Merge pull request 'A TypeScript bundle installs its module's own packages before it is compiled (hq ADR 0198 §4)' (#255) from feat/a-bundle-installs-its-own-packages into main

A bundle could import only what the toolchain image carried: the compiler and the bundler resolve an import from the module's directory and then the toolchain's node_modules, and nothing ever put anything in the first. So a module needing a database driver (pg, mongodb, mssql) could not be a bundle, and kept a container whose recipe installed it (hq ADR 0198 §4: the backend's own driver inside the bundle).

Now, when a module's package.json depends on anything beyond the SDK, the build installs its production dependencies into the module's directory, in the toolchain image, before the compile: npm ci from the lockfile when there is one, npm install from the ranges otherwise, the mesh's registry for the SDK's scope and the public one for the rest, install scripts off. esbuild then inlines them. A module depending only on the SDK runs exactly the commands it did before.

The SDK stays the toolchain's (hq issue 212): it is taken out of what is installed and any copy something pulls in is removed, so every import of it resolves past the module's node_modules to the one the toolchain carries; a module's own range never shadows it. npm's verified download cache is a named volume; nothing installed is kept between builds. Without a registry, a scoped package is refused rather than resolved on the public registry.

cmd/mesh-controller/build.go

@@ -148,6 +148,11 @@ func buildFrom(result link.BuildResult) inventory.Build {
 		// rebuild the graph rather than a list of names.
 		Path: result.Path,
 	}
+	// When it was asked, which is what orders it against another build of the same module
+	// (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/219) — not when it was heard.
+	if asked, ok := link.BuildAskedAt(result.ID); ok {
+		kept.Asked = asked
+	}
 	for _, ref := range result.Against {
 		kept.Against = append(kept.Against, catalogue.Recorded(ref))
 	}
@@ -409,7 +414,7 @@ func buildOne(ctx context.Context, source buildSource, path, ref string, wait ti
 	// Correlated by something the control plane makes, not by the module's name: two builds of one
 	// module can be in flight, and the second answer is not the first one's.
 	request := link.BuildRequest{
-		ID:         fmt.Sprintf("%s-%d", "build", time.Now().UnixNano()),
+		ID:         link.NewBuildID(time.Now()),
 		Repository: repository,
 		Path:       path,
 		Ref:        ref,
@@ -526,6 +531,9 @@ func takeIn(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, result link.BuildResu
 		BuiltFrom: result.Commit, Head: result.Commit,
 		// What it stood on, so registration can judge a built manifest's base (to-be 38 WP2.4).
 		Against: kept.Against,
+		// When it was asked, so an older request heard later does not replace a newer one
+		// (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/219).
+		Asked: kept.Asked,
 	}
 	if result.Source != nil && result.Source.Seat != "" {
 		recorded.Repository, recorded.Seat = result.Source.Repository, result.Source.Seat
@@ -544,6 +552,10 @@ func takeIn(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, result link.BuildResu
 			result.On, result.Repository, short(result.Commit), err)
 	}
 	if err := inv.RegisterModule(ctx, manifest, recorded); err != nil {
+		if errors.Is(err, inventory.ErrSuperseded) {
+			return manifest, kept, fmt.Errorf("%s built %s (%s), recorded and not registered: %w",
+				result.On, manifest.Module, short(result.Commit), err)
+		}
 		return manifest, kept, err
 	}
 	return manifest, kept, nil
@@ -573,7 +585,7 @@ func buildAndShow(ctx context.Context, source buildSource, path, ref string, wai
 	defer ask.Close()
 
 	result, err := ask.Submit(ctx, link.BuildRequest{
-		ID:         fmt.Sprintf("%s-%d", "build", time.Now().UnixNano()),
+		ID:         link.NewBuildID(time.Now()),
 		Repository: repository, Path: path, Ref: ref,
 		Held: heldBy(ctx), Seats: seatBases(ctx),
 	}, wait)

cmd/mesh-controller/build_test.go

@@ -2,9 +2,12 @@ package main
 
 import (
 	"encoding/json"
+	"errors"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
+	"time"
 
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/inventory"
 	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/link"
 )
 
@@ -100,3 +103,50 @@ func TestABuildAtACommitKeepsTheBranchTheModuleFollows(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Errorf("a module first built at a commit follows %q, want the default branch", src.Ref)
 	}
 }
+
+// novox/hq 04-ISSUES/219: an older request heard after a newer one is recorded and not registered,
+// so a push sends what the newer request built.
+func TestAnOlderBuildHeardLaterDoesNotReplaceTheNewer(t *testing.T) {
+	open := aMesh(t)
+	ctx := t.Context()
+	older := time.Date(2026, 10, 3, 21, 33, 45, 0, time.UTC)
+	newer := time.Date(2026, 10, 3, 21, 51, 57, 0, time.UTC)
+	result := func(asked time.Time, image string) link.BuildResult {
+		manifest, _ := json.Marshal(map[string]any{"module": "postgres", "version": image})
+		return link.BuildResult{ID: link.NewBuildID(asked), Repository: "http://forge.internal:20000/novox/mesh-catalog.git",
+			Path: "modules/postgres", Ref: "main", On: "anchor", Commit: "efff5415", Manifest: manifest,
+			Source: &link.SourceOnSeat{Seat: "git", Repository: "novox/mesh-catalog"}}
+	}
+	if _, _, err := takeIn(ctx, open.inventory, result(newer, "4bcd5f73")); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	_, _, err := takeIn(ctx, open.inventory, result(older, "0ab07fa9"))
+	if !errors.Is(err, inventory.ErrSuperseded) {
+		t.Fatalf("the older request's outcome was taken in as current: %v", err)
+	}
+	shelf, err := open.inventory.Catalogue(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if got := shelf["postgres"].Version; got != "4bcd5f73" {
+		t.Errorf("postgres is %q; want the newer request's 4bcd5f73", got)
+	}
+	if builds, _ := open.inventory.Builds(ctx, "postgres", 5); len(builds) != 2 {
+		t.Errorf("the late build was not recorded: %v", builds)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestABuildIDSaysWhenItWasAsked(t *testing.T) {
+	at := time.Date(2026, 10, 3, 21, 51, 57, 392539762, time.UTC)
+	if got, ok := link.BuildAskedAt(link.NewBuildID(at)); !ok || !got.Equal(at) {
+		t.Errorf("read back %v %v; want %v", got, ok, at)
+	}
+	if got, ok := link.BuildAskedAt("build-1791064317392539762"); !ok || got.Format(time.TimeOnly) != "21:51:57" {
+		t.Errorf("the incident's id reads as %v %v", got, ok)
+	}
+	for _, id := range []string{"b-1", "build-2", "build-", "build-x", ""} {
+		if _, ok := link.BuildAskedAt(id); ok {
+			t.Errorf("%q read as a request time", id)
+		}
+	}
+}

cmd/mesh-controller/main.go

@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ package main
 
 import (
 	"context"
+	"errors"
 	"flag"
 	"fmt"
 	"os"
@@ -253,25 +254,34 @@ func parseAround(set *flag.FlagSet, args []string) ([]string, error) {
 // became of a build nobody was watching.
 func (b builds) Built(ctx context.Context, result link.BuildResult) error {
 	manifest, _, err := takeIn(ctx, b.inv, result)
+	// When it was asked, so a plan takes as its outcome only a build asked for it or after it
+	// (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/219). Zero when the id does not say.
+	asked, _ := link.BuildAskedAt(result.ID)
 	switch {
 	case err != nil && result.Failed != "":
 		fmt.Printf("%s: %v\n", result.ID, err)
 		if result.Module != "" {
-			planBuilt(ctx, b.open, result.Module, result.Commit, result.Failed)
+			planBuilt(ctx, b.open, result.Module, result.Commit, result.Failed, asked)
 		} else {
 			planFailedBuild(ctx, b.open, result)
 		}
 		return nil
+	case errors.Is(err, inventory.ErrSuperseded):
+		// Not a failure: the module is already at what a later request built. A plan that asked
+		// before that later request is answered by it; one that asked after it ignores this.
+		fmt.Printf("%s: %v\n", result.ID, err)
+		planBuilt(ctx, b.open, manifest.Module, result.Commit, "", asked)
+		return nil
 	case err != nil:
 		fmt.Printf("%s: heard and recorded, and not registered: %v\n", result.ID, err)
 		if manifest.Module != "" {
-			planBuilt(ctx, b.open, manifest.Module, result.Commit, err.Error())
+			planBuilt(ctx, b.open, manifest.Module, result.Commit, err.Error(), asked)
 		}
 		return nil
 	}
 	fmt.Printf("%s: %s %s registered, built on %s from %s\n",
 		result.ID, manifest.Module, manifest.Version, result.On, short(result.Commit))
 	saysWhenThePolicyActs(ctx, b.inv, manifest.Module)
-	planBuilt(ctx, b.open, manifest.Module, result.Commit, "")
+	planBuilt(ctx, b.open, manifest.Module, result.Commit, "", asked)
 	return nil
 }

cmd/mesh-controller/network_test.go

@@ -254,10 +254,11 @@ func theResolver(t *testing.T) catalogue.Manifest {
 	return m
 }
 
-// The resolver is handed every machine on the private network as a wildcard, and is handed it again
-// when a machine leaves — through the module's own manifest asking for the fact, with no module of the
-// mesh's own in between (hal dnsmasq-app conversion, novox/hq 08-connectivity). It is the mesh's one
-// resolver (ADR 0194), and the container runtime is given no resolver of its own (ADR 0196).
+// The resolver is handed every machine on the private network as a wildcard, the same set and the
+// same source as the hosts file, and is handed it again when a machine leaves — through the
+// module's own manifest asking for the fact, with no module of the mesh's own in between (hal
+// dnsmasq-app conversion, novox/hq 08-connectivity). The runtime on that machine is pointed at the
+// machine's own address, where the resolver answers for its containers.
 func TestTheResolverIsToldEveryMachineOnTheNetworkAndToldAgainWhenOneLeaves(t *testing.T) {
 	open := aMesh(t)
 	ctx := t.Context()
@@ -292,12 +293,11 @@ func TestTheResolverIsToldEveryMachineOnTheNetworkAndToldAgainWhenOneLeaves(t *t
 			t.Errorf("the resolver's machines lack %q:\n%s", want, first)
 		}
 	}
-	// The container runtime is given no resolver of its own (novox/hq ADR 0196): it copies its
-	// machine's, which name the mesh's resolver first. A `dns` key would be a second account of where a
-	// container asks, read only when the runtime starts.
 	for _, r := range composed(t, open, "anchor").Resources {
 		if r["id"] == "dnsmasq.runtime-dns" {
-			t.Errorf("the resolver still writes the runtime's own dns: %v", r)
+			if !strings.Contains(r["content"].(string), `"10.77.0.1"`) || r["into"] != "json" {
+				t.Errorf("the runtime is not pointed at this machine's own address, written into its file: %v", r)
+			}
 		}
 	}
 

cmd/mesh-controller/plan.go

@@ -657,13 +657,6 @@ func renderingFor(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string,
 		machines[name] = at
 	}
 
-	// And every zone a module in the mesh answers itself (novox/hq ADR 0199), for the mesh's resolver
-	// to forward.
-	zones, err := zonesInTheMesh(ctx, open)
-	if err != nil {
-		return catalogue.Rendering{}, inventory.Node{}, err
-	}
-
 	// **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
 	// before it had an address on the private network. A machine joins through the tunnel now, and
@@ -733,79 +726,14 @@ func renderingFor(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string,
 		BusMembership: memberships[node],
 		Settings:      settings, Generators: gens, Grants: grants, Needed: needed, Ports: ports,
 		Certificate: certificate, Authority: authority, Mesh: private, Names: names,
-		Machines: machines, Zones: zones,
-		Suffix: overlay.Suffix(), MeshRange: meshRange, TunnelInterface: overlay.Interface, Accounts: accounts, Foundation: foundation,
+		Machines: machines,
+		Suffix:   overlay.Suffix(), MeshRange: meshRange, TunnelInterface: overlay.Interface, Accounts: accounts, Foundation: foundation,
 		Kept: kept, Adopted: record.Adopted, OutwardLinks: outwardLinks,
 		Given: given, Taken: taken, Seats: seats, ArtifactStore: artifactStore, Built: built,
 		BusUsers: busUsers,
 	}, record, nil
 }
 
