diff --git a/cmd/mesh-controller/push.go b/cmd/mesh-controller/push.go
index 1cafa57..f499281 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-controller/push.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-controller/push.go
@@ -713,6 +713,12 @@ func raiseTheBus(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, address string)
 	if err := broker.Raise(js, names); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
+	// The work queues of the mesh's own roles (novox/hq ADR 0121). The queue before the holder,
+	// deliberately: work queues until somebody arrives to do it, so assigning a build machine a week
+	// after something started asking for builds flushes the backlog instead of having lost it.
+	if err := broker.RaiseSeats(js, inventory.MeshSeats(), nil); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
 	fmt.Printf("the bus at %s has its streams, and %d machine(s) can hear a declaration\n",
 		address, len(names))
 	return nil
diff --git a/internal/broker/derived.go b/internal/broker/derived.go
index b5e15c0..b4b0cfa 100644
--- a/internal/broker/derived.go
+++ b/internal/broker/derived.go
@@ -89,8 +89,10 @@ type DeclaredSeat struct {
 	Accepts []string
 	// Emits are the verbs the seat's holder publishes under the seat's own name. An event about a
 	// role belongs here rather than in the holder's namespace, because the name then outlives
-	// whoever fills it (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/127).
-	Emits         []string
+	// whoever fills it (novox/hq ADR 0121, 04-ISSUES/127).
+	Emits []string
+	// Serves are the verbs the holder answers, request and reply.
+	Serves        []string
 	RetainSeconds int
 }
 
diff --git a/internal/broker/nats.go b/internal/broker/nats.go
index 4e0a7aa..45da6b0 100644
--- a/internal/broker/nats.go
+++ b/internal/broker/nats.go
@@ -76,6 +76,11 @@ type Principal struct {
 	PasswordHash string
 }
 
+// meshSeatsTheControllerUses are the roles the mesh's own flows submit work to. Named rather than
+// derived from the seat set: the controller is not a module and declares no `uses`, so its side of a
+// seat has to be stated, and a list is what makes "which roles does the mesh itself talk to" answerable.
+var meshSeatsTheControllerUses = []string{"mesh-build-machine"}
+
 // enrolmentPrefix is the space every enrolling node's user and inbox live under, so the one place the
 // controller may answer an enrolment is derived from the same constant the user is named from.
 const enrolmentPrefix = "enrol"
@@ -154,8 +159,16 @@ func PermissionsFor(p Principal) (Permissions, error) {
 	case KindController:
 		// The controller owns the mesh's own traffic and the streams. It is the only writer of
 		// stream definitions (design 25 §3), so it alone reaches the JetStream API.
-		pub = []string{"mesh.control.>", "mesh.node.>", "mesh.build.>", "$JS.API.>"}
-		sub = []string{"mesh.control.>", "mesh.build.>", "$JS.API.>"}
+		pub = []string{"mesh.control.>", "mesh.node.>", "$JS.API.>"}
+		sub = []string{"mesh.control.>", "$JS.API.>"}
+
+		// Work the mesh's own flows submit to a role, and the outcomes they wait on (ADR 0121). A
+		// build is the one today: the controller asks, and reads the answer from the seat's event
+		// like the catalogue does — which is why no holder needs to publish into anybody's inbox.
+		for _, seat := range meshSeatsTheControllerUses {
+			pub = append(pub, "mesh.seat."+seat+".accept.>")
+			sub = append(sub, "mesh.seat."+seat+".event.>")
+		}
 
 		// The two events it reacts to, and its ack subject on the stream they arrive from
 		// (streams.go). **Each named, not a pattern**: `mesh.mod.*.event.>` would make the
diff --git a/internal/broker/raise_live_test.go b/internal/broker/raise_live_test.go
index d58cf07..6281679 100644
--- a/internal/broker/raise_live_test.go
+++ b/internal/broker/raise_live_test.go
@@ -99,3 +99,47 @@ func TestTheControlConsumerDoesNotDeadLetterBeforeTheControllerGivesUp(t *testin
 			"before the controller finished deciding about it", info.Config.MaxDeliver)
 	}
 }
+
+// A role's work queue exists before anybody holds it, against a real server.
+//
+// **The queue before the holder is the point** (novox/hq ADR 0121): work queues until somebody arrives
+// to do it, so assigning a build machine a week after something started asking for builds flushes the
+// backlog instead of having lost it. A stream created at assignment would make "the holder is not here
+// yet" mean "your requests are gone".
