to-be 29: the account fact and home-scoped resources shipped; the ssh-client module, CA and ~/.ssh boundary did not

The controller merged §1, §2 and the composed ssh config on 2026-09-27 while hq still
called the design proposed. Record what is on main, what is held on a branch, and what
has no code — and that the account fact shipped without a decision record, which is the
next thing to write. Also drop the real account and node names the public repository must
not carry, and correct ADR numbers that drifted in a renumbering.

03-DESIGN/01-to-be/29-a-node-has-operator-accounts.md

@@ -1,8 +1,11 @@
 ---
 layer: to-be
-status: proposed
-code: []
-updated: 2026-09-27
+status: in-progress
+code:
+  - mesh-controller internal/inventory
+  - mesh-controller internal/catalogue
+  - mesh-controller cmd/mesh-controller
+updated: 2026-10-01
 decisions:
   - 02-DECISIONS/0112-a-module-definition-names-no-node-mesh-or-path.md
   - 02-DECISIONS/0120-a-roster-fact-carries-its-format-as-a-template.md
@@ -14,10 +17,10 @@ decisions:
 # 29 — A node has operator accounts, and the mesh owns what lives under a home
 
 **The mesh models machines but not the people on them.** A node record holds its name, its
-address, its mode — and nothing about *who a person is* on it: `jochens` on novox, `ace` on ace,
-`jochen` on shanks and g14. That username is not incidental. It decides who a file under `~` is
-owned by, who a user service runs as, and — the case that surfaced this — which account `ssh
-<node>` logs in as. The predecessor knew it (its per-node `user:`, and the modules that wrote a
+address, its mode — and nothing about *who a person is* on it: one login name on the build node,
+another on the home-server, a third on both workstations. That username is not incidental. It
+decides who a file under `~` is owned by, who a user service runs as, and — the case that surfaced
+this — which account `ssh <node>` logs in as. The predecessor knew it (its per-node `user:`, and the modules that wrote a
 person's `~/.ssh/config`, `~/.zshrc`, `~/.config`); the mesh, taking those over, kept the machine
 facts and dropped the human one.
 
@@ -28,8 +31,9 @@ Several things are missing, and they are one idea.
 A node has one or more **operator accounts**: the human logins on it. At minimum a name; the
 mesh already knows the node and its address, so `<account>@<node>` is then a complete answer to
 "who am I, where." It is the mesh's to hold because everything below is derived from it, and
-because it is exactly the fact that was silently lost — `ssh ace` failed to `ace` because nothing
-in the mesh said ace's account is `ace`.
+because it is exactly the fact that was silently lost — `ssh home-server` logged in under the
+workstation's own name, because nothing in the mesh said the home-server's account is a different
+one.
 
 ## 2. A resource may live under a home, owned by its account
 
@@ -65,14 +69,14 @@ create `~/.ssh` at `0700`, chown it to the account, and own the files it places
 
 **The boundary — and it is the reason this is safe:** `~/.ssh` is the one directory where a wrong
 declaration locks a person out of their own machine. So the mesh's *found-vs-owned* semantics
-([ADR 0126](../../02-DECISIONS/0118-undeclaring-gives-a-unit-back-the-state-it-was-found-in.md),
+([ADR 0118](../../02-DECISIONS/0118-undeclaring-gives-a-unit-back-the-state-it-was-found-in.md),
 adoption) apply *inside* the home directory. The mesh **owns** the directory and the files above; it
 **holds as found — never rewrites, never removes** — the operator's own contents: their **private
 keys** and their **personal drop-ins** (`config.d/personal`, the personal `Host` aliases a
 workstation carries, exactly as `hosts.local` is the home the mesh never rewrites for `/etc/hosts`).
 Reconcile removing an unassigned `config.d/mesh` is fine; the same logic aimed at `id_ed25519` or an
 operator's own `authorized_keys` entry is a lockout. This is the login-channel cousin of the rule
-[ADR 0125](../../02-DECISIONS/0117-a-machines-uplink-is-a-seat.md) draws for the uplink and the sshd
+[ADR 0117](../../02-DECISIONS/0117-a-machines-uplink-is-a-seat.md) draws for the uplink and the sshd
 module draws for the firewall: **the mesh must never be able to arrange the one failure that severs
 its own way back in.** The carve-out is not a convenience; it is that rule, in `~/.ssh`.
 