-// zonesInTheMesh is every zone a module in the mesh declares, where the mesh placed it (novox/hq ADR
-// 0199): the zone settled from that node's settings, the node's private address, the port the
-// answering listen is published on there.
-//
-// Read across every machine's resolution, as the roster once read routed names: a node whose set does
-// not compose declares nothing and is passed over, so one broken machine does not cost the rest their
-// zones; a store that cannot be read is raised, naming the machine, because returning the zones
-// without it would withdraw them from the resolver as if the operator had (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/152).
-// What the mesh refuses about the zones together — one declared twice, one shadowing the mesh's
-// suffix or a node's public domain — is refused here, by name.
-func zonesInTheMesh(ctx context.Context, open *stores) ([]catalogue.ZoneAt, 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)
-	}
-	var zones []catalogue.ZoneAt
-	var public []string
-	for _, n := range nodes {
-		plan, _, err := planFor(ctx, open, n.Name)
-		switch {
-		case unresolvable(err):
-			continue
-		case err != nil:
-			return nil, fmt.Errorf("the zones %s answers cannot be read: %w", n.Name, err)
-		}
-		if plan.PublicDomain != "" {
-			public = append(public, plan.PublicDomain)
-		}
-		for _, m := range plan.Modules {
-			if m.Zone == nil {
-				continue
-			}
-			at := address[n.Name]
-			if at == "" {
-				// Not on the private network yet: nothing could reach its answerer.
-				continue
-			}
-			published, layers, err := portsGivenOn(ctx, inv, n.Name, m)
-			if err != nil {
-				return nil, fmt.Errorf("the zone %s declares on %s cannot be read: %w", m.Module, n.Name, err)
-			}
-			z, err := catalogue.ZoneOn(m, layers, published, n.Name, at)
-			if err != nil {
-				return nil, err
-			}
-			zones = append(zones, *z)
-		}
-	}
-	if problems := catalogue.ZonesProblems(zones, overlay.Suffix(), public); len(problems) > 0 {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("the mesh's zones cannot be forwarded:\n  - %s", strings.Join(problems, "\n  - "))
-	}
-	return zones, 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/release_plan.go

@@ -288,7 +288,13 @@ func askTier(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, p *inventory.Plan) e
 
 // planBuilt marks a module built (or failed) in every open plan whose current tier holds it, and
 // advances what that completes. Called from the daemon's take-in of every outcome.
-func planBuilt(ctx context.Context, open *stores, module, commit, failed string) {
+//
+// **Only a build asked at or after the plan's ask is its outcome** (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/219). Two
+// plans a few minutes apart both ask for a module; the earlier plan's build, finishing late, is not
+// the later plan's answer — it stood on the bases from before the later plan's merge, and taking it
+// would send machines, and the next tier, what the later merge replaced. asked is zero when the
+// build's request time is not known, and such an outcome is taken as before.
+func planBuilt(ctx context.Context, open *stores, module, commit, failed string, asked time.Time) {
 	inv := open.inventory
 	plans, err := inv.OpenPlans(ctx)
 	if err != nil {
@@ -315,6 +321,9 @@ func planBuilt(ctx context.Context, open *stores, module, commit, failed string)
 			state = &inventory.PlanModule{}
 			p.Modules[module] = state
 		}
+		if askedBefore(asked, state.AskedAt) {
+			continue
+		}
 		if failed != "" {
 			state.State = "failed"
 			state.Why = failed
@@ -549,7 +558,8 @@ func planFailedBuild(ctx context.Context, open *stores, result link.BuildResult)
 	}
 	for _, e := range entries {
 		if repositoryMatches(e.Source.Repository, result.Repository) && e.Source.Path == result.Path {
-			planBuilt(ctx, open, e.Manifest.Module, result.Commit, result.Failed)
+			asked, _ := link.BuildAskedAt(result.ID)
+			planBuilt(ctx, open, e.Manifest.Module, result.Commit, result.Failed, asked)
 			return
 		}
 	}
@@ -791,6 +801,11 @@ func settleFromRecords(p *inventory.Plan, tier []string, recorded map[string][]i
 			if b.At.Before(*s.AskedAt) {
 				break
 			}
+			// Recorded after the ask and asked before it: an earlier ask's late outcome, not this
+			// one's (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/219).
+			if askedBefore(b.Asked, s.AskedAt) {
+				continue
+			}
 			outcome = &b
 		}
 		if outcome == nil {
@@ -812,3 +827,9 @@ func settleFromRecords(p *inventory.Plan, tier []string, recorded map[string][]i
 	}
 	return changed
 }
+
+// askedBefore is whether a build asked at asked was asked before a plan asked for its module — and
+// so is not that plan's outcome (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/219). False when either time is not known.
+func askedBefore(asked time.Time, planAsked *time.Time) bool {
+	return !asked.IsZero() && planAsked != nil && asked.Before(*planAsked)
+}

cmd/mesh-controller/release_plan_test.go

@@ -155,6 +155,24 @@ func TestAPlanSettlesAnAskedBuildFromTheRecords(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Errorf("an ask with no record after it was settled: %+v", s)
 	}
 
+	// novox/hq 04-ISSUES/219: a build recorded after the ask but asked before it — an earlier
+	// plan's late outcome — is not this ask's, built or failed.
+	r := inventory.Plan{ID: "plan-3", Tiers: [][]string{{"postgres"}},
+		Modules: map[string]*inventory.PlanModule{"postgres": {State: "asked", AskedAt: &asked}}}
+	late := map[string][]inventory.Build{"postgres": {
+		{ID: "build-old", Commit: "efff5415", Asked: asked.Add(-18 * time.Minute), At: asked.Add(12 * time.Minute)},
+	}}
+	if settleFromRecords(&r, r.Tiers[0], late) || r.Modules["postgres"].State != "asked" {
+		t.Errorf("an earlier ask's late outcome settled this ask: %+v", r.Modules["postgres"])
+	}
+	// Newest heard first: the earlier ask's late outcome, then this ask's own, heard before it.
+	late["postgres"] = append(late["postgres"], inventory.Build{ID: "build-mine", Commit: "4bcd5f73",
+		Asked: asked.Add(time.Second), At: asked.Add(5 * time.Minute)})
+	if !settleFromRecords(&r, r.Tiers[0], late) || r.Modules["postgres"].State != "built" ||
+		r.Modules["postgres"].Commit != "4bcd5f73" {
+		t.Errorf("this ask's own outcome, heard before the earlier ask's, did not settle it: %+v", r.Modules["postgres"])
+	}
+
 	// A failure recorded after the ask fails the plan, as hearing it would have.
 	q := inventory.Plan{ID: "plan-2", Tiers: [][]string{{"x"}},
 		Modules: map[string]*inventory.PlanModule{"x": {State: "asked", AskedAt: &asked}}}

internal/builder/builder.go

@@ -215,7 +215,7 @@ func Build(ctx context.Context, run Runner, publish Publisher,
 		sort.Slice(artifacts, func(i, j int) bool { return artifacts[i].Name < artifacts[j].Name })
 		for _, a := range artifacts {
 			say("artifact", "%s (%s%s) — starting", a.Name, a.Kind, langSuffix(a))
-			made, err := one(ctx, run, publish, manifest.Module, within, workspace, commit, credentials, a, args, held, npmrcPath, seatBases, say)
+			made, err := one(ctx, run, publish, manifest.Module, within, workspace, commit, credentials, a, args, held, npmrcPath, npmrc, seatBases, say)
 			if err != nil {
 				say("artifact", "%s FAILED: %v", a.Name, err)
 				return Result{}, err
@@ -443,7 +443,7 @@ func wantsPackages(manifest catalogue.Manifest, within string) bool {
 
 func one(ctx context.Context, run Runner, publish Publisher,
 	module, tree, workspace, commit, credentials string, a catalogue.Artifact, args []string,
-	held map[string]string, npmrc string, seats map[string]string,
+	held map[string]string, npmrc string, registry Npmrc, seats map[string]string,
 	say func(step, format string, args ...any)) (catalogue.Built, error) {
 
 	switch a.Kind {
@@ -582,6 +582,11 @@ func one(ctx context.Context, run Runner, publish Publisher,
 					"holds no copy of it. Build %s first",
 				module, a.Name, chain.Language, chain.Base, chain.Artifact, chain.Base)
 		}
+		// The module's own packages first, where the compiler and the bundler resolve them from
+		// (dependencies.go); nothing at all for a module whose package.json names only the SDK.
+		if err := installOwn(ctx, run, tree, chain, base, registry, say); err != nil {
+			return catalogue.Built{}, fmt.Errorf("%s: %s: %w", module, a.Name, err)
+		}
 		say("bundle", "compiling %s in %s's toolchain", a.Language, chain.Base)
 		compiled, err := compile(ctx, run, tree, chain, base, a)
 		if err != nil {
@@ -593,6 +598,12 @@ func one(ctx context.Context, run Runner, publish Publisher,
 		if err != nil {
 			return catalogue.Built{}, fmt.Errorf("%s: writing %s's launchers failed: %w", module, a.Name, err)
 		}
+		if chain.Bundler != "" {
+			say("bundle", "bundling each entrypoint into one file")
+			if compiled, err = bundled(ctx, run, tree, chain, base, a, launchers); err != nil {
+				return catalogue.Built{}, fmt.Errorf("%s: bundling %s failed: %w", module, a.Name, err)
+			}
+		}
 		say("bundle", "compiled, packing")
 		body, err := pack(compiled)
 		if err != nil {
@@ -974,7 +985,7 @@ func compile(ctx context.Context, run Runner, tree string, chain Toolchain,
 	if _, err := run(ctx, tree, "docker", invocation...); err != nil {
 		return "", err
 	}
-	if chain.Dependencies != "" {
+	if chain.Dependencies != "" && chain.Bundler == "" {
 		// **What the bundle runs with, from the image it was compiled in** (Toolchain.Dependencies).
 		// A second run in the same image rather than a shell wrapped around the compiler: the
 		// compile line stays a plain command a reader can run by hand, and the copy is one more
@@ -1224,3 +1235,95 @@ func writeLaunchers(root string, chain Toolchain, a catalogue.Artifact) (map[str
 	}
 	return out, nil
 }
+
+// bundledSuffix is where a bundle's one-file output is written, beside what the compiler wrote.
+const bundledSuffix = ".bundled"
+
+// bundled makes every entrypoint and every launcher of a compiled bundle ONE file, in the toolchain
+// image's bundler, and answers the directory to pack (novox/hq ADR 0193).
+//
+// **What a launched bundle runs is what it imports, and nothing else.** Every served bundle is its
+// own process, so it carries its own copy of the SDK and its own dependencies inlined — the
+// toolchain's whole node_modules no longer travels in every bundle. An entrypoint a process runs by
+// name (`node daemon/index.js`) is bundled in place under its own name; a launcher keeps its name
+// and its first line, and stays executable. A package the bundler cannot inline is named by the
+// artifact (`external`), kept as an import, and only then is the toolchain's runtime directory
+// copied beside the files. CommonJS inlined into an ES module still finds `require`.
+func bundled(ctx context.Context, run Runner, tree string, chain Toolchain, base string,
+	a catalogue.Artifact, launchers map[string]string) (string, error) {
+	const within = "/app/modules/module"
+	out, final := Out(a.Name), Out(a.Name)+bundledSuffix
+	if err := os.RemoveAll(filepath.Join(tree, final)); err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+	if err := os.MkdirAll(filepath.Join(tree, final), 0o755); err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+	common := []string{"--bundle", "--platform=node", "--format=esm", "--target=node22",
+		"--outbase=" + out, "--outdir=" + final, "--log-level=warning",
+		"--banner:js=import { createRequire as __meshRequire } from 'node:module'; const require = __meshRequire(import.meta.url);"}
+	for _, x := range a.External {
+		common = append(common, "--external:"+x)
+	}
+	var plain []string
+	for _, e := range a.Entrypoints {
+		if strings.HasSuffix(e, ".js") {
+			plain = append(plain, out+"/"+e)
+		}
+	}
+	var launch []string
+	for _, l := range sortedValues(launchers) {
+		launch = append(launch, out+"/"+l)
+	}
+	// Refused by name in an image that predates the bundler, as the dependencies copy is: a bundle
+	// packed without it would carry nothing it imports. Run as itself: npm installs esbuild's native
+	// binary in place of its script, which `node` cannot run.
+	guard := `test -x "$0" || { echo "the toolchain image carries no bundler at $0: it predates one-file bundles, rebuild mesh-tools first" >&2; exit 1; }; exec "$0" "$@"`
+	step := func(entries []string, extra ...string) error {
+		if len(entries) == 0 {
+			return nil
+		}
+		invocation := []string{"run", "--rm", "--volume", tree + ":" + within, "--workdir", within, base,
+			"sh", "-c", guard, chain.Bundler}
+		invocation = append(invocation, entries...)
+		invocation = append(invocation, common...)
+		invocation = append(invocation, extra...)
+		_, err := run(ctx, tree, "docker", invocation...)
+		return err
+	}
+	if err := step(plain); err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+	if err := step(launch, "--out-extension:.js=.mjs"); err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+	// Plain `.js` output is an ES module; said once, as the runtime directory used to say it.
+	if err := os.WriteFile(filepath.Join(tree, final, "package.json"), []byte(`{"type":"module","private":true}`+"\n"), 0o644); err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+	for _, l := range launchers {
+		path := filepath.Join(tree, final, filepath.FromSlash(l))
+		if _, err := os.Stat(path); err == nil {
+			if err := os.Chmod(path, 0o755); err != nil {
+				return "", err
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	if len(a.External) > 0 && chain.Dependencies != "" {
+		copying := []string{"run", "--rm", "--volume", tree + ":" + within, "--workdir", within, base,
+			"sh", "-c", `cp -a "$0/node_modules" "$1/"`, chain.Dependencies, final}
+		if _, err := run(ctx, tree, "docker", copying...); err != nil {
+			return "", fmt.Errorf("copying the packages %s keeps external: %w", a.Name, err)
+		}
+	}
+	return filepath.Join(tree, final), nil
+}
+
+func sortedValues(m map[string]string) []string {
+	out := make([]string, 0, len(m))
+	for _, v := range m {
+		out = append(out, v)
+	}
+	sort.Strings(out)
+	return out
+}

