diff --git a/cmd/mesh-controller/assignment_accounts_test.go b/cmd/mesh-controller/assignment_accounts_test.go
index 0dd9cbc2..646da68f 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-controller/assignment_accounts_test.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-controller/assignment_accounts_test.go
@@ -372,7 +372,7 @@ func TestTheAccountsAModuleSpeaksWithOnANode(t *testing.T) {
 						t.Error("sealed no password")
 					}
 					return c.sealErr
-				})
+				}, func() error { acts.did("after"); return nil })
 			if (err != nil) != (c.sealErr != nil) {
 				t.Fatalf("error %v, want %v", err, c.sealErr)
 			}
@@ -385,6 +385,52 @@ func TestTheAccountsAModuleSpeaksWithOnANode(t *testing.T) {
 		})
 	}
 
+	// Issue 774: where a vault is installed the controller mints nothing; `module issue` and an assignment's issue are
+	// forwarded to the vault's issue-account, and what the account needs beside its value still runs. A refusal fails
+	// `module issue` and only says itself on an assignment's issue: the vault mints on the want when it hears it.
+	for _, c := range []struct {
+		name   string
+		only   bool
+		answer string
+		refuse error
+		want   string
+		fails  bool
+	}{
+		{"module issue: forwarded, minted by the vault", false, `{"minted":true,"account":{"secret":"own/ace/mesh-build-go/broker","generation":1}}`, nil, "after", false},
+		{"an assignment's issue: forwarded, held already", true, `{"minted":false,"why":"held already"}`, nil, "after", false},
+		{"an assignment's issue: refused, said", true, "", errors.New("nobody wants it yet"), "after", false},
+		{"module issue: refused, failed", false, "", errors.New("nobody wants it"), "", true},
+	} {
+		t.Run("forwarded to the vault: "+c.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			was := vaultIssuer
+			t.Cleanup(func() { vaultIssuer = was })
+			var asked []string
+			vaultIssuer = func(context.Context, accountIssuer) (vaultAsker, bool, error) {
+				return func(verb string, args map[string]any) (json.RawMessage, error) {
+					asked = append(asked, verb+" "+fmt.Sprint(args["user"]))
+					return json.RawMessage(c.answer), c.refuse
+				}, true, nil
+			}
+			acts := &anAccountStore{}
+			ctx, got := withIssued(t.Context())
+			if c.only {
+				ctx = onlyIfAbsent(ctx)
+			}
+			err := issueAccount(ctx, acts, inventory.BusUser{Username: "ace.mesh-build-go", Kind: inventory.BusModule},
+				func(string) error { acts.did("seal"); return nil }, func() error { acts.did("after"); return nil })
+			if (err != nil) != c.fails || strings.Join(acts.acts, " ") != c.want {
+				t.Fatalf("error %v, acts %q; want failed %v, acts %q (nothing minted, locked or sealed here)", err,
+					strings.Join(acts.acts, " "), c.fails, c.want)
+			}
+			if strings.Join(asked, ",") != "issue-account ace.mesh-build-go" {
+				t.Errorf("the vault was asked %v", asked)
+			}
+			if minted := len(got.list()) == 1; minted != strings.Contains(c.answer, `"minted":true`) {
+				t.Errorf("said issued %v", got.list())
+			}
+		})
+	}
+
 	// The accounts of a module that no longer resolves on its node are stale, its provisioner client's among them; a
 	// module still resolved (assigned or required), an account of another kind, and a node whose resolution is unknown
 	// are left alone (issue 1945: ace's mesh-build-go rows from 17:19, marked sealed by migration 0108).
diff --git a/cmd/mesh-controller/issued_to_vault.go b/cmd/mesh-controller/issued_to_vault.go
index 41703413..e0c223bd 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-controller/issued_to_vault.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-controller/issued_to_vault.go
@@ -2,9 +2,15 @@ package main
 
 import (
 	"context"
+	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 
+	"github.com/nats-io/nats.go"
+	"github.com/nats-io/nats.go/jetstream"
+
 	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go/catalogue"
+	sdkdelivery "git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go/delivery"
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/broker"
 	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/inventory"
 )
 
@@ -15,17 +21,19 @@ import (
 // controller mints such an account and writes its hash to the bus's user list, as before, and then hands the whole
 // value at once to the vault's `accept` with origin `issued`: sealed here to the key the vault made for that call, so
 // the vault alone opens it (ADR 0349 clause 8). The vault keeps it as the module's own secret on that machine and
-// raises `secret-changed`; a re-issue is the same hand with a new value, which replaces the old in place. An account
-// not covered is minted and kept as it was and handed to nobody.
+// raises `secret-changed`; a re-issue is the same hand with a new value, which replaces the old in place. Until issue 774 an
+// account not covered was minted and kept as it was and handed to nobody.
+//
+// **Since issue 774 every account the controller mints is handed, covered or not**, once a vault is installed: until
+// the grants part's take-over the controller still mints (the bus loads its list), and a vault that holds every value
+// at once needs no node to report a hash for it to adopt (ADR 0547 clause 9). From the take-over the vault mints every
+// account itself (issueAccount forwards to its issue-account), so this hand is reached only before it, and by
+// `rollout mint`'s re-issue of a module's account onto a new bus. The vault never lets such a hand replace an account it
+// minted.
 
 // vaultAskerForIssue is the vault as `module issue` asks it. A test replaces it.
 var vaultAskerForIssue = func(ctx context.Context) vaultAsker { return theVault(ctx) }
 
-// accountIsCovered says whether the bus accounts minted for m are the vault's to hold (ADR 0374 clause 1).
-func accountIsCovered(m catalogue.Manifest) bool {
-	return catalogue.CarriesVaultSealed(m.Module) || m.Moved
-}
-
 // vaultInstalled says whether the vault is assigned to any machine. Until it is, as in genesis (ADR 0113 §15 to §18,
 // mesh-host's bootstrap, which issues the bus's and the provisioner's accounts before the vault step), there is no
 // vault to hand to: the value is kept in the controller's store as before, and the vault takes it afterwards by the
@@ -44,13 +52,45 @@ func vaultInstalled(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory) (bool, error)
 	return false, nil
 }
 
-// handIssuedToVault hands the value just minted for module's own secret name on node to the vault, when the module's
-// accounts are covered, and does nothing otherwise. Loud when the vault does not take it: the bus's user list
-// already holds the new hash, so a vault that kept the old value would serve a password that no longer logs in.
-func handIssuedToVault(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, m catalogue.Manifest, node, name, held string) error {
-	if !accountIsCovered(m) {
+// grantsTookOver says whether the grants part took over the bus's user list: its key `user-list.sealed` says
+// FollowGrants (novox/hq ADR 0547 clauses 7 and 8), which the bus node's engine follows. No bucket or no key yet is no
+// take-over; a bus that cannot be read is an error, never a guess. A test replaces it.
+var grantsTookOver = func(ctx context.Context) (bool, error) {
+	over := false
+	err := onTheBus(func(conn *nats.Conn) error {
+		js, err := jetstream.New(conn)
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		kv, err := js.KeyValue(ctx, broker.GrantsUserListBucket)
+		if errors.Is(err, jetstream.ErrBucketNotFound) {
+			return nil
+		} else if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		e, err := kv.Get(ctx, broker.GrantsUserListKey)
+		if errors.Is(err, jetstream.ErrKeyNotFound) {
+			return nil
+		} else if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		g, err := sdkdelivery.DecodeGrantsUserList(e.Value())
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		over = g.Follow == sdkdelivery.FollowGrants
 		return nil
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		return false, fmt.Errorf("whether the grants part took over the bus's user list cannot be read: %w", err)
 	}
+	return over, nil
+}
+
+// handIssuedToVault hands the value just minted for module's own secret name on node to the vault, once one is
+// installed, covered or not (issue 774), and does nothing before. Loud when the vault does not take it: the bus's user
+// list already holds the new hash, so a vault that kept the old value would serve a password that no longer logs in.
+func handIssuedToVault(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, m catalogue.Manifest, node, name, held string) error {
 	if installed, err := vaultInstalled(ctx, inv); err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("whether the vault is installed cannot be read, so %s of %s was not handed to it: %w", name,
 			m.Module, err)
diff --git a/cmd/mesh-controller/issued_to_vault_test.go b/cmd/mesh-controller/issued_to_vault_test.go
index 50068d32..13e51c5f 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-controller/issued_to_vault_test.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-controller/issued_to_vault_test.go
@@ -8,21 +8,50 @@ import (
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
 
+	"github.com/nats-io/nats.go/jetstream"
+
 	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go/catalogue"
+	sdkdelivery "git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go/delivery"
 	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/broker"
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/testbus"
 )
 
-// Every other test mints without a vault to hand to: a stand-in that takes anything, replaced by the tests below.
+// grantsTookOverOnTheBus is the reader of the grants part's take-over a test reads on its own bus.
+var grantsTookOverOnTheBus = grantsTookOver
+
+// Every other test mints without a vault to hand to: a stand-in that takes anything, replaced by the tests below; and
+// before the grants part's take-over, which no test bus says.
 func init() {
 	vaultAskerForIssue = func(context.Context) vaultAsker { return newStandInVault(nil).ask }
+	grantsTookOver = func(context.Context) (bool, error) { return false, nil }
 }
 
-// A covered account is handed to the vault when it is minted (novox/hq ADR 0374, issue 787): the whole value, sealed
-// to the key the vault made for the call, with origin issued. A module that is neither core nor moved hands nothing.
-func TestModuleIssueHandsACoveredAccountToTheVaultAndOnlyThat(t *testing.T) {
+// theGrantsPartTookOver says the grants part's take-over is on, or off, for the rest of the test.
+func theGrantsPartTookOver(t *testing.T, over bool) {
+	t.Helper()
+	was := grantsTookOver
+	grantsTookOver = func(context.Context) (bool, error) { return over, nil }
+	t.Cleanup(func() { grantsTookOver = was })
+}
+
+// An account is handed to the vault when it is minted (novox/hq ADR 0374, issue 787): the whole value, sealed to the
+// key the vault made for the call, with origin issued. Since issue 774 every account is, covered or not, until the
+// grants part's take-over, read on the bus as the bus node reads it; from the take-over nothing is minted here and the
+// issue is forwarded to the vault's issue-account.
+func TestModuleIssueHandsEveryAccountToTheVaultUntilTheTakeOver(t *testing.T) {
 	open := aMesh(t)
 	ctx := t.Context()
 	theVaultIsInstalled(t, open)
+	js, err := broker.Dial(testbus.URL(t))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	t.Cleanup(js.Close)
+	servingBus.Store(js)
+	t.Cleanup(func() { servingBus.Store(nil) })
+	was := grantsTookOver
+	grantsTookOver = grantsTookOverOnTheBus
+	t.Cleanup(func() { grantsTookOver = was })
 	inv := open.inventory
 	known := broker.Broker{Fingerprint: "ab"}
 
@@ -66,11 +95,11 @@ func TestModuleIssueHandsACoveredAccountToTheVaultAndOnlyThat(t *testing.T) {
 			t.Errorf("the vault was told %s, without %s", said, want)
 		}
 	}
-	if n := strings.Count(said, `"origin":"issued"`); n != 3 {
-		t.Errorf("%d accounts were handed with origin issued, want 3 (the core's two and the moved module's): %s", n, said)
+	if n := strings.Count(said, `"origin":"issued"`); n != 4 {
+		t.Errorf("%d accounts were handed with origin issued, want 4 (the core's two, the moved and the plain module's): %s", n, said)
 	}
-	if strings.Contains(said, "kept-bot") {
-		t.Errorf("an account that is neither core nor moved was handed to the vault: %s", said)
+	if !strings.Contains(said, "kept-bot") {
+		t.Errorf("an account that is neither core nor moved was not handed to the vault: %s", said)
 	}
 	if strings.Contains(said, "first-core-password") || strings.Contains(said, "first-moved-password") {
 		t.Errorf("a value crossed the bus in the clear: %s", said)
@@ -83,6 +112,38 @@ func TestModuleIssueHandsACoveredAccountToTheVaultAndOnlyThat(t *testing.T) {
 		!strings.Contains(got, `"url":"nats://10.0.0.1:4222"`) || !strings.Contains(got, `"fingerprint":"ab"`) {
 		t.Errorf("the vault was handed %q after a re-issue, not the new account whole", got)
 	}
+
+	// The take-over: the grants part's key says the bus node follows its list. From then the vault mints.
+	api, err := jetstream.New(js.Conn())
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	kv, err := api.CreateOrUpdateKeyValue(ctx, jetstream.KeyValueConfig{Bucket: broker.GrantsUserListBucket})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	t.Cleanup(func() { _ = api.DeleteKeyValue(context.Background(), broker.GrantsUserListBucket) })
+	client := broker.Principal{Kind: broker.KindProvisioner, Node: "laptop", Module: "nats"}.Username()
+	for _, follow := range []string{sdkdelivery.FollowController, sdkdelivery.FollowGrants} {
+		value, err := sdkdelivery.EncodeGrantsUserList(sdkdelivery.GrantsUserList{Follow: follow})
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		if _, err := kv.Put(ctx, broker.GrantsUserListKey, value); err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		before, _, _ := inv.BusUserHash(ctx, client)
+		if err := issueProvisionerClient(ctx, inv, core, "laptop", known, "10.0.0.1:4222"); err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		after, _, _ := inv.BusUserHash(ctx, client)
+		if minted := before != after; minted != (follow == sdkdelivery.FollowController) {
+			t.Errorf("following %s's list, the controller minted %s: %v", follow, client, minted)
+		}
+	}
+	if said := vault.said(); strings.Count(said, `"verb":"issue-account"`) != 1 || !strings.Contains(said, `"user":"`+client+`"`) {
+		t.Errorf("the vault was not asked once, after the take-over, to issue %s: %s", client, said)
+	}
 }
 
 // A vault that does not take the value fails the issue loudly: the bus's user list holds the new hash already.
diff --git a/cmd/mesh-controller/modules.go b/cmd/mesh-controller/modules.go
index 1b2a5140..c355e753 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-controller/modules.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-controller/modules.go
@@ -1018,8 +1018,21 @@ const issueLockedFor = 2 * time.Minute
 // left ace's mesh-build-go with no credential), under the store's lock on the account, so two issuers never interleave
 // their look, mint and seal: the hash the bus holds is always the password sealed. A seal that fails leaves the
 // account unsealed, issued again by the next issue.
-func issueAccount(ctx context.Context, accounts accountIssuer, u inventory.BusUser, seal func(password string) error) error {
+//
+// **From the grants part's take-over the controller mints nothing** (issue 774, research 072's gap "vault mints after
+// the lease"; the controller is deprecated and hands its duties over): the bus then loads the grants part's list, whose
+// hashes are the vault's, so the issue is forwarded to the vault's issue-account and only after runs (what the account
+// needs beside its value: its durable consumers). **Before it** the bus loads the controller's own list, whose hashes
+// come from its store alone, so an account the vault minted would be refused: the controller mints as before and hands
+// every account it mints to an installed vault at once (handIssuedToVault), so none waits on a node reporting its hash.
+func issueAccount(ctx context.Context, accounts accountIssuer, u inventory.BusUser, seal func(password string) error,
+	after func() error) error {
 	only, _ := ctx.Value(mintOnlyIfAbsent{}).(bool)
+	if ask, installed, err := vaultIssuer(ctx, accounts); err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("whether the vault issues bus accounts yet cannot be read, so %s is not issued: %w", u.Username, err)
+	} else if installed {
+		return forwardToTheVault(ctx, ask, u.Username, only, after)
+	}
 	if !only {
 		password, err := accounts.MintBusPassword(ctx, u)
 		if err != nil {
@@ -1062,6 +1075,67 @@ func issueAccount(ctx context.Context, accounts accountIssuer, u inventory.BusUs
 	return nil
 }
 
+// vaultIssuer answers the vault to forward an issue to, and whether the issue is the vault's: one is installed
+// (vaultInstalled) and the grants part took over the bus's user list (grantsTookOver). A store that is not the
+// controller's inventory (a test's) has none. A test replaces it.
+var vaultIssuer = func(ctx context.Context, accounts accountIssuer) (vaultAsker, bool, error) {
+	inv, ok := accounts.(*inventory.Inventory)
+	if !ok {
+		return nil, false, nil
+	}
+	installed, err := vaultInstalled(ctx, inv)
+	if err != nil || !installed {
+		return nil, false, err
+	}
+	if over, err := grantsTookOver(ctx); err != nil || !over {
+		return nil, false, err
+	}
+	return vaultAskerForIssue(ctx), true, nil
+}
+
+// issuedByTheVault is the vault's answer to issue-account (mesh-vault heldBackOrMinted).
+type issuedByTheVault struct {
+	Minted  bool   `json:"minted"`
+	Why     string `json:"why"`
+	Account struct {
+		Secret     string `json:"secret"`
+		Generation int    `json:"generation"`
+	} `json:"account"`
+}
+
+// forwardToTheVault asks the vault to issue user (its verb issue-account) and then runs after. The vault mints only
+// what the grants part wants and never anew a value it holds, so asking twice, or with the want's own mint, is harmless.
+// An issue on an assignment (only) is not failed by a refusal: the vault mints on the want itself when it is heard, and
+// the refusal is said; `module issue` fails with it.
+func forwardToTheVault(ctx context.Context, ask vaultAsker, user string, only bool, after func() error) error {
+	raw, err := ask("issue-account", map[string]any{"user": user})
+	if err != nil {
+		if !only {
+			return fmt.Errorf("the vault is the one issuer of bus accounts and did not issue %s: %w", user, err)
+		}
+		fmt.Printf("  %s is the vault's to mint, on the grants part's want of it; issue-account said: %v\n", user, err)
+	} else {
+		var got issuedByTheVault
+		if err := json.Unmarshal(raw, &got); err != nil {
+			return fmt.Errorf("the vault's answer to issue-account %s does not read: %w", user, err)
+		}
+		if got.Minted {
+			fmt.Printf("bus user %s minted by the vault as %s (generation %d)\n", user, got.Account.Secret, got.Account.Generation)
+			if g, _ := ctx.Value(issuedNowKey{}).(*issuedNow); g != nil {
+				g.mu.Lock()
+				g.users = append(g.users, user)
+				g.mu.Unlock()
+			}
+		} else {
+			fmt.Printf("bus user %s not minted anew by the vault: %s\n", user, got.Why)
+		}
+	}
+	if after == nil {
+		return nil
+	}
+	return after()
+}
+
 // issueOnTheNewBus gives an assigned module its credential on the bus being built.
 //
 // **Three things differ from a management call, and each is the point of the move.** The credential
@@ -1090,7 +1164,7 @@ func issueOnTheNewBus(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, m catalogue
 		if err := issueAccount(ctx, inv, inventory.BusUser{Username: user, Kind: busKindOf(m.Module), Node: node,
 			Module: m.Module}, func(password string) error {
 			return issueWith(ctx, inv, m, node, busAddress, known, reachable, user, password)
-		}); err != nil {
+		}, func() error { return ensureModuleConsumer(m, node, busAddress) }); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
 	}
@@ -1118,7 +1192,7 @@ func issueProcess(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, m catalogue.Man
 	return issueAccount(ctx, inv, inventory.BusUser{Username: user, Kind: inventory.BusProcess, Node: node, Module: m.Module},
 		func(password string) error {
 			return sealProcess(ctx, inv, m, pr, node, busAddress, known, reachable, user, password)
-		})
+		}, func() error { return ensureProcessQueues(m, pr, node, busAddress) })
 }
 
