Two machines holding the build role share one queue, and neither is handed an ask while busy (hq ADR 0190)

Against a real bus: three asks, two machines; each takes one, the third waits until one is free
and then goes to that one; a machine that stops leaves nothing taken twice. The redelivery of an
ask a dead machine held is the ack wait's, proven by the hand-back test beside this one.

And the order a live mesh switches over in, written where the role is named: queued builds first,
then this controller, then build-agent assigned where machines build, then the builder and the old
seat's stream forgotten.

Makefile

@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ PROVISIONER_IMAGE ?= mesh-provision-postgres:$(VERSION)
 PROVISIONER_DEV_TAG ?= mesh-provision-postgres:development
 
 provisioner-image:
-	docker build -f examples/postgres-provisioner/Dockerfile \
+	docker build --build-arg GO_BASE=$(GO_BASE) -f examples/postgres-provisioner/Dockerfile \
 		-t $(PROVISIONER_IMAGE) -t $(PROVISIONER_DEV_TAG) .
 	@echo
 	@docker image inspect $(PROVISIONER_IMAGE) --format 'built {{.RepoTags}}  {{.Size}} bytes'
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ OBJECTSTORE_IMAGE ?= mesh-provision-objectstore:$(VERSION)
 OBJECTSTORE_DEV_TAG ?= mesh-provision-objectstore:development
 
 objectstore-image:
-	docker build -f examples/objectstore-provisioner/Dockerfile \
+	docker build --build-arg GO_BASE=$(GO_BASE) -f examples/objectstore-provisioner/Dockerfile \
 		-t $(OBJECTSTORE_IMAGE) -t $(OBJECTSTORE_DEV_TAG) .
 	@echo
 	@docker image inspect $(OBJECTSTORE_IMAGE) --format 'built {{.RepoTags}}  {{.Size}} bytes'
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ REDIS_PROVISIONER_IMAGE ?= mesh-provision-redis:$(VERSION)
 REDIS_PROVISIONER_DEV_TAG ?= mesh-provision-redis:development
 
 redis-provisioner-image:
-	docker build -f examples/redis-provisioner/Dockerfile \
+	docker build --build-arg GO_BASE=$(GO_BASE) -f examples/redis-provisioner/Dockerfile \
 		-t $(REDIS_PROVISIONER_IMAGE) -t $(REDIS_PROVISIONER_DEV_TAG) .
 	@echo
 	@docker image inspect $(REDIS_PROVISIONER_IMAGE) --format 'built {{.RepoTags}}  {{.Size}} bytes'
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ PROXY_IMAGE ?= mesh-route-proxy:$(VERSION)
 PROXY_DEV_TAG ?= mesh-route-proxy:development
 
 proxy-image:
-	docker build -f examples/route-proxy/Dockerfile -t $(PROXY_IMAGE) -t $(PROXY_DEV_TAG) .
+	docker build --build-arg GO_BASE=$(GO_BASE) -f examples/route-proxy/Dockerfile -t $(PROXY_IMAGE) -t $(PROXY_DEV_TAG) .
 	@echo
 	@docker image inspect $(PROXY_IMAGE) --format 'built {{.RepoTags}}  {{.Size}} bytes'
 

cmd/mesh-controller/adopting_test.go

@@ -95,11 +95,22 @@ func reportsReaching(t *testing.T, open *stores, reachable []link.Reach, held ..
 		// filter is not sent to one that has not. The anchor reports one, as a real host does; this
 		// fixture lacked it from 2026-09-28 and nothing ran the test (issue 177).
 		Outward: []string{"eth0"},
+		// And what filters it (ADR 0168): its front end, the runtime's own, and a chain a
+		// predecessor left in the runtime's user chain.
+		Filters: anchorFilters,
 	}); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 }
 
+// anchorFilters is what the adopted anchor says filters it: ufw's chains, the runtime's, and a
+// predecessor's chain the mesh did not write.
+var anchorFilters = []link.Filter{
+	{Where: "table ip filter, chain ufw-reject-input", Owner: "found-firewall", Refuses: "reject"},
+	{Where: "table ip filter, chain DOCKER", Owner: "runtime", Refuses: `iifname != "docker0" oifname "docker0" drop`},
+	{Where: "table ip filter, chain DOCKER-USER", Owner: "other", Refuses: `iifname "eth0" tcp dport 6000 drop`},
+}
+
 var (
 	heldContainer = link.Held{ID: "hello-web.server", Module: "hello-web", Kind: "container",
 		Target: "hello-web", Since: time.Now()}
@@ -143,7 +154,24 @@ func TestTheFlipIsRefusedWhileAFoundContainerIsHeld(t *testing.T) {
 func TestTakingNamesWhatItReplaces(t *testing.T) {
 	open, _ := anAdoptedAnchor(t)
 	reportsHolding(t, open, heldContainer, heldFile)
-	said, err := take(t.Context(), open, "anchor", "hello-web", takeOptions{Yes: true})
+	ctx := t.Context()
+	// The machine holds something for the module, so the take acts on the preview the operator
+	// saw and names its digest (novox/hq ADR 0163).
+	preview, err := take(ctx, open, "anchor", "hello-web", takeOptions{})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	saw := takeDigestIn(t, preview)
+	if !strings.Contains(preview, "nothing taken; `take anchor hello-web --yes "+saw+"`") {
+		t.Fatalf("the preview does not say how to act on it:\n%s", preview)
+	}
+	if taken, _ := open.inventory.Taken(ctx, "anchor"); len(taken) != 0 {
+		t.Fatal("the preview took something")
+	}
+	if _, err := take(ctx, open, "anchor", "hello-web", takeOptions{Yes: true}); err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "name its digest") {
+		t.Fatalf("--yes without the digest was not refused: %v", err)
+	}
+	said, err := take(ctx, open, "anchor", "hello-web", takeOptions{Yes: true, Digest: saw})
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
@@ -153,6 +181,67 @@ func TestTakingNamesWhatItReplaces(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+// takeDigestIn is the digest a take's preview printed.
+func takeDigestIn(t *testing.T, preview string) string {
+	t.Helper()
+	for _, line := range strings.Split(preview, "\n") {
+		if fields := strings.Fields(line); len(fields) == 2 && fields[0] == "preview" {
+			return fields[1]
+		}
+	}
+	t.Fatalf("the preview printed no digest:\n%s", preview)
+	return ""
+}
+
+// A take acts on the preview the operator saw, and on an account of the machine that is still the
+// machine: a changed preview and a stale account refuse (novox/hq ADR 0163, rule 1).
+func TestATakeIsRefusedOnAChangedPreviewOrAStaleAccount(t *testing.T) {
+	open, _ := anAdoptedAnchor(t)
+	ctx := t.Context()
+	reportsHolding(t, open, heldContainer, heldFile)
+	preview, err := take(ctx, open, "anchor", "hello-web", takeOptions{})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	saw := takeDigestIn(t, preview)
+
+	// The machine reports again, and what it holds has changed: the found container now carries
+	// facts the preview never showed.
+	changed := heldContainer
+	changed.Facts = map[string]any{"image": "hello:2", "declared_image": "registry.example/hello"}
+	reportsHolding(t, open, changed, heldFile)
+	_, err = take(ctx, open, "anchor", "hello-web", takeOptions{Yes: true, Digest: saw})
+	if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "has changed since preview "+saw) {
+		t.Fatalf("a changed preview was acted on: %v", err)
+	}
+	if taken, _ := open.inventory.Taken(ctx, "anchor"); len(taken) != 0 {
+		t.Fatal("a refused take took something")
+	}
+
+	// And an account older than the flip allows.
+	preview, err = take(ctx, open, "anchor", "hello-web", takeOptions{})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	saw = takeDigestIn(t, preview)
+	saved := reportFreshFor
+	reportFreshFor = -time.Second
+	defer func() { reportFreshFor = saved }()
+	_, err = take(ctx, open, "anchor", "hello-web", takeOptions{Yes: true, Digest: saw})
+	if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "a take acts only on an account newer than") {
+		t.Fatalf("a stale account was acted on: %v", err)
+	}
+	reportFreshFor = saved
+	if _, err := take(ctx, open, "anchor", "hello-web", takeOptions{Yes: true, Digest: saw}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	// A module the machine holds nothing for has nothing to compare: --yes alone suffices.
+	if _, err := take(ctx, open, "anchor", "notes", takeOptions{Yes: true}); err == nil {
+		// notes holds a file, so this one needs the digest too.
+		t.Fatal("notes holds a found file and was taken without a digest")
+	}
+}
+
 func TestConvergingPreviewsThenChangesAndAdoptingKeepsWhatWasTaken(t *testing.T) {
 	open, sent := anAdoptedAnchor(t)
 	ctx := t.Context()
@@ -186,6 +275,20 @@ func TestConvergingPreviewsThenChangesAndAdoptingKeepsWhatWasTaken(t *testing.T)
 	if strings.Contains(preview, "15672") {
 		t.Errorf("a loopback listener is in the preview:\n%s", preview)
 	}
+	// What filters the machine now, and the fate of each (novox/hq ADR 0168): the predecessor's
+	// chain is named as not the mesh's and left, so the reader knows before the flip.
+	for _, want := range []string{
+		"table ip filter, chain DOCKER-USER",
+		"NOT THE MESH'S; left in force",
+		`iifname "eth0" tcp dport 6000 drop`,
+		"table ip filter, chain ufw-reject-input",
+		"the found firewall's; retired with it",
+		"the container runtime's own; left",
+	} {
+		if !strings.Contains(preview, want) {
+			t.Errorf("the preview does not say %q:\n%s", want, preview)
+		}
+	}
 	for _, line := range strings.Split(preview, "\n") {
 		if strings.Contains(line, "5000") && !strings.Contains(line, "WILL CLOSE") {
 			t.Errorf("an undeclared published port is not said to close: %s", line)

cmd/mesh-controller/adoption.go

@@ -29,6 +29,10 @@ func showMode(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, node inventory.Node
 		if said, err := inv.AdoptionOf(ctx, node.Name); err == nil && len(said.Strays) > 0 {
 			showStrays(said.Strays)
 		}
+		// And what filters it, truthfully (novox/hq ADR 0168): the mesh alone, or not.
+		if filtering, err := inv.FilteringOf(ctx, node.Name); err == nil {
+			showFiltering(filtering, false)
+		}
 		return nil
 	}
 	fmt.Printf("  mode              adopted since %s\n",
@@ -72,10 +76,65 @@ func showMode(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, node inventory.Node
 		}
 	}
 	showStrays(said.Strays)
+	if filtering, err := inv.FilteringOf(ctx, node.Name); err == nil {
+		showFiltering(filtering, true)
+	}
 	fmt.Printf("  as of             %s\n", said.At.Local().Format(time.DateTime))
 	return nil
 }
 
+// showFiltering says what filters a machine, with owners (novox/hq ADR 0168), and for a converged
+// machine the state of the firewall it was found with. A machine that has not said is not said to
+// be filtered by anything.
+func showFiltering(f inventory.Filtering, adopted bool) {
+	if len(f.Filters) == 0 && f.FoundFirewall == nil {
+		return
+	}
+	if fw := f.FoundFirewall; fw != nil && !adopted {
+		switch {
+		case fw.Active:
+			fmt.Printf("  found firewall    %s is ACTIVE on this converged machine; the next apply retires it again\n", fw.Kind)
+		case fw.RetiredBy == "removed":
+			fmt.Printf("  found firewall    %s, removed: the mesh's filter is what filters this machine (novox/hq ADR 0180)\n", fw.Kind)
+		case fw.RetiredBy == inventory.FilterMesh || fw.RetiredBy == "mesh":
+			fmt.Printf("  found firewall    %s, retired by the mesh; its configuration stays on disk\n", fw.Kind)
+		case fw.RetiredBy != "":
+			fmt.Printf("  found firewall    %s, found inactive — not by the mesh\n", fw.Kind)
+		default:
+			fmt.Printf("  found firewall    %s, inactive\n", fw.Kind)
+		}
+	}
+	if len(f.Filters) == 0 {
+		return
+	}
+	if f.Alone() {
+		fmt.Printf("  filtered by       the mesh alone (%s)\n", filterSummary(f.Filters))
+		return
+	}
+	fmt.Printf("  filtered by       NOT the mesh alone: %d rule set(s) the mesh did not write refuse traffic here\n", len(f.Others()))
+	for _, x := range f.Filters {
+		if x.Owner == inventory.FilterOther || x.Owner == inventory.FilterFoundFirewall {
+			fmt.Printf("  %-17s %s — %s: %s\n", "", x.Where, x.Owner, x.Refuses)
+		}
+	}
+	fmt.Printf("  %-17s and its own: %s\n", "", filterSummary(f.Filters))
+}
+
+// filterSummary counts a machine's filters by owner: "mesh 2, runtime 3, ban 1".
+func filterSummary(filters []inventory.Filter) string {
+	counts := map[string]int{}
+	for _, x := range filters {
+		counts[x.Owner]++
+	}
+	var parts []string
+	for _, owner := range []string{inventory.FilterMesh, inventory.FilterRuntime, inventory.FilterBan, inventory.FilterFoundFirewall, inventory.FilterOther} {
+		if n := counts[owner]; n > 0 {
+			parts = append(parts, fmt.Sprintf("%s %d", owner, n))
+		}
+	}
+	return strings.Join(parts, ", ")
+}
+
 // showStrays says what a machine runs that the mesh neither wrote nor holds (ADR 0163).
 func showStrays(strays []inventory.Stray) {
 	if len(strays) == 0 {
@@ -156,11 +215,25 @@ const DefaultFilter = "nftables"
 // take is a module's cutover on an adopted node: the operator's act, done when that module's data
 // has moved. From the next push its resources converge there like any other, replacing what the
 // node found and holds for it.
+//
+// **Previewed, and the preview is a comparison** (novox/hq ADR 0163): for every held thing the
+// module would replace, what runs beside what the module declares, and the difference; the
+// module's secrets on the machine and where each came from; its settings on the machine. Without
+// --yes the comparison is printed and nothing changes. `--yes <digest>` cuts over exactly what was
+// previewed, the way the flip is confirmed: the preview ends with a digest of what it said, and a
+// take naming an older one, or acting on an account of the machine older than the flip allows, is
+// refused. A module the machine holds nothing for has nothing to compare, and `--yes` suffices.
 // takeOptions is what a take was told about the differences it may pass (novox/hq ADR 0163).
 type takeOptions struct {
-	Yes       bool
+	Yes bool
+	// Digest is the preview's, named with --yes; required whenever the machine holds something
+	// for the module.
+	Digest    string
 	Downgrade bool
 	Replace   map[string]bool
+	// Mint names the secrets the service shall take a new value for, although the mesh minted
+	// one and the service already has its own (rule 2).
+	Mint map[string]bool
 }
 
 func take(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node, module string, opts takeOptions) (string, error) {
@@ -179,45 +252,128 @@ func take(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node, module string, opts takeOptio
 	}
 	// The comparison first (novox/hq ADR 0163): every held thing the module would replace, beside
 	// what the module declares, and the differences that refuse unless named.
-	reported, err := inv.AdoptionOf(ctx, node)
+	c, err := comparisonFor(ctx, open, node, module)
 	if err != nil {
 		return "", err
 	}
-	preview, refusals := comparisonOf(reported.Held, module, opts)
+	preview, refusals, saw := comparisonOf(module, c, opts)
 	if len(refusals) > 0 {
 		return "", fmt.Errorf("taking %s on %s is refused:\n  %s\n%s", module, node,
 			strings.Join(refusals, "\n  "), preview)
 	}
+	holds := len(heldOf(c.reported, module)) > 0
+	if holds {
+		preview += "\n  preview " + saw
+	}
 	if !opts.Yes {
-		return preview + fmt.Sprintf("\nnothing taken; `take %s %s --yes` cuts it over as previewed", node, module), nil
+		if !holds {
+			return preview + fmt.Sprintf("\nnothing taken; `take %s %s --yes` declares it as the mesh's own", node, module), nil
+		}
+		return preview + fmt.Sprintf("\nnothing taken; `take %s %s --yes %s` cuts it over as previewed", node, module, saw), nil
+	}
+	if holds {
+		// The take acts on the preview the operator saw, and on an account of the machine that
+		// is still the machine: the same two refusals the flip makes.
+		if age := time.Since(c.reported.At); age > reportFreshFor {
+			return preview, fmt.Errorf("%s last said what it holds %s ago, and a take acts only on "+
+				"an account newer than %s: run `push %s --wait 2m`, then preview again",
+				node, age.Round(time.Second), reportFreshFor, node)
+		}
+		if opts.Digest == "" {
+			return preview, fmt.Errorf("taking %s on %s acts on the preview you saw: name its digest, "+
+				"`take %s %s --yes %s`, once you have read it", module, node, node, module, saw)
+		}
+		if opts.Digest != saw {
+			return preview, fmt.Errorf("what taking %s on %s would replace has changed since preview %s "+
+				"(it is now %s): read the preview above, and run `take %s %s --yes %s` if it is "+
+				"what you want", module, node, opts.Digest, saw, node, module, saw)
+		}
 	}
 	if err := inv.Take(ctx, node, module); err != nil {
 		return "", err
 	}
 	said := fmt.Sprintf("%s is taken on %s", module, node)
-	if preview != "" {
+	if holds {
 		said += "; the next push replaces what the node found and holds for it:\n" + preview
 	}
 	return said + fmt.Sprintf("\n  run `push %s` to cut it over", node), nil
 }
 
+// comparison is everything a take puts beside what the module declares: the machine's account of
+// what it holds and what is reachable on it, the module's secrets on the machine, its settings
+// there, and which found networks a setting keeps for each of its containers (by held id).
+type comparison struct {
+	reported inventory.Adoption
+	secrets  []inventory.SecretState
+	layers   []catalogue.Layer
+	keeps    map[string][]string
+	// settingsRefused is why the module's settings cannot compose with its definition, when
+	// they cannot — the module would be left out of the declaration (rule 6).
+	settingsRefused string
+}
+
+func comparisonFor(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node, module string) (comparison, error) {
+	inv := open.inventory
+	var c comparison
+	var err error
+	if c.reported, err = inv.AdoptionOf(ctx, node); err != nil {
+		return c, err
+	}
+	if c.secrets, err = inv.SecretsOf(ctx, node, module); err != nil {
+		return c, err
+	}
+	if c.layers, err = inv.SettingsFor(ctx, node, module); err != nil {
+		return c, err
+	}
+	shelf, err := inv.Catalogue(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		return c, err
+	}
+	if m, known := shelf[module]; known && len(c.layers) > 0 {
+		if err := catalogue.JudgeSettings(m, c.layers, true); err != nil {
+			c.settingsRefused = err.Error()
+		}
+		if kept, err := catalogue.KeptNetworks(m, c.layers, true); err == nil && len(kept) > 0 {
+			c.keeps = map[string][]string{}
+			for id, networks := range kept {
+				c.keeps[module+"."+id] = networks
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	return c, nil
+}
+
+// heldOf is what a node holds for one module.
+func heldOf(reported inventory.Adoption, module string) []inventory.Held {
+	var out []inventory.Held
+	for _, h := range reported.Held {
+		if h.Module == module {
+			out = append(out, h)
+		}
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
 // comparisonOf is a take's preview: for every held thing of the module, what runs beside what the
-// module declares, and the refusals the differences earn unless the take named them
+// module declares; its secrets and its settings on the machine; and the refusals the differences
-// (novox/hq ADR 0163): an image older than the one running, a declared file that differs from the
+// earn unless the take named them (novox/hq ADR 0163): an image older than the one running, a
-// found one. A narrowed port and a shared network are said and not refused.
+// declared file that differs from the found one, a secret the mesh minted for a service whose data
-func comparisonOf(held []inventory.Held, module string, opts takeOptions) (string, []string) {
+// was found. A narrowed port and a shared network are said and not refused. The digest is of what
+// the preview says, so anything in it changing changes the digest.
+func comparisonOf(module string, c comparison, opts takeOptions) (preview string, refusals []string, digest string) {
 	var b strings.Builder
-	var refusals []string
+	held := heldOf(c.reported, module)
+	foundData := false
 	for _, h := range held {
-		if h.Module != module {
+		if h.Kind == "container" || h.Kind == "directory" {
-			continue
+			foundData = true
 		}
 		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "  %s", heldLine(h))
 		if h.Kept != "" {
 			fmt.Fprintf(&b, ", original kept at %s", h.Kept)
 		}
 		b.WriteString("\n")
-		for _, line := range comparisonLines(h) {
+		for _, line := range comparisonLinesWith(h, c.keeps[h.ID], c.reported) {
 			fmt.Fprintf(&b, "    %s\n", line)
 		}
 		f := factsOf(h)
@@ -232,7 +388,52 @@ func comparisonOf(held []inventory.Held, module string, opts takeOptions) (strin
 				h.Target, h.Target))
 		}
 	}
-	return b.String(), refusals
+	// The module's secrets on the machine (rule 2 and 3): a service whose data was found already
+	// has a value for each, so one the mesh minted and nobody accepted refuses unless --mint says
+	// the service shall take a new one.
+	for _, sec := range c.secrets {
+		name := sec.Name
+		if sec.Local != "" {
+			name += " (" + sec.Local + ")"
+		}
+		what := "own secret"
+		accept := fmt.Sprintf("`secret accept <node> %s %s`", module, sec.Name)
+		if !sec.Own() {
+			what = "secret from " + sec.Provider
+			accept = fmt.Sprintf("`secret accept <node> %s %s --provider %s`", module, sec.Name, sec.Provider)
+			if sec.Local != "" {
+				accept = strings.TrimSuffix(accept, "`") + " --local " + sec.Local + "`"
+			}
+		}
+		switch {
+		case sec.Origin == inventory.OriginAccepted:
+			fmt.Fprintf(&b, "  %s %s: accepted from a person, carried in as it is\n", what, name)
+		case opts.Mint[sec.Name]:
+			fmt.Fprintf(&b, "  %s %s: minted by the mesh; the service takes the new value, as --mint said\n", what, name)
+		case foundData:
+			fmt.Fprintf(&b, "  %s %s: MINTED by the mesh and not accepted — the running service already has one\n", what, name)
+			refusals = append(refusals, fmt.Sprintf("%s: the mesh minted a value and the service whose data was found "+
+				"already uses its own; %s carries the existing value in, or `--mint %s` says the service shall take "+
+				"the new one", name, accept, sec.Name))
+		default:
+			fmt.Fprintf(&b, "  %s %s: minted by the mesh\n", what, name)
+		}
+	}
+	// And its settings on this machine, composed against its definition (rule 1, rule 6).
+	for _, layer := range c.layers {
+		keys := make([]string, 0, len(layer.Values))
+		for k := range layer.Values {
+			keys = append(keys, k)
+		}
+		sort.Strings(keys)
+		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "  settings from %s: %s\n", layer.From, strings.Join(keys, ", "))
+	}
+	if c.settingsRefused != "" {
+		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "  SETTINGS DO NOT COMPOSE with the module's definition, so the push leaves it out: %s\n", c.settingsRefused)
+	}
+	preview = strings.TrimRight(b.String(), "\n")
+	sum := sha256.Sum256([]byte(preview))
+	return preview, refusals, hex.EncodeToString(sum[:])[:12]
 }
 
 // facts is a held thing's facts as the preview reads them.
@@ -286,6 +487,13 @@ func factsOf(h inventory.Held) facts {
 
 // comparisonLines says a held thing's facts the way a person weighs them.
 func comparisonLines(h inventory.Held) []string {
+	return comparisonLinesWith(h, nil, inventory.Adoption{})
+}
+
+// comparisonLinesWith is comparisonLines knowing which found networks this machine's setting keeps
+// for the container (rule 4) and what the machine reports reachable, so a published port's reach
+// is said beside the port (rule 1).
+func comparisonLinesWith(h inventory.Held, keeps []string, reported inventory.Adoption) []string {
 	f := factsOf(h)
 	var out []string
 	if f.image != "" || f.declaredImage != "" {
@@ -311,14 +519,46 @@ func comparisonLines(h inventory.Held) []string {
 	}
 	sort.Strings(names)
 	for _, n := range names {
-		if members := f.networks[n]; len(members) > 0 {
+		members := f.networks[n]
-			out = append(out, fmt.Sprintf("on the network %s with %s, which may reach it by name and will not once it moves to the module's own network",
+		if len(members) == 0 {
+			continue
+		}
+		if slices.Contains(keeps, n) {
+			out = append(out, fmt.Sprintf("on the network %s with %s — kept by this machine's setting, so they still reach it by name once taken",
 				n, strings.Join(members, ", ")))
+			continue
+		}
+		out = append(out, fmt.Sprintf("on the network %s with %s, which may reach it by name and will not once it moves to the module's own network"+
+			" (`settings set %s --node <node>` with {%q: {<container>: [%q]}} keeps it)",
+			n, strings.Join(members, ", "), h.Module, catalogue.NetworksSetting, n))
+	}
+	for _, n := range keeps {
+		if _, found := f.networks[n]; !found {
+			out = append(out, fmt.Sprintf("keeps the network %s by this machine's setting, which the found container is not on", n))
 		}
 	}
 	if len(f.ports) > 0 || len(f.declaredPorts) > 0 {
 		out = append(out, fmt.Sprintf("publishes %s; the module declares %s",
 			orNone(strings.Join(f.ports, " ")), orNone(strings.Join(f.declaredPorts, " "))))
+		// How far each published port reaches now, as the machine reported it: the listener the
+		// runtime publishes for this container. The found firewall's and the guard's rules are
+		// not read; what they let through is said as what was reported reachable.
+		var reach []string
+		for _, r := range reported.Reachable {
+			if r.By == h.Target && r.Published {
+				reach = append(reach, fmt.Sprintf("%s:%d (%s, container port %d)", r.Address, r.Port, r.Protocol, r.ContainerPort))
+			}
+		}
+		switch {
+		case len(reach) > 0:
+			line := "reachable now at " + strings.Join(reach, ", ")
+			if reported.Firewall != "" && reported.Firewall != "none" {
+				line += ", behind the found firewall (" + reported.Firewall + "), whose rules are not read"
+			}
+			out = append(out, line)
+		case len(f.ports) > 0 && len(reported.Reachable) > 0:
+			out = append(out, "not reported reachable on the machine")
+		}
 	}
 	if len(f.mounts) > 0 || len(f.declaredVolumes) > 0 {
 		out = append(out, fmt.Sprintf("mounts %s; the module declares %s",
@@ -480,7 +720,11 @@ func converge(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string, yes bool, digest s
 	}
 	derived := derivedFilter{rules: rules, foundation: with.Foundation, mesh: with.Mesh,
 		outward: plan.PublicDomain != "", outwardLinks: with.OutwardLinks}
-	preview, saw := previewOf(node, reported, derived, plan, taken, filter, runs[filter])
+	filtering, err := inv.FilteringOf(ctx, node)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+	preview, saw := previewOf(node, reported, filtering, derived, plan, taken, filter, runs[filter])
 	preview += "\n\n  preview " + saw
 	if !yes {
 		return preview + fmt.Sprintf("\n\nNothing has changed. Run `converge %s --yes %s` to do "+
@@ -550,7 +794,7 @@ func converge(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string, yes bool, digest s
 // previewOf is what converging a node will change, before it changes it, and a short digest of
 // what it said: every reachable thing and its fate, the modules the flip takes and the filter. The
 // digest is what the flip is asked to act on, so it changes whenever any of those would.
-func previewOf(node string, reported inventory.Adoption, derived derivedFilter,
+func previewOf(node string, reported inventory.Adoption, filtering inventory.Filtering, derived derivedFilter,
 	plan catalogue.Resolution, taken []string, filter string, filterAssigned bool) (string, string) {
 	var said []string
 	var b strings.Builder
@@ -642,6 +886,30 @@ func previewOf(node string, reported inventory.Adoption, derived derivedFilter,
 		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "  the found firewall (%s) is disabled, never flushed: its configuration stays on disk\n", fw)
 	}
 	said = append(said, fmt.Sprintf("filter %s assigned=%t firewall=%s", filter, filterAssigned, fw))
+	// What filters the machine now, and the fate of each (novox/hq ADR 0168): the found firewall
+	// retired, the runtime's own and bans left, and what the mesh did not write left and named —
+	// so the reader knows before the flip that the machine will not be filtered by the mesh alone.
+	if len(filtering.Filters) > 0 {
+		b.WriteString("\n  what filters the machine now, and what the flip does to each:\n")
+		for _, x := range filtering.Filters {
+			fate := "left: " + x.Owner + "'s"
+			switch x.Owner {
+			case inventory.FilterMesh:
+				fate = "the mesh's guard; replaced by its filter"
+			case inventory.FilterFoundFirewall:
+				fate = "the found firewall's; retired with it"
+			case inventory.FilterRuntime:
+				fate = "the container runtime's own; left"
+			case inventory.FilterBan:
+				fate = "a ban list; left"
+			case inventory.FilterOther:
+				fate = "NOT THE MESH'S; left in force — the machine is not filtered by the mesh alone until you remove it"
+			}
+			fmt.Fprintf(&b, "    %-50s %s\n", x.Where, fate)
+			fmt.Fprintf(&b, "    %-50s   %s\n", "", x.Refuses)
+			said = append(said, "filter "+x.Owner+" "+x.Where)
+		}
+	}
 	// Sorted: the same account, reported in another order, is the same preview.
 	sort.Strings(said)
 	sum := sha256.Sum256([]byte(strings.Join(said, "\n")))
@@ -767,21 +1035,29 @@ func adopt(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string) (string, error) {
 // takeCommand, convergeCommand and adoptCommand are the command line's adapters to the acts above.
 func takeCommand(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 	set := flag.NewFlagSet("take", flag.ContinueOnError)
-	yes := set.Bool("yes", false, "cut over as previewed; without it the comparison is printed and nothing is taken")
+	yes := set.Bool("yes", false, "cut over as previewed, naming the digest the preview printed after it; "+
+		"without it the comparison is printed and nothing is taken")
 	downgrade := set.Bool("downgrade", false, "take it although the module's image is older than the one running")
-	var replace stringList
+	var replace, mint stringList
 	set.Var(&replace, "replace", "a found file's path whose content the module may replace although it differs (repeatable; * for every one)")
+	set.Var(&mint, "mint", "a secret the service shall take the mesh's minted value for, although it already has its own (repeatable)")
 	positionals, err := parseAround(set, args)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
-	if len(positionals) != 2 {
+	if len(positionals) < 2 || len(positionals) > 3 || (len(positionals) == 3 && !*yes) {
-		return errors.New("take <node> <module> [--yes] [--downgrade] [--replace <path>]...")
+		return errors.New("take <node> <module> [--yes <digest>] [--downgrade] [--replace <path>]... [--mint <secret>]...")
+	}
+	opts := takeOptions{Yes: *yes, Downgrade: *downgrade, Replace: map[string]bool{}, Mint: map[string]bool{}}
+	if len(positionals) == 3 {
+		opts.Digest = positionals[2]
 	}
-	opts := takeOptions{Yes: *yes, Downgrade: *downgrade, Replace: map[string]bool{}}
 	for _, r := range replace {
 		opts.Replace[r] = true
 	}
+	for _, m := range mint {
+		opts.Mint[m] = true
+	}
 	return runAct(ctx, func(open *stores) (string, error) { return take(ctx, open, positionals[0], positionals[1], opts) })
 }
 

cmd/mesh-controller/api.go

@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ func commands(who Authenticator) http.Handler {
 	}))
 	// Adoption (novox/hq ADR 0100): the same acts as `take`, `converge` and `adopt`.
 	mux.HandleFunc("POST /take", acting(who, true, func(ctx context.Context, open *stores, in request) (string, error) {
-		return take(ctx, open, in.Node, in.Module, takeOptions{Yes: true})
+		return take(ctx, open, in.Node, in.Module, takeOptions{Yes: in.Yes, Digest: in.Digest})
 	}))
 	mux.HandleFunc("POST /converge", acting(who, false, func(ctx context.Context, open *stores, in request) (string, error) {
 		return converge(ctx, open, in.Node, in.Yes, in.Digest, in.Filter)
@@ -124,8 +124,8 @@ func commands(who Authenticator) http.Handler {
 type request struct {
 	Node   string `json:"node"`
 	Module string `json:"module"`
-	// Yes, Digest and Filter are converge's: do it rather than preview it, the digest of the
+	// Yes, Digest and Filter are converge's and take's: do it rather than preview it, the digest
-	// preview it acts on, and which module loads the mesh's filter.
+	// of the preview it acts on, and (converge) which module loads the mesh's filter.
 	Yes    bool   `json:"yes,omitempty"`
 	Digest string `json:"digest,omitempty"`
 	Filter string `json:"filter,omitempty"`

cmd/mesh-controller/build.go

@@ -522,6 +522,8 @@ func takeIn(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, result link.BuildResu
 	recorded := inventory.Source{
 		Repository: result.Repository, Path: result.Path, Ref: result.Ref,
 		BuiltFrom: result.Commit, Head: result.Commit,
+		// What it stood on, so registration can judge a built manifest's base (to-be 38 WP2.4).
+		Against: kept.Against,
 	}
 	if result.Source != nil && result.Source.Seat != "" {
 		recorded.Repository, recorded.Seat = result.Source.Repository, result.Source.Seat
@@ -607,6 +609,10 @@ type answers struct {
 	// a consequence of the refusals above: a node that does not resolve is not on the network, and
 	// a mesh whose hub is that node has no hub.
 	network string
+	// filtered is every converged machine that is not filtered by the mesh alone (novox/hq ADR
+	// 0168): what filters it beyond the mesh's own, the runtime's plumbing and bans, by name — a
+	// predecessor's chain, a found firewall in force again. Such a machine is not "all well".
+	filtered map[string]inventory.Filtering
 	// untaken is, per machine, each assigned module whose resources the machine is holding as it
 	// found them, and how many — a module that was assigned, sent, and is running none of what it
 	// declares because nothing has taken it (novox/hq ADR 0100, 04-ISSUES/125).

