ADR 0168: built and proven live — the live row read on the home server and the control node, the five rule sets removed through ADR 0170's verb

Another session's 0169 landed first. The collision check from issue 155
covered issue folders only; it covers decision records now, and would have
refused this.

00-META/checks/cycle.py

@@ -131,6 +131,22 @@ def main():
         else:
             seen[number] = name
 
+    # And decision records, which 155's fix left out: on 2026-10-02 two ADRs numbered 0169 landed
+    # on main from two sessions within the hour, and every check passed.
+    seen_records = {}
+    for path in sorted(glob.glob(os.path.join(ROOT, "02-DECISIONS", "[0-9]*.md"))):
+        name = os.path.basename(path)
+        number = name.split("-", 1)[0]
+        if not number.isdigit():
+            continue
+        if number in seen_records:
+            bad(os.path.join("02-DECISIONS", name),
+                "is numbered %s, and so is %s -- a record's number is how it is cited. Take the next "
+                "free number across main AND every open pull request; the branch that lands last "
+                "renumbers" % (number, seen_records[number]))
+        else:
+            seen_records[number] = name
+
     for path in sorted(glob.glob(os.path.join(ROOT, "04-ISSUES", "*", "00-report.md"))):
         front = frontmatter(path)
         if front is None:

02-DECISIONS/0168-a-converged-machine-is-filtered-by-the-mesh-alone.md

@@ -113,6 +113,22 @@ That is a difference a take shows, not a fault, and is decided when it bites.
 | `node show` lists filters with owners; `status` names a converged machine something else filters and is not well; the preview lists filters and fates | controller tests over a fixture report |
 | Live | the home server's record names the predecessor's chain in the runtime's user chain as *other*; `status` names the machine; after the operator removes the chain, the next report drops it and `status` is well |
 
+## Built and proven live, 2026-10-02
+
+> **Progressive insight — 2026-10-02.** The decision stands; these are the facts of its building.
+
+Built in mesh-host 67 (every refusing table and legacy chain classified with an owner, reported with
+every apply; the found firewall retired on every converged apply, *found inactive* kept apart from
+*disabled by the mesh*, a skipped step said) and mesh-controller 211 (kept per node, shown on `node
+show`, named by `status` and not well, previewed with fates). The live row was read at 10:10Z: the home
+server's record named the predecessor's chain in the legacy filter's user chain as *other*, beside two
+chains a retired front end left in the IPv6 legacy filter; the control node's record named the same two
+leftovers; the laptop and the workstation read *the mesh alone*; `status` named both machines. The five
+rule sets were removed at 12:46Z through the packet filter seat's `remove` verb
+([ADR 0170](0170-the-firewall-seat-serves-its-verbs.md)), and the next report read *the mesh alone* on
+all four machines. The control node's record still says the mesh retired its front end, which issue 143
+records as a hand's work: the host trusts its record, and from this build on the distinction is kept.
+
 ## References
 
 - [ADR 0100](0100-a-node-in-use-is-adopted-before-it-is-converged.md), [ADR 0103](0103-what-an-adopted-node-holds-and-what-its-guard-refuses.md), [ADR 0140](0140-the-filter-constrains-what-arrives-from-outside.md), [ADR 0102](0102-the-mesh-writes-into-a-shared-file-never-over-it.md), [ADR 0163](0163-taking-a-module-over-is-a-comparison.md)

02-DECISIONS/0169-a-machine-joins-through-the-tunnel-and-the-bus-is-never-public.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ---
 topic: the mesh
-status: proposed
+status: accepted
 date: 2026-10-02
 deciders: jochen
 reconstructed: false

