diff --git a/cmd/mesh-controller/grants_step_store_test.go b/cmd/mesh-controller/grants_step_store_test.go
index 7f675c07..3248a1b4 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-controller/grants_step_store_test.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-controller/grants_step_store_test.go
@@ -105,7 +105,10 @@ func TestTheGrantsStepSendsTheUserListAndNothingElse(t *testing.T) {
 			t.Fatal(err)
 		}
 	}
-	kept := keepingEveryBuild(keepingRecorded(ctx))
+	// Kept for anchor alone. laptop is never recorded as sent, on purpose: composing anchor resolves laptop
+	// too (who is on the private network), and a step that kept every machine's builds refused anchor's
+	// composition for want of laptop's last send (repo-check of #230 at 0f853e93).
+	kept := keepingEveryBuild(keepingRecorded(ctx), "anchor")
 
 	// What anchor was last sent: everything at the builds of before the merge, as an ordinary send sends it.
 	_, before := compose(keepingRecorded(ctx))
diff --git a/cmd/mesh-controller/grants_step_test.go b/cmd/mesh-controller/grants_step_test.go
index 2820bb51..48b34bb5 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-controller/grants_step_test.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-controller/grants_step_test.go
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ func sendsRecorded(t *testing.T, holder string, behind bool, refuse error) *[]aS
 		return holder, behind, nil
 	}
 	sendRollout = func(ctx context.Context, _ *stores, names []string) ([]string, error) {
-		s := aSend{names: append([]string(nil), names...), keepsAll: everyBuildKept(ctx)}
+		s := aSend{names: append([]string(nil), names...), keepsAll: len(names) == 1 && everyBuildKept(ctx, names[0])}
 		for n := range scopeOf(ctx).judged {
 			s.judged = append(s.judged, n)
 		}
@@ -168,6 +168,15 @@ func TestOnlyTheUserListsContentIsExempt(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+// The step keeps the builds of the machine it sends alone: the others its composition resolves are composed
+// as any send composes them.
+func TestTheGrantsStepKeepsOneMachinesBuilds(t *testing.T) {
+	ctx := keepingEveryBuild(t.Context(), "novox")
+	if !everyBuildKept(ctx, "novox") || everyBuildKept(ctx, "ace") || everyBuildKept(t.Context(), "novox") {
+		t.Error("the grants step keeps the builds of a machine it does not send")
+	}
+}
+
 // The delivery plan says the step before the merge.
 func TestAChangePlanSaysTheGrantsStep(t *testing.T) {
 	const catalogue_ = "http://forge.internal:20000/novox/mesh-catalog.git"
diff --git a/cmd/mesh-controller/push.go b/cmd/mesh-controller/push.go
index 30e3fd84..2e134b15 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-controller/push.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-controller/push.go
@@ -1238,7 +1238,7 @@ func sendToEach(ctx context.Context, open *stores, names []string) ([]string, er
 		numbered.stamp(&declared)
 		// **The grants step sends the user list and nothing else** (novox/hq issue 490): judged on this very
 		// declaration, the one sent, so nothing composed between a check and the send can slip through.
-		if everyBuildKept(ctx) {
+		if everyBuildKept(ctx, name) {
 			other, err := grantsOnlyIn(ctx, open, name, plan, declared)
 			if err != nil {
 				return nil, err
diff --git a/cmd/mesh-controller/recorded_kept.go b/cmd/mesh-controller/recorded_kept.go
index 5c81bec8..a8e8cf5b 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-controller/recorded_kept.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-controller/recorded_kept.go
@@ -63,19 +63,24 @@ func keptExcept(ctx context.Context) (map[string]bool, bool) {
 
