diff --git a/cmd/spin-machine/commands_test.go b/cmd/spin-machine/commands_test.go
index a4621d6..15cbdff 100644
--- a/cmd/spin-machine/commands_test.go
+++ b/cmd/spin-machine/commands_test.go
@@ -228,7 +228,7 @@ func TestFlagsAreTheSpec(t *testing.T) {
 	every.Cmdline.Console = ""
 
 	deferred := defaults
-	deferred.IncomingDefer = true
+	deferred.Incoming = "defer"
 
 	emulated := defaults
 	emulated.Accel, emulated.QEMU = "tcg", filepath.Join(dir, "bin/qemu-system-x86_64-tcg")
diff --git a/cmd/spin-machine/main.go b/cmd/spin-machine/main.go
index 0afc569..7ccd1b5 100644
--- a/cmd/spin-machine/main.go
+++ b/cmd/spin-machine/main.go
@@ -287,12 +287,7 @@ func (o *machineFlags) spec() (machine.Spec, error) {
 	if o.qmp != "" {
 		s.Monitors = []machine.Monitor{{Socket: o.qmp}}
 	}
-	// defer is QEMU's own word for "the source comes over QMP": see restore.
-	if o.incoming == "defer" {
-		s.IncomingDefer = true
-	} else {
-		s.Incoming = o.incoming
-	}
+	s.Incoming = o.incoming
 	s.Serial = o.console
 
 	disk := o.disk
@@ -664,7 +659,7 @@ func (o *restoreFlags) register(fs *flag.FlagSet) {
 //
 // `boot --incoming file:PATH` loads the same file in one step. This is the other
 // form, and the one a caller that resumes checkpoints uses: the machine is started
-// with -incoming defer (Spec.IncomingDefer), and the state is named over QMP once
+// with -incoming defer (Spec.Incoming "defer"), and the state is named over QMP once
 // the caller is ready for it. Driving that by hand is what this command is for.
 func restore(o restoreFlags) error {
 	if o.qmp == "" || o.from == "" {
diff --git a/docs/migration.md b/docs/migration.md
index b1945c9..0d7a02a 100644
--- a/docs/migration.md
+++ b/docs/migration.md
@@ -5,9 +5,9 @@ A checkpoint is one state file — memory, device state and CPU state, written b
 
 Stopping a VM here and resuming it there is a lifecycle, and this repository does not
 implement one — it builds the machine that lifecycle runs on, and offers the arguments it
-needs: `Incoming` (a state to load at exec time, `-incoming file:…`) and `IncomingDefer`
-(start with no state and wait to be told where it is, over QMP, for a caller that starts the
-machine before it has the state in hand).
+needs: `Incoming`, either a state to load at exec time (`-incoming file:…`) or `defer` (start
+with no state and wait to be told where it is, over QMP, for a caller that starts the machine
+before it has the state in hand).
 
 `spin-machine save --qmp … --to state` is the first half by hand, and the second is either
 `spin-machine boot --incoming file:state` or `boot --incoming defer` followed by
diff --git a/machine/machine.go b/machine/machine.go
index e0df891..699ae99 100644
--- a/machine/machine.go
+++ b/machine/machine.go
@@ -124,7 +124,7 @@ const virtioModern = "disable-legacy=on"
 // qemuOpt escapes a value for a QEMU option string, which splits on a single comma
 // and reads a doubled one as a literal. Every free-form value a caller supplies goes
 // through it: a disk path "a,readonly=off" is otherwise a second option, not part of
-// the path. A value picked from a fixed set — a disk's format and cache mode, the
+// the path. A value picked from a fixed set — a disk's format, the
 // accelerator, a CPU model name — is not escaped but refused by validate when it is not
 // one of the set, because an escaped "qcow2,,x" is still not a format.
 func qemuOpt(v string) string { return strings.ReplaceAll(v, ",", ",,") }
@@ -588,16 +588,12 @@ type Spec struct {
 	// what the line is made of.
 	Cmdline Cmdline
 
