diff --git a/cmd/mesh-control/main.go b/cmd/mesh-control/main.go
index c5938a6..cb9b4e7 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-control/main.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-control/main.go
@@ -70,6 +70,8 @@ func run() error {
 		return brokerCommand(args[1:])
 	case "serve":
 		return serve(ctx)
+	case "declare":
+		return declare(ctx, args[1:])
 	case "version":
 		fmt.Println(version)
 		return nil
@@ -93,6 +95,7 @@ func usage() {
   identity show                  this control plane's signing key
   broker show                    where the broker is, and what to expect there
   serve                          consume what nodes say, and answer
+  declare <node> <file>          send a node a signed declaration
   version                        what this binary is
 
 Each context reaches its own store through its own credential (novox/hq ADR 0008), named
@@ -389,7 +392,19 @@ func serve(ctx context.Context) error {
 		return err
 	}
 
-	server, err := link.Connect(link.Enrolment{Inventory: inv, Identity: ident, Broker: management})
+	// Where the broker is and what to expect there, so a node can be told how to come back
+	// without a person and a new token.
+	known, err := broker.FromEnvironment()
+	if err != nil && !errors.Is(err, broker.ErrNotConfigured) {
+		return err
+	}
+	if errors.Is(err, broker.ErrNotConfigured) {
+		fmt.Printf("no broker address configured, so enrolled nodes will not be told how to "+
+			"reconnect. Set %s and %s.\n", broker.AddressVar, broker.CertificateVar)
+	}
+
+	server, err := link.Connect(link.Enrolment{
+		Inventory: inv, Identity: ident, Management: management, Broker: known})
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
@@ -397,3 +412,50 @@ func serve(ctx context.Context) error {
 
 	return server.Serve(ctx)
 }
+
+// declare sends one node a declaration, signed.
+//
+// Signed here rather than trusted from the broker: a node connects to the broker and takes
+// instruction from the control plane behind it, and those are two identities. If a node believed
+// whatever arrived on its queue, a compromised broker could forge declarations — and since the
+// host applies whatever the link delivers, that is the whole machine (novox/hq ADR 0004).
+func declare(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
+	if len(args) != 2 {
+		return errors.New("declare <node> <declaration.json>")
+	}
+	node, path := args[0], args[1]
+
+	raw, err := os.ReadFile(path)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	ident, err := openIdentity(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	defer ident.Close()
+
+	// The node has to exist before it can be told anything. Publishing to a queue nobody consumes
+	// would sit there looking like success.
+	inv, err := openInventory(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	defer inv.Close()
+	if _, err := inv.NodeByName(ctx, node); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	server, err := link.Connect(nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	defer server.Close()
+
+	if err := link.Declare(ctx, server.Channel(), ident, node, raw, 15*time.Second); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	fmt.Printf("sent %s a signed declaration (%d bytes)\n", node, len(raw))
+	return nil
+}
diff --git a/internal/link/declare.go b/internal/link/declare.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9f6fd7e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/link/declare.go
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+package link
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
+	"time"
+
+	amqp "github.com/rabbitmq/amqp091-go"
+)
+
+// Signer is whatever holds the control plane's signing key.
+type Signer interface {
+	Sign(ctx context.Context, message []byte) ([]byte, error)
+}
+
+// Declare sends a node what it should be, signed.
+//
+// The signature is over the declaration exactly as it is published — the same bytes the node
+// verifies. Anything that re-encoded between here and there would produce a signature over
+// something else, and the node would refuse a declaration that was genuinely the mesh's.
+//
+// Published to the node's own queue, which its account alone may read.
+func Declare(ctx context.Context, channel *amqp.Channel, signer Signer, node string,
+	declaration []byte, timeout time.Duration) error {
+
+	if !json.Valid(declaration) {
+		return fmt.Errorf("refusing to send %s something that is not a declaration", node)
+	}
+
+	signature, err := signer.Sign(ctx, declaration)
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("cannot sign a declaration for %s: %w", node, err)
+	}
+
+	body, err := json.Marshal(Signed{Declaration: declaration, Signature: signature})
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	publish, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, timeout)
+	defer cancel()
+
+	// Published to the queue directly rather than through the exchange: a declaration is for one
+	// node, and routing it by name through a shared exchange would mean a binding per node that
+	// nothing removes when a node is retired.
+	return channel.PublishWithContext(publish, "", QueueFor(node), false, false,
+		amqp.Publishing{
+			ContentType:  "application/json",
+			DeliveryMode: amqp.Persistent,
+			Body:         body,
+		})
+}
diff --git a/internal/link/enrolment.go b/internal/link/enrolment.go
index b58f93e..4490f24 100644
--- a/internal/link/enrolment.go
+++ b/internal/link/enrolment.go
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ package link
 import (
 	"context"
 	"crypto/ed25519"
+	"crypto/rand"
+	"encoding/base64"
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 
@@ -18,9 +20,10 @@ import (
 // — it holds both grants and asks each for its part, which is what the process running them is
 // for.
 type Enrolment struct {
-	Inventory *inventory.Inventory
-	Identity  *identity.Identity
-	Broker    *broker.Management
+	Inventory  *inventory.Inventory
+	Identity   *identity.Identity
+	Management *broker.Management
+	Broker     broker.Broker
 }
 