 type keepEveryBuildKey struct{}
 
-// keepingEveryBuild is a context whose sends compose every module — recorded or rolling out — at the build
-// its machine was last sent (novox/hq issue 490): the grants step, which sends the machine holding the bus
-// its new user list and nothing of any module's new code. That code waits there for a gate like any other
-// move; the list must not, or the first machine's gate is judged against a bus that refuses what the change
-// newly grants.
-func keepingEveryBuild(ctx context.Context) context.Context {
-	return context.WithValue(ctx, keepEveryBuildKey{}, true)
+// keepingEveryBuild is a context whose sends compose every module of one machine — recorded or rolling out —
+// at the build that machine was last sent (novox/hq issue 490): the grants step, which sends the machine
+// holding the bus its new user list and nothing of any module's new code. That code waits there for a gate
+// like any other move; the list must not, or the first machine's gate is judged against a bus that refuses
+// what the change newly grants.
+//
+// **That machine alone.** Composing one machine resolves the others too — who is on the private network,
+// who answers a requirement — on the same context, and those are no part of the step's send: they are
+// composed as any send composes them. Kept for every machine, a machine whose last send is not known
+// refused the bus's machine's composition.
+func keepingEveryBuild(ctx context.Context, node string) context.Context {
+	return context.WithValue(ctx, keepEveryBuildKey{}, node)
 }
 
-// everyBuildKept is whether this context keeps every module at the build its machine runs.
-func everyBuildKept(ctx context.Context) bool {
-	on, _ := ctx.Value(keepEveryBuildKey{}).(bool)
-	return on
+// everyBuildKept is whether this context keeps every module of this machine at the build it runs.
+func everyBuildKept(ctx context.Context, node string) bool {
+	on, _ := ctx.Value(keepEveryBuildKey{}).(string)
+	return on != "" && on == node
 }
 
 // recordedKept is, for a send under keepingRecorded, every recorded module the machine was last sent a
@@ -87,7 +92,7 @@ func everyBuildKept(ctx context.Context) bool {
 // 490), and a machine whose last send is not known refuses the send: there is nothing to keep it at, and
 // composing the mesh's builds would be the very move the grants step must not make.
 func recordedKept(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string) (map[string]string, error) {
-	every := everyBuildKept(ctx)
+	every := everyBuildKept(ctx, node)
 	skip, on := keptExcept(ctx)
 	if !on && !every {
 		return nil, nil
@@ -150,7 +155,7 @@ func keepRecorded(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string, shelf map[stri
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
-		if !found && everyBuildKept(ctx) {
+		if !found && everyBuildKept(ctx, node) {
 			return nil, fmt.Errorf("%s runs %s's build %s, which the build records no longer hold: the bus's user "+
 				"list cannot be sent there alone with it kept (novox/hq issue 490)", node, m, short(kept[m]))
 		}
diff --git a/cmd/mesh-controller/release.go b/cmd/mesh-controller/release.go
index 8be20f46..555ebeb2 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-controller/release.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-controller/release.go
@@ -257,7 +257,7 @@ func ungatedIn(ctx context.Context, open *stores, names []string, addedHolder st
 		// The grants step composes every module at the build its machine was last sent (novox/hq issue 490):
 		// a move it keeps is not made. Read, not assumed, so a move it could not keep is still refused here.
 		var keeps map[string]string
-		if everyBuildKept(ctx) {
+		if everyBuildKept(ctx, n) {
 			if keeps, err = recordedKept(ctx, open, n); err != nil {
 				return nil, err
 			}
@@ -968,7 +968,7 @@ func grantsStep(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string) *inventory.Grant
 		// list is the one already sent.
 		return nil
 	}
-	if _, err := sendRollout(keepingEveryBuild(withScope(ctx, sendScope{})), open, []string{holder}); err != nil {
+	if _, err := sendRollout(keepingEveryBuild(withScope(ctx, sendScope{}), holder), open, []string{holder}); err != nil {
 		fmt.Printf("grants step: the bus's user list could not be sent to %s ahead of %s, which is sent without "+
 			"it — the bus may refuse what the send newly grants: %v\n", holder, node, err)
 		return &inventory.GrantsStep{Node: holder, Failed: err.Error()}