diff --git a/akka-docs/src/main/paradox/stream/index.md b/akka-docs/src/main/paradox/stream/index.md
index 1dfce673b4..e35b6af24f 100644
--- a/akka-docs/src/main/paradox/stream/index.md
+++ b/akka-docs/src/main/paradox/stream/index.md
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ To use Akka Streams, add the module to your project:
 * [stream-graphs](stream-graphs.md)
 * [stream-composition](stream-composition.md)
 * [stream-rate](stream-rate.md)
+* [stream-context](stream-context.md)
 * [stream-dynamic](stream-dynamic.md)
 * [stream-customize](stream-customize.md)
 * [futures-interop](futures-interop.md)
diff --git a/akka-docs/src/main/paradox/stream/operators/Flow/asFlowWithContext.md b/akka-docs/src/main/paradox/stream/operators/Flow/asFlowWithContext.md
index 0745f131c7..eacbd63d97 100644
--- a/akka-docs/src/main/paradox/stream/operators/Flow/asFlowWithContext.md
+++ b/akka-docs/src/main/paradox/stream/operators/Flow/asFlowWithContext.md
@@ -8,9 +8,10 @@ Turns a Flow into a FlowWithContext which can propagate a context per element al
 
 @apidoc[Flow.asFlowWithContext](Flow) { scala="#asFlowWithContext[U,CtxU,CtxOut](collapseContext:(U,CtxU)=>In)(extractContext:Out=>CtxOut):akka.stream.scaladsl.FlowWithContext[U,CtxU,Out,CtxOut,Mat]" java="#asFlowWithContext(akka.japi.function.Function2,akka.japi.function.Function)" }
 
-
 ## Description
 
-Turns a Flow into a FlowWithContext which can propagate a context per element along a stream.
-The first function passed into asFlowWithContext must turn each incoming pair of element and context value into an element of this Flow.
-The second function passed into asFlowWithContext must turn each outgoing element of this Flow into an outgoing context value. 
+See @ref[Context Propagation](../../stream-context.md) for a general overview of context propagation.
+
+Turns a @apidoc[Flow] into a @apidoc[FlowWithContext] which can propagate a context per element along a stream.
+The first function passed into `asFlowWithContext` must turn each incoming pair of element and context value into an element of this @apidoc[Flow].
+The second function passed into `asFlowWithContext` must turn each outgoing element of this @apidoc[Flow] into an outgoing context value.
diff --git a/akka-docs/src/main/paradox/stream/operators/Source/asSourceWithContext.md b/akka-docs/src/main/paradox/stream/operators/Source/asSourceWithContext.md
index 9c04c0f902..7c807ded79 100644
--- a/akka-docs/src/main/paradox/stream/operators/Source/asSourceWithContext.md
+++ b/akka-docs/src/main/paradox/stream/operators/Source/asSourceWithContext.md
@@ -8,8 +8,9 @@ Turns a Source into a SourceWithContext which can propagate a context per elemen
 
 @apidoc[Source.asSourceWithContext](Source) { scala="#asSourceWithContext[Ctx](f:Out=>Ctx):akka.stream.scaladsl.SourceWithContext[Out,Ctx,Mat]" java="#asSourceWithContext(akka.japi.function.Function)" }
 
