )
 ```
 
+You can either:
+
+- build a teacher-enabled env by mixing `TeacherDistillationEnv` into an existing
+  `BaseEnv`-derived env such as `GSM8kEnv`, or
+- subclass `TeacherDistillationEnv` directly and implement the usual environment
+  methods yourself.
+
+In both cases, `TeacherDistillationEnv` still assumes the normal `BaseEnv`
+runtime contract: tokenized rollouts, `ScoredDataGroup` payloads, and the
+standard `handle_send_to_api(...)` transport path.
+
 CLI shape:
 
 ```bash
@@ -345,6 +356,13 @@ If `--teacher.model_name` is a deployment alias rather than a tokenizer
 identifier, also set `--teacher.tokenizer_name ...` so the env can validate
 tokenizer compatibility.
 
+Scope note:
+
+- The teacher-aware CLI wiring currently exists for `serve`.
+- If `teacher_enabled=True`, the generic `process` and `evaluate` commands will
+  fail loudly at env construction time unless you instantiate the env yourself
+  and pass `teacher_server_configs=...`.
+
 Tokenizer requirement:
 
 - Teacher distillation currently requires the teacher and student to use the same tokenizer vocabulary.
diff --git a/atroposlib/envs/teacher_distillation_env.py b/atroposlib/envs/teacher_distillation_env.py
index 892d424c..64f62b14 100644
--- a/atroposlib/envs/teacher_distillation_env.py
+++ b/atroposlib/envs/teacher_distillation_env.py
@@ -296,7 +296,11 @@ class TeacherDistillationEnv(BaseEnv, ABC):
         if config.teacher_enabled:
             if teacher_server_configs is None:
                 raise ValueError(
-                    "teacher_enabled=True requires teacher_server_configs at init."
+                    "teacher_enabled=True but no teacher server configuration was "
+                    "provided. Pass teacher_server_configs=... when instantiating "
+                    "the environment directly, or use the teacher-aware 'serve' CLI "
+                    "path with --teacher.* flags. The generic BaseEnv 'process' and "
+                    "'evaluate' commands do not currently wire teacher_server_configs."
                 )
             teacher_config_source = teacher_server_configs
             self.teacher_server = ServerManager(
diff --git a/atroposlib/tests/test_teacher_distillation_env.py b/atroposlib/tests/test_teacher_distillation_env.py
index b348e65a..b35c48ee 100644
--- a/atroposlib/tests/test_teacher_distillation_env.py
+++ b/atroposlib/tests/test_teacher_distillation_env.py
@@ -205,7 +205,7 @@ def test_init_requires_teacher_server_source(monkeypatch):
         teacher_enabled=True,
         teacher_top_k=0,
     )
-    with pytest.raises(ValueError, match="teacher_enabled=True requires"):
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError, match="no teacher server configuration was provided"):
         _ConcreteTeacherEnv(
             config=config,
             server_configs=[],
diff --git a/example_trainer/README.md b/example_trainer/README.md
index de31b3eb..4563e12c 100644
--- a/example_trainer/README.md
+++ b/example_trainer/README.md
@@ -324,6 +324,11 @@ If `$TEACHER_MODEL` is a deployment alias instead of a tokenizer identifier,
 also set `--teacher.tokenizer_name ...` so the env can validate
 tokenizer compatibility.
 
+The teacher-aware CLI path is currently wired for `serve`. If
+`teacher_enabled=True`, the generic `process` and `evaluate` commands are not
+teacher-aware and will fail loudly unless the environment is instantiated
+manually with `teacher_server_configs=...`.
+
 Why cross-tokenizer conversion is not acceptable here:
 
 - Teacher token ID `1234` and student token ID `1234` can correspond to different text.