Issues 245, 246; 240 resolved, 242 located

245: a media server's previews were reached through a link its container never mounted — fixed by
mounting them. 246: settings set replaces the whole layer with nothing to read it first and no
history. 240 is fixed by mesh-controller#47; 242 has backups running and records what the rollout
taught.

00-META/glossary.md

@@ -78,6 +78,12 @@ another — and a mesh you cannot name precisely is a mesh two people describe d
   mesh-scoped exclusive claim is how the mesh says "there is one of me". A foundation seat is
   named after the server it guards: the `mesh-controller`, `postgres` and `lavinmq` modules claim
   the `mesh-controller`, `mesh-store` and `mesh-broker` seats ([ADR 0079](../02-DECISIONS/0079-the-foundation-seats-are-named-after-their-servers.md)).
+- **depends on a seat** — a module needing a seat held on its node by some module, without holding
+  it. Derived from the resources it declares, never stated: a `service` depends on
+  `node-service-manager`, a `package` on `node-package-manager`, a `container` on
+  `node-container-runtime` ([ADR 0207](../02-DECISIONS/0207-a-module-depends-on-the-node-seats-that-apply-its-resources.md)).
+  Not a claim: a module **claims** a seat it holds and **declares** resources. Nothing claims a
+  package.
 - **provision** — a service one module `provides` and others `require`; the mesh resolves a provider
   and wires the two with an endpoint and a credential. A provision is a service you offer, a seat
   is a role you occupy, and the two meet where a seat delivers a provision: occupying the seat is

01-RESEARCH/021-finding-a-tool-in-the-mesh/00-overview.md

@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+---
+status: graduated
+initiated: 2026-10-03
+touches: [the console, 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/34-the-console.md, the tool runtime, seats, assignments]
+became: [02-DECISIONS/0195-the-meshs-tools-are-found-by-address-not-announced-whole.md, 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/34-the-console.md]
+---
+
+# 021 — Finding a tool in the mesh
+
+## What was investigated
+
+How an agent finds the one tool it needs among everything the mesh answers, and how a call names
+exactly what it asks — a role the mesh holds once, a role every machine holds, or one assignment of a
+module on one machine — rather than receiving the whole catalogue and a name that can mean several
+things.
+
+## Why
+
+The operator's observation on 2026-10-03: *Claude should not see all tools at once; they should be
+discoverable — and `postgres.list_databases` is wrong, asking one machine's postgres is not asking
+another's.* Measured the same day from the console's own answer:
+
+| | |
+|---|---|
+| tools announced to every session at its start | 228, in 110 KB |
+| names (module or seat prefixes) | 43 |
+| node seats' verbs, which require `node` | 22 |
+| modules with tools on more than one machine | 4 — fail2ban, nftables (every machine), postgres, mssql (two each) |
+| modules reported "not answering", most with no tools and several retired | 47 |
+
+The two stateful modules on two machines are listed **once**, with `node` optional and *whichever
+answers* when it is left out — though their two instances hold different databases. Design 34 §3 says
+such a module is listed once per machine; the live console does not do that. The list is taken once
+per session, so a tool that arrives later is invisible until the client reconnects. And only Claude
+Code's own deferral of long tool lists keeps the 228 from the model's context; another MCP client
+would receive them whole.
+
+## Options
+
+1. **Keep the flat list; rely on the client to defer it.** Rejected: a property of one client, and it
+   leaves the ambiguity and the stale list.
+2. **One flat tool per assignment** (`ace_postgres_list_databases`). Removes the ambiguity, multiplies
+   the list, and runs into the API's tool-name limit (letters, digits, `_`, `-`, 64 characters).
+3. **A small fixed set of tools that walk the mesh's own structure**, with the full address as an
+   argument: the mesh's seats; a machine's node seats and assignments; a search; a description; a
+   call. Chosen — see [ADR 0195](../../02-DECISIONS/0195-the-meshs-tools-are-found-by-address-not-announced-whole.md).
+4. **MCP resources or prompts for discovery.** Clients support them unevenly, and an agent acts
+   through tools; a resource it cannot be relied on to read is not a discovery path.

01-RESEARCH/022-where-a-modules-long-running-code-runs/00-overview.md

@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+---
+status: graduated
+initiated: 2026-10-03
+touches: [the tool runtime, the per-module containers, the SDK, the bus grants, 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/38-building-the-operators-machine.md]
+became: [02-DECISIONS/0198-a-modules-long-running-code-is-launched-by-the-node-runtime-and-reaches-the-bus-through-it.md, 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/38-building-the-operators-machine.md]
+---
+
+# 022 — Where a module's long-running code runs
+
+## What was investigated
+
+Twenty-three modules still run their own code in a container built on the runtime's image. Their tools
+can move as bundles ([ADR 0192](../../02-DECISIONS/0192-a-tools-bundle-declares-what-it-is-given-and-the-runtime-hands-it-to-that-bundle-alone.md),
+[ADR 0193](../../02-DECISIONS/0193-every-bundle-the-runtime-serves-is-launched-and-the-runtime-knows-no-language.md));
+the rest of what those containers run cannot yet. This asks where that code goes and how it reaches
+what its container handed it.
+
+## What that code is, measured 2026-10-03
+
+| | modules |
+|---|---|
+| subscribes to events on the bus | audit-logger (everything), mesh-catalog (two seat events), mesh-vault, records (`gitea.pull.merged`), and postgres, mongodb, mssql, redis, mosquitto logging their own lifecycle |
+| provisioners: read the grants the mesh delivered as files, act on the backend, emit | 12 |
+| a run-once preparation step | mesh-catalog |
+| a command-line client of the backend | psql, mosquitto_ctrl, git (packages on every machine's system); mongosh, sqlcmd (not in its repositories) |
+| a service reached by a container name | icecast, mailu-admin, minio, mongodb-server, mssql |
+| a main of its own | anthropic-consumer, openai-consumer, route-adapter |
+
+A provisioner needs nothing a launched bundle lacks: files named by its words, its backend, and an emit
+that already travels through the runtime. The one thing missing is **a subscription** — events
+delivered to the module's code, acknowledged when it has handled them.
+
+## Options
+
+1. **The runtime launches it and is its bus**: the stdio channel gains a subscription; the runtime
+   binds the module's durable consumer and delivers each event to the child, acknowledging when the
+   child answers. One bus connection per machine; any language. Chosen.
+2. **A process per module with its own bus client and credential.** Every language's SDK would carry
+   a transport and every module a credential on disk — what ADR 0188 rejected for tools, for the same
+   reasons.
+3. **Keep the containers for this code.** Leaves ADR 0188's rule broken for 23 modules indefinitely.

01-RESEARCH/023-a-seat-protocol-that-defines-what-its-holder-owns/00-overview.md

@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+---
+status: active
+initiated: 2026-10-03
+touches: [the seats, the seat protocol, the controller's ownership check, 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/26-the-seats.md]
+---
+
+# 023 — A seat protocol that defines what its holder owns
+
+## What is investigated
+
+**A seat is a definition — a protocol — and a module occupies it by implementing that protocol.**
+Today the protocol is what the holder accepts, emits and serves (ADR 0118, 0129, 0132): its verbs, as MCP
+tool definitions. This asks whether the protocol should also name the **files and directories the
+holder owns**, so that occupying the seat means owning them: `node-resolver-config` owns
+`/etc/resolv.conf`, `node-hosts-file` owns `/etc/hosts`, the intrusion prevention owns its jail file.
+
+The direction is the protocol's, not the holder's: the seat states what any holder must own; a module
+that wants the seat must declare those paths among its resources, or the controller refuses the claim
+as not implementing the seat. Two seats may not name one path.
+
+## Why
+
+Who owns a singular file is today answered by reading every manifest, and enforced only after the fact,
+when two modules on one machine both declare the same path. The question *which module owns
+`/etc/resolv.conf`?* came up on 2026-10-03 with no place to look it up. A seat that names the path answers
+it from the seat table, before any module is written, and makes "implements the seat" checkable.
+
+## What it touches
+
+- The seat definition and its table (ADR 0122) — a new part of the protocol.
+- The controller's ownership check (`checkResources`), which already refuses two modules owning one path.
+- Every node seat that is really about a file: `node-resolver-config`, `node-hosts-file`
+  ([ADR 0199](../../02-DECISIONS/0199-a-module-that-answers-names-declares-its-zone-and-a-nodes-hosts-file-is-one-modules.md)),
+  `node-intrusion-prevention`, `node-packet-filter`.
+
+Raised by the operator during the resolver work of ADRs 0194–0199 and parked there so that work was not
+widened by it.

01-RESEARCH/024-state-a-module-keeps-on-the-bus/00-overview.md

@@ -0,0 +1,152 @@
+---
+status: graduated
+initiated: 2026-10-04
+touches: [the bus, what a module declares, the tool runtime, the SDK, the bus grants, 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/25-the-bus-on-nats.md, 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/32-what-a-module-declares.md]
+became: [02-DECISIONS/0201-a-module-keeps-its-current-state-in-key-value-buckets-it-declares-and-reaches-through-the-runtime.md, 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/32-what-a-module-declares.md, 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/25-the-bus-on-nats.md]
+---
+
+# 024 — State a module keeps on the bus
+
+## What is investigated
+
+A place on the bus where a module's own code keeps **current state** — not history — that every
+machine sees, including a machine that joins after the state was written: put, get, delete, list and
+watch, reached through the node's runtime the way a bundle already publishes, asks and subscribes
+([ADR 0198](../../02-DECISIONS/0198-a-modules-long-running-code-is-launched-by-the-node-runtime-and-reaches-the-bus-through-it.md)).
+On NATS that is a key-value bucket. The questions are what a module declares, who creates the
+bucket, what the grants are, what the runtime's verbs are, and what may never be stored.
+
+## Why
+
+The mesh carries two kinds of module traffic and a third is missing.
+
+- **Events** land in the EVENTS stream: limits retention, seven days, ten thousand messages per
+  subject, a durable consumer per consuming module that replays what it missed. Never a secret
+  ([design 32](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/32-what-a-module-declares.md) §10).
+- **Requests** are core request/reply — tool calls, a bundle's `mesh/ask` — and are kept nowhere.
+
+Neither is *the current value of something*. Two cases from the first module that needs it, the
+operator's agent on a machine ([design 36](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/36-the-operators-agent-on-a-machine.md)):
+
+1. **An MCP server registered for every machine.** Registering emits an event every machine's copy
+   of the module consumes. A machine the module is assigned to *after* the registration has no
+   durable consumer yet — the consumer is created at assignment — so it never hears of it. Wanted
+   instead: one entry per server, for every machine or for one; every machine reads the whole current
+   set when it starts and watches for changes; unregistering is a delete; any machine can list it.
+2. **Which licence a machine is bound to** ([design 39](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/39-the-anthropic-licence-manager.md)).
+   As events, a machine that was off for a day replays every rotation since and asks for a token
+   after each. It needs only the latest binding and its generation. The token itself stays on
+   request/reply and is never stored.
+
+The design already expects this. [Design 25](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/25-the-bus-on-nats.md) §1:
+"conditions and observed state in key-value buckets that anything may watch".
+[Research 017](../017-a-mesh-that-heals-itself/01-the-intended-behaviour.md) wants a provisioner's
+"what I applied" and a rotation's step kept in one rather than in memory. Nothing implements it.
+
+## What exists, measured 2026-10-04
+
+| | fact | where |
+|---|---|---|
+| streams | five kinds of mesh stream: CONTROL (work queue), NODES and ASSIGNMENTS (last per subject), EVENTS (limits: 7 days, 10 000 per subject), one work queue per seat that accepts | the controller's broker streams |
+| the state relationship | [design 32](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/32-what-a-module-declares.md) §4 already names *state* — 1:1, last per subject — and says it is "declared: the mesh's own". Two streams use it, both written by the controller. No module can declare it | design 32, the controller |
+| key-value buckets | none, anywhere | all four code repositories |
+| the runtime's bus verbs | `mesh/publish`, `mesh/ask`, `mesh/subscribe`; delivery back to the bundle is `mesh/event` | the runtime's launcher |
+| the runtime's principal | one bus user per machine carries every assigned module; its grant is the union of theirs. That one module's code does not act as another is the runtime's to keep: it publishes under the module's own name by construction | the controller's grant composition, the runtime's bus |
+| what a bundle is issued | a membership per assignment, last per subject, read directly by the runtime: where it serves, where it emits, what it reaches | ADR 0160 |
+| who creates bus objects | the controller only — mesh streams on every raise, a seat's stream at registration, a module's consumer at assignment. No module reaches the JetStream API | design 25 §3 |
+
+### What a key-value bucket needs from a grant, against a real server
+
+Measured against nats-server 2.10 with the Go client the runtime already uses, a bucket created by
+an unrestricted user and used by two users holding only the subjects below (`B` is the bucket):
+
+| operation | subject published | writer | reader |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| bind to the bucket | `$JS.API.STREAM.INFO.KV_B` | yes | yes |
+| get | `$JS.API.DIRECT.GET.KV_B.>` | yes | yes |
+| put, delete | `$KV.B.>` | yes | **refused** |
+| list keys, watch | `$JS.API.CONSUMER.CREATE.KV_B.>` — an ordered, ephemeral consumer | yes | yes |
+| stop a watch cleanly | `$JS.API.CONSUMER.DELETE.KV_B.>` | yes | yes |
+| answers | its own inbox, which every principal already subscribes | — | — |
+
+*Checked again once built, 2026-10-04:* the grants the controller composes for two machines' runtimes —
+one carrying the owner, one only a reader — were loaded into a server as composed, and each operation
+was run as each runtime's user. The owner's did all of them; the reader's read, listed and watched,
+and its put and delete were refused by the server.
+
+Three things the measurement showed that reading the documentation would not have:
+
+1. **A refused put is not an error to the caller; it is a timeout.** The server reports the
+   permission violation asynchronously, on the connection, and the client waits out its deadline
+   for an acknowledgement that never comes. So a runtime that relies on the grant alone tells a
+   bundle "timed out" for "you may not write this" — it must refuse first, from what the module was
+   issued, with the reason.
+2. **A watch's current values include deletions.** A key deleted earlier arrives among the initial
+   values as a delete marker, before the end-of-current marker. A bundle asking "what is there now"
+   must not be handed those.
+3. **Without the consumer-delete grant, stopping a watch hangs** until its deadline, and the
+   ephemeral consumer lingers on the server until it times out by itself.
+
+### Whether the events shape is enough instead
+
+Honestly compared, because a new primitive is a cost:
+
+- **EVENTS cannot be made last-per-subject for some subjects.** Retention is per stream, and
+  JetStream refuses a second stream overlapping the first (verified and recorded in design 32 §3).
+  A state subject inside `mesh.mod.*.event.>` keeps EVENTS' seven days: a licence binding unchanged
+  for a week disappears.
+- **A separate last-per-subject stream per module** is possible — it is exactly what a key-value
+  bucket *is* on the server: a stream with one message per subject, a rollup for purge, and direct
+  reads. Building it by hand gives up the client's get, list, delete and watch, which are the
+  operations both cases need, and would be the mesh writing NATS's own key-value layer again.
+- **Consumers are the wrong reader.** A durable consumer per reading module is created at
+  assignment and replays from where it is; state wants "everything current, now, then changes",
+  which an ordered ephemeral consumer from the last value per subject gives and a durable does not.
+
+So key-value is not a convenience over events; it is the state relationship design 32 already
+names, opened to modules.
+
+## Questions, and what this effort proposes
+
+1. **What a manifest says.** `state` names the buckets a module owns, by local name — every
+   instance of the module may write them and read them. `reads` names another module's bucket as
+   `<module>.<name>`, read-only. Names only, never a bucket or subject (design 32 §1). A bucket's
+   options — how many past values it keeps, how long a value lives — are the owner's to declare,
+   the way a seat declares its own retention (design 32 §3).
+2. **Scope.** One bucket per module per name, mesh-wide. A key may carry a machine by the module's
+   own convention (`all.<server>`, `<machine>.<server>`). A bucket per machine was considered and
+   not proposed: "list every server for every machine" becomes a walk over buckets, and the grant
+   could only narrow writes, which nothing asked for — every instance of the owner already writes.
+3. **Who creates the bucket.** The controller, from the catalogue, on every raise — a bucket exists
+   from registration, like a seat's stream, so a reader can watch before the owner is assigned
+   anywhere. Never a module.
+4. **The runtime's verbs.** `mesh/state.get`, `mesh/state.put`, `mesh/state.delete`,
+   `mesh/state.keys`, `mesh/state.watch`, each naming the bucket as the module named it. A watch
+   is answered once the current values are on their way, then each change is delivered to the
+   bundle as a `mesh/state` request it answers — current values first (no deletions among them), an
+   end-of-current marker, then changes. A child that restarts watches again, as it subscribes
+   again. The runtime refuses, with the reason, a bucket the module was not issued, and a write to
+   one it only reads.
+5. **Secrets.** None in a bucket, sealed or not: a bucket is a stream (design 32 §10). Sealed values
+   are plain base64 and cannot be recognised, so the mechanical check is partial and said to be: the
+   runtime refuses a value carrying a field whose name says it is a credential (`password`,
+   `secret`, `token`, `authorization`, …), which catches the ordinary mistake and not a determined
+   one. For the first consumer this has a concrete consequence: an MCP server registered with an
+   authorisation header keeps that header out of the bucket.
+6. **History, lifetime, size.** One value per key unless the owner says more; no expiry unless it
+   says one; a value at most 256 KiB and a bucket at most 64 MiB, the mesh's caps rather than a
+   module's. **A bucket outlives its module's assignment** — what a module stored is data, and data
+   outlives what declared it ([ADR 0030](../../02-DECISIONS/0030-data-outlives-the-mesh-that-declared-it.md));
+   unassigning is not cleaning up. A bucket whose declaration is gone is reported, never removed.
+7. **Events or state.** State (above).
+
+## The work, once decided
+
+1. A decision record, then design 32 (*state* becomes a relationship a module declares) and design
+   25 (key-value buckets are part of the bus) amended.
+2. The controller: the manifest's two words and their registration check; buckets asserted on every
+   raise; the grants for owners' and readers' runtimes; the buckets issued in each membership.
+3. The runtime: the five verbs, the watch delivery, the refusals; tested against a real server.
+4. The SDK, TypeScript and Go: a small state surface over the verbs.
+5. Proved on a running mesh with one small module, then handed to the operator's agent, whose
+   registered servers move from events to a bucket.

01-RESEARCH/025-how-a-module-plugs-into-the-shell/00-overview.md

@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+---
+status: graduated
+initiated: 2026-10-04
+touches:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0174-a-node-varies-a-module-through-settings-and-kept-regions-never-an-edit.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0176-the-login-shell-is-a-node-seat-and-execute-is-its-contract.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0177-a-unit-may-be-user-scoped-and-the-service-manager-is-a-node-seat.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0126-a-module-declares-its-own-seats.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0102-the-mesh-writes-into-a-shared-file-never-over-it.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0182-inside-a-home-the-mesh-owns-what-it-places-and-holds-the-rest-as-found.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0112-a-module-definition-names-no-node-mesh-or-path.md
+  - 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/27-a-module-requires-the-mesh-resolves.md
+  - 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/31-a-module-declares-its-fail2ban-jail.md
+  - 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/37-the-operators-machine.md
+  - 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/38-building-the-operators-machine.md
+  - 04-ISSUES/168-a-setting-reaches-every-file-and-contribution/00-report.md
+became:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0204-a-module-contributes-shell-code-to-the-login-shell-in-named-slots.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0205-software-the-distribution-does-not-package-ships-as-a-pinned-archive-of-the-module.md
+  - 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/41-the-shell-and-the-accounts-environment.md
+---
+
+# 025 — How a module plugs into the operator's shell
+
+## What is investigated
+
+The shell module writes the mesh's part of the account's shell startup file. But the shell is not the
+only module that needs a line there. A prompt theme loads itself from it. A language version manager
+sets a variable and sources its loader. A toolchain puts its directory on `PATH`. A desktop module
+names the browser. Today all of these sit in one hand-written file, and the shell module as written
+carries some of them in its own block and loads others only "if a module placed them". Nothing says
+how they get placed.
+
+This effort asks four things:
+
+1. **How a module contributes to the shell**: what it declares, who composes it, and in what order it
+   lands.
+2. **Where the environment lives.** Variables and `PATH` entries are facts about the account, not
+   lines of one shell's syntax. They should reach every shell (interactive or not), the login shell's
+   `execute` verb, and programs a graphical session starts.
+3. **Where the operator's own lines go,** so that assigning the shell module loses nothing the
+   machine does today.
+4. **Which part of a file the mesh owns.** ADR 0174 calls the kept region the operator's; the host and
+   to-be 38 implement the inverse (the mesh owns a marked block, and everything outside it is the
+   operator's). The record this becomes says which.
+
+## Why
+
+Rolling out the shell module (to-be 38 WP5) was stopped on 2026-10-04 after a review of what assigning
+it would do. Measured in [01](01-what-the-shell-file-holds-today.md):
+
+- Every machine carries the same predecessor-written startup file, so the module's block would be
+  appended after its own older copy and everything would run twice.
+- The block drops lines the machines rely on today.
+- Nothing installs the prompt theme or the plugins the block loads.
+- The `execute` verb runs a non-interactive login shell, which never reads the file the block is
+  written into.
+
+The operator's direction: other modules must be able to plug themselves into the shell; the prompt
+becomes its own module; assigning the shell module must lose no functionality; and the environment,
+`PATH` above all, needs an answer of its own.
+
+## What it touches
+
+- The manifest. A contribution to the shell is either a new use of the existing `contributes` /
+  `receives` pair or a new gathered field like `jails` (to-be 31).
+- The controller's composition, if the controller assembles the text.
+- The `login-shell` seat (ADR 0176): what a holder must do with what is contributed to it, and
+  whether a module or the mesh declares the seat. Possibly a new seat for the environment, beside it
+  and beside the service manager's (ADR 0177). Research 023 asks the related question of a seat
+  naming the files its holder owns.
+- ADR 0174's wording of the kept region, and ADR 0182's classification of the paths under a home.
+- The zsh module, and the modules this makes possible: an environment module, the prompt, a version
+  manager, a toolchain.
+
+## Where it stands
+
+The operator proposed a separate **environment module**: one module, holding a mesh seat of its own,
+that alone writes the account's environment. It writes a file that shells source and the service
+manager's user environment, from the variables and `PATH` entries every other module contributes to
+it. That is the starting position for the environment ([02](02-how-a-module-plugs-in.md) §1, option
+E6). It leaves the shell's contribution as shell code only (§2), addressed to the `login-shell` seat,
+which moves into the mesh's own seat set beside the new `node-environment` (§6).
+
+Graduated on 2026-10-04 with one change from the starting positions: the controller, not the
+environment module's own code, renders the environment into the module's files, so that the result
+is in the declaration before a machine applies it ([ADR 0203](../../02-DECISIONS/0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md),
+option 6b).
+
+## Documents
+
+- [01 — What the shell file holds today](01-what-the-shell-file-holds-today.md): evidence.
+- [02 — How a module plugs in](02-how-a-module-plugs-in.md): the options and the starting position.

01-RESEARCH/025-how-a-module-plugs-into-the-shell/01-what-the-shell-file-holds-today.md

@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
+# 01 — What the shell file holds today
+
+Measured 2026-10-04 on the four machines of one installation: two servers and two workstations. All
+four have the account's login shell set to zsh, zsh installed from the distribution, and a
+predecessor-written startup file. The predecessor is retired, so nothing manages these files any more.
+
+## The startup file is the same everywhere
+
+The account's `~/.zshrc` is **byte-identical on all four machines**: 102 lines, one checksum.
+`~/.zshrc.local`, which the last line of `~/.zshrc` sources, comes in **two variants**: one shared by
+both servers, and one shared by both workstations. So the "per-machine" part is really a
+per-*kind*-of-machine part.
+
+The predecessor produced these from one module with two *flavors*: a prompt flavor and an
+autocomplete flavor, each of which swapped in a different local file. Its install hook also:
+
+- cloned the prompt theme and three plugins from their upstream repositories into `~/.zsh/`;
+- installed fonts;
+- changed the login shell.
+
+On the workstations the theme and plugins are still on disk, left over and now owned by nothing. The
+servers have none of them.
+
+## What the 102 lines are
+
+Sorted by who should own each line once the machine is modules:
+
+| Lines today | What they are | Natural owner |
+|---|---|---|
+| `EDITOR`, `VISUAL`, `XDG_CONFIG_HOME`, `PATH` gaining `~/.local/bin` and two script directories | the account's environment | the shell's default, or the environment itself |
+| `PATH` gaining a toolchain's directory | environment, for one tool | the toolchain's module |
+| a version manager's directory variable plus sourcing its loader | environment *and* shell code | the version manager's module |
+| two variables naming the operator's own script library | environment, the operator's own | the operator |
+| a variable that turns off an agent's terminal-title handling | environment, for one tool | the agent's module |
+| the terminal title hook, keybindings, `dircolors`, the `ls`/`grep` aliases, `ll`/`la`/`l`, a container-run alias, two disk-usage functions, two port aliases | interactive shell behaviour | the shell's default |
+| the prompt's instant-prompt cache, the theme, the prompt's own configuration file | shell code, order-sensitive (instant prompt first) | the prompt module |
+| autosuggestions, syntax highlighting (and, unloaded, an autocomplete plugin on disk) | shell code, order-sensitive (syntax highlighting last) | a plugin module, or the prompt module |
+| sourcing `~/.zshrc.local` | the operator's hook | the operator |
+
+The workstation variant of the local file adds:
+
+- more environment: a desktop toolkit theme, a file manager's plugin list, `BROWSER`, `VISUAL`
+  overridden to a graphical editor, a language toolchain's binary directory on `PATH`;
+- two pieces of shell code: one that pads the prompt to the bottom of the terminal under a display, and
+  one that sources a function file another module places;
+- a hook sourcing a further per-node file.
+
+The server variant holds only that last module-placed source line.
+
+**Count:** a workstation runs 65 non-comment lines from the two files (53 shared, 12 local); a server
+runs 54. Of a workstation's 65:
+
+- about a quarter (15) are environment;
+- about half are interactive defaults no other module cares about;
+- the remaining quarter is other modules' code and hooks (a prompt, plugins, a version manager, an
+  agent's functions), loaded from the shell file only because there was nowhere else to put it.
+
+## The shell module as written
+
+The `zsh` module of to-be 38 WP5 (catalogue change, unmerged):
+
+- writes one block, appended at the end of `~/.zshrc`, holding a subset of the shared file:
+  - its environment lines, minus the toolchain directory, the version manager and the agent variable;
+  - the title hook, keybindings and the most common aliases, minus the port aliases;
+  - guarded `source` lines for the theme and two plugins *if present*;
+  - the source of `~/.zshrc.local`.
+- assigned to any of the four machines, appends that block after the identical lines already there, so
+  every line in it runs twice, `~/.zshrc.local` included.
+- on the servers, the guarded prompt lines find nothing; nothing installs the theme anywhere.
+
+## Which startup file reaches what
+
+zsh's startup order, and what each path through it reads:
+
+| started as | reads |
+|---|---|
+| interactive login (a console, ssh with a terminal) | `.zshenv`, `.zprofile`, `.zshrc`, `.zlogin` |
+| interactive non-login (a new terminal window) | `.zshenv`, `.zshrc` |
+| non-interactive login: `zsh -lc …`, what the `execute` verb runs | `.zshenv`, `.zprofile`, `.zlogin`, **not** `.zshrc` |
+| non-interactive: a script, `ssh host command` | `.zshenv` only |
+
+So an environment written into `.zshrc` reaches neither `execute` nor a script. The distribution's
+system-wide login profile, which zsh's system `zprofile` sources, only ever *appends* to `PATH` when an
+entry is missing. An entry the account's `.zshenv` puts first therefore survives a login.
+
+A graphical session's programs (a launcher, a bar, a window manager's key bindings) are started from the
+display manager and the service manager, not from a shell, and read none of these files. The service
+manager's own place for the account's environment is `~/.config/environment.d/`. Today it holds nothing
+on any of the four machines, so a program launched from the window manager does not see `PATH` entries
+that a terminal does.
+
+## What the mesh already has for "many modules, one file"
+
+Measured over the catalogue's 69 module definitions:
+
+| mechanism | used by | shape |
+|---|---|---|
+| `contributes` / `receives` | 28 contribute, 15 receive | A consumer contributes **facts** keyed by a requirement. The provider receives all of them as one file in the mesh's own format, and **renders them itself**. "The controller does not know what a reverse proxy is." |
+| `listens` / `filtering` | 40 declare listens, 1 composes | The controller derives the whole firewall rule set from every module's ports and writes it where the holder asks. |
+| `jails` / `jailing` | 3 declare, 1 composes | Each module supplies its jail **in the tool's own format**. The controller assembles them, sorted, into the one file the holder names. |
+| `into: block` on a file | 2 | One module's marked region inside a file something else owns. Text outside the region is kept byte for byte. Placement is at the end, or at the start. |
+
+None of these is a contribution of shell code or of environment today.

01-RESEARCH/025-how-a-module-plugs-into-the-shell/02-how-a-module-plugs-in.md

@@ -0,0 +1,197 @@
+# 02 — How a module plugs in
+
+Six questions, taken one at a time: the environment, shell code, the operator's own lines, order,
+who renders, and what a contribution is addressed to. Each has the options weighed and a starting
+position. The positions were set with the operator on 2026-10-04 and are what this effort tests, not
+what it has decided.
+
+## 1. The environment: variables and `PATH`
+
+A variable or a `PATH` entry is a fact about the account. It holds whichever shell is the login shell,
+and it is wanted by:
+
+- every shell, interactive or not;
+- the login shell's `execute`;
+- a graphical session's programs.
+
+[01](01-what-the-shell-file-holds-today.md) measures that `.zshrc` reaches only the first kind, and
+only interactively.
+
+| | option | for | against |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| E1 | Each module writes lines into the shell's rc file (today) | nothing new | misses `execute`, scripts and the graphical session; written in one shell's syntax, so a second shell module starts over |
+| E2 | A module contributes environment facts (a variable and its value; a `PATH` entry and its position) **to the login shell**. The holder renders them into its shell's always-read file (`~/.zshenv` for zsh) | reaches every zsh, `execute` included; a contributor names no path and no shell | the graphical session sees none of it; the environment is tied to which module holds the shell; every shell module reimplements the same rendering |
+| E3 | E2, and the service-manager holder (ADR 0177) renders the same facts a second time into `~/.config/environment.d/` | the graphical session sees the same `PATH` as the terminal | one fact set, two owners, two renderings that can disagree; the service manager's module gains a duty unrelated to managing services |
+| E4 | One composed file in `environment.d` syntax, sourced by the shell with export-all | one file, two readers | ties the shell to the service manager's syntax, which is close to POSIX assignments but not equal (its `${VAR:-default}` and quoting rules differ); a value with a space breaks one reader or the other |
+| E5 | Shells take the environment from the service manager's environment generator, which prints the merged `environment.d` | no file of the shell's at all | every shell depends on the service manager and starts a process on every start; the generator's output is unquoted, so a value with a space breaks it |
+| **E6** | **An environment module.** A module of its own (working name `node-env`) holds a mesh seat, `node-environment`, and is the only writer of the account's environment. Every module contributes its variables and `PATH` entries to that seat. The holder writes them in each reader's format: a POSIX file of `export` lines that shells source, and the service manager's `~/.config/environment.d/` | the environment no longer depends on which shell holds `login-shell`; one owner and one rendering per format, both from the same facts; the graphical session included without the service manager's module; a contributor addresses "the environment", never a shell; the `PATH` rules (order, de-duplication) live in one module's code, where a test can hold them | one more module and seat, assigned on every node beside the shell; the `login-shell` protocol gains a duty, to source the environment file, which must be written down and checked |
+
+**Starting position: E6.** It was the operator's proposal on 2026-10-04, and it replaces this
+document's first position (E2, then E3).
+
+- The facts are the contribution. Each format is rendered once, by the one module whose subject is the
+  environment.
+- A shell module's part shrinks to one line in its always-read file: `.zshenv` for zsh, sourcing the
+  environment module's POSIX file. A bash or fish module writes the same line in its own file, and no
+  contributor changes when the login shell does.
+
+Sketched, for a node with zsh, the environment module, and a toolchain:
+
+```
+toolchain ──contributes PATH entry──▶ node-environment ◀──contributes EDITOR, ~/.local/bin── zsh
+                                            │ (held by node-env)
+                         ┌──────────────────┴──────────────────┐
+                         ▼                                     ▼
+              POSIX export file                  ~/.config/environment.d/
+                         ▲                                     ▲
+            sourced from ~/.zshenv               read by the service manager
+            (every zsh, execute too)             (the graphical session)
+```
+
+The shell module still contributes its own environment (`EDITOR`, `XDG_CONFIG_HOME`, `~/.local/bin` on
+`PATH`) as a contributor like any other; it does not write those lines itself. Once issue 168 closes,
+the values a person varies become settings of whichever module contributes them (ADR 0174).
+
+## 2. Shell code: a prompt, plugins, a version manager's loader
+
+This *is* one shell's syntax, and order matters: a prompt's instant-prompt cache must run first, and
+syntax highlighting last.
+
+| | option | for | against |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| S1 | **A contribution of code for one shell** (the shell it is for, the code, a slot), gathered by the controller and placed inside the holder's block in slot order. The same shape as `jails`, which a module supplies in fail2ban's own format and the controller assembles | a contributor names no path; the order is declared and checkable; unassigning the contributor removes its code at the next composition; a node holding fish simply has no zsh code rendered, and the resolver can say so | the controller gains one more gathered field; code for a shell travels in the declaration (in the clear, so no secrets in it, as for any file) |
+| S2 | **A drop-in directory**: each module places its own `~/.zsh/rc.d/NN-name.zsh`, and the shell's block sources the directory | no controller change; each file is its module's own, removed when undeclared | every contributor hard-codes a path inside the shell module's territory, against ADR 0112's spirit; order is a naming convention nothing checks; nothing ties the file to the shell actually being zsh |
+| S3 | Contributions as facts the holder renders (`contributes`/`receives` proper) | one mechanism with question 1 | code is not a fact; the holder would only paste it, which is S1 with an extra file |
+
+**Starting position: S1.** A contribution to the shell carries **only code**, for named shells, each
+piece in a slot. Variables and `PATH` entries never go here; they go to the environment (§1). So a
+module touching both makes two contributions:
+
+- A prompt module contributes zsh code in the first slot, and its own configuration file is its own
+  owned file (ADR 0182).
+- A version manager contributes its directory variable to the environment, and its loader as code
+  for each shell it supports.
+- A toolchain contributes a `PATH` entry to the environment and nothing to the shell.
+
+What has to be settled: what each contribution is *addressed to*. Section 6 covers that.
+
+## 3. The operator's own lines: the "local override"
+
+Assigning the shell module must lose nothing the machine does today. That has two halves.
+
+**What is common is the module's default, not an override.** The startup file is identical on all four
+machines ([01](01-what-the-shell-file-holds-today.md)). A line every machine has is the shell module's
+default, or another module's contribution. It is not a local override that a person would keep in step
+on every machine by hand. Most of today's file therefore moves into the shell module's block and into
+the contributions above. Little of it stays the operator's.
+
+**What is the operator's is everything outside the mesh's block.** The host already works this way:
+
+- the mesh's region is the marked block;
+- text outside it is kept byte for byte, and checked unchanged;
+- the region is given back when the module goes.
+
+| | option | for | against |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| O1 | The mesh's block at the **start** of the file; the operator's lines after it | the operator's lines run last and win, which is what an override means; already supported (`at: start`) | a file the operator later rewrites must keep the markers; the host refuses a broken pair rather than guess |
+| O2 | A named operator region *inside* a file the mesh writes whole (ADR 0174's wording) | the file is entirely the mesh's except one hole | the opposite of what the host implements; a file a person already owns becomes the mesh's |
+| O3 | Only `~/.zshrc.local`, sourced from the block; `~/.zshrc` the mesh's whole | one obvious place | takes over a file the person owns today; ADR 0182 classifies the shell's own file as *written into*, not owned |
+
+**Starting position: O1.** `~/.zshrc.local` keeps working because the operator's own lines source it,
+not because the mesh's block does.
+
+The record this effort becomes corrects ADR 0174's description of the kept region as a **progressive
+insight**: the decision stands (a node varies a module by settings or by the operator's own lines,
+never by an edit), and only its description of which side is marked changes.
+
+**The one-off migration** is a person's act, listed in the module's documentation (ADR 0182):
+
+- remove from today's file every line the block or a contribution now carries;
+- keep the rest below the block.
+
+Until a prompt module and the other contributors exist, the lines they will carry stay among the
+operator's own. Nothing is lost at any step.
+
+## 4. Order
+
+Order matters only for code. The environment is set before any code runs, because zsh reads
+`.zshenv` first. `PATH` entries carry their own position (before or after the system's), which the
+environment module orders, not the shell.
+
+| | option | for | against |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| R1 | Numbers (`10`, `50`, `90`) | familiar | every contributor guesses a number; collisions are silent |
+| R2 | **A few named slots**, `first` / `normal` / `last`, with the module name breaking ties | the prompt says `first` and highlighting says `last` because that is what they mean; the composed result is the same bytes every time | three slots may not be enough |
+
+**Starting position: R2.** Inside the shell module's block, the order is:
+
+1. the line sourcing the environment module's file (in `.zshenv`, so it runs for every zsh; the rest
+   of this list is `.zshrc`);
+2. the `first` slot;
+3. the shell module's own defaults;
+4. the `normal` slot;
+5. the `last` slot.
+
+The operator's lines come after the block, as option O1 says.
+
+## 5. Who renders: the controller or the holder's code
+
+There are two different renderings, and E6 lets them be answered differently.
+
+**The environment** is facts rendered into two fixed formats by the one module whose subject they are.
+
+- The environment module receives the gathered contributions (the `contributes` / `receives` shape:
+  facts in the mesh's own format, rendered by the receiver).
+- Its own code writes the POSIX file and the `environment.d` file whenever what it receives changes.
+  That is ADR 0182's third class, written by the module's own process, owned by the account,
+  atomically.
+- The controller learns no shell and no service manager. The `PATH` rules (prepend or append,
+  de-duplicate, keep the system's entries) are ordinary code with ordinary tests.
+- To settle: what runs that code when the received file changes. The candidates are a host action
+  that restarts on the received file, or a subscription through the runtime (ADR 0198).
+
+**Shell code** is not facts. It is text in the shell's own syntax, assembled in slot order, which is
+what the controller already does for fail2ban jails: sort the pieces and concatenate them into the
+holder's region. The controller assembles; it never interprets the code. This keeps the shell module
+bundle-free for its files, and keeps the composed result visible in the declaration before a machine
+applies it.
+
+## 6. What a contribution is addressed to
+
+Under E6 there are two addressees: the environment and the login shell.
+
+| | option | for | against |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| A1 | **Seats**: environment facts to `node-environment`, shell code to `login-shell`. Each seat's protocol says what its holder does with what is contributed to it | a contributor depends on a role ("the environment", "the login shell"), never on zsh or on one module; works the same for any holder | `login-shell` today is declared by the zsh module itself (ADR 0126). A second shell module may only claim it, never declare it, and the seat exists only while zsh's definition is registered |
+| A2 | Requirements the modules provide (`contributes` keyed by them, as the reverse proxy is) | an existing mechanism | a contributor on a node without the provider fails to resolve, though a toolchain's `PATH` entry with no environment module is merely unwritten |
+
+**Starting position: A1, both seats in the mesh's own seat set** beside the service manager.
+
+- `node-environment` is new, and is the mesh's from the start.
+- `login-shell` moves there from the zsh module's definition. A shell is as universal a role as a
+  service manager, and a protocol that now carries duties (render the shell code contributed to it,
+  source the environment file) should not depend on one module's registration.
+
+Research 023 (a seat's protocol naming what its holder owns) is the general form of this: the
+environment seat would own the two environment files, and the login-shell seat the shell's
+startup-file region. The two efforts should not decide it twice.
+
+## Open questions
+
+- Whether a contribution may be conditional on a capability: the workstation-only environment (a
+  browser, a toolkit theme) is a desktop module's contribution, which arrives only where that module is
+  assigned. Measured, this may need nothing new.
+- What a node without the environment module does with environment contributions: refuse them at
+  resolve, or leave them unwritten and say so. The position here is to say so; a missing `PATH` entry
+  is a visible gap, not a broken machine.
+- Whether the operator's own variables (the script-library paths in [01](01-what-the-shell-file-holds-today.md))
+  are the operator's lines below the shell block, or a kept region of the environment module's file.
+  The first needs nothing new, but reaches only interactive zsh.
+- How the prompt module and a plugin module divide the plugins. Packaging decides it as much as
+  ownership: the plugins come from upstream repositories, not distribution packages, on these machines.
+- Whether the `execute` verb should read the interactive file at all once the environment is in
+  `.zshenv`. The position here is no: a non-interactive login shell plus the environment is what a
+  command needs, and the prompt's code should not run for it.
+- How a contribution reaches a second shell assigned beside the holder, which to-be 38 WP5 names as the
+  first follow-up record. Under A1 a non-holder renders nothing, so the question becomes whether a
+  non-holding shell module may render contributions for interactive use.

01-RESEARCH/026-the-graphical-session-as-modules/00-overview.md

@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+---
+status: active
+initiated: 2026-10-04
+touches:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0176-the-login-shell-is-a-node-seat-and-execute-is-its-contract.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0177-a-unit-may-be-user-scoped-and-the-service-manager-is-a-node-seat.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0182-inside-a-home-the-mesh-owns-what-it-places-and-holds-the-rest-as-found.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0204-a-module-contributes-shell-code-to-the-login-shell-in-named-slots.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0205-software-the-distribution-does-not-package-ships-as-a-pinned-archive-of-the-module.md
+  - 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/37-the-operators-machine.md
+  - 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/38-building-the-operators-machine.md
+  - 04-ISSUES/168-a-setting-reaches-every-file-and-contribution/00-report.md
+became: []
+---
+
+# 026 — The graphical session as modules
+
+## What is investigated
+
+The workstations' graphical session as modules of the mesh, at the same level as the shell
+([to-be 41](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/41-the-shell-and-the-accounts-environment.md)): a package, files
+under the account's home, a seat, and nothing that names a machine. The pieces are:
+
+- the login manager;
+- how a session starts and what environment it gets;
+- the display server (X today, Wayland as a sibling);
+- the window manager (i3, and sway as its Wayland sibling);
+- the terminal emulator (xterm);
+- the session's companions: bar, compositor, launcher, notifier, lock and idle, clipboard,
+  wallpaper, theming, fonts.
+
+[To-be 38](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/38-building-the-operators-machine.md) names this WP7, and says
+each seat begins with a record naming its holders and verbs. [To-be 37](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/37-the-operators-machine.md)
+§4 leaves one question for the resolver: whether a held seat can gate another's assignment.
+
+## Why
+
+The operator asked for the graphical modules next, at the shell's level, and for one consistent
+experience across machines. Since the predecessor retired, nothing manages the workstations'
+desktops. Measured in [01](01-what-the-workstations-run.md):
+
+- Two workstations carry one 983-line predecessor module's output, still byte-identical in its core.
+- One workstation also carries another machine's hardware fragments.
+- One runs a session that predates two fixes, with two notification daemons and two portals.
+- The session's environment is a hand-kept second copy of the account's, beside the one the mesh
+  now writes.
+
+## How it is approached
+
+**Adopting is also improving** (the operator, 2026-10-04). A module is not a copy of what a machine
+does today. Making it is the moment to fix what is broken, drop what is dead, choose the better tool
+and remove the leftovers. Every module's design lists its improvements over today. **Every module
+also serves tools,** many of them, for reading, acting and diagnosing; a module that only places a
+package and a file is unfinished. The tools are catalogued in
+[026/05](../026-the-graphical-session-as-modules/05-the-tools-each-module-serves.md).
+
+## What it touches
+
+- **The seat table:** up to ten node seats.
+- **The resolver:** a seat held on a node gating another module's assignment.
+- **The contribution mechanism of ADR 0204:** whether it generalises beyond shells, or whether
+  tools' own drop-in directories serve.
+- **The host's user-scoped units** (mesh-host #72, still open).
+- **Settings** for per-machine values (issue 168).
+- **ADR 0205's archive** for the two pieces the distribution does not package.
+
+## Documents
+
+- [01 — What the workstations run](01-what-the-workstations-run.md): evidence.
+- [02 — The questions and the options](02-the-questions-and-the-options.md)
+- [04 — Screensaver, displays and menus](04-screensaver-displays-and-menus.md): the lock and idle module, monitor layouts by the monitors' identity, rofi and dmenu behind one launcher seat, the clipboard, fonts
+- [05 — The tools each module serves](05-the-tools-each-module-serves.md): a first catalogue for the modules of 026 and 027
+- [03 — What the predecessor taught](03-what-the-predecessor-taught.md): its 128 modules and 3,395 commits, as patterns to keep and failures not to repeat; shared with research 027.

01-RESEARCH/026-the-graphical-session-as-modules/01-what-the-workstations-run.md

@@ -0,0 +1,141 @@
+# 01 — What the workstations run
+
+Measured 2026-10-04 on the two workstations of one installation, read-only: a laptop with a hybrid
+GPU and an internal panel, and a desktop with one GPU and two external monitors. Both run the same
+predecessor-generated desktop. File equality was checked by checksum across the two machines.
+
+## How a session starts
+
+The chain is the same on both:
+
+1. The login manager (`lemurs`, built from the distribution's user repository, its package now in
+   the official one) runs its X setup script on a virtual terminal.
+2. That script sources the login shell's profile files, then `~/.xprofile`, then the system's
+   `xinitrc.d` drop-ins, then merges `~/.Xresources`.
+3. `~/.xprofile` reuses the systemd user manager's bus, then sources `~/.xinitrc`.
+4. `~/.xinitrc` sets up the session and ends with `exec i3`.
+
+The login manager's own window-manager entry (`exec startx`) is never reached. Its configuration
+file uses a format two releases old, and an unmerged newer one sits beside it.
+
+**What `~/.xinitrc` does**, in order:
+
+1. Sources the system drop-ins, which import `DISPLAY` and `XAUTHORITY` into the user manager.
+2. Starts the keyring and exports its ssh socket.
+3. Exports the session's environment:
+   - `PATH`, with nine entries, one of them a directory that no longer exists;
+   - toolchain variables;
+   - `XDG_CONFIG_HOME` and `XDG_DATA_DIRS` (with flatpak);
+   - five GTK/Qt theme variables;
+   - the desktop's identity (`XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP`, `XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP`);
+   - three of the operator's own variables.
+4. Imports an explicit allowlist of ten of those into the user manager and D-Bus activation. It is
+   never `--all`, because:
+5. a predecessor file of **secrets as environment variables** (package-registry and API tokens) is
+   sourced next.
+6. Sets the screensaver and display power timeouts, restores the wallpaper, and starts the lock
+   watcher in a respawn loop. It is deliberately not a unit, because it needs the login session.
+7. `exec i3`.
+
+**The account's environment, as of today, has three sources that disagree:**
+
+- this file, for the session;
+- the mesh's `environment.sh`, for shells
+  ([ADR 0203](../../02-DECISIONS/0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md));
+- `~/.config/environment.d/`, for the user manager. It holds the mesh's `50-mesh.conf`, and a
+  predecessor file that **sets `PATH` outright** and sorts after it.
+
+## The roles, and what fills them
+
+| role | software | where configured |
+|---|---|---|
+| login manager | lemurs | `/etc/lemurs/*` (identical on both, and to the predecessor's source) |
+| session start and environment | the login manager's X setup, `~/.xprofile`, `~/.xinitrc`, `xinitrc.d`, the D-Bus import, `environment.d` | `~/.xprofile`, `~/.xinitrc`, `~/.config/environment.d/*` |
+| display server | Xorg (`xorg-server`, `xinit`, the X apps; vendor drivers per GPU) | **no** `xorg.conf.d`; monitors by `xrandr` scripts |
+| monitor layout | `xrandr` scripts (arandr), a hotplug rule on the laptop | `~/.screenlayout/`, a scripts folder, a window-manager fragment |
+| window manager | i3 4.25 | `~/.config/i3/config` and `config.d/*`, a reload watcher (user unit) |
+| bar | i3bar with i3status-rust | `~/.config/i3status-rust/*`, 14 themes, a bar watchdog (user unit) |
+| terminal | xterm (the only terminal installed) | `~/.Xresources.d/xterm`, the window manager's binding, the compositor's opacity rule |
+| compositor | picom | `~/.config/picom/picom.conf` |
+| launcher and menus | rofi | `~/.config/rofi/*`, launcher, power-menu and theme-picker scripts |
+| notifier | dunst (D-Bus activated) | `~/.config/dunst/dunstrc`, `dunstrc.d/*` |
+| lock, idle, display power | xss-lock and i3lock-color, `xset` | `~/.xinitrc`, a lock script |
+| clipboard | greenclip, xclip | `greenclip.toml` |
+| wallpaper | feh | `~/.fehbg` (points into the predecessor's tree) |
+| theming | Adwaita dark, qt5ct/qt6ct, the desktop portal (GTK backend pinned) | GTK `settings.ini`, `qt*ct.conf`, `portals.conf`, an appearance script, `.Xresources` cursor |
+| fonts | Hack and Meslo Nerd fonts in `~/.local/share/fonts` (not packaged), noto | `~/.Xresources.d/xft` (DPI fixed at 96) |
+| keyboard | nothing set; the default layout; vendor keys via triggerhappy on the laptop | window-manager bindings, `/etc/triggerhappy` |
+
+**Packages:** every piece except two is in the distribution's official repositories, and the login
+manager now is too. The two exceptions are the lock screen's colour build (`i3lock-color`) and the
+clipboard manager (`rofi-greenclip`). The Nerd fonts exist as official packages, but both machines
+carry hand-copied files instead.
+
+## Identical, different, and why
+
+**Byte-identical on both machines:**
+
+- the session files: `.xinitrc`, `.xprofile`, `.Xresources` and its drop-ins;
+- the i3 main configuration and two of its fragments;
+- the bar's top configuration and themes;
+- picom, rofi, the GTK and Qt settings, the portal configuration, the login manager.
+
+**Different, by cause:**
+
+| cause | what |
+|---|---|
+| hardware | the monitor layout script; the bar's battery block; the laptop's power and vendor-key units and udev rules |
+| misassignment | the desktop carries the **laptop's** hardware fragments: the vendor-key daemon and its triggers, the backlight rule, the brightness drop-in, a touchpad reset, and the laptop's monitor layouts, in an older version |
+| drift | the notifier's position and corner radius; a "temporary" window-manager fragment from a test; the bar watchdog disabled; a second Qt configuration tool; different font builds |
+| a stale session | the desktop's session began before two fixes, so it runs two notification daemons and two portals, and its user manager lacks the desktop's identity |
+
+**Dead references:** the window manager starts a polkit agent that is installed on neither machine,
+so there is no polkit agent at all. `PATH` names a directory that does not exist.
+
+**Per-machine values inside shared files:**
+
+- the DPI;
+- absolute home paths, in the clipboard configuration and the flatpak data directories;
+- the laptop's panel name, inside a fragment both machines carry.
+
+## User units the desktop needs
+
+| unit | does | laptop | desktop |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| reload watcher | reloads the window manager and bar when their files change | on | on |
+| bar watchdog | restarts a dead bar | on | off |
+| clipboard daemon | from its package | via the window manager | unit **and** window manager |
+| vendor power profile, memory guard | laptop power | on | — |
+
+None is managed. Applying them as the account needs the host's user scope
+([ADR 0177](../../02-DECISIONS/0177-a-unit-may-be-user-scoped-and-the-service-manager-is-a-node-seat.md)),
+which is still an open change.
+
+## The predecessor's module
+
+One manifest of 983 lines covers the window manager, bar, launcher, notifier, compositor, lock
+screen, session bootstrap, theming and scripts. It:
+
+- has four *flavors*: i3, laptop (i3 plus the monitor wizard and hotplug), desktop (i3 plus
+  nothing) and a laptop model (laptop plus vendor keys);
+- has about **105 theme variables** substituted into templates: border, gaps, fonts, workspace
+  names, every colour of bar, launcher, notifier and lock screen, compositor opacity, cursor, idle
+  times, Qt and GTK theme names;
+- enables the two user units from an install hook.
+
+Separate modules held the login manager and the display server (one flavor, `xorg`, with a comment
+calling `wayland` "the intended sibling"). The shell module held no graphical part.
+
+## Wayland and sway
+
+**Nothing exists.** There is no compositor, no sway configuration, no Wayland session entry, and the
+login manager's Wayland directory is empty. What is installed is libraries:
+
+- Wayland itself and the Qt Wayland plugins, which other packages pull in;
+- `xwayland`, explicitly installed and required by nothing;
+- on the desktop, an orphaned compositor library from another desktop environment, and that
+  environment's portal backend, pulled in by a game launcher. The portal configuration pins
+  against it.
+
+Every piece a sway session needs is in the official repositories: the compositor, its lock screen,
+a terminal (`foot`), a bar (`waybar`), a notifier (`mako`) and `xwayland`.

01-RESEARCH/026-the-graphical-session-as-modules/02-the-questions-and-the-options.md

@@ -0,0 +1,123 @@
+# 02 — The questions and the options
+
+Seven questions. Each has its options and a starting position, which is what this effort tests, not
+what it has decided.
+
+## 1. How finely the desktop splits into modules
+
+| | option | for | against |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| G1 | One desktop module, as the predecessor had | one assignment | flavors again, per machine; ADR 0174 refuses them, and the evidence shows a flavor landing on the wrong machine |
+| G2 | **One module per piece of software:** `lemurs`, `xorg`, `i3`, `i3status-rust`, `xterm`, `picom`, `rofi`, `dunst`, `xss-lock` with the lock screen, `greenclip`, `feh`, a theme module, a fonts module | each is what it declares; a machine gets exactly what is assigned; the same split already works for the shell and its plugins | about thirteen assignments per workstation |
+| G3 | G2, plus a named **set** the controller assigns as one (for example *the X desktop*) | G2's precision with G1's convenience | a set is a new controller concept |
+
+**Starting position: G2.** Whether a set is worth a record is left until the thirteen assignments
+have been done by hand once.
+
+## 2. The seats
+
+Research 018 listed the candidates. ADR 0204 has since put the login shell in the mesh's own set,
+because a role with a protocol should not depend on one module's registration. The same reasoning
+applies here:
+
+| seat | holders | protocol, first verbs |
+|---|---|---|
+| `node-login-manager` | lemurs, greetd | which sessions it offers, the default session |
+| `node-display-server` | xorg, sway | `displays`, `layout` |
+| `node-display-session` | i3, sway | `reload`, `workspaces`, `windows` |
+| `node-terminal-emulator` | xterm, foot, alacritty | which terminal `$TERMINAL` names; `open` |
+| `node-bar`, `node-compositor`, `node-launcher`, `node-notifier`, `node-lock-screen`, `node-clipboard` | the pieces above, and their Wayland counterparts | one verb or none each, until a use asks for one |
+
+**A compositor that is its own server holds two seats.** Sway is both the display server and the
+display session. A module may claim several seats, so this needs nothing new.
+
+**Starting position:** the first four seats are in the mesh's own set. The companion seats are
+added only as each holder is written; for those, a module without a seat is acceptable at first.
+
+## 3. One module requiring another seat to be held
+
+i3 needs an X server held on its node, and sway needs nothing below it. A terminal needs a session.
+To-be 37 left open how that is said.
+
+| | option | for | against |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| R1 | A seat **delivers a provision** (`x11-display`, `wayland-display`) and a module requires it at node scope. The seat table has a `delivers` field already, and requirements already resolve | existing machinery; the refusal names the seat and its possible holders, which design 27 already lists | a node-scoped requirement that never crosses machines has to be stated as such |
+| R2 | A new field, *needs the seat X held* | reads plainly | a second way to say what R1 says |
+| R3 | Nothing; assign carefully | — | the mistake the evidence shows (a laptop's fragments on a desktop) is exactly an unchecked assignment |
+
+**Starting position: R1.** `xorg` and `sway` each deliver what they serve. `i3`, `picom` and `xss-lock`
+require `x11-display`. `foot` requires a Wayland display, and xterm requires an X one, which a Wayland
+session gives through `xwayland`.
+
+## 4. Who starts the session, and with what environment
+
+Today `~/.xinitrc` is a hand-kept second environment and the session's whole start script.
+
+| | option | for | against |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| S1 | The display server's module writes `~/.xinitrc` **into**: a mesh block at the start that sources the account's environment (`environment.sh`), merges the X resources, and runs the session's contributed start lines. The session holder's module contributes its `exec` line. The operator's lines stay after the block | one environment for shells, the session and the user manager; nothing to keep in step | the order inside `.xinitrc` becomes the slot order of a contribution (question 5) |
+| S2 | The login manager's module owns the session script under `/etc` | system scope; no home file | the environment is the account's, and the script is the same for every account |
+| S3 | Leave `.xinitrc` the operator's | nothing to build | the third environment stays |
+
+**Starting position: S1.**
+
+- The desktop's identity (`XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP`) and the theme variables become **environment
+  contributions** (ADR 0203) from `i3` and from the theme module. They then also reach the user
+  manager through `environment.d`, which replaces most of today's allowlist import.
+- The secrets file stays out of the environment until research 027 settles how a secret reaches an
+  account.
+
+## 5. How other modules contribute to a holder's file
+
+The terminal's settings are X resources. A bar, a launcher binding and a hardware module's key
+bindings are window-manager configuration. Autostarts are the session's. ADR 0204 built slot
+contributions for shells only.
+
+| | option | for | against |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| C1 | **The tool's own drop-in directory**, where it has one: i3's `include`, dunst's `dunstrc.d`, X resources' `#include`, XDG autostart entries, `environment.d`. Each contributor owns its own file there | no mesh change; the tools already read these directories; unassigning removes the file | each contributor names a path in another tool's directory (ADR 0204 rejected this for shells, where no drop-in convention exists); ordering is by file name |
+| C2 | **ADR 0204's mechanism generalised:** `contributes` text *for a format* (`zsh`, `xresources`, `i3`, `xinitrc`) in a slot, placed by the holder's placeholder | one mechanism, checked by the controller, order declared | every format must be named in the controller; a bigger change to ADR 0204 |
+| C3 | C1 where the tool has a drop-in convention, C2 where it does not (`.xinitrc`, `.Xresources` order) | uses each tool's own grain | two mechanisms to learn |
+
+**Starting position: C3**, with the boundary drawn by the tools. A tool that reads a directory gets
+drop-ins. A file without one gets slots. This means amending ADR 0204's "shell" to "a format", which
+is a progressive extension rather than a reversal.
+
+## 6. What varies per machine
+
+| what | today | option |
+|---|---|---|
+| monitor layout | per-machine `xrandr` scripts, monitor names baked in | a **setting** of `xorg` (issue 168), and a `layout` verb of the display server seat |
+| DPI, fonts' size | fixed in an X resource | a setting |
+| battery block, vendor keys, brightness, touchpad | a laptop model's flavor | **a hardware module** per machine model, contributing its window-manager fragment, bar block and udev rules. The desktop simply is not assigned it |
+| theme (the 105 variables) | template substitution | settings of each tool's module, after issue 168 closes (ADR 0174). Until then each module carries today's values as its default |
+
+**Starting position:**
+
+- Hardware modules for what follows the machine.
+- Defaults now, settings after issue 168, for what the operator varies.
+- The monitor layout waits for settings. Until then it is an operator-owned script the display
+  server's block calls if present.
+
+## 7. Wayland and sway
+
+Nothing of a Wayland session exists, and every piece is officially packaged. "Wayland" is a protocol,
+not a piece of software, so it has no module of its own. Its parts are `sway` (server and session),
+`swaylock`, `foot`, `waybar`, `mako`, and `xwayland` for X clients.
+
+**Starting position:**
+
+- The seats and the requirements (questions 2 and 3) are designed so that sway fits from the first
+  day.
+- The X stack is built first, because it is what runs.
+- `sway` and its companions are written after that, and proven on one workstation as a second
+  session the login manager offers beside i3. That lets the operator try it without losing the
+  working desktop.
+
+## Prerequisites this effort cannot remove
+
+- **User-scoped units** (mesh-host #72) for the reload watcher and the bar watchdog.
+- **Settings** (issue 168) for monitors and theme values.
+- **The two packages not in the official repositories:** the lock screen's colour build and the
+  clipboard manager. Each is ADR 0205's case, a pinned archive, or a choice of an official
+  alternative (`i3lock` without colours; `clipmenu`/`cliphist`).

