diff --git a/cmd/mesh-controller/seat_dependencies_test.go b/cmd/mesh-controller/seat_dependencies_test.go
index bea72be..4888337 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-controller/seat_dependencies_test.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-controller/seat_dependencies_test.go
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ import (
 func serviceManagerHolder() catalogue.Manifest {
 	return catalogue.Manifest{Module: "systemd", Version: "1",
 		Claims: []catalogue.Claim{{Name: catalogue.ServiceManagerSeat, Scope: catalogue.ScopeNode,
-			Serves: []string{"units", "status", "start", "stop", "restart", "enable", "disable", "journal"}}},
+			Serves: []string{"units", "status", "start", "stop", "restart", "enable", "disable", "journal", "failed"}}},
 		Resources: []map[string]any{{"id": "systemd", "type": "package", "package": "systemd"}}}
 }
 
diff --git a/internal/catalogue/operators_machine_test.go b/internal/catalogue/operators_machine_test.go
index ddac43d..40551f0 100644
--- a/internal/catalogue/operators_machine_test.go
+++ b/internal/catalogue/operators_machine_test.go
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ func TestTheServiceManagerSeatServesTheUnitVerbs(t *testing.T) {
 	if seat.Scope != ScopeNode {
 		t.Fatalf("the service manager is a role each machine has once, and the seat is %s-scoped", seat.Scope)
 	}
-	want := []string{"units", "status", "start", "stop", "restart", "enable", "disable", "journal"}
+	want := []string{"units", "status", "start", "stop", "restart", "enable", "disable", "journal", "failed"}
 	var got []string
 	for _, v := range seat.Serves {
 		got = append(got, v.Name)
diff --git a/internal/catalogue/seats.go b/internal/catalogue/seats.go
index ff30ca7..950afe7 100644
--- a/internal/catalogue/seats.go
+++ b/internal/catalogue/seats.go
@@ -561,7 +561,8 @@ func SeatsWithAProtocol() []Seat {
 // serviceManagerVerbs is the contract every holder of node-service-manager serves (novox/hq ADR
 // 0177): the units on the machine in both scopes, read and acted on by name. Every verb takes an
 // optional scope — "system" when absent, "user" for the operator account's own manager — so a
-// caller asks for a user unit the way it asks for a system one.
+// caller asks for a user unit the way it asks for a system one; `failed` alone reads both managers
+// when none is named.
 func serviceManagerVerbs() []Verb {
 	scoped := func(more map[string]string, required []string) map[string]any {
 		props := map[string]string{"scope": "\"system\" (the default) or \"user\": the operator account's own manager"}
@@ -586,8 +587,26 @@ func serviceManagerVerbs() []Verb {
 			Input: scoped(unit, []string{"unit"})},
 		{Name: "disable", Description: "Stop one unit starting at boot (or at login, in user scope).",
 			Input: scoped(unit, []string{"unit"})},
-		{Name: "journal", Description: "The last lines of one unit's journal.",
-			Input: scoped(map[string]string{"unit": unit["unit"], "lines": "how many lines from the end (default 100)"}, []string{"unit"})},
+		// **A window, not only a tail** (the operator's direction 2026-10-07): an incident is read for the
+		// minutes it happened in, and with no window on the verb a person reached for a shell. Every
+		// argument is the holder's to validate — passed to journalctl as one word of its own, never through
+		// a shell — and what the unit printed of a secret is redacted before it is answered.
+		{Name: "journal", Description: "The last lines of one unit's journal (at most 2000), in a time window and " +
+			"narrowed to a priority and to lines holding a text when asked. A secret the unit printed is shown as " +
+			"[redacted: <what it was>].",
+			Input: scoped(map[string]string{
+				"unit":     unit["unit"],
+				"lines":    "how many lines from the end of what matches (default 100, at most 2000)",
+				"since":    "the window's start: an RFC 3339 time (2026-10-07T09:30:00Z) or relative to now (-30min, -2h, yesterday) (optional)",
+				"until":    "the window's end, in the same forms (optional; now when absent)",
+				"match":    "only the lines holding this text, as written — a fixed string, not a pattern (optional)",
+				"priority": "only entries this severe or more: 0-7 or emerg, alert, crit, err, warning, notice, info, debug (optional)",
+			}, []string{"unit"})},
+		// What has failed, on the seat rather than as one holder's own tool: whatever holds the role answers
+		// it, so a caller asks every machine the same way.
+		{Name: "failed", Description: "Every failed unit on this machine, in the system manager and in the operator " +
+			"account's; a manager that does not answer is reported with its error, never as nothing failed.",
+			Input: schema(map[string]string{"scope": "\"system\" or \"user\": only that manager (both when absent)"}, nil)},
 	}
 }