diff --git a/src/libcamera/ipa_interface.cpp b/src/libcamera/ipa_interface.cpp
index ee3e3622f39ae85f..25b075fef5a50db7 100644
--- a/src/libcamera/ipa_interface.cpp
+++ b/src/libcamera/ipa_interface.cpp
@@ -429,6 +429,9 @@ namespace libcamera {
  * handler that the IPA needs to access. It provides dmabuf file handles for
  * each buffer, and associates the buffers with unique numerical IDs.
  *
+ * The dmabuf file handles provided in \a buffers are borrowed from the callee
+ * and are only guaranteed to be valid during the mapBuffers() call.
+ *
  * IPAs shall map the dmabuf file handles to their address space and keep a
  * cache of the mappings, indexed by the buffer numerical IDs. The IDs are used
  * in all other IPA interface methods to refer to buffers, including the