internal/builder/bundle_test.go

@@ -83,25 +83,49 @@ func TestABundleIsCompiledAndPackedWithNoDockerfile(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("the bundle was not pinned: %v", got.Manifest.Resources[0])
 	}
 
-	// **And what it runs with, from the image it was compiled in** (novox/hq to-be 38 WP3). A
-	// second run in the same toolchain image copies the toolchain's runtime directory — the
-	// `"type": "module"` package.json and the pruned node_modules — into the output's root, and
-	// refuses by name when the image carries none rather than packing a bundle that starts nowhere.
-	var copied string
+	// **One file per entrypoint and launcher, in the toolchain's bundler** (novox/hq ADR 0193). A
+	// second run in the same toolchain image bundles each into the artifact's bundled output, the SDK
+	// inlined, refusing by name in an image that predates the bundler; and the toolchain's
+	// node_modules is no longer copied into a bundle that keeps nothing external.
+	var bundling []string
 	for _, line := range r.ran {
-		if strings.HasPrefix(line, "docker run") && strings.Contains(line, "/app/runtime") {
-			copied = line
+		if strings.HasPrefix(line, "docker run") && strings.Contains(line, "esbuild") {
+			bundling = append(bundling, line)
 		}
 	}
-	if copied == "" {
-		t.Fatalf("the bundle's dependencies were not copied in after the compile:\n%s", strings.Join(r.ran, "\n"))
+	if len(bundling) != 2 {
+		t.Fatalf("want one bundling run for the entrypoints and one for the launchers:\n%s", strings.Join(r.ran, "\n"))
 	}
-	if !strings.Contains(copied, "mesh-tools/build@sha256:") || !strings.Contains(copied, "predates") ||
-		!strings.Contains(copied, Out("code")) {
-		t.Fatalf("the copy does not run in the same toolchain, refuse an older image by name, or land in the artifact's output: %s", copied)
+	for _, want := range []string{"mesh-tools/build@sha256:", "predates one-file bundles", "--bundle", "--format=esm",
+		"--platform=node", "--outdir=" + Out("code") + ".bundled", Out("code") + "/index.js"} {
+		if !strings.Contains(bundling[0], want) {
+			t.Errorf("the entrypoints' bundling lacks %q: %s", want, bundling[0])
+		}
 	}
-	if strings.Index(strings.Join(r.ran, "\n"), "--outDir") > strings.Index(strings.Join(r.ran, "\n"), "/app/runtime") {
-		t.Fatal("the dependencies were copied before the compile wrote its output")
+	if !strings.Contains(bundling[1], Out("code")+"/index.serve.mjs") || !strings.Contains(bundling[1], "--out-extension:.js=.mjs") {
+		t.Errorf("the launcher is not bundled under its own name: %s", bundling[1])
+	}
+	if strings.Contains(strings.Join(r.ran, "\n"), "/app/runtime") {
+		t.Errorf("the toolchain's node_modules was copied into a bundle that keeps nothing external:\n%s", strings.Join(r.ran, "\n"))
+	}
+	if strings.Index(strings.Join(r.ran, "\n"), "--outDir") > strings.Index(strings.Join(r.ran, "\n"), "esbuild") {
+		t.Fatal("the bundler ran before the compile wrote its output")
+	}
+}
+
+// A bundle naming packages it keeps external is bundled with them as imports, and carries the
+// toolchain's node_modules for them — the one case it still does.
+func TestABundleKeepingAPackageExternalCarriesTheToolchainsModules(t *testing.T) {
+	manifest := strings.Replace(aBundle, `"entrypoints":["index.js"]`, `"entrypoints":["index.js"],"external":["sharp"]`, 1)
+	r, workspace := aRepository(t, manifest, map[string]string{"index.ts": "console.log(1)"})
+	held := map[string]string{"mesh-tools/build": "registry.invalid/mesh-tools/build@sha256:" + strings.Repeat("b", 64)}
+	if _, err := Build(context.Background(), compiling{r}.run, r,
+		"https://forge.invalid/greeter.git", "", "", workspace, held, Npmrc{}, GitCredential{}, nil); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	all := strings.Join(r.ran, "\n")
+	if !strings.Contains(all, "--external:sharp") || !strings.Contains(all, "/app/runtime") {
+		t.Errorf("an external package was not kept as an import with the toolchain's modules beside it:\n%s", all)
 	}
 }
 

internal/builder/dependencies.go

@@ -0,0 +1,147 @@
+package builder
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"errors"
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"sort"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+// A module's own packages, installed before its bundle is compiled, so the bundler inlines them.
+//
+// **A bundle could only import what the toolchain happened to carry.** The compiler and the bundler
+// resolve an import by walking up from the module's source: the module's own directory first, then
+// the toolchain image's node_modules. Nothing ever put anything in the first, so a module needing a
+// database driver (`pg`, `mongodb`, `mssql`) could not be a bundle at all, and kept a container whose
+// recipe installed it by hand (novox/hq ADR 0198 §4: "the backend's own driver inside the bundle").
+// Now the module's `package.json` says what it depends on, as any Node package does, and the build
+// installs exactly that into the module's own directory before compiling.
+//
+// **The SDK the toolchain carries is the one a bundle is built with, whatever the module says**
+// (novox/hq issue 212: the toolchain is rebuilt on every SDK release and every bundle after it). A
+// module's `package.json` names `@novox/mesh-sdk` with a range — it has to, to type-check on a
+// workstation — and installing that range would shadow the toolchain's copy for this module alone:
+// one module compiled against an older SDK than its neighbours, chosen by a caret nobody re-reads.
+// So the SDK is taken out of what is installed (and never fetched), and any copy something else
+// pulls in is removed afterwards; every import of it resolves past the module's node_modules to the
+// toolchain's. A module therefore cannot pin a different SDK, by design: the toolchain is the pin.
+//
+// **Correctness before speed.** Every build installs afresh into a fresh clone, from the lockfile
+// when the module has one (`npm ci`, exact) and from its ranges otherwise; nothing installed is kept
+// between builds. What is shared is npm's own download cache, a named volume, which is
+// content-addressed and verified by integrity on every read — it saves the network, never the
+// install. Install scripts do not run: the build node runs nobody's postinstall, and what a script
+// would build natively could not be inlined into one file anyway.
+
+// sdkPackage is the package a TypeScript bundle's launcher serves through, and the one package a
+// module's own dependencies never supply (above).
+const sdkPackage = "@novox/mesh-sdk"
+
+// npmCache is the named volume npm's download cache lives in across builds on one build node.
+const npmCache = "mesh-builder-npm-cache"
+
+// ownDependencies is what a module's package.json depends on beyond the SDK, sorted; nothing when
+// the module has no package.json or depends on nothing else — which builds exactly as before.
+func ownDependencies(tree string) ([]string, error) {
+	raw, err := os.ReadFile(filepath.Join(tree, "package.json"))
+	if errors.Is(err, os.ErrNotExist) {
+		return nil, nil
+	}
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	var p struct {
+		Dependencies map[string]string `json:"dependencies"`
+	}
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(raw, &p); err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("the module's package.json is not JSON: %w", err)
+	}
+	var names []string
+	for name := range p.Dependencies {
+		if name != sdkPackage {
+			names = append(names, name)
+		}
+	}
+	sort.Strings(names)
+	return names, nil
+}
+
+// installSteps is the script run inside the toolchain image, from the module's own directory ($0).
+// It works in a scratch copy so the module's package.json and lockfile are never rewritten, takes
+// the SDK out of what is installed, installs production dependencies only, removes any copy of the
+// SDK something pulled in, and puts the result at the module's node_modules.
+const installSteps = `set -e
+work="$(mktemp -d)"
+cp "$0/package.json" "$work/"
+if [ -f "$0/package-lock.json" ]; then cp "$0/package-lock.json" "$work/"; fi
+cd "$work"
+node -e '
+const fs = require("fs"), sdk = process.argv[1];
+const p = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync("package.json", "utf8"));
+for (const k of ["dependencies", "peerDependencies", "optionalDependencies"]) if (p[k]) delete p[k][sdk];
+delete p.devDependencies; delete p.scripts;
+fs.writeFileSync("package.json", JSON.stringify(p));
+' "$1"
+shift
+if [ -f package-lock.json ]; then
+  npm ci --omit=dev --omit=peer --ignore-scripts --no-audit --no-fund "$@"
+else
+  npm install --omit=dev --omit=peer --ignore-scripts --no-audit --no-fund --no-package-lock "$@"
+fi
+find node_modules -depth -type d -path "*/node_modules/@novox/mesh-sdk" -exec rm -rf {} +
+rm -rf "$0/node_modules"
+cp -a node_modules "$0/node_modules"
+`
+
+// installOwn installs a TypeScript module's own production dependencies into its directory, in the
+// toolchain image, before the compile — or does nothing at all for a module that has none.
+func installOwn(ctx context.Context, run Runner, tree string, chain Toolchain, base string,
+	registry Npmrc, say func(step, format string, args ...any)) error {
+	if chain.Language != "typescript" {
+		return nil
+	}
+	deps, err := ownDependencies(tree)
+	if err != nil || len(deps) == 0 {
+		return err
+	}
+	scoped := strings.TrimSpace(registry.Scope)
+	if !registry.Enabled() {
+		// **No registry, no scoped package.** Without the mesh's registry a scoped name resolves on
+		// the public one, where anybody may have published it: a dependency that installs is not
+		// the dependency the module meant.
+		for _, d := range deps {
+			if strings.HasPrefix(d, "@novox/") {
+				return fmt.Errorf("the module depends on %s, and this build knows no package registry "+
+					"for its scope; it would resolve from the public registry, which is not where the "+
+					"mesh publishes it", d)
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	const within = "/app/modules/module"
+	invocation := []string{"run", "--rm",
+		"--volume", tree + ":" + within,
+		"--volume", npmCache + ":/root/.npm",
+		"--workdir", within}
+	var flags []string
+	if registry.Enabled() {
+		// The registry is reached where the binding says it is, which may be this machine's own
+		// loopback — the reason an image build that resolves packages runs on the host network too.
+		invocation = append(invocation, "--network", "host")
+		reg := strings.TrimSpace(registry.Registry)
+		if !strings.HasSuffix(reg, "/") {
+			reg += "/"
+		}
+		flags = append(flags, "--"+scoped+":registry="+reg)
+	}
+	invocation = append(invocation, base, "sh", "-c", installSteps, within, sdkPackage)
+	invocation = append(invocation, flags...)
+	say("bundle", "installing the module's own packages: %s", strings.Join(deps, ", "))
+	if _, err := run(ctx, tree, "docker", invocation...); err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("installing the module's own packages (%s): %w", strings.Join(deps, ", "), err)
+	}
+	return nil
+}