 // sealProcess seals a process's minted account to its node, hands it to the vault and makes its work-queue consumers.
@@ -1135,30 +1209,40 @@ func sealProcess(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, m catalogue.Mani
 	if err := handIssuedToVault(ctx, inv, m, node, name, string(held)); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
-	if len(pr.Queues) > 0 {
-		if busAddress == "" {
-			fmt.Printf("  %s's process %s consumes its work queue; its consumer is created when the bus is "+
-				"reachable (`push --behind`, then `rollout mint` again is harmless)\n", m.Module, pr.Process)
-		} else {
-			js, err := broker.Dial(busAddress)
-			if err != nil {
-				return fmt.Errorf("the credential is minted and the mesh cannot reach the bus to create "+
-					"%s's process %s's work-queue consumer: %w", m.Module, pr.Process, err)
-			}
-			defer js.Close()
-			who := broker.Principal{Kind: broker.KindProcess, Node: node, Module: m.Module, Process: pr.Process}
-			for _, q := range pr.Queues {
-				if err := js.EnsureConsumer(broker.QueueConsumer(who, q)); err != nil {
-					return err
-				}
-			}
-		}
+	if err := ensureProcessQueues(m, pr, node, busAddress); err != nil {
+		return err
 	}
 	fmt.Printf("bus user %s minted for %s's process %s, scoped to its bus declaration\n", user, m.Module, pr.Process)
 	fmt.Printf("  sealed to %s as %s. It arrives with the next push — `push %s` to send it\n", node, name, node)
 	return nil
 }
 
+// ensureProcessQueues makes a process's work-queue consumers where the bus can be reached: what its account needs beside
+// its value, whoever minted it.
+func ensureProcessQueues(m catalogue.Manifest, pr broker.ProcessPrincipal, node, busAddress string) error {
+	if len(pr.Queues) == 0 {
+		return nil
+	}
+	if busAddress == "" {
+		fmt.Printf("  %s's process %s consumes its work queue; its consumer is created when the bus is "+
+			"reachable (`push --behind`, then `rollout mint` again is harmless)\n", m.Module, pr.Process)
+		return nil
+	}
+	js, err := broker.Dial(busAddress)
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("the mesh cannot reach the bus to create %s's process %s's work-queue consumer: %w",
+			m.Module, pr.Process, err)
+	}
+	defer js.Close()
+	who := broker.Principal{Kind: broker.KindProcess, Node: node, Module: m.Module, Process: pr.Process}
+	for _, q := range pr.Queues {
+		if err := js.EnsureConsumer(broker.QueueConsumer(who, q)); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
 // heldProcessAccount is a process's account, in the provisioner client's form (novox/hq ADR 0436 §2):
 // {url, fingerprint, node, module, user, password} — never claims, since a process holds no seat (§3).
 func heldProcessAccount(known broker.Broker, reachable, node, module, user, password string) ([]byte, error) {
@@ -1191,7 +1275,7 @@ func issueProvisionerClient(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, m cat
 	return issueAccount(ctx, inv, inventory.BusUser{Username: user, Kind: inventory.BusProvisioner, Node: node,
 		Module: m.Module}, func(password string) error {
 		return sealProvisionerClient(ctx, inv, m, node, known, reachable, user, password)
-	})
+	}, nil)
 }
 
 // sealProvisionerClient seals the provisioner client's minted account to its machine and hands it to the vault.
@@ -1263,28 +1347,8 @@ func issueWith(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, m catalogue.Manife
 	if err := handIssuedToVault(ctx, inv, m, node, "broker", string(held)); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
-
-	// And how it hears what it consumes. Derived from its declaration, and only when it declared
-	// something: a module that consumes nothing needs no consumer, and creating one would be a
-	// durable subscription nobody reads.
-	if consumer, needed := broker.ConsumerFor(broker.Principal{
-		Kind: broker.KindModule, Node: node, Module: m.Module,
-		Emits: m.EmitsAll(), Consumes: m.Consumes, Serves: m.Tools,
-	}); needed {
-		if busAddress == "" {
-			fmt.Printf("  %s consumes; its consumer is created when the bus is reachable (`push --behind`, then "+
-				"`rollout mint` again is harmless)\n", m.Module)
-		} else {
-			js, err := broker.Dial(busAddress)
-			if err != nil {
-				return fmt.Errorf("the credential is minted and the mesh cannot reach the bus to create "+
-					"how %s hears what it consumes: %w", m.Module, err)
-			}
-			defer js.Close()
-			if err := js.EnsureConsumer(consumer); err != nil {
-				return err
-			}
-		}
+	if err := ensureModuleConsumer(m, node, busAddress); err != nil {
+		return err
 	}
 
 	fmt.Printf("bus user %s minted for %s, scoped to what it emits and consumes\n", user, m.Module)
@@ -1294,6 +1358,30 @@ func issueWith(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, m catalogue.Manife
 	return nil
 }
 
+// ensureModuleConsumer makes how a module hears what it consumes, where the bus can be reached: what its account needs
+// beside its value, whoever minted it. Derived from its declaration, and only when it declared something: a module that
+// consumes nothing needs no consumer, and creating one would be a durable subscription nobody reads.
+func ensureModuleConsumer(m catalogue.Manifest, node, busAddress string) error {
+	consumer, needed := broker.ConsumerFor(broker.Principal{
+		Kind: broker.KindModule, Node: node, Module: m.Module,
+		Emits: m.EmitsAll(), Consumes: m.Consumes, Serves: m.Tools,
+	})
+	if !needed {
+		return nil
+	}
+	if busAddress == "" {
+		fmt.Printf("  %s consumes; its consumer is created when the bus is reachable (`push --behind`, then "+
+			"`rollout mint` again is harmless)\n", m.Module)
+		return nil
+	}
+	js, err := broker.Dial(busAddress)
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("the mesh cannot reach the bus to create how %s hears what it consumes: %w", m.Module, err)
+	}
+	defer js.Close()
+	return js.EnsureConsumer(consumer)
+}
+
 // whereItComesFrom is the provenance a module handed over by hand records, and what a record must
 // say to be worth anything later.
 //
diff --git a/cmd/mesh-controller/process_issue_integration_test.go b/cmd/mesh-controller/process_issue_integration_test.go
index be013ced..5650ab37 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-controller/process_issue_integration_test.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-controller/process_issue_integration_test.go
@@ -21,7 +21,9 @@ import (
 // account against the store — no bus to dial, busAddress "" — for mesh-mail's real manifest shape (review
 // round 1 finding 1: no own secret `broker` at all, its tools served by the tool runner), and issuing it
 // again is the path every bus account takes (`rollout mint`'s KindProcess case, and a re-run of `module
-// issue`): it rotates the password, and the old hash no longer matches.
+// issue`): it rotates the password, and the old hash no longer matches. Issue 774: every account minted is handed to the
+// vault, covered or not, until the grants part's take-over; from it the issue is forwarded to the vault's issue-account,
+// and the controller's hash stays as it was.
 func TestModuleIssueMintsAndDeliversAProcesssAccount(t *testing.T) {
 	open := aMesh(t)
 	ctx := t.Context()
@@ -29,7 +31,6 @@ func TestModuleIssueMintsAndDeliversAProcesssAccount(t *testing.T) {
 	theVaultIsInstalled(t, open)
 
 	m := mailSenderWithProcess()
-	m.Moved = true // so handIssuedToVault's accountIsCovered is true, and the hand-off is exercised whole
 	register(t, open, m)
 
 	vault := newStandInVault(t)
@@ -84,4 +85,13 @@ func TestModuleIssueMintsAndDeliversAProcesssAccount(t *testing.T) {
 	if hash1 == hash2 {
 		t.Fatal("issuing the process's account again did not rotate its password")
 	}
+
+	theGrantsPartTookOver(t, true)
+	issue()
+	if hash3, held, err := inv.BusUserHash(ctx, user); err != nil || !held || hash3 != hash2 {
+		t.Fatalf("the controller minted again after the grants part's take-over (held %v, %v)", held, err)
+	}
+	if said := vault.said(); !strings.Contains(said, `"verb":"issue-account"`) || !strings.Contains(said, `"user":"`+user+`"`) {
+		t.Errorf("the vault was not asked to issue %s after the take-over: %s", user, said)
+	}
 }
diff --git a/cmd/mesh-controller/reissue_verified_sender.go b/cmd/mesh-controller/reissue_verified_sender.go
index 0ad71848..daeec95b 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-controller/reissue_verified_sender.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-controller/reissue_verified_sender.go
@@ -207,8 +207,13 @@ func giveVerifiedSendersBack(ctx context.Context, d *doctor) {
 }
 
 // reissueVerifiedSendersOn is reissueVerifiedSenders on the bus: memberships read from the AssignmentsStream and
-// published to it.
+// published to it. Once the stream is gone (the bus module's tools delete it at the lease write, research 072 row 33)
+// the memberships are the grants part's alone, and there is nothing here to issue again.
 func reissueVerifiedSendersOn(ctx context.Context, bus link.OverNATS, records broker.Records, where broker.Placements) int {
+	if _, err := bus.JS.StreamInfo(broker.AssignmentsStream, nats.Context(ctx)); errors.Is(err, nats.ErrStreamNotFound) {
+		fmt.Printf("  the assignments stream is gone: the grants part issues the memberships, none is given a verified sender here\n")
+		return 0
+	}
 	return reissueVerifiedSenders(records, where,
 		func(node, module string) ([]byte, uint64, error) {
 			m, err := bus.JS.GetLastMsg(broker.AssignmentsStream, broker.MembershipSubject(node, module))
diff --git a/cmd/mesh-controller/reissue_verified_sender_integration_test.go b/cmd/mesh-controller/reissue_verified_sender_integration_test.go
index 3dcc45d4..823fa87e 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-controller/reissue_verified_sender_integration_test.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-controller/reissue_verified_sender_integration_test.go
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"testing"
 
+	"github.com/nats-io/nats.go"
+
 	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/broker"
 	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/link"
 	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/testbus"
@@ -17,7 +19,10 @@ func TestNatsAMembershipIssuedWithoutItsVerifiedSenderIsIssuedAgainWhenTheJudgem
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 	t.Cleanup(js.Close)
-	if err := broker.AssertMeshStreams(js); err != nil {
+	// The assignments stream is no longer the mesh's (research 072 row 33): it is asserted by nothing, and stays on a
+	// bus only until the lease write deletes it. Made here as it is left there.
+	if _, err := js.Context().AddStream(&nats.StreamConfig{Name: broker.AssignmentsStream,
+		Subjects: []string{"mesh.assignment.*.*"}, MaxMsgsPerSubject: 1, AllowDirect: true}); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 	bus := link.OverNATS{Conn: js.Conn(), JS: js.Context()}
diff --git a/cmd/mesh-controller/vault_secrets_test.go b/cmd/mesh-controller/vault_secrets_test.go
index e89183b1..1daa2a4d 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-controller/vault_secrets_test.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-controller/vault_secrets_test.go
@@ -49,6 +49,12 @@ func (v *standInVault) ask(verb string, args map[string]any) (json.RawMessage, e
 	// The vault asks the desk's prompt and the provider's tool itself, in its own name (issue 723): one step from
 	// the controller, which carries no key and no sealed value.
 	switch verb {
+	case "issue-account":
+		// The vault is the one issuer once installed (issue 774): the controller forwards, and keeps nothing.
+		if v.refuse != nil {
+			return nil, v.refuse
+		}
+		return json.Marshal(map[string]any{"minted": true, "account": map[string]any{"user": args["user"], "generation": 1}})
 	case "secret-ask":
 		if v.refuse != nil {
 			return nil, v.refuse
diff --git a/internal/broker/modstreams_live_test.go b/internal/broker/modstreams_live_test.go
index 92e6f996..3478d88c 100644
--- a/internal/broker/modstreams_live_test.go
+++ b/internal/broker/modstreams_live_test.go
@@ -21,7 +21,13 @@ func TestAModuleStreamOnARealBus(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 	defer js.Close()
-	for _, s := range []Stream{MeshStreams()[3], mailStream.Stream()} {
+	var events Stream
+	for _, s := range MeshStreams() {
+		if s.Name == EventsStream {
+			events = s
+		}
+	}
+	for _, s := range []Stream{events, mailStream.Stream()} {
 		_ = js.js.DeleteStream(s.Name)
 		if err := js.EnsureStream(s); err != nil {
 			t.Fatalf("%s: %v", s.Name, err)
diff --git a/internal/broker/stream_names_agreement_test.go b/internal/broker/stream_names_agreement_test.go
index 9990f2d0..92876a25 100644
--- a/internal/broker/stream_names_agreement_test.go
+++ b/internal/broker/stream_names_agreement_test.go
@@ -14,7 +14,9 @@ import (
 // queues are left on the bus until a cleanup removes them, and no module may take their names meanwhile. So the catalogue
 // reserves every name of the broker's own, and may reserve these retired ones beside them.
 func TestTheCataloguesReservedStreamNamesAreTheMeshsOwn(t *testing.T) {
-	retired := []string{"CHECKS_OTHER", "CHECKS_READY"}
+	// And ASSIGNMENTS (research 072 row 33): the bus module's tools delete it at the lease write, and the controller
+	// asserts it no more, so it is never made again.
+	retired := []string{"CHECKS_OTHER", "CHECKS_READY", "ASSIGNMENTS"}
 	var own []string
 	for _, s := range MeshStreams() {
 		own = append(own, s.Name)
diff --git a/internal/broker/streams.go b/internal/broker/streams.go
index 052d47a8..14d6d49b 100644
--- a/internal/broker/streams.go
+++ b/internal/broker/streams.go
@@ -171,14 +171,9 @@ func MeshStreams() []Stream {
 			Why: "one declaration per node, always the newest; a node that sees sequence n refuses " +
 				"n-1 by construction (issue 107)",
 		},
-		{
-			Name:      AssignmentsStream,
-			Subjects:  []string{"mesh.assignment.*.*"},
-			Retention: RetentionLastPerSubject,
-			Direct:    true,
-			Why: "one membership per assignment, always the newest: what the mesh issued this module " +
-				"on this machine to serve and to reach (ADR 0160); read directly by the runtime it is for",
-		},
+		// The assignments stream (ADR 0160) is no longer the mesh's: a runtime reads its membership from the grants
+		// part's state memberships (ADR 0571 clause 7), and the bus module's tools delete the stream at the lease write
+		// (research 072 row 33), so it is not declared here, which would make it again at the controller's next start.
 		{
 			Name: EventsStream,
 			// A seat's own events ride here too: they are 1:many like any event, and the
diff --git a/internal/broker/streams_test.go b/internal/broker/streams_test.go
index 7a52d422..42b57243 100644
--- a/internal/broker/streams_test.go
+++ b/internal/broker/streams_test.go
@@ -123,10 +123,11 @@ func subjectMatches(filter, subject string) bool {
 // Each relationship's retention is the thing that makes it what it is (design 29 §4).
 func TestEachStreamCarriesTheRetentionItsShapeNeeds(t *testing.T) {
 	want := map[string]Retention{
-		"CONTROL":     RetentionWorkQueue,
-		"NODES":       RetentionLastPerSubject,
-		"EVENTS":      RetentionLimits,
-		"ASSIGNMENTS": RetentionLastPerSubject,
+		"CONTROL": RetentionWorkQueue,
+		"NODES":   RetentionLastPerSubject,
+		"EVENTS":  RetentionLimits,
+		// No ASSIGNMENTS: the bus module's tools delete it at the lease write and nothing makes it again (research 072
+		// row 33); a runtime reads its membership from the grants part's state.
 		// What a consumer gave up on (novox/hq issue 330): the server's notice taken once, the message
 		// kept until somebody acts.
 		"DEAD_LETTER_NOTICES": RetentionWorkQueue,
diff --git a/internal/ownmanifest/public_issuer_test.go b/internal/ownmanifest/public_issuer_test.go
index b49e74d5..5cecb50c 100644
--- a/internal/ownmanifest/public_issuer_test.go
+++ b/internal/ownmanifest/public_issuer_test.go
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 package ownmanifest
 
 import (
+	"path/filepath"
+	"slices"
 	"testing"
 
 	. "git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go/catalogue"
@@ -94,8 +96,21 @@ func TestRouteProxyKeepsItsPublicAccountDirectory(t *testing.T) {
 // 2 and 4): a Go bundle of the module's own Go module stamped for alpine, unpacked by an archive resource, mounted
 // read-only at /opt/mesh, called through args, and named under restart-on so a new program never leaves the old
 // one running. The container's name, network and logging are what the jail and the routes rely on.
+//
+// And its routes are the seat mesh-provisioner's plans alone (issue 774, research 072 row 34): it reads them, and
+// receives no file of contributions; no module of this repository does.
 func TestRouteProxyRunsItsMountedProgramOnTheTrustImage(t *testing.T) {
 	m := catalogueManifest(t, "route-proxy")
+	if !slices.Contains(m.Reads, "mesh-provisioner.plans") {
+		t.Errorf("route-proxy does not read mesh-provisioner.plans, where its routes are: %v", m.Reads)
+	}
+	dirs, _ := filepath.Glob(filepath.Join("..", "..", "modules", "*"))
+	for _, dir := range dirs {
+		if r := catalogueManifest(t, filepath.Base(dir)); len(r.Receives) > 0 {
+			t.Errorf("%s receives %v: a route, like every provision here, is served from the seat's plans, never a "+
+				"received file", r.Module, r.Receives)
+		}
+	}
 	var bundle *Artifact
 	for i, a := range m.Build.Artifacts {
 		if a.Name == "server" {
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/README.md b/modules/route-proxy/README.md
index 2767eca7..f5ddb810 100644
--- a/modules/route-proxy/README.md
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/README.md
@@ -5,26 +5,50 @@ The shipping form of the reference reverse proxy (novox/hq ADR 0007, novox/hq 08
 
 ## What it is
 
-**A route is a grant.** A module that must be reachable declares `requires: ["route"]` and
-contributes the name it wants and the port it listens on; this module provides `route`, receives
-every consumer that asked as a file, and forwards by the `Host` header of each request to
-`http://<at>:<port>` — where `at` is where the mesh says that consumer's machine is (empty means
-this machine, reached over loopback).
+**A route is a provision** (issue 774, research 072 row 34; the operator, 2026-10-31: "there is only 1 path, the other
+is simply deprecated/invalid"). A module that must be reachable declares `requires: ["route"]` and contributes the
+name it wants and the port it listens on; this module provides `route`. The controller composes each consumer's plan,
+and the seat `mesh-provisioner` keeps it in its state `plans`: the plan's entry for the route names this proxy as
+its provider and carries what the consumer contributes, composed (its names joined to the node's domains, its
+endpoint's port, its policy), and where the consumer's machine is on the private network, as one opaque payload
+(`contributed`) the seat never reads. The proxy follows the plans on the bus, reads each contribution with its own
+contract (below), and forwards by the `Host` header of each request to `http://<at>:<port>`, or over loopback for a
+consumer on its own machine.
 