-
 ## Description
 
-Turns a Source into a SourceWithContext which can propagate a context per element along a stream.
-The function passed into asSourceWithContext must turn elements into contexts, one context for every element. 
+See @ref[Context Propagation](../../stream-context.md) for a general overview of context propagation.
+
+Turns a @apidoc[Source] into a @apidoc[SourceWithContext] which can propagate a context per element along a stream.
+The function passed into `asSourceWithContext` must turn elements into contexts, one context for every element.
diff --git a/akka-docs/src/main/paradox/stream/stream-context.md b/akka-docs/src/main/paradox/stream/stream-context.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..392ec52550
--- /dev/null
+++ b/akka-docs/src/main/paradox/stream/stream-context.md
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+# Context Propagation
+
+It can be convenient to attach metadata to each element in the stream.
+
+For example, when reading from an external data source it can be
+useful to keep track of the read offset, so it can be marked as processed
+when the element reaches the @apidoc[Sink].
+
+For this use case we provide the @apidoc[SourceWithContext] and
+@apidoc[FlowWithContext] variations on @apidoc[Source] and
+@apidoc[Flow].
+
+Essentially, a @apidoc[FlowWithContext] is just a @apidoc[Flow] that
+contains @scala[tuples]@java[pairs] of element and context, but the
+advantage is in the operators: most operators on @apidoc[FlowWithContext]
+will work on the element rather than on the @scala[tuple]@java[pair],
+allowing you to focus on your application logic rather without worrying
+about the context.
+
+## Restrictions
+
+Not all operations that are available on @apidoc[Flow] are also available
+on @apidoc[FlowWithContext]. This is intentional: in the use case of
+keeping track of a read offset, if the @apidoc[FlowWithContext] was
+allowed to arbitrarily filter and reorder the stream, the @apidoc[Sink]
+would have no way to determine whether an element was skipped
+or merely reordered and still in flight.
+
+For this reason, @apidoc[FlowWithContext] allows filtering operations
+(such as `filter`, `filterNot`, `collect`, etc) and grouping operations
+(such as `grouped`, `sliding`, etc) but not reordering operations
+(such as `mapAsyncUnordered` and `statefulMapConcat`). Finally,
+also 'one-to-n' operations such as `mapConcat` are allowed.
+
+Filtering operations will drop the context along with dropped elements,
+while grouping operations will keep all contexts from the elements in
+the group. Streaming one-to-many operations such as `mapConcat`
+associate the original context with each of the produced elements.
+
+As an escape hatch, there is a `via` operator that allows you to
+insert an arbitrary @apidoc[Flow] that can process the
+@scala[tuples]@java[pairs] of elements and context in any way
+desired. When using this operator, it is the responsibility of the
+implementor to make sure this @apidoc[Flow] does not perform
+any operations (such as reordering) that might break assumptions
+made by the @apidoc[Sink] consuming the context elements.
+
+## Creation
+
+The simplest way to create a @apidoc[SourceWithContext] is to
+first create a regular @apidoc[Source] with elements from which
+the context can be extracted, and then use
+@ref[Source.asSourceWithContext](operators/Source/asSourceWithContext.md).
+
+## Composition
+
+When you have a @apidoc[SourceWithContext] `source` that produces
+elements of type `Foo` with a context of type `Ctx`, and a
+@apidoc[Flow] `flow` from `Foo` to `Bar`,  you cannot simply
+`source.via(flow)` to arrive at a @apidoc[SourceWithContext] that
+produces elements of type `Bar` with contexts of type `Ctx`. The
+reason for this is that `flow` might reorder the elements flowing
+through it, making `via` challenging to implement.
+
+There is a @ref[Flow.asFlowWithContext](operators/Flow/asFlowWithContext.md)
+which can be used when the types used in the inner
+@apidoc[Flow] have room to hold the context. If this is not the
+case, a better solution is usually to build the flow from the ground
+up as a @apidoc[FlowWithContext], instead of first building a
+@apidoc[Flow] and trying to convert it to @apidoc[FlowWithContext]
+after-the-fact.
diff --git a/akka-stream/src/main/scala/akka/stream/javadsl/FlowWithContext.scala b/akka-stream/src/main/scala/akka/stream/javadsl/FlowWithContext.scala
index 4267165d1b..53aff73403 100644
--- a/akka-stream/src/main/scala/akka/stream/javadsl/FlowWithContext.scala
+++ b/akka-stream/src/main/scala/akka/stream/javadsl/FlowWithContext.scala
@@ -46,6 +46,10 @@ final class FlowWithContext[In, CtxIn, Out, CtxOut, +Mat](
    * Transform this flow by the regular flow. The given flow must support manual context propagation by
    * taking and producing tuples of (data, context).
    *
+   *  It is up to the implementer to ensure the inner flow does not exhibit any behaviour that is not expected
+   *  by the downstream elements, such as reordering. For more background on these requirements
+   *  see https://doc.akka.io/docs/akka/current/stream/stream-context.html.
+   *
    * This can be used as an escape hatch for operations that are not (yet) provided with automatic
    * context propagation here.
    *
diff --git a/akka-stream/src/main/scala/akka/stream/javadsl/SourceWithContext.scala b/akka-stream/src/main/scala/akka/stream/javadsl/SourceWithContext.scala
index 4544482283..a08c16b46c 100644
--- a/akka-stream/src/main/scala/akka/stream/javadsl/SourceWithContext.scala
+++ b/akka-stream/src/main/scala/akka/stream/javadsl/SourceWithContext.scala
@@ -43,6 +43,10 @@ final class SourceWithContext[+Out, +Ctx, +Mat](delegate: scaladsl.SourceWithCon
    * Transform this flow by the regular flow. The given flow must support manual context propagation by
    * taking and producing tuples of (data, context).
    *
+   *  It is up to the implementer to ensure the inner flow does not exhibit any behaviour that is not expected
+   *  by the downstream elements, such as reordering. For more background on these requirements
+   *  see https://doc.akka.io/docs/akka/current/stream/stream-context.html.
+   *
    * This can be used as an escape hatch for operations that are not (yet) provided with automatic
    * context propagation here.
    *
diff --git a/akka-stream/src/main/scala/akka/stream/scaladsl/FlowWithContextOps.scala b/akka-stream/src/main/scala/akka/stream/scaladsl/FlowWithContextOps.scala
index 00eadebe80..530db2353a 100644
--- a/akka-stream/src/main/scala/akka/stream/scaladsl/FlowWithContextOps.scala
+++ b/akka-stream/src/main/scala/akka/stream/scaladsl/FlowWithContextOps.scala
@@ -29,6 +29,10 @@ trait FlowWithContextOps[+Out, +Ctx, +Mat] {
    * Transform this flow by the regular flow. The given flow must support manual context propagation by
    * taking and producing tuples of (data, context).
    *
+   *  It is up to the implementer to ensure the inner flow does not exhibit any behaviour that is not expected
+   *  by the downstream elements, such as reordering. For more background on these requirements
+   *  see https://doc.akka.io/docs/akka/current/stream/stream-context.html.
+   *
    * This can be used as an escape hatch for operations that are not (yet) provided with automatic
    * context propagation here.
    *
@@ -40,6 +44,10 @@ trait FlowWithContextOps[+Out, +Ctx, +Mat] {
    * Transform this flow by the regular flow. The given flow must support manual context propagation by
    * taking and producing tuples of (data, context).
    *
+   *  It is up to the implementer to ensure the inner flow does not exhibit any behaviour that is not expected
+   *  by the downstream elements, such as reordering. For more background on these requirements
+   *  see https://doc.akka.io/docs/akka/current/stream/stream-context.html.
+   *
    * This can be used as an escape hatch for operations that are not (yet) provided with automatic
    * context propagation here.
    *