The predecessor's agent module was retired and its six files stayed on both workstations telling
every session to use tools that no longer exist. Before a successor module is written, the design
needs the decisions it rests on and nothing in the record stated them:
- ADR 0169 (reconstructed) records what the controller shipped on 2026-09-27 without a record: the
operator account is a node fact stated by the operator, the home is derived unless stated, a
resource may be placed under it owned by the account, and a node with no account refuses one.
- ADR 0170 generalises to-be 29 §3's found-vs-owned boundary to every directory under a home: the
module owns the directory and the files it places, writes into the tool's own files for its few
keys, never declares a credential's content, and holds everything else as found — a predecessor's
leftovers included, which the operator removes once.
- ADR 0171 draws the licence line the operator asked to have drawn rather than assumed: the mesh
binds and delivers (to-be 14 and 15 stand), the module alone writes the credential file, refresh
stays central (ADR 0050), a switch is the binding changed through a controller seat verb asked
for via the console, and the token-carrying shell helper is retired. The controller learns
nothing about the agent; that is what "no part" means.
To-be 36 is the module's design: the ownership map per path, the fate of the six predecessor
files, what the three instruction documents say, the licence tools and skill, the console as a
node-scoped provision, the package gap stated honestly, and the order of the build. To-be 14, 29
and 34 carry dated notes; the glossary gains "operator account".
The controller merged §1, §2 and the composed ssh config on 2026-09-27 while hq still
called the design proposed. Record what is on main, what is held on a branch, and what
has no code — and that the account fact shipped without a decision record, which is the
next thing to write. Also drop the real account and node names the public repository must
not carry, and correct ADR numbers that drifted in a renumbering.
Both lines of work numbered from the same point, so four decision records and one design
document existed twice with different content. The trunk keeps its numbers and this branch
yields — the only rule that scales, because the trunk's are already cited by what merged
before them.
0117 the bus is the only broker -> 0125
0118 a module declares its own seats -> 0126
0119 amqp is a provision, not the bus -> 0127
0120 the mesh bus is required -> 0128
0123 a seat carries its role's protocol -> 0129
0124 the predecessor is ending -> 0130
design 29, what a module declares -> design 32
Applied to the code repositories too, because a stale reference is worse when numbers
collide than when they dangle: the reader lands on a real record that decided something
else.
Two reconciliations the merge forced, both real:
**0110 was marked wholly superseded and was not.** Its successor says in as many words that
everything 0110 decided about what a seat *is* stands untouched — and two records that
landed on the trunk rest on exactly that part. So it is accepted again, extended rather than
replaced, with a note saying which of its claims moved and where.
**A seat's protocol becomes columns, not fields.** The trunk moved the seat set out of
compiled code into a table the controller owns. This branch had added what a role accepts,
emits and serves to the Go slice. The decision is unaffected and the mechanism is better for
it: giving a role a protocol is now a write rather than a rebuild, which is the trunk's own
argument applied to what this branch added.
One check still fails and it fails on main too: a record resting on ADR 0112 while that is
still 'proposed'. Left alone — it is not this merge's to answer.
The facts mechanism formatted the roster in Go in the control plane — one
formatter per fact, in the consumer's own configuration language. ADR 0120
makes a fact a path and a template: the mesh owns the data, the module owns
the format, and the control plane holds no format at all.
to-be 29 (operator accounts + what lives under a home) is rewritten to ride
it: the ssh files become roster templates, the whole ~/.ssh is owned with a
found/owned boundary that cannot lock the operator out, keys are mesh-owned
through an SSH CA (existing keys adopted not regenerated, the operator's
personal key signed not minted), and the ssh-agent is a user-scoped service.
The mesh models machines but not the people on them — a node record
holds no username, and no module places anything under a home. So who
you are on each node (jochens/ace/jochen) is unknown to the mesh, and
nothing owns ~/.ssh, dotfiles or ~/.config. HAL knew it; the nox mesh
dropped it. Proposes the account as a node fact and a home-scoped
resource class (the ~/ mirror of ADR 0112's /var/lib placement), with
the login key staying the operator's (ADR 0051). Not urgent — HAL's
generators still run — load-bearing at node-by-node retirement. Found
generating ~/.ssh/config from HAL's registry, which nox has no
equivalent for.
jochen
jschoubben