diff --git a/cmd/mesh-builder/main.go b/cmd/mesh-builder/main.go
index c4fa5e1..c6266f7 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-builder/main.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-builder/main.go
@@ -268,7 +268,7 @@ func answer(ctx context.Context, channel *amqp.Channel, publisher builder.Publis
 			"manifest": json.RawMessage(result.Manifest), "against": result.Against,
 			"made": result.Made,
 		}
-		if err := link.EmitEvent(publishCtx, channel, link.KeyModuleBuilt, "builder", on, announced); err != nil {
+		if err := link.EmitEvent(publishCtx, link.OverAMQP{Channel: channel}, link.KeyModuleBuilt, "builder", on, announced); err != nil {
 			// Said, not fatal: the build happened and was answered. A module the catalogue has not
 			// heard of is a gap somebody can close; a build reported as failed because announcing
 			// it failed is a lie about work that was done.
diff --git a/cmd/mesh-controller/push.go b/cmd/mesh-controller/push.go
index 2319213..7e9c154 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-controller/push.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-controller/push.go
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ func declare(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 	}
 	defer server.Close()
 
-	if err := link.Declare(ctx, server.Channel(), ident, node, raw, 15*time.Second); err != nil {
+	if err := link.Declare(ctx, link.OverAMQP{Channel: server.Channel()}, ident, node, raw, 15*time.Second); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
 	fmt.Printf("sent %s a signed declaration (%d bytes)\n", node, len(raw))
@@ -310,7 +310,7 @@ func pushCommand(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
-		if err := link.Declare(ctx, server.Channel(), ident, s.node, body, 15*time.Second); err != nil {
+		if err := link.Declare(ctx, link.OverAMQP{Channel: server.Channel()}, ident, s.node, body, 15*time.Second); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
 		// After it is away, not before. A digest recorded for something that failed to send would
@@ -393,7 +393,7 @@ func pushCommand(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 					return declarationWith(held, open, node, plan, settings, gens, Allocating)
 				},
 				func(s readyNode, body []byte) error {
-					if err := link.Declare(ctx, server.Channel(), ident, s.node, body,
+					if err := link.Declare(ctx, link.OverAMQP{Channel: server.Channel()}, ident, s.node, body,
 						15*time.Second); err != nil {
 						return err
 					}
@@ -611,7 +611,7 @@ func sendTo(ctx context.Context, open *stores, names []string) error {
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
-		if err := link.Declare(ctx, server.Channel(), ident, s.node, body, 15*time.Second); err != nil {
+		if err := link.Declare(ctx, link.OverAMQP{Channel: server.Channel()}, ident, s.node, body, 15*time.Second); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
 		record, err := inv.NodeByName(ctx, s.node)
diff --git a/internal/link/bus.go b/internal/link/bus.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a353c58
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/link/bus.go
@@ -0,0 +1,121 @@
+package link
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"fmt"
+	"time"
+
+	amqp "github.com/rabbitmq/amqp091-go"
+	"github.com/nats-io/nats.go"
+)
+
+// Bus is what the controller needs of the mesh's bus, **in the mesh's own words rather than a
+// transport's** (novox/hq ADR 0116 step 3).
+//
+// Until now every one of these functions took an `*amqp.Channel`, so the transport reached every
+// caller and swapping it meant touching all of them. The seam is small — the controller sends
+// exactly two kinds of message that expect no answer, and asks two kinds of question — which is
+// why the bus could be replaced at all.
+//
+// Two implementations live below. Both ship: steps 1 to 4 leave every node on AMQP
+// ([ADR 0116](novox/hq)), so the controller keeps speaking it and the NATS one is selected at the