-The control plane does not write the proxy's configuration. It delivers the facts — the
-contributions file at `receives.route` — and the proxy turns them into whatever it runs. That
-boundary is why swapping this proxy for another costs nothing to the modules that publish through
-it.
+## Its contract: a package of its own
+
+**route-proxy defines its own contract, and other modules use it** (the operator, 2026-10-31). It is the Go module
+`git.novox.be/novox/mesh-controller/modules/route-proxy/contract`, in `contract/` here with its own `go.mod`, standard
+library only, released by tags `modules/route-proxy/contract/vX.Y.Z`, the way mesh-sdk is released (`go/vX.Y.Z`); this
+module depends on it by its version like any other. It holds:
+
+- **the route a consumer asks** (`Request`, read strictly by `DecodeRequest`: no field it does not name, a name of
+  either kind, a port where the rule forwards, http or https, a positive body limit, a secret's file never a
+  credential) and its JSON schema (`route.schema.json`, `Schema`), the form of a manifest's `contributes.route`;
+- **the events this proxy says** on `mesh.mod.route-proxy.event.<type>`: `route.served` and `route.withdrawn` as the
+  names it serves change, `route.refused` with why for a route a plan gives it and it does not serve (`Event`);
+- **what it keeps on the bus**, its states `routes` and `unrouted`, their keys and records (`Route`, `Unrouted`,
+  `Other`, `Key`, `Split`);
+- **its tools' names and arguments** (`ToolRoutes`, `ToolRoute`, `ToolUnrouted`, `RoutesArgs`, `RouteArgs`).
+
+The controller does not write the proxy's configuration. It composes the facts into the plans and the proxy turns them
+into whatever it runs. That boundary is why swapping this proxy for another costs nothing to the modules that publish
+through it. **There is no received file and no second source:** a route no plan names is not served, and a module
+declaring `receives.route` is refused by the catalogue check (mesh-catalog `checks/credentialform`), but for the
+migration scaffolding still listed there.
 
 | field | value | why |
 |---|---|---|
-| `provides` | `route` (scope `mesh`) | a module on any node may require it |
+| `provides` | `route` (scope `mesh`, answered by the helper) | a module on any node may require it |
 | `serves.route` | `{}` | a route hands back a name, not a credential — the consumer already knows the name it asked for |
-| `receives.route` | `…/routes/mesh.json` | where the mesh writes every contribution; the proxy reads it as `$ROUTES` and re-reads on change |
+| `reads` | `mesh-provisioner.plans`, `mesh-provisioner.provisions`, `mesh-delivery-assigner.placement` | the plans are where the routes are; the helper reads both; the placement says who is inside |
+| `emits` | `route.served`, `route.withdrawn`, `route.refused` | what it serves, said as it changes (the contract's `Event`) |
 | `listens` | `80` and `443`, both `from: anywhere` | the one machine with a public opening; the firewall opens these for free (ADR 0045) |
 
-No provisioner: the proxy neither mints a credential for anybody nor answers a provision other
-than `route`. It reads the file the mesh writes, and its own broker credential is for its tools.
+Until the bus answers, the proxy routes nothing and says so on its log; it refuses to start without its broker
+credential (`MESH_BROKER_FILE`). Who is inside the private network, and so may be served an internal-only name, is
+every node's address on it as the seat mesh-placement decides it (mesh-sdk `delivery.InsideAddresses`); until that
+is read, an internal-only name is served to this machine alone.
 
 ## Which issuer: Let's Encrypt, stated here (novox/hq ADR 0226)
 
@@ -77,7 +101,7 @@ traffic.
 
 | env | default | meaning |
 |---|---|---|
-| `ROUTES` | `/routes/mesh.json` | the contributions file the mesh writes (`receives.route`) |
+| `MESH_BROKER_FILE` | *(required)* | the proxy's broker credential: the plans it routes from, and its membership |
 | `LISTEN` | `:80` | HTTP, and the ACME HTTP-01 challenge |
 | `TLS_LISTEN` | `:443` | HTTPS; unset to serve plain HTTP only |
 | `ACME_CACHE` | `/acme` | where issued certificates persist; required when `TLS_LISTEN` is set, so a restart does not re-order |
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-provider/main.go b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-provider/main.go
index a00a7090..b1eecda7 100644
--- a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-provider/main.go
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-provider/main.go
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ import (
 	stdio "git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go"
 	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go/provider"
 
-	"route-proxy/internal/routestate"
+	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-controller/modules/route-proxy/contract"
 )
 
 func say(format string, args ...any) {
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ func main() {
 			}
 		}()
 	}
-	tools := front{routes: stdio.State(routestate.RoutesState), unrouted: stdio.State(routestate.UnroutedState),
+	tools := front{routes: stdio.State(contract.RoutesState), unrouted: stdio.State(contract.UnroutedState),
 		now: time.Now}.tools()
 	if err := stdio.Serve("", tools); err != nil {
 		say("%v", err)
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-provider/provider.go b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-provider/provider.go
index 7eee671b..39973d4f 100644
--- a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-provider/provider.go
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-provider/provider.go
@@ -7,18 +7,20 @@ package main
 // **It composes nothing.** A route's public name is the label its consumer chose joined to the node's public domain,
 // which only the controller knows (the domain is placement), so the controller composes it and carries it in the
 // consumer's plan entry (`names`); the helper copies it into the entry's values unchanged. There is no credential for
-// a route and nothing to make: the traefik files stay the TypeScript adapter's, written from the contributions the
-// mesh still gives it.
+// a route and nothing to make. The proxy itself serves the same plans' entries (cmd/route-proxy plans.go), the one
+// source of routes (issue 774, research 072 row 34).
 
 import (
 	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go/provider"
+
+	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-controller/modules/route-proxy/contract"
 )
 
-// ProvisionName is what route-proxy provides, as its manifest says.
-const ProvisionName = "route"
-
-// ModuleName is this module.
-const ModuleName = "route-proxy"
+// ProvisionName is what route-proxy provides, as its manifest says, and ModuleName this module.
+const (
+	ProvisionName = contract.Provision
+	ModuleName    = contract.Module
+)
 
 // newProvider is route-proxy answering its consumers over bus on node: the route, served as the manifest serves it
 // (nothing of its own), with no credential, and nothing to make or retire for a consumer.
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-provider/provider_test.go b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-provider/provider_test.go
index 1c36b220..34b143b4 100644
--- a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-provider/provider_test.go
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-provider/provider_test.go
@@ -108,6 +108,8 @@ func TestAConsumerOfARouteIsToldItsNamesFromItsPlanEntry(t *testing.T) {
 // the public ingress does not change. Everything of the manifest but its build, what it provides and the state it
 // keeps is pinned by this digest; changing the ingress means changing it here, on purpose. Re-pinned in R4d (novox/hq
 // ADR 0480): the program is an archive mounted into the trust image, the container and its files are otherwise as before.
+// Re-pinned for issue 774 (research 072 row 34): the received routes file, its directory, mount and ROUTES went, since
+// the proxy serves from the seat's plans alone; the ingress, its certificates and its files are otherwise as before.
 func TestRouteProxyIsNotMovedAndKeepsItsOwnFiles(t *testing.T) {
 	raw, err := os.ReadFile("../../module.json")
 	if err != nil {
@@ -128,12 +130,13 @@ func TestRouteProxyIsNotMovedAndKeepsItsOwnFiles(t *testing.T) {
 	for _, k := range []string{"build", "provides", "state", "reads", "tools", "replaces"} {
 		delete(m, k)
 	}
+	// Refreshed on purpose for the events its contract names (`emits`: route.served, route.withdrawn, route.refused).
 	pinned, err := json.Marshal(m) // sorted keys, compact
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 	sum := sha256.Sum256(pinned)
-	if got := hex.EncodeToString(sum[:]); got != "85cb955e5a4b2d8826f50aa76433064a576e8b15b71537032eb93c7388c0ee28" {
+	if got := hex.EncodeToString(sum[:]); got != "3a44c56cc021be4008f521d16fa02e1c0f0d2eedab2f4d0b60f7d3177269e542" {
 		t.Fatalf("route-proxy's own manifest changed: digest %s", got)
 	}
 	// The two acme templates are pinned the same way (issue 849): they are what the proxy's certificates are asked
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-provider/tools.go b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-provider/tools.go
index c01a0ba4..6129a4bc 100644
--- a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-provider/tools.go
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-provider/tools.go
@@ -14,14 +14,14 @@ import (
 
 	stdio "git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go"
 
-	"route-proxy/internal/routestate"
+	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-controller/modules/route-proxy/contract"
 )
 
 // The tools' names, as the manifest declares them.
 const (
-	RoutesTool   = "route_proxy_routes"
-	RouteTool    = "route_proxy_route"
-	UnroutedTool = "route_proxy_unrouted"
+	RoutesTool   = contract.ToolRoutes
+	RouteTool    = contract.ToolRoute
+	UnroutedTool = contract.ToolUnrouted
 )
 
 // reader is one of the module's states, as stdio.KeptState reads it.
@@ -46,9 +46,9 @@ type RouteLine struct {
 	// unknown before any request.
 	Reachable string `json:"reachable"`
 	// Certificate is its outcome, issuer and expiry in words; ExpiresInDays is the whole days until not-after.
-	Certificate   string             `json:"certificate"`
-	ExpiresInDays *int               `json:"expires_in_days,omitempty"`
-	LastAnswer    *routestate.Answer `json:"last_answer,omitempty"`
+	Certificate   string           `json:"certificate"`
+	ExpiresInDays *int             `json:"expires_in_days,omitempty"`
+	LastAnswer    *contract.Answer `json:"last_answer,omitempty"`
 }
 
 func (f front) tools() []stdio.Tool {
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ func read[T any](state reader, node string) ([]T, error) {
 	}
 	var out []T
 	for _, key := range keys {
-		at, _ := routestate.Split(key)
+		at, _ := contract.Split(key)
 		if node != "" && at != node {
 			continue
 		}
@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ func read[T any](state reader, node string) ([]T, error) {
 }
 
 func (f front) list(node string) (map[string]any, error) {
-	routes, err := read[routestate.Route](f.routes, node)
+	routes, err := read[contract.Route](f.routes, node)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ func (f front) list(node string) (map[string]any, error) {
 		if line.Reachable == "no" {
 			unreachable++
 		}
-		if line.ExpiresInDays != nil && *line.ExpiresInDays < 14 || r.Certificate.Outcome == routestate.Failed {
+		if line.ExpiresInDays != nil && *line.ExpiresInDays < 14 || r.Certificate.Outcome == contract.Failed {
 			expiring++
 		}
 		lines = append(lines, line)
@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@ func (f front) list(node string) (map[string]any, error) {
 		"certificates_failing_or_within_14_days": expiring}, nil
 }
 
-func (f front) line(r routestate.Route) RouteLine {
+func (f front) line(r contract.Route) RouteLine {
 	line := RouteLine{Name: r.Name, Proxy: r.Proxy, Reach: r.Reach, LastAnswer: r.LastAnswer, Reachable: "unknown",
 		Targets: []string{}}
 	for _, t := range r.Targets {
@@ -182,7 +182,7 @@ func (f front) line(r routestate.Route) RouteLine {
 }
 
 // describe is one rule in a few words: path → module@node at target, or what it answers with.
-func describe(t routestate.Target) string {
+func describe(t contract.Target) string {
 	path := t.Path
 	if path == "" {
 		path = "/"
@@ -209,11 +209,11 @@ func (f front) one(name, node string) (map[string]any, error) {
 	if name == "" {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("name is the site to read, such as app.example.org")
 	}
-	routes, err := read[routestate.Route](f.routes, node)
+	routes, err := read[contract.Route](f.routes, node)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
-	var found []routestate.Route
+	var found []contract.Route
 	for _, r := range routes {
 		if r.Name == name {
 			found = append(found, r)
@@ -248,32 +248,32 @@ func (f front) refusals(node string) (map[string]any, error) {
 	}
 	sort.Slice(asked, func(i, j int) bool { return asked[i].AskedAt.After(asked[j].AskedAt) })
 	if asked == nil {
-		asked = []routestate.Unrouted{}
+		asked = []contract.Unrouted{}
 	}
 	return map[string]any{"unrouted": asked, "names": len(asked), "other_refusals": others}, nil
 }
 
 // asked is the names refused and kept by name, and each proxy's count of the refusals not kept by name.
-func (f front) asked(node string) ([]routestate.Unrouted, []routestate.Other, error) {
+func (f front) asked(node string) ([]contract.Unrouted, []contract.Other, error) {
 	keys, err := f.unrouted.Keys()
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, nil, err
 	}
 	names, others := keySet{}, keySet{}
 	for _, key := range keys {
-		if _, name := routestate.Split(key); name == routestate.OtherName {
+		if _, name := contract.Split(key); name == contract.OtherName {
 			others[key] = true
 		} else {
 			names[key] = true
 		}
 	}
-	asked, err := read[routestate.Unrouted](only{f.unrouted, names}, node)
+	asked, err := read[contract.Unrouted](only{f.unrouted, names}, node)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, nil, err
 	}
-	counted, err := read[routestate.Other](only{f.unrouted, others}, node)
+	counted, err := read[contract.Other](only{f.unrouted, others}, node)
 	if counted == nil {
-		counted = []routestate.Other{}
+		counted = []contract.Other{}
 	}
 	return asked, counted, err
 }
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-provider/tools_test.go b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-provider/tools_test.go
index 3194e755..da91dfe8 100644
--- a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-provider/tools_test.go
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-provider/tools_test.go
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ import (
 
 	stdio "git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go"
 
-	"route-proxy/internal/routestate"
+	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-controller/modules/route-proxy/contract"
 )
 
 // held is a state as the bus holds it, read-only.
@@ -40,19 +40,19 @@ func TestTheWebFrontsToolsAnswerFromTheBus(t *testing.T) {
 	now := time.Date(2026, 10, 30, 21, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC)
 	expires := now.Add(30 * 24 * time.Hour)
 	routes := held{
-		"anchor.grafana.example": routestate.Route{Name: "grafana.example", Proxy: "anchor", Reach: routestate.ReachPublic,
-			Targets:     []routestate.Target{{Module: "grafana", Node: "home-server", Target: "http://10.0.0.2:3000"}},
-			Certificate: routestate.Certificate{Authority: routestate.ReachPublic, Issuer: "Let's Encrypt R11", NotAfter: &expires, Outcome: routestate.Issued},
-			LastAnswer:  &routestate.Answer{Status: 502, At: now, Error: "dial tcp 10.0.0.2:3000: connect: connection refused"}},
-		"anchor.drive.example": routestate.Route{Name: "drive.example", Proxy: "anchor", Reach: routestate.ReachPublic,
-			Targets:     []routestate.Target{{Module: "nextcloud", Node: "home-server", Target: "http://10.0.0.2:8080"}},
-			Certificate: routestate.Certificate{Authority: routestate.ReachPublic},
-			LastAnswer:  &routestate.Answer{Status: 200, At: now}},
+		"anchor.grafana.example": contract.Route{Name: "grafana.example", Proxy: "anchor", Reach: contract.ReachPublic,
+			Targets:     []contract.Target{{Module: "grafana", Node: "home-server", Target: "http://10.0.0.2:3000"}},
+			Certificate: contract.Certificate{Authority: contract.ReachPublic, Issuer: "Let's Encrypt R11", NotAfter: &expires, Outcome: contract.Issued},
+			LastAnswer:  &contract.Answer{Status: 502, At: now, Error: "dial tcp 10.0.0.2:3000: connect: connection refused"}},
+		"anchor.drive.example": contract.Route{Name: "drive.example", Proxy: "anchor", Reach: contract.ReachPublic,
+			Targets:     []contract.Target{{Module: "nextcloud", Node: "home-server", Target: "http://10.0.0.2:8080"}},
+			Certificate: contract.Certificate{Authority: contract.ReachPublic},
+			LastAnswer:  &contract.Answer{Status: 200, At: now}},
 	}
 	unrouted := held{
-		"anchor.old.example":  routestate.Unrouted{Name: "old.example", Proxy: "anchor", AskedAt: now.Add(-time.Hour), Times: 3},
-		"anchor.wiki.example": routestate.Unrouted{Name: "wiki.example", Proxy: "anchor", AskedAt: now, Times: 1},
-		"anchor._other":       routestate.Other{Proxy: "anchor", Minute: now, LastMinute: 40, SinceStart: 900},
+		"anchor.old.example":  contract.Unrouted{Name: "old.example", Proxy: "anchor", AskedAt: now.Add(-time.Hour), Times: 3},
+		"anchor.wiki.example": contract.Unrouted{Name: "wiki.example", Proxy: "anchor", AskedAt: now, Times: 1},
+		"anchor._other":       contract.Other{Proxy: "anchor", Minute: now, LastMinute: 40, SinceStart: 900},
 	}
 	tools := map[string]stdio.Tool{}
 	for _, tool := range (front{routes: routes, unrouted: unrouted, now: func() time.Time { return now }}).tools() {
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/bus.go b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/bus.go
index 9dbcc274..ff34c075 100644
--- a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/bus.go
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/bus.go
@@ -1,54 +1,58 @@
 package main
 
 import (
-	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"log"
+	"sort"
 	"strings"
 	"sync/atomic"
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/nats-io/nats.go"
 
+	stdio "git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go"
 	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go/announce"
+	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go/delivery"
 	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go/membership"
 	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go/process"
+	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go/provisions"
 
-	"route-proxy/internal/routestate"
+	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-controller/modules/route-proxy/contract"
 )
 
 // keptStates is every state route-proxy keeps, as both its halves write them: the routes and the refusals this
 // proxy writes, readable by others, and the bound entries the provider helper writes.
 func keptStates() []announce.State {
 	return []announce.State{
-		{Name: routestate.BoundState},
-		{Name: routestate.RoutesState, Readable: true},
-		{Name: routestate.UnroutedState, Readable: true},
+		{Name: contract.BoundState},
+		{Name: contract.RoutesState, Readable: true},
+		{Name: contract.UnroutedState, Readable: true},
 	}
 }
 
-// What the mesh issued this proxy, read on the bus (novox/hq ADR 0160, ADR 0167).
+// What the mesh says this proxy routes, and who is inside the mesh, read on the bus.
 //
-// **The proxy is told, not left to work it out.** Its membership carries the routes it is given —
-// the same contributions its file is written from — and every machine's address on the private
-// network, which is who may be served an internal name. Read once at connect and followed, so a
-// route added or a machine joining reaches a running proxy without a restart.
+// **The routes are the seat mesh-provisioner's plans, alone** (issue 774, research 072 row 34): every plan's entry
+// naming this proxy as a route's provider, followed, so a route added or withdrawn reaches a running proxy without a
+// restart, and said on the bus as it changes (contract.EventServed, EventWithdrawn, EventRefused). **Who is inside**
+// is every node's address on the private network as the seat mesh-placement decides it (mesh-sdk
+// delivery.InsideAddresses), which is who may be served an internal name; until it is read, an internal name is
+// served to this machine alone.
 