01-RESEARCH/026-the-graphical-session-as-modules/03-what-the-predecessor-taught.md

@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+# 03 — What the predecessor taught
+
+A study on 2026-10-04 of the retired predecessor:
+
+- its 128 module manifests, their hooks, its installer and its sync engine;
+- 3,395 commits of history;
+- what it left on four machines.
+
+This document holds what bears on the graphical session and on the system layer
+([research 027](../027-the-system-layer-as-modules/00-overview.md)). The evidence is in the
+predecessor's history. A commit is cited here by what it fixed, not by its hash, because the
+repository is private.
+
+## Keep: what worked
+
+| pattern | where it shows | in the mesh |
+|---|---|---|
+| ownership marked inside the file: inside the markers is reconciled, outside is kept verbatim | a block marker in a shared file, after an engine that rewrote whole files | kept regions (ADR 0174, ADR 0204) |
+| two writers get two files and an `include`, the include first | the ssh client's configuration, after two writers fought over one file | ADR 0203's two files; research 026 C1 |
+| one writer per file, one authority per action | only the reload watcher restarts the window manager, after three mechanisms each did | ADR 0182 |
+| refuse to write when the source of truth is unreadable; never empty a block because a query found nothing | a block of names was emptied by a failed query | — keep |
+| an unresolved template variable fails the install | a literal unfilled path was installed green | [issue 231](../../04-ISSUES/231-a-misspelled-placeholder-is-written-out-as-text/00-report.md): the mesh still has this gap |
+| prune only what you can prove you placed | stale files from earlier deliveries | ADR 0189 |
+| ensuring never rotates a credential | a silent rotation caused a retry storm, a ban of the shared address and a lost registry | ADR 0114 |
+| vendor only the files you use; never clone and link | three files instead of 77 MB | ADR 0205 |
+| copy, never symlink | a recursive delete followed a link, and every reinstall failed | ADR 0012 |
+| verification says what it did not check | a verifier said *clean* while the secret was still on disk | — keep |
+| alert once per condition | 411 alerts hid a 28-hour outage | ADR 0090 |
+
+## Do not repeat
+
+| failure | what it did | the mesh instead | where the mesh is still exposed |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| **Flavors** | variant files and packages per machine type: a gate dropped, the first-seen variant won, packages never installed, the verifier ignored the gate. On the day of the study a desktop carried a laptop model's fragments | one module per piece, assignment per machine (ADR 0174, research 026 §1) | a setting that switches which whole file is rendered is a flavor under another name |
+| **The freeze** | existing values outranked new defaults; templated files were rendered once (*copy if absent*) | files are generated (ADR 0011) | a created-once file (ADR 0087) is a deliberate freeze, and a push must say *kept* |
+| **Adopting drift** | a *merge* strategy made a local edit the record forever; switching strategies clobbered a person's model choice | nothing is read back (ADR 0174) | an edit outside a kept region is overwritten **silently**. The predecessor's *why is this back* loop: the push should name what it overwrote |
+| **Environment templating** | `${VAR}` matched any name; unresolved names stayed literal; comments and destination paths were interpolated | namespaced placeholders; `$` forbidden in contributed values (ADR 0203) | issue 231 |
+| **Hooks with privilege** | install hooks ran `sudo`, `chsh`, `systemctl`, `git clone` and `curl`, and swallowed failures into a warning | the `user` shape, the service shape, archives (ADR 0176, 0177, 0205) | the agent module writes under `/etc` from its own tool through `sudo` (no keep-original, no give-back); the prompt's helper downloads itself unpinned; that the operator escalates without a prompt is assumed by three modules and declared by none (research 027) |
+| **Secrets in environment files** | `.env` files left world-readable; the decryption key beside what it decrypts; a deleted secret stayed in the file, so rotation was a no-op | the vault (ADR 0113, 0114) | a predecessor file of secrets is still sourced into the graphical session on two machines (research 027 Q2) |
+| **Symlinks into a home** | a system file linked into a person's home | ADR 0012 | on the control machine, a fail2ban action file is still a predecessor link into its home tree. Deleting that tree would silently break the repeat-offender jail. The mesh's fail2ban module must own it as a file first |
+| **Green while broken** | a recorded version frozen for four months; a verifier passing what it skipped | ADR 0134, 0145, 0184 | issue 230: a plan waiting for ever reads as healthy |
+
+## What it means here
+
+- **Research 026:** the desktop's 88 flavor-gated files and 92 theme variables are the flavor and
+  templating failures in one module. Question 1 (one module per piece) and question 6 (hardware
+  modules, settings later) are the answer, and nothing in the new modules may switch whole files on a
+  setting.
+- **Research 027:** the hooks that installed the AUR helper, enabled the login manager and changed
+  shells are what the `package`, `service` and `user` shapes replace. Every remaining `sudo` in a module's
+  own code is a debt to be named, starting with the agent module.

01-RESEARCH/026-the-graphical-session-as-modules/04-screensaver-displays-and-menus.md

@@ -0,0 +1,129 @@
+# 04 — Screensaver, displays and menus
+
+Three areas the operator named on 2026-10-04, as their own modules. Each sharpens a row of
+[01](01-what-the-workstations-run.md) and a question of [02](02-the-questions-and-the-options.md).
+
+## The screensaver: idle, lock and display power
+
+**Measured on both workstations:**
+
+- **Idle and lock** are three things wired by hand in the session's start script:
+  - the X screensaver timeout (`xset s 1800`);
+  - the display power timeouts (`xset dpms`);
+  - `xss-lock` running the colour build of `i3lock` through a wrapper, in a respawn loop.
+- **A second screensaver,** xscreensaver, is installed and deliberately not started. Earlier it
+  overrode the display power settings with its own, and locked nothing. Its configuration file is
+  still in the home.
+- **The lock screen's 20-odd colours and formats** were predecessor theme variables.
+- **The colour build is not in the official repositories** (research 026/01).
+
+**Starting position:**
+
+- **One module for the lock screen,** holding `node-lock-screen`: the locker and its wrapper as the
+  module's own files, the screensaver and display power timeouts, and `xss-lock`.
+- The timeouts and colours are its defaults, and settings later (issue 168).
+- The colour build ships as ADR 0205's pinned archive, or the module uses the official `i3lock`.
+  That is the operator's choice, and the colours are the only difference.
+- xscreensaver is not a module; its package and file are removed.
+- `xss-lock` needs the logind session, so it stays a session-start line contributed into
+  `.xinitrc`'s block (question 4), not a unit.
+
+## Monitor layout (xrandr)
+
+**Measured:**
+
+- Each workstation has a layout script generated by `arandr`, with the monitor names baked in. One
+  workstation also has several layouts for named places, a hotplug rule and a wizard.
+- **The desktop carried the laptop's layout scripts.**
+- No `xorg.conf.d`, and no layout tool beyond the scripts.
+
+**Starting position: `autorandr`** (official repositories) inside the display server's module.
+
+- `autorandr` saves a layout as a profile **keyed by the connected monitors' identities** (their EDID)
+  and applies the matching one at login and on hotplug.
+- Profiles therefore need no machine's name. A profile can be shared mesh-wide and simply never
+  matches on a machine without those monitors. That is exactly the "say it by what is there, never by
+  a name" rule (ADR 0112).
+- The profiles are the operator's data, saved by the tool itself, so they are *found* (ADR 0182). A
+  `layout` verb on `node-display-server` lists, saves and applies them.
+- The arandr scripts and the hotplug rule retire once a profile exists for each.
+
+## Menus: rofi and dmenu
+
+**Measured:**
+
+- rofi is the launcher, the power menu, the theme picker and the clipboard menu.
+- The operator's scripts call `rofi -dmenu` in four places and **plain `dmenu` in two. dmenu is
+  installed on neither workstation, so those two fail.**
+
+**Starting position:**
+
+- **`rofi` holds `node-launcher`**, and the seat's protocol includes a **dmenu-compatible command**:
+  read choices on standard input, print the chosen one. Scripts call that command, not a program by
+  name.
+- **`dmenu` is a module of its own** (official repositories), able to hold the same seat on a machine
+  that wants it, for instance a Wayland session where `wofi` or `fuzzel` would hold it instead.
+- The rofi module carries its theme files, and the menus that belong to other modules arrive as those
+  modules' scripts:
+  - power menu → the session;
+  - clipboard menu → the clipboard module;
+  - theme picker → settings, once issue 168 closes.
+
+## The clipboard: xclip and greenclip
+
+**Measured:**
+
+- **greenclip** keeps the clipboard's history, and rofi shows it on a key binding.
+- **greenclip is not in the official repositories.**
+- It is started two ways: the window manager's configuration starts it on both workstations, and on
+  one a user unit is enabled as well.
+- Its configuration names an absolute home path.
+- **xclip** (official) is the command-line clipboard the operator's scripts use.
+
+**Starting position:**
+
+- **`xclip` is a module of its own,** a package and nothing else. It is the tool scripts depend on,
+  and a module that needs it requires it.
+- **The clipboard manager holds `node-clipboard`:** its daemon, started once by the session (a session
+  contribution, or a user unit once user-scoped units ship, never both), its configuration with no
+  absolute path, and its menu binding contributed to the window manager.
+- **Which manager holds it is the operator's choice:**
+  - greenclip, as today, shipped under ADR 0205;
+  - or `clipmenu` (official), which feeds the same dmenu-compatible command as the launcher seat above,
+    and needs no archive.
+- **On Wayland** the same seat is held by `cliphist` with `wl-clipboard`, both official.
+
+## Fonts
+
+**Measured:**
+
+- The fonts the desktop uses are **hand-copied files** in the account's font directory, not packages:
+  - a Nerd font for the window manager, the bar and the terminal;
+  - a second one for the prompt;
+  - on one workstation, the same four files twice, once under URL-encoded names;
+  - on the other, a different build of the same font and three more copied from a theme's repository.
+- The system's default monospace is a different font (`Noto Sans Mono`), so anything that asks for
+  `monospace` gets another face than the terminal.
+- The DPI is fixed in an X resource.
+- **Every Nerd font in use is in the official repositories** (Hack, Meslo, Iosevka, JetBrains Mono).
+
+**Decided** (the operator left the choice open, except that it must not be today's Hack):
+
+| role | face | why |
+|---|---|---|
+| monospace: terminal, window manager, bar, launcher, prompt | **JetBrains Mono Nerd Font** | built for long reading in a terminal, unambiguous `0O1lI`, optional ligatures; a version-3 Nerd font, so every icon the prompt and bar use is present |
+| interface: GTK, Qt, notifications | **Inter** | designed for screens, clear at small sizes |
+| icons missing from any face | Nerd Fonts Symbols | a fallback, so a font without icons still shows them |
+| emoji | Noto Color Emoji | |
+| serif and every other script | Noto | |
+
+All five are official packages.
+
+**Starting position:**
+
+- **A `fonts` module:** those packages, and a fontconfig file it owns that maps `monospace`, `sans-serif`,
+  `serif` and the emoji and symbol fallbacks to the chosen faces, so every program agrees.
+- The terminal, bar, launcher and prompt modules name the family, not a file.
+- The DPI becomes the display server's setting (issue 168).
+- The copied files are removed by the operator once the packages are in (ADR 0182).
+- Fonts are not a seat: several coexist. The module owns the one place where *the* default is said.

01-RESEARCH/026-the-graphical-session-as-modules/05-the-tools-each-module-serves.md

@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+# 05 — The tools each module serves
+
+A first catalogue for the modules of research 026 and 027, as the operator asked: "all kinds of useful
+tools for all these modules". Each tool is served by the node's runtime (ADR 0175), on the machine the
+module runs on. Through discovery (ADR 0195) it is reachable from any machine as
+`<machine>/<module>.<tool>`, or as `<machine>/<seat>.<verb>` where a seat defines it.
+
+**Conventions:**
+
+- **(r)** reads.
+- **(a)** acts on the machine, escalating where it must, as the packet filter does (to-be 38 WP4).
+- **(d)** is a desktop act that needs the operator's session.
+- A tool that changes something a module declares says so in its answer: the next push restores the
+  declaration.
+- Every tool answers structured data, not prose (issue 229).
+- **Seat verbs** (marked *seat*) are the protocol every holder of that seat serves. The rest are the
+  module's own.
+
+## The graphical session (026)
+
+| module | tools |
+|---|---|
+| `xorg` (*node-display-server*) | *seat* `displays` (r: outputs, modes, rates, connected monitors with their identity) · *seat* `layout` (r/a: list, save, apply an autorandr profile) · `set-mode` (a: one output's resolution, rate, rotation, scale) · `primary` (a) · `dpi` (r/a) · `input-devices` (r) · `input-set` (a: touchpad tap, natural scroll, pointer speed) · `keyboard` (r/a: layout and options) · `screenshot` (d: one screen or all, as a file) · `x-log` (r: the server's errors since start) |
+| `i3` (*node-display-session*) | *seat* `reload` (a) · *seat* `workspaces` (r) · *seat* `windows` (r: tree with classes, titles, workspaces) · `focus` (d: window or workspace) · `move` (d: window to workspace or output) · `layout-save` / `layout-restore` (d: a workspace's arrangement) · `exec` (d: start a program in the session) · `kill` (d) · `bindings` (r: every key binding and what it runs) · `config-check` (r: validate the composed configuration before a reload) · `marks` (r) · `scratchpad` (d) |
+| `sway` (*node-display-server*, *node-display-session*) | the same seat verbs over Wayland, plus `outputs` (r) and `idle-inhibitors` (r) |
+| `lemurs` (*node-login-manager*) | *seat* `sessions` (r: what the login screen offers) · *seat* `default-session` (r/a) · `logins` (r: who logged in when, from the journal) |
+| `xterm` (*node-terminal-emulator*) | *seat* `open` (d: a terminal, optionally running a command, in a directory) · `font` (r/a: face and size) · `colours` (r) |
+| `i3status-rust` (*node-bar*) | *seat* `reload` (a) · `blocks` (r: what the bar shows and each block's current value) · `block-run` (r: run one block once and answer its output) · `themes` (r) |
+| `picom` (*node-compositor*) | *seat* `restart` (a) · `rules` (r: opacity, shadow and blur rules in force) · `window-opacity` (d) · `toggle` (d: compositing off and on, for a game or a test) |
+| `rofi` (*node-launcher*) | *seat* `menu` (d: show a list, answer the chosen line: the dmenu-compatible command as a tool) · `applications` (r: the desktop entries it would offer) · `themes` (r) · `run` (d) |
+| `dmenu` (*node-launcher*) | *seat* `menu` (d) |
+| `dunst` (*node-notifier*) | *seat* `send` (d: title, body, urgency, actions) · *seat* `history` (r) · `pause` / `resume` (d: do not disturb) · `close-all` (d) · `rules` (r) · `count` (r: shown, waiting, history) |
+| lock module (*node-lock-screen*) | *seat* `lock` (d) · `idle` (r/a: screensaver and display power timeouts) · `inhibit` (d: keep the screen on for a while) · `locked` (r: is the session locked now, and since when) |
+| clipboard manager (*node-clipboard*) | *seat* `history` (r: entries, newest first, length-limited) · *seat* `copy` (d: put text on the clipboard) · `paste` (r: what the clipboard holds now) · `clear` (d) · `delete` (d: one entry) |
+| `xclip` | `copy` (d) · `paste` (r): the plain clipboard without a manager |
+| `feh` (wallpaper) | `set` (d: an image, per output) · `current` (r) |
+| `fonts` | `families` (r: installed faces) · `match` (r: what `monospace`, `sans-serif` and `emoji` resolve to) · `glyph` (r: which installed font has a given character) · `cache-rebuild` (a) |
+| theme module | `appearance` (r/a: dark or light, for GTK, Qt and the portal at once) · `cursor` (r/a) · `icons` (r) · `portal-check` (r: which portal backend answers which interface) |
+| `gnome-keyring` (*node-secret-service*) | *seat* `unlocked` (r) · `lock` (d) · `collections` (r: names and item counts, never secrets) · `ssh-keys` (r: what the agent holds, by fingerprint) |
+| desktop hardware module (laptop) | `brightness` (r/a: panel and keyboard) · `battery` (r: charge, health, cycles, limit) · `charge-limit` (r/a) · `gpu-mode` (r/a: integrated, hybrid, discrete) · *seat* `profile` (r/a: quiet, balanced, performance) · `thermals` (r: temperatures and fan speeds) · `power-draw` (r) |
+
+## The system and the account (027)
+
+| module | tools |
+|---|---|
+| `docker` (*node-container-runtime*, ADR 0166) | *seat* `list`, `inspect`, `logs`, `stats`, `start`, `stop`, `restart` (r/a) · `images` (r: with size and which container uses each) · `prune` (a: dangling images, stopped containers not held by the mesh, build cache, with a dry run first) · `disk-usage` (r) · `networks` (r) · `volumes` (r: with what mounts each and whether the mesh holds it) · `events` (r: the last hour) · `daemon-config` (r) |
+| `docker-compose` | `projects` (r: compose projects running and where their files are) · `up` / `down` / `restart` (a: one project, by directory) · `logs` (r) · `ps` (r) |
+| `sudo` | `rules` (r: what the account may run, without a prompt and with one) · `check` (r: does the escalation the mesh relies on work here) |
+| `pacman` | `search` (r) · `installed` (r: with version and explicitly or as a dependency) · `info` (r) · `owns` (r: which package owns a path) · `files` (r) · `updates` (r: what an upgrade would change) · `upgrade` (a: with the news first) · `orphans` (r) · `remove-orphans` (a) · `cache` (r/a: size, clean to the last N versions) · `history` (r: installs and upgrades from the log) · `mirrors` (r/a: rank and refresh) · `news` (r: distribution news since the last upgrade) |
+| AUR (package repository, 027 question 1) | `search` (r) · `build` (a: on the build machine, into the mesh's repository) · `outdated` (r) · `published` (r) |
+| `snapd`, `flatpak` | `list` (r) · `install` / `remove` (a) · `update` (a) · `runtimes` (r) · `disk-usage` (r) |
+| `time-sync` | `status` (r: synchronised, offset, server) · `servers` (r) · `sync-now` (a) |
+| `localization` | `get` (r: locale, time zone, keymap) · `time-zone` (r/a) · `locales` (r) |
+| `kernel` | `running` (r: version, command line, uptime) · `installed` (r) · `modules` (r: loaded, with what uses them) · `reboot-needed` (r: a newer kernel or library than the one running) · `microcode` (r) · `boot-entries` (r) · `initramfs-rebuild` (a) · `dmesg` (r: errors since boot) |
+| `logrotate` | `status` (r: last rotation per log) · `force` (a: one configuration) · `big-logs` (r: the largest logs on the machine) |
+| `avahi` | `browse` (r: services on the local network) · `resolve` (r) |
+| `cups` | `printers` (r) · `queue` (r) · `cancel` (a) · `print` (a: a file to a printer) · `default` (r/a) |
+| `bluetooth` | `devices` (r: paired, connected, battery where reported) · `connect` / `disconnect` (a) · `scan` (r) · `power` (r/a) |
+| `ssh-client` (owns `~/.ssh`) | `hosts` (r: every `Host` and where it came from: the mesh, a module, the operator) · `check` (r: modes, keys without a passphrase, keys unused for a year, stale `known_hosts` entries) · `authorized` (r: who may log in, by fingerprint and comment) · `revoke` (a: one authorized key, into the operator's region) · `known-host` (r/a: verify, refresh one host's key) · `test` (r: can this machine reach a host and authenticate, batch mode) |
+| `sshd` | `sessions` (r: who is logged in, from where) · `config-effective` (r: `sshd -T`) · `failed-logins` (r: since a time, with fail2ban's verdicts) |
+| scripts modules | `list` (r: each script with its one-line description) · `run` (a: one script by name with arguments, as the account, bounded like `execute`) · `which` (r: which module ships a command) |
+| `node-env` (*node-environment*) | `show` (r: every variable and `PATH` entry with the module that contributed it) · `diff` (r: what a shell actually has versus what the mesh composed) |
+| `zsh` (*node-login-shell*) | *seat* `execute` · `zsh_config` (r) · `history-search` (r: the account's history, by pattern) · `functions` (r: aliases and functions in force, with where each came from) · `startup-time` (r: how long an interactive shell takes to start, per slot) |
+| `memory-pressure` | `status` (r: memory, swap, compressed swap ratio, pressure stall) · `top` (r: the largest processes) · `oom-history` (r: what was killed, when) |
+| `zfs` | `pools` (r: health, capacity, fragmentation) · `datasets` (r) · `snapshots` (r/a: list, create, destroy by name) · `scrub` (r/a: status, start) · `errors` (r) · `arc` (r: cache statistics) |
+| `nfs-server`, `samba` | `exports` / `shares` (r) · `clients` (r: who has it mounted now) · `reload` (a) |
+| `nfs-client`, `smb-client` | `mounts` (r: each share, mounted or not, and since when) · `mount` / `unmount` (a) · `test` (r: is the server reachable, is the export offered) |
+| hosts-file holder (*node-hosts-file*, ADR 0199) | *seat* `entries`, `add`, `remove` |
+| `vnstat`, `lm_sensors` | `traffic` (r: per interface, day, month) · `sensors` (r) |
+| mail consumer (future effort) | `accounts` (r) · `search` (r) · `unread` (r) · `read` (r: one message) · `mark` (a) · `send` (a) |
+
+## What this catalogue is for
+
+It is a starting list, not a contract. A tool becomes a contract only when it is a seat's verb, and
+each seat's verbs are decided in that seat's record (ADR 0132). A module's own tools can grow freely.
+Every row above is a tool the operator would otherwise run by hand over ssh. That is the measure of
+whether one is worth writing.

01-RESEARCH/027-the-system-layer-as-modules/00-overview.md

@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+---
+status: active
+initiated: 2026-10-04
+touches:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0165-container-runtime-is-what-a-machine-can-run-and-a-running-runtime-is-its-holders-health.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0166-the-container-runtime-is-a-node-seat-and-the-host-creates-containers-through-its-holder.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0205-software-the-distribution-does-not-package-ships-as-a-pinned-archive-of-the-module.md
+  - 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/37-the-operators-machine.md
+  - 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/38-building-the-operators-machine.md
+became: []
+---
+
+# 027 — The system layer as modules
+
+## What is investigated
+
+What runs on the machines below the operator's home and outside the mesh's own services, and which
+of it should be modules. That covers:
+
+- the container runtime and its tools;
+- privilege (sudo);
+- the package manager and the software it cannot install;
+- time, locale, the kernel and boot;
+- log rotation;
+- the machine-specific daemons the workstations and servers carry: printing, bluetooth, VPN
+  clients, virtualisation, storage, sharing.
+
+## Why
+
+The operator asked for the system level beside the graphical session. In particular:
+
+- a `docker` module (decided in principle by the proposed ADRs 0165 and 0166, never built);
+- a `docker-compose` module for development work, assigned **only to the two workstations**.
+
+Measured in [01](01-what-the-machines-run.md): on four machines, almost nothing at this level is
+owned by a module. The pieces differ by machine for no recorded reason. Three findings are security
+matters on their own.
+
+## How it is approached
+
+**Adopting is also improving** (the operator, 2026-10-04). A module is not a copy of what a machine
+does today. Making it is the moment to fix what is broken, drop what is dead, choose the better tool
+and remove the leftovers. Every module's design lists its improvements over today. **Every module
+also serves tools,** many of them, for reading, acting and diagnosing; a module that only places a
+package and a file is unfinished. The tools are catalogued in
+[026/05](../026-the-graphical-session-as-modules/05-the-tools-each-module-serves.md).
+
+## What it touches
+
+- **The container runtime seat** (ADRs 0165 and 0166, both proposed).
+- **The host's `package` shape**, which installs from the distribution's official repositories only,
+  while the workstations carry 67 and 114 packages from elsewhere.
+- **How a secret reaches the account's environment.** ADR 0203 forbids it in the contributed
+  environment, but a predecessor file supplies such secrets today.
+- **The facts the mesh assumes and never declares,** above all that the operator account escalates
+  without a prompt.
+
+## Documents
+
+- [01 — What the machines run](01-what-the-machines-run.md): evidence.
+- [02 — Candidates and questions](02-candidates-and-questions.md)
+- [03 — The account's own tools](03-the-accounts-own-tools.md): `~/.ssh` as one module's, scripts on every machine, the keyring, the laptop's power management, mail as events
+- The predecessor's lessons, shared with research 026: [026/03](../026-the-graphical-session-as-modules/03-what-the-predecessor-taught.md)

01-RESEARCH/027-the-system-layer-as-modules/01-what-the-machines-run.md

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+# 01 — What the machines run
+
+Measured 2026-10-04 on four machines, read-only, including the host's own record of what it applied:
+two servers (the anchor and a home server) and two workstations (a laptop and a desktop). "Owned"
+means a module the mesh assigns declares it.
+
+## The container runtime
+
+| | anchor | home server | laptop | desktop |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| docker | 29.8.2 | 29.8.2 | 29.7.2 | 29.7.2 |
+| compose | 5.5.1 | 5.6.0 | 5.5.0 | 5.5.0 |
+| buildx | 0.37.2 | — | — | — |
+| podman | — | 6.1.3 | 6.1.0 | 6.1.0 |
+| `docker.socket` | disabled | enabled | enabled | enabled |
+| `containerd.service` | disabled | disabled | disabled | **enabled** |
+| `daemon.json` beyond the shared keys | direct routing, two more insecure registries | log rotation (100 MB × 10) | — | — |
+| docker group | operator, **a CI user** | operator | operator | operator |
+
+**Ownership:**
+
+- The `docker` package is owned on one machine only, by the installer's bootstrap, not by a module.
+- `docker.service` is declared indirectly, by the name resolver and the private-network modules,
+  which each merge their own keys into `daemon.json`.
+- Nothing owns the socket, containerd, compose, buildx or the group.
+
+**Compose in use:**
+
+- On the servers, no running container belongs to a compose project. Their compose files are
+  pre-mesh trees under the operator's and root's homes, plus a dangling enabled unit for one of them.
+- On the workstations, compose runs development stacks, and pre-mesh service trees sit under a
+  top-level directory.
+
+The mesh marks its own containers with a host label. On the workstations, a handful of unlabelled
+development and test containers run beside its build agent.
+
+## Privilege
+
+- The operator account escalates **without a prompt on all four machines**. The mesh relies on this,
+  but it is set by hand in `/etc/sudoers` (a `wheel` rule on two machines, the account named on
+  two), and nothing declares it.
+- On the anchor, a **CI user from the predecessor** keeps passwordless sudo and docker membership,
+  and a predecessor drop-in in `sudoers.d` survives.
+- On the desktop, the operator account is also in the **`root` group**.
+
+## The package manager
+
+- `pacman.conf` is stock except on one server (parallel downloads).
+- The mirror list was generated once by a tool that is no longer installed. On the anchor, it is the
+  hosting provider's single mirror.
+- An AUR helper is installed everywhere.
+- **Packages from outside the official repositories:** 2 on the anchor, 21 on the home server,
+  67 on the laptop, 114 on the desktop. They include:
+  - the agent CLI, which a catalogue module declares as a package and the host cannot install;
+  - a VPN client;
+  - a remote-access client;
+  - printer drivers;
+  - GPU tools;
+  - a kernel module built from source (DKMS) for a storage filesystem;
+  - a snap daemon.
+
+## Time, locale, kernel, boot
+
+| | anchor | home server | laptop | desktop |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| time zone, keymap | **another zone**, a non-US console keymap | local zone, unset | local zone, unset | local zone, unset |
+| time sync | timesyncd plus a provider drop-in | timesyncd | timesyncd | **ntpd**, timesyncd disabled |
+| bootloader | grub (BIOS) | systemd-boot **and** grub | systemd-boot | systemd-boot **and** grub |
+| kernels | one | two, plus a DKMS filesystem module | one | one, plus a DKMS controller driver |
+| microcode | **none** | yes | yes | **none** |
+| swap | RAID partition | partition | zram, a file and a partition | partition |
+| log rotation timer | not found | enabled | not found | not found |
+
+## Daemons and services no module owns
+
+- **All four:** avahi.
+- **Workstations:**
+  - a VPN client daemon (both);
+  - virtualisation (incus) with a hand-made unit that inserts container-runtime firewall rules (both);
+  - printing and bluetooth;
+  - GPU and power tuning per model;
+  - a remote-access daemon (laptop);
+  - snap and flatpak (desktop);
+  - the local model server, run from a hand-written unit although a catalogue module for it exists
+    (desktop);
+  - Samba sharing and a network filesystem mount from the home server (desktop). A second mount is
+    failing, and its **credential is written in clear in `/etc/fstab`**.
+- **Servers:**
+  - a storage pool (about 167 TB) with its import, mount and scrub units, an NFS server and Samba
+    sharing (home server);
+  - traffic and sensor monitoring (home server);
+  - a DHCP client daemon the catalogue has a module for but does not assign there (home server);
+  - cron, an entropy daemon, and the **legacy `iptables` services**, which run beside the mesh's own
+    filter (anchor).
+- **Not found anywhere:** a backup agent, a monitoring agent, a second VPN mesh.
+
+## What is plain debris
+
+- Dangling enabled-unit links on three machines.
+- Predecessor blocks in `/etc/hosts` on both servers.
+- The CI user, and the predecessor sudoers drop-in, on the anchor.
+- Pre-mesh compose trees on the anchor, the home server and the desktop.
+- Unlabelled test containers on the workstations.

01-RESEARCH/027-the-system-layer-as-modules/02-candidates-and-questions.md

@@ -0,0 +1,128 @@
+# 02 — Candidates and questions
+
+## Decided by the operator on 2026-10-04
+
+- **`docker`** holds the container runtime seat on every machine, as ADRs 0165 and 0166 propose. Those
+  records are promoted from proposed when it is built.
+- **`docker-compose` is a module of its own,** the distribution's package and nothing else. It is
+  assigned **only to the two workstations**, for development work. The servers run nothing through
+  compose.
+
+Later the same day, on the candidates below:
+
+- **Yes, all of them:** `docker`, `docker-compose`, `sudo`, `pacman`, an AUR helper (question 1),
+  `time-sync`, `kernel` (with boot and microcode), `logrotate`, `avahi`, `cups` with the printer's
+  driver, and every server-only candidate.
+- **Locale, time zone and keymap are one module, `localization`.**
+- **`snapd` and `flatpak`** are modules, on the two workstations only.
+- **`incus` is the lab's,** whose module depends on it. It is not a module of its own beside the lab.
+- **The agent's and the local model server's modules are still being developed,** and are not
+  assigned until they are.
+- **The predecessor's CI user is retired.** It was removed from the anchor the same day, with its
+  sudoers line, its docker membership and a dangling unit link; the backup is on the machine.
+
+## Candidate modules
+
+**On every machine:**
+
+| module | owns | first reason |
+|---|---|---|
+| `docker` | the packages (runtime, containerd), the service and socket, `daemon.json`'s base keys (live restore, log rotation), the docker group's members | four machines, four configurations, one owner on one |
+| `sudo` | the operator account's escalation as a drop-in, declared | the mesh's tools rely on it (to-be 38 WP4) and nothing states it |
+| `pacman` | `pacman.conf`'s few keys, the mirror list and its refresher, cache cleaning | mirrors generated once and never again |
+| `time-sync` | timesyncd and its drop-ins | two daemons across four machines |
+| `localization` | locale, time zone, console keymap (one module, the operator's choice) | one machine differs, with no record why |
+| `kernel` | the kernel packages, microcode, initramfs presets | two machines without microcode |
+| `logrotate` | the timer and the base configuration | rotation runs on one machine of four |
+| `avahi` | the daemon and name-service switch entry | on all four, owned by none |
+
+**On the workstations only:**
+
+- `docker-compose`;
+- `lemurs`, the login manager (research 026);
+- a VPN client module;
+- `incus` with its forward unit (the lab module declares the package on one workstation only);
+- `cups` with the printer's driver;
+- `bluetooth`;
+- per-model **hardware** modules: GPU, power, vendor keys, brightness. These are the same modules
+  research 026 needs for the desktop's fragments.
+
+**On the servers only:**
+
+- `zfs` with its scrub timer, and the long-term kernel it builds against;
+- `nfs-server`;
+- `samba`;
+- `vnstat`, `lm_sensors`.
+
+`cron` on the anchor serves one stock file and can go. So can the entropy daemon on a modern
+kernel.
+
+**Retire, not model:** the legacy `iptables` services on the anchor. They duplicate the mesh's
+filter, which is ADR 0100's ground.
+
+## Questions this effort has to answer
+
+1. **Software outside the official repositories.** The host's `package` shape installs from the
+   official repositories only. A catalogue module already declares an AUR package (the agent CLI),
+   which no machine could install, and the workstations carry 181 such packages between them.
+
+   | | option | for | against |
+   |---|---|---|---|
+   | P1 | ADR 0205's pinned vendored archive, per piece | exists | wrong for packages that build native code or kernel modules |
+   | P2 | **The build machine builds AUR packages into a package repository the mesh serves** from its artifact store. The host then installs them as packages, signed | one shape for every package; pinned, reviewed and built once | a repository to serve and a signing key to keep |
+   | P3 | An AUR helper on each machine, driven by the host | nothing to serve | builds on every machine, unpinned: the predecessor's `git clone` in another form |
+
+   Starting position: P2, for anything with native code. ADR 0205 stays for plain files such as a
+   theme.
+
+2. **Secrets in the account's environment.** A predecessor file feeds package-registry and API tokens
+   to the session. ADR 0203 refuses secrets in contributed values, because they travel in the clear.
+   The candidate is ADR 0182's third class: a module's own process writes a mode-0600 file of
+   exports, from secrets the vault hands it over the bus, and the shell and the session source it.
+   This needs its own record.
+
+3. **Per-machine sizing and drivers.** The swap layout, the GPU, the storage pool and the boot
+   loader are facts of one machine's hardware. They belong in hardware modules, or in settings
+   (issue 168), not in the shared ones.
+
+4. **What a module may leave behind.** Compose is installed on both servers, unowned. The mesh
+   removes nothing it did not make. The choice is between an operator's one-off removal and a
+   server-side `absent` declaration.
+
+5. **The hosts file.** ADR 0199 (decided on an open change, not yet merged)
+   gives `/etc/hosts` to one module through a seat, `node-hosts-file`, with an operator region and
+   three verbs. It is not built. Today the private network's foundation writes only its own block, and
+   the rest of each file is a predecessor's stale blocks (both servers) or the operator's development
+   names (both workstations). The candidate module is that seat's first holder. It takes the
+   private-network block as a contribution, and its operator region replaces the hand-kept lines.
+
+6. **Mounts.** The host has no shape for a filesystem mount; ADR 0091 is about what a container
+   mounts. One workstation mounts a share of the home server over NFS, and a second share over SMB.
+   That second one fails, and its credential sits in clear in `/etc/fstab`.
+
+   | | option | for | against |
+   |---|---|---|---|
+   | M1 | **A module owns `/etc/fstab`** and other modules contribute lines | one file, as people know it | the file also carries the root and boot filesystems the installer wrote, which no module should rewrite; a slot contribution into a file that can stop a machine booting |
+   | M2 | **Each client module writes its own systemd mount (and automount) unit**, which is the service manager's drop-in for exactly this. The `nfs-client` or `smb-client` module declares the unit file and the service shape enables it. `/etc/fstab` stays the machine's | no new host shape, and no shared file; the unit names its own dependencies (network online, the private network) and an automount does not hang a boot when the server is away; unassigning removes the mount | a mount reads as a unit, not a line |
+   | M3 | A new `mount` shape in the host | the host knows what a mount is | a second way to say what M2 says |
+
+   Starting position: **M2.** The credential an SMB mount needs is a secret, written by the module's
+   own process from the vault, mode 0600, which is question 2's mechanism. The pair is a server
+   module exporting (`nfs-server`, `samba`) and a client module mounting. The client requires the
+   share the server provides, so the mount is resolved, not hand-typed.
+
+7. **Two DHCP clients on one interface.** The home server runs `dhcpcd`, a DHCP *client* (no machine
+   runs a DHCP server), next to the network manager, which is its assigned networking module. Both
+   lease an address on the same interface, which therefore carries two LAN addresses. The catalogue's
+   `dhcpcd` module is assigned nowhere, and this unit is a leftover. The network manager is the
+   machine's one DHCP client, and `dhcpcd` should be disabled there.
+
+## Security findings, independent of any module
+
+1. A filesystem credential in clear text in a workstation's `/etc/fstab`, for a mount that is failing
+   anyway.
+2. A predecessor CI user with passwordless sudo and docker membership on the anchor, and a
+   predecessor sudoers drop-in. *The user was removed on 2026-10-04; the drop-in remains.*
+3. The operator account in the `root` group on one workstation.
+
+Each is one small change. None waits for a module.

01-RESEARCH/027-the-system-layer-as-modules/03-the-accounts-own-tools.md

@@ -0,0 +1,169 @@
+# 03 — The account's own tools: ssh, scripts, mail
+
+Three further directions from the operator on 2026-10-04. Each is account-level, like the shell
+([to-be 41](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/41-the-shell-and-the-accounts-environment.md)).
+
+## `~/.ssh` is one module's
+
+*"A module owns `~/.ssh`, so it is its responsibility that every folder is set up consistently and
+correctly."*
+
+**Measured:**
+
+- The catalogue's `ssh-client` module owns the directory (mode 0700) and one region of
+  `~/.ssh/config`: a `Host` block per machine of the mesh. It owns nothing else.
+- On one workstation, a predecessor's header, `Include` and hand-written host block sat **above** the
+  mesh's region. ssh takes the first match, so the predecessor's entries were the ones in force, for
+  the same machines. Removed on 2026-10-04.
+- On the control machine, two keys of a retired CI system were still in the operator's
+  `authorized_keys`, able to log in as the operator. Removed the same day.
+- Permissions differ by file and by machine. Backups of the configuration lie beside it.
+
+**Starting position:** `ssh-client` becomes the holder of everything under `~/.ssh`, classified as
+ADR 0182 asks:
+
+| path | class | how |
+|---|---|---|
+| `~/.ssh/`, its mode, every file's mode | owned | the directory resource, plus a check verb that reports a file with the wrong mode |
+| `~/.ssh/config` | written into, the mesh's block **at the start** | the mesh's hosts win; the operator's lines after it are kept; an `Include config.d/*` line in the block |
+| `~/.ssh/config.d/<module>` | owned by the contributing module | ssh's own drop-in: a work module adds its forge's host there (research 026 C1) |
+| `~/.ssh/authorized_keys` | written into, the mesh's block | the operator's keys as the mesh records them, and nothing a retired system left. The operator's own lines are kept below the block |
+| `~/.ssh/known_hosts` | written into, the mesh's block | every mesh machine's host key, so the first connection never asks |
+| private keys | found | never read and never written by the mesh; a key the mesh should hand out comes from the vault, through the module's own process (ADR 0182, third class) |
+
+The sshd module is the other half: the machine's side. It is already in the catalogue.
+
+## Scripts on every machine, shared and machine-specific
+
+*"All nodes should get some custom scripts, both node-specific and mesh-specific (shared)."*
+
+**Measured:** the operator's script folder holds 64 entries plus 33 in its `bin/`. It is under no
+version control, and exists only where it was copied. It mixes three kinds:
+
+1. scripts belonging to a module (the desktop's watchers, lock, menus; a laptop model's brightness);
+2. the operator's own tools;
+3. installers that modules have replaced.
+
+**Starting position:**
+
+- **The operator's scripts live in a repository of their own,** registered as any application is
+  ([ADR 0015](../../02-DECISIONS/0015-applications-live-in-their-own-repository.md)), built as archives,
+  unpacked into a directory the module owns under the home. `bin/` goes on `PATH` through an
+  environment contribution ([ADR 0203](../../02-DECISIONS/0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md)),
+  and small functions go into the shell through a `shell` contribution
+  ([ADR 0204](../../02-DECISIONS/0204-a-module-contributes-shell-code-to-the-login-shell-in-named-slots.md)).
+- **"Machine-specific" is said by assignment, never by naming a machine**
+  ([ADR 0112](../../02-DECISIONS/0112-a-module-definition-names-no-node-mesh-or-path.md)). One repository
+  holds several modules:
+  - `scripts` (shared, on every machine);
+  - `scripts-workstation`;
+  - `scripts-media`;
+  - and so on, each assigned where it applies.
+
+  A script that belongs to a piece of software or hardware moves into that module instead. A flavor
+  inside one module is what [research 026/03](../026-the-graphical-session-as-modules/03-what-the-predecessor-taught.md)
+  says not to repeat.
+- **A script can also be a tool.** A script with a one-line description is served by the node's
+  runtime, so it can be called through the mesh on any machine that has it.
+- A script that needs a secret gets it through question 2's mechanism, never from a file of
+  environment secrets.
+
+## The keyring
+
+*"A keyring is also a good thing to create a module for."*
+
+**Measured on the two workstations, which both run GNOME Keyring:**
+
+- **On one, the keyring unlocks at login.** The login manager's PAM service includes `login`, which
+  carries `pam_gnome_keyring`.
+- **On the other, it does not.** The PAM line is only in the screensaver's service, so at session
+  start the window manager runs a script that asks for the password a second time and unlocks the
+  keyring with it.
+- **On both, the session's start script starts the daemon again** with the ssh and gpg components,
+  and exports the ssh agent's socket. The keyring's current release serves the ssh agent through a
+  separate per-user socket unit instead.
+
+**Starting position:** a `gnome-keyring` module that holds a node seat, `node-secret-service` (the
+holder of the desktop's secret service; a password manager could hold it instead). It declares:
+
+- the package;
+- its lines in the login manager's PAM file, written into, never over (ADR 0102), so login unlocks it
+  on every machine;
+- the ssh agent's user socket, once user-scoped units ship;
+- the agent's socket path as an environment contribution, which needs a machine fact for the
+  account's runtime directory. ADR 0203 forbids `$` in values, so `$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR` cannot be
+  written in one.
+
+The second unlock prompt and the second daemon start go away.
+
+## Mail as events
+
+*"Ideally a mail consumer with all my mail accounts configured, so my mail is recorded in the bus."*
+
+**Measured:**
+
+- The predecessor polled one work mailbox every minute. It **read an access token out of the mail
+  client's process memory**, called a mail API with it, and raised a desktop notification per unread
+  message. It worked only while the mail client ran, and stopped silently when the predecessor's units
+  were retired.
+- Two further predecessor modules served mail tools, for one provider and for IMAP.
+- The mesh runs a mail server of its own for its domains.
+
+**Not decided here; it needs an effort of its own.** The questions it would have to answer:
+
+- **Accounts and how each authenticates:**
+  - IMAP with an app password;
+  - a provider's OAuth with a registered application;
+  - the mesh's own mail server, which can publish delivery itself.
+
+  An employer's tenant may forbid registering an application at all.
+- **What the bus records:**
+  - headers and a summary as events;
+  - bodies and attachments in an object store the event points at;
+  - retention, since mail is the most personal data the mesh would hold.
+- **What consumes it:** a notifier bridge to the desktop (the predecessor's notifications), search,
+  an agent's context.
+- **Where it runs:** one long-running module, not per machine (ADR 0198).
+
+The obvious first step is the mail server the mesh already runs.
+
+## Power management on the laptop
+
+*"Power management for the laptop."*
+
+**Measured on the laptop** (a gaming model with a hybrid GPU):
+
+- **The platform profile is driven by a vendor daemon** (`asusd`) and its CLI. The vendor CLI is
+  now in the official repositories; the copy installed came from elsewhere. A predecessor script
+  runs as a user unit and switches the profile every five seconds: quiet on battery, balanced on
+  mains, performance above 50 % CPU.
+- **The hybrid GPU's mode** (now hybrid) is held by a second vendor daemon (`supergfxd`), which is
+  **not** in the official repositories. Kernel-module options for the discrete GPU's power state
+  and its suspend, hibernate and resume units are set by hand. Its own power daemon is masked.
+- **The battery charge limit is 80 %,** set by the vendor daemon.
+- **The lid and power key suspend.** The brightness key is ignored by logind and handled by the
+  vendor-key path. Both are logind drop-ins.
+- **Memory pressure:** compressed swap in RAM (`zram`) beside a swap file and a partition;
+  `systemd-oomd` with drop-ins; a predecessor *memory guard* user unit that notifies before the OOM
+  killer acts.
+- `upower` runs. There is no `power-profiles-daemon`, `tlp`, `auto-cpufreq` or `thermald`, so nothing
+  competes with the vendor daemon, by design.
+
+All of it came from two predecessor modules, one of which was a laptop-model *flavor*. A desktop
+received part of it (research 026/01).
+
+**Starting position:**
+
+- **A hardware module per machine model** (here, the laptop's model). It holds the vendor daemon and
+  its profile configuration, the GPU mode daemon (ADR 0205's case, or the build machine's package
+  repository of research 027 question 1), the discrete GPU's module options and suspend units, the
+  logind drop-ins, the battery charge limit, and the vendor keys and brightness. It is assigned to
+  the one machine of that model, and to any second one later.
+- **The profile switching** moves from a polling script to the module's own long-running code
+  (ADR 0198). It reacts to the power-supply change event instead of polling, and its thresholds
+  become settings (issue 168).
+- **Memory pressure is not the laptop's alone.** `zram` and `systemd-oomd` with the notifier are a
+  `memory-pressure` module, assigned wherever wanted. The swap layout stays the machine's (`kernel`
+  module, question 3).
+- A **`node-power-profile`** seat (vendor daemon, or `power-profiles-daemon` on other hardware)
+  gives the mesh one verb, `profile`, the same on every machine that has one.

01-RESEARCH/028-the-meshs-output-channel/00-overview.md

@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+---
+status: active
+initiated: 2026-10-04
+touches:
+  - 04-ISSUES/187-the-mesh-tells-nobody-when-it-stops-working/00-report.md
+  - 04-ISSUES/229-a-rollout-cannot-be-followed-through-the-meshs-tools/00-report.md
+  - 04-ISSUES/230-a-host-that-hands-over-to-a-newer-one-loses-its-report-and-a-plan-waits-for-ever/00-report.md
+  - 04-ISSUES/233-a-host-without-its-package-managers-configuration-refuses-the-declaration-that-would-restore-it/00-report.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0126-a-module-declares-its-own-seats.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0208-the-graphical-session-is-one-module-per-piece-on-the-meshs-seats.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0210-a-tools-configuration-is-its-seat-holders-and-every-other-module-extends-it-through-the-seat.md
+  - 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/32-what-a-module-declares.md
+became: []
+---
+
+# 028 — The mesh's output channel
+
+## What
+
+How the mesh tells its operator what it noticed. The operator's framing: sending notifications
+is **an output channel for the mesh**. The mesh already knows when a machine stops answering, when
+a failure repeats and will not fix itself, when a rollout waits for ever. Today it keeps that to
+itself until someone asks.
+
+The effort looks at:
+
+- **the seat:** one, held once for the mesh, that every other part uses to say something to the
+  operator;
+- **the channels**, each a module: a desktop notification on the machine the operator is at,
+  **Telegram**, a phone push service, chat, mail and others (see [02](02-the-channels.md));
+- **the routing**, by severity and by where the operator is;
+- **the life of a message:** deduplicated while it holds, resolved when it stops, acknowledged or
+  silenced by the operator;
+- **the watcher's watcher:** who tells the operator when the parts that would tell them are the
+  ones that failed.
+
+## Why
+
+[Issue 187](../../04-ISSUES/187-the-mesh-tells-nobody-when-it-stops-working/00-report.md) is the
+class: *the mesh tells nobody when it stops working*. [01](01-what-the-mesh-already-knows.md)
+counts it.
+- 15 of the 236 issue reports say the fault was found because a person happened to look.
+- 74 describe something failing silently.
+
+On the day this effort opened, the mesh knew three things and told nobody:
+- a workstation had refused every declaration for ninety minutes;
+- the same workstation had been out of touch for ten minutes after an upgrade;
+- one failure on the laptop had repeated thirteen times.
+
+Every one of them was in `status`, for whoever asked.
+
+The pieces exist. [To-be 32](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/32-what-a-module-declares.md) already uses a
+`telegram-sender` seat as its worked example of a work queue with retention. ADR 0208 made a
+machine's desktop notifier a node seat with a `send` verb. What is missing is a seat that speaks
+for the mesh, sources that call it, and channels that deliver.
+
+## What it touches
+
+- **The controller**, which would become the first source of what it already computes for `status`.
+- **The node-notifier seat**, which would become one channel among several.
+- **Issues 187, 229, 230 and 233**, each of which ends in "and nothing said so".
+- **ADR 0210**, because a channel extends the output seat through a contribution, and therefore
+  depends on it.
+
+## Documents
+
+1. [What the mesh already knows](01-what-the-mesh-already-knows.md): the evidence, and the events
+   that exist.
+2. [The channels](02-the-channels.md): the candidates, Telegram first, weighed on the same questions.
+3. [Open questions](03-open-questions.md): the seat, routing, life of a message, the watcher's
+   watcher, what may leave the mesh.

01-RESEARCH/028-the-meshs-output-channel/01-what-the-mesh-already-knows.md

@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+# 01 — What the mesh already knows, and who hears it
+
+## The count
+
+Over the 236 issue reports in `04-ISSUES/`, on the day this effort opened:
+
+- **15** say, in some wording, that a person found the fault by looking: "nobody was told",
+  "nothing logged / said / alerted / emitted", "a person asked", "found by a person". Five of them
+  are still open.
+- **74** describe something that failed silently.
+
+The search was a word match over the reports' text, so it undercounts reports that tell the same
+story in other words. It never overcounts by much: each of the fifteen was read.
+
+The fifteen fall into three groups:
+
+- **The mesh knew, and kept it in a query.** The fault was in `status`, `plans` or a node's record,
+  for whoever asked. Examples: a rollout waiting for ever (230), a machine refusing every declaration
+  (233), a setting that cannot work stored and stopping the node (096).
+- **The fault was in a log nothing reads.** Examples: the bus refusing the controller's publishes
+  (187), a dropped report (187, 230).
+- **The fault was invisible to the mesh itself.** Examples: a resolver outside the mesh closed by its
+  filter (198), a port narrowed without saying (086).
+
+Only the first group is a matter of telling: the fact exists, and only delivery is missing. The
+other two need a source first. This effort is about the first, and about giving the other two a
+place to say something once they can.
+
+## What the controller computes and does not say
+
+Read from `status` and `node show` on the day this effort opened. Each line is a fact the controller
+already holds:
+
+| fact | where it is today | example that day |
+|---|---|---|
+| a machine is out of touch | `node show`: "last heard from — out of touch 10m" | a workstation after an upgrade |
+| a machine refused its declaration | `status`: "refused" with the reason | the same workstation, for 90 minutes |
+| a failure repeats and will not fix itself | `status`: "stuck: the same failure N times since …" | 13 times on the laptop |
+| machines run different hosts | `status`: the version table | after a host release |
+| something runs that the mesh did not write | `node show`: strays | 16 containers on one machine |
+| a filter rule the mesh did not write | `status` | one machine |
+| a plan is waiting | `plans` | issue 230: "for 0s", for ever |
+| an assignment does not compose | the `assign` answer only | issue 235 |
+
+None of these is published. The bus carries a seat's own events (a build's outcome), a module's
+declared events, tool calls and declarations. It carries no event for any line above.
+
+## What exists to deliver with
+
+- **A machine's desktop:** the `node-notifier` seat (ADR 0208), held on the laptop. Its `send` verb
+  shows a notification, and `history` lists them. It was used through the console the day this effort
+  opened.
+- **Mail:** a mail module provides `smtp` to the mesh.
+- **Chat:** a Matrix server runs as a module on the home server.
+- **Home automation:** a home-automation module runs there too, and its phone app can receive pushes.
+- **A seat shape for exactly this:** to-be 32 §5 uses `telegram-sender` (`accepts: send`,
+  `retain 7d`, `emits: delivered, failed`, `serves: status`) as its worked example. A seat's stream
+  exists from registration, so work queues until a holder appears.
+
+No module sends to Telegram, a phone push service or SMS today.

01-RESEARCH/028-the-meshs-output-channel/02-the-channels.md

@@ -0,0 +1,116 @@
+# 02 — The channels
+
+Each channel is a candidate module that delivers what the output seat hands it. They are weighed on
+the same questions:
+
+- **Reach:** does it reach the operator away from the machines (phone), or only at a desk?
+- **Off-mesh:** does it still work when the mesh's own parts (the bus, the controller, the control
+  node's network) are what failed?
+- **Two-way:** can the operator answer through it: acknowledge, silence, ask?
+- **Where the words go:** does the message leave the operator's own machines, and to whom?
+- **What it costs to hold:** a secret, a server, an account, money.
+
+## The candidates
+
+### Telegram (required by the operator)
+
+A bot created with Telegram's bot service sends to one chat: the operator's own, or a group.
+
+- **Reach:** the phone and every desktop, with push.
+- **Off-mesh:** sending needs only outbound HTTPS from any machine. No inbound port, no server of the
+  mesh's own. A second machine can hold the same bot token and send when the first is the one that
+  failed.
+- **Two-way:** yes. Inline buttons on a message (acknowledge, silence for an hour) and commands to
+  the bot, read by long polling over outbound HTTPS. This makes Telegram the strongest candidate for
+  answering, and the riskiest (see [03](03-open-questions.md), Q7).
+- **Where the words go:** to Telegram's servers. Bot chats are not end-to-end encrypted. What a
+  message may contain is therefore a rule this effort must set.
+- **Cost:** one secret (the bot token) and the chat's id. Free. Rate limits are far above what an
+  operator should receive.
+- **Formatting:** short text with a little markup, buttons and links. Enough for a subject, a
+  machine role, a severity and one line of why.
+
+### The desktop notifier (exists)
+
+The `node-notifier` seat's `send` verb on the machine the operator is at.
+
+- **Reach:** only at that machine, only while a session is up.
+- **Off-mesh:** no. It is reached through the mesh's tools.
+- **Two-way:** dunst has actions, which a click can answer, but nothing reads them back yet.
+- **Where the words go:** nowhere; it is local.
+- **Cost:** none.
+- **Its place:** the gentlest channel, for a warning while the operator is at a desk. "At a desk" is
+  itself a question: an unlocked session on a machine with recent input.
+
+### ntfy (or Gotify): a self-hosted phone push
+
+A small server publishes topics; its phone app subscribes.
+
+- **Reach:** the phone, with push.
+- **Off-mesh:** only if the server runs outside what failed. On the control node it fails with it.
+- **Two-way:** action buttons can call a URL, which is an inbound path to design.
+- **Where the words go:** stays on the operator's machines when self-hosted. ntfy's iOS push passes
+  through an upstream relay unless configured otherwise.
+- **Cost:** a module with a container and a routed name; a token per topic.
+
+### Matrix (a server exists as a module)
+
+A bot account posts to a room the operator is in.
+
+- **Reach:** phone and desktop through any Matrix client.
+- **Off-mesh:** no, the server is one of the mesh's modules.
+- **Two-way:** yes, by messages to the bot.
+- **Where the words go:** stays on the operator's server, end-to-end encrypted if the bot supports it.
+- **Cost:** a bot account, a secret.
+
+### Mail (a mail module provides `smtp`)
+
+- **Reach:** everywhere, without urgency.
+- **Off-mesh:** no, if the mesh's own mail server sends. Yes, through an outside relay.
+- **Two-way:** no, not usefully.
+- **Its place:** the record and the digest: a daily summary of what was said and resolved, and the
+  fallback when nothing else acknowledged.
+
+### The home-automation companion app (a module exists)
+
+Its phone app takes pushes and actionable notifications, and the home has lights and speakers.
+
+- **Reach:** the phone, and the house itself: a light that turns a colour.
+- **Off-mesh:** no, the home server is a node.
+- **Its place:** a playful critical channel, not a primary one.
+
+### The bar on the desktop
+
+An `i3status-rust` block showing the count of open messages, red while one is critical.
+
+- **Reach:** the desk only, and silent.
+- **Its place:** the ambient state. Nothing interrupts the operator, and they always see whether
+  something is open.
+
+### The console (an agent session)
+
+A message the next agent session opens with ("two things happened while you were away").
+
+- **Its place:** context for the agent working on the mesh rather than an alert. It falls out of the
+  message store if the store is queryable.
+
+### Others, noted and not pursued now
+
+- **SMS or a voice call** through a paid gateway. It is the only channel that works with no data
+  connection, and the only one that costs per message.
+- **Signal**, through an unofficial client: no bot API, and a registered number.
+- **Discord or Slack** webhooks: the words go to a third party, as with Telegram, without its two-way
+  strength.
+- **Pushover:** paid, closed, and a phone push service much like ntfy.
+- **An external dead-man service** (a heartbeat URL that alerts when pings stop). It belongs to
+  [03](03-open-questions.md), Q6, as the watcher's watcher rather than as a channel.
+
+## A first reading
+
+- **Telegram** is the primary phone channel, and the only candidate that is cheap, off-mesh capable
+  and two-way at once.
+- **The desktop notifier** is for the desk.
+- **The bar** shows the ambient state.
+- **Mail** carries the digest and the record.
+- **ntfy and Matrix** are self-hosted alternatives for an operator who keeps words off third parties.
+  The seat must make that a choice, not a rewrite.

