A token is an account on the bus, and genesis can place the list

novox/hq 04-ISSUES/146. The composed user list names an enrolment user for
every machine with a live token and nothing minted a credential for it, so the
composer left it out as a user with no password — and every enrolment since the
mesh moved to this bus was refused before the mesh heard of it. The comment
above the issuing code already said the account is created before the token is
handed over; now it is. Recorded rather than minted, because the token's secret
is the password.

And 'broker accounts', which composes the same list the declaration carries and
writes it to standard output. For genesis, where no declaration can reach the
machine running the bus because that machine is not yet a node. It says what it
composed; whoever is raising the machine places it. A control plane that wrote
the file itself would have to learn where the bus keeps its configuration and
how to make it reload, which is the module's knowledge.

internal/inventory/bususers.go

@@ -51,6 +51,40 @@ const (
 // reply, into a module's sealed environment — and the mesh keeps only the hash, so a credential is
 // never recoverable from the store. A caller that loses it must mint again, which is a rotation and
 // is meant to feel like one.
+// RecordBusPassword records a hash for a password the caller already holds.
+//
+// **For the one credential the mesh does not choose**: an enrolment token's secret is the password
+// of the user that presents it (novox/hq ADR 0004, design 25 §6), so the token cannot be given a
+// minted password — it already has one, and the machine will connect with exactly that string.
+// Everything else goes through Mint, which chooses and returns the plaintext once.
+func (i *Inventory) RecordBusPassword(ctx context.Context, u BusUser, password string) error {
+	if u.Username == "" || u.Kind == "" {
+		return errors.New("a bus user needs a username and a kind")
+	}
+	if password == "" {
+		return errors.New("a bus user needs a password")
+	}
+	hash, err := bcrypt.GenerateFromPassword([]byte(password), bcrypt.DefaultCost)
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("cannot hash a bus password: %w", err)
+	}
+	return i.writeBusUser(ctx, u, string(hash))
+}
+
+// writeBusUser is the row, whoever chose the password.
+func (i *Inventory) writeBusUser(ctx context.Context, u BusUser, hash string) error {
+	if _, err := i.store.Pool().Exec(ctx,
+		`insert into bus_user (username, kind, node, module, password_hash)
+		 values ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5)
+		 on conflict (username) do update
+		   set kind = excluded.kind, node = excluded.node, module = excluded.module,
+		       password_hash = excluded.password_hash, minted_at = now()`,
+		u.Username, u.Kind, u.Node, u.Module, hash); err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("cannot record the bus user %s: %w", u.Username, err)
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
 func (i *Inventory) MintBusPassword(ctx context.Context, u BusUser) (string, error) {
 	if u.Username == "" || u.Kind == "" {
 		return "", errors.New("a bus user needs a username and a kind")
@@ -69,14 +103,8 @@ func (i *Inventory) MintBusPassword(ctx context.Context, u BusUser) (string, err
 		return "", fmt.Errorf("cannot hash a bus password: %w", err)
 	}
 
-	if _, err := i.store.Pool().Exec(ctx,
-		`insert into bus_user (username, kind, node, module, password_hash)
-		 values ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5)
-		 on conflict (username) do update
-		   set kind = excluded.kind, node = excluded.node, module = excluded.module,
-		       password_hash = excluded.password_hash, minted_at = now()`,
-		u.Username, u.Kind, u.Node, u.Module, string(hash)); err != nil {
-		return "", fmt.Errorf("cannot record the bus user %s: %w", u.Username, err)
+	if err := i.writeBusUser(ctx, u, string(hash)); err != nil {
+		return "", err
 	}
 	return password, nil
 }