-// followMembership connects with the credential in path and applies every membership the mesh
-// issues this proxy. It retries the first connection for as long as it takes: a proxy that started
-// before the bus keeps serving the file, and takes the bus when it answers.
-func followMembership(path string, held *table, fromBus *atomic.Bool) {
+// follow connects with the credential in path, follows the plans and the placement, and retries the connection for
+// as long as it takes: until the bus answers, the proxy routes nothing, and says so.
+func follow(path string, held *table) {
 	for {
-		err := followOnce(path, held, fromBus)
+		err := followOnce(path, held)
 		if err == nil {
 			return
 		}
-		log.Printf("cannot follow this proxy's membership, serving the file meanwhile: %v", err)
+		log.Printf("cannot follow the plans that say what this proxy routes, so it routes what it last read: %v", err)
 		time.Sleep(30 * time.Second)
 	}
 }
 
-func followOnce(path string, held *table, fromBus *atomic.Bool) error {
+func followOnce(path string, held *table) error {
 	account, err := process.ReadAccount(path)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
@@ -63,44 +67,128 @@ func followOnce(path string, held *table, fromBus *atomic.Bool) error {
 	if err := conn.Keeps(keptStates()...); err != nil {
 		log.Printf("cannot say on the bus what this proxy keeps, so it keeps nothing there: %v", err)
 	} else {
-		held.ledger.attach(account.Node, conn.State(routestate.RoutesState), conn.State(routestate.UnroutedState))
+		held.ledger.attach(account.Node, conn.State(contract.RoutesState), conn.State(contract.UnroutedState))
 	}
-	subject := membership.Subject(account.Node, account.Module)
-	err = conn.FollowMembership(func(issued membership.Membership) {
-		if took := applyMembership(issued, held); took && !fromBus.Swap(true) {
-			log.Printf("routes now come from this proxy's membership on %s", subject)
+	say := func(eventType string, e contract.Event) {
+		if err := conn.Emit(eventType, e); err != nil {
+			log.Printf("cannot say %s of %q on the bus: %v", eventType, e.Name, err)
 		}
-	}, func(err error) { log.Print(err) })
-	if err != nil {
+	}
+	// Who is inside first, so the first table is served to the machines it is meant for.
+	if err := followInside(conn.Read(delivery.PlacementRead), held); err != nil {
+		log.Printf("cannot follow %s, so an internal name is served to this machine alone: %v", delivery.PlacementRead, err)
+	}
+	if err := followPlans(conn.Read(provisions.PlansRead), newPlanned(account.Node, say), held, say); err != nil {
 		conn.Close()
 		return err
 	}
 	return nil
 }
 
-// applyMembership serves what a membership says, and says whether it said anything about routes.
-//
-// A membership with no routes in it is one from a controller older than ADR 0167, and the file stays
-// the source rather than every route being withdrawn because a field was absent.
-func applyMembership(issued membership.Membership, held *table) bool {
-	raw, carries := issued.Receives["route"]
-	if !carries {
-		return false
+// planWatch is a state this proxy watches: every current key, then every change.
+type planWatch interface {
+	Watch(key string, handle func(stdio.StateChange) error) error
+}
+
+// followPlans serves what the plans give this proxy: the whole table once every current plan is read, then again on
+// every change that alters it. A table built from part of the plans would withdraw every route not yet read.
+func followPlans(plans planWatch, given *planned, held *table, say func(string, contract.Event)) error {
+	var read atomic.Bool // every current plan is read: from here, each change is served as it comes
+	err := plans.Watch("", func(c stdio.StateChange) error {
+		var value []byte
+		if c.Op != "delete" && c.Op != "purge" {
+			value = c.Value
+		}
+		if changed := given.take(c.Key, value); changed && read.Load() {
+			serve(given, held, say)
+		}
+		return nil
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("watching %s: %w", provisions.PlansRead, err)
+	}
+	read.Store(true)
+	serve(given, held, say)
+	return nil
+}
+
+// serve replaces what the proxy serves with what the plans give it, and says each name it now serves or serves no
+// more.
+func serve(given *planned, held *table, say func(string, contract.Event)) {
+	before := held.served()
+	routes, public := routesOf(given.contributions())
+	held.set(routes, public)
+	after := held.served()
+	for _, e := range servedChanges(given.node, before, after) {
+		say(e.kind, e.Event)
+	}
+	log.Printf("serving %d route(s) from the seat's plans: %s", len(routes), strings.Join(held.names(), ", "))
+}
+
+// change is one event serve says.
+type change struct {
+	kind string
+	contract.Event
+}
+
+// servedChanges is what changed between two tables' names, each name once, in order: a name now served, or now
+// served at another reach or by another module, is served; a name no longer served is withdrawn.
+func servedChanges(proxy string, before, after map[string]contract.Event) []change {
+	var out []change
+	for _, name := range sortedNames(after) {
+		if was, ok := before[name]; !ok || was != after[name] {
+			e := after[name]
+			e.Proxy = proxy
+			out = append(out, change{contract.EventServed, e})
+		}
 	}
-	var contributions []contribution
-	if err := json.Unmarshal(raw, &contributions); err != nil {
-		log.Printf("the routes in this proxy's membership are not contributions, keeping what is served: %v", err)
-		return false
+	for _, name := range sortedNames(before) {
+		if _, ok := after[name]; !ok {
+			out = append(out, change{contract.EventWithdrawn, contract.Event{Proxy: proxy, Name: name}})
+		}
 	}
-	inside, err := sourcesOf(issued.Mesh)
+	return out
+}
+
+func sortedNames(m map[string]contract.Event) []string {
+	out := make([]string, 0, len(m))
+	for k := range m {
+		out = append(out, k)
+	}
+	sort.Strings(out)
+	return out
+}
+
+// followInside follows the seat mesh-placement's state and serves an internal name to every node's address on the
+// private network it decides, each time it changes (mesh-sdk delivery.InsideAddresses; research 072 rows 33 and 34:
+// the membership that carried them went with the assignments stream). A key that does not read keeps who is inside
+// as it was.
+func followInside(placement planWatch, held *table) error {
+	keys := delivery.NewPlacementKeys()
+	var read atomic.Bool
+	apply := func() {
+		inside, err := sourcesOf(delivery.InsideAddresses(keys.All()))
+		if err != nil {
+			log.Printf("the placement says an address that is not one, so who is inside stays as it was: %v", err)
+			return
+		}
+		held.setInside(inside)
+		log.Printf("internal names are served to %d machine(s)", len(inside))
+	}
+	err := placement.Watch("", func(c stdio.StateChange) error {
+		if _, err := keys.Put(c.Key, c.Value, c.Revision, c.Op == "delete" || c.Op == "purge"); err != nil {
+			log.Printf("the placement's key %s does not read, so who is inside stays as it was: %v", c.Key, err)
+			return nil
+		}
+		if read.Load() {
+			apply()
+		}
+		return nil
+	})
 	if err != nil {
-		log.Printf("the mesh in this proxy's membership is unreadable, keeping what is served: %v", err)
-		return false
+		return err
 	}
-	routes, public := routesOf(contributions)
-	held.set(routes, public)
-	held.setInside(inside)
-	log.Printf("serving %d route(s) from the membership, internal names to %d machine(s): %s",
-		len(routes), len(inside), strings.Join(held.names(), ", "))
-	return true
+	read.Store(true)
+	apply()
+	return nil
 }
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/ledger.go b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/ledger.go
index fce37132..30aecb19 100644
--- a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/ledger.go
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/ledger.go
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ import (
 
 	stdio "git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go"
 
-	"route-proxy/internal/routestate"
+	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-controller/modules/route-proxy/contract"
 )
 
 // What this proxy says on the bus about the names it serves and the names it refuses (issue 774).
@@ -55,9 +55,9 @@ type ledger struct {
 	node             string
 	routes, unrouted kvStore
 
-	served   map[string]*routestate.Route
-	previous map[string]routestate.Route // what the bus held for this machine when it was reached
-	asked    map[string]*routestate.Unrouted
+	served   map[string]*contract.Route
+	previous map[string]contract.Route // what the bus held for this machine when it was reached
+	asked    map[string]*contract.Unrouted
 
 	answerWritten map[string]time.Time
 	askedWritten  map[string]time.Time
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ type ledger struct {
 	domains                  map[string]bool
 	newMinute                time.Time
 	newInMinute              int
-	other                    routestate.Other
+	other                    contract.Other
 	otherMinute              time.Time
 	otherInMinute            int
 	otherDirty               bool
@@ -81,9 +81,9 @@ type ledger struct {
 func newLedger() *ledger {
 	return &ledger{
 		now:           time.Now,
-		served:        map[string]*routestate.Route{},
-		previous:      map[string]routestate.Route{},
-		asked:         map[string]*routestate.Unrouted{},
+		served:        map[string]*contract.Route{},
+		previous:      map[string]contract.Route{},
+		asked:         map[string]*contract.Unrouted{},
 		answerWritten: map[string]time.Time{},
 		askedWritten:  map[string]time.Time{},
 		dirtyRoutes:   map[string]bool{},
@@ -113,12 +113,12 @@ func (l *ledger) attach(node string, routes, unrouted kvStore) {
 	if l == nil {
 		return
 	}
-	before := map[string]routestate.Route{}
+	before := map[string]contract.Route{}
 	if keys, err := routes.Keys(); err != nil {
 		log.Printf("cannot read back what this proxy said it serves: %v", err)
 	} else {
 		for _, key := range keys {
-			at, name := routestate.Split(key)
+			at, name := contract.Split(key)
 			if at != node {
 				continue
 			}
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ func (l *ledger) attach(node string, routes, unrouted kvStore) {
 			if err != nil || entry == nil {
 				continue
 			}
-			var r routestate.Route
+			var r contract.Route
 			if json.Unmarshal(entry.Value, &r) == nil {
 				before[name] = r
 			}
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ func (l *ledger) attach(node string, routes, unrouted kvStore) {
 }
 
 // keepWhatWasKnown carries a certificate and a last answer read back from the bus onto a route that knows none yet.
-func keepWhatWasKnown(r *routestate.Route, before routestate.Route) {
+func keepWhatWasKnown(r *contract.Route, before contract.Route) {
 	if r.Certificate.Outcome == "" && r.Certificate.NotAfter == nil && before.Certificate.Authority == r.Certificate.Authority {
 		r.Certificate = before.Certificate
 	}
@@ -170,14 +170,14 @@ func (l *ledger) serving(routes map[string][]rule, public map[string]bool) {
 	l.mu.Lock()
 	defer l.mu.Unlock()
 	for name, rules := range routes {
-		reach := routestate.ReachInternal
+		reach := contract.ReachInternal
 		if public[name] {
-			reach = routestate.ReachPublic
+			reach = contract.ReachPublic
 		}
 		targets := targetsOf(rules)
 		r := l.served[name]
 		if r == nil {
-			r = &routestate.Route{Name: name}
+			r = &contract.Route{Name: name}
 			if before, ok := l.previous[name]; ok {
 				r.Certificate.Authority = reach
 				keepWhatWasKnown(r, before)
@@ -190,7 +190,7 @@ func (l *ledger) serving(routes map[string][]rule, public map[string]bool) {
 			l.dirtyRoutes[name] = true
 		}
 		if r.Certificate.Authority != reach {
-			r.Certificate = routestate.Certificate{Authority: reach}
+			r.Certificate = contract.Certificate{Authority: reach}
 			l.dirtyRoutes[name] = true
 		}
 		if _, was := l.asked[name]; was {
@@ -200,7 +200,7 @@ func (l *ledger) serving(routes map[string][]rule, public map[string]bool) {
 	}
 	l.domains = map[string]bool{}
 	for name := range routes {
-		if d := routestate.Registrable(name); d != "" {
+		if d := contract.Registrable(name); d != "" {
 			l.domains[d] = true
 		}
 	}
@@ -214,10 +214,10 @@ func (l *ledger) serving(routes map[string][]rule, public map[string]bool) {
 	l.wake()
 }
 
-func targetsOf(rules []rule) []routestate.Target {
-	out := make([]routestate.Target, 0, len(rules))
+func targetsOf(rules []rule) []contract.Target {
+	out := make([]contract.Target, 0, len(rules))
 	for _, r := range rules {
-		out = append(out, routestate.Target{Path: r.path, Module: r.from, Node: r.node, Target: r.target,
+		out = append(out, contract.Target{Path: r.path, Module: r.from, Node: r.node, Target: r.target,
 			Deny: r.policy.deny, Redirect: r.policy.redirectTo, Auth: len(r.policy.users) > 0 || r.policy.sealed != "",
 			Sealed: r.policy.sealed})
 	}
@@ -241,7 +241,7 @@ func (l *ledger) answered(name, path string, status int, failed error) {
 		why = failed.Error()
 	}
 	before := r.LastAnswer
-	r.LastAnswer = &routestate.Answer{Status: status, At: now, Error: why, Path: path}
+	r.LastAnswer = &contract.Answer{Status: status, At: now, Error: why, Path: path}
 	if before != nil && before.Status == status && before.Error == why && now.Sub(l.answerWritten[name]) < refreshAfter {
 		return
 	}
@@ -268,11 +268,11 @@ func (l *ledger) refused(name string, internalOnly, handshake bool) {
 	now := l.now()
 	a := l.asked[name]
 	if a == nil {
-		if !routestate.Keyable(name) || !l.domains[routestate.Registrable(name)] || !l.mayAddName(now) {
+		if !contract.Keyable(name) || !l.domains[contract.Registrable(name)] || !l.mayAddName(now) {
 			l.countOther(now)
 			return
 		}
-		a = &routestate.Unrouted{Name: name}
+		a = &contract.Unrouted{Name: name}
 		l.asked[name] = a
 	}
 	a.AskedAt, a.InternalOnly, a.Handshake = now, internalOnly, handshake
@@ -345,7 +345,7 @@ func (l *ledger) certified(name string, leaf *x509.Certificate) {
 	notAfter := leaf.NotAfter.UTC()
 	r.Certificate.Issuer, r.Certificate.NotAfter = issuerOf(leaf), &notAfter
 	r.Certificate.RenewedAt, r.Certificate.At = &now, &now
-	r.Certificate.Outcome, r.Certificate.Error = routestate.Issued, ""
+	r.Certificate.Outcome, r.Certificate.Error = contract.Issued, ""
 	l.dirtyRoutes[name] = true
 	l.wake()
 }
@@ -362,13 +362,13 @@ func (l *ledger) handedOut(name string, leaf *x509.Certificate) {
 		return
 	}
 	notAfter := leaf.NotAfter.UTC()
-	if r.Certificate.NotAfter != nil && r.Certificate.NotAfter.Equal(notAfter) && r.Certificate.Outcome != routestate.Failed {
+	if r.Certificate.NotAfter != nil && r.Certificate.NotAfter.Equal(notAfter) && r.Certificate.Outcome != contract.Failed {
 		return
 	}
 	now := l.now()
 	r.Certificate.Issuer, r.Certificate.NotAfter, r.Certificate.At = issuerOf(leaf), &notAfter, &now
-	if r.Certificate.Outcome != routestate.Issued || r.Certificate.Error != "" {
-		r.Certificate.Outcome, r.Certificate.Error = routestate.Cached, ""
+	if r.Certificate.Outcome != contract.Issued || r.Certificate.Error != "" {
+		r.Certificate.Outcome, r.Certificate.Error = contract.Cached, ""
 	}
 	l.dirtyRoutes[name] = true
 	l.wake()
@@ -386,11 +386,11 @@ func (l *ledger) certificateFailed(name string, failed error) {
 		return
 	}
 	now := l.now()
-	same := r.Certificate.Outcome == routestate.Failed && r.Certificate.Error == failed.Error()
+	same := r.Certificate.Outcome == contract.Failed && r.Certificate.Error == failed.Error()
 	if same && r.Certificate.At != nil && now.Sub(*r.Certificate.At) < refreshAfter {
 		return
 	}
-	r.Certificate.Outcome, r.Certificate.Error, r.Certificate.At = routestate.Failed, failed.Error(), &now
+	r.Certificate.Outcome, r.Certificate.Error, r.Certificate.At = contract.Failed, failed.Error(), &now
 	l.dirtyRoutes[name] = true
 	l.wake()
 }
@@ -423,7 +423,7 @@ func (l *ledger) flush() {
 	l.forgetOldestAsked()
 	var puts []put
 	for name := range l.dirtyRoutes {
-		p := put{store: l.routes, key: routestate.Key(l.node, name), route: true}
+		p := put{store: l.routes, key: contract.Key(l.node, name), route: true}
 		if r := l.served[name]; r != nil {
 			c := *r
 			c.Proxy = l.node
@@ -432,7 +432,7 @@ func (l *ledger) flush() {
 		puts = append(puts, p)
 	}
 	for name := range l.dirtyAsked {
-		p := put{store: l.unrouted, key: routestate.Key(l.node, name)}
+		p := put{store: l.unrouted, key: contract.Key(l.node, name)}
 		if a := l.asked[name]; a != nil {
 			c := *a
 			c.Proxy = l.node
@@ -443,7 +443,7 @@ func (l *ledger) flush() {
 	if l.otherDirty {
 		o := l.other
 		o.Proxy = l.node
-		puts = append(puts, put{store: l.unrouted, key: routestate.Key(l.node, routestate.OtherName), value: o})
+		puts = append(puts, put{store: l.unrouted, key: contract.Key(l.node, contract.OtherName), value: o})
 	}
 	l.dirtyRoutes, l.dirtyAsked, l.otherDirty = map[string]bool{}, map[string]bool{}, false
 	l.mu.Unlock()
@@ -466,7 +466,7 @@ func (l *ledger) flush() {
 				log.Printf("cannot write %s to the bus, kept for the next change: %v", p.key, err)
 			}
 			l.routesFailing = true
-			_, name := routestate.Split(p.key)
+			_, name := contract.Split(p.key)
 			l.dirtyRoutes[name] = true
 		default:
 			if !l.askFailed {
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/ledger_test.go b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/ledger_test.go
index fba0dd6c..91c01113 100644
--- a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/ledger_test.go
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/ledger_test.go
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ import (
 
 	stdio "git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go"
 
