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Version

age v1.3.1 (Windows binary).

Problem

On Unix, the community convention is to store the identity file at ~/.age/key.txt (or similar under $XDG_CONFIG_HOME). On Windows there is no analogous guidance in the README or man page, so users invent their own conventions — I have seen %USERPROFILE%\.age\, %APPDATA%\age\, %LOCALAPPDATA%\age\, and ad-hoc paths inside project folders in the wild.

This matters because:

• Third-party tooling (backup scripts, dotfile managers, plugins) cannot assume where the key lives.
• Users often end up putting the identity in a synced folder (OneDrive, Dropbox) by accident because they had no default to reach for.
• Age itself does not consult any default path — every invocation needs -i <path> — so the lack of a documented convention has zero code cost to fix; it is a docs-only ask.

Suggestion

Add a short section to the README (or the age(1) man page) recommending:

• %USERPROFILE%\.age\key.txt as the mirror of the Unix convention, OR
• %APPDATA%\age\key.txt if you prefer the Known Folder route (matches gpg4win, git-credential-manager)

Either is fine — the value is picking one so ecosystem tools can rely on it. If age eventually grows a default-identity lookup (analogous to ssh -i fallbacks), the same path would be the natural default.

Alternatives considered

• Doing nothing and letting each downstream tool pick. This is the status quo and has produced the fragmentation described above.
• Documenting both paths and letting the user pick. Better than nothing but does not solve the "tools cannot assume" half of the problem.

Happy to open a docs PR if the maintainers pick a path.
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