cmd/mesh-controller/main.go

@@ -180,7 +180,8 @@ func usage() {
   api --issuer URL [--listen A]  assign and unassign over http, for a surface that is not here
   assign <node> <module>         put a module on a node
   unassign <node> <module>       take it off
-  take <node> <module>           cut a module over on an adopted node, once its data has moved
+  take <node> <module>           preview a module's cutover on an adopted node: what runs beside
+                                 what it declares; --yes <digest> cuts it over as previewed
   converge <node> [--yes <digest>] [--filter nftables]   preview, then make, an adopted node converged
   adopt <node>                   return a converged node to adopted; what was taken stays taken
   settings set <module> <file>   what a module's config should say, for the whole mesh

cmd/mesh-controller/modules.go

@@ -352,10 +352,14 @@ func settingsCommand(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 	switch args[0] {
 	case "set":
 		if len(positionals) != 2 {
-			return errors.New("settings set <module> <settings.json> [--node <node>]")
+			return errors.New("settings set <module> <settings.json | {…}> [--node <node>]")
 		}
-		raw, err := os.ReadFile(positionals[1])
+		// A file, or the values themselves when they begin with `{` — which is how the mesh's own
-		if err != nil {
+		// `settings` tool passes them, having no file to hand over (novox/hq issue 198).
+		var raw []byte
+		if strings.HasPrefix(strings.TrimSpace(positionals[1]), "{") {
+			raw = []byte(positionals[1])
+		} else if raw, err = os.ReadFile(positionals[1]); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
 		var values map[string]any
@@ -553,7 +557,7 @@ func issueOnTheNewBus(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, m catalogue
 
 	user := broker.Principal{Kind: broker.KindModule, Node: node, Module: m.Module}.Username()
 	password, err := inv.MintBusPassword(ctx, inventory.BusUser{
-		Username: user, Kind: inventory.BusModule, Node: node, Module: m.Module,
+		Username: user, Kind: busKindOf(m.Module), Node: node, Module: m.Module,
 	})
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
@@ -573,6 +577,16 @@ func issueOnTheNewBus(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, m catalogue
 	return issueWith(ctx, inv, m, node, busAddress, known, reachable, user, password)
 }
 
+// busKindOf is what a module's bus user is recorded as: the node's tool runtime where the module is
+// the runtime (novox/hq ADR 0175), a module otherwise. The username is the same either way — the
+// runtime is issued through this same path — and the kind is what a reader of the records sees.
+func busKindOf(module string) string {
+	if module == catalogue.RuntimeModule {
+		return inventory.BusNodeTools
+	}
+	return inventory.BusModule
+}
+
 // issueWith is the delivery half: the minted password sealed to the machine as the module's broker
 // secret, and the module's consumer created where the bus can be reached. Split from the minting
 // so the move can issue every module against a bus whose address it worked out itself

cmd/mesh-controller/order_test.go

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package main
 
 import (
+	"reflect"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
@@ -191,7 +192,7 @@ func TestWhatAHandedOverModuleRecordsAboutItsSource(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("the source records as %+v", from)
 	}
 	// A manifest with no provenance at all is legitimate: fixing something in a hurry.
-	if from, err := whereItComesFrom("", "", "", "", false); err != nil || from != (inventory.Source{}) {
+	if from, err := whereItComesFrom("", "", "", "", false); err != nil || !reflect.DeepEqual(from, inventory.Source{}) {
 		t.Fatalf("a manifest handed over with no provenance was refused: %+v, %v", from, err)
 	}
 	for _, c := range []struct {

cmd/mesh-controller/plan.go

@@ -186,8 +186,12 @@ func planFor(ctx context.Context, open *stores, nodeName string) (catalogue.Reso
 	// Settings for everything that resolved, including modules nobody assigned directly: a
 	// requirement pulled in by something else is still configurable, and finding out that it is
 	// not only when you try would be an arbitrary line nobody could predict.
+	//
+	// A setting that reaches nothing, or cannot compose with the definition it was stored for,
+	// no longer refuses the machine here: it is judged where it is stored, and a definition that
+	// moved under it costs that module its place in the declaration, said by name (novox/hq ADR
+	// 0163, rule 6 — see Compose).
 	settings := catalogue.SettingsBy{}
-	var stray []string
 	for _, m := range resolved.Modules {
 		layers, err := inv.SettingsFor(ctx, nodeName, m.Module)
 		if err != nil {
@@ -197,18 +201,6 @@ func planFor(ctx context.Context, open *stores, nodeName string) (catalogue.Reso
 			continue
 		}
 		settings[m.Module] = layers
-		stray = append(stray, catalogue.UnusedSettings(m, layers)...)
-	}
-	if len(stray) > 0 {
-		// Somebody set something that reaches no file. Said here rather than discovered by the
-		// machine not behaving differently, which is the slowest way there is.
-		//
-		// Marked like a set that will not compose, and for the same reason: it is a standing fact
-		// about this node's own configuration, not a question the mesh could not answer. A gatherer
-		// passes over it as it always did — one node's stray setting must not stop every other node
-		// being described (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/152).
-		return catalogue.Resolution{}, nil, notResolvable{fmt.Errorf(
-			"these settings reach nothing:\n  - %s", strings.Join(stray, "\n  - "))}
 	}
 	return resolved, settings, nil
 }
@@ -404,7 +396,33 @@ func declarationWith(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string,
 	if err != nil {
 		return sendable{}, err
 	}
-	return sendable{Resources: composed.Resources, Adoption: adoption}, nil
+	return sendable{Resources: composed.Resources, Adoption: adoption,
+		Received: composed.Received, Mesh: with.Mesh,
+		LeftOut: sortedKeysOf(composed.LeftOut), leftOutWhy: composed.LeftOut}, nil
+}
+
+// sortedKeysOf is a map's keys, sorted — so what a declaration says it left out does not move
+// for a reordering nobody made.
+func sortedKeysOf(m map[string]string) []string {
+	if len(m) == 0 {
+		return nil
+	}
+	out := make([]string, 0, len(m))
+	for k := range m {
+		out = append(out, k)
+	}
+	sort.Strings(out)
+	return out
+}
+
+// reportLeftOut says which of a machine's modules its declaration leaves out and why (novox/hq ADR
+// 0163, rule 6), one line each: the machine is told everything else, and is told it was left out.
+func reportLeftOut(node string, declared sendable) {
+	for _, m := range declared.LeftOut {
+		fmt.Printf("%s: %s left out — a setting stored for it cannot compose with its definition; "+
+			"what the machine holds for it is kept and its containers are untouched. %s\n",
+			node, m, declared.leftOutWhy[m])
+	}
 }
 
 // renderingFor is everything a node's declaration is composed with, and the node's record.
@@ -444,7 +462,10 @@ func renderingFor(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string,
 	for _, m := range plan.Modules {
 		g, err := catalogue.GivenPorts(m, settings[m.Module])
 		if err != nil {
-			return catalogue.Rendering{}, inventory.Node{}, err
+			// A given port its definition no longer publishes: the module is left out of the
+			// declaration, by name, when it is composed (novox/hq ADR 0163, rule 6) — never the
+			// machine refused here for it.
+			continue
 		}
 		if g != nil {
 			given[m.Module] = g
@@ -999,6 +1020,20 @@ func planCommand(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 		return nil
 	}
 
+	// Which modules a push would leave out, and why — said before the plan, since the plan is of
+	// what the machine would be told (novox/hq ADR 0163, rule 6). Judged, never composed: `plan`
+	// without --json allocates nothing.
+	if record, err := open.inventory.NodeByName(ctx, args[0]); err == nil {
+		left := plan.LeftOut(settings, record.Adopted)
+		reportLeftOut(args[0], sendable{LeftOut: sortedKeysOf(left), leftOutWhy: left})
+	}
+	// And a setting that reaches nothing — refused where it is stored, and said here for one
+	// stored before its definition moved from under it.
+	for _, m := range plan.Modules {
+		for _, stray := range catalogue.UnusedSettings(m, settings[m.Module]) {
+			fmt.Printf("%s: a setting reaches nothing — %s\n", args[0], stray)
+		}
+	}
 	fmt.Printf("%s would run:\n", args[0])
 	for _, m := range plan.Modules {
 		fmt.Printf("  %-20s %s\n", m.Module, plan.Because[m.Module])

cmd/mesh-controller/push.go

@@ -131,10 +131,17 @@ func serve(ctx context.Context) error {
 
 	// And the mesh's own verbs, as the seat this control plane holds (novox/hq ADR 0154). Served
 	// from the store's row, so what the seat declares is what is answered.
-	handlers, err := seatToolHandlers()
+	handlers, behind, err := seatToolHandlers()
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
+	if len(behind) > 0 {
+		// Said once, loudly, and then served anyway (novox/hq ADR 0185): the mesh keeps answering
+		// while whatever put an older control plane here is undone.
+		fmt.Printf("this control plane is behind the %s row: it cannot run %s. "+
+			"Those answer the reason when called; everything else is served as usual\n",
+			catalogue.ControllerSeatName, strings.Join(behind, ", "))
+	}
 	bus, isNATS := server.Bus().(link.OverNATS)
 	if !isNATS {
 		return errors.New("the mesh's verbs are served over the bus, and this control plane is not on it")
@@ -353,7 +360,11 @@ func pushCommand(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 		// The private network is in here with everything else. It used to be composed separately
 		// and prepended, which meant every machine with an address was on it and no machine could
 		// be kept off. It is a module now, so it arrives the way a module does.
-		return declarationWith(held, open, node, plan, settings, gens, Allocating)
+		declared, err := declarationWith(held, open, node, plan, settings, gens, Allocating)
+		if err == nil {
+			reportLeftOut(node, declared)
+		}
+		return declared, err
 	})
 
 	sentDigest := map[string]string{}
@@ -389,11 +400,7 @@ func pushCommand(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 	fmt.Printf("\n%d node(s) told\n", len(sending))
 	// And each machine's memberships, as every other send does (ADR 0160): a push is the one most
 	// operators run, and on 2026-10-01 it was the one path that issued none.
-	var told []string
+	if err := issueMemberships(ctx, open, server, sending); err != nil {
-	for _, s := range sending {
-		told = append(told, s.node)
-	}
-	if err := issueMemberships(ctx, open, server, told); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
 
@@ -458,7 +465,11 @@ func pushCommand(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 						return sendable{}, err
 					}
 					reportUnhostable(node, plan)
-					return declarationWith(held, open, node, plan, settings, gens, Allocating)
+					declared, err := declarationWith(held, open, node, plan, settings, gens, Allocating)
+					if err == nil {
+						reportLeftOut(node, declared)
+					}
+					return declared, err
 				},
 				func(s readyNode, body []byte) error {
 					if err := link.Declare(ctx, server.Bus(), ident, s.node, body,
@@ -670,6 +681,7 @@ func sendTo(ctx context.Context, open *stores, names []string) error {
 			refusals = append(refusals, fmt.Sprintf("%s:\n%v", name, err))
 			continue
 		}
+		reportLeftOut(name, declared)
 		sending = append(sending, readyNode{name, declared})
 	}
 	if len(refusals) > 0 {
@@ -706,11 +718,15 @@ func sendTo(ctx context.Context, open *stores, names []string) error {
 	// And every assignment on those machines its membership (novox/hq ADR 0160): composed from the
 	// same records the bus's accounts are, so what a runtime serves and what its account may are one
 	// composition. Issued after the declaration, because the runtime it is for arrives with it.
-	return issueMemberships(ctx, open, server, names)
+	return issueMemberships(ctx, open, server, sending)
 }
 
-// issueMemberships publishes the membership of every module on the named machines.
+// issueMemberships publishes the membership of every module on the machines just sent.
-func issueMemberships(ctx context.Context, open *stores, server *link.Server, names []string) error {
+//
+// Each carries what its module receives and the private network's addresses, from the same
+// composition as the declaration it was sent (novox/hq ADR 0167): a provider reads what it is
+// given on the bus, and the file written beside it says the same thing.
+func issueMemberships(ctx context.Context, open *stores, server *link.Server, sent []readyNode) error {
 	records, err := open.inventory.BusRecords(ctx)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
@@ -725,9 +741,22 @@ func issueMemberships(ctx context.Context, open *stores, server *link.Server, na
 	// the push stands, the first failure is named once, and the next push tries again.
 	issued, failed := 0, 0
 	var first error
-	for _, node := range names {
+	for _, s := range sent {
+		node := s.node
 		for _, d := range records.Assigned[node] {
-			body, err := json.Marshal(broker.MembershipFor(node, d, where))
+			membership := broker.MembershipFor(node, d, where)
+			membership.Mesh = s.declared.Mesh
+			for requirement, given := range s.declared.Received[d.Module] {
+				raw, err := json.Marshal(given)
+				if err != nil {
+					return err
+				}
+				if membership.Receives == nil {
+					membership.Receives = map[string]json.RawMessage{}
+				}
+				membership.Receives[requirement] = raw
+			}
+			body, err := json.Marshal(membership)
 			if err != nil {
 				return err
 			}

cmd/mesh-controller/readable.go

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package main
 import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/inventory"
 	"sort"
 	"time"
 )
@@ -66,6 +67,21 @@ type meshStatus struct {
 	// **A document without this said an outage was a well mesh.** Read from what each machine
 	// reported, so it is the machine's account and not the mesh's take-time listing.
 	Untaken []machineUntaken `json:"untaken,omitempty"`
+	// Filtered is every converged machine that is not filtered by the mesh alone (novox/hq ADR
+	// 0168), one entry per rule set the mesh did not write — the found firewall in force again,
+	// or a chain nobody speaks for. Absent when every converged machine is filtered by the mesh
+	// alone. A document without this called a machine well while a predecessor's chain refused
+	// what the mesh declared open.
+	Filtered []machineFiltered `json:"filtered,omitempty"`
+}
+
+// machineFiltered is one rule set on a converged machine that the mesh did not write and that
+// refuses traffic: where it is, whose the host reads it as, and what it refuses.
+type machineFiltered struct {
+	Node    string `json:"node"`
+	Where   string `json:"where"`
+	Owner   string `json:"owner"`
+	Refuses string `json:"refuses"`
 }
 
 // machineUntaken is one module a machine is holding rather than running, and how many resources of
@@ -173,6 +189,21 @@ func statusAsJSON(asked answers) ([]byte, error) {
 				machineUntaken{Node: name, Module: m, Held: asked.untaken[name][m]})
 		}
 	}
+	filteredNodes := make([]string, 0, len(asked.filtered))
+	for name := range asked.filtered {
+		filteredNodes = append(filteredNodes, name)
+	}
+	sort.Strings(filteredNodes)
+	for _, name := range filteredNodes {
+		f := asked.filtered[name]
+		if fw := f.FoundFirewall; fw != nil && fw.Active {
+			out.Filtered = append(out.Filtered, machineFiltered{Node: name, Where: "the found firewall",
+				Owner: inventory.FilterFoundFirewall, Refuses: fw.Kind + " is in force again"})
+		}
+		for _, x := range f.Others() {
+			out.Filtered = append(out.Filtered, machineFiltered{Node: name, Where: x.Where, Owner: x.Owner, Refuses: x.Refuses})
+		}
+	}
 	for name := range asked.refused {
 		out.Unresolved = append(out.Unresolved, machineUnresolved{
 			Node: name, Problem: asked.refused[name]})

cmd/mesh-controller/readable_test.go

@@ -167,3 +167,46 @@ func TestAMachineFailingTheSameWayIsSaidToBeStuck(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("one failure is not stuck: %v", once)
 	}
 }
+
+// A converged machine something other than the mesh filters is named, per rule set, and is not
+// well (novox/hq ADR 0168); one filtered by the mesh alone is not in the list.
+func TestAMachineNotFilteredByTheMeshAloneIsNamedAndNotWell(t *testing.T) {
+	alone := inventory.Filtering{Filters: []inventory.Filter{
+		{Where: "table inet mesh, chain input", Owner: inventory.FilterMesh, Refuses: "policy drop"},
+		{Where: "table ip filter, chain DOCKER", Owner: inventory.FilterRuntime, Refuses: "drop"},
+		{Where: "table ip filter, chain f2b-sshd", Owner: inventory.FilterBan, Refuses: "ip saddr 192.0.2.1 reject"},
+	}}
+	if !alone.Alone() {
+		t.Fatal("the mesh's own, the runtime's and a ban are not the mesh alone")
+	}
+	notAlone := inventory.Filtering{
+		Filters: append(alone.Filters, inventory.Filter{Where: "chain HAL-MESH-ONLY (iptables-legacy)",
+			Owner: inventory.FilterOther, Refuses: `-A HAL-MESH-ONLY -m comment --comment "not public" -j DROP`}),
+		FoundFirewall: &inventory.FoundFirewall{Kind: "ufw", Active: true},
+	}
+	asked := answers{nodes: []inventory.Node{{Name: "home-server"}, {Name: "laptop"}},
+		filtered: map[string]inventory.Filtering{"home-server": notAlone}}
+	if asked.well() {
+		t.Fatal("a machine not filtered by the mesh alone reads as well")
+	}
+	body, err := statusAsJSON(asked)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	var parsed struct {
+		Filtered []map[string]string `json:"filtered"`
+	}
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(body, &parsed); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if len(parsed.Filtered) != 2 {
+		t.Fatalf("filtered: %v", parsed.Filtered)
+	}
+	if parsed.Filtered[0]["node"] != "home-server" || parsed.Filtered[0]["owner"] != inventory.FilterFoundFirewall ||
+		parsed.Filtered[1]["where"] != "chain HAL-MESH-ONLY (iptables-legacy)" || parsed.Filtered[1]["owner"] != inventory.FilterOther {
+		t.Fatalf("filtered: %v", parsed.Filtered)
+	}
+	if body, _ := statusAsJSON(answers{nodes: asked.nodes}); strings.Contains(string(body), `"filtered"`) {
+		t.Fatal("a mesh filtered by itself alone carries a filtered list")
+	}
+}

cmd/mesh-controller/rollout.go

@@ -346,7 +346,9 @@ func rolloutMint(ctx context.Context, again bool) error {
 			}
 			machines++
 
-		case broker.KindModule:
+		case broker.KindModule, broker.KindNodeTools:
+			// The runtime is minted and delivered exactly as a module is (novox/hq ADR 0175): it is
+			// issued as the module it stands for, to that module's `broker` secret.
 			if p.Module == "mesh-controller" {
 				// The control plane is a module too, and its `broker` secret is the old bus's
 				// credential it is still using while this runs. Writing the new bus's blob there
@@ -365,7 +367,7 @@ func rolloutMint(ctx context.Context, again bool) error {
 				skipped++
 				continue
 			}
-			password, err := inv.MintBusPassword(ctx, inventory.BusUser{Username: p.Username(), Kind: inventory.BusModule, Node: p.Node, Module: p.Module})
+			password, err := inv.MintBusPassword(ctx, inventory.BusUser{Username: p.Username(), Kind: busKindOf(p.Module), Node: p.Node, Module: p.Module})
 			if err != nil {
 				return err
 			}

cmd/mesh-controller/seatverbs.go

@@ -48,6 +48,21 @@ func argvFor(verb string, args map[string]any) ([]string, error) {
 		return nil
 	}
 	switch verb {
+	case "command":
+		// The generic verb: the command line as given, split as a shell would split it, with
+		// nothing added — the named verbs add flags a caller cannot reach; this one is the whole
+		// binary and says so in its description (novox/hq ADR 0154, 0175).
+		if err := need("command"); err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		argv, err := splitCommandLine(str("command"))
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		if len(argv) == 0 {
+			return nil, errors.New("command names no command")
+		}
+		return argv, nil
 	case "status":
 		return []string{"status", "--json"}, nil
 	case "nodes":
@@ -129,6 +144,33 @@ func argvFor(verb string, args map[string]any) ([]string, error) {
 		// Half of either shape: the command says its usage, which names both shapes, and that is
 		// the answer the caller needs.
 		return []string{"rotate"}, nil
+	case "settings":
+		// `settings set|clear` at a shell (novox/hq issue 198). The values travel as an argument
+		// because a tool has no file to hand the command; the command reads either.
+		if err := need("module"); err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		argv := []string{"settings", "set", str("module")}
+		switch {
+		case str("clear") == "true":
+			argv = []string{"settings", "clear", str("module")}
+		case str("values") != "":
+			argv = append(argv, str("values"))
+		}
+		// Neither values nor clear: the command says its usage, which names both, and that is the
+		// answer the caller needs — the same as `rotate` given half of either shape.
+		if n := str("node"); n != "" {
+			argv = append(argv, "--node", n)
+		}
+		return argv, nil
+	case "issue":
+		// The same act as `module issue` at a shell (novox/hq design 25 §4): the account is minted
+		// into the mesh's records and delivered at the machine's next push, which is the caller's to
+		// ask for — so the mesh is never pushed as a side effect of a credential.
+		if err := need("node", "module"); err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		return []string{"module", "issue", str("module"), "--node", str("node")}, nil
 	case "build":
 		if err := need("repository"); err != nil {
 			return nil, err
@@ -188,13 +230,15 @@ func runVerb(ctx context.Context, argv []string) (verbAnswer, error) {
 }
 
 // seatToolHandlers are the handlers for every verb the mesh-controller seat declares, from the
-// store's row, so a verb the row does not carry is not served and a verb it carries that this binary
+// store's row, so a verb the row does not carry is not served. A verb it carries that this binary
-// cannot run is said at start rather than at the first call.
+// cannot run is named at start and answers the reason when called — never a refusal to serve, which
-func seatToolHandlers() (map[string]link.ToolHandler, error) {
+// would take the whole control plane down for one word (novox/hq ADR 0185).
+func seatToolHandlers() (map[string]link.ToolHandler, []string, error) {
 	seat, known := catalogue.SeatNamed(catalogue.ControllerSeatName)
 	if !known {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("this mesh defines no %s seat", catalogue.ControllerSeatName)
+		return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("this mesh defines no %s seat", catalogue.ControllerSeatName)
 	}
+	var behind []string
 	handlers := map[string]link.ToolHandler{}
 	for _, v := range seat.Serves {
 		verb := v.Name
@@ -205,8 +249,27 @@ func seatToolHandlers() (map[string]link.ToolHandler, error) {
 			continue
 		}
 		if _, err := argvFor(verb, sampleArguments(v)); err != nil {
-			return nil, fmt.Errorf("the %s seat's row declares %q, which this control plane cannot run: %w",
+			// **A row ahead of this binary is not a reason to go silent.**
-				catalogue.ControllerSeatName, verb, err)
+			//
+			// The row is the store's and a control plane follows it (novox/hq ADR 0154), so a verb
+			// this build does not know means the row was widened by a newer one — the ordinary
+			// state of a roll-out, and of a push that put an older control plane back. Refusing to
+			// serve at all made that transient fatal: on 2026-10-02 one unknown verb took the whole
+			// mesh off the bus for ten minutes, and the way back was a human running the binary by
+			// hand, because the thing that would have repaired it is the thing that was down
+			// (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/201, ADR 0185).
+			//
+			// So the verbs this binary knows are served, and this one answers the reason instead of
+			// nothing: a caller gets a sentence naming the fault, and everything else keeps working
+			// — including the push that replaces this binary with the one whose verb it is.
+			behind = append(behind, verb)
+			reason := err
+			handlers[verb] = func(context.Context, json.RawMessage) (any, error) {
+				return nil, fmt.Errorf("%s is in this mesh's %s row and the control plane running "+
+					"here cannot run it: %w. It is a verb of a newer build; this one is behind",
+					verb, catalogue.ControllerSeatName, reason)
+			}
+			continue
 		}
 		handlers[verb] = func(ctx context.Context, raw json.RawMessage) (any, error) {
 			args := map[string]any{}
@@ -222,7 +285,7 @@ func seatToolHandlers() (map[string]link.ToolHandler, error) {
 			return runVerb(ctx, argv)
 		}
 	}
-	return handlers, nil
+	return handlers, behind, nil
 }
 
 // seatTools is what `tools` answers: every seat with a protocol, and the tools each serves, from the
@@ -262,3 +325,57 @@ func sampleArguments(v catalogue.Verb) map[string]any {
 	}
 	return sample
 }
+
+// splitCommandLine splits a command line into words the way a POSIX shell does for the simple
+// cases a controller command needs: spaces separate, single or double quotes group, a backslash
+// escapes the next character inside double quotes or outside any. No expansion of anything.
+func splitCommandLine(line string) ([]string, error) {
+	var words []string
+	var cur strings.Builder
+	inWord := false
+	quote := rune(0)
+	runes := []rune(line)
+	for i := 0; i < len(runes); i++ {
+		r := runes[i]
+		switch {
+		case quote == '\'':
+			if r == '\'' {
+				quote = 0
+			} else {
+				cur.WriteRune(r)
+			}
+		case quote == '"':
+			if r == '"' {
+				quote = 0
+			} else if r == '\\' && i+1 < len(runes) {
+				i++
+				cur.WriteRune(runes[i])
+			} else {
+				cur.WriteRune(r)
+			}
+		case r == '\'' || r == '"':
+			quote = r
+			inWord = true
+		case r == '\\' && i+1 < len(runes):
+			i++
+			cur.WriteRune(runes[i])
+			inWord = true
+		case r == ' ' || r == '\t' || r == '\n':
+			if inWord {
+				words = append(words, cur.String())
+				cur.Reset()
+				inWord = false
+			}
+		default:
+			cur.WriteRune(r)
+			inWord = true
+		}
+	}
+	if quote != 0 {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("command has an unclosed %c quote", quote)
+	}
+	if inWord {
+		words = append(words, cur.String())
+	}
+	return words, nil
+}

cmd/mesh-controller/seatverbs_test.go

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package main
 
 import (
+	"context"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
 
@@ -73,6 +74,38 @@ func TestRotateTakesAProvisionOrAnOwnSecret(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+// `settings` is `settings set|clear` at a shell, with the values passed inline (novox/hq issue 198).
+func TestSettingsSetsOrClearsALayer(t *testing.T) {
+	argv, err := argvFor("settings", map[string]any{"module": "dnsmasq", "values": `{"a":1}`, "node": "ace"})
+	if err != nil || strings.Join(argv, " ") != `settings set dnsmasq {"a":1} --node ace` {
+		t.Fatalf("set on a machine: %v %v", argv, err)
+	}
+	argv, _ = argvFor("settings", map[string]any{"module": "dnsmasq", "clear": "true"})
+	if strings.Join(argv, " ") != "settings clear dnsmasq" {
+		t.Fatalf("clear for the mesh: %v", argv)
+	}
+	argv, _ = argvFor("settings", map[string]any{"module": "dnsmasq"})
+	if strings.Join(argv, " ") != "settings set dnsmasq" {
+		t.Fatalf("a set with no values falls to the command's usage: %v", argv)
+	}
+}
+
+// `issue` is `module issue` at a shell: the module and the machine, and nothing that would push. A
+// module's bus account was mintable only from the controller's command line, so an agent working
+// through the tools could not finish a rollout that gave a module one (novox/hq issue 191).
+func TestIssueGivesAModuleItsAccountOnAMachine(t *testing.T) {
+	argv, err := argvFor("issue", map[string]any{"node": "ace", "module": "route-proxy"})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if strings.Join(argv, " ") != "module issue route-proxy --node ace" {
+		t.Fatalf("issue runs %v", argv)
+	}
+	if _, err := argvFor("issue", map[string]any{"module": "route-proxy"}); err == nil {
+		t.Error("an account was issued without saying which machine reads it")
+	}
+}
+
 // A required argument missing is refused in the verb's own words, before anything runs.
 func TestAVerbMissingWhatItNeedsIsRefused(t *testing.T) {
 	if _, err := argvFor("node", map[string]any{}); err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), `node needs "node"`) {
@@ -98,10 +131,13 @@ func TestActsDoNotBlockTheCall(t *testing.T) {
 
 // What `tools` answers is the seats' records, with each verb's schema.
 func TestToolsAnswersTheSeatsRecords(t *testing.T) {
-	handlers, err := seatToolHandlers()
+	handlers, behind, err := seatToolHandlers()
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
+	if len(behind) != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("this build cannot run %v of its own seat's verbs", behind)
+	}
 	if len(handlers) != len(catalogue.ControllerVerbs) {
 		t.Fatalf("%d handlers for %d verbs", len(handlers), len(catalogue.ControllerVerbs))
 	}
@@ -139,3 +175,77 @@ func TestAJSONVerbsAnswerIsItsStandardOutput(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("stderr and stdout are both what the command said: %s", answer.Output)
 	}
 }
+
+// `command` is the generic verb: the command line as given, split as a shell would, nothing added —
+// so an operator's `node account g14 jochen` is one call through the console rather than a shell on
+// the control node (novox/hq ADR 0154, ADR 0175).
+func TestCommandRunsTheLineAsGiven(t *testing.T) {
+	argv, err := argvFor("command", map[string]any{"command": "node account g14 jochen"})
+	if err != nil || strings.Join(argv, " ") != "node account g14 jochen" {
+		t.Fatalf("a plain line: %v %v", argv, err)
+	}
+	argv, err = argvFor("command", map[string]any{"command": `settings set dnsmasq '{"a": "b c"}' --node ace`})
+	if err != nil || len(argv) != 6 || argv[3] != `{"a": "b c"}` {
+		t.Fatalf("a quoted word stays one word: %q %v", argv, err)
+	}
+	argv, err = argvFor("command", map[string]any{"command": `node add "the box" --adopted`})
+	if err != nil || len(argv) != 4 || argv[2] != "the box" {
+		t.Fatalf("double quotes group: %q %v", argv, err)
+	}
+	if _, err := argvFor("command", map[string]any{"command": "   "}); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("an empty line was accepted")
+	}
+	if _, err := argvFor("command", map[string]any{"command": `node "unclosed`}); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("an unclosed quote was accepted")
+	}
+}
+
+// A verb in the row that this binary cannot run does not take the control plane off the bus: the
+// rest are served, the unknown one answers the reason, and the start-up names it (novox/hq ADR
+// 0185). One unknown word cost the mesh ten minutes of silence on 2026-10-02, recoverable only by
+// a person running the binary by hand — the push that would have repaired it needs the control
+// plane that was down.
+func TestARowAheadOfThisBuildIsServedAnyway(t *testing.T) {
+	seat, known := catalogue.SeatNamed(catalogue.ControllerSeatName)
+	if !known {
+		t.Fatal("no controller seat")
+	}
+	// The row as a newer control plane would have written it: every verb this build knows, and one
+	// it does not.
+	widened := seat
+	widened.Serves = append(append([]catalogue.Verb{}, seat.Serves...),
+		catalogue.Verb{Name: "teleport", Description: "a verb from a build that does not exist yet"})
+	rows := catalogue.DefaultSeats()
+	for i := range rows {
+		if rows[i].Name == catalogue.ControllerSeatName {
+			rows[i] = widened
+		}
+	}
+	catalogue.UseSeats(rows)
+	t.Cleanup(func() { catalogue.UseSeats(catalogue.DefaultSeats()) })
+
+	handlers, behind, err := seatToolHandlers()
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("a row with one unknown verb refused to serve at all: %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(behind) != 1 || behind[0] != "teleport" {
+		t.Fatalf("the verbs this build cannot run were reported as %v", behind)
+	}
+	if len(handlers) != len(widened.Serves) {
+		t.Fatalf("%d handlers for %d verbs in the row", len(handlers), len(widened.Serves))
+	}
+	for _, known := range []string{"status", "nodes", "push"} {
+		if handlers[known] == nil {
+			t.Errorf("%s is not served although this build knows it", known)
+		}
+	}
+	_, err = handlers["teleport"](context.Background(), nil)
+	if err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("the unknown verb answered as though it had run")
+	}
+	for _, want := range []string{"teleport", "cannot run it", "behind"} {
+		if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), want) {
+			t.Errorf("the answer does not say %q: %v", want, err)
+		}
+	}
+}

cmd/mesh-controller/sendable.go

@@ -25,6 +25,20 @@ type sendable struct {
 	// Adoption is nil for a converged node, and then the body is byte for byte what it was before
 	// adoption existed: an older host parses the envelope strictly and would refuse the key.
 	Adoption *adoptionEnvelope
+
+	// Received and Mesh are not sent in the declaration. They are what this machine's memberships
+	// are issued with on the bus (novox/hq ADR 0167): each module's received contributions, from
+	// the same composition as its received files, and every machine's private-network address.
+	Received map[string]map[string][]catalogue.Contribution
+	Mesh     []string
+	// LeftOut is every module of the machine's set left out of this declaration because a stored
+	// setting cannot compose with its definition (novox/hq ADR 0163, rule 6), sorted. The host
+	// keeps that module's held things and touches none of its containers; a machine is told
+	// everything or nothing about what it IS told, and what it is not told is said. Absent from
+	// the body when empty, so a declaration that leaves nothing out is byte for byte what it was.
+	LeftOut []string
+	// leftOutWhy is why each was, for push and plan to say; never on the wire.
+	leftOutWhy map[string]string
 }
 