02-DECISIONS/0170-the-firewall-seat-serves-its-verbs.md

@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
+---
+topic: the mesh
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-02
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0168-a-converged-machine-is-filtered-by-the-mesh-alone.md
+---
+
+# 170. The firewall seat serves its verbs, and a foreign rule set is removed through one of them
+
+## Context
+
+[ADR 0168](0168-a-converged-machine-is-filtered-by-the-mesh-alone.md) made the mesh say truthfully
+what filters a converged machine, and left the removal of what it did not write to the operator's
+hand. The first time that hand was needed — two machines, five rule sets a predecessor and a
+retired front end had left — there was no mesh way to lend it: the packet filter is a seat
+([ADR 0121](0121-a-system-seat-is-named-for-its-scope-and-modules-define-their-own.md)), a seat's
+holder serves its verbs ([ADR 0154](0154-the-meshs-own-verbs-are-the-controller-seats-tools.md),
+[ADR 0159](0159-a-tool-call-names-the-machine-and-a-holder-serves-its-seats-verbs.md)), and the
+firewall seat declared none. The only remaining path was a shell on the machine, which is the path
+the mesh exists to replace, and which the operator's own tooling rightly refused to an agent.
+
+A seat's verbs are the contract every holder implements, whatever filter it speaks. What a person
+asks a machine's packet filter is the same whether nftables, a front end or a legacy filter answers:
+what are the rules, reload the mesh's own, remove this thing the mesh did not write. What differs by
+filter is the holder's own business and may be its own tools beside the seat's.
+
+## Decision
+
+**1. The `node-packet-filter` seat serves three verbs**, and a module that claims it serves all
+three or is refused the claim, as with every seat:
+
+- `rules` — the packet filter as the machine enforces it now: the nftables ruleset, and the legacy
+  filter's listings where that tool exists; narrowed to one table or chain when asked. Read-only.
+- `reload` — load the mesh's own filter again from the file the mesh writes, and answer with the
+  mesh's table as loaded. The holder's own act on the holder's own rules.
+- `remove` — remove one rule set the mesh did not write, named exactly as the host reports it under
+  ADR 0168 (`chain HAL-MESH-ONLY (iptables-legacy)`, `table ip6 filter, chain DOCKER-USER`), and
+  answer with what was done. It refuses the mesh's own tables, the container runtime's own chains,
+  a built-in chain other than the runtime's user chain, and any chain of a found firewall that is
+  in force. The runtime's user chain is emptied back to its one return; another chain loses the
+  jumps into it, is flushed and deleted; a table of the machine's own is deleted whole. Each is an
+  operator's act, by name, on one thing the mesh reported — never a flush, never a rule the mesh
+  itself marked.
+
+**2. A holder may serve its own tools beside the seat's.** The nftables module keeps its reading of
+the mesh's table as its own tool, and a holder speaking a filter with specifics of its own may add
+tools for them; the seat's three are what every holder owes.
+
+**3. A container may ask for a capability.** Serving `remove` and `reload` needs the machine's
+network namespace and the right to change its packet filter; a holder's runtime declares
+`capabilities: ["NET_ADMIN"]` on its container and runs on the machine's network. The host grants
+exactly the capabilities declared, names them in the container's spec so a change recreates it, and
+refuses a name that is not a capability's. A privileged container stays undeclarable.
+
+**4. ADR 0168's "by hand" is read as "by the operator, through the seat".** Removing what the mesh
+reports as *other* is still the operator's act and is still never the mesh's own doing; the verb is
+how the act reaches the machine, recorded on the bus like every other, instead of a shell.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- The seat's row gains the three verbs; a mesh that already runs widens its row at the next
+  controller start. The nftables module claims them and gains a runtime — a tool server with the
+  packet filter's tools in its image, on the machine's network, with `NET_ADMIN`.
+- The host's container vocabulary grows by `capabilities`; an older host refuses a declaration that
+  carries it, so the host rolls before the module.
+- The two machines of this mesh that ADR 0168 found not filtered by the mesh alone are cleaned
+  through `remove`, and read *the mesh alone* afterwards; `status` returns to well without a hand on
+  either machine.
+
+## How this is checked
+
+| Rule | Checked by |
+|---|---|
+| The seat declares the three verbs; a claim that serves fewer is refused by name | the catalogue's seat tests |
+| `remove` refuses the mesh's tables, the runtime's chains, a built-in chain and an active front end's chains, and removes a user chain with its jumps, empties the user chain, deletes an own table | the module's tests over a fake command runner, with the shapes the host reported live |
+| A container's capabilities reach the runtime and its spec; an unknown name is refused | host tests |
+| Live | `node-packet-filter.remove@<node>` on the home server and the control node; `node show` reads *the mesh alone* on both; `status` is well |
+
+## Built and proven live, 2026-10-02
+
+> **Progressive insight — 2026-10-02.** The decision stands; these are the facts of its building.
+> Written as 0169 for three hours and renumbered to 0170: another record took 0169 on main first,
+> and the check that refuses a shared number covered issues only (now records too).
+
+Built in mesh-host 68 (`capabilities` on a container), mesh-controller 212 (the seat's three verbs)
+and 213 (the filter file a module names under `filtering.into` counts as declared for a mount — the
+module's first build was refused without it), mesh-catalog 216 (the nftables module's runtime and
+verbs) and mesh-tools 27 (the console lists a node-scoped seat's verbs with their scope and carries the
+machine; before it, the verbs were live on four machines and unreachable from the console —
+[issue 199](../04-ISSUES/199-a-node-scoped-seats-verb-could-not-be-called-through-the-console/00-report.md)).
+Each machine's holder was issued its bus account with `mesh-controller.issue`, the broker node pushed
+first. At 12:46Z the five rule sets ADR 0168 had named were removed through
+`node-packet-filter.remove`, three on the home server and two on the control node, each answering
+with the commands it ran; the next report read *the mesh alone* on all four machines and `status`
+listed nothing under `filtered`. The live row is read. What it cost on the way is
+[issue 200](../04-ISSUES/200-the-controllers-answer-to-the-console-is-refused-by-the-bus/00-report.md).
+
+## References
+
+- [ADR 0168](0168-a-converged-machine-is-filtered-by-the-mesh-alone.md), [ADR 0154](0154-the-meshs-own-verbs-are-the-controller-seats-tools.md), [ADR 0159](0159-a-tool-call-names-the-machine-and-a-holder-serves-its-seats-verbs.md), [ADR 0121](0121-a-system-seat-is-named-for-its-scope-and-modules-define-their-own.md)
+- [Design 33 — The tools the mesh answers](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/33-the-tools-the-mesh-answers.md), [Design 08 — Connectivity](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/08-connectivity.md)