+func TestRaisingAMeshRolesWorkQueue(t *testing.T) {
+	js := aLiveBus(t)
+	seats := []DeclaredSeat{{Name: "mesh-build-machine", Accepts: []string{"build"},
+		Emits: []string{"built"}}}
+	t.Cleanup(func() { _ = js.Context().DeleteStream("SEAT_MESH_BUILD_MACHINE") })
+
+	if err := RaiseSeats(js, seats, nil); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("a real server refused a role's work queue: %v", err)
+	}
+	info, err := js.Context().StreamInfo("SEAT_MESH_BUILD_MACHINE")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("the role has no work queue: %v", err)
+	}
+	if info.Config.Retention != nats.WorkQueuePolicy {
+		t.Errorf("the queue retains as %v: work a holder took must leave it, or the next holder does "+
+			"it again", info.Config.Retention)
+	}
+	if len(info.Config.Subjects) != 1 || info.Config.Subjects[0] != "mesh.seat.mesh-build-machine.accept.>" {
+		t.Errorf("it carries %v rather than the role's own inbound subjects", info.Config.Subjects)
+	}
+	// Nobody holds it, so there is no worker — and asserting again changes nothing, because this runs
+	// on every start.
+	if err := RaiseSeats(js, seats, nil); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("asserting a role's queue a second time failed, so a restart would: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	// And once somebody holds it, the worker appears on that same queue.
+	if err := RaiseSeats(js, seats, map[string]Holder{
+		"mesh-build-machine": {Node: "anchor", Module: "builder"},
+	}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if _, err := js.Context().ConsumerInfo("SEAT_MESH_BUILD_MACHINE",
+		"SEAT_MESH_BUILD_MACHINE_worker"); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("the holder got no worker on the role's queue: %v", err)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/internal/broker/streams.go b/internal/broker/streams.go
index 7b0d11a..87748fb 100644
--- a/internal/broker/streams.go
+++ b/internal/broker/streams.go
@@ -63,8 +63,10 @@ type Stream struct {
 func MeshStreams() []Stream {
 	return []Stream{
 		{
-			Name:      "CONTROL",
-			Subjects:  []string{"mesh.control.*.report", "mesh.control.enrol", "mesh.control.built"},
+			Name: "CONTROL",
+			// A build's outcome is no longer here: it is the build-machine seat's own event, so one
+			// publish reaches whoever asked, the controller and the catalogue (novox/hq ADR 0121).
+			Subjects:  []string{"mesh.control.*.report", "mesh.control.enrol"},
 			Retention: RetentionWorkQueue,
 			Why: "the store-window guarantee (ADR 0083): the controller naks with a delay while its " +
 				"store is away and the message is redelivered; nothing is dropped",
@@ -76,12 +78,6 @@ func MeshStreams() []Stream {
 			Why: "one declaration per node, always the newest; a node that sees sequence n refuses " +
 				"n-1 by construction (issue 107)",
 		},
-		{
-			Name:      "BUILDS",
-			Subjects:  []string{"mesh.build.request"},
-			Retention: RetentionWorkQueue,
-			Why:       "at least once, one builder at a time; a builder that dies mid-build has its message redelivered",
-		},
 		{
 			Name: "EVENTS",
 			// A seat's own events ride here too: they are 1:many like any event, and the
@@ -167,15 +163,20 @@ const ControllerName = "controller"
 // ControllerFollows are the events the controller reacts to: the catalogue saying a module's
 // current version moved, and a catalogue that has just started saying it may have missed builds.
 //
-// **These carry the local names the manifests hold today**, which still spell an event the way a
-// routing key on the bus the mesh has does — `module.<module>.<verb>` rather than design 29's bare
-// verb — so the derived subject names the module twice. It is consistent, and it is what the
-// catalogue actually publishes, so it is what the controller must listen to. It changes when those
-// names are converted, and not before: a subscription written against the name design 29 specifies
-// would be a controller listening to a subject nothing publishes.