 // adoptionEnvelope is what an adopted node is told about its mode. Taken is every module taken on
@@ -45,6 +59,9 @@ func (s sendable) Body() ([]byte, error) {
 	if s.Sequence > 0 {
 		envelope["sequence"] = s.Sequence
 	}
+	if len(s.LeftOut) > 0 {
+		envelope["left_out"] = s.LeftOut
+	}
 	// An empty declaration is deliberate here — the node owns nothing the mesh put there
 	// (novox/hq issue 127) — and the host refuses an empty body unless it is told the emptiness
 	// is meant, so a truncated or mis-composed body is never mistaken for "own nothing".

cmd/mesh-controller/sendable_test.go

@@ -382,3 +382,62 @@ func TestAnEmptyDeclarationSaysOwnsNothing(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("a non-empty declaration must not mark owns_nothing; got %v", env)
 	}
 }
+
+// A setting is judged where it is stored, and an impossible one costs a module, not a machine
+// (novox/hq ADR 0163, rule 6): stored while it composed, a setting whose definition then moved from
+// under it leaves that module out of the declaration — said in the envelope, so the host keeps the
+// module's things — and the machine is told everything else.
+func TestADefinitionMovingUnderAStoredSettingLeavesThatModuleOutNotTheMachine(t *testing.T) {
+	open := aMesh(t)
+	ctx := t.Context()
+	web := helloWeb()
+	web.Resources[1]["ports"] = []any{"8080"}
+	register(t, open, web)
+	register(t, open, catalogue.Manifest{Module: "notes", Version: "1",
+		Resources: []map[string]any{{"id": "conf", "type": "file", "path": "/etc/notes.conf", "content": "x"}}})
+	for _, m := range []string{"hello-web", "notes"} {
+		if _, err := assign(ctx, open, "laptop", m); err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+	}
+	// Judged where it is stored: a port the module does not publish is refused by name.
+	err := open.inventory.SetSettings(ctx, "laptop", "hello-web",
+		map[string]any{catalogue.PortsSetting: map[string]any{"9999": 10000}})
+	if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "hello-web on laptop") || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "9999") {
+		t.Fatalf("an impossible setting was stored: %v", err)
+	}
+	if err := open.inventory.SetSettings(ctx, "laptop", "hello-web",
+		map[string]any{catalogue.PortsSetting: map[string]any{"8080": 10000}}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if declared := composed(t, open, "laptop"); len(declared.LeftOut) != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("a setting that composes left a module out: %v", declared.LeftOut)
+	}
+
+	// The definition moves: the container publishes another port now.
+	web.Version = "2"
+	web.Resources[1]["ports"] = []any{"9090"}
+	register(t, open, web)
+	declared := composed(t, open, "laptop")
+	if len(declared.LeftOut) != 1 || declared.LeftOut[0] != "hello-web" {
+		t.Fatalf("hello-web is not left out: %v", declared.LeftOut)
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(declared.leftOutWhy["hello-web"], "no container of its publishes 8080") {
+		t.Fatalf("why it was left out is not said: %v", declared.leftOutWhy)
+	}
+	if hasID(declared.Resources, "hello-web.server") || !hasID(declared.Resources, "notes.conf") {
+		t.Fatalf("the machine was not told everything else: %v", declared.Resources)
+	}
+	body, err := declared.Body()
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	var env map[string]any
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(body, &env); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	left, _ := env["left_out"].([]any)
+	if len(left) != 1 || left[0] != "hello-web" {
+		t.Fatalf("the envelope does not say what was left out: %v", env)
+	}
+}

cmd/mesh-controller/status.go

@@ -227,6 +227,28 @@ func printStatus(asked answers) error {
 			"  not readable from a commit; that needs a version the host reports as ordered\n\n")
 	}
 
+	if len(asked.filtered) > 0 {
+		// A converged machine is filtered by the mesh alone, and the mesh says truthfully which
+		// (novox/hq ADR 0168). One that is not — a predecessor's chain still refusing, a found
+		// firewall in force again — is said here, and is not well.
+		machines := make([]string, 0, len(asked.filtered))
+		for name := range asked.filtered {
+			machines = append(machines, name)
+		}
+		sort.Strings(machines)
+		fmt.Printf("%d converged machine(s) are not filtered by the mesh alone:\n", len(machines))
+		for _, name := range machines {
+			f := asked.filtered[name]
+			if fw := f.FoundFirewall; fw != nil && fw.Active {
+				fmt.Printf("  %-12s the found firewall (%s) is in force again; the next apply retires it\n", name, fw.Kind)
+			}
+			for _, x := range f.Others() {
+				fmt.Printf("  %-12s %s (%s): %s\n", name, x.Where, x.Owner, x.Refuses)
+			}
+		}
+		fmt.Printf("\n  the mesh wrote none of these and removes none; `node show <node>` lists every filter with its owner\n\n")
+	}
+
 	if len(asked.untaken) > 0 {
 		// **Before the adopted line, and it breaks "all well".** An adopted machine is a state
 		// somebody chose and can leave alone; a module assigned to one and never taken is work
@@ -357,6 +379,13 @@ func theThreeQuestions(ctx context.Context, open *stores) (answers, error) {
 	if err != nil {
 		return answers{}, err
 	}
+	// And which converged machines something other than the mesh filters (novox/hq ADR 0168), as
+	// each last reported — the account that was missing when a predecessor's chain refused what the
+	// mesh declared open for eleven hours (04-ISSUES/144, 145).
+	out.filtered, err = filteredMachines(ctx, inv, out.nodes)
+	if err != nil {
+		return answers{}, err
+	}
 	out.plans, err = inv.RecentPlans(ctx, 5)
 	if err != nil {
 		return answers{}, err
@@ -406,6 +435,30 @@ func theThreeQuestions(ctx context.Context, open *stores) (answers, error) {
 //
 // A machine that reports no holds contributes nothing, so a converged mesh answers an empty map and
 // the caller prints nothing.
+// filteredMachines is every converged machine not filtered by the mesh alone, with what it last said
+// filters it (novox/hq ADR 0168). An adopted machine keeps its found firewall by design and is not
+// counted; a machine that has not said is not said to be filtered by anything.
+func filteredMachines(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, nodes []inventory.Node) (
+	map[string]inventory.Filtering, error) {
+	out := map[string]inventory.Filtering{}
+	for _, n := range nodes {
+		if n.Adopted {
+			continue
+		}
+		f, err := inv.FilteringOf(ctx, n.Name)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("what filters %s cannot be read: %w", n.Name, err)
+		}
+		if len(f.Filters) == 0 && f.FoundFirewall == nil {
+			continue
+		}
+		if !f.Alone() {
+			out[n.Name] = f
+		}
+	}
+	return out, nil
+}
+
 func untakenModules(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, nodes []inventory.Node) (
 	map[string]map[string]int, error) {
 
@@ -442,7 +495,8 @@ func untakenModules(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, nodes []inven
 // read as success for the whole of the edge cut-over outage (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/125).
 func (a answers) well() bool {
 	return len(a.wrong) == 0 && len(a.quiet) == 0 && len(a.behind) == 0 &&
-		len(a.waiting) == 0 && len(a.refused) == 0 && a.network == "" && len(a.untaken) == 0
+		len(a.waiting) == 0 && len(a.refused) == 0 && a.network == "" && len(a.untaken) == 0 &&
+		len(a.filtered) == 0
 }
 
 // hostSplit is which machines report which host version, for every version more than one machine

cmd/mesh-controller/take_preview_test.go

@@ -4,26 +4,42 @@ import (
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
 
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/catalogue"
 	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/inventory"
 )
 
+// What the forge's take compares, as a machine would report it.
+func aForgeComparison() comparison {
+	return comparison{reported: inventory.Adoption{
+		Firewall: "ufw",
+		Held: []inventory.Held{
+			{ID: "forge.server", Module: "forge", Kind: "container", Target: "forge", Facts: map[string]any{
+				"image": "forge:1.27.3", "image_created": "2026-09-17T10:00:00Z",
+				"declared_image": "forge:1.22.6", "declared_image_created": "2026-08-20T10:00:00Z", "downgrade": true,
+				"networks": map[string]any{"predecessor_default": []any{"office", "db"}},
+				"ports":    []any{"3000/tcp>0.0.0.0:3000"}, "declared_ports": []any{"3000:3000"},
+			}},
+			{ID: "forge.config", Module: "forge", Kind: "file", Target: "/etc/forge/app.ini", Kept: "/var/lib/mesh/kept/app.ini",
+				Facts: map[string]any{"differs": true, "difference": []any{"- private scope: local", "+ upstream: public"}}},
+			{ID: "other.server", Module: "other", Kind: "container", Target: "other"},
+		},
+		Reachable: []inventory.Reach{
+			{Protocol: "tcp", Address: "0.0.0.0", Port: 3000, By: "forge", Published: true, ContainerPort: 3000},
+			{Protocol: "tcp", Address: "0.0.0.0", Port: 22, By: "sshd"},
+		},
+	}}
+}
+
 // A take is a comparison (novox/hq ADR 0163): the preview puts what runs beside what the module
 // declares, and an older image or a differing file refuses unless named.
 func TestATakePreviewsTheComparisonAndRefusesWhatIsNotNamed(t *testing.T) {
-	held := []inventory.Held{
+	c := aForgeComparison()
-		{ID: "forge.server", Module: "forge", Kind: "container", Target: "forge", Facts: map[string]any{
+	preview, refusals, saw := comparisonOf("forge", c, takeOptions{})
-			"image": "forge:1.27.3", "image_created": "2026-09-17T10:00:00Z",
-			"declared_image": "forge:1.22.6", "declared_image_created": "2026-08-20T10:00:00Z", "downgrade": true,
-			"networks": map[string]any{"predecessor_default": []any{"office", "db"}},
-			"ports":    []any{"3000/tcp>0.0.0.0:3000"}, "declared_ports": []any{"3000:3000"},
-		}},
-		{ID: "forge.config", Module: "forge", Kind: "file", Target: "/etc/forge/app.ini", Kept: "/var/lib/mesh/kept/app.ini",
-			Facts: map[string]any{"differs": true, "difference": []any{"- private scope: local", "+ upstream: public"}}},
-		{ID: "other.server", Module: "other", Kind: "container", Target: "other"},
-	}
-	preview, refusals := comparisonOf(held, "forge", takeOptions{})
 	for _, want := range []string{"runs forge:1.27.3 (made 2026-09-17)", "declares forge:1.22.6 (made 2026-08-20)", "DOWNGRADE",
-		"on the network predecessor_default with office, db", "publishes 3000/tcp>0.0.0.0:3000; the module declares 3000:3000",
+		"on the network predecessor_default with office, db", "will not once it moves to the module's own network",
+		"publishes 3000/tcp>0.0.0.0:3000; the module declares 3000:3000",
+		// How far the port reaches now, as the machine reported it (rule 1).
+		"reachable now at 0.0.0.0:3000 (tcp, container port 3000), behind the found firewall (ufw)",
 		"- private scope: local", "original kept at /var/lib/mesh/kept/app.ini"} {
 		if !strings.Contains(preview, want) {
 			t.Errorf("the preview lacks %q:\n%s", want, preview)
@@ -35,15 +51,93 @@ func TestATakePreviewsTheComparisonAndRefusesWhatIsNotNamed(t *testing.T) {
 	if len(refusals) != 2 || !strings.Contains(refusals[0], "--downgrade") || !strings.Contains(refusals[1], "--replace /etc/forge/app.ini") {
 		t.Fatalf("the downgrade and the differing file refuse, each naming its override: %v", refusals)
 	}
+	if len(saw) != 12 {
+		t.Fatalf("the preview's digest is %q", saw)
+	}
 	// Named, they pass.
-	if _, refusals := comparisonOf(held, "forge", takeOptions{Downgrade: true, Replace: map[string]bool{"/etc/forge/app.ini": true}}); len(refusals) != 0 {
+	if _, refusals, _ := comparisonOf("forge", c, takeOptions{Downgrade: true, Replace: map[string]bool{"/etc/forge/app.ini": true}}); len(refusals) != 0 {
 		t.Fatalf("named differences still refused: %v", refusals)
 	}
-	if _, refusals := comparisonOf(held, "forge", takeOptions{Downgrade: true, Replace: map[string]bool{"*": true}}); len(refusals) != 0 {
+	if _, refusals, _ := comparisonOf("forge", c, takeOptions{Downgrade: true, Replace: map[string]bool{"*": true}}); len(refusals) != 0 {
 		t.Fatalf("replace * did not cover the file: %v", refusals)
 	}
 	// A held thing with no facts yet — a host older than this — refuses nothing and says what it can.
-	if preview, refusals := comparisonOf(held, "other", takeOptions{}); len(refusals) != 0 || !strings.Contains(preview, "container other") {
+	if preview, refusals, _ := comparisonOf("other", c, takeOptions{}); len(refusals) != 0 || !strings.Contains(preview, "container other") {
 		t.Fatalf("a factless hold: %q %v", preview, refusals)
 	}
+	// The digest is of what the preview says: a fact changing changes it.
+	c.reported.Held[0].Facts["image"] = "forge:1.27.4"
+	if _, _, again := comparisonOf("forge", c, takeOptions{}); again == saw {
+		t.Fatal("the found image changed and the digest did not")
+	}
+}
+
+// A secret the mesh minted for a service whose data was found refuses: the running service already
+// has a value (rule 2). Accepted, it is carried in; `--mint` says the service shall take the new one.
+func TestAMintedSecretForFoundDataRefusesUnlessAcceptedOrMinted(t *testing.T) {
+	c := aForgeComparison()
+	c.secrets = []inventory.SecretState{
+		{Name: "admin", Origin: inventory.OriginMade},
+		{Name: "postgres-database", Origin: inventory.OriginMade, Provider: "anchor"},
+		{Name: "broker", Origin: inventory.OriginAccepted},
+	}
+	preview, refusals, _ := comparisonOf("forge", c, takeOptions{Downgrade: true, Replace: map[string]bool{"*": true}})
+	for _, want := range []string{
+		"own secret admin: MINTED by the mesh and not accepted",
+		"secret from anchor postgres-database: MINTED by the mesh and not accepted",
+		"own secret broker: accepted from a person, carried in as it is",
+	} {
+		if !strings.Contains(preview, want) {
+			t.Errorf("the preview lacks %q:\n%s", want, preview)
+		}
+	}
+	if len(refusals) != 2 {
+		t.Fatalf("two minted secrets refuse: %v", refusals)
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(refusals[0], "`secret accept <node> forge admin`") || !strings.Contains(refusals[0], "`--mint admin`") {
+		t.Errorf("the own secret's refusal names accepting it and minting it: %s", refusals[0])
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(refusals[1], "`secret accept <node> forge postgres-database --provider anchor`") {
+		t.Errorf("the required secret's refusal names its provider: %s", refusals[1])
+	}
+	preview, refusals, _ = comparisonOf("forge", c, takeOptions{Downgrade: true, Replace: map[string]bool{"*": true},
+		Mint: map[string]bool{"admin": true, "postgres-database": true}})
+	if len(refusals) != 0 || !strings.Contains(preview, "admin: minted by the mesh; the service takes the new value, as --mint said") {
+		t.Fatalf("--mint did not pass the minted secrets: %v\n%s", refusals, preview)
+	}
+	// With no found data — only a file held — the service has no value of its own, and a minted
+	// secret is simply said.
+	c.reported.Held = c.reported.Held[1:2]
+	if _, refusals, _ := comparisonOf("forge", c, takeOptions{Replace: map[string]bool{"*": true}}); len(refusals) != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("a minted secret refused with no data found: %v", refusals)
+	}
+}
+
+// A found network a per-machine setting keeps is named in the preview (rule 4), and the module's
+// settings are said with where each came from, composed or not (rules 1 and 6).
+func TestTheKeptNetworkAndTheSettingsAreInThePreview(t *testing.T) {
+	c := aForgeComparison()
+	c.keeps = map[string][]string{"forge.server": {"predecessor_default"}}
+	c.layers = []catalogue.Layer{
+		{From: catalogue.MeshWideLayer, Values: map[string]any{"site": "x"}},
+		{From: "anchor", Values: map[string]any{catalogue.NetworksSetting: map[string]any{"server": []any{"predecessor_default"}}}},
+	}
+	preview, _, _ := comparisonOf("forge", c, takeOptions{Downgrade: true, Replace: map[string]bool{"*": true}})
+	for _, want := range []string{
+		"on the network predecessor_default with office, db — kept by this machine's setting, so they still reach it by name once taken",
+		"settings from the mesh: site",
+		"settings from anchor: networks",
+	} {
+		if !strings.Contains(preview, want) {
+			t.Errorf("the preview lacks %q:\n%s", want, preview)
+		}
+	}
+	if strings.Contains(preview, "will not once it moves") {
+		t.Errorf("a kept network is still said to be lost:\n%s", preview)
+	}
+	c.settingsRefused = "forge: ports is a { port: machine-port } map"
+	preview, _, _ = comparisonOf("forge", c, takeOptions{Downgrade: true, Replace: map[string]bool{"*": true}})
+	if !strings.Contains(preview, "SETTINGS DO NOT COMPOSE with the module's definition, so the push leaves it out: forge: ports") {
+		t.Errorf("settings that cannot compose are not said:\n%s", preview)
+	}
 }

examples/objectstore-provisioner/Dockerfile

@@ -10,7 +10,10 @@
 # The client is copied from the vendor's own image rather than installed from a distribution:
 # `apk add mc` on Alpine installs Midnight Commander, which is a different program with the same
 # name, and the failure would be a provisioner that starts cleanly and cannot do anything.
-FROM golang:1.25-alpine AS build
+# The Go it builds with is the one the manifest pins (build.on GO_BASE), passed by the Makefile and the
+# build machine alike; the default only serves a hand build, and matches go.mod.
+ARG GO_BASE=golang:1.26-alpine
+FROM ${GO_BASE} AS build
 WORKDIR /src
 COPY go.mod go.sum ./
 RUN go mod download

examples/postgres-provisioner/Dockerfile

@@ -3,7 +3,10 @@
 # Built here so a machine can be given it by the mesh rather than by somebody putting a binary on
 # it. Static and FROM scratch for the same reason the control plane's image is: it is fetched by
 # digest and run on a machine, and everything in it is something a person would have to audit.
-FROM golang:1.25-alpine AS build
+# The Go it builds with is the one the manifest pins (build.on GO_BASE), passed by the Makefile and the
+# build machine alike; the default only serves a hand build, and matches go.mod.
+ARG GO_BASE=golang:1.26-alpine
+FROM ${GO_BASE} AS build
 WORKDIR /src
 COPY go.mod go.sum ./
 RUN go mod download

examples/redis-provisioner/Dockerfile

@@ -2,7 +2,10 @@
 #
 # FROM scratch, like the postgres one and unlike the bucket one: it speaks the store's own wire
 # protocol directly and needs no client in the image.
-FROM golang:1.25-alpine AS build
+# The Go it builds with is the one the manifest pins (build.on GO_BASE), passed by the Makefile and the
+# build machine alike; the default only serves a hand build, and matches go.mod.
+ARG GO_BASE=golang:1.26-alpine
+FROM ${GO_BASE} AS build
 WORKDIR /src
 COPY go.mod go.sum ./
 RUN go mod download

examples/route-proxy/Dockerfile

@@ -2,7 +2,10 @@
 #
 # Static and FROM scratch like the control plane's image, and for the same reason: it is fetched
 # by digest and run on a machine, so everything in it is something a person would have to audit.
-FROM golang:1.25-alpine AS build
+# The Go it builds with is the one the manifest pins (build.on GO_BASE), passed by the Makefile and the
+# build machine alike; the default only serves a hand build, and matches go.mod.
+ARG GO_BASE=golang:1.26-alpine
+FROM ${GO_BASE} AS build
 WORKDIR /src
 COPY go.mod go.sum ./
 RUN go mod download

examples/route-proxy/bus.go

@@ -0,0 +1,132 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
+	"log"
+	"os"
+	"strings"
+	"sync/atomic"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/nats-io/nats.go"
+
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/broker"
+)
+
+// What the mesh issued this proxy, read on the bus (novox/hq ADR 0160, ADR 0167).
+//
+// **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.
+
+// credential is the bus account the mesh delivered as this module's own secret named broker.
+type credential struct {
+	URL         string `json:"url"`
+	Fingerprint string `json:"fingerprint"`
+	Node        string `json:"node"`
+	Module      string `json:"module"`
+	User        string `json:"user"`
+	Password    string `json:"password"`
+}
+
+// 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) {
+	for {
+		err := followOnce(path, held, fromBus)
+		if err == nil {
+			return
+		}
+		log.Printf("cannot follow this proxy's membership, serving the file meanwhile: %v", err)
+		time.Sleep(30 * time.Second)
+	}
+}
+
+func followOnce(path string, held *table, fromBus *atomic.Bool) error {
+	raw, err := os.ReadFile(path)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	var cred credential
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(raw, &cred); err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("the broker credential is not one: %w", err)
+	}
+	if cred.Node == "" || cred.Module == "" {
+		return fmt.Errorf("the broker credential names no node or module, so it has no membership")
+	}
+
+	opts := []nats.Option{
+		nats.Name(cred.Node + "." + cred.Module),
+		nats.UserInfo(cred.User, cred.Password),
+		// Its own inbox, and nothing wider: every principal is granted `_INBOX.<its user>.>` alone.
+		nats.CustomInboxPrefix("_INBOX." + cred.User),
+		// The bus being restarted is an upgrade, not a reason to stop following.
+		nats.MaxReconnects(-1),
+	}
+	if strings.TrimSpace(cred.Fingerprint) != "" {
+		opts = append(opts, nats.Secure(broker.PinnedToFingerprint(cred.Fingerprint)))
+	}
+	conn, err := nats.Connect(cred.URL, opts...)
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("connecting to the bus at %s: %w", broker.BareAddress(cred.URL), err)
+	}
+
+	subject := broker.MembershipSubject(cred.Node, cred.Module)
+	apply := func(body []byte) {
+		var issued broker.Membership
+		if err := json.Unmarshal(body, &issued); err != nil {
+			log.Printf("a membership arrived that is not one: %v", err)
+			return
+		}
+		if took := applyMembership(issued, held); took && !fromBus.Swap(true) {
+			log.Printf("routes now come from this proxy's membership on %s", subject)
+		}
+	}
+
+	// Followed first, read second: an issue landing between the two is applied, not missed.
+	if _, err := conn.Subscribe(subject, func(m *nats.Msg) { apply(m.Data) }); err != nil {
+		conn.Close()
+		return fmt.Errorf("cannot follow %s: %w", subject, err)
+	}
+	// The subject-addressed direct get: the one request this account may make of the stream.
+	got, err := conn.Request("$JS.API.DIRECT.GET."+broker.AssignmentsStream+"."+subject, nil, 5*time.Second)
+	switch {
+	case err != nil:
+		log.Printf("cannot read the membership issued on %s yet (%v); following it", subject, err)
+	case got.Header.Get("Status") != "" || len(got.Data) == 0:
+		log.Printf("no membership issued on %s yet; serving the file until one is", subject)
+	default:
+		apply(got.Data)
+	}
+	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 broker.Membership, held *table) bool {
+	raw, carries := issued.Receives["route"]
+	if !carries {
+		return false
+	}
+	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
+	}
+	inside, err := sourcesOf(issued.Mesh)
+	if err != nil {
+		log.Printf("the mesh in this proxy's membership is unreadable, keeping what is served: %v", err)
+		return false
+	}
+	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
+}

examples/route-proxy/main.go

@@ -61,6 +61,7 @@ import (
 	"sort"
 	"strings"
 	"sync"
+	"sync/atomic"
 	"time"
 
 	"golang.org/x/crypto/acme"
@@ -197,77 +198,44 @@ type table struct {
 	// pass ACME's own validation (it has no public DNS to prove it against), so asking for it is
 	// not merely pointless but the failing order onlyWhatTheMeshSaid exists to prevent.
 	public map[string]bool
-	// inside is the private network's range, where a request must come from to be served a name
+	// inside is where a request must come from to be served a name that is only internal: every
-	// that is only internal. Set once at start, never replaced with the routes: it is what the
+	// machine's address on the private network, as the mesh issued it in this proxy's membership
-	// private network is, not what is routed on it.
+	// (novox/hq ADR 0167). Empty until it is issued, and then only the machine itself is inside.
 	inside sources
-	// bridges is the machine's own container networks, read from its interfaces and refreshed with
-	// the routes, since a compose network can appear at any time.
-	bridges sources
 }
 
-// sources is the private network, as address ranges. The machine itself is always inside it —
+// sources is who may be served an internal name: the private network's addresses as the mesh
-// anything on a machine may call anything on it (novox/hq ADR 0144) — so loopback needs no range.
+// issued them. The machine itself is always inside — anything on a machine may call anything on it
+// (novox/hq ADR 0144) — so loopback needs no entry.
 type sources []netip.Prefix
 
-// sourcesFrom reads the ranges the mesh wrote, separated by commas or spaces. A range that does not
+// sourcesOf reads the addresses the mesh issued, each a single address or a range. One that does
-// parse is an error, not a range skipped: the proxy would otherwise serve internal names to fewer
+// not parse is an error, not an entry skipped: the proxy would otherwise serve internal names to
-// machines than the mesh said, or start believing a typo.
+// fewer machines than the mesh said, and say nothing.
-func sourcesFrom(text string) (sources, error) {
+func sourcesOf(mesh []string) (sources, error) {
 	var out sources
-	for _, field := range strings.FieldsFunc(text, func(r rune) bool { return r == ',' || r == ' ' || r == '\n' || r == '\t' }) {
+	for _, entry := range mesh {
-		prefix, err := netip.ParsePrefix(field)
+		entry = strings.TrimSpace(entry)
-		if err != nil {
+		if prefix, err := netip.ParsePrefix(entry); err == nil {
-			return nil, fmt.Errorf("%q is not an address range: %w", field, err)
+			out = append(out, prefix.Masked())
+			continue
 		}
-		out = append(out, prefix.Masked())
+		addr, err := netip.ParseAddr(entry)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("%q is not an address on the private network", entry)
+		}
+		addr = addr.Unmap()
+		out = append(out, netip.PrefixFrom(addr, addr.BitLen()))
 	}
 	return out, nil
 }
 
-// bridgesFrom is the address ranges of the machine's container bridges — the same interfaces the
+// holds says whether a request from this remote address came from the mesh or the machine itself.
-// mesh's guard names as the machine itself (docker0, and the br-* a compose network gets), so the
-// proxy and the guard agree on what "this machine" is (novox/hq ADR 0144).
-func bridgesFrom(interfaces map[string][]net.Addr) sources {
-	var out sources
-	for name, addrs := range interfaces {
-		if name != "docker0" && !strings.HasPrefix(name, "br-") {
-			continue
-		}
-		for _, a := range addrs {
-			if ipnet, ok := a.(*net.IPNet); ok {
-				if prefix, err := netip.ParsePrefix(ipnet.String()); err == nil {
-					out = append(out, prefix.Masked())
-				}
-			}
-		}
-	}
-	return out
-}
-
-// theseBridges reads this machine's interfaces for bridgesFrom. An interface that cannot be read
-// contributes nothing: fewer callers inside, never more.
-func theseBridges() sources {
-	interfaces, err := net.Interfaces()
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil
-	}
-	named := map[string][]net.Addr{}
-	for _, i := range interfaces {
-		if addrs, err := i.Addrs(); err == nil {
-			named[i.Name] = addrs
-		}
-	}
-	return bridgesFrom(named)
-}
-
-// holds says whether a request from this remote address came from inside these ranges, or from
-// the machine itself.
 //
-// **By source, which the guard deliberately is not** — it names interfaces because a source
+// **By source, which the mesh's guard deliberately is not** — it names interfaces, because a source
 // address can be claimed by whoever sends the packet. The proxy cannot see the interface a request
 // arrived on, and here the claim does not carry: a connection needs its replies, and replies to a
-// mesh or container address leave by the tunnel or a local bridge, never back to the claimant.
+// mesh address leave by the tunnel, never back to the claimant.
 func (s sources) holds(remote string) bool {
 	host := remote
 	if h, _, err := net.SplitHostPort(remote); err == nil {
@@ -418,13 +386,13 @@ func (t *table) hiddenFrom(host, remote string) bool {
 	}
 	t.mu.RLock()
 	defer t.mu.RUnlock()
-	return !t.inside.holds(remote) && !t.bridges.holds(remote)
+	return !t.inside.holds(remote)
 }
 
-// setBridges replaces the machine's container networks.
+// setInside replaces who the mesh is, as the membership said.
-func (t *table) setBridges(bridges sources) {
+func (t *table) setInside(inside sources) {
 	t.mu.Lock()
-	t.bridges = bridges
+	t.inside = inside
 	t.mu.Unlock()
 }
 
@@ -469,19 +437,20 @@ func run() error {
 	}
 
 	held := newTable()
-	// Unset means only this machine and its containers are inside, which serves an internal-only
+	// **The bus first, the file until it has spoken** (novox/hq ADR 0167). The membership carries
-	// name to nobody else — refused rather than served to everyone, which is what the proxy did
+	// the routes and who the mesh is; the file carries the routes alone, so while the proxy reads
-	// before it knew.
+	// it an internal name is served to this machine and to nobody else — refused, never opened.
-	inside, err := sourcesFrom(os.Getenv("INTERNAL_SOURCES"))
+	fromBus := &atomic.Bool{}
-	if err != nil {
+	if credential := strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv("MESH_BROKER_FILE")); credential != "" {
-		return fmt.Errorf("INTERNAL_SOURCES: %w", err)
+		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)
 	}
-	if len(inside) == 0 {
-		log.Printf("INTERNAL_SOURCES is not set: a name that is only internal is served to this machine " +
-			"and its containers alone")
-	}
-	held.inside = inside
 	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
@@ -491,7 +460,6 @@ func run() error {
 			return
 		}
 		held.set(routes, public)
-		held.setBridges(theseBridges())
 		log.Printf("serving %d route(s): %s", len(routes), strings.Join(held.names(), ", "))
 	}
 	read()
@@ -764,6 +732,11 @@ func handler(held *table) http.Handler {
 			// And since a host may now be routed only on some paths, those are a third thing:
 			// saying "no route for this name" while listing that very name as served is a
 			// contradiction an operator would have to disbelieve the proxy to get past.
+			// **Said in the log as well as to the client.** A name this mesh does not serve, asked
+			// for from outside, is what a scanner does, and the machine's intrusion prevention reads
+			// this proxy's log for exactly that line (novox/hq ADR 0179): the address last, as the
+			// jail's filter expects it.
+			log.Printf("refused: no route for %q, asked from %s", r.Host, r.RemoteAddr)
 			w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "text/plain; charset=utf-8")
 			w.WriteHeader(http.StatusNotFound)
 			if !hidden && held.routed(r.Host) {
@@ -886,10 +859,16 @@ func routesFrom(path string) (map[string][]rule, map[string]bool, error) {
 	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.
+func routesOf(contributions []contribution) (map[string][]rule, map[string]bool) {
 	out := map[string][]rule{}
 	public := map[string]bool{}
-	for _, c := range said.Given {
+	for _, c := range contributions {
 		name, _ := c.Values["name"].(string)
 		name = strings.TrimSpace(name)
 		internal, _ := c.Values["internal-name"].(string)
@@ -994,7 +973,7 @@ func routesFrom(path string) (map[string][]rule, map[string]bool, error) {
 			out[strings.ToLower(internal)] = append(out[strings.ToLower(internal)], made)
 		}
 	}
-	return out, public, nil
+	return out, public
 }
 
 // asWhole is any whole number the mesh wrote, whatever its magnitude.

examples/route-proxy/reach_test.go

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package main
 
 import (
 	"crypto/tls"
+	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"net"
@@ -10,11 +11,13 @@ import (
 	"net/url"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/broker"
 )
 