-	"route-proxy/internal/routestate"
+	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-controller/modules/route-proxy/contract"
 )
 
 // fakeState is a state on the bus, in memory, counting what was written to it.
@@ -68,13 +68,13 @@ func (f *fakeState) Get(key string) (*stdio.StateEntry, error) {
 	return &stdio.StateEntry{Key: key, Value: v}, nil
 }
 
-func (f *fakeState) route(t *testing.T, key string) *routestate.Route {
+func (f *fakeState) route(t *testing.T, key string) *contract.Route {
 	t.Helper()
 	raw, ok := f.values[key]
 	if !ok {
 		return nil
 	}
-	var r routestate.Route
+	var r contract.Route
 	if err := json.Unmarshal(raw, &r); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
@@ -117,8 +117,8 @@ func TestTheBusIsToldWhatIsServedAndRefused(t *testing.T) {
 	}()
 	_, port, _ := net.SplitHostPort(gone)
 	contributions := []contribution{
-		{From: "grafana", Node: "anchor", At: "127.0.0.1", Values: map[string]any{"name": "grafana.example", "port": mustFloat(t, port)}},
-		{From: "drive", Node: "home-server", At: "10.0.0.2", Values: map[string]any{"internal-name": "drive.internal", "port": 8080.0}},
+		{From: "grafana", Node: "anchor", At: "127.0.0.1", Route: contract.Request{Name: "grafana.example", Port: int(mustFloat(t, port))}},
+		{From: "drive", Node: "home-server", At: "10.0.0.2", Route: contract.Request{InternalName: "drive.internal", Port: 8080}},
 	}
 
 	for _, row := range []struct {
@@ -130,12 +130,12 @@ func TestTheBusIsToldWhatIsServedAndRefused(t *testing.T) {
 			func(t *testing.T, held *table) {},
 			func(t *testing.T, routes, _ *fakeState) {
 				r := routes.route(t, "anchor.grafana.example")
-				if r == nil || r.Proxy != "anchor" || r.Reach != routestate.ReachPublic || len(r.Targets) != 1 ||
+				if r == nil || r.Proxy != "anchor" || r.Reach != contract.ReachPublic || len(r.Targets) != 1 ||
 					r.Targets[0].Module != "grafana" || r.Targets[0].Node != "anchor" || r.Targets[0].Target != "http://127.0.0.1:"+port {
 					t.Fatalf("grafana's route is not on the bus as served: %+v", r)
 				}
-				if d := routes.route(t, "anchor.drive.internal"); d == nil || d.Reach != routestate.ReachInternal ||
-					d.Certificate.Authority != routestate.ReachInternal {
+				if d := routes.route(t, "anchor.drive.internal"); d == nil || d.Reach != contract.ReachInternal ||
+					d.Certificate.Authority != contract.ReachInternal {
 					t.Fatalf("an internal-only name is not on the bus as internal: %+v", d)
 				}
 			}},
@@ -172,7 +172,7 @@ func TestTheBusIsToldWhatIsServedAndRefused(t *testing.T) {
 				req.RemoteAddr = "192.0.2.7:51000"
 				handler(held).ServeHTTP(httptest.NewRecorder(), req)
 				held.ledger.flush()
-				var a routestate.Unrouted
+				var a contract.Unrouted
 				raw := held.ledger.unrouted.(*fakeState).values["anchor.wiki.grafana.example"]
 				if err := json.Unmarshal(raw, &a); err != nil || a.Times != 1 || a.AskedAt.IsZero() {
 					t.Fatalf("the refused name is not on the bus as asked: %s", raw)
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ func TestTheBusIsToldWhatIsServedAndRefused(t *testing.T) {
 					t.Fatalf("who asked is on the bus: %s", raw)
 				}
 				routes, public := routesOf(append(contributions, contribution{From: "grafana", Node: "anchor",
-					Values: map[string]any{"name": "wiki.grafana.example", "port": 3000.0}}))
+					Route: contract.Request{Name: "wiki.grafana.example", Port: 3000}}))
 				held.set(routes, public)
 			},
 			func(t *testing.T, _, unrouted *fakeState) {
@@ -197,7 +197,7 @@ func TestTheBusIsToldWhatIsServedAndRefused(t *testing.T) {
 				_, _ = pick(&tls.ClientHelloInfo{ServerName: "forgotten.grafana.example"})
 			},
 			func(t *testing.T, _, unrouted *fakeState) {
-				var a routestate.Unrouted
+				var a contract.Unrouted
 				if err := json.Unmarshal(unrouted.values["anchor.forgotten.grafana.example"], &a); err != nil || !a.Handshake {
 					t.Fatalf("a handshake refused for its name is not on the bus: %v", unrouted.values)
 				}
@@ -232,7 +232,7 @@ func TestTheBusIsToldWhatIsServedAndRefused(t *testing.T) {
 				held.ledger.refused("w.scan.test", false, false)
 			},
 			func(t *testing.T, _, unrouted *fakeState) {
-				var o routestate.Other
+				var o contract.Other
 				if err := json.Unmarshal(unrouted.values["anchor._other"], &o); err != nil || o.LastMinute != 2 || o.SinceStart != 78 {
 					t.Fatalf("the refusals not kept by name are not counted on the bus: %s", unrouted.values["anchor._other"])
 				}
@@ -247,7 +247,7 @@ func TestTheBusIsToldWhatIsServedAndRefused(t *testing.T) {
 			},
 			func(t *testing.T, routes, _ *fakeState) {
 				c := routes.route(t, "anchor.grafana.example").Certificate
-				if c.Outcome != routestate.Issued || c.Issuer != "Let's Encrypt R11" || c.NotAfter == nil ||
+				if c.Outcome != contract.Issued || c.Issuer != "Let's Encrypt R11" || c.NotAfter == nil ||
 					!c.NotAfter.Equal(notAfter) || c.RenewedAt == nil {
 					t.Fatalf("the issued certificate is not on the bus: %+v", c)
 				}
@@ -261,7 +261,7 @@ func TestTheBusIsToldWhatIsServedAndRefused(t *testing.T) {
 			},
 			func(t *testing.T, routes, _ *fakeState) {
 				c := routes.route(t, "anchor.grafana.example").Certificate
-				if c.Outcome != routestate.Failed || c.Error != "acme: urn:ietf:params:acme:error:rateLimited" {
+				if c.Outcome != contract.Failed || c.Error != "acme: urn:ietf:params:acme:error:rateLimited" {
 					t.Fatalf("the failed certificate is not on the bus: %+v", c)
 				}
 			}},
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/main.go b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/main.go
index 5288f55f..9203ba46 100644
--- a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/main.go
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/main.go
@@ -1,13 +1,14 @@
 // A reverse proxy, in the form the mesh expects one.
 //
-// **A route is a grant** (novox/hq ADR 0007, 08-connectivity §3). A module that must be reachable
-// declares it requires `route` and contributes the name it wants; the proxy provides `route` and
-// receives every consumer that asked. It is the mirror of a database grant: there the consumer
+// **A route is a provision** (novox/hq ADR 0007, 08-connectivity §3; issue 774, research 072 row 34). A
+// module that must be reachable declares it requires `route` and contributes the name it wants; the
+// proxy provides `route` and serves every consumer whose plan, in the seat mesh-provisioner's state
+// `plans`, names it as the route's provider. It is the mirror of a database grant: there the consumer
 // supplies a name and receives credentials, here it supplies a target and receives a name.
 //
-// **It is an example, not part of the control plane.** The control plane decides and never touches
-// a machine. A real deployment runs whatever proxy it likes — the contract is the file, not this
-// program. What lives here is that contract, written as something that runs so it can be read
+// **It is an example, not part of the controller.** The controller decides and never touches a
+// machine. A real deployment runs whatever proxy it likes — the contract is the plan's entry, not
+// this program. What lives here is that contract, written as something that runs so it can be read
 // rather than described.
 //
 // **A route also carries what a request arriving at it may do** (novox/hq ADR 0108). The grant used
@@ -16,11 +17,9 @@
 // an open middleware surface recreates the thing being replaced and is far harder to narrow later
 // than a closed one is to widen.
 //
-// What it is given, written by the host from an ordinary declaration:
-//
-//	$ROUTES    every consumer, the name it asked for, and where the mesh says that machine is
-//
-// Each contribution's values carry the name and port as before, and optionally:
+// What it is given, in each plan's entry for the route: every contribution the consumer makes,
+// composed by the controller, and where the consumer's machine is on the private network (plans.go).
+// Each contribution's values carry the name and port, and optionally:
 //
 //	path       the path prefix this rule is scoped to; absent means every path
 //	priority   which rule wins where two match; higher first, and the order is total
@@ -35,8 +34,8 @@
 // outright rather than served unprotected, and a secret that cannot be read makes the route refuse
 // rather than open — a gate that cannot check is not a gate that opens.
 //
-// It re-reads on change rather than being restarted, for the same reason the provisioner does:
-// a route arriving or leaving is an ordinary event and must not drop the connections of every
+// It follows the plans on the bus rather than being restarted, for the same reason the provisioner
+// does: a route arriving or leaving is an ordinary event and must not drop the connections of every
 // other workload.
 package main
 
@@ -48,7 +47,6 @@ import (
 	"crypto/tls"
 	"crypto/x509"
 	"encoding/hex"
-	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"log"
 	"net"
@@ -61,12 +59,13 @@ import (
 	"sort"
 	"strings"
 	"sync"
-	"sync/atomic"
 	"time"
 
 	"golang.org/x/crypto/acme"
 	"golang.org/x/crypto/acme/autocert"
 	"golang.org/x/crypto/bcrypt"
+
+	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-controller/modules/route-proxy/contract"
 )
 
 // Where public certificates come from when nothing says otherwise.
@@ -119,18 +118,16 @@ func onlyInternalNamesTheMeshSaid(held *table) autocert.HostPolicy {
 	}
 }
 
-// what the mesh writes: the contributions file, one entry per consumer.
-type given struct {
-	Given []contribution `json:"given"`
-}
-
+// contribution is one route a consumer asked for: the module, its machine, where that machine is, the local name of
+// its contribution, and the route, composed by the mesh and read with route-proxy's contract (plans.go).
 type contribution struct {
 	From string `json:"from"`
 	Node string `json:"node"`
 	// At is where that machine is on the private network. The mesh knows it; a proxy that had to
 	// build it from the node name would be a naming convention copied into every provider.
-	At     string         `json:"at"`
-	Values map[string]any `json:"values"`
+	At    string           `json:"at"`
+	Local string           `json:"local,omitempty"`
+	Route contract.Request `json:"route"`
 }
 
 // policy is what a rule does with a request that matched it.
@@ -183,9 +180,9 @@ type rule struct {
 	from, node string
 }
 
-// table is what the proxy is currently serving, replaced whole whenever the file changes.
+// table is what the proxy is currently serving, replaced whole whenever the plans change what they give it.
 //
-// Replaced rather than merged: the file is the whole truth about who has a route, so merging
+// Replaced rather than merged: the plans are the whole truth about who has a route, so merging
 // would keep serving a name whose module was unassigned — which is the stale-route fault
 // 08-connectivity lists as open, reintroduced one level down.
 //
@@ -356,7 +353,7 @@ func (t *table) routed(host string) bool {
 //
 // **The mesh has two name spaces and two authorities** (novox/hq 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/08-connectivity
 // §2): a public name is certified by a public CA, an internal one by the mesh's own. This is
-// composed only from `to` and `public`, which routesFrom already builds correctly — a host never
+// composed only from `to` and `public`, which routesOf already builds correctly — a host never
 // lands in both a route's own `name` and only its `internal-name`, so nothing new has to be
 // tracked to tell the two apart.
 func (t *table) eligibleForInternalACME(host string) bool {
@@ -413,6 +410,24 @@ func (t *table) namesSeenFrom(remote string) []string {
 	return out
 }
 
+// served is every name served, as an event says it: how far it reaches and the module whose rule serves it first.
+func (t *table) served() map[string]contract.Event {
+	t.mu.RLock()
+	defer t.mu.RUnlock()
+	out := make(map[string]contract.Event, len(t.to))
+	for name, rules := range t.to {
+		e := contract.Event{Name: name, Reach: contract.ReachInternal}
+		if t.public[name] {
+			e.Reach = contract.ReachPublic
+		}
+		if len(rules) > 0 {
+			e.Module, e.Node = rules[0].from, rules[0].node
+		}
+		out[name] = e
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
 func (t *table) names() []string {
 	t.mu.RLock()
 	defer t.mu.RUnlock()
@@ -432,50 +447,21 @@ func main() {
 }
 
 func run() error {
-	path := strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv("ROUTES"))
-	if path == "" {
-		return fmt.Errorf("ROUTES is not set, so this proxy does not know what it is routing")
-	}
 	listen := strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv("LISTEN"))
 	if listen == "" {
 		listen = ":80"
 	}
+	// **The seat's plans are the one source of routes** (issue 774, research 072 row 34). Without the bus this proxy
+	// knows no route, so it refuses to start rather than serving an empty table and saying nothing.
+	credential := strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv("MESH_BROKER_FILE"))
+	if credential == "" {
+		return fmt.Errorf("MESH_BROKER_FILE is not set, so this proxy cannot read the plans that say what it routes")
+	}
 
 	held := newTable()
 	held.ledger = newLedger()
 	go held.ledger.loop()
-	// **The bus first, the file until it has spoken** (novox/hq ADR 0167). The membership carries
-	// the routes and who the mesh is; the file carries the routes alone, so while the proxy reads
-	// it an internal name is served to this machine and to nobody else — refused, never opened.
-	fromBus := &atomic.Bool{}
-	if credential := strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv("MESH_BROKER_FILE")); credential != "" {
-		go followMembership(credential, held, fromBus)
-	} else {
-		log.Printf("MESH_BROKER_FILE is not set: routes come from %s alone, and a name that is only "+
-			"internal is served to this machine alone", path)
-	}
-	read := func() {
-		if fromBus.Load() {
-			return
-		}
-		routes, public, err := routesFrom(path)
-		if err != nil {
-			// Kept serving what it had. A file being rewritten is momentarily unreadable, and
-			// dropping every route because one read landed mid-write would turn an ordinary
-			// event into an outage.
-			log.Printf("cannot read %s, keeping what is already served: %v", path, err)
-			return
-		}
-		held.set(routes, public)
-		log.Printf("serving %d route(s): %s", len(routes), strings.Join(held.names(), ", "))
-	}
-	read()
-
-	go func() {
-		for range time.Tick(2 * time.Second) {
-			read()
-		}
-	}()
+	go follow(credential, held)
 
 	// TLS is opt-in. A proxy with no `TLS_LISTEN` serves plain HTTP exactly as before — which is
 	// what an internal-only mesh wants, and what the mesh's own certificate authority already
@@ -881,66 +867,26 @@ func boolByte(b bool) byte {
 	return 0
 }
 
-// routesFrom reads what the mesh wrote and turns it into host → the rules for that host, and
-// which of those hosts is a public name — the second is `name`, ACME-eligible; a host reached
-// only through `internal-name` never appears there.
+// routesOf turns the routes the plans give into host → the rules for that host, and which of those hosts is a public
+// name — the second is `name`, ACME-eligible; a host reached only through `internal-name` never appears there.
 //
-// **A route may carry either name, or both** (novox/hq ADR 0138). How far an endpoint reaches
-// decides which names the mesh composes, so an endpoint that reaches only the private network
-// arrives with an `internal-name` and no `name`. That is a whole route, not a malformed one: it is
-// served under its internal name and certified by the internal authority. Only a route with
-// neither name has nothing to be served under (novox/hq issue 191).
-func routesFrom(path string) (map[string][]rule, map[string]bool, error) {
-	raw, err := os.ReadFile(path)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, nil, err
-	}
-	var said given
-	if err := json.Unmarshal(raw, &said); err != nil {
-		return nil, nil, err
-	}
-	routes, public := routesOf(said.Given)
-	return routes, public, nil
-}
-
-// routesOf turns what the mesh gave into host → the rules for that host, and which hosts are public
-// names — the same whether the contributions came in the file or in the membership.
+// **A route may carry either name, or both** (novox/hq ADR 0138). How far an endpoint reaches decides which names the
+// mesh composes, so an endpoint that reaches only the private network arrives with an `internal-name` and no `name`.
+// That is a whole route, not a malformed one: it is served under its internal name and certified by the internal
+// authority. Only a route with neither name has nothing to be served under (novox/hq issue 191).
 func routesOf(contributions []contribution) (map[string][]rule, map[string]bool) {
 	out := map[string][]rule{}
 	public := map[string]bool{}
 	for _, c := range contributions {
-		name, _ := c.Values["name"].(string)
-		name = strings.TrimSpace(name)
-		internal, _ := c.Values["internal-name"].(string)
-		internal = strings.TrimSpace(internal)
-		if name == "" && internal == "" {
-			log.Printf("%s on %s asked for a route and named nothing; skipped", c.From, c.Node)
-			continue
-		}
-		// What the route is called in a log line: its public name when it has one.
-		called := name
-		if called == "" {
-			called = internal
-		}
-
-		made := rule{path: asPath(c.Values["path"])}
-		if p, ok := asWhole(c.Values["priority"]); ok {
-			made.priority = p
-		}
-		made.policy.deny, _ = c.Values["deny"].(bool)
-		made.policy.redirectTo, _ = c.Values["redirect"].(string)
-
-		if named, carried := c.Values["auth"].(string); carried && strings.TrimSpace(named) != "" {
-			// **A declaration names a secret; it never holds one** (ADR 0108). Refused rather than
-			// tolerated, and the whole rule is dropped rather than served unprotected — the
-			// rejected option cannot come back by accident, which is the failure this check exists
-			// to make impossible.
-			if looksLikeACredential(named) {
-				log.Printf("%s on %s declared route %q with a credential in the declaration rather "+
-					"than the name of a secret; the whole route is refused (novox/hq ADR 0108)",
-					c.From, c.Node, called)
-				continue
-			}
+		// The contract admitted the route whole (contract.Request.Validate): it names a host, a rule that forwards
+		// gives a port, its scheme is http or https, its body limit is whole and positive, and its auth names a
+		// secret's file rather than holding a credential (novox/hq ADR 0108).
+		r := c.Route
+		name := strings.TrimSpace(r.Name)
+		internal := strings.TrimSpace(r.InternalName)
+		made := rule{path: r.Prefix(), priority: r.Priority}
+		made.policy.deny, made.policy.redirectTo = r.Deny, r.Redirect
+		if named := strings.TrimSpace(r.Auth); named != "" {
 			users, err := usersFrom(named)
 			if err != nil {
 				// Fail closed: the rule is kept so the name stays routed and answers, and it
@@ -952,13 +898,7 @@ func routesOf(contributions []contribution) (map[string][]rule, map[string]bool)
 		}
 