internal/builder/dependencies_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
+package builder
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// A module's own packages (dependencies.go): installed into its own directory, in the toolchain,
+// before the compile, so the bundler inlines them — the SDK always the toolchain's.
+
+func buildWithPackageJSON(t *testing.T, pkg string, extra map[string]string, registry Npmrc) (*recorded, error) {
+	t.Helper()
+	files := map[string]string{"index.ts": "console.log(1)"}
+	if pkg != "" {
+		files["package.json"] = pkg
+	}
+	for k, v := range extra {
+		files[k] = v
+	}
+	r, workspace := aRepository(t, aBundle, files)
+	held := map[string]string{"mesh-tools/build": "registry.invalid/mesh-tools/build@sha256:" + strings.Repeat("b", 64)}
+	_, err := Build(context.Background(), compiling{r}.run, r,
+		"https://forge.invalid/greeter.git", "", "", workspace, held, registry, GitCredential{}, nil)
+	return r, err
+}
+
+func installs(r *recorded) []string {
+	var out []string
+	for _, line := range r.ran {
+		if strings.HasPrefix(line, "docker run") && strings.Contains(line, "npm ci") {
+			out = append(out, line)
+		}
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
+func compileIndex(r *recorded) int {
+	for i, line := range r.ran {
+		if strings.Contains(line, "--outDir") {
+			return i
+		}
+	}
+	return -1
+}
+
+func TestAModulesOwnPackagesAreInstalledInTheToolchainBeforeTheCompile(t *testing.T) {
+	r, err := buildWithPackageJSON(t, `{"type":"module","dependencies":{"@novox/mesh-sdk":"^0.1.0","pg":"^8"},"devDependencies":{"typescript":"^5"}}`,
+		nil, Npmrc{Scope: "@novox", Registry: "https://forge.invalid/api/packages/novox/npm"})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	got := installs(r)
+	if len(got) != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("want one install of the module's own packages:\n%s", strings.Join(r.ran, "\n"))
+	}
+	line := got[0]
+	for _, want := range []string{
+		"mesh-tools/build@sha256:",       // in the toolchain image
+		":/app/modules/module",           // into the module's own directory
+		"--workdir /app/modules/module",  //
+		npmCache + ":/root/.npm",         // npm's verified download cache, and only that
+		"--omit=dev", "--ignore-scripts", // production packages, no build-node scripts
+		"npm ci", "npm install", "--no-package-lock", // the lockfile when there is one, else the ranges
+		"--@novox:registry=https://forge.invalid/api/packages/novox/npm/", // the scope from the mesh's registry
+		"--network host",
+		"@novox/mesh-sdk", // named, to be taken out of what is installed
+	} {
+		if !strings.Contains(line, want) {
+			t.Errorf("the install lacks %q:\n%s", want, line)
+		}
+	}
+	// The SDK is the toolchain's: never installed from the module's range, and any copy removed.
+	if !strings.Contains(line, `delete p[k][sdk]`) || !strings.Contains(line, `-path "*/node_modules/@novox/mesh-sdk" -exec rm -rf`) {
+		t.Errorf("the module's own SDK range could shadow the toolchain's SDK:\n%s", line)
+	}
+	if i, c := strings.Index(strings.Join(r.ran, "\n"), "npm ci"), compileIndex(r); c < 0 ||
+		i > strings.Index(strings.Join(r.ran, "\n"), "--outDir") {
+		t.Fatalf("the install did not run before the compile:\n%s", strings.Join(r.ran, "\n"))
+	}
+}
+
+// **A module with nothing beyond the SDK builds exactly as before**: the same commands, no install.
+func TestAModuleDependingOnlyOnTheSDKBuildsExactlyAsBefore(t *testing.T) {
+	without, err := buildWithPackageJSON(t, "", nil, Npmrc{})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	for _, pkg := range []string{
+		`{"type":"module","dependencies":{"@novox/mesh-sdk":"^0.1.0"},"devDependencies":{"typescript":"^5"}}`,
+		`{"type":"module"}`,
+	} {
+		with, err := buildWithPackageJSON(t, pkg, map[string]string{"package-lock.json": "{}"}, Npmrc{Scope: "@novox", Registry: "https://forge.invalid/npm/"})
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		if strings.Contains(strings.Join(with.ran, "\n"), "npm ") {
+			t.Fatalf("a module depending on nothing but the SDK ran npm:\n%s", strings.Join(with.ran, "\n"))
+		}
+		if len(with.ran) != len(without.ran) {
+			t.Fatalf("a module depending only on the SDK built differently from one with no package.json:\n%s\n---\n%s",
+				strings.Join(with.ran, "\n"), strings.Join(without.ran, "\n"))
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// Without the mesh's registry a scoped package would resolve on the public one: refused by name.
+func TestAScopedPackageWithNoRegistryIsRefused(t *testing.T) {
+	r, err := buildWithPackageJSON(t, `{"dependencies":{"@novox/mesh-sdk":"^0.1.0","@novox/other":"^1"}}`, nil, Npmrc{})
+	if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "@novox/other") {
+		t.Fatalf("a scoped package was installed with no registry for its scope: %v", err)
+	}
+	if strings.Contains(strings.Join(r.ran, "\n"), "--outDir") {
+		t.Fatal("the compile ran after the refusal")
+	}
+	// A public package installs without one, from the public registry and nothing else.
+	r, err = buildWithPackageJSON(t, `{"dependencies":{"mssql":"^11"}}`, nil, Npmrc{})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if got := installs(r); len(got) != 1 || strings.Contains(got[0], ":registry=") || strings.Contains(got[0], "--network host") {
+		t.Fatalf("a public package's install: %v", got)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestAnUnreadablePackageJSONIsRefusedByName(t *testing.T) {
+	_, err := buildWithPackageJSON(t, `{"dependencies":`, nil, Npmrc{})
+	if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "package.json") {
+		t.Fatalf("a broken package.json was not refused by name: %v", err)
+	}
+}

internal/builder/standing_on_test.go

@@ -200,3 +200,23 @@ func TestWhatABuildReadIsTheRepositoriesItsRecipesName(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatal("a module whose recipes name no other repository read one")
 	}
 }
+
+// novox/hq 04-ISSUES/212: a toolchain stands on the SDK's published package, and is built with the
+// exact version the mesh published — an argument that changes when the SDK does, so a rebuild after
+// a release never reuses an install of the version before it.
+func TestAPackageTheMeshPublishedIsPassedByItsExactVersion(t *testing.T) {
+	manifest := catalogue.Manifest{
+		Module: "mesh-tools",
+		Build: &catalogue.Build{
+			On: []catalogue.BuildsOn{{Arg: "MESH_SDK", Module: "mesh-sdk", Artifact: "lib"}},
+		},
+	}
+	held := map[string]string{"mesh-sdk/lib": "@novox/mesh-sdk@0.1.6"}
+	args, resolved, err := standingOn(context.Background(), manifest, held, noMirror)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if fmt.Sprint(args) != "[--build-arg MESH_SDK=@novox/mesh-sdk@0.1.6]" || fmt.Sprint(resolved) != "[@novox/mesh-sdk@0.1.6]" {
+		t.Errorf("the package was passed as %v, recorded as %v", args, resolved)
+	}
+}

internal/builder/toolchain.go

@@ -67,13 +67,23 @@ type Toolchain struct {
 	// `package.json` saying `"type": "module"` — Node reads a bare `.js` as CommonJS otherwise, so a
 	// bundle with its dependencies and without that line still fails to start — and the pruned,
 	// production-only node_modules the runtime itself ships with: the SDK's and the runtime's
-	// dependencies, and nothing module-specific yet (novox/hq ADR 0188 §5: a skeleton; a module's
-	// own npm dependencies are a later step). Empty for a language whose bundle carries its own —
+	// dependencies, and nothing module-specific (a module's own npm dependencies are installed into
+	// its own directory before the compile and inlined by the bundler: dependencies.go). Empty for a
+	// language whose bundle carries its own —
 	// a Go binary is static, a Python bundle is installed with its dependencies.
 	//
 	// A toolchain image without the directory fails the build by name rather than packing a bundle
 	// that starts nowhere: the image predates this and must be rebuilt first.
+	//
+	// *Since the bundler (below):* copied only for a bundle that names packages it keeps external,
+	// which cannot be inlined; a bundle with none carries no node_modules at all.
 	Dependencies string
+	// Bundler is the bundler inside the toolchain image that makes each compiled entrypoint and each
+	// launcher ONE self-contained file (novox/hq ADR 0193): every served bundle is its own process
+	// now, so each carries its own copy of what it imports — the SDK included — and nothing else.
+	// A bundle shrinks from the toolchain's whole node_modules to the code it runs. Empty for a
+	// language whose build is already one file.
+	Bundler string
 	// SystemStamp is the variable this language's linker fills with the artifact's declared system,
 	// for a language whose binaries are pinned to one at link time (novox/hq ADR 0005).
 	//
@@ -139,6 +149,7 @@ var toolchains = []Toolchain{
 		Unit:         UnitSources,
 		SourceExt:    ".ts",
 		Dependencies: "/app/runtime",
+		Bundler:      "/app/node_modules/esbuild/bin/esbuild",
 	},
 	{
 		Language: "go",

internal/catalogue/bound_into_files.go

@@ -21,9 +21,8 @@ import (
 // formats and gains no fields.
 //
 // **It stays name-agnostic** ([ADR 0027]). The mesh does not learn what a `postgres-database` is:
-// `at`, `as`, `from` and `address` (the providing machine's private address, novox/hq ADR 0194) are
-// facts about any provision at all, and everything else comes from what the provider said it
-// serves — whose keys are agreed by the requirement's name, not by this file.
+// `at`, `as` and `from` are facts about any provision at all, and everything else comes from what
+// the provider said it serves — whose keys are agreed by the requirement's name, not by this file.
 
 // bound is where a module says a value from one of its bindings belongs:
 // ${bound:<provision>.<key>}.

internal/catalogue/bound_into_files_test.go

@@ -232,34 +232,3 @@ func TestTwoModulesOnOneNodeAreTwoIdentities(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatal("one module on two machines shares an identity")
 	}
 }
-
-// A machine's resolver configuration must name its resolver by address — it cannot resolve the name
-// of the thing it resolves names with (novox/hq ADR 0194). So a binding offers the providing
-// machine's private address beside its name, and only when the machine has one.
-func TestABindingOffersTheProvidersAddress(t *testing.T) {
-	consumer := func() Resolution {
-		return Resolution{
-			Node: "workstation",
-			Modules: []Manifest{{
-				Module:   "resolv-conf",
-				Requires: []string{"wildcard-resolution"},
-				Resources: []map[string]any{{
-					"id": "resolv", "type": "file", "path": "/etc/resolv.conf", "mode": "0644",
-					"content": "nameserver ${bound:wildcard-resolution:address}\n",
-				}},
-			}},
-			Needs: []Needed{{Name: "wildcard-resolution", From: "anchor", At: "anchor.internal", For: "resolv-conf"}},
-		}
-	}
-	out, err := consumer().Declaration(Rendering{Machines: map[string]string{"anchor.internal": "10.77.0.1"}})
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatal(err)
-	}
-	if got := fileNamed(out, "resolv-conf.resolv")["content"]; got != "nameserver 10.77.0.1\n" {
-		t.Fatalf("the resolver is not named by its address: %q", got)
-	}
-	// A machine with no address yet: refused, never written with a blank where the address belongs.
-	if _, err := consumer().Declaration(Rendering{}); err == nil {
-		t.Fatal("a file naming an address the mesh does not have was composed")
-	}
-}

internal/catalogue/build.go

@@ -214,6 +214,11 @@ 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.External) > 0 && (a.Kind != ArtifactBundle || a.Language != "typescript") {
+			problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
+				"%s: %q names packages it keeps external, and only a TypeScript bundle is bundled into "+
+					"one file with some kept out (novox/hq ADR 0193)", module, a.Name))
+		}
 		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 "+

internal/catalogue/declaration.go

@@ -155,10 +155,6 @@ type Rendering struct {
 	// standing beside the machines and looking as real as they do.
 	Machines map[string]string
 