01-RESEARCH/028-the-meshs-output-channel/03-open-questions.md

@@ -0,0 +1,127 @@
+# 03 — Open questions
+
+Each question names the options seen so far. None is decided here.
+
+## Q1. The seat
+
+**What speaks for the mesh to its operator?**
+
+- **a.** One seat in the mesh's own set, held once for the mesh. Working name: `operator-channel`.
+  - It **accepts** `notify` (a work queue, as to-be 32 §5 designs `telegram-sender`), so a message
+    waits until a holder appears.
+  - It **emits** `delivered`, `acknowledged` and `resolved`.
+  - It **serves** `open` (what is unresolved now) and `history`.
+- **b.** No seat: every source calls every channel. Rejected in advance, because each source would
+  learn every channel. This is the inversion ADR 0126 exists to prevent.
+- **c.** Each channel as its own seat, with routing in the sources. Same objection as b, one level up.
+
+Under a, the holder routes. The channels are modules that **contribute** themselves to the seat
+(ADR 0210): a channel extends the seat, and so depends on it. Whether the holder is a module of its
+own or part of the controller is open. A module keeps the controller small. The controller already
+holds most of the facts.
+
+## Q2. What a message is
+
+The first shape seen: a **subject** (what it is about: a machine's role, a module, a plan), a
+**kind** (out of touch, refused, stuck, late, …), a **severity**, a one-line **why**, a link to
+the tool that shows more, and a **key** that makes it the same message the next time it is said.
+
+- **Severity:** two levels (needs you now / when you can), or three (critical / warning / info)?
+  Every extra level is a routing rule somebody must keep right.
+- **The key** is what makes deduplication possible. "Machine X out of touch" said every minute is
+  one message, still open, not sixty.
+
+## Q3. The life of a message
+
+open → (acknowledged) → resolved.
+
+- **Deduplicate** by key while open.
+- **Resolve** when the source stops saying it, or says it is over ("back in touch after 14 min"). A
+  channel that can edit its message (Telegram can) updates it in place rather than sending a second.
+- **Acknowledge** from any channel that can answer, which stops escalation and repeats.
+- **Repeat or escalate** an unacknowledged critical message after a while, to the next channel.
+- **Where the open set lives:** the seat's own state, in a key-value bucket (to-be 32's `state:`), so
+  `open` answers after a restart.
+
+## Q4. Routing and presence
+
+- **By severity:** critical goes to every channel at once. A warning goes to the desk when the
+  operator is at one, otherwise to the phone, otherwise to the digest.
+- **Presence:** "at a desk" needs a fact the mesh does not hold yet. Candidates: an unlocked
+  graphical session with recent input, read from the `node-lock-screen` and `node-login-manager`
+  seats' holders. Nothing more invasive.
+- **Quiet hours:** a setting of the seat's holder (ADR 0174). Critical overrides it, or not, as the
+  operator chooses.
+- **Rate:** a cap per hour per channel, with the excess folded into one summary, so a storm (a
+  network outage where every node is out of touch) arrives as one message naming many.
+
+## Q5. The sources
+
+The first sources are the facts in [01](01-what-the-mesh-already-knows.md), all in the controller
+today:
+
+- a machine out of touch;
+- a declaration refused;
+- a stuck failure;
+- a plan late (once issue 230 gives a wait an age);
+- an assignment that does not compose (issue 235);
+- a host version split.
+
+**How each becomes an event:**
+- **a.** The controller emits an event per change of state, and the seat's holder consumes them.
+- **b.** The controller calls `notify` itself.
+
+With a, the controller learns nothing about telling: other consumers (a board, a log) get the same
+facts, and the holder decides what is worth a message. With b, the controller decides severity.
+
+**Modules as sources:** a module may `use` the seat to tell the operator something of its own
+(a backup failed, a certificate is close to expiry), with the same message shape.
+
+## Q6. The watcher's watcher
+
+When the controller, the bus or the control node is what failed, nothing above runs. Options:
+
+- **A dead-man signal:** the seat's holder sends a heartbeat out of the mesh (a ping to an external
+  heartbeat service), which alerts the operator by its own means when pings stop.
+- **A second holder of the Telegram channel on another machine** that sends directly, without the
+  bus, when it stops hearing the controller for longer than a bound.
+- **Each host** sending a last message itself when it loses the mesh for longer than a bound. This
+  needs the channel's secret on every machine, a cost to weigh.
+
+The first is the cheapest and the only one that also covers "the whole house is offline".
+
+## Q7. Answering back
+
+Telegram, and Matrix, can carry the operator's answers.
+
+- **Acknowledge and silence** are safe: they change only the message's state.
+- **Commands** ("push the workstation", "show status") turn a chat account into a door to the
+  controller. If it ever comes, it needs:
+  - its own record;
+  - a narrow verb set;
+  - a check that the answer came from the operator's own account and chat;
+  - and probably a confirmation step.
+
+The first version should probably answer with acknowledge and silence only.
+
+## Q8. What may leave the mesh
+
+Telegram, and any third-party channel, carries the words to someone else's servers. A message
+names a machine, a module and a reason, which is operational detail.
+
+- **What may a message contain?** Roles rather than addresses; no secrets, tokens or paths; a reason
+  in words. The rule must be enforced by the seat's holder, not hoped for from each source.
+- **Is a self-hosted channel required for anything above a severity?**
+- **The bot token and chat id** are secrets of the channel's module, delivered as any module secret is.
+
+## Q9. How it is checked
+
+A rule this effort produces must say how it is verified. Candidates:
+
+- a message said twice with one key is one message;
+- a resolved source resolves its message;
+- a critical message reaches every channel within a bound;
+- a message containing an address or a secret is refused;
+- the dead-man signal fires when the holder is stopped.
+
+Each is a test of the holder, or a live drill: stop a machine's host and time the message.

01-RESEARCH/029-the-agent-configured-through-its-module/00-overview.md

@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+---
+status: graduated
+initiated: 2026-10-04
+touches:
+  - 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/36-the-operators-agent-on-a-machine.md
+  - 03-DESIGN/00-as-is/15-the-agent-and-its-licences.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0182-inside-a-home-the-mesh-owns-what-it-places-and-holds-the-rest-as-found.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0201-a-module-keeps-its-current-state-in-key-value-buckets-it-declares-and-reaches-through-the-runtime.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0210-a-tools-configuration-is-its-seat-holders-and-every-other-module-extends-it-through-the-seat.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0213-the-operator-sets-the-agents-managed-settings-through-the-agent-module.md
+became:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0216-the-agents-configuration-is-registered-through-its-module-at-three-scopes-and-served-as-one-plugin.md
+  - 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/36-the-operators-agent-on-a-machine.md
+---
+
+# 029 — The agent configured through its module
+
+## What
+
+Everything about the operator's coding agent that can be configured is configured through the agent
+module's tools, and reaches the machines as **one plugin the mesh serves**:
+
+- subagents, skills, slash commands, hooks, output styles and tool servers;
+- the agent's settings and its instructions.
+
+Each item is registered once, from any machine, and goes to one machine, several, or all of them,
+including a machine that joins later. The mechanism is the one the module already uses for tool
+servers: the registration is kept in the module's state on the bus, and each machine's instance writes
+what applies to it. The operator chose the plugin route on the day this effort opened.
+
+**Three scopes** (the operator's direction, the same day):
+
+- **mesh:** in the mesh's plugin and the managed files, on every machine;
+- **node:** the same places, rendered for one machine or a list of them;
+- **home:** placed in the operator account's own agent directory on a machine, beside what the
+  person writes there by hand.
+
+Instructions follow the same scopes: the mesh's piece, the node's piece, then further customisation per
+machine. See [03](03-options.md).
+
+## Why
+
+The vendor gives the agent a machine-wide directory for its settings, its tool servers and one
+instruction file, and **nothing machine-wide for skills, subagents, commands or hooks**. Those exist
+only in a home or a project. So today they are copied into each home by hand, and they drift and go
+stale. [01](01-what-is-configured-today.md) measures that on four machines.
+
+A plugin is the vendor's own unit for carrying all of those at once. A machine-wide setting can name
+a marketplace and enable a plugin from it. If the module serves the plugin and its own managed settings
+enable it, the mesh gets a machine-wide place for everything the vendor left home-only, and the home
+stays the person's ([ADR 0182](../../02-DECISIONS/0182-inside-a-home-the-mesh-owns-what-it-places-and-holds-the-rest-as-found.md)).
+
+## What it touches
+
+- **The agent module's design** ([to-be 36](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/36-the-operators-agent-on-a-machine.md)):
+  its managed directory, its state, and its tools.
+- **Module state** ([ADR 0201](../../02-DECISIONS/0201-a-module-keeps-its-current-state-in-key-value-buckets-it-declares-and-reaches-through-the-runtime.md)):
+  where registrations are kept, and which file content fits in a bucket.
+- **Contributions** ([ADR 0210](../../02-DECISIONS/0210-a-tools-configuration-is-its-seat-holders-and-every-other-module-extends-it-through-the-seat.md)):
+  a module other than the agent's, say the forge's, wanting the agent to have a skill for it. That is a
+  contribution to the agent's seat, not a file it writes.
+- **The managed settings key the operator sets** ([ADR 0213](../../02-DECISIONS/0213-the-operator-sets-the-agents-managed-settings-through-the-agent-module.md)),
+  which a settings tool would write rather than a hand-composed settings layer.
+
+## Documents
+
+- [01 — What is configured today](01-what-is-configured-today.md): the evidence.
+- [02 — What the vendor allows](02-what-the-vendor-allows.md): plugins, marketplaces and managed
+  settings, as documented, with sources.
+- [03 — Options](03-options.md): where each kind of item goes, how it is registered and stored, and
+  the questions a decision has to answer.
+- [04 — What was confirmed](04-what-was-confirmed.md): the checks, tried on one workstation.

01-RESEARCH/029-the-agent-configured-through-its-module/01-what-is-configured-today.md

@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+# 01 — What is configured today
+
+Measured on 2026-10-04 on four machines that run the agent module: two workstations, the control node
+and a home server. The figures count what sits in each operator account's agent directory in its home,
+outside the module's managed directory.
+
+## What sits in the homes
+
+| what | workstation A | workstation B | control node | home server |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| rule files (`rules/`) | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
+| skills of the person's own (`skills/`, beside the vendor's synced ones) | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
+| subagents (`agents/`) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
+| slash commands (`commands/`) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
+| plugin marketplaces known | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
+
+## What that shows
+
+- **Six files the design says the operator removes are still on every machine.** To-be 36 §1 lists the
+  predecessor's rule files and skills and leaves their removal to the operator, "once, on each
+  workstation". On all four machines, the two predecessor skills are present, byte-identical to each
+  other:
+  - one that switches licences through tools that no longer exist;
+  - one that names the predecessor's forge.
+
+  So a session can still load a skill whose every instruction fails.
+- **One instruction, three versions.** The predecessor's node-identity rule file is on three machines,
+  with three different contents. It was written per machine and then left alone.
+- **Two instruction sets that contradict each other, loaded together.** On a workstation, one session
+  reads two sets of instructions:
+  - the module's managed instruction file says to search the mesh's records first;
+  - the predecessor's rule files in the home say to search the predecessor's knowledge base first,
+    through tools that are no longer served.
+
+  Both are loaded, and neither says the other is stale.
+- **A subagent exists on one machine only.** A reviewer for module definitions was written on one
+  workstation. The other three machines cannot use it, and nothing says it exists.
+- **Settings are per home, and so per machine.** The agent's auto-mode environment, the rules that
+  decide which actions the agent may take unasked, is written in one home's settings file. It
+  describes another organisation's cloud, and it answers for this mesh's forge only through a list of
+  trusted domains. When the agent refused a merge the operator had approved, the only lawful fix was
+  a managed key ([ADR 0213](../../02-DECISIONS/0213-the-operator-sets-the-agents-managed-settings-through-the-agent-module.md)).
+  The agent could not change its own settings, and nothing else in the mesh could either.
+
+## What already works the way this effort wants
+
+Tool servers. A server registered through the module's register tool is kept in the module's state
+on the bus, keyed `all.<server>` or `<node>.<server>`. Every instance watches that state and writes what
+applies to it into the managed tool-server file, and a machine that joins later takes it at its first
+start. Today one server is registered there, for one workstation. That is the shape this effort extends
+to everything else.

01-RESEARCH/029-the-agent-configured-through-its-module/02-what-the-vendor-allows.md

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+# 02 — What the vendor allows
+
+Read from the vendor's documentation on 2026-10-04; the agent installed on the machines measured in
+[01](01-what-is-configured-today.md) was a 2.1 release. Each fact names the page it came from. Where the
+documentation is silent, this says so. A fact that a design rests on is to be confirmed on one machine
+before it is built on (see [03](03-options.md), *What to confirm first*).
+
+## What a plugin can carry
+
+A plugin is a directory with a manifest in `.claude-plugin/plugin.json` and, beside it, any of:
+
+- skills, slash commands and subagents;
+- hooks;
+- tool servers (`.mcp.json`) and language servers;
+- output styles, workflows, themes and monitors;
+- a `bin/` directory;
+- a `settings.json`.
+
+Its components are namespaced by the plugin's name, so a subagent `reviewer` in a plugin `mesh` is
+`mesh:reviewer`, and it never collides with a person's own of the same name.
+— *plugins/manifest-reference, plugins/loading (name conflicts)*
+
+**What a plugin cannot carry:**
+
+- **Settings.** Only two keys of a plugin's `settings.json` take effect: the default agent and the
+  subagent status line. The rest are dropped. — *plugins/manifest-reference, settings*
+- **Permission rules.** Not documented as a plugin capability.
+- **Instructions.** A `CLAUDE.md` at a plugin's root is not loaded, and the validator warns about it.
+  Instructions reach a session through skills only. — *plugins/manifest-reference, standard layout*
+
+## Marketplaces, and a marketplace on the machine's own disk
+
+A marketplace is a `marketplace.json` listing plugins and where each comes from. Its sources include:
+
+- a relative path inside the marketplace;
+- a forge repository, a git URL or a subdirectory of one;
+- a package from a registry;
+- an archive over HTTPS;
+- the output of a command.
+
+**A marketplace can be a directory on the machine.** Its plugins with relative paths are **loaded in
+place**, not copied into the cache. An edit takes effect at the next session start, or at
+`/reload-plugins` in a running session, and the plugin's version need not change.
+— *plugins/marketplace-reference (marketplace sources), plugins/loading (in-place and copied plugins)*
+
+A plugin from any other source is copied into a cache in the home, under
+`plugins/cache/<marketplace>/<plugin>/<version>/`. — *plugins/loading*
+
+## What managed settings do with plugins
+
+These keys work in the machine-wide managed settings file — *plugins/org*:
+
+| key | what it does |
+|---|---|
+| `extraKnownMarketplaces` | registers a marketplace on every session of the machine |
+| `enabledPlugins` | `true` installs and enables a plugin; `false` blocks and hides it at every scope. The managed value outranks every other scope |
+| `strictKnownMarketplaces`, `blockedMarketplaces` | allow-list or block-list of marketplace sources |
+| `strictPluginOnlyCustomization` | refuses skills, subagents, hooks and tool servers that come from neither a plugin nor managed settings |
+| `allowManagedHooksOnly` | runs only the hooks from managed sources |
+| `disableSideloadFlags` | blocks loading a plugin from the command line |
+| `syncClaudeAiPlugins` | stops plugins synced from the vendor's web account |
+
+**Installed without anyone being asked.** Once the settings reach a machine, the marketplace is
+registered and the plugins installed at the next session start. A non-interactive run installs them in
+the background. Managed plugins do not wait for the workspace trust prompt. — *plugins/org*
+
+## What the managed settings file honours besides
+
+`permissions` (with its default mode and the switch that disables bypassing it), `autoMode`, `hooks`,
+`env`, `model`, `statusLine`, `outputStyle`, `apiKeyHelper`, and the managed-only switches for permission
+rules, hooks and tool servers. — *managed-settings*
+
+That `autoMode` is honoured from the managed file is documented. That it changes what the agent
+refuses on these machines is still to be seen ([ADR 0213](../../02-DECISIONS/0213-the-operator-sets-the-agents-managed-settings-through-the-agent-module.md)
+left that open).
+
+## Tool servers: the exclusive file wins over a plugin's
+
+When the managed tool-server file is present, as the module writes it, it is **exclusive**: only its
+servers load. The vendor's web connectors load too when a managed key allows them. **A plugin's
+`.mcp.json` servers are blocked.** — *managed-mcp (exclusive control)*
+
+So a tool server registered through the module stays in the managed tool-server file. Putting it in
+the plugin would silently stop it loading.
+
+## Variables inside a plugin
+
+- `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}`: the plugin's directory.
+- `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}`: a directory that survives updates.
+- `${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR}`: the project's root.
+
+These resolve in hook commands, tool and language server configuration, and the content of skills,
+subagents and commands. A plugin's declared options (`userConfig`) can be marked sensitive; the agent
+asks the person for them and stores them itself. — *plugins/manifest-reference (environment variables)*
+
+## Reload
+
+A running session does not see a changed plugin until `/reload-plugins` or a new session.
+`/reload-plugins` reloads skills, subagents, hooks and servers. It does not restart monitors.
+— *plugins/loading*
+
+## Not documented
+
+- a machine-wide directory for bare skills, subagents or commands. Only a plugin enabled by managed
+  settings puts them machine-wide;
+- permission rules or instructions carried by a plugin.

01-RESEARCH/029-the-agent-configured-through-its-module/03-options.md

@@ -0,0 +1,159 @@
+# 03 — Options
+
+The route is chosen: a plugin the mesh serves. What is left open is where each kind of item goes, how it
+is registered and kept, and what the module does about what it finds in the homes.
+
+## Scopes (the operator's direction, 2026-10-04)
+
+The plugin is not the only place the module manages. **The agent's configuration is managed at three
+scopes, and each item is registered at one of them:**
+
+| scope | where it lands | reaches |
+|---|---|---|
+| **mesh** | the mesh's plugin, and the mesh's part of the managed files | every machine running the agent, including one that joins later |
+| **node** | the same plugin and managed files, as rendered on that machine | one machine, or a list of them |
+| **home** | the operator account's own agent directory on a machine (`~/.claude`) | that account on that machine |
+
+Each machine renders its own plugin from the registrations that apply to it, so a node-scoped skill sits
+in the same `mesh` plugin as a mesh-scoped one, on that machine only. The home scope places an item
+where the person's own items live, without the plugin's prefix, as if written there by hand. The
+difference is that the mesh knows it placed the item and can change or remove it.
+
+**Instructions follow the same scopes.** The agent reads the managed instruction file first, then the
+home's instruction file and its rule files, then the project's. These are concatenated, not overridden:
+a later file does not cancel an earlier one, which is how the contradiction measured in
+[01](01-what-is-configured-today.md) came about.
+
+- **The mesh's piece** sits in the managed instruction file and is the same on every machine: how a
+  session on this mesh works, and the conventions.
+- **The node's piece** sits in the same file, rendered per machine: its role, and instruction sections
+  registered for it.
+- **Further customisation per machine** sits in the home: a rule file the module places, at the home
+  scope, beside whatever the person writes there by hand.
+
+**What the home scope needs from [ADR 0182](../../02-DECISIONS/0182-inside-a-home-the-mesh-owns-what-it-places-and-holds-the-rest-as-found.md).**
+That ADR already lets the mesh own what it places in a home and hold the rest as found. So the module
+owns each home item it placed, path by path, recorded in its state. It never writes, renames or
+removes an item it did not place. A home item with the same name as one the person made is refused
+at registration, never overwritten.
+
+## Where each kind of item goes
+
+[02](02-what-the-vendor-allows.md) puts a hard limit on the plugin: it carries skills, subagents, commands,
+hooks, output styles and language servers, but no settings, no permission rules, no instructions, and
+no tool server the exclusive managed file does not list. So there are four places, not one:
+
+| kind | goes to | why there |
+|---|---|---|
+| skills, subagents, slash commands, output styles | **the mesh's plugin** | the only machine-wide place the vendor has for them |
+| hooks | **the mesh's plugin**, with the scripts beside them | a hook's script can live in the plugin and be named through `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}`. A hook in the managed settings would need its script placed somewhere else |
+| tool servers | **the managed tool-server file**, as today | the exclusive file blocks a plugin's servers |
+| settings and permission rules | **the managed settings file**, beside the mesh's keys ([ADR 0213](../../02-DECISIONS/0213-the-operator-sets-the-agents-managed-settings-through-the-agent-module.md)) | a plugin's settings are dropped |
+| instructions | **the managed instruction file**, in sections | a plugin's instruction file is not loaded |
+
+The plugin is reached through two managed keys the module already owns the file for:
+`extraKnownMarketplaces`, naming a marketplace directory the module writes, and `enabledPlugins`, set to
+`true` for the mesh's plugin. Neither is the operator's to set. Like the attribution key, they are the
+mesh's keys and outrank whatever the operator sets.
+
+### Option A — one plugin
+
+Everything the mesh serves is in one plugin, `mesh`, so every invocation reads `mesh:<name>`. That is
+simple, and the name says where an item came from.
+
+### Option B — a plugin per source
+
+One plugin for what the operator registers, and one for what other modules contribute (below). An item
+then says in its name whether a person or a module definition put it there. But the operator has two
+prefixes to remember, and an item has two owners to ask about.
+
+*Leaning:* A. Where an item came from belongs in the module's list tool, not in the item's name.
+
+## Who registers an item
+
+- **The operator, through the module's tools**, from any machine, for one, several or all of them. The
+  pattern is the tool-server register tool's, extended to every kind:
+  - `claude_code_<kind>_list`, `_register`, `_unregister` for skills, subagents, commands, hooks, output
+    styles and instruction sections;
+  - `claude_code_settings_get` / `_set` and `claude_code_permission_allow` / `_deny` / `_ask` /
+    `_remove` for the managed settings.
+- **Another module, through the agent's seat** ([ADR 0210](../../02-DECISIONS/0210-a-tools-configuration-is-its-seat-holders-and-every-other-module-extends-it-through-the-seat.md)).
+  The forge's module wanting the agent to know how pull requests are made here contributes a skill. It
+  declares the contribution in its definition, and the controller renders it to the agent's holder on
+  each machine where both run. That depends on the agent module holding a seat; today it holds none.
+
+The two meet in the one plugin. A contribution and a registration with the same name are refused at
+registration, and the list tool shows the owner of each.
+
+## Where a registration is kept
+
+The tool-server registrations live in a key-value bucket the module declares
+([ADR 0201](../../02-DECISIONS/0201-a-module-keeps-its-current-state-in-key-value-buckets-it-declares-and-reaches-through-the-runtime.md)),
+keyed `all.<name>` or `<node>.<name>`. Skills differ: a skill is a folder, and it can carry scripts
+and reference files beside its main file. Every message on the bus is limited to about a megabyte.
+
+1. **One value per item.** The item and its files go in one value, refused above a limit well under
+   the bus's. It is simple, it fits the module's existing state, and every item measured in
+   [01](01-what-is-configured-today.md) takes 20 KB or less on disk,
+   the vendor's synced skills aside. But a skill with a large reference file cannot
+   be registered at all.
+2. **The bus's object store for files, the bucket for the item.** Large files are stored in pieces and
+   the item names them. Nothing in the mesh uses the object store yet, so ADR 0201 would need
+   extending.
+3. **A repository on the forge.** The plugin is built from a repository, and registering an item is a
+   commit. This is reviewable and versioned. But a register tool would have to write to the forge,
+   and the forge would sit on the path to every machine.
+
+*Leaning:* 1 now, with the limit stated and checked at registration. 2 when an item outgrows it. 3
+mixes the operator's configuration into the code review cycle, which it does not need.
+
+## Where the plugin is written
+
+The module owns the managed directory, so the marketplace goes under it, written whole by the
+module's code:
+
+- the marketplace file;
+- one plugin directory beside it.
+
+It is loaded in place, so a change takes effect at the next session, or at `/reload-plugins` in a
+running one. Nothing is copied into the home.
+
+## What the module does about what it did not place
+
+[01](01-what-is-configured-today.md) found stale predecessor files on every machine. The module did not
+place those, so they are held as found (ADR 0182). It can:
+
+- **report** them: a status tool lists the home's skills, subagents, commands and rule files, says which
+  the mesh placed, and names those that duplicate a mesh item or call tools no longer served;
+- **import** one on request: `claude_code_<kind>_import` takes an item from one machine's home and
+  registers it at a scope the operator chooses. A skill written by hand on one workstation becomes a
+  mesh, node or home item in one call. Removing the original stays the person's act.
+
+`strictPluginOnlyCustomization` would make home items stop loading altogether, and home-scoped items
+with them. That is the operator's choice to make through the managed settings, not a default of the
+module.
+
+## What to confirm first, on one workstation
+
+1. A directory marketplace named in the managed settings, with its plugin enabled there, loads with
+   no prompt, in place, in an interactive session and in a non-interactive one.
+2. The plugin's skills, subagents and commands are offered under `mesh:`, beside the home's own
+   items, with no collision.
+3. A hook in the plugin runs, with its script found through `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}`.
+4. The exclusive tool-server file still loads the console, and a server in the plugin does not load,
+   as documented.
+5. `autoMode` in the managed settings changes what the agent refuses (ADR 0213's open point).
+6. The account can read the marketplace in the managed directory, which root owns.
+7. The managed instruction file and a home rule file the module placed are both loaded, in that order.
+
+## Questions a decision has to answer
+
+- One plugin or one per source (leaning: one).
+- How a registration is kept, and the size limit (leaning: one value per item, with a stated limit).
+- Whether the managed settings are set through tools writing the module's state, or through the
+  controller's settings layer as ADR 0213 has it. If both, which one wins on the same key.
+- Whether the agent module holds a seat, so that other modules can contribute to it.
+- The three scopes, and the home scope's ownership rule: the module owns exactly the home paths it
+  placed, recorded in its state, and refuses a name the person already uses.
+- Whether settings take the same three scopes. The home's settings file is the person's own, so it is
+  left out unless the operator chooses otherwise.

01-RESEARCH/029-the-agent-configured-through-its-module/04-what-was-confirmed.md

@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+# 04 — What was confirmed
+
+On 2026-10-04, on one workstation running the agent's 2.1 release, the checks [03](03-options.md)
+listed were tried with a probe. The probe was a directory marketplace holding one plugin named
+`mesh`, which carried:
+
+- a skill, a subagent and a slash command;
+- a session-start hook running a script in the plugin;
+- a tool server in the plugin's own `.mcp.json`.
+
+The managed settings were set through the agent module's `managed_settings`
+([ADR 0213](../../02-DECISIONS/0213-the-operator-sets-the-agents-managed-settings-through-the-agent-module.md)),
+on that machine's layer only, and sent by a push. The module rendered them into the managed file
+within seconds, without a restart.
+
+| # | check | result |
+|---|---|---|
+| 1 | a marketplace named in the managed settings, with its plugin enabled there, loads with no prompt, in place | **confirmed.** A non-interactive session registered the marketplace and enabled the plugin at start, with nothing asked. The plugin was not copied into the home's plugin cache and is not listed among installed plugins: it is read where it lies |
+| — | a change to the plugin needs no version bump | **confirmed.** A skill added to the plugin's directory after the first session was offered by the next one |
+| — | a running session takes the plugin without being restarted | **seen.** An interactive session that was already running when the plugin was enabled offered its skills and subagent after the operator logged in again in that session, without a restart |
+| 2 | the plugin's items are offered under its name, beside the home's | **confirmed.** `mesh:probe-skill`, `mesh:probe-agent` and the command `/mesh:probe`. A collision with a home item of the same name was not tried |
+| 3 | a hook in the plugin runs, its script found through `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}` | **confirmed.** The session-start hook ran its script. The vendor's validator asks for the placeholder to be quoted |
+| 4 | the exclusive tool-server file still loads the console, and a plugin's server does not | **confirmed.** The session started the console and the registered servers, and never the plugin's server |
+| 5 | `autoMode` in the managed settings changes what the agent refuses | **very likely.** With a probe rule forbidding one harmless read-only command, a session that was already running had that command refused moments after the rule was rendered, though the refusal gave no reason. It also suggests the rule reached a running session without a restart. A clean check needs a session whose only difference is the rule; the agent may not start one in its own auto mode, so it is left to the operator |
+| 6 | the account can read the managed directory, which root owns | **confirmed** by what already runs: every session reads the managed instruction file from that directory |
+| 7 | the managed instruction file and the home's are both loaded, managed first | **confirmed** by what already runs: a session lists the managed instruction file first, then the home's instruction file, then each of the home's rule files |
+
+## What this changes in the options
+
+- The plugin route works as documented, with no file copied into the home. The module's managed
+  directory can hold the marketplace.
+- **A tool server stays in the managed tool-server file.** Check 4 closes that.
+- **Undoing a managed setting is not the agent's to do.** When the probe was over, the agent tried to
+  clear its own machine's settings layer, and its own auto mode refused that as self-modification.
+  Setting it had been allowed only because it made the agent stricter. So the tools that set the
+  agent's settings and permissions are tools the operator calls, and the agent calling them for
+  itself is refused by the vendor's own guard. A design must not assume an agent can tidy up after
+  itself.

01-RESEARCH/030-backups-against-our-own-mistakes/00-overview.md

@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+---
+status: graduated
+became: [03-DESIGN/01-to-be/43-backups-against-mistakes.md, 02-DECISIONS/0214-backups-guard-against-mistakes-and-stay-on-the-machine.md]
+initiated: 2026-10-05
+touches: [04-ISSUES/242-the-mesh-has-no-backups, 02-DECISIONS/0030-data-outlives-the-mesh-that-declared-it.md, 02-DECISIONS/0053-a-step-that-runs-on-a-schedule.md, 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/31-a-module-declares-its-fail2ban-jail.md]
+---
+
+# 030 — Backups against our own mistakes
+
+**What.** How the mesh keeps restore points of its data: what is copied, how often, how long it is
+kept, full or incremental, where it lives, who runs it and how it is proven to restore.
+
+**Why.** Issue 242: nothing in the mesh backs anything up, and when one misread file dropped every
+database on the control node (issue 241), the newest copies were migration leftovers nine to twelve
+days old, found by searching a disk.
+
+**The scope is set by the operator, and it is narrow on purpose: mistakes, not disasters.** A
+backup here protects against what a person, an agent or the mesh itself does wrong — a dropped
+database, a deleted bucket, a bad migration, a file overwritten — and not against a disk dying or a
+building burning. Losing data to a disaster is an accepted risk. That removes the off-site copy, the
+cross-site transfer and the second key-holder from the problem, and leaves the part that would have
+saved the night of issue 241.
+
+**What it touches.** The store providers (each knows how to dump its own store consistently), the
+host's scheduled steps (ADR 0053, built), the node-wide composition pattern a module's jail already
+uses (to-be 31), and the operator's output channel (research 028) for saying a backup failed.
+
+Documents: [01 — what the mesh holds](01-what-the-mesh-holds.md),
+[02 — options and a proposal](02-options-and-proposal.md).

01-RESEARCH/030-backups-against-our-own-mistakes/01-what-the-mesh-holds.md

@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+# 01 — What the mesh holds, measured 2026-10-05
+
+Four machines: the control node (hosted, holds every public service), the home server (media, home
+automation, a large ZFS pool), a workstation and a laptop. Sizes are apparent sizes, rounded.
+
+## Nothing backs anything up
+
+On every machine: no backup tool other than `rsync` and `pg_dump` is installed, no systemd timer and
+no cron line mentions a backup, dump or snapshot. Every live data directory is on ext4 except the
+home server's pool (ZFS), so a filesystem snapshot is available only there.
+
+## The control node — the data that cannot be recreated
+
+| what | size | how it changes |
+|---|---|---|
+| object store (file-sync service's files, photos) | 183 GB | slowly; files added, rarely rewritten |
+| forge (repositories, attachments, its database) | 7 GB | daily |
+| MS SQL Server databases | 5 GB | daily |
+| mail (mailboxes; accounts in postgres) | 2 GB | continuously |
+| postgres (forge, mail admin, identity, file-sync index, analytics, catalogue, licence manager) | ~2 GB | continuously |
+| file-sync service's own directory, website, analytics | ~4 GB | slowly |
+| MongoDB | 0.4 GB | daily |
+| the mesh's own records (controller, vault, module state) | ~1.5 GB | continuously |
+
+Recreatable and not worth copying: container images (210 GB), the artifact registry (40 GB — every
+artifact is rebuilt from git), a 115 GB speed-test bucket and a 7 GB pre-migration object-store copy.
+
+Free space: 833 GB on the filesystem holding the data, 2.9 TB on a second one.
+
+## The home server
+
+MS SQL Server 80 GB, postgres and a self-hosted backend platform ~3 GB, chat server 6 GB, home
+automation, network controller and time-series data each under 2 GB, and the media services'
+libraries (tens of GB, mostly cover art and metadata they re-fetch). The 89 TB media library is
+replaceable by its nature and out of scope. Free: 31 TB on the pool, 453 GB on the system disk.
+
+## The workstation and the laptop
+
+The workstation has 142 GB under its services directory and 31 GB of container volumes; the laptop
+3 GB. Mostly development; what among it is data nobody can regenerate is for each module to say.
+
+## Between the sites
+
+Control node to home server ~285 Mbit/s, home server to control node ~19 Mbit/s. Irrelevant now that
+backups stay on the machine whose data they hold, recorded because it is why an off-site copy would
+have been expensive.
+
+## What issue 241 says about the requirement
+
+- The mistake was noticed within hours. A restore point a day old would have lost a day.
+- The restore had to go *beside* the live database, not over it, and that worked well.
+- A copy of a live postgres data directory needed a throwaway server of the right version to read;
+  a logical dump would have restored directly.
+- The data that survived was the data outside the dropped stores. A backup that lives inside the
+  store it protects — a database's own snapshot table, a bucket's own versions — dies with a drop.

01-RESEARCH/030-backups-against-our-own-mistakes/02-options-and-proposal.md

@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+# 02 — Options and a proposal
+
+## Who decides what is backed up
+
+1. **A central list** on the backup holder. Rejected: it is the attentiveness rule ADR 0030
+   rejected — a store added and not listed is silently unprotected.
+2. **Each module declares its own data, a node-wide holder composes them.** The pattern of to-be 31
+   (a module declares its jail; the mesh composes them per node). A store provider declares *how*
+   to take a consistent copy (a dump command), a module with plain files declares *which* paths. The
+   holder composes every declaration on the node into one schedule. **Proposed.**
+
+The data a module keeps in a database it gets from a provider is backed up by the provider, which
+dumps every database it serves — so a consumer declares nothing, and a new consumer is covered the
+day it is provisioned.
+
+## Full or incremental
+
+- **Databases: a full logical dump every time** (`pg_dump -Fc`, MS SQL `BACKUP DATABASE`,
+  `mongodump`). A dump restores with the store's own tool into a database beside the live one —
+  issue 241's recovery without the throwaway server — and is consistent, which a copy of a live data
+  directory is not.
+- **Everything goes into one deduplicating repository per node** (restic or borg). Each night is a
+  complete restore point, yet only changed chunks cost space: the object store's 183 GB is copied
+  once, then each night adds what changed. This removes the full-vs-delta trade-off rather than
+  choosing a side.
+
+Considered for the object store alone: the object store's own versioning with a lifecycle rule.
+Rejected as the only copy — it lives inside the store, and a removed bucket or data directory takes
+its versions with it.
+
+## Where
+
+On the same machine, outside every data directory the mesh manages, on a second filesystem where the
+machine has one (the control node does). Not off-site: the scope is mistakes. The repository is
+encrypted anyway (both tools require it); its key is a mesh secret (ADR 0085), so a person can
+restore without the holder.
+
+## How often, how long
+
+- **Nightly**, at a quiet hour, as a scheduled step (ADR 0053).
+- **On demand before a risky act** — a migration, a retirement, an operator's experiment — through a
+  verb; the act's own tooling can call it.
+- **Kept: 14 daily, 8 weekly, 6 monthly.** A mistake is usually noticed within days, sometimes weeks
+  (a deleted file nobody opens). Six months bounds the space a slowly-noticed mistake needs.
+
+Estimated cost on the control node: ~200 GB for the first night, a few GB a night after; well within
+the second filesystem's 2.9 TB.
+
+## Who runs it
+
+A node seat, **`node-backup`**, held on every machine that has data by one module (named for the tool
+it wraps). It receives the declarations, runs them, keeps the repository, and offers the verbs a
+person needs:
+
+- what is backed up here, and the last good night of each;
+- take a backup now;
+- restore one item **beside** the live one — a database to `<name>_restore`, a path to
+  `<path>.restored-<date>` — never over it. Swapping it in stays a person's act, as in issue 241.
+
+## How it is proven
+
+- Every run checks its own result; a failed or skipped night goes to the operator's output channel
+  (research 028), not only a log.
+- Weekly: the repository's integrity check, and one database restored from the newest dump into a
+  throwaway instance and counted against the live one.
+- A machine with data and no successful backup in 48 hours is a problem the mesh's status shows.
+
+## Open questions
+
+- restic or borg — both fit; restic is a single binary with no server, which suits a module.
+- Whether the workstation and laptop take part at all, or only once a module there declares data.
+- The mail spool is files and the forge has a dump command of its own; whether the forge's
+  repositories are worth backing up at all when every clone is a copy (issue 241 says the forge's
+  *database* is the part with no other copy).

02-DECISIONS/0121-a-system-seat-is-named-for-its-scope-and-modules-define-their-own.md

@@ -9,6 +9,12 @@ extends: 0110-a-seat-is-a-module-assignment-from-a-closed-set.md
 
 # 121. A system seat is named for its scope, and a module may define its own
 
+> **Narrowed, not replaced — 2026-10-03.** *"`the-dns-port` → `node-dns-resolver`"* no longer holds:
+> the serving role moves to mesh scope as `mesh-resolver`, one per mesh, and `node-dns-resolver` is
+> retired ([ADR 0194](0194-the-mesh-has-one-resolver-and-every-node-asks-it-for-the-meshs-names.md)). The
+> distinction this record kept — serving and asking are two roles, two seats — stands, and
+> `node-resolver-config` is unchanged.
+
 > **The mechanism changed — 2026-10-02, by [ADR 0190](0190-a-seats-work-is-shared-by-its-holders-and-building-is-the-first-such-role.md).** The naming rule stands. The build role this record made mesh-scoped — *the mesh's single build machine* — is node-scoped now: `node-build-agent`, one holder per machine, every holder taking from one work queue.
 
 ## Context

02-DECISIONS/0174-a-node-varies-a-module-through-settings-and-kept-regions-never-an-edit.md

@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ extends: 02-DECISIONS/0011-managed-files-are-generated-never-edited.md
 
 # 174. A node varies a module through settings and kept regions, never through an edit
 
+> **The mechanism changed — 2026-10-04, by [ADR 0204](0204-a-module-contributes-shell-code-to-the-login-shell-in-named-slots.md).** Where this record calls a kept region *a marked block in which the operator's own lines are kept*, read the inverse, which is what the host built: the mesh's region is the marked block, and every line outside it is the operator's, kept byte for byte and given back when the module goes. The decision stands: a node varies a module by settings and by the operator's own lines, never by an edit.
+
 ## Context
 
 [ADR 0011](0011-managed-files-are-generated-never-edited.md) says a managed file is derived and an

02-DECISIONS/0176-the-login-shell-is-a-node-seat-and-execute-is-its-contract.md

@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ extends: 02-DECISIONS/0132-a-seat-carries-the-tools-its-holder-must-serve.md
 
 # 176. The login shell is a node seat held by one shell module, and `execute` is its contract
 
+> **The mechanism changed — 2026-10-04, by [ADR 0204](0204-a-module-contributes-shell-code-to-the-login-shell-in-named-slots.md).** The seat is no longer declared by the shell modules (§1). It is `node-login-shell`, in the mesh's own seat set, which a shell module claims. Its holder also places the shell code other modules contribute, and sources the account's environment ([ADR 0203](0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md)). What stands: one holder per node, the login shell set by the `user` shape and given back, `execute` as the contract, and any node may call it.
+
 ## Context
 
 [ADR 0040](0040-what-a-module-is.md) names the shell as its example of a *shared* seat: bash, zsh

02-DECISIONS/0181-the-operator-account-is-a-node-fact-and-a-home-is-a-placement-root.md

@@ -9,6 +9,12 @@ extends: 02-DECISIONS/0112-a-module-definition-names-no-node-mesh-or-path.md
 
 # 181. The operator account is a node fact, and a home is a placement root
 
+> **Progressive insight — 2026-10-04.** This record called a resource under a home *home-scoped*, and a
+> module that places one a *home-scoped module*. There is no such kind of module
+> ([ADR 0173](0173-the-operators-machine-is-the-meshs-and-a-module-is-what-it-declares.md) §2: a module is
+> what it declares), so the three places now say *a resource placed under a home* and *a module placing
+> files under a home*. What was decided is unchanged.
+
 *Reconstructed. The controller shipped this on 2026-09-27 and
 [to-be 29](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/29-a-node-has-operator-accounts.md) recorded it as built without a
 decision behind it. This record states what was decided, from the code and the design, and adds the
@@ -35,7 +41,7 @@ its home; the account and its home are machine facts a definition may name in a
 and content; a roster file may say it lives under the home, and is then rendered per node, placed under
 that node's account's home, owned by the account, and left out on a node with no account. On
 2026-10-02 **all four nodes of the live mesh carry an empty account**: the fact exists and nobody has
-stated it, so no home-scoped resource can land anywhere yet.
+stated it, so no resource placed under a home can land anywhere yet.
 
 ## Considered Options
 
@@ -68,7 +74,7 @@ account. A definition names the account and its home as machine facts, never as
 may say it is a home file and is then placed and owned the same way. The controller resolves both at
 composition, and the host chowns what it creates.
 
-**A node with no account cannot carry a home-scoped resource, and says so.** A roster fact that lives
+**A node with no account cannot carry a resource placed under a home, and says so.** A roster fact that lives
 under the home is left out of that node's declaration rather than written to nowhere. A resource naming
 the account fact on such a node is refused at composition, naming the fact the machine does not have.
 A module that writes a person's files is thereby unassignable to a machine with no person on it, which
@@ -80,7 +86,7 @@ anything.
 
 ## Consequences
 
-- **The operator states the account before any home-scoped module lands.** Today none is stated, so the
+- **The operator states the account before any module placing files under a home lands.** Today none is stated, so the
   first assignment of such a module begins with four node records.
 - The roster carries each node's account, so a composed ssh configuration logs in as the right person
   on every machine — the gap that surfaced this, closed by the same fact.

02-DECISIONS/0182-inside-a-home-the-mesh-owns-what-it-places-and-holds-the-rest-as-found.md

@@ -9,6 +9,12 @@ extends: 02-DECISIONS/0118-undeclaring-gives-a-unit-back-the-state-it-was-found-
 
 # 182. Inside a home, the mesh owns the directory and the files it places, writes into the tool's own files, and holds everything else as found
 
+> **Progressive insight — 2026-10-04.** This record said *a home-scoped module* and *the family of
+> home-scoped modules*. There is no such kind of module
+> ([ADR 0173](0173-the-operators-machine-is-the-meshs-and-a-module-is-what-it-declares.md) §2), and the rule
+> is about a directory under a home, whichever module declares it; the three places now say so. The
+> decision, its options and its consequences are unchanged.
+
 ## Context
 
 [ADR 0181](0181-the-operator-account-is-a-node-fact-and-a-home-is-a-placement-root.md) lets a module
@@ -35,7 +41,7 @@ use tools that no longer exist. Nothing owns them; nothing will ever rewrite or
 `~/.ssh`: the mesh owns the directory and the files it places; it holds the person's private keys and
 personal drop-ins as found. That was argued from the lockout `~/.ssh` can cause. The argument here is
 the same shape with a different stake — the person's work rather than the person's way in — and it has
-to hold for every directory the family of home-scoped modules will touch, so it is a rule, not a
+to hold for every directory under a home that any module will touch, so it is a rule, not a
 section.
 
 ## Considered Options
@@ -52,7 +58,7 @@ section.
 
 ## Decision
 
-**A home-scoped module owns the directory it declares: its existence, owner and mode.** The host creates
+**A module that declares a directory under a home owns that directory: its existence, owner and mode.** The host creates
 it if absent, owned by the account, and never removes it while it holds anything
 ([ADR 0030](0030-data-outlives-the-mesh-that-declared-it.md)). Inside it, every path the module touches
 is in exactly one of four classes, and **the class is visible in the definition from the shape
@@ -105,7 +111,7 @@ finished its definition.
 | An owned file found with no record is kept once, then written | host tests of ADR 0102's kept-original rule |
 | Only the declared keys of a written-into file change, and are given back | host tests of ADR 0102: declared keys set, the rest kept, restored when undeclared |
 | Nothing found is touched | the family's lab check: a machine with a seeded home holding a person's file beside a predecessor's; after apply the person's file is byte-identical, the predecessor's is kept as the original, the mesh's keys are set and the person's keys in the same file remain; after unassign the mesh's files are gone, the keys are restored, the person's files are untouched and the directory stands |
-| Every path a home-scoped module touches is classified | a catalogue review rule for this family: each path is a directory, a file, a file written into, a secret-and-step, or absent — the first module written to it is [to-be 36](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/36-the-operators-agent-on-a-machine.md) |
+| Every path a module touches under a home is classified | a catalogue review rule for this family: each path is a directory, a file, a file written into, a secret-and-step, or absent — the first module written to it is [to-be 36](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/36-the-operators-agent-on-a-machine.md) |
 
 ## References
 

02-DECISIONS/0183-the-anthropic-licence-manager-is-a-module-and-hands-tokens-to-the-agent-over-the-bus.md

@@ -152,6 +152,30 @@ the node is bound to, and refuses with a notification otherwise.
 | An unservable binding refuses rather than lends | a manager test: a worker bound to a dead licence is answered with a refusal, never another licence's token |
 | A switch through the console changes the token on the node and nothing in the answer is a token | a live check on one workstation |
 
+> **The mechanism changed — 2026-10-03, by [ADR 0193](0193-every-bundle-the-runtime-serves-is-launched-and-the-runtime-knows-no-language.md)
+> and [ADR 0198](0198-a-modules-long-running-code-is-launched-by-the-node-runtime-and-reaches-the-bus-through-it.md).**
+> What stands: one manager holding the seat, one rotation source, a token sealed to the receiving
+> module's key on request/reply and never an event, the agent module alone writing what the agent
+> reads, the identity guard, the host knowing nothing. What moved: both modules' code is bundles the
+> node's runtime launches over stdio and is the bus for — `mesh/ask` for a call made on the module's
+> behalf, `mesh/publish` and `mesh/subscribe` beside it — so neither holds a bus credential of its own.
+> The manager's refresh and visits are a long-running bundle the control node's runtime launches. And,
+> by the operator's direction, **the manager starts every exchange**: it asks each bound node's agent
+> module for its public key, hands it a token, asks it for a login waiting to be adopted, and reconciles
+> every node on a schedule — which is what "the agent module asks the seat for its current token" and
+> "offers the grant to the manager" in the decision above now mean in practice. The agent module could
+> ask through its runtime; it does not need to.
+
+> **The mechanism changed — 2026-10-04, by [ADR 0206](0206-a-node-reports-the-anthropic-grant-it-holds-and-the-licence-manager-adopts-a-licence-by-refreshing-it.md).**
+> What stands: the manager holding the seat, one rotation source, the grants encrypted in its store, a
+> token sealed to the receiving module's key on request/reply and never an event, the agent module alone
+> writing what the agent reads, the identity guard, bindings as a person's act. What moved: the dated note
+> above — the manager no longer starts every exchange. Each node reports what it holds as state, without
+> the secret; the manager asks a node for its grant only when a report shows one it does not hold, adopts
+> a licence by refreshing it rather than into a licence configured beforehand, and keeps what each
+> consumer should hold as state, from which the node fetches its token by request. The rotation and switch
+> events are gone.
+
 ## References
 
 - [ADR 0024](0024-model-access-is-a-provision.md), [ADR 0050](0050-model-access-is-vendor-agnostic.md) — the licence as a named thing, the carve-out this moves with the manager

02-DECISIONS/0188-a-modules-own-code-is-bundles-in-any-language-and-a-tools-bundle-speaks-mcp-to-the-runtime.md

@@ -87,6 +87,10 @@ that lets one bundle in that language be built, delivered and answer one tool on
 Anything beyond that is added when a module needs it. A skeleton that is not proven by one bundle
 answering is not a skeleton; it is a promise.
 
+> **The mechanism changed — 2026-10-03, by ADR 0193.** §2's allowance that a TypeScript bundle may
+> be imported into the runtime's own process is withdrawn: every served bundle is launched, and the
+> build makes each served entrypoint executable. The rest of §2 stands.
+
 ## Consequences
 
 - The runtime gains a launcher beside its loader. The loader, the memberships, the seats and the

02-DECISIONS/0189-the-store-keeps-what-the-records-name.md

@@ -0,0 +1,169 @@
+---
+topic: the mesh
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-02
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0082-the-registry-is-reached-by-name-and-trusted-by-the-overlay.md
+---
+
+# 189. The store keeps what the records name, and a maintenance step holds its writers still
+
+## Context
+
+The mesh's artifact store has never collected anything
+([issue 108](../04-ISSUES/108-the-registry-has-no-garbage-collection-once-it-has-two-doors/00-report.md)).
+Every build pushes another layer set; nothing has ever removed one. The predecessor ran a routine
+on a timer — stop the registry, collect, start it — and the conversion carried the settings that
+routine depends on without the routine, because the routine was a script beside the module and not
+a resource in it. The store now holds fifty-three repositories on the machine that serves
+everything else, and the only outcome of leaving it is a full disk reported as somebody else's
+failure.
+
+Three things stood in the way, and the issue names all three.
+
+**Nothing in the mesh's vocabulary expresses a maintenance window.** The collector requires every
+writer stopped while it runs. A `run-once` step runs *beside* containers, not instead of them, and
+a scheduled step is the same container on a cadence. There is no way for a module to say *hold this
+container of mine still while this runs*.
+
+**Deletion is not enabled, and the door it would be enabled on has no accounts.** The store is
+internal, reached by name over the overlay, trusted because being on that network is the permission
+([ADR 0082](0082-the-registry-is-reached-by-name-and-trusted-by-the-overlay.md)). The predecessor
+kept deletion behind an authenticated door, which it could, having one.
+
+**Nothing says what may be removed.** The registry's own answer — collect everything no tag names —
+is wrong here. The mesh pushes each artifact under one moving tag and pins machines by digest, so
+every build but the newest is untagged and some machine may still be running it.
+
+## Decision
+
+**1. Deletion is enabled on the store's one door, and the overlay stays the permission.** The
+objection dissolves on inspection: that door **already accepts a push**, and a writer who can push
+can replace any tag in the store with anything it likes. Delete takes nothing a push did not
+already have, and the machines that can reach the door are the ones the mesh's own filter admits
+([ADR 0168](0168-a-converged-machine-is-filtered-by-the-mesh-alone.md)). Putting an authenticated
+door in front of deletion while leaving push open would be a lock on the window beside an open
+door, and it would cost the thing ADR 0082 bought: a store every machine can reach without a
+credential to distribute first.
+
+**2. The mesh deletes what it made and no longer keeps; the store reclaims the bytes.** Two halves,
+each doing what only it can.
+
+The **mesh** decides. It does not need to enumerate the store to do it — it has never put anything
+there it did not record, so **every digest it could remove is already in its own build records**.
+It deletes those manifests through the store's door, by digest, and remembers that it did.
+
+The **store** reclaims. A deleted manifest frees no bytes until the registry's own collector walks
+the storage with nothing writing to it, so the module declares that collector as a scheduled step
+with the server held still for its duration. Plain collection, not `--delete-untagged`: what the
+mesh keeps is still a manifest in the store, so it is still referenced, so its blobs stay — the
+dangerous flag is not needed at all once the mesh is the one deciding.
+
+**3. What the mesh keeps, stated as three reasons rather than a number.** A digest is kept because:
+
+- **a definition names it** — every artifact reference in any module's current recorded manifest,
+  which is what the mesh would hand a machine now. No age limit: this is the floor;
+- **the mesh can still go back to it** — every artifact of the **five most recent successful
+  builds** of each module, so a release that turns out wrong has somewhere to return to;
+- **nothing else.** An artifact older than that, which no definition names, is what the store is
+  carrying for no stated reason.
+
+A digest the mesh did not record making is never touched. That is not a safety margin, it is the
+whole rule restated: the mesh removes what it put there and can account for, and the images genesis
+pushed before any record existed are exactly what this must not reach
+([04-ISSUES/102](../04-ISSUES/102-an-address-recorded-at-genesis-or-build-does-not-follow-the-nodes-ports/00-report.md), F4).
+
+**4. A scheduled step may hold its module's own containers still while it runs** —
+`while-stopped`, naming resource ids in the same module. The host stops each, runs the step, and
+starts them again **whatever the step did**, including when it failed or the host was interrupted.
+Three boundaries:
+
+- **Its own module's containers only.** A module that could quiesce a neighbour could stop the
+  mesh; a maintenance window is a statement about one service's own insides.
+- **Scheduled steps only, not `run-once`.** At apply time the host already has a window: the
+  declaration is applied in order and a step gates what follows, so a one-time offline migration
+  says *before* rather than *instead of*. A recurring window is the case order cannot express.
+- **Restoring is not conditional.** A step that fails must leave the service running; the whole
+  risk of this field is a window that never closes.
+
+**5. The sweep runs where the records change — after a build the mesh recorded.** That is the
+moment new bytes landed and the moment the keep set moved, and it needs no new timer. The
+store's collection runs nightly, because reclaiming is slow and the thing it reclaims is already
+unreferenced.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- Disk stops growing without bound on the machine that serves the mesh. That is the whole point
+  and it has no other way to be true.
+- A machine behind by more than five builds of a module, which recreates a container, cannot pull
+  what it was running. It is already a machine the mesh reports as behind, and the answer is the
+  one the mesh already gives it: the current declaration. Stated here rather than discovered.
+- The store is a little less of a museum. A digest in an old build record may no longer be
+  fetchable, and the record still says what that build made — the record is history, not an
+  index of what is on disk. The collected mark is kept beside it so the two can be told apart.
+- `while-stopped` is a second thing the host does to a container it did not start this pass. It is
+  deliberately the narrowest form: the module's own, by id, restored unconditionally.
+- The store is briefly unavailable each night, for as long as collection takes. Everything that
+  pulls from it retries; nothing in the mesh treats a momentary store as a failure
+  ([ADR 0185](0185-a-control-plane-behind-its-seats-row-serves-what-it-can.md)).
+- **An apply arriving during the window reopens it**, because the host's rule for a container it
+  finds stopped is to replace it, and `while-stopped` is the first thing that makes a stopped
+  container intentional. Found by reading this before it merged, recorded as
+  [issue 224](../04-ISSUES/224-an-apply-reopens-a-maintenance-window-by-recreating-what-it-held-still/00-report.md)
+  rather than fixed here: the two candidate fixes — the window takes the apply lock, or the apply
+  learns which containers are held — are each a decision with its own cost, and neither belongs
+  inside this record. Nothing is worse than it was; the store has never collected at all.
+- **The sweep is bounded**: at most two hundred artifacts and sixty seconds per build, stopping at
+  the first refusal, because it runs inside somebody's build. What is left over is offered again
+  next time. The store stops growing from the first sweep; it does not empty in one.
+
+## How this is checked
+
+- The host: a scheduled step with `while-stopped` stops the named containers before the run and
+  starts them after; it starts them again **when the step fails**; it refuses an id that is not a
+  container of the same module, its own id, and `while-stopped` on a `run-once` step. Each refusal
+  is tested for what it says, not only that it says something.
+- The controller: given build records and current manifests, the keep set holds every reference a
+  manifest names and every reference of the five most recent builds per module, and nothing else;
+  a reference the mesh never recorded is never in the delete set; a delete that answers 404 is
+  recorded as collected rather than retried forever.
+- The sweep is tested against a fake store that records what it was asked to delete, so what is
+  asserted is the decision and not the registry's behaviour.
+- Live: the store's size before and after the first nightly collection, read from the machine.
+
+## Built, withdrawn, and collecting again — 2026-10-04 and 05
+
+**Both halves are live.** The mesh has been deciding since 2026-10-04: the sweep deletes the
+manifests no record names, after each build it recorded, bounded to two hundred artifacts and
+sixty seconds so no one waits on it. Its first run let go of two hundred and reported one thousand
+one hundred and twenty-six left.
+
+**The nightly collector was withdrawn for a day, and this is why.** `while-stopped` named the
+module-local id, `store`, while the machine's container is `distribution.store` — a module names
+its own resources locally and a declaration names them under the module, which `restart-on` and
+`reload-on` are rewritten for and this field was not. The host refuses a declaration naming a
+container it does not have **whole**, so the control machine took nothing at all until the step
+came out. The namespacing was fixed the same night (mesh-controller#259) and the step is back
+(mesh-catalog#57).
+
+**The lesson is about where a test stands, not about the field.** Both sides passed throughout:
+the controller's tests read manifests, the host's read hand-written declarations with bare ids,
+and nothing composed one and judged the result against what the host accepts. The test that does
+now exists, and it is the one that would have caught this in a second.
+
+**And this time the composition was read before anything was sent** — `plan`'s
+`distribution.collect` showing `while-stopped: ["distribution.store"]` — which is the check whose
+absence caused the outage.
+
+*Where it stands for the live measurement:* at 2026-10-05 14:37 CEST the store is **40G**, the
+machine's filesystem 1.1T used of 2.0T, 56%. The collector first fires at 03:30 the following
+morning. Deleting a manifest frees no bytes until it does, so that is the number to read against.
+
+## References
+
+- [issue 108 — the registry has no garbage collection](../04-ISSUES/108-the-registry-has-no-garbage-collection-once-it-has-two-doors/00-report.md)
+- [ADR 0082 — the registry is reached by name and trusted by the overlay](0082-the-registry-is-reached-by-name-and-trusted-by-the-overlay.md)
+- [ADR 0053 — a step that runs on a schedule](0053-a-step-that-runs-on-a-schedule.md)
+- [ADR 0156 — an artifact is what a build produces, and the store is named for its scope](0156-an-artifact-is-what-a-build-produces-and-the-store-is-named-for-its-scope.md)
+- [design 32 — what a module declares](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/32-what-a-module-declares.md)

02-DECISIONS/0191-the-meshs-resolver-holds-only-the-meshs-own-names.md

@@ -11,6 +11,16 @@ supersedes-in-part:
 
 # 191. The mesh's resolver holds only the mesh's own names; a public name resolves publicly
 
+> **Progressive insight — 2026-10-03.** The first implementation told the mesh's names from public
+> ones by their spelling — a name ending in the mesh suffix — and this record said so: the Decision
+> read *"only names under its own suffix"*, and the roster check *"every name the roster carries ends
+> in the mesh suffix"*. The mesh needs no such test, nor any per-route name: domains are a node's. A
+> node has **one internal domain**, `<node>.internal`, and every route on it is a name under that domain
+> (ADR 0151), answered by one wildcard per node; a node has **one or more public domains**, which public
+> DNS answers. So the mesh's resolver holds the nodes' internal domains and nothing else, and the roster
+> carries the machines and no routed name. Both sentences now say that; what was decided — a public
+> name is never given a private answer — is unchanged.
+
 ## Context
 
 **[ADR 0066](0066-public-routing-is-name-agnostic.md) published every routed name into internal
@@ -63,7 +73,8 @@ every public name the mesh serves, is forwarded and resolves publicly. Chosen.
 