 		// Only a rule that actually proxies needs somewhere to send the request.
-		if !made.policy.deny && made.policy.redirectTo == "" {
-			port, ok := asPort(c.Values["port"])
-			if !ok {
-				log.Printf("%s on %s asked for route %q and gave no usable port; skipped",
-					c.From, c.Node, called)
-				continue
-			}
+		if r.Forwards() {
 			// Where the mesh says that machine is. Empty means it is this one — a workload beside
 			// the proxy is ordinary, and reaching it over loopback is both correct and the only
 			// thing that works when there is no private network.
@@ -968,32 +908,12 @@ func routesOf(contributions []contribution) (map[string][]rule, map[string]bool)
 			}
 			// http unless the contribution says otherwise. A backend that terminates its own TLS
 			// with a certificate this proxy has no reason to trust — Mailu's webmail front is the
-			// first of these — is the reason `insecure` exists, and it stays the exception: every
-			// other target the mesh hands this proxy is a plain workload on the private network.
-			scheme, _ := c.Values["scheme"].(string)
-			scheme = strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSpace(scheme))
-			if scheme == "" {
-				scheme = "http"
+			// first of these — is the reason `insecure` exists, and it stays the exception.
+			made.insecure = r.Insecure
+			if r.MaxRequestBody != nil {
+				made.maxRequestBody = *r.MaxRequestBody
 			}
-			if scheme != "http" && scheme != "https" {
-				log.Printf("%s on %s asked for route %q with scheme %q, which is neither http "+
-					"nor https; skipped", c.From, c.Node, called, scheme)
-				continue
-			}
-			made.insecure, _ = c.Values["insecure"].(bool)
-			// A limit this proxy cannot read is a route it does not serve, named like a port that
-			// is not a port. Serving it without the limit would carry exactly what the module said
-			// not to carry, and report success doing it.
-			if asked, said := c.Values["max-request-body"]; said {
-				bytes, whole := asWhole(asked)
-				if !whole || bytes <= 0 {
-					log.Printf("%s on %s asked for route %q with a max-request-body of %v, which is "+
-						"not a whole positive number of bytes; skipped", c.From, c.Node, called, asked)
-					continue
-				}
-				made.maxRequestBody = int64(bytes)
-			}
-			made.target = fmt.Sprintf("%s://%s:%d", scheme, at, port)
+			made.target = fmt.Sprintf("%s://%s:%d", r.SchemeOrDefault(), at, r.Port)
 		}
 		made.from, made.node = c.From, c.Node
 
@@ -1007,9 +927,8 @@ func routesOf(contributions []contribution) (map[string][]rule, map[string]bool)
 		// answered both for one route, as a convenience (reaching a service over the VPN without a
 		// public TLS round trip), not as an access boundary; composing it here restores exactly
 		// that, nothing more. Absent whenever the node composed no internal name (novox/hq ADR
-		// 0056's internalDomain half) — the same "nothing to join a label to" case the public name
-		// already has. And the only name, when the endpoint reaches no further than the private
-		// network.
+		// 0056's internalDomain half). And the only name, when the endpoint reaches no further than
+		// the private network.
 		if internal != "" {
 			out[strings.ToLower(internal)] = append(out[strings.ToLower(internal)], made)
 		}
@@ -1017,50 +936,6 @@ func routesOf(contributions []contribution) (map[string][]rule, map[string]bool)
 	return out, public
 }
 
-// asWhole is any whole number the mesh wrote, whatever its magnitude.
-//
-// **Not asPort.** Priority was read with the port reader first, which caps at 65535 — so a rule
-// declared at a priority above that silently became priority 0 and stopped shadowing the route it
-// exists to shadow. The one real rule this has to reproduce is declared at 100000, so the bug was
-// exactly load-bearing. A priority is an ordering, not a port: it has no range.
-func asWhole(v any) (int, bool) {
-	switch n := v.(type) {
-	case float64:
-		// JSON makes a float of every number, so a non-integral one was not meant as a priority.
-		if n != float64(int(n)) {
-			return 0, false
-		}
-		return int(n), true
-	case int:
-		return n, true
-	}
-	return 0, false
-}
-
-// asPath is the path prefix a rule is scoped to, or "" for every path.
-func asPath(v any) string {
-	p, _ := v.(string)
-	p = strings.TrimSpace(p)
-	if p == "" {
-		return ""
-	}
-	if !strings.HasPrefix(p, "/") {
-		p = "/" + p
-	}
-	return p
-}
-
-// looksLikeACredential is the check that keeps a secret out of a declaration.
-//
-// It errs towards refusing: a value holding a `:` (the htpasswd separator) or opening with a bcrypt
-// identifier is a credential, not a path, and no filesystem path the mesh writes needs either. A
-// false refusal is a loud log and a route that does not serve; a false accept is a credential
-// committed to a declaration, which is the thing being prevented.
-func looksLikeACredential(v string) bool {
-	v = strings.TrimSpace(v)
-	return strings.Contains(v, ":") || strings.HasPrefix(v, "$2")
-}
-
 // usersFrom reads the credentials the mesh mounted, in the one format every htpasswd already is.
 func usersFrom(path string) (map[string]string, error) {
 	raw, err := os.ReadFile(path)
@@ -1085,23 +960,6 @@ func usersFrom(path string) (map[string]string, error) {
 	return users, nil
 }
 
-// asPort accepts what JSON makes of a number, which is a float even when it was written 8080.
-func asPort(v any) (int, bool) {
-	switch n := v.(type) {
-	case float64:
-		if n < 1 || n > 65535 {
-			return 0, false
-		}
-		return int(n), true
-	case int:
-		if n < 1 || n > 65535 {
-			return 0, false
-		}
-		return n, true
-	}
-	return 0, false
-}
-
 // towards proxies to one backend and tells it what the client asked: **X-Forwarded-Proto, -Host and
 // -For**, set from the request this proxy received. A backend that builds its own addresses — a forge
 // writing its clone URL into a page, a login redirect — otherwise sees the plain HTTP hop from this
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/plans.go b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/plans.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d2623b87
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/plans.go
@@ -0,0 +1,147 @@
+package main
+
+// The routes this proxy serves, read from the seat mesh-provisioner's plans and nothing else (issue 774; research 072
+// row 34, the operator on 2026-10-31: "there is only 1 path, the other is simply deprecated/invalid").
+//
+// **A route is a provision, in route-proxy's own contract.** A module that must be reachable requires `route`; the
+// controller composes its plan on its node, and the plan's entry for the route names this proxy as its provider and
+// carries what the module contributes, composed (its names joined to the node's domains, its endpoint's port), and
+// where the module's machine is on the private network, as one opaque payload the seat never reads (mesh-sdk
+// catalogue.PlanProvision.Contributed). The proxy decodes each contribution with its contract (contract.DecodeRequest)
+// and serves every entry naming it. There is no file and no second source: a route the plans do not name is not
+// served, and a route the contract refuses is said refused (contract.EventRefused), never served half.
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"log"
+	"sort"
+	"sync"
+
+	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go/catalogue"
+	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go/provisions"
+
+	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-controller/modules/route-proxy/contract"
+)
+
+// planned is the routes the seat's plans give this proxy on its node, by plan key, kept so a plan that cannot be read
+// leaves what it gave served (a bind missed would read as a route withdrawn).
+type planned struct {
+	node string
+	// said is where a refusal is told: the bus's events, nothing in a test that does not ask.
+	said func(eventType string, e contract.Event)
+	mu   sync.Mutex
+	by   map[string][]contribution
+}
+
+func newPlanned(node string, said func(string, contract.Event)) *planned {
+	if said == nil {
+		said = func(string, contract.Event) {}
+	}
+	return &planned{node: node, said: said, by: map[string][]contribution{}}
+}
+
+// take is one change of a plan's key: its value, or nil when the key was deleted. It answers whether what is served
+// changed, and says on the log and the bus what it could not serve.
+func (p *planned) take(key string, value []byte) bool {
+	p.mu.Lock()
+	defer p.mu.Unlock()
+	if value == nil {
+		_, had := p.by[key]
+		delete(p.by, key)
+		return had
+	}
+	gave, refused, err := routesOfPlan(p.node, key, value)
+	if err != nil {
+		log.Printf("the plan %s is not readable, so what it routes is kept as it was: %v", key, err)
+		return false
+	}
+	for _, r := range refused {
+		log.Printf("the plan %s gives %s on %s a route this proxy does not serve: %s", key, r.Module, r.Node, r.Why)
+		p.said(contract.EventRefused, r)
+	}
+	if len(gave) == 0 {
+		_, had := p.by[key]
+		delete(p.by, key)
+		return had
+	}
+	p.by[key] = gave
+	return true
+}
+
+// contributions is every route the plans give this proxy, in the order of their plans' keys.
+func (p *planned) contributions() []contribution {
+	p.mu.Lock()
+	defer p.mu.Unlock()
+	keys := make([]string, 0, len(p.by))
+	for k := range p.by {
+		keys = append(keys, k)
+	}
+	sort.Strings(keys)
+	var out []contribution
+	for _, k := range keys {
+		out = append(out, p.by[k]...)
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
+// routesOfPlan is the routes one plan gives the proxy on node: each contribution the plan's entries naming this proxy
+// on node as the route's provider carry, decoded with the contract, reached on its own machine over loopback and on
+// another at the address the plan says. A plan of another module, or one routing elsewhere, gives none. Refused is
+// what the plan names and the proxy does not serve, each with why: an entry carrying nothing to serve, a payload or a
+// route the contract does not read, or a consumer elsewhere with no address on the private network.
+func routesOfPlan(node, key string, value []byte) ([]contribution, []contract.Event, error) {
+	plan, err := provisions.DecodePlan(value)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, nil, err
+	}
+	if plan.Node+"."+plan.Module != key {
+		return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("it is the plan of %s.%s, under the key %s", plan.Node, plan.Module, key)
+	}
+	var out []contribution
+	var refused []contract.Event
+	refuse := func(local, why string) {
+		refused = append(refused, contract.Event{Proxy: node, Module: plan.Module, Node: plan.Node, Local: local, Why: why})
+	}
+	named, carried := false, false
+	for _, e := range plan.Plan.Provisions {
+		if !routesHere(node, e) {
+			continue
+		}
+		named = true
+		// What the module contributes is on the requirement's first entry alone, however many local names it has.
+		if len(e.Contributed) == 0 {
+			continue
+		}
+		carried = true
+		given, err := catalogue.DecodeContributed(e.Contributed)
+		if err != nil {
+			refuse("", err.Error())
+			continue
+		}
+		at := ""
+		if plan.Node != node {
+			if given.At == "" {
+				refuse("", fmt.Sprintf("it runs on %s and its plan says no address on the private network for it", plan.Node))
+				continue
+			}
+			at = given.At
+		}
+		for _, one := range given.Each {
+			route, err := contract.DecodeRequest(one.Values)
+			if err != nil {
+				refuse(one.Local, err.Error())
+				continue
+			}
+			out = append(out, contribution{From: plan.Module, Node: plan.Node, At: at, Local: one.Local, Route: route})
+		}
+	}
+	if named && !carried {
+		refuse("", "its plan names this proxy for its route and carries nothing to serve")
+	}
+	return out, refused, nil
+}
+
+// routesHere is whether a plan's entry is a route this proxy on node provides.
+func routesHere(node string, e catalogue.PlanProvision) bool {
+	return e.Provision == contract.Provision && e.Provider == node && e.ProviderModule == contract.Module
+}
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/policy_test.go b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/policy_test.go
index 192af8d6..0f2b3646 100644
--- a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/policy_test.go
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/policy_test.go
@@ -57,11 +57,7 @@ func ask(t *testing.T, proxy, name, path string, auth [2]string) *http.Response
 
 func proxyFor(t *testing.T, routesJSON string) string {
 	t.Helper()
-	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "routes.json")
-	if err := os.WriteFile(path, []byte(routesJSON), 0o644); err != nil {
-		t.Fatal(err)
-	}
-	routes, public, err := routesFrom(path)
+	routes, public, err := routesFrom(routesJSON)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
@@ -153,11 +149,7 @@ func TestACredentialInTheDeclarationIsRefusedRatherThanServed(t *testing.T) {
 		`{"given":[{"from":"c","node":"n","at":"127.0.0.1","values":{"name":"c.example","port":8080,"auth":"$2a$10$abcdefghijklmnopqrstuv"}}]}`,
 	}
 	for _, body := range inline {
-		path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "routes.json")
-		if err := os.WriteFile(path, []byte(body), 0o644); err != nil {
-			t.Fatal(err)
-		}
-		routes, _, err := routesFrom(path)
+		routes, _, err := routesFrom(body)
 		if err != nil {
 			t.Fatal(err)
 		}
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/reach_test.go b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/reach_test.go
index d008d649..25372c14 100644
--- a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/reach_test.go
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/reach_test.go
@@ -9,10 +9,16 @@ import (
 	"net/http"
 	"net/http/httptest"
 	"net/url"
+	"reflect"
+	"slices"
+	"sort"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
 
-	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go/membership"
+	stdio "git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go"
+	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go/delivery"
+
+	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-controller/modules/route-proxy/contract"
 )
 
 // behind is a workload the proxy can send to, and a table routing one public name and one
@@ -26,12 +32,12 @@ func behind(t *testing.T, mesh ...string) *table {
 	at, _ := url.Parse(workload.URL)
 	host, port, _ := net.SplitHostPort(at.Host)
 
-	routes, public, err := routesFrom(write(t, fmt.Sprintf(`{"given":[
+	routes, public, err := routesFrom(fmt.Sprintf(`{"given":[
 	  {"from":"app","node":"anchor","at":%q,
 	   "values":{"name":"app.example","internal-name":"app.anchor.internal","port":%s}},
 	  {"from":"admin","node":"anchor","at":%q,
 	   "values":{"internal-name":"admin.anchor.internal","port":%s}}
-	]}`, host, port, host, port)))
+	]}`, host, port, host, port))
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
@@ -165,42 +171,161 @@ func TestTheMeshIsReadAsAddressesAndRanges(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-// What the mesh issues is what is served: the routes in the membership, internal names to the
-// machines it names (novox/hq ADR 0167).
-func TestAMembershipIsServedAsIssued(t *testing.T) {
-	held := newTable()
-	took := applyMembership(membership.Membership{
-		Receives: map[string]json.RawMessage{"route": json.RawMessage(`[
-		  {"from":"admin","node":"anchor","at":"anchor.internal",
-		   "values":{"internal-name":"admin.anchor.internal","port":8080}}]`)},
-		Mesh: []string{"10.10.0.7"},
-	}, held)
-	if !took {
-		t.Fatal("a membership carrying routes was not applied")
-	}
-	if code, _ := askFrom(held, "admin.anchor.internal", "10.10.0.7:1"); code == http.StatusNotFound {
-		t.Error("a machine the membership names was refused the internal-only route")
-	}
-	if code, _ := askFrom(held, "admin.anchor.internal", "10.10.0.9:1"); code != http.StatusNotFound {
-		t.Errorf("a machine the membership does not name was served the internal-only route: %d", code)
-	}
+// fakePlans is the seat's plans as a watch hands them: every current key, then each change after Watch returned.
+type fakePlans struct {
+	current map[string]string
+	handle  func(stdio.StateChange) error
 }
 
