Issues 199 (resolved: a node-scoped seat's verb through the console) and 200 (the controller's answer to a long console call is refused by the bus)

Designs 33 and 08 revised. The first node-scoped seat with verbs: rules,
reload, remove; the nftables module holds it from a runtime with NET_ADMIN,
the first container to declare a capability.

02-DECISIONS/0169-the-firewall-seat-serves-its-verbs.md

@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+---
+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
+---
+
+# 169. 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 |
+
+## 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

@@ -180,6 +180,8 @@ python3 00-META/checks/index.py            fail if stale
 - **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)
+- **0169** — [The firewall seat serves its verbs, and a foreign rule set is removed through one of them](0169-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]
-updated: 2026-09-11
+code: [mesh-lab, mesh-catalog modules/lab]
+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 +9,7 @@ code:
   - mesh-host internal/apply (the service that reflects a rule set)
 updated: 2026-10-02
 decisions:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0169-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
@@ -766,6 +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 0169](../../02-DECISIONS/0169-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/0169-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 0169](../../02-DECISIONS/0169-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 0169](../../02-DECISIONS/0169-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?