-	// Zones is every zone a module in the mesh answers itself, where it is answered (novox/hq ADR
-	// 0199): the mesh's resolver forwards each one there.
-	Zones []ZoneAt
-
 	Settings   SettingsBy
 	Generators map[string]Generator
 	// Grants are the credentials this node must create, for the provisions it offers. Passed in
@@ -736,16 +732,6 @@ func (r Resolution) compose(with Rendering, owner map[string]string,
 				known[provision] = values
 			}
 		}
-		// And the providing machine's private address, beside its name (novox/hq ADR 0194). A name is
-		// what nearly every consumer wants; the one that cannot use it is a machine's resolver
-		// configuration, which must reach the resolver before it can resolve anything — the resolver's
-		// own name included. Absent when the machine has no address yet, so a file naming it is refused
-		// rather than written with a blank where an address belongs.
-		for _, values := range known {
-			if address := with.Machines[values["at"]]; address != "" {
-				values["address"] = address
-			}
-		}
 		// And what the module is called through each requirement it contributes to (novox/hq
 		// 04-ISSUES/122) — the same composition its binding file carries.
 		for provision, values := range known {
@@ -915,7 +901,7 @@ func (r Resolution) compose(with Rendering, owner map[string]string,
 		// plane's; making a name resolve is the module's software. Emitted as ordinary files under
 		// this module's name, so they are applied, reported and removed exactly as anything else
 		// it declares.
-		given, err := FactsWithZonesInto(m, r, with.Names, with.Machines, with.Accounts, with.Suffix, with.Zones)
+		given, err := FactsInto(m, r, with.Names, with.Machines, with.Accounts, with.Suffix)
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}

internal/catalogue/foundation_manifests_test.go

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package catalogue
 
 import (
+	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"os"
 	"reflect"
@@ -170,7 +171,7 @@ func TestTheForgeHoldsTheNpmAndGitSeats(t *testing.T) {
 // **And the forge's own address follows it**, composed from the manifest in the catalogue beside
 // this checkout (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/088).
 //
-// The forge is reached a third way that neither test above covers: by its own sidecar, over the
+// The forge is reached a third way that neither test above covers: by its own code, over the
 // machine's loopback, told where to go in its environment. The `2999:3000` mapping that lets the
 // forge go on binding 3000 does nothing for a caller dialling the machine — so a literal there is
 // wrong on every node whose assignment differs, and wrong for a second reason on a node given the
@@ -178,13 +179,13 @@ func TestTheForgeHoldsTheNpmAndGitSeats(t *testing.T) {
 // in an `env` at all is a declaration, not a manifest.
 func TestTheForgesOwnAddressFollowsThePortTheNodeGaveIt(t *testing.T) {
 	forge, err := catalogueManifest(t, "gitea").Resolve([]Built{{
-		Name: "runtime", Kind: ArtifactImage,
-		Reference: "registry.example/gitea-runtime@sha256:" + strings.Repeat("a", 64),
+		Name: "code", Kind: ArtifactBundle,
+		Reference: ArtifactStoreScheme + "gitea/code/blobs/" + bundleDigest, Digest: bundleDigest,
 	}})
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("the forge's manifest does not resolve against its own build: %v", err)
 	}
-	r := Resolution{Node: "anchor", Modules: []Manifest{forge}, Needs: []Needed{
+	r := Resolution{Node: "anchor", Modules: []Manifest{forge, theRuntime(t)}, Needs: []Needed{
 		{Name: "postgres-database", For: "gitea", From: "anchor", At: "127.0.0.1",
 			Serves: map[string]any{"port": float64(5432)}, Sealed: "sealed-db"},
 		{Name: "route", For: "gitea", From: "anchor"},
@@ -194,8 +195,8 @@ func TestTheForgesOwnAddressFollowsThePortTheNodeGaveIt(t *testing.T) {
 
 	// The number this node was given for the forge — the one the machine it is about to run on
 	// already publishes.
-	out, err := r.Declaration(Rendering{
-		Needed: map[string]map[string]string{"gitea": {"broker": "sealed-broker"}},
+	out, err := r.Declaration(Rendering{ArtifactStore: "anchor.internal:5101",
+		Needed: map[string]map[string]string{RuntimeModule: {"broker": "sealed-broker"}},
 		Given:  map[string]map[int]int{"gitea": {3000: 2999}},
 	})
 	if err != nil {
@@ -210,14 +211,19 @@ func TestTheForgesOwnAddressFollowsThePortTheNodeGaveIt(t *testing.T) {
 	if published := fmt.Sprint(server["ports"]); !strings.Contains(published, "2999:3000") {
 		t.Fatalf("the forge is not published on the port this node gave it: %v", server["ports"])
 	}
-	runtime := fileNamed(out, "gitea.runtime")
+	// The forge's own code runs in the node's runtime (novox/hq ADR 0198), given its words there.
+	runtime := fileNamed(out, RuntimeModule+"."+RuntimeProcessID())
 	if runtime == nil {
-		t.Fatalf("the forge's sidecar is not in the declaration: %v", out)
+		t.Fatalf("the node's runtime is not in the declaration: %v", ids(out))
 	}
-	env, _ := runtime["env"].(map[string]any)
-	if env["MESH_GITEA_URL"] != "http://127.0.0.1:2999" {
-		t.Fatalf("the forge's sidecar dials %v while the machine publishes the forge on 2999 — "+
-			"whatever reads it dials a dead port", env["MESH_GITEA_URL"])
+	env, _ := runtime["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])
+	}
+	if given["gitea"]["MESH_GITEA_URL"] != "http://127.0.0.1:2999" {
+		t.Fatalf("the forge's code dials %v while the machine publishes the forge on 2999 — "+
+			"whatever reads it dials a dead port", given["gitea"]["MESH_GITEA_URL"])
 	}
 }
 
@@ -229,13 +235,13 @@ func declaredGiteaSsh(t *testing.T, given map[int]int) map[string]any {
 	t.Helper()
 	forge := catalogueManifest(t, "gitea")
 	resolved, err := forge.Resolve([]Built{{
-		Name: "runtime", Kind: ArtifactImage,
-		Reference: "registry.example/gitea-runtime@sha256:" + strings.Repeat("a", 64),
+		Name: "code", Kind: ArtifactBundle,
+		Reference: ArtifactStoreScheme + "gitea/code/blobs/" + bundleDigest, Digest: bundleDigest,
 	}})
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("the forge's manifest does not resolve against its own build: %v", err)
 	}
-	r := Resolution{Node: "anchor", Modules: []Manifest{resolved}, Needs: []Needed{
+	r := Resolution{Node: "anchor", Modules: []Manifest{resolved, theRuntime(t)}, Needs: []Needed{
 		{Name: "postgres-database", For: "gitea", From: "anchor", At: "127.0.0.1",
 			Serves: map[string]any{"port": float64(5432)}, Sealed: "sealed-db"},
 		{Name: "route", For: "gitea", From: "anchor"},
@@ -246,8 +252,8 @@ func declaredGiteaSsh(t *testing.T, given map[int]int) map[string]any {
 	for k, v := range given {
 		givenPorts[k] = v
 	}
-	out, err := r.Declaration(Rendering{
-		Needed: map[string]map[string]string{"gitea": {"broker": "sealed-broker"}},
+	out, err := r.Declaration(Rendering{ArtifactStore: "anchor.internal:5101",
+		Needed: map[string]map[string]string{RuntimeModule: {"broker": "sealed-broker"}},
 		Ports:  map[string]map[int]int{"gitea": givenPorts},
 		Given:  map[string]map[int]int{"gitea": given},
 	})

internal/catalogue/manifest.go

@@ -540,10 +540,6 @@ type Manifest struct {
 	// `restart-on` names to restart when the roster changes.
 	Facts map[string]RosterFile `json:"facts,omitempty"`
 
-	// Zone is the zone of names this module answers itself, and the listen that answers it (novox/hq
-	// ADR 0199). The mesh's resolver forwards the zone to it; nothing here names an address.
-	Zone *Zone `json:"zone,omitempty"`
-
 	// Certificate is where this module wants a certificate for its machine's name inside the
 	// mesh, and where the key that goes with it can be found.
 	//
@@ -761,6 +757,11 @@ type Artifact struct {
 	// list twice. A module declaring no tools has nothing the runtime loads, whatever it compiles.
 	Loads []string `json:"loads,omitempty"`
 
+	// External are packages a TypeScript bundle keeps as imports rather than inlining — a native
+	// addon, a package that reads its own files — and so carries the toolchain's node_modules for
+	// (novox/hq ADR 0193). Absent for nearly every bundle, which is then one file per entrypoint.
+	External []string `json:"external,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.
@@ -1746,7 +1747,6 @@ func ParseManifest(raw []byte) (Manifest, error) {
 		}
 	}
 
-	problems = append(problems, zoneProblems(m)...)
 	if len(problems) > 0 {
 		sort.Strings(problems)
 		return Manifest{}, fmt.Errorf("this manifest cannot be used:\n  - %s",

internal/catalogue/port_into.go

@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ import (
 //
 // So a module asks. `${port:8080}` is "the machine-side port you gave me for the 8080 I said I
 // listen on", and the module writes that where it would otherwise have written a literal — in a
-// file's content, or in a value of a container's `env`.
+// file's content, or in a value of a container's or a process's `env`.
 //
 // **The environment is filled by the control plane, exactly as a bound value is.** A port is not
 // secret — the mesh holds it in the clear — so there is nothing for the host to be the only
@@ -64,7 +64,12 @@ func portsUsed(content string) []int {
 }
 
 // portInto replaces a resource's ${port:…} placeholders with what this machine assigned — in a
-// file's content, and in a value of a container's environment.
+// file's content, and in a value of a container's or a process's environment.
+//
+// **A process's environment is a container's** (novox/hq to-be 38 WP4c). A module's code moving out
+// of its container becomes a process on the machine and still has to be told what the container
+// was told; filled for one kind and not the other, the literal reached the process and was read as
+// a port, and the modules that moved first wrote their run-once steps a 0600 env file instead.
 //
 // A port the module did not say it listens on is refused, for the same reason a binding's unknown
 // key is: the module is asking about something it never declared, and the answer would be a guess.
@@ -84,7 +89,7 @@ func portInto(resource map[string]any, module string, listens []Listening, with
 		}
 		resource["content"] = filled
 
-	case "container":
+	case "container", "process":
 		env, ok := resource["env"].(map[string]any)
 		if !ok {
 			return nil
@@ -106,8 +111,8 @@ func portInto(resource map[string]any, module string, listens []Listening, with
 				continue
 			}
 			value, err := portsFilledInto(written,
-				fmt.Sprintf("%s's container %s sets %s to something that",
-					module, resource["name"], key), module, listens, with)
+				fmt.Sprintf("%s's %s %s sets %s to something that",
+					module, resource["type"], resource["name"], key), module, listens, with)
 			if err != nil {
 				return err
 			}