@@ -108,12 +112,12 @@ found-vs-owned boundary of §3 is exactly what guarantees nothing already there
 
 None of this needs a node to discover the mesh, and none of it needs a control-plane module of its
 own. The ssh files are **roster facts**
-([ADR 0128](../../02-DECISIONS/0120-a-roster-fact-carries-its-format-as-a-template.md)): once the
+([ADR 0120](../../02-DECISIONS/0120-a-roster-fact-carries-its-format-as-a-template.md)): once the
 roster view carries a node's **host key** and its **account** beside its name and address, the
 `ssh-client` module ships a template for `known_hosts`, `config` and `authorized_keys`, and the
 controller renders each node's copy from the full roster and pushes it. The mesh owns the data; the
 module owns ssh's format; the control plane gains no ssh syntax. It is the same act as composing a
-peer list or `/etc/hosts` — which is why there is **no novox-only "mesh-ssh" module**: the
+peer list or `/etc/hosts` — which is why there is **no control-node-only "mesh-ssh" module**: the
 centralization is the controller's composition, not a module that runs somewhere. Only non-secret
 facts travel (names, addresses, accounts, host keys, the CA public key); the private key stays the
 operator's, placed as an operator-owned file, referenced by path.
@@ -129,6 +133,44 @@ operator's, placed as an operator-owned file, referenced by path.
 They meet at the account and the CA, not at a bespoke module. The `sshd` server side already exists;
 the client/identity side and the CA are the open pieces.
 
+## What has shipped, and what has not
+
+*Recorded 2026-10-01 from the controller's main branch, not from intent.*
+
+**Built (mesh-controller, merged 2026-09-27):**
+
+- **§1, the account as a node fact.** A node record carries an operator account and, optionally,
+  its home. Empty is a real state — a freshly enrolled or headless machine has no operator account
+  known yet — and an empty home means *derive it* (the superuser's home for the superuser, the
+  conventional per-user home otherwise), so the common case needs no entry. The controller's node
+  command sets it. One account per node is what exists; "one or several" below is still open.
+- **§2, resources under a home.** The account and its home are offered as machine facts, and a
+  resource's *path and owner* resolve placeholders exactly as its content does — so a module places
+  a file under a person's home, owned by that person, naming neither. A roster file may say it lives
+  under the home: it is rendered per node, placed under that node's account's home, chowned to the
+  account, and a node with no account gets none.
+- **§5, the composed ssh config.** The roster rendering carries each node's account, so the
+  `ssh-client` template can emit a `Host` block per node with the right login name. Composed
+  end-to-end in the controller's tests.
+
+**Written but not shipped:** the `ssh-client` catalogue module itself exists on a branch of the
+module repository; its pull request was closed with a hold until this design is deployed, and
+nothing has deployed it since. The predecessor's generator still writes every workstation's ssh
+client blocks today — which is where [issue 172](../../04-ISSUES/172-the-ssh-client-block-matches-one-spelling-of-a-machine/00-report.md)
+was found.
+
+**Not built:** the SSH CA and certificates (§4), `known_hosts` and `authorized_keys` as roster files,
+the found-vs-owned boundary inside `~/.ssh` (§3 — the controller has no rule yet that refuses to
+rewrite a private key), adoption of existing keys, the ssh-agent as a user service, and user-scoped
+services in general. The host vocabulary still has no user-scope unit at all; a workstation's
+per-user daemons (a bar watchdog, a config reloader, an audio service masked per user) have no form
+the mesh can send.
+
+**A gap this surfaced:** §1 shipped as code before it had a decision record. The account as a node
+fact, the home as a placement root, and what the mesh may and may not do under a home are each a
+decision this document names but no record states. They are the next records to write, before the
+family of §2 modules is built.
+
 ## Why now, and why not yet
 
 **Why it matters:** when HAL retires, the generators that keep `~/.ssh`, shell config and the
@@ -137,7 +179,7 @@ alias and its trust, and a fresh machine has no operator dotfiles at all — the
 service and leave the human unable to work on the box.
 
 **Why not build it reflexively:** it is a real addition to the node model, the resource model, and
-the seat set, and must be gotten right. The mechanism half is now settled — ADR 0128 is what lets
+the seat set, and must be gotten right. The mechanism half is now settled — ADR 0120 is what lets
 the ssh files be templates with no control-plane format — so what remains to decide here is the
 model:
 
@@ -156,15 +198,18 @@ model:
   unnecessary, and forwarding an agent into a node exposes the operator's keys to that node's root —
   so prefer certificates and `ProxyJump` over forwarding.
 