 // Enrol spends the token and records what the node presented.
@@ -30,35 +33,73 @@ type Enrolment struct {
 // winner. Only then is a key recorded — because recording a key for a node whose token turned out
 // to be spent would leave the mesh believing a machine that never had the right to join.
 func (e Enrolment) Enrol(ctx context.Context, secret string, public ed25519.PublicKey,
-	profile map[string]any) (string, error) {
+	profile map[string]any) (EnrolReply, error) {
 
 	if len(public) != ed25519.PublicKeySize {
-		return "", fmt.Errorf("a node presented a %d-byte key, and an identity is %d",
+		return EnrolReply{}, fmt.Errorf("a node presented a %d-byte key, and an identity is %d",
 			len(public), ed25519.PublicKeySize)
 	}
 
 	node, err := e.Inventory.Redeem(ctx, secret)
 	if err != nil {
-		return "", err
+		return EnrolReply{}, err
 	}
 
 	// From here the token is gone whatever happens next, so anything that fails leaves a node
 	// record with no live key — which is visible and fixable with a new token, where a spent
 	// token believed to be unspent is neither.
 	if _, err := e.Identity.RecordNodeKey(ctx, node.ID, public); err != nil {
-		return "", fmt.Errorf("the token was spent and the key could not be recorded, so %s has "+
-			"no identity and needs a new token: %w", node.Name, err)
+		return EnrolReply{}, fmt.Errorf(
+			"the token was spent and the key could not be recorded, so %s has no identity and "+
+				"needs a new token: %w", node.Name, err)
+	}
+
+	key, err := e.Identity.Active(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		return EnrolReply{}, err
+	}
+
+	reply := EnrolReply{
+		Accepted:    true,
+		Node:        node.Name,
+		Queue:       QueueFor(node.Name),
+		Broker:      e.Broker.Address,
+		Fingerprint: e.Broker.Fingerprint,
+		Signer:      key.Public,
+	}
+
+	// The token's secret was the broker password up to this moment, which is what let this
+	// connection exist at all. It is replaced now, so the one-time thing stays one-time and the
+	// credential the node keeps for years is not the one that was pasted into a terminal.
+	if e.Management != nil {
+		password, err := freshPassword()
+		if err != nil {
+			return EnrolReply{}, err
+		}
+		if err := e.Management.CreateNodeAccount(ctx, node.Name, password); err != nil {
+			return EnrolReply{}, fmt.Errorf(
+				"the token was spent and %s's broker password could not be replaced: %w",
+				node.Name, err)
+		}
+		reply.Password = password
 	}
 
 	if profile != nil {
-		if err := e.Inventory.RecordProfile(ctx, node.ID, profile); err != nil {
-			// Not fatal. The profile is what the control plane needs in order to decide what this
-			// machine should run, and it is reported again on every connection — so losing it
-			// here costs a decision that can be made later, not the enrolment.
-			return node.Name, nil
-		}
+		// Not fatal if it fails. The profile is what the control plane needs in order to decide
+		// what this machine should run, and it is reported again on every connection — so losing
+		// it here costs a decision that can be made later, not the enrolment.
+		_ = e.Inventory.RecordProfile(ctx, node.ID, profile)
 	}
-	return node.Name, nil
+	return reply, nil
+}
+
+// freshPassword is the node's own broker credential from enrolment onward.
+func freshPassword() (string, error) {
+	raw := make([]byte, 32)
+	if _, err := rand.Read(raw); err != nil {
+		return "", fmt.Errorf("cannot generate a broker password: %w", err)
+	}
+	return base64.RawURLEncoding.EncodeToString(raw), nil
 }
 