 ## Decision
 
-**The mesh publishes into internal resolution only names under its own suffix.** A machine's name,
+**The mesh's resolver holds each node's internal domain and nothing else** — `<node>.internal` and
+everything under it, at that node's private address. A machine's name,
 and through it every `<label>.<node>.internal`, resolve to that machine's private address. **A public
 name is never given a private answer by the mesh**: it resolves through public DNS to the public
 address, from members and non-members alike.
@@ -93,8 +104,8 @@ reachability — the lab — certifies its internal names and has no public name
 
 **How each is checked:**
 
-- **The roster:** the controller's catalogue tests assert that every name the roster carries ends in
-  the mesh suffix — a routed public name in it fails the build.
+- **The roster:** the controller's tests assert that the roster names the machines and nothing
+  else — a routed name in it, public or internal, fails the build.
 - **On a machine:** asking the machine's resolver for a public name the mesh serves returns the
   public address, and asking it for that route's internal name returns the private one. Asked from a
   non-member on a LAN the resolver answers, the first must hold as well.

02-DECISIONS/0192-a-tools-bundle-declares-what-it-is-given-and-the-runtime-hands-it-to-that-bundle-alone.md

@@ -88,6 +88,10 @@ tools answering from the runtime, and the registration gate of
 [to-be 38](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/38-building-the-operators-machine.md) WP2 then refuses the
 container shape for every module, as ADR 0188 already provides.
 
+> **The mechanism changed — 2026-10-03, by ADR 0193.** Decision 3's imported path — the environment
+> handed to an imported bundle's contributor — has nothing left to do: every served bundle is
+> launched, and a launched bundle's environment is its own. The decision stands.
+
 ## Consequences
 
 - The manifest gains one field on one artifact kind; the composer gains one more thing to resolve

02-DECISIONS/0193-every-bundle-the-runtime-serves-is-launched-and-the-runtime-knows-no-language.md

@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+---
+topic: what runs on it
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-03
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0188-a-modules-own-code-is-bundles-in-any-language-and-a-tools-bundle-speaks-mcp-to-the-runtime.md
+---
+
+# 193. Every bundle the runtime serves is launched, and the runtime knows no language
+
+## Context
+
+[ADR 0188](0188-a-modules-own-code-is-bundles-in-any-language-and-a-tools-bundle-speaks-mcp-to-the-runtime.md)
+§2 made a served bundle a process that speaks MCP over stdio, and kept one exception: a TypeScript
+bundle may be imported into the runtime's own process, "a shortcut over the same contract". Every
+module's tools today take the shortcut, and it is where the day's defects came from:
+
+- [Issue 209](../04-ISSUES/209-a-bundles-own-sdk-copy-registers-into-a-registry-the-runtime-never-reads/00-report.md):
+  an imported bundle's own copy of the SDK registered into a registry the runtime never read; fixed
+  by a resolve hook that redirects every bundle's SDK import to the runtime's copy.
+- [ADR 0192](0192-a-tools-bundle-declares-what-it-is-given-and-the-runtime-hands-it-to-that-bundle-alone.md):
+  thirty modules' environments in one process had to be kept apart by an SDK change and runtime
+  bookkeeping, where a process of its own has an environment of its own by construction.
+- One faulty module can block or crash every other module's tools on its node.
+
+And the shortcut ties the runtime to Node.js: only a JavaScript runtime can import JavaScript. The
+operator's direction on 2026-10-03: *a module's tools are written in any language and the builder
+builds them; the runtime runs them all and announces them; it should be fully language agnostic,
+and node-tools can be rewritten in Go.*
+
+## Considered Options
+
+1. **Keep the shortcut.** Rejected: it is the cause of the three defects above, and it pins the
+   runtime's language.
+2. **Launch every served bundle; the runtime knows how to start each language** (`node` for a
+   `.js`, exec for a binary). Rejected: the runtime would hold a table of interpreters, and a
+   runtime in Go would carry Node.js's knowledge for nothing.
+3. **Launch every served bundle, and the build makes each served entrypoint executable.** Chosen.
+   A compiled language's binary is executable already; for an interpreted one the toolchain writes
+   a launcher beside the entrypoint — for TypeScript, a file that imports the entrypoint and serves
+   what it registered over stdio, using the bundle's own SDK. The runtime execs what it is given.
+
+## Decision
+
+**1. Every bundle the node's runtime serves is a child process speaking MCP over stdio.** The
+in-process shortcut of ADR 0188 §2 is withdrawn. Everything else ADR 0188 §2 says — `tools/list`,
+`tools/call`, `<seat>.<verb>` naming a seat's verb, the runtime serving each on the bus — stands.
+
+**2. The runtime knows no language.** It is given an executable per served entrypoint and starts
+it, with that bundle's environment ([ADR 0192](0192-a-tools-bundle-declares-what-it-is-given-and-the-runtime-hands-it-to-that-bundle-alone.md))
+over its own words, and the module it serves it as. What makes an entrypoint executable is the
+toolchain's business: a binary is one; an interpreted language's toolchain writes a launcher.
+
+**3. A launched bundle is told the module it serves as**, so that what it lists unprefixed is that
+module's own tools and a seat's verbs are always `<seat>.<verb>`, whichever it registered first.
+
+**4. The runtime may be written in any language.** Nothing it does needs it to share a language
+with a bundle; the mesh's runtime moves to Go, against this contract, once the contract is proven
+in the runtime that exists.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- A process per served module per node. On the busiest machine that is a score of small children
+  where there was one process; a Go bundle costs a fraction of a Node.js one.
+- The SDK resolve hook (issue 209) and the per-registration environment hand-off (ADR 0192 §3,
+  imported bundles) have nothing left to do and go; a launched bundle's environment is its own.
+- A module's TypeScript tool code does not change: it registers as before, and the generated
+  launcher serves what it registered.
+- A bundle that crashes or hangs takes only its own tools down, and is started again on its next
+  call, as ADR 0188 already provides for a launched bundle.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+| Rule | Checked by |
+|---|---|
+| Every served bundle is launched | the runtime's tests: a TypeScript bundle and a bundle in a second language, both launched, both answering over a real bus; a non-executable entrypoint is refused by name |
+| The runtime knows no language | the runtime holds no interpreter: it execs the path it is given (code review; the Go runtime has no Node.js dependency at all) |
+| A TypeScript served entrypoint is executable | the builder's test: a TypeScript bundle's served entrypoint has a launcher beside it, mode 0755 |
+| A seat's verbs are named as the seat's whichever registers first | the SDK's test: a bundle registering its seat first and its own tools second lists `<seat>.<verb>` and its own tools unprefixed |
+| Live | the packet filter's and intrusion prevention's seat verbs and the moved tools answer from launched bundles on every machine |
+
+## References
+
+- [ADR 0175](0175-one-tool-runtime-per-node-serves-every-modules-tools-on-the-host-side.md),
+  [ADR 0188](0188-a-modules-own-code-is-bundles-in-any-language-and-a-tools-bundle-speaks-mcp-to-the-runtime.md),
+  [ADR 0192](0192-a-tools-bundle-declares-what-it-is-given-and-the-runtime-hands-it-to-that-bundle-alone.md)
+- [to-be 38](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/38-building-the-operators-machine.md) WP4d

02-DECISIONS/0194-the-mesh-has-one-resolver-and-every-node-asks-it-for-the-meshs-names.md

@@ -0,0 +1,157 @@
+---
+topic: the tiers
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-03
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+supersedes-in-part:
+  - 0121-a-system-seat-is-named-for-its-scope-and-modules-define-their-own.md
+extends: 0191-the-meshs-resolver-holds-only-the-meshs-own-names.md
+---
+
+# 194. The mesh has one resolver, and every node asks it for the mesh's names
+
+> **Narrowed, not replaced — 2026-10-03.** How a node asks is decided again by
+> [ADR 0196](0196-a-node-asks-the-meshs-resolver-first-and-a-public-one-only-when-it-is-silent.md): every
+> node and container asks `mesh-resolver` first and a public resolver only when it is silent. There is
+> no `systemd-resolved` module and no runtime `dns` naming `mesh-resolver`, and step 2 of the migration
+> reads as 0196 states it. Option 2 below was rejected for a laptop with its tunnel down resolving
+> nothing; a public resolver listed second answers exactly then. The one resolver, its placement and
+> the retirement of every per-node copy stand.
+
+## Context
+
+**Every node runs its own resolver and holds its own copy of the mesh's names.** On the production
+mesh on 2026-10-03, each of the four nodes held `node-dns-resolver` with dnsmasq, fed on every push
+with a zones file (one wildcard per node) and a region of `/etc/hosts` (the machines), and pointed
+its own `/etc/resolv.conf` at itself. The controller computes the names once; four daemons then hold
+four copies, each read in its own way.
+
+**Every resolution fault found that day was a copy disagreeing with the truth, not the truth being
+wrong:**
+
+- **A copy read once.** dnsmasq reads `/etc/hosts` at start. After the controller stopped publishing
+  public names ([ADR 0191](0191-the-meshs-resolver-holds-only-the-meshs-own-names.md)), every node's
+  hosts file was right and every resolver still answered the mail server's public name with a
+  tunnel address, until each was restarted.
+- **A copy beside other copies.** On the workstation, a name resolved to two addresses in rotation:
+  the mesh's region gave the tunnel address, and two lines the operator had written before the mesh
+  existed — one in `/etc/hosts`, one in a file the resolver also reads — gave the LAN address. A
+  comment beside one of them said to delete it once the mesh took over; nothing made that happen.
+- **A copy that became somebody else's resolver.** The home server's resolver also answers its LAN
+  (a listen address added 2026-10-02), and the LAN's router hands that address out as the only DNS
+  server. Every phone and television on the LAN resolved through a mesh node's private copy, which is
+  how ADR 0191's outage reached them.
+
+**And the overlay already has one centre.** Every node has exactly one tunnel peer — the anchor —
+and routes the whole private range through it. Two nodes on the same LAN reach each other through
+the anchor. So a name under `.internal` is only ever useful while the anchor is reachable: a resolver
+anywhere else adds a copy without adding an answer anybody can use.
+
+**What a node asks is already a separate role.** The connectivity design split *serving* (answers
+the names) from *asking* (decides what the machine asks), because systemd-resolved cannot answer a
+wildcard and can only route the mesh's suffix to something that can
+([connectivity §2](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/08-connectivity.md)). ADR 0121 kept them as two seats,
+`node-dns-resolver` and `node-resolver-config`, both at node scope. No node runs systemd-resolved
+today; each writes `/etc/resolv.conf` as a plain file pointing at its own dnsmasq.
+
+## Considered Options
+
+**1. Keep a resolver on every node, and make the copies more careful.** Restart on every file it
+reads, own every file it reads, refuse to listen on a LAN. Each is a fix for one way a copy goes
+stale, and the next way is not on the list yet. It keeps four answers to one question.
+
+**2. One resolver for the mesh, and every node sends it every query.** The simplest asking side —
+`resolv.conf` names the mesh's resolver and nothing else. Rejected: public resolution then depends on
+the tunnel. A laptop whose tunnel is down could resolve nothing at all, and a public name would take
+a detour through the anchor for no reason ADR 0191 left standing.
+
+**3. One resolver for the mesh's names; each node asks it for those only.** The mesh's resolver holds
+every node's internal domain. Each node's asking role routes the mesh's suffix to it and every other
+name to public resolvers. Chosen.
+
+## Decision
+
+**The mesh has one resolver.** It is a module holding a new mesh-scoped seat, **`mesh-resolver`**
+(capacity one). It holds each node's internal domain — `<node>.internal` and everything under it, at
+that node's private address ([ADR 0191](0191-the-meshs-resolver-holds-only-the-meshs-own-names.md))
+— and listens on the private network only. It is placed on the node every tunnel converges on, so
+that it shares the overlay's single point rather than adding one. Which daemon fills the seat stays
+the module's business, as the connectivity design says.
+
+**Every node asks it for the mesh's names and nothing else.** `node-resolver-config` routes the
+mesh's suffix to `mesh-resolver` and leaves every other name with public resolvers.
+
+**Why a stub on every node.** `resolv.conf` cannot route by domain: the C library asks the servers it
+lists in order, for every name, and moves to the next only when one does not answer — an NXDOMAIN
+from the first is final. Listing `mesh-resolver` first sends every public name through the tunnel
+(option 2); listing a public resolver first means `.internal` is never asked of the mesh. Something on
+the node has to look at the name before choosing a server, and that is a stub resolver. Keeping
+dnsmasq for it would keep a daemon that reads hosts files and can be told to answer a LAN — the two
+ways copies went wrong. systemd-resolved holds no names of its own, routes by domain natively (a
+routing domain `~<suffix>` on the server that answers it), and is part of systemd, already installed
+on every node and enabled on none.
+
+**So the asking side is a `systemd-resolved` module**, claiming `node-resolver-config` — the same claim
+as the `resolv-conf` module it replaces, so the mesh refuses both on one node. It enables the service,
+writes its configuration (the mesh resolver for the suffix, public resolvers for everything else), and
+writes `/etc/resolv.conf` as a file naming the stub — a file the module owns, not a link to one.
+
+**A container asks the mesh's resolver directly.** The container runtime cannot use a loopback stub
+and drops its routing domains, so the runtime's `dns` names `mesh-resolver`, which forwards public
+names for the containers that ask it. This is the one place a public name passes through the mesh,
+and it is stated rather than hidden.
+
+**`node-dns-resolver` is retired**, and with it every per-node copy: the zones file, the mesh's region
+of `/etc/hosts` (the floor connectivity §2 already planned to remove), and the daemon on every node
+but the one holding `mesh-resolver`. This narrows ADR 0121's *"the-dns-port → node-dns-resolver"*:
+the serving role keeps its distinction from the asking role and moves to mesh scope, as ADR 0121 did
+for the private network.
+
+**A LAN's resolver is not the mesh's.** No device that is not a member can reach a private address,
+so no member's resolver answers a LAN on the mesh's behalf. A router that hands out a node's address
+as a LAN's DNS server is pointed elsewhere before that node stops answering.
+
+**The order is fixed, because every step before the last leaves a working resolver:**
+
+1. `mesh-resolver` is assigned and answers on the private network.
+2. Each node's `node-resolver-config` moves from `resolv-conf` to `systemd-resolved`, and the container
+   runtime's `dns` to `mesh-resolver`.
+3. A LAN whose router points at a node's resolver is pointed at its router or a public resolver.
+4. `node-dns-resolver` is unassigned from every node, and the hosts region is withdrawn.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- **One answer per name.** A name is wrong in one place or right everywhere; no node can hold a copy
+  that disagrees, and no operator file on a node is read by the mesh's resolver.
+- **The anchor down means no `.internal` names** — which it already meant for `.internal` traffic,
+  since every tunnel goes through it. Public resolution on every node is unaffected.
+- **A container's public resolution depends on the mesh's resolver.** Accepted, and named in the
+  decision; a container that must resolve public names with the tunnel down is the case it costs.
+- **Every node runs systemd-resolved**, through the `systemd-resolved` module. It is installed
+  everywhere already and enabled nowhere; the mesh still ships no resolver of its own.
+- **The runtime's `dns` changes once per node**, which the runtime reads only at start. With
+  `live-restore` already on, that restart keeps every container running.
+- **A LAN loses a resolver it had borrowed.** The router change is an explicit step, done through
+  the module that manages the router, before the node's resolver goes.
+
+**How each is checked:**
+
+- **One holder:** the seat has capacity one, so a second assignment is refused by the controller.
+- **Asking:** on each node, `resolvectl` shows the tunnel's link with `mesh-resolver` and the suffix as
+  its routing domain; a name under `.internal` is answered by it, and a public name is answered
+  without it (its query log shows no public name from a node).
+- **No copies:** no node but the holder answers DNS on a private or LAN address — every other node's
+  port 53 is systemd-resolved's loopback stub and nothing else — and no node's `/etc/hosts` carries a
+  mesh region.
+- **A LAN:** the router's DHCP DNS option names no node's address.
+
+## References
+
+- [ADR 0191](0191-the-meshs-resolver-holds-only-the-meshs-own-names.md) — what the mesh's resolver
+  holds; this record decides where it runs and how nodes reach it.
+- [ADR 0121](0121-a-system-seat-is-named-for-its-scope-and-modules-define-their-own.md) — the two
+  resolver seats, and the private network's move to mesh scope this mirrors.
+- [Connectivity §2](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/08-connectivity.md) — serving and asking as two roles;
+  amended alongside this record.
+- [The seats](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/26-the-seats.md) — the seat table, amended alongside.

02-DECISIONS/0195-the-meshs-tools-are-found-by-address-not-announced-whole.md

@@ -0,0 +1,102 @@
+---
+topic: what runs on it
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-03
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0152-the-operators-surface-is-a-module-the-console.md
+---
+
+# 195. The mesh's tools are found by address, not announced whole
+
+## Context
+
+The console answers MCP on a machine's loopback ([ADR 0152](0152-the-operators-surface-is-a-module-the-console.md),
+[to-be 34](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/34-the-console.md)) and announces, at a session's start, every tool
+the mesh can say it has: 228 on 2026-10-03, 110 KB, taken once. Three things are wrong with that,
+measured in research [021](../01-RESEARCH/021-finding-a-tool-in-the-mesh/00-overview.md):
+
+- **Size.** Only one client's habit of deferring long lists keeps them out of the model's context.
+- **Ambiguity.** A module on two machines is listed once, `node` optional, *whichever answers* — for
+  postgres and mssql, whose instances hold different data, a call that names no machine asks an
+  arbitrary one.
+- **Staleness.** A tool that arrives after the session started is not listed until it reconnects.
+
+The mesh already has the structure a caller needs: seats held once for the mesh, seats held once per
+machine ([ADR 0159](0159-a-tool-call-names-the-machine-and-a-holder-serves-its-seats-verbs.md)), and
+modules assigned to machines, each assignment issued its own subjects
+([ADR 0160](0160-the-mesh-issues-an-assignments-subjects-and-a-runtime-serves-what-it-is-issued.md)).
+The operator's direction: *tools are discoverable, in layers, and asking novox's postgres is not asking
+ace's.*
+
+## Considered Options
+
+1. Keep the flat list and rely on the client. Rejected: the ambiguity and the staleness stay, and it
+   is one client's behaviour.
+2. One tool per assignment, the machine in the name. Rejected: the list multiplies, and an address in
+   a tool's name meets the API's limit — letters, digits, `_` and `-`, at most 64 characters.
+3. **A fixed handful of tools that walk the mesh's structure, the address an argument.** Chosen.
+4. MCP resources or prompts. Rejected: unevenly supported, and an agent acts through tools.
+
+## Decision
+
+**1. Everything the mesh answers has one address, by the layer it lives in:**
+
+| layer | address | answered by |
+|---|---|---|
+| a seat held once for the mesh | `<seat>.<verb>` | that seat's holder |
+| a seat held once per machine | `<node>/<seat>.<verb>` | that machine's holder |
+| a module assigned to a machine | `<node>/<module>.<tool>` | that assignment |
+| a module whose instances are interchangeable (ADR 0160) | `<module>.<tool>` as well | any of them |
+
+**A call to a module that is not interchangeable names its machine, or is refused** naming the machines
+it runs on. "Whichever answers" is no longer an answer for state a machine holds.
+
+**2. The console announces a fixed set of tools, not the catalogue:**
+
+- **`mesh_overview`** — the mesh's seats with their verbs, and its machines;
+- **`mesh_machine`** — one machine: the node seats it holds and the modules assigned to it, each with
+  its tools by name;
+- **`mesh_search`** — words in, matching addresses out with one line each, across every layer;
+- **`mesh_describe`** — one address in, its description and argument schema out;
+- **`mesh_call`** — an address and its arguments in, the answer out, with the machine that gave it.
+
+Each is answered from the mesh when it is asked, so a tool that arrived a minute ago is found without
+the client reconnecting. The names are the API's kind of name; addresses never have to be.
+
+**3. The flat catalogue stays reachable, not announced:** the `mesh` client and a console setting can
+still list it whole, for a person reading it or a client that wants it. An agent pointed at the console
+sees the five.
+
+> **The mechanism changed — 2026-10-03, by ADR 0197.** Where the console learns what exists: not
+> from the catalogue's roster and the controller's printed lists, but from every runtime announcing
+> itself on the bus in the NATS services protocol, checked against the controller's records read as
+> JSON. The addresses and the five tools stand.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- An agent spends a call or two finding a tool it does not know, and none on one it does; the context
+  no longer carries 110 KB it mostly never uses.
+- The ambiguity is closed by the address, not by a description asking the agent to remember `node`.
+- What got harder: an agent that once saw a tool's schema up front now asks for it. `mesh_describe` and
+  `mesh_search` answering with the schema of a close match keep that to one call.
+- The discovery verbs are the console's; the mesh's own records — seats, machines, assignments — are
+  the controller's, and the console asks it rather than keeping a copy.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+| Rule | Checked by |
+|---|---|
+| The console announces five tools | the console's test: `tools/list` answers exactly the five |
+| An address resolves to one subject per layer | the console's tests: a mesh seat, a node seat, an assignment, an interchangeable module, each called by address over a real bus |
+| A non-interchangeable module without a machine is refused, naming its machines | the same tests |
+| A tool that arrives after the session started is found | a test registering a module after the console's first answer and finding it by `mesh_search` |
+| Live | from a fresh session, *which databases does novox's postgres hold* is answered by novox's postgres, found through the five |
+
+## References
+
+- [ADR 0152](0152-the-operators-surface-is-a-module-the-console.md),
+  [ADR 0159](0159-a-tool-call-names-the-machine-and-a-holder-serves-its-seats-verbs.md),
+  [ADR 0160](0160-the-mesh-issues-an-assignments-subjects-and-a-runtime-serves-what-it-is-issued.md)
+- Research [021](../01-RESEARCH/021-finding-a-tool-in-the-mesh/00-overview.md)
+- [to-be 34](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/34-the-console.md)

02-DECISIONS/0196-a-node-asks-the-meshs-resolver-first-and-a-public-one-only-when-it-is-silent.md

@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+---
+topic: the tiers
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-03
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+supersedes-in-part:
+  - 0194-the-mesh-has-one-resolver-and-every-node-asks-it-for-the-meshs-names.md
+---
+
+# 196. A node asks the mesh's resolver first, and a public one only when it is silent
+
+## Context
+
+**[ADR 0194](0194-the-mesh-has-one-resolver-and-every-node-asks-it-for-the-meshs-names.md) gave the
+mesh one resolver and had each node ask it for the mesh's names only.** Because `resolv.conf` cannot
+route by domain, that needed a stub on every node — a `systemd-resolved` module — and a separate
+`dns` for the container runtime, which cannot use a loopback stub. It rejected the simpler shape,
+every node sending every query to the mesh's resolver, on the grounds that *"a laptop whose tunnel is
+down could resolve nothing at all."*
+
+**That is true only of a `resolv.conf` naming the mesh's resolver alone.** The C library asks the
+servers it lists in order and moves to the next when one does not answer within its timeout. A public
+resolver listed second is asked exactly when the mesh's is unreachable — the anchor down, the tunnel
+down, a laptop behind a captive portal that has not let the tunnel up — and never otherwise. An answer
+from the first, including "no such name", is final, so `.internal` is never asked of a public resolver
+while the mesh's answers.
+
+**And the container runtime copies a machine's resolvers into its containers when they are not
+loopback addresses.** With the mesh's resolver and a public one listed, every container gets both, as
+they are, with nothing configured for the runtime.
+
+## Considered Options
+
+**1. Keep ADR 0194's stub.** Public names never touch the mesh, and a node with the anchor down
+resolves public names at full speed. It costs a module and a running service on every node, a second
+configuration for containers, and the one asymmetry ADR 0194 had to state — containers' public names
+through the mesh, nodes' not.
+
+**2. Every node asks the mesh's resolver for everything, with a public resolver as the silent
+fallback.** One server answers every node and every container; nothing on a node routes, holds names,
+or runs. Chosen.
+
+## Decision
+
+**A node's `/etc/resolv.conf` names the mesh's resolver first and a public resolver second, with a
+short timeout and a single attempt.** It is written by the module holding `node-resolver-config` — the
+existing `resolv-conf` — which now names `mesh-resolver`'s address instead of the machine's own. The
+mesh's resolver answers the mesh's names from what it holds and forwards every other name, giving the
+public answer ([ADR 0191](0191-the-meshs-resolver-holds-only-the-meshs-own-names.md) is unchanged: no
+public name gets a private answer).
+
+**Containers take the same two resolvers from their machine.** The container runtime's own `dns`
+setting is not written; the runtime copies the machine's non-loopback resolvers into every container.
+
+**This replaces, from ADR 0194:** the asking side as a stub (*"So the asking side is a
+`systemd-resolved` module"*), the container runtime's `dns` naming `mesh-resolver`, and step 2 of the
+migration as written. There is no `systemd-resolved` module. Everything else in ADR 0194 stands — one
+`mesh-resolver`, on the node every tunnel converges on, holding each node's internal domain, the
+retirement of `node-dns-resolver` and every per-node copy, and a LAN's resolver not being the mesh's.
+
+**The migration, as it now reads:**
+
+1. `mesh-resolver` is assigned and answers on the private network.
+2. Each node's `resolv-conf` names `mesh-resolver` first and a public resolver second.
+3. A LAN whose router points at a node's resolver is pointed at its router.
+4. `node-dns-resolver` is unassigned from every node, and the hosts region is withdrawn.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- **Every name a node or container asks goes through the anchor while it is up.** A public lookup
+  takes a few milliseconds longer than asking a public resolver directly, and the mesh's resolver sees
+  every name its nodes look up. It is the operator's own server.
+- **With the anchor unreachable, each lookup waits out one timeout, then resolves publicly.**
+  `.internal` names fail then — as `.internal` traffic does, every tunnel going through the anchor.
+- **A LAN is unaffected by this choice.** Devices that are not members never read a node's
+  `resolv.conf`; they get their resolver from their router, which step 3 points at itself.
+- **Nothing new runs on a node.** No stub, no module, no per-node configuration for containers.
+- **The runtime's `dns` key goes with `node-dns-resolver`.** The dnsmasq module wrote it into the
+  runtime's configuration; unassigning that module in step 4 withdraws it, and the runtime reads the
+  change only when it next starts — with `live-restore` on, that restart keeps every container
+  running.
+
+**How each is checked:**
+
+- **Order:** each node's `/etc/resolv.conf` lists `mesh-resolver`'s private address first and a public
+  resolver second, and nothing else.
+- **Fallback:** with `mesh-resolver` unreachable from a node, a public name still resolves there, after
+  the timeout.
+- **Containers:** a container started on a node lists the same two resolvers.
+- **A LAN:** the router's DHCP DNS option names the router, not a node.
+
+## References
+
+- [ADR 0194](0194-the-mesh-has-one-resolver-and-every-node-asks-it-for-the-meshs-names.md) — the one
+  resolver; this record replaces how nodes and containers ask it.
+- [ADR 0191](0191-the-meshs-resolver-holds-only-the-meshs-own-names.md) — what the resolver holds.
+- [Connectivity §2](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/08-connectivity.md), amended alongside this record.

02-DECISIONS/0197-every-tool-announces-itself-on-the-bus-in-the-nats-services-protocol.md

@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+---
+topic: what runs on it
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-03
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0195-the-meshs-tools-are-found-by-address-not-announced-whole.md
+---
+
+# 197. Every tool announces itself on the bus, in the NATS services protocol
+
+## Context
+
+[ADR 0195](0195-the-meshs-tools-are-found-by-address-not-announced-whole.md) gave every tool an
+address and the console five tools to find them. Where the console learns what exists, it inherited
+from [to-be 34](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/34-the-console.md) §3: ask the catalogue for its roster, ask
+each module on the roster for its `tools`, and read the machines and assignments from the
+controller's printed `node list` and `module list`. Built that way on 2026-10-03, it worked and showed
+what is wrong with it:
+
+- **It asks what should exist and infers what does.** The roster holds every module the catalogue
+  ever registered; 47 of them were reported "not answering" on 2026-10-03, most with no tools at all
+  and several retired.
+- **It parses prose.** Two of the controller's answers are text for a person, and a reworded column
+  breaks discovery.
+
+The bus already knows what answers. NATS has a services protocol for exactly this: a service answers
+`$SRV.PING` and `$SRV.INFO` — every instance, on one request — with its name, its instance, and every
+endpoint's subject and metadata, in a published format the NATS tools read. The operator's direction:
+*every tool announces itself; the mesh has the full picture, so nothing should be inferred or parsed.*
+
+## Considered Options
+
+1. **Keep asking the roster, and give the controller JSON answers.** Fixes the parsing, keeps the
+   inference.
+2. **Re-serve every tool through a NATS services library.** The announcement for free, but every
+   runtime's serving path rewritten around a library, in two languages, for no change in behaviour.
+3. **Every runtime answers the services protocol's discovery subjects with what it serves; serving
+   is unchanged.** Chosen.
+
+## Decision
+
+**1. What answers announces itself.** Every runtime that serves tools — each machine's tool runtime,
+the per-module runtimes still in containers, and the controller for the seat it holds — answers
+`$SRV.PING` and `$SRV.INFO` in the NATS services format: one service per module or seat it serves,
+named for it, its instance the machine; one endpoint per tool, its subject and queue exactly as
+served, its metadata the tool's description, argument schema, the machine, the seat and scope where
+it is a seat's verb, and whether the module's instances are interchangeable.
+
+**2. The console finds what exists by asking the bus,** one `$SRV.INFO` request, every answer
+gathered for a short window. What it announces through ADR 0195's five tools is what answered.
+
+**3. What should exist is the mesh's records, read as data.** The controller answers its machines and
+modules as JSON, and says which modules declare tools; the console names as *not answering* only an
+assignment that declares tools and did not announce them. A module with no tools is never listed.
+
+**4. The grants say so.** Every principal that serves tools may subscribe the services discovery
+subjects for what it serves; the console's and every runtime's account may publish the discovery
+request. Replies travel to the asker's own inbox as every reply does.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- The standard `nats micro list` and `nats micro info` show the mesh's tools, live, to anybody holding
+  a credential — the bus's own view, not the mesh's description of it.
+- Discovery costs one request and a gathering window, not one request per roster entry.
+- What got harder: three runtimes must answer the same format the same way — the Go tool runtime, the
+  TypeScript runtime the containers still run, and the controller. The format is NATS's, so a test
+  reads all three with the NATS services client and nothing of the mesh's.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+| Rule | Checked by |
+|---|---|
+| A runtime announces exactly what it serves | each runtime's test: `$SRV.INFO` answered with one service per served module or seat, its endpoints' subjects the subjects served |
+| The format is NATS's | the same tests read the answer with the NATS services client's own types |
+| A module with no tools is never listed; an assignment with tools that did not answer is | the console's test, against controller records with both |
+| Nothing is parsed from prose | the console reads only JSON answers (code review; the text parsers are deleted) |
+| Live | `nats micro list` against the mesh's bus lists every machine's tool runtime and the controller |
+
+## References
+
+- [ADR 0195](0195-the-meshs-tools-are-found-by-address-not-announced-whole.md),
+  [ADR 0160](0160-the-mesh-issues-an-assignments-subjects-and-a-runtime-serves-what-it-is-issued.md),
+  [ADR 0175](0175-one-tool-runtime-per-node-serves-every-modules-tools-on-the-host-side.md)
+- [to-be 34](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/34-the-console.md)

02-DECISIONS/0198-a-modules-long-running-code-is-launched-by-the-node-runtime-and-reaches-the-bus-through-it.md

@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+---
+topic: what runs on it
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-03
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0193-every-bundle-the-runtime-serves-is-launched-and-the-runtime-knows-no-language.md
+---
+
+# 198. A module's long-running code is launched by the node's runtime, and reaches the bus through it
+
+## Context
+
+[ADR 0193](0193-every-bundle-the-runtime-serves-is-launched-and-the-runtime-knows-no-language.md) made
+every tools bundle a child the node's runtime launches, speaking MCP over stdio, and gave the channel
+one bus verb: a tool's emit, published by the runtime as the module. Twenty-three modules still run the
+rest of their own code — event handlers, provisioners, a preparation step, three mains — in a container
+on the runtime's image, because that code needs what a container gave it: a bus connection that can
+*subscribe*, and its module's words. Research [022](../01-RESEARCH/022-where-a-modules-long-running-code-runs/00-overview.md)
+measured what it uses. [ADR 0188](0188-a-modules-own-code-is-bundles-in-any-language-and-a-tools-bundle-speaks-mcp-to-the-runtime.md)
+§1 says a module's own code is never an image.
+
+## Considered Options
+
+1. **The runtime launches it and is its bus.** Chosen.
+2. A process per module with its own bus client and credential. Rejected for the reasons ADR 0188
+   rejected it for tools: a transport in every language's SDK, a credential per module on disk, and a
+   bus change rebuilding every module.
+3. Keep the containers for it. Rejected: ADR 0188's rule stays broken for most of the catalogue.
+
+## Decision
+
+**1. A module's long-running code is a bundle the node's runtime launches and supervises,** exactly as
+its tools are: an executable entrypoint, given the runtime's words and its module's
+([ADR 0192](0192-a-tools-bundle-declares-what-it-is-given-and-the-runtime-hands-it-to-that-bundle-alone.md)),
+started at the runtime's start and again when it exits. A bundle may serve tools, run long, or both.
+
+**2. The runtime is its bus.** The stdio channel carries, beside MCP, the mesh's verbs a module's code
+uses: `mesh/publish` (ADR 0193), **`mesh/subscribe`** — the runtime binds that module's durable
+consumer, as the module's own runtime did, and delivers each event to the child as a `mesh/event`
+request, acknowledging it on the bus only when the child has answered — and **`mesh/ask`**, a tool
+call made on the module's behalf. The runtime's account is granted what each module it carries
+consumes, and the consumer keeps the module's name, so no event is lost or replayed in the move.
+
+**3. A preparation step is a run-once process the host runs before the runtime starts the module,**
+with its module's words and no bus — what it already was.
+
+**4. What a container reached by its network is reached on the machine.** A service by its published
+port (`${port:…}`) on loopback; a backend's command-line client as a package of the machine's system,
+or, where the system has none, the backend's own driver inside the bundle.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- The per-module containers go, and with them the runtime image as a way module code runs; ADR 0188's
+  registration rule can then refuse a module's own image without exception.
+- One bus connection per machine carries every module's events; a module's handler is a function of
+  the events it is handed, in any language, with no bus client of its own.
+- What got harder: the runtime holds every carried module's consumer and must not acknowledge an event
+  before the child has handled it — a child that dies mid-event leaves it unacknowledged, and it is
+  delivered again. The runtime's grants widen to what its modules consume.
+- Two modules need code before they can move: their backends' clients exist on no machine's system,
+  so they talk to the backend through a driver instead.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+| Rule | Checked by |
+|---|---|
+| A subscribed event reaches the child and is acknowledged only after it answered | the runtime's test over a real bus: a child that answers is acknowledged once; one that dies mid-event is delivered again |
+| The module's consumer keeps its name | the composer's test: the durable consumer the runtime binds is the one the module's own runtime bound |
+| No module's own code is an image | the catalogue's registration check, without exception, once the last container has moved |
+| Live | every moved module's provisioner and handlers act, on their machines, from the node's runtime; `docker ps` shows no runtime-image container on any machine |
+
+## References
+
+- [ADR 0188](0188-a-modules-own-code-is-bundles-in-any-language-and-a-tools-bundle-speaks-mcp-to-the-runtime.md),
+  [ADR 0192](0192-a-tools-bundle-declares-what-it-is-given-and-the-runtime-hands-it-to-that-bundle-alone.md),
+  [ADR 0193](0193-every-bundle-the-runtime-serves-is-launched-and-the-runtime-knows-no-language.md)
+- Research [022](../01-RESEARCH/022-where-a-modules-long-running-code-runs/00-overview.md)
+- [to-be 38](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/38-building-the-operators-machine.md) WP4c

02-DECISIONS/0199-a-module-that-answers-names-declares-its-zone-and-a-nodes-hosts-file-is-one-modules.md

@@ -0,0 +1,127 @@
+---
+topic: the tiers
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-03
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 0194-the-mesh-has-one-resolver-and-every-node-asks-it-for-the-meshs-names.md
+---
+
+# 199. A module that answers names declares its zone, and a node's hosts file is one module's
+
+## Context
+
+**[ADR 0194](0194-the-mesh-has-one-resolver-and-every-node-asks-it-for-the-meshs-names.md) and
+[ADR 0196](0196-a-node-asks-the-meshs-resolver-first-and-a-public-one-only-when-it-is-silent.md) leave
+one resolver holding the nodes' internal domains, and retire the resolver every node ran.** Two kinds
+of names lived in those per-node resolvers that are neither a node nor a route, and both were found on
+the workstation on 2026-10-03:
+
+- **Names a module answers.** The lab raises scenario machines and gives them addresses from its
+  scenario files — the anchor's stand-in at a documentation address, the home server's on the LAN —
+  and the workstation resolved `<machine>.incus` through two wildcard lines in a drop-in file its
+  resolver read. The lines were written by hand; the addresses are the lab's, known only while a
+  scenario runs.
+- **The operator's own names, unrelated to the mesh.** Twelve `<loopback> <name>` lines for a
+  client's development hosts, kept in `/etc/hosts` and again in `/etc/hosts.local`, which the per-node
+  resolver read as additional hosts.
+
+**A manifest never names an address, a node or a domain** ([ADR 0112](0112-a-module-definition-names-no-node-mesh-or-path.md)).
+So the lab cannot list `<machine>.incus → <address>` in its definition, and the operator's twelve lines
+are not any module's to define.
+
+## Considered Options
+
+**For a module's names:**
+
+1. **The manifest lists its records.** Refused by ADR 0112: the addresses are the lab's runtime facts
+   and the scenario's choice.
+2. **The module reports its records at runtime to the mesh's resolver**, which writes them into its
+   configuration. It works, and it makes the resolver hold every module's runtime state and decide,
+   per call, whether the caller may write the name it sent — authorisation for a write, on the one
+   server every node depends on.
+3. **The module declares the zone it answers and the listen that answers it; the mesh's resolver
+   forwards that zone there.** The definition names a zone (from a setting) and one of its own listens,
+   which ADR 0112 allows; the address and the port are the mesh's facts. The records stay where they
+   are known — in the module, at runtime. Chosen.
+
+**For the operator's names:**
+
+1. **Records the controller holds, served by the mesh's resolver.** They are not the mesh's: a client's
+   development hosts on one machine are nothing any other node should resolve, and the controller would
+   become the keeper of a workstation's private notes.
+2. **A node-scoped module owns `/etc/hosts`, and the operator's lines live in its kept region**
+   ([ADR 0174](0174-a-node-varies-a-module-through-settings-and-kept-regions-never-an-edit.md)), changed
+   through that module's tools on that machine. Chosen.
+
+## Decision
+
+**1. A module that answers names declares a zone.** Its definition names the zone — a single label or a
+dotted name, from a setting, never a domain the mesh knows — and the listen that answers DNS for it.
+The controller refuses two modules in the mesh declaring one zone, and a zone that is the mesh's suffix,
+under it, or one of a node's public domains: a module may not shadow names the mesh or the public DNS
+answers.
+
+**2. The mesh's resolver forwards each zone to the module that declared it.** The controller hands the
+holder of `mesh-dns-resolver` every declared zone with the private address of the node its module runs
+on and the port that listen is published on; the holder places one forwarding rule per zone into its
+configuration and answers nothing in that zone itself. What names exist in the zone, and their
+addresses, are the module's — answered by its own long-running code
+([ADR 0198](0198-a-modules-long-running-code-is-launched-by-the-node-runtime-and-reaches-the-bus-through-it.md)),
+from its own state, as they change. Whether an answered address is reachable from the asking node is
+the module's matter, not the resolver's.
+
+**3. A node's `/etc/hosts` is held by one module, through a node seat, `node-hosts-file`.** The seat is
+the definition: its holder owns `/etc/hosts`, and implements three verbs — MCP tool definitions served
+as `<node>/node-hosts-file.<verb>` ([ADR 0195](0195-the-meshs-tools-are-found-by-address-not-announced-whole.md)):
+**`entries`** (the file's lines, the module's and the operator's, each marked whose), **`add`** (one
+address and its names, into the operator's region) and **`remove`** (one name or address from it). The
+module writes the machine's own lines — loopback and the machine's name — and keeps a region for the
+operator, which survives every push and is given back when the module goes. Its tools change that
+region on that machine, escalating as the packet filter's do
+([ADR 0175](0175-one-tool-runtime-per-node-serves-every-modules-tools-on-the-host-side.md) §4). **The
+controller holds none of it:** an operator's line is the machine's, not a record.
+
+**4. No other module writes `/etc/hosts`.** The private network's region goes, as ADR 0194 already has
+it; a module that once wrote a line there asks the mesh's resolver instead.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- **The lab's names follow its scenarios.** A scenario raised is resolvable from every node at once; a
+  scenario torn down is gone, with no line left behind in any file.
+- **The mesh's resolver holds no module's state.** It holds the nodes' domains and a table of who
+  answers which zone, both composed by the controller; nothing writes to it at runtime.
+- **A module answering a zone needs a DNS answerer of its own** — a long-running bundle, or a resolver
+  it runs. The lab gains one.
+- **The operator's names reach the machine's own programs, not its containers.** A container does not
+  read the machine's `/etc/hosts`. For names unrelated to the mesh that is the right boundary; a name a
+  container needs belongs in a zone.
+- **Taking `/etc/hosts` keeps what is there.** The first time the module writes the file, every line
+  that is not the machine's own goes into the operator's region, so a workstation's twelve lines survive
+  the take — the same adoption [ADR 0102](0102-the-mesh-writes-into-a-shared-file-never-over-it.md) gives
+  every shared file.
+
+**How each is checked:**
+
+- **Zones:** the controller's catalogue tests refuse a second module declaring a zone, a zone under the
+  mesh suffix, and a zone equal to a node's public domain.
+- **Forwarding:** on the holder, the resolver's configuration carries one forwarding rule per declared
+  zone, at the declaring node's private address and published port; asking any node's resolver for a
+  name in the lab's zone while a scenario runs returns the scenario's address.
+- **The hosts file:** a push leaves the operator's region byte for byte; `add` followed by `entries`
+  shows the line as the operator's; unassigning the module gives the region back.
+
+## References
+
+- [ADR 0194](0194-the-mesh-has-one-resolver-and-every-node-asks-it-for-the-meshs-names.md),
+  [ADR 0196](0196-a-node-asks-the-meshs-resolver-first-and-a-public-one-only-when-it-is-silent.md) —
+  the one resolver and how nodes ask it.
+- [ADR 0112](0112-a-module-definition-names-no-node-mesh-or-path.md) — why a definition names no address.
+- [ADR 0174](0174-a-node-varies-a-module-through-settings-and-kept-regions-never-an-edit.md),
+  [ADR 0102](0102-the-mesh-writes-into-a-shared-file-never-over-it.md) — kept regions and shared files.
+- [ADR 0198](0198-a-modules-long-running-code-is-launched-by-the-node-runtime-and-reaches-the-bus-through-it.md) —
+  where a zone's answerer runs.
+- [Connectivity §2](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/08-connectivity.md) and [the seats](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/26-the-seats.md),
+  amended alongside.
+- [Research 023](../01-RESEARCH/023-a-seat-protocol-that-defines-what-its-holder-owns/00-overview.md) —
+  the general form of decision 3's "the holder owns `/etc/hosts`".

02-DECISIONS/0200-genesis-pivots-to-the-controller-as-a-container-and-the-first-push-hands-it-to-a-process.md

@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+---
+topic: building it
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-04
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0067-genesis-is-a-pivot.md
+---
+
+# 200. Genesis pivots to the controller as a container, and the first push hands it to a process
+
+## Context
+
+The controller is Go, compiled to one static binary, and is the last of the mesh's own programs a
+machine runs from an image ([issue 213](../04-ISSUES/213-the-controller-is-a-go-program-run-in-a-container/00-report.md)).
+[ADR 0188](0188-a-modules-own-code-is-bundles-in-any-language-and-a-tools-bundle-speaks-mcp-to-the-runtime.md)
+§1 says a module's own code is bundles, never an image, and §3 that a service bundle is a `process` the
+host runs. The handover exists: a process may name the container it `replaces`, and the host removes
+that container only after the process has stayed up across two checks; two controllers are safe
+together for that moment, the second standing by on the controller's consumers and every plan held by
+one lock.
+
+What stands in the way is genesis ([ADR 0067](0067-genesis-is-a-pivot.md)), which
+[issue 223](../04-ISSUES/223-a-new-mesh-installs-its-controller-as-a-container/00-report.md) found
+assumes an image and a container at every step from its third: it builds the controller's image,
+starts a temporary controller from it, publishes it, finds the controller's container in the pivot
+declaration, and from then on talks to the controller through it. A process's bundle is fetched from
+the artifact store, and genesis raises the artifact store only after the pivot.
+
+## Considered Options
+
+1. **Raise the artifact store before the pivot**, publish the controller's bundle to it, and talk to
+   the controller from the host's side. Rejected for now: it reorders genesis around a store that is
+   itself a module the controller deploys, and rewrites the steps that talk to the controller — a
+   larger change to the one path that is exercised least, to remove a container that exists for
+   minutes.
+2. **Pivot to the controller as a container, as today, and let the first push hand it over to the
+   process**, through the handover that already exists. Chosen.
+3. **Keep the controller a container.** Rejected: it is the exception to ADR 0188 that every other
+   module's code has now left, and it costs a container runtime on the control machine and a
+   container recreation in the middle of a plan.
+
+## Decision
+
+**Genesis raises the controller as a container, under the resource the controller's process
+`replaces`, and the first declaration the controller composes for its own machine hands it over.**
+The container is genesis's own shape, built from the controller's repository, and is recorded on the
+control machine exactly as the manifest's `replaces` names it, so the first apply after the pivot
+finds a replacement for it and removes it once the process is up. The controller's manifest declares
+only the process; the image form exists for genesis alone and is not a second way to run the
+controller on a live mesh.
+
+This is the one bounded exception to ADR 0188 §1: a module's own code in an image, for the minutes
+between the pivot and the first push, on a mesh being created.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- A new mesh ends where a running one is: the controller a process, no controller container.
+- Genesis keeps its steps; what changes is that it no longer reads the controller's container from the
+  manifest, and that it records the container under the name the handover expects.
+- The controller's repository keeps its image build for genesis and the lab.
+- The handover is now on genesis's path too: a process that fails to stay up leaves the genesis
+  container serving, and the apply says so — the same rule as on a live mesh.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+The installer's test raises a mesh whose controller manifest is the process form, and asserts that the
+container genesis recorded is exactly what the process `replaces`, so the first apply hands over and
+leaves one controller. Live, on the running mesh: after the manifest change is pushed, the control
+machine runs the controller as a process and no controller container, and the controller's seat
+answers throughout.
+
+## References
+
+- [Issue 213](../04-ISSUES/213-the-controller-is-a-go-program-run-in-a-container/00-report.md),
+  [issue 223](../04-ISSUES/223-a-new-mesh-installs-its-controller-as-a-container/00-report.md)
+- mesh-host#86 (the handover), mesh-controller#252 (two controllers safe together),
+  mesh-controller#253 (the controller's manifest as a process)

02-DECISIONS/0201-a-module-keeps-its-current-state-in-key-value-buckets-it-declares-and-reaches-through-the-runtime.md

@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+---
+topic: what runs on it
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-04
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0198-a-modules-long-running-code-is-launched-by-the-node-runtime-and-reaches-the-bus-through-it.md
+---
+
+# 201. A module keeps its current state in key-value buckets it declares, and reaches them through the runtime
+
+## Context
+
+A module's code reaches the bus through the node's runtime: it publishes events, subscribes to them
+and asks tools ([ADR 0198](0198-a-modules-long-running-code-is-launched-by-the-node-runtime-and-reaches-the-bus-through-it.md)).
+Events are kept for a week and replayed to a consumer that was away; requests are kept nowhere. What
+neither gives is **the current value of something**, seen by every machine, including one that joins
+after it was written. The first module to need it — the operator's agent on a machine — registers MCP
+servers for every machine as events, and a machine assigned later never hears of them; and it would
+replay a week of licence rotations where it needs only the binding that holds now. Research
+[024](../01-RESEARCH/024-state-a-module-keeps-on-the-bus/00-overview.md) measured the alternatives and
+the grants against a real server.
+
+[Design 32](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/32-what-a-module-declares.md) §4 already names *state* as one of the
+mesh's relationships — 1:1, last per subject — and reserves it to the mesh's own declarations.
+[Design 25](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/25-the-bus-on-nats.md) §1 expects key-value buckets on the bus.
+
+## Considered Options
+
+1. **Key-value buckets a module declares, created by the controller, reached through the runtime.**
+   Chosen.
+2. **State as events on EVENTS, read last-per-subject.** Rejected: retention is per stream and EVENTS
+   keeps seven days, so a value unchanged for a week disappears; a second stream over the same subjects
+   is refused by the server (design 32 §3). And events give no get, list or delete.
+3. **A last-per-subject stream per module, written by hand.** Rejected: it is what a key-value bucket
+   is on the server, without the client's get, list, delete and watch — the mesh writing NATS's
+   key-value layer again.
+4. **State in a module's own files or database, shared by asking a tool.** Rejected for state every
+   machine must see: a machine joining later has to know whom to ask and poll, and an owner that is
+   down answers nothing — the property the bus exists to remove.
+
+## Decision
+
+**1. A module declares its state by name.** `state` names the buckets it owns, by local name; every
+instance of the module may write and read them. `reads` names another module's bucket as
+`<module>.<name>`, read-only. A bucket's options are its owner's: how many past values a key keeps,
+and how long a value lives. A manifest names no bucket, stream or subject (design 32 §1).
+
+**2. One bucket per module per name, mesh-wide.** A key may name a machine by the module's own
+convention; the mesh does not scope buckets per machine.
+
+**3. The controller creates the buckets, from the catalogue, on every raise** — from registration,
+like a seat's stream, so a reader can watch a bucket whose owner is not yet assigned anywhere. A module
+never creates one. The runtime's grant on each bucket is the union of what its carried modules may do:
+an owner's instances write and read, a reader's read.
+
+**4. Each assignment is issued its buckets in its membership** ([ADR 0160](0160-the-mesh-issues-an-assignments-subjects-and-a-runtime-serves-what-it-is-issued.md)),
+by the name the module uses for each and whether it may write. The runtime serves `mesh/state.get`,
+`put`, `delete`, `keys` and `watch` on the bundle's channel from that list, and refuses — with the
+reason — a bucket the module was not issued and a write to one it only reads. A watch delivers the
+current values first, without deletions, then an end-of-current marker, then every change, each as a
+`mesh/state` request the bundle answers.
+
+**5. No secret is stored in a bucket, sealed or not.** A bucket is a stream, and design 32 §10 keeps
+every secret off streams. A value that needs a secret names it; the secret travels on request/reply.
+
+**6. The mesh caps size; a bucket outlives its module.** One value per key and no expiry unless the
+owner says otherwise; at most 256 KiB a value and 64 MiB a bucket. Unassigning a module leaves its
+buckets and what is in them ([ADR 0030](0030-data-outlives-the-mesh-that-declared-it.md)); a bucket
+whose declaration is gone from the catalogue is reported, never removed by the mesh.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- A machine that joins reads the current state at once, and every machine sees a change as it
+  happens, with no consumer created per reader and nothing replayed.
+- The runtime's channel has a sixth verb family, and the SDKs a small state surface over it — a
+  contract, which ADR 0039 admits: it changes when the verbs do, rarely, and every module should be
+  rebuilt when it does.
+- What got harder: the runtime must keep each module to its own buckets, because one principal per
+  machine carries all of them and the server enforces only the union. A write the server refuses
+  surfaces to a client as a timeout, not a refusal, so the runtime's own refusal is what a module sees.
+- The secrets rule is only partly mechanical. Sealed values cannot be recognised; the runtime refuses
+  a value with a field whose name says it is a credential, which catches the ordinary mistake and not a
+  determined one. For the operator's agent this means an MCP server's authorisation header stays out of
+  its bucket.
+- Buckets accumulate as modules come and go; that they are reported rather than removed is the price
+  of not deleting data.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+| Rule | Checked by |
+|---|---|
+| A manifest's state names are local, and a read names a bucket its owner declares | the catalogue's registration check, per manifest; a catalogue test that every `reads` whose owner is present names a bucket that owner declares |
+| Buckets exist for every declared state | the controller's raise asserts them idempotently; its test over a real bus |
+| Owners write, readers only read | the composer's test of the grants, per principal kind; the runtime's refusal test over a real bus |
+| A watch hands current values first, without deletions, then changes | the runtime's test over a real bus |
+| No credential-named field in a value | the runtime's refusal test |
+| Live | one module puts on one machine and another machine's watch sees it; a machine assigned afterwards reads it at start |
+
+## References
+
+- Research [024](../01-RESEARCH/024-state-a-module-keeps-on-the-bus/00-overview.md)
+- [Design 32](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/32-what-a-module-declares.md) §4 and §10, [design 25](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/25-the-bus-on-nats.md) §1 and §3
+- [ADR 0030](0030-data-outlives-the-mesh-that-declared-it.md), [ADR 0039](0039-what-the-sdk-holds-and-refuses.md),
+  [ADR 0160](0160-the-mesh-issues-an-assignments-subjects-and-a-runtime-serves-what-it-is-issued.md),
+  [ADR 0198](0198-a-modules-long-running-code-is-launched-by-the-node-runtime-and-reaches-the-bus-through-it.md)

