A commit is never a branch to follow (hq issue 215)

A build asked at a commit recorded that commit as the module's ref. Every merge after it failed to
match the module and its plan left it out without a word, and every plan that rebuilt it asked for
the same old commit again. Registration now keeps the branch the module followed (the default
branch for a new one); matching and re-asking read a recorded commit as the default branch, which
heals records already pinned this way; and a merge says which modules of its repository it leaves
out because they follow another branch.

cmd/mesh-controller/build.go

@@ -530,6 +530,15 @@ func takeIn(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, result link.BuildResu
 	if result.Source != nil && result.Source.Seat != "" {
 		recorded.Repository, recorded.Seat = result.Source.Repository, result.Source.Seat
 	}
+	// **A build at a commit does not change the branch a module follows** (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/215):
+	// the commit is built and recorded as what it was built from, and the module keeps following
+	// what it followed before — the repository's default branch for one new to the catalogue.
+	if followedBranch(result.Ref) == "" && result.Ref != "" {
+		recorded.Ref = ""
+		if was, err := inv.SourceOf(ctx, manifest.Module); err == nil {
+			recorded.Ref = followedBranch(was.Ref)
+		}
+	}
 	if err := namesNoInstallation(manifest); err != nil {
 		return manifest, kept, fmt.Errorf("%s built %s (%s), and the mesh does not register it: %w",
 			result.On, result.Repository, short(result.Commit), err)

cmd/mesh-controller/build_test.go

@@ -63,3 +63,40 @@ func TestABuildHeardIsRecordedAndRegistered(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("a failure is said in the builder's words: %v", err)
 	}
 }
+
+// novox/hq 04-ISSUES/215: a build asked at a commit is recorded as built from that commit, and the
+// module keeps following the branch it followed — a new one, the default branch.
+func TestABuildAtACommitKeepsTheBranchTheModuleFollows(t *testing.T) {
+	open := aMesh(t)
+	ctx := t.Context()
+	manifest, _ := json.Marshal(map[string]any{"module": "unifi", "version": "1"})
+	result := func(id, ref, commit string) link.BuildResult {
+		return link.BuildResult{ID: id, Repository: "http://forge.internal:20000/novox/mesh-catalog.git",
+			Path: "modules/unifi", Ref: ref, On: "anchor", Commit: commit, Manifest: manifest,
+			Source: &link.SourceOnSeat{Seat: "git", Repository: "novox/mesh-catalog"}}
+	}
+	if _, _, err := takeIn(ctx, open.inventory, result("b-1", "main", "1111111aaaa")); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if _, _, err := takeIn(ctx, open.inventory, result("b-2", "9c97a8a", "9c97a8a1d2c3")); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	src, err := open.inventory.SourceOf(ctx, "unifi")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if src.Ref != "main" || src.BuiltFrom != "9c97a8a1d2c3" {
+		t.Errorf("after a build at a commit the module follows %q, built from %q; want main, 9c97a8a1d2c3", src.Ref, src.BuiltFrom)
+	}
+
+	// One new to the catalogue, first built at a commit, follows the default branch.
+	other, _ := json.Marshal(map[string]any{"module": "letta", "version": "1"})
+	r := result("b-3", "deadbeef", "deadbeefcafe")
+	r.Manifest, r.Path = other, "modules/letta"
+	if _, _, err := takeIn(ctx, open.inventory, r); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if src, _ := open.inventory.SourceOf(ctx, "letta"); src.Ref != "" {
+		t.Errorf("a module first built at a commit follows %q, want the default branch", src.Ref)
+	}
+}

cmd/mesh-controller/issue_204_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/inventory"
+)
+
+// A declaration composed earlier is numbered lower than one composed later, whatever order the two
+// are sent in (novox/hq issue 204). The number used to be taken at send time, after composing, so a
+// declaration composed before an assignment changed and sent after a newer one carried the higher
+// number — and the machine, which refuses a lower number, took the older content as the mesh's
+// newest word. Taken before the composition reads anything, the order of numbers is the order of
+// compositions, and the host's refusal does what it is for.
+func TestADeclarationComposedEarlierIsNumberedLowerWhateverOrderItIsSent(t *testing.T) {
+	allot := numbered()
+	var composed []string
+	compose := func(stamp string) func(string) (sendable, error) {
+		return func(node string) (sendable, error) {
+			composed = append(composed, stamp)
+			return sendable{Resources: []map[string]any{{"id": node + "." + stamp}}}, nil
+		}
+	}
+	// Composed first — before an assignment changed — and sent last.
+	stale, _ := composeEach([]string{"anchor"}, allot, compose("before"))
+	// Composed after the change, sent first.
+	fresh, _ := composeEach([]string{"anchor"}, allot, compose("after"))
+
+	if stale[0].declared.Sequence != 1 || fresh[0].declared.Sequence != 2 {
+		t.Fatalf("the numbers do not follow the compositions: before=%d after=%d",
+			stale[0].declared.Sequence, fresh[0].declared.Sequence)
+	}
+	// Sent in the other order, the numbers do not change — so the machine that has applied the
+	// fresh one (2) refuses the stale one (1) when it arrives late.
+	if !(stale[0].declared.Sequence < fresh[0].declared.Sequence) {
+		t.Fatal("a declaration composed earlier must carry the lower number, however late it is sent")
+	}
+	if len(composed) != 2 || composed[0] != "before" {
+		t.Fatalf("compositions happened in an unexpected order: %v", composed)
+	}
+}
+
+// The number is taken before the first read of the composition, not after it: an allotter that
+// fails leaves nothing composed for that machine, and the others are still composed.
+func TestTheNumberIsTakenBeforeComposingAndItsFailureIsARefusal(t *testing.T) {
+	calls := 0
+	allot := func(node string) (int64, error) {
+		if node == "anchor" {
+			return 0, context.DeadlineExceeded
+		}
+		return 7, nil
+	}
+	sending, refusals := composeEach([]string{"anchor", "laptop"}, allot, func(node string) (sendable, error) {
+		calls++
+		if node == "anchor" {
+			t.Fatal("anchor was composed although its number could not be taken")
+		}
+		return sendable{}, nil
+	})
+	if calls != 1 || len(sending) != 1 || sending[0].node != "laptop" || sending[0].declared.Sequence != 7 {
+		t.Fatalf("laptop should be composed with its number and anchor refused: %v / %v", sending, refusals)
+	}
+	if len(refusals) != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("anchor's failed number should be a refusal naming it: %v", refusals)
+	}
+}
+
+// What was sent is written down even when the sender's context is already cancelled (issue 204): a
+// controller replaced mid-send had told the machine and never recorded it, so status read "applied,
+// current" over a machine that had just been sent something else.
+func TestASendIsRecordedEvenWhenTheSenderIsBeingCancelled(t *testing.T) {
+	inv := inventory.ForTest(t)
+	ctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(t.Context())
+	if _, err := inv.AddNode(ctx, "anchor"); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	cancel() // the sender is going away: its context is cancelled between the send and the record
+	body := []byte(`{"declaration":1,"resources":[]}`)
+	digest, err := recordSent(ctx, inv, "anchor", body)
+	if err != nil {
+		// NodeByName on the cancelled context may itself refuse; the record must still be possible
+		// through the detached context, so look the node up again on a live one.
+		t.Fatalf("recording a send after cancellation failed: %v", err)
+	}
+	outstanding, err := inv.Outstanding(t.Context(), "anchor")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if outstanding != digest || digest != digestOf(body) {
+		t.Fatalf("the send was not recorded: outstanding %q, sent %q", outstanding, digest)
+	}
+}

cmd/mesh-controller/modules.go

@@ -147,6 +147,40 @@ func moduleCommand(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
+		// **The same list, for something other than a person** (novox/hq ADR 0195): what each module
+		// is, where it runs, whether it is current, and what it says of itself.
+		if len(args) > 1 && args[1] == "--json" {
+			type listed struct {
+				Module   string `json:"module"`
+				Version  string `json:"version"`
+				Built    string `json:"built,omitempty"`
+				Head     string `json:"head,omitempty"`
+				Current  bool   `json:"current"`
+				Provided bool   `json:"provided,omitempty"`
+				// Tools says whether the module answers tools anywhere it runs: a list of its own,
+				// a bundle the runtime serves, or a seat's verbs it claims (novox/hq ADR 0197) —
+				// what the console checks the bus's answers against.
+				Tools        bool     `json:"tools"`
+				On           []string `json:"on"`
+				Provides     []string `json:"provides,omitempty"`
+				Requires     []string `json:"requires,omitempty"`
+				Claims       []string `json:"claims,omitempty"`
+				Capabilities []string `json:"capabilities,omitempty"`
+			}
+			out := make([]listed, 0, len(entries))
+			for _, e := range entries {
+				m := e.Manifest
+				l := listed{Module: m.Module, Version: m.Version, Built: e.Source.BuiltFrom, Head: e.Source.Head,
+					Current: e.Provided || e.Source.Repository == "" || e.Source.Current(), Provided: e.Provided,
+					On: append([]string{}, e.On...), Provides: m.Offers(), Requires: m.Requires,
+					Capabilities: m.Capabilities, Tools: declaresTools(m)}
+				for _, c := range m.Claims {
+					l.Claims = append(l.Claims, c.At()+"/"+c.Name)
+				}
+				out = append(out, l)
+			}
+			return printJSON(out)
+		}
 		if len(entries) == 0 {
 			fmt.Println("this mesh knows about no modules yet")
 			return nil
@@ -733,3 +767,23 @@ func claimsFor(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, m catalogue.Manife
 	}
 	return out, nil
 }
+
+// declaresTools is whether a module answers tools wherever it runs (novox/hq ADR 0197): it names
+// tools of its own, its build delivers a bundle the node's runtime serves, or it claims a seat
+// whose verbs it serves. A module with none is never expected to announce anything.
+func declaresTools(m catalogue.Manifest) bool {
+	if len(m.Tools) > 0 {
+		return true
+	}
+	for _, b := range m.Bundles {
+		if len(b.Loads) > 0 {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	for _, c := range m.Claims {
+		if len(c.Serves) > 0 {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	return false
+}

cmd/mesh-controller/network_test.go

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package main
 import (
 	"context"
 	"os"
+	"reflect"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
 
@@ -303,3 +304,28 @@ func TestTheResolverIsToldEveryMachineOnTheNetworkAndToldAgainWhenOneLeaves(t *t
 		t.Fatalf("a machine that left the network is still a wildcard, or the one that stayed is not:\n%s", after)
 	}
 }
+
+// The roster is the machines and nothing else (novox/hq ADR 0191): each node's internal domain covers
+// every route on it, and a node's public domains are public DNS's. A routed name in `.Names` was a
+// private answer for a public name, handed by a resolver serving a LAN to a phone that could not use it.
+func TestTheRosterNamesOnlyTheMachines(t *testing.T) {
+	open := aMesh(t)
+	ctx := t.Context()
+	gens, err := generators(ctx, open)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	for _, node := range []string{"anchor", "laptop"} {
+		plan, settings, err := planFor(ctx, open, node)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		with, _, err := renderingFor(ctx, open, node, plan, settings, gens, Reading)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		if !reflect.DeepEqual(with.Names, with.Machines) {
+			t.Fatalf("%s's roster names more than the machines:\n names    %v\n machines %v", node, with.Names, with.Machines)
+		}
+	}
+}

cmd/mesh-controller/nodes.go

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package main
 
 import (
 	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
 	"errors"
 	"flag"
 	"fmt"
@@ -44,6 +45,21 @@ func nodeCommand(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
+		// **The same list, for something other than a person** — the console's discovery reads it
+		// (novox/hq ADR 0195), and a reader that parses a printed column breaks when it is reworded.
+		if len(args) > 1 && args[1] == "--json" {
+			type listed struct {
+				Name  string `json:"name"`
+				Heard string `json:"heard"`
+				Mode  string `json:"mode"`
+				ID    string `json:"id"`
+			}
+			out := make([]listed, 0, len(nodes))
+			for _, n := range nodes {
+				out = append(out, listed{Name: n.Name, Heard: heardFrom(n), Mode: modeOf(n), ID: n.ID})
+			}
+			return printJSON(out)
+		}
 		if len(nodes) == 0 {
 			// Said rather than printed as nothing: an empty list and a failed read must never
 			// look the same, and this command answering "none" is only honest because getting
@@ -500,3 +516,13 @@ func orNotReported(s string) string {
 	}
 	return s
 }
+
+// printJSON prints a value as indented JSON, the shape every `--json` answers in.
+func printJSON(v any) error {
+	body, err := json.MarshalIndent(v, "", "  ")
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	fmt.Println(string(body))
+	return nil
+}