+// **Derived the same way a module's subscription is**, from the emitter and the bare local event
+// name, rather than written out. They were written out while the catalogue still spelled its events
+// as the old bus's routing keys, and the moment those were converted (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/127) a
+// hard-coded pair became a controller listening to a subject nothing publishes — the same fault, from
+// the other side. Deriving them means the conversion could not leave these behind.
 var ControllerFollows = []string{
-	"mesh.mod.mesh-catalog.event.module.mesh-catalog.upgraded",
-	"mesh.mod.mesh-catalog.event.module.mesh-catalog.catching-up",
+	moduleEventSubject("mesh-catalog", "upgraded"),
+	moduleEventSubject("mesh-catalog", "catching-up"),
+}
+
+// moduleEventSubject is where one module's event lands. The same derivation PermissionsFor uses, so
+// what the controller subscribes and what the emitter is permitted to publish cannot drift apart.
+func moduleEventSubject(module, event string) string {
+	return "mesh.mod." + module + ".event." + event
 }
 
 // MeshConsumers is what the controller consumes, in the order a person reads it.
diff --git a/internal/broker/streams_test.go b/internal/broker/streams_test.go
index dc70bb8..ca450a3 100644
--- a/internal/broker/streams_test.go
+++ b/internal/broker/streams_test.go
@@ -125,7 +125,6 @@ func TestEachStreamCarriesTheRetentionItsShapeNeeds(t *testing.T) {
 	want := map[string]Retention{
 		"CONTROL": RetentionWorkQueue,
 		"NODES":   RetentionLastPerSubject,
-		"BUILDS":  RetentionWorkQueue,
 		"EVENTS":  RetentionLimits,
 	}
 	got := map[string]Retention{}
diff --git a/internal/broker/testdata/composed.conf b/internal/broker/testdata/composed.conf
index 6bcd013..0a34b53 100644
--- a/internal/broker/testdata/composed.conf
+++ b/internal/broker/testdata/composed.conf
@@ -23,8 +23,8 @@ accounts {
   MESH {
     users = [
       { user: "controller", password: "$2a$11$cccccccccccccccccccccc", permissions: {
-        publish: { allow: ["$JS.ACK.CONTROL.controller.>", "$JS.ACK.EVENTS.controller.>", "$JS.API.>", "_INBOX.enrol.>", "mesh.build.>", "mesh.control.>", "mesh.node.>"] }
-        subscribe: { allow: ["$JS.API.>", "_INBOX.controller.>", "mesh.build.>", "mesh.control.>", "mesh.mod.mesh-catalog.event.module.mesh-catalog.catching-up", "mesh.mod.mesh-catalog.event.module.mesh-catalog.upgraded"] }
+        publish: { allow: ["$JS.ACK.CONTROL.controller.>", "$JS.ACK.EVENTS.controller.>", "$JS.API.>", "_INBOX.enrol.>", "mesh.control.>", "mesh.node.>", "mesh.seat.mesh-build-machine.accept.>"] }
+        subscribe: { allow: ["$JS.API.>", "_INBOX.controller.>", "mesh.control.>", "mesh.mod.mesh-catalog.event.catching-up", "mesh.mod.mesh-catalog.event.upgraded", "mesh.seat.mesh-build-machine.event.>"] }
         allow_responses: { max: 1, ttl: "1m" }
       } }
       { user: "enrol.one", password: "$2a$11$eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee", permissions: {
diff --git a/internal/catalogue/seats.go b/internal/catalogue/seats.go
index bfb3f7e..345a017 100644
--- a/internal/catalogue/seats.go
+++ b/internal/catalogue/seats.go
@@ -27,6 +27,17 @@ type Seat struct {
 	// provision may only be held by a module providing it at the seat's scope, and its holder is
 	// what a requirement for that provision resolves to when several modules provide it.
 	Delivers string
+	// Accepts, Emits and Serves are the protocol of the role, as local verbs — the same three a
+	// module declares for a seat of its own (novox/hq ADR 0118), and empty for most of these: a seat
+	// is usually about who does a job and not about what may be said to them.
+	//
+	// **Named here so the mesh has no role it cannot describe** (ADR 0121). Without them a build
+	// machine had three audiences for one outcome and nothing derived a grant for any of them, and an
+	// event about a role had nowhere to live but the namespace of whichever module held that role
+	// today — which the bus refuses, because a namespace belongs to who it is named for.
+	Accepts []string
+	Emits   []string
+	Serves  []string
 	// Decision is the record that made it a seat.