 // behind is a workload the proxy can send to, and a table routing one public name and one
-// internal-only name to it, with the private network set to inside.
+// internal-only name to it, with the mesh's machines as the membership would issue them.
-func behind(t *testing.T, inside string) *table {
+func behind(t *testing.T, mesh ...string) *table {
 	t.Helper()
 	workload := httptest.NewServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 		io.WriteString(w, "the workload")
@@ -33,10 +36,11 @@ func behind(t *testing.T, inside string) *table {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 	held := newTable()
-	held.inside, err = sourcesFrom(inside)
+	inside, err := sourcesOf(mesh)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
+	held.setInside(inside)
 	held.set(routes, public)
 	return held
 }
@@ -54,7 +58,7 @@ func askFrom(held *table, host, remote string) (int, string) {
 // 0138, issue 191). The proxy answers public names on the same listeners, so without this a name
 // being internal kept nobody out: a request from the internet only had to carry it.
 func TestAnInternalOnlyNameIsServedOnlyInsideThePrivateNetwork(t *testing.T) {
-	held := behind(t, "10.10.0.0/24")
+	held := behind(t, "10.10.0.1", "10.10.0.7")
 
 	if code, body := askFrom(held, "admin.anchor.internal", "10.10.0.7:51000"); code != http.StatusOK ||
 		body != "the workload" {
@@ -83,7 +87,7 @@ func TestAnInternalOnlyNameIsServedOnlyInsideThePrivateNetwork(t *testing.T) {
 // an outsider only under the public name. Nothing is lost — the outsider has the public name — and a
 // name stays one thing whichever route it came from.
 func TestAnInternalAliasOfAPublicRouteIsServedInsideOnly(t *testing.T) {
-	held := behind(t, "10.10.0.0/24")
+	held := behind(t, "10.10.0.1", "10.10.0.7")
 	if code, body := askFrom(held, "app.anchor.internal", "10.10.0.7:51000"); code != http.StatusOK {
 		t.Errorf("the internal alias stopped answering the private network: %d %q", code, body)
 	}
@@ -95,32 +99,10 @@ func TestAnInternalAliasOfAPublicRouteIsServedInsideOnly(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-// A container on this machine reaches the proxy from its bridge's range, and is the machine itself
+// Before a membership has said who the mesh is, only the machine itself is inside — refused to
-// (novox/hq ADR 0144): inside, though it is neither loopback nor the mesh.
+// everyone else, never served to everyone.
-func TestAContainerOnThisMachineIsInside(t *testing.T) {
+func TestUntilTheMeshIsIssuedAnInternalOnlyNameIsServedToTheMachineAlone(t *testing.T) {
-	held := behind(t, "10.10.0.0/24")
+	held := behind(t)
-	_, bridge, _ := net.ParseCIDR("172.18.0.1/16")
-	bridge.IP = net.ParseIP("172.18.0.1")
-	_, other, _ := net.ParseCIDR("192.168.1.20/24")
-	other.IP = net.ParseIP("192.168.1.20")
-	held.setBridges(bridgesFrom(map[string][]net.Addr{
-		"br-0123456789ab": {bridge},
-		"eth0":            {other},
-	}))
-
-	if code, _ := askFrom(held, "admin.anchor.internal", "172.18.0.5:51000"); code != http.StatusOK {
-		t.Errorf("a container on this machine was refused: %d", code)
-	}
-	// The machine's own network is not a container bridge: a neighbour there is not the machine.
-	if code, _ := askFrom(held, "admin.anchor.internal", "192.168.1.30:51000"); code != http.StatusNotFound {
-		t.Errorf("a neighbour on the machine's network was served an internal-only name: %d", code)
-	}
-}
-
-// With no private network said, only the machine itself is inside — refused to everyone else,
-// never served to everyone.
-func TestWithNoPrivateNetworkSaidAnInternalOnlyNameIsServedToTheMachineAlone(t *testing.T) {
-	held := behind(t, "")
 	if code, _ := askFrom(held, "admin.anchor.internal", "10.10.0.7:51000"); code != http.StatusNotFound {
 		t.Errorf("an internal-only name was served with no private network said: %d", code)
 	}
@@ -139,7 +121,7 @@ func (c from) RemoteAddr() net.Addr { return c.remote }
 // The handshake refuses an internal-only name to an outsider too: the certificate would name it,
 // and serving it would answer the question the routing refuses to.
 func TestTheHandshakeRefusesAnInternalOnlyNameToAnOutsider(t *testing.T) {
-	held := behind(t, "10.10.0.0/24")
+	held := behind(t, "10.10.0.1", "10.10.0.7")
 	served := &tls.Certificate{}
 	pick := certificateFor(held, func(*tls.ClientHelloInfo) (*tls.Certificate, error) { return served, nil }, nil)
 	hello := func(name, remote string) *tls.ClientHelloInfo {
@@ -158,26 +140,67 @@ func TestTheHandshakeRefusesAnInternalOnlyNameToAnOutsider(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-// A range the proxy cannot read stops it, rather than serving internal names to fewer machines
+// The mesh is issued as machines' addresses; a range is read as well. One that does not parse is
-// than the mesh said, or to a typo.
+// refused rather than skipped, so a typo never quietly narrows or widens who is inside.
-func TestAPrivateNetworkThatDoesNotParseIsRefused(t *testing.T) {
+func TestTheMeshIsReadAsAddressesAndRanges(t *testing.T) {
-	if _, err := sourcesFrom("10.10.0.0/24, not-a-range"); err == nil {
+	if _, err := sourcesOf([]string{"10.10.0.1", "not-an-address"}); err == nil {
-		t.Error("a range that does not parse was accepted")
+		t.Error("an entry that is not an address was accepted")
 	}
-	inside, err := sourcesFrom("10.10.0.0/24 fd00::/8")
+	inside, err := sourcesOf([]string{"10.10.0.1", "fd00::1", "10.20.0.0/24"})
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 	for remote, want := range map[string]bool{
-		"10.10.0.200:1":        true,
+		"10.10.0.1:1":          true,
-		"[::ffff:10.10.0.3]:1": true,
+		"[::ffff:10.10.0.1]:1": true,
 		"[fd00::1]:1":          true,
-		"10.11.0.1:1":          false,
+		"10.20.0.200:1":        true,
+		"10.10.0.2:1":          false,
 		"192.168.1.10:1":       false,
 		"not-an-address":       false,
 	} {
 		if inside.holds(remote) != want {
-			t.Errorf("%s inside the private network: got %v, want %v", remote, !want, want)
+			t.Errorf("%s inside the mesh: got %v, want %v", remote, !want, want)
 		}
 	}
 }
+
+// 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(broker.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)
+	}
+}
+
+// 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(broker.Membership{Mesh: []string{"10.10.0.7"}}, held) {
+		t.Error("a membership without routes was taken as the source of routes")
+	}
+	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)
+	}
+	if applyMembership(broker.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")
+	}
+}

internal/broker/agreement_catalogue_test.go

@@ -234,3 +234,13 @@ func admitsSubject(pattern, subject []string) bool {
 	}
 	return len(pattern) == len(subject)
 }
+
+// The two packages name the runtime module separately — the broker's types stay free of the
+// catalogue's on purpose — so this is what holds them to one string. A rename that reached only one
+// side would compose a runtime principal for a module nobody assigns, silently, and leave the one
+// that is assigned with a module's own grants.
+func TestTheBrokerAndTheCatalogueAgreeOnTheRuntimeModule(t *testing.T) {
+	if RuntimeModule != catalogue.RuntimeModule {
+		t.Fatalf("the broker calls the runtime %q and the catalogue %q", RuntimeModule, catalogue.RuntimeModule)
+	}
+}

internal/broker/derived.go

@@ -144,12 +144,18 @@ func ConsumerFor(p Principal) (Consumer, bool) {
 	}, true
 }
 
-// HolderConsumerFor is the worker a seat's holder gets on that seat's work queue.
+// HolderConsumerFor is the worker a seat's holders share on that seat's work queue.
 //
-// **A queue group even though the seat guarantees one holder.** The seat is *authority* — who may
+// **One worker for every holder, and each holder pulls one ask when it is idle** (novox/hq ADR
-// be the telegram sender — and the queue group is *delivery*. Tie delivery to the seat and the
+// 0190). The seat is *authority* — who may be the telegram sender — and the worker is *delivery*,
-// day somebody allows two holders for throughput, every message is processed twice with nothing
+// kept separate so that relaxing one changes nothing about the other: a node-scoped seat has a
-// reporting it. Kept separate, relaxing one changes nothing about the other.
+// holder per machine, and all of them take from this one consumer, so the work is shared without
+// any holder knowing about the others. Pulled rather than pushed because a push consumer hands the
+// next ask to whichever subscriber the server picks, busy or not, and a pulled one is asked for by
+// a holder that has just become free. Which is also what ends the race issue 186 describes — asks
+// delivered behind the one being worked, expiring unacknowledged and dropped after the fifth
+// redelivery: nothing is delivered that nobody asked for. A long build keeps its own ask alive
+// (stillWorking); the ack wait is for a holder that died.
 func HolderConsumerFor(node, module string, seat DeclaredSeat) (Consumer, bool) {
 	if len(seat.Accepts) == 0 {
 		return Consumer{}, false
@@ -158,18 +164,13 @@ func HolderConsumerFor(node, module string, seat DeclaredSeat) (Consumer, bool)
 		Name:           "SEAT_" + upperSnake(seat.Name) + "_worker",
 		Stream:         seatStreamName(seat.Name),
 		Filters:        []string{"mesh.seat." + seat.Name + ".accept.>"},
-		Queue:          "holders",
 		AckWaitSeconds: 60,
 		MaxDeliver:     5,
-		// **One in flight.** A holder works one ask at a time, so the server hands it one at a
+		// As many in flight as there are holders working, which pulling bounds by itself: a holder
-		// time: with the default of many, every ask behind the one being worked was delivered,
+		// fetches one and fetches again only after it acknowledged. The server's default stands.
-		// left unacknowledged for the length of the work, redelivered after the ack wait, and
+		Why: fmt.Sprintf("%s on %s holds %s; every holder pulls one ask at a time from this worker "+
-		// after the fifth time dropped — on 2026-10-01 twenty-six of forty-three builds asked in
+			"and acknowledges after the work is done, so a crash mid-work redelivers rather than "+
-		// two minutes were never built, and the queue read as empty (novox/hq issue 186).
+			"loses and an idle holder is the one that takes the next ask", module, node, seat.Name),
-		MaxAckPending: 1,
-		Why: fmt.Sprintf("%s on %s holds %s; it acknowledges after the work is done, so a "+
-			"crash mid-work redelivers rather than loses; one in flight, so a queue of asks is a "+
-			"queue and not a race against the ack wait", module, node, seat.Name),
 	}, true
 }
 

internal/broker/derived_test.go

@@ -88,15 +88,20 @@ func TestAModuleThatConsumesNothingGetsNoConsumer(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-// The seat is authority and the queue group is delivery. Tie them together and the day somebody
+// The seat is authority and the worker is delivery (novox/hq ADR 0190): one worker per seat, shared
-// allows two holders, every message is processed twice with nothing reporting it.
+// by every holder and pulled from, so a second holder takes the next ask rather than a copy of the
-func TestAHoldersWorkerUsesAQueueGroupAnyway(t *testing.T) {
+// same one — which is what a queue group used to guard, and what pulling one durable gives outright.
+func TestAHoldersWorkerIsOneSharedByItsHolders(t *testing.T) {
 	c, ok := HolderConsumerFor("one", "telegram", telegramSeat())
 	if !ok {
 		t.Fatal("the holder of a seat with inbound work got no worker")
 	}
-	if c.Queue == "" {
+	two, _ := HolderConsumerFor("two", "telegram", telegramSeat())
-		t.Fatal("the worker is not in a queue group, so a second holder would double-process")
+	if c.Name != two.Name || c.Stream != two.Stream {
+		t.Fatal("two holders got two workers, so each would process every ask")
+	}
+	if c.Push || c.Queue != "" {
+		t.Fatal("the worker is pushed, so the server would hand an ask to a busy holder")
 	}
 	if c.Stream != "SEAT_TELEGRAM_SENDER" {
 		t.Fatalf("the worker reads %q, not the seat's own stream", c.Stream)
@@ -154,15 +159,23 @@ func TestANodesDeclarationConsumerIsWhatItsOwnGrantAllows(t *testing.T) {
 	has(t, perms.Subscribe, c.Filters[0])
 }
 
-// A holder works one ask at a time, so the server hands it one at a time (novox/hq issue 186):
+// Every holder of a seat shares one worker and pulls from it (novox/hq ADR 0190): no queue group
-// asks queued behind the one being worked wait in the stream rather than being delivered,
+// and no delivery subject, because a push consumer hands the next ask to whichever subscriber the
-// left to expire and dropped after the fifth redelivery.
+// server picks, busy or not; and no cap of one in flight, because pulling bounds the asks in flight
-func TestAHoldersWorkerTakesOneAskAtATime(t *testing.T) {
+// by the holders that are free — which is what ended the race of issue 186, where asks delivered
-	c, found := HolderConsumerFor("anchor", "builder", DeclaredSeat{Name: "mesh-build-machine", Accepts: []string{"build"}})
+// behind the one being worked expired and were dropped.
+func TestAHoldersWorkerIsPulledByEveryHolder(t *testing.T) {
+	c, found := HolderConsumerFor("anchor", "build-agent", DeclaredSeat{Name: "node-build-agent", Accepts: []string{"build"}})
 	if !found {
 		t.Fatal("a seat that accepts work has no worker")
 	}
-	if c.MaxAckPending != 1 {
+	if c.Queue != "" || c.Push {
-		t.Fatalf("the worker may have %d asks in flight; one, so a queue is a queue", c.MaxAckPending)
+		t.Fatalf("the worker is pushed (queue %q, push %v); a holder pulls when it is free", c.Queue, c.Push)
+	}
+	if c.MaxAckPending != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("the worker caps asks in flight at %d; pulling bounds them by the holders working", c.MaxAckPending)
+	}
+	if c.Name != "SEAT_NODE_BUILD_AGENT_worker" || c.Stream != "SEAT_NODE_BUILD_AGENT" {
+		t.Fatalf("the worker is %s on %s; one per seat, shared by its holders", c.Name, c.Stream)
 	}
 }

internal/broker/membership.go

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package broker
 
 import (
+	"encoding/json"
 	"sort"
 	"strings"
 )
@@ -33,6 +34,17 @@ type Membership struct {
 	Reaches map[string][]string `json:"reaches,omitempty"`
 	// Tools is where this instance answers what it serves — the runtime's one verb of its own.
 	Tools string `json:"tools"`
+	// Receives is what this assignment is given for each requirement it receives, by requirement:
+	// the contributions of every module that asked for it, as the catalogue composed them (novox/hq
+	// ADR 0167). The same list its received file is written from, so the two cannot disagree; a
+	// requirement nobody contributed to is an empty list, never absent. Kept as JSON because the
+	// catalogue owns the shape of a contribution and the bus only carries it.
+	Receives map[string]json.RawMessage `json:"receives,omitempty"`
+	// Mesh is every machine's address on the private network — what a rule saying "from the mesh"
+	// resolves to in the packet filter, issued here from the same list (novox/hq ADR 0167). A
+	// module that must tell the mesh from the world, the route proxy serving an internal name, reads
+	// it here rather than keeping a definition of its own.
+	Mesh []string `json:"mesh,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // Served is one address a tool is answered on.

internal/broker/membership_test.go

@@ -73,3 +73,37 @@ func TestAnAccountMayReadItsOwnMembershipAndNoOthers(t *testing.T) {
 	has(t, perms.Publish, "$JS.API.DIRECT.GET.ASSIGNMENTS.mesh.assignment.anchor.postgres")
 	hasNot(t, perms.Subscribe, "mesh.assignment.>")
 }
+
+// The runtime arriving on a machine changes nothing about what each module is issued (to-be 38 WP2):
+// the memberships are composed as before and the runtime reads several of them. What the machine's
+// user list gains is one runtime principal, and loses nothing but the runtime module's own.
+func TestTheRuntimeArrivingLeavesEveryMembershipAsItWas(t *testing.T) {
+	filter := Seat{Name: "node-packet-filter", Scope: "node", Serves: []string{"rules", "reload"}}
+	three := []Declared{
+		{Module: "nftables", Holds: []Seat{filter}, Serves: []string{"firewall_rules"}},
+		{Module: "zsh", Serves: []string{"execute"}},
+		{Module: "systemd", Serves: []string{"units"}},
+	}
+	before := Records{Nodes: []string{"anchor"}, Assigned: map[string][]Declared{"anchor": three}}
+	after := Records{Nodes: []string{"anchor"}, Assigned: map[string][]Declared{
+		"anchor": append(append([]Declared{}, three...), Declared{Module: RuntimeModule}),
+	}}
+	for _, d := range three {
+		was := MembershipFor("anchor", d, PlacementsOf(before, nil))
+		is := MembershipFor("anchor", d, PlacementsOf(after, nil))
+		if !reflect.DeepEqual(was, is) {
+			t.Errorf("%s's membership changed when the runtime arrived:\n%+v\n%+v", d.Module, was, is)
+		}
+	}
+	users, err := Users(after)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	kinds := map[Kind]int{}
+	for _, p := range users {
+		kinds[p.Kind]++
+	}
+	if kinds[KindNodeTools] != 1 || kinds[KindModule] != 3 || kinds[KindNode] != 1 || kinds[KindController] != 1 {
+		t.Errorf("the machine's users are %v; one runtime, the three modules, the host and the controller", kinds)
+	}
+}

internal/broker/nats.go

@@ -34,8 +34,20 @@ const (
 	// authority is a list of tools and nothing else — not control, not declarations, not builds,
 	// and no ability to answer anything, because a person asks.
 	KindPerson Kind = "person"
+	// KindNodeTools is a machine's tool runtime (novox/hq ADR 0175, to-be 38): one process per
+	// node, on the host side, serving every assigned module's tools and every held seat's verbs.
+	// Its authority is the union of what the modules it carries would each have had for their
+	// tools — and nothing of what they consume, because tools are what it runs, not reactions.
+	KindNodeTools Kind = "node-tools"
 )
 
+// RuntimeModule is the module that IS the node's tool runtime (novox/hq ADR 0175). Where it is
+// assigned, the mesh composes one runtime principal for the machine in place of that module's own,
+// and the per-module containers that served tools until then stop being the way tools reach a node.
+// Mirrored in the catalogue package, which the agreement test holds to the same string; one
+// constant, so a rename is one edit and the two packages cannot drift.
+const RuntimeModule = "node-tools"
+
 // Seat is a role on the bus as a principal relates to it: the subjects it accepts, and those it
 // emits (novox/hq ADR 0118, design 29 §5).
 type Seat struct {
@@ -74,6 +86,13 @@ type Principal struct {
 	// a namespace no such module owns. Every service started and the graph stayed empty.
 	Watches []Seat
 
+	// Carries are the modules whose tools this principal serves, for a KindNodeTools principal
+	// (novox/hq ADR 0175): every module assigned to its node, as each declares itself. Its
+	// serving authority is the union of theirs — each module's own tool namespace and each held
+	// seat's verbs on this node — derived from the same declarations the modules' own principals
+	// are, so the runtime can serve nothing a module could not have served for itself.
+	Carries []Declared
+
 	// Invokes are the tools this principal may call, as `<module>.<tool>`; a single `*` is every
 	// tool. A person's whole authority (design 25 §7), and a module's only if its manifest says so
 	// (novox/hq ADR 0152) — the console's does, and nothing else's.
@@ -91,10 +110,10 @@ type Principal struct {
 	PasswordHash string
 }
 
-// meshSeatsTheControllerUses are the roles the mesh's own flows submit work to. Named rather than
+// seatsTheControllerAsks are the roles the mesh's own flows submit work to. Named rather than
 // derived from the seat set: the controller is not a module and declares no `uses`, so its side of a
 // seat has to be stated, and a list is what makes "which roles does the mesh itself talk to" answerable.
-var meshSeatsTheControllerUses = []string{"mesh-build-machine"}
+var seatsTheControllerAsks = []string{"node-build-agent"}
 
 // enrolmentPrefix is the space every enrolling node's user and inbox live under, so the one place the
 // controller may answer an enrolment is derived from the same constant the user is named from.
@@ -112,7 +131,10 @@ func (p Principal) Username() string {
 	switch p.Kind {
 	case KindPerson:
 		return "person." + p.Module
-	case KindModule:
+	case KindModule, KindNodeTools:
+		// The runtime is named exactly as the module it stands for would have been: the mesh
+		// issues its credential through the same path a module's takes (`module issue`), and
+		// that path knows the node and the module, not the kind.
 		return p.Node + "." + p.Module
 	case KindNode:
 		return "node." + p.Node
@@ -186,7 +208,9 @@ func PermissionsFor(p Principal) (Permissions, error) {
 		// Work the mesh's own flows submit to a role, and the outcomes they wait on (ADR 0121). A
 		// build is the one today: the controller asks, and reads the answer from the seat's event
 		// like the catalogue does — which is why no holder needs to publish into anybody's inbox.
-		for _, seat := range meshSeatsTheControllerUses {
+		// A node-scoped seat's work subject carries no node (novox/hq ADR 0190): the ask goes to
+		// the role, and whichever machine holding it is idle takes it.
+		for _, seat := range seatsTheControllerAsks {
 			pub = append(pub, "mesh.seat."+seat+".accept.>")
 		}
 		// **And what the mesh says it did** (novox/hq ADR 0134). The control plane states its own
@@ -346,13 +370,17 @@ func PermissionsFor(p Principal) (Permissions, error) {
 
 		// 3. Seats it holds: full participation.
 		for _, s := range p.Holds {
-			// Taking work from the role's queue: the worker consumer it binds (asked about,
+			// Taking work from the role's queue: the worker consumer every holder shares (asked
-			// delivered on, acknowledged), each on the seat's own stream. The first machine to
+			// about, pulled from, acknowledged), on the seat's own stream (novox/hq ADR 0190). A
-			// take work over the new bus was refused the asking (2026-09-28).
+			// holder pulls — asks the consumer for its next message, answered on its own inbox —
+			// so what it needs is MSG.NEXT on that worker and nothing delivered to it. The first
+			// machine to take work over the new bus was refused the asking (2026-09-28).
 			worker := "SEAT_" + upperSnake(s.Name) + "_worker"
 			stream := seatStreamName(s.Name)
-			sub = append(sub, "_DELIVER."+worker, "_DELIVER."+worker+".>")
+			pub = append(pub,
-			pub = append(pub, "$JS.API.CONSUMER.INFO."+stream+"."+worker, "$JS.ACK."+stream+"."+worker+".>")
+				"$JS.API.CONSUMER.INFO."+stream+"."+worker,
+				"$JS.API.CONSUMER.MSG.NEXT."+stream+"."+worker,
+				"$JS.ACK."+stream+"."+worker+".>")
 			for _, a := range s.Accepts {
 				sub = append(sub, seatSubject(s, "accept", a))
 			}
@@ -375,6 +403,48 @@ func PermissionsFor(p Principal) (Permissions, error) {
 				pub = append(pub, seatToolSubject(s, t, "*"))
 			}
 		}
+
+	case KindNodeTools:
+		// **One process serves what every module on the machine would have served for itself**
+		// (novox/hq ADR 0175). Each carried module's whole tool namespace — the same grant that
+		// module's own principal has, for the same reason: the tools a module serves are what its
+		// code answers, and a list here would be a second copy of it. Each held seat's verbs on
+		// this node, as the holder's own principal would be granted them.
+		for _, d := range p.Carries {
+			if !safeSubject.MatchString(d.Module) {
+				return Permissions{}, fmt.Errorf(
+					"%q cannot be part of a subject: a permission is a subject pattern, and this would widen it", d.Module)
+			}
+			own := "mesh.mod." + d.Module
+			sub = append(sub, own+".tool.>")
+			// A tool that emits an event is the module's code and emits under the module's name
+			// (ADR 0042); the runtime carrying that code may publish what the module declared it
+			// emits, and nothing it did not.
+			for _, e := range d.Emits {
+				pub = append(pub, own+".event."+e)
+			}
+			for _, s := range d.Holds {
+				for _, t := range s.Serves {
+					sub = append(sub, seatToolSubject(s, t, p.Node))
+				}
+			}
+		}
+		// Every assigned module's membership on this node (ADR 0160): one per module, read
+		// directly from the stream and followed live. This node's and no other's — the one token
+		// that varies is the module, so the pattern is the machine's own assignments.
+		sub = append(sub, "mesh.assignment."+p.Node+".*")
+		pub = append(pub, "$JS.API.DIRECT.GET."+AssignmentsStream+".mesh.assignment."+p.Node+".*")
+		// And every tool on the mesh (ADR 0175, decision 5): any node may call any tool on any
+		// node, as the console already could — the runtime is the console's serving mode.
+		invoked, err := invokedSubjects([]string{"*"})
+		if err != nil {
+			return Permissions{}, err
+		}
+		pub = append(pub, invoked...)
+		// Nothing about consumers: it consumes nothing. A module's reactions to events are its
+		// own long-lived process, which ADR 0175 leaves where it is; what moves here is tools.
+		sub = unique(sub)
+		pub = unique(pub)
 	}
 
 	if p.Kind == KindPerson {
@@ -382,6 +452,11 @@ func PermissionsFor(p Principal) (Permissions, error) {
 		// consumer, because nothing is delivered to a person — they ask and are answered.
 		sub = append(sub, p.inbox())
 	}
+	if p.Kind == KindNodeTools {
+		// Its reply space, so the answers to what its tools call come back to it. No ack subject
+		// for the same reason a person has none: nothing is delivered to it.
+		sub = append(sub, p.inbox())
+	}
 
 	if p.Kind == KindModule || p.Kind == KindNode || p.Kind == KindController {
 		// Its own reply space, and nothing wider.
@@ -403,7 +478,7 @@ func PermissionsFor(p Principal) (Permissions, error) {
 		// A module answers what it was asked — a tool call reaches it on its own namespace, so the
 		// authority is bounded by having been asked — and so does the controller. A node and a
 		// person are never asked anything, and are granted nothing here.
-		AllowResponses: p.Kind == KindModule || p.Kind == KindController,
+		AllowResponses: p.Kind == KindModule || p.Kind == KindController || p.Kind == KindNodeTools,
 	}, nil
 }
 
@@ -625,6 +700,20 @@ func ComposeAccounts(principals []Principal) (string, error) {
 	return b.String(), nil
 }
 
+// unique is a sorted list with each subject once. Two carried modules holding seats with the same
+// verb, or the runtime module itself carried beside the others, would otherwise write a grant twice
+// — harmless to the server, and noise in a file that is read as the mesh's authority model.
+func unique(values []string) []string {
+	sort.Strings(values)
+	out := values[:0]
+	for i, v := range values {
+		if i == 0 || v != values[i-1] {
+			out = append(out, v)
+		}
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
 func quoted(values []string) string {
 	if len(values) == 0 {
 		return ""

internal/broker/nats_test.go

@@ -371,3 +371,94 @@ func TestAModulePullsItsOwnConsumerAndNoOthers(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	}
 }
+
+// The runtime's authority is the union of what the modules it carries would have been granted for
+// their tools (novox/hq ADR 0175): every carried module's tool namespace, every held seat's verbs
+// on this node, every module's membership on this node, and a call to anything. Nothing it
+// consumes, because it reacts to nothing.
+func TestTheRuntimeServesTheUnionAndConsumesNothing(t *testing.T) {
+	filter := Seat{Name: "node-packet-filter", Scope: "node", Serves: []string{"rules", "reload"}}
+	p := Principal{Kind: KindNodeTools, Node: "anchor", Module: RuntimeModule, Carries: []Declared{
+		{Module: "nftables", Holds: []Seat{filter}, Serves: []string{"firewall_rules"}},
+		{Module: "zsh", Emits: []string{"shell.opened"}, Consumes: []string{"shop.order.placed"}},
+		{Module: RuntimeModule},
+	}}
+	perms, err := PermissionsFor(p)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	for _, want := range []string{
+		"mesh.mod.nftables.tool.>", "mesh.mod.zsh.tool.>", "mesh.mod." + RuntimeModule + ".tool.>",
+		"mesh.seat.node-packet-filter.tool.rules.anchor", "mesh.seat.node-packet-filter.tool.reload.anchor",
+		"mesh.assignment.anchor.*",
+		"_INBOX.anchor." + RuntimeModule + ".>",
+	} {
+		if !contains(perms.Subscribe, want) {
+			t.Errorf("the runtime may not subscribe %s: %v", want, perms.Subscribe)
+		}
+	}
+	for _, want := range []string{
+		"mesh.mod.*.tool.>", "mesh.seat.*.tool.>",
+		"$JS.API.DIRECT.GET.ASSIGNMENTS.mesh.assignment.anchor.*",
+		"mesh.mod.zsh.event.shell.opened",
+	} {
+		if !contains(perms.Publish, want) {
+			t.Errorf("the runtime may not publish %s: %v", want, perms.Publish)
+		}
+	}
+	// Nothing of what a carried module consumes, and no consumer of its own to ack.
+	for _, s := range perms.Subscribe {
+		if strings.Contains(s, ".event.") || strings.HasPrefix(s, "_DELIVER.") {
+			t.Errorf("the runtime was granted a delivery it has no consumer for: %s", s)
+		}
+	}
+	for _, s := range perms.Publish {
+		if strings.HasPrefix(s, "$JS.ACK.") || strings.Contains(s, "CONSUMER") {
+			t.Errorf("the runtime was granted a consumer's subject and has no consumer: %s", s)
+		}
+	}
+	if !perms.AllowResponses {
+		t.Error("the runtime answers what it is asked, and may not reply")
+	}
+	if _, needed := ConsumerFor(p); needed {
+		t.Error("a consumer would be made for the runtime, which consumes nothing")
+	}
+	// Each subject once: the file is read as the mesh's authority model.
+	seen := map[string]bool{}
+	for _, s := range append(append([]string{}, perms.Subscribe...), perms.Publish...) {
+		if seen[s] {
+			t.Errorf("%s is granted twice", s)
+		}
+		seen[s] = true
+	}
+}
+
+func contains(list []string, want string) bool {
+	for _, s := range list {
+		if s == want {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	return false
+}
+
+// A node-scoped seat's work is shared (novox/hq ADR 0190): its holder on any machine subscribes the
+// seat's one work subject, with no node in it, so holders on several machines read one queue. The
+// node token belongs to a seat's tools, which are asked of one machine (design 33 §4), not to its work.
+func TestANodeSeatsWorkSubjectCarriesNoNode(t *testing.T) {
+	seat := Seat{Name: "node-build-agent", Scope: "node", Accepts: []string{"build"}, Serves: []string{"status"}}
+	perms, err := PermissionsFor(Principal{Kind: KindModule, Node: "anchor", Module: "build-agent", Holds: []Seat{seat}})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	has(t, perms.Subscribe, "mesh.seat.node-build-agent.accept.build")
+	hasNot(t, perms.Subscribe, "mesh.seat.node-build-agent.accept.build.anchor")
+	// And its tools still carry the machine.
+	has(t, perms.Subscribe, "mesh.seat.node-build-agent.tool.status.anchor")
+	// The controller asks the role, not a machine.
+	controller, err := PermissionsFor(Principal{Kind: KindController})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	has(t, controller.Publish, "mesh.seat.node-build-agent.accept.>")
+}

internal/broker/streams.go

@@ -217,7 +217,7 @@ var ControllerFollows = []string{
 	// A build's outcome, which is the build-machine role's own event now (ADR 0121) rather than a
 	// message on the control branch. Same three audiences, one publish: whoever asked, this, and the
 	// catalogue.
-	seatEventSubject("mesh-build-machine", "built"),
+	seatEventSubject("node-build-agent", "built"),
 	// The forge's merges: what moved a source, so the mesh builds what that source produces
 	// without anybody telling it (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/131). Appended, because the index is a name.
 	moduleEventSubject("gitea", "pull.merged"),

internal/broker/testdata/composed.conf

@@ -24,8 +24,8 @@ accounts {
     jetstream: enabled
     users = [
       { user: "controller", password: "$2a$11$cccccccccccccccccccccc", permissions: {
-        publish: { allow: ["$JS.ACK.CONTROL.controller.>", "$JS.ACK.EVENTS.controller.>", "$JS.API.>", "_INBOX.enrol.>", "mesh.assignment.>", "mesh.control.>", "mesh.mod.*.tool.>", "mesh.node.>", "mesh.seat.mesh-build-machine.accept.>", "mesh.seat.mesh-controller.event.applied", "mesh.seat.mesh-controller.event.built-before", "mesh.seat.mesh-controller.event.refused"] }
+        publish: { allow: ["$JS.ACK.CONTROL.controller.>", "$JS.ACK.EVENTS.controller.>", "$JS.API.>", "_INBOX.enrol.>", "mesh.assignment.>", "mesh.control.>", "mesh.mod.*.tool.>", "mesh.node.>", "mesh.seat.mesh-controller.event.applied", "mesh.seat.mesh-controller.event.built-before", "mesh.seat.mesh-controller.event.refused", "mesh.seat.node-build-agent.accept.>"] }
-        subscribe: { allow: ["$JS.API.>", "_DELIVER.controller", "_DELIVER.controller.>", "_INBOX.controller.>", "mesh.control.>", "mesh.mod.gitea.event.pull.merged", "mesh.mod.mesh-catalog.event.catching-up", "mesh.mod.mesh-catalog.event.upgraded", "mesh.seat.mesh-build-machine.event.built", "mesh.seat.mesh-controller.tool.>"] }
+        subscribe: { allow: ["$JS.API.>", "_DELIVER.controller", "_DELIVER.controller.>", "_INBOX.controller.>", "mesh.control.>", "mesh.mod.gitea.event.pull.merged", "mesh.mod.mesh-catalog.event.catching-up", "mesh.mod.mesh-catalog.event.upgraded", "mesh.seat.mesh-controller.tool.>", "mesh.seat.node-build-agent.event.built"] }
         allow_responses: { max: 1, ttl: "1m" }
       } }
       { user: "enrol.one", password: "$2a$11$eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee", permissions: {
@@ -37,8 +37,8 @@ accounts {
         subscribe: { allow: ["_DELIVER.one", "_DELIVER.one.>", "_INBOX.node.one.>", "mesh.node.one.declare"] }
       } }
       { user: "one.telegram", password: "$2a$11$tttttttttttttttttttttt", permissions: {
-        publish: { allow: ["$JS.ACK.EVENTS.one_telegram.>", "$JS.ACK.SEAT_TELEGRAM_SENDER.SEAT_TELEGRAM_SENDER_worker.>", "$JS.API.CONSUMER.INFO.EVENTS.one_telegram", "$JS.API.CONSUMER.INFO.SEAT_TELEGRAM_SENDER.SEAT_TELEGRAM_SENDER_worker", "$JS.API.CONSUMER.MSG.NEXT.EVENTS.one_telegram", "$JS.API.DIRECT.GET.ASSIGNMENTS.mesh.assignment.one.telegram", "mesh.seat.telegram-sender.event.delivered", "mesh.seat.telegram-sender.event.failed"] }
+        publish: { allow: ["$JS.ACK.EVENTS.one_telegram.>", "$JS.ACK.SEAT_TELEGRAM_SENDER.SEAT_TELEGRAM_SENDER_worker.>", "$JS.API.CONSUMER.INFO.EVENTS.one_telegram", "$JS.API.CONSUMER.INFO.SEAT_TELEGRAM_SENDER.SEAT_TELEGRAM_SENDER_worker", "$JS.API.CONSUMER.MSG.NEXT.EVENTS.one_telegram", "$JS.API.CONSUMER.MSG.NEXT.SEAT_TELEGRAM_SENDER.SEAT_TELEGRAM_SENDER_worker", "$JS.API.DIRECT.GET.ASSIGNMENTS.mesh.assignment.one.telegram", "mesh.seat.telegram-sender.event.delivered", "mesh.seat.telegram-sender.event.failed"] }
-        subscribe: { allow: ["_DELIVER.SEAT_TELEGRAM_SENDER_worker", "_DELIVER.SEAT_TELEGRAM_SENDER_worker.>", "_INBOX.one.telegram.>", "mesh.assignment.one.telegram", "mesh.mod.telegram.tool.>", "mesh.seat.telegram-sender.accept.send"] }
+        subscribe: { allow: ["_INBOX.one.telegram.>", "mesh.assignment.one.telegram", "mesh.mod.telegram.tool.>", "mesh.seat.telegram-sender.accept.send"] }
         allow_responses: { max: 1, ttl: "1m" }
       } }
       { user: "two.audit", password: "$2a$11$aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa", permissions: {