internal/catalogue/process_env_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+package catalogue
+
+import (
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// **A process's environment is composed as a container's is** (novox/hq to-be 38 WP4c).
+//
+// A module's code moving out of its container becomes a process on the machine, and what its
+// container's environment asked for — the port this machine gave the module, the place it put the
+// module's directory — it still has to be told. Filled for a container and not for a process, the
+// literal `${port:8080}` reached the process as its environment and was read as a port; the modules
+// that moved first wrote their run-once steps an env file instead.
+func processModule(env map[string]any) Manifest {
+	return Manifest{
+		Module:  "showcase",
+		Listens: []Listening{{Port: 8080, From: FromMesh}},
+		Resources: []map[string]any{
+			{"id": "data", "type": "directory", "mode": "0700"},
+			{"id": "setup", "type": "process", "name": "showcase-setup", "run-once": true,
+				"run": []any{"/usr/bin/showcase", "setup"}, "env": env},
+		},
+	}
+}
+
+func TestAProcessIsToldItsPortAndItsPlaceInItsEnvironment(t *testing.T) {
+	env := map[string]any{
+		"SHOWCASE_URL":  "http://127.0.0.1:${port:8080}",
+		"SHOWCASE_DATA": "${dir:data}/objects",
+		"SHOWCASE_DB":   "127.0.0.1:${seat:mesh-store:5432}",
+		"GREETING":      "hello",
+	}
+	out, err := Resolution{Node: "anchor", Modules: []Manifest{processModule(env)}}.Declaration(Rendering{
+		Ports: map[string]map[int]int{"showcase": {8080: 21000}},
+		Seats: map[string]map[int]int{"mesh-store": {5432: 6852}},
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("a process asking for its port and its place does not compose: %v", err)
+	}
+	setup := fileNamed(out, "showcase.setup")
+	if setup == nil {
+		t.Fatalf("the process is not in the declaration: %v", out)
+	}
+	got, _ := setup["env"].(map[string]any)
+	for key, want := range map[string]string{
+		"SHOWCASE_URL":  "http://127.0.0.1:21000",
+		"SHOWCASE_DATA": "/var/lib/showcase/data/objects",
+		"SHOWCASE_DB":   "127.0.0.1:6852",
+		"GREETING":      "hello",
+	} {
+		if got[key] != want {
+			t.Errorf("the process is told %s=%v, want %q", key, got[key], want)
+		}
+	}
+	if env["SHOWCASE_URL"] != "http://127.0.0.1:${port:8080}" {
+		t.Fatalf("composing for one machine edited the module's own manifest: %v", env)
+	}
+}
+
+// An unknown reference in a process's environment is refused as a container's is, naming the
+// process and the variable — left alone, it would reach the machine as a literal.
+func TestAProcessAskingAboutAnUndeclaredPortIsRefused(t *testing.T) {
+	env := map[string]any{"SHOWCASE_URL": "http://127.0.0.1:${port:9999}"}
+	_, err := Resolution{Node: "anchor", Modules: []Manifest{processModule(env)}}.Declaration(Rendering{})
+	if err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("a process was told a port its module never said it listens on")
+	}
+	for _, said := range []string{"showcase-setup", "SHOWCASE_URL", "${port:9999}", "8080"} {
+		if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), said) {
+			t.Errorf("the refusal does not say %q: %v", said, err)
+		}
+	}
+
+	env = map[string]any{"SHOWCASE_DATA": "${dir:date}/objects"}
+	if _, err := (Resolution{Node: "anchor", Modules: []Manifest{processModule(env)}}).Declaration(Rendering{}); err == nil ||
+		!strings.Contains(err.Error(), "${dir:date}") {
+		t.Fatalf("a process naming no directory of its module was not refused: %v", err)
+	}
+}

internal/catalogue/resolver_manifests_test.go

@@ -48,12 +48,9 @@ func TestTheResolverForwardsToFixedUpstreamsAndNeverReadsResolvConf(t *testing.T
 	}
 	for _, want := range []string{
 		"\nno-resolv\n", "\nserver=1.1.1.1\n", "\nserver=8.8.8.8\n",
-		// The private address and loopback, never a LAN's (novox/hq ADR 0194): a device that is not a
-		// member cannot reach what the mesh's names point at.
-		"\nlisten-address=127.0.0.1\n", "\nlisten-address=${machine:address}\n", "\nbind-dynamic\n",
-		// No hosts file and no operator's files: the mesh's resolver answers every node (ADR 0199).
-		"\nno-hosts\n",
-		"\nconf-file=" + m.Facts["zones"].Path + "\n",
+		// Loopback is the mesh-wide setting's default; a machine answering its own LAN adds its
+		// address there (novox/hq issue 198).
+		"\nlisten-address=${setting:listen-addresses}\n", "\nlisten-address=${machine:address}\n", "\nbind-dynamic\n",
 		"\ndomain-needed\n", "\nbogus-priv\n",
 		"\nconf-file=" + m.Facts["node-zones"].Path + "\n",
 	} {
@@ -76,15 +73,7 @@ func TestTheResolverForwardsToFixedUpstreamsAndNeverReadsResolvConf(t *testing.T
 			t.Errorf("the resolver listens on %s", taken)
 		}
 	}
-	// Never a directory or a file the operator keeps: a line written for one machine's programs would
-	// become an answer for every node (ADR 0199).
-	for _, never := range []string{"conf-dir=", "addn-hosts=", "listen-address=${setting:"} {
-		if strings.Contains(config, never) {
-			t.Errorf("the mesh's resolver still reads or listens on %q", never)
-		}
-	}
-	// And the file that decides what the machine asks names the mesh's resolver first, by address,
-	// and a public one second, asked only when the first is silent (ADR 0196).
+	// And the file that decides what the machine asks names it there, alone.
 	var resolv string
 	for _, r := range catalogueManifest(t, "resolv-conf").Resources {
 		if r["path"] == "/etc/resolv.conf" {
@@ -97,16 +86,13 @@ func TestTheResolverForwardsToFixedUpstreamsAndNeverReadsResolvConf(t *testing.T
 			nameservers = append(nameservers, strings.TrimPrefix(line, "nameserver "))
 		}
 	}
-	if len(nameservers) != 2 || nameservers[0] != "${bound:wildcard-resolution:address}" || nameservers[1] != "1.1.1.1" {
-		t.Errorf("resolv.conf names %v; the mesh's resolver by address first, a public one second", nameservers)
+	if len(nameservers) != 1 || nameservers[0] != "127.0.0.1" {
+		t.Errorf("resolv.conf names %v; the predecessor's names the mesh's resolver alone at 127.0.0.1", nameservers)
 	}
-	if !strings.Contains(resolv, "\noptions timeout:1 attempts:1") {
-		t.Errorf("the fallback is not reached after one short attempt:\n%s", resolv)
-	}
-	// The split-DNS alternative points at the same resolver, or a machine that keeps
+	// The split-DNS alternative points at the same address, or a machine that keeps
 	// systemd-resolved in charge would route the mesh's suffix to nothing.
 	for _, r := range catalogueManifest(t, "resolved-split-dns").Resources {
-		if content, _ := r["content"].(string); content != "" && !strings.Contains(content, "DNS=${bound:wildcard-resolution:address}\n") {
+		if content, _ := r["content"].(string); content != "" && !strings.Contains(content, "DNS=127.0.0.1\n") {
 			t.Errorf("resolved-split-dns does not point at the resolver's address:\n%s", content)
 		}
 	}
@@ -114,8 +100,7 @@ func TestTheResolverForwardsToFixedUpstreamsAndNeverReadsResolvConf(t *testing.T
 
 // The resolver and what points the machine at it compose on one machine, and what arrives is the
 // mesh's account of every machine as a wildcard, the suffix kept local, the daemon restarting on
-// that file, the machine pointed at the resolver by address, and the runtime given no resolver of
-// its own but kept running across a restart (ADR 0196).
+// that file, and the runtime pointed at this machine's own address.
 func TestTheResolverAndWhatAsksItComposeOnOneMachine(t *testing.T) {
 	got, err := Resolve(resolverShelf(t), []string{"dnsmasq", "resolv-conf"},
 		Node{Name: "anchor", At: "anchor.internal"}, World{})
@@ -130,7 +115,6 @@ func TestTheResolverAndWhatAsksItComposeOnOneMachine(t *testing.T) {
 		// issue 111) — the resolver's zones read only the second, and in this scenario the two
 		// happen to be the same map, since nothing routed is part of it.
 		Names: twoMachines, Machines: twoMachines, Suffix: "internal",
-		Zones:    []ZoneAt{{Zone: "incus", Address: "10.42.0.2", Port: 5353}},
 		Needed:   map[string]map[string]string{"dnsmasq": {"broker": "sealed"}},
 		Settings: SettingsBy{"dnsmasq": {{From: "the mesh", Values: map[string]any{"listen-addresses": "127.0.0.1"}}}},
 	})
@@ -160,29 +144,24 @@ func TestTheResolverAndWhatAsksItComposeOnOneMachine(t *testing.T) {
 	for _, id := range service["restart-on"].([]any) {
 		reflects[id.(string)] = true
 	}
-	if !reflects["dnsmasq.config"] || !reflects["dnsmasq.fact-node-zones"] || !reflects["dnsmasq.fact-zones"] {
-		t.Errorf("the daemon does not restart on its configuration, the machines and the zones: %v", service["restart-on"])
-	}
-	if z, _ := ids["dnsmasq.fact-zones"]["content"].(string); !strings.Contains(z, "server=/incus/10.42.0.2#5353\n") {
-		t.Errorf("the resolver was not told to forward the zone to its answerer:\n%s", z)
+	if !reflects["dnsmasq.config"] || !reflects["dnsmasq.fact-node-zones"] {
+		t.Errorf("the daemon does not restart on its configuration and the machines file both: %v", service["restart-on"])
 	}
 
-	// The runtime's own file, written into (novox/hq ADR 0102) with one key, by what decides how the
-	// machine resolves: a restart keeps every container running. No `dns` — a container copies its
-	// machine's resolvers (ADR 0196), and the mesh's resolver is not written into the runtime twice.
-	if ids["dnsmasq.runtime-dns"] != nil {
-		t.Errorf("the resolver still writes the runtime's dns: %v", ids["dnsmasq.runtime-dns"])
-	}
-	runtime := ids["resolv-conf.runtime-config"]
+	// The runtime's own file, written into (novox/hq ADR 0102) with the keys this module states:
+	// where containers resolve, and that a restart keeps them running — because the runtime reads
+	// `dns` only when it starts, and the one restart that needs is the operator's (issue 110).
+	runtime := ids["dnsmasq.runtime-dns"]
 	if runtime == nil || runtime["path"] != "/etc/docker/daemon.json" || runtime["into"] != "json" {
-		t.Fatalf("live-restore is not written into the runtime's file: %v", runtime)
+		t.Fatalf("the runtime's dns is not written into its file: %v", runtime)
 	}
 	var keys map[string]any
 	if err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(runtime["content"].(string)), &keys); err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("the runtime's keys are not JSON: %v", err)
 	}
-	if len(keys) != 1 || keys["live-restore"] != true {
-		t.Errorf("the runtime is given %v; live-restore and nothing else", keys)
+	dns, _ := keys["dns"].([]any)
+	if len(keys) != 2 || len(dns) != 1 || dns[0] != "10.42.0.1" || keys["live-restore"] != true {
+		t.Errorf("the runtime is given %v; containers resolve at this machine's own private-network address, a restart keeps them, and nothing else is written", keys)
 	}
 	// The runtime is reloaded when that file changes, and never restarted: a restart stops every
 	// container on the machine (ADR 0102), and a reload is what turns live-restore on.
@@ -192,10 +171,10 @@ func TestTheResolverAndWhatAsksItComposeOnOneMachine(t *testing.T) {
 			continue
 		}
 		if _, restarts := r["restart-on"]; restarts {
-			t.Errorf("the runtime is ordered restarted, which stops every container (ADR 0102): %v", r)
+			t.Errorf("the resolver orders the runtime restarted, which stops every container (ADR 0102): %v", r)
 		}
 		for _, on := range asStrings(r["reload-on"]) {
-			if on == "resolv-conf.runtime-config" {
+			if on == "dnsmasq.runtime-dns" {
 				reloaded = true
 			}
 		}
@@ -205,8 +184,8 @@ func TestTheResolverAndWhatAsksItComposeOnOneMachine(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 
 	resolv := ids["resolv-conf.resolv"]
-	if resolv == nil || !strings.Contains(resolv["content"].(string), "\nnameserver 10.42.0.1\nnameserver 1.1.1.1\n") {
-		t.Fatalf("the machine is not pointed at the resolver by address, with the public fallback: %v", resolv)
+	if resolv == nil || !strings.Contains(resolv["content"].(string), "\nnameserver 127.0.0.1\n") {
+		t.Fatalf("the machine is not pointed at the resolver: %v", resolv)
 	}
 }
 

internal/catalogue/roster.go

@@ -61,16 +61,6 @@ type rosterView struct {
 	Suffix   string
 	Names    []rosterEntry
 	Machines []rosterEntry
-	// Zones is every zone a module in the mesh answers itself, with where its answerer is (novox/hq
-	// ADR 0199) — what the mesh's resolver forwards. Ordered by zone.
-	Zones []rosterZone
-}
-
-// rosterZone is one zone as a template sees it: the zone, and the address and port answering it.
-type rosterZone struct {
-	Zone    string
-	Address string
-	Port    int
 }
 