 var _ Enroller = Enrolment{}
diff --git a/internal/link/protocol.go b/internal/link/protocol.go
index 337253a..f3f0f1b 100644
--- a/internal/link/protocol.go
+++ b/internal/link/protocol.go
@@ -15,7 +15,8 @@ const ControlQueue = "control"
 // Routing keys. A node may publish these; it may not publish anything else, because its broker
 // account is scoped to this exchange and its own queue.
 const (
-	KeyEnrol = "enrol"
+	KeyEnrol  = "enrol"
+	KeyReport = "report"
 )
 
 // QueueFor is the queue a node consumes from — the only one it may read.
@@ -44,6 +45,24 @@ type EnrolRequest struct {
 	Profile map[string]any `json:"profile,omitempty"`
 }
 
+// Signed is a declaration and the signature over it.
+//
+// The signature is over Declaration exactly as it will arrive, bytes unchanged — a node verifies
+// what it received rather than what it re-encoded, because any difference in key order or spacing
+// would break a signature over the same meaning.
+type Signed struct {
+	Declaration []byte `json:"declaration"`
+	Signature   []byte `json:"signature"`
+}
+
+// Report is what a node states after applying. It states; the owning context writes.
+type Report struct {
+	Node    string            `json:"node"`
+	Applied []string          `json:"applied,omitempty"`
+	Failed  map[string]string `json:"failed,omitempty"`
+	Refused string            `json:"refused,omitempty"`
+}
+
 // EnrolReply is what the mesh says back.
 type EnrolReply struct {
 	// Accepted says whether the node is now known.
@@ -57,6 +76,17 @@ type EnrolReply struct {
 	// Queue is where this node listens from now on.
 	Queue string `json:"queue,omitempty"`
 
+	// Password is this node's own broker account from now on, replacing the token's secret.
+	// A credential that lives for as long as the node should not be the same string as one that
+	// was meant to be used once.
+	Password string `json:"password,omitempty"`
+
+	// Fingerprint and Signer are what the node keeps so it can reconnect and keep verifying
+	// without a person and a new token.
+	Fingerprint string `json:"fingerprint,omitempty"`
+	Signer      []byte `json:"signer,omitempty"`
+	Broker      string `json:"broker,omitempty"`
+
 	// Refusal says why not, in words for a person. Deliberately the same for every reason a
 	// token can fail — unknown, spent, expired — so that guessing learns nothing.
 	Refusal string `json:"refusal,omitempty"`
diff --git a/internal/link/protocol_test.go b/internal/link/protocol_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6c0ff37
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/link/protocol_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+package link
+
+import (
+	"encoding/json"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+func TestTheWireFormatIsExactlyTheseFieldNames(t *testing.T) {
+	// The contract with the host, which defines these separately because it requires nothing
+	// present and does not import this. A matching test lives there; rename a field on either
+	// side and both fail, rather than the mismatch surfacing on a real machine.
+	for _, c := range []struct {
+		value  any
+		expect []string
+	}{
+		{Signed{Declaration: []byte("{}"), Signature: []byte("x")}, []string{"declaration", "signature"}},
+		{Report{Node: "n", Applied: []string{"a"}, Failed: map[string]string{"k": "v"}, Refused: "r"},
+			[]string{"node", "applied", "failed", "refused"}},
+		{EnrolRequest{Node: "n", Secret: "s", PublicKey: []byte("k")},
+			[]string{"node", "secret", "public_key"}},
+	} {
+		raw, err := json.Marshal(c.value)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		var fields map[string]any
+		if err := json.Unmarshal(raw, &fields); err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		for _, want := range c.expect {
+			if _, ok := fields[want]; !ok {
+				t.Errorf("%T has no %q field; the host reads that name", c.value, want)
+			}
+		}
+		if len(fields) != len(c.expect) {
+			t.Errorf("%T has %d fields, expected %d: %v", c.value, len(fields), len(c.expect), fields)
+		}
+	}
+}
diff --git a/internal/link/serve.go b/internal/link/serve.go
index 43c6afa..7a2ee86 100644
--- a/internal/link/serve.go
+++ b/internal/link/serve.go
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ const AMQPVar = "MESH_BROKER_AMQP"
 type Enroller interface {
 	// Enrol spends the token, records the key, and reports the node's name. The error is
 	// returned to the node as a refusal; it must be the same for every reason a token can fail.
-	Enrol(ctx context.Context, secret string, public ed25519.PublicKey, profile map[string]any) (string, error)
+	Enrol(ctx context.Context, secret string, public ed25519.PublicKey, profile map[string]any) (EnrolReply, error)
 }
 