02-DECISIONS/0202-a-provider-declares-what-it-derives-for-each-consumer.md

@@ -0,0 +1,152 @@
+---
+topic: the mesh
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-02
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0048-a-provider-creates-the-credential-the-mesh-minted.md
+---
+
+# 202. A provider declares what it derives for each consumer, and the mesh tells both ends
+
+> **Written as 0188 on 2026-10-02, renumbered to 0201, and to 0202 on 2026-10-04.** Twice, for the
+> same reason twice: the bundles refactor took 0188 while this waited in a pull request, and the
+> key-value-buckets record took 0201 while this waited again. Both times the number was free when
+> it was chosen and taken by the time this merged. Only the number moved; the decision is the one
+> taken on the 2nd. The check that refuses two records sharing a number is what caught it, both
+> times — a number is how a record is cited, and three repositories cite this one.
+
+## Context
+
+An arrangement between a consumer and a provider is delivered entirely by the mesh. Where the
+provider is, which port it answers on, what name the consumer must present, where its password
+is — each arrives as a fact the consumer reads from its binding, or as `${bound:…}` filled into a
+file before the declaration leaves the control plane. The provider invents none of it and hands
+none of it back ([ADR 0048](0048-a-provider-creates-the-credential-the-mesh-minted.md)).
+
+One kind of value escapes that. Where the **provider names the resource** — a bucket, a database,
+a vhost — the name is derived from the consumer, per consumer, and the mesh has no way to carry
+it. `serves` is a literal block in the provider's definition: the same values for every consumer.
+A provisioner's contract takes a provision and returns nothing. So a value the mesh's own rule
+produced reaches neither end as a statement; it is recomputed at one end and transcribed at the
+other.
+
+The object store is the instance ([issue 124](../04-ISSUES/124-a-consumer-cannot-be-told-what-its-provider-derived/00-report.md)).
+Its provisioner normalises the login the mesh minted into a bucket name and creates, checks and
+removes exactly that; the rule lives in twenty lines of the module's own TypeScript. Its three
+consumers each write the answer into their own definition by hand. Two transcribed it correctly;
+one named a predecessor's bucket, and would have authenticated successfully and been refused on
+every object, which reads like a credential fault and is not one.
+
+Even corrected, the transcriptions are wrong in a second way. Each is `mesh-<node>-<slug>`, so
+each **names the machine the module happens to run on today** — a definition stating a fact about
+one installation, which [ADR 0155](0155-a-definition-names-no-installation-and-how-that-is-checked.md)
+forbids and whose check does not catch because the name is not a domain. Move any of the three to
+another machine and its configuration points at a bucket its key cannot open.
+
+The shape is not the object store's. A database provisioner that prefixed names, a queue provider
+that scoped vhosts, any provider that derives a resource from who is asking: each forces the
+consumer to reproduce somebody else's rule and keep it in agreement by hand.
+
+## Decision
+
+**1. A served value may name the consumer the mesh is serving.** A `serves` block, which is
+literal today, may interpolate the mesh's own statement of who the consumer is:
+
+- `${consumer:as}` — the identity the mesh minted for this consumer, exactly as the login it is
+  told to present ([ADR 0049](0049-a-consumers-identity-fits-the-tightest-backend.md));
+- `${consumer:as:dns}` — the same identity written as a DNS label.
+
+Nothing else. **The mesh learns no protocol here; it spells its own name in an alphabet it already
+knows.** The identity is the mesh's, minted by the mesh, already capped at twenty characters
+because of what an S3 access key accepts; `dns` is that same name with its separator written `-`
+instead of `_`, which is the whole of the difference between the mesh's identifier alphabet and
+the one buckets, vhosts and hostnames use. A provider that needs a prefix or a suffix writes it
+around the placeholder, because a served value is a string.
+
+The rejected alternative is **the provider returning values from provisioning** — the natural
+channel, since the provider is what derived them. It is rejected for three reasons, in order of
+weight. It inverts the delivery the mesh is built on: a grant would carry data the provider wrote
+rather than only data the mesh minted, and [ADR 0048](0048-a-provider-creates-the-credential-the-mesh-minted.md)
+removed exactly that second path once already. It makes a consumer's declaration incomplete until
+its provider's reconcile loop has run, so a consumer could not be composed before a provider
+answered — a bootstrap order the mesh does not have and does not want. And it puts the rule where
+nothing can check it: a value that arrives from a running process cannot be refused at resolution,
+only discovered wrong later, which is the failure this record exists to end.
+
+**2. The mesh resolves it once, per consumer, and tells both ends from the one resolution.** At the
+moment a consumer's declaration is composed, the mesh knows exactly who the consumer is. There, and
+only there, the placeholders are filled. The result reaches:
+
+- the **consumer**, as the served facts in its binding file and as `${bound:<provision>:<key>}` in
+  any file it writes — unchanged mechanisms, carrying one more key;
+- the **provider**, as `serves` on that consumer's entry in its contributions file, so the
+  provisioner is *told* the name rather than recomputing it.
+
+**The provider stops deriving in code and starts declaring.** One statement, filled once, delivered
+to both ends: the two cannot disagree, because there is no second computation to disagree with.
+
+**3. A served value stays settled before it is per-consumer.** Settings still compose into `serves`
+([ADR 0174](0174-a-node-varies-a-module-through-settings-and-kept-regions-never-an-edit.md)), and the consumer
+placeholders are filled after that, so an operator may set a prefix and the mesh still derives the
+rest. A `${consumer:…}` naming a fact or an alphabet the mesh does not have is refused when the
+definition is parsed, with what it may say.
+
+**4. A consumer may no longer name the resource its provider derives.** With the value delivered,
+a literal in a consumer's definition is not merely redundant — it is the one thing that can
+disagree with what the provider will actually create. The three object-store consumers lose their
+hand-written bucket names in this change.
+
+**5. A consumer that keeps several holders of one provision may not be served a derived value.**
+Each holder gets its own login, `…_<local>` ([ADR 0094](0094-a-module-may-hold-several-secrets-from-one-provider.md)),
+and a provider derives from the login — so it would make one resource per holder, while the
+consumer's side has one binding and one `${bound:<provision>:<key>}`, both derived from the
+un-suffixed identity. That is this record's own failure one case to the side, and just as quiet:
+the consumer would authenticate and be refused on every object. Refused at resolution, naming
+both ends. Lifting it means giving the consumer's side a local dimension, which is a decision and
+not an omission.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- One more thing a definition may say, and one less thing a module may be wrong about. The
+  vocabulary grows by a placeholder; the catalogue loses three literals that named this
+  installation's control node.
+- A provider's naming rule becomes readable in its definition instead of in its source. `minio`'s
+  `bucketFor` goes; the manifest says `"bucket": "${consumer:as:dns}"` and the provisioner uses
+  what it is given.
+- A provider that already serves consumers keeps serving them: the derived value equals what the
+  code derived, so no bucket, database or login changes name. This is a change of **who says it**,
+  not of **what is said**.
+- A refusal here fails **that machine's push**, naming the definition, and nothing else. That is
+  deliberate and is the opposite of a module quietly left out: a definition that transcribes
+  somebody else's rule is wrong everywhere, not just here, and the loud failure is in front of
+  whoever can fix it.
+- The mesh now holds a rule in another system's alphabet — one rule, `dns`, stated once. A second
+  alphabet is a decision, not an addition: the cost of each is that the mesh must be right about
+  somebody else's naming, and that cost is only worth paying where the mesh already mints the name.
+
+## How this is checked
+
+- A served value naming an unknown fact or alphabet is refused at parse, with the list of what it
+  may say — tested on both halves of the message.
+- Resolving a consumer whose provider derives a value puts that value in the consumer's binding
+  file, in its `${bound:…}` substitutions, and in the provider's contributions entry for that
+  consumer — one test asserting the three agree, because agreeing is the whole point.
+- Two consumers of one provider on one machine get two different derived values, and neither gets
+  the other's.
+- A consumer with several holders of a deriving provider is refused, with both ends named — the
+  test asserts the refusal, not merely that something failed.
+- A catalogue-wide test refuses a consumer definition that writes a literal where its provider
+  derives: the provider's `serves` names the key, so the catalogue can say which definitions
+  transcribe one.
+- `dns` is checked against the identity the mesh actually mints, not against an invented string:
+  the test derives an identity with `ConsumerIdentity` and asserts the label it becomes.
+
+## References
+
+- [issue 124 — a consumer cannot be told a value its provider derived for it](../04-ISSUES/124-a-consumer-cannot-be-told-what-its-provider-derived/00-report.md)
+- [ADR 0048 — a provider creates the credential the mesh minted, and seals nothing](0048-a-provider-creates-the-credential-the-mesh-minted.md)
+- [ADR 0049 — a consumer's identity fits the tightest backend](0049-a-consumers-identity-fits-the-tightest-backend.md)
+- [ADR 0174 — a node varies a module through settings and kept regions, never through an edit](0174-a-node-varies-a-module-through-settings-and-kept-regions-never-an-edit.md)
+- [ADR 0155 — a definition names no installation, and how that is checked](0155-a-definition-names-no-installation-and-how-that-is-checked.md)
+- [design 27 — a module requires, the mesh resolves](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/27-a-module-requires-the-mesh-resolves.md)

02-DECISIONS/0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md

@@ -0,0 +1,136 @@
+---
+topic: what runs on it
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-04
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0177-a-unit-may-be-user-scoped-and-the-service-manager-is-a-node-seat.md
+---
+
+# 203. The account's environment is one module's, and every module contributes to it
+
+## Context
+
+A variable or a `PATH` entry is a fact about the operator's account. A toolchain needs its directory
+on `PATH`, a version manager needs a variable naming its directory, an agent needs a variable that
+turns one of its behaviours off, and the shell sets an editor. Today every one of these is a line of
+one shell's syntax in one hand-written startup file. [Research 025](../01-RESEARCH/025-how-a-module-plugs-into-the-shell/00-overview.md)
+measured on four machines:
+
+- about a quarter of the 65 lines a workstation runs at shell start are environment;
+- written into `.zshrc`, that environment reaches only interactive zsh. It misses the login shell's
+  `execute` verb ([ADR 0176](0176-the-login-shell-is-a-node-seat-and-execute-is-its-contract.md)),
+  every script, and every program a graphical session starts;
+- the service manager's place for the account's environment, `~/.config/environment.d/`, holds
+  nothing on any machine.
+
+The shell module as first written carried some of these lines in its own block and dropped the rest.
+
+## Considered Options
+
+1. **Each module writes its own lines into the shell's startup file.** Rejected: one shell's syntax,
+   read by one kind of start, and the same lines rewritten by every shell module.
+2. **Contribute the facts to the login shell, whose holder renders them.** Rejected: the environment
+   then depends on which module holds the shell, every shell module renders the same facts again, and
+   the graphical session sees nothing.
+3. **Option 2, and the service manager's holder renders the same facts a second time** into
+   `environment.d`. Rejected: one fact set with two owners, whose renderings can disagree, and a
+   duty for the service manager unrelated to managing services.
+4. **One file in `environment.d` syntax, sourced by shells.** Rejected: that syntax is close to
+   POSIX assignment but not equal, and a value one reader accepts breaks the other.
+5. **Shells read the service manager's environment generator.** Rejected: every shell start then
+   runs a process and depends on the service manager, and the output is unquoted.
+6. **A module of its own holds the environment.** One mesh seat, held by one module per node,
+   whose files are the account's environment. Every module contributes facts to it, and those facts
+   are written in each reader's format. Chosen. It was the operator's proposal.
+
+Within option 6, two ways to write the files:
+
+- **a. The holder's own code renders what it receives.** This was research 025's starting position.
+  Rejected: the code needs something to run it whenever a contribution changes, and the result exists
+  only after a machine has applied and run it.
+- **b. The controller renders the facts into the holder's files,** in two named formats, at
+  composition. Chosen. The result is in the declaration before any machine applies it, nothing has to
+  trigger anything, and the two formats are standards: POSIX shell assignment and the service
+  manager's `environment.d`. The controller learns no shell. It writes an assignment in a standard
+  syntax, as it already writes a fail2ban stanza a module supplied.
+
+## Decision
+
+**1. The environment is a node seat, `node-environment`, in the mesh's own set.** One module per node
+holds it, and it is the only writer of the account's environment. The first holder is a module of its
+own (working name `node-env`), with no package and no process.
+
+**2. Any module contributes to it with `environment`:**
+
+- **`variables`:** names and values. A name is a POSIX variable name and never `PATH`. A value is
+  literal; it may use `${machine:…}`, resolved first, and may not contain `$`, a quote, a backslash or
+  a line break. The only expansion is the mesh's own, so the two formats cannot read one value
+  differently.
+- **`path`:** entries, each placed at the `start` or the `end` of the account's `PATH`.
+
+**3. The holder places the rendered environment with two placeholders** in its own files:
+
+- **`${environment:posix}`** renders lines a POSIX shell sources:
+  - every variable exported;
+  - every `PATH` entry added only if missing, so sourcing twice changes nothing.
+- **`${environment:systemd}`** renders the same facts as the service manager's user environment, with
+  the account's existing `PATH` kept between the start and the end entries.
+
+Each rendered line names the module that contributed it, so the file answers *where did this come
+from*. Contributions are ordered by module name, and then in the order a module declared them.
+
+**4. The seat's protocol fixes where the POSIX file is:** `~/.config/mesh/environment.sh` under the
+account's home. A shell sources that path without knowing which module wrote it. The service
+manager's file is `~/.config/environment.d/50-mesh.conf`.
+
+**5. Refused at composition:**
+
+- two modules on one node setting the same variable, both named;
+- an environment placeholder in a module that does not claim `node-environment`.
+
+A node with contributions and no holder writes them nowhere. The holder's absence is visible in the
+node's assignments, and no contributor is refused for it, because a missing `PATH` entry is a gap, not
+a broken machine.
+
+> **The mechanism changed — 2026-10-04, by [ADR 0210](0210-a-tools-configuration-is-its-seat-holders-and-every-other-module-extends-it-through-the-seat.md).** A contribution is now a dependency on
+> node-environment, met and refused as ADR 0207 says, so a node without the holder refuses the
+> contributor instead of writing the contribution nowhere. The rest of this section, and the
+> decision, stand.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- A shell's part in the environment is one line in its always-read startup file, sourcing the
+  POSIX file. A second shell module writes the same line in its own syntax, and no contributor
+  changes when the login shell does.
+- The graphical session sees the same `PATH` as the terminal, from the same facts.
+- The controller gains one gathered field and two renderers. Both are tested byte for byte, like
+  the jails a node composes ([to-be 31](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/31-a-module-declares-its-fail2ban-jail.md)).
+- What a person sets for themselves stays theirs: variables of their own sit in their own lines of
+  their shell's file, read after the mesh's.
+- **What got harder:** a value that needs another variable expanded (`$HOME`, `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME`)
+  must be written with the mesh's own `${machine:…}` facts, or it is refused. Expansion at shell start
+  is exactly what made one value mean two things in two readers.
+- Once [issue 168](../04-ISSUES/168-a-setting-reaches-every-file-and-contribution/00-report.md)
+  closes, a value a person varies becomes a setting of the module that contributes it
+  ([ADR 0174](0174-a-node-varies-a-module-through-settings-and-kept-regions-never-an-edit.md)).
+
+## How it is checked
+
+| Rule | Checked by |
+|---|---|
+| Both renderings, byte for byte, from a fixed set of contributions | the controller's environment tests |
+| Sourcing the POSIX rendering twice leaves `PATH` unchanged | the same tests, running `sh` over the rendering |
+| A variable set by two modules is refused, naming both | the controller's resolve test |
+| An environment placeholder outside the holder is refused | the catalogue check, which registration runs |
+| A value with `$`, a quote, a backslash or a line break is refused | the manifest's parse test |
+| The zsh holder sources the path the seat fixes | the catalogue's zsh test |
+
+## References
+
+- [Research 025](../01-RESEARCH/025-how-a-module-plugs-into-the-shell/00-overview.md)
+- [ADR 0174](0174-a-node-varies-a-module-through-settings-and-kept-regions-never-an-edit.md),
+  [ADR 0176](0176-the-login-shell-is-a-node-seat-and-execute-is-its-contract.md),
+  [ADR 0177](0177-a-unit-may-be-user-scoped-and-the-service-manager-is-a-node-seat.md),
+  [ADR 0182](0182-inside-a-home-the-mesh-owns-what-it-places-and-holds-the-rest-as-found.md)
+- [To-be 41](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/41-the-shell-and-the-accounts-environment.md)

02-DECISIONS/0204-a-module-contributes-shell-code-to-the-login-shell-in-named-slots.md

@@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
+---
+topic: what runs on it
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-04
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0176-the-login-shell-is-a-node-seat-and-execute-is-its-contract.md
+---
+
+# 204. A module contributes shell code to the login shell in named slots, and the login shell is the mesh's seat
+
+## Context
+
+Some of what a shell runs at start is code in that shell's own syntax, and it belongs to other
+modules:
+
+- a prompt theme loads itself and its configuration;
+- plugins load themselves;
+- a version manager sources its loader.
+
+Order matters: a prompt's instant-prompt cache must run first, and syntax highlighting last. The
+predecessor kept all of this in one file per machine, and installed the theme and plugins by cloning
+them in a hook.
+[Research 025](../01-RESEARCH/025-how-a-module-plugs-into-the-shell/00-overview.md) measured that file
+as byte-identical on four machines. It carries:
+
+- the shell's defaults;
+- code belonging to four other pieces of software;
+- a handful of the operator's own lines.
+
+Nothing gave the other pieces a way in.
+
+Two further facts bear on the seat itself:
+
+- **The seat is declared by the zsh module** ([ADR 0176](0176-the-login-shell-is-a-node-seat-and-execute-is-its-contract.md)
+  §1, under [ADR 0126](0126-a-module-declares-its-own-seats.md)). The controller refuses a second
+  module declaring a seat name, so fish or bash could only ever claim it, and the seat exists only
+  while zsh's definition is registered.
+- **The kept region is the other way round.** [ADR 0174](0174-a-node-varies-a-module-through-settings-and-kept-regions-never-an-edit.md)
+  describes a kept region as a marked block holding the operator's lines. The host built the inverse:
+  the mesh's region is the marked block, and every byte outside it is kept, verified unchanged, and
+  given back when the module goes.
+
+## Considered Options
+
+1. **A drop-in directory** that each module places a file in, and the shell sources. Rejected: every
+   contributor names a path inside the shell module's territory
+   ([ADR 0112](0112-a-module-definition-names-no-node-mesh-or-path.md)); order becomes a naming
+   convention nothing checks; and nothing ties the file to the shell actually being the one it is
+   written for.
+2. **Facts the holder renders**, through `contributes` / `receives`. Rejected: code is not a fact,
+   and the holder would only paste it.
+3. **Code contributed for a named shell in a named slot, assembled by the controller into the
+   holder's file.** This is what the controller already does for fail2ban jails: each module supplies
+   text in the tool's own format, and the controller sorts and concatenates it into the holder's file
+   without interpreting it. Chosen.
+
+For order, numbers (`10`, `50`, `90`) were rejected: every contributor guesses one, and collisions are
+silent. **Three named slots** were chosen: `first`, `normal`, `last`.
+
+## Decision
+
+**1. `node-login-shell` is a node seat in the mesh's own set,** with the verb `execute`. It replaces
+the module-declared `login-shell`. Everything else ADR 0176 decided stands: the holder sets the
+account's login shell through the `user` shape, `execute` is the contract, and any node may call it.
+A shell module claims the seat; none declares it.
+
+**2. Any module contributes shell code with `shell`:** entries naming the shell they are for (`zsh`,
+`bash`, `fish`), the slot, and the code. The controller does not read the code.
+
+**3. The holder places the code with placeholders** in its own files: `${shell:<shell>:<slot>}`. Each
+is filled with that shell's code for that slot, from every module on the node:
+
+- ordered by module name;
+- each piece preceded by a line naming its module;
+- empty when nothing is contributed.
+
+A shell-code placeholder in a module that does not claim `node-login-shell` is refused.
+
+**4. The holder's duties, which are the seat's protocol:**
+
+- Source the account's environment ([ADR 0203](0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md))
+  from the startup file every start of that shell reads. For zsh that is `.zshenv`, which a script, a
+  login and `execute` all read.
+- Write its interactive block at the **start** of the interactive startup file, so the operator's own
+  lines run after the mesh's and win.
+- Run `execute` as a non-interactive login shell in the account's home:
+  - bounded below the runtime's call limit;
+  - its output bounded;
+  - its whole process group ended on timeout.
+
+**5. The marked block is the mesh's; everything outside it is the operator's.** This is how ADR 0174's
+"kept region" is built. That record keeps its decision and gains a note saying where the mechanism
+lives.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- A prompt, a plugin and a version manager are each a module with its own package or archive, its own
+  configuration file, and a contribution. Assigning one adds its line to the shell, and unassigning it
+  takes the line away at the next composition.
+- Assigning the shell module loses nothing the machine does today:
+  - what is common to every machine becomes the shell module's default or another module's
+    contribution;
+  - what is the operator's stays below the block.
+- **The one-off migration is a person's act**, listed in the shell module's documentation
+  ([ADR 0182](0182-inside-a-home-the-mesh-owns-what-it-places-and-holds-the-rest-as-found.md)):
+  delete the lines the block now carries from the found file.
+- `login-shell.execute` becomes `node-login-shell.execute`. Nothing has called it yet; the shell
+  module was never assigned.
+- **What got harder:** a module wanting a line in the shell must say which shell and which slot, and a
+  module supporting three shells writes its code three times. That is the honest cost of code in
+  three syntaxes.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+| Rule | Checked by |
+|---|---|
+| Code lands in its slot, in module order, only for its shell | the controller's shell-contribution tests |
+| A shell-code placeholder outside the holder is refused | the catalogue check |
+| `node-login-shell` is the mesh's, and no module may declare it | the seat table's tests |
+| The zsh block sits at the start, sources the environment from `.zshenv`, and holds the three slots | the catalogue's zsh test |
+| `execute` is bounded in time and output and kills its process group | the zsh module's tool tests over real child processes |
+
+## References
+
+- [Research 025](../01-RESEARCH/025-how-a-module-plugs-into-the-shell/00-overview.md)
+- [ADR 0174](0174-a-node-varies-a-module-through-settings-and-kept-regions-never-an-edit.md),
+  [ADR 0176](0176-the-login-shell-is-a-node-seat-and-execute-is-its-contract.md),
+  [ADR 0203](0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md),
+  [to-be 31](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/31-a-module-declares-its-fail2ban-jail.md)
+- [To-be 41](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/41-the-shell-and-the-accounts-environment.md)

02-DECISIONS/0205-software-the-distribution-does-not-package-ships-as-a-pinned-archive-of-the-module.md

@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+---
+topic: what runs on it
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-04
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+---
+
+# 205. Software the distribution does not package ships as a pinned archive of the module's own
+
+## Context
+
+The prompt theme the operator uses is not in the distribution's repositories. Its two plugins and an
+autocomplete plugin are. The predecessor installed all four by running `git clone` against their
+upstream repositories from an install hook. That way:
+
+- the version on a machine was whatever upstream's default branch held the day the hook ran;
+- two machines set up a week apart could differ;
+- a machine with no route to upstream failed its install.
+
+The mesh already has a pinned, delivered form for a module's own files: an **archive artifact** built
+from a directory of the module's source, delivered by the artifact store, unpacked by the host's
+`archive` resource, and pinned by digest. One showcase module uses it.
+
+## Considered Options
+
+1. **Clone from upstream on the machine,** as the predecessor did. Rejected: unpinned, unreproducible,
+   and it needs upstream reachable from every machine.
+2. **Build from the distribution's user repository.** Rejected: the host installs packages from the
+   distribution's own repositories. A user-repository build is a toolchain on every machine for one
+   theme.
+3. **Vendor a pinned upstream release into the module's directory and ship it as the module's archive
+   artifact.** Chosen. The release and its version are named in the module, its licence travels with
+   it, and every machine gets the same bytes from the mesh's own store.
+
+## Decision
+
+**A module whose software the distribution does not package carries a pinned upstream release in its
+own source directory and ships it as an archive artifact.**
+
+- The module's documentation names the upstream, the version and the licence.
+- The host unpacks it with the `archive` resource into a directory the module owns.
+- An upgrade is a change to the module, reviewed like any other.
+
+Software the distribution *does* package is installed as a package; a vendored copy of it is
+refused in review.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- The catalogue grows by the size of what it vendors: 1.4 MB for the prompt theme at the pinned
+  release.
+- Upstream's security fixes reach a machine only when somebody updates the module. That is the same
+  trade every pinned dependency makes, and it is visible: the version is in the module.
+- **What got harder:** a vendored program that downloads more at run time, as the prompt theme does
+  for its git status helper, still fetches that part from upstream on first use. This record pins
+  what the mesh ships, not what the software fetches for itself. The module's documentation says so.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+| Rule | Checked by |
+|---|---|
+| The archive is pinned by digest | the host's declaration validation, which refuses an archive without one |
+| The upstream, version and licence are named | review of the module's documentation; the module's test asserts the licence file is in the archive |
+| Packaged software is not vendored | review |
+
+## References
+
+- [ADR 0204](0204-a-module-contributes-shell-code-to-the-login-shell-in-named-slots.md)
+- [To-be 41](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/41-the-shell-and-the-accounts-environment.md)

02-DECISIONS/0206-a-node-reports-the-anthropic-grant-it-holds-and-the-licence-manager-adopts-a-licence-by-refreshing-it.md

@@ -0,0 +1,144 @@
+---
+topic: what runs on it
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-04
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0183-the-anthropic-licence-manager-is-a-module-and-hands-tokens-to-the-agent-over-the-bus.md
+---
+
+# 206. A node reports the Anthropic grant it holds; the licence manager adopts a licence by refreshing it, and what each node should hold is the manager's state
+
+## Context
+
+[ADR 0183](0183-the-anthropic-licence-manager-is-a-module-and-hands-tokens-to-the-agent-over-the-bus.md)
+made the licence manager a module holding the `anthropic-licence-manager` seat: one rotation source, the
+long-lived grants in its own store, a short-lived token handed to a node sealed on request/reply, the
+agent module alone writing what the agent reads. How the manager *learns* a licence, and who starts each
+exchange, it left to a later shape, and three texts have since disagreed: ADR 0183 has a node register
+its key and the manager adopt a login only into a licence the node is already bound to; its dated note
+of 2026-10-03 has the manager start every exchange and visit every node on a schedule; the agent module
+as built asks the seat for its token when an event says to, and pushes a login to the seat.
+
+**The operator settled it on 2026-10-04, in the operator's own words:** the manager must hold the active refresh token;
+whichever node a login happened on holds the latest one; every client publishes what its credentials
+file holds, the manager sees a licence it does not own yet and takes it into its store, and from then on
+rotates it and distributes the access token. A manager launched for the first time holds no licence and
+accepts what the clients report. Several nodes report the same account — today the nodes are all logged in
+to one personal account — and before the manager adopts a grant it must know the refresh token still
+works.
+
+Two facts bound how that is built:
+
+- **A refresh token cannot be published.** Anything published on the bus is kept, and a secret never
+  enters a stream, sealed or not ([design 32](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/32-what-a-module-declares.md) §10).
+  A module's state is a stream too, and the runtime refuses a value carrying a field named like a
+  credential ([ADR 0201](0201-a-module-keeps-its-current-state-in-key-value-buckets-it-declares-and-reaches-through-the-runtime.md);
+  refused live on 2026-10-04 for an `Authorization` header).
+- **A refresh token can only be checked by using it.** No endpoint answers "is this refresh token
+  valid" without exchanging it, and an exchange is presumed to rotate it (ADR 0183: the predecessor
+  lost a licence to a reused one). Checking and adopting are therefore one act, and whoever checks
+  becomes the token's only live holder.
+
+Since ADR 0201 the bus has the shape this needs: **state** every node sees, including one that joins
+later or a manager that starts later, read whole on start and then watched.
+
+## Considered Options
+
+1. **Each node publishes its credentials file, the token included.** What the operator described,
+   literally. Rejected for the token only: it would sit in a stream every principal that reads the
+   bucket can read, for as long as the bucket keeps it, and the runtime refuses it anyway.
+2. **The manager visits every node on a schedule and collects a waiting login** (ADR 0183's dated
+   note). Rejected: the manager must know every node in advance and poll it, a node that joins later
+   waits for the next visit, and "what does each node hold" lives nowhere anyone can read.
+3. **Each node reports what it holds as state, without the secret; the manager asks for the secret
+   only when the report shows a grant it does not hold, and adopts by refreshing.** Chosen: the
+   operator's flow, with the one part that cannot be on the bus moved onto request/reply.
+
+## Decision
+
+**1. Every agent module reports what its node holds, as its own state.** One key per node in the
+module's `holdings` state: the account's identity as the agent's own state file names it (account id,
+address, organisation), the kind, the refresh token's **fingerprint** and whether one is present at
+all, the access token's fingerprint and expiry, the licence it was last handed, and when the credentials
+file last changed. Written when the module starts — a node already logged in when the module is first
+assigned reports at once — and again whenever the credentials file changes. **No token, ever**: a
+fingerprint names a token without being one.
+
+**2. A licence is an account, and the manager learns it from the reports.** The manager reads every
+node's `holdings` at start and watches them. A report carrying a refresh token whose fingerprint the
+manager does not hold is a **candidate**: for an account it has no licence for yet, a new licence; for
+one it has, a login made since. A manager launched for the first time holds no licence and treats
+every report as a candidate. An API key still enters only through the seat's `adopt` verb, from a file
+on the manager's node.
+
+**3. The secret travels only when asked for.** For a candidate, the manager calls that node's agent
+module on request/reply, giving its own public key, and is answered with the grant sealed to that key
+(ADR 0183's channel, unchanged).
+
+**4. Adopting is refreshing.** The manager exchanges the candidate's refresh token at the vendor's
+endpoint under its lease for that account. If the exchange succeeds, the grant it got back is the
+licence's, stored encrypted, and the manager is from then on its only rotation source. If it fails, the
+candidate is recorded dead, nothing is adopted, and the report says so. **Several nodes, one account:**
+candidates for one account are tried newest login first; the first that refreshes is adopted, and the
+manager does not exchange the others.
+
+**5. A node holds an access token only, so the latest login wins.** A node bound to an adopted licence
+is handed the access token and nothing else, and the agent module writes the credentials file without a
+refresh token — so the agent on the node can never refresh it, and two refreshers never hold one grant.
+A refresh token appearing in a node's file afterwards can therefore only be a person's login there; its
+report makes it a candidate, and if it refreshes it replaces the licence's grant. That is the operator's
+"whichever node a login happened on holds the latest one", made mechanical.
+
+**6. What each consumer should hold is the manager's state.** One key per consumer in the manager's
+`bindings` state: the licence, its kind, and a **generation** that increases with every rotation and
+every switch. The agent module watches its own key; when the generation is newer than the one it
+applied, it asks the seat's `current` verb for the token, sending its public key, and is answered sealed
+(request/reply). A node that was away reads its key when it is back and asks once. The `licence.rotated`
+and `licence.switched` events go: what they announced is now the state itself, and a node needs the
+latest, not the history.
+
+**7. A first binding follows the login.** When the manager adopts a licence from a node's report, a
+node with no binding yet whose report names that account is bound to it. Every later change is a
+person's act through `bind`, `switch` and `release`, as ADR 0183 says.
+
+**8. The identity guard stands, on two sources.** The account a grant is filed under is the identity
+the node read from the agent's own state. Where the vendor's answer to the refresh names the account,
+the manager compares the two and refuses a mismatch with a notification; whether it names it is
+measured when the manager is built, and the record of which source decided is kept in the audit.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- The manager needs no configuration to start: launched on a mesh whose nodes are logged in, it adopts
+  every account they hold, one licence each, from the newest login that still refreshes.
+- Every node's holding is readable by anyone allowed to read the state — the console, an agent, the
+  operator — without a token in sight, which is what `licence_status` on each node answered one at a
+  time.
+- **What got harder:** adoption consumes the refresh token the node held. On a node whose grant was
+  adopted, the agent's own copy is dead from that moment; until the manager hands it an access token
+  (decision 6), the agent keeps the access token it already had, which lives hours. And a node whose
+  file still holds a refresh token after adoption — it was not handed one yet — is a second holder of a
+  dead grant, not a live one, so the rotation-source rule holds.
+- A candidate whose refresh fails is not retried by the manager: a dead refresh token does not come
+  back. A person logs in again, and the new report is a new candidate.
+- Nothing in the reports is secret, but they do say which account each node uses; readers of the state
+  are declared in manifests like any other.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+| Rule | Checked by |
+|---|---|
+| No report carries a token | the runtime refuses a credential-named field (ADR 0201's test); the agent module's test: a report built from a full credentials file holds fingerprints and identity only |
+| A node already logged in reports at start | the agent module's test: with a credentials file present and unchanged, starting writes its `holdings` key |
+| A candidate is adopted only by a successful refresh, newest login first, once per account | the manager's tests against a stub vendor: two reports for one account, the newer refreshes and is adopted, the older is never exchanged; a failing refresh adopts nothing and records the candidate dead |
+| A node is handed an access token only | the agent module's test: the file it writes after a hand-over holds no refresh token |
+| A newer generation is fetched once, by request | the agent module's test: a `bindings` change with a newer generation asks `current` once; an equal one asks nothing |
+| No event carries a token, and none announces a rotation any more | the manager's test of everything it publishes |
+| Live | the manager launched with no licence on a mesh whose four nodes are logged in to one account adopts one licence, binds the four nodes, and each node's file then holds an access token and no refresh token |
+
+## References
+
+- [ADR 0183](0183-the-anthropic-licence-manager-is-a-module-and-hands-tokens-to-the-agent-over-the-bus.md) — the manager, its seat and its channel, which this extends
+- [ADR 0201](0201-a-module-keeps-its-current-state-in-key-value-buckets-it-declares-and-reaches-through-the-runtime.md) — module state, and the refusal of a secret in it
+- [design 32](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/32-what-a-module-declares.md) §10 — no secret in a stream
+- [to-be 36](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/36-the-operators-agent-on-a-machine.md), [to-be 39](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/39-the-anthropic-licence-manager.md) — the two modules, amended by this record

02-DECISIONS/0207-a-module-depends-on-the-node-seats-that-apply-its-resources.md

@@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
+---
+topic: the mesh
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-04
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0177-a-unit-may-be-user-scoped-and-the-service-manager-is-a-node-seat.md
+---
+
+# 207. A module depends on the node seats that apply its resources
+
+## Context
+
+A module declares resources: packages, services, containers, files. Some of those are applied
+through software on the machine that is itself a module:
+
+- a service through the service manager;
+- a package through the package manager;
+- a container through the container runtime.
+
+Until now nothing said so. A module carried a *capability* such as `service-manager` or
+`package-manager`, which the host detects on the machine. A capability says the software is
+installed. It does not say that a module of the mesh holds the role and answers for it.
+
+The cost showed on 2026-10-04:
+
+- **A networking module declared the service manager's own package.** The controller allows one
+  declaration of a resource per node, so the module that *is* the service manager could not declare
+  its package and had been written without it. The networking module's real relation to the service
+  manager, that it needs one held on its node, was nowhere.
+- **The container runtime** has had this decided for its own case since ADR 0165 and ADR 0166
+  (proposed): a module that delivers a container needs the runtime seat held on its machine, derived
+  from the container resource, with no manifest field.
+- **The operator's order for building the machines' modules** (to-be 42) is *the most core first*.
+  That is an order the mesh should enforce, not one a person should remember.
+
+## Considered Options
+
+1. **Keep capabilities as the only gate.** Rejected: a capability is a fact about the machine, not
+   about the mesh. Software installed by hand satisfies it, and nothing then answers for it.
+2. **A manifest field per module naming the seats it needs.** Rejected: a module would restate what
+   its resources already say, and a module that adds a service but forgets the field passes.
+3. **Derive the dependency from the resources,** as ADR 0165 already does for containers, and refuse
+   an assignment whose seats are not held on the node. Chosen.
+
+## Decision
+
+**1. Three node seats apply resources,** each in the mesh's own set:
+
+| resource | applied through | seat | first holder |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| `service` | the service manager | `node-service-manager` (ADR 0177) | `systemd` |
+| `package` | the package manager | `node-package-manager` (new) | `pacman` |
+| `container` | the container runtime | `node-container-runtime` (ADR 0166) | `docker` |
+
+`node-package-manager` is new and has no verbs yet. `node-container-runtime` is seeded now as ADR 0166
+names it. Its verbs, and the host creating containers through its holder, stay with that record's
+acceptance.
+
+**2. A module depends on each seat its resources need.** The controller derives this from the
+resource types the module declares. A module never states it.
+
+**3. A dependency is met when any module assigned to the same node holds the seat,** the module
+itself included. The holders of these seats declare resources of each other's kinds: the service
+manager's package needs the package manager, and the package manager's timer needs the service
+manager. They are therefore judged as the node's whole set of assignments, never one at a time.
+
+**4. Where it is checked:**
+
+- **At `assign`,** an assignment whose dependencies are unmet by the node's assignments, including the
+  new one, is refused. The refusal names each seat and the modules in the catalogue that can hold it.
+- **At composition,** an unmet dependency on a node is **reported** in `status` until the three holders
+  are assigned to every node. Then it is **refused** like any unresolved requirement. The switch is one
+  line in the controller, made when `status` reports none.
+
+**5. The mesh's own foundation is exempt.** These are the pieces genesis lays before any module exists:
+the host, the private network and the bootstrap runtime. Their declarations are the installation's,
+not a module's.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- The order of to-be 42 becomes the mesh's: `systemd`, `pacman` and `docker` on a node before
+  anything that installs, runs or contains.
+- **Two modules no longer declare one shared package to say they need it.** A component's module
+  (networkd's) declares what it configures and depends on the seat. The component's own package
+  belongs to the module that holds the seat.
+- Capabilities stay what they are, facts about the machine, used where a module needs the machine to
+  be able to do something.
+- **What got harder:** a module can no longer be tried on a node that lacks the core three. That is
+  the point.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+| Rule | Checked by |
+|---|---|
+| The dependency is derived from resources: a service, a package and a container each need their seat | the controller's resolve tests |
+| A node whose assignments hold the seats passes; one missing a holder is refused at `assign`, naming the seat and its possible holders | the same tests, and `assign` live |
+| Mutual dependencies among the holders resolve when they are assigned together | the same tests |
+| Until the switch, an unmet dependency is reported in `status` and does not refuse a push | the controller's status test |
+| Foundation declarations are exempt | the composition test with genesis's declarations |
+
+## References
+
+- [ADR 0165](0165-container-runtime-is-what-a-machine-can-run-and-a-running-runtime-is-its-holders-health.md),
+  [ADR 0166](0166-the-container-runtime-is-a-node-seat-and-the-host-creates-containers-through-its-holder.md),
+  [ADR 0177](0177-a-unit-may-be-user-scoped-and-the-service-manager-is-a-node-seat.md)
+- [To-be 42](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/42-the-machines-modules-in-order.md)

02-DECISIONS/0208-the-graphical-session-is-one-module-per-piece-on-the-meshs-seats.md

@@ -0,0 +1,144 @@
+---
+topic: what runs on it
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-04
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0204-a-module-contributes-shell-code-to-the-login-shell-in-named-slots.md
+---
+
+# 208. The graphical session is one module per piece, on the mesh's seats
+
+## Context
+
+The two workstations run one predecessor desktop
+([research 026](../01-RESEARCH/026-the-graphical-session-as-modules/00-overview.md)). It was a module of
+983 lines with four flavors and 92 theme variables. One of its machines carried another machine model's
+hardware files, and its session's environment was a hand-kept copy of the account's. The operator asked
+for the desktop as modules at the shell's level, consistent across machines, with sway as a sibling of i3.
+To-be 38 named this WP7, and to-be 37 left one question for the resolver: how a module says it needs a
+display server held on its node.
+
+## Considered Options
+
+- **One desktop module, as before** (research 026 §1, G1). Rejected: flavors again, and the evidence is
+  a flavor on the wrong machine.
+- **One module per piece of software.** Chosen.
+- **For "i3 needs an X server" (research 026 §3):**
+  - a new field (R2), rejected as a second way to say what provisions already say;
+  - assigning carefully (R3), rejected because that is the misassignment the evidence shows;
+  - **a provision with the machine's reach** (R1), chosen.
+- **For other modules' lines in a holder's file (research 026 §5):**
+  - only drop-ins (C1), rejected because two files the session needs have no drop-in convention;
+  - only slots (C2), rejected as needless where the tool already reads a directory;
+  - **both, the boundary drawn by the tool** (C3), chosen.
+
+## Decision
+
+**1. One module per piece of software:** `lemurs`, `xorg`, `i3`, `xterm`, `picom`, `rofi`, `dmenu`,
+`dunst`, the lock screen, `xclip`, the clipboard manager, `feh`, `i3status-rust`, a theme module,
+`fonts`, `gnome-keyring`, and later `sway`, `foot`, `waybar` and `mako`. No flavors. What follows a
+machine's hardware is that model's hardware module (research 027/03).
+
+**2. The roles are node seats in the mesh's own set,** each with the verbs research 026/05 starts it with:
+
+| seat | holders | verbs to start with |
+|---|---|---|
+| `node-login-manager` | lemurs | `sessions` |
+| `node-display-server` | xorg, sway | `displays`, `layout` |
+| `node-display-session` | i3, sway | `reload`, `workspaces`, `windows` |
+| `node-terminal-emulator` | xterm, foot | `open` |
+| `node-launcher` | rofi, dmenu | `menu`, the dmenu-compatible command |
+| `node-notifier` | dunst, mako | `send`, `history` |
+| `node-lock-screen` | the lock module, swaylock | `lock` |
+| `node-clipboard` | the clipboard manager | `history`, `copy` |
+| `node-bar`, `node-compositor` | i3status-rust, waybar; picom | none yet |
+| `node-secret-service` | gnome-keyring | none yet |
+
+A compositor that is its own server holds two seats, as sway does.
+
+**3. A display is a provision with the machine's reach.**
+
+- A display server provides `x11-display` or `wayland-display`, reachable only on its own machine.
+- A module that draws on a display requires the one it speaks: i3, picom, xterm and the X lock require
+  `x11-display`; sway's companions require `wayland-display`.
+- A requirement with the machine's reach is resolved on the requiring module's own node, or not at
+  all, and is refused naming the seat's holders.
+- `xwayland`, as its own module, provides `x11-display` inside a Wayland session.
+
+This answers to-be 37 §4 by reusing provisions and reach rather than a new field. A capability the host
+reports, `graphical-session`, still gates the display server itself.
+
+**4. Other modules contribute to a holder's file in the tool's own grain.**
+
+- Where the tool reads a directory, the contributor places its own file there:
+  - i3's `include` directory;
+  - dunst's `dunstrc.d`;
+  - XDG autostart;
+  - `environment.d`;
+  - fontconfig's `conf.d`;
+  - ssh's `config.d`;
+  - the login manager's session directory.
+- Where it does not, **ADR 0204's slots serve beyond shells.** A `shell` contribution's `for` may also
+  name:
+  - `xinitrc`: POSIX code the session's start runs;
+  - `xresources`: X resources merged at session start.
+
+  The holder of `node-display-server` places them with `${shell:xinitrc:<slot>}` and
+  `${shell:xresources:<slot>}`.
+
+> **The mechanism changed — 2026-10-04, by [ADR 0210](0210-a-tools-configuration-is-its-seat-holders-and-every-other-module-extends-it-through-the-seat.md).** A contributor no longer places its own
+> file in another tool's directory. It contributes to the tool's seat, and the seat's holder places it,
+> in that directory or through a placeholder. Every contribution, the `xinitrc` and `xresources` slots
+> included, is a dependency on the seat that receives it. What a contribution contains still follows
+> the tool's grain.
+
+**5. The display server's module writes the session's start.** It writes a block at the start of
+`~/.xinitrc`, in this order:
+
+1. it sources the account's environment (ADR 0203);
+2. it imports the session's own variables into the user manager and D-Bus activation, by an explicit
+   list;
+3. it merges the X resources;
+4. it runs the `xinitrc` slots;
+5. it ends by starting the session holder's command, which the session module contributes in the
+   `last` slot.
+
+The desktop's identity and the theme variables are environment contributions of the session and
+theme modules. The hand-kept environment in today's file goes, and so does the predecessor's file of
+secrets (research 027 question 2).
+
+**6. Per-machine values:**
+
+- Monitor layouts are profiles keyed by the monitors' identities (research 026/04). They are the
+  operator's data, and the display server's `layout` verb manages them.
+- DPI and theme values are module defaults now, and settings after issue 168.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- A workstation's desktop is a list of assignments, the same on both. The one machine model's
+  hardware is one more assignment.
+- The X stack is built first, and sway is designed in from the start.
+- The controller learns:
+  - the eleven seats;
+  - provisions with the machine's reach;
+  - two more names for a contribution's `for`.
+- **What got harder:** a module that draws must say which display it speaks, and one that wants both
+  ships twice.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+| Rule | Checked by |
+|---|---|
+| The seats are in the mesh's own set, refused to any module that declares them | the seat table's tests |
+| A machine-reach requirement resolves on its own node only, refused naming the holders | the controller's resolve tests |
+| `xinitrc` and `xresources` slots are placed only by the display server's holder | the catalogue check |
+| The session block sources the environment, merges resources, runs the slots and ends with the session | the `xorg` module's manifest test, and on the proving workstation |
+
+## References
+
+- [Research 026](../01-RESEARCH/026-the-graphical-session-as-modules/00-overview.md), its 02, 04 and 05
+- [ADR 0203](0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md),
+  [ADR 0204](0204-a-module-contributes-shell-code-to-the-login-shell-in-named-slots.md),
+  [ADR 0207](0207-a-module-depends-on-the-node-seats-that-apply-its-resources.md)
+- [To-be 42](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/42-the-machines-modules-in-order.md)

02-DECISIONS/0209-a-login-on-a-node-moves-that-node-to-its-account-and-an-api-key-is-added-from-any-node-sealed.md

@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+---
+topic: what runs on it
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-04
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0206-a-node-reports-the-anthropic-grant-it-holds-and-the-licence-manager-adopts-a-licence-by-refreshing-it.md
+---
+
+# 209. A login on a node moves that node to the account it logged in to; an API key is added from any node, sealed
+
+## Context
+
+[ADR 0206](0206-a-node-reports-the-anthropic-grant-it-holds-and-the-licence-manager-adopts-a-licence-by-refreshing-it.md)
+made a licence an account the manager learns from what the nodes report, adopted by refreshing it, and
+bound a node to a licence automatically only when it was bound to nothing (§7); every later change was a
+person's act through `bind` and `switch`. It went live on 2026-10-04 with one account, bound to all four
+nodes.
+
+**The operator then asked what happens on a login to a second account on one node, and traced, the
+answer was wrong.** The manager adopts the second account as a new licence — and leaves the node bound to
+the first. The node is left holding the second account's access token, a refresh token the adoption just
+spent, and a binding to the first; at the first account's next rotation it is handed a token its own state
+file does not name. A login is the most direct thing a person does on a machine about which account it
+uses, and the mesh read it as a contribution of a grant only.
+
+**An API key could enter only from a file on the manager's node** (ADR 0206, design 39 §6), so adding one
+meant reaching that machine. The operator asked for a streamlined process for both.
+
+## Considered Options
+
+1. **A login on a node switches that node to the account logged in to.** Chosen.
+2. **Keep ADR 0206 §7, and have the person `switch` after logging in.** Rejected: the step is easy to
+   forget and the state between the login and the switch is the broken one described above.
+3. **Refuse to adopt a login for an account other than the node's binding.** Rejected: it discards what
+   the person plainly meant, and a second account could then enter only by a separate act.
+
+## Decision
+
+**1. A login on a node is that node's choice of account.** When the manager adopts a node's login (ADR
+0206 §4) — a new account, or a newer login of one it holds — it binds that node to the licence the login
+belongs to. If the node was bound to another licence, this is a switch: the node is handed the new
+licence's access token and its agent's account is pointed at it, as `switch` does. Every other node stays
+where it is. `bind`, `switch` and `release` remain for moving a node without a login.
+
+**2. A login that does not refresh moves nothing.** The candidate is recorded dead (ADR 0206 §4) and the
+node keeps its binding; the person logs in again.
+
+**3. An API key is added from any node, sealed, never as an argument.** The agent module serves a tool
+that reads a key from a file on its own node, seals it to the manager's public key — which the seat now
+serves as a verb — and hands it to the seat's `adopt` on request/reply; the file is removed once the
+manager has taken it. Optionally the same call binds that node to the new licence. The seat's `adopt`
+still also takes a file on the manager's node. An API key is a licence of its own, never an account's:
+nothing is learned about it from a report, and it moves a node only when a person says so.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- Logging in on a node is the whole of moving that node to an account, new or known. The mesh's state
+  stays consistent: the binding, the token on the node and the account its agent names agree.
+- A second account enters the mesh by one login, and only the node it was logged in on uses it.
+- **What got harder:** a person who logs in on a node to try an account moves that node; moving it back is
+  `switch`. Said in the seat's own description of `switch`, and in the agent module's instruction file.
+- The key file on a node exists only until the manager has taken it; the key then lives encrypted in the
+  manager's store alone (ADR 0183).
+
+## How it is checked
+
+| Rule | Checked by |
+|---|---|
+| A login for another account moves its node and no other | the manager's test: two accounts, the login on one node adopted, that node switched, the others unchanged |
+| A newer login of a known account on a node bound elsewhere moves that node | the manager's test |
+| A login that does not refresh moves nothing | the manager's test: the binding unchanged, the candidate dead |
+| An API key never crosses the bus in the clear and its file is gone afterwards | the agent module's test: the request carries a sealed box only; the file is removed after the seat answered |
+| Live | a login to a second account on one workstation: a second licence appears, that workstation is bound to it and its agent names it, the other nodes keep the first |
+
+## References
+
+- [ADR 0206](0206-a-node-reports-the-anthropic-grant-it-holds-and-the-licence-manager-adopts-a-licence-by-refreshing-it.md) — the flow this extends; §7 is changed by decision 1
+- [ADR 0183](0183-the-anthropic-licence-manager-is-a-module-and-hands-tokens-to-the-agent-over-the-bus.md) — the manager, its seat and its channel
+- [to-be 36](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/36-the-operators-agent-on-a-machine.md), [to-be 39](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/39-the-anthropic-licence-manager.md)

02-DECISIONS/0210-a-tools-configuration-is-its-seat-holders-and-every-other-module-extends-it-through-the-seat.md

@@ -0,0 +1,115 @@
+---
+topic: the mesh
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-04
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0207-a-module-depends-on-the-node-seats-that-apply-its-resources.md
+---
+
+# 210. A tool's configuration is its seat holder's, and every other module extends it through the seat
+
+## Context
+
+One fault kept coming back while the machines' modules were rolled out
+([to-be 42](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/42-the-machines-modules-in-order.md)): two modules want the same
+thing on a node.
+
+- The bar module and the package manager's module both declared the package that brings the
+  package manager's helper scripts. The node stopped resolving
+  ([issue 235](../04-ISSUES/235-an-assignment-that-cannot-be-composed-is-recorded-anyway/00-report.md)).
+- The launcher, the clipboard manager, the wallpaper and the bar each wrote a file of their own into
+  the window manager's include directory, as [ADR 0208](0208-the-graphical-session-is-one-module-per-piece-on-the-meshs-seats.md)
+  §4 allowed. Nothing says those modules need the window manager. Assigned without it, they write
+  configuration nothing reads. Assigned with a different session holder, they write into a directory
+  that holder does not own.
+- [ADR 0203](0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md) §5
+  lets a module contribute to the environment on a node that has no holder: the contribution is
+  written nowhere, and nothing says so.
+
+The mesh already has the piece that answers this.
+[ADR 0207](0207-a-module-depends-on-the-node-seats-that-apply-its-resources.md) made a module depend on
+the seat that applies its resources, derived from what it declares. A contribution is the same kind
+of need. It is configuration that only the seat's holder can apply.
+
+## Considered Options
+
+1. **Let the first module to declare a file or package own it,** and refuse the second. Rejected:
+   ownership then depends on the order modules were written, and the second module has no lawful way
+   to say what it needs.
+2. **Allow shared declarations** of one package or file by several modules, merged by the host.
+   Rejected: a shared file has no owner to answer for it, and removing one module cannot tell what it
+   alone put there.
+3. **Each tool's configuration belongs to the module holding the tool's seat. Every other module
+   extends it with a contribution to that seat, and a contribution is a dependency on the seat.**
+   Chosen. It is the operator's statement of the rule.
+
+## Decision
+
+**1. One owner.** A tool's configuration files, and the tool's package, belong to the module that
+holds the tool's seat on the node. Only that module writes them.
+- The package manager's configuration and helper packages are the package manager's module's.
+- The account's environment is node-environment's holder's.
+- The window manager's configuration is node-display-session's holder's.
+
+**2. Other modules extend, never write.** A module that needs something in another tool's
+configuration declares a **contribution to that tool's seat**:
+- its content, in the grain the seat defines (variables and paths, shell code for a named shell and
+  slot, a window-manager configuration fragment, a notifier rule);
+- never a path inside the holder's files or directories.
+
+The holder places what it receives:
+- the controller renders the contributions into the holder's files through the holder's placeholders,
+  as [ADR 0203](0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md) and
+  [ADR 0204](0204-a-module-contributes-shell-code-to-the-login-shell-in-named-slots.md) already do;
+- or the holder writes each contribution to its tool's own drop-in directory. That directory is then
+  the holder's resource, not the contributor's.
+
+**3. A contribution is a dependency on the seat that receives it.** The controller derives it from the
+contribution, as ADR 0207 derives one from a resource. It is met, checked and refused exactly as ADR
+0207 §3 and §4 say:
+- refused at `assign` when no module on the node holds the seat and the catalogue has a holder;
+- refused at composition after the switch.
+
+**4. Needing what another module's package delivers is the same.** A module that needs a program
+another seat's holder installs does not declare that package. It depends on the seat, and through
+the seat's verbs where they exist. One package is declared by one module on a node.
+
+**5. A seat says what it receives.** A seat lists the contribution kinds its holder accepts. A
+contribution of a kind the seat does not list is refused at registration.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- **ADR 0203 §5** no longer holds: a module contributing to the environment depends on
+  node-environment, and a node without the holder refuses it. The rest of that record stands.
+- **ADR 0208 §4**: its first list, contributors placing their own files in another tool's directory,
+  is replaced by §2 above. The tool's grain stays the guide for what a contribution contains. The
+  `xinitrc` and `xresources` slots already work this way, and now carry a dependency on
+  node-display-server.
+- **The desktop modules change:** the launcher, the clipboard manager, the wallpaper and the bar
+  contribute their window-manager lines to node-display-session instead of writing into the include
+  directory. The bar keeps relying on the package manager's helper scripts through node-package-manager.
+- **The two kinds of collision cannot recur:**
+  - two modules declaring one package or one file;
+  - a contribution to a seat nobody on the node holds.
+  A composition that finds either is a fault in a module, not a state a node can be left in.
+- **What got harder:** a seat that receives contributions must define their grain, and its holder must
+  place them. Each new kind is a small change to the controller's renderer or to the holder.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+| Rule | Checked by |
+|---|---|
+| A contribution derives a dependency on the seat that receives it | the controller's resolve tests |
+| A contribution to a seat with no holder on the node is refused at `assign` when the catalogue has a holder | the same tests, and `assign` live |
+| One package or file is declared by one module on a node | the controller's composition test, and `module check` across the catalogue |
+| A contribution of a kind its seat does not list is refused | the catalogue check, which registration runs |
+| No module declares a path inside another module's files or directories | the catalogue check |
+
+## References
+
+- [ADR 0203](0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md),
+  [ADR 0204](0204-a-module-contributes-shell-code-to-the-login-shell-in-named-slots.md),
+  [ADR 0207](0207-a-module-depends-on-the-node-seats-that-apply-its-resources.md),
+  [ADR 0208](0208-the-graphical-session-is-one-module-per-piece-on-the-meshs-seats.md)
+- [Issue 235](../04-ISSUES/235-an-assignment-that-cannot-be-composed-is-recorded-anyway/00-report.md)

02-DECISIONS/0211-a-machines-power-is-a-node-seat-its-moments-take-contributions-and-its-states-are-events.md

@@ -0,0 +1,122 @@
+---
+topic: what runs on it
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-04
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0210-a-tools-configuration-is-its-seat-holders-and-every-other-module-extends-it-through-the-seat.md
+---
+
+# 211. A machine's power is a node seat, its moments take contributions, and its states are events
+
+## Context
+
+The laptop's module needs code to run around sleep:
+- the GPU driver's own suspend and resume actions;
+- a touchpad reset after waking.
+
+It wrote drop-ins of its own into the service manager's sleep services, so it wrote into files that
+belong to another tool's holder. [ADR 0210](0210-a-tools-configuration-is-its-seat-holders-and-every-other-module-extends-it-through-the-seat.md)
+forbids exactly that. A second module wanting code after waking would do the same, and nothing would
+order the two or say that either needs sleep to be handled at all.
+
+The mesh also cannot tell a sleeping machine from a lost one. A laptop with its lid closed stops its
+heartbeat exactly as a crashed machine does, and is reported "out of touch" either way.
+[Research 028](../01-RESEARCH/028-the-meshs-output-channel/00-overview.md) would turn every closed lid
+into an alert.
+
+## Considered Options
+
+1. **Each module writes its own sleep drop-ins,** as the laptop's did. Rejected by ADR 0210: no
+   owner, no order, no dependency.
+2. **The service manager's holder takes power hooks.** Rejected: sleep and power are logind's and the
+   firmware's concern, not service management's. On a laptop they also include lid, power source and
+   battery, which the service manager knows nothing about.
+3. **A power seat on every machine.** Its holder:
+   - owns the machine's power handling;
+   - places code that modules contribute for named moments;
+   - publishes the machine's power states as events.
+
+   Chosen. It was the operator's proposal.
+
+## Decision
+
+**1. `node-power` is a node seat in the mesh's own set.** One module per node holds it. Every
+machine has one, servers included: every machine boots and shuts down. The first holder is a module
+named `power`.
+
+**2. Its holder owns the machine's power handling:**
+- logind's power-key and lid settings;
+- the hooks around sleep, boot and shutdown;
+- the reading of power source and battery where the machine has them.
+
+A model's specific values, such as what the lid does on that laptop, are the model's module's
+contribution or a setting of `power` per node (ADR 0174), never a second writer of logind's
+configuration.
+
+**3. Modules contribute code for named moments.** The moments:
+- after boot;
+- before sleep;
+- after waking;
+- before shutdown;
+- on mains power;
+- on battery.
+
+A contribution is POSIX shell code, written with ADR 0204's mechanism as ADR 0208 §4 did for the
+session's start:
+- a `shell` contribution whose `for` names the moment, in the `first`, `normal` or `last` slot;
+- placed by the holder with `${shell:<moment>:<slot>}` in the scripts its own units run;
+- run as root, in module order, each piece bounded in time, so that one module's hang cannot hold a
+  machine awake.
+
+Per ADR 0210, a contribution for a moment depends on `node-power`.
+
+**4. Its states are the holder's events, on the bus:**
+- `booted`, `sleeping`, `woke`, `shutting-down`;
+- `on-mains`, `on-battery`, `battery-low`, where the machine has a battery.
+
+They carry the machine's role and a time, and nothing secret, so any node and the controller may
+consume them.
+- **`sleeping` is published before the machine sleeps.** The holder takes logind's delay lock,
+  publishes, and releases the lock once the bus has acknowledged, within logind's delay bound.
+- **On waking,** the holder queues events until the bus is reachable, then publishes them in order.
+
+**5. A machine that said `sleeping` is asleep, not out of touch,** until it says `woke` or misses its
+expected return. The controller shows the state, and the output channel (research 028) does not
+treat a sleeping machine as a fault.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- The laptop's module moves its sleep drop-ins into contributions:
+  - the GPU driver's suspend and resume actions before sleep and after waking;
+  - its touchpad reset after waking.
+
+  Its own files in the service manager's directories go.
+- Assigning `power` to every machine is phase 1 of [to-be 42](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/42-the-machines-modules-in-order.md).
+- The controller gains the moments as contribution targets placed by `node-power`, and a node's
+  power state in what it shows about the node.
+- **What got harder:**
+  - code that must run at a precise point inside the sleep transaction cannot be a contribution; the
+    GPU driver's own units are an example. Such code still declares its own units, and only the
+    request to run them is contributed;
+  - an event published around sleep depends on the network still being up. The delay lock buys the
+    time, and if the bus does not answer within it, the machine sleeps anyway and says so on waking.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+| Rule | Checked by |
+|---|---|
+| A moment's contribution derives a dependency on `node-power`, and lands in that moment's placeholder in module order | the controller's contribution tests |
+| A contribution naming an unknown moment is refused | the catalogue check |
+| One piece of hook code that hangs is ended after its bound, and the next still runs | the power module's tests over real child processes |
+| `sleeping` is published before sleep and `woke` after, and a missed acknowledgement does not hold the machine awake | the power module's tests with a fake logind and bus, and a live suspend of the laptop |
+| A machine that said `sleeping` is not reported out of touch | the controller's status test |
+
+## References
+
+- [ADR 0174](0174-a-node-varies-a-module-through-settings-and-kept-regions-never-an-edit.md),
+  [ADR 0198](0198-a-modules-long-running-code-is-launched-by-the-node-runtime-and-reaches-the-bus-through-it.md),
+  [ADR 0204](0204-a-module-contributes-shell-code-to-the-login-shell-in-named-slots.md),
+  [ADR 0208](0208-the-graphical-session-is-one-module-per-piece-on-the-meshs-seats.md),
+  [ADR 0210](0210-a-tools-configuration-is-its-seat-holders-and-every-other-module-extends-it-through-the-seat.md)
+- [Research 028](../01-RESEARCH/028-the-meshs-output-channel/00-overview.md)

02-DECISIONS/0212-a-seat-says-what-it-receives-and-the-machines-hotkeys-are-a-seat.md

