diff --git a/cmd/mesh-controller/check.go b/cmd/mesh-controller/check.go
index cb4c6acd..f3c5b3a4 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-controller/check.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-controller/check.go
@@ -32,6 +32,9 @@ import (
 // provision it wants that a manifest given here offers. An overflow is refused in the pull request
 // that introduces it — a new requirement, a lowered bound, a longer slug — instead of on the
 // provider's machine when a real machine's name first meets the module's.
+// SomeManifestsVar, set by the merge gate, says the manifests given are only some of their repository's.
+const SomeManifestsVar = "MESH_MODULE_CHECK_SOME"
+
 func moduleCheck(paths []string, out io.Writer) error {
 	return moduleCheckFor(paths, catalogue.DefaultLongestMachine, out)
 }
@@ -85,12 +88,24 @@ func moduleCheckFor(paths []string, longestMachine int, out io.Writer) error {
 	// Between the manifests: a seat declared twice, a use of a seat nothing declares, a claim on
 	// a seat that does not exist. Run only over what parsed, because a problem inside one manifest
 	// has already been said and would be said again here in a worse form.
+	//
+	// **Over some of a repository's manifests, a seat none of them declares is a note** (novox/hq issue 364), as
+	// this command's own word says above: the merge gate passes only the manifests a change touches, and says so
+	// with SomeManifestsVar, so a module that uses or claims a seat another module declares (the operator
+	// channel's, a channel bench) was refused there for a manifest it was not given. Given every manifest — the
+	// catalogue's own check, and registration — it stays a refusal.
+	some := os.Getenv(SomeManifestsVar) != ""
 	problems := catalogue.CatalogueProblems(shelf)
 	sort.Strings(problems)
 	for _, p := range problems {
+		if some && catalogue.IsUndeclaredSeat(p) {
+			fmt.Fprintf(out, "note: %s among the manifests given; registration judges it against the whole catalogue, "+
+				"and passing the declaring module's manifest too judges it here\n", p)
+			continue
+		}
 		fmt.Fprintln(out, p)
+		failed++
 	}
-	failed += len(problems)
 
 	// Between the manifests too: an identity against the bounds of the provisions it wants, which
 	// only the provider's manifest states.
diff --git a/cmd/mesh-controller/check_test.go b/cmd/mesh-controller/check_test.go
index 6754bd19..853570a2 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-controller/check_test.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-controller/check_test.go
@@ -103,3 +103,23 @@ func TestTheControllersManifestServesEveryVerbOfItsSeat(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("the controller's own module.json fails module check: %v\n%s", err, out.String())
 	}
 }
+
+// A module that uses a seat another module declares (novox/hq issue 364): refused over the whole catalogue when the
+// declarer is missing, a note when the gate says it gives only the manifests a change touches.
+func TestASeatAnotherModuleDeclaresIsANoteOverSomeManifests(t *testing.T) {
+	dir := t.TempDir()
+	user := filepath.Join(dir, "user.json")
+	os.WriteFile(user, []byte(`{"module":"asker","version":"1","uses":["operator-channel"]}`), 0o600)
+	var out bytes.Buffer
+	if err := moduleCheck([]string{user}, &out); err == nil {
+		t.Fatalf("a use of a seat nothing given declares passed the whole-catalogue check:\n%s", out.String())
+	}
+	t.Setenv(SomeManifestsVar, "1")
+	out.Reset()
+	if err := moduleCheck([]string{user}, &out); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("over some manifests the use was refused:\n%s", out.String())
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(out.String(), "note: asker uses the seat \"operator-channel\"") {
+		t.Fatalf("the note was not said:\n%s", out.String())
+	}
+}
diff --git a/internal/builder/check.go b/internal/builder/check.go
index 00a31acc..773f6702 100644
--- a/internal/builder/check.go
+++ b/internal/builder/check.go
@@ -543,6 +543,11 @@ func passedSoFar(ran []string) string {
 	return strings.Join(ran, ", ") + " passed; "
 }
 
+// SomeManifestsEnv tells the judge's module check that the manifests it is given are only those a change touches,
+// so a seat another module of the repository declares is a note there, not a refusal (novox/hq issue 364). A judge
+// that predates it reads nothing of it and refuses as before.
+const SomeManifestsEnv = "MESH_MODULE_CHECK_SOME=1"
+
 // gateLayer runs the gate: the touched manifests through `module check`, every machine composed with the
 // change, and the replays of what the mesh runs. It answers the gate's verdict and summary.
 func gateLayer(ctx context.Context, spec CheckSpec, tree, root, gate, verdictFile string, env []string,
@@ -562,7 +567,7 @@ func gateLayer(ctx context.Context, spec CheckSpec, tree, root, gate, verdictFil
 		checked := func(dir string) (string, error) {
 			var own tail
 			cmd := exec.CommandContext(ctx, "docker", LabelledArgs("docker",
-				inToolchain(dir, env, append([]string{gate, "module", "check"}, manifests...)...), spec.ID)...)
+				inToolchain(dir, append(append([]string{}, env...), SomeManifestsEnv), append([]string{gate, "module", "check"}, manifests...)...), spec.ID)...)
 			inItsOwnGroup(cmd)
 			w := io.MultiWriter(out, &own)
 			cmd.Stdout, cmd.Stderr = w, w
diff --git a/internal/catalogue/seats_declared.go b/internal/catalogue/seats_declared.go
index 972eabf7..eee4ebe5 100644
--- a/internal/catalogue/seats_declared.go
+++ b/internal/catalogue/seats_declared.go
@@ -230,6 +230,14 @@ type Shelf map[string]Manifest
 //
 // Run at registration, which is the last moment the mesh can still refuse: after it, a caller is
 // bound to a seat and a refusal is an outage rather than a conversation.
+// UndeclaredSeat ends the problem of a `uses` or a claim naming a seat no manifest given declares: over the whole
+// catalogue (registration, the catalogue's own check) a refusal, and over some manifests alone a seat whose
+// declaring module was not given (novox/hq issue 364).
+const UndeclaredSeat = "which no module declares and the mesh does not define"
+
+// IsUndeclaredSeat says whether a problem CatalogueProblems gave is a seat no manifest given declares.
+func IsUndeclaredSeat(problem string) bool { return strings.HasSuffix(problem, UndeclaredSeat) }
+
 func CatalogueProblems(shelf Shelf) []string {
 	var problems []string
 
@@ -282,7 +290,7 @@ func CatalogueProblems(shelf Shelf) []string {
 		for _, u := range m.Uses {
 			if !exists(u) {
 				problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
-					"%s uses the seat %q, which no module declares and the mesh does not define",
+					"%s uses the seat %q, "+UndeclaredSeat,
 					module, u))
 			}
 		}
@@ -290,7 +298,7 @@ func CatalogueProblems(shelf Shelf) []string {
 		for _, c := range m.Claims {
 			if !exists(c.Name) {
 				problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
-					"%s claims the seat %q, which no module declares and the mesh does not define",
+					"%s claims the seat %q, "+UndeclaredSeat,
 					module, c.Name))
 				continue
 			}