The provisioner, which is where the mesh stops

A password nothing was told to create authenticates nowhere. The mesh
generates one, seals it to both ends and cannot read it — so it cannot
tell the software to accept it either. Something on the providing machine
reads what arrived and makes it true.

That something belongs to the module, not to the mesh. The control plane
decides and never touches a machine; a provisioner runs on the machine
and touches it. What the mesh owns is the contract: a manifest of who
asked and where each credential is, and one file per consumer holding it.

It reconciles and is never told what changed, which forces three things
that are each a fault somebody has shipped: set the password every time
or a rotation changes nothing; remove what nobody asks for or a departed
consumer keeps a login for ever; leave alone what it did not make or it
cannot be run on anything that predates it.

Saying where the mesh stops is the point. It decides, delivers, and can
prove what it delivered; the last inch belongs to whoever knows what
`create role` means.

02-DECISIONS/0009-modules-and-the-graph.md

@@ -219,9 +219,46 @@ mesh holds a dead credential, the failure
 [recorded in ADR 0001](0001-mesh-brokers-nodes-host-agents-think.md) as consumers on three nodes
 holding one for two days.
 
-**What remains is a provisioner** — something that creates the database user the credential is
+### The provisioner, which is where the mesh stops
-for. The mesh now generates the secret, tells the provider to create it and the consumer to use
+
-it; nothing yet acts on the telling.
+*Written 2026-08-30, from building one and running it against a real database.*
+
+**A password nothing was told to create authenticates nowhere.** The mesh generates one, seals it
+to both ends and cannot read it — so it cannot tell the software to start accepting it either.
+Something on the providing machine reads what arrived and makes it true. That is a provisioner.
+
+**It belongs to the module, not to the mesh**, and the boundary is the same one that keeps
+third-party software running *on* the mesh rather than being *of* it
+([ADR 0001](0001-mesh-brokers-nodes-host-agents-think.md)). The control plane decides and never
+touches a machine. **What the mesh owns is the contract**, which is two files the host writes from
+an ordinary declaration:
+
+| | |
+|---|---|
+| the manifest | every consumer, what it asked for, and **where** its credential is |
+| one file per consumer | that credential, alone in it |
+
+Two files because the mesh discarded the value and cannot compose a document containing it. As
+before, the constraint produces the better shape: the readable half stays readable and auditable
+in the declaration, and the secret half changes only when the secret does.
+
+**It reconciles; it is never told what changed.** It runs after every declaration and must reach
+the same state from wherever it starts. Three consequences, and each of them is a fault that has
+been shipped somewhere:
+
+- **the password is set every time, not only on creation** — otherwise the role already exists,
+  nothing happens, and a rotation reports success while changing nothing
+- **what it made and nobody asks for any more is removed** — otherwise a consumer that left keeps
+  a working login for ever and nothing ever says so. This is the same rule the host follows about
+  [removing what it declared and no longer declares](../04-ISSUES/010-the-first-declaration-destroys-the-substrate/00-report.md)
+- **what it did not make is left alone** — otherwise it cannot be run on a system that predates
+  it, which is every system anybody would want to adopt
+
+**A missing credential is refused rather than worked around.** A role created without one is a
+login nothing can use, and nothing would report it until something tried to connect.
+
+**This is where the mesh stops**, and saying so is the point of the section. It decides, delivers
+and can prove what it delivered; the last inch belongs to whoever knows what `create role` means.
 
 **One check that only became possible now.** Two machines wired together across no private network
 is a mesh that reports itself configured and does not work, and the failure surfaces as a