diff --git a/internal/catalogue/declaration.go b/internal/catalogue/declaration.go
index 616908c..f06e91e 100644
--- a/internal/catalogue/declaration.go
+++ b/internal/catalogue/declaration.go
@@ -271,9 +271,9 @@ func (r Resolution) Declaration(with Rendering) ([]map[string]any, error) {
 				return nil, fmt.Errorf(
 					"%s needs a secret called %q and none was made for it", m.Module, name)
 			}
-			first = append(first, map[string]any{
+			first = append(first, ownedBy(m.SecretsOwner, map[string]any{
 				"id": NeedID(name), "type": "file", "path": m.OwnSecrets[name], "sealed": sealed,
-			})
+			}))
 		}
 		// Operator-owned paths this module is granted use of (novox/hq ADR 0051). Written before
 		// the module's own resources, and so before the container that mounts them: the host must
@@ -320,10 +320,10 @@ func (r Resolution) Declaration(with Rendering) ([]map[string]any, error) {
 				// worse than none: something would read it and fail authenticating.
 				continue
 			}
-			first = append(first, map[string]any{
+			first = append(first, ownedBy(m.SecretsOwner, map[string]any{
 				"id": SecretID(to), "type": "file", "path": m.Secrets[to],
 				"sealed": found.Sealed,
-			})
+			}))
 		}
 		for _, to := range sortedKeys(m.Grants) {
 			for _, g := range with.Grants {
@@ -799,6 +799,14 @@ func keptFile(dir string, kept *KeptExport) (map[string]any, error) {
 	}, nil
 }
 
+// ownedBy gives a secret file the owner the module named, when it named one (Manifest.SecretsOwner).
+func ownedBy(owner string, file map[string]any) map[string]any {
+	if owner != "" {
+		file["owner"] = owner
+	}
+	return file
+}
+
 // sortedKeys is map iteration made repeatable, which everything written to a machine needs.
 func sortedKeys[V any](m map[string]V) []string {
 	out := make([]string, 0, len(m))
diff --git a/internal/catalogue/manifest.go b/internal/catalogue/manifest.go
index 638fe86..d2096cb 100644
--- a/internal/catalogue/manifest.go
+++ b/internal/catalogue/manifest.go
@@ -297,6 +297,18 @@ type Manifest struct {
 	// module, in a file anybody can read, for ever.
 	OwnSecrets map[string]string `json:"own-secrets,omitempty"`
 
+	// SecretsOwner is who the files holding this module's secrets belong to on the machine —
+	// `uid:gid`, or a name — when its process is not root.
+	//
+	// **A secret reaches a process as a file** (novox/hq ADR 0086), and a file the host writes at
+	// 0600 as root is a file a container running as another account cannot read: the control
+	// plane, `USER 65534` in a scratch image, crash-looped on `permission denied` the first time
+	// its credentials were mounted instead of read from an env-file (which the daemon reads, as
+	// root, on the host side — which is exactly why that shape hid the problem). Absent means
+	// root, which is what a process that runs as root needs and what a process that does not
+	// cannot use.
+	SecretsOwner string `json:"secrets-owner,omitempty"`
+
 	// Keeps is where this module wants every operator-sealed secret in the mesh written — the
 	// vault's field, and so far nobody else's (novox/hq ADR 0085, amended).
 	//
diff --git a/internal/catalogue/secrets_in_environment_test.go b/internal/catalogue/secrets_in_environment_test.go
index 9bbde92..da911b4 100644
--- a/internal/catalogue/secrets_in_environment_test.go
+++ b/internal/catalogue/secrets_in_environment_test.go
@@ -70,3 +70,34 @@ func TestAnEnvFileWithoutASecretNeedsNothing(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 }
+
+// A module whose process is not root names who its secret files belong to, and every secret file
+// the composer writes for it carries that owner — the mounted file is readable where it is used.
+func TestSecretFilesCarryTheOwnerTheModuleNamed(t *testing.T) {
+	m := aModuleWithAnEnvFileSecret("said")
+	m.SecretsOwner = "65534:65534"
+	out, err := declare(t, m)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	var seen bool
+	for _, r := range out {
+		if r["path"] != "/var/lib/app/token.secret" {
+			continue
+		}
+		seen = true
+		if r["owner"] != "65534:65534" {
+			t.Errorf("the secret file is owned by %v", r["owner"])
+		}
+	}
+	if !seen {
+		t.Fatal("no secret file in the declaration")
+	}
+	m.SecretsOwner = ""
+	out, _ = declare(t, m)
+	for _, r := range out {
+		if r["path"] == "/var/lib/app/token.secret" && r["owner"] != nil {
+			t.Errorf("an owner was invented: %v", r["owner"])
+		}
+	}
+}