cmd/mesh-controller/order_test.go

@@ -211,3 +211,27 @@ func TestWhatAHandedOverModuleRecordsAboutItsSource(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	}
 }
+
+// novox/hq 04-ISSUES/215: a module once built at a commit still follows its branch — a merge into it
+// matches the module, and a plan re-asks the branch, not the old commit.
+func TestAModuleBuiltAtACommitStillFollowsItsBranch(t *testing.T) {
+	m := link.SourceMoved{Owner: "novox", Repo: "mesh-catalog", Base: "main"}
+	pinned := inventory.Source{Repository: "novox/mesh-catalog", Seat: "git", Ref: "9c97a8a"}
+	if !sourceIs(pinned, m) {
+		t.Error("a module whose record names a commit is left out of a merge into its branch")
+	}
+	full := inventory.Source{Repository: "novox/mesh-catalog", Seat: "git", Ref: "9c97a8a1d2c3b4a5f60718293a4b5c6d7e8f9012"}
+	if !sourceIs(full, m) {
+		t.Error("a full commit hash is read as a branch")
+	}
+	if got := followedBranch("9c97a8a"); got != "" {
+		t.Errorf("a plan would re-ask the old commit %q", got)
+	}
+	if got := followedBranch("release"); got != "release" {
+		t.Errorf("a branch is not followed as named: %q", got)
+	}
+	// A module that follows another branch is still not this merge's.
+	if sourceIs(inventory.Source{Repository: "novox/mesh-catalog", Seat: "git", Ref: "release"}, m) {
+		t.Error("a module following another branch was matched")
+	}
+}

cmd/mesh-controller/plan.go

@@ -645,23 +645,17 @@ func renderingFor(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string,
 		}
 	}
 
-	// And every routed name → the node that serves it (novox/hq ADR 0066). Alongside the
+	// **The roster is the machines and nothing else** (novox/hq ADR 0191). Each node has one internal
-	// `<node>.internal` names above, so a container — or an internal ACME validator — resolves a
+	// domain, `<node>.internal`, and every route on it is a name under that domain (ADR 0151), which
-	// routed name to the proxy that serves it, mesh-wide. The mesh publishes the names it was told
+	// the resolver answers with one wildcard per machine — so no route needs a line of its own. A
-	// to serve and knows nothing about what they mean.
+	// node's public domains are the operator's and public DNS answers them; the mesh gives no private
-	// Kept apart from the machines, because a fact about the machines must not be handed the names
+	// answer for any of them. The roster once carried every routed name, public ones included, and a
-	// the mesh merely serves (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/111).
+	// resolver that also serves a LAN handed a phone a tunnel address for the mail server.
+	// `.Names` and `.Machines` stay two fields so a module's template keeps rendering (issue 111).
 	machines := make(map[string]string, len(names))
 	for name, at := range names {
 		machines[name] = at
 	}
-	routes, err := routeNamesInTheMesh(ctx, open)
-	if err != nil {
-		return catalogue.Rendering{}, inventory.Node{}, err
-	}
-	for name, at := range routes {
-		names[name] = at
-	}
 
 	// **The bus is never public** (novox/hq ADR 0169). It was a foundation port — widened from the
 	// broker's own `from: mesh` to from-anywhere on the broker's host, so a machine could enrol
@@ -740,76 +734,6 @@ func renderingFor(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string,
 	}, record, nil
 }
 
-// routeNamesInTheMesh is every routed name and the address of the node that serves it (novox/hq
-// ADR 0066).
-//
-// **Mesh-wide, so any container resolves any routed name to its proxy** — including an internal
-// ACME validator, which cannot complete a challenge for a name it cannot reach. A routed name is
-// composed on the consumer's node (from its label and that node's public domain) and served by the
-// node answering the consumer's route requirement; this gathers both.
-//
-// It reads route names off resolutions rather than a table because there is no table: a route is a
-// contribution, computed from what each node runs. Name-agnostic — a contribution counts as a
-// routed name only because it carried a label the mesh composed, never because the mesh knows what
-// "route" means. A node that does not resolve is skipped, so one machine's broken set does not cost
-// the rest their names.
-//
-// **A node that could not be READ is a different matter and is raised.** Skipping one states, to
-// every machine at once, that its names do not exist — and since the roster is part of every
-// container's identity, that withdraws them and replaces every container (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/152,
-// 151). So every failure here says which machine and which read, because the alternative is a
-// mesh-wide refusal with nothing named in it.
-func routeNamesInTheMesh(ctx context.Context, open *stores) (map[string]string, error) {
-	inv := open.inventory
-	places, err := inv.Overlays(ctx)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("where the machines are cannot be read: %w", err)
-	}
-	address := map[string]string{}
-	for _, p := range places {
-		if strings.TrimSpace(p.Address) != "" {
-			address[p.Name] = p.Address
-		}
-	}
-
-	nodes, err := inv.Nodes(ctx)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("which machines the mesh has cannot be read: %w", err)
-	}
-
-	// Every machine's resolution first, then the names across them at once: which node serves a
-	// name is a question about the graph — the consumer on one machine, the provider on another —
-	// and answered wrongly by looking at one contribution at a time (novox/hq issue 178).
-	plans := map[string]catalogue.Resolution{}
-	settings := map[string]catalogue.SettingsBy{}
-	for _, n := range nodes {
-		plan, layers, err := planFor(ctx, open, n.Name)
-		switch {
-		case unresolvable(err):
-			// Their set does not compose, so they serve no names. Passed over, so one machine's
-			// broken set does not cost the rest theirs.
-			continue
-		case err != nil:
-			// The mesh could not be asked. Returning the roster without this machine's names would
-			// state that they do not exist — to every machine, and indistinguishably from the
-			// operator having withdrawn them (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/152).
-			return nil, fmt.Errorf("the names %s serves cannot be read: %w", n.Name, err)
-		}
-		plans[n.Name], settings[n.Name] = plan, layers
-	}
-	served, err := catalogue.NamesServed(plans, settings)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, err
-	}
-	out := map[string]string{}
-	for name, node := range served {
-		if at := address[node]; at != "" {
-			out[name] = at
-		}
-	}
-	return out, nil
-}
-
 // certificateFor is what the mesh certifies about one machine's internal name.
 //
 // It reaches across two contexts and reads neither one's store from the other: `inventory` knows

cmd/mesh-controller/push.go

@@ -151,6 +151,12 @@ func serve(ctx context.Context) error {
 		return err
 	}
 	defer stopServing()
+	// And says so on the bus (novox/hq ADR 0197): what it serves, as the NATS services protocol asks.
+	stopAnnouncing, err := bus.Announce(seatAnnouncement(handlers), log.New(os.Stdout, "", log.LstdFlags))
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	defer stopAnnouncing()
 
 	return server.Serve(ctx)
 }
@@ -205,6 +211,12 @@ func declare(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 	if err := link.Declare(ctx, server.Bus(), ident, node, raw, 15*time.Second); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
+	// Written down like every other send (novox/hq issue 204): a declaration a person sent by hand
+	// is still what the machine was last told, and status must not read it as current for the one
+	// the mesh would compose.
+	if _, err := recordSent(ctx, inv, node, raw); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
 	fmt.Printf("sent %s a signed declaration (%d bytes)\n", node, len(raw))
 	return nil
 }
@@ -348,7 +360,7 @@ func pushCommand(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
-	sending, refusals := composeEach(asked, func(node string) (sendable, error) {
+	sending, refusals := composeEach(asked, allotting(held, inv), func(node string) (sendable, error) {
 		plan, settings, err := planFor(held, open, node)
 		if err != nil {
 			return sendable{}, err
@@ -370,12 +382,8 @@ func pushCommand(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 	sentDigest := map[string]string{}
 	defer release()
 	for _, s := range sending {
-		// Numbered under the hold, one higher than the last, before the body exists — the number is
+		// The number is inside the signed bytes, so a replayed older declaration cannot borrow a
-		// inside the signed bytes, so a replayed older declaration cannot borrow a newer one's
+		// newer one's (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/107); it was taken when the composition began (issue 204).
-		// (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/107).
-		if err := number(ctx, inv, &s); err != nil {
-			return err
-		}
 		body, err := s.declared.Body()
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
@@ -385,14 +393,10 @@ func pushCommand(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 		}
 		// After it is away, not before. A digest recorded for something that failed to send would
 		// make the machine look current for a declaration it never received.
-		record, err := inv.NodeByName(ctx, s.node)
+		digest, err := recordSent(ctx, inv, s.node, body)
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
-		digest := digestOf(body)
-		if err := inv.RecordSent(ctx, record.ID, digest); err != nil {
-			return err
-		}
 		sentDigest[s.node] = digest
 		fmt.Printf("sent %s %d resource(s)\n", s.node, len(s.declared.Resources))
 	}
@@ -476,11 +480,7 @@ func pushCommand(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 						15*time.Second); err != nil {
 						return err
 					}
-					record, err := inv.NodeByName(ctx, s.node)
+					if _, err := recordSent(ctx, inv, s.node, body); err != nil {
-					if err != nil {
-						return err
-					}
-					if err := inv.RecordSent(ctx, record.ID, digestOf(body)); err != nil {
 						return err
 					}
 					fmt.Printf("sent %s %d resource(s)\n", s.node, len(s.declared.Resources))
@@ -569,17 +569,31 @@ type readyNode struct {
 //
 // The all-or-nothing rule is kept where it means something — sendTo, which rotates a credential
 // across two machines that must agree — and dropped here, where it never did.
-func composeEach(names []string,
+func composeEach(names []string, allot func(node string) (int64, error),
 	compose func(node string) (sendable, error)) ([]readyNode, []string) {
 
 	var sending []readyNode
 	var refusals []string
 	for _, name := range names {
+		// **Numbered before it is composed, not before it is sent** (novox/hq issue 204). The
+		// number says where this declaration stands against every other the mesh composed for the
+		// machine, and the host refuses one lower than the last it applied. Taken at send time, as
+		// it was, a declaration composed a minute ago — before an assignment changed — went out with
+		// a number higher than one composed after the change and sent before it, and the machine
+		// took the older content as the newer word: on 2026-10-02 a runtime assigned and applied on
+		// two machines was undone two seconds later by exactly that. Taken here, before the first
+		// read, what was composed earlier is numbered lower whatever order the sends happen in.
+		seq, err := allot(name)
+		if err != nil {
+			refusals = append(refusals, fmt.Sprintf("%s:\n%v", name, err))
+			continue
+		}
 		declared, err := compose(name)
 		if err != nil {
 			refusals = append(refusals, fmt.Sprintf("%s:\n%v", name, err))
 			continue
 		}
+		declared.Sequence = seq
 		if len(declared.Resources) == 0 {
 			// Sent, not skipped (novox/hq issue 127). A node whose declaration composes to
 			// nothing may have HELD something before — the broker opening a placement gave it,
@@ -607,13 +621,10 @@ func sendRound(ctx context.Context, open *stores, names []string,
 		return nil, err
 	}
 	defer release()
-	sending, refused := composeEach(names, func(node string) (sendable, error) {
+	sending, refused := composeEach(names, allotting(held, open.inventory), func(node string) (sendable, error) {
 		return compose(held, node)
 	})
 	for _, s := range sending {
-		if err := number(ctx, open.inventory, &s); err != nil {
-			return refused, err
-		}
 		body, err := s.declared.Body()
 		if err != nil {
 			return refused, err
@@ -670,6 +681,12 @@ func sendTo(ctx context.Context, open *stores, names []string) error {
 	var sending []readyNode
 	var refusals []string
 	for _, name := range names {
+		// Numbered before composing, for the reason composeEach gives (novox/hq issue 204).
+		seq, err := allot(ctx, inv, name)
+		if err != nil {
+			refusals = append(refusals, fmt.Sprintf("%s:\n%v", name, err))
+			continue
+		}
 		plan, settings, err := planFor(ctx, open, name)
 		if err != nil {
 			refusals = append(refusals, fmt.Sprintf("%s:\n%v", name, err))
@@ -681,6 +698,7 @@ func sendTo(ctx context.Context, open *stores, names []string) error {
 			refusals = append(refusals, fmt.Sprintf("%s:\n%v", name, err))
 			continue
 		}
+		declared.Sequence = seq
 		reportLeftOut(name, declared)
 		sending = append(sending, readyNode{name, declared})
 	}
@@ -696,9 +714,6 @@ func sendTo(ctx context.Context, open *stores, names []string) error {
 	defer server.Close()
 
 	for _, s := range sending {
-		if err := number(ctx, inv, &s); err != nil {
-			return err
-		}
 		body, err := s.declared.Body()
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
@@ -706,11 +721,7 @@ func sendTo(ctx context.Context, open *stores, names []string) error {
 		if err := link.Declare(ctx, server.Bus(), ident, s.node, body, 15*time.Second); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
-		record, err := inv.NodeByName(ctx, s.node)
+		if _, err := recordSent(ctx, inv, s.node, body); err != nil {
-		if err != nil {
-			return err
-		}
-		if err := inv.RecordSent(ctx, record.ID, digestOf(body)); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
 		fmt.Printf("  sent %s %d resource(s)\n", s.node, len(s.declared.Resources))
@@ -951,15 +962,38 @@ func seatHolders(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory) (map[string]brok
 }
 