02-DECISIONS/0172-the-lab-is-a-module-and-runs-a-bed-when-the-mesh-asks.md

@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+---
+topic: the mesh
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-02
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0016-the-lab.md
+---
+
+# 172. The lab is a module, and runs a bed when the mesh asks
+
+## Context
+
+The lab raises virtual machines and runs the mesh on them, end to end, before a change reaches a real
+machine ([ADR 0016](0016-the-lab.md)). It runs on one machine of the mesh, the one with the
+virtualisation it needs. Until now the only way to start a bed there was to sign in to that machine and
+run the lab's command line by hand, with a dozen environment variables pointing at sibling checkouts.
+
+Nothing in the mesh could ask for it. An agent working through the mesh's own tools could build,
+merge and push a change, and could not prove it in the lab first. The operator's direction on
+2026-10-02: work on another machine goes through a mesh tool, not a shell on it.
+
+## Considered Options
+
+1. **Keep the lab a command line on one machine.** Every run is a person, or an agent with a shell on
+   that machine, outside the mesh.
+2. **The lab is a module.** Assigned to the machine that can run it, serving tools that run a bed
+   against named branches and say how it went.
+
+## Decision
+
+**Option 2.**
+
+- **A `lab` module, assigned where the lab can run**, serves five tools: whether this machine can run
+  beds, run beds against a branch per repository, a run's state, its log, and stopping it.
+- **A run is the lab's own suite**, against fresh checkouts of the named branches from the mesh's forge,
+  side by side as the lab expects them. It builds what the beds place from those checkouts, as the suite
+  already does. It answers at once with an id, like a build: a bed takes minutes, and a call does not.
+- **Only branches on the forge are run**, never code handed to the tool. What a run tested is what the
+  forge holds at the commit it names.
+- **The lab is reached over the mesh only.** Its tools travel the bus, and the module opens no port.
+- **No grant beyond the mesh's own.** Running a bed is root on the lab's machine, but anyone who can call
+  the mesh's tools can already do worse. The operator's judgement on 2026-10-02.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- An agent proves a change in the lab through the mesh, the same way it builds and pushes one.
+- The lab's machine carries a module whose runtime holds the virtualisation's and the container
+  runtime's sockets, and a toolchain to build the mesh with.
+- A run's checkouts are its own, so two runs never build from each other's tree. Old ones are removed
+  when their run ends.
+
+## How this is checked
+
+| Rule | Checked by |
+|---|---|
+| A run checks out exactly the named branches, and reports the commits it tested | the module's tests over a forge fixture, and each run's answer |
+| A run answers at once, and its state and log follow it to the end | by hand, the first run |
+| The module opens no port | the composed filter of the lab's machine |

