diff --git a/03-DESIGN/01-to-be/05-the-node-host.md b/03-DESIGN/01-to-be/05-the-node-host.md
index 8495231..e45d6a2 100644
--- a/03-DESIGN/01-to-be/05-the-node-host.md
+++ b/03-DESIGN/01-to-be/05-the-node-host.md
@@ -237,6 +237,36 @@ Each decision above owes a test:
 | 0036 — disconnection is a situation | a node cut off and returned reconciles without being re-adopted |
 | 0008 — a failed step fails the apply | an apply with a failing step reports failure |
 
+## What a machine says about itself, and what the mesh keeps of it
+
+*2026-08-31, from finding that half of it was being discarded.*
+
+**A capability is detected and never assumed** ([ADR 0009](../../02-DECISIONS/0009-modules-and-the-graph.md)),
+so the only account of what a machine can do is the one the machine gave. That account has two
+halves and the mesh was keeping one:
+
+| | |
+|---|---|
+| **the yes or no** | gates an assignment — *this machine has no seat, and nothing can be installed to fix that* |
+| **the detail** | carries a value — `seat: card1-DP-1`, an architecture, an amount of memory |
+
+They are **one fact read two ways**: *can this run here* and *what should it be configured as*. A
+module that must not be assigned without an OLED panel and one that dims itself differently on one
+are reading the same line. Keeping only the first read makes the second unanswerable, and there is
+nowhere else to get it — the detector is the only thing that looked.
+
+**The reason an absent capability is absent goes the same way, and it is the half a person needs
+most.** *This machine has no container runtime* is the answer; *docker is not installed* is why.
+The first is the mesh's to say and the second is only the machine's.
+
+**Never reported and reported nothing stay different.** One machine has not run the host yet; the
+other ran it and can do nothing. Both refuse everything that requires a capability, and the
+remedies are not remotely alike.
+
+*Checked by recording a profile with a present capability carrying a value and an absent one
+carrying its reason, and requiring both to survive — and by requiring a machine that never
+reported to be distinguishable from one that reported an empty list.*
+
 ## Open
 
 - **Whether one host can raise the substrate alone.** Move 1 assumes it. Stage 2 tests it, and