 // Server consumes what nodes say.
@@ -77,6 +77,17 @@ func Connect(enroller Enroller) (*Server, error) {
 		log: log.New(os.Stdout, "", log.LstdFlags)}, nil
 }
 
+func (s *Server) bindOrClose(channel *amqp.Channel, conn *amqp.Connection, key string) error {
+	if err := channel.QueueBind(ControlQueue, key, Exchange, false, nil); err != nil {
+		conn.Close()
+		return fmt.Errorf("cannot bind %s to %s/%s: %w", ControlQueue, Exchange, key, err)
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
+// Channel is the control plane's channel, for sending declarations.
+func (s *Server) Channel() *amqp.Channel { return s.channel }
+
 func (s *Server) Close() {
 	if s.channel != nil {
 		_ = s.channel.Close()
@@ -106,7 +117,7 @@ func (s *Server) Serve(ctx context.Context) error {
 	}
 
 	closed := s.conn.NotifyClose(make(chan *amqp.Error, 1))
-	s.log.Printf("consuming %s, bound to %s/%s", ControlQueue, Exchange, KeyEnrol)
+	s.log.Printf("consuming %s, bound to %s/{%s,%s}", ControlQueue, Exchange, KeyEnrol, KeyReport)
 
 	for {
 		select {
@@ -130,6 +141,8 @@ func (s *Server) handle(ctx context.Context, delivery amqp.Delivery) {
 	switch delivery.RoutingKey {
 	case KeyEnrol:
 		s.handleEnrol(ctx, delivery)
+	case KeyReport:
+		s.handleReport(delivery)
 	default:
 		// Rejected without requeue: a message nothing understands will not be understood on the
 		// next attempt either, and requeuing it would spin.
@@ -138,6 +151,29 @@ func (s *Server) handle(ctx context.Context, delivery amqp.Delivery) {
 	}
 }
 
+// handleReport records what a node says it did.
+//
+// A node states; nothing here writes anything the node claimed about itself beyond that it was
+// heard from. What it applied is its own account of its own machine, and the mesh keeps the last
+// one as a copy for recovery rather than as a source (novox/hq 09-the-node-lifecycle).
+func (s *Server) handleReport(delivery amqp.Delivery) {
+	var report Report
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(delivery.Body, &report); err != nil {
+		s.log.Printf("a report could not be read: %v", err)
+		_ = delivery.Reject(false)
+		return
+	}
+	switch {
+	case report.Refused != "":
+		s.log.Printf("%s refused a declaration: %s", report.Node, report.Refused)
+	case len(report.Failed) > 0:
+		s.log.Printf("%s applied %d and failed: %v", report.Node, len(report.Applied), report.Failed)
+	default:
+		s.log.Printf("%s applied %d resource(s)", report.Node, len(report.Applied))
+	}
+	_ = delivery.Ack(false)
+}
+
 func (s *Server) handleEnrol(ctx context.Context, delivery amqp.Delivery) {
 	reply := EnrolReply{Refusal: "that token cannot be used"}
 
@@ -145,14 +181,14 @@ func (s *Server) handleEnrol(ctx context.Context, delivery amqp.Delivery) {
 	if err := json.Unmarshal(delivery.Body, &request); err != nil {
 		s.log.Printf("an enrolment request could not be read: %v", err)
 	} else {
-		name, err := s.enroller.Enrol(ctx, request.Secret, request.PublicKey, request.Profile)
+		accepted, err := s.enroller.Enrol(ctx, request.Secret, request.PublicKey, request.Profile)
 		if err != nil {
 			// Logged in full here, where an operator can see it; sent back as one refusal, so
 			// that somebody guessing learns nothing from which reason came back.
 			s.log.Printf("refusing enrolment for %q: %v", request.Node, err)
 		} else {
-			reply = EnrolReply{Accepted: true, Node: name, Queue: QueueFor(name)}
-			s.log.Printf("enrolled %s", name)
+			reply = accepted
+			s.log.Printf("enrolled %s", accepted.Node)
 		}
 	}