-**Not urgent, not blocking.** ssh and dotfiles work today because HAL's generators still run as the
-substrate. This becomes load-bearing in the node-by-node retirement phase, not before — which is the
-right time to build it, once the account and CA model are decided here.
+**Now load-bearing.** The migration of every node to the mesh is complete; what remains of the
+predecessor is exactly the user environment this design covers — ssh config, dotfiles, the desktop
+stack and the per-user services of the two workstations. Those generators are the last thing
+keeping the predecessor running, so the model questions above are no longer deferred: the account
+record, the home as a placement root, user-scoped services and the one-off steps a hook used to run
+each need a decision before the modules that replace the generators can be written.
 
 ## References
 
 - The gap was found generating `~/.ssh/config` from the *HAL* registry (`hal/terminal`'s
   postConfigure hook), which the nox mesh has no equivalent for.
-- [ADR 0128](../../02-DECISIONS/0120-a-roster-fact-carries-its-format-as-a-template.md) — the roster
+- [ADR 0120](../../02-DECISIONS/0120-a-roster-fact-carries-its-format-as-a-template.md) — the roster
   fact mechanism that renders the ssh files, format owned by the module.
 - [ADR 0112](../../02-DECISIONS/0112-a-module-definition-names-no-node-mesh-or-path.md) — the
   system-path placement this mirrors for home paths.
@@ -173,6 +218,6 @@ right time to build it, once the account and CA model are decided here.
 - [ADR 0113](../../02-DECISIONS/0113-the-vault-makes-every-secret.md) — the CA key is a secret the
   vault makes; [ADR 0114](../../02-DECISIONS/0114-a-shared-credential-rotates-over-two-credentials.md)
   — short-lived certs as rotation.
-- [ADR 0125](../../02-DECISIONS/0117-a-machines-uplink-is-a-seat.md),
-  [ADR 0126](../../02-DECISIONS/0118-undeclaring-gives-a-unit-back-the-state-it-was-found-in.md) —
+- [ADR 0117](../../02-DECISIONS/0117-a-machines-uplink-is-a-seat.md),
+  [ADR 0118](../../02-DECISIONS/0118-undeclaring-gives-a-unit-back-the-state-it-was-found-in.md) —
   the never-sever-the-channel rule and the found-vs-owned semantics, applied here to `~/.ssh`.

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

@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ document is written and this one's status becomes `implemented`.
 | [`26-the-seats.md`](26-the-seats.md) | **Proposed.** What a mesh can have one of, who fills each, and a seat's holder answering for the provision it delivers — including the `git` seat a build's source can live on | [ADR 0126](../../02-DECISIONS/0126-a-module-declares-its-own-seats.md) (superseding [ADR 0110](../../02-DECISIONS/0110-a-seat-is-a-module-assignment-from-a-closed-set.md)), [ADR 0111](../../02-DECISIONS/0111-a-build-source-is-on-the-git-seat-or-external.md), [ADR 0109](../../02-DECISIONS/0109-a-package-registry-seat-is-one-per-ecosystem.md) |
 | [`27-a-module-requires-the-mesh-resolves.md`](27-a-module-requires-the-mesh-resolves.md) | **Proposed.** One concept for everything a module needs: a requirement with a contract, answered by one of four kinds of provider, resolved at assignment or refused. Retires settings, placeholders, facts and paths in definitions | [ADR 0112](../../02-DECISIONS/0112-a-module-definition-names-no-node-mesh-or-path.md), [ADR 0113](../../02-DECISIONS/0113-the-vault-makes-every-secret.md), [ADR 0114](../../02-DECISIONS/0114-a-shared-credential-rotates-over-two-credentials.md), [ADR 0126](../../02-DECISIONS/0126-a-module-declares-its-own-seats.md) (superseding [ADR 0110](../../02-DECISIONS/0110-a-seat-is-a-module-assignment-from-a-closed-set.md)) |
 | [`28-building-the-bus.md`](28-building-the-bus.md) | **Proposed.** The five steps of the bus work in the order their dependencies allow, each ending at a bed — with the surface measured, so no step's size is a guess | [ADR 0116](../../02-DECISIONS/0116-the-bus-is-built-in-five-steps.md), [ADR 0106](../../02-DECISIONS/0106-the-bus-is-nats.md), [ADR 0074](../../02-DECISIONS/0074-the-wire-is-specified-not-the-types.md) |
-| [`29-a-node-has-operator-accounts.md`](29-a-node-has-operator-accounts.md) | **Proposed.** The mesh models machines but not the humans on them: a node gains operator accounts, and a resource may live under a home owned by its account — what would own ~/.ssh, dotfiles and ~/.config when HAL retires | [ADR 0112](../../02-DECISIONS/0112-a-module-definition-names-no-node-mesh-or-path.md), [ADR 0051](../../02-DECISIONS/0051-shared-data-is-the-operators.md) |
+| [`29-a-node-has-operator-accounts.md`](29-a-node-has-operator-accounts.md) | **In progress.** A node has an operator account and a resource may live under its home — built in the controller; the ssh-client module, the SSH CA, the `~/.ssh` boundary and user-scoped services are not. The account fact still wants its decision record | [ADR 0112](../../02-DECISIONS/0112-a-module-definition-names-no-node-mesh-or-path.md), [ADR 0051](../../02-DECISIONS/0051-shared-data-is-the-operators.md) |
 