 	Decision string
 }
@@ -53,7 +64,12 @@ var seats = []Seat{
 	{Name: "mesh-catalog", Scope: ScopeMesh, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0110"},
 	{Name: "mesh-npm-package-registry", Scope: ScopeMesh, Delivers: "npm-package-registry", Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0109"},
 	{Name: "mesh-git", Scope: ScopeMesh, Delivers: "git", Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0111"},
-	{Name: "mesh-build-machine", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0110"},
+	// A build is work submitted to this role, and its outcome is the role's own event (ADR 0121).
+	// One publish reaches whoever asked, the controller that records it, and the catalogue that
+	// places it in the module graph — which is what the old bus's shared exchange did for free, and
+	// what a dedicated build branch was doing a second way.
+	{Name: "mesh-build-machine", Scope: ScopeNode,
+		Accepts: []string{"build"}, Emits: []string{"built"}, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0110"},
 	{Name: "mesh-dns-port", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0110"},
 	{Name: "mesh-intrusion-prevention", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0110"},
 	{Name: "mesh-packet-filter", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0110"},
@@ -197,3 +213,18 @@ var renamedSeats = map[string]string{
 	"the-resolver-configuration": "mesh-resolver-configuration",
 	"the-showcase":               "mesh-showcase",
 }
+
+// SeatsWithAProtocol are the mesh's own seats that say something about what may be said to them or by
+// them, which is the set the bus derives streams, consumers and permissions from.
+//
+// Most of the set is not here, and that is the ordinary case: a seat saying only who does a job grants
+// nothing on the bus and needs no queue.
+func SeatsWithAProtocol() []Seat {
+	var out []Seat
+	for _, s := range seats {
+		if len(s.Accepts) > 0 || len(s.Emits) > 0 || len(s.Serves) > 0 {
+			out = append(out, s)
+		}
+	}
+	return out
+}
diff --git a/internal/inventory/busrecords.go b/internal/inventory/busrecords.go
index a9a6ae1..955394f 100644
--- a/internal/inventory/busrecords.go
+++ b/internal/inventory/busrecords.go
@@ -38,6 +38,15 @@ func (i *Inventory) BusRecords(ctx context.Context) (broker.Records, error) {
 			seats[s.Name] = s
 		}
 	}
+	// And the mesh's own, which carry protocol too (novox/hq ADR 0121). Added after the modules'
+	// rather than before, because a `mesh-*` name is the mesh's and registration refuses a module
+	// declaring one — so this cannot be shadowed, and if it ever were, the mesh's own would win.
+	for _, own := range catalogue.SeatsWithAProtocol() {
+		seats[own.Name] = catalogue.SeatDeclaration{
+			Name: own.Name, Scope: own.Scope,
+			Accepts: own.Accepts, Emits: own.Emits, Serves: own.Serves,
+		}
+	}
 
 	out := broker.Records{Assigned: map[string][]broker.Declared{}, People: map[string][]string{}}
 	for _, n := range nodes {
@@ -88,9 +97,9 @@ func declaredFor(m catalogue.Manifest, seats map[string]catalogue.SeatDeclaratio
 		Serves: m.Tools,
 	}
 	for _, c := range m.Claims {
-		// A seat the mesh defines for itself carries no protocol, so holding one grants nothing here:
-		// those seats say who does a job, not who may say what.
-		if s, declaredSomewhere := seats[c.Name]; declaredSomewhere {
+		// Every seat with a protocol, the mesh's own included. One that says only who does a job is
+		// not here and grants nothing, which is most of them.
+		if s, hasAProtocol := seats[c.Name]; hasAProtocol {
 			d.Holds = append(d.Holds, asSeat(s))
 		}
 	}
@@ -106,6 +115,18 @@ func asSeat(s catalogue.SeatDeclaration) broker.Seat {
 	return broker.Seat{Name: s.Name, Accepts: s.Accepts, Emits: s.Emits, Serves: s.Serves}
 }
 
+// MeshSeats are the mesh's own seats that carry a protocol, as the bus needs them: what to make a work
+// queue for, and whose holder gets a worker on it (novox/hq ADR 0121).
+func MeshSeats() []broker.DeclaredSeat {
+	var out []broker.DeclaredSeat
+	for _, s := range catalogue.SeatsWithAProtocol() {
+		out = append(out, broker.DeclaredSeat{
+			Name: s.Name, Accepts: s.Accepts, Emits: s.Emits, Serves: s.Serves,
+		})
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
 // NodesWithALiveToken is every machine holding a token that could still be presented — issued, not
 // expired, not redeemed.
 //