@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+---
+topic: the mesh
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-04
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0210-a-tools-configuration-is-its-seat-holders-and-every-other-module-extends-it-through-the-seat.md
+---
+
+# 212. A seat says what it receives, and the machine's hotkeys are a seat
+
+## Context
+
+[ADR 0210](0210-a-tools-configuration-is-its-seat-holders-and-every-other-module-extends-it-through-the-seat.md)
+decided that a tool's configuration belongs to its seat's holder, and that every other module extends
+it with a contribution to the seat (§2), in a grain the seat defines (§5). The controller knows only
+three such grains:
+- the environment ([ADR 0203](0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md));
+- shell code in named slots ([ADR 0204](0204-a-module-contributes-shell-code-to-the-login-shell-in-named-slots.md));
+- the power moments ([ADR 0211](0211-a-machines-power-is-a-node-seat-its-moments-take-contributions-and-its-states-are-events.md)).
+
+Each was a field of its own, with a renderer of its own. Two more appeared on the first workstation:
+
+- **The window manager.** Four modules, the launcher, the clipboard, the wallpaper and the bar, wrote
+  files of their own into its include directory, and so did the laptop's model module. That is what
+  ADR 0210 forbids.
+- **The keys the window manager never sees.** A laptop's vendor keys reach only a hotkey daemon, which
+  reads trigger lines (a key, a state, a command). The daemon's configuration was the laptop module's,
+  although the daemon is a general piece that more than one module has keys for.
+
+A field and a renderer per grain would make every new seat a change to the controller's schema.
+
+## Considered Options
+
+1. **A field per grain,** as before. Rejected: the manifest and the controller grow with every seat
+   that takes contributions.
+2. **Contributions as files in the holder's drop-in directory,** each contributor writing its own.
+   Rejected by ADR 0210: a path in another module's territory.
+3. **One general contribution: a seat, a kind the seat receives, and text in the tool's own grammar.**
+   The seat lists the kinds it receives. The holder places each kind with one placeholder, and the
+   controller concatenates the contributions in module order, each under a comment naming its module.
+   Chosen.
+
+## Decision
+
+**1. A module contributes with `contributions`.** Each entry names:
+- a **seat**;
+- a **kind**, which that seat receives;
+- **content**, text in the tool's own grammar, which the controller does not read.
+
+**2. A seat lists the kinds it receives,** with the comment prefix of its tool's grammar. A
+contribution of a kind its seat does not list is refused at registration.
+
+**3. The holder places a kind with `${contribution:<seat>:<kind>}`** in its own files. The placeholder
+is filled with every module's contribution of that kind on the node:
+- in module order;
+- each preceded by a comment line naming the module;
+- empty when there is none.
+
+A placeholder in a module that does not claim the seat is refused, as ADR 0204 refuses shell slots.
+
+**4. A contribution depends on its seat** (ADR 0210 §3), derived and refused as
+[ADR 0207](0207-a-module-depends-on-the-node-seats-that-apply-its-resources.md) says.
+
+**5. Two seats receive first:**
+
+| seat | kind | what it is |
+|---|---|---|
+| `node-display-session` | `config` | window-manager configuration lines: bindings, start-up commands, rules |
+| `node-hotkeys` (new, node scope) | `trigger` | hotkey-daemon trigger lines: a key, a state, a command |
+
+`node-hotkeys` is in the mesh's own set. Its holder runs the daemon that sees the keys the window
+manager does not, and owns that daemon's configuration and service.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- The window-manager fragments become `config` contributions of their modules: the launcher, the
+  clipboard, the wallpaper, the bar and the laptop model. The window manager's module places them
+  instead of including other modules' files.
+- A hotkey module holds `node-hotkeys`. The laptop's model module contributes its vendor keys
+  instead of writing the daemon's trigger file, and keeps only what is its own: the scripts the keys
+  run.
+- The three earlier grains stay as they are. Folding them into this form is a later change, not
+  required by this record.
+- **What got harder:** a contribution is text the controller does not read, so a malformed line
+  reaches the tool. The holder checks the composed file with the tool's own check where the tool has
+  one (the window manager's), before it reloads.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+| Rule | Checked by |
+|---|---|
+| A contribution names a seat and a kind that seat receives | the catalogue check, which registration runs |
+| The placeholder fills with every module's contribution, in module order, each named | the controller's contribution tests |
+| A placeholder outside the seat's holder is refused | the catalogue check |
+| A contribution derives a dependency on its seat | the controller's resolve tests |
+| `node-hotkeys` is a node seat of the mesh's own set | the seat table's tests |
+
+## References
+
+- [ADR 0203](0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md),
+  [ADR 0204](0204-a-module-contributes-shell-code-to-the-login-shell-in-named-slots.md),
+  [ADR 0208](0208-the-graphical-session-is-one-module-per-piece-on-the-meshs-seats.md),
+  [ADR 0210](0210-a-tools-configuration-is-its-seat-holders-and-every-other-module-extends-it-through-the-seat.md),
+  [ADR 0211](0211-a-machines-power-is-a-node-seat-its-moments-take-contributions-and-its-states-are-events.md)
+- [To-be 42](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/42-the-machines-modules-in-order.md)

02-DECISIONS/0213-the-operator-sets-the-agents-managed-settings-through-the-agent-module.md

@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+---
+topic: what runs on it
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-04
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0183-the-anthropic-licence-manager-is-a-module-and-hands-tokens-to-the-agent-over-the-bus.md
+---
+
+# 213. The operator sets the agent's managed settings through the agent module, under the mesh's own keys
+
+## Context
+
+The agent module writes the agent's machine-wide managed settings file
+([to-be 36](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/36-the-operators-agent-on-a-machine.md) §2). It carries the mesh's
+own keys only: the attribution convention of its repositories, the connectors kept beside the managed
+tool servers, and the key-helper for an API-key licence. Every other key was left to the person's own
+settings, so that the mesh never reverts a person's choice on a push.
+
+That left no place for a rule the **operator** wants to hold in every session on a machine: what the
+agent may do without asking, what it must never do, and what its unattended mode allows. These keys
+are not preferences. They are policy about what an agent may do on the mesh. Set by hand in one
+person's settings on each machine, they are unmanaged state the mesh cannot see, and the agent refuses
+to change them itself, as it should.
+
+## Considered Options
+
+1. **Leave them to each person's settings.** Rejected: policy by hand on each machine, invisible to
+   the mesh, and a session cannot be asked to loosen its own permissions.
+2. **A field per vendor key** (permissions, auto mode, environment, hooks) in the module's settings.
+   Rejected: the vendor adds keys, and every one would be a change to the module.
+3. **One setting holding managed-settings keys, laid under the mesh's own.** The operator sets it
+   for the mesh or for one node through the controller's settings verb. The module copies its keys into
+   the managed settings file, then lays the mesh's keys over them.
+
+## Decision
+
+Option 3.
+
+1. The agent module takes a setting, `managed_settings`: an object in the vendor's settings shape. It
+   is set for the whole mesh or for one node, like the module's other settings, through the
+   controller's settings verb.
+2. The managed settings file is that object with **the mesh's keys laid last**: the attribution
+   convention, the connectors kept beside the managed servers, and the key-helper. A setting can
+   neither replace one of these nor add a key-helper that the binding did not ask for.
+3. Only the operator sets it, and it is declared state like the role and the extra tool servers. A
+   person's preferences stay in their own settings; the mesh still sets none of them by itself.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- The operator's rules for the agent are declared once, for the mesh or per node, and reach every
+  node at the next push. A rule set in the managed settings outranks every other scope, so it holds
+  in every session on the node.
+- A setting layer is replaced whole by the controller's verb. Setting this key without the role or
+  the extra tool servers clears those in that layer; the module's documentation says so.
+- **What got harder:** a person cannot override a rule set here, which is the point. A rule that is
+  wrong is wrong on every session of the node until the operator changes the setting.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+| Rule | Checked by |
+|---|---|
+| The operator's keys reach the managed settings file | the agent module's test: an auto-mode allow list and a permissions list set in the setting appear in the rendered file |
+| The mesh's keys always win | the same test: a setting naming the attribution, the connectors key or a key-helper is overridden, and a key-helper appears only for an API-key binding |
+| Live | the setting given for the mesh; the managed settings file on each node carries the key after the next push |
+
+## References
+
+- [ADR 0183](0183-the-anthropic-licence-manager-is-a-module-and-hands-tokens-to-the-agent-over-the-bus.md) — the agent module and the files it writes
+- [to-be 36](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/36-the-operators-agent-on-a-machine.md) — the design this amends (§2, §6)
+- the vendor's documentation on managed settings and their precedence

02-DECISIONS/0214-backups-guard-against-mistakes-and-stay-on-the-machine.md

@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+---
+topic: what runs on it
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-05
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0030-data-outlives-the-mesh-that-declared-it.md
+---
+
+# 214. Backups guard against mistakes, stay on the machine, and are declared by the module that owns the data
+
+## Context
+
+Nothing in the mesh backed anything up (issue 242). When a misread file dropped every database on the
+control node (issue 241), recovery took a night and used copies nine to twelve days old.
+
+The operator sets the scope: backups exist for **mistakes** — a person's, an agent's, the mesh's own
+— not for disasters. Losing data to a dead disk or a lost site is accepted. Research 030 measured
+what the machines hold and found no backup tooling anywhere.
+
+## Considered Options
+
+1. **A central list of what to back up.** Rejected — whatever is not listed is unprotected, silently.
+2. **Each store's own mechanisms** (bucket versioning, database snapshots). Rejected as the only copy:
+   they live inside what they protect, and a drop takes them with it.
+3. **Off-site copies.** Out of scope by the operator's decision; recorded so the absence is a choice.
+4. **Modules declare, a node seat composes, the copy stays on the machine.** Adopted.
+
+## Decision
+
+**A module declares the data it owns; a node seat, `node-backup`, composes every declaration on the
+machine and keeps nightly restore points there.** A store provider declares how to dump each database
+it serves, so a consumer of a store declares nothing. A module with files declares their paths.
+
+**Databases are dumped in full, logically, every night; everything lands in one encrypted,
+deduplicating repository per machine,** so every night is a complete restore point and only what
+changed costs space.
+
+**Kept: 14 daily, 8 weekly, 6 monthly.** A backup is also taken on demand before a risky act.
+
+**The repository is on the machine, outside every directory the mesh manages,** on a second
+filesystem where there is one. Its key is a mesh secret.
+
+**A restore goes beside the live data, never over it.** Swapping it in is a person's act.
+
+**A night that fails reaches the operator,** and a machine with data and no good backup in 48 hours
+shows in the mesh's status.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- Adding a store provider means declaring its dump; the catalogue check can refuse a store provider
+  that declares none.
+- The control node's first backup is ~200 GB, then a few GB a night.
+- A dead disk or a lost machine still loses its data, by choice.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+The catalogue check refuses a module providing a store seat without a backup declaration. The holder's
+weekly restore test restores one dump into a throwaway instance and compares counts. The mesh's
+status lists every machine whose last good backup is older than 48 hours.
+
+## References
+
+- [04-ISSUES/242](../04-ISSUES/242-the-mesh-has-no-backups/00-report.md), [04-ISSUES/241](../04-ISSUES/241-one-unreadable-grants-file-dropped-every-database-on-the-control-node/00-report.md)
+- [01-RESEARCH/030](../01-RESEARCH/030-backups-against-our-own-mistakes/00-overview.md)
+- ADR 0030 (data outlives its declaration), ADR 0053 (scheduled steps), ADR 0085 (a secret is a provision)

02-DECISIONS/0215-the-machines-message-bus-is-a-node-seat-and-is-never-restarted-live.md

@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+---
+topic: what runs on it
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-05
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0212-a-seat-says-what-it-receives-and-the-machines-hotkeys-are-a-seat.md
+---
+
+# 215. The machine's message bus is a node seat, and it is never restarted live
+
+## Context
+
+Every machine runs a D-Bus system bus, and the workstations a session bus per login. The service
+manager, logind, the network manager, the Bluetooth stack, the GPU switcher, the keyring, the
+desktop portal and the power module's sleep lock all speak on it. Nothing in the mesh owned it.
+
+On 2026-10-04 a full upgrade on a workstation restarted the system bus in the middle of the upgrade.
+From then on logins hung, sshd answered nothing, and the machine's host stopped reporting, until a
+person rebooted it at its keyboard. The mesh had no record of what the bus is, no view of it, and no
+rule about when it may restart.
+
+## Considered Options
+
+1. **Leave the bus to the distribution.** Rejected: the outage above is what that gives, and nothing
+   would ever say the bus is unwell.
+2. **Make it part of the service manager's holder.** Rejected: the bus is a separate program with its
+   own policy, its own clients and its own failure. A machine can have a healthy service manager and
+   a wedged bus, which is exactly what happened.
+3. **A node seat held by a `dbus` module.** Chosen.
+
+## Decision
+
+**1. `node-message-bus` is a node seat in the mesh's own set.** Every machine has one. The first
+holder is a module named `dbus`, which owns the bus implementation's package and its system
+service, and serves tools to look at both buses.
+
+**2. The bus is never restarted live.** The holder declares the bus running and enabled, and never
+restarts or reloads it on any change. A new version of the bus takes effect at the machine's next
+boot. A module's change that needs the bus to pick up a policy uses the bus's own reload of policy
+files, which keeps every connection, never a restart.
+
+**3. Curated events, never traffic.** The holder publishes on the mesh's bus only what matters about
+the machine's bus:
+- the bus's health (up, stalled, restarted);
+- a well-known system service appearing on the bus or leaving it;
+- a policy denial.
+
+The bus's traffic, which carries secrets, notification text and the clipboard, never leaves the
+machine. The holder's tools let a person watch it, bounded in time, on request.
+
+**4. The seat receives nothing yet.** Packages ship their own D-Bus policy and service files, and no
+module writes one of its own today. When one does, it is a contribution to this seat (ADR 0210, ADR
+0212), and the seat lists the kind then.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- Phase 1 of [to-be 42](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/42-the-machines-modules-in-order.md) gains `dbus` on
+  every machine.
+- A full upgrade that brings a new bus no longer breaks a running machine through the mesh. The
+  distribution's own upgrade still restarts it, so the rule is enforced only for what the mesh
+  does. The holder's check says whether the running bus is older than the installed package, which
+  is the sign that a reboot is due.
+- **What got harder:** a fix to the bus itself waits for a reboot. That is the price of never taking
+  every login on the machine down with it.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+| Rule | Checked by |
+|---|---|
+| `node-message-bus` is a node seat of the mesh's own set | the seat table's tests |
+| The bus's service is declared running and enabled, with no restart or reload trigger | the dbus module's manifest test |
+| No traffic is published, only the curated events | the dbus module's tests over its event code |
+| A bus older than its installed package is said | the dbus module's check, over a recorded answer |

02-DECISIONS/0216-the-agents-configuration-is-registered-through-its-module-at-three-scopes-and-served-as-one-plugin.md

@@ -0,0 +1,167 @@
+---
+topic: what runs on it
+status: accepted
+date: 2026-10-05
+deciders: jochen
+reconstructed: false
+extends: 02-DECISIONS/0213-the-operator-sets-the-agents-managed-settings-through-the-agent-module.md
+---
+
+# 216. The agent's configuration is registered through its module, at three scopes, and served as one plugin
+
+## Context
+
+The operator wants everything about the coding agent that can be configured to be configured through
+the agent module's tools ([research 029](../01-RESEARCH/029-the-agent-configured-through-its-module/00-overview.md)).
+That covers subagents, skills, slash commands, hooks, output styles, settings, permissions,
+instructions and tool servers. Each is registered once, from any machine, for one machine, several or
+all of them.
+
+The agent module already manages three files in the agent's machine-wide managed directory: the
+settings, the tool servers and one instruction file ([to-be 36](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/36-the-operators-agent-on-a-machine.md)).
+Tool servers registered through its tools are kept in its state on the bus and reach every machine
+they apply to. The vendor has **no machine-wide place for skills, subagents, commands or hooks**; they
+live only in a home or a project. Measured on four machines
+([029/01](../01-RESEARCH/029-the-agent-configured-through-its-module/01-what-is-configured-today.md)),
+what was copied there by hand had drifted and gone stale:
+
+- two skills of a retired system were on all four machines;
+- one rule file existed in three versions;
+- two contradicting instruction sets were loaded into the same session;
+- a subagent existed on one machine only.
+
+The vendor's **plugin** carries skills, subagents, commands, hooks and output styles. A machine-wide
+setting can name a marketplace and enable a plugin from it
+([029/02](../01-RESEARCH/029-the-agent-configured-through-its-module/02-what-the-vendor-allows.md)).
+Tried on one workstation ([029/04](../01-RESEARCH/029-the-agent-configured-through-its-module/04-what-was-confirmed.md)):
+
+- a plugin in a directory marketplace, enabled by the managed settings, loads in every session with no
+  prompt, read in place, and an edit reaches the next session with no version change;
+- its items are offered under the plugin's name;
+- its hooks run;
+- its tool servers are blocked by the exclusive managed tool-server file.
+
+A plugin cannot carry settings, permission rules or instructions.
+
+The operator also set the scopes. A skill may be meant for:
+
+- every machine;
+- one machine;
+- one machine's own account, as if written there by hand.
+
+The instruction file the same: the mesh's piece, the node's piece, and further customisation per machine.
+
+## Considered Options
+
+1. **Copy everything into each home**, owned by the mesh path by path. Rejected as the *only* place:
+   the home is the person's ([ADR 0182](0182-inside-a-home-the-mesh-owns-what-it-places-and-holds-the-rest-as-found.md)),
+   a mesh item there is indistinguishable from the person's by name, and it fills the directory where
+   the drift was measured. Kept as one scope of three (below).
+2. **A plugin per source:** one for the operator's registrations, one for what other modules
+   contribute. Rejected: two prefixes to remember for one agent. Where an item came from belongs in
+   the module's list, not in its name.
+3. **Registrations in a repository on the forge**, the plugin built from it. Rejected for now:
+   registering would be a commit, and the forge would sit on the path to every machine. Configuration
+   would enter the code review cycle, which it does not need.
+4. **One plugin, `nox-mesh`, plus the managed files the module already writes, at three scopes, all
+   registered through the module's tools and kept in its state on the bus.** Chosen.
+
+## Decision
+
+Option 4.
+
+**1. What goes where.** Each kind of item goes to the one place the vendor honours for it:
+
+| kind | place |
+|---|---|
+| skills, subagents, slash commands, hooks, output styles | the plugin `nox-mesh` |
+| tool servers | the managed tool-server file, as today: the exclusive file blocks a plugin's servers |
+| settings and permission rules | the managed settings file: a plugin's settings are dropped |
+| instructions | the managed instruction file, in sections: a plugin's instruction file is not loaded |
+
+The plugin is named `nox-mesh` (the operator's choice): the name its items carry in every session, and
+not one a person's own plugin is likely to take. It lives in a marketplace directory inside the module's
+managed directory, written whole by the module's code. The managed settings name that marketplace and enable the plugin. Those two keys
+are the mesh's, laid last like the attribution key (ADR 0213), and no setting replaces them.
+
+**2. Three scopes.** Every registration names one:
+
+- **mesh:** every machine running the agent, including one that joins later.
+- **node:** one machine, or a list of them. Rendered into the same plugin and managed files, on those
+  machines only.
+- **home:** the operator account's own agent directory on one machine. The item is placed where the
+  person's own items live, without the plugin's prefix.
+
+Settings and permission rules take the mesh and node scopes only. The home's settings file stays the
+person's.
+
+**3. Instructions follow the scopes.** The managed instruction file holds, in order:
+
+1. the mesh's piece, the same everywhere;
+2. the node's piece: its role, and the sections registered for it.
+
+Further customisation per machine is a rule file placed at the home scope. The vendor concatenates
+these and does not override, so the module's status tool names any section that contradicts another,
+or that calls a tool the mesh no longer serves.
+
+**4. Registered through tools, kept on the bus.** For each kind, the module serves `list`, `register`
+and `unregister` tools; for settings, tools that read and set them at a scope. Each registration is a
+key in the module's state ([ADR 0201](0201-a-module-keeps-its-current-state-in-key-value-buckets-it-declares-and-reaches-through-the-runtime.md)):
+
+- an item and its files are one value, refused above **256 KiB**, well under the bus's message limit;
+- every instance watches the state and renders what applies to its machine.
+
+The settings registered this way are laid over the `managed_settings` layer of ADR 0213. In order:
+ADR 0213's setting, then the mesh scope, then the node scope, then the mesh's own keys.
+
+**5. The home scope owns only what it placed.** The module records each home path it placed, in its
+state. It writes, changes and removes only those. It refuses to register a name the person already
+uses there, rather than overwrite it.
+
+**6. What the module did not place, it reports and can import.**
+
+- A status tool lists the home's items and says which the mesh placed. It also names any that
+  duplicate a mesh item or call tools no longer served.
+- An import tool registers an item found in one machine's home at a scope the operator chooses.
+- Removing the original stays the person's act.
+- Whether home items load at all stays the operator's choice, through a vendor setting in the managed
+  settings.
+
+**7. Changing the agent's own settings is the operator's act.** The vendor's guard refuses an agent that
+loosens its own settings. A settings or permission tool is called on the operator's word, and the
+module does not try to get around that refusal.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- One registration puts a skill, a subagent or a rule on every machine, on some, or in one account. A
+  machine that joins takes the mesh and node items at its first start. Nothing is copied by hand.
+- The plugin's items are named `nox-mesh:<name>`, and a person's own items keep their names. Nothing the
+  mesh adds can shadow them.
+- A change reaches the next session on each machine, or a running one at its next plugin reload.
+- **What got harder:**
+  - an item larger than 256 KiB cannot be registered until the state can hold files in pieces;
+  - the module's state now holds file content, not only small records;
+  - the stale files already in the homes stay until the person removes them. The module names them;
+    it does not remove them.
+- **Not decided here:** another module contributing a skill or a subagent to the agent through a seat
+  ([ADR 0210](0210-a-tools-configuration-is-its-seat-holders-and-every-other-module-extends-it-through-the-seat.md)).
+  The agent module holds no seat yet. When one is decided, contributions land in the same plugin.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+| Rule | Checked by |
+|---|---|
+| each kind lands in its one place | the module's render test: a registered skill, subagent, command, hook and output style appear in the plugin; a tool server in the managed tool-server file; a setting in the managed settings file; an instruction section in the managed instruction file |
+| scopes | the same test, for one machine of two: a mesh item on both, a node item on one, a home item only in that machine's home |
+| the marketplace keys are the mesh's | the render test: a setting naming either key is overridden |
+| the home scope owns only what it placed | the module's test: a name the person already uses is refused; unregistering removes only the placed path |
+| the size limit | the module's test: an item above 256 KiB is refused at registration |
+| live | a skill registered at the mesh scope is offered as `nox-mesh:<name>` in a new session on each machine |
+
+## References
+
+- [Research 029](../01-RESEARCH/029-the-agent-configured-through-its-module/00-overview.md) — the evidence, the vendor's rules, and what was confirmed
+- [ADR 0213](0213-the-operator-sets-the-agents-managed-settings-through-the-agent-module.md) — the managed settings setting this lays over
+- [ADR 0182](0182-inside-a-home-the-mesh-owns-what-it-places-and-holds-the-rest-as-found.md) — what the mesh may do inside a home
+- [ADR 0201](0201-a-module-keeps-its-current-state-in-key-value-buckets-it-declares-and-reaches-through-the-runtime.md) — module state on the bus
+- [to-be 36](../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/36-the-operators-agent-on-a-machine.md) — the design this amends

02-DECISIONS/README.md

@@ -188,7 +188,12 @@ python3 00-META/checks/index.py            fail if stale
 - **0185** — [A control plane behind its seat's row serves what it can](0185-a-control-plane-behind-its-seats-row-serves-what-it-can.md)
 - **0186** — [A ban list never holds a neighbour, and the mesh's own bans are its own wherever they hang](0186-a-ban-list-never-holds-a-neighbour.md)
 - **0187** — [A dead tracker is not the machine's failure](0187-a-dead-tracker-is-not-the-machines-failure.md)
+- **0189** — [The store keeps what the records name, and a maintenance step holds its writers still](0189-the-store-keeps-what-the-records-name.md)
 - **0190** — [A seat's work is shared by its holders, and building is the first such role](0190-a-seats-work-is-shared-by-its-holders-and-building-is-the-first-such-role.md)
+- **0202** — [A provider declares what it derives for each consumer, and the mesh tells both ends](0202-a-provider-declares-what-it-derives-for-each-consumer.md)
+- **0207** — [A module depends on the node seats that apply its resources](0207-a-module-depends-on-the-node-seats-that-apply-its-resources.md)
+- **0210** — [A tool's configuration is its seat holder's, and every other module extends it through the seat](0210-a-tools-configuration-is-its-seat-holders-and-every-other-module-extends-it-through-the-seat.md)
+- **0212** — [A seat says what it receives, and the machine's hotkeys are a seat](0212-a-seat-says-what-it-receives-and-the-machines-hotkeys-are-a-seat.md)
 
 ### Its tiers, from the bottom up
 
@@ -223,6 +228,9 @@ python3 00-META/checks/index.py            fail if stale
 - **0148** — [The mesh's names are resolved, not copied into every container](0148-the-meshs-names-are-resolved-not-copied-into-containers.md)
 - **0151** — [A route's internal name is composed under the node that serves it](0151-a-routes-internal-name-is-composed-under-the-node-that-serves-it.md)
 - **0191** — [The mesh's resolver holds only the mesh's own names; a public name resolves publicly](0191-the-meshs-resolver-holds-only-the-meshs-own-names.md)
+- **0194** — [The mesh has one resolver, and every node asks it for the mesh's names](0194-the-mesh-has-one-resolver-and-every-node-asks-it-for-the-meshs-names.md)
+- **0196** — [A node asks the mesh's resolver first, and a public one only when it is silent](0196-a-node-asks-the-meshs-resolver-first-and-a-public-one-only-when-it-is-silent.md)
+- **0199** — [A module that answers names declares its zone, and a node's hosts file is one module's](0199-a-module-that-answers-names-declares-its-zone-and-a-nodes-hosts-file-is-one-modules.md)
 
 ### What runs on them, and how it gets there
 
@@ -292,6 +300,22 @@ python3 00-META/checks/index.py            fail if stale
 - **0183** — [The Anthropic licence manager is a module holding a seat; it hands each node's agent its token over the bus, sealed; the controller and the host have no part](0183-the-anthropic-licence-manager-is-a-module-and-hands-tokens-to-the-agent-over-the-bus.md)
 - **0188** — [A module's own code is bundles in any language, and a tools bundle speaks MCP to the runtime](0188-a-modules-own-code-is-bundles-in-any-language-and-a-tools-bundle-speaks-mcp-to-the-runtime.md)
 - **0192** — [A tools bundle declares what it is given, and the runtime hands it to that bundle alone](0192-a-tools-bundle-declares-what-it-is-given-and-the-runtime-hands-it-to-that-bundle-alone.md)
+- **0193** — [Every bundle the runtime serves is launched, and the runtime knows no language](0193-every-bundle-the-runtime-serves-is-launched-and-the-runtime-knows-no-language.md)
+- **0195** — [The mesh's tools are found by address, not announced whole](0195-the-meshs-tools-are-found-by-address-not-announced-whole.md)
+- **0197** — [Every tool announces itself on the bus, in the NATS services protocol](0197-every-tool-announces-itself-on-the-bus-in-the-nats-services-protocol.md)
+- **0198** — [A module's long-running code is launched by the node's runtime, and reaches the bus through it](0198-a-modules-long-running-code-is-launched-by-the-node-runtime-and-reaches-the-bus-through-it.md)
+- **0201** — [A module keeps its current state in key-value buckets it declares, and reaches them through the runtime](0201-a-module-keeps-its-current-state-in-key-value-buckets-it-declares-and-reaches-through-the-runtime.md)
+- **0203** — [The account's environment is one module's, and every module contributes to it](0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md)
+- **0204** — [A module contributes shell code to the login shell in named slots, and the login shell is the mesh's seat](0204-a-module-contributes-shell-code-to-the-login-shell-in-named-slots.md)
+- **0205** — [Software the distribution does not package ships as a pinned archive of the module's own](0205-software-the-distribution-does-not-package-ships-as-a-pinned-archive-of-the-module.md)
+- **0206** — [A node reports the Anthropic grant it holds; the licence manager adopts a licence by refreshing it, and what each node should hold is the manager's state](0206-a-node-reports-the-anthropic-grant-it-holds-and-the-licence-manager-adopts-a-licence-by-refreshing-it.md)
+- **0208** — [The graphical session is one module per piece, on the mesh's seats](0208-the-graphical-session-is-one-module-per-piece-on-the-meshs-seats.md)
+- **0209** — [A login on a node moves that node to the account it logged in to; an API key is added from any node, sealed](0209-a-login-on-a-node-moves-that-node-to-its-account-and-an-api-key-is-added-from-any-node-sealed.md)
+- **0211** — [A machine's power is a node seat, its moments take contributions, and its states are events](0211-a-machines-power-is-a-node-seat-its-moments-take-contributions-and-its-states-are-events.md)
+- **0213** — [The operator sets the agent's managed settings through the agent module, under the mesh's own keys](0213-the-operator-sets-the-agents-managed-settings-through-the-agent-module.md)
+- **0214** — [Backups guard against mistakes, stay on the machine, and are declared by the module that owns the data](0214-backups-guard-against-mistakes-and-stay-on-the-machine.md)
+- **0215** — [The machine's message bus is a node seat, and it is never restarted live](0215-the-machines-message-bus-is-a-node-seat-and-is-never-restarted-live.md)
+- **0216** — [The agent's configuration is registered through its module, at three scopes, and served as one plugin](0216-the-agents-configuration-is-registered-through-its-module-at-three-scopes-and-served-as-one-plugin.md)
 
 ### How it is built
 
@@ -314,6 +338,7 @@ python3 00-META/checks/index.py            fail if stale
 - **0111** — [A build source is on the mesh's git seat, or it is an external repository](0111-a-build-source-is-on-the-git-seat-or-external.md)
 - **0149** — [The live mesh is the test bed](0149-the-live-mesh-is-the-test-bed.md)
 - **0174** — [A node varies a module through settings and kept regions, never through an edit](0174-a-node-varies-a-module-through-settings-and-kept-regions-never-an-edit.md)
+- **0200** — [Genesis pivots to the controller as a container, and the first push hands it to a process](0200-genesis-pivots-to-the-controller-as-a-container-and-the-first-push-hands-it-to-a-process.md)
 
 ### How it is checked
 

03-DESIGN/00-as-is/14-a-modules-state.md

@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+---
+layer: as-is
+status: implemented
+code: [mesh-controller internal/catalogue/state.go, mesh-controller internal/broker/state.go, mesh-controller cmd/mesh-controller/push.go, mesh-tools node-tools/internal/bus/state.go, mesh-tools node-tools/internal/launch/launch.go, mesh-sdk src/state, mesh-sdk go/state.go]
+updated: 2026-10-04
+decisions:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0201-a-module-keeps-its-current-state-in-key-value-buckets-it-declares-and-reaches-through-the-runtime.md
+---
+
+# A module's state, as it runs
+
+**A module keeps the current value of something on the bus, and every machine sees it — including one
+that joins later.** Since 2026-10-04 a manifest may say `state` (buckets the module owns) and `reads`
+(another module's, as `<module>.<name>`). The first two modules to use it are the operator's agent on a
+machine and its licence manager; on the day this was written, three buckets existed on the bus.
+
+## What runs
+
+- **The controller** creates a key-value bucket `<module>_<name>` for every declared state, from the
+  catalogue — on every start and, since the first module that declared state found it missing, on every
+  push before the memberships that name it. A bucket nothing declares any more is reported and kept.
+  Every bucket carries the mesh's caps: 256 KiB a value, 64 MiB a bucket.
+- **The grants**: the machine's runtime is granted, for each bucket a module it carries owns, writing
+  under the bucket's own subjects and reading; for a bucket it only reads, reading. Measured once built,
+  with the composed grants loaded into a server: a reader's write is refused by the server.
+- **The membership** issued to each assignment lists its buckets by the names the module uses, and
+  whether it may write.
+- **The runtime** answers `mesh/state.get`, `put`, `delete`, `keys` and `watch` on the bundle's channel.
+  A watch hands the current values — none that is deleted — then every change, each naming the watch it
+  belongs to; it is answered once the current values are delivered. The runtime refuses, with the
+  reason, a state the module was not issued, a reader's write, a key the bus cannot hold, and a value
+  carrying a field named like a credential.
+- **The SDKs**: `state(name)` in TypeScript, `stdio.State(name)` in Go (tag `go/v0.1.7` and later).
+
+## What the first live use showed
+
+- **A refused request is a timeout, not a refusal.** The bus reloads a machine's grants a moment after
+  the push that changed them; a bundle that asks in between waits out its deadline. A module that
+  watches at start therefore watches beside its handshake and asks again until the state answers — the
+  agent module needed two to seven attempts on its first start on each machine.
+- **A late machine reads the whole set.** A server registered for every machine before one machine was
+  assigned the module reached that machine from the current values at its start.
+- **The secrets guard is partial and works for what it covers**: an entry carrying an `Authorization`
+  header was refused on the live bus. A sealed value is plain text to an inspector, and is not caught.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+The controller's catalogue and broker tests (names, grants, memberships, a bucket asserted in place
+against a real server); the runtime's tests over a real bus (current values without deletions, refusals,
+the TypeScript SDK through the runtime); `module check` names a read whose owner on the shelf keeps no
+such state.

03-DESIGN/00-as-is/15-the-agent-and-its-licences.md

@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+---
+layer: as-is
+status: implemented
+code: [mesh-catalog modules/claude-code, mesh-catalog modules/claude-licence-manager]
+updated: 2026-10-04
+decisions:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0183-the-anthropic-licence-manager-is-a-module-and-hands-tokens-to-the-agent-over-the-bus.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0206-a-node-reports-the-anthropic-grant-it-holds-and-the-licence-manager-adopts-a-licence-by-refreshing-it.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0209-a-login-on-a-node-moves-that-node-to-its-account-and-an-api-key-is-added-from-any-node-sealed.md
+---
+
+# The operator's agent and its licences, as they run
+
+**Every machine with an operator account runs the agent module, and one licence manager on the control
+node keeps the licences.** Both are Go binaries the machine's runtime launches; neither has a container,
+a port or a bus credential of its own. Live since 2026-10-04, on all four machines.
+
+## The agent module on each machine
+
+- **Writes the agent's managed directory**: the tool servers — the console as `mesh`, plus servers
+  registered through the module — the mesh's settings, and the instruction file. The tool-server list
+  is exclusive by the vendor's rule: a server not in it does not load on that machine.
+- **Keeps registered tool servers in its state**, one key per registration for every machine or for one;
+  each machine renders what applies to it.
+- **Reports what its machine holds** — the account its agent names, the kind, fingerprints and expiries,
+  never a token — at start and whenever the credentials file changes.
+- **Writes what the machine should hold**: on a newer generation of its binding it asks the seat's
+  `current`, sealed to its own key, and writes the access token only. No machine holds a refresh token.
+- **Hands over a login when asked**, sealed to the manager's key, and **adds an API key** from a file on
+  its machine the same way, removing the file once the manager has it.
+
+## The licence manager on the control node
+
+- **Holds the `anthropic-licence-manager` seat**: `licences`, `bindings`, `bind`, `switch`, `release`,
+  `refresh`, `usage`, `adopt`, `public-key`, `current`.
+- **Learns licences from the reports**: a refresh token it does not hold is adopted by refreshing it,
+  newest login first, once per account. The machine a login was made on is moved to that login's
+  account; a machine bound to nothing is bound to the account it reports.
+- **Is the only refresher**: every exchange under a lease per licence in its own database, every four
+  hours and in any case within an hour of expiry; grants are encrypted at rest with a key the vault made.
+- **Publishes what each machine should hold** as its `bindings` state, with a generation that grows with
+  every rotation and switch.
+
+## On the day it went live
+
+One subscription account was adopted from the control node's own login on its first start; the other
+three machines, logged in to the same account with older logins, were bound to it without their logins
+being exchanged. A forced rotation reached all four machines within seconds. Two faults were found and
+fixed during the rollout: a machine reporting an already-adopted account later was never bound, and a
+seat verb named with an underscore was refused by the builder.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+Each module's own tests (the agent's instruction file held byte for byte to the renderer it replaced; the
+manager's rules on a store in memory and a stub vendor; its store against a real database); one run of
+both binaries under the real runtime with a stub vendor before going live; and live: `licences` lists the
+licence with every machine bound, and each machine's `claude_code_status` names it with no login waiting.

03-DESIGN/00-as-is/README.md

@@ -22,6 +22,8 @@ Where the two disagree, the implementation wins and the disagreement is stated.
 | [`11-the-lab.md`](11-the-lab.md) | The lab — the first piece of the new shape that exists, and what it does not yet do |
 | [`12-the-seats.md`](12-the-seats.md) | The seats the mesh defines, who holds one, and where a seat changes resolution |
 | [`13-the-console.md`](13-the-console.md) | The mesh's tools on the machine a person sits at, served by a module the mesh assigned there |
+| [`14-a-modules-state.md`](14-a-modules-state.md) | A module's current state on the bus: what the controller creates, the runtime serves, and the first live use showed |
+| [`15-the-agent-and-its-licences.md`](15-the-agent-and-its-licences.md) | The operator's agent on every machine and the licence manager that keeps its licences |
 
 ## What these documents are not
 

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

@@ -6,10 +6,18 @@ code:
   - mesh-controller examples/route-proxy
   - mesh-controller internal/identity/authority.go
   - mesh-controller cmd/mesh-controller/plan.go (the names the roster publishes)
+  - mesh-controller internal/catalogue/zones.go (the zones a module answers, ADR 0199)
+  - mesh-controller internal/catalogue/seats.go (mesh-dns-resolver, node-hosts-file)
+  - mesh-catalog modules/dnsmasq (the mesh's one resolver)
+  - mesh-catalog modules/resolv-conf (what a node asks)
+  - mesh-catalog modules/hosts (a node's /etc/hosts)
   - mesh-host internal/identity/serving.go
   - mesh-host internal/apply (the service that reflects a rule set)
 updated: 2026-10-03
 decisions:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0199-a-module-that-answers-names-declares-its-zone-and-a-nodes-hosts-file-is-one-modules.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0196-a-node-asks-the-meshs-resolver-first-and-a-public-one-only-when-it-is-silent.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0194-the-mesh-has-one-resolver-and-every-node-asks-it-for-the-meshs-names.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0191-the-meshs-resolver-holds-only-the-meshs-own-names.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0180-the-found-front-end-is-uninstalled-once-a-machine-is-converged.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0170-the-firewall-seat-serves-its-verbs.md
@@ -290,8 +298,10 @@ expensively enough to be worth restating:
 - **A node must not pin its own public name locally.** The duplicate record breaks resolution of
   that name for everything else that needs it.
 
-**What the host receives:** the resolver's configuration, as files, listing every peer's internal
-name and overlay address.
+**What the host receives:** what to ask, not what to answer. The mesh has **one resolver**, holding
+every node's internal domain; a node asks it first and a public resolver only when it is silent
+([ADR 0194](../../02-DECISIONS/0194-the-mesh-has-one-resolver-and-every-node-asks-it-for-the-meshs-names.md),
+[ADR 0196](../../02-DECISIONS/0196-a-node-asks-the-meshs-resolver-first-and-a-public-one-only-when-it-is-silent.md)).
 
 **What goes away:** the `/etc/hosts` floor. It exists because a node had to reach the mesh
 database before its own DNS existed; with [ADR 0004](../../02-DECISIONS/0004-a-node-and-how-it-joins.md)
@@ -349,6 +359,43 @@ not a list of containers.
 somebody starts by hand is not the mesh's to configure, and reaching into every container on a
 machine — declared or not — is what a nameserver in `resolv.conf` would be for.
 
+### One resolver for the mesh
+
+*2026-10-03.* **The mesh's names live in one place: the module holding `mesh-resolver`**, a mesh-scoped
+seat of capacity one, placed on the node every tunnel converges on. It holds one wildcard per node —
+`<node>.internal` and everything under it — and listens on the private network only. It answers the
+mesh's names from what it holds and forwards every other name, giving the public answer.
+
+**Every node asks it for everything, and a public resolver only when it is silent.** The module
+holding `node-resolver-config` writes `/etc/resolv.conf` naming `mesh-resolver` first and a public
+resolver second, with a short timeout and one attempt: the C library moves to the second only when the
+first does not answer — the anchor or the tunnel down, a captive portal holding the tunnel back — so
+public names keep resolving then, and `.internal` is never asked of a public resolver while the mesh's
+answers. Containers take the same two from their machine, the runtime copying non-loopback resolvers
+into every container, so the runtime is given no `dns` of its own
+([ADR 0196](../../02-DECISIONS/0196-a-node-asks-the-meshs-resolver-first-and-a-public-one-only-when-it-is-silent.md),
+replacing ADR 0194's per-node `systemd-resolved` stub).
+
+**No node holds a copy.** The per-node resolver, its zones file and the mesh's region of `/etc/hosts`
+go: every resolution fault found on 2026-10-03 was a copy disagreeing with the truth — a hosts file
+read once at start, an operator's old line beside the mesh's, a node's resolver lent to a LAN. No
+member's resolver answers a LAN; a router pointing at one is moved first. *Checked by each node's
+`/etc/resolv.conf` naming `mesh-resolver` then a public resolver, by no node but the holder answering
+DNS on any address, and by the router's DHCP DNS option naming the router.*
+
+**Names that are neither a node nor a route.** A module that answers names declares a zone (a
+setting) and the listen that answers it; the controller hands the `mesh-dns-resolver` holder every
+zone with its module's node address and published port, and the holder forwards that zone there and
+answers nothing in it itself — the lab answers `<machine>.incus` for its running scenarios this way.
+An operator's own names, unrelated to the mesh, live in `/etc/hosts`'s kept region, held per node by
+the `node-hosts-file` seat's holder and changed through its tools; the controller holds none of them
+([ADR 0199](../../02-DECISIONS/0199-a-module-that-answers-names-declares-its-zone-and-a-nodes-hosts-file-is-one-modules.md)).
+*Checked by the holder's configuration carrying one forwarding rule per declared zone, and by a push
+leaving the hosts file's operator region byte for byte.*
+
+*What follows describes the per-node resolver this replaces — how it was built and why the roles were
+split. The split stands; the serving role's scope is what moved.*
+
 ### The resolver, built
 
 *2026-08-31.* **A service is reached at `<service>.<node>.internal`** — the first label is the
@@ -425,15 +472,15 @@ the cost of not seeing it is inventing a mechanism that already exists.
 
 ### The mesh resolves only its own names; a public name resolves publicly
 
-**The mesh's resolver holds names under the mesh suffix and nothing else** — every machine, and through
-it every route's internal name `<label>.<node>.internal`
+**The mesh's resolver holds each node's internal domain and nothing else** — `<node>.internal` and
+everything under it, so every route's internal name `<label>.<node>.internal` with no line of its own
 ([ADR 0151](../../02-DECISIONS/0151-a-routes-internal-name-is-composed-under-the-node-that-serves-it.md)).
-**A public name the mesh serves is never given a private answer**: it is forwarded and resolves to the
+**A node's public domains — one or more — are never given a private answer**: it is forwarded and resolves to the
 public address, from a member and from anything else the resolver answers — a resolver may serve a
 machine's LAN, and a phone on that LAN must get the address it can reach
 ([ADR 0191](../../02-DECISIONS/0191-the-meshs-resolver-holds-only-the-meshs-own-names.md)). Inside the
 mesh, a routed service is reached, and certified by the internal authority, under its internal name.
-*Checked by the controller's catalogue tests — every name the roster carries ends in the mesh suffix —
+*Checked by the controller's tests — the roster names the machines and no routed name —
 and on a machine by asking its resolver for a public name the mesh serves: the answer is the public
 address.*
 
@@ -988,6 +1035,11 @@ The list is worth having in one place, because it is most of the argument:
 
 ## Open
 
+- **One resolver ([ADR 0194](../../02-DECISIONS/0194-the-mesh-has-one-resolver-and-every-node-asks-it-for-the-meshs-names.md)).** Not built: every node still runs
+  `node-dns-resolver`. The migration's four steps are in the record, in order.
+  Nor are zones or the hosts file's holder ([ADR 0199](../../02-DECISIONS/0199-a-module-that-answers-names-declares-its-zone-and-a-nodes-hosts-file-is-one-modules.md)): the
+  workstation moves to the one resolver only once both exist, its lab and operator names depending on them.
+
 - ~~**What happens when the hub is down.**~~ **Resolved** by
   [ADR 0006](../../02-DECISIONS/0006-the-substrate-and-the-control-plane.md), together with `06`'s
   matching question — they were one question. Nothing takes over. WireGuard has no failover, the
@@ -1009,9 +1061,6 @@ The list is worth having in one place, because it is most of the argument:
   operator's to move between meshes, but the manifest layer still stores it as a literal — so today
   the composition is a per-node override rather than the design. The interpolation that would let a
   module carry a label and a node carry the domain, and the mesh join them, does not yet exist.
-- **Withdrawing public names from internal resolution.** The roster still publishes every routed
-  public name at its serving node's private address, which ADR 0191 forbids; until the controller
-  stops, a resolver that answers a LAN hands that LAN's non-members addresses they cannot reach.
 
 ## The hub adopts the predecessor's tunnel
 

03-DESIGN/01-to-be/18-building-a-module.md

@@ -5,10 +5,11 @@ code:
   - mesh-controller cmd/mesh-builder
   - mesh-controller internal/builder
   - mesh-catalog modules/build-agent
-updated: 2026-10-03
+updated: 2026-10-04
 decisions:
   - 02-DECISIONS/0190-a-seats-work-is-shared-by-its-holders-and-building-is-the-first-such-role.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0157-a-build-says-what-it-does-on-the-bus-as-it-happens.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0189-the-store-keeps-what-the-records-name.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0150-a-modules-own-code-runs-as-supervised-processes-under-one-account.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0142-the-mesh-delivers-its-own-components-as-binaries.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0111-a-build-source-is-on-the-git-seat-or-external.md
@@ -317,6 +318,44 @@ build's lines reach a reader of its subject in order and the stream holds them a
 against a real server); the seat verb with an id reads the log (controller test); and, live, a build
 after the roll-out read line by line through the console.
 
+## The store keeps what the records name
+
+*2026-10-02 — [ADR 0189](../../02-DECISIONS/0189-the-store-keeps-what-the-records-name.md),
+[issue 108](../../04-ISSUES/108-the-registry-has-no-garbage-collection-once-it-has-two-doors/00-report.md).*
+
+Every build pushes another layer set and, until this, nothing ever removed one. The registry's own
+answer — collect what no tag names — is wrong for this mesh: each artifact is pushed under one
+moving tag and machines are pinned by digest, so every build but the newest is untagged and some
+machine may still be running it.
+
+**The mesh decides and the store reclaims.** Deletion is enabled on the store's one door — that
+door already accepts a push, and a writer who can push can replace any tag, so delete takes
+nothing a push did not already have, and ADR 0082's bargain (a store every machine reaches with no
+credential to distribute first) is kept. The mesh then removes what it put there and no longer
+keeps, **naming it from its own build records** rather than enumerating the store: it has never
+put anything there it did not record, so a digest it did not record making is never named, which
+is what keeps the sweep away from the images genesis pushed before any record existed.
+
+An artifact stays for one of two reasons and otherwise goes: a definition the mesh holds names it
+(no age limit — this is the floor), or it belongs to one of the five most recent successful builds
+of its module (somewhere for a wrong release to return to). The sweep runs after a build the mesh
+recorded, which is the moment new bytes landed and the moment the keep set moved; it needs no
+timer. Deleting a manifest frees no bytes, so the store's own collector runs nightly as a
+scheduled step with the server held still — which is what `while-stopped` exists for
+([design 20](20-writing-a-module.md)). Plain collection, not `--delete-untagged`: what the mesh
+keeps is still a manifest and so still referenced, and the dangerous flag is not needed once the
+mesh is the one deciding.
+
+A machine behind by more than five builds of a module, recreating a container, cannot pull what it
+was running. It is already a machine the mesh reports as behind, and the answer is the current
+declaration.
+
+*How it is checked:* the keep set, against records, holds what a manifest names and the five most
+recent builds and nothing else; a reference the mesh never recorded is never in the delete set; an
+image and an archive are asked for at their own endpoints; a store with deletion off names the
+remedy rather than the status code; a store that does not have it is recorded collected rather
+than retried for ever. Live: the store's size before and after the first nightly collection.
+
 ## The builder compiles the languages the mesh is written in
 
 *2026-09-29 —

03-DESIGN/01-to-be/20-writing-a-module.md

@@ -5,11 +5,12 @@ code:
   - mesh-catalog modules/showcase
   - mesh-controller internal/builder
   - mesh-sdk src
-updated: 2026-09-30
+updated: 2026-10-02
 decisions:
   - 02-DECISIONS/0150-a-modules-own-code-runs-as-supervised-processes-under-one-account.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0099-a-step-that-runs-once-names-what-it-reads.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0053-a-step-that-runs-on-a-schedule.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0189-the-store-keeps-what-the-records-name.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0074-the-wire-is-specified-not-the-types.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0040-what-a-module-is.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0039-what-the-sdk-holds-and-refuses.md
@@ -208,3 +209,27 @@ is recreated with the new fact
 ([ADR 0099](../../02-DECISIONS/0099-a-step-that-runs-once-names-what-it-reads.md)). *How it is
 checked:* the host's unit tests run a step again when its named file changed and not otherwise,
 and recreate a container naming a step after the step ran.
+
+## A recurring step may hold its own module's containers still
+
+*Written 2026-10-02, from [ADR 0189](../../02-DECISIONS/0189-the-store-keeps-what-the-records-name.md)
+and [issue 108](../../04-ISSUES/108-the-registry-has-no-garbage-collection-once-it-has-two-doors/00-report.md).*
+
+Some work cannot be done underneath a running service: an artifact store's collector walks the
+storage and requires every writer stopped. A `run-once` step runs *beside* containers and a
+scheduled one is the same container again, so until this a module had no way to say it — and the
+mesh inherited a store that has never collected anything, because the predecessor said it with a
+shell script and a script beside a module is not a resource in it.
+
+A scheduled step may name `while-stopped`: resource ids of **its own module's** containers, which
+the host stops before the run and starts again after it, in the reverse order, **whatever the step
+did**. Three boundaries, each refused where it can be seen earliest — its own module's containers
+only, because a module that could quiesce a neighbour could stop the mesh; scheduled steps only,
+because at apply the declaration is applied in order and a step already gates what follows, so a
+one-time offline job says *before* rather than *instead of*; and restoring that is not conditional
+on anything, because the only real risk of the field is a window that never closes.
+
+*How it is checked:* the host's unit tests assert stop–run–start in that order, the restart after a
+step that **failed**, the reverse order for several containers, and a service left down said
+loudly. The controller refuses, from the definition alone, a window with no schedule, one on a
+run-once step, one naming a container the module does not declare, and one naming itself.

03-DESIGN/01-to-be/25-the-bus-on-nats.md

@@ -7,8 +7,10 @@ code:
   - mesh-tools src/broker-amqp.ts (to be replaced)
   - mesh-catalog modules/nats (to be written)
   - mesh-sdk src (the protocol's NATS binding, step 3)
-updated: 2026-10-02
+  - mesh-tools node-tools/internal/bus (a module's state, ADR 0201)
+updated: 2026-10-04
 decisions:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0201-a-module-keeps-its-current-state-in-key-value-buckets-it-declares-and-reaches-through-the-runtime.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0167-a-membership-carries-what-its-module-receives-and-who-the-mesh-is.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0160-the-mesh-issues-an-assignments-subjects-and-a-runtime-serves-what-it-is-issued.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0157-a-build-says-what-it-does-on-the-bus-as-it-happens.md
@@ -48,6 +50,7 @@ mesh's own state lives, and where what a module may say is decided by what it de
 | **events** — a module says something happened | 1:many | delivered to every consumer that declared it; dead-lettered when it cannot be |
 | **tools** — a module or a person asks another's tool | request/reply | one answer, from one server, or a timeout |
 | **work to a role** — a module submits to a capability without knowing who provides it | job | exactly one holder does it; it queues while nobody does |
+| **state** — a module's current value of something, every machine reading it | key-value | the newest per key, kept until replaced or deleted; read whole by a machine that joins later |
 
 The last two rows are the ones worth dwelling on, because they are not messaging in the sense of
 carrying bytes from A to B. **A role is addressable**, so a caller names the capability and never
@@ -56,7 +59,8 @@ changing ([ADR 0126](../../02-DECISIONS/0126-a-module-declares-its-own-seats.md)
 property of the mesh's architecture that happens to be expressed in subjects.
 