internal/broker/users.go

@@ -62,13 +62,33 @@ func Users(r Records) ([]Principal, error) {
 
 	for _, node := range sortedCopy(r.Nodes) {
 		out = append(out, Principal{Kind: KindNode, Node: node})
+		// **Where the runtime is assigned, the machine gets one runtime principal in place of the
+		// runtime module's own** (novox/hq ADR 0175, to-be 38). It carries every module on the
+		// node: its serving grants are the union of theirs. Every other module keeps its own
+		// principal — a module still serving tools from its own container holds its own
+		// credential until it moves, and the two serve side by side in the meantime.
+		runtimeHere := false
 		for _, d := range r.Assigned[node] {
+			if d.Module == RuntimeModule {
+				runtimeHere = true
+			}
+		}
+		for _, d := range r.Assigned[node] {
+			if runtimeHere && d.Module == RuntimeModule {
+				continue
+			}
 			out = append(out, Principal{
 				Kind: KindModule, Node: node, Module: d.Module,
 				Emits: d.Emits, Consumes: d.Consumes, Serves: d.Serves,
 				Holds: d.Holds, Uses: d.Uses, Watches: d.Watches, Invokes: d.Invokes,
 			})
 		}
+		if runtimeHere {
+			out = append(out, Principal{
+				Kind: KindNodeTools, Node: node, Module: RuntimeModule,
+				Carries: append([]Declared(nil), r.Assigned[node]...),
+			})
+		}
 	}
 	for _, node := range sortedCopy(r.Enrolling) {
 		out = append(out, Principal{Kind: KindEnrolment, Node: node})

internal/broker/users_test.go

@@ -245,3 +245,54 @@ func TestAUserListIsComposedBeforeAnythingMovesOntoTheBus(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Errorf("the composed list does not contain the machine running the bus")
 	}
 }
+
+// Where the runtime module is assigned, the machine gets one runtime principal in place of the
+// runtime module's own (novox/hq ADR 0175, to-be 38). Every other module keeps its own: a module
+// still serving tools from its own container holds its own credential until it moves.
+func TestTheRuntimeModuleBecomesTheMachinesRuntimePrincipal(t *testing.T) {
+	r := someRecords()
+	r.Assigned["one"] = append(r.Assigned["one"], Declared{Module: RuntimeModule})
+	users, err := Users(r)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	var runtime *Principal
+	for i := range users {
+		p := &users[i]
+		if p.Node == "one" && p.Module == RuntimeModule {
+			if p.Kind == KindModule {
+				t.Fatalf("%s on one was composed as an ordinary module beside the runtime", RuntimeModule)
+			}
+			runtime = p
+		}
+	}
+	if runtime == nil || runtime.Kind != KindNodeTools {
+		t.Fatalf("one runs %s and got no runtime principal: %v", RuntimeModule, namesOf(t, r))
+	}
+	if runtime.Username() != "one."+RuntimeModule {
+		t.Errorf("the runtime is named %q; `module issue` names it as the module it stands for", runtime.Username())
+	}
+	carried := map[string]bool{}
+	for _, d := range runtime.Carries {
+		carried[d.Module] = true
+	}
+	if !carried["telegram"] || !carried[RuntimeModule] {
+		t.Errorf("the runtime carries %v; it carries every module on its node", carried)
+	}
+	// And the other node, where the runtime is not assigned, is exactly as before.
+	for _, p := range users {
+		if p.Node == "two" && p.Kind == KindNodeTools {
+			t.Fatal("two runs no runtime and was given a runtime principal")
+		}
+	}
+	// A module serving its own tools beside the runtime keeps its own principal.
+	found := false
+	for _, p := range users {
+		if p.Kind == KindModule && p.Node == "one" && p.Module == "telegram" {
+			found = true
+		}
+	}
+	if !found {
+		t.Error("telegram lost its own principal when the runtime arrived on its node")
+	}
+}

internal/builder/builder.go

@@ -968,6 +968,26 @@ func compile(ctx context.Context, run Runner, tree string, chain Toolchain,
 	if _, err := run(ctx, tree, "docker", invocation...); err != nil {
 		return "", err
 	}
+	if chain.Dependencies != "" {
+		// **What the bundle runs with, from the image it was compiled in** (Toolchain.Dependencies).
+		// A second run in the same image rather than a shell wrapped around the compiler: the
+		// compile line stays a plain command a reader can run by hand, and the copy is one more
+		// plain command beside it. Refused by name when the image carries no such directory — an
+		// older toolchain image — because a bundle packed without its dependencies starts nowhere
+		// and says so three layers away from here.
+		copying := []string{
+			"run", "--rm",
+			"--volume", tree + ":" + within,
+			"--workdir", within,
+			base,
+			"sh", "-c",
+			`test -d "$1" || { echo "the toolchain image carries no $1: it predates the mesh shipping a bundle's dependencies, rebuild $2 first" >&2; exit 1; }; cp -a "$1/." "$3/"`,
+			"dependencies", chain.Dependencies, chain.Base, out,
+		}
+		if _, err := run(ctx, tree, "docker", copying...); err != nil {
+			return "", fmt.Errorf("copying the %s dependencies a bundle runs with: %w", chain.Language, err)
+		}
+	}
 	return filepath.Join(tree, out), nil
 }
 

internal/builder/bundle_test.go

@@ -82,6 +82,41 @@ func TestABundleIsCompiledAndPackedWithNoDockerfile(t *testing.T) {
 	if !strings.HasPrefix(digest, "sha256:") {
 		t.Fatalf("the bundle was not pinned: %v", got.Manifest.Resources[0])
 	}
+
+	// **And what it runs with, from the image it was compiled in** (novox/hq to-be 38 WP3). A
+	// second run in the same toolchain image copies the toolchain's runtime directory — the
+	// `"type": "module"` package.json and the pruned node_modules — into the output's root, and
+	// refuses by name when the image carries none rather than packing a bundle that starts nowhere.
+	var copied string
+	for _, line := range r.ran {
+		if strings.HasPrefix(line, "docker run") && strings.Contains(line, "/app/runtime") {
+			copied = line
+		}
+	}
+	if copied == "" {
+		t.Fatalf("the bundle's dependencies were not copied in after the compile:\n%s", strings.Join(r.ran, "\n"))
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(copied, "mesh-tools/build@sha256:") || !strings.Contains(copied, "predates") ||
+		!strings.Contains(copied, Out("code")) {
+		t.Fatalf("the copy does not run in the same toolchain, refuse an older image by name, or land in the artifact's output: %s", copied)
+	}
+	if strings.Index(strings.Join(r.ran, "\n"), "--outDir") > strings.Index(strings.Join(r.ran, "\n"), "/app/runtime") {
+		t.Fatal("the dependencies were copied before the compile wrote its output")
+	}
+}
+
+// A language whose bundle carries its own dependencies copies nothing in: a Go binary is static.
+func TestOnlyALanguageWithARuntimeDirectoryCopiesDependenciesIn(t *testing.T) {
+	ts, _ := ToolchainFor("typescript")
+	if ts.Dependencies != "/app/runtime" {
+		t.Fatalf("typescript bundles run with %q", ts.Dependencies)
+	}
+	for _, language := range []string{"go", "python"} {
+		chain, _ := ToolchainFor(language)
+		if chain.Dependencies != "" {
+			t.Fatalf("%s copies %q into every bundle, and its bundles carry their own", language, chain.Dependencies)
+		}
+	}
 }
 
 // **Refused before anything is built, naming what to build first.** A base the mesh has not built
@@ -145,9 +180,13 @@ func TestTwoBundlesInOneModuleArePackedSeparately(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("a module with two bundles did not build: %v", err)
 	}
 
-	// Compiled into two different places.
+	// Compiled into two different places. Only the compile lines: the copy of each bundle's
+	// dependencies names the same directory again, deliberately.
 	var outputs []string
 	for _, line := range r.ran {
+		if !strings.Contains(line, "--outDir") {
+			continue
+		}
 		for _, part := range strings.Fields(line) {
 			if strings.HasPrefix(part, ".mesh-build/") {
 				outputs = append(outputs, part)

internal/builder/toolchain.go

@@ -57,6 +57,23 @@ type Toolchain struct {
 	// carrying its debug info. The mistake was believing a comment rather than reading the file it
 	// produced (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/161).
 	LinkerFlags []string
+	// Dependencies is a directory inside the toolchain image whose contents a bundle in this
+	// language runs with, copied whole into the compiled output's root after the compile.
+	//
+	// **A bundle that compiles is not yet a bundle that runs.** The compiler resolves `import
+	// "nats"` from the toolchain image's own node_modules and the pack takes only what the compiler
+	// wrote, so what a machine unpacked could not find a single dependency — and no TypeScript bundle
+	// had ever run live to show it (novox/hq to-be 38 WP3). For TypeScript the directory holds a
+	// `package.json` saying `"type": "module"` — Node reads a bare `.js` as CommonJS otherwise, so a
+	// bundle with its dependencies and without that line still fails to start — and the pruned,
+	// production-only node_modules the runtime itself ships with: the SDK's and the runtime's
+	// dependencies, and nothing module-specific yet (novox/hq ADR 0188 §5: a skeleton; a module's
+	// own npm dependencies are a later step). Empty for a language whose bundle carries its own —
+	// a Go binary is static, a Python bundle is installed with its dependencies.
+	//
+	// A toolchain image without the directory fails the build by name rather than packing a bundle
+	// that starts nowhere: the image predates this and must be rebuilt first.
+	Dependencies string
 	// SystemStamp is the variable this language's linker fills with the artifact's declared system,
 	// for a language whose binaries are pinned to one at link time (novox/hq ADR 0005).
 	//
@@ -107,14 +124,21 @@ var toolchains = []Toolchain{
 		// symlinks to a launcher that requires its library relatively — and the base image's own
 		// assembly resolves them away, leaving a launcher whose relative require points nowhere.
 		// Every module's hand-written Dockerfile had to know this. Now none of them does.
+		// **Rooted at the module, so an entrypoint lands where it is named.** Without a root the
+		// compiler takes the common directory of the files it is given: a module compiling only
+		// `tools/index.ts` had its output at `index.js`, and the entrypoint it declared —
+		// `tools/index.js`, "named as it will be found" — named a file the bundle did not
+		// contain. The runtime that loads bundles by their declared entrypoints (novox/hq ADR
+		// 0175) is what made this visible.
 		Compile: []string{
 			"node", "/app/node_modules/typescript/bin/tsc",
 			"--module", "NodeNext", "--moduleResolution", "NodeNext",
-			"--target", "ES2022",
+			"--target", "ES2022", "--rootDir", ".",
 		},
-		OutputFlag: "--outDir",
+		OutputFlag:   "--outDir",
-		Unit:       UnitSources,
+		Unit:         UnitSources,
-		SourceExt:  ".ts",
+		SourceExt:    ".ts",
+		Dependencies: "/app/runtime",
 	},
 	{
 		Language: "go",

internal/catalogue/build.go

@@ -67,6 +67,31 @@ func (m Manifest) Resolve(built []Built) (Manifest, error) {
 	out := m
 	out.Build = nil
 	out.Resources = nil
+	// What the build compiled, kept on the resolved manifest (novox/hq ADR 0175): a tools bundle is
+	// named by no resource of the module's own — the node's runtime loads it — so this is the only
+	// place the mesh would otherwise not have it. In artifact order, so two resolutions of one
+	// build compare equal.
+	out.Bundles = nil
+	if m.Build != nil {
+		for _, a := range m.Build.Artifacts {
+			if a.Kind != ArtifactBundle {
+				continue
+			}
+			made := by[a.Name]
+			// What the runtime loads: what the artifact said, else every entrypoint of a module
+			// that declares tools, else nothing (the field's own rule; see Artifact.Loads).
+			loads := append([]string(nil), a.Loads...)
+			if a.Loads == nil && len(m.Tools) > 0 {
+				loads = append([]string(nil), a.Entrypoints...)
+			}
+			out.Bundles = append(out.Bundles, Bundle{
+				Name: a.Name, Source: made.Reference, Digest: made.Digest,
+				Language: a.Language, Entrypoints: append([]string(nil), a.Entrypoints...),
+				Loads: loads,
+			})
+		}
+		sort.Slice(out.Bundles, func(i, j int) bool { return out.Bundles[i].Name < out.Bundles[j].Name })
+	}
 	for _, r := range m.Resources {
 		named, _ := r["artifact"].(string)
 		if named == "" {
@@ -191,6 +216,20 @@ func (b *Build) problems(module string) []string {
 					"%s: %q is a bundle and says no language, so nothing can choose a compiler "+
 						"for it", module, a.Name))
 			}
+			// What the runtime loads is among what was compiled (ADR 0175): a name here that is
+			// not an entrypoint is a file the bundle does not contain, and the runtime would
+			// fail to import it on every machine rather than here.
+			for _, load := range a.Loads {
+				found := false
+				for _, e := range a.Entrypoints {
+					found = found || e == load
+				}
+				if !found {
+					problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
+						"%s: %q says the runtime loads %q, which is not among its entrypoints — "+
+							"what is loaded is compiled, so it is named there too", module, a.Name, load))
+				}
+			}
 			// **A system, for a language that compiles to a binary** (novox/hq ADR 0142). A binary
 			// is pinned to one operating system at link time so a host refuses to touch a machine
 			// it was not built for (novox/hq ADR 0005); an artifact that says nothing would be

internal/catalogue/declaration.go

@@ -241,15 +241,40 @@ func (r Resolution) Declaration(with Rendering) ([]map[string]any, error) {
 // Owner is kept beside the resources because a resource id cannot be split back into its module:
 // a module's name may itself contain a dot. What the mesh adds of its own — an opening, the guard —
 // has no owner.
+//
+// Received is what each module on the machine is given for each requirement it receives — the same
+// contributions its received file is written from, kept beside it so the mesh can also issue them
+// on the bus in the module's membership (novox/hq ADR 0167). By module, then requirement.
 type Composed struct {
 	Resources []map[string]any
 	Owner     map[string]string
+	Received  map[string]map[string][]Contribution
+	// LeftOut is every module of this machine's set that was left out of its declaration, and
+	// why (novox/hq ADR 0163, rule 6): a setting stored for it that its definition can no longer
+	// compose. Its held things are kept and its containers untouched — the machine is told so —
+	// and it is told everything else.
+	LeftOut map[string]string
+}
+
+// LeftOut is which of this machine's modules a declaration composed with these settings leaves
+// out, and why (novox/hq ADR 0163, rule 6): each whose stored settings its definition can no longer
+// compose. Empty when every module composes. The same judgement SetSettings makes before storing.
+func (r Resolution) LeftOut(settings SettingsBy, adopted bool) map[string]string {
+	out := map[string]string{}
+	for _, m := range r.Modules {
+		if err := JudgeSettings(m, settings[m.Module], adopted); err != nil {
+			out[m.Module] = err.Error()
+		}
+	}
+	return out
 }
 
 // Compose is Declaration with the owner of every resource said.
 func (r Resolution) Compose(with Rendering) (Composed, error) {
 	owner := map[string]string{}
-	resources, err := r.compose(with, owner)
+	received := map[string]map[string][]Contribution{}
+	leftOut := map[string]string{}
+	resources, err := r.compose(with, owner, received, leftOut)
 	if err != nil {
 		return Composed{}, err
 	}
@@ -261,7 +286,7 @@ func (r Resolution) Compose(with Rendering) (Composed, error) {
 			"sealed": with.BusMembership, "mode": "0600",
 		})
 	}
-	return Composed{Resources: resources, Owner: owner}, nil
+	return Composed{Resources: resources, Owner: owner, Received: received, LeftOut: leftOut}, nil
 }
 
 // BusMembershipID names the resource carrying a machine's membership for the new bus, and
@@ -270,7 +295,26 @@ func BusMembershipID() string { return "bus-membership" }
 
 const BusMembershipPath = "/var/lib/mesh/membership-next.json"
 
-func (r Resolution) compose(with Rendering, owner map[string]string) ([]map[string]any, error) {
+func (r Resolution) compose(with Rendering, owner map[string]string,
+	received map[string]map[string][]Contribution, leftOut map[string]string) ([]map[string]any, error) {
+	// **A setting is judged where it is stored, and an impossible one costs a module, not a
+	// machine** (novox/hq ADR 0163, rule 6). A definition that moved under a stored setting makes
+	// this module uncomposable; it is left out of the declaration — its held things kept, its
+	// containers untouched, the machine told so by name — and the machine is told everything else.
+	// Before placing, because a placement is a setting too.
+	left := r.LeftOut(with.Settings, with.Adopted)
+	kept := make([]Manifest, 0, len(r.Modules))
+	for _, m := range r.Modules {
+		if why, isLeft := left[m.Module]; isLeft {
+			if leftOut != nil {
+				leftOut[m.Module] = why
+			}
+			continue
+		}
+		kept = append(kept, m)
+	}
+	r.Modules = kept
+
 	// Every manifest is placed first (novox/hq ADR 0112): the maps naming where its bindings,
 	// credentials and contributions land are resolved against this node's directories, so every
 	// reader below — the binding files, the sealed secrets, the grant paths a contribution
@@ -464,10 +508,27 @@ func (r Resolution) compose(with Rendering, owner map[string]string) ([]map[stri
 				return nil, fmt.Errorf(
 					"%s needs a secret called %q and none was made for it", m.Module, name)
 			}
-			first = append(first, ownedBy(m.SecretsOwner, map[string]any{
+			// The runtime's credential belongs to the account the runtime runs as (novox/hq ADR 0175,
+			// to-be 38 WP3): its process is composed `user: <account>` where the node has one, and a
+			// root-owned 0600 file is one that process cannot read. Composed here rather than said in
+			// the manifest, because a manifest cannot say ${machine:account} safely — a node with no
+			// account has nothing to resolve it to, and then the runtime runs as root and the file
+			// stays root's.
+			owner := m.SecretsOwner
+			if m.Module == RuntimeModule && r.Account != "" {
+				owner = r.Account
+			}
+			first = append(first, ownedBy(owner, map[string]any{
 				"id": NeedID(name), "type": "file", "path": m.OwnSecrets[name].Path, "sealed": sealed,
 			}))
 		}
+		// This module's tools bundles, where the machine runs the node's tool runtime (novox/hq
+		// ADR 0175, to-be 38 WP2). Mesh-computed like everything above it, and before the module's
+		// own resources for the same reason: the runtime's process names the files inside these
+		// and is restarted when one changes, so they are on the machine before it is.
+		if r.runtimeHere() {
+			first = append(first, bundleArchives(m)...)
+		}
 		// Operator-owned paths this module is granted use of (novox/hq ADR 0051). Written before
 		// the module's own resources, and so before the container that mounts them: the host must
 		// find each present — refusing clearly if the operator has not provided it — before it
@@ -596,6 +657,12 @@ func (r Resolution) compose(with Rendering, owner map[string]string) ([]map[stri
 				return nil, err
 			}
 			first = append(first, file)
+			if received[m.Module] == nil {
+				received[m.Module] = map[string][]Contribution{}
+			}
+			// Empty rather than absent when nobody contributed, for the reason the file is
+			// written empty: "nothing asked" and "never told" want different responses.
+			received[m.Module][to] = append([]Contribution{}, given[to]...)
 		}
 		if m.Keeps != "" && with.Kept != nil {
 			file, err := keptFile(m.Keeps, with.Kept)
@@ -693,6 +760,10 @@ func (r Resolution) compose(with Rendering, owner map[string]string) ([]map[stri
 		// Which of this module's resources its preparation runs before, if it prepares anything.
 		prepareBefore := preparationTarget(m)
 
+		// Which found networks this machine's setting keeps for each of its containers (novox/hq
+		// ADR 0163, rule 4); judged above, so an invalid one is not here.
+		keptNetworks, _ := KeptNetworks(m, with.Settings[m.Module], with.Adopted)
+
 		for _, unsettled := range resources {
 			resource, err := ApplySettings(unsettled, with.Settings[m.Module])
 			if err != nil {
@@ -702,6 +773,16 @@ func (r Resolution) compose(with Rendering, owner map[string]string) ([]map[stri
 			for k, v := range resource {
 				copied[k] = v
 			}
+			if networks, keeps := keptNetworks[fmt.Sprint(copied["id"])]; keeps {
+				// The container also joins the found network the setting names, so a neighbour
+				// that resolves it there keeps resolving it. Passed to the host as its own field,
+				// which it joins after the container is made.
+				joins := make([]any, 0, len(networks))
+				for _, n := range networks {
+					joins = append(joins, n)
+				}
+				copied["networks"] = joins
+			}
 			if err := refuseSecretsInEnvironment(copied, secretFiles, m.Module); err != nil {
 				return nil, err
 			}
@@ -821,6 +902,17 @@ func (r Resolution) compose(with Rendering, owner map[string]string) ([]map[stri
 			out = append(out, fact)
 		}
 	}
+	// The node's tool runtime, last (novox/hq ADR 0175, to-be 38 WP2.3): one process loading every
+	// bundle delivered above and holding the credential sealed above, so both exist before it starts
+	// — the order written here is the order the machine applies.
+	if r.runtimeHere() {
+		process, err := r.runtimeProcess(with)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		owner[fmt.Sprint(process["id"])] = RuntimeModule
+		out = append(out, process)
+	}
 	if with.Adopted {
 		// First, before anything a module declares: what the mesh needs reachable, then its guard.
 		// The order a machine applies is the order written here.
@@ -947,8 +1039,15 @@ func (r Resolution) filtersHere() string {
 // computed for this machine, and each module's per-node exposure. The same answer whether the node
 // is adopted or converged — the one loads it as a filter, the other declares it as openings.
 func (r Resolution) Rules(with Rendering) ([]Rule, error) {
+	// A module whose settings cannot compose is left out of the declaration (novox/hq ADR 0163,
+	// rule 6), and out of the filter with it: nothing of it is declared, so nothing of it is let
+	// through.
+	left := r.LeftOut(with.Settings, with.Adopted)
 	exposure := map[string]map[int]string{}
 	for _, m := range r.Modules {
+		if _, isLeft := left[m.Module]; isLeft {
+			continue
+		}
 		e, err := Exposure(m, with.Settings[m.Module])
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err

internal/catalogue/filtering.go

@@ -444,6 +444,18 @@ func AsNftables(rules []Rule, mesh []string, outward bool, foundation []int,
 		b.WriteString("\t\t# this machine's own guests reaching outward: not a port opened to anybody\n")
 		b.WriteString(fmt.Sprintf("\t\tiifname != { %s } accept\n", inward))
 	}
+	// **The mesh passing through, not arriving.** A machine the mesh routes through — the hub, for
+	// every path between machines that are not co-located (novox/hq ADR 0007) — relays a packet that
+	// came in on the tunnel and leaves on it again, addressed to another machine of the mesh. That is
+	// no port of this machine's: the machine it is for filters it against its own rules. Without
+	// this, the chain below judged a relayed packet by this machine's own published ports, so two
+	// machines behind the hub reached each other only on ports the hub happened to publish for itself
+	// (novox/hq issue 196). In and out on the tunnel both: a packet off the tunnel for this machine's
+	// own containers leaves by a bridge, and still meets the rules below.
+	if tunnel != "" {
+		b.WriteString("\t\t# the mesh passing through to another of its machines, which filters it itself\n")
+		b.WriteString(fmt.Sprintf("\t\tiifname %q oifname %q accept\n", tunnel, tunnel))
+	}
 
 	if len(rules) > 0 {
 		b.WriteString("\n")

internal/catalogue/filtering_test.go

@@ -887,3 +887,34 @@ func TestAPublicPortNeedsNoGuestLine(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("a public port was given a guest line it does not need:\n%s", nft)
 	}
 }
+
+// **The hub relays the mesh** (novox/hq ADR 0007, issue 196). Two machines that are not co-located
+// reach each other through the hub, so the hub forwards a packet that arrives on the tunnel and
+// leaves on it. The forward chain judged that packet by the hub's own published ports, and two
+// machines behind the hub reached each other only on the ports the hub happened to publish.
+//
+// Measured: from one home machine to another through the hub, 17 of 55 ports answered, and they
+// were exactly the hub's own; the SYN for the rest never left the hub.
+func TestTheMeshPassingThroughIsRelayedNotJudgedAsThisMachines(t *testing.T) {
+	nft := AsNftables(nil, []string{"10.42.0.1", "10.42.0.2"}, false, nil, []string{"eth0"}, "mesh0")
+	relay := `iifname "mesh0" oifname "mesh0" accept`
+	if !strings.Contains(chainBody(t, nft, "forward"), relay) {
+		t.Errorf("the forward chain does not relay the mesh through this machine:\n%s", chainBody(t, nft, "forward"))
+	}
+	// Relaying is not receiving: nothing in the input chain opens because of it.
+	if strings.Contains(chainBody(t, nft, "input"), "oifname") {
+		t.Errorf("the input chain names an outgoing interface, which no packet for this machine has:\n%s",
+			chainBody(t, nft, "input"))
+	}
+	// And off the tunnel into this machine's own containers is still judged: the tunnel is not
+	// accepted wholesale, only in and out on it.
+	if strings.Contains(chainBody(t, nft, "forward"), `iifname "mesh0" accept`) {
+		t.Errorf("the forward chain accepts everything off the tunnel:\n%s", chainBody(t, nft, "forward"))
+	}
+
+	// A machine with no tunnel relays nothing, and names no interface it does not have.
+	alone := AsNftables(nil, nil, false, nil, []string{"eth0"}, "")
+	if strings.Contains(alone, "oifname") {
+		t.Errorf("a machine with no tunnel was given a relay rule:\n%s", alone)
+	}
+}

internal/catalogue/machine_into_files.go

@@ -102,8 +102,11 @@ func accountHomeOf(account, home string) string {
 func machineInto(resource map[string]any, facts map[string]string, module string) error {
 	// Content, and now the path and owner too: a module that writes into a person's home names it
 	// with ${machine:account-home} and ${machine:account}, which it cannot know until assigned
-	// (novox/hq to-be 29), the same reason its content names ${machine:address}.
+	// (novox/hq to-be 29), the same reason its content names ${machine:address}. And the name a
-	for _, field := range []string{"path", "owner", "content"} {
+	// `user` shape sets the login shell of, and the user a user-scoped unit or a process runs as:
+	// the shell module makes the operator's account its holder's login shell, and the desktop's
+	// watchers run as that account (novox/hq ADR 0176, ADR 0177) — neither can name the person.
+	for _, field := range []string{"path", "owner", "content", "name", "user"} {
 		s, ok := resource[field].(string)
 		if !ok {
 			continue

internal/catalogue/manifest.go

@@ -572,6 +572,36 @@ type Manifest struct {
 	// a module that could ask for it could read every credential on the bus — and the claim on
 	// `mesh-broker` is what authorises it, checked from this manifest alone.
 	BusUsers string `json:"bus-users,omitempty"`
+
+	// Bundles are this module's compiled bundles as the build produced them: what each is called,
+	// where it is, what it hashes to, what language it is in and which files a tool runtime loads
+	// from it (novox/hq ADR 0175, to-be 38).
+	//
+	// **Derived, never written.** The manifest in a repository says `build.artifacts`; the manifest
+	// the mesh holds says what came out, the way a resource naming an artifact comes to name a
+	// digest. Kept here because a tools bundle is referenced by no resource of the module's own —
+	// the node's runtime loads it, and the runtime is composed by the mesh — so without this the
+	// resolved manifest would carry no trace of the one artifact the runtime needs. A repository
+	// manifest that writes this beside a build is refused: it would be stating the build's output
+	// by hand.
+	Bundles []Bundle `json:"bundles,omitempty"`
+}
+
+// Bundle is one compiled bundle after it exists, as the resolved manifest carries it.
+type Bundle struct {
+	Name string `json:"name"`
+	// Source is where a machine fetches it, kept without the store's address like every reference
+	// the mesh records (artifacts.go); Digest is what it must hash to.
+	Source string `json:"source"`
+	Digest string `json:"digest"`
+	// Language is what it was compiled from, which is what says how it is run.
+	Language string `json:"language,omitempty"`
+	// Entrypoints are the compiled files it was built around, relative to its root.
+	Entrypoints []string `json:"entrypoints,omitempty"`
+	// Loads are the entrypoints a node's tool runtime imports from it: what the artifact said, or
+	// every entrypoint for a module declaring tools that said nothing. Empty for a bundle that is
+	// run rather than loaded.
+	Loads []string `json:"loads,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // Build says how to produce this module's artifacts from its source.
@@ -708,6 +738,16 @@ type Artifact struct {
 	// somebody adds a helper. An empty list is a bundle that is run rather than loaded — a
 	// provisioner or a step, named by whatever runs it.
 	Entrypoints []string `json:"entrypoints,omitempty"`
+
+	// Loads are the entrypoints of this bundle the node's tool runtime loads (novox/hq ADR 0175,
+	// to-be 38): the module's tool code, each file registering its tools as it is imported. A
+	// subset of Entrypoints, for a bundle that also carries things that are RUN — a daemon, a
+	// step, a report — and must not have them imported into the runtime.
+	//
+	// Absent means every entrypoint, for a module that declares `tools`: a bundle holding the
+	// module's tools and nothing else is the ordinary case and should not have to say the same
+	// list twice. A module declaring no tools has nothing the runtime loads, whatever it compiles.
+	Loads []string `json:"loads,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // Kinds an artifact may be.
@@ -1333,6 +1373,15 @@ func ParseManifest(raw []byte) (Manifest, error) {
 	//
 	// Refused here because the alternative is a build that never returns, on a mesh new enough
 	// that nobody is watching it yet.
+	if m.Build != nil && len(m.Bundles) > 0 {
+		// The output of a build, written beside the build that produces it (ADR 0175). A resource
+		// naming a digest beside an `artifact` would be the same mistake, and is caught the same way:
+		// what the mesh derives, a repository does not state.
+		problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
+			"%s writes `bundles` beside its build. The mesh derives that from what the build "+
+				"produced; a manifest states `build.artifacts` and nothing about what came out",
+			m.Module))
+	}
 	if m.Build != nil && len(m.Build.Artifacts) > 0 {
 		for _, o := range m.Offers() {
 			if o != ArtifactStoreProvision {
@@ -1667,6 +1716,7 @@ func ParseManifest(raw []byte) (Manifest, error) {
 	problems = append(problems, m.undeclaredMounts()...)
 	problems = append(problems, m.unknownDirRefs()...)
 	problems = append(problems, m.unknownAccessRefs()...)
+	problems = append(problems, m.jailProblems()...)
 