 | [`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) |
 

04-ISSUES/194-the-hosts-own-former-archive-stops-every-apply/00-report.md

@@ -1,64 +0,0 @@
----
-status: located
-opened: 2026-10-02
-located-in: [mesh-host internal/apply (removeOrphan: a former target of a kind with no removal was fatal), mesh-host internal/store (Record keeps a former target for every kind, the host's own archive included)]
-fixed-by:
-amended-design:
----
-
-# 194 — The host's own former archive stops every machine applying anything
-
-## What was observed
-
-2026-10-02, 00:34Z, on all four machines of this mesh, the first time a host carrying former
-targets ([ADR 0163](../../02-DECISIONS/0163-taking-a-module-over-is-a-comparison.md), rule 5,
-built in mesh-host 63) replaced itself with a newer host (mesh-host 64).
-
-The host delivers its own successor as an archive whose target is a versioned directory
-([ADR 0141](../../02-DECISIONS/0141-the-host-delivers-its-own-successor.md)): every new version
-is the same resource with a new target. Since mesh-host 63 the record keeps a resource's former
-target so the next apply removes what the host wrote under it
-([issue 097](../097-a-resource-that-changes-target-leaves-the-old-one-behind/00-report.md)). So
-the new host's first apply found the previous version's directory as a former target of its own
-archive, and asked the removal for an archive — which does not exist
-([issue 162](../162-an-archive-cannot-be-undeclared/00-report.md)):
-
-```
-applying "mesh-host.next@former:/usr/lib/nox-mesh-host/versions/3c906749ad27": no way to remove a "archive"
-0 resource(s) were applied and remain
-```
-
-Orphans are removed before any resource is applied on a converged machine, so the refusal ended
-every apply at its first step. Every machine reported `failed`, applied nothing, and would have
-gone on doing so: a host fix is itself an archive the same apply would have to write, and the apply
-never reached it. The machines kept running what they had; nothing new from the mesh could land.
-
-## Why it matters beyond this instance
-
-Two rules that are each right met in the one resource the host cannot afford to stop on. Rule 5
-says a former target is removed and said; issue 162 says an archive has no removal, deliberately,
-so an unassignment nothing can undo is never reported as done. Neither rule was wrong; their
-meeting was never tested, because the bed that would have found it is a host replacing itself
-under the new rule, and the first such replacement was the live one. The fix is narrow: a former
-target of a kind the host cannot remove is left in place, said, and forgotten — never fatal,
-because nobody dropped it. An archive the declaration dropped still refuses, as 162 has it.
-
-## What it took to recover
-
-The broken host cannot apply its own fix: the fix is delivered as an archive, and the apply fails
-before writing anything. On each machine the host's record (`/var/lib/mesh-host/state.json`) had to
-lose the one `@former:` entry by hand, once, so that the next push could write the fixed archive and
-stand aside for it. A manual edit of the host's record is otherwise never done; it is written here
-because the alternative was four machines that could apply nothing.
-
-## Open questions
-
-- Should `Record` keep a former target for a kind the host cannot remove at all? The trace is
-  useful; the removal it implies is not. Keeping it and letting the apply forget it is what the fix
-  does; not recording it would be quieter.
-- Should the host's own versions directory be cleaned by the launcher rather than by the apply —
-  the one archive whose former targets are genuinely removable, by the thing that knows which one
-  runs?
-- Is there a bed that replaces a host under the current rules before the live mesh does
-  (the proof row of [ADR 0141](../../02-DECISIONS/0141-the-host-delivers-its-own-successor.md) was
-  a single crossover, before former targets existed)?