 And more of the mesh lands here as it is built: conditions and observed state in key-value
-buckets that anything may watch, the server's own advisories becoming observations like any other
+buckets that anything may watch — the first of them a module's own declared state, *2026-10-04*
+([ADR 0201](../../02-DECISIONS/0201-a-module-keeps-its-current-state-in-key-value-buckets-it-declares-and-reaches-through-the-runtime.md)) — the server's own advisories becoming observations like any other
 ([research 017](../../01-RESEARCH/017-a-mesh-that-heals-itself/00-overview.md)), and a person's
 client speaking the bus directly rather than through a surface built over it (§7). None of that
 is a message being moved; all of it is the bus being the mesh's centre.
@@ -84,8 +88,16 @@ mesh.seat.<seat>.event.<verb>     a role's own event           (JetStream: EVENT
 mesh.seat.<seat>.tool.<verb>      a role's tool                (core request/reply)
 mesh.ask.<node>.<command>         the controller's command api (core request/reply)
 mesh.assignment.<node>.<module>   an assignment's membership   (JetStream: ASSIGNMENTS, last-per-subject)
+$KV.<module>_<name>.<key>          a module's state             (JetStream: a key-value bucket per declared name)
 ```
 
+**Added 2026-10-04** ([ADR 0201](../../02-DECISIONS/0201-a-module-keeps-its-current-state-in-key-value-buckets-it-declares-and-reaches-through-the-runtime.md)):
+the last row is outside `mesh.` on purpose. A key-value bucket is NATS's own construct and lives
+under NATS's own prefix, which is what lets the server's key-value layer — direct reads, rollups,
+delete markers, watches — do the work instead of the mesh writing it again. The bucket is named for
+the module and the local name joined by an underscore, which neither may contain, so two modules can
+never derive one bucket.
+
 **Revised 2026-10-01** ([ADR 0160](../../02-DECISIONS/0160-the-mesh-issues-an-assignments-subjects-and-a-runtime-serves-what-it-is-issued.md)): the rows above
 for a module's and a seat's tools are the shapes the controller *issues*, not rules a runtime carries.
 Every assignment is published a membership — what it serves and where, in which queue, its seat verbs,
@@ -155,6 +167,7 @@ Core NATS is at-most-once. Everything the mesh must not lose lives in a JetStrea
 | CONTROL | `mesh.control.>` except `alive` (a build's outcome moved to its seat, ADR 0121) | work queue, one consumer (the controller), explicit ack | the store-window guarantee ([ADR 0083](../../02-DECISIONS/0083-one-push-leaves-the-mesh-consistent.md)): the controller `nak`s with a delay while its store is away and the message is redelivered; nothing is dropped |
 | NODES | `mesh.node.>` | last per subject | one declaration per node, always the newest |
 | EVENTS | `mesh.mod.*.event.>` and `mesh.seat.*.event.>` | limits (age, size), durable consumer per subscribing module | a subscriber that was down catches up; after `max-deliver` attempts the advisory feeds `mesh.events.dead` (its own small stream). *2026-10-01:* a build's whole log is here too, as the build-machine seat's `log.<build id>` events ([ADR 0157](../../02-DECISIONS/0157-a-build-says-what-it-does-on-the-bus-as-it-happens.md)) — one subject per build, a week of retention, read back by `builds --log <id>` with a consumer that is gone when the reading is done |
+| `KV_<module>_<name>` | `$KV.<module>_<name>.>` | the newest value per key — as many past values as the owner declared — no age unless the owner declared one; a value at most 256 KiB, a bucket at most 64 MiB | a module's state (ADR 0201): one per name in a manifest's `state`, created from the catalogue on every raise, so it exists before its owner runs anywhere; kept when the module is unassigned, because what it holds is data |
 
 Tool calls and heartbeats stay on core NATS: a lost heartbeat is the next heartbeat; a lost tool
 call is a timeout the caller already handles.
@@ -234,6 +247,14 @@ expresses this exactly, per subject, and better than a vhost could:
   permissions for each consumed event's subject, its tool subjects, and that same inbox prefix.
   Nothing else. A module that tries to publish outside its emits is refused by the server, not by
   convention.
+- **A module's state** (ADR 0201), for whichever principal carries the module — today the machine's
+  runtime, whose grant is the union of its modules': binding to the bucket, reading a key directly,
+  and an ordered consumer for listing and watching, created and deleted on the bucket's own stream
+  and nothing else's; and, for the owner's instances only, publishing under the bucket's own
+  `$KV.<bucket>.>`. *Measured 2026-10-04 against a running server:* without the consumer-delete
+  grant a watch cannot be stopped cleanly, and a write the server refuses reaches the writer as a
+  timeout rather than a refusal — so the runtime refuses first, from the membership, and the grant
+  is the second line.
 - **The controller's user** owns `mesh.control.>`, `mesh.node.>` and the streams, and may submit work
   to the seats the mesh's own flows use — a build, for one (ADR 0121).
   **A host's user** may publish its own `mesh.control.<node>.>` and subscribe its own

03-DESIGN/01-to-be/26-the-seats.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ---
 layer: to-be
-status: implemented
+status: in-progress
 code:
   - mesh-controller internal/catalogue/seats.go
   - mesh-controller internal/catalogue/resolve.go
@@ -10,8 +10,10 @@ code:
   - mesh-controller cmd/mesh-controller/source.go
   - mesh-controller internal/inventory/migrations/0032-a-source-may-live-on-a-seat.sql
   - mesh-catalog modules/gitea/module.json
-updated: 2026-10-01
+updated: 2026-10-03
 decisions:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0199-a-module-that-answers-names-declares-its-zone-and-a-nodes-hosts-file-is-one-modules.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0194-the-mesh-has-one-resolver-and-every-node-asks-it-for-the-meshs-names.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0161-what-deserves-a-seat.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0131-everything-on-the-mesh-speaks-to-the-broker-seat.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0126-a-module-declares-its-own-seats.md
@@ -126,7 +128,9 @@ convention, which later seats departed from.
 | `mesh-npm-package-registry` | `npm-package-registry` | mesh | `npm-package-registry` | the forge |
 | `mesh-git` | `git` | mesh | `git` | the forge |
 | `mesh-build-machine` | `the-build-machine` | node | — | a builder |
-| `mesh-dns-port` | `the-dns-port` | node | — | the local resolver |
+| `mesh-resolver` | — | mesh | — | the mesh's one resolver, holding every node's internal domain ([ADR 0194](../../02-DECISIONS/0194-the-mesh-has-one-resolver-and-every-node-asks-it-for-the-meshs-names.md)) |
+| ~~`mesh-dns-port`~~ | `the-dns-port` | node | — | retired by [ADR 0194](../../02-DECISIONS/0194-the-mesh-has-one-resolver-and-every-node-asks-it-for-the-meshs-names.md): the local resolver became the mesh's one |
+| `node-hosts-file` | — | node | — | owns `/etc/hosts`: the machine's own lines and the operator's kept region, changed through its verbs `entries`, `add`, `remove` ([ADR 0199](../../02-DECISIONS/0199-a-module-that-answers-names-declares-its-zone-and-a-nodes-hosts-file-is-one-modules.md)) |
 | `mesh-intrusion-prevention` | `the-intrusion-prevention` | node | — | an intrusion-prevention service |
 | `mesh-packet-filter` | `the-packet-filter` | node | — | the packet filter |
 | `mesh-private-network` | `the-private-network` | node | — | the private network the mesh runs over |

03-DESIGN/01-to-be/27-a-module-requires-the-mesh-resolves.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 layer: to-be
 status: in-progress
 code: [mesh-controller internal/catalogue]
-updated: 2026-09-30
+updated: 2026-10-02
 decisions:
   - 02-DECISIONS/0112-a-module-definition-names-no-node-mesh-or-path.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0155-a-definition-names-no-installation-and-how-that-is-checked.md
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ decisions:
   - 02-DECISIONS/0084-which-provider-serves-a-consumer.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0046-a-module-configuration-is-its-assignments-not-its-manifest.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0038-the-mesh-assigns-the-port.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0202-a-provider-declares-what-it-derives-for-each-consumer.md
 ---
 
 # 27 — A module requires, the mesh resolves
@@ -206,6 +207,22 @@ name when nothing sets it. That is the contract half of this design's operator p
 the placeholder allows: the definition says which values reach which requirement, and nothing else
 does. *How it is checked:* the unit tests named in issue 173, and the plan comparison that closed it.
 
+*A provider says once what it derives for each consumer (2026-10-02,
+[ADR 0202](../../02-DECISIONS/0202-a-provider-declares-what-it-derives-for-each-consumer.md),
+[issue 124](../../04-ISSUES/124-a-consumer-cannot-be-told-what-its-provider-derived/00-report.md)):*
+where a provider **names the resource** it gives each consumer — a bucket, a database, a vhost — the
+name is derived per consumer, and a literal `serves` block could not carry it. A served value may
+now name the consumer the mesh is serving: `${consumer:as}`, the identity the mesh minted, and
+`${consumer:as:dns}`, that same identity written as a DNS label. Nothing else — **the mesh learns no
+protocol here; it spells its own name in an alphabet it already knows.** Settings are laid on first,
+so an operator may still set a prefix and the mesh derives the rest. The mesh fills it at the one
+moment it knows who the consumer is, and the one filled value reaches both ends: the consumer, as
+its binding's served facts and as `${bound:<provision>:<key>}` in any file it writes; the provider,
+as `derived` on that consumer's entry in its contributions file, so its provisioner is told the name
+rather than recomputing it. A consumer that writes the derived value into its own definition instead
+of asking for it is refused, naming the placeholder to use. *How it is checked:* the unit tests in
+ADR 0202's "how this is checked", each run against the unchanged controller first.
+
 ## How a definition reads what was resolved
 
 **One form, naming a requirement and a field of its contract.** A definition that needs the database's
@@ -214,7 +231,9 @@ name in a configuration file writes the same thing: the requirement's name and t
 controller fills it at resolution.
 
 This one form replaces the placeholders that exist today, one per mechanism: bound values, secrets,
-ports and machine facts.
+ports and machine facts. It subsumes the consumer placeholder too — a value a provider derives is
+read by the consumer exactly as any other field of the contract is, and `${consumer:…}` is only
+how the *provider* states the rule.
 
 **The seat placeholder stays, for the controller alone.** The controller composes its own
 declaration and reaches the store and broker it made before any module existed, so it cannot be

03-DESIGN/01-to-be/32-what-a-module-declares.md

@@ -11,8 +11,10 @@ code:
   - mesh-host internal/apply/apply.go
   - mesh-tools src/main.ts
   - mesh-catalog modules/mesh-catalog
-updated: 2026-10-02
+  - mesh-tools node-tools/internal/runtime (a module's state, ADR 0201)
+updated: 2026-10-04
 decisions:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0201-a-module-keeps-its-current-state-in-key-value-buckets-it-declares-and-reaches-through-the-runtime.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0160-the-mesh-issues-an-assignments-subjects-and-a-runtime-serves-what-it-is-issued.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0126-a-module-declares-its-own-seats.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0131-everything-on-the-mesh-speaks-to-the-broker-seat.md
@@ -67,6 +69,8 @@ the catalogue, and the mesh would have hundreds of copies of a decision it made
 | `tools: status` | queue-group subscription on `mesh.mod.<module>.tool.status` |
 | seat `telegram-sender`, `accepts: send` | work-queue consumer on `mesh.seat.telegram-sender.accept.send` |
 | `uses: telegram-sender` | publish on that seat's `accept` subjects, and nothing else |
+| `state: servers` | a key-value bucket for the module, created by the controller; its instances write and read it |
+| `reads: billing.orders` | read and watch billing's `orders` bucket, and nothing else of it |
 
 **Wildcards, and they are the mesh's rather than a bus's.** *Added 2026-09-27, from
 [issue 127](../../04-ISSUES/127-a-module-event-derives-a-subject-nothing-publishes/00-report.md).* A
@@ -221,7 +225,7 @@ service" versus "one worker per machine".
 | credential | sealed, per consumer | none | none | none | none |
 | reply | — | none | none, or an event later | a report | awaited |
 | retention | — | age and size | work queue, explicit ack | **last per subject** | none |
-| declared | `provides`/`requires` | `emits`/`consumes` | seat `accepts` / `uses` | the mesh's own | `serves` |
+| declared | `provides`/`requires` | `emits`/`consumes` | seat `accepts` / `uses` | the mesh's own; a module's `state` / `reads` | `serves` |
 
 **Job** is the one [ADR 0041](../../02-DECISIONS/0041-events-are-a-relationship.md) had no room
 for. Its table has events at 1:many and provisions at 1:1; a module submitting work to a service
@@ -236,6 +240,31 @@ last-per-subject retention, and a node that has seen sequence *n* refuses *n−1
 That is the wire-level answer to
 [issue 107](../../04-ISSUES/107-a-declaration-carries-no-order/00-report.md).
 
+**A module declares state too.** *Added 2026-10-04,
+[ADR 0201](../../02-DECISIONS/0201-a-module-keeps-its-current-state-in-key-value-buckets-it-declares-and-reaches-through-the-runtime.md).*
+State was the mesh's alone, and modules had the same need with nowhere to put it: an MCP server
+registered for every machine, sent as an event, never reached a machine assigned afterwards — its
+consumer did not exist yet when the event passed — and a licence binding sent as events replays a
+week of rotations where only the latest matters. So a module names the state it **owns** with
+`state`, and another module's it **reads** with `reads: <module>.<name>`. Each is a key-value bucket
+the controller creates from the catalogue, mesh-wide, existing from registration so a reader can
+watch before the owner runs anywhere ([design 25](25-the-bus-on-nats.md) §3). Every instance of the
+owner writes; a reader reads and watches. A key may name a machine by the module's own convention;
+the mesh keeps one bucket per name, not one per machine, because "every server, for every machine"
+is then one list rather than a walk.
+
+What a module sees is what it named. Its assignment's membership lists its buckets by those names,
+with whether it may write, and the runtime answers `get`, `put`, `delete`, `keys` and `watch` for
+them on the bundle's channel — refusing, with the reason, a name it was not issued or a write to a
+bucket it only reads. A watch hands the current values first, then every change: a bundle that starts
+late, or starts again, has the whole of the state before it has any of the news.
+
+The owner says how many past values a key keeps and how long a value lives, as a seat says how long
+its backlog survives (§3); the mesh caps a value's size and a bucket's. **A bucket outlives its
+module's assignment** — what a module stored is data
+([ADR 0030](../../02-DECISIONS/0030-data-outlives-the-mesh-that-declared-it.md)) — and one whose
+declaration is gone is reported, never removed by the mesh.
+
 ## 5. Seats
 
 A module declares a seat with its protocol, and the mesh enforces one holder at its scope
@@ -454,6 +483,14 @@ sealing key leaks, that stream is an archive rather than a moment. So:
   existing discipline — *fetched from it, not carried* — applied to the one payload where carrying
   it is worst.
 
+**A key-value bucket is a stream, so the same holds for it.** *Added 2026-10-04,
+[ADR 0201](../../02-DECISIONS/0201-a-module-keeps-its-current-state-in-key-value-buckets-it-declares-and-reaches-through-the-runtime.md).*
+No secret is put in a module's state, sealed or not: state is exactly what a machine joining a year
+later reads in full. A value that needs a secret names it, and the secret travels on request/reply.
+Sealed values are plain text to anything inspecting them, so this is checked only partly — the
+runtime refuses a value carrying a field whose name says it is a credential, which catches the
+ordinary mistake and not a determined one.
+
 **The bootstrap, which is circular and has a precedent.** The vault makes every secret
 ([ADR 0113](../../02-DECISIONS/0113-the-vault-makes-every-secret.md)), including the bus's own
 passwords. The vault is a module, and a module needs a bus account, whose password the vault
@@ -523,3 +560,9 @@ billing existing under that name.
   on, and exactly those two are rebuilt.
 - **A stale declaration is refused.** A bed: replay sequence *n−1* after *n*, and the node refuses
   it rather than applying it.
+- **A module reaches only the state it declared.** The composer's test: an owner's runtime may write
+  its buckets, a reader's may only read, and nothing else is granted; the runtime's test over a real
+  bus: a name not issued and a reader's write are refused with the reason.
+- **State is current at once.** The runtime's test over a real bus: a watch hands the current values
+  without deletions, then an end-of-current marker, then changes. Live: a machine assigned after a put
+  reads it at start.

03-DESIGN/01-to-be/34-the-console.md

@@ -1,9 +1,11 @@
 ---
 layer: to-be
-status: implemented
+status: designed
 code: [mesh-catalog, mesh-tools, mesh-controller]
-updated: 2026-10-02
+updated: 2026-10-03
 decisions:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0197-every-tool-announces-itself-on-the-bus-in-the-nats-services-protocol.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0195-the-meshs-tools-are-found-by-address-not-announced-whole.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/0152-the-operators-surface-is-a-module-the-console.md
@@ -93,6 +95,28 @@ prerequisites are listed in that record. When the seat serves them, the console
 modules' own, and the person stops opening a shell for the mesh's own questions. Until then the console
 says so in its handshake.
 
+## 3a. Found by address, not announced whole (2026-10-03)
+
+*By [ADR 0195](../../02-DECISIONS/0195-the-meshs-tools-are-found-by-address-not-announced-whole.md);
+this section governs where it and §2–§3 disagree.* The console announces five tools —
+`mesh_overview`, `mesh_machine`, `mesh_search`, `mesh_describe`, `mesh_call` — and every tool the mesh
+answers is reached through them by its address: `<seat>.<verb>` for a seat held once for the mesh,
+`<node>/<seat>.<verb>` for one held per machine, `<node>/<module>.<tool>` for an assignment, and
+`<module>.<tool>` as well for a module whose instances are interchangeable. A module that is not
+interchangeable is called with its machine or refused with the machines it runs on. Each discovery
+verb asks the mesh when it is called, so nothing is kept for a session's length; the flat catalogue
+stays reachable through the `mesh` client and a setting, unannounced.
+
+**What exists is what announced itself** ([ADR 0197](../../02-DECISIONS/0197-every-tool-announces-itself-on-the-bus-in-the-nats-services-protocol.md)):
+every runtime answers the NATS services protocol's `$SRV.INFO` with what it serves, and the console
+gathers one request's answers; the controller's records, read as JSON, say which assignments with
+tools should have answered.
+
+*Found 2026-10-03, measuring for that record:* §3's statement that a stateful module on two machines is
+listed once per machine does not hold on the live console — postgres and mssql are listed once, `node`
+optional, answered by whichever instance replies. The address replaces that statement rather than
+repairing it.
+
 ## 4. Where it runs
 
 On whichever machines an operator sits at, by assignment. It is not on the control node by default and

03-DESIGN/01-to-be/36-the-operators-agent-on-a-machine.md

@@ -1,9 +1,13 @@
 ---
 layer: to-be
-status: designed
-code: []
-updated: 2026-10-02
+status: in-progress
+code: [mesh-catalog modules/claude-code]
+updated: 2026-10-05
 decisions:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0216-the-agents-configuration-is-registered-through-its-module-at-three-scopes-and-served-as-one-plugin.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0213-the-operator-sets-the-agents-managed-settings-through-the-agent-module.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0209-a-login-on-a-node-moves-that-node-to-its-account-and-an-api-key-is-added-from-any-node-sealed.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0206-a-node-reports-the-anthropic-grant-it-holds-and-the-licence-manager-adopts-a-licence-by-refreshing-it.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0181-the-operator-account-is-a-node-fact-and-a-home-is-a-placement-root.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0182-inside-a-home-the-mesh-owns-what-it-places-and-holds-the-rest-as-found.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0183-the-anthropic-licence-manager-is-a-module-and-hands-tokens-to-the-agent-over-the-bus.md
@@ -38,7 +42,8 @@ The agent reads a machine-wide, administrator-owned configuration directory unde
 by the vendor: a managed settings file that outranks every user and project setting; a key in it that
 adds HTTP tool servers *beside* a person's own without blocking them; and a managed instruction file every
 session reads before the user's and the project's. The agent has **no** machine-wide directory for
-rules, skills, slash commands or hooks; those exist only under a home or a project.
+rules, skills, slash commands or hooks; those exist only under a home or a project — or in a **plugin**
+the managed settings enable, which is how the mesh puts them on every machine (§8).
 
 So the mesh's part of the agent's configuration lives there, **owned whole by the module**, and the home
 is left alone. What the predecessor shipped as two rule files and two skills folds into the managed
@@ -48,14 +53,16 @@ instruction file and the manager's tools:
 |---|---|
 | `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md` | the managed instruction file: how a session on this mesh works (§3) |
 | `~/.claude/rules/00-hal-mesh.md`, `~/.claude/rules/conventions.md` | sections of the same file: this node's identity, the repositories' conventions |
-| `~/.claude/settings.json`, merged | the managed settings file: the mesh's keys only, outranking nothing a person did not also set |
+| `~/.claude/settings.json`, merged | the managed settings file: the mesh's keys, and the rules the operator set for the agent (§2) |
 | `~/.claude/skills/hal-switch-license/SKILL.md` | the manager seat's `switch` verb, listed by the console, and a sentence in the instruction file saying to use it |
 | `~/.claude/skills/cleanup/SKILL.md` | nothing; it named the predecessor's forge |
 | the console's entry in the agent's user-scope state | the managed settings' tool-server key, from the console's provision (§4) |
 
 **The home.** Under [ADR 0182](../../02-DECISIONS/0182-inside-a-home-the-mesh-owns-what-it-places-and-holds-the-rest-as-found.md)
-every path under `~/.claude` is *found*, with one exception: the agent's credentials file, which the
-module's own code writes for a subscription licence (§5). The person's memory, history, projects, local
+the module owns the directory `~/.claude` — that it exists, that the operator owns it, its mode,
+`0700` — and declares it, so the mesh refuses a second module owning it. Of what is inside, it owns only
+the agent's credentials file, which its own code writes for a subscription licence (§5); every other path
+is *found*. The person's memory, history, projects, local
 settings, their own rules, skills and tool servers are never read or written by the mesh. **The six
 predecessor files are the operator's to remove, once, on each workstation**; the module's documentation
 lists them, and until they go the agent reads stale instructions beside the mesh's.
@@ -63,16 +70,19 @@ lists them, and until they go the agent reads stale instructions beside the mesh
 ## 2. What the module declares and what its code writes
 
 **Declared, applied by the host:** the agent's package (§7); the module's state directory; a facts file
-in that directory carrying the node's name, the operator account, the console's endpoint, the module's
-settings; the bus, the console's provision, and that it uses the `anthropic-licence-manager` seat.
-Nothing under the home, nothing under `/etc`.
+in that directory carrying the node's name and the console's endpoint, and a settings file carrying the
+role, the extra tool servers and the operator's managed-settings keys, merged from the module's settings layers — the bundle is told the two
+files' paths, because a bundle's words are paths and constants only (ADR 0192); the bus, the console's provision, and that it uses the `anthropic-licence-manager` seat.
+Two directories, declared so the ownership check sees them: the agent's managed directory under
+`/etc`, root's, and `~/.claude` under the operator's home, the operator's. No *file* resource under
+either: what is in them is written by the module's code (§2 below) or is the person's.
 
 **Written by the module's code**, from the facts file and the manager's hand-over, whenever either
 changes:
 
 | path | content |
 |---|---|
-| the managed settings file | the mesh's keys: the tool servers (the console, plus any the operator declared as settings), the attribution trailers, and — for an API-key binding only — the key-helper that serves the key |
+| the managed settings file | the keys the operator set in the module's `managed_settings` setting, with the mesh's keys laid over them: the tool servers (the console, plus any the operator declared as settings), the attribution trailers, and — for an API-key binding only — the key-helper that serves the key |
 | the managed instruction file | §3 |
 | the agent's credentials file under the operator's home | for a subscription binding only: the access token the manager handed over, as the operator, readable by the operator alone, atomic, no refresh token |
 | the module's keypair in its state | made once, the private half never leaves (§5) |
@@ -87,6 +97,14 @@ requires. The model, the spinner, the drafts and every other preference are the
 predecessor's experience with the model key is the evidence: a mesh that sets a preference reverts a
 person's choice on every push.
 
+**The operator's rules for the agent** ([ADR 0213](../../02-DECISIONS/0213-the-operator-sets-the-agents-managed-settings-through-the-agent-module.md)).
+What the agent may do without asking, what it must never do and what its unattended mode allows are
+not preferences: they are policy about an agent on the mesh, and a session must not loosen its own. The
+operator sets them in the module's `managed_settings` setting, in the vendor's settings shape, for the
+mesh or one node. The module copies those keys into the managed settings file and lays the mesh's keys
+last, so a setting can never replace the attribution convention, the connectors key or the key-helper,
+and a key-helper appears only for an API-key binding. The mesh still sets no preference by itself.
+
 ## 3. What the instruction file says
 
 Prose, not a paste; the file is the module's.
@@ -111,17 +129,20 @@ the playbooks in the record.
 
 ## 4. The console
 
-The module tells the agent where the console is, and the port is the console's to say. **The console
-provides a node-scoped provision** — its MCP endpoint on loopback — serving the port the machine gave
-it, and the module requires it. A requirement names what the consumer is coupled to
-([ADR 0027](../../02-DECISIONS/0027-a-provision-names-what-the-consumer-is-coupled-to.md)); co-location
-resolves it; a machine without the console refuses the module by name. [To-be 34](34-the-console.md) is
-amended in the same change; issue 192 (open) found the gap.
+> **Revised 2026-10-03, building it.** The vendor's managed-settings key for tool servers refuses any
+> URL that is not `https://`, including one on loopback, so it cannot carry the console. The module
+> owns the vendor's **exclusive** managed tool-server file instead (operator's choice): the console as
+> `mesh`, over HTTP on loopback, and every server in the module's `mcp_servers` setting — and no other.
+> A server added by hand, a project's own file and a plugin's servers stop loading; claude.ai's
+> connectors are kept by a managed setting. A person's own servers move into the setting, for the mesh
+> or for one node. Stdio straight to the bus, through the runtime's own client, was weighed and left
+> for later: it needs a verb the delivered runtime does not have, and a session holding its own bus
+> connection breaks on a credential rotation.
 
 **Other tool servers** a person wants on every machine, or on one, are a declared setting of this module
-— mesh layer or node layer — rendered into the same managed key. A module tool, `mcp_configure`,
-validates a server and sets the setting through the controller's settings verb, so the list stays
-declared state. The agent's own HTTP-only constraint for managed servers applies; a person's local
+— mesh layer or node layer — rendered into the same managed file. The person sets them with the
+controller's `settings` verb on this module, so the list stays declared state; the list is the operator's
+choice, set where every setting is set. The agent's own HTTP-only constraint for managed servers applies; a person's local
 command-based servers stay their own, in their own file.
 
 **The entry's name is `mesh`.** The hand-made entry both workstations carry today is named after this
@@ -131,36 +152,48 @@ it is the person's to remove, and until then the agent sees the mesh's tools twi
 ## 5. The licence: the consumer side
 
 [ADR 0183](../../02-DECISIONS/0183-the-anthropic-licence-manager-is-a-module-and-hands-tokens-to-the-agent-over-the-bus.md)
-decides it; to-be 39 is the manager's half. This module:
+decides it and [ADR 0206](../../02-DECISIONS/0206-a-node-reports-the-anthropic-grant-it-holds-and-the-licence-manager-adopts-a-licence-by-refreshing-it.md) says how it moves; to-be 39 is the manager's half. This module:
 
-- **makes a keypair** in its state the first time it runs and registers the public half with the seat;
-- **serves `apply`**: the manager's hand-over, a token sealed to the module's key, with the licence's
-  name and kind. A rotation of the same licence is applied only if newer within one lineage; a switch is
-  applied regardless, because across licences the expiries are unrelated. The answer says applied or
-  refused and why, and never echoes a token;
-- **pulls** at start and when its token nears expiry, by the seat's `current` verb, and keeps the last
-  token when the manager does not answer, saying so;
-- **writes** for a subscription licence the credentials file as the operator, access-token-only; for the
-  API-key licence sets the key-helper in the managed settings to a small program that prints the key
-  from the module's state, so no file under the home is touched;
-- **offers a login to the manager**: when the credentials file changes by a person's login, it reads the
-  account's identity from the agent's state file and offers the grant to the seat, sealed to the manager's
-  key, for adoption; the manager decides;
-- **serves `licence_status`**: which licence and kind this node holds, when the token expires, whether
+- **makes a keypair** in its state the first time it runs, and sends the public half with every request
+  that is answered sealed;
+- **reports what the node holds**, as its own `holdings` state, one key for this node: the account's
+  identity read from the agent's state file, the kind, the refresh token's fingerprint and whether one is
+  present, the access token's fingerprint and expiry, the licence and generation it last applied, when the
+  credentials file last changed. Written at start — a node already logged in reports at once — and on every
+  change of the file. Never a token: the runtime refuses one anyway;
+- **hands over a grant only when asked**: `claude_code_grant` answers the manager, which gives its public
+  key, with the full grant in the credentials file sealed to that key — the one time a refresh token
+  leaves the node, for the manager to adopt by refreshing it;
+- **watches the manager's `bindings` state** for this node, and when the generation is newer than the one
+  it applied, asks the seat's `current` verb for the token, sealed to its own key. A rotation of the same
+  licence is applied only if newer within one lineage; a switch is applied regardless;
+- **writes** for a subscription licence the credentials file as the operator, **access-token-only** — so
+  the agent here never refreshes, and a refresh token appearing later is a person's login, reported like
+  any change; for the API-key licence sets the key-helper in the managed settings to a small program that
+  prints the key from the module's state, so no file under the home is touched;
+- **adds an API key from this node** (*ADR 0209*): `claude_code_add_api_key` reads the key from a file
+  here, seals it to the manager's `public-key`, hands it to the seat's `adopt`, removes the file once
+  taken, and on request switches this node to the new licence;
+- **follows a login made here**: a login to another account is adopted and moves this node to it (ADR
+  0209) — nothing for this module to do beyond reporting it;
+- **serves `claude_code_status`**: which licence and kind this node holds, when the token expires, whether
   the file matches what was handed over — by fingerprint, never by value.
 
-Switching is the seat's `switch` verb, asked through the console; this module only applies what it is
-handed.
+Switching is the seat's `switch` verb, asked through the console; this module only applies what the
+state says it should hold. *2026-10-04:* this replaces the manager's visits of 2026-10-03 (ADR 0183's dated
+note): the node reports, the manager asks for a secret only when a report shows one it does not hold, and
+a token is fetched by request when the state says it changed.
 
 ## 6. Scope, settings and the order of assignment
 
 **Every node with an operator account** ([ADR 0181](../../02-DECISIONS/0181-the-operator-account-is-a-node-fact-and-a-home-is-a-placement-root.md)).
-None has one today; the operator states them first. **Per node:** the role. **Per mesh or per node:**
-extra tool servers. **Prerequisite:** the manager holds its seat and has adopted the licences.
+All four nodes carry one since 2026-10-03. **Per node:** the role. **Per mesh or per node:**
+extra tool servers, and the operator's managed-settings keys (§2). The controller's verb replaces a
+setting layer whole, so a layer set for one of these keeps the others it already held. **Prerequisite:** the manager holds its seat and has adopted the licences.
 
 **Order:** the manager assigned and a refresh observed; the console's provision in the catalogue; this
 module on one workstation; the six predecessor files and the hand-made console entry removed there; a
-new session read to confirm it sees the mesh's instruction file, the console's tools under `mesh`, and
+new session read to confirm it sees the mesh's instruction file, the console's five tools under `mesh`, and
 its licence; then the rest.
 
 ## 7. The package
@@ -174,17 +207,75 @@ answer is a package repository for this ecosystem as a seat
 and trusted by every node's package manager; not built, and not this module's to build. The vendor's own
 installer is rejected: it puts a self-updating binary under the person's home, invisible to the mesh.
 
+## 8. The agent's configuration, registered at three scopes
+
+Everything about the agent that can be configured is registered through this module's tools, once, from
+any machine, and kept in the module's state on the bus
+([ADR 0216](../../02-DECISIONS/0216-the-agents-configuration-is-registered-through-its-module-at-three-scopes-and-served-as-one-plugin.md)). Every instance watches that state and writes what applies to its
+machine. A machine that joins later takes it at its first start.
+
+**What goes where.** The vendor honours each kind of item in one place only, so the module writes four:
+
+- skills, subagents, slash commands, hooks and output styles go into **one plugin named `nox-mesh`**. It
+  sits in a marketplace directory inside the managed directory, written whole by the module and read in
+  place by the agent. Its items are offered as `nox-mesh:<name>`, so nothing the mesh adds shadows a
+  person's own item;
+- tool servers go into the managed tool-server file, as in §4. The exclusive file would block a
+  plugin's servers;
+- settings and permission rules go into the managed settings file, as in §2;
+- instructions go into the managed instruction file, as sections (§3).
+
+The managed settings name the marketplace and enable the plugin. Those two keys are the mesh's, laid
+last with the attribution key, and no setting replaces them.
+
+**Three scopes.** Every registration names one:
+
+- **mesh:** every machine running the agent;
+- **node:** one machine or a list of them, rendered into the same plugin and files there only;
+- **home:** the operator account's own agent directory on one machine, where the item sits as if
+  written there by hand.
+
+Settings take the first two scopes only. In the managed settings file they are laid in this order:
+the operator's `managed_settings` setting (§2), then the mesh scope, then the node scope, then the
+mesh's own keys.
+
+**Instructions follow the scopes.** The managed instruction file holds the mesh's piece, then the node's
+piece: its role, and the sections registered for it. Further customisation per machine is a rule file
+placed at the home scope. The agent concatenates these and does not override, so the status tool names
+a section that contradicts another, or that calls a tool the mesh no longer serves.
+
+**The home scope owns only what it placed.** The module records each home path it placed and touches
+only those (ADR 0182). It refuses to register a name the person already uses there.
+
+**The tools.**
+
+- For each kind: list, register and unregister. Each register takes a scope, and a list says where
+  each item came from.
+- For settings and permission rules: read, and set at a scope.
+- A **status tool** lists the home's own items beside the mesh's and names the stale ones.
+- An **import tool** registers an item found in one machine's home at a scope the operator chooses.
+
+An item and its files are one value in the state, refused above 256 KiB.
+
+**Changing the agent's own settings is the operator's act.** The vendor refuses an agent that loosens its
+own settings, and the module does not route around that refusal. A settings tool is called on the
+operator's word.
+
 ## How it is checked
 
 | Check | Defends |
 |---|---|
-| the module's definition names no node, path or login, declares nothing under a home or `/etc`, and no file resource carries a secret | ADR 0112, ADR 0155, ADR 0183 |
+| the module's definition names no node, path or login, declares no file under a home or `/etc` (only the two directories), and no file resource carries a secret | ADR 0112, ADR 0155, ADR 0183 |
 | on a lab machine with an account and a seeded home holding a person's rule file and the predecessor's leftovers: after assign, the managed directory holds the mesh's files, the home is byte-identical except the credentials file, which is owned by the operator and names no refresh token; after unassign, the managed directory's files are gone and the home is untouched | ADR 0182, the host's agnosticism |
 | on a lab machine with no account, the assignment is refused naming the fact | ADR 0181 |
 | a switch asked of the seat through the console changes the licence and the token on the node; no tool answer and no log line holds a token | ADR 0183 |
 | the API-key binding writes nothing under the home and the agent authenticates through the helper | ADR 0183 |
+| the module's test: keys set in `managed_settings` (an auto-mode allow list, a permissions list) appear in the rendered managed settings file, a setting naming the attribution, the connectors key or a key-helper is overridden, and a key-helper appears only for an API-key binding | ADR 0213 |
+| the module's render test: a registered skill, subagent, command, hook and output style land in the `nox-mesh` plugin; a tool server, a setting and an instruction section in their managed files; for one machine of two, a mesh item on both, a node item on one, a home item only in that home; a setting naming the marketplace keys is overridden | ADR 0216 |
+| the module's test: a home name the person already uses is refused, unregistering removes only the placed path, and an item above 256 KiB is refused | ADR 0216, ADR 0182 |
+| live: a skill registered at the mesh scope is offered as `nox-mesh:<name>` in a new session on each machine | ADR 0216 |
 | the console's provision resolves by co-location; a machine without the console refuses the module by name | ADR 0027, ADR 0152 |
-| a new session on the assigned workstation lists the console's tools under `mesh` and answers "which node am I" from the instruction file | the exit of the build |
+| a new session on the assigned workstation lists the console's five tools under `mesh` ([ADR 0195](../../02-DECISIONS/0195-the-meshs-tools-are-found-by-address-not-announced-whole.md)) and answers "which node am I" from the instruction file | the exit of the build |
 
 ## What this does not settle
 

03-DESIGN/01-to-be/37-the-operators-machine.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 layer: to-be
 status: in-progress
 code: [mesh-host, mesh-controller, mesh-tools, mesh-catalog]
-updated: 2026-10-02
+updated: 2026-10-04
 decisions:
   - 02-DECISIONS/0173-the-operators-machine-is-the-meshs-and-a-module-is-what-it-declares.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0174-a-node-varies-a-module-through-settings-and-kept-regions-never-an-edit.md
@@ -33,12 +33,16 @@ This is the design [to-be 29](29-a-node-has-operator-accounts.md) §2 called *a
 Worked on the first one, a shell. The `zsh` module declares:
 
 - a **package**, `zsh`;
-- **files under the home**, owned by the account: the shell's rc file with the module's default
-  configuration, carrying a kept region for the operator's own lines, and `${setting:…}`
-  placeholders for the few values a node varies; the account and its home are machine facts the
-  controller resolves ([ADR 0112](../../02-DECISIONS/0112-a-module-definition-names-no-node-mesh-or-path.md),
-  to-be 29 §2);
-- a **seat declaration**, `login-shell`, node-scoped, with its one verb; and a **claim** on it;
+- **files under the home**, owned by the account: the mesh's block at the start of the shell's rc
+  file with the module's default configuration and the slots other modules' code lands in, the
+  operator's own lines kept after it, and `${setting:…}` placeholders for the few values a node
+  varies; the account and its home are machine facts the controller resolves
+  ([ADR 0112](../../02-DECISIONS/0112-a-module-definition-names-no-node-mesh-or-path.md),
+  to-be 29 §2). Its environment is a contribution to the environment module, not lines of its own
+  ([ADR 0203](../../02-DECISIONS/0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md),
+  [ADR 0204](../../02-DECISIONS/0204-a-module-contributes-shell-code-to-the-login-shell-in-named-slots.md),
+  [to-be 41](41-the-shell-and-the-accounts-environment.md));
+- a **claim** on the mesh's node-scoped seat `node-login-shell`, with its one verb;
 - a **`user` shape** naming the shell, applied only where the module holds the seat;
 - a **tools bundle**, the artifact kind for interpreted code, with `execute` and the module's own
   `show-config`.
@@ -80,7 +84,8 @@ root escalates itself.
 
 ## 4. The seats of the environment
 
-Decided now: **`login-shell`** (module-declared; zsh, fish, bash; verb `execute`) and
+Decided now: **`node-login-shell`** (the mesh's own, ADR 0204; zsh, fish, bash; verb `execute`),
+**`node-environment`** (the mesh's own, ADR 0203; the environment module; no verbs) and
 **`node-service-manager`** (the mesh's own; systemd; verbs over units in both scopes). The rest
 are candidates from [research 018](../../01-RESEARCH/018-the-operators-machine-as-modules/04-the-seats-of-the-environment.md),
 one record each when its first holder is written: display server, display session, terminal

03-DESIGN/01-to-be/38-building-the-operators-machine.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 layer: to-be
 status: in-progress
 code: [mesh-tools, mesh-controller, mesh-host, mesh-catalog]
-updated: 2026-10-03
+updated: 2026-10-04
 decisions:
   - 02-DECISIONS/0175-one-tool-runtime-per-node-serves-every-modules-tools-on-the-host-side.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0173-the-operators-machine-is-the-meshs-and-a-module-is-what-it-declares.md
@@ -13,6 +13,9 @@ decisions:
   - 02-DECISIONS/0149-the-live-mesh-is-the-test-bed.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0188-a-modules-own-code-is-bundles-in-any-language-and-a-tools-bundle-speaks-mcp-to-the-runtime.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0192-a-tools-bundle-declares-what-it-is-given-and-the-runtime-hands-it-to-that-bundle-alone.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0193-every-bundle-the-runtime-serves-is-launched-and-the-runtime-knows-no-language.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0198-a-modules-long-running-code-is-launched-by-the-node-runtime-and-reaches-the-bus-through-it.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0204-a-module-contributes-shell-code-to-the-login-shell-in-named-slots.md
 ---
 
 # 38. Building the operator's machine
@@ -253,6 +256,38 @@ sockets — so seven move here. *Built 2026-10-03:* mesh-sdk #12 (`collectToolsE
 (each bundle its own environment), mesh-controller #236 and #237 (the words composed, made the
 account's to read, and named files restarting the runtime), and the seven modules in one change.
 Building it found issue [211](../../04-ISSUES/211-a-bundle-is-built-before-the-toolchain-it-is-compiled-in/00-report.md).
+*Proven live 2026-10-03* (mesh-catalog #242, #243): on the one machine that runs them, baserow,
+letta, searxng and unifi answer from the runtime with no tool container — each reading its
+configuration file as the operator's account — and the runtime serves seventeen tools for six
+modules there. confluence, gitlab and jira are assigned nowhere and retire with the predecessor.
+Two traps met on the way: a tools bundle whose module declares no `tools` list must say `loads`, or
+the composer delivers it nowhere while the build reports success; and a module whose builds are
+pinned to an old commit is left out of a merge's plan and must be built from `main` by hand.
+
+## WP4d — Every served bundle is launched; the runtime in Go
+
+*mesh-sdk, mesh-controller, mesh-tools. [ADR 0193](../../02-DECISIONS/0193-every-bundle-the-runtime-serves-is-launched-and-the-runtime-knows-no-language.md).*
+
+**In order.** The SDK's stdio loop serves what a bundle registered under the module it is told it
+serves as. The builder writes, beside every TypeScript entrypoint, an executable launcher that
+imports it and serves what it registered; the composer names the launcher where it named the
+entrypoint. The runtime launches every served entrypoint and imports none; the resolve hook and the
+per-registration environment go. Proven live on all four machines. Then the runtime is rewritten in
+Go against the same contract — the bus, the memberships and seats, the launcher, the console's MCP
+over HTTP — and replaces the TypeScript one, proven the same way.
+
+**Proof.** The tests ADR 0193 names; live, every moved module's tools and both node seats answer from
+launched bundles on every machine, and then do again from the Go runtime.
+
+*Built and proven live 2026-10-03.* mesh-sdk #13/#14 (0.1.4, 0.1.5: served as the named module; an
+emit travels through the runtime), mesh-controller #239/#240 (a launcher beside every TypeScript
+entrypoint; a runtime compiled to a binary runs itself), mesh-host #81 (`./name` is the process's own
+binary), mesh-tools #35/#36/#37/#38 (the module named; launch-only; the toolchain requiring 0.1.5; the
+runtime in Go). On all four machines node-tools is now the Go binary, launching every served bundle:
+both node seats answered from it on every machine and the four moved modules on theirs. Found on the
+way: issue [212](../../04-ISSUES/212-a-toolchain-rebuild-keeps-the-sdk-it-cached/00-report.md) (the
+toolchain image kept a cached SDK, and the seats' verbs went unanswered on three machines for an hour),
+and the controller's plan losing track of its own rebuild when it restarts mid-plan.
 
 ## WP4c — The module's own long-running code moves
 
@@ -264,8 +299,45 @@ consumes with, the words its code reads at import, the packages the image instal
 client), and the service it reaches by a container network name. That begins with a decision record,
 after which the twenty-three move and the registration gate refuses the container shape for all.
 
+*Decided 2026-10-03, [ADR 0198](../../02-DECISIONS/0198-a-modules-long-running-code-is-launched-by-the-node-runtime-and-reaches-the-bus-through-it.md):*
+the node's runtime launches that code as it launches tools, and is its bus — `mesh/subscribe` and
+`mesh/ask` beside `mesh/publish` on the stdio channel, the module's own durable consumer bound by the
+runtime and acknowledged only after the child answered. **In order:** the runtime's subscription and
+its grants; the SDK's `on` and provisioner bound to the channel; then the modules in three waves — the
+provisioners and handlers whose backends are reached on loopback with a system package (postgres,
+redis, mosquitto, influxdb, keycloak, umami, cloudflare-dns, grafana, icecast, home-assistant, nodered,
+nextcloud, minio), the two whose clients exist on no system (mongodb, mssql: a driver in the bundle),
+and last the mesh's own (mesh-catalog, mesh-vault, records, gitea, mailu, audit-logger, lab, and the
+three mains).
+
+*Built 2026-10-04.* Thirty-four modules no longer run their own code in a container: the first wave
+(mesh-catalog#245), the mesh's own and the media modules (mesh-catalog#248, mesh-media-catalog#13),
+with a step run where and as it is declared (mesh-host#85) and a process's words filled like a
+container's (mesh-controller#250). **Proven live** on every machine that runs them: each moved
+module's tools answer from the node's runtime, the steps run as their oneshot units, and the forge's
+merge events reach the build pipeline from the runtime — the merge after the move started its own
+plan. **Two corrections the machines taught:** a tool that called a broker's command-line client now
+runs it inside the broker's own container, because a host package may be uninstallable on a machine
+whose package index is stale (mesh-catalog#249); and a module reading its application's own key reads
+it through the application's container, because that directory belongs to the account the application
+runs as there, which is not the runtime's (mesh-media-catalog#14). *Completed 2026-10-04:* the last three — mesh-catalog, mongodb and mssql, whose code imports npm
+packages of its own — moved once the builder installs a bundle's own dependencies before compiling,
+keeping the toolchain's SDK authoritative (mesh-controller#255, mesh-catalog#250). Their database
+clients are now drivers inlined into the bundle, not command-line clients fetched by a container; one
+more correction the machines taught: a driver reaching its server on loopback must give TLS a host
+name, since the runtime's Node refuses an address (mesh-catalog#252). **No module's own code runs in
+a container any more;** every module with tools answers from its node's runtime, proven by calling a
+tool of each.
+
 ## WP5 — The shell, on a server first
 
+*Replaced on 2026-10-04 by [to-be 41](41-the-shell-and-the-accounts-environment.md).* A review before
+assigning found that the shell module would duplicate every machine's existing startup file, drop
+lines from it, leave the prompt uninstalled, and could not be unassigned
+([issue 228](../../04-ISSUES/228-a-login-the-mesh-set-is-never-given-back/00-report.md)). The shell,
+its environment, the modules that plug into it, and the host's fix are built and proven there. What
+follows is the original plan, kept for the record.
+
 *mesh-catalog #224, already written. Half a day to assign and prove.*
 
 **Order.** Assign `zsh` to one server; push; `login-shell.execute@<server> command="uptime"`

03-DESIGN/01-to-be/39-the-anthropic-licence-manager.md

@@ -1,9 +1,11 @@
 ---
 layer: to-be
-status: designed
-code: []
-updated: 2026-10-02
+status: implemented
+code: [mesh-catalog modules/claude-licence-manager]
+updated: 2026-10-04
 decisions:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0209-a-login-on-a-node-moves-that-node-to-its-account-and-an-api-key-is-added-from-any-node-sealed.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0206-a-node-reports-the-anthropic-grant-it-holds-and-the-licence-manager-adopts-a-licence-by-refreshing-it.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0183-the-anthropic-licence-manager-is-a-module-and-hands-tokens-to-the-agent-over-the-bus.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0024-model-access-is-a-provision.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0050-model-access-is-vendor-agnostic.md
@@ -74,22 +76,22 @@ Carried from the predecessor, where each rule was earned by an incident:
 
 ## 4. Handing a token to a node
 
-Every node that runs the agent module registers that module's public key with the seat when it first
-runs. From then on:
+*Amended 2026-10-04 by [ADR 0206](../../02-DECISIONS/0206-a-node-reports-the-anthropic-grant-it-holds-and-the-licence-manager-adopts-a-licence-by-refreshing-it.md)*, replacing the manager's visits: **what each consumer
+should hold is the manager's state, and the token is fetched when it changes.**
 
-- **On rotation**, the manager calls `claude-code.apply@<node>` on every node bound to the rotated
-  licence, with the new token sealed to that node's module key. The module answers *applied*, or
-  *refused* and why, and the manager records it.
-- **On a switch**, the same call with the other licence's token, and the binding is the authority: the
-  module applies a bind without comparing expiries, because across two licences the numbers are
-  unrelated.
-- **On a pull** — the module starting, or finding its token near expiry — the module calls the seat's
-  `current` verb for its binding and is answered sealed the same way.
-- **Never as an event.** What the manager emits names the licence and the outcome and carries no token.
+- **The manager keeps a `bindings` state**, one key per consumer: the licence, its kind, and a
+  **generation** that increases with every rotation and every switch. Nothing in it is secret.
+- **The agent module on each node watches its own key.** When the generation is newer than the one it
+  applied, it asks the seat's `current` verb, sending its public key, and is answered with the token
+  sealed to it — request/reply, never an event. A node that was away reads its key when it is back and
+  asks once; a manager that is down leaves every node on its last token, which lives hours.
+- **On a switch** the agent applies the new licence's token without comparing expiries, because across
+  two licences the numbers are unrelated; within one licence it applies only a newer grant.
+- **No event announces a rotation or a switch.** What they announced is the state itself, and a node
+  needs the latest, not the history. What the manager still emits names an outcome and carries no token.
 
-A node whose module has not registered a key cannot be handed a token, and the manager says so by name
-rather than falling silent. A node whose module refuses — a wrong identity, a stale grant within one
-lineage — is recorded as drift and reported.
+A consumer that never asks is visible: its own report (§6) names the licence and generation it holds,
+and a node behind its binding is drift the manager reports.
 
 ## 5. Who gets which licence
 
@@ -116,27 +118,51 @@ already keeps.
 
 ## 6. Adopting a grant
 
-A licence enters the mesh one of two ways, and the token never passes through a prompt, a terminal or an
-argument:
+*Amended 2026-10-04 by [ADR 0206](../../02-DECISIONS/0206-a-node-reports-the-anthropic-grant-it-holds-and-the-licence-manager-adopts-a-licence-by-refreshing-it.md)*: a licence is an account, learned from what the nodes
+report, and adopted by refreshing it.
 
-- **From a node's login.** A person logs in on a node, as they always have. The agent module there reads
-  the account's identity from the agent's own state file, and offers the full grant to the seat sealed
-  to the manager's key. The manager adopts it into the licence the node is bound to **only if the
-  identity matches** that licence's recorded account; a licence not yet identified is identified by its
-  first adoption; a mismatch is refused and notified, because the predecessor once filed one account's
-  grant into another's row this way.
-- **An API key** is delivered to the manager by the operator through the seat's `adopt` verb from a file
-  on the manager's node, never as an argument.
+- **Every node reports what it holds**, as the agent module's `holdings` state, one key per node: the
+  account's identity read from the agent's own state file, the kind, the refresh token's fingerprint and
+  whether one is present, the access token's fingerprint and expiry, the licence and generation it was
+  last handed, when the credentials file last changed. Written when the module starts — a node already
+  logged in reports at once — and on every change. Never a token.
+- **The manager reads every report at start and watches them.** A report with a refresh token whose
+  fingerprint the manager does not hold is a candidate: a new licence for an account it has none for, a
+  login made since for one it has. A manager launched for the first time holds no licence and takes every
+  report as a candidate.
+- **The secret is asked for, never published.** For a candidate the manager calls that node's agent
+  module, giving its own public key, and is answered with the grant sealed to it.
+- **Adopting is refreshing.** The manager exchanges the candidate's refresh token under its lease for
+  that account; success makes the returned grant the licence's and the manager its only rotation source;
+  failure records the candidate dead and adopts nothing. Candidates for one account are tried newest login
+  first, and the first that refreshes ends the search — the others are never exchanged.
+- **The latest login wins.** A bound node is handed an access token only and its file holds no refresh
+  token, so a refresh token appearing there later is a person's login; its report makes it a candidate,
+  and if it refreshes it replaces the licence's grant.
+- **A login moves its node** (*amended 2026-10-04 by [ADR 0209](../../02-DECISIONS/0209-a-login-on-a-node-moves-that-node-to-its-account-and-an-api-key-is-added-from-any-node-sealed.md)*): the node a login was
+  adopted from is bound to that login's licence — switched, if it was bound to another — and every node
+  bound to nothing whose report names an account the manager holds is bound to it. `bind`, `switch` and
+  `release` move a node without a login.
+- **The identity guard** files a grant under the identity the node read; where the vendor's refresh
+  answer names the account too, a mismatch is refused and notified. Which source decided is audited.
+- **An API key** enters from any node (*ADR 0209*): the agent module there reads it from a file on its own
+  node, seals it to the manager's key (the seat's `public-key` verb) and hands it to `adopt`, removing the
+  file once taken — or `adopt` reads a file on the manager's node. Never an argument, never on a stream.
+  An API key is a licence of its own and moves a node only through `bind` or `switch`.
 
 ## 7. What it emits and serves
 
-**Events**, no secret in any: `licence.rotated`, `licence.switched`, `licence.adopted`,
-`licence.failing`, `licence.refused`, `usage.read` — the audit logger records them all.
+**Events**, no secret in any: `licence.adopted`, `licence.failing`, `licence.refused`, `usage.read` —
+the audit logger records them all. *2026-10-04 (ADR 0206):* `licence.rotated` and `licence.switched` are
+gone; a rotation or a switch is a new generation in the `bindings` state.
+
+**State**: `bindings`, which it keeps; the agent module's `holdings`, which it reads.
 
 **The seat's verbs**, the contract every future holder must serve: `licences` (each with kind,
 identity, expiry, failures, who is bound), `bindings`, `bind`, `switch`, `release`, `refresh` (now, one
-or all), `usage` (current and history), `adopt`, `register` (a node's module key), `current` (a
-consumer's token, sealed, asked by the consumer's module).
+or all), `usage` (current and history), `adopt` (a file on the manager's node, or a key sealed to its
+`public-key` — ADR 0209), `public-key`, and `current` (a consumer's token, sealed to the key the
+consumer sends — ADR 0206). The manager asks a node for a candidate grant by the agent module's own tool.
 
 ## 8. Settings
 

03-DESIGN/01-to-be/40-building-the-operators-agent-and-its-licence-manager.md

@@ -0,0 +1,216 @@
+---
+layer: to-be
+status: implemented
+code: [mesh-catalog modules/claude-code, mesh-catalog modules/claude-licence-manager]
+updated: 2026-10-04
+decisions:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0206-a-node-reports-the-anthropic-grant-it-holds-and-the-licence-manager-adopts-a-licence-by-refreshing-it.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0183-the-anthropic-licence-manager-is-a-module-and-hands-tokens-to-the-agent-over-the-bus.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0181-the-operator-account-is-a-node-fact-and-a-home-is-a-placement-root.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0182-inside-a-home-the-mesh-owns-what-it-places-and-holds-the-rest-as-found.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0175-one-tool-runtime-per-node-serves-every-modules-tools-on-the-host-side.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0188-a-modules-own-code-is-bundles-in-any-language-and-a-tools-bundle-speaks-mcp-to-the-runtime.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0192-a-tools-bundle-declares-what-it-is-given-and-the-runtime-hands-it-to-that-bundle-alone.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0149-the-live-mesh-is-the-test-bed.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0027-a-provision-names-what-the-consumer-is-coupled-to.md
+---
+
+# 40. Building the operator's agent and its licence manager
+
+**The work of [design 36](36-the-operators-agent-on-a-machine.md) and [design 39](39-the-anthropic-licence-manager.md),
+broken into packages that each end at something a person can see run, in the order their
+dependencies allow.** The two designs are the authority on *what* is built; this document holds the
+packages, their order, their sizes and their proofs, and is wrong the moment it disagrees with them.
+It is the shape [design 38](38-building-the-operators-machine.md) gives the operator's machine.
+
+*Revised 2026-10-03, after design 38's WP1–WP4b ran:* the node's tool runtime is live on all four
+machines, tools are bundles it serves and each is given only the words its artifact declares, every
+bundle is a child the runtime launches over stdio and is the bus for
+([ADR 0193](../../02-DECISIONS/0193-every-bundle-the-runtime-serves-is-launched-and-the-runtime-knows-no-language.md),
+[ADR 0198](../../02-DECISIONS/0198-a-modules-long-running-code-is-launched-by-the-node-runtime-and-reaches-the-bus-through-it.md)),
+and the console offers five tools over addresses
+([ADR 0195](../../02-DECISIONS/0195-the-meshs-tools-are-found-by-address-not-announced-whole.md)). What changed
+in this plan: the wait on design 38's WP3 is over; the manager starts every exchange, by the operator's
+direction (ADR 0183's dated note); and the manager's daemon is a long-running bundle the runtime launches,
+which ADR 0198 decided the same day — nothing in this plan waits on another record.
+
+## How this is built, and where it is run
+
+**On the live mesh, by the operator's decision** ([ADR 0149](../../02-DECISIONS/0149-the-live-mesh-is-the-test-bed.md)).
+Every package is written with unit tests, committed on one branch per repository
+([playbook 07](../../00-META/process/07-feature-branches.md)), and proven on the machines: one
+workstation first for the agent, the control node first for the manager, then the rest. A broken agent
+module leaves a workstation's agent without the mesh's instructions or with a stale token until the next
+push; the person's own files under the home are out of the failure's reach, by
+[ADR 0182](../../02-DECISIONS/0182-inside-a-home-the-mesh-owns-what-it-places-and-holds-the-rest-as-found.md).
+
+Each package names what proves it. A package that cannot name its proof is divided until it can.
+
+## What exists already, measured
+
+Measured 2026-10-03 on the four machines and in the repositories.
+
+| Piece | Today | Becomes |
+|---|---|---|
+| the node's tool runtime | live on all four, a host process; **runs as the operator account**; listens for the console on loopback at a port its own code fixes; launches or imports every assigned module's tools bundle and hands each its declared words | serves the agent module's tools; gains one provision for its endpoint (WP1) |
+| the operator account | **stated on all four** — the runtime runs as it | read by the agent module from the runtime's own words |
+| escalation | passwordless `sudo` for the operator account on all four — a fact about the machines, checked by nobody | how the agent module writes its managed directory under `/etc` |
+| the agent itself | installed on all four, at four different versions, all above the one the managed tool-server key needs | declared as the module's package |
+| a bundle's words | paths and constants written with `${dir:…}` and `${port:…}` only; a fact the mesh knows reaches a bundle as a file whose path is a word | the agent module's facts file and settings file |
+| a bundle calling a tool | `mesh/ask` through the runtime that launched it (ADR 0198); no bundle holds a bus credential | how the manager visits every node |
+| a module's own long-running code | a bundle the runtime launches and restarts (ADR 0198); the runtime's subscription and grants built, the modules moving in design 38 WP4c's waves | the manager's daemon (WP3, WP4) |
+| the vendor's refresh, the sealed box, the grant file | `anthropic-manager` in the catalogue, built on the controller placement ADR 0183 moved away from; assigned to nothing | its client ported into the manager; the module retired (WP6) |
+| the credentials write, the strip, the identity read | `anthropic-consumer` in the catalogue; tested; assigned to nothing | ported into the agent module with its tests; the module retired (WP6) |
+| the predecessor's manager and consumer | the lease per licence, the expiry floor, the lineage comparison, the identity guard, three touchpoints, cooldowns | ported as logic with its tests |
+
+## The order the work allows
+
+```
+WP0  the operator names the licences and each node's role   (the live mesh)   ── an hour
+WP1  the runtime provides its endpoint                       (mesh-tools)       ── small
+WP2  the agent module                                        (mesh-catalog)     ──┐ WP2 needs WP1;
+WP3  the manager's code, built and tested                    (mesh-catalog)     ──┘ WP3 is independent
+                                                                                  │
+WP2 live: one workstation, configuration only — no licence yet                  ── the first live proof
+                                                                                  │
+WP4  the manager live on the control node   ── its daemon a long-running bundle (ADR 0198)
+WP5  the licence end to end on one workstation
+WP6  the rest of the nodes, and the predecessor's remains
+```
+
+## WP0 — The operator names the licences and each node's role
+
+*The live mesh. An hour, and it is the operator's.* The accounts are stated already. What remains: the
+names of the two subscription licences and the API key; each node's role, as the agent module's setting
+on the node layer once the module is registered.
+
+**Proof.** The module's settings list a role for every node; the licences have names.
+
+## WP1 — The runtime provides its endpoint
+
+*mesh-tools. An hour.*
+
+**What changes.** The `node-tools` manifest provides a node-scoped provision, `mcp-endpoint`, serving
+the port its code listens on, the way the local model server serves its API
+([ADR 0027](../../02-DECISIONS/0027-a-provision-names-what-the-consumer-is-coupled-to.md)). Co-location
+resolves it. The runtime's port stays what its code fixes; assigning it is
+[issue 192](../../04-ISSUES/192-the-meshs-tools-reach-a-person-only-by-a-registration-made-by-hand/00-report.md)'s
+second question and not this package's.
+
+**Proof.** The plan for a workstation carrying a consumer of `mcp-endpoint` shows it bound to the
+runtime's port; the controller's tests and the catalogue's checks pass.
+
+## WP2 — The agent module
+
+*mesh-catalog. A day and a half.*
+
+**What is written**, as design 36 says:
+
+1. **The manifest.** The agent's package. A state directory. A facts file in it, rendered by the mesh:
+   the node's name and the console's address from `mcp-endpoint`. A settings file in it, merged from
+   the module's settings layers: the node's role and the extra tool servers. A tools bundle whose
+   words name the two files, the state directory and nothing else. The two directories it owns declared — the agent's managed