-// A membership that says nothing about routes is one from a controller that does not issue them,
-// and changes nothing: the file stays the source rather than every route being withdrawn.
-func TestAMembershipWithoutRoutesLeavesTheFileServing(t *testing.T) {
-	held := behind(t, "10.10.0.7")
-	before := held.names()
-	if applyMembership(membership.Membership{Mesh: []string{"10.10.0.7"}}, held) {
-		t.Error("a membership without routes was taken as the source of routes")
+func (f *fakePlans) Watch(_ string, handle func(stdio.StateChange) error) error {
+	f.handle = handle
+	for k, v := range f.current {
+		if err := handle(stdio.StateChange{Key: k, Op: "put", Value: json.RawMessage(v), Current: true}); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
 	}
-	if got := held.names(); strings.Join(got, ",") != strings.Join(before, ",") {
-		t.Errorf("a membership without routes changed what is served: %v, was %v", got, before)
+	return nil
+}
+
+// plan is a plan of the seat mesh-provisioner for module on node, its entries as given.
+func plan(node, module, entries string) string {
+	return fmt.Sprintf(`{"v":1,"node":%q,"module":%q,"plan":{"templates":{"source":"","digest":""},"files":null,`+
+		`"provisions":[%s]}}`, node, module, entries)
+}
+
+// contributed is a plan entry's opaque payload: the consumer's machine at at, and each contribution by local name.
+func contributed(at string, each ...string) string {
+	var parts []string
+	for i := 0; i+1 < len(each); i += 2 {
+		parts = append(parts, fmt.Sprintf(`{"local":%q,"values":%s}`, each[i], each[i+1]))
 	}
-	if applyMembership(membership.Membership{
-		Receives: map[string]json.RawMessage{"route": json.RawMessage(`[]`)},
-		Mesh:     []string{"not-an-address"},
-	}, held) {
-		t.Error("a membership whose mesh cannot be read was applied")
+	return fmt.Sprintf(`"contributed":{"v":1,"at":%q,"each":[%s]}`, at, strings.Join(parts, ","))
+}
+
+// What the plans give is what is served, and nothing else (issue 774, research 072 row 34): each entry naming this
+// proxy on its node as the route's provider, every contribution of it read with route-proxy's contract, reached over
+// loopback on this machine and at the plan's address on another; an entry routing elsewhere, carrying nothing, naming
+// no address or a route the contract refuses is not served, and is said refused. A change is served as it comes and
+// said served or withdrawn, a plan that cannot be read keeps what it gave, and a deleted one withdraws it. The
+// placement says only who is inside: an internal-only name is served to the machines it decides addresses for.
+func TestThePlansAreServedAndThePlacementSaysWhoIsInside(t *testing.T) {
+	const route = `{"provision":"route","provider":"anchor","provider-module":"route-proxy",`
+	gitea := route + contributed("10.10.0.7",
+		"web", `{"name":"git.example","internal-name":"git.anchor.internal","port":3000}`,
+		"api", `{"internal-name":"git-api.anchor.internal","port":3001}`,
+		"refused", `{"name":"bad.example","port":3002,"host":"x"}`) + `}`
+	plans := &fakePlans{current: map[string]string{
+		"laptop.gitea": plan("laptop", "gitea", gitea+`,{"provision":"postgres-database","provider":"anchor",`+
+			`"provider-module":"postgres",`+contributed("10.10.0.7", "", `{"name":"gitea"}`)+`}`),
+		"anchor.blog": plan("anchor", "blog", route+contributed("10.10.0.1", "", `{"name":"blog.example","port":2368}`)+`}`),
+		"anchor.other": plan("anchor", "other", `{"provision":"route","provider":"edge","provider-module":"route-proxy",`+
+			contributed("", "", `{"name":"other.example","port":80}`)+`}`),
+		"anchor.older": plan("anchor", "older", route+`"local":""}`),
+		"laptop.lost":  plan("laptop", "lost", route+contributed("", "", `{"name":"lost.example","port":80}`)+`}`),
+	}}
+	held := newTable()
+	var said []string
+	say := func(kind string, e contract.Event) {
+		said = append(said, kind+" "+e.Proxy+" "+e.Name+" "+e.Module+" "+e.Local+" "+e.Why)
+	}
+	if err := followPlans(plans, newPlanned("anchor", say), held, say); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	served := func() map[string]string {
+		out := map[string]string{}
+		held.mu.RLock()
+		defer held.mu.RUnlock()
+		for host, rules := range held.to {
+			out[host] = rules[0].target
+		}
+		return out
+	}
+	want := map[string]string{"git.example": "http://10.10.0.7:3000", "git.anchor.internal": "http://10.10.0.7:3000",
+		"git-api.anchor.internal": "http://10.10.0.7:3001", "blog.example": "http://127.0.0.1:2368"}
+	if got := served(); !reflect.DeepEqual(got, want) {
+		t.Fatalf("serving %v, want %v", got, want)
+	}
+	if !held.eligibleForACME("git.example") || held.eligibleForACME("git-api.anchor.internal") {
+		t.Error("a public name is not certified publicly, or an internal-only one is")
+	}
+	// Each refusal said with why, and each name served said once.
+	sort.Strings(said)
+	for _, w := range []string{
+		"route.refused anchor  gitea refused not a route this contract reads: json: unknown field \"host\"",
+		"route.refused anchor  lost  it runs on laptop and its plan says no address on the private network for it",
+		"route.refused anchor  older  its plan names this proxy for its route and carries nothing to serve",
+		"route.served anchor blog.example blog  ",
+		"route.served anchor git-api.anchor.internal gitea  ",
+	} {
+		if !slices.Contains(said, w) {
+			t.Errorf("not said %q, said:\n%s", w, strings.Join(said, "\n"))
+		}
+	}
+	if len(said) != 7 {
+		t.Errorf("said %d events, want 3 refusals and 4 names served:\n%s", len(said), strings.Join(said, "\n"))
+	}
+	for _, row := range []struct {
+		name, key, value string
+		served           []string
+		withdrawn        []string
+		say              []string
+	}{
+		{"a route arrives", "anchor.new", plan("anchor", "new", route+contributed("", "", `{"name":"new.example","port":81}`)+`}`),
+			[]string{"new.example"}, nil, []string{"route.served anchor new.example new  "}},
+		{"an unreadable plan keeps what it gave", "laptop.gitea", `{"v":1,`, []string{"git.example"}, nil, nil},
+		{"a deleted plan withdraws its routes", "laptop.gitea", "", nil, []string{"git.example", "git-api.anchor.internal"},
+			[]string{"route.withdrawn anchor git-api.anchor.internal   ", "route.withdrawn anchor git.anchor.internal   ",
+				"route.withdrawn anchor git.example   "}},
+	} {
+		said = nil
+		change := stdio.StateChange{Key: row.key, Op: "put", Value: json.RawMessage(row.value)}
+		if row.value == "" {
+			change = stdio.StateChange{Key: row.key, Op: "delete"}
+		}
+		if err := plans.handle(change); err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		got := served()
+		for _, host := range row.served {
+			if _, ok := got[host]; !ok {
+				t.Errorf("%s: %s is not served (%v)", row.name, host, got)
+			}
+		}
+		for _, host := range row.withdrawn {
+			if _, ok := got[host]; ok {
+				t.Errorf("%s: %s is still served", row.name, host)
+			}
+		}
+		if !slices.Equal(said, row.say) {
+			t.Errorf("%s: said %q, want %q", row.name, said, row.say)
+		}
+	}
+
+	held = behind(t)
+	if code, _ := askFrom(held, "admin.anchor.internal", "10.10.0.7:1"); code != http.StatusNotFound {
+		t.Errorf("before the placement is read, a machine of the mesh was served an internal-only name: %d", code)
+	}
+	laptop, err := delivery.PlacementValues(delivery.Placement{Node: "laptop", Decided: delivery.NodeDecided{Address: "10.10.0.7"}})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	placement := &fakePlans{current: map[string]string{}}
+	for k, v := range laptop {
+		placement.current[k] = string(v)
+	}
+	if err := followInside(placement, held); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if code, _ := askFrom(held, "admin.anchor.internal", "10.10.0.7:1"); code == http.StatusNotFound {
+		t.Error("a machine the placement decides an address for was refused the internal-only route")
+	}
+	if code, _ := askFrom(held, "admin.anchor.internal", "10.10.0.8:1"); code != http.StatusNotFound {
+		t.Error("a machine the placement does not name was served the internal-only route")
+	}
+	if err := placement.handle(stdio.StateChange{Key: "laptop.node", Op: "put", Value: json.RawMessage(`{`)}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if code, _ := askFrom(held, "admin.anchor.internal", "10.10.0.7:1"); code == http.StatusNotFound {
+		t.Error("an unreadable placement key changed who is inside")
 	}
 }
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/routes_test.go b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/routes_test.go
index a8447f45..836dbb56 100644
--- a/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/routes_test.go
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/cmd/route-proxy/routes_test.go
@@ -2,23 +2,40 @@ package main
 
 import (
 	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"net/http"
 	"net/http/httptest"
-	"os"
-	"path/filepath"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
+
+	"git.novox.be/novox/mesh-controller/modules/route-proxy/contract"
 )
 
-func write(t *testing.T, body string) string {
-	t.Helper()
-	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "routes.json")
-	if err := os.WriteFile(path, []byte(body), 0o644); err != nil {
-		t.Fatal(err)
+// routesFrom is the table a test's routes make, written as `{"given":[{"from","node","at","values"}…]}`: the
+// contributions the plans give the proxy, each read with route-proxy's contract as routesOfPlan reads it, and one the
+// contract refuses left out, as routesOfPlan leaves it out.
+func routesFrom(body string) (map[string][]rule, map[string]bool, error) {
+	var said struct {
+		Given []struct {
+			From, Node, At string
+			Values         json.RawMessage
+		} `json:"given"`
 	}
-	return path
+	if err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(body), &said); err != nil {
+		return nil, nil, err
+	}
+	var given []contribution
+	for _, g := range said.Given {
+		route, err := contract.DecodeRequest(g.Values)
+		if err != nil {
+			continue
+		}
+		given = append(given, contribution{From: g.From, Node: g.Node, At: g.At, Route: route})
+	}
+	routes, public := routesOf(given)
+	return routes, public, nil
 }
 
 // plain is the table an ordinary set of routes makes: one host, one target, no policy.
@@ -51,9 +68,9 @@ func targetOf(routes map[string][]rule, host string) string {
 // A route is a grant: the consumer supplies a target, and where that machine is comes from the
 // mesh rather than from a naming convention the proxy has to know.
 func TestARouteGoesToWhereTheMeshSaysTheConsumerIs(t *testing.T) {
-	routes, _, err := routesFrom(write(t, `{"contributions":1,"requirement":"route","given":[
+	routes, _, err := routesFrom(`{"contributions":1,"requirement":"route","given":[
 	  {"from":"app","node":"laptop","at":"laptop.internal","values":{"name":"App.Example","port":8080}}
-	]}`))
+	]}`)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
@@ -68,10 +85,10 @@ func TestARouteGoesToWhereTheMeshSaysTheConsumerIs(t *testing.T) {
 // target — the same convenience a predecessor proxy gave for reaching a service over the VPN
 // without a public TLS round trip.
 func TestARouteWithAnInternalNameIsReachableUnderBoth(t *testing.T) {
-	routes, public, err := routesFrom(write(t, `{"given":[
+	routes, public, err := routesFrom(`{"given":[
 	  {"from":"app","node":"anchor","at":"anchor.internal",
 	   "values":{"name":"app.example","internal-name":"app.anchor.internal","port":8080}}
-	]}`))
+	]}`)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
@@ -94,10 +111,10 @@ func TestARouteWithAnInternalNameIsReachableUnderBoth(t *testing.T) {
 // one (novox/hq ADR 0138), and is served under that name rather than skipped as naming nothing —
 // skipping it left every internal-only module unreachable by name (novox/hq issue 191).
 func TestARouteWithOnlyAnInternalNameIsServed(t *testing.T) {
-	routes, public, err := routesFrom(write(t, `{"given":[
+	routes, public, err := routesFrom(`{"given":[
 	  {"from":"app","node":"anchor","at":"anchor.internal",
 	   "values":{"internal-name":"App.Anchor.Internal","port":8443,"scheme":"https","insecure":true}}
-	]}`))
+	]}`)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
@@ -123,9 +140,9 @@ func TestARouteWithOnlyAnInternalNameIsServed(t *testing.T) {
 
 // A route with no internal-name composed gets no second host — the ordinary case, unchanged.
 func TestARouteWithNoInternalNameGetsNoAlias(t *testing.T) {
-	routes, _, err := routesFrom(write(t, `{"given":[
+	routes, _, err := routesFrom(`{"given":[
 	  {"from":"app","node":"anchor","values":{"name":"app.example","port":8080}}
-	]}`))
+	]}`)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
@@ -137,9 +154,9 @@ func TestARouteWithNoInternalNameGetsNoAlias(t *testing.T) {
 // A workload beside the proxy is ordinary, and reaching it over loopback is both correct and the
 // only thing that works when there is no private network.
 func TestAConsumerOnTheProxysOwnMachineIsReachedOverLoopback(t *testing.T) {
-	routes, _, err := routesFrom(write(t, `{"given":[
+	routes, _, err := routesFrom(`{"given":[
 	  {"from":"app","node":"anchor","values":{"name":"app.example","port":9000}}
-	]}`))
+	]}`)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
@@ -151,10 +168,10 @@ func TestAConsumerOnTheProxysOwnMachineIsReachedOverLoopback(t *testing.T) {
 // A route may name a target reached over https, for a backend that terminates its own TLS — the
 // shape Mailu's webmail front needs, which this proxy reaches as a plain workload otherwise.
 func TestARouteMayTargetHttps(t *testing.T) {
-	routes, _, err := routesFrom(write(t, `{"given":[
+	routes, _, err := routesFrom(`{"given":[
 	  {"from":"mail","node":"anchor","at":"anchor.internal",
 	   "values":{"name":"mail.example","port":7443,"scheme":"https","insecure":true}}
-	]}`))
+	]}`)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
@@ -319,10 +336,10 @@ func TestNoCertificateIsAskedForOnAnUnroutedName(t *testing.T) {
 // public CA can validate a private name, and asking anyway would only spend the account's rate
 // limit on an order that can never succeed.
 func TestNoCertificateIsAskedForOnAnInternalAlias(t *testing.T) {
-	routes, public, err := routesFrom(write(t, `{"given":[
+	routes, public, err := routesFrom(`{"given":[
 	  {"from":"app","node":"anchor","at":"anchor.internal",
 	   "values":{"name":"app.example","internal-name":"app.anchor.internal","port":8080}}
-	]}`))
+	]}`)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
@@ -341,10 +358,10 @@ func TestNoCertificateIsAskedForOnAnInternalAlias(t *testing.T) {
 // A certificate is asked of the *internal* authority only for a name that is routed here and is
 // not a route's own public name — the internal-network alias, never the route it accompanies.
 func TestTheInternalAuthorityOnlyCertifiesInternalOnlyAliases(t *testing.T) {
-	routes, public, err := routesFrom(write(t, `{"given":[
+	routes, public, err := routesFrom(`{"given":[
 	  {"from":"app","node":"anchor","at":"anchor.internal",
 	   "values":{"name":"app.example","internal-name":"app.anchor.internal","port":8080}}
-	]}`))
+	]}`)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
@@ -385,10 +402,10 @@ func TestWithdrawingARouteWithdrawsItsCertificate(t *testing.T) {
 // default refuses them long before the workload is reached. It is configuration beside `insecure`,
 // not a fifth policy — novox/hq ADR 0108 closed that set at four.
 func TestARouteMayLimitTheBodyItCarries(t *testing.T) {
-	routes, _, err := routesFrom(write(t, `{"given":[
+	routes, _, err := routesFrom(`{"given":[
 	  {"from":"registry","node":"anchor","at":"anchor.internal",
 	   "values":{"name":"images.example","port":5000,"max-request-body":21474836480}}
-	]}`))
+	]}`)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
@@ -403,9 +420,9 @@ func TestARouteMayLimitTheBodyItCarries(t *testing.T) {
 
 // Saying nothing leaves the route unlimited, which is what every route already got.
 func TestARouteThatSaysNothingCarriesAnySize(t *testing.T) {
-	routes, _, err := routesFrom(write(t, `{"given":[
+	routes, _, err := routesFrom(`{"given":[
 	  {"from":"app","node":"anchor","at":"anchor.internal","values":{"name":"app.example","port":8080}}
-	]}`))
+	]}`)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
@@ -427,10 +444,10 @@ func TestABodyOverTheLimitIsRefusedAndOneUnderItIsCarried(t *testing.T) {
 
