diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 2fa3a8ece..fd89caf1f 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -66,12 +66,16 @@ the checks CI runs on a pull request (Python 3.12 or newer):
 pip install pyyaml "jsonschema[format-nongpl]" markdown
 python scripts/validate_pr.py --changed          # the BIOS files the branch adds
 python scripts/validate_schemas.py --source-only # profiles and platform files
-python scripts/profile_sync.py --changed --strict  # each profile the branch adds or edits
+python scripts/profile_sync.py --added --base upstream/main --strict  # each profile the branch adds
 python scripts/refresh_data_dirs.py  # data directories the pack-building tests read
 python scripts/generate_site.py       # the pages the site tests read
 python -m unittest discover -s tests -t .
 ```
 
+`upstream` is this repository as a remote of your fork
+(`git remote add upstream https://github.com/Abdess/retrobios`). A profile you
+only edit is not held to `--strict`: its older refs are reviewed by hand.
+
 The full pipeline is not needed for a contribution: it rebuilds every pack
 in `dist/`, which is why maintainers run it before a release.
 
diff --git a/scripts/generate_readme.py b/scripts/generate_readme.py
index 1d32b975e..cfaec5afe 100644
--- a/scripts/generate_readme.py
+++ b/scripts/generate_readme.py
@@ -968,12 +968,16 @@ the checks CI runs on a pull request (Python 3.12 or newer):
 pip install pyyaml "jsonschema[format-nongpl]" markdown
 python scripts/validate_pr.py --changed          # the BIOS files the branch adds
 python scripts/validate_schemas.py --source-only # profiles and platform files
-python scripts/profile_sync.py --changed --strict  # each profile the branch adds or edits
+python scripts/profile_sync.py --added --base upstream/main --strict  # each profile the branch adds
 python scripts/refresh_data_dirs.py  # data directories the pack-building tests read
 python scripts/generate_site.py       # the pages the site tests read
 python -m unittest discover -s tests -t .
 ```
 
+`upstream` is this repository as a remote of your fork
+(`git remote add upstream https://github.com/Abdess/retrobios`). A profile you
+only edit is not held to `--strict`: its older refs are reviewed by hand.
+
 The full pipeline is not needed for a contribution: it rebuilds every pack
 in `dist/`, which is why maintainers run it before a release.
 
diff --git a/tests/test_contributing_text.py b/tests/test_contributing_text.py
index eed4b7945..09392caea 100644
--- a/tests/test_contributing_text.py
+++ b/tests/test_contributing_text.py
@@ -72,6 +72,11 @@ class BeforeOpeningAPullRequest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertNotIn("pipeline.py", block)
         workflow = (REPO_ROOT / ".github" / "workflows" / "validate.yml").read_text(encoding="utf-8")
         self.assertIn("validate_schemas.py --source-only", workflow)
+        # CI holds added profiles to their upstream, not edited ones: --changed
+        # failed a contributor on refs they never wrote.
+        self.assertIn("profile_sync.py --added --base", workflow)
+        self.assertIn("profile_sync.py --added --base upstream/main --strict", block)
+        self.assertNotIn("--changed --strict", block)
 
     def test_it_installs_what_the_checks_need_and_no_site_package(self):
         """The site is built by Node from website/package-lock.json: a pip