 // rosterEntry is one machine as a template sees it: its bare name, its full mesh name, its address,
@@ -90,12 +80,6 @@ type rosterEntry struct {
 // `machines` is only the machines — the two must not be confused (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/111), so both
 // are given and the template chooses.
 func FactsInto(m Manifest, r Resolution, every, machines, accounts map[string]string, suffix string) ([]map[string]any, error) {
-	return FactsWithZonesInto(m, r, every, machines, accounts, suffix, nil)
-}
-
-// FactsWithZonesInto is FactsInto with the mesh's zones in the view, for a template that ranges them.
-func FactsWithZonesInto(m Manifest, r Resolution, every, machines, accounts map[string]string, suffix string,
-	zones []ZoneAt) ([]map[string]any, error) {
 	if len(m.Facts) == 0 {
 		return nil, nil
 	}
@@ -110,7 +94,6 @@ func FactsWithZonesInto(m Manifest, r Resolution, every, machines, accounts map[
 		Suffix:   strings.TrimPrefix(suffixOr(suffix), "."),
 		Names:    entriesFrom(every, accounts, suffix),
 		Machines: entriesFrom(machines, accounts, suffix),
-		Zones:    zonesFrom(zones),
 	}
 
 	out := make([]map[string]any, 0, len(names))
@@ -240,13 +223,3 @@ func sortedNames(addresses map[string]string) []string {
 	sort.Strings(out)
 	return out
 }
-
-// zonesFrom is the zones a template ranges, ordered by zone so two renderings of one mesh are one file.
-func zonesFrom(zones []ZoneAt) []rosterZone {
-	out := make([]rosterZone, 0, len(zones))
-	for _, z := range zones {
-		out = append(out, rosterZone{Zone: z.Zone, Address: z.Address, Port: z.Port})
-	}
-	sort.Slice(out, func(i, j int) bool { return out[i].Zone < out[j].Zone })
-	return out
-}

internal/catalogue/seat_into.go

@@ -43,8 +43,8 @@ import (
 var ofSeat = regexp.MustCompile(`\$\{seat:([a-z0-9][a-z0-9-]*):([0-9]+)\}`)
 
 // seatInto replaces a resource's ${seat:…} placeholders with where this machine put each seat's
-// holder — in a file's content, and in a value of a container's environment. The same two places
-// portInto fills, for the same reason: they are where a process reads a number from.
+// holder — in a file's content, and in a value of a container's or a process's environment. The
+// same places portInto fills, for the same reason: they are where a program reads a number from.
 func seatInto(resource map[string]any, module string, with Rendering) error {
 	switch fmt.Sprint(resource["type"]) {
 	case "file":
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ func seatInto(resource map[string]any, module string, with Rendering) error {
 		}
 		resource["content"] = filled
 
-	case "container":
+	case "container", "process":
 		env, ok := resource["env"].(map[string]any)
 		if !ok {
 			return nil
@@ -78,8 +78,8 @@ func seatInto(resource map[string]any, module string, with Rendering) error {
 				continue
 			}
 			value, err := seatsFilledInto(written,
-				fmt.Sprintf("%s's container %s sets %s to something that",
-					module, resource["name"], key), with)
+				fmt.Sprintf("%s's %s %s sets %s to something that",
+					module, resource["type"], resource["name"], key), with)
 			if err != nil {
 				return err
 			}

internal/catalogue/seats.go

@@ -107,31 +107,7 @@ var defaultSeats = []Seat{
 	// that machine unresolvable in the meantime. Deleted once no registered manifest claims it.
 	{Name: "mesh-build-machine", Scope: ScopeMesh,
 		Accepts: []string{"build"}, Emits: []string{"started", "built", "log.*"}, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0190"},
-	// **The mesh's one resolver** (novox/hq ADR 0194, 0196): every node's internal domain, held in one
-	// place, and every node and container asks it first. Delivers what a machine's resolver
-	// configuration requires, so that requirement resolves to the holder wherever it is placed.
-	{Name: "mesh-dns-resolver", Scope: ScopeMesh, Delivers: "wildcard-resolution", Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0194"},
-	// **Retired by ADR 0194, kept while a manifest still claims it** — the same reason as
-	// mesh-build-machine above: a machine still holds it until the mesh's resolver replaces it, and
-	// removing the row first would make that machine unresolvable. Deleted once nothing claims it.
 	{Name: "node-dns-resolver", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0121"},
-	// **A machine's /etc/hosts is one module's** (novox/hq ADR 0199): its holder writes the machine's
-	// own lines and keeps every other line as the operator's, changed through these three verbs on that
-	// machine alone. The controller holds none of it.
-	{Name: "node-hosts-file", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0199",
-		Serves: []Verb{
-			{Name: "entries", Description: "Every line of this machine's /etc/hosts, each marked whose it is: " +
-				"the operator's, or the block of the module or tool that writes it.",
-				Input: schema(map[string]string{}, nil)},
-			{Name: "add", Description: "Add one address and its names to the operator's lines of this machine's " +
-				"/etc/hosts — a name for this machine's own programs, not the mesh's.",
-				Input: schema(map[string]string{"address": "the IPv4 or IPv6 address",
-					"names": "the names for it, separated by spaces"}, []string{"address", "names"})},
-			{Name: "remove", Description: "Remove one name, or every line of one address, from the operator's " +
-				"lines of this machine's /etc/hosts. A line a module writes is refused, naming the module.",
-				Input: schema(map[string]string{"name": "a host name, or an address to remove every line of"},
-					[]string{"name"})},
-		}},
 	// The intrusion prevention's verbs (novox/hq ADR 0179): what a person asks a machine's ban list
 	// whatever keeps it — who is banned and why, ban one address, let one go. Every holder serves all
 	// four; the jails themselves are composed from the modules the machine runs (to-be 31).

internal/catalogue/seats_test.go

@@ -44,10 +44,10 @@ func TestTheSeatsAreAClosedSetAndEachNamesItsDecision(t *testing.T) {
 			delivered[s.Delivers] = s.Name
 		}
 	}
-	// Nineteen since mesh-dns-resolver (novox/hq ADR 0194) and node-hosts-file (ADR 0199) — two fewer
-	// once the retired mesh-build-machine and node-dns-resolver rows go, when no manifest claims either.
-	if len(Seats()) != 19 {
-		t.Errorf("the mesh defines %d seats rather than 19; the set is closed, so a change here is "+
+	// Seventeen since node-build-agent (novox/hq ADR 0190) — sixteen once the retired
+	// mesh-build-machine row goes, when no registered manifest claims it any more.
+	if len(Seats()) != 17 {
+		t.Errorf("the mesh defines %d seats rather than 17; the set is closed, so a change here is "+
 			"a decision (novox/hq ADR 0110): %s", len(Seats()), seatNames())
 	}
 }

internal/catalogue/zones.go

@@ -1,117 +0,0 @@
-package catalogue
-
-import (
-	"fmt"
-	"sort"
-	"strings"
-)
-
-// Zones: names a module answers itself (novox/hq ADR 0199).
-//
-// The mesh's resolver holds each node's internal domain and nothing else (ADR 0191, 0194). A module
-// whose names are its own — the lab's scenario machines, known only while a scenario runs — declares
-// the zone it answers and the listen that answers it; the controller hands the resolver's holder every
-// zone with the declaring node's private address and the port that listen is published on, and the
-// holder forwards the zone there. **A definition names no address** (ADR 0112): the zone is a setting,
-// the listen is the module's own, and where they are is the mesh's fact.
-
-// Zone is the manifest's declaration that a module answers the names in one zone.
-type Zone struct {
-	// Name is the zone: a label or a dotted name, normally `${setting:<key>}`, so the operator chooses
-	// it and the definition does not.
-	Name string `json:"name"`
-	// Listen names one of the module's listens: the DNS answerer for the zone.
-	Listen string `json:"listen"`
-}
-
-// ZoneAt is a declared zone where the mesh placed it: what the resolver's holder forwards, and where.
-type ZoneAt struct {
-	Zone    string
-	Node    string
-	Module  string
-	Address string
-	Port    int
-}
-
-// zoneProblems is what is wrong with a module's zone declaration on its own, before any node.
-func zoneProblems(m Manifest) []string {
-	if m.Zone == nil {
-		return nil
-	}
-	var problems []string
-	if strings.TrimSpace(m.Zone.Name) == "" {
-		problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf("%s declares a zone with no name", m.Module))
-	}
-	if !m.hasListen(m.Zone.Listen) {
-		problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
-			"%s declares zone %q answered by listen %q, and has no listen of that name",
-			m.Module, m.Zone.Name, m.Zone.Listen))
-	}
-	return problems
-}
-
-func (m Manifest) hasListen(name string) bool {
-	if name == "" {
-		return false
-	}
-	for _, l := range m.Listens {
-		if l.Name == name {
-			return true
-		}
-	}
-	return false
-}
-
-// ZoneOn is one module's zone as one node places it: the name settled from the node's settings, the
-// port its answering listen is published on there. Nothing when the module declares no zone.
-func ZoneOn(m Manifest, layers []Layer, published map[int]int, node, address string) (*ZoneAt, error) {
-	if m.Zone == nil {
-		return nil, nil
-	}
-	settled, err := Settle(map[string]any{"zone": m.Zone.Name}, layers)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("%s's zone on %s: %w", m.Module, node, err)
-	}
-	zone := strings.Trim(strings.ToLower(fmt.Sprint(settled["zone"])), ".")
-	var port int
-	for _, l := range m.Listens {
-		if l.Name == m.Zone.Listen {
-			port = l.Port
-			if at, given := published[l.Port]; given {
-				port = at
-			}
-		}
-	}
-	return &ZoneAt{Zone: zone, Node: node, Module: m.Module, Address: address, Port: port}, nil
-}
-
-// ZonesProblems is what the mesh refuses about its zones together: one zone declared twice, a zone
-// that is the mesh's suffix or under it, a zone that is a node's public domain or under one. A module
-// may not shadow names the mesh's resolver or the public DNS answers.
-func ZonesProblems(zones []ZoneAt, suffix string, publicDomains []string) []string {
-	var problems []string
-	under := func(zone, domain string) bool {
-		domain = strings.Trim(strings.ToLower(domain), ".")
-		return domain != "" && (zone == domain || strings.HasSuffix(zone, "."+domain))
-	}
-	seen := map[string]ZoneAt{}
-	for _, z := range zones {
-		if other, twice := seen[z.Zone]; twice && (other.Node != z.Node || other.Module != z.Module) {
-			problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf("zone %q is declared by %s on %s and by %s on %s; one module answers a zone",
-				z.Zone, other.Module, other.Node, z.Module, z.Node))
-		}
-		seen[z.Zone] = z
-		if under(z.Zone, suffix) {
-			problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf("%s on %s declares zone %q, which is the mesh's own suffix or under it",
-				z.Module, z.Node, z.Zone))
-		}
-		for _, d := range publicDomains {
-			if under(z.Zone, d) {
-				problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf("%s on %s declares zone %q, which is the public domain %q or under it",
-					z.Module, z.Node, z.Zone, d))
-			}
-		}
-	}
-	sort.Strings(problems)
-	return problems
-}