+// rollout. That is also what makes them comparable — the same caller, the same arguments, and a
+// conformance fixture holding both to one envelope.
+type Bus interface {
+	// PublishEvent announces something that happened, under the emitter's own name. 1:many, and
+	// nobody is obliged to act (ADR 0041).
+	PublishEvent(ctx context.Context, key, source, node string, body []byte) error
+
+	// PublishDeclaration delivers one node what it should be. Addressed to that node alone: a
+	// declaration is not an event, and replaying yesterday's is actively harmful
+	// (design 29 §4, the *state* shape).
+	PublishDeclaration(ctx context.Context, node string, body []byte) error
+}
+
+// --- AMQP, the bus the mesh runs on today -----------------------------------------------------
+
+// OverAMQP is the bus as a channel.
+type OverAMQP struct{ Channel *amqp.Channel }
+
+func (b OverAMQP) PublishEvent(ctx context.Context, key, source, node string, body []byte) error {
+	id, err := eventID()
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	return b.Channel.PublishWithContext(ctx, EventsExchange, key, false, false, amqp.Publishing{
+		ContentType:  "application/json",
+		DeliveryMode: amqp.Persistent,
+		MessageId:    id,
+		Timestamp:    time.Now().UTC(),
+		Body:         body,
+		Headers: amqp.Table{
+			"x-event-id":   id,
+			"x-source":     source,
+			"x-node":       node,
+			"x-time":       time.Now().UTC().Format(time.RFC3339),
+			"content-type": "application/json",
+		},
+	})
+}
+
+func (b OverAMQP) PublishDeclaration(ctx context.Context, node string, body []byte) error {
+	// To the queue directly rather than through an exchange: a declaration is for one node, and
+	// routing it by name through a shared exchange would mean a binding per node that nothing
+	// removes when a node is retired.
+	return b.Channel.PublishWithContext(ctx, "", QueueFor(node), false, false, amqp.Publishing{
+		ContentType:  "application/json",
+		DeliveryMode: amqp.Persistent,
+		Body:         body,
+	})
+}
+
+// --- NATS, the bus being built ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+// OverNATS is the bus as a JetStream context.
+type OverNATS struct{ JS nats.JetStreamContext }
+
+// EventSubject is where a module's event lands. Derived from the emitter, never taken from the
+// caller: a source that could differ from the subject is an envelope that can lie about its
+// origin, and on NATS the account's permissions make the subject the authority (design 29 §2).
+func EventSubject(source, key string) string {
+	return "mesh.mod." + source + ".event." + key
+}
+
+// DeclareSubject is where one node's declaration lands. Last-per-subject on the NODES stream, so
+// a node that was away gets exactly the current one and a replayed older one is refused by
+// sequence — the wire-level answer to novox/hq issue 107.
+func DeclareSubject(node string) string { return "mesh.node." + node + ".declare" }
+
+func (b OverNATS) PublishEvent(ctx context.Context, key, source, node string, body []byte) error {
+	id, err := eventID()
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	h := nats.Header{}
+	h.Set("x-event-id", id)
+	h.Set("x-source", source)
+	h.Set("x-node", node)
+	h.Set("x-time", time.Now().UTC().Format(time.RFC3339))
+	h.Set("content-type", "application/json")
+
+	// The id is also the publish's message id, so the server refuses a duplicate inside its
+	// window. That narrows the window a consumer must deduplicate in; it does not remove the
+	// requirement, because the window is finite (design 19, delivery).
+	_, err = b.JS.PublishMsg(&nats.Msg{
+		Subject: EventSubject(source, key),
+		Header:  h,
+		Data:    body,
+	}, nats.MsgId(id), nats.Context(ctx))
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("emitting %s: %w", key, err)
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
+func (b OverNATS) PublishDeclaration(ctx context.Context, node string, body []byte) error {
+	_, err := b.JS.Publish(DeclareSubject(node), body, nats.Context(ctx))
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("declaring to %s: %w", node, err)