 // number gives one send the next sequence for its node (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/107).
-func number(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, s *readyNode) error {
+// allotting is allot over one inventory, in the shape composeEach takes.
-	record, err := inv.NodeByName(ctx, s.node)
+func allotting(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory) func(node string) (int64, error) {
+	return func(node string) (int64, error) { return allot(ctx, inv, node) }
+}
+
+// allot takes the next sequence for a machine — the number its next declaration carries.
+func allot(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, node string) (int64, error) {
+	record, err := inv.NodeByName(ctx, node)
 	if err != nil {
-		return err
+		return 0, err
 	}
-	seq, err := inv.NextSequence(ctx, record.ID)
+	return inv.NextSequence(ctx, record.ID)
+}
+
+// recordSent writes down what a machine was just sent, and returns the digest.
+//
+// **On a context that outlives the caller's** (novox/hq issue 204). The record is written after the
+// declaration is away, so a send that failed is never recorded as current — and a controller being
+// replaced mid-send had its context cancelled between the two, so the machine was told and the mesh
+// never wrote it down: status read "applied, current" over a machine that had just been sent
+// something else. What was sent was sent; the record of it must not depend on the sender living
+// another second. Bounded, so a store that is away does not hold a dying process open for ever.
+func recordSent(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, node string, body []byte) (string, error) {
+	kept, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.WithoutCancel(ctx), 10*time.Second)
+	defer cancel()
+	record, err := inv.NodeByName(kept, node)
 	if err != nil {
-		return err
+		return "", err
 	}
-	s.declared.Sequence = seq
+	digest := digestOf(body)
-	return nil
+	if err := inv.RecordSent(kept, record.ID, digest); err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+	return digest, nil
 }

cmd/mesh-controller/push_test.go

@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ import (
 // the wrong machine no longer refuses the whole node), applied one level up.
 func TestOneUnresolvableNodeStillLetsTheRestBeSent(t *testing.T) {
 	sending, refusals := composeEach(
-		[]string{"anchor", "home-server", "laptop"},
+		[]string{"anchor", "home-server", "laptop"}, numbered(),
 		func(node string) (sendable, error) {
 			if node == "anchor" {
 				return sendable{}, errors.New(`nothing provides "acme-ca", wanted by route-proxy`)
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ func TestOneUnresolvableNodeStillLetsTheRestBeSent(t *testing.T) {
 // (novox/hq issue 127): it may have held something before, and only sending the empty
 // declaration tells it to drop what the mesh owned. It is never a refusal.
 func TestAnEmptyDeclarationIsSentSoTheNodeDropsWhatItHeld(t *testing.T) {
-	sending, refusals := composeEach([]string{"spare"},
+	sending, refusals := composeEach([]string{"spare"}, numbered(),
 		func(string) (sendable, error) { return sendable{}, nil })
 	if len(sending) != 1 || len(refusals) != 0 {
 		t.Errorf("an empty declaration must be sent, not skipped or refused: %v / %v", sending, refusals)
@@ -74,3 +74,9 @@ func TestASkippedMachineIsStillAnError(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	}
 }
+
+// numbered is an allotter for tests: one higher per call, as the inventory's is per machine.
+func numbered() func(string) (int64, error) {
+	var n int64
+	return func(string) (int64, error) { n++; return n, nil }
+}

cmd/mesh-controller/release_plan.go

@@ -272,7 +272,8 @@ func askTier(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, p *inventory.Plan) e
 		}
 		source := buildSource{Repository: e.Source.Repository, Seat: e.Source.Seat}
 		fmt.Printf("  tier %d: ", p.Tier)
-		if err := buildOne(ctx, source, e.Source.Path, e.Source.Ref, 0); err != nil {
+		// The branch it follows, never a commit a build once named (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/215).
+		if err := buildOne(ctx, source, e.Source.Path, followedBranch(e.Source.Ref), 0); err != nil {
 			state.State = "failed"
 			state.Why = err.Error()
 			p.State = inventory.PlanFailed

cmd/mesh-controller/roster_failure_test.go

@@ -2,13 +2,12 @@ package main
 
 import (
 	"context"
-	"strings"
 	"testing"
 )
 
 // A node's own set failing to compose, and the mesh being unable to answer at all, are different
 // things, and only the first may be passed over when something is gathered across every machine
-// (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/152). These pin that distinction where the three gatherers rely on it.
+// (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/152). These pin that distinction where the gatherers rely on it.
 
 func TestASetThatDoesNotComposeIsMarkedAsTheNodesOwnProblem(t *testing.T) {
 	open := aMesh(t)
@@ -45,55 +44,3 @@ func TestAStoreThatCannotBeReadIsNotANodeThatDoesNotCompose(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("a question the mesh could not answer was read as a node that runs nothing: %v", err)
 	}
 }
-
-func TestOneIncoherentNodeDoesNotCostTheRestTheirNames(t *testing.T) {
-	open := aMesh(t)
-	one, two := rivals()
-	register(t, open, one)
-	register(t, open, two)
-	for _, m := range []string{one.Module, two.Module} {
-		if _, err := open.inventory.Assign(t.Context(), "laptop", m); err != nil {
-			t.Fatal(err)
-		}
-	}
-
-	// laptop cannot compose. That is laptop's problem and nobody else's: the roster is still
-	// answerable, and anchor keeps whatever it serves.
-	if _, err := routeNamesInTheMesh(t.Context(), open); err != nil {
-		t.Fatalf("one node's broken set cost the whole mesh its roster: %v", err)
-	}
-}
-
-func TestARosterIsNeverReturnedWithNamesItCouldNotRead(t *testing.T) {
-	open := aMesh(t)
-
-	stopped, cancel := context.WithCancel(t.Context())
-	cancel()
-
-	names, err := routeNamesInTheMesh(stopped, open)
-	if err == nil {
-		t.Fatalf("a roster was composed from a store that could not be read: %v", names)
-	}
-	// The failure must be raised, not turned into an absence. A roster missing a machine's names
-	// is indistinguishable, on every machine that receives it, from the operator withdrawing them —
-	// and because the roster is part of every container's identity, it replaces all of them.
-	if names != nil {
-		t.Fatalf("a partial roster was returned beside the error: %v", names)
-	}
-}
-
-// Kept so the reason survives the next person reading it: the message the gatherer raises must say
-// which machine could not be read, or the operator is left with a mesh-wide failure and no name.
-func TestTheRaisedFailureNamesTheMachineItCouldNotRead(t *testing.T) {
-	open := aMesh(t)
-	stopped, cancel := context.WithCancel(t.Context())
-	cancel()
-
-	_, err := routeNamesInTheMesh(stopped, open)
-	if err == nil {
-		t.Fatal("no failure was raised")
-	}
-	if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "cannot be read") {
-		t.Fatalf("the failure does not say the mesh could not be read: %v", err)
-	}
-}

cmd/mesh-controller/seatverbs.go

@@ -6,8 +6,10 @@ import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
+	"github.com/nats-io/nats.go/micro"
 	"os"
 	"os/exec"
+	"sort"
 	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/catalogue"
@@ -66,14 +68,14 @@ func argvFor(verb string, args map[string]any) ([]string, error) {
 	case "status":
 		return []string{"status", "--json"}, nil
 	case "nodes":
-		return []string{"node", "list"}, nil
+		return []string{"node", "list", "--json"}, nil
 	case "node":
 		if err := need("node"); err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
 		return []string{"node", "show", str("node")}, nil
 	case "modules":
-		return []string{"module", "list"}, nil
+		return []string{"module", "list", "--json"}, nil
 	case "seats":
 		return []string{"seats", "--json"}, nil
 	case "builds":
@@ -379,3 +381,43 @@ func splitCommandLine(line string) ([]string, error) {
 	}
 	return words, nil
 }
+
+// seatAnnouncement is what the controller says it serves on the bus (novox/hq ADR 0197): the
+// mesh-controller seat, one endpoint per verb it answers, each with the seat's own description and
+// argument schema — the same facts `tools` answers from the records, as NATS's services format.
+func seatAnnouncement(handlers map[string]link.ToolHandler) micro.Info {
+	about := map[string]catalogue.Verb{}
+	for _, s := range catalogue.SeatsWithAProtocol() {
+		if s.Name == catalogue.ControllerSeatName {
+			for _, v := range s.Serves {
+				about[v.Name] = v
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	verbs := make([]string, 0, len(handlers))
+	for verb := range handlers {
+		verbs = append(verbs, verb)
+	}
+	sort.Strings(verbs)
+	var endpoints []micro.EndpointInfo
+	for _, verb := range verbs {
+		schema, _ := json.Marshal(about[verb].Input)
+		endpoints = append(endpoints, micro.EndpointInfo{
+			Name:       verb,
+			Subject:    link.SeatToolSubject(catalogue.ControllerSeatName, verb),
+			QueueGroup: "seat." + catalogue.ControllerSeatName,
+			Metadata: map[string]string{
+				"description": about[verb].Description, "schema": string(schema),
+				"seat": catalogue.ControllerSeatName, "scope": "mesh",
+			},
+		})
+	}
+	return micro.Info{
+		ServiceIdentity: micro.ServiceIdentity{
+			Name: catalogue.ControllerSeatName, ID: "controller", Version: "1.0.0",
+			Metadata: map[string]string{"seat": catalogue.ControllerSeatName, "scope": "mesh"},
+		},
+		Description: "the mesh's own verbs, answered by the holder of the mesh-controller seat",
+		Endpoints:   endpoints,
+	}
+}

cmd/mesh-controller/seatverbs_test.go

@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ package main
 
 import (
 	"context"
+	"fmt"
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/link"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
 
@@ -249,3 +251,44 @@ func TestARowAheadOfThisBuildIsServedAnyway(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	}
 }
+
+// novox/hq ADR 0195: the console's discovery reads the machines and the modules; they answer as JSON,
+// as status and seats do, so nothing parses a printed column.
+func TestTheNodesAndModulesVerbsAnswerAsJSON(t *testing.T) {
+	for verb, want := range map[string]string{"nodes": "[node list --json]", "modules": "[module list --json]"} {
+		argv, err := argvFor(verb, map[string]any{})
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		if fmt.Sprint(argv) != want {
+			t.Errorf("%s runs %v, want %s", verb, argv, want)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// novox/hq ADR 0197: the controller announces exactly the verbs it serves, each on the subject and
+// queue it serves it on, with the seat's own description and schema, in NATS's services format.
+func TestTheControllerAnnouncesTheVerbsItServes(t *testing.T) {
+	handlers, _, err := seatToolHandlers()
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	info := seatAnnouncement(handlers)
+	if info.Name != catalogue.ControllerSeatName || info.ID == "" || info.Version == "" {
+		t.Fatalf("the service is not named for the seat: %+v", info.ServiceIdentity)
+	}
+	if len(info.Endpoints) != len(handlers) {
+		t.Fatalf("%d endpoints announced for %d verbs served", len(info.Endpoints), len(handlers))
+	}
+	for _, e := range info.Endpoints {
+		if _, served := handlers[e.Name]; !served {
+			t.Errorf("%s is announced and not served", e.Name)
+		}
+		if e.Subject != link.SeatToolSubject(catalogue.ControllerSeatName, e.Name) || e.QueueGroup != "seat."+catalogue.ControllerSeatName {
+			t.Errorf("%s is announced on %s/%s, not where it is served", e.Name, e.Subject, e.QueueGroup)
+		}
+		if e.Metadata["description"] == "" || e.Metadata["schema"] == "" || e.Metadata["scope"] != "mesh" {
+			t.Errorf("%s is announced without its description, schema or scope: %v", e.Name, e.Metadata)
+		}
+	}
+}

cmd/mesh-controller/upgrades.go

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 	"errors"
 	"flag"
 	"fmt"
+	"regexp"
 	"strings"
 	"time"
 
