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+---
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-09-03
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 0045-what-a-module-is.md
+---
+
+# 46. Events are a relationship, the lighter sibling of provisioning
+
+## Context
+
+[ADR 0045](0045-what-a-module-is.md) names two relationships between modules — seats and
+provide/require (provisioning). A third is latent in the mesh and worth making first-class: the
+broker every node already runs ([ADR 0001](0001-nodes-communicate-over-a-broker.md)) can carry a
+module's activity as **events**, which any other module reacts to. A logger that writes an audit
+trail, a module that acts when another module acts, observability — all of it is one mechanism, and
+today it is ambient rather than declared.
+
+## Decision
+
+**A module emits events and consumes events, and both are declared** — parallel to `provides` /
+`requires`, so the mesh knows the event graph the same way it knows the provisioning graph.
+
+### Events are provisioning's lighter sibling
+
+| | provisioning | events |
+|---|---|---|
+| shape | **1:1**, a provider creates a resource *for* one consumer | **1:many**, a module emits, any number listen |
+| credential | yes — sealed, per consumer | none — it is broadcast |
+| machinery | a provisioner (the reconcile adapter) | nothing but the broker's topic routing |
+| declared as | `provides` / `requires` | `emits` / `consumes` |
+
+Because an event is broadcast and credential-free, there is no provisioner and no per-consumer
+setup — only a subscription. That is why it is the *lighter* relationship, and why most
+inter-module reaction should be an event, not a provision.
+
+### An event carries what an audit needs
+
+Every event carries its **type** (a dotted topic key, so listeners match by prefix), its **source**
+module, the **node** it came from, and the **time**. A body follows. The metadata is not optional:
+a reaction may only need the body, but an audit trail needs to know who did what, where and when,
+and an event that cannot answer that is not auditable.
+
+### The audit logger is just a consumer of everything
+
+A logger that records the whole mesh's activity is **not a privileged component** — it is an
+ordinary module that consumes `#` (every event) and writes them down. It holds no special access;
+it only listens widely. That it falls out of the model with no new machinery is the check that the
+model is right.
+
+### `consumes` is validated like `requires`
+
+A `consumes` for an event that **nothing** `emits` is a dangling edge, and the mesh refuses it
+before deploy — the same rule that catches a `requires` for a resource nothing provides
+([research 011](../01-RESEARCH/011-the-module-graph/00-overview.md)). A listener waiting for an
+event that can never arrive is a silent failure, and this repository's whole discipline is against
+silent failure.
+
+### One runtime serves all three
+
+The per-node module runtime that serves a module's tools also wires its `consumes` (subscribe,
+dispatch to the handler) and lets its code `emit`. Tools are *invoked* (request/reply), resources
+are *provisioned* (1:1, credentialed), events are *emitted and consumed* (1:many, broadcast) —
+three relationships, one broker, one runtime, all declared on the manifest.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- The mesh gains a declared **event graph** alongside the provisioning graph — visible, validated,
+  reasoned over.
+- **Reaction becomes the default coordination**: a module acts on another's event without either
+  knowing the other, and without a credentialed link. Coupling drops.
+- An **audit trail** is a module, not a platform feature — and can be swapped, extended or run more
+  than once (a file logger and a queryable one) with no change to anything that emits.
+- The runtime must dispatch a module's event handlers as well as its tools; that generalisation is
+  small (both arrive by importing the module's entrypoint) but it is real work.
+
+## References
+
+- [ADR 0001](0001-nodes-communicate-over-a-broker.md) — the broker events ride.
+- [ADR 0045](0045-what-a-module-is.md) — the relationships this extends.
+- [ADR 0044](0044-what-the-sdk-holds-and-refuses.md) — `emit`/`on` are stable sdk surface; the
+  broker binding and the runtime are not.
+- [research 011](../01-RESEARCH/011-the-module-graph/00-overview.md) — the graph these edges join.