 	at := strings.TrimPrefix(workload.URL, "http://")
 	host, port, _ := strings.Cut(at, ":")
-	routes, _, err := routesFrom(write(t, `{"given":[
-	  {"from":"registry","node":"anchor","at":"`+host+`",
-	   "values":{"name":"images.example","port":`+port+`,"max-request-body":8}}
-	]}`))
+	routes, _, err := routesFrom(`{"given":[
+	  {"from":"registry","node":"anchor","at":"` + host + `",
+	   "values":{"name":"images.example","port":` + port + `,"max-request-body":8}}
+	]}`)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
@@ -491,7 +508,7 @@ func TestAContributionThatCannotBeServedIsSkipped(t *testing.T) {
 		{"a zero limit", `{"from":"r","node":"a","at":"a.internal","values":{"name":"images.example","port":5000,"max-request-body":0}}`, ""},
 		{"a fractional limit", `{"from":"r","node":"a","at":"a.internal","values":{"name":"images.example","port":5000,"max-request-body":1.5}}`, ""},
 	} {
-		routes, public, err := routesFrom(write(t, `{"given":[`+row.given+`]}`))
+		routes, public, err := routesFrom(`{"given":[` + row.given + `]}`)
 		if err != nil {
 			t.Fatal(err)
 		}
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/contract/contract.go b/modules/route-proxy/contract/contract.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..99b8d46b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/contract/contract.go
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+// Package contract is route-proxy's contract for the provision `route`: what a consumer asks a route with, what the
+// proxy keeps on the bus about what it serves, the events it says, and its tools' arguments (issue 774; research 072
+// row 34; the operator, 2026-10-31: "the route-proxy should define its own contract for the seat (with the message
+// contracts of course) which other modules can use").
+//
+// **Published by the repository that holds route-proxy, as its own Go module**, versioned by tags of the form
+// `modules/route-proxy/contract/vX.Y.Z`, the subdirectory form Go's module system expects, the same way mesh-sdk is
+// published (`go/vX.Y.Z`). A module that asks a route, reads what the proxy serves or hears its events imports this
+// package; nothing imports the repository. Standard library only, so a consumer takes nothing else with it.
+//
+// **How a route travels.** A module that must be reachable requires `route` and says, in its manifest's
+// `contributes.route`, one Request, or several by local name; Schema is that object's JSON schema. The controller
+// composes each (its label joined to the node's domains into `name` and `internal-name`, its endpoint's port into
+// `port`) and the seat mesh-provisioner carries the result in the consumer's plan entry as an opaque payload
+// (mesh-sdk catalogue.PlanProvision.Contributed, in the generic catalogue.ContributedForm). Neither the seat nor its
+// client knows a field of a route: route-proxy decodes each contribution with DecodeRequest, and refuses, saying why
+// (EventRefused), what this contract does not admit.
+//
+// **Two name spaces, two authorities** (novox/hq ADR 0056, ADR 0138). `name` is public: served to anyone and
+// certified by the public ACME directory (Let's Encrypt). `internal-name` is served only inside the private network
+// and certified by the mesh's own authority. A route carries either, or both.
+package contract
+
+// Module is the module that provides a route, and Provision what it provides: what a plan's entry names when
+// route-proxy is a route's provider.
+const (
+	Module    = "route-proxy"
+	Provision = "route"
+)
+
+// Version is the version of the Request form this package reads and writes.
+const Version = 1
+
+// The events route-proxy says (its manifest's `emits`), on mesh.mod.route-proxy.event.<type>, each with an Event.
+const (
+	// EventServed: a name is now served by this proxy (it was not, or it is now served from other rules).
+	EventServed = "route.served"
+	// EventWithdrawn: a name this proxy served is served no more, because no plan gives it any longer.
+	EventWithdrawn = "route.withdrawn"
+	// EventRefused: a plan gives this proxy a route it does not serve, and Why says why.
+	EventRefused = "route.refused"
+)
+
+// Event is the body of every event route-proxy says: the proxy's machine, the name (empty for a refusal that named
+// none), how far it reaches, and who asked it: the consumer module, its machine and the local name of its
+// contribution. Why is set on a refusal alone.
+type Event struct {
+	Proxy  string `json:"proxy"`
+	Name   string `json:"name,omitempty"`
+	Reach  string `json:"reach,omitempty"`
+	Module string `json:"module,omitempty"`
+	Node   string `json:"node,omitempty"`
+	Local  string `json:"local,omitempty"`
+	Why    string `json:"why,omitempty"`
+}
+
+// The tools route-proxy serves (its manifest's `tools`), each answering from its states RoutesState and UnroutedState.
+const (
+	// ToolRoutes lists every name served, with RoutesArgs.
+	ToolRoutes = "route_proxy_routes"
+	// ToolRoute is one name in full, with RouteArgs.
+	ToolRoute = "route_proxy_route"
+	// ToolUnrouted lists the names asked for and not served, with RoutesArgs.
+	ToolUnrouted = "route_proxy_unrouted"
+)
+
+// RoutesArgs are ToolRoutes' and ToolUnrouted's arguments: Node narrows to the proxy on one machine, every machine
+// when empty.
+type RoutesArgs struct {
+	Node string `json:"node,omitempty"`
+}
+
+// RouteArgs are ToolRoute's arguments: the name, such as app.example.org, and optionally the machine whose proxy.
+type RouteArgs struct {
+	Name string `json:"name"`
+	Node string `json:"node,omitempty"`
+}
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/contract/contract_test.go b/modules/route-proxy/contract/contract_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5095e0ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/contract/contract_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+package contract
+
+import (
+	"encoding/json"
+	"reflect"
+	"slices"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+func limit(n int64) *int64 { return &n }
+
+// A route is read strictly and whole (issue 774): what the contract names is admitted, what it does not, or a route
+// it cannot serve, is refused naming why; and the published schema names exactly the fields the decoder reads.
+func TestARouteIsReadStrictly(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, c := range []struct {
+		raw, refused string
+		want         Request
+	}{
+		{raw: `{"name":"app.example.org","internal-name":"app.anchor.internal","label":"app","endpoint":"web","port":8080}`,
+			want: Request{Name: "app.example.org", InternalName: "app.anchor.internal", Label: "app", Endpoint: "web", Port: 8080}},
+		{raw: `{"internal-name":"app.anchor.internal","port":443,"scheme":"https","insecure":true,"max-request-body":1048576}`,
+			want: Request{InternalName: "app.anchor.internal", Port: 443, Scheme: "https", Insecure: true, MaxRequestBody: limit(1048576)}},
+		{raw: `{"name":"git.example.org","path":"/api/internal","deny":true,"priority":100000}`,
+			want: Request{Name: "git.example.org", Path: "/api/internal", Deny: true, Priority: 100000}},
+		{raw: `{"name":"old.example.org","redirect":"https://new.example.org"}`,
+			want: Request{Name: "old.example.org", Redirect: "https://new.example.org"}},
+		{raw: `{"name":"admin.example.org","port":80,"auth":"/run/secrets/admin"}`,
+			want: Request{Name: "admin.example.org", Port: 80, Auth: "/run/secrets/admin"}},
+		{raw: `{"label":"app","port":8080}`, refused: "names nothing"},
+		{raw: `{"name":"app.example.org"}`, refused: "gives no port"},
+		{raw: `{"name":"app.example.org","port":70000}`, refused: "not a port"},
+		{raw: `{"name":"app.example.org","port":80.5}`, refused: "not a route"},
+		{raw: `{"name":"app.example.org","port":"80"}`, refused: "not a route"},
+		{raw: `{"name":"app.example.org","port":80,"scheme":"ftp"}`, refused: "neither http nor https"},
+		{raw: `{"name":"app.example.org","port":80,"max-request-body":-1}`, refused: "max-request-body"},
+		{raw: `{"name":"app.example.org","port":80,"max-request-body":0}`, refused: "max-request-body"},
+		{raw: `{"name":"app.example.org","port":80,"auth":"admin:$2y$05$abc"}`, refused: "credential"},
+		{raw: `{"name":"app.example.org","port":80,"host":"x"}`, refused: "unknown field \"host\""},
+		{raw: `{"name":"app.example.org","port":80} {}`, refused: "more than one"},
+	} {
+		got, err := DecodeRequest([]byte(c.raw))
+		if c.refused != "" {
+			if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), c.refused) {
+				t.Errorf("DecodeRequest(%s) = %+v, %v; want refused for %q", c.raw, got, err, c.refused)
+			}
+			continue
+		}
+		if err != nil || !reflect.DeepEqual(got, c.want) {
+			t.Errorf("DecodeRequest(%s) = %+v, %v; want %+v", c.raw, got, err, c.want)
+			continue
+		}
+		// What it encodes, it reads back the same.
+		if raw, err := got.Encode(); err != nil {
+			t.Errorf("Encode(%+v): %v", got, err)
+		} else if again, err := DecodeRequest(raw); err != nil || !reflect.DeepEqual(again, got) {
+			t.Errorf("Encode then DecodeRequest of %+v = %+v, %v", got, again, err)
+		}
+	}
+	if (Request{Path: "api"}).Prefix() != "/api" || (Request{}).Prefix() != "" || (Request{Scheme: " HTTPS"}).SchemeOrDefault() != "https" ||
+		(Request{}).SchemeOrDefault() != "http" || (Request{Redirect: "x"}).Forwards() {
+		t.Error("Prefix, SchemeOrDefault or Forwards says otherwise than the contract")
+	}
+
+	var schema struct {
+		Properties           map[string]json.RawMessage `json:"properties"`
+		AdditionalProperties bool                       `json:"additionalProperties"`
+	}
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(Schema, &schema); err != nil || schema.AdditionalProperties {
+		t.Fatalf("the schema is not a closed object: %v", err)
+	}
+	var tags []string
+	for f := range reflect.TypeFor[Request]().Fields() {
+		tags = append(tags, strings.Split(f.Tag.Get("json"), ",")[0])
+	}
+	var said []string
+	for name := range schema.Properties {
+		said = append(said, name)
+	}
+	slices.Sort(tags)
+	slices.Sort(said)
+	if !slices.Equal(tags, said) {
+		t.Fatalf("the schema names %v, the decoder reads %v", said, tags)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/contract/go.mod b/modules/route-proxy/contract/go.mod
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..91110457
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/contract/go.mod
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+module git.novox.be/novox/mesh-controller/modules/route-proxy/contract
+
+go 1.26.0
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/contract/request.go b/modules/route-proxy/contract/request.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1a10c98b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/contract/request.go
@@ -0,0 +1,128 @@
+package contract
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	_ "embed"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"errors"
+	"fmt"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+// Request is one route a consumer asks for, as its manifest's `contributes.route` says it and the controller composes
+// it: the object Schema describes. Every field is optional to the decoder; Validate says which a route needs.
+type Request struct {
+	// Name is the public name, served to anyone and certified by the public ACME directory; InternalName the name on
+	// the private network, served inside it alone and certified by the mesh's own authority. The controller composes
+	// both from Label and the node's domains, as far as the endpoint reaches (novox/hq ADR 0138); a manifest writes a
+	// label, never a domain.
+	Name         string `json:"name,omitempty"`
+	InternalName string `json:"internal-name,omitempty"`
+	Label        string `json:"label,omitempty"`
+	// Endpoint names the manifest's endpoint the route serves; the controller fills Port from it.
+	Endpoint string `json:"endpoint,omitempty"`
+	Port     int    `json:"port,omitempty"`
+	// Path is the path prefix the rule is scoped to, every path when empty; Priority which rule wins where two match,
+	// higher first.
+	Path     string `json:"path,omitempty"`
+	Priority int    `json:"priority,omitempty"`
+	// Scheme is how the consumer is reached, http (the default) or https; Insecure skips verifying its certificate,
+	// for a backend that terminates TLS with its own.
+	Scheme   string `json:"scheme,omitempty"`
+	Insecure bool   `json:"insecure,omitempty"`
+	// MaxRequestBody is the largest body, in bytes, the route carries; no limit when absent. Said, it is whole and
+	// positive: a limit the proxy cannot keep is a route it does not serve.
+	MaxRequestBody *int64 `json:"max-request-body,omitempty"`
+	// The policy of the rule, a closed set (novox/hq ADR 0108): Deny refuses every request, Redirect answers with a
+	// permanent redirect to that address, and Auth names the file of the secret a request must present, never the
+	// secret itself.
+	Deny     bool   `json:"deny,omitempty"`
+	Redirect string `json:"redirect,omitempty"`
+	Auth     string `json:"auth,omitempty"`
+}
+
+// Schema is Request's JSON schema, published with this package for what checks a manifest's `contributes.route`.
+//
+//go:embed route.schema.json
+var Schema []byte
+
+// DecodeRequest reads one contribution's object strictly: no field this contract does not name, one document, and
+// a route Validate admits. What it refuses, it refuses whole, naming why: a route is never served half.
+func DecodeRequest(raw []byte) (Request, error) {
+	var r Request
+	dec := json.NewDecoder(bytes.NewReader(raw))
+	dec.DisallowUnknownFields()
+	if err := dec.Decode(&r); err != nil {
+		return Request{}, fmt.Errorf("not a route this contract reads: %w", err)
+	}
+	if dec.More() {
+		return Request{}, errors.New("not a route this contract reads: more than one document")
+	}
+	if err := r.Validate(); err != nil {
+		return Request{}, err
+	}
+	return r, nil
+}
+
+// Encode is r as a contribution's object, refused where DecodeRequest would refuse it.
+func (r Request) Encode() ([]byte, error) {
+	if err := r.Validate(); err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	return json.Marshal(r)
+}
+
+// Validate says what makes r no route: no name of either kind; a port outside 1-65535, or none where the rule
+// forwards (neither Deny nor Redirect); a scheme other than http or https; a body limit that is not positive; and a
+// credential written where a secret's file is to be named (novox/hq ADR 0108: refused rather than tolerated).
+func (r Request) Validate() error {
+	if strings.TrimSpace(r.Name) == "" && strings.TrimSpace(r.InternalName) == "" {
+		return errors.New("the route names nothing to be served under: neither name nor internal-name")
+	}
+	if r.Port < 0 || r.Port > 65535 {
+		return fmt.Errorf("the route's port %d is not a port", r.Port)
+	}
+	if r.Forwards() && r.Port == 0 {
+		return errors.New("the route forwards and gives no port")
+	}
+	switch strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSpace(r.Scheme)) {
+	case "", "http", "https":
+	default:
+		return fmt.Errorf("the route's scheme %q is neither http nor https", r.Scheme)
+	}
+	if r.MaxRequestBody != nil && *r.MaxRequestBody <= 0 {
+		return fmt.Errorf("the route's max-request-body %d is not a positive number of bytes", *r.MaxRequestBody)
+	}
+	if LooksLikeACredential(r.Auth) {
+		return errors.New("the route's auth holds a credential rather than the name of a secret's file (novox/hq ADR 0108)")
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
+// Forwards is whether the rule sends a request on to the consumer, rather than answering it itself.
+func (r Request) Forwards() bool { return !r.Deny && r.Redirect == "" }
+
+// Prefix is the path prefix the rule is scoped to, beginning with a slash, or "" for every path.
+func (r Request) Prefix() string {
+	p := strings.TrimSpace(r.Path)
+	if p != "" && !strings.HasPrefix(p, "/") {
+		p = "/" + p
+	}
+	return p
+}
+
+// SchemeOrDefault is how the consumer is reached: the scheme, lower-cased, http when none is said.
+func (r Request) SchemeOrDefault() string {
+	if s := strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSpace(r.Scheme)); s != "" {
+		return s
+	}
+	return "http"
+}
+
+// LooksLikeACredential is the check that keeps a secret out of a declaration: a value holding a `:` (the htpasswd
+// separator) or opening with a bcrypt identifier is a credential, not a path, and no path the mesh writes needs
+// either. It errs towards refusing.
+func LooksLikeACredential(v string) bool {
+	v = strings.TrimSpace(v)
+	return strings.Contains(v, ":") || strings.HasPrefix(v, "$2")
+}
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/contract/route.schema.json b/modules/route-proxy/contract/route.schema.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..af55a78d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/contract/route.schema.json
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+{
+  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
+  "$id": "https://git.novox.be/novox/mesh-controller/modules/route-proxy/contract/route.schema.json",
+  "title": "route",
+  "description": "One route a consumer asks route-proxy for, as a manifest's contributes.route says it (one, or several by local name) and the controller composes it. Version 1 of route-proxy's contract.",
+  "type": "object",
+  "additionalProperties": false,
+  "anyOf": [
+    {"required": ["name"]},
+    {"required": ["internal-name"]},
+    {"required": ["label"]}
+  ],
+  "properties": {
+    "name": {"type": "string", "description": "the public name, served to anyone and certified by the public ACME directory; composed from label"},
+    "internal-name": {"type": "string", "description": "the name on the private network, served inside it alone and certified by the mesh's own authority; composed from label"},
+    "label": {"type": "string", "description": "the subdomain the module chooses; joined to the node's domains by the controller"},
+    "endpoint": {"type": "string", "description": "the manifest's endpoint the route serves; the controller fills port from it"},
+    "port": {"type": "integer", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 65535},
+    "path": {"type": "string", "description": "the path prefix the rule is scoped to; every path when absent"},
+    "priority": {"type": "integer", "description": "which rule wins where two match, higher first"},
+    "scheme": {"enum": ["http", "https"], "description": "how the consumer is reached; http when absent"},
+    "insecure": {"type": "boolean", "description": "skip verifying the consumer's certificate over https"},
+    "max-request-body": {"type": "integer", "minimum": 1, "description": "the largest body, in bytes, the route carries"},
+    "deny": {"type": "boolean", "description": "refuse every request matching the rule"},
+    "redirect": {"type": "string", "description": "answer with a permanent redirect to this address"},
+    "auth": {"type": "string", "description": "the file of the secret a request must present, never the secret itself"}
+  }
+}
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/internal/routestate/routestate.go b/modules/route-proxy/contract/state.go
similarity index 92%
rename from modules/route-proxy/internal/routestate/routestate.go
rename to modules/route-proxy/contract/state.go
index 44dd82d8..e1fce955 100644
--- a/modules/route-proxy/internal/routestate/routestate.go
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/contract/state.go
@@ -1,11 +1,12 @@
-// Package routestate is what the web front keeps on the bus about the names it serves, and about the names it was asked
-// for and does not serve (issue 774): the shape both halves of route-proxy agree on. The proxy writes it, on change,
-// in its states `routes` and `unrouted`, announced readable; the module's tools read it from there, so the question
-// "is this site reachable, and is its certificate good" is answered from the bus rather than with curl.
+package contract
+
+// What the web front keeps on the bus about the names it serves, and about the names it was asked for and does not
+// serve (issue 774). The proxy writes it, on change, in its states `routes` and `unrouted`, announced readable; the
+// module's tools, and any module that reads them, read it from there, so the question "is this site reachable, and
+// is its certificate good" is answered from the bus rather than with curl.
 //
 // A key is `<node>.<name>`: the machine whose proxy answers, then the name as asked, lower-cased. A node's name holds
 // no dot, so the first dot splits them.
-package routestate
 
 import (
 	"net"
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/go.mod b/modules/route-proxy/go.mod
index c826c270..8be93094 100644
--- a/modules/route-proxy/go.mod
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/go.mod
@@ -3,12 +3,13 @@ module route-proxy
 go 1.26.0
 
 require (
-	git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go v0.1.14-0.20261030231858-b9ef1e4fcb68
+	git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go v0.1.14-0.20261031084708-acbf80ad910a
 	github.com/nats-io/nats.go v1.54.0
 	golang.org/x/crypto v0.57.0
 )
 
 require (
+	git.novox.be/novox/mesh-controller/modules/route-proxy/contract v0.1.0
 	github.com/klauspost/compress v1.20.0 // indirect
 	github.com/nats-io/nkeys v0.4.16 // indirect
 	github.com/nats-io/nuid v1.0.1 // indirect
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/go.sum b/modules/route-proxy/go.sum
index 286ed6eb..6fbcb8c2 100644
--- a/modules/route-proxy/go.sum
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/go.sum
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
-git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go v0.1.14-0.20261030231858-b9ef1e4fcb68 h1:2rMJX0RMIBaN5NDIaEZVwbj5MFism1O3bRayEz+WlOs=
-git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go v0.1.14-0.20261030231858-b9ef1e4fcb68/go.mod h1:ouERNpZizzwZ0HLEtAypsY9FR20FyUgUYRni6J7kVCY=
+git.novox.be/novox/mesh-controller/modules/route-proxy/contract v0.1.0 h1:89jE1oBK+l7gFJjz6wx8mUD3KxrqSDa7pUTlQkzC1do=
+git.novox.be/novox/mesh-controller/modules/route-proxy/contract v0.1.0/go.mod h1:Yr+Xp89kpMiKH6kA06EU+d9I2CyzrK9yMX7J3pSv0hE=
+git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go v0.1.14-0.20261031084708-acbf80ad910a h1:DcSvfEmdPBKqCg5OmXRNb269EkkPe7BsEp+RykEhkgE=
+git.novox.be/novox/mesh-sdk/go v0.1.14-0.20261031084708-acbf80ad910a/go.mod h1:ouERNpZizzwZ0HLEtAypsY9FR20FyUgUYRni6J7kVCY=
 github.com/antithesishq/antithesis-sdk-go v0.7.0-default-no-op h1:Z/MZK75wC/NSrkgqeNIa7jexam9uWzhLmFTSCPI/kn0=
 github.com/antithesishq/antithesis-sdk-go v0.7.0-default-no-op/go.mod h1:FQyySiasQQM8735Ddel3MRojmy4dA1IqCeyJ5jmPMbI=
 github.com/google/go-tpm v0.9.8 h1:slArAR9Ft+1ybZu0lBwpSmpwhRXaa85hWtMinMyRAWo=
diff --git a/modules/route-proxy/module.json b/modules/route-proxy/module.json
index 1a42825f..67e20525 100644
--- a/modules/route-proxy/module.json
+++ b/modules/route-proxy/module.json
@@ -16,9 +16,6 @@
   "serves": {
     "route": {}
   },
-  "receives": {
-    "route": "${dir:routes-dir}/mesh.json"
-  },
   "requires": [
     "internal-acme-ca"
   ],
@@ -73,12 +70,6 @@
       "mode": "0700",
       "place": "mesh"
     },
-    {
-      "id": "routes-dir",
-      "type": "directory",
-      "path": "/var/lib/route-proxy/routes",
-      "mode": "0700"
-    },
     {
       "id": "acme-cache",
       "type": "directory",
@@ -167,14 +158,12 @@
         "${dir:state}/internal-acme.env"
       ],
       "volumes": [
-        "${dir:routes-dir}:/routes:ro",
         "${dir:acme-cache}:/acme",
         "${dir:ca-dir}:/ca:ro",
         "${dir:mesh-state}/broker:/run/secrets/broker:ro",
         "${dir:state}/route-proxy:/opt/mesh:ro"
       ],
       "env": {
-        "ROUTES": "/routes/mesh.json",
         "LISTEN": ":80",
         "TLS_LISTEN": ":443",
         "ACME_CACHE": "/acme",
@@ -256,6 +245,11 @@
     "route_proxy_route",
     "route_proxy_unrouted"
   ],
+  "emits": [
+    "route.served",
+    "route.withdrawn",
+    "route.refused"
+  ],
   "replaces": {
     "route_proxy_routes": [
       "curl -I"
@@ -268,6 +262,7 @@
     ]
   },
   "reads": [
+    "mesh-delivery-assigner.placement",
     "mesh-provisioner.plans",
     "mesh-provisioner.provisions"
   ]