@@ -283,6 +284,14 @@ func (f following) SourceMoved(ctx context.Context, m link.SourceMoved) error {
 	if isHistory(m.MergedAt, lastLookAt(entries, m)) {
 		packaging = nil
 	}
+	// Said, never silent (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/215): a module built from this repository that follows
+	// another branch is not part of this merge, and whoever is waiting for its change should read why.
+	for _, e := range entries {
+		if sameRepository(e.Source.Repository, m) && !sourceIs(e.Source, m) {
+			fmt.Printf("  %s is built from %s/%s and follows %s, not %s; this merge leaves it out\n",
+				e.Manifest.Module, m.Owner, m.Repo, e.Source.Ref, m.Base)
+		}
+	}
 	touched := whatTheMergeTouched(from, entries, m)
 	for _, e := range touched {
 		if err := inv.SourceMoved(ctx, e.Manifest.Module, m.Commit); err != nil {
@@ -345,7 +354,24 @@ func sourceIs(s inventory.Source, m link.SourceMoved) bool {
 	if !sameRepository(s.Repository, m) {
 		return false
 	}
-	return s.Ref == "" || s.Ref == m.Base
+	ref := followedBranch(s.Ref)
+	return ref == "" || ref == m.Base
+}
+
+// commitRef is a ref that names a commit rather than a branch: what `build --ref <commit>` asks for.
+var commitRef = regexp.MustCompile(`^[0-9a-f]{7,40}$`)
+
+// followedBranch is the branch a recorded ref means a module follows (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/215). **A
+// commit is never a branch to follow.** A build asked at a commit — to try one, or to pin it during a
+// fix — recorded that commit as the module's ref; every merge after it then failed to match the
+// module, its plan left it out without saying so, and every plan that rebuilt it asked for that same
+// old commit again. A commit recorded so is read as the repository's default branch, which is what
+// the module followed before it; a branch is followed as named.
+func followedBranch(ref string) string {
+	if commitRef.MatchString(strings.TrimSpace(ref)) {
+		return ""
+	}
+	return ref
 }
 
 // sameRepository is whether a recorded repository is the one a merge names, in either spelling it

internal/broker/jetstream.go

@@ -235,14 +235,22 @@ func (j *JetStream) EnsureConsumer(c Consumer) error {
 				return fmt.Errorf("asking about stream %s to re-make consumer %s: %w", c.Stream, c.Name, err)
 			}
 			if info.Config.Retention != nats.WorkQueuePolicy {
-				j.note("consumer %s on %s is %s and should be %s; not re-made, because %s keeps its history "+
+				// **A stream that keeps its history is re-made from now on, never from the start.**
-					"and a re-made consumer replays what this one acknowledged (novox/hq issue 156). Re-make it by hand",
+				// Left for a hand, the hand re-makes it with the server's default — everything the
-					c.Name, c.Stream, shape(havePush), shape(wantPush), c.Stream)
+				// stream holds — which on 2026-10-03 replayed every build ask since 1 October and
-				return nil
+				// re-registered nine modules from the past (novox/hq issue 207). What this consumer
+				// had not yet acknowledged is lost with it, and said: on a history stream that is
+				// the smaller cost, and the asks in flight are visible to whoever asked.
+				j.note("consumer %s on %s changes from %s to %s delivery on a stream that keeps its history: "+
+					"re-made to deliver from now on, so nothing this one acknowledged comes back (novox/hq issue "+
+					"207); %d ask(s) it had not acknowledged are not carried over and must be asked again",
+					c.Name, c.Stream, shape(havePush), shape(wantPush), have.NumPending+uint64(have.NumAckPending))
+				want.DeliverPolicy = nats.DeliverNewPolicy
+			} else {
+				j.note("consumer %s on %s changes from %s to %s delivery: re-made where it left off, nothing "+
+					"acknowledged comes back and nothing pending is lost (novox/hq issue 206); a holder bound to "+
+					"the old shape binds again", c.Name, c.Stream, shape(havePush), shape(wantPush))
 			}
-			j.note("consumer %s on %s changes from %s to %s delivery: re-made where it left off, nothing "+
-				"acknowledged comes back and nothing pending is lost (novox/hq issue 206); a holder bound to "+
-				"the old shape binds again", c.Name, c.Stream, shape(havePush), shape(wantPush))
 			if err := j.js.DeleteConsumer(c.Stream, c.Name); err != nil {
 				return fmt.Errorf("re-making consumer %s on %s as %s: %w", c.Name, c.Stream, shape(wantPush), err)
 			}

internal/broker/nats.go

@@ -236,6 +236,8 @@ func PermissionsFor(p Principal) (Permissions, error) {
 		// which this package mirrors rather than reads, and a verb the seat does not declare is a
 		// subject nothing publishes.
 		sub = append(sub, "mesh.seat."+ControllerSeat+".tool.>")
+		// And says so (novox/hq ADR 0197): it answers discovery for the seat it serves.
+		sub = append(sub, announcing(ControllerSeat)...)
 
 		// The two events it reacts to, and its ack subject on the stream they arrive from
 		// (streams.go). **Each named, not a pattern**: `mesh.mod.*.event.>` would make the
@@ -271,6 +273,9 @@ func PermissionsFor(p Principal) (Permissions, error) {
 			return Permissions{}, err
 		}
 		pub = append(pub, invoked...)
+		// And may ask what answers (novox/hq ADR 0197): a question every service answers about
+		// itself, its replies to the asker's own inbox.
+		pub = append(pub, discovering()...)
 
 	case KindEnrolment:
 		// A leaked token is useless for anything but enrolling: it cannot read a declaration, hear
@@ -327,6 +332,15 @@ func PermissionsFor(p Principal) (Permissions, error) {
 		// away — no other principal may subscribe this namespace, and a caller's authority is
 		// still granted per tool, by name, on the publish side.
 		sub = append(sub, own+".tool.>")
+		// It says what it serves (novox/hq ADR 0197): discovery for its own name and every seat it
+		// holds a verb of, answered by the runtime that serves them.
+		announced := []string{p.Module}
+		for _, s := range p.Holds {
+			if len(s.Serves) > 0 {
+				announced = append(announced, s.Name)
+			}
+		}
+		sub = append(sub, announcing(announced...)...)
 		// Its own membership (ADR 0160): the one subject a runtime derives for itself, read
 		// directly from the stream and followed live. Nothing else's.
 		sub = append(sub, MembershipSubject(p.Node, p.Module))
@@ -413,11 +427,16 @@ func PermissionsFor(p Principal) (Permissions, error) {
 		// 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.
+		var serves []string
 		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)
 			}
+			serves = append(serves, d.Module)
+			for _, s := range d.Holds {
+				serves = append(serves, s.Name)
+			}
 			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
@@ -444,6 +463,10 @@ func PermissionsFor(p Principal) (Permissions, error) {
 			return Permissions{}, err
 		}
 		pub = append(pub, invoked...)
+		// It says what it serves and may ask what answers (novox/hq ADR 0197): the runtime answers
+		// discovery for each module and seat it carries, and the console it is asks the bus.
+		sub = append(sub, announcing(serves...)...)
+		pub = append(pub, discovering()...)
 		// 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)
@@ -765,3 +788,23 @@ func invokedSubjects(invokes []string) ([]string, error) {
 	}
 	return out, nil
 }
+
+// announcing is what a principal that serves tools subscribes to answer the NATS services
+// protocol's discovery (novox/hq ADR 0197): the questions asked of every service, and those asked of
+// each name it serves — its own and no other's, so it cannot answer for a service it is not.
+func announcing(names ...string) []string {
+	out := []string{"$SRV.PING", "$SRV.INFO"}
+	for _, n := range names {
+		if !safeSubject.MatchString(n) {
+			continue
+		}
+		out = append(out, "$SRV.PING."+n, "$SRV.PING."+n+".>", "$SRV.INFO."+n, "$SRV.INFO."+n+".>")
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
+// discovering is what a principal publishes to ask what answers (novox/hq ADR 0197): the services
+// protocol's discovery requests, whose replies come to its own inbox.
+func discovering() []string {
+	return []string{"$SRV.PING", "$SRV.PING.>", "$SRV.INFO", "$SRV.INFO.>"}
+}

internal/broker/nats_test.go

@@ -233,7 +233,9 @@ func TestAPersonReachesNothingButTools(t *testing.T) {
 	perms, _ := PermissionsFor(Principal{Kind: KindPerson, Module: "jo",
 		Invokes: []string{"*"}, PasswordHash: "x"})
 	for _, p := range perms.Publish {
-		if !strings.Contains(p, ".tool.") {
+		// A tool call, or asking what answers (novox/hq ADR 0197) — a question every service
+		// answers about itself, which claims nothing and controls nothing.
+		if !strings.Contains(p, ".tool.") && !strings.HasPrefix(p, "$SRV.") {
 			t.Errorf("a person may publish %q, which is not a tool call", p)
 		}
 	}
@@ -423,13 +425,17 @@ func TestTheRuntimeServesTheUnionAndConsumesNothing(t *testing.T) {
 	if _, needed := ConsumerFor(p); needed {
 		t.Error("a consumer would be made for the runtime, which consumes nothing")
 	}
-	// Each subject once: the file is read as the mesh's authority model.
+	// Each subject once in each list: the file is read as the mesh's authority model. One subject may
-	seen := map[string]bool{}
+	// stand in both — the runtime answers discovery on `$SRV.INFO` and, as the console, asks it
-	for _, s := range append(append([]string{}, perms.Subscribe...), perms.Publish...) {
+	// (novox/hq ADR 0197) — because subscribing and publishing are two different grants.
-		if seen[s] {
+	for _, list := range [][]string{perms.Subscribe, perms.Publish} {
-			t.Errorf("%s is granted twice", s)
+		seen := map[string]bool{}
+		for _, s := range list {
+			if seen[s] {
+				t.Errorf("%s is granted twice", s)
+			}
+			seen[s] = true
 		}
-		seen[s] = true
 	}
 }
 

internal/broker/testdata/composed.conf

@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ accounts {
     users = [
       { user: "controller", password: "$2a$11$cccccccccccccccccccccc", permissions: {
         publish: { allow: ["$JS.ACK.CONTROL.controller.>", "$JS.ACK.EVENTS.controller.>", "$JS.API.>", "_INBOX.enrol.>", "mesh.assignment.>", "mesh.control.>", "mesh.mod.*.tool.>", "mesh.node.>", "mesh.seat.mesh-build-machine.accept.>", "mesh.seat.mesh-controller.event.applied", "mesh.seat.mesh-controller.event.built-before", "mesh.seat.mesh-controller.event.refused", "mesh.seat.node-build-agent.accept.>"] }
-        subscribe: { allow: ["$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.>", "mesh.seat.node-build-agent.event.built"] }
+        subscribe: { allow: ["$JS.API.>", "$SRV.INFO", "$SRV.INFO.mesh-controller", "$SRV.INFO.mesh-controller.>", "$SRV.PING", "$SRV.PING.mesh-controller", "$SRV.PING.mesh-controller.>", "_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.>", "mesh.seat.node-build-agent.event.built"] }
         allow_responses: { max: 1, ttl: "1m" }
       } }
       { user: "enrol.one", password: "$2a$11$eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee", permissions: {
@@ -38,17 +38,17 @@ accounts {
       } }
       { 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.CONSUMER.MSG.NEXT.SEAT_TELEGRAM_SENDER.SEAT_TELEGRAM_SENDER_worker", "$JS.API.DIRECT.GET.ASSIGNMENTS.mesh.assignment.one.telegram", "mesh.seat.telegram-sender.event.delivered", "mesh.seat.telegram-sender.event.failed"] }
-        subscribe: { allow: ["_INBOX.one.telegram.>", "mesh.assignment.one.telegram", "mesh.mod.telegram.tool.>", "mesh.seat.telegram-sender.accept.send"] }
+        subscribe: { allow: ["$SRV.INFO", "$SRV.INFO.telegram", "$SRV.INFO.telegram.>", "$SRV.PING", "$SRV.PING.telegram", "$SRV.PING.telegram.>", "_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: {
         publish: { allow: ["$JS.ACK.EVENTS.two_audit.>", "$JS.API.CONSUMER.INFO.EVENTS.two_audit", "$JS.API.CONSUMER.MSG.NEXT.EVENTS.two_audit", "$JS.API.DIRECT.GET.ASSIGNMENTS.mesh.assignment.two.audit"] }
-        subscribe: { allow: ["_INBOX.two.audit.>", "mesh.assignment.two.audit", "mesh.mod.audit.tool.>", "mesh.mod.shop.event.order.placed"] }
+        subscribe: { allow: ["$SRV.INFO", "$SRV.INFO.audit", "$SRV.INFO.audit.>", "$SRV.PING", "$SRV.PING.audit", "$SRV.PING.audit.>", "_INBOX.two.audit.>", "mesh.assignment.two.audit", "mesh.mod.audit.tool.>", "mesh.mod.shop.event.order.placed"] }
         allow_responses: { max: 1, ttl: "1m" }
       } }
       { user: "two.shop", password: "$2a$11$ssssssssssssssssssssss", permissions: {
         publish: { allow: ["$JS.ACK.EVENTS.two_shop.>", "$JS.API.CONSUMER.INFO.EVENTS.two_shop", "$JS.API.CONSUMER.MSG.NEXT.EVENTS.two_shop", "$JS.API.DIRECT.GET.ASSIGNMENTS.mesh.assignment.two.shop", "mesh.mod.shop.event.order.placed", "mesh.seat.telegram-sender.accept.send"] }
-        subscribe: { allow: ["_INBOX.two.shop.>", "mesh.assignment.two.shop", "mesh.mod.shop.tool.>"] }
+        subscribe: { allow: ["$SRV.INFO", "$SRV.INFO.shop", "$SRV.INFO.shop.>", "$SRV.PING", "$SRV.PING.shop", "$SRV.PING.shop.>", "_INBOX.two.shop.>", "mesh.assignment.two.shop", "mesh.mod.shop.tool.>"] }
         allow_responses: { max: 1, ttl: "1m" }
       } }
     ]

