diff --git a/cmd/mesh-control/plan.go b/cmd/mesh-control/plan.go
index 18843bd..281f305 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-control/plan.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-control/plan.go
@@ -244,14 +244,35 @@ func declarationFor(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string,
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
-	return declarationWith(ctx, open, node, plan, settings, gens)
+	return declarationWith(ctx, open, node, plan, settings, gens, Reading)
 }
 
 // declarationWith is the same, for a caller that has already worked out the generators once and
 // is about to use them for every node.
+// Choosing says whether this composition may allocate what has not been allocated yet.
+//
+// **Asking what the mesh would send must not change what the mesh would send.** Composing a
+// declaration assigns each module a machine port, and `status` composes one for every node to
+// answer *is this machine running what I would send it* — so the question allocated, wrote, and
+// contended with the very machine it was asking about. A status command that polls every two
+// seconds while a node is applying is then two writers on the same rows, which is how it came to
+// hang rather than answer.
+//
+// So the mesh chooses a port when it commits to sending one, and every other caller reads what
+// was chosen. A module with nothing assigned yet has never been sent, which is exactly what a
+// machine "waiting" means — the read needs no number to be right about that.
+type Choosing bool
+
+const (
+	// Allocating is the send path: what is not assigned yet is assigned now and kept.
+	Allocating Choosing = true
+	// Reading is every question: what is assigned is used, and nothing is created.
+	Reading Choosing = false
+)
+
 func declarationWith(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string,
 	plan catalogue.Resolution, settings catalogue.SettingsBy,
-	gens map[string]catalogue.Generator) ([]map[string]any, error) {
+	gens map[string]catalogue.Generator, choosing Choosing) ([]map[string]any, error) {
 	inv := open.inventory
 	grants, err := grantsFor(ctx, open, node)
 	if err != nil {
@@ -263,6 +284,21 @@ func declarationWith(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string,
 	// assigned anywhere: any number it picks is a guess about a machine it has never seen. Made
 	// before the declaration is composed, because the container's mapping, the rule set and what a
 	// consumer is told are all derived from it.
+	// What this machine was already given, for a composition that may not allocate.
+	already := map[string]map[int]int{}
+	if choosing == Reading {
+		held, err := inv.PortsFor(ctx, node)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		for _, a := range held {
+			if already[a.Module] == nil {
+				already[a.Module] = map[int]int{}
+			}
+			already[a.Module][a.Wanted] = a.Machine
+		}
+	}
+
 	ports := map[string]map[int]int{}
 	for _, m := range plan.Modules {
 		for _, l := range m.Listens {
@@ -273,7 +309,8 @@ func declarationWith(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string,
 			// *where this module's port is on this machine* and every reader of it needs that
 			// answer whether or not the mesh was the one who chose it.
 			where, mayAssign := m.MachineSide(l.Port)
-			if mayAssign {
+			switch {
+			case mayAssign && choosing == Allocating:
 				at, err := inv.PortFor(ctx, node, m.Module, l.Port, l.Fixed)
 				if err != nil {
 					return nil, fmt.Errorf(
@@ -281,6 +318,11 @@ func declarationWith(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string,
 						m.Module, l.Port, node, err)
 				}
 				where = at.Machine
+			case mayAssign:
+				// Whatever was chosen last time, and nothing if there was no last time.
+				if at, known := already[m.Module][l.Port]; known {
+					where = at
+				}
 			}
 			if ports[m.Module] == nil {
 				ports[m.Module] = map[int]int{}
diff --git a/cmd/mesh-control/push.go b/cmd/mesh-control/push.go
index cdcb716..fa26e0a 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-control/push.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-control/push.go
@@ -265,7 +265,7 @@ func pushCommand(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 		// The private network is in here with everything else. It used to be composed separately
 		// and prepended, which meant every machine with an address was on it and no machine could
 		// be kept off. It is a module now, so it arrives the way a module does.
-		resources, err := declarationWith(ctx, open, n.Name, plan, settings, gens)
+		resources, err := declarationWith(ctx, open, n.Name, plan, settings, gens, Allocating)
 		if err != nil {
 			refusals = append(refusals, fmt.Sprintf("%s:\n%v", n.Name, err))
 			continue
@@ -335,7 +335,7 @@ func sendTo(ctx context.Context, open *stores, names []string) error {
 			refusals = append(refusals, fmt.Sprintf("%s:\n%v", name, err))
 			continue
 		}
-		resources, err := declarationWith(ctx, open, name, plan, settings, gens)
+		resources, err := declarationWith(ctx, open, name, plan, settings, gens, Allocating)
 		if err != nil {
 			refusals = append(refusals, fmt.Sprintf("%s:\n%v", name, err))
 			continue
@@ -399,7 +399,7 @@ func wouldSend(ctx context.Context, open *stores,
 		if err != nil {
 			continue
 		}
-		resources, err := declarationWith(ctx, open, n.Name, plan, settings, gens)
+		resources, err := declarationWith(ctx, open, n.Name, plan, settings, gens, Reading)
 		if err != nil {
 			continue
 		}