 	for i, r := range m.Resources {
 		id, _ := r["id"].(string)
@@ -1769,6 +1819,46 @@ func (m Manifest) MachineSide(port int) (at int, mayAssign bool) {
 var facilitiesOf = map[string][]string{
 	// Both spellings: /var/run is a link to /run on every machine the mesh runs on.
 	"container-runtime": {"/var/run/docker.sock", "/run/docker.sock"},
+	// The virtualisation daemon's socket, for the lab (novox/hq ADR 0172): it raises machines there.
+	"virtualisation": {"/var/lib/incus/unix.socket"},
+}
+
+// jailProblems is every jail this module declares that the machine's intrusion prevention would
+// refuse (novox/hq ADR 0179).
+//
+// **Because one bad pattern stops every jail, not its own.** fail2ban expands `<HOST>` into a named
+// capture group, so a pattern naming it twice is a duplicate group name, and the daemon refuses the
+// whole configuration and exits — the machine keeps no bans at all, for any jail, including the one
+// watching its ssh. Caught live on the control node the day this was built, where a proxy's pattern
+// matched two shapes of refusal in one line. A pattern matches one shape; several shapes are several
+// patterns, one per line, as fail2ban's own filters are written.
+func (m Manifest) jailProblems() []string {
+	var problems []string
+	seen := map[string]bool{}
+	for _, j := range m.Jails {
+		switch {
+		case strings.TrimSpace(j.Name) == "":
+			problems = append(problems, m.Module+" declares a jail with no name")
+		case seen[j.Name]:
+			problems = append(problems, m.Module+" declares two jails called "+strconv.Quote(j.Name))
+		}
+		seen[j.Name] = true
+		if strings.TrimSpace(j.Failregex) == "" {
+			problems = append(problems, m.Module+"'s jail "+strconv.Quote(j.Name)+" says nothing a failed attempt looks like")
+		}
+		for _, line := range strings.Split(j.Failregex, "\n") {
+			if strings.TrimSpace(line) == "" {
+				continue
+			}
+			if n := strings.Count(line, "<HOST>"); n > 1 {
+				problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf("%s's jail %s names <HOST> %d times in one pattern; "+
+					"fail2ban reads it as one capture group and refuses the whole configuration, so the machine "+
+					"keeps no bans at all — write one pattern per shape, each naming <HOST> once",
+					m.Module, strconv.Quote(j.Name), n))
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	return problems
 }
 
 // undeclaredMounts is every bind-mount source no declaration covers — see the check above.
@@ -1810,6 +1900,12 @@ func (m Manifest) undeclaredMounts() []string {
 			claim(p)
 		}
 	}
+	// The file a filter module's rule set is written to is declared by `filtering.into`: the mesh
+	// writes it, the module loads it, and the module's runtime may read it back to reload the
+	// mesh's own table (novox/hq ADR 0170).
+	if m.Filtering != nil {
+		claim(m.Filtering.Into)
+	}
 	// Under a declared directory is declared: a module that says where its data lives has said so
 	// for what it puts inside.
 	covers := func(path string) bool {

internal/catalogue/mounts_test.go

@@ -98,3 +98,13 @@ func TestAMountOfABoundFactIsAccepted(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("a mount of the file the mesh writes a binding to was refused: %v", err)
 	}
 }
+
+// The file a filter module's rule set is written to is declared by `filtering.into` (novox/hq ADR
+// 0169): the module's runtime mounts it to reload the mesh's own table, and nothing else declares it.
+func TestAMountOfTheFilterFileIsDeclaredByFilteringInto(t *testing.T) {
+	_, err := ParseManifest([]byte(`{"module":"nftables","filtering":{"into":"/etc/nftables.conf"},` +
+		`"resources":[` + strings.Replace(aContainerMounting, "%s", "/etc/nftables.conf", 1) + `]}`))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("a filter module mounting its own filter file was refused: %v", err)
+	}
+}

internal/catalogue/operators_machine_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+package catalogue
+
+import (
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// A `user` shape and a user-scoped unit name the operator account the way a home file does
+// (novox/hq ADR 0176, ADR 0177): with ${machine:account}, resolved when the module is assigned.
+func TestAUserShapeAndAUserScopedUnitNameTheAccount(t *testing.T) {
+	facts := map[string]string{"account": "ops", "account-home": "/home/ops"}
+	login := map[string]any{"type": "user", "id": "login", "name": "${machine:account}", "shell": "/usr/bin/zsh"}
+	if err := machineInto(login, facts, "zsh"); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if login["name"] != "ops" {
+		t.Fatalf("the user shape did not learn the account: %v", login["name"])
+	}
+	watcher := map[string]any{"type": "service", "id": "watcher", "unit": "i3-reload-watcher.service",
+		"scope": "user", "user": "${machine:account}"}
+	if err := machineInto(watcher, facts, "i3"); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if watcher["user"] != "ops" {
+		t.Fatalf("the user-scoped unit did not learn the account: %v", watcher["user"])
+	}
+	// A machine with no operator account refuses rather than writing the literal.
+	err := machineInto(map[string]any{"type": "user", "id": "login", "name": "${machine:account}"},
+		map[string]string{"address": "10.0.0.1"}, "zsh")
+	if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "${machine:account}") {
+		t.Fatalf("a user shape on a machine with no account was not refused by name: %v", err)
+	}
+}
+
+// The service manager is a seat of the mesh's own with the unit verbs as its contract (novox/hq
+// ADR 0177): every verb described, with a schema, taking a scope.
+func TestTheServiceManagerSeatServesTheUnitVerbs(t *testing.T) {
+	seat, ok := SeatNamed("node-service-manager")
+	if !ok {
+		t.Fatal("node-service-manager is not a seat the mesh defines")
+	}
+	if seat.Scope != ScopeNode {
+		t.Fatalf("the service manager is a role each machine has once, and the seat is %s-scoped", seat.Scope)
+	}
+	want := []string{"units", "status", "start", "stop", "restart", "enable", "disable", "journal"}
+	var got []string
+	for _, v := range seat.Serves {
+		got = append(got, v.Name)
+		if v.Description == "" || v.Input == nil {
+			t.Fatalf("%s is promised without a description or a schema", v.Name)
+		}
+		props, _ := v.Input["properties"].(map[string]any)
+		if _, has := props["scope"]; !has {
+			t.Fatalf("%s takes no scope, and a user unit could not be asked for", v.Name)
+		}
+	}
+	if strings.Join(got, ",") != strings.Join(want, ",") {
+		t.Fatalf("the seat serves %v, not %v", got, want)
+	}
+}

internal/catalogue/placement_test.go

@@ -75,17 +75,26 @@ func TestAnAssignmentPlacesDirectoriesAndAccesses(t *testing.T) {
 }
 
 // An access declared by id and placed by nobody resolves to nowhere, and that is refused with the
-// setting to write — not mounted as the literal, not skipped.
+// setting to write — not mounted as the literal, not skipped. The refusal costs the module its
+// place in the declaration, not the machine its declaration (novox/hq ADR 0163, rule 6).
 func TestAnUnplacedAccessIsRefusedByName(t *testing.T) {
 	got, err := Resolve(shelf(placeable()), []string{"arr"}, workstation(), World{})
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
-	_, err = got.Declaration(placedBy(map[string]any{
+	with := placedBy(map[string]any{
 		AccessesSetting: map[string]any{"series": "/storage/media/series"},
-	}))
+	})
-	if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), `"spool"`) || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), AccessesSetting) {
+	composed, err := got.Compose(with)
-		t.Fatalf("an access nobody placed was not refused by name: %v", err)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	why := composed.LeftOut["arr"]
+	if why == "" || !strings.Contains(why, `"spool"`) || !strings.Contains(why, AccessesSetting) {
+		t.Fatalf("an access nobody placed was not refused by name: %v", composed.LeftOut)
+	}
+	if _, declared := byID(composed.Resources)["arr.server"]; declared {
+		t.Fatal("the module with the unplaced access was declared anyway")
 	}
 }
 

internal/catalogue/received_on_the_bus_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+package catalogue
+
+import (
+	"encoding/json"
+	"reflect"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// What a provider receives is composed once, and issued twice: as its received file, and in its
+// membership on the bus (novox/hq ADR 0167). The two are the same list, so a proxy reading the bus
+// and one reading the file serve the same routes — including the port the machine published, which
+// is the same-node fix the file already carries.
+func TestWhatAProviderReceivesIsTheSameOnTheBusAsInItsFile(t *testing.T) {
+	gitea := Manifest{
+		Module: "gitea", Version: "1",
+		Listens:     []Listening{{Port: 3000, Protocol: "tcp", From: FromMesh}},
+		Contributes: map[string]map[string]any{"route": {"label": "git", "port": 3000}},
+		Resources: []map[string]any{{
+			"id": "server", "type": "container", "name": "gitea", "ports": []any{"3000"},
+		}},
+	}
+	r, err := Resolve(shelf(gitea, routeProxy(), stepCA()),
+		[]string{"gitea", "route-proxy", "step-ca"}, reachable(), World{})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	composed, err := r.Compose(Rendering{Ports: map[string]map[int]int{"gitea": {3000: 20000}}})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	file := fileNamed(composed.Resources, "route-proxy.received-route")
+	if file == nil {
+		t.Fatal("the proxy was given no routes file")
+	}
+	var written struct {
+		Given []Contribution `json:"given"`
+	}
+	if err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(file["content"].(string)), &written); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	issued, said := composed.Received["route-proxy"]["route"]
+	if !said {
+		t.Fatalf("nothing is issued for the proxy to receive on the bus: %v", composed.Received)
+	}
+	// Compared as JSON, which is what both are once they leave the controller.
+	a, _ := json.Marshal(written.Given)
+	b, _ := json.Marshal(issued)
+	var fromFile, fromBus any
+	_ = json.Unmarshal(a, &fromFile)
+	_ = json.Unmarshal(b, &fromBus)
+	if !reflect.DeepEqual(fromFile, fromBus) {
+		t.Errorf("the bus and the file disagree about the routes:\nfile %s\nbus  %s", a, b)
+	}
+	if len(issued) != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("expected one route on the bus, got %v", issued)
+	}
+	if port, ok := asPort(issued[0].Values["port"]); !ok || port != 20000 {
+		t.Errorf("the bus carries a port nothing listens on: %v", issued[0].Values["port"])
+	}
+
+	// A module that receives nothing is issued nothing to receive.
+	if _, any := composed.Received["gitea"]; any {
+		t.Errorf("a module that receives nothing was issued something: %v", composed.Received["gitea"])
+	}
+}

internal/catalogue/resolver_manifests_test.go

@@ -48,7 +48,9 @@ func TestTheResolverForwardsToFixedUpstreamsAndNeverReadsResolvConf(t *testing.T
 	}
 	for _, want := range []string{
 		"\nno-resolv\n", "\nserver=1.1.1.1\n", "\nserver=8.8.8.8\n",
-		"\nlisten-address=127.0.0.1\n", "\nlisten-address=${machine:address}\n", "\nbind-dynamic\n",
+		// Loopback is the mesh-wide setting's default; a machine answering its own LAN adds its
+		// address there (novox/hq issue 198).
+		"\nlisten-address=${setting:listen-addresses}\n", "\nlisten-address=${machine:address}\n", "\nbind-dynamic\n",
 		"\ndomain-needed\n", "\nbogus-priv\n",
 		"\nconf-file=" + m.Facts["node-zones"].Path + "\n",
 	} {
@@ -113,7 +115,8 @@ func TestTheResolverAndWhatAsksItComposeOnOneMachine(t *testing.T) {
 		// issue 111) — the resolver's zones read only the second, and in this scenario the two
 		// happen to be the same map, since nothing routed is part of it.
 		Names: twoMachines, Machines: twoMachines, Suffix: "internal",
-		Needed: map[string]map[string]string{"dnsmasq": {"broker": "sealed"}},
+		Needed:   map[string]map[string]string{"dnsmasq": {"broker": "sealed"}},
+		Settings: SettingsBy{"dnsmasq": {{From: "the mesh", Values: map[string]any{"listen-addresses": "127.0.0.1"}}}},
 	})
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
@@ -207,9 +210,16 @@ func TestTheResolverOnAMachineOffTheNetworkIsRefused(t *testing.T) {
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
-	_, err = got.Declaration(Rendering{Names: twoMachines, Suffix: "internal",
+	// Left out of the declaration and said, rather than composed listening nowhere: a module that
-		Needed: map[string]map[string]string{"dnsmasq": {"broker": "sealed"}}})
+	// cannot compose on a machine is kept as it is there, with the reason (hq ADR 0163).
-	if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "${machine:address}") {
+	composed, err := got.Compose(Rendering{Names: twoMachines, Suffix: "internal",
-		t.Fatalf("a machine off the network was composed a resolver, or refused for another reason: %v", err)
+		Needed:   map[string]map[string]string{"dnsmasq": {"broker": "sealed"}},
+		Settings: SettingsBy{"dnsmasq": {{From: "the mesh", Values: map[string]any{"listen-addresses": "127.0.0.1"}}}}})
+	if err == nil && !strings.Contains(composed.LeftOut["dnsmasq"], "${machine:address}") {
+		t.Fatalf("a machine off the network was composed a resolver, or left out for another reason: %v",
+			composed.LeftOut)
+	}
+	if err != nil && !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "${machine:address}") {
+		t.Fatalf("a machine off the network was refused for another reason: %v", err)
 	}
 }

internal/catalogue/runtime.go

@@ -0,0 +1,251 @@
+package catalogue
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"sort"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+// The node's tool runtime, as the catalogue knows it (novox/hq ADR 0175, to-be 38).
+//
+// **One module is the runtime.** Where it is assigned, one process per machine serves every assigned
+// module's tools and every held seat's verbs, on the host side, from the bundles each module's build
+// produced — and no module needs a container to reach the bus with its tools. The name is a constant
+// rather than a manifest field because a rule turns on it: the composer places the runtime's process
+// where this module is, and registration refuses the old pattern once this module exists.
+
+// RuntimeModule is the module that is the node's tool runtime. Mirrored in the broker package,
+// which composes a principal of its own for it; the agreement test there holds the two to one string.
+const RuntimeModule = "node-tools"
+
+// BundleRoot is where a machine keeps the tools bundles the mesh delivers to it: under the mesh's
+// own directory, beside the daemons the host unpacks there, and never where a package manager also
+// writes. One directory per module, one per bundle beneath it, at a path that does not move with
+// the version — so the runtime's process names each entrypoint once and is restarted, not
+// recomposed, when a bundle changes.
+const BundleRoot = "/var/lib/mesh/bundles"
+
+// BundleID names the archive resource that delivers one of a module's bundles; prefixed with the
+// module like every resource of its own.
+func BundleID(bundle string) string { return "bundle-" + bundle }
+
+// BundlePath is where one module's bundle is unpacked on a machine.
+func BundlePath(module, bundle string) string { return BundleRoot + "/" + module + "/" + bundle }
+
+// runtimeHere says whether this node's set includes the runtime module, which is what decides
+// whether anything about tools changes on the machine (to-be 38 WP2): until the runtime is assigned,
+// a node is sent exactly what it was sent before, bundles included, because a bundle nothing loads
+// is bytes nobody reads.
+func (r Resolution) runtimeHere() bool {
+	for _, m := range r.Modules {
+		if m.Module == RuntimeModule {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	return false
+}
+
+// bundleArchives is one archive per tools bundle of a module — a bundle the runtime LOADS something
+// from — as the host fetches and unpacks any artifact (novox/hq ADR 0175 §3: a module brings its
+// tools as a bundle, delivered by the host like any artifact, never an image). A bundle it loads
+// nothing from is run rather than loaded: a daemon, a step, the runtime itself — delivered by the
+// process that runs it, and not again here.
+//
+// The source is the kept reference; the per-resource pass that follows routes it through the
+// artifact store as this network reaches it now, as it does every image and archive the mesh built.
+func bundleArchives(m Manifest) []map[string]any {
+	var out []map[string]any
+	for _, b := range m.Bundles {
+		if len(b.Loads) == 0 {
+			continue
+		}
+		out = append(out, map[string]any{
+			"id": BundleID(b.Name), "type": "archive",
+			"source": b.Source, "digest": b.Digest,
+			"path": BundlePath(m.Module, b.Name),
+		})
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
+// RuntimeProcessID names the one process the mesh composes for a machine's runtime; prefixed with
+// the runtime module like a resource of its own, because that module is what the host sees it as.
+func RuntimeProcessID() string { return "runtime" }
+
+// RuntimeToolModules is the variable the runtime reads the modules it serves from: one
+// `<module>=<entrypoint>` per file it loads, comma-separated — several entries may name one module.
+// RuntimeBrokerFile is where it reads the node's credential; RuntimeOperatorAccount and
+// RuntimeOperatorHome are the machine's operator account and home, handed to every tool's
+// environment (to-be 38 WP1), and absent on a machine with no account.
+const (
+	RuntimeToolModules     = "MESH_TOOL_MODULES"
+	RuntimeBrokerFile      = "MESH_BROKER_FILE"
+	RuntimeOperatorAccount = "MESH_OPERATOR_ACCOUNT"
+	RuntimeOperatorHome    = "MESH_OPERATOR_HOME"
+)
+
+// interpreterFor is how a bundle in a language is run: the program the host's unit starts, with the
+// bundle's entrypoint after it. The one thing the composer takes from a language, and said here
+// rather than in a manifest because the runtime's process is the mesh's to compose (to-be 38 WP3).
+func interpreterFor(language string) (string, error) {
+	switch language {
+	case "typescript":
+		return "node", nil
+	}
+	return "", fmt.Errorf(
+		"%s is written in %q, and the mesh knows no interpreter to run a %q bundle with",
+		RuntimeModule, language, language)
+}
+
+// runtimeProcess is the one process a machine runs the node's tool runtime as (novox/hq ADR 0175,
+// to-be 38 WP2.3): the runtime module's own bundle, run by its language's interpreter, told which
+// modules it serves and from which files, where its credential is, and who the machine's operator
+// is — and restarted when any bundle it loads or the credential it holds changes.
+//
+// Composed from the placed manifests, so the credential's path is where this node puts it. The
+// runtime runs as the operator's account when the machine has one, which is what lets a tool that
+// needs root escalate as the operator would (ADR 0175 §4); on a machine with no account it runs as
+// root, and the two operator words are not set.
+func (r Resolution) runtimeProcess(with Rendering) (map[string]any, error) {
+	var runtime *Manifest
+	for i := range r.Modules {
+		if r.Modules[i].Module == RuntimeModule {
+			runtime = &r.Modules[i]
+		}
+	}
+	if runtime == nil {
+		return nil, nil
+	}
+	if len(runtime.Bundles) != 1 {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf(
+			"%s is assigned to %s and its build produced %d bundle(s); the runtime is one bundle "+
+				"the mesh runs, so the module declares exactly one (novox/hq to-be 38)",
+			RuntimeModule, r.Node, len(runtime.Bundles))
+	}
+	bundle := runtime.Bundles[0]
+	if len(bundle.Entrypoints) != 1 {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf(
+			"%s's bundle %q names %d entrypoint(s); the runtime is run from one, so the module "+
+				"declares exactly one (novox/hq to-be 38)", RuntimeModule, bundle.Name, len(bundle.Entrypoints))
+	}
+	interpreter, err := interpreterFor(bundle.Language)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	credential, declared := runtime.OwnSecrets["broker"]
+	if !declared {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf(
+			"%s declares no own secret named broker, and the node's credential is delivered there: "+
+				"a module that speaks on the bus declares \"own-secrets\": {\"broker\": <path>}",
+			RuntimeModule)
+	}
+
+	// What it serves, and from which files: every module on this machine that composes here, in
+	// name order, each bundle it loads from in the order the manifest gave. A module left out of
+	// the declaration — a filter on an adopted machine — is left out of this too, or the runtime
+	// would be told to load files that were never delivered.
+	var served []string
+	var restartOn []string
+	for _, m := range r.Modules {
+		if with.Adopted && m.Filtering != nil {
+			continue
+		}
+		for _, b := range m.Bundles {
+			if len(b.Loads) == 0 {
+				continue
+			}
+			for _, load := range b.Loads {
+				served = append(served, m.Module+"="+BundlePath(m.Module, b.Name)+"/"+load)
+			}
+			restartOn = append(restartOn, m.Module+"."+BundleID(b.Name))
+		}
+	}
+	sort.Strings(served)
+	restartOn = append(restartOn, RuntimeModule+"."+NeedID("broker"))
+	sort.Strings(restartOn)
+
+	env := map[string]string{
+		RuntimeToolModules: strings.Join(served, ","),
+		RuntimeBrokerFile:  credential.Path,
+	}
+	process := map[string]any{
+		"id": RuntimeModule + "." + RuntimeProcessID(), "type": "process", "name": RuntimeModule,
+		"source": bundle.Source, "digest": bundle.Digest,
+		"run":        []any{interpreter, bundle.Entrypoints[0]},
+		"env":        env,
+		"restart-on": toAny(restartOn),
+	}
+	if r.Account != "" {
+		env[RuntimeOperatorAccount] = r.Account
+		env[RuntimeOperatorHome] = accountHomeOf(r.Account, r.AccountHome)
+		process["user"] = r.Account
+	}
+	// Routed through the artifact store as this network reaches it now, like everything the mesh
+	// built; refused with the same words when there is no store to route through.
+	if err := artifactsInto(process, RuntimeModule, with); err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	return process, nil
+}
+
+func toAny(in []string) []any {
+	out := make([]any, 0, len(in))
+	for _, s := range in {
+		out = append(out, s)
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
+// RuntimeImageModule and RuntimeImageArtifact name the image every per-module tool container was
+// built on: the tool runtime's own runtime image. With the runtime a module of its own, that image
+// stays the way a module's SERVICE may be built and stops being the way tools reach a node (ADR 0175).
+const (
+	RuntimeImageModule   = "mesh-tools"
+	RuntimeImageArtifact = "runtime"
+)
+
+// ToolContainerOnTheRuntime says why a manifest is the pattern ADR 0175 retires — a module whose tools
+// are served from a container built on the tool runtime's image — or nothing when it is not. Judged
+// from the manifest's own `build.on` when it is a repository manifest, and from what its build stood
+// on when it is a built one, because a resolved manifest carries no build. The gate itself is
+// registration's (to-be 38 WP2.4): once the runtime module is in the catalogue, this is refused.
+//
+// Three things must hold, and each alone is fine: declaring tools (a bundle does that); a container
+// (a module's service may well be one); building on the runtime's image (a service written against
+// the SDK may). All three is a container whose purpose is tools, which the runtime now serves.
+func ToolContainerOnTheRuntime(m Manifest, against []string) string {
+	if len(m.Tools) == 0 {
+		return ""
+	}
+	container := false
+	for _, r := range m.Resources {
+		if fmt.Sprint(r["type"]) == "container" {
+			container = true
+		}
+	}
+	if !container {
+		return ""
+	}
+	onTheRuntime := false
+	if m.Build != nil {
+		for _, on := range m.Build.On {
+			if on.Module == RuntimeImageModule && on.Artifact == RuntimeImageArtifact {
+				onTheRuntime = true
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	for _, ref := range against {
+		path, kept := InArtifactStore(Recorded(ref))
+		if kept && strings.HasPrefix(path, RuntimeImageModule+"/"+RuntimeImageArtifact+"@") {
+			onTheRuntime = true
+		}
+	}
+	if !onTheRuntime {
+		return ""
+	}
+	return fmt.Sprintf(
+		"%s declares tools and a container built on %s's %s image — a container whose purpose is "+
+			"serving tools. The node's tool runtime (%s) serves every module's tools from its bundle "+
+			"now (novox/hq ADR 0175, to-be 38); declare the tools as a bundle and drop the container",
+		m.Module, RuntimeImageModule, RuntimeImageArtifact, RuntimeModule)
+}

internal/catalogue/runtime_gate_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+package catalogue
+
+import (
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// The packet-filter manifest as it was the day the runtime was decided (novox/hq ADR 0175): tools,
+// served from a container built on the tool runtime's image, with NET_ADMIN so the container could
+// reach the filter. The exact pattern to-be 38 WP4 moves it off, and the one the gate refuses.
+const thePacketFilterAsItWas = `{
+  "module": "nftables",
+  "version": "1",
+  "capabilities": ["firewall", "container-runtime"],
+  "claims": [{"name": "node-packet-filter", "scope": "node", "serves": ["rules", "reload", "remove"]}],
+  "filtering": {"into": "/etc/nftables.conf"},
+  "resources": [
+    {"id": "mesh-state", "type": "directory", "mode": "0700", "place": "mesh"},
+    {"id": "package", "type": "package", "package": "nftables"},
+    {"id": "unit", "type": "file", "path": "/etc/systemd/system/mesh-filter.service",
+     "content": "[Unit]\nDescription=The mesh's packet filter\n[Service]\nType=oneshot\nExecStart=nft -f /etc/nftables.conf\n", "mode": "0644"},
+    {"id": "load", "type": "service", "unit": "mesh-filter.service", "state": "running", "boot": "enabled",
+     "restart-on": ["unit"], "reload-on": ["filtering"]},
+    {"id": "runtime", "type": "container", "name": "mesh-nftables", "network": "host",
+     "capabilities": ["NET_ADMIN"],
+     "volumes": ["${dir:mesh-state}/broker:/run/secrets/broker:ro", "/etc/nftables.conf:/etc/nftables.conf:ro"],
+     "env": {"MESH_BROKER_FILE": "/run/secrets/broker", "MESH_FILTER_FILE": "/etc/nftables.conf"},
+     "artifact": "runtime"}
+  ],
+  "tools": ["firewall_rules"],
+  "own-secrets": {"broker": "${dir:mesh-state}/broker"},
+  "build": {
+    "on": [
+      {"arg": "BUILD_BASE", "module": "mesh-tools", "artifact": "build"},
+      {"arg": "RUNTIME_BASE", "module": "mesh-tools", "artifact": "runtime"}
+    ],
+    "artifacts": [{"name": "runtime", "kind": "image", "from": "Dockerfile"}]
+  }
+}`
+
+func TestAToolContainerOnTheRuntimeImageIsNamedForWhatItIs(t *testing.T) {
+	m, err := ParseManifest([]byte(thePacketFilterAsItWas))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	// From the repository: the manifest says what it builds on.
+	why := ToolContainerOnTheRuntime(m, nil)
+	if why == "" {
+		t.Fatal("the packet filter's tool container was not recognised from its build")
+	}
+	for _, word := range []string{"nftables", "mesh-tools", "runtime", "ADR 0175", "bundle"} {
+		if !strings.Contains(why, word) {
+			t.Errorf("the refusal does not say %q: %s", word, why)
+		}
+	}
+
+	// Built: the manifest carries no build, and what it stood on says the same.
+	built, err := m.Resolve([]Built{{Name: "runtime", Kind: ArtifactImage,
+		Reference: ArtifactStoreScheme + "nftables/runtime@" + digest}})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	stoodOn := []string{"anchor.internal:5100/mesh-tools/build@" + digest, "anchor.internal:5100/mesh-tools/runtime@" + digest}
+	if ToolContainerOnTheRuntime(built, stoodOn) == "" {
+		t.Error("the packet filter's tool container was not recognised from what its build stood on")
+	}
+	if ToolContainerOnTheRuntime(built, nil) != "" {
+		t.Error("a built manifest with no record of its base was judged to be on the runtime")
+	}
+
+	// Each of the three alone is an ordinary module.
+	bundle := m
+	bundle.Resources = m.Resources[:len(m.Resources)-1]
+	if ToolContainerOnTheRuntime(bundle, nil) != "" {
+		t.Error("a module with tools and no container is the pattern the runtime serves, and was refused")
+	}
+	service := m
+	service.Tools = nil
+	if ToolContainerOnTheRuntime(service, nil) != "" {
+		t.Error("a service built against the SDK, declaring no tools, was refused")
+	}
+	elsewhere := m
+	elsewhere.Build = &Build{On: []BuildsOn{{Arg: "NODE_BASE", Image: "node@" + digest}},
+		Artifacts: m.Build.Artifacts}
+	if ToolContainerOnTheRuntime(elsewhere, nil) != "" {
+		t.Error("a tool container on a public base was refused as though it were on the runtime's")
+	}
+}

internal/catalogue/runtime_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,212 @@
+package catalogue
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// The node's tool runtime (novox/hq ADR 0175, to-be 38): where the runtime module is assigned, a
+// machine is sent every assigned module's tools bundle as an archive, and the runtime's own process
+// loading them. Where it is not, the machine is sent exactly what it was sent before.
+
+var bundleDigest = "sha256:" + strings.Repeat("b", 64)
+
+// aToolsModule is a module whose tools come as a compiled bundle and nothing else — the shape every
+// module takes once its tool container goes (to-be 38 WP4).
+func aToolsModule(t *testing.T, name string, entrypoints ...string) Manifest {
+	t.Helper()
+	m := Manifest{Module: name, Version: "1", Tools: []string{"status"},
+		Build: &Build{Artifacts: []Artifact{
+			{Name: "tools", Kind: ArtifactBundle, Language: "typescript", Entrypoints: entrypoints},
+		}}}
+	resolved, err := m.Resolve([]Built{{Name: "tools", Kind: ArtifactBundle,
+		Reference: ArtifactStoreScheme + name + "/tools/blobs/" + bundleDigest, Digest: bundleDigest}})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	return resolved
+}
+
+// theRuntime is the runtime module as the catalogue holds it: its own bundle, run rather than
+// loaded, and its broker secret to receive the node's credential in.
+func theRuntime(t *testing.T) Manifest {
+	t.Helper()
+	m := Manifest{Module: RuntimeModule, Version: "1",
+		OwnSecrets: OwnSecrets{"broker": {Path: "/var/lib/mesh/" + RuntimeModule + "/broker"}},
+		Build: &Build{Artifacts: []Artifact{{Name: "runtime", Kind: ArtifactBundle, Language: "typescript",
+			Entrypoints: []string{"src/main.js"}}}}}
+	resolved, err := m.Resolve([]Built{{Name: "runtime", Kind: ArtifactBundle,
+		Reference: ArtifactStoreScheme + RuntimeModule + "/runtime/blobs/" + bundleDigest, Digest: bundleDigest}})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	return resolved
+}
+
+func TestABuildsBundlesAreCarriedOnTheResolvedManifest(t *testing.T) {
+	m := aToolsModule(t, "nftables", "tools/index.js")
+	if len(m.Bundles) != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("the resolved manifest carries %d bundle(s), not the one the build made", len(m.Bundles))
+	}
+	b := m.Bundles[0]
+	if b.Name != "tools" || b.Digest != bundleDigest || b.Language != "typescript" ||
+		b.Source != ArtifactStoreScheme+"nftables/tools/blobs/"+bundleDigest ||
+		len(b.Entrypoints) != 1 || b.Entrypoints[0] != "tools/index.js" {
+		t.Errorf("the bundle is carried as %+v", b)
+	}
+	// A repository manifest may not write what the build derives.
+	raw := `{"module":"x","version":"1","build":{"artifacts":[{"name":"t","kind":"bundle","language":"typescript"}]},` +
+		`"bundles":[{"name":"t","source":"s","digest":"` + bundleDigest + `"}]}`
+	if _, err := ParseManifest([]byte(raw)); err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "bundles") {
+		t.Errorf("a manifest stating its build's output by hand was accepted: %v", err)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestEveryToolsBundleIsDeliveredWhereTheRuntimeRuns(t *testing.T) {
+	store := Rendering{ArtifactStore: "anchor.internal:5101",
+		Needed: map[string]map[string]string{RuntimeModule: {"broker": "sealed-credential"}}}
+	nftables := aToolsModule(t, "nftables", "tools/index.js")
+	zsh := aToolsModule(t, "zsh", "tools/index.js", "tools/more.js")
+
+	t.Run("with the runtime, one archive per tools bundle", func(t *testing.T) {
+		r := Resolution{Node: "anchor", Modules: []Manifest{nftables, zsh, theRuntime(t)}}
+		out, err := r.Declaration(store)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		archive := fileNamed(out, "nftables."+BundleID("tools"))
+		if archive == nil {
+			t.Fatalf("nftables' tools bundle was not delivered: %v", ids(out))
+		}
+		if archive["type"] != "archive" || archive["digest"] != bundleDigest ||
+			archive["path"] != BundleRoot+"/nftables/tools" {
+			t.Errorf("delivered as %v", archive)
+		}
+		if archive["source"] != "http://anchor.internal:5101/v2/nftables/tools/blobs/"+bundleDigest {
+			t.Errorf("fetched from %v, not through the store as this network reaches it", archive["source"])
+		}
+		if fileNamed(out, "zsh."+BundleID("tools")) == nil {
+			t.Errorf("zsh's tools bundle was not delivered: %v", ids(out))
+		}
+		// The runtime's own bundle is run, not loaded: its process delivers it, not an archive.
+		if fileNamed(out, RuntimeModule+"."+BundleID("runtime")) != nil {
+			t.Error("the runtime's own bundle was delivered as an archive beside its process")
+		}
+	})
+
+	t.Run("without the runtime, nothing changes", func(t *testing.T) {
+		r := Resolution{Node: "anchor", Modules: []Manifest{nftables, zsh}}
+		out, err := r.Declaration(store)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		for _, id := range ids(out) {
+			if strings.Contains(id, BundleID("")) {
+				t.Errorf("%s was delivered to a machine running no runtime to load it", id)
+			}
+		}
+	})
+}
+
+func ids(out []map[string]any) []string {
+	var names []string
+	for _, r := range out {
+		names = append(names, r["id"].(string))
+	}
+	return names
+}
+
+// One process per machine runs the runtime from its own bundle, told what it serves and from where,
+// where its credential is, and who the operator is — restarted when any of that changes.
+func TestTheMachineRunsOneRuntimeLoadingEveryDeliveredBundle(t *testing.T) {
+	with := Rendering{ArtifactStore: "anchor.internal:5101",
+		Needed: map[string]map[string]string{RuntimeModule: {"broker": "sealed-credential"}}}
+	nftables := aToolsModule(t, "nftables", "tools/index.js")
+	// A bundle carrying a daemon beside its tools says which files the runtime loads.
+	showcase := Manifest{Module: "showcase", Version: "1", Tools: []string{"greet"},
+		Build: &Build{Artifacts: []Artifact{{Name: "code", Kind: ArtifactBundle, Language: "typescript",
+			Entrypoints: []string{"daemon/index.js", "tools/index.js"}, Loads: []string{"tools/index.js"}}}}}
+	showcase, err := showcase.Resolve([]Built{{Name: "code", Kind: ArtifactBundle,
+		Reference: ArtifactStoreScheme + "showcase/code/blobs/" + bundleDigest, Digest: bundleDigest}})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	r := Resolution{Node: "anchor", Account: "ops", Modules: []Manifest{nftables, showcase, theRuntime(t)}}
+	out, err := r.Declaration(with)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	process := fileNamed(out, RuntimeModule+"."+RuntimeProcessID())
+	if process == nil {
+		t.Fatalf("no runtime process was composed: %v", ids(out))
+	}
+	if process["type"] != "process" || process["name"] != RuntimeModule || process["digest"] != bundleDigest ||
+		process["source"] != "http://anchor.internal:5101/v2/"+RuntimeModule+"/runtime/blobs/"+bundleDigest {
+		t.Errorf("the runtime's process is %v", process)
+	}
+	if fmt.Sprint(process["run"]) != "[node src/main.js]" {
+		t.Errorf("the runtime is run as %v; its bundle's one entrypoint, by its language's interpreter", process["run"])
+	}
+	env := process["env"].(map[string]string)
+	if env[RuntimeToolModules] != "nftables="+BundleRoot+"/nftables/tools/tools/index.js,"+
+		"showcase="+BundleRoot+"/showcase/code/tools/index.js" {
+		t.Errorf("the runtime is told to serve %q: every loaded file, by module, and nothing a bundle runs", env[RuntimeToolModules])
+	}
+	if env[RuntimeBrokerFile] != "/var/lib/mesh/"+RuntimeModule+"/broker" {
+		t.Errorf("the runtime reads its credential at %q, not where the module's own secret is placed", env[RuntimeBrokerFile])
+	}
+	if env[RuntimeOperatorAccount] != "ops" || env[RuntimeOperatorHome] != "/home/ops" || process["user"] != "ops" {
+		t.Errorf("the operator is not handed to the runtime: %v as %v", env, process["user"])
+	}
+	// The credential the process reads belongs to the account it runs as, or it could not read it
+	// (to-be 38 WP3); other modules' secrets are left as their manifests say.
+	if credential := fileNamed(out, RuntimeModule+"."+NeedID("broker")); credential == nil || credential["owner"] != "ops" {
+		t.Errorf("the runtime's credential is not the account's to read: %v", credential)
+	}
+	restarts := fmt.Sprint(process["restart-on"])
+	for _, want := range []string{"nftables." + BundleID("tools"), "showcase." + BundleID("code"), RuntimeModule + "." + NeedID("broker")} {
+		if !strings.Contains(restarts, want) {
+			t.Errorf("the runtime is not restarted when %s changes: %s", want, restarts)
+		}
+	}
+	// After every bundle and the credential, so both exist before it starts.
+	names := ids(out)
+	if names[len(names)-1] != RuntimeModule+"."+RuntimeProcessID() {
+		t.Errorf("the runtime's process is not last: %v", names)
+	}
+
+	t.Run("a machine with no account runs it as root without the operator words", func(t *testing.T) {
+		out, err := Resolution{Node: "anchor", Modules: []Manifest{nftables, theRuntime(t)}}.Declaration(with)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		process := fileNamed(out, RuntimeModule+"."+RuntimeProcessID())
+		env := process["env"].(map[string]string)
+		if _, set := env[RuntimeOperatorAccount]; set {
+			t.Error("an operator account was named on a machine that has none")
+		}
+		if _, set := process["user"]; set {
+			t.Error("a user was set on a machine with no account")
+		}
+		if credential := fileNamed(out, RuntimeModule+"."+NeedID("broker")); credential == nil || credential["owner"] != nil {
+			t.Errorf("the runtime's credential was given an owner on a machine with no account: %v", credential)
+		}
+	})
+
+	t.Run("a runtime module built wrong is refused by name", func(t *testing.T) {
+		two := Manifest{Module: RuntimeModule, Version: "1", OwnSecrets: OwnSecrets{"broker": {Path: "/b"}},
+			Build: &Build{Artifacts: []Artifact{{Name: "runtime", Kind: ArtifactBundle, Language: "typescript",
+				Entrypoints: []string{"a.js", "b.js"}}}}}
+		resolved, err := two.Resolve([]Built{{Name: "runtime", Kind: ArtifactBundle,
+			Reference: ArtifactStoreScheme + "x/runtime/blobs/" + bundleDigest, Digest: bundleDigest}})
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		_, err = Resolution{Node: "anchor", Modules: []Manifest{resolved}}.Declaration(with)
+		if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "entrypoint") {
+			t.Errorf("a runtime bundle with two entrypoints was composed: %v", err)
+		}
+	})
+}