internal/broker/worker_type_change_test.go

@@ -108,9 +108,10 @@ func TestAWorkerOfTheWrongTypeIsRemadeOnAWorkQueueAndAPullThenBinds(t *testing.T
 	}
 }
 
-// On a stream that keeps its history, a worker of the wrong type is said and left: re-making it would
+// On a stream that keeps its history, a worker of the wrong type is re-made to deliver from now on:
-// replay what it acknowledged (novox/hq issue 156), and that is a person's call.
+// re-making it from the start would replay what it acknowledged (novox/hq issue 156), and leaving it
-func TestAWorkerOfTheWrongTypeOnAHistoryStreamIsLeftAndSaid(t *testing.T) {
+// for a hand re-made it exactly that way on 2026-10-03 (issue 207).
+func TestAWorkerOfTheWrongTypeOnAHistoryStreamIsRemadeFromNowOn(t *testing.T) {
 	url := os.Getenv("MESH_TEST_NATS")
 	if url == "" {
 		t.Skip("MESH_TEST_NATS unset")
@@ -132,6 +133,12 @@ func TestAWorkerOfTheWrongTypeOnAHistoryStreamIsLeftAndSaid(t *testing.T) {
 	}); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
+	// History the old consumer would have acknowledged long ago, and must not come back.
+	for i := 0; i < 3; i++ {
+		if _, err := js.js.Publish("mesh.t.event.old", []byte("old")); err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+	}
 	if err := js.EnsureConsumer(Consumer{Name: worker, Stream: stream, Filters: []string{filter}, AckWaitSeconds: 60}); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
@@ -139,7 +146,22 @@ func TestAWorkerOfTheWrongTypeOnAHistoryStreamIsLeftAndSaid(t *testing.T) {
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
-	if have.Config.DeliverSubject == "" {
+	if have.Config.DeliverSubject != "" {
-		t.Fatal("a history stream's consumer was re-made, which replays what it acknowledged")
+		t.Fatal("a history stream's consumer of the wrong type was left as it was")
+	}
+	if have.Config.DeliverPolicy != nats.DeliverNewPolicy || have.NumPending != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("re-made consumer delivers %v with %d pending; it must deliver from now on with nothing of the past", have.Config.DeliverPolicy, have.NumPending)
+	}
+	// And what arrives from now on is delivered.
+	if _, err := js.js.Publish("mesh.t.event.new", []byte("new")); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	sub, err := js.js.PullSubscribe(filter, worker, nats.Bind(stream, worker))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	got, err := sub.Fetch(1, nats.MaxWait(3*time.Second))
+	if err != nil || len(got) != 1 || string(got[0].Data) != "new" {
+		t.Fatalf("the re-made consumer delivered %v, %v; want the one new message", got, err)
 	}
 }

internal/builder/builder.go

@@ -587,6 +587,12 @@ func one(ctx context.Context, run Runner, publish Publisher,
 		if err != nil {
 			return catalogue.Built{}, fmt.Errorf("%s: compiling %s failed: %w", module, a.Name, err)
 		}
+		// **Every entrypoint the runtime may serve is executable** (novox/hq ADR 0193). The runtime
+		// knows no language; for one that runs through an interpreter the build writes the launcher.
+		launchers, err := writeLaunchers(compiled, chain, a)
+		if err != nil {
+			return catalogue.Built{}, fmt.Errorf("%s: writing %s's launchers failed: %w", module, a.Name, err)
+		}
 		say("bundle", "compiled, packing")
 		body, err := pack(compiled)
 		if err != nil {
@@ -598,7 +604,7 @@ func one(ctx context.Context, run Runner, publish Publisher,
 		if err != nil {
 			return catalogue.Built{}, err
 		}
-		return catalogue.Built{Name: a.Name, Kind: a.Kind, Reference: where, Digest: digest}, nil
+		return catalogue.Built{Name: a.Name, Kind: a.Kind, Reference: where, Digest: digest, Launchers: launchers}, nil
 
 	case catalogue.ArtifactPackage:
 		// Built and published on a public base, to the mesh's package registry, by version
@@ -1165,6 +1171,9 @@ func readBy(manifest catalogue.Manifest) []catalogue.ArtifactContext {
 // binaryName is what a compiled bundle's executable is called: what the artifact says, or the name of
 // the package it is built from, which is what a compiler would have chosen anyway.
 func binaryName(a catalogue.Artifact) string {
+	if name := catalogue.BinaryOf(a); name != "" {
+		return name
+	}
 	if name := strings.TrimSpace(a.Binary); name != "" {
 		return name
 	}
@@ -1173,3 +1182,45 @@ func binaryName(a catalogue.Artifact) string {
 	}
 	return a.Name
 }
+
+// launcherSuffix is what a TypeScript entrypoint's launcher is called beside it: index.js is
+// started as index.serve.mjs (novox/hq ADR 0193). An ES module by its own extension, whatever the
+// bundle's package.json says.
+const launcherSuffix = ".serve.mjs"
+
+// writeLaunchers writes, beside every entrypoint of a TypeScript bundle, an executable that
+// imports the entrypoint and serves what it registered over MCP on stdio — through the bundle's
+// own copy of the SDK, so registering and serving meet in one registry (novox/hq ADR 0193). Its
+// answer is each entrypoint's launcher, by entrypoint, relative to the bundle's root; nothing for
+// a language whose build is already executable.
+func writeLaunchers(root string, chain Toolchain, a catalogue.Artifact) (map[string]string, error) {
+	if chain.Language != "typescript" {
+		return nil, nil
+	}
+	out := map[string]string{}
+	for _, entry := range a.Entrypoints {
+		if !strings.HasSuffix(entry, ".js") {
+			continue
+		}
+		launcher := strings.TrimSuffix(entry, ".js") + launcherSuffix
+		body := "#!/usr/bin/env node\n" +
+			"// Written by the mesh's builder (novox/hq ADR 0193): serve what " + entry + " registers,\n" +
+			"// over MCP on stdio, as the module the node's runtime names in MESH_SERVED_MODULE.\n" +
+			"import { serveRegisteredOverStdio } from \"@novox/mesh-sdk/stdio\";\n" +
+			"await import(\"./" + filepath.Base(entry) + "\");\n" +
+			"await serveRegisteredOverStdio();\n"
+		path := filepath.Join(root, filepath.FromSlash(launcher))
+		if err := os.MkdirAll(filepath.Dir(path), 0o755); err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		if err := os.WriteFile(path, []byte(body), 0o755); err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		// WriteFile honours the umask; the mode a machine unpacks is the one packed, so it is set.
+		if err := os.Chmod(path, 0o755); err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		out[entry] = launcher
+	}
+	return out, nil
+}

internal/builder/launchers_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+package builder
+
+import (
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/catalogue"
+)
+
+// novox/hq ADR 0193: every entrypoint the runtime may serve is executable, and the runtime knows no
+// language — so a TypeScript bundle carries a launcher beside each entrypoint.
+func TestATypeScriptBundleCarriesAnExecutableLauncherBesideEachEntrypoint(t *testing.T) {
+	root := t.TempDir()
+	chain, err := ToolchainFor("typescript")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	got, err := writeLaunchers(root, chain, catalogue.Artifact{Name: "tools", Kind: catalogue.ArtifactBundle,
+		Language: "typescript", Entrypoints: []string{"tools/index.js", "index.js"}})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if got["tools/index.js"] != "tools/index.serve.mjs" || got["index.js"] != "index.serve.mjs" {
+		t.Fatalf("launchers: %v", got)
+	}
+	path := filepath.Join(root, "tools", "index.serve.mjs")
+	info, err := os.Stat(path)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if info.Mode().Perm() != 0o755 {
+		t.Errorf("the launcher is %v, not executable 0755", info.Mode().Perm())
+	}
+	body, _ := os.ReadFile(path)
+	for _, want := range []string{"#!/usr/bin/env node\n", `from "@novox/mesh-sdk/stdio"`, `await import("./index.js")`, "serveRegisteredOverStdio()"} {
+		if !strings.Contains(string(body), want) {
+			t.Errorf("the launcher lacks %q:\n%s", want, body)
+		}
+	}
+
+	// A compiled language's build is executable already: no launcher.
+	goChain, _ := ToolchainFor("go")
+	none, err := writeLaunchers(t.TempDir(), goChain, catalogue.Artifact{Name: "tools", Kind: catalogue.ArtifactBundle, Language: "go"})
+	if err != nil || len(none) != 0 {
+		t.Errorf("a Go bundle was given launchers: %v %v", none, err)
+	}
+}

internal/catalogue/build.go

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package catalogue
 
 import (
 	"fmt"
+	"path"
 	"sort"
 	"strings"
 )
@@ -28,6 +29,9 @@ type Built struct {
 	Reference string
 	// Digest is "sha256:<hex>", for an archive. An image reference already ends in one.
 	Digest string
+	// Launchers are, for a bundle in an interpreted language, the executable the build wrote beside
+	// each entrypoint, by entrypoint (novox/hq ADR 0193): what the node's runtime starts to serve it.
+	Launchers map[string]string
 }
 