+	}
+	return nil
+}
diff --git a/internal/link/bus_test.go b/internal/link/bus_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..afd5f94
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/link/bus_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,95 @@
+package link
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"os"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/nats-io/nats.go"
+)
+
+// **Both implementations, one fixture.** The point of the seam is not that the transport can be
+// swapped — it is that the two can be held to the same envelope while both ship, so the day the
+// bus moves is a configuration change rather than a discovery.
+//
+// Against a real server, because what the fixture pins is what reaches the wire:
+//
+//	docker run -d --rm --name t -p 14222:4222 nats:2.10-alpine -js
+//	MESH_TEST_NATS=nats://127.0.0.1:14222 go test ./internal/link/ -run TestTheNatsBus
+func TestTheNatsBusEmitsTheEnvelopeTheFixturePins(t *testing.T) {
+	url := os.Getenv("MESH_TEST_NATS")
+	if url == "" {
+		t.Skip("MESH_TEST_NATS unset")
+	}
+	f := loadFixture(t, "events/module-event.json")
+
+	conn, err := nats.Connect(url)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	defer conn.Close()
+	js, err := conn.JetStream()
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if _, err := js.AddStream(&nats.StreamConfig{
+		Name: "EVENTS", Subjects: []string{"mesh.mod.*.event.>"},
+	}); err != nil && err != nats.ErrStreamNameAlreadyInUse {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	bus := OverNATS{JS: js}
+	body, _ := json.Marshal(f.Given.Body)
+	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 5*time.Second)
+	defer cancel()
+	if err := EmitEvent(ctx, bus, f.Given.Key, f.Given.Module, f.Given.Node, f.Given.Body); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	// Read back from the stream, not from the thing that wrote it.
+	raw, err := js.GetLastMsg("EVENTS", f.Wire.Subject)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("nothing landed on %s, which the fixture names: %v", f.Wire.Subject, err)
+	}
+	for _, h := range f.Wire.RequiredHeaders {
+		if raw.Header.Get(h) == "" {
+			t.Errorf("%s is not set on the wire, and the fixture requires it", h)
+		}
+	}
+	if got := raw.Header.Get("x-source"); got != f.Given.Module {
+		t.Errorf("x-source is %q; the subject says %q", got, f.Given.Module)
+	}
+	if string(raw.Data) != string(body) {
+		t.Errorf("the payload is %s, expected the body alone: %s", raw.Data, body)
+	}
+	// The envelope must not also be nested inside the payload.
+	var nested map[string]any
+	if json.Unmarshal(raw.Data, &nested) == nil {
+		if _, has := nested["key"]; has {
+			t.Error("the payload carries the envelope's own fields, which the fixture refuses")
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// The subject a declaration lands on is one node's, and nothing else's — the state shape.
+func TestADeclarationIsAddressedToOneNode(t *testing.T) {
+	if got := DeclareSubject("anchor"); got != "mesh.node.anchor.declare" {
+		t.Fatalf("a declaration would go to %q", got)
+	}
+	if DeclareSubject("anchor") == DeclareSubject("laptop") {
+		t.Fatal("two nodes share a declaration subject, so each would apply the other's")
+	}
+}
+
+// A module cannot emit under another's name: the subject is derived from the source, and the
+// server's permissions make that subject the authority.
+func TestAnEventsSubjectIsDerivedFromItsSource(t *testing.T) {
+	if got := EventSubject("shop", "order.placed"); got != "mesh.mod.shop.event.order.placed" {
+		t.Fatalf("an event would land on %q", got)
+	}
+	if EventSubject("shop", "x") == EventSubject("billing", "x") {
+		t.Fatal("two modules share an event subject, so neither owns its own name")
+	}
+}
diff --git a/internal/link/declare.go b/internal/link/declare.go
index 9f6fd7e..665c810 100644
--- a/internal/link/declare.go
+++ b/internal/link/declare.go
@@ -5,8 +5,6 @@ import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"time"
-
-	amqp "github.com/rabbitmq/amqp091-go"
 )
 
