diff --git a/doc/manual/rl-next/leading-period.md b/doc/manual/rl-next/leading-period.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e9a32a74a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/manual/rl-next/leading-period.md
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+---
+synopsis: Store paths are allowed to start with `.`
+issues: 912
+prs: 9867 9091 9095 9120 9121 9122 9130 9219 9224
+---
+
+Leading periods were allowed by accident in Nix 2.4. The Nix team has considered this to be a bug, but this behavior has since been relied on by users, leading to unnecessary difficulties.
+From now on, leading periods are officially, definitively supported.
+
+Nix versions that denied leading periods are documented [in the issue](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/912#issuecomment-1919583286).
diff --git a/tests/unit/libstore/path.cc b/tests/unit/libstore/path.cc
index 5485ab8bb..f7b69d5f9 100644
--- a/tests/unit/libstore/path.cc
+++ b/tests/unit/libstore/path.cc
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ TEST_DO_PARSE(underscore, "foo_bar")
 TEST_DO_PARSE(period, "foo.txt")
 TEST_DO_PARSE(question_mark, "foo?why")
 TEST_DO_PARSE(equals_sign, "foo=foo")
+TEST_DO_PARSE(dotfile, ".gitignore")
 
 #undef TEST_DO_PARSE