diff --git a/cmd/mesh-controller/release_plan.go b/cmd/mesh-controller/release_plan.go
index cb508b9..535433e 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-controller/release_plan.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-controller/release_plan.go
@@ -395,7 +395,32 @@ func advanceOnce(ctx context.Context, open *stores, p *inventory.Plan,
 			latest = *s.BuiltAt
 		}
 	}
-	// Built: wait for what the next tier needs running.
+	// Built: send every module of the tier whose policy rolls out, once, to the machines running
+	// it — whether or not its source commit moved. A dependent rebuilt because its base moved, or
+	// a module that packages another repository's source, keeps its commit; the catalogue announces
+	// no move for it and its machines would keep the old image until somebody pushed (novox/hq
+	// issue 189). A module whose policy records is built and left, as its policy says.
+	for _, m := range tier {
+		state := p.Modules[m]
+		if state == nil || state.SentAt != nil || !rollsOut(m) {
+			continue
+		}
+		running, err := inv.Running(ctx, m)
+		if err != nil {
+			return false, err
+		}
+		now := time.Now().UTC()
+		state.SentAt = &now
+		if len(running) == 0 {
+			continue
+		}
+		if err := sendTo(ctx, open, running); err != nil {
+			return false, fmt.Errorf("sending %s to %s after tier %d: %w", m, strings.Join(running, ", "), p.Tier, err)
+		}
+		fmt.Printf("%s: tier %d built; sent %s to %s\n", p.ID, p.Tier, m, strings.Join(running, ", "))
+		return true, nil
+	}
+	// And wait for what the next tier needs running.
 	needed := gates(*p, edges, rollsOut)
 	if len(needed) > 0 {
 		reports, err := inv.LastReports(ctx)
@@ -417,17 +442,6 @@ func advanceOnce(ctx context.Context, open *stores, p *inventory.Plan,
 			// move the catalogue announces — the build machine rebuilt for a controller change
 			// is one — so the roll-out that opens this gate is the plan's to make, once, and
 			// the reports that open it are the ones after the send.
-			if state.SentAt == nil && len(running) > 0 {
-				if err := sendTo(ctx, open, running); err != nil {
-					return false, fmt.Errorf("sending %s to %s so tier %d can be built by it: %w",
-						m, strings.Join(running, ", "), p.Tier+1, err)
-				}
-				now := time.Now().UTC()
-				state.SentAt = &now
-				fmt.Printf("%s: tier %d built; sent %s to %s, and tier %d waits until it is applied\n",
-					p.ID, p.Tier, m, strings.Join(running, ", "), p.Tier+1)
-				return true, nil
-			}
 			since := latest
 			if state.BuiltAt != nil {
 				since = *state.BuiltAt