 // Resolve fills a manifest's resources in from what was built.
@@ -92,7 +96,8 @@ func (m Manifest) Resolve(built []Built) (Manifest, error) {
 			out.Bundles = append(out.Bundles, Bundle{
 				Name: a.Name, Source: Recorded(made.Reference), Digest: made.Digest,
 				Language: a.Language, Entrypoints: append([]string(nil), a.Entrypoints...),
-				Loads: loads,
+				Loads: loads, Env: copyWords(a.Env), Launchers: copyWords(made.Launchers),
+				Binary: BinaryOf(a),
 			})
 		}
 		sort.Slice(out.Bundles, func(i, j int) bool { return out.Bundles[i].Name < out.Bundles[j].Name })
@@ -203,6 +208,12 @@ func (b *Build) problems(module string) []string {
 		// A bundle's source is the module's own directory by definition, and what it needs to say
 		// is which compiler — because the mesh chooses that, and cannot choose for a module that
 		// has not said.
+		if len(a.Env) > 0 && a.Kind != ArtifactBundle {
+			problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
+				"%s: %q is a %q and says what it is given (env). Only a bundle the node's runtime "+
+					"serves is given words (novox/hq ADR 0192); a container says its own environment",
+				module, a.Name, a.Kind))
+		}
 		if a.Kind == ArtifactBundle || a.Kind == ArtifactPackage {
 			// **Except for a language that compiles to a binary, where it names which one**
 			// (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/142). A bundle in an interpreted language is the module's own
@@ -222,6 +233,7 @@ 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))
 			}
+			problems = append(problems, bundleEnvProblems(module, a)...)
 			// 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.
@@ -360,3 +372,67 @@ func versionOf(digest string) string {
 	}
 	return hex
 }
+
+// bundleEnvWords are the words the runtime sets for itself; a bundle that named one would be
+// telling the runtime what it is, which is the mesh's to say (novox/hq ADR 0192).
+var bundleEnvWords = map[string]bool{
+	RuntimeToolModules: true, RuntimeBrokerFile: true, RuntimeOperatorAccount: true,
+	RuntimeOperatorHome: true, RuntimeToolEnv: true,
+}
+
+// bundleEnvProblems says what is wrong with what a bundle says it is given (novox/hq ADR 0192):
+// a value is a path or a constant written with the references a container's environment may use
+// for a place or a port, and never a secret's content or another module's binding — a secret
+// reaches a tool as a file whose path is named.
+func bundleEnvProblems(module string, a Artifact) []string {
+	if len(a.Env) == 0 {
+		return nil
+	}
+	var problems []string
+	for _, word := range sortedKeys(a.Env) {
+		value := a.Env[word]
+		if bundleEnvWords[word] {
+			problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
+				"%s: %q gives itself %s, which the node's runtime sets for itself; a bundle is "+
+					"given its own words beside the runtime's, never in place of them (novox/hq ADR 0192)",
+				module, a.Name, word))
+		}
+		rest := ofPort.ReplaceAllString(dirRef.ReplaceAllString(value, ""), "")
+		if strings.Contains(rest, "${") {
+			problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
+				"%s: %q gives %s the value %q. A bundle's word is a path or a constant, written with "+
+					"${dir:…} and ${port:…} only; a secret reaches a tool as a file the mesh places, "+
+					"named by its path, never as its content (novox/hq ADR 0192)",
+				module, a.Name, word, value))
+		}
+	}
+	return problems
+}
+
+func copyWords(in map[string]string) map[string]string {
+	if len(in) == 0 {
+		return nil
+	}
+	out := make(map[string]string, len(in))
+	for k, v := range in {
+		out[k] = v
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
+// BinaryOf is what a bundle compiled to a binary is called once built: what the artifact names, else
+// the package it is built from, else the artifact's own name (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/142). Empty for a
+// language that does not compile to one. The builder writes the binary under this name, and the
+// composer runs it by it, so both ask here.
+func BinaryOf(a Artifact) string {
+	if !compilesToABinary(a.Language) {
+		return ""
+	}
+	if name := strings.TrimSpace(a.Binary); name != "" {
+		return name
+	}
+	if from := strings.Trim(a.From, "./"); from != "" {
+		return path.Base(from)
+	}
+	return a.Name
+}

internal/catalogue/declaration.go

@@ -921,6 +921,30 @@ func (r Resolution) compose(with Rendering, owner map[string]string,
 		}
 		owner[fmt.Sprint(process["id"])] = RuntimeModule
 		out = append(out, process)
+		// What each module's bundles are given is read as the account the runtime runs as.
+		words := map[string]map[string]string{}
+		for _, m := range r.Modules {
+			w, err := bundleWords(m, with)
+			if err != nil {
+				return nil, err
+			}
+			words[m.Module] = w
+		}
+		// And a file a module's words name is one the runtime is restarted for when it changes.
+		if named := givenTo(out, owner, words, r.Account); len(named) > 0 {
+			restarts, _ := process["restart-on"].([]any)
+			seen := map[string]bool{}
+			for _, id := range restarts {
+				seen[fmt.Sprint(id)] = true
+			}
+			for _, id := range named {
+				if !seen[id] {
+					restarts = append(restarts, id)
+					seen[id] = true
+				}
+			}
+			process["restart-on"] = restarts
+		}
 	}
 	if with.Adopted {
 		// First, before anything a module declares: what the mesh needs reachable, then its guard.

internal/catalogue/manifest.go

@@ -602,6 +602,14 @@ type Bundle struct {
 	// 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"`
+	// Env is what the artifact said it is given (ADR 0192), as written; composed per machine.
+	Env map[string]string `json:"env,omitempty"`
+	// Launchers are the executables the build wrote beside its entrypoints, by entrypoint (novox/hq
+	// ADR 0193). A bundle built before them has none, and is served as it was built.
+	Launchers map[string]string `json:"launchers,omitempty"`
+	// Binary is the executable a bundle compiled to a binary is, at its root (novox/hq ADR 0193):
+	// what runs it, where an interpreted bundle names an interpreter and an entrypoint.
+	Binary string `json:"binary,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // Build says how to produce this module's artifacts from its source.
@@ -748,6 +756,11 @@ type Artifact struct {
 	// 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"`
+
+	// Env is what a tools bundle is given on a machine (novox/hq ADR 0192): words and their values,
+	// paths and constants composed with ${dir:…} and ${port:…} exactly as a container's environment
+	// is, never a secret's content. The node's runtime hands it to this bundle and to no other.
+	Env map[string]string `json:"env,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // Kinds an artifact may be.

internal/catalogue/names_served.go

@@ -1,124 +0,0 @@
-package catalogue
-
-import (
-	"sort"
-	"strings"
-)
-
-// Which machine serves each routed name (novox/hq ADR 0066, issue 178).
-//
-// A routed name is a label the mesh composed for a consumer's endpoint, and it is *served* by the
-// provider that answers requests for it — the proxy the consumer's route reaches. The same name is
-// composed into every labelled contribution the consumer makes, because a provider that must know
-// the consumer's public name (an identity provider composing a redirect) is told it the same way
-// (04-ISSUES/122). Attributing the name to whichever of those providers a map happened to yield
-// last sent a public name to the identity provider's machine on one plan and to the proxy's on the
-// next (forge issue 227), and the whole names region flipped with it.
-//
-// **The terminus serves the name.** Among the providers a name reaches, the one that serves it is
-// the one that is not itself routed: a provider that contributes a labelled name of its own to some
-// requirement is published through another provider, and is a consumer of names, not their end.
-// Name-agnostic — nothing here knows what "route" means — and structural: it reads the graph the
-// modules declared. Deterministic: names, requirements and nodes are walked in order, so two
-// plans of one mesh yield one region.
-
-// NamesServed is every routed name across the mesh and the node that serves it, from every node's
-// resolution and settings. A name several termini claim goes to the first node in name order, so
-// the answer is stable; a name nothing terminal claims is left out.
-func NamesServed(plans map[string]Resolution, settings map[string]SettingsBy) (map[string]string, error) {
-	nodes := make([]string, 0, len(plans))
-	for n := range plans {
-		nodes = append(nodes, n)
-	}
-	sort.Strings(nodes)
-
-	out := map[string]string{}
-	for _, node := range nodes {
-		plan := plans[node]
-		all, err := plan.contributions(settings[node], nil, nil)
-		if err != nil {
-			return nil, err
-		}
-		requirements := make([]string, 0, len(all))
-		for to := range all {
-			requirements = append(requirements, to)
-		}
-		sort.Strings(requirements)
-		for _, to := range requirements {
-			for _, given := range all[to] {
-				if given.Node != "" {
-					// Said from another machine; that machine's own resolution carries it.
-					continue
-				}
-				// A routed name, and only that: a contribution the mesh composed a name for from a
-				// label it was given. A grant that happens to carry a `name` of its own — a database
-				// name — carries no label and is left alone.
-				if _, labelled := given.Values["label"]; !labelled {
-					continue
-				}
-				name, _ := given.Values["name"].(string)
-				if name == "" {
-					continue
-				}
-				serving := servingNodeOf(plan, to, given.From, node)
-				if !servesNames(plans[serving], to) {
-					continue
-				}
-				name = strings.ToLower(name)
-				if held, taken := out[name]; !taken || serving < held {
-					out[name] = serving
-				}
-			}
-		}
-	}
-	return out, nil
-}
-
-// servingNodeOf is the node answering one consumer's requirement: whoever the plan needs it from,
-// or this same node when the provider is beside the consumer.
-func servingNodeOf(plan Resolution, requirement, consumer, self string) string {
-	for _, need := range plan.Needs {
-		if need.Name == requirement && need.For == consumer && need.From != "" {
-			return need.From
-		}
-	}
-	return self
-}
-
-// servesNames says whether the module providing a requirement on a node is a terminus: it is not
-// itself published under a labelled name through some other provider. A node whose plan is not
-// known (it did not resolve) serves nothing.
-func servesNames(plan Resolution, requirement string) bool {
-	for _, m := range plan.Modules {
-		if !offers(m, requirement) {
-			continue
-		}
-		return !contributesALabel(m)
-	}
-	return false
-}
-
-func offers(m Manifest, requirement string) bool {
-	for _, o := range m.Offers() {
-		if o == requirement {
-			return true
-		}
-	}
-	return false
-}
-
-func contributesALabel(m Manifest) bool {
-	for _, values := range m.Contributes {
-		if _, labelled := values["label"]; labelled {
-			return true
-		}
-	}
-	for _, locals := range m.ContributesMany {
-		for _, values := range locals {
-			if _, labelled := values["label"]; labelled {
-				return true
-			}
-		}
-	}
-	return false
-}

internal/catalogue/names_served_test.go

@@ -1,99 +0,0 @@
-package catalogue
-
-import (
-	"testing"
-)
-
-// The mesh of forge issue 227 (novox/hq issue 178): a dashboard on the home server contributes its
-// label to the route its proxy serves AND to the identity provider on the control node, which must
-// know the dashboard's public name to compose a redirect. Both contributions carry the composed
-// name; only the proxy serves it.
-func twoNodesOneName(t *testing.T) (map[string]Resolution, map[string]SettingsBy) {
-	t.Helper()
-	catalogue := shelf(
-		Manifest{Module: "route-adapter", Version: "1", Provides: Offers("route"),
-			Serves: map[string]map[string]any{"route": {}}, Receives: map[string]string{"route": "/etc/adapter/mesh.json"}},
-		Manifest{Module: "route-proxy", Version: "1", Provides: Offers("route"),
-			Serves: map[string]map[string]any{"route": {}}, Receives: map[string]string{"route": "/etc/proxy/mesh.json"}},
-		Manifest{Module: "keycloak", Version: "1", Provides: FromAnywhere("oidc-client"),
-			Serves:   map[string]map[string]any{"oidc-client": {"token-path": "/token"}},
-			Receives: map[string]string{"oidc-client": "/etc/keycloak/clients.json"},
-			Listens:  []Listening{{Port: 8080, From: FromMesh, Why: "the login page"}},
-			// Published through the proxy itself: the identity provider is routed, not a router.
-			Contributes: map[string]map[string]any{"route": {"label": "login", "endpoint": "web", "port": 8080}}},
-		Manifest{Module: "grafana", Version: "1",
-			Listens: []Listening{{Port: 3000, From: FromMesh, Why: "dashboards"}},
-			Contributes: map[string]map[string]any{
-				"route":       {"label": "grafana", "endpoint": "web", "port": 3000},
-				"oidc-client": {"label": "grafana", "endpoint": "web", "port": 3000, "callback": "/login"},
-			}},
-	)
-	home := withDomain("home.example")
-	home.Name, home.At = "home-server", "home-server.internal"
-	control := withDomain("control.example")
-	control.Name, control.At = "anchor", "anchor.internal"
-
-	onHome, err := Resolve(catalogue, []string{"grafana", "route-adapter"}, home, World{
-		Offered: map[string][]Provider{"oidc-client": {{Node: "anchor", At: "anchor.internal", Module: "keycloak"}}},
-	})
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatal(err)
-	}
-	onControl, err := Resolve(catalogue, []string{"keycloak", "route-proxy"}, control, World{})
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatal(err)
-	}
-	return map[string]Resolution{"home-server": onHome, "anchor": onControl},
-		map[string]SettingsBy{"home-server": {}, "anchor": {}}
-}
-
-func TestANameResolvesToTheNodeWhoseProxyServesIt(t *testing.T) {
-	plans, settings := twoNodesOneName(t)
-	// Many times, because the fault was map order: one plan said one node, the next the other.
-	for i := 0; i < 25; i++ {
-		served, err := NamesServed(plans, settings)
-		if err != nil {
-			t.Fatal(err)
-		}
-		if served["grafana.home.example"] != "home-server" {
-			t.Fatalf("run %d: the dashboard's name is served by %q, and its proxy is on the home server: %v",
-				i, served["grafana.home.example"], served)
-		}
-		if served["login.control.example"] != "anchor" {
-			t.Fatalf("run %d: the identity provider's own name is served by its proxy on the control node: %v", i, served)
-		}
-		if _, leaked := served["grafana.control.example"]; leaked {
-			t.Fatalf("a name composed for the identity provider's benefit is not one it serves: %v", served)
-		}
-	}
-}
-
-// A module that is routed several times names each route (ADR 0094's sibling for contributes);
-// every one of them is a name the mesh must resolve, and none reached the names region before.
-func TestEveryRouteOfAModuleWithSeveralIsANameServed(t *testing.T) {
-	catalogue := shelf(
-		Manifest{Module: "route-proxy", Version: "1", Provides: Offers("route"),
-			Serves: map[string]map[string]any{"route": {}}, Receives: map[string]string{"route": "/etc/proxy/mesh.json"}},
-		Manifest{Module: "photos", Version: "1",
-			Listens: []Listening{{Port: 8102, From: FromMesh, Why: "web"}, {Port: 9102, From: FromMesh, Why: "api"}},
-			ContributesMany: map[string]map[string]map[string]any{"route": {
-				"site": {"label": "photos", "endpoint": "web", "port": 8102},
-				"api":  {"label": "photos-api", "endpoint": "api", "port": 9102},
-			}}},
-	)
-	node := withDomain("control.example")
-	node.Name, node.At = "anchor", "anchor.internal"
-	plan, err := Resolve(catalogue, []string{"photos", "route-proxy"}, node, World{})
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatal(err)
-	}
-	served, err := NamesServed(map[string]Resolution{"anchor": plan}, map[string]SettingsBy{"anchor": {}})
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatal(err)
-	}
-	for _, name := range []string{"photos.control.example", "photos-api.control.example"} {
-		if served[name] != "anchor" {
-			t.Fatalf("%s is not served by its proxy: %v", name, served)
-		}
-	}
-}