internal/catalogue/seats.go

@@ -96,11 +96,60 @@ var defaultSeats = []Seat{
 	// A build says what it does as it does it (novox/hq ADR 0157): `started` when work is taken,
 	// `log.<build id>` for every line, `built` for the outcome. The log's tail token is the build's
 	// id, so a reader follows one build by subject alone.
+	// **Node-scoped, and every holder takes from one queue** (novox/hq ADR 0190): a build is asked of
+	// the role, and whichever machine holding the seat is idle pulls it. One holder per machine is
+	// what the scope says; sharing the work is what a seat's queue has always done.
+	{Name: "node-build-agent", Scope: ScopeNode,
+		Accepts: []string{"build"}, Emits: []string{"started", "built", "log.*"}, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0190"},
+	// **Retired by ADR 0190, kept while a manifest still claims it.** The one build machine's seat.
+	// A claim to a seat the mesh no longer defines is refused, and the module holding this one is
+	// assigned on a live machine until build-agent replaces it — removing the row first would make
+	// that machine unresolvable in the meantime. Deleted once no registered manifest claims it.
 	{Name: "mesh-build-machine", Scope: ScopeMesh,
-		Accepts: []string{"build"}, Emits: []string{"started", "built", "log.*"}, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0121"},
+		Accepts: []string{"build"}, Emits: []string{"started", "built", "log.*"}, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0190"},
 	{Name: "node-dns-resolver", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0121"},
-	{Name: "node-intrusion-prevention", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0121"},
+	// The intrusion prevention's verbs (novox/hq ADR 0179): what a person asks a machine's ban list
-	{Name: "node-packet-filter", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0121"},
+	// whatever keeps it — who is banned and why, ban one address, let one go. Every holder serves all
+	// four; the jails themselves are composed from the modules the machine runs (to-be 31).
+	{Name: "node-intrusion-prevention", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0121",
+		Serves: []Verb{
+			{Name: "status", Description: "Every jail on this machine with how many it is watching and " +
+				"holding now, and the totals since the jail started; one jail's detail when named.",
+				Input: schema(map[string]string{"jail": "one jail (optional)"}, nil)},
+			{Name: "banned", Description: "Every address banned on this machine right now, with the jail " +
+				"that holds it and when the ban ends.",
+				Input: schema(map[string]string{"jail": "one jail (optional)"}, nil)},
+			{Name: "ban", Description: "Ban one address in one jail now, for the jail's ban time — an " +
+				"operator's act on the live ban list, which the mesh never writes itself.",
+				Input: schema(map[string]string{"ip": "the address", "jail": "the jail to hold it"}, []string{"ip", "jail"})},
+			{Name: "unban", Description: "Let one address go, from one jail or from every jail when none is named.",
+				Input: schema(map[string]string{"ip": "the address", "jail": "one jail (optional)"}, []string{"ip"})},
+		}},
+	// The packet filter's verbs (novox/hq ADR 0170): what a person asks a machine's filter whatever
+	// filter answers — the rules as enforced, reload the mesh's own, remove one thing the mesh did
+	// not write. Every holder serves all three; what differs by filter is the holder's own tools.
+	{Name: "node-packet-filter", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0121",
+		Serves: []Verb{
+			{Name: "rules", Description: "The packet filter as this machine enforces it now: the nftables " +
+				"ruleset and, where the tool exists, the legacy filter's listings. Narrowed to one table or " +
+				"chain when asked.",
+				Input: schema(map[string]string{"table": "one nftables table, as `family name` (optional)",
+					"chain": "one chain of that table (optional)"}, nil)},
+			{Name: "reload", Description: "Load the mesh's own filter again from the file the mesh writes, " +
+				"and answer with the mesh's table as loaded.",
+				Input: schema(map[string]string{}, nil)},
+			{Name: "remove", Description: "Remove one rule set the mesh did not write, named exactly as the " +
+				"host reports it (novox/hq ADR 0168) — `chain X (iptables-legacy)` or `table ip6 filter, chain " +
+				"DOCKER-USER`. Refuses the mesh's tables, the runtime's own chains, a built-in chain and an " +
+				"active found firewall's chains. An operator's act, by name, never a flush.",
+				Input: schema(map[string]string{"where": "the rule set, as `node show` lists it"}, []string{"where"})},
+		}},
+	// The machine's service manager (novox/hq ADR 0177). The host applies every declared unit,
+	// system or user scope; the holder answers questions and operator acts about them, each verb
+	// taking the unit and an optional scope. The holder runs nothing of its own: its verbs are
+	// served by the node tools runtime (ADR 0175).
+	{Name: "node-service-manager", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0177",
+		Serves: serviceManagerVerbs()},
 	// Deferred (novox/hq ADR 0121): renaming to mesh-private-network is a scope + server/client
 	// model change, not a rename, so it stays until that is built.
 	{Name: "the-private-network", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0110"},
@@ -374,3 +423,36 @@ func SeatsWithAProtocol() []Seat {
 	}
 	return out
 }
+
+// serviceManagerVerbs is the contract every holder of node-service-manager serves (novox/hq ADR
+// 0177): the units on the machine in both scopes, read and acted on by name. Every verb takes an
+// optional scope — "system" when absent, "user" for the operator account's own manager — so a
+// caller asks for a user unit the way it asks for a system one.
+func serviceManagerVerbs() []Verb {
+	scoped := func(more map[string]string, required []string) map[string]any {
+		props := map[string]string{"scope": "\"system\" (the default) or \"user\": the operator account's own manager"}
+		for k, v := range more {
+			props[k] = v
+		}
+		return schema(props, required)
+	}
+	unit := map[string]string{"unit": "the unit's name, as the service manager knows it"}
+	return []Verb{
+		{Name: "units", Description: "The units the service manager knows in a scope, each with its load, active and sub state; narrowed to a pattern when asked.",
+			Input: scoped(map[string]string{"pattern": "a glob the unit's name must match (optional)"}, nil)},
+		{Name: "status", Description: "One unit as the service manager sees it now: its states, whether it starts at boot, its main process, and whether the mesh declares it.",
+			Input: scoped(unit, []string{"unit"})},
+		{Name: "start", Description: "Start one unit. For a unit the mesh declares, the answer says the host will restore what its declaration says at the next apply.",
+			Input: scoped(unit, []string{"unit"})},
+		{Name: "stop", Description: "Stop one unit; for a mesh-declared unit the answer says the host will restore its declared state.",
+			Input: scoped(unit, []string{"unit"})},
+		{Name: "restart", Description: "Restart one unit.",
+			Input: scoped(unit, []string{"unit"})},
+		{Name: "enable", Description: "Make one unit start at boot (or at the account's login, in user scope).",
+			Input: scoped(unit, []string{"unit"})},
+		{Name: "disable", Description: "Stop one unit starting at boot (or at login, in user scope).",
+			Input: scoped(unit, []string{"unit"})},
+		{Name: "journal", Description: "The last lines of one unit's journal.",
+			Input: scoped(map[string]string{"unit": unit["unit"], "lines": "how many lines from the end (default 100)"}, []string{"unit"})},
+	}
+}

internal/catalogue/seats_test.go

@@ -44,8 +44,10 @@ func TestTheSeatsAreAClosedSetAndEachNamesItsDecision(t *testing.T) {
 			delivered[s.Delivers] = s.Name
 		}
 	}
-	if len(Seats()) != 15 {
+	// Seventeen since node-build-agent (novox/hq ADR 0190) — sixteen once the retired
-		t.Errorf("the mesh defines %d seats rather than 14; the set is closed, so a change here is "+
+	// mesh-build-machine row goes, when no registered manifest claims it any more.
+	if len(Seats()) != 17 {
+		t.Errorf("the mesh defines %d seats rather than 17; the set is closed, so a change here is "+
 			"a decision (novox/hq ADR 0110): %s", len(Seats()), seatNames())
 	}
 }

internal/catalogue/settings.go

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package catalogue
 import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
+	"regexp"
 	"sort"
 	"strings"
 )
@@ -275,6 +276,11 @@ func UnusedSettings(m Manifest, layers []Layer) []string {
 			if key == AccessesSetting && len(m.Accesses) > 0 {
 				continue
 			}
+			// `networks` keeps a found network for a taken container on one adopted machine
+			// (novox/hq ADR 0163). Validated in KeptNetworks, so not stray.
+			if key == NetworksSetting {
+				continue
+			}
 			unused = append(unused, fmt.Sprintf(
 				"%s sets %q, and %s has no file that merges it, asks for no ${setting:%s}, and "+
 					"declares no %q in what it contributes or serves",
@@ -298,3 +304,125 @@ func stringsOf(v any) []string {
 	}
 	return out
 }
+
+// NetworksSetting is the settings key that keeps a found network for a taken container, on one
+// adopted machine (novox/hq ADR 0163, rule 4):
+//
+//	{"networks": {"server": ["predecessor_default"]}}
+//
+// has the module's container `server` also join `predecessor_default` once taken, so a neighbour
+// that resolves it by name on that network keeps resolving it. Migration scaffolding in the sense
+// of ADR 0104: assigned only on an adopted machine, reported while it stands, removed when the
+// neighbours are taken. Keyed by the container's resource id; the value is the networks it keeps.
+const NetworksSetting = "networks"
+
+// KeptNetworks reads which found networks each of a module's containers keeps, by container id.
+//
+// Refused from a mesh-wide layer — a found network is a fact about one machine — for an id the
+// module declares no container under, for a name that is not a network's, and on a machine that
+// is not adopted: the setting exists so neighbours the mesh has not taken yet keep reaching the
+// container, and a converged machine has no such neighbours.
+func KeptNetworks(m Manifest, layers []Layer, adopted bool) (map[string][]string, error) {
+	containers := map[string]bool{}
+	for _, r := range m.Resources {
+		if fmt.Sprint(r["type"]) == "container" {
+			containers[fmt.Sprint(r["id"])] = true
+		}
+	}
+	out := map[string][]string{}
+	for _, layer := range layers {
+		raw, ok := layer.Values[NetworksSetting]
+		if !ok {
+			continue
+		}
+		if layer.From == MeshWideLayer {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("%s: %s is given per node — a found network is a fact about one "+
+				"machine; set it with --node", m.Module, NetworksSetting)
+		}
+		if !adopted {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("%s: %s keeps a found network for neighbours the mesh has not taken "+
+				"yet, and %s is converged — nothing on it is found; clear the setting", m.Module,
+				NetworksSetting, layer.From)
+		}
+		blocks, ok := raw.(map[string]any)
+		if !ok {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("%s: %s is a { container: [network, …] } map, and %q set it to "+
+				"something else", m.Module, NetworksSetting, layer.From)
+		}
+		for id, body := range blocks {
+			if !containers[id] {
+				return nil, fmt.Errorf("%s: %s names the container %q, which it does not declare — "+
+					"the setting reaches nothing; it declares %s", m.Module, NetworksSetting, id,
+					orNothing(sortedKeys(containers)))
+			}
+			names := stringsOf(body)
+			if len(names) == 0 {
+				return nil, fmt.Errorf("%s: %s for %q is a list of network names, and %q set it to %v",
+					m.Module, NetworksSetting, id, layer.From, body)
+			}
+			for _, n := range names {
+				if !networkName.MatchString(n) {
+					return nil, fmt.Errorf("%s: %s for %q names %q, which is not a network name",
+						m.Module, NetworksSetting, id, n)
+				}
+			}
+			sort.Strings(names)
+			out[id] = names
+		}
+	}
+	if len(out) == 0 {
+		return nil, nil
+	}
+	return out, nil
+}
+
+// networkName is what a container runtime accepts as a network's name.
+var networkName = regexp.MustCompile(`^[A-Za-z0-9][A-Za-z0-9_.-]*$`)
+
+// JudgeSettings composes a module's settings against its definition and refuses the first thing
+// that cannot work, naming the module, the layer and the key (novox/hq ADR 0163, rule 6).
+//
+// **The same judgement where a setting is stored and where a machine is declared.** Stored, a
+// setting that cannot compose is refused before it is kept; composed later, a definition that has
+// moved under a stored setting leaves that module out of the machine's declaration rather than
+// the machine without one. Every reader of settings runs here: a port given, an exposure, a reach,
+// an endpoint, a placement, an access, a kept network, a mergeable file's keys and a file's
+// `${setting:…}`. A key that reaches nothing is not here: it cannot break a composition, so it is
+// refused where it is stored (SetSettings, with UnusedSettings) and said where a plan is read,
+// and never costs a module its place.
+func JudgeSettings(m Manifest, layers []Layer, adopted bool) error {
+	// With no layers too: a definition may ask for a setting nobody made — an access placed by
+	// nobody, a file's ${setting:…} nothing sets — and that is the same statement, missing.
+	if _, err := GivenPorts(m, layers); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	if _, err := Reaches(m, layers); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	if _, err := Endpoints(m, layers); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	if _, err := Places(m, layers); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	if _, _, err := accessesFor(m, layers); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	if _, err := KeptNetworks(m, layers, adopted); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	for _, r := range m.Resources {
+		settled, err := ApplySettings(r, layers)
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		copied := map[string]any{}
+		for k, v := range settled {
+			copied[k] = v
+		}
+		if err := settingInto(copied, layers, m.Module); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+	}
+	return nil
+}

internal/catalogue/settings_judge_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,127 @@
+package catalogue
+
+import (
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// A setting is judged where it is stored, and an impossible one costs a module, not a machine
+// (novox/hq ADR 0163, rule 6): the one judgement, used by SetSettings before storing and by
+// Compose when a definition has moved under a stored setting.
+func TestASettingThatCannotComposeIsRefusedByNameAndLeavesOnlyItsModuleOut(t *testing.T) {
+	web := Manifest{Module: "hello-web",
+		Listens: []Listening{{Port: 8080, From: FromEverywhere}},
+		Resources: []map[string]any{{"id": "server", "type": "container", "name": "hello-web",
+			"ports": []any{"8080"}}}}
+	for _, c := range []struct {
+		name   string
+		layer  map[string]any
+		refuse string
+	}{
+		{"a port the module does not publish", map[string]any{PortsSetting: map[string]any{"9999": 10000}},
+			"hello-web gives port 9999 a machine port, and no container of its publishes 9999"},
+		{"a mesh-wide port", map[string]any{PortsSetting: map[string]any{"8080": 10000}},
+			"a port is a fact about one machine"},
+	} {
+		from := "anchor"
+		if c.name == "a mesh-wide port" {
+			from = MeshWideLayer
+		}
+		err := JudgeSettings(web, []Layer{{From: from, Values: c.layer}}, true)
+		if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), c.refuse) {
+			t.Errorf("%s: judged %v, want %q", c.name, err, c.refuse)
+		}
+	}
+	if err := JudgeSettings(web, []Layer{{From: "anchor", Values: map[string]any{PortsSetting: map[string]any{"8080": 10000}}}}, true); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("a port the module publishes was refused: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	// Composed, a module whose stored setting no longer works is left out by name; the rest of
+	// the machine is declared.
+	r := anAdoptedAnchor()
+	with := anchorRendering(false)
+	with.Settings = SettingsBy{"hello-web": {{From: "anchor", Values: map[string]any{PortsSetting: map[string]any{"9999": 10000}}}}}
+	composed, err := r.Compose(with)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	why, left := composed.LeftOut["hello-web"]
+	if !left || !strings.Contains(why, "no container of its publishes 9999") {
+		t.Fatalf("hello-web is not left out by name: %v", composed.LeftOut)
+	}
+	if len(composed.LeftOut) != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("more than hello-web is left out: %v", composed.LeftOut)
+	}
+	got := byID(composed.Resources)
+	if _, declared := got["hello-web.server"]; declared {
+		t.Fatal("the left-out module's container is still declared")
+	}
+	if _, declared := got["distribution.store"]; !declared {
+		t.Fatal("the rest of the machine was not declared")
+	}
+	if left := r.LeftOut(with.Settings, false); len(left) != 1 || left["hello-web"] == "" {
+		t.Fatalf("the judgement a plan reads differs from what compose did: %v", left)
+	}
+}
+
+// A taken container keeps a found network by a per-machine setting (novox/hq ADR 0163, rule 4):
+// on an adopted machine only, for a container the module declares, and it reaches the container's
+// declaration as the networks it also joins.
+func TestAKeptNetworkReachesTheContainerOnAnAdoptedMachineOnly(t *testing.T) {
+	r := anAdoptedAnchor()
+	keep := SettingsBy{"hello-web": {{From: "anchor",
+		Values: map[string]any{NetworksSetting: map[string]any{"server": []any{"predecessor_default"}}}}}}
+
+	with := anchorRendering(true)
+	with.Settings = keep
+	composed, err := r.Compose(with)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if len(composed.LeftOut) != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("a kept network left a module out: %v", composed.LeftOut)
+	}
+	server := byID(composed.Resources)["hello-web.server"]
+	networks, _ := server["networks"].([]any)
+	if len(networks) != 1 || networks[0] != "predecessor_default" {
+		t.Fatalf("the container does not join the kept network: %v", server)
+	}
+	if _, has := byID(composed.Resources)["distribution.store"]["networks"]; has {
+		t.Fatal("another container joins a network nobody kept for it")
+	}
+
+	// Converged, the setting reaches nothing it was for, and the module is left out saying so.
+	with = anchorRendering(false)
+	with.Settings = keep
+	composed, err = r.Compose(with)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if why := composed.LeftOut["hello-web"]; !strings.Contains(why, "anchor is converged") {
+		t.Fatalf("a kept network on a converged machine: %v", composed.LeftOut)
+	}
+
+	web := r.Modules[4]
+	for _, c := range []struct {
+		name  string
+		layer Layer
+		want  string
+	}{
+		{"mesh-wide", Layer{From: MeshWideLayer, Values: map[string]any{NetworksSetting: map[string]any{"server": []any{"x"}}}},
+			"a found network is a fact about one machine"},
+		{"an unknown container", Layer{From: "anchor", Values: map[string]any{NetworksSetting: map[string]any{"db": []any{"x"}}}},
+			`names the container "db", which it does not declare`},
+		{"not a list", Layer{From: "anchor", Values: map[string]any{NetworksSetting: map[string]any{"server": "x"}}},
+			"is a list of network names"},
+		{"not a network name", Layer{From: "anchor", Values: map[string]any{NetworksSetting: map[string]any{"server": []any{"a/b"}}}},
+			"which is not a network name"},
+	} {
+		_, err := KeptNetworks(web, []Layer{c.layer}, true)
+		if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), c.want) {
+			t.Errorf("%s: %v, want %q", c.name, err, c.want)
+		}
+	}
+	if kept, err := KeptNetworks(web, nil, false); err != nil || kept != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("no setting: %v %v", kept, err)
+	}
+}

internal/catalogue/verbs.go

@@ -129,6 +129,29 @@ var ControllerVerbs = []Verb{
 			"module":    "an own secret: the module",
 			"secret":    "an own secret: its name in the module's definition",
 		}, nil)},
+	{Name: "issue", Description: "Give a module on a machine its account on the bus: minted, and sealed to the " +
+		"machine as the module's own secret named broker, read at the next push of that machine. For a module " +
+		"whose definition declares that secret; refused with the reason otherwise. Issued again, it replaces the account.",
+		Input: schema(map[string]string{
+			"node":   "the machine that runs the module",
+			"module": "the module's name",
+		}, []string{"node", "module"})},
+	{Name: "settings", Description: "Set what an assignment is configured with: a module's settings for the whole mesh, " +
+		"or for one machine. Replaces that layer whole — what it does not name, it no longer sets — and takes effect " +
+		"at the next push. With clear, removes the layer and the module is back to what its definition says.",
+		Input: schema(map[string]string{
+			"module": "the module's name",
+			"values": "the settings as a JSON object, for set",
+			"node":   "one machine; the whole mesh when absent",
+			"clear":  "\"true\" to remove the layer instead of setting it",
+		}, []string{"module"})},
+	{Name: "command", Description: "Run one command line of the controller's own, as you would type it at its " +
+		"shell — `node account g14 jochen`, `node show ace`, `module list` — and answer what it printed. The " +
+		"generic verb beside the named ones (novox/hq ADR 0154): everything the binary can do, without a verb " +
+		"per command. Any node may call any tool (ADR 0175), so nothing is held back here.",
+		Input: schema(map[string]string{
+			"command": "the command line, as the controller's binary takes it; quotes group a word with spaces",
+		}, []string{"command"})},
 	{Name: "build", Description: "Have the build machine build a repository. Answers at once with the build's id: " +
 		"`builds` with that id follows it line by line, and the module is registered when the outcome comes.",
 		Input: schema(map[string]string{

internal/inventory/adoption.go

@@ -178,6 +178,103 @@ type Stray struct {
 	Detail string `json:"detail,omitempty"`
 }
 
+// A Filter is one place on a machine that refuses traffic, with its owner (novox/hq ADR 0168).
+type Filter struct {
+	Where   string `json:"where"`
+	Owner   string `json:"owner"`
+	Refuses string `json:"refuses"`
+}
+
+// Owners of a filter, as the host names them (ADR 0168).
+const (
+	FilterMesh          = "mesh"
+	FilterFoundFirewall = "found-firewall"
+	FilterRuntime       = "runtime"
+	FilterBan           = "ban"
+	FilterOther         = "other"
+)
+
+// FoundFirewall is the state of a converged machine's found firewall (ADR 0168): in force now or
+// not, and how it came to be inactive.
+type FoundFirewall struct {
+	Kind      string `json:"kind"`
+	Active    bool   `json:"active"`
+	RetiredBy string `json:"retired_by,omitempty"`
+}
+
+// Filtering is what a machine last said filters it (ADR 0168).
+type Filtering struct {
+	Filters       []Filter
+	FoundFirewall *FoundFirewall
+}
+
+// Alone is whether the machine is filtered by the mesh alone: nothing in its list but the mesh's
+// own, the runtime's plumbing and bans, and no found firewall in force.
+func (f Filtering) Alone() bool {
+	for _, x := range f.Filters {
+		if x.Owner == FilterOther || x.Owner == FilterFoundFirewall {
+			return false
+		}
+	}
+	return f.FoundFirewall == nil || !f.FoundFirewall.Active
+}
+
+// Others is every filter that is neither the mesh's, the runtime's nor a ban.
+func (f Filtering) Others() []Filter {
+	var out []Filter
+	for _, x := range f.Filters {
+		if x.Owner == FilterOther || x.Owner == FilterFoundFirewall {
+			out = append(out, x)
+		}
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
+// RecordFiltering keeps what a machine last said filters it, replacing what was there (ADR 0168).
+func (i *Inventory) RecordFiltering(ctx context.Context, nodeID string, filters []Filter, found *FoundFirewall) error {
+	raw, err := json.Marshal(nonNil(filters))
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	var foundRaw any
+	if found != nil {
+		b, err := json.Marshal(found)
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		foundRaw = string(b)
+	}
+	_, err = i.store.Pool().Exec(ctx,
+		`update node set filters = $2, found_firewall = $3 where id = $1`, nodeID, raw, foundRaw)
+	return err
+}
+
+// FilteringOf is what a machine last said filters it; empty for a machine that never said.
+func (i *Inventory) FilteringOf(ctx context.Context, name string) (Filtering, error) {
+	var filtersRaw, foundRaw []byte
+	err := i.store.Pool().QueryRow(ctx,
+		`select filters, found_firewall from node where name = $1`, name).Scan(&filtersRaw, &foundRaw)
+	if errors.Is(err, pgx.ErrNoRows) {
+		return Filtering{}, fmt.Errorf("%w: %s", ErrNoSuchNode, name)
+	}
+	if err != nil {
+		return Filtering{}, err
+	}
+	var out Filtering
+	if len(filtersRaw) > 0 {
+		if err := json.Unmarshal(filtersRaw, &out.Filters); err != nil {
+			return Filtering{}, err
+		}
+	}
+	if len(foundRaw) > 0 {
+		out.FoundFirewall = &FoundFirewall{}
+		if err := json.Unmarshal(foundRaw, out.FoundFirewall); err != nil {
+			return Filtering{}, err
+		}
+	}
+	return out, nil
+}
+
 // Reach is one thing reachable on an adopted node: a listening socket or a published port.
 type Reach struct {
 	Protocol      string `json:"protocol"`

internal/inventory/bususers.go

@@ -42,6 +42,9 @@ const (
 	BusModule     = "module"
 	BusEnrolment  = "enrolment"
 	BusPerson     = "person"
+	// BusNodeTools is a machine's tool runtime (novox/hq ADR 0175): named like the module it
+	// stands for, recorded as what it is.
+	BusNodeTools = "node-tools"
 )
 
 // MintBusPassword makes a bus password and records its hash under a username, replacing whatever was

internal/inventory/catalogue.go

@@ -42,6 +42,11 @@ type Source struct {
 	// Seen is when the source was last looked at — by a build, by hand, or by the forge saying it
 	// moved. What a late report of an older move is judged against.
 	Seen time.Time
+	// Against is every artifact the build this manifest came from stood on, as recorded. Part of a
+	// module's provenance like the commit is, and what tells a built manifest's base when the manifest
+	// itself no longer carries its build (novox/hq to-be 38 WP2.4). Empty for a manifest handed over
+	// by hand, which carries its `build.on` itself.
+	Against []string
 }
 
 // Current reports whether what the mesh holds is what the source last had.
@@ -61,6 +66,32 @@ func (s Source) Current() bool {
 // gains a requirement, a claim, a resource. What matters is that the change is visible the next
 // time a node is resolved, which it is.
 func (i *Inventory) RegisterModule(ctx context.Context, m catalogue.Manifest, from Source) error {
+	// **Once the node's tool runtime is in the catalogue, the pattern it retires may not spread**
+	// (novox/hq ADR 0175, to-be 38 WP2.4): a module serving its tools from a container built on the
+	// runtime's image. Refused at registration, by name, for a module that is new to the catalogue
+	// or that was registered in another shape — the mechanism that keeps the old pattern from
+	// returning by habit. **Not refused for a module already registered in that shape**: the
+	// catalogue holds some thirty of them the day the runtime arrives, each moves to a bundle in
+	// its own change (to-be 38 WP4 onward), and a gate that refused every rebuild of every unmoved
+	// module in the meantime would stop the whole pipeline to make a point the record already makes.
+	// Before the runtime exists the pattern is accepted as it always was.
+	if m.Module != catalogue.RuntimeModule {
+		if why := catalogue.ToolContainerOnTheRuntime(m, from.Against); why != "" {
+			runtime, err := i.hasModule(ctx, catalogue.RuntimeModule)
+			if err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+			if runtime {
+				already, err := i.registeredInThatShape(ctx, m.Module)
+				if err != nil {
+					return err
+				}
+				if !already {
+					return fmt.Errorf("%s is not registered: %s", m.Module, why)
+				}
+			}
+		}
+	}
 	raw, err := json.Marshal(m)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
@@ -89,6 +120,36 @@ func (i *Inventory) RegisterModule(ctx context.Context, m catalogue.Manifest, fr
 	return err
 }
 
+// registeredInThatShape is whether the catalogue already holds this module as a tools container on
+// the runtime's image — judged from the manifest it holds and what that module's newest build stood
+// on, the same two things the gate judges a new registration by. False for a module the catalogue
+// does not hold.
+func (i *Inventory) registeredInThatShape(ctx context.Context, name string) (bool, error) {
+	held, err := i.Catalogue(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		return false, err
+	}
+	stored, has := held[name]
+	if !has {
+		return false, nil
+	}
+	against, err := i.BuiltAgainst(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		return false, err
+	}
+	return catalogue.ToolContainerOnTheRuntime(stored, against[name]) != "", nil
+}
+
+// hasModule is whether the catalogue holds a module of that name.
+func (i *Inventory) hasModule(ctx context.Context, name string) (bool, error) {
+	var one int
+	err := i.store.Pool().QueryRow(ctx, `select 1 from module where name = $1`, name).Scan(&one)
+	if errors.Is(err, pgx.ErrNoRows) {
+		return false, nil
+	}
+	return err == nil, err
+}
+
 // SourceMoved records that a module's source has a newer commit than the mesh has built.
 //
 // This is the whole of noticing. Nothing here builds anything — it writes down that the two
@@ -605,6 +666,12 @@ func (i *Inventory) SetSettings(ctx context.Context, nodeName, module string, va
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
+	// Judged here, against the module's current definition, before it is kept (novox/hq ADR 0163,
+	// rule 6): a setting that cannot compose is refused where it is set, naming the node, the
+	// module, the layer and the key — never stored to refuse the whole machine where it is read.
+	if err := i.judgeSettings(ctx, nodeName, module, values); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
 	if nodeName == "" {
 		// A port is a fact about one machine (novox/hq ADR 0100). Refused here, in composition's
 		// words: stored, it refuses every node running the module at composition, and the mesh
@@ -661,6 +728,50 @@ func (i *Inventory) SetSettings(ctx context.Context, nodeName, module string, va
 	return tx.Commit(ctx)
 }
 