+   directory and `~/.claude` — and **no file resource under either.**
+2. **The renderer**, run whenever the runtime collects the module's tools: from the two files, the
+   managed settings file (the tool servers under the entry `mesh`, the attribution trailers, the
+   key-helper for an API-key binding) and the managed instruction file, written under the agent's
+   managed directory through the account's escalation, only when their content changed.
+3. **The keypair**, made once in the state directory; X25519 and an authenticated cipher from the
+   language's own library, so the bundle carries no dependency.
+4. **The tools and the state** (*2026-10-04, ADR 0206*): `claude_code_status` (what is rendered, what
+   licence is held, when its token expires, fingerprints only); `claude_code_render` (render now);
+   `claude_code_grant` (the full grant in the credentials file, sealed to the key the manager gives).
+   The `holdings` state, written at start and on every change of the credentials file; a watch of the
+   manager's `bindings` key for this node, which asks the seat's `current` on a newer generation and
+   applies the sealed answer — only if newer within one lineage unless it is a switch; the credentials
+   write as the operator, access-token-only, atomic; the key-helper program for an API key.
+5. **The documentation**: the six predecessor files and the hand-made console entry a person removes.
+
+**Proof, before anything runs live.** Unit tests: the renderer writes the mesh's keys and nothing else;
+it writes nothing when nothing changed; the credentials write strips a refresh token and is atomic; the
+lineage cases from the predecessor; a sealed hand-over opens only with the module's key; no tool's answer
+contains a token. The catalogue's checks pass.
+
+**Proof, live, on one workstation, configuration only.** Assign the module; set the node's role; push.
+The agent's managed directory holds the two files; everything under the person's agent directory is
+byte-identical to before; a new session lists the console's five tools under `mesh` and answers *which node am
+I* from the managed instruction file. `claude_code_status` answers through the console. No licence is
+touched: the module writes the credentials file only when it is handed a token.
+
+## WP3 — The manager's code, built and tested
+
+*mesh-catalog. Two to three days.*
+
+**What is written**, as design 39 says: the manifest (the seat and its verbs, a database, a `secret`
+for the key the grants are encrypted with, a tools bundle and a long-running bundle for the daemon, both launched by the runtime, settings
+with defaults); the store's migrations; the refresh with its plan, lease, floor and cadence as pure
+functions; the vendor client from `anthropic-manager`; adoption from a file and from a node's waiting
+login with the identity guard; usage and its threshold; the seat's verbs. *2026-10-04 (ADR 0206):* in place
+of the visit, the watch of every node's `holdings`, adoption of a candidate by refreshing it (newest login
+first, once per account), the `bindings` state with a generation per consumer, and `current`.
+
+**Proof, before anything runs live.** Unit tests: two refresh runs started together rotate one grant
+once; a mismatching identity is refused; a worker bound to a dead licence is refused and never lent
+another; nothing the daemon emits carries a token; a hand-over sealed for one node opens with no other
+node's key.
+
+## WP4 — The manager live on the control node
+
+*The live mesh. Half a day.* The daemon is a long-running bundle the control node's runtime launches
+(ADR 0198); it calls each node's agent module by `mesh/ask`. If the runtime's half of ADR 0198 is not
+yet live on the control node when this package starts, this package waits for it: no tool container, no
+credential copied by hand.
+
+**Order.** Assign the manager on the control node; push. It reads every node's `holdings` and adopts each
+account the nodes are logged in to, by refreshing the newest login's grant (ADR 0206); each node with no
+binding is bound to the account it reported. Adopt the API key from a file there. A second subscription
+account enters by a login on a workstation carrying the agent module.
+
+**Proof.** Through the console: `anthropic-licence-manager.licences` lists three licences with identity
+and expiry; within the cadence the audit shows a rotation and a later expiry; a forced `refresh` is
+logged with the vendor's answer.
+
+## WP5 — The licence end to end on one workstation
+
+*The live mesh. Half a day. The proof of the whole.*
+
+**Order.** Record the checksums under the person's agent directory. Bind the workstation to a
+subscription licence. Remove the six predecessor files and the hand-made console entry. Start a session.
+
+**Proof.** Everything under the person's agent directory is byte-identical but the credentials file,
+which is owned by the operator, readable by nobody else, and names no refresh token. A session makes a
+model request. `switch` to the second subscription licence changes the token on the workstation within a
+minute, and neither the verb's answer nor either module's log holds a token. Switched to the API key, the
+credentials file is left as it was and the agent authenticates through the key-helper. Switched back.
+
+## WP6 — The rest of the nodes, and the predecessor's remains
+
+*The live mesh and mesh-catalog. One day.* The module on every node, the predecessor's files removed on
+the second workstation; a login under a licence's account collected and adopted, and one under the wrong
+account refused and notified; `anthropic-manager` and `anthropic-consumer` retired from the catalogue;
+designs 36 and 39 set to `implemented` with the as-is written
+([playbook 02](../../00-META/process/02-graduation.md)).
+
+**Proof.** `claude_code_status` answers on every node; the refusal's notification arrived; the catalogue
+has no module built on the old placement.
+
+## What is deliberately not here
+
+- **The package repository seat** for a distribution that does not carry the agent's package (design 36
+  §7). The four machines have the package; a fifth would refuse the module in its package manager's
+  words.
+- **Escalation as a checked fact.** The agent module's write under `/etc` relies on the operator
+  account's passwordless `sudo`, true on all four and checked by nothing. A machine without it refuses
+  the render in the tool's own words; making escalation a reported capability is design 38's to decide.
+- **An automated switch on exhaustion.** The readings are kept from WP4; the policy is a later record.
+- **Workers and the mesh's own sessions as consumers.** The manager knows them from WP3; the consumers do
+  not exist yet ([to-be 15](15-the-agent-session.md)).
+- **Whether a refresh token is single-use.** WP4 may measure it; the design holds either way.
+
+## How this list is kept true
+
+Each package's proof is run when the package is finished and its line here gains the date and the
+commit, as design 38 does. A package whose proof fails is not reworded; the failure is recorded under it
+and the package stays open. When WP2's live proof runs, design 36 moves to `in-progress` with its owning
+repository; when WP5's does, design 39 does too; and when WP6's does, both move to `implemented`, with
+the as-is written.

03-DESIGN/01-to-be/41-the-shell-and-the-accounts-environment.md

@@ -0,0 +1,238 @@
+---
+layer: to-be
+status: in-progress
+code: [mesh-host, mesh-controller, mesh-catalog]
+updated: 2026-10-04
+decisions:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0204-a-module-contributes-shell-code-to-the-login-shell-in-named-slots.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0205-software-the-distribution-does-not-package-ships-as-a-pinned-archive-of-the-module.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0176-the-login-shell-is-a-node-seat-and-execute-is-its-contract.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0177-a-unit-may-be-user-scoped-and-the-service-manager-is-a-node-seat.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0182-inside-a-home-the-mesh-owns-what-it-places-and-holds-the-rest-as-found.md
+---
+
+# 41. The shell and the account's environment
+
+What it takes for the operator's shell to be modules, without a machine losing anything it does
+today. This design replaces the shell half of
+[to-be 38](38-building-the-operators-machine.md) WP5, and finishes the service-manager module of WP6
+short of its user-scoped units. The decisions are [ADR 0203](../../02-DECISIONS/0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md)
+(the environment), [ADR 0204](../../02-DECISIONS/0204-a-module-contributes-shell-code-to-the-login-shell-in-named-slots.md)
+(shell code and the seat) and [ADR 0205](../../02-DECISIONS/0205-software-the-distribution-does-not-package-ships-as-a-pinned-archive-of-the-module.md)
+(vendored software). The evidence is [research 025](../../01-RESEARCH/025-how-a-module-plugs-into-the-shell/00-overview.md).
+
+## What a node with a shell looks like
+
+```
+ toolchain, agent, …             prompt, plugins, version manager
+        │ environment                     │ shell (zsh, slot)
+        ▼                                 ▼
+ node-environment  ── holds ──  node-env           node-login-shell ── holds ── zsh
+        │                                                 │
+        ├─▶ ~/.config/mesh/environment.sh  ◀─ sourced from zsh's block in ~/.zshenv
+        └─▶ ~/.config/environment.d/50-mesh.conf  ◀─ read by the account's service manager
+                                                          │
+                                       ~/.zshrc: the mesh's block FIRST — defaults and the
+                                       three slots — then the operator's own lines, kept
+```
+
+**The environment module** (`node-env`) holds `node-environment`. It has no package and no process.
+Its two files are written by the host from placeholders the controller fills.
+
+**The shell module** (`zsh`) holds `node-login-shell`. It:
+
+- installs the package;
+- sets the login shell through the `user` shape;
+- writes two blocks:
+  - one in `.zshenv`, sourcing the environment;
+  - one at the start of `.zshrc`, holding the defaults every machine shares today: the title, the
+    keybindings, the aliases and the two small functions, with the three slots in place;
+- contributes its own environment: the editor, the configuration home, and `~/.local/bin` plus the
+  two script directories on `PATH`;
+- serves `execute` and its own `zsh_config`.
+
+**The prompt module** (`powerlevel10k`) ships the theme as a pinned vendored archive, and the prompt's
+configuration as its own file in a directory it owns. It contributes the zsh code that loads both.
+
+**Two plugin modules** (`zsh-autosuggestions`, `zsh-syntax-highlighting`) each install their
+distribution package and contribute one line. Syntax highlighting goes in the `last` slot, which is
+what its upstream asks for.
+
+**What stays the operator's** is everything below the block in `.zshrc`, and `~/.zshrc.local`, which
+the operator's lines source as they do today. On every machine today that means:
+
+- the version manager's lines and the toolchain's `PATH` entry, until those modules exist;
+- the two variables naming the operator's own script library;
+- the agent's title variable;
+- the port aliases;
+- the workstation's desktop variables, which live in `~/.zshrc.local` already.
+
+Nothing is lost at any step, because a line moves out of the operator's part only when a module
+carries it.
+
+**The migration is a person's act**, listed in the zsh module's documentation (ADR 0182): after the
+first push, delete from `.zshrc` the lines the block now carries. Until then they run twice, which is
+harmless and visible.
+
+## Work packages
+
+```
+WP1  the host gives a login back                 (mesh-host)            issue 228
+WP2  the controller composes environment and shell code (mesh-controller)
+WP3  the modules                                 (mesh-catalog)         needs WP2 to resolve
+WP4  the service manager's module, finished      (mesh-catalog)         independent
+WP5  assign and prove                            (operator-gated)       needs WP1–WP3 merged and rolled
+```
+
+WP1, WP2 and WP4 are independent, and are built in parallel on one feature branch per repository
+([playbook 07](../../00-META/process/07-feature-branches.md)). WP3 is written in parallel and proven
+against WP2's controller before anything is published.
+
+## WP1 — The host gives a login back
+
+*mesh-host. Half a day. [Issue 228](../../04-ISSUES/228-a-login-the-mesh-set-is-never-given-back/00-report.md).*
+
+**What changes.**
+
+- The `user` shape records, in its applied record, the login shell it found whenever it changes it.
+- Removing a `user` never deletes the account, whether or not the mesh created it. If the account's
+  shell is still the one the mesh set, and the recorded shell is still executable, the recorded shell
+  is set back. Otherwise the shell is left as it is, and the outcome says why.
+- Before a shell is set, it is refused unless it is executable and listed among the machine's shells.
+  The exception is a shell that refuses logins (`nologin`, `false`): the distribution does not list
+  those, and the controller's own account uses one, so it need only be executable. The refusal fails
+  that resource and leaves the account untouched.
+- A directory the host creates on the way to a file, a block or an archive inside an account's home
+  belongs to that account, the home itself included when the host makes it. A directory that was
+  already there keeps its owner and mode (ADR 0182). Until this, a fresh account's `~/.config` or
+  `~/.local/share` would have been created as root's.
+- Giving the shell back is reported, never fatal. A failed `usermod` on removal is named in the
+  outcome and the record is dropped, because a fatal removal is exactly the wedge issue 228 is about.
+
+**Proof.** The host's tests:
+
+- an undeclared `user` no longer stops the apply;
+- the found shell comes back;
+- a shell changed by a person since is left alone;
+- a missing shell is refused before `usermod` runs;
+- a created account survives its removal.
+
+## WP2 — The controller composes environment and shell code
+
+*mesh-controller. One to two days.*
+
+**What changes.**
+
+- **The seat table.** It gains `node-environment` (node scope, no verbs) and `node-login-shell`
+  (node scope, the verb `execute`). A module may no longer declare a seat named `login-shell` or
+  `node-login-shell`. Both new seats are seeded into a live store by the existing additive seeding.
+- **The manifest.** It gains two contribution fields, each refused at parse when malformed:
+  - `environment`, with `variables` and `path`: a variable name must be a POSIX name and not `PATH`;
+    a value may not contain `$`, a quote, a backslash or a line break; a path entry's place is
+    `start` or `end`;
+  - `shell`: each entry names a known shell, a known slot, and non-empty code.
+- **Composition.** It fills `${environment:posix}`, `${environment:systemd}` and
+  `${shell:<shell>:<slot>}` in the claiming holder's file contents, from every module assigned to
+  the node. The rendering is ADR 0203's and ADR 0204's: module order, a naming line per contribution,
+  `PATH` entries added only when missing. `${machine:…}` in a contributed value is resolved first.
+- **Refusals.** A variable set by two modules on one node is refused, naming both. A placeholder in a
+  module that does not claim the matching seat is refused, both at the catalogue check and at
+  composition.
+
+**Proof.** The controller's tests:
+
+- both environment renderings, byte for byte, from a fixed set of contributions;
+- the POSIX rendering sourced twice by `sh` leaves `PATH` unchanged;
+- slot order and per-shell filtering;
+- each refusal, by name;
+- the seat table carries both seats and refuses a module declaring either.
+
+The catalogue check over the whole catalogue passes.
+
+## WP3 — The modules
+
+*mesh-catalog. One day.*
+
+**What changes.**
+
+- **`node-env`, new.** It claims `node-environment` and declares two owned files: the POSIX file at
+  the path the seat fixes, and the service manager's file, each holding its placeholder. It declares
+  no tools.
+- **`zsh`, rewritten.**
+  - It drops its seat declaration and claims `node-login-shell`.
+  - Its environment moves to a contribution.
+  - It writes a `.zshenv` block that sources the environment file.
+  - Its `.zshrc` block goes at the start and carries today's shared defaults, with the three slots.
+  - It keeps the `user` shape.
+  - `execute` runs `zsh -lc` in the account's home, with the runtime's session words for the user
+    manager. Its timeout is bounded below the runtime's thirty-second call limit; its output is cut at
+    a bound and marked as cut; on timeout it kills the process group.
+  - Tests cover the tool over real child processes and the manifest's shape.
+  - Its documentation lists the one-off migration.
+- **`powerlevel10k`, new.**
+  - The theme is vendored at a pinned upstream release, with its licence, as an archive artifact
+    unpacked into the module's directory under the account's home.
+  - The prompt configuration is today's file, as its own owned file in the same directory.
+  - It contributes the zsh code that loads the theme and the configuration.
+  - Today's file has the instant-prompt cache commented out, so the module does not turn it on.
+- **`zsh-autosuggestions` and `zsh-syntax-highlighting`, new.** Each declares its package and
+  contributes its loader from the distribution's path, in the `normal` and `last` slots.
+
+**Proof.** The controller's catalogue check over the whole catalogue passes. The modules' tests pass.
+A rehearsal composition for a node holding all five shows:
+
+- the `.zshrc` block with the prompt in `normal` and highlighting in `last`;
+- the environment file with the shell's `PATH` entries;
+- the service manager's file.
+
+## WP4 — The service manager's module, finished
+
+*mesh-catalog. Half a day. From the review of 2026-10-04.*
+
+**What changes.**
+
+- System-scope `start`, `stop`, `restart`, `enable` and `disable` escalate with `sudo -n` when the
+  runtime is not root, as the packet filter and intrusion modules do. They name a refusal by how it
+  failed.
+- User scope reaches the account's manager by its runtime directory, which the runtime's environment
+  lacks.
+- A failed `systemctl` is an error, not an empty list.
+- The package resource goes: the service manager is always present, and it collided with the network
+  module's identical declaration on a machine running both.
+- `status` says whether the mesh declares the unit. The restore note is attached only to such a unit.
+- Tests cover a fake runner.
+
+The user-scoped units of mesh-host #72 stay to-be 38's WP6.
+
+**Proof.** The module's tests. Live, after WP5:
+
+- `node-service-manager.units` answers in both scopes on a workstation and on a server;
+- `restart` of a harmless unit answers `ok`.
+
+## WP5 — Assign and prove
+
+*Operator-gated. Nothing here runs without the operator's go-ahead.*
+
+**Order.**
+
+1. Merge WP1 and roll the host.
+2. Merge WP2, and push the controller.
+3. Merge WP3 and WP4, and build the new modules by hand: a new catalogue module's first build is asked
+   for, not automatic.
+4. On one server, assign `node-env`, `zsh`, `zsh-autosuggestions` and `zsh-syntax-highlighting`, and
+   push. Then check:
+   - `node-login-shell.execute@<server> command="echo $PATH"` shows the shell's entries;
+   - `.zshrc` begins with the block;
+   - the operator's lines follow untouched;
+   - the environment file and the service manager's file exist.
+5. The operator deletes the duplicated lines, per the zsh module's documentation.
+6. The other server, then the two workstations, the workstations also with `powerlevel10k`.
+7. Assign `systemd` everywhere, and prove WP4.
+8. Unassign one plugin module on one machine. Its line leaves the block at the next push, and nothing
+   else changes.
+
+The follow-up records to-be 38 names are still owed:
+
+- what a shell module assigned beside the holder does;
+- how a person's own environment variable is a setting rather than a line, once issue 168 closes.

03-DESIGN/01-to-be/42-the-machines-modules-in-order.md

@@ -0,0 +1,130 @@
+---
+layer: to-be
+status: in-progress
+code: [mesh-catalog, mesh-controller, mesh-host]
+updated: 2026-10-04
+decisions:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0215-the-machines-message-bus-is-a-node-seat-and-is-never-restarted-live.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0173-the-operators-machine-is-the-meshs-and-a-module-is-what-it-declares.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0040-what-a-module-is.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0112-a-module-definition-names-no-node-mesh-or-path.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0175-one-tool-runtime-per-node-serves-every-modules-tools-on-the-host-side.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0182-inside-a-home-the-mesh-owns-what-it-places-and-holds-the-rest-as-found.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0198-a-modules-long-running-code-is-launched-by-the-node-runtime-and-reaches-the-bus-through-it.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0204-a-module-contributes-shell-code-to-the-login-shell-in-named-slots.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0205-software-the-distribution-does-not-package-ships-as-a-pinned-archive-of-the-module.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0207-a-module-depends-on-the-node-seats-that-apply-its-resources.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0208-the-graphical-session-is-one-module-per-piece-on-the-meshs-seats.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0212-a-seat-says-what-it-receives-and-the-machines-hotkeys-are-a-seat.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0211-a-machines-power-is-a-node-seat-its-moments-take-contributions-and-its-states-are-events.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0210-a-tools-configuration-is-its-seat-holders-and-every-other-module-extends-it-through-the-seat.md
+---
+
+# 42. The machines' modules, in order
+
+The order in which the modules of [research 026](../../01-RESEARCH/026-the-graphical-session-as-modules/00-overview.md)
+and [research 027](../../01-RESEARCH/027-the-system-layer-as-modules/00-overview.md) are built and rolled
+out, as the operator set it on 2026-10-04.
+
+Three phases, in order, each built from the bottom up (the most core module first):
+
+1. the modules every machine shares;
+2. those both workstations share;
+3. those of one machine model.
+
+The shell came first ([to-be 41](41-the-shell-and-the-accounts-environment.md)). Each module's
+definition, improvements and tools follow the research. A position that needs a new mechanism (a new
+seat, a gated assignment, generalised contributions) gets its record when its first module needs it,
+not before. Modules that need none go ahead now.
+
+## How every module moves
+
+1. Written in the catalogue, with its tools and their tests, and checked by the controller's catalogue
+   check.
+2. Merged, which builds it.
+3. Assigned to **the first workstation, the proving machine**, and pushed. Its tools and files are
+   proven there.
+4. Then assigned to every other machine it applies to, and pushed.
+
+The operator delegated the go-ahead for each step on 2026-10-04 ("non-important decisions, easily
+reversed"). Each step is reported.
+
+**Adopting is also improving** (research 026, 027 overviews): every module lists what it fixes over
+today, and leaves no predecessor copy of what it now owns.
+
+## Phase 1 — every machine
+
+In order:
+
+| | module | owns | improves |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| 1 | `sudo` | the operator account's escalation, as a drop-in it owns | declares what three modules' tools assume and nothing stated |
+| 2 | `localization` | locale, time zone, console keymap | one machine on another zone and keymap |
+| 3 | `time-sync` | timesyncd and its servers | two different daemons across four machines |
+| 4 | `pacman` | the package manager's configuration, mirrors and their refresh, cache cleaning | mirrors generated once and never again; caches never cleaned |
+| 5 | `logrotate` | the timer and base configuration | rotation running on one machine of four |
+| 6 | `avahi` | the daemon | on all four, owned by none |
+| 7 | `systemd` | the service manager's tools (to-be 41 WP4) | built, assigned nowhere |
+| 8 | `docker` | the runtime's packages, base configuration, group | four configurations, one owner on one machine |
+| 9 | `ssh-client` | everything under `~/.ssh` (research 027/03) | a predecessor's entries winning over the mesh's; stale keys |
+| 10 | scripts | the operator's own scripts, shared and per role (research 027/03) | under no version control, copied by hand |
+| 11 | `kernel` | kernel, microcode, boot entries | two machines without microcode |
+
+`systemd`, `pacman` and `docker` hold the three seats that apply resources
+([ADR 0207](../../02-DECISIONS/0207-a-module-depends-on-the-node-seats-that-apply-its-resources.md)):
+every module that declares a service, a package or a container depends on them being held on its node.
+They go on every machine before the rest, and once they have, an unmet dependency is refused rather
+than reported.
+
+`kernel` is last because a mistake in it costs a boot. `docker` stays a module without the runtime seat
+until ADRs 0165 and 0166 are accepted.
+
+**Added 2026-10-04.** Two more modules for every machine:
+- `power` holds `node-power` ([ADR 0211](../../02-DECISIONS/0211-a-machines-power-is-a-node-seat-its-moments-take-contributions-and-its-states-are-events.md)). Other modules contribute code for
+  its moments (after boot, before sleep, after waking, before shutdown, on mains, on battery), and it
+  publishes the machine's power states on the bus.
+- `dbus` holds `node-message-bus` ([ADR 0215](../../02-DECISIONS/0215-the-machines-message-bus-is-a-node-seat-and-is-never-restarted-live.md)). Modules shipping D-Bus policies or services contribute them to it.
+  It shares curated events, never raw traffic. An upgrade never restarts the bus live: its package
+  waits for a reboot. A live restart in the middle of a full upgrade took down a workstation's
+  logins on the day this was written.
+
+## Phase 2 — both workstations
+
+In order:
+
+1. `fonts`;
+2. `xorg` with autorandr;
+3. `lemurs`;
+4. `i3`;
+5. `xterm`;
+6. the theme module;
+7. `picom`, `rofi`, `dmenu`, `dunst`, the lock module, `xclip`, the clipboard manager, `feh` and
+   `i3status-rust`;
+8. `gnome-keyring`;
+9. `docker-compose`, `snapd`, `flatpak`, `cups`, `bluetooth`.
+
+The seats, gating, contributions and session start are [ADR 0208](../../02-DECISIONS/0208-the-graphical-session-is-one-module-per-piece-on-the-meshs-seats.md).
+
+**Who writes what** is [ADR 0210](../../02-DECISIONS/0210-a-tools-configuration-is-its-seat-holders-and-every-other-module-extends-it-through-the-seat.md): a tool's configuration belongs to the
+holder of its seat. The launcher, the clipboard manager, the wallpaper and the bar contribute their
+window-manager lines to `node-display-session`, and the window manager's module places them. They do
+not write into its include directory. Each contribution is a dependency on the seat that receives it,
+so assigning one of them without a window manager is refused. The first versions, which still write
+the include files themselves, move to contributions once the controller derives the dependency.
+
+**Added 2026-10-04.** `triggerhappy` holds `node-hotkeys` on both workstations ([ADR 0212](../../02-DECISIONS/0212-a-seat-says-what-it-receives-and-the-machines-hotkeys-are-a-seat.md)). The
+laptop model's vendor keys become its contribution. The window-manager fragments of the launcher, the
+clipboard, the wallpaper, the bar and the laptop model become `config` contributions to
+`node-display-session`.
+
+## Phase 3 — one machine model
+
+The laptop's hardware module (vendor daemon, GPU mode, charge limit, logind, brightness and vendor keys)
+and `memory-pressure` (research 027/03).
+
+## How it is checked
+
+Each module's own tests and the catalogue check, at merge. On the proving machine, each tool answered
+through the mesh and each owned file checked in place, before any other machine is assigned. This
+document's tables are updated as each module lands.

03-DESIGN/01-to-be/43-backups-against-mistakes.md

@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+---
+layer: to-be
+status: in-progress
+code:
+  - mesh-controller: internal/catalogue/seats.go (node-backup), internal/catalogue/seat_contributions.go (BackupSeat, CheckBackup, a contribution's directories)
+  - mesh-catalog: modules/restic (the holder), modules/postgres, modules/mssql, modules/mongodb, modules/minio, modules/influxdb, modules/mesh-vault, modules/mailu, modules/gitea, modules/nextcloud (backup contributions)
+updated: 2026-10-05
+decisions:
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0214-backups-guard-against-mistakes-and-stay-on-the-machine.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0053-a-step-that-runs-on-a-schedule.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0085-a-secret-is-a-provision.md
+  - 02-DECISIONS/0112-a-module-definition-names-no-node-mesh-or-path.md
+---
+
+# 43 — Backups against mistakes: a module declares its data, the node keeps restore points
+
+**Every machine with data keeps a restore point of it for every night of the last two weeks, every
+week of the last two months and every month of the last half year, on the machine itself.** It is
+there for the day a person, an agent or the mesh does something wrong — drops a database, empties a
+bucket, runs a bad migration — and not for the day a disk dies (ADR 0214).
+
+## The shape
+
+- **A node seat, `node-backup`,** held on each machine by one module, named for the tool it wraps.
+  It keeps one encrypted, deduplicating repository on the machine and runs a nightly scheduled step
+  (ADR 0053). The repository's key is a secret provisioned to the holder (ADR 0085), held in the
+  vault, so a person can open the repository without the holder running.
+- **A module declares its data in its manifest,** naming no node and no absolute path (ADR 0112),
+  in one of two forms:
+  - **a dump** — for a store provider: the command that writes a consistent, logical copy of each
+    database it serves, run by the provider in its own container, its output handed to the holder.
+    The provider covers every consumer it provisions, so a module that only *uses* a database
+    declares nothing.
+  - **paths** — for files a module keeps itself (mailboxes, the forge's attachments, a service's
+    state directory), named through the module's own directory references.
+- **The mesh composes the declarations per node,** as it composes jails (to-be 31) and filters: the
+  holder receives, as contributions, exactly the data of the modules assigned to its machine. A
+  module assigned is covered the next night; a module unassigned stops being backed up, and its
+  restore points age out by the rotation, never at once.
+
+## A night
+
+Each declared dump runs and writes a full logical copy; each declared path is read as it stands. All
+of it goes into the repository as one snapshot, tagged by module. The repository keeps only chunks it
+has not seen, so the object store's first night costs its full size and later nights cost what
+changed. Then the rotation prunes to 14 daily, 8 weekly and 6 monthly snapshots. A dump that fails
+fails the night for that module only; the others are still taken.
+
+## The verbs
+
+On the seat, for a person or an agent:
+
+- **what is backed up here** — each module, what it declared, its last good night and its size;
+- **take one now** — for one module or all, before a risky act; a migration or a database's retirement
+  calls it first;
+- **restore** — one module's database or path, from a named night, **beside** the live one: a database
+  as `<name>_restore` owned by the consumer's role, a path as `<path>.restored-<date>`. Swapping it
+  in stays a person's act. Nothing restores over live data.
+
+## Where the repository lives
+
+On the machine, outside every directory the mesh manages, on a filesystem other than the live data's
+where the machine has one. The holder's module names the place as a machine setting, never a path in
+a manifest. Not off-site: a lost machine loses its backups with its data, by the operator's choice.
+
+## Proving it
+
+- A night that fails, or does not run, reaches the operator's output channel, naming the module.
+- Weekly, the holder checks the repository's integrity and restores the newest dump of one database,
+  in rotation, into a throwaway instance with no network, comparing table row counts with the live
+  database.
+- The mesh's status lists every machine whose last good night is older than 48 hours.
+
+## Not in this design
+
+- Copies off the machine, and encryption to anyone but the mesh's own vault.
+- The media library and anything else a module declares no data for.
+- Recreatable things: container images, the artifact registry, caches.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+The catalogue check refuses a module that provides a store seat and declares no dump. The weekly
+restore test above, and the 48-hour status line, are the running checks.

03-DESIGN/01-to-be/README.md

@@ -43,6 +43,8 @@ document is written and this one's status becomes `implemented`.
 | [`32-what-a-module-declares.md`](32-what-a-module-declares.md) | **Proposed.** What a module declares and what the bus derives from it: three namespaces, subjects from local names, queues never declared, the five relationships, and the build-publish-deploy lifecycle on one bus | [ADR 0126](../../02-DECISIONS/0126-a-module-declares-its-own-seats.md), [ADR 0127](../../02-DECISIONS/0127-amqp-is-a-provision-not-the-bus.md), superseded by [ADR 0131](../../02-DECISIONS/0131-everything-on-the-mesh-speaks-to-the-broker-seat.md) (superseding [ADR 0125](../../02-DECISIONS/0125-the-bus-is-the-only-broker.md)), [ADR 0041](../../02-DECISIONS/0041-events-are-a-relationship.md) |
 | [`37-the-operators-machine.md`](37-the-operators-machine.md) | **In progress.** Every configurable thing on a node is a module, the home included; one default per module varied by settings or kept regions; roles a machine has once as seats with tool contracts; one tool runtime per node on the host side | [ADR 0173](../../02-DECISIONS/0173-the-operators-machine-is-the-meshs-and-a-module-is-what-it-declares.md), [0174](../../02-DECISIONS/0174-a-node-varies-a-module-through-settings-and-kept-regions-never-an-edit.md), [0175](../../02-DECISIONS/0175-one-tool-runtime-per-node-serves-every-modules-tools-on-the-host-side.md), [0176](../../02-DECISIONS/0176-the-login-shell-is-a-node-seat-and-execute-is-its-contract.md), [0177](../../02-DECISIONS/0177-a-unit-may-be-user-scoped-and-the-service-manager-is-a-node-seat.md) |
 | [`38-building-the-operators-machine.md`](38-building-the-operators-machine.md) | **In progress.** The work of design 37 as packages: the runtime serves many modules, the controller composes one per node, the console becomes its serving mode, the packet filter moves first, then the shell and the service manager — tested on the live mesh by the operator's decision | [ADR 0175](../../02-DECISIONS/0175-one-tool-runtime-per-node-serves-every-modules-tools-on-the-host-side.md), [0160](../../02-DECISIONS/0160-the-mesh-issues-an-assignments-subjects-and-a-runtime-serves-what-it-is-issued.md), [0149](../../02-DECISIONS/0149-the-live-mesh-is-the-test-bed.md) |
+| [`41-the-shell-and-the-accounts-environment.md`](41-the-shell-and-the-accounts-environment.md) | **In progress.** The shell and the account's environment as modules: an environment module every module contributes variables and `PATH` entries to, shell code contributed to the login shell in named slots, the prompt and plugins as modules, the host giving a login back, and the service manager's module finished | [ADR 0203](../../02-DECISIONS/0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md), [ADR 0204](../../02-DECISIONS/0204-a-module-contributes-shell-code-to-the-login-shell-in-named-slots.md), [ADR 0205](../../02-DECISIONS/0205-software-the-distribution-does-not-package-ships-as-a-pinned-archive-of-the-module.md) |
+| [`42-the-machines-modules-in-order.md`](42-the-machines-modules-in-order.md) | **In progress.** The order the machines' modules of research 026 and 027 are built and rolled out: every machine's first (sudo, localization, time sync, pacman, logrotate, avahi, systemd, docker, `~/.ssh`, scripts, kernel), then both workstations', then one machine model's; each proven on one workstation before the rest | [ADR 0173](../../02-DECISIONS/0173-the-operators-machine-is-the-meshs-and-a-module-is-what-it-declares.md), [ADR 0182](../../02-DECISIONS/0182-inside-a-home-the-mesh-owns-what-it-places-and-holds-the-rest-as-found.md), [ADR 0205](../../02-DECISIONS/0205-software-the-distribution-does-not-package-ships-as-a-pinned-archive-of-the-module.md) |
 
 ## Not yet written
 

04-ISSUES/108-the-registry-has-no-garbage-collection-once-it-has-two-doors/00-report.md

@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 ---
-status: open
+status: resolved
 opened: 2026-09-23
-located-in: []
-fixed-by:
-amended-design:
+located-in: [mesh-controller internal/inventory, mesh-controller internal/artifacts, mesh-host internal/apply, mesh-catalog modules/distribution]
+fixed-by: 02-DECISIONS/0189-the-store-keeps-what-the-records-name.md
+amended-design: 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/18-building-a-module.md
 ---
 
 # 108 — The registry has no garbage collection, and two doors make it harder to add
@@ -75,3 +75,32 @@ real thing services need, and the mesh cannot express one.
   images by digest and moves by version — is retention "the digests no recorded build names"?
 - Who owns the routine when the store and its public door are two modules — the store, since the
   volume is its?
+
+## Answered, 2026-10-02 — [ADR 0189](../../02-DECISIONS/0189-the-store-keeps-what-the-records-name.md)
+
+The three open questions, answered:
+
+- **A maintenance step, or a backend that does not need its writers stopped?** The step. A
+  scheduled container may name `while-stopped` — resource ids of **its own module's** containers,
+  which the host stops before the run and starts again after it whatever the step did. A storage
+  backend the mesh does not run would be a bigger thing to own than the mechanism it avoids, and
+  the mechanism is wanted anyway: a service that cannot have work done underneath it is a real
+  shape and the mesh could not express it at all.
+- **Is retention "the digests no recorded build names"?** Nearly. An artifact stays because a
+  definition the mesh holds names it (no age limit), or because it belongs to one of the five most
+  recent successful builds of its module. Last-N-tags was the predecessor's rule for a registry
+  that knew nothing else; this mesh knows what each digest is for.
+- **Who owns the routine now the second door is gone?** Both halves, each where it can be. The
+  **mesh** decides what may go — only it holds the records — and asks the store to drop it. The
+  **store** reclaims the bytes, because only it can stop its own server. Neither half can be done
+  by the other.
+
+And the sharpened point — enabling deletion on a door with no accounts — dissolved on inspection:
+**that door already accepts a push**, so a writer who can reach it can already replace any tag.
+Delete takes nothing a push did not have. What it does not do is undo ADR 0082's bargain, which
+putting an authenticated door in front of deletion would have.
+
+The second registry process is not built, as the 2026-09-26 note says, so the shared blob cache
+and the deletion-cached-by-the-other-door problem never arise. Plain `garbage-collect` is enough:
+what the mesh keeps is still a manifest in the store, so `--delete-untagged` — the flag that would
+delete images machines are running — is not needed at all.

04-ISSUES/124-a-consumer-cannot-be-told-what-its-provider-derived/00-report.md

@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 ---
-status: located
+status: resolved
 opened: 2026-09-26
-located-in: [mesh-controller internal/catalogue/declaration.go, mesh-sdk src/provisioner, mesh-catalog modules/minio]
-fixed-by:
-amended-design:
+located-in: [mesh-controller internal/catalogue, mesh-sdk src/provisioner, mesh-catalog modules/minio]
+fixed-by: 02-DECISIONS/0202-a-provider-declares-what-it-derives-for-each-consumer.md
+amended-design: 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/27-a-module-requires-the-mesh-resolves.md
 ---
 
 # 124 — A consumer cannot be told a value its provider derived for it, so it transcribes one
@@ -63,3 +63,27 @@ compares it to what the provider will actually create. The one wrong instance wa
 - What would have caught the wrong instance? A test that resolves a consumer's grant and compares the
   bucket in its own configuration against the one the provider would create is a check that could
   exist today, for any interface, without the mechanism above.
+
+## Answered, 2026-10-02 — [ADR 0202](../../02-DECISIONS/0202-a-provider-declares-what-it-derives-for-each-consumer.md)
+
+The channel is the provider's own `serves` block, which may now name the consumer the mesh is
+serving: `${consumer:as}` and `${consumer:as:dns}`. The mesh fills it once, where it knows who the
+consumer is, and delivers the one filled value to both ends — the consumer's binding and its
+`${bound:…}` substitutions, and the provider's contributions entry, so a provisioner is told the
+name rather than deriving it. Each open question above, answered:
+
+- **Should a provider return values from provisioning?** No. It would make a grant carry data the
+  provider wrote, make a consumer's declaration wait on its provider's reconcile loop, and put the
+  rule where nothing can refuse it. The reasoning is in the record.
+- **Or should `serves` say a value is derived?** Yes, and the mesh performs the derivation — but it
+  learns no protocol doing it. The only fact is the identity the mesh itself minted, in one of two
+  alphabets it already knows.
+- **Should a consumer that names the resource be refused?** Yes. A consumer's file that already
+  contains the value the mesh is about to derive for it is refused at resolution, naming the
+  placeholder to write instead. That is the check this report asked for, and it is exact rather than
+  heuristic: a derived value carries the identity minted for this consumer on this machine, which
+  nothing else would spell out.
+
+minio's `bucketFor` is gone; its manifest serves `"bucket": "${consumer:as:dns}"`. The three
+consumers' hand-written bucket names are gone with it — each of them also named the machine the
+module happens to run on, which is the second thing wrong with a transcription.

04-ISSUES/162-an-archive-cannot-be-undeclared/00-report.md

@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 ---
-status: located
+status: resolved
 opened: 2026-09-30
 located-in: [mesh-host internal/apply (no removal for an archive)]
 fixed-by:
+  - mesh-host#90
 amended-design:
 ---
 
@@ -54,3 +55,15 @@ argue for elsewhere: the mesh gives back what it found.
 A module with an archive is assigned, pushed, unassigned and pushed again; what the archive put on the
 machine is gone, anything that was in the directory beforehand is still there, and the apply that
 removed it applied everything else in the same declaration.
+
+## Resolved
+
+*2026-10-04.* Hit again live the same day: a race between two pushes delivered a declaration without
+a just-assigned module, and removing its tools bundle stopped a workstation's apply until the next push.
+mesh-host#90 records what an archive unpacked: its files, the directories it made, whether the host
+made the target and its parents. Undeclaring removes exactly those, never a file it did not place and
+never a directory that was there before, and a failed removal is reported, never fatal.
+
+An archive recorded before the change learns its list from its own bytes on the next apply while it is
+still declared. One already orphaned is left in place, said and forgotten. Applying an archive no longer
+deletes files the mesh did not place in its target directory (ADR 0030).

04-ISSUES/195-every-assigned-module-is-counted-as-a-bus-user-without-a-credential/00-report.md

@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 ---
-status: open
+status: resolved
 opened: 2026-10-02
-located-in: []
-fixed-by:
+located-in: [mesh-controller]
+fixed-by: mesh-controller PR #270
 amended-design:
 ---
 

04-ISSUES/195-every-assigned-module-is-counted-as-a-bus-user-without-a-credential/01-diagnosis.md

@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+# 195 — Diagnosis
+
+## 2026-10-04
+
+**The count had grown, and was still almost all noise.** Every push now opens with 137 users the mesh
+"has minted no credential for", across four machines. Checked against the catalogue: six modules declare
+an own secret named `broker`; every other module declares none.
+
+**Where the line comes from.** The controller composes the bus's user list from its records: one user
+for the controller, one per machine, one per live enrolment token, one per person — and one per module
+assigned to a machine, whatever the module declares. Users with no minted credential are left out of the
+written file and named in the line. A module with no `broker` secret can never be minted one: issuing
+refuses it, because an account nothing reads is an orphan ([issue 078](../078-a-delivered-secret-is-accepted-under-any-name/00-report.md)).
+So for those modules the user was composed only to be left out and reported, on every status, plan and
+push.
+
+**Why that is safe to stop.** Where the machine's tool runtime runs — every machine, now — the runtime
+is the module's way onto the bus ([ADR 0175](../../02-DECISIONS/0175-one-tool-runtime-per-node-serves-every-modules-tools-on-the-host-side.md),
+[ADR 0198](../../02-DECISIONS/0198-a-modules-long-running-code-is-launched-by-the-node-runtime-and-reaches-the-bus-through-it.md)); its grants are the union of
+what the modules it carries declare, and that is unchanged. Where no runtime runs, a module without a
+`broker` secret cannot connect at all, and a user would not change that.
+
+**What else read the module users.** Each module's durable consumer was derived from its own user. A
+module carried by the runtime and declaring no `broker` secret would have lost its consumer, and the
+runtime reads that consumer on the module's behalf (ADR 0198). The consumers are now derived from the
+module users and from what each runtime carries, one per module and machine.
+
+**Ruled out as still open.** The report's first real gap — a declared `broker` secret filled with a
+generated value — was closed by [issue 203](../203-a-fresh-assignment-is-pushed-before-its-credential-exists/00-report.md): a push refuses to make one and names the verb that issues
+it. The second — a module that emits with no way onto the bus — has no case on a machine where the
+runtime runs, which is every machine now.
+
+**Fix.** A module user is composed only for a module declaring an own secret named `broker`; the
+consumers are derived as above. The written accounts file is unchanged, since the users dropped never
+had a password. What the line names from now on is the real gap: a module that can read an account and
+has not been issued one. Checked by the broker package's tests: no user for a module without an
+account, and its consumer still made.
+
+## Answers to the report's questions
+
+- *Should a bus user be composed for a module that declares no `broker` secret?* No.
+- *Is a `broker` secret ever correctly made by the generic generator?* No; issue 203 already refuses it.
+- *Should a module that speaks on the bus be refused when it declares no `broker` secret?* Not while the
+  runtime carries it; left for a machine without one, where no case exists today.
+
+## Resolved — 2026-10-04
+
+Live on the control node the same day. The first push after the controller restarted named no users
+without a credential, and the number of modules with a durable consumer was unchanged.

04-ISSUES/202-a-module-whose-required-setting-is-unset-is-silently-left-out/00-report.md

@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+---
+status: open
+opened: 2026-10-02
+located-in: [mesh-catalog modules/dnsmasq, mesh-controller cmd/mesh-controller]
+fixed-by:
+amended-design:
+---
+
+# 202 — A module whose required setting nobody set is left out of the machine, and the resolver is the module it happened to
+
+## What was observed
+
+Running the controller's own test suite against the catalogue beside it, 2026-10-02.
+`TestTheResolverIsToldEveryMachineOnTheNetworkAndToldAgainWhenOneLeaves` fails with *"the resolver
+was not handed the machines"*. Composing the same machine by hand and listing what it receives
+shows why: **dnsmasq contributes nothing at all.** Four resources are composed for that node, all
+of them the overlay's. The resolver's package, its configuration, its service and the fact that
+carries every machine's name are simply not there.
+
+The cause is one line added to `dnsmasq`'s configuration earlier the same day: the addresses it
+listens on beside the machine's own became an operator setting,
+`listen-address=${setting:listen-addresses}`, with no default. A `${setting:…}` nothing sets is
+refused, a module that cannot be composed is **left out** rather than failing the whole machine
+([ADR 0163](../../02-DECISIONS/0163-taking-a-module-over-is-a-comparison.md)), and so a node
+assigned the resolver is handed a declaration with no resolver in it.
+
+The failing test is the symptom that surfaced it. The test is not what is wrong.
+
+**Proven rather than inferred.** Composing the same machine a second time with
+`listen-addresses` set to `127.0.0.1` and nothing else changed, every one of dnsmasq's eight
+resources appears — `needs-broker`, `mesh-state`, `package`, `config`, `runtime-dns`, `runtime`,
+`service` and `fact-node-zones`. The only difference between a machine with a resolver and a
+machine without one is whether somebody set a value that did not exist yesterday.
+
+## Why it matters beyond this instance
+
+**Leaving a module out is right, and being quiet about it is not.** The rule exists so one
+module's broken setting cannot stop a machine converging — a good rule. But the outcome here is a
+machine that applies cleanly, reports current, and is missing its DNS resolver. Every name on that
+machine then resolves through whatever was there before, or not at all, and nothing in the mesh
+says the resolver was dropped. That is the shape
+[issue 152](../152-a-nodes-plan-failure-silently-drops-its-routed-names/00-report.md) records for
+routed names, here for a whole module.
+
+**And a setting with no default is a definition that cannot be assigned.** Every other
+`${setting:…}` in the catalogue names something that is genuinely particular to one installation —
+a public domain, an issuer. "Which addresses besides my own do I answer on" has an obvious correct
+default for every machine that is not a LAN gateway: none beside loopback. A definition that
+refuses to compose until somebody sets a value most machines do not need is a definition that
+breaks the next node to be assigned it, and genesis with it.
+
+## What this does not claim
+
+Whether the live machines are affected was not checked — those four have had the setting set, or
+their resolvers would already be gone. The claim is about a machine assigned the resolver *from
+now on*, and about the silence.
+
+## Open questions
+
+- Should the declaration say which modules it left out, where a person or the console can see it?
+  `left_out` already travels to the host ([ADR 0163](../../02-DECISIONS/0163-taking-a-module-over-is-a-comparison.md));
+  what is missing is anything that reads it back and says so.
+- ~~Should a `${setting:…}` be allowed a default?~~ **Decided in principle and not built.**
+  [ADR 0164](../../02-DECISIONS/0164-a-setting-is-declared-with-its-default-its-meaning-and-what-changing-it-costs.md)
+  (proposed, 2026-10-01) says a setting with a default is a tunable and one without is the
+  operator's, and narrows 0155's refusal to exactly the second. `listen-addresses` is a tunable by
+  that rule, and dnsmasq declares no settings block at all. So this issue is, in part, 0164 waiting
+  to be built — and in part the silence, which 0164 does not address.
+- Is leaving a module out ever right for a module a node is **assigned**, as opposed to one it
+  merely pulls in? An assignment is somebody saying *this machine runs this*; silently not running
+  it is the one answer nobody asked for.
+
+## Still true on 2026-10-04, and the evidence had to be re-taken
+
+Re-checked after the bundles refactor landed (fourteen records, ADRs 0188 and 0190–0200). **The
+fault stands and the old evidence no longer reaches it.**
+
+`TestTheResolverIsToldEveryMachineOnTheNetworkAndToldAgainWhenOneLeaves` still fails on
+mesh-controller main, with the same message — and now for a *different first reason*. `assign` is
+refused before composition ever happens:
+
+> dnsmasq on anchor has no bus credential: nothing was issued for anchor.dnsmasq … (novox/hq issue 203)
+
+That is [issue 203](../203-a-fresh-assignment-is-pushed-before-its-credential-exists/00-report.md)'s
+new guard doing its job on a test harness that mints no credential. Two faults are stacked in one
+failing test, and the second was invisible behind the first.
+
+Proven again, past both: mint `anchor.dnsmasq` so the assignment stands, then compose the machine
+twice. **Without `listen-addresses` the node composes four resources, all the overlay's. With it
+set to `127.0.0.1`, all eight of dnsmasq's appear** — `needs-broker`, `mesh-state`, `package`,
+`config`, `runtime-dns`, `runtime`, `service`, `fact-node-zones`. Nothing else differs.
+
+The test is now wrong about two things and should be fixed with whichever of these is fixed first.

04-ISSUES/211-a-bundle-is-built-before-the-toolchain-it-is-compiled-in/00-report.md

@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
 ---
-status: located
+status: resolved
 opened: 2026-10-03
 located-in:
   - mesh-controller
 fixed-by:
+  - mesh-controller#246
 amended-design:
 ---
 
@@ -45,3 +46,7 @@ have to write — a bundle of language L depends on the module that publishes L'
 bundle lands in the tier after it. A test: a merge touching the toolchain module and a TypeScript
 bundle plans the bundle one tier later. Worked around on the day by building the bundle again once
 the toolchain was built.
+
+## Resolved
+
+Every mesh-tools plan since the fix ran in two rounds: the toolchain and runtime images first, what is built in or on them after. Before it, a merge moving both tiered them together. The planner's test proves the order: a merge moving a bundle and its toolchain plans two rounds.

04-ISSUES/211-a-bundle-is-built-before-the-toolchain-it-is-compiled-in/01-diagnosis.md

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+# 211 — Diagnosis
+
+*2026-10-03.* The planner orders a merge's modules by `inventory.Dependencies`, whose edges come from a
+manifest's `build.on`, from what a build recorded it stood on, from the repositories it read, and from
+the build machine. A bundle names its toolchain by `language`; the builder takes the toolchain image
+(`ToolchainFor(language)`) from what the mesh holds and records nothing of it as stood on. So no edge
+ran from a bundle to the module publishing its toolchain, and a merge moving both (mesh-tools: the
+images and node-tools) tiered them together. **Fix (mesh-controller, branch
+`fix/issue-211-a-bundle-stands-on-its-toolchain`, commit c72f6ca):** `dependenciesOf` adds a `stands-on`
+edge from every bundle artifact to its toolchain's module, read from the manifest. Tested: TypeScript
+bundle → mesh-tools, Go bundle → mesh-tools-go, image → none; a merge moving both plans two tiers.

04-ISSUES/212-a-toolchain-rebuild-keeps-the-sdk-it-cached/00-report.md

@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+---
+status: resolved
+opened: 2026-10-03
+located-in:
+  - mesh-tools
+  - mesh-controller
+fixed-by:
+  - mesh-tools#44
+amended-design:
+---
+
+# 212 — A toolchain rebuild keeps the SDK it cached, and every bundle built on it carries the old one
+
+## What was observed
+
+2026-10-03, rolling out [ADR 0193](../../02-DECISIONS/0193-every-bundle-the-runtime-serves-is-launched-and-the-runtime-knows-no-language.md).
+SDK 0.1.5 was published, then the TypeScript toolchain image was rebuilt, then node-tools and six
+bundles were rebuilt on it and pushed. On every machine the bundles carried SDK 0.1.3:
+
+```
+bundle SDK: "version": "0.1.3"
+```
+
+The launched packet filter and intrusion prevention, which register their seat first, then served
+their seat's verbs as their own tools, and `node-packet-filter.*` and `node-intrusion-prevention.*`
+stopped answering on three machines until fixed.
+
+## Why it matters beyond this instance
+
+The toolchain image installs its dependencies from a `package.json` that names the SDK by range.
+The file did not change, so the image build reused its cached install layer, and "rebuilt after
+the release" did not mean "carries the release". Every TypeScript bundle copies its dependencies
+from that image ([design 38](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/38-building-the-operators-machine.md) WP3),
+so an SDK release reaches no bundle until something else happens to change that file. Nothing
+reports it: the build succeeds and records the new commit.
+
+## Diagnosis
+
+Owners mesh-tools (the image's recipe) and mesh-controller (the builder that runs it). **Worked
+around** on the day by requiring `^0.1.5` in node-tools' `package.json` (mesh-tools #37), which
+changes the layer. **Fix direction:** a toolchain build must not trust a cached dependency install —
+install from a lockfile that a release updates, or build the install layer without the cache — and
+the build should record which SDK version the image carries, so a bundle's record says what it was
+compiled against. A check: after an SDK release and a toolchain rebuild, a bundle built on it reports
+the released version.
+
+## Resolved
+
+The toolchain now installs the exact SDK version the mesh last published, passed in as a build argument from the SDK module's published package, and the planner orders the toolchain after the SDK. Proven 2026-10-04: the toolchain built with the published SDK, and the six TypeScript bundles built in it serve their tools and seat verbs.

04-ISSUES/213-the-controller-is-a-go-program-run-in-a-container/00-report.md

@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+---
+status: resolved
+opened: 2026-10-03
+located-in:
+  - mesh-controller
+  - mesh-host
+fixed-by:
+  - mesh-host#86
+  - mesh-controller#252
+  - mesh-controller#253
+  - mesh-host#88
+amended-design:
+---
+
+# 213 — The controller is a Go program, and it still runs in a container
+
+## What was observed
+
+2026-10-03. The controller — the program that holds the `mesh-controller` seat and answers its
+verbs (`status`, `nodes`, `push`, `assign` …), composes every machine's declaration and plans the
+builds — runs on its machine as a container built from an image:
+
+```
+mesh-controller   Up …        (docker ps on the machine that runs it)
+```
+
+It is written in Go and compiles to one static binary, as the node host does. The host is delivered
+as a bundle and run as a process; the node's tool runtime now is too
+([ADR 0193](../../02-DECISIONS/0193-every-bundle-the-runtime-serves-is-launched-and-the-runtime-knows-no-language.md)).
+The controller is the one piece of the mesh's own Go code still shipped as an image.
+
+## Why it matters beyond this instance
+
+[ADR 0188](../../02-DECISIONS/0188-a-modules-own-code-is-bundles-in-any-language-and-a-tools-bundle-speaks-mcp-to-the-runtime.md)
+§1 says a module's own code is bundles, never an image, and §3 that a bundle that is a service is a
+`process` the host runs. The controller breaks the rule it is the mechanism of: the registration
+gate that will refuse an image of a module's own code has to exempt the controller, or refuse it.
+It also costs what an image costs — a container runtime on its machine as a hard requirement,
+eight mounts standing in for files a process would simply read, an image rebuild for a binary
+change — and
+every restart of it is a container recreation, which is how the controller restarts in the middle
+of a plan today.
+
+## What a fix has to settle
+
+- The controller's module declares a Go bundle (`system`, `binary`) and a `process` running it
+  (`./<binary>`, mesh-host #81), with its credential and store connection as files and words, not
+  container mounts and a container network name.
+- What the container gives it now that a process would not: it runs on the host's network already,
+  as an unprivileged user (65534), with eight mounts. Each mount named and replaced by a path, and
+  the user by an account the host declares.
+- The handover: the controller restarting itself as a process, on the one machine that runs it,
+  without a window where nothing answers the mesh's verbs.
+
+Located only by owner; the move is a change of the controller's module and its deployment, not of
+its code.
+
+## Fix prepared (2026-10-04)
+
+Three changes. mesh-host#86, merged: a process may name the container it `replaces`, and the host
+removes that container only once the process has stayed up across two checks. mesh-controller#252,
+awaiting the operator's merge: the controller's composition for a service process, and two
+controllers safe together for the handover — the second stands by on the controller's consumers
+until the first lets go, and all plan work holds one advisory lock. mesh-controller#253, held: the
+controller's manifest as a Go bundle and a process. It waits on
+[issue 223](../223-a-new-mesh-installs-its-controller-as-a-container/00-report.md), because with it a
+new mesh cannot be installed.
+
+## Resolved
+
+Proven 2026-10-04 on the control machine: after the manifest change was merged and pushed, the host
+created the controller's account, ran its preparation step, started the controller as a process,
+found it up across both checks and removed the container. The controller now runs as its own account
+from its bundle, no controller container remains, its seat answered throughout, and the merge's own
+plan finished all three tiers under the new process.
+
+One fault on the way, fixed before it could leave two controllers or none: the host read the account
+not existing yet as a user database that did not answer — it matched the exit as text in a wording
+its own runner did not use — so the first apply stopped at the account and the container kept serving,
+which is the handover's safe failure (mesh-host#88).

04-ISSUES/214-a-plan-loses-track-of-the-controller-it-rebuilds/00-report.md

@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+---
+status: resolved
+opened: 2026-10-03
+located-in:
+  - mesh-controller
+fixed-by:
+  - mesh-controller#246
+amended-design:
+---
+
+# 214 — A plan loses track of the controller it rebuilds, and waits on it for ever
+
+## What was observed
+
+2026-10-03, a merge to the controller's repository planned three tiers: the controller itself, then
+the build agent, then the route proxy. The controller's build finished and was recorded at 19:24:
+
+```
+mesh-controller    built 2ebbb799 g14   2026-10-03 19:24
+```
+
+Twenty-seven minutes later the plan still read `tier 1 of 3 … mesh-controller asked`, and every later
+plan waited behind it. It was stopped by hand; the later tiers were never asked.
+
+## Why it matters beyond this instance
+
+The controller rebuilding itself is the one plan whose first tier replaces the process that runs the
+plan. The new controller starts with the plan's state as stored, and the outcome of the build that
+produced it arrived to the old one, or between the two. Every merge to the controller's own repository
+can end this way, and each one blocks every plan after it until somebody notices.
+
+## Diagnosis
+
+Owner mesh-controller (the planner). **Fix direction:** on start, and whenever a plan waits on a
+build, the plan settles an `asked` build against the build records — a build recorded as built from
+the plan's commit is that tier's outcome — so a plan resumes after the controller replaced itself.
+A test: a plan whose build outcome was recorded while no controller followed it resumes on start.
+
+## Resolved
+
+A plan settles an asked build from the build records, whoever heard the outcome. Proven 2026-10-03 and 2026-10-04: both controller merge plans since the fix finished all three rounds, including the round that replaced the controller, without being stopped by hand.

04-ISSUES/214-a-plan-loses-track-of-the-controller-it-rebuilds/01-diagnosis.md

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+# 214 — Diagnosis
+
+*2026-10-03.* A plan learns a tier's outcome only through `planBuilt`, called when a controller takes
+in a build result off the bus. A merge to the controller's repository replaces the controller in tier
+0; the build that produced the new controller was recorded, but the plan state the new controller
+loaded still read `asked`, and no path ever revisited it. **Fix (branch
+`fix/issue-214-a-plan-settles-from-the-build-records`, commit d86baeb):** `advanceOnce` settles every
+still-asked module from its build records — a build recorded after the ask is that ask's outcome,
+built or failed — on every advance and on the 30-second ticker. Tested with a pure helper. Live
+proof: the next merge to mesh-controller passes tier 0 on its own.

04-ISSUES/215-a-module-built-at-a-commit-stops-following-its-branch/00-report.md

@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+---
+status: resolved
+opened: 2026-10-03
+located-in:
+  - mesh-controller
+fixed-by:
+  - mesh-controller#246
+amended-design:
+---
+
+# 215 — A module built once at a commit stops following its branch, and merges leave it out
+
+## What was observed
+
+2026-10-03, a catalogue merge changed seven modules. Its plan built six; `unifi` was not in it,
+though its change was in the same commit. A second merge the same evening left it out again. Its
+build records name a commit where every other module names a branch:
+
+```
+unifi   built 9c97a8a1 …   http://…/mesh-catalog.git at 9c97a8a
+```
+
+Built by hand from `main` it was registered again and the change reached its machine.
+
+## Why it matters beyond this instance
+
+A module that was once built at a commit — to pin it during a fix, or by a build asked with a `ref`
+— silently stops following its branch: merges plan without it, `status` does not say it is behind its
+branch, and nothing says it is pinned. The operator learns it when a change does not arrive.
+
+## Diagnosis
+
+Owner mesh-controller. **Fix direction:** a build asked at a commit does not change the branch a
+module follows; or, if pinning is meant, the pin is said — in `module list`, in `status`, and by a
+merge's plan naming the module it leaves out and why. A test: building a module at a commit and then
+merging a change to it plans it.
+
+## Resolved
+
+Proven 2026-10-04: the catalogue merges since the fix rebuilt the module that had been pinned at an
+old commit, at the merge's commit, by an ordinary plan — the same as every other module of the
+catalogue. Nothing was asked for it by hand.

04-ISSUES/215-a-module-built-at-a-commit-stops-following-its-branch/01-diagnosis.md

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+# 215 — Diagnosis
+
+*2026-10-03.* `takeIn` registers a build's `Ref` as the branch the module follows. unifi was once
+built with `ref=9c97a8a`, which became its followed ref. `sourceIs` matches a merge only to modules
+whose ref is empty or the merged base — so every merge into main left unifi out — and `askTier`
+re-asks `Source.Ref`, so every plan that rebuilt unifi built the same old commit again (its build
+records all read "at 9c97a8a"). **Fix (branch `fix/issue-215-a-commit-is-never-a-branch-to-follow`,
+commit 6784efa):** registration keeps the followed branch when a build names a commit; matching and
+re-asking read a recorded commit as the default branch, healing existing records; a merge names the
+modules of its repository it leaves out. Store-backed test fails without the fix.

04-ISSUES/216-a-bundle-nothing-loads-is-built-and-never-delivered/00-report.md

@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+---
+status: resolved
+opened: 2026-10-03
+located-in:
+  - mesh-controller
+fixed-by:
+  - mesh-controller#246
+amended-design:
+---
+
+# 216 — A tools bundle nothing says to load is built, recorded, and never delivered
+
+## What was observed
+
+2026-10-03, seven modules moved their tools from a container to a bundle. Each built, each build was
+recorded, and the machines that run them reported current — with none of the bundles on them. The
+composer delivers a bundle only when the runtime loads something from it, and that is derived from
+the module's `tools` list when the artifact names no `loads`; these modules had neither.
+
+## Why it matters beyond this instance
+
+Every step reported success: the build, the registration, the push, the machine's apply. The tools
+were simply absent, and the old container was gone. A rule the composer applies silently is a rule
+nobody learns until the tools are missing.
+
+## Diagnosis
+
+Owner mesh-controller (the catalogue's registration check). **Fix direction:** a bundle that nothing
+loads, runs or unpacks — no `loads`, no `tools` list on its module, no resource naming it — is refused
+at registration, naming the field that would deliver it. A test: such a manifest is refused; adding
+`loads` admits it.
+
+## Resolved
+
+A bundle nothing would deliver is refused at registration, by name. Proven by the controller's tests; the catalogue's bundles all name what the runtime loads (mesh-catalog#243).