diff --git a/modules/claude-code/README.md b/modules/claude-code/README.md
index 2575ad9..4111cb6 100644
--- a/modules/claude-code/README.md
+++ b/modules/claude-code/README.md
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ this node a subscription token. Nothing else under the home is read or written.
 Everything between this module and the rest of the mesh is NATS, in three kinds: an **event** says that
 something happened and carries no secret, because a stream keeps it; a **request** carries a token,
 because nothing keeps it (hq design 32 §10); and **state** is the current value of something every node
-must see, a node that joins later included — kept, so it carries no secret either (hq ADR 0202).
+must see, a node that joins later included — kept, so it carries no secret either (hq ADR 0201).
 
 | what | how |
 |---|---|
diff --git a/modules/claude-code/node.ts b/modules/claude-code/node.ts
index af22d7f..98c8b59 100644
--- a/modules/claude-code/node.ts
+++ b/modules/claude-code/node.ts
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 //   - a login a person made here — a refresh token this module never writes — is offered to the seat at
 //     once, sealed to the seat's key: the one moment a refresh token travels, because the login made the
 //     manager's stale;
-//   - an MCP server registered through this module is **state, not an event** (novox/hq ADR 0202): one
+//   - an MCP server registered through this module is **state, not an event** (novox/hq ADR 0201): one
 //     key per server in the module's `servers` bucket — `all.<server>` for every node, `<node>.<server>`
 //     for one — which every node watches. A node that joins later, or was off, reads the whole current set
 //     at start; unregistering is a delete. A secret never goes in an entry: the runtime refuses one.
diff --git a/modules/claude-code/tools/index.ts b/modules/claude-code/tools/index.ts
index af4bffb..e6a4224 100644
--- a/modules/claude-code/tools/index.ts
+++ b/modules/claude-code/tools/index.ts
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 //
 // At start it renders the agent's managed directory, asks the licence manager for this node's token,
 // begins watching the credentials file for a login, takes the manager's licence events, and watches the
-// module's `servers` state — every node's MCP server registrations (novox/hq ADR 0202). node.ts holds the
+// module's `servers` state — every node's MCP server registrations (novox/hq ADR 0201). node.ts holds the
 // logic.
 
 import { readFileSync, watchFile } from "node:fs";
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ function status(p: Paths): Record<string, unknown> {
   };
 }
 
-/** The module's MCP servers on the bus (ADR 0202): its own state, which every node of it watches. */
+/** The module's MCP servers on the bus (ADR 0201): its own state, which every node of it watches. */
 const servers = () => state<Record<string, unknown>>("servers") as unknown as ServerState;
 
 /** What this node takes from that state, kept from the watch. One per process. */
@@ -180,20 +180,29 @@ if (p) {
     say(JSON.stringify(await pull(p, ask, writeManaged).catch((e) => ({ failed: String(e) }))));
   }).catch(loud("the licence events"));
 
-  // Every node's MCP servers: the whole current set first, then each change (ADR 0202). Awaited, so the
-  // managed directory holds every server that applies here before the bundle says what it serves.
-  try {
-    await state<Record<string, unknown>>("servers").watch((c) => {
+  // Every node's MCP servers: the whole current set first, then each change (ADR 0201). **Not awaited
+  // where the module is imported**: the runtime waits on the handshake, and a bucket that is not on the
+  // bus yet — or a grant the bus has not reloaded — answers late; awaited here, that left the bundle
+  // unable to answer `initialize` in time and the module unserved (found on its first assignment). So it
+  // watches beside the handshake and asks again until the state answers; until then the managed
+  // directory holds what the file kept from the last run.
+  const watchServers = (attempt = 0): void => {
+    state<Record<string, unknown>>("servers").watch((c) => {
       try {
         const done = onServerChange(viewOf(p), c as ServerChange, p, writeManaged);
         if (done) say(done);
       } catch (err) {
         loud(`taking ${c.op} ${c.key}`)(err); // the view took it; the next render writes it
       }
-    });
-  } catch (err) {
-    loud("watching the MCP servers")(err);
-  }
+    }).then(
+      () => say(`watching the MCP servers${attempt ? ` (after ${attempt} refusal(s))` : ""}`),
+      (err) => {
+        const wait = [2, 5, 10, 30][attempt] ?? 60;
+        say(`the MCP servers cannot be watched yet (${err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err)}); asking again in ${wait}s`);
+        setTimeout(() => watchServers(attempt + 1), wait * 1000);
+      });
+  };
+  watchServers();
 
   // Catch up once at start: a node that was off takes its current token now.
   void pull(p, ask, writeManaged).then((r) => say(`at start: ${JSON.stringify(r)}`), loud("asking for this node's token at start"));