internal/catalogue/roster.go

@@ -28,10 +28,10 @@ import (
 
 // A RosterFile is a file the mesh renders from the roster of machines, in the format the module
 // gives as a Go text/template. The template sees a rosterView: `.Node` (this machine's bare name),
-// `.Suffix` (what its mesh name ends in), and two sets of `{Name, FQDN, Address}` — `.Names`, every
+// `.Suffix` (what its mesh name ends in), and two sets of `{Name, FQDN, Address}` — `.Names` and
-// name the mesh serves, and `.Machines`, only the nodes of the mesh. Which set a template ranges is
+// `.Machines`. Both are the nodes of the mesh: routed names were once in `.Names` too, and are not
-// how the hq issue 111 distinction is drawn: a container's hosts wants every name; a resolver told
+// since every route became a name under its node's internal domain (novox/hq ADR 0191) — the hq
-// the suffix is its own wants only the machines.
+// issue 111 distinction is kept as two fields so the templates that range either keep rendering.
 type RosterFile struct {
 	// Path is where on the machine the rendered file goes. Absolute, or it is refused here rather
 	// than discovered as a daemon that reads nothing.

internal/catalogue/runtime.go

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package catalogue
 
 import (
+	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"sort"
 	"strings"
@@ -82,6 +83,11 @@ const (
 	RuntimeBrokerFile      = "MESH_BROKER_FILE"
 	RuntimeOperatorAccount = "MESH_OPERATOR_ACCOUNT"
 	RuntimeOperatorHome    = "MESH_OPERATOR_HOME"
+	// RuntimeToolEnv is every served module's composed environment, as JSON (novox/hq ADR 0192):
+	// {"<module>": {"<word>": "<value>"}}. The runtime takes it at start, removes it from its own
+	// environment and hands each module's words to that module's bundles alone. In the unit, so a
+	// change to any module's words changes the process and restarts it.
+	RuntimeToolEnv = "MESH_TOOL_ENV"
 )
 
 // interpreterFor is how a bundle in a language is run: the program the host's unit starts, with the
@@ -123,14 +129,22 @@ func (r Resolution) runtimeProcess(with Rendering) (map[string]any, error) {
 			RuntimeModule, r.Node, len(runtime.Bundles))
 	}
 	bundle := runtime.Bundles[0]
-	if len(bundle.Entrypoints) != 1 {
+	// What runs it (novox/hq ADR 0193): a runtime compiled to a binary runs itself, from its own
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf(
+	// unpacked bundle; an interpreted one is its language's interpreter and its one entrypoint.
-			"%s's bundle %q names %d entrypoint(s); the runtime is run from one, so the module "+
+	var run []any
-				"declares exactly one (novox/hq to-be 38)", RuntimeModule, bundle.Name, len(bundle.Entrypoints))
+	if bundle.Binary != "" {
-	}
+		run = []any{"./" + bundle.Binary}
-	interpreter, err := interpreterFor(bundle.Language)
+	} else {
-	if err != nil {
+		if len(bundle.Entrypoints) != 1 {
-		return nil, err
+			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
+		}
+		run = []any{interpreter, bundle.Entrypoints[0]}
 	}
 	credential, declared := runtime.OwnSecrets["broker"]
 	if !declared {
@@ -146,15 +160,28 @@ func (r Resolution) runtimeProcess(with Rendering) (map[string]any, error) {
 	// would be told to load files that were never delivered.
 	var served []string
 	var restartOn []string
+	given := map[string]map[string]string{}
 	for _, m := range r.Modules {
 		if with.Adopted && m.Filtering != nil {
 			continue
 		}
+		words, err := bundleWords(m, with)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		if len(words) > 0 {
+			given[m.Module] = words
+		}
 		for _, b := range m.Bundles {
 			if len(b.Loads) == 0 {
 				continue
 			}
 			for _, load := range b.Loads {
+				// What the runtime starts: the launcher the build wrote beside the entrypoint, where
+				// it wrote one (ADR 0193); the entrypoint itself for a build from before them.
+				if launcher, has := b.Launchers[load]; has {
+					load = launcher
+				}
 				served = append(served, m.Module+"="+BundlePath(m.Module, b.Name)+"/"+load)
 			}
 			restartOn = append(restartOn, m.Module+"."+BundleID(b.Name))
@@ -168,10 +195,18 @@ func (r Resolution) runtimeProcess(with Rendering) (map[string]any, error) {
 		RuntimeToolModules: strings.Join(served, ","),
 		RuntimeBrokerFile:  credential.Path,
 	}
+	if len(given) > 0 {
+		// Marshalled from maps, whose keys encoding/json sorts: the same words, the same unit.
+		body, err := json.Marshal(given)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		env[RuntimeToolEnv] = string(body)
+	}
 	process := map[string]any{
 		"id": RuntimeModule + "." + RuntimeProcessID(), "type": "process", "name": RuntimeModule,
 		"source": bundle.Source, "digest": bundle.Digest,
-		"run":        []any{interpreter, bundle.Entrypoints[0]},
+		"run":        run,
 		"env":        env,
 		"restart-on": toAny(restartOn),
 	}
@@ -249,3 +284,82 @@ func ToolContainerOnTheRuntime(m Manifest, against []string) string {
 			"now (novox/hq ADR 0175, to-be 38); declare the tools as a bundle and drop the container",
 		m.Module, RuntimeImageModule, RuntimeImageArtifact, RuntimeModule)
 }
+
+// bundleWords is what one module's tools bundles are given on this machine (novox/hq ADR 0192):
+// each loaded bundle's env, its ${dir:…} resolved to where this machine places the module's
+// directories and its ${port:…} to the port this machine gave it — the same resolution a
+// container's environment gets. Two bundles of one module naming one word differently is refused:
+// the runtime hands a module's words to all its bundles.
+func bundleWords(m Manifest, with Rendering) (map[string]string, error) {
+	var out map[string]string
+	dirs := dirsFor(m, with)
+	for _, b := range m.Bundles {
+		if len(b.Loads) == 0 || len(b.Env) == 0 {
+			continue
+		}
+		for _, word := range sortedKeys(b.Env) {
+			value, err := dirFill(b.Env[word], dirs, m.Module)
+			if err != nil {
+				return nil, err
+			}
+			if value, err = portsFilledInto(value, m.Module+"'s bundle "+b.Name+" ("+word+")", m.Module, m.Listens, with); err != nil {
+				return nil, err
+			}
+			if out == nil {
+				out = map[string]string{}
+			}
+			if was, had := out[word]; had && was != value {
+				return nil, fmt.Errorf("%s's bundles give %s two values (%q, %q); a module's words are "+
+					"handed to all its bundles, so they agree (novox/hq ADR 0192)", m.Module, word, was, value)
+			}
+			out[word] = value
+		}
+	}
+	return out, nil
+}
+
+// givenTo makes what a bundle's words name readable by the account the runtime runs as (novox/hq
+// ADR 0192): every file and directory of the module whose path a word names, or that holds one,
+// is owned by the account — a tool reads its configuration and its secret as the account, and a
+// root-owned 0600 file or a 0700 directory is one it cannot. Only where it says no owner already:
+// a module that named one knew why. Nothing on a machine with no account, where the runtime is root.
+//
+// It answers the files a word names exactly: what a tool reads, whose change the runtime must be
+// restarted for, as the container the tools came from was restarted when its configuration changed.
+func givenTo(out []map[string]any, owner map[string]string, words map[string]map[string]string, account string) []string {
+	var named []string
+	if len(words) == 0 {
+		return nil
+	}
+	for _, resource := range out {
+		module := owner[fmt.Sprint(resource["id"])]
+		mine := words[module]
+		if len(mine) == 0 {
+			continue
+		}
+		kind := fmt.Sprint(resource["type"])
+		if kind != "file" && kind != "directory" {
+			continue
+		}
+		path, _ := resource["path"].(string)
+		if path == "" {
+			continue
+		}
+		for _, value := range mine {
+			if kind == "file" && value == path {
+				named = append(named, fmt.Sprint(resource["id"]))
+			}
+		}
+		if _, said := resource["owner"]; said || account == "" {
+			continue
+		}
+		for _, value := range mine {
+			if value == path || strings.HasPrefix(value, strings.TrimRight(path, "/")+"/") {
+				resource["owner"] = account
+				break
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	sort.Strings(named)
+	return named
+}