+// judgeSettings composes a layer somebody is about to store against the module's definition, with
+// the mesh-wide layer under it when the layer is one node's, and refuses the first thing that
+// cannot work (ADR 0163, rule 6). The same judgement composition makes; what passes here composes.
+func (i *Inventory) judgeSettings(ctx context.Context, nodeName, module string, values map[string]any) error {
+	m, err := i.declared(ctx, module)
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("%w: %s", ErrNoSuchModule, module)
+	}
+	where, from := "the mesh", catalogue.MeshWideLayer
+	adopted := false
+	var layers []catalogue.Layer
+	if nodeName != "" {
+		node, err := i.NodeByName(ctx, nodeName)
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		where, from, adopted = nodeName, nodeName, node.Adopted
+		var meshWide []byte
+		err = i.store.Pool().QueryRow(ctx,
+			`select values from settings where module = $1 and node is null`, module).Scan(&meshWide)
+		if err != nil && !errors.Is(err, pgx.ErrNoRows) {
+			return err
+		}
+		if len(meshWide) > 0 {
+			var under map[string]any
+			if err := json.Unmarshal(meshWide, &under); err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+			layers = append(layers, catalogue.Layer{From: catalogue.MeshWideLayer, Values: under})
+		}
+	}
+	layers = append(layers, catalogue.Layer{From: from, Values: values})
+	if err := catalogue.JudgeSettings(m, layers, adopted); err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("refused: %s on %s cannot compose with the layer %q — %w", module, where, from, err)
+	}
+	// And a key that reaches nothing, refused here where somebody can still fix the spelling:
+	// stored, it would be a setting somebody believes they made.
+	if stray := catalogue.UnusedSettings(m, layers[len(layers)-1:]); len(stray) > 0 {
+		return fmt.Errorf("refused: %s on %s — these settings reach nothing:\n  - %s", module, where,
+			strings.Join(stray, "\n  - "))
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
 // givenIn is the machine ports a node-level settings layer gives a module, software port →
 // machine port (novox/hq ADR 0100). Nothing when the layer gives none; what is not a port is left
 // for composition to refuse in its own words.

internal/inventory/catalogue_test.go

@@ -685,3 +685,61 @@ func TestRegisteringWithoutProvenanceKeepsTheSeat(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("a hand-registered manifest erased where the module comes from: %+v", got)
 	}
 }
+
+// Once the node's tool runtime is in the catalogue, a module serving its tools from a container
+// built on the runtime's image is refused at registration, naming the record (novox/hq ADR 0175,
+// to-be 38 WP2.4) — for a module new to the catalogue or one that had moved away from it; a module
+// already standing in that shape is rebuilt as before, so the catalogue's pipeline keeps running
+// while each moves (WP3's amendment). Before the runtime, it is accepted as it always was — so a
+// mesh converts in the order the design says and nothing is refused before there is anything to
+// move to.
+func TestAToolContainerIsRefusedOnceTheRuntimeIsRegistered(t *testing.T) {
+	inv := fresh(t)
+	ctx := t.Context()
+	filter := catalogue.Manifest{Module: "nftables", Version: "1", Tools: []string{"firewall_rules"},
+		Resources: []map[string]any{{"id": "runtime", "type": "container", "name": "mesh-nftables"}}}
+	stoodOn := []string{catalogue.ArtifactStoreScheme + "mesh-tools/runtime@sha256:" + strings.Repeat("d", 64)}
+
+	// Before the runtime exists the old pattern is accepted as it always was — and built, which is
+	// how the catalogue comes to know what the module stood on.
+	if err := inv.RegisterModule(ctx, filter, Source{Repository: "/r", Against: stoodOn}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("before the runtime exists the old pattern is accepted: %v", err)
+	}
+	built := aBuild("nf1", "nftables", "")
+	built.Against = stoodOn
+	if err := inv.RecordBuild(ctx, built); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	runtime := catalogue.Manifest{Module: catalogue.RuntimeModule, Version: "1"}
+	if err := inv.RegisterModule(ctx, runtime, Source{Repository: "/r"}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	// **A module already registered in that shape is rebuilt without complaint** (to-be 38 WP2.4 as
+	// amended by WP3): some thirty of them stand the day the runtime arrives, and each moves in its
+	// own change. The gate is against the pattern spreading, not against the pipeline running.
+	if err := inv.RegisterModule(ctx, filter, Source{Repository: "/r", Against: stoodOn}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("a rebuild of a module that already had the pattern was refused: %v", err)
+	}
+	// A module new to the catalogue in that shape is refused, naming the record.
+	newcomer := filter
+	newcomer.Module = "lamp"
+	err := inv.RegisterModule(ctx, newcomer, Source{Repository: "/r", Against: stoodOn})
+	if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "ADR 0175") {
+		t.Fatalf("a new module in the old pattern was registered beside the runtime: %v", err)
+	}
+	// And a module that had moved its tools to a bundle may not come back to a container.
+	moved := filter
+	moved.Resources = nil
+	if err := inv.RegisterModule(ctx, moved, Source{Repository: "/r", Against: stoodOn}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("a module whose tools are a bundle was refused: %v", err)
+	}
+	unbuilt := aBuild("nf2", "nftables", "")
+	if err := inv.RecordBuild(ctx, unbuilt); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	err = inv.RegisterModule(ctx, filter, Source{Repository: "/r", Against: stoodOn})
+	if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "ADR 0175") {
+		t.Fatalf("a module that had moved returned to the old pattern unrefused: %v", err)
+	}
+}

internal/inventory/dependencies.go

@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ func dependenciesOf(entries []Entry, against map[string][]string, read map[strin
 		if r := repositoryKey(e.Source.Repository); r != "" {
 			byRepository[r] = append(byRepository[r], name)
 		}
-		if e.Manifest.ClaimsSeat("mesh-build-machine") {
+		if e.Manifest.ClaimsSeat("node-build-agent") || e.Manifest.ClaimsSeat("mesh-build-machine") {
 			builders = append(builders, name)
 		}
 	}

internal/inventory/dependencies_test.go

@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ func TestDependenciesAreOneRelationWithTheirKinds(t *testing.T) {
 		return Entry{Manifest: catalogue.Manifest{Module: name}, Source: Source{Repository: repository}}
 	}
 	builder := entry("builder", "http://forge/novox/mesh-catalog.git")
-	builder.Manifest.Claims = []catalogue.Claim{{Name: "mesh-build-machine", Scope: catalogue.ScopeMesh}}
+	builder.Manifest.Claims = []catalogue.Claim{{Name: "node-build-agent", Scope: catalogue.ScopeNode}}
 	plugin := entry("shop-plugin", "http://forge/novox/mesh-catalog.git")
 	plugin.Manifest.Build = &catalogue.Build{On: []catalogue.BuildsOn{{Arg: "BASE", Module: "shop"}}}
 	entries := []Entry{

internal/inventory/forget_test.go

@@ -31,8 +31,11 @@ func TestRegisteringAModuleAgainKeepsWhatTheMeshHoldsForIt(t *testing.T) {
 	if err := inv.RecordSealingKey(ctx, node.ID, key); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
+	// A mergeable file, so any setting composes (novox/hq ADR 0163, rule 6: a setting is judged
+	// where it is stored).
 	m := catalogue.Manifest{Module: "step-ca", Version: "1",
-		Provides: catalogue.Offers("acme-ca"), OwnSecrets: catalogue.OwnSecrets{"password": {Path: "/run/password"}}}
+		Provides: catalogue.Offers("acme-ca"), OwnSecrets: catalogue.OwnSecrets{"password": {Path: "/run/password"}},
+		Resources: []map[string]any{{"id": "conf", "type": "file", "path": "/etc/step-ca.json", "content": "{}", "merge": "json"}}}
 	if err := inv.RegisterModule(ctx, m, Source{}); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
@@ -229,5 +232,9 @@ func TestAModuleStillAssignedRefusesBeforeAnythingAboutWhatItHolds(t *testing.T)
 // declares (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/078).
 func withOwnSecret(m catalogue.Manifest, name string) catalogue.Manifest {
 	m.OwnSecrets = catalogue.OwnSecrets{name: {Path: "/run/" + name}}
+	// And a mergeable file, so any setting these tests store composes (novox/hq ADR 0163, rule 6:
+	// a setting is judged where it is stored).
+	m.Resources = append(m.Resources, map[string]any{"id": "conf", "type": "file",
+		"path": "/etc/" + m.Module + ".json", "content": "{}", "merge": "json"})
 	return m
 }

internal/inventory/migrations/0054-a-machine-says-what-filters-it.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+-- What filters a machine, with owners, as the host reports it with every apply (novox/hq ADR 0168):
+-- every table and chain that refuses traffic — the mesh's, the found firewall's, the runtime's own,
+-- a ban, or other — so the mesh says truthfully what filters a converged machine and names what it
+-- did not write. And the state of the firewall a converged machine was found with: in force now or
+-- not, and who retired it.
+alter table node add column filters jsonb;
+alter table node add column found_firewall jsonb;

internal/inventory/ports_test.go

@@ -15,9 +15,16 @@ func aNodeWithModules(t *testing.T, modules ...string) (*Inventory, string) {
 	if _, err := inv.AddNode(ctx, "anchor"); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
+	// Each publishes the port these tests give it a machine port for: a port given for one the
+	// module does not publish is refused where it is stored (novox/hq ADR 0163, rule 6).
+	publishes := map[string]string{"postgres": "5432", "another-database": "5432", "cache": "6379", "web": "8080"}
 	for _, m := range modules {
-		if err := inv.RegisterModule(ctx,
+		manifest := catalogue.Manifest{Module: m, Version: "1"}
-			catalogue.Manifest{Module: m, Version: "1"}, Source{}); err != nil {
+		if port, known := publishes[m]; known {
+			manifest.Resources = []map[string]any{{"id": "server", "type": "container", "name": m,
+				"image": "x", "ports": []any{port}}}
+		}
+		if err := inv.RegisterModule(ctx, manifest, Source{}); err != nil {
 			t.Fatal(err)
 		}
 	}

internal/inventory/secrets.go

@@ -820,3 +820,52 @@ func (i *Inventory) SharedHolders(ctx context.Context, provider, providerModule,
 	sort.Strings(out)
 	return out, nil
 }
+
+// SecretState is one secret a module holds on a machine, as a take compares it (novox/hq ADR
+// 0163): its name, where it came from — made by the mesh or accepted from a person — and, for a
+// credential the module requires from a provider, which node provides it and the local name it
+// goes by where the module keeps several.
+type SecretState struct {
+	Name string
+	// Local is the credential's name inside the module (ADR 0094); empty for an own secret or the
+	// ordinary one.
+	Local string
+	// Origin is OriginMade or OriginAccepted.
+	Origin string
+	// Provider is the node providing a required secret; empty for the module's own.
+	Provider string
+}
+
+// Own says the secret is the module's own rather than one it requires from a provider.
+func (s SecretState) Own() bool { return s.Provider == "" }
+
+// SecretsOf is every secret a module holds on a machine: its own, and each credential it requires
+// from a provider — with where each value came from. What a take reads to refuse minting over a
+// service that already has one (ADR 0163, rule 2).
+func (i *Inventory) SecretsOf(ctx context.Context, node, module string) ([]SecretState, error) {
+	record, err := i.NodeByName(ctx, node)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	rows, err := i.store.Pool().Query(ctx,
+		`select name, '' as local, origin, '' as provider from module_secret
+		  where node = $1 and module = $2
+		 union all
+		 select s.name, s.local, s.origin, p.name from secret s
+		   join node p on p.id = s.provider
+		  where s.consumer = $1 and s.consumer_module = $2
+		 order by 4, 1, 2`, record.ID, module)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	defer rows.Close()
+	var out []SecretState
+	for rows.Next() {
+		var s SecretState
+		if err := rows.Scan(&s.Name, &s.Local, &s.Origin, &s.Provider); err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		out = append(out, s)
+	}
+	return out, rows.Err()
+}

internal/inventory/secrets_test.go

@@ -934,3 +934,47 @@ func TestASharedCredentialIsOneValueSealedToEveryHolder(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("a consumer binding after an acceptance must be refused with the way out: %v", err)
 	}
 }
+
+// SecretsOf is every secret a module holds on a machine with where each came from — what a take
+// reads to refuse minting over a service that already has a value (novox/hq ADR 0163, rule 2).
+func TestSecretsOfSaysEachSecretsOriginAndProvider(t *testing.T) {
+	inv, ctx := twoNodesWithKeys(t)
+	if err := inv.RegisterModule(ctx, catalogue.Manifest{Module: "forge", Version: "1",
+		Requires:   []string{"secret", "postgres-database"},
+		Secrets:    map[string]string{"secret": "/run/secret", "postgres-database": "/run/pg"},
+		OwnSecrets: catalogue.OwnSecrets{"admin": {Path: "/run/admin"}}}, Source{}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if _, err := inv.SecretForModule(ctx, "consumer", "forge", "admin"); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if _, err := inv.SecretFor(ctx, "postgres-database", "consumer", "forge", "provider", ""); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if err := inv.AcceptSecretForPair(ctx, "secret", "consumer", "forge", "provider", "", "hunter2"); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	got, err := inv.SecretsOf(ctx, "consumer", "forge")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	want := []SecretState{
+		{Name: "admin", Origin: OriginMade},
+		{Name: "postgres-database", Origin: OriginMade, Provider: "provider"},
+		{Name: "secret", Origin: OriginAccepted, Provider: "provider"},
+	}
+	if len(got) != len(want) {
+		t.Fatalf("got %+v", got)
+	}
+	for i := range want {
+		if got[i] != want[i] {
+			t.Errorf("secret %d: got %+v, want %+v", i, got[i], want[i])
+		}
+	}
+	if !got[0].Own() || got[1].Own() {
+		t.Error("own and required are not told apart")
+	}
+	if other, _ := inv.SecretsOf(ctx, "consumer", "gitea"); len(other) != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("another module's secrets: %+v", other)
+	}
+}

internal/inventory/settings_judged_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+package inventory
+
+import (
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/catalogue"
+)
+
+// A setting is judged where it is stored (novox/hq ADR 0163, rule 6): one that cannot compose with
+// the module's definition is refused naming the node, the module, the layer and the key, and is not
+// kept; one that reaches nothing is refused the same way.
+func TestASettingIsJudgedWhereItIsStored(t *testing.T) {
+	inv := fresh(t)
+	ctx := t.Context()
+	if _, err := inv.AddNode(ctx, "anchor"); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	web := catalogue.Manifest{Module: "web", Version: "1",
+		Resources: []map[string]any{
+			{"id": "server", "type": "container", "name": "web", "image": "x", "ports": []any{"8080"}},
+			{"id": "conf", "type": "file", "path": "/etc/web.json", "content": "{}", "merge": "json"},
+		}}
+	plain := catalogue.Manifest{Module: "plain", Version: "1",
+		Resources: []map[string]any{{"id": "server", "type": "container", "name": "plain", "image": "x"}}}
+	for _, m := range []catalogue.Manifest{web, plain} {
+		if err := inv.RegisterModule(ctx, m, Source{}); err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+	}
+
+	err := inv.SetSettings(ctx, "anchor", "web", map[string]any{catalogue.PortsSetting: map[string]any{"9999": 10000}})
+	for _, want := range []string{"refused: web on anchor", `layer "anchor"`, "9999"} {
+		if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), want) {
+			t.Errorf("a port the module does not publish: %v, want %q", err, want)
+		}
+	}
+	if layers, _ := inv.SettingsFor(ctx, "anchor", "web"); len(layers) != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("the refused layer was stored: %v", layers)
+	}
+	// A key that reaches nothing is refused too, where the spelling can still be fixed; a module
+	// with a mergeable file takes any key.
+	err = inv.SetSettings(ctx, "", "plain", map[string]any{"colour": "blue"})
+	if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "reach nothing") || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), `"colour"`) {
+		t.Fatalf("a stray key was stored: %v", err)
+	}
+	if err := inv.SetSettings(ctx, "", "web", map[string]any{"colour": "blue"}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	// The mesh-wide layer is under the node's when the node's is judged.
+	if err := inv.SetSettings(ctx, "anchor", "web", map[string]any{catalogue.PortsSetting: map[string]any{"8080": 10000}}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	// A kept network is for an adopted machine only (rule 4).
+	keep := map[string]any{catalogue.NetworksSetting: map[string]any{"server": []any{"predecessor_default"}}}
+	err = inv.SetSettings(ctx, "anchor", "plain", keep)
+	if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "anchor is converged") {
+		t.Fatalf("a kept network on a converged machine was stored: %v", err)
+	}
+	if err := inv.SetAdopted(ctx, "anchor", true); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if err := inv.SetSettings(ctx, "anchor", "plain", keep); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if err := inv.SetSettings(ctx, "anchor", "nothing", keep); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("a setting for a module the mesh does not know was stored")
+	}
+}

internal/link/builds.go

@@ -19,8 +19,17 @@ import (
 // act on or a declaration a node reconciles toward; a build is a request that takes minutes and has
 // exactly one answer. Too long for request/reply, too particular to be an event.
 
-// TheBuildMachine is the role a build is submitted to.
+// TheBuildMachine is the role a build is submitted to: node-scoped, held on every machine that
-const TheBuildMachine = "mesh-build-machine"
+// builds, and the work shared among them (novox/hq ADR 0190). The name stays for every caller; what
+// it names moved from the mesh's one build machine to whichever build agent is idle.
+//
+// **Switching a live mesh over, in order.** The old seat's stream and worker
+// (SEAT_MESH_BUILD_MACHINE, SEAT_MESH_BUILD_MACHINE_worker) stay on the bus until removed by hand,
+// and the builder module keeps draining them while it is assigned. From the moment a controller
+// with this name runs, new asks go to node-build-agent and wait in its stream until some machine
+// holds the seat. So: let the queued builds finish; roll this controller; register and assign
+// build-agent to the machines that build; unassign builder and forget it and its seat's stream.
+const TheBuildMachine = "node-build-agent"
 
 // BuildWork is where a build request lands, and BuildOutcome is where its result does. Derived from
 // the seat, so both sides name the role and neither names the other.

internal/link/builds_current_test.go

@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ func TestTheOldBusAnnouncesABuildUnderBothNames(t *testing.T) {
 	if KeyRoleBuilt != "built" {
 		t.Fatalf("the role's event is %q, and a holder emits its verbs bare", KeyRoleBuilt)
 	}
-	if TheBuildMachine != "mesh-build-machine" {
+	if TheBuildMachine != "node-build-agent" {
 		t.Fatalf("the role is %q", TheBuildMachine)
 	}
 	// The two must differ, or one publish would serve both and this doubling would be pointless.

internal/link/builds_nats.go

@@ -126,29 +126,31 @@ func (m *natsMachine) Close() {
 	}
 }
 
-// Take binds to the role's worker and hands each request over, one at a time.
+// Take binds to the role's worker and pulls one request at a time, handing each over.
 //
 // **Bound, never created.** The work queue and the worker on it are the controller's to define
 // (design 25 §3), and a build machine reaches no part of the JetStream API — so a missing one is said
 // as the mesh's to answer rather than quietly created with whatever this client defaults to.
+//
+// **Pulled, one at a time, by whichever holder is free** (novox/hq ADR 0190). Every machine holding
+// the role binds this same worker; a machine asks for the next request only when it has finished
+// the last, so a slow machine never holds an ask an idle one could take, and a machine that took
+// five at once would run five container builds against one runtime and finish all of them slower
+// than the first.
 func (m *natsMachine) Take(ctx context.Context, do func(context.Context, Build)) error {
-	worker, found := broker.HolderConsumerFor(m.on, "builder",
+	worker, found := broker.HolderConsumerFor(m.on, "build-agent",
 		broker.DeclaredSeat{Name: m.seat, Accepts: []string{"build"}})
 	if !found {
 		return fmt.Errorf("%s accepts no work, so there is nothing for this machine to take", m.seat)
 	}
 
-	// One at a time, which the consumer's own ack-pending limit enforces rather than a prefetch
-	// setting: a machine that took five requests at once would run five container builds against one
-	// runtime and finish all of them slower than the first.
-	work := make(chan *nats.Msg, 1)
 	// **The consumer's own filter, not the one subject this machine cares about.** The client checks
 	// what is asked for against the consumer's filter and refuses anything that is not the same —
 	// "subject does not match consumer" — so subscribing `…accept.build` against a consumer filtered
 	// on `…accept.>` is rejected even though it is narrower. Learned twice now, on two different
 	// consumers, which is why it is written down here.
 	filter := worker.Filters[0]
-	sub, err := m.js.Context().ChanQueueSubscribe(filter, worker.Queue, work,
+	sub, err := m.js.Context().PullSubscribe(filter, worker.Name,
 		nats.Bind(worker.Stream, worker.Name), nats.ManualAck())
 	if err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf(
@@ -159,13 +161,27 @@ func (m *natsMachine) Take(ctx context.Context, do func(context.Context, Build))
 	m.sub = sub
 
 	for {
-		select {
+		if ctx.Err() != nil {
-		case <-ctx.Done():
 			return nil
-		case msg, ok := <-work:
+		}
-			if !ok {
+		// One, and wait a while for it; an empty queue is a timeout, which is the normal state of a
-				return errors.New("the bus stopped delivering build work")
+		// machine with nothing to build, and is asked again.
+		fetched, err := sub.Fetch(1, nats.Context(ctx))
+		switch {
+		case errors.Is(err, context.Canceled), errors.Is(err, context.DeadlineExceeded):
+			return nil
+		case errors.Is(err, nats.ErrTimeout):
+			continue
+		case err != nil:
+			if sub.IsValid() {
+				// A transient fault in asking — a reconnect, a slow server — is asked past rather
+				// than ending the machine; one that outlasts the ack wait redelivers nothing lost.
+				time.Sleep(time.Second)
+				continue
 			}
+			return fmt.Errorf("the bus stopped delivering build work: %w", err)
+		}
+		for _, msg := range fetched {
 			var request BuildRequest
 			if err := json.Unmarshal(msg.Data, &request); err != nil {
 				// Unreadable: terminated rather than retried, because the next attempt reads the same

internal/link/builds_nats_test.go

@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ func aBusWithTheBuildRole(t *testing.T) *broker.JetStream {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 	clean := func() {
-		_ = js.Context().DeleteStream("SEAT_MESH_BUILD_MACHINE")
+		_ = js.Context().DeleteStream("SEAT_NODE_BUILD_AGENT")
 		for _, s := range broker.MeshStreams() {
 			_ = js.Context().PurgeStream(s.Name)
 		}
@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ func TestNatsABuildIsTakenAndItsOutcomeReachesEverybody(t *testing.T) {
 	// And the work left the queue: a request a machine took and settled must not be given to another.
 	deadline := time.Now().Add(5 * time.Second)
 	for time.Now().Before(deadline) {
-		info, err := js.Context().StreamInfo("SEAT_MESH_BUILD_MACHINE")
+		info, err := js.Context().StreamInfo("SEAT_NODE_BUILD_AGENT")
 		if err == nil && info.State.Msgs == 0 {
 			return
 		}
@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ func TestNatsABuildWaitsForAMachineRatherThanFailing(t *testing.T) {
 	if _, err := js.Context().Publish(BuildWork(), body); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
-	info, err := js.Context().StreamInfo("SEAT_MESH_BUILD_MACHINE")
+	info, err := js.Context().StreamInfo("SEAT_NODE_BUILD_AGENT")
 	if err != nil || info.State.Msgs != 1 {
 		t.Fatalf("the work did not queue: %+v %v", info, err)
 	}
@@ -245,3 +245,83 @@ func TestNatsWorkAMachineDidNotAnswerGoesBackToTheQueue(t *testing.T) {
 func quietLog() *log.Logger { return log.New(io.Discard, "", 0) }
 
 var _ = quietLog
+
+// Two machines holding the role share one queue (novox/hq ADR 0190): three asks, each machine takes
+// one and the third waits until one of them is done; an ask is never handed to a machine that is
+// busy; and a machine that stops mid-ask leaves its ask to the other.
+func TestNatsTwoMachinesShareTheWorkAndNeitherIsHandedMoreThanItCanTake(t *testing.T) {
+	js := aBusWithTheBuildRole(t)
+	ctx, stop := context.WithCancel(context.Background())
+	defer stop()
+
+	for _, id := range []string{"w-1", "w-2", "w-3"} {
+		body, _ := json.Marshal(BuildRequest{ID: id, Repository: "/r"})
+		if _, err := js.Context().Publish(BuildWork(), body); err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+	}
+
+	type taken struct{ machine, id string }
+	took := make(chan taken, 8)
+	release := map[string]chan struct{}{"anchor": make(chan struct{}), "laptop": make(chan struct{})}
+	machines := map[string]BuildMachine{}
+	for _, name := range []string{"anchor", "laptop"} {
+		name := name
+		m := MachineOverNATS(js, name)
+		machines[name] = m
+		defer m.Close()
+		go func() {
+			_ = m.Take(ctx, func(ctx context.Context, work Build) {
+				took <- taken{name, work.Request().ID}
+				<-release[name]
+				_ = work.Announce(ctx, BuildResult{ID: work.Request().ID, On: name})
+				_ = work.Done()
+			})
+		}()
+	}
+
+	// Each machine took exactly one, and they are different asks.
+	first := map[string]string{}
+	for i := 0; i < 2; i++ {
+		select {
+		case got := <-took:
+			if _, twice := first[got.machine]; twice {
+				t.Fatalf("%s was handed a second ask while busy with its first", got.machine)
+			}
+			first[got.machine] = got.id
+		case <-time.After(10 * time.Second):
+			t.Fatalf("only %d machine(s) took work; two idle holders should both have", len(first))
+		}
+	}
+	if first["anchor"] == first["laptop"] {
+		t.Fatalf("both machines took %q: the queue is not shared, it is copied", first["anchor"])
+	}
+	// The third waits: nobody is free.
+	select {
+	case got := <-took:
+		t.Fatalf("%s was handed %s while both machines were busy", got.machine, got.id)
+	case <-time.After(2 * time.Second):
+	}
+	// One finishes, and only then is the third taken — by that machine, the one that is free.
+	close(release["anchor"])
+	release["anchor"] = make(chan struct{})
+	select {
+	case got := <-took:
+		if got.machine != "anchor" {
+			t.Fatalf("the third ask went to %s, which is still busy", got.machine)
+		}
+	case <-time.After(10 * time.Second):
+		t.Fatal("the third ask was never taken after a machine became free")
+	}
+	// A machine that stops mid-ask leaves its ask unacknowledged, and the ack wait brings it round
+	// to whoever is left — the path TestNatsWorkAMachineDidNotAnswerGoesBackToTheQueue proves with
+	// an explicit hand-back, because the real wait is a minute. Here: the laptop goes, anchor
+	// finishes, and with nothing queued nothing more is taken by the machine that is left.
+	machines["laptop"].Close()
+	close(release["anchor"])
+	select {
+	case got := <-took:
+		t.Fatalf("%s took %s; the queue should be empty", got.machine, got.id)
+	case <-time.After(2 * time.Second):
+	}
+}

internal/link/enrolment.go

@@ -305,6 +305,23 @@ func (e Enrolment) Heard(ctx context.Context, report Report) (news bool, err err
 			return false, err
 		}
 	}
+	// What filters the machine, and the state of its found firewall (novox/hq ADR 0168), whenever
+	// it says — every apply of a host that knows how, adopted or converged; never cleared by a
+	// report that carries none, which is every bare word that the node is there.
+	if len(report.Filters) > 0 || report.FoundFirewall != nil {
+		filters := make([]inventory.Filter, 0, len(report.Filters))
+		for _, f := range report.Filters {
+			filters = append(filters, inventory.Filter{Where: f.Where, Owner: f.Owner, Refuses: f.Refuses})
+		}
+		var found *inventory.FoundFirewall
+		if report.FoundFirewall != nil {
+			found = &inventory.FoundFirewall{Kind: report.FoundFirewall.Kind, Active: report.FoundFirewall.Active,
+				RetiredBy: report.FoundFirewall.RetiredBy}
+		}
+		if err := e.Inventory.RecordFiltering(ctx, node.ID, filters, found); err != nil {
+			return false, err
+		}
+	}
 	// Which of its links face outside (novox/hq ADR 0140), whenever it says so. Recorded on every
 	// report that carries it, adopted or converged, because the filter the mesh composes is written
 	// around it — and never cleared by a report that carries none, which is every bare word that the

internal/link/heard_test.go

@@ -218,3 +218,45 @@ func TestWhatAnAdoptedNodeHoldsIsKeptAndAnAliveWordDoesNotWipeIt(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("a report from an adopted node holding nothing did not empty held: %+v", got)
 	}
 }
+
+// What filters a machine, and the state of its found firewall, are kept from every report that
+// carries them and never cleared by one that does not (novox/hq ADR 0168).
+func TestWhatFiltersAMachineIsKeptFromItsReport(t *testing.T) {
+	inv, _, _ := heardFrom(t, link.Report{
+		Node: "home-server", Applied: []string{"a"},
+		Filters: []link.Filter{
+			{Where: "table inet mesh, chain forward", Owner: "mesh", Refuses: "policy drop"},
+			{Where: "chain HAL-MESH-ONLY (iptables-legacy)", Owner: "other", Refuses: "-j DROP"},
+		},
+		FoundFirewall: &link.FoundFirewall{Kind: "ufw", Active: false, RetiredBy: "found-inactive"},
+	})
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	f, err := inv.FilteringOf(ctx, "home-server")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if len(f.Filters) != 2 || f.Filters[1].Owner != inventory.FilterOther || f.Alone() {
+		t.Fatalf("recorded %+v", f)
+	}
+	if f.FoundFirewall == nil || f.FoundFirewall.RetiredBy != "found-inactive" || f.FoundFirewall.Active {
+		t.Fatalf("the found firewall's state: %+v", f.FoundFirewall)
+	}
+	if len(f.Others()) != 1 || f.Others()[0].Where != "chain HAL-MESH-ONLY (iptables-legacy)" {
+		t.Fatalf("others: %+v", f.Others())
+	}
+	// A bare word that the node is there clears nothing.
+	if _, err := (link.Enrolment{Inventory: inv}).Heard(ctx, link.Report{Node: "home-server"}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if again, _ := inv.FilteringOf(ctx, "home-server"); len(again.Filters) != 2 {
+		t.Fatalf("a bare report cleared what filters the machine: %+v", again)
+	}
+	// The next full report replaces it: the chain removed by hand is gone from the record.
+	if _, err := (link.Enrolment{Inventory: inv}).Heard(ctx, link.Report{Node: "home-server", Applied: []string{"a"},
+		Filters: []link.Filter{{Where: "table inet mesh, chain forward", Owner: "mesh", Refuses: "policy drop"}}}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if again, _ := inv.FilteringOf(ctx, "home-server"); len(again.Filters) != 1 || !again.Alone() {
+		t.Fatalf("the next report did not replace what filters the machine: %+v", again)
+	}
+}

internal/link/protocol.go

@@ -197,6 +197,15 @@ type Report struct {
 	// Strays is what runs on the machine that the mesh neither wrote nor holds (ADR 0163).
 	Strays []Stray `json:"strays,omitempty"`
 
+	// Filters is what filters the machine now: every table and chain that refuses traffic, with
+	// its owner — the mesh's, the found firewall's, the container runtime's own, a ban, or other
+	// (novox/hq ADR 0168). Every machine reports it, adopted or converged; absent from a host older
+	// than this.
+	Filters []Filter `json:"filters,omitempty"`
+	// FoundFirewall is the state of the firewall a converged machine was found with: in force now
+	// or not, and how it came to be inactive — the mesh disabled it, or it was found so (ADR 0168).
+	FoundFirewall *FoundFirewall `json:"found_firewall,omitempty"`
+
 	// Profile is what the machine can do, detected again by this apply (novox/hq ADR 0161): the
 	// same shape enrolment sends, so a machine that gained or lost a capability — switched its
 	// network manager — is known at its next push and not at its next enrolment. Absent from a host
@@ -278,6 +287,21 @@ type Held struct {
 	Facts map[string]any `json:"facts,omitempty"`
 }
 
+// A Filter is one place on a machine that refuses traffic, with its owner (novox/hq ADR 0168):
+// the host's own shape, carried as data.
+type Filter struct {
+	Where   string `json:"where"`
+	Owner   string `json:"owner"`
+	Refuses string `json:"refuses"`
+}
+
+// FoundFirewall is the state of a converged machine's found firewall (ADR 0168).
+type FoundFirewall struct {
+	Kind      string `json:"kind"`
+	Active    bool   `json:"active"`
+	RetiredBy string `json:"retired_by,omitempty"`
+}
+
 // A Stray is a container a machine runs that the mesh neither wrote nor holds (ADR 0163).
 type Stray struct {
 	Kind   string `json:"kind"`