 // Signer is whatever holds the control plane's signing key.
@@ -21,7 +19,7 @@ type Signer interface {
 // something else, and the node would refuse a declaration that was genuinely the mesh's.
 //
 // Published to the node's own queue, which its account alone may read.
-func Declare(ctx context.Context, channel *amqp.Channel, signer Signer, node string,
+func Declare(ctx context.Context, bus Bus, signer Signer, node string,
 	declaration []byte, timeout time.Duration) error {
 
 	if !json.Valid(declaration) {
@@ -41,13 +39,5 @@ func Declare(ctx context.Context, channel *amqp.Channel, signer Signer, node str
 	publish, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, timeout)
 	defer cancel()
 
-	// Published to the queue directly rather than through the exchange: a declaration is for one
-	// node, and routing it by name through a shared exchange would mean a binding per node that
-	// nothing removes when a node is retired.
-	return channel.PublishWithContext(publish, "", QueueFor(node), false, false,
-		amqp.Publishing{
-			ContentType:  "application/json",
-			DeliveryMode: amqp.Persistent,
-			Body:         body,
-		})
+	return bus.PublishDeclaration(publish, node, body)
 }
diff --git a/internal/link/events.go b/internal/link/events.go
index 3d461a3..225a19a 100644
--- a/internal/link/events.go
+++ b/internal/link/events.go
@@ -6,9 +6,6 @@ import (
 	"encoding/hex"
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
-	"time"
-
-	amqp "github.com/rabbitmq/amqp091-go"
 )
 
 // Emitting a module event from Go.
@@ -29,32 +26,17 @@ const (
 
 // EmitEvent publishes one module event, in the envelope the sdk's consumers expect.
 //
-// Persistent, because an event that a broker restart loses is not an announcement. The publish is
-// not confirmed here: the caller has already done the work the event describes, and a build that
-// succeeded must not be reported as failed because saying so failed.
-func EmitEvent(ctx context.Context, channel *amqp.Channel, eventType, source, node string, body any) error {
+// The envelope is the transport's to write (bus.go) and this is only what goes in it, which is
+// what lets one conformance fixture hold both implementations to the same headers.
+func EmitEvent(ctx context.Context, bus Bus, eventType, source, node string, body any) error {
 	payload, err := json.Marshal(body)
 	if err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("cannot serialise a %s event: %w", eventType, err)
 	}
-	id, err := eventID()
-	if err != nil {
-		return err
-	}
-	return channel.PublishWithContext(ctx, EventsExchange, eventType, false, false, amqp.Publishing{
-		ContentType:  "application/json",
-		DeliveryMode: amqp.Persistent,
-		MessageId:    id,
-		Timestamp:    time.Now().UTC(),
-		Body:         payload,
-		Headers: amqp.Table{
-			"x-event-id":   id,
-			"x-source":     source,
-			"x-node":       node,
-			"x-time":       time.Now().UTC().Format(time.RFC3339),
-			"content-type": "application/json",
-		},
-	})
+	// The publish is not confirmed by the caller: it has already done the work the event
+	// describes, and a build that succeeded must not be reported as failed because saying so
+	// failed. Each transport decides what "published" means for it.
+	return bus.PublishEvent(ctx, eventType, source, node, payload)
 }
 
 // eventID is what a consumer deduplicates on: delivery is at-least-once, so a handler must be able
diff --git a/internal/link/serve.go b/internal/link/serve.go
index 925c237..26ef006 100644
--- a/internal/link/serve.go
+++ b/internal/link/serve.go
@@ -631,7 +631,7 @@ func (s *Server) catchingUp(ctx context.Context, delivery amqp.Delivery) {
 	sent := 0
 	for _, a := range announcements {
 		a.Replay = true
-		if err := EmitEvent(ctx, s.channel, KeyModuleBuilt, "control-plane", "", a); err != nil {
+		if err := EmitEvent(ctx, OverAMQP{Channel: s.channel}, KeyModuleBuilt, "control-plane", "", a); err != nil {
 			// Said and abandoned rather than retried: the catalogue asks again every time it
 			// starts, and half a graph delivered twice is no better than half delivered once.
 			s.log.Printf("replaying %s at %s failed, and the rest is abandoned: %v",