---
status: resolved
opened: 2026-09-12
resolved: 2026-09-12
located-in: [mesh-controller (the verb existed)]
fixed-by: nothing — the capability already existed and the wrong verb was used
amended-design:
---

# 043 — A module cannot be given an account for the mesh's own queues

**Withdrawn the day it was opened. The premise was wrong.** Kept rather than deleted, because the
mistake is repeatable and the reason is worth reading.

## What was claimed

That a build machine could not be given access to the mesh's build queue, because a broker account
is scoped to what a module `emits` and `consumes`, and the build queue is not a module event. The
evidence was a builder that authenticated and was then refused:

```
ACCESS_REFUSED - User 'anchor-builder' doesn't have permissions to queue 'builds'
```

## Why it was wrong

**The capability exists and is reachable from the command line.** There are two verbs, and they
create different things:

| Verb | Creates | Scoped to |
|---|---|---|
| `module issue <module> --node <n>` | a module's account | what that module emits and consumes |
| `builder issue <name> [--node <n>]` | a build machine's account | the build queue, and the mesh exchange |

The refusal was produced by using the first for a job the second exists to do. Running
`builder issue` and pushing produced a builder that starts and takes work — no change to any
manifest, any code, or the account mechanism.

## The part worth keeping

**The wrong verb succeeds, and says so.** `module issue` reported *"broker account created, scoped
to what it emits and consumes"* for a module that emits and consumes nothing, producing an account
that authenticates and can do nothing. The failure then appears one layer away, in the module's own
log, as a permissions error against a queue — which reads like a missing capability rather than a
misused command.

That is a small, real sharp edge, and it is the whole of what this issue found. Whether it is worth
anything — a refusal when a module with no events asks for an account, or a note in the builder
module pointing at the verb that fits it — is a judgement, not a defect.

**And a lesson that is not about the mesh:** the capability was three lines away in the same file as
the code being read, under a name that says exactly what it does. The issue was written before
looking for it.