-	// IncomingDefer starts QEMU with no machine state, waiting to be told over
-	// QMP where to load it from (migrate-incoming): how a checkpoint is resumed by
-	// a caller that starts the machine before it has the state in hand, or wants a
-	// word with QEMU before the first byte is read. Whoever drives that owns the
-	// lifecycle; this is the machine argument they need.
-	IncomingDefer bool
-
-	// Incoming names that source at exec time instead — a migration URI, most
-	// usefully "file:/path/to/state". It is how a VM saved on one machine is
-	// resumed, rather than booted, on another.
+	// Incoming is -incoming: where the machine's state comes from when it is resumed
+	// rather than booted. A migration URI names it at exec time, most usefully
+	// "file:/path/to/state". "defer", QEMU's own word, starts QEMU with no state,
+	// waiting to be told over QMP where to load it from (migrate-incoming): how a
+	// checkpoint is resumed by a caller that starts the machine before it has the
+	// state in hand, or wants a word with QEMU before the first byte is read.
 	//
 	// The guest does not know this happened: it continues from the instruction it
 	// was stopped at, with the memory, the devices and the clock it had. Which is
@@ -828,8 +824,6 @@ func (s Spec) validate() error {
 	// The two forms of -incoming are one flag, and QEMU takes it once. A spec carrying
 	// both is a caller that has not decided whether the source is named at exec time or
 	// over QMP afterwards, and guessing for them is how a VM restores from the wrong one.
-	case s.IncomingDefer && s.Incoming != "":
-		return fmt.Errorf("both IncomingDefer and Incoming %q: -incoming takes one form", s.Incoming)
 	case s.Memory.SizeMB < 1:
 		return fmt.Errorf("memory is %d MB", s.Memory.SizeMB)
 	case len(s.Disks) > maxDisks:
@@ -1196,11 +1190,7 @@ func (s Spec) appendFDSets(args []string) []string {
 
 // appendIncoming is -incoming, when the machine is to be restored rather than booted.
 func (s Spec) appendIncoming(args []string) []string {
-	// -incoming, in whichever of its two forms this machine was given. validate has
-	// already refused a spec carrying both.
-	if s.IncomingDefer {
-		args = append(args, "-incoming", "defer")
-	} else if s.Incoming != "" {
+	if s.Incoming != "" {
 		args = append(args, "-incoming", s.Incoming)
 	}
 	return args
@@ -1275,25 +1265,10 @@ func (s Spec) fingerprint(hostCPU func() (string, error)) (string, error) {
 		}
 		write(f.name, sum)
 	}
-	ident, err := s.identity(hostCPU)
-	if err != nil {
-		return "", err
-	}
-	write("identity", ident)
-
-	return hex.EncodeToString(h.Sum(nil)), nil
-}
 
-// identity is everything the fingerprint hashes except the contents of those five
-// files: the machine's shape, its device topology, and the host's own CPU when the
-// guest is being shown it.
-func (s Spec) identity(hostCPU func() (string, error)) (string, error) {
+	// The machine's shape, its device topology, and the host's own CPU when the guest is
+	// being shown it.
 	shape := s.Shape()
-
-	var b strings.Builder
-	write := func(key, value string) {
-		_, _ = fmt.Fprintf(&b, "%s=%d:%s\n", key, len(value), value)
-	}
 	write("machine", shape.Machine)
 	write("accel", shape.Accel)
 	write("cpu", shape.CPU)
@@ -1323,7 +1298,7 @@ func (s Spec) identity(hostCPU func() (string, error)) (string, error) {
 		write("host-cpu", cpu)
 	}
 
-	return b.String(), nil
+	return hex.EncodeToString(h.Sum(nil)), nil
 }
 
 // topology is the machine's device list — which models, at which slots — with
diff --git a/machine/machine_test.go b/machine/machine_test.go
index 8240115..b091d7e 100644
--- a/machine/machine_test.go
+++ b/machine/machine_test.go
@@ -723,7 +723,6 @@ func TestValidateRefuses(t *testing.T) {
 		{"a NIC with a 64-bit MAC", func(s *Spec) { s.NICs = []NIC{{TapFD: 3, MAC: "02:00:5e:10:00:00:00:01"}} }},
 		// Both forms of -incoming: QEMU takes the flag once, and which source a VM
 		// restores from is not something to guess at on the caller's behalf.
-		{"both forms of -incoming", func(s *Spec) { s.IncomingDefer, s.Incoming = true, "file:/state" }},
 	} {
 		t.Run(tc.what, func(t *testing.T) {
 			s := spec(t)
@@ -830,7 +829,7 @@ func TestIncomingNamesTheSourceOnTheCommandLine(t *testing.T) {
 		want string
 	}{
 		{"a URI at exec time", func(s *Spec) { s.Incoming = "file:/state" }, "file:/state"},
-		{"deferred to QMP", func(s *Spec) { s.IncomingDefer = true }, "defer"},
+		{"deferred to QMP", func(s *Spec) { s.Incoming = "defer" }, "defer"},
 		{"a boot", func(*Spec) {}, ""},
 	} {
 		t.Run(tc.what, func(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/machine/qemu_accepts_test.go b/machine/qemu_accepts_test.go
index b5c8394..4803efe 100644
--- a/machine/qemu_accepts_test.go
+++ b/machine/qemu_accepts_test.go
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ func TestQEMUAcceptsEveryArgument(t *testing.T) {
 		// where to load it from.
 		name: "restore target",
 		spec: func(s Spec) Spec {
-			s.IncomingDefer = true
+			s.Incoming = "defer"
 			return s
 		},
 	}, {