internal/catalogue/runtime_test.go

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package catalogue
 
 import (
+	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
@@ -210,3 +211,181 @@ func TestTheMachineRunsOneRuntimeLoadingEveryDeliveredBundle(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	})
 }
+
+// novox/hq ADR 0192: a tools bundle says what it is given; the composer resolves it per machine as
+// a container's environment, hands it to the runtime as the module's words, and makes what the
+// words name readable by the account the runtime runs as.
+func TestABundleIsGivenItsWordsResolvedForThisMachine(t *testing.T) {
+	with := Rendering{ArtifactStore: "anchor.internal:5101",
+		Needed: map[string]map[string]string{
+			RuntimeModule: {"broker": "sealed-credential"},
+			"dash":        {"token": "sealed-token"},
+		}}
+	dash := Manifest{Module: "dash", Version: "1", Tools: []string{"status"},
+		Listens:    []Listening{{Name: "web", Port: 3000, Protocol: "tcp"}},
+		OwnSecrets: OwnSecrets{"token": {Path: "${dir:mesh-state}/token"}},
+		Resources: []map[string]any{
+			{"id": "mesh-state", "type": "directory", "mode": "0700", "place": "mesh"},
+			{"id": "config", "type": "file", "path": "${dir:mesh-state}/config.json", "mode": "0600", "content": "{}\n"},
+			{"id": "unrelated", "type": "file", "path": "/etc/dash.conf", "content": "x\n"},
+		},
+		Build: &Build{Artifacts: []Artifact{{Name: "tools", Kind: ArtifactBundle, Language: "typescript",
+			Entrypoints: []string{"tools/index.js"},
+			Env: map[string]string{
+				"DASH_CONFIG_FILE": "${dir:mesh-state}/config.json",
+				"DASH_TOKEN_FILE":  "${dir:mesh-state}/token",
+				"DASH_URL":         "http://127.0.0.1:${port:3000}",
+				"DASH_ADMIN":       "mesh-admin",
+			}}}}}
+	if problems := dash.Build.problems(dash.Module); len(problems) > 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("a bundle's words written with ${dir:…} and ${port:…} were refused: %v", problems)
+	}
+	dash, err := dash.Resolve([]Built{{Name: "tools", Kind: ArtifactBundle,
+		Reference: ArtifactStoreScheme + "dash/tools/blobs/" + bundleDigest, Digest: bundleDigest}})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	other := aToolsModule(t, "nftables", "tools/index.js")
+
+	out, err := Resolution{Node: "anchor", Account: "ops", Modules: []Manifest{dash, other, theRuntime(t)}}.Declaration(with)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	dir := fileNamed(out, "dash.mesh-state")
+	if dir == nil {
+		t.Fatalf("no directory: %v", ids(out))
+	}
+	at := fmt.Sprint(dir["path"])
+	process := fileNamed(out, RuntimeModule+"."+RuntimeProcessID())
+	env := process["env"].(map[string]string)
+	var given map[string]map[string]string
+	if err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(env[RuntimeToolEnv]), &given); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("the runtime's %s is not JSON: %q", RuntimeToolEnv, env[RuntimeToolEnv])
+	}
+	want := map[string]string{
+		"DASH_CONFIG_FILE": at + "/config.json",
+		"DASH_TOKEN_FILE":  at + "/token",
+		"DASH_URL":         "http://127.0.0.1:3000",
+		"DASH_ADMIN":       "mesh-admin",
+	}
+	if fmt.Sprint(given["dash"]) != fmt.Sprint(want) {
+		t.Errorf("dash is given %v, want %v", given["dash"], want)
+	}
+	if _, has := given["nftables"]; has {
+		t.Errorf("a module that declares no words was given some: %v", given)
+	}
+	// What the words name is the account's to read; nothing else of the module's is touched.
+	for _, id := range []string{"dash.mesh-state", "dash.config", "dash." + NeedID("token")} {
+		if r := fileNamed(out, id); r == nil || r["owner"] != "ops" {
+			t.Errorf("%s is not the account's to read: %v", id, r)
+		}
+	}
+	if r := fileNamed(out, "dash.unrelated"); r == nil || r["owner"] != nil {
+		t.Errorf("a file no word names was given an owner: %v", r)
+	}
+	// A file a word names restarts the runtime when it changes, as it restarted the tool container.
+	restarts := fmt.Sprint(process["restart-on"])
+	for _, want := range []string{"dash.config", "dash." + NeedID("token")} {
+		if !strings.Contains(restarts, want) {
+			t.Errorf("the runtime is not restarted when %s changes: %s", want, restarts)
+		}
+	}
+	if strings.Contains(restarts, "dash.unrelated") || strings.Contains(restarts, "dash.mesh-state") {
+		t.Errorf("the runtime restarts for something no word names as a file: %s", restarts)
+	}
+
+	t.Run("on a machine with no account the runtime is root and nothing is re-owned", func(t *testing.T) {
+		out, err := Resolution{Node: "anchor", Modules: []Manifest{dash, theRuntime(t)}}.Declaration(with)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		if r := fileNamed(out, "dash.config"); r["owner"] != nil {
+			t.Errorf("re-owned with no account: %v", r)
+		}
+	})
+
+	t.Run("a change to a module's words changes the runtime's process", func(t *testing.T) {
+		changed := dash
+		changed.Bundles = append([]Bundle(nil), dash.Bundles...)
+		changed.Bundles[0].Env = map[string]string{"DASH_ADMIN": "somebody-else"}
+		out2, err := Resolution{Node: "anchor", Account: "ops", Modules: []Manifest{changed, theRuntime(t)}}.Declaration(with)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		if fmt.Sprint(fileNamed(out2, RuntimeModule+"."+RuntimeProcessID())["env"]) == fmt.Sprint(env) {
+			t.Error("the runtime's process is the same after a module's words changed, so it would not restart")
+		}
+	})
+}
+
+func TestABundlesWordsAreRefusedWhenTheyAreNotPathsOrConstants(t *testing.T) {
+	m := Manifest{Module: "dash", Version: "1", Build: &Build{Artifacts: []Artifact{
+		{Name: "tools", Kind: ArtifactBundle, Language: "typescript", Entrypoints: []string{"tools/index.js"},
+			Env: map[string]string{"DASH_TOKEN": "${secret:token}", RuntimeBrokerFile: "/x", "DASH_PEER": "${bound:db:url}"}},
+		{Name: "runtime", Kind: ArtifactImage, From: "Dockerfile", Env: map[string]string{"X": "y"}},
+	}}}
+	said := strings.Join(m.Build.problems(m.Module), "\n")
+	for _, want := range []string{
+		`"tools" gives DASH_TOKEN the value "${secret:token}"`,
+		`"tools" gives DASH_PEER the value "${bound:db:url}"`,
+		`"tools" gives itself ` + RuntimeBrokerFile,
+		`"runtime" is a "image" and says what it is given`,
+	} {
+		if !strings.Contains(said, want) {
+			t.Errorf("not refused: %s\nsaid:\n%s", want, said)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// novox/hq ADR 0193: the runtime is told the launcher a build wrote, and the entrypoint itself for a
+// build from before launchers — so the move needs no flag day.
+func TestTheRuntimeStartsTheLauncherWhereTheBuildWroteOne(t *testing.T) {
+	with := Rendering{ArtifactStore: "anchor.internal:5101",
+		Needed: map[string]map[string]string{RuntimeModule: {"broker": "sealed-credential"}}}
+	launched := Manifest{Module: "dash", Version: "1", Tools: []string{"status"},
+		Build: &Build{Artifacts: []Artifact{{Name: "tools", Kind: ArtifactBundle, Language: "typescript",
+			Entrypoints: []string{"tools/index.js"}}}}}
+	launched, err := launched.Resolve([]Built{{Name: "tools", Kind: ArtifactBundle,
+		Reference: ArtifactStoreScheme + "dash/tools/blobs/" + bundleDigest, Digest: bundleDigest,
+		Launchers: map[string]string{"tools/index.js": "tools/index.serve.mjs"}}})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	older := aToolsModule(t, "nftables", "tools/index.js")
+	out, err := Resolution{Node: "anchor", Account: "ops", Modules: []Manifest{launched, older, theRuntime(t)}}.Declaration(with)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	env := fileNamed(out, RuntimeModule+"."+RuntimeProcessID())["env"].(map[string]string)
+	want := "dash=" + BundleRoot + "/dash/tools/tools/index.serve.mjs,nftables=" + BundleRoot + "/nftables/tools/tools/index.js"
+	if env[RuntimeToolModules] != want {
+		t.Errorf("the runtime is told %q, want %q", env[RuntimeToolModules], want)
+	}
+}
+
+// novox/hq ADR 0193: a runtime compiled to a binary runs itself from its own unpacked bundle.
+func TestARuntimeCompiledToABinaryRunsItself(t *testing.T) {
+	with := Rendering{ArtifactStore: "anchor.internal:5101",
+		Needed: map[string]map[string]string{RuntimeModule: {"broker": "sealed-credential"}}}
+	goRuntime := Manifest{Module: RuntimeModule, Version: "1",
+		OwnSecrets: OwnSecrets{"broker": {Path: "/var/lib/mesh/" + RuntimeModule + "/broker"}},
+		Build: &Build{Artifacts: []Artifact{{Name: "runtime", Kind: ArtifactBundle, Language: "go",
+			System: "arch", From: "cmd/node-tools"}}}}
+	goRuntime, err := goRuntime.Resolve([]Built{{Name: "runtime", Kind: ArtifactBundle,
+		Reference: ArtifactStoreScheme + RuntimeModule + "/runtime/blobs/" + bundleDigest, Digest: bundleDigest}})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	out, err := Resolution{Node: "anchor", Account: "ops", Modules: []Manifest{aToolsModule(t, "nftables", "tools/index.js"), goRuntime}}.Declaration(with)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	process := fileNamed(out, RuntimeModule+"."+RuntimeProcessID())
+	if fmt.Sprint(process["run"]) != "[./node-tools]" {
+		t.Errorf("a Go runtime is run as %v, want its own binary", process["run"])
+	}
+	env := process["env"].(map[string]string)
+	if env[RuntimeToolModules] == "" || process["user"] != "ops" {
+		t.Errorf("the Go runtime is not told what to serve or whose it is: %v %v", env, process["user"])
+	}
+}

internal/link/announce.go

@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+package link
+
+import (
+	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
+	"log"
+
+	"github.com/nats-io/nats.go"
+	"github.com/nats-io/nats.go/micro"
+)
+
+// What answers announces itself (novox/hq ADR 0197). A holder that serves a seat's verbs answers the
+// NATS services protocol's discovery — `$SRV.PING` and `$SRV.INFO`, and each by its service's name
+// and instance — with exactly what it serves, in NATS's own format, so the console and the standard
+// `nats micro` commands learn what exists from what answers rather than from a roster.
+
+// DiscoverySubjects are where one service instance is asked to say what it is.
+func DiscoverySubjects(name, id string) []string {
+	var out []string
+	for _, verb := range []string{"PING", "INFO"} {
+		out = append(out, "$SRV."+verb, "$SRV."+verb+"."+name, "$SRV."+verb+"."+name+"."+id)
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
+// Announce answers discovery for one service until stopped. The answer is fixed at the call: a holder
+// whose verbs change announces again. Every instance answers, so there is no queue group.
+func (b OverNATS) Announce(info micro.Info, logger *log.Logger) (func(), error) {
+	info.Type = micro.InfoResponseType
+	infoBody, err := json.Marshal(info)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	pingBody, err := json.Marshal(micro.Ping{ServiceIdentity: info.ServiceIdentity, Type: micro.PingResponseType})
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	var subs []*nats.Subscription
+	done := make(chan struct{})
+	stop := func() {
+		close(done)
+		for _, s := range subs {
+			_ = s.Unsubscribe()
+		}
+	}
+	for _, subject := range DiscoverySubjects(info.Name, info.ID) {
+		subject := subject
+		body := infoBody
+		if len(subject) >= 9 && subject[:9] == "$SRV.PING" {
+			body = pingBody
+		}
+		bind := func() (*nats.Subscription, error) {
+			return b.Conn.Subscribe(subject, func(msg *nats.Msg) {
+				if err := msg.Respond(body); err != nil && logger != nil {
+					logger.Printf("%s: could not answer: %v", subject, err)
+				}
+			})
+		}
+		sub, err := bind()
+		if err != nil {
+			stop()
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("announcing %s on %s: %w", info.Name, subject, err)
+		}
+		subs = append(subs, sub)
+		go keepBound(sub, bind, subject, done, logger)
+	}
+	return stop, nil
+}

internal/link/builds_nats.go

@@ -193,9 +193,15 @@ func (m *natsMachine) Take(ctx context.Context, do func(context.Context, Build))
 		// 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):
+		case ctx.Err() != nil:
+			// Ours ended: the machine is being stopped.
 			return nil
-		case errors.Is(err, nats.ErrTimeout):
+		case errors.Is(err, context.Canceled), errors.Is(err, context.DeadlineExceeded), errors.Is(err, nats.ErrTimeout):
+			// **An empty queue, not the end.** A fetch on a context without a deadline waits the
+			// client's own while and then says the deadline passed — the client's, not ours. Read
+			// as "stop", every idle build machine exited clean every half minute and was started
+			// again by its supervisor, which looked like a crash loop with nothing in the log to
+			// say why (2026-10-03, the first build agents). Asked again.
 			continue
 		case err != nil:
 			if sub.IsValid() {

internal/overlay/generator.go

@@ -169,10 +169,9 @@ func (g *Generator) Graph() Graph { return g.graph }
 //
 //   - No floor: no header, no localhost, no `127.0.1.1` — those are the machine's, above the region.
 //   - A machine's own line is marked, and its mesh name resolves to its mesh address, not loopback.
-//   - `.Names` is every name the mesh serves (issue 111), so anything on the machine reaching a
+//   - `.Names` is the machines (novox/hq ADR 0191): a route's internal name is under its node's
-//     routed name through its resolver finds the machine serving it; machines with no address yet
+//     internal domain and the resolver answers it by wildcard, and a public name is public DNS's.
-//     are already left out of the set. A routed name is one alias, itself — a machine has a bare
+//     Machines with no address yet are already left out of the set.
-//     name beside its full one, a routed name has nothing beside it (issue 157).
 const hostsTemplate = "# The mesh's names. This region is replaced whenever a machine joins or leaves.\n" +
 	"{{range .Names}}{{.Address}}\t{{.FQDN}}{{if ne .Name .FQDN}}\t{{.Name}}{{end}}{{if eq .Name $.Node}}\t# this machine{{end}}\n{{end}}"