02-DECISIONS/README.md

@@ -179,7 +179,9 @@ python3 00-META/checks/index.py            fail if stale
 - **0163** — [Taking a module over is a comparison: what it compares, what it refuses, and what it carries](0163-taking-a-module-over-is-a-comparison.md)
 - **0167** — [A membership carries what its module receives, and who the mesh is](0167-a-membership-carries-what-its-module-receives-and-who-the-mesh-is.md)
 - **0168** — [A converged machine is filtered by the mesh alone, and the host says what else refuses](0168-a-converged-machine-is-filtered-by-the-mesh-alone.md)
-- **0169** — [A machine joins through the tunnel, and the bus is never public](0169-a-machine-joins-through-the-tunnel-and-the-bus-is-never-public.md)  *(proposed)*
+- **0169** — [A machine joins through the tunnel, and the bus is never public](0169-a-machine-joins-through-the-tunnel-and-the-bus-is-never-public.md)
+- **0170** — [The firewall seat serves its verbs, and a foreign rule set is removed through one of them](0170-the-firewall-seat-serves-its-verbs.md)
+- **0172** — [The lab is a module, and runs a bed when the mesh asks](0172-the-lab-is-a-module-and-runs-a-bed-when-the-mesh-asks.md)
 
 ### Its tiers, from the bottom up
 

03-DESIGN/01-to-be/04-lab-installation.md

@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
 ---
 layer: to-be
 status: in-progress
-code: [mesh-lab]
+code: [mesh-lab, mesh-catalog modules/lab]
-updated: 2026-09-11
+updated: 2026-10-02
 decisions:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0172-the-lab-is-a-module-and-runs-a-bed-when-the-mesh-asks.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0016-the-lab.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0010-delivery.md
 ---
@@ -119,7 +120,25 @@ In order, on a machine with nothing:
 
 6. **Verification**, as above, before anything is raised.
 
-## Open
+## The lab answers the mesh
+
+*2026-10-02* ([ADR 0172](../../02-DECISIONS/0172-the-lab-is-a-module-and-runs-a-bed-when-the-mesh-asks.md)).
+Once installed, the lab is also a module: `lab`, assigned to the machine that passed `check`. Its
+tools run there and nowhere else:
+
+| tool | does |
+|---|---|
+| `lab_check` | the lab's `check`, on this machine |
+| `lab_run` | fresh checkouts of the named branches from the forge, side by side, then the suite on the named beds; answers with an id |
+| `lab_status` | where a run is, and how it ended: the commits it tested, passed and failed |
+| `lab_log` | the run's output so far |
+| `lab_stop` | ends a run |
+
+The runtime is a container holding the toolchain the suite builds with. It reaches the
+virtualisation daemon and the container runtime through their sockets on the machine, so what it
+raises is what a hand run raises. The prerequisites above stay installed by hand. The module uses
+them, and never installs them.
+
 
 - **Whether the lab's bootstrap may install packages at all**, given that the mesh's rules
   forbid installing by hand. The resolution is probably that the lab's bootstrap *is* the

03-DESIGN/01-to-be/08-connectivity.md

@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ code:
   - mesh-host internal/apply (the service that reflects a rule set)
 updated: 2026-10-02
 decisions:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0170-the-firewall-seat-serves-its-verbs.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0169-a-machine-joins-through-the-tunnel-and-the-bus-is-never-public.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0168-a-converged-machine-is-filtered-by-the-mesh-alone.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0167-a-membership-carries-what-its-module-receives-and-who-the-mesh-is.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0148-the-meshs-names-are-resolved-not-copied-into-containers.md
@@ -173,6 +175,28 @@ the broker's node must be dialable by every node, at a stable address, and so mu
 reachable; on one network it does not. A mesh whose nodes are all behind NAT cannot be raised, and
 a broker node whose address moves invalidates every token issued for it.
 
