diff --git a/grafana/dashboards/maintainer-reviews.json b/grafana/dashboards/maintainer-reviews.json
index 2fbdcbedbb..68bd54002b 100644
--- a/grafana/dashboards/maintainer-reviews.json
+++ b/grafana/dashboards/maintainer-reviews.json
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
   "tags": ["gittensory", "maintainer"],
   "timezone": "browser",
   "schemaVersion": 39,
-  "version": 4,
+  "version": 5,
   "editable": false,
   "graphTooltip": 1,
   "refresh": "1m",
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@
       "type": "stat",
       "id": 5,
       "title": "Manual review",
+      "description": "Counts PRs whose most recent status update falls in this window AND is currently 'manual' -- a live snapshot, not a lifetime tally. A PR that entered manual review earlier in the window and was later merged or closed (also within the window) is counted only once, under Merged or Closed, not here. If you actively resolve your manual-review queue, this number will read lower than your felt sense of how many PRs passed through manual review.",
       "datasource": { "type": "frser-sqlite-datasource", "uid": "gittensory-db" },
       "gridPos": { "h": 4, "w": 4, "x": 12, "y": 1 },
       "fieldConfig": { "defaults": { "color": { "mode": "fixed", "fixedColor": "orange" }, "unit": "short" }, "overrides": [] },
@@ -64,6 +65,7 @@
       "type": "stat",
       "id": 6,
       "title": "Commented (advisory)",
+      "description": "Counts PRs whose most recent status update falls in this window AND is currently 'commented' -- the same in-window-latest-state semantics as 'Manual review'. A PR that was commented on and later merged or closed within the same window shows only under Merged/Closed, so this under-reports total advisory-comment activity for anyone who resolves their queue promptly.",
       "datasource": { "type": "frser-sqlite-datasource", "uid": "gittensory-db" },
       "gridPos": { "h": 4, "w": 4, "x": 16, "y": 1 },
       "fieldConfig": { "defaults": { "color": { "mode": "fixed", "fixedColor": "blue" }, "unit": "short" }, "overrides": [] },
@@ -74,6 +76,7 @@
       "type": "stat",
       "id": 7,
       "title": "Ignored",
+      "description": "Counts PRs whose most recent status update falls in this window AND is currently 'ignored' -- the same in-window-latest-state semantics as 'Manual review'. If a PR's status changes again later in the same window (e.g. re-triaged into manual/commented/merged/closed), it moves out of this count entirely rather than accumulating, so this does not track how many times a PR was ever ignored.",
       "datasource": { "type": "frser-sqlite-datasource", "uid": "gittensory-db" },
       "gridPos": { "h": 4, "w": 4, "x": 20, "y": 1 },
       "fieldConfig": { "defaults": { "color": { "mode": "fixed", "fixedColor": "purple" }, "unit": "short" }, "overrides": [] },
diff --git a/test/unit/selfhost-grafana-dashboard.test.ts b/test/unit/selfhost-grafana-dashboard.test.ts
index 0b6d216985..fe8f5099cf 100644
--- a/test/unit/selfhost-grafana-dashboard.test.ts
+++ b/test/unit/selfhost-grafana-dashboard.test.ts
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ type DashboardTarget = {
 type DashboardPanel = {
   id?: number;
   title?: string;
+  description?: string;
   targets?: DashboardTarget[];
 };
 
@@ -254,6 +255,22 @@ describe("maintainer Reviews & PRs Grafana dashboard", () => {
     }
   });
 
+  it("explains the latest-update-in-window (not lifetime) semantics on Manual/Commented/Ignored (#3717)", () => {
+    const dashboard = readDashboard();
+    const panelsById = new Map(dashboard.panels.map((panel) => [panel.id, panel]));
+
+    for (const [id, title] of [
+      [5, "Manual review"],
+      [6, "Commented (advisory)"],
+      [7, "Ignored"],
+    ] as const) {
+      const panel = panelsById.get(id);
+      expect(panel?.title).toBe(title);
+      expect(panel?.description?.length ?? 0).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+      expect(panel?.description).toContain("window");
+    }
+  });
+
   (sqliteCliAvailable ? it : it.skip)("filters the pull request table to the selected time window", () => {
     const root = tmpRoot();
     const db = join(root, "reporting.sqlite");