diff --git a/internal/catalogue/roster.go b/internal/catalogue/roster.go
index 849e813..48db115 100644
--- a/internal/catalogue/roster.go
+++ b/internal/catalogue/roster.go
@@ -39,6 +39,13 @@ type RosterFile struct {
 	// Template is the module's format, a Go text/template over the rosterView. It is the module's,
 	// not the mesh's: the mesh renders it and does not read it.
 	Template string `json:"template"`
+	// Shared is whether the file the fact goes to belongs to the machine rather than the mesh. When
+	// it does, the mesh owns only a marked region of it and keeps the rest byte for byte (novox/hq
+	// issue 128) — a hosts file is shared, since the distribution's `localhost`, the operator's own
+	// lines and other tools' blocks live there too; a resolver's zones file is not, the mesh owns it
+	// whole. A property of the fact, not of the path: the format determines whether the file is
+	// wholly the mesh's, not where a module happened to ask for it.
+	Shared bool `json:"shared,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // rosterView is what a RosterFile's template sees. A closed shape — a template referencing a field
@@ -91,10 +98,19 @@ func FactsInto(m Manifest, r Resolution, every, machines map[string]string, suff
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, fmt.Errorf("%s cannot render %q: %w", m.Module, name, err)
 		}
-		out = append(out, map[string]any{
+		file := map[string]any{
 			"id": "fact-" + name, "type": "file", "path": fact.Path, "mode": "0644",
 			"content": content,
-		})
+		}
+		if fact.Shared {
+			// The host owns only the lines between `# BEGIN mesh <id>` and `# END mesh <id>` and
+			// keeps the rest of the file byte for byte; undeclared, the region goes and nothing else
+			// does (novox/hq issue 128). Every node on the private network receives this, so every
+			// node's host — the controller's own machine included — must be block-aware before a
+			// controller emitting it is rolled out: the order ADR 0102 set for `into: json`.
+			file["into"] = "block"
+		}
+		out = append(out, file)
 	}
 	return out, nil
 }
diff --git a/internal/catalogue/roster_test.go b/internal/catalogue/roster_test.go
index 0025955..252f99d 100644
--- a/internal/catalogue/roster_test.go
+++ b/internal/catalogue/roster_test.go
@@ -33,6 +33,32 @@ func TestAModuleIsGivenTheFileItAskedFor(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+// **A shared fact is written into a region of the machine's file, not over it** (novox/hq issue
+// 128). A hosts file is the machine's — its localhost, the operator's lines, other tools' blocks —
+// so the mesh owns only a marked region (`into: block`); a resolver's zones file is the mesh's
+// whole, and carries no `into`.
+func TestASharedFactIsWrittenIntoARegion(t *testing.T) {
+	roster := map[string]string{"homer.internal": "10.42.0.1"}
+	m := Manifest{Module: "net", Facts: map[string]RosterFile{
+		"node-names": {Path: "/etc/hosts", Template: "{{range .Names}}{{.FQDN}}\n{{end}}", Shared: true},
+		"node-zones": {Path: "/etc/zones", Template: "{{range .Machines}}{{.FQDN}}\n{{end}}"},
+	}}
+	given, err := FactsInto(m, Resolution{Node: "homer"}, roster, roster, "")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	by := map[string]map[string]any{}
+	for _, f := range given {
+		by[f["path"].(string)] = f
+	}
+	if by["/etc/hosts"]["into"] != "block" {
+		t.Fatalf("a shared fact is not written into a region, so the mesh writes the file whole: %v", by["/etc/hosts"])
+	}
+	if _, has := by["/etc/zones"]["into"]; has {
+		t.Fatalf("an unshared fact was written into a region, so the mesh does not own its own file whole: %v", by["/etc/zones"])
+	}
+}
+
 // **The format is the module's — the mesh renders whatever template it gives.** The same roster
 // through two templates is two entirely different files, and the control plane reads neither.
 func TestTheFormatIsTheModulesOwn(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/internal/overlay/generator.go b/internal/overlay/generator.go
index d7b5ed5..d41559a 100644
--- a/internal/overlay/generator.go
+++ b/internal/overlay/generator.go
@@ -161,21 +161,17 @@ func (g *Generator) Nodes() []Node { return g.nodes }
 // Graph is the peer list per node, for showing.
 func (g *Generator) Graph() Graph { return g.graph }
 
-// hostsTemplate is the `/etc/hosts` the network module asks the mesh to write — every machine's
-// mesh name at its private address, so a service binding the name it was given stays reachable from
-// everywhere else. It is a roster template like any module's (catalogue.RosterFile): the mesh owns
-// the data, this owns the format.
+// hostsTemplate is the mesh's region of `/etc/hosts` — every machine's mesh name at its private
+// address, written into a marked region and merged (RosterFile.Shared → `into: block`), so the rest
+// of the file (localhost, the machine's own name, other tools' blocks) is kept byte for byte
+// (novox/hq issue 128). It is a roster template like any module's: the mesh owns the data, this owns
+// the format, and the control plane holds no formatter.
 //
-//   - The loopback floor stays, or things with nothing to do with the mesh break.
-//   - `127.0.1.1 <node>` only when there is a node, the ordinary Debian self-name line.
+//   - No floor: no header, no localhost, no `127.0.1.1` — those are the machine's, above the region.
 //   - A machine's own line is marked, and its mesh name resolves to its mesh address, not loopback.
 //   - `.Names` is every name the mesh serves (issue 111), so a container reaching a routed name
 //     finds the machine serving it; machines with no address yet are already left out of the set.
-const hostsTemplate = "# Generated by the mesh. Do not edit — this file is replaced whenever a machine\n" +
-	"# joins or leaves, and an edit would survive until then and vanish.\n\n" +
-	"127.0.0.1\tlocalhost\n" +
-	"::1\t\tlocalhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback\n" +
-	"{{if .Node}}127.0.1.1\t{{.Node}}\n{{end}}\n" +
+const hostsTemplate = "# The mesh's names. This region is replaced whenever a machine joins or leaves.\n" +
 	"{{range .Names}}{{.Address}}\t{{.FQDN}}\t{{.Name}}{{if eq .Name $.Node}}\t# this machine{{end}}\n{{end}}"
 
 // Manifest is the module the mesh provides for itself.
@@ -194,9 +190,10 @@ func Manifest() map[string]any {
 		// mesh knows which machines exist and where; writing that into a hosts file is not a thing
 		// that needs a module to run nowhere. The format is a template like any other roster fact —
 		// the mesh's own module owns the `/etc/hosts` layout the way dnsmasq owns its zones, and the
-		// control plane holds no formatter (see catalogue.RosterFile).
+		// control plane holds no formatter (see catalogue.RosterFile). `shared`: the mesh owns only
+		// its region of the file and keeps the rest (novox/hq issue 128).
 		"facts": map[string]any{
-			"node-names": map[string]any{"path": "/etc/hosts", "template": hostsTemplate},
+			"node-names": map[string]any{"path": "/etc/hosts", "template": hostsTemplate, "shared": true},
 		},
 		"claims": []map[string]any{{"name": TheNetwork, "scope": "node"}},
 	}