+*2026-10-02.* **The order changes at step 1: the tunnel comes first, from the token**
+([ADR 0169](../../02-DECISIONS/0169-a-machine-joins-through-the-tunnel-and-the-bus-is-never-public.md)).
+The circularity above is real, and it is broken differently. The overlay is configured by the mesh,
+except for the one peer a joining machine needs, and the token carries that peer. So the sequence
+becomes:
+
+```
+0  the node has an underlay address     the machine's own
+1  the node makes its tunnel key        before any token; it prints the public half
+2  a token is issued for that key       its address assigned, and the hub sent it as a peer
+3  the tunnel comes up to the hub       from the token alone: the hub's endpoint and key, its address
+4  the node dials the bus               OVER THE TUNNEL, at the bus's private address
+5  it proves itself, and is proved to   enrolment, checking the key is the one the token named
+6  the rest of the overlay              the whole peer set, delivered as files
+7  names, filtering, routes             as before
+```
+
+The link no longer stays on the underlay. The bus is reached over the tunnel by every machine,
+including one that is joining, so it is never opened to the internet. The precondition becomes: **the
+hub's tunnel must be dialable by every node, at a stable address.** That port answers nothing to a
+key it does not know.
+
 **Whether the link should later move onto the overlay, with the underlay as fallback, is
 [open](../../02-DECISIONS/0007-connectivity.md).** It is a decision rather than a derivation: the
 gain is which network carries bytes, not what an attacker can reach, since the link is already
@@ -743,6 +767,11 @@ tests over a fixture report check the recording, the preview's fates, the status
 predicate. Live: the home server's record names the predecessor's chain as *other* and `status`
 names the machine until the chain is removed by hand.
 
+*2026-10-02, [ADR 0170](../../02-DECISIONS/0170-the-firewall-seat-serves-its-verbs.md):* removing what
+the host reports as *other* is reached through the packet filter seat's `remove` verb, an operator's act
+by name on the bus; the seat also serves `rules` and `reload`, and its holder's runtime declares the
+`NET_ADMIN` capability on the machine's network. See design 33.
+
 ## 5 — Certificates
 
 **Two authorities, kept separate on purpose.**

03-DESIGN/01-to-be/33-the-tools-the-mesh-answers.md

@@ -2,8 +2,9 @@
 layer: to-be
 status: implemented
 code: [mesh-controller, mesh-tools]
-updated: 2026-10-01
+updated: 2026-10-02
 decisions:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0170-the-firewall-seat-serves-its-verbs.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0160-the-mesh-issues-an-assignments-subjects-and-a-runtime-serves-what-it-is-issued.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0159-a-tool-call-names-the-machine-and-a-holder-serves-its-seats-verbs.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0154-the-meshs-own-verbs-are-the-controller-seats-tools.md
@@ -169,6 +170,18 @@ either way.
 What stays as designed and not built: which verbs any *other* seat serves, and §3 for module-declared
 seats' schemas beyond the names their manifests already list.
 
