The microsopic origin of the charge-density wave (CDW) in $A{\mathrm{V}}_3{\mathrm{Sb}}_5$ ($A$ = K, Rb, Cs) kagome metals remains a longstanding question, often revolving around electron-phonon coupling and purely electronic mechanisms involving Van Hove scenarios, nesting, and sublattice interference. To reveal the processes driving the CDW transition, we combine ab initio calculations analysis of the phonon self-energy and ARPES. Our momentum-resolved study, supported by ARPES data, reveals that lattice instabilities in the V-135 family of kagome metals appear to also be driven by electronic states far from high-symmetry points, where these states exhibit the strongest coupling with the phonon modes responsible for the CDW distortion. Footing on an interpretation scheme based on phonon fluctuation diagnostics, our work challenges and revises theories that so far have exclusively attributed CDW formation to nesting effects close to the Fermi level.

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• Charge density waves
• Electron-phonon coupling
• Electronic structure of atoms & molecules
• First-principles calculations
• Phonons
• Topological materials
• Van Hove singularity
• Kagome metal
• Low-temperature superconductors
• Strongly correlated systems
• Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy
• Band structure methods
• Density functional theory
• Wannier function methods