diff --git a/docs/vmalert.md b/docs/vmalert.md
index 5dd5ab0817..9ae86fe0dc 100644
--- a/docs/vmalert.md
+++ b/docs/vmalert.md
@@ -41,11 +41,12 @@ The build binary will be placed to `VictoriaMetrics/bin` folder.
 
 To start using `vmalert` you will need the following things:
 * list of rules - PromQL/MetricsQL expressions to execute;
-* datasource address - reachable VictoriaMetrics instance for rules execution;
+* datasource address - reachable MetricsQL endpoint to run queries against;
 * notifier address - reachable [Alert Manager](https://github.com/prometheus/alertmanager) instance for processing,
 aggregating alerts and sending notifications.
 * remote write address [optional] - [remote write](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/storage/#remote-storage-integrations)
-compatible storage address for storing recording rules results and alerts state in for of timeseries.
+  compatible storage to persist rules and alerts state info;
+* remote read address [optional] - MetricsQL compatible datasource to restore alerts state from.
 
 Then configure `vmalert` accordingly:
 ```
@@ -53,12 +54,18 @@ Then configure `vmalert` accordingly:
     -datasource.url=http://localhost:8428 \  # PromQL compatible datasource
     -notifier.url=http://localhost:9093 \    # AlertManager URL
     -notifier.url=http://127.0.0.1:9093 \    # AlertManager replica URL
-    -remoteWrite.url=http://localhost:8428 \ # Remote write compatible storage to persist rules
+    -remoteWrite.url=http://localhost:8428 \ # Remote write compatible storage to persist rules and alerts state info
     -remoteRead.url=http://localhost:8428 \  # MetricsQL compatible datasource to restore alerts state from
     -external.label=cluster=east-1 \         # External label to be applied for each rule
     -external.label=replica=a                # Multiple external labels may be set
 ```
 
+Note there's a separate `remoteRead.url` to allow writing results of
+alerting/recording rules into a different storage than the initial data that's
+queried.  This allows using `vmalert` to aggregate data from a short-term,
+high-frequency, high-cardinality storage into a long-term storage with
+decreased cardinality and a bigger interval between samples.
+
 See the full list of configuration flags in [configuration](#configuration) section.
 
 If you run multiple `vmalert` services for the same datastore or AlertManager - do not forget