+## The firewall seat's verbs, 2026-10-02
+
+[ADR 0170](../../02-DECISIONS/0170-the-firewall-seat-serves-its-verbs.md). The first node-scoped seat
+to carry verbs: `node-packet-filter` serves `rules` (the filter as the machine enforces it, nftables
+and legacy), `reload` (the mesh's own filter from its file) and `remove` (one rule set the mesh did
+not write, named as the host reports it under ADR 0168; refusing the mesh's tables, the runtime's
+own chains, a built-in chain and an active found firewall's). Every holder serves all three; the
+nftables module does so from a runtime on the machine's network with `NET_ADMIN`, which is the first
+container to declare a capability. Removing a predecessor's rule set is an operator's act reached
+through the seat, recorded on the bus, instead of a shell on the machine. *How it is checked:* ADR
+0169's table.
+
 ## What this does not settle
 
 - Which verbs each seat should serve. That is a decision per seat, and the reason to do it slowly: a

04-ISSUES/199-a-node-scoped-seats-verb-could-not-be-called-through-the-console/00-report.md

@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+---
+status: resolved
+opened: 2026-10-02
+located-in: [mesh-tools src/client.ts (toolsOn left node-scoped seats out of the listing), mesh-tools src/mcp.ts (the call resolved the key against that listing)]
+fixed-by: mesh-tools 27 — node-scoped seats are listed with their scope, the verb requires the machine, and the call carries it in the subject
+amended-design:
+---
+
+# 199 — A node-scoped seat's verb could not be called through the console
+
+## What was observed
+
+2026-10-02, the first time a node-scoped seat declared verbs
+([ADR 0170](../../02-DECISIONS/0170-the-firewall-seat-serves-its-verbs.md)). The packet filter's
+holder on every machine served `rules`, `reload` and `remove` on the seat's per-machine subjects, and
+the bus admitted them. The console answered every call with *nothing serves
+node-packet-filter.rules@<machine>*.
+
+[Design 33 §4](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/33-the-tools-the-mesh-answers.md) says a node-scoped seat's
+tool carries the node it is asked of, as `<seat>.<verb>@<node>`. The console's listing left
+node-scoped seats out — the comment said they *wait for a caller naming the node* — but the roles map
+the console resolves a name against is built from that same listing. So the name never resolved as a
+seat's verb, fell through to a module's subject nobody served, and the refusal named the wrong cause.
+
+## Why it matters beyond this instance
+
+A stated behaviour that did not happen, with a refusal that pointed elsewhere: the seat's verbs were
+live on four machines and unreachable from the one surface a person uses. It could only be found by a
+node-scoped seat declaring verbs, which none had.
+
+## Resolved, 2026-10-02
+
+mesh-tools 27: node-scoped seats are listed with their scope, their verbs take a required `node`, the
+call carries it in the subject, and a call without one is refused in words. Tested with a round trip
+asking one machine's holder and being refused without a machine.

04-ISSUES/200-the-controllers-answer-to-the-console-is-refused-by-the-bus/00-report.md

@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+---
+status: open
+opened: 2026-10-02
+located-in: []
+fixed-by:
+amended-design:
+---
+
+# 200 — The controller's answer to a long console call is refused by the bus
+
+## What was observed
+
+2026-10-02. A `push` of the control node asked through the console came back as *mesh-controller.push
+did not answer in time. Something is serving it, so this is the tool being slow rather than absent.*
+The push had run; the machine applied. The bus's log on the control node, at the same moment:
+
+```
+[ERR] 10.10.0.1:56030 - cid:4015 - Publish Violation - User "controller",
+      Subject "_INBOX.shanks.mesh-console.WRNO5V9IJ1FX35AU5NRBEB.WRNO5V9IJ1FX35AU5PN1UW"
+```
+
+The controller's reply to the console's request was refused: the controller's bus account may not
+publish to the console's reply inbox. Shorter calls (`status`, `node`, `nodes`) answer; the long ones
+(`push` of a large machine, `issue`) time out on the console's side although they succeed.
+
+## Why it matters beyond this instance
+
+A call that succeeds and is reported as a timeout sends a person to retry what already happened — a
+second push, a second issue — and reads as the mesh being slow when it is the mesh refusing itself.
+Whether the inbox prefix the console uses is the one the controller's account is allowed to answer, or
+the request outlives the inbox subscription, is what a diagnosis has to tell apart.
+
+## Open questions
+
+- Which reply inboxes may the controller's account publish to, and which does the console request on?
+- Does a reply after the requester's timeout count as a violation, or is the prefix itself refused?