internal/catalogue/zones_test.go

@@ -1,78 +0,0 @@
-package catalogue
-
-import (
-	"strings"
-	"testing"
-)
-
-// A zone names the listen that answers it, or there is nothing to forward to (novox/hq ADR 0199).
-func TestAZoneMustNameOneOfTheModulesListens(t *testing.T) {
-	_, err := ParseManifest([]byte(`{"module":"lab","version":"1",
-		"listens":[{"name":"dns","port":5353,"protocol":"udp","from":"mesh","why":"the lab's names"}],
-		"zone":{"name":"${setting:zone}","listen":"web"}}`))
-	if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), `has no listen of that name`) {
-		t.Fatalf("a zone answered by a listen the module does not have was accepted: %v", err)
-	}
-	if _, err := ParseManifest([]byte(`{"module":"lab","version":"1",
-		"listens":[{"name":"dns","port":5353,"protocol":"udp","from":"mesh","why":"the lab's names"}],
-		"zone":{"name":"${setting:zone}","listen":"dns"}}`)); err != nil {
-		t.Fatalf("a well-formed zone was refused: %v", err)
-	}
-}
-
-// The zone is the operator's (a setting) and the port is where this machine publishes the listen —
-// neither is the definition's to state.
-func TestAZoneIsPlacedFromTheNodesSettingAndPublishedPort(t *testing.T) {
-	m := Manifest{Module: "lab", Zone: &Zone{Name: "${setting:zone}", Listen: "dns"},
-		Listens: []Listening{{Name: "dns", Port: 5353, From: FromMesh}}}
-	z, err := ZoneOn(m, []Layer{{From: "node", Values: map[string]any{"zone": "Incus."}}},
-		map[int]int{5353: 15353}, "workstation", "10.77.0.3")
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatal(err)
-	}
-	if z.Zone != "incus" || z.Address != "10.77.0.3" || z.Port != 15353 || z.Node != "workstation" {
-		t.Fatalf("the zone was placed as %+v", *z)
-	}
-	if _, err := ZoneOn(m, nil, nil, "workstation", "10.77.0.3"); err == nil {
-		t.Fatal("a zone nobody named was placed")
-	}
-}
-
-// One module answers a zone, and none may shadow the mesh's names or a public domain.
-func TestTheMeshRefusesAZoneTwiceOrOneThatShadows(t *testing.T) {
-	one := ZoneAt{Zone: "incus", Node: "workstation", Module: "lab", Address: "10.77.0.3", Port: 53}
-	if p := ZonesProblems([]ZoneAt{one}, "internal", []string{"example.tld"}); len(p) != 0 {
-		t.Fatalf("one ordinary zone was refused: %v", p)
-	}
-	twice := one
-	twice.Node, twice.Module = "laptop", "other"
-	cases := map[string][]ZoneAt{
-		"declared by":       {one, twice},
-		"mesh's own suffix": {{Zone: "lab.internal", Node: "a", Module: "m"}},
-		"public domain":     {{Zone: "dev.example.tld", Node: "a", Module: "m"}},
-	}
-	for want, zones := range cases {
-		p := strings.Join(ZonesProblems(zones, "internal", []string{"example.tld"}), "\n")
-		if !strings.Contains(p, want) {
-			t.Errorf("not refused for %q: %q", want, p)
-		}
-	}
-}
-
-// The resolver's template sees every zone with where it is answered, in zone order.
-func TestTheResolversTemplateRangesTheZones(t *testing.T) {
-	m := Manifest{Module: "dnsmasq", Facts: map[string]RosterFile{"zones": {
-		Path:     "/etc/mesh-resolver/zones.conf",
-		Template: "{{range .Zones}}server=/{{.Zone}}/{{.Address}}#{{.Port}}\n{{end}}",
-	}}}
-	out, err := FactsWithZonesInto(m, Resolution{Node: "anchor"}, nil, nil, nil, "", []ZoneAt{
-		{Zone: "zeta", Address: "10.77.0.2", Port: 53},
-		{Zone: "incus", Address: "10.77.0.3", Port: 15353},
-	})
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatal(err)
-	}
-	if got := out[0]["content"]; got != "server=/incus/10.77.0.3#15353\nserver=/zeta/10.77.0.2#53\n" {
-		t.Fatalf("the resolver was told %q", got)
-	}
-}

internal/inventory/builds.go

@@ -42,9 +42,29 @@ type Build struct {
 	// Failed is the builder's own words, empty when it worked.
 	Failed string
 	Made   []Artifact
-	At     time.Time
+	// Asked is when the build was requested, zero when that is not known (an id of another shape,
+	// or a build recorded before the mesh kept it). **What orders one build of a module against
+	// another** (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/219): builds in flight together finish in any order, and the
+	// one asked last stood on the newest bases.
+	Asked time.Time
+	// At is when the outcome was recorded — when it finished, not when it was asked.
+	At time.Time
 }
 
+// AskedOrAt is when the build was asked, or when it was recorded when that is not known — the
+// order the mesh had before it kept the request time.
+func (b Build) AskedOrAt() time.Time {
+	if !b.Asked.IsZero() {
+		return b.Asked
+	}
+	return b.At
+}
+
+// newestRequestFirst is the ordering every "what a module currently is" question uses: the newest
+// request wins, whenever it finished (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/219). A build whose request time is not
+// known is placed at the moment it was recorded, which is the rule that held before.
+const newestRequestFirst = `coalesce(asked, at) desc, at desc`
+
 // ReadRepository is a repository a build read source from besides the module's own.
 type ReadRepository struct {
 	Repository string `json:"repository"`
@@ -83,13 +103,17 @@ func (i *Inventory) RecordBuild(ctx context.Context, b Build) error {
 	if b.Module != "" {
 		module = &b.Module
 	}
+	var asked *time.Time
+	if !b.Asked.IsZero() {
+		asked = &b.Asked
+	}
 	_, err = i.store.Pool().Exec(ctx,
 		`insert into build (id, repository, ref, module, commit_hash, built_on, failed, made,
-		                    source_path, manifest, built_against, built_contexts)
-		 values ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, $7, $8, $9, $10, $11, $12)
+		                    source_path, manifest, built_against, built_contexts, asked)
+		 values ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, $7, $8, $9, $10, $11, $12, $13)
 		 on conflict (id) do nothing`,
 		b.ID, b.Repository, b.Ref, module, b.Commit, b.On, b.Failed, made,
-		b.Path, manifestOrNil(b.Manifest), against, read)
+		b.Path, manifestOrNil(b.Manifest), against, read, asked)
 	return err
 }
 
@@ -102,11 +126,11 @@ func (i *Inventory) Builds(ctx context.Context, module string, limit int) ([]Bui
 	if limit <= 0 {
 		limit = 20
 	}
-	query := `select id, repository, ref, coalesce(module,''), commit_hash, built_on, failed, made, at
+	query := `select id, repository, ref, coalesce(module,''), commit_hash, built_on, failed, made, asked, at
 	          from build order by at desc limit $1`
 	args := []any{limit}
 	if module != "" {
-		query = `select id, repository, ref, coalesce(module,''), commit_hash, built_on, failed, made, at
+		query = `select id, repository, ref, coalesce(module,''), commit_hash, built_on, failed, made, asked, at
 		         from build where module = $2 order by at desc limit $1`
 		args = append(args, module)
 	}
@@ -121,10 +145,14 @@ func (i *Inventory) Builds(ctx context.Context, module string, limit int) ([]Bui
 	for rows.Next() {
 		var b Build
 		var made []byte
+		var asked *time.Time
 		if err := rows.Scan(&b.ID, &b.Repository, &b.Ref, &b.Module, &b.Commit,
-			&b.On, &b.Failed, &made, &b.At); err != nil {
+			&b.On, &b.Failed, &made, &asked, &b.At); err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
+		if asked != nil {
+			b.Asked = *asked
+		}
 		if err := json.Unmarshal(made, &b.Made); err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
@@ -135,8 +163,9 @@ func (i *Inventory) Builds(ctx context.Context, module string, limit int) ([]Bui
 
 // Held is every artifact this mesh has built, keyed "<module>/<artifact>".
 //
-// **The newest successful build of each module wins**, which is the same rule the rest of the mesh
-// uses for what a module currently is. A module rebuilt to something broken and then rebuilt again
+// **The successful build of each module asked last wins**, which is the same rule the rest of the
+// mesh uses for what a module currently is — asked last, not finished last (novox/hq
+// 04-ISSUES/219): an older request that finishes later stood on older bases. A module rebuilt to something broken and then rebuilt again
 // is at the second one; a module whose last build failed is at the last one that worked, because a
 // failure published nothing and the thing it published before is still what exists.
 //
@@ -147,7 +176,7 @@ func (i *Inventory) Held(ctx context.Context) (map[string]string, error) {
 		`select distinct on (module) module, made
 		   from build
 		  where module is not null and module <> '' and failed = ''
-		  order by module, at desc`)
+		  order by module, `+newestRequestFirst)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
@@ -185,7 +214,7 @@ func (i *Inventory) BuiltAgainst(ctx context.Context) (map[string][]string, erro
 		`select distinct on (module) module, built_against
 		   from build
 		  where module is not null and module <> '' and failed = ''
-		  order by module, at desc`)
+		  order by module, `+newestRequestFirst)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
@@ -223,7 +252,7 @@ func (i *Inventory) ReadRepositories(ctx context.Context) (map[string][]ReadRepo
 		`select distinct on (module) module, built_contexts
 		   from build
 		  where module is not null and module <> '' and failed = ''
-		  order by module, at desc`)
+		  order by module, `+newestRequestFirst)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
@@ -274,7 +303,7 @@ func manifestOrNil(raw []byte) any {
 // follows when it decides whether to announce at all.
 //
 // One row per module and commit: a module built twice at the same commit is one fact, and the
-// latest row is the one whose artifacts are current.
+// row asked last is the one whose artifacts are current (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/219).
 func (i *Inventory) Announceable(ctx context.Context) ([]Build, error) {
 	rows, err := i.store.Pool().Query(ctx,
 		`select distinct on (module, commit_hash)
@@ -282,7 +311,7 @@ func (i *Inventory) Announceable(ctx context.Context) ([]Build, error) {
 		        source_path, manifest, built_against, at
 		   from build
 		  where failed = '' and module is not null and module <> '' and commit_hash <> ''
-		  order by module, commit_hash, at desc`)
+		  order by module, commit_hash, `+newestRequestFirst)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}

internal/inventory/busrecords.go

@@ -49,6 +49,12 @@ func (i *Inventory) BusRecords(ctx context.Context) (broker.Records, error) {
 		}
 	}
 
+	// Who holds each seat held once for the mesh, where the mesh recorded it (novox/hq issue 218).
+	holdings, err := i.Holdings(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		return broker.Records{}, fmt.Errorf("cannot read who holds the mesh's seats: %w", err)
+	}
+
 	out := broker.Records{Assigned: map[string][]broker.Declared{}, People: map[string][]string{},
 		Interchangeable: map[string]bool{}}
 	for _, n := range nodes {
@@ -72,7 +78,9 @@ func (i *Inventory) BusRecords(ctx context.Context) (broker.Records, error) {
 					"%s is assigned to %s and is not in the catalogue, so what it may say cannot "+
 						"be derived", module, n.Name)
 			}
-			out.Assigned[n.Name] = append(out.Assigned[n.Name], declaredFor(m, seats))
+			d := declaredFor(m, seats)
+			d.Holds = heldHere(d.Holds, holdings, n.Name, module)
+			out.Assigned[n.Name] = append(out.Assigned[n.Name], d)
 			if m.Instances == catalogue.InstancesInterchangeable {
 				out.Interchangeable[m.Module] = true
 			}
@@ -183,3 +191,33 @@ func (i *Inventory) NodesWithALiveToken(ctx context.Context) ([]string, error) {
 	}
 	return out, rows.Err()
 }
+
+// heldHere keeps of what a module claims only the seats it holds on this machine (novox/hq issue 218).
+// A seat held once per machine is held by every assignment that claims it. A seat held once for the
+// mesh is held by one assignment: where the mesh recorded who holds it, a claim on any other machine
+// grants nothing and issues nothing — or the module would serve the role's verbs from a machine that
+// is not the role's, and a question to the mesh's store would be answered from the wrong database. A
+// mesh seat with no holder on record is left as it was derived.
+func heldHere(claimed []broker.Seat, holdings []catalogue.Held, node, module string) []broker.Seat {
+	recorded := map[string][]catalogue.Held{}
+	for _, h := range holdings {
+		if h.Scope == catalogue.ScopeMesh {
+			recorded[h.Claim] = append(recorded[h.Claim], h)
+		}
+	}
+	var out []broker.Seat
+	for _, s := range claimed {
+		holders, onRecord := recorded[s.Name]
+		if s.Scope != catalogue.ScopeMesh || !onRecord {
+			out = append(out, s)
+			continue
+		}
+		for _, h := range holders {
+			if h.Node == node && h.Module == module {
+				out = append(out, s)
+				break
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	return out
+}

internal/inventory/catalogue.go

@@ -17,6 +17,10 @@ import (
 // ErrNoSuchModule is what the mesh says about a module it has never been told about.
 var ErrNoSuchModule = errors.New("no module of that name")
 
+// ErrSuperseded is a registration from a build asked before the one the module is already at
+// (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/219). The build is recorded; what the module is does not change.
+var ErrSuperseded = errors.New("a build asked later is already what the module is")
+
 // ErrStillAssigned is why a module cannot be forgotten.
 //
 // Its own error because it is not a fault: it means a machine is running that module now, and
@@ -47,6 +51,10 @@ type Source struct {
 	// itself no longer carries its build (novox/hq to-be 38 WP2.4). Empty for a manifest handed over
 	// by hand, which carries its `build.on` itself.
 	Against []string
+	// Asked is when the build this manifest came from was requested (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/219). Zero
+	// is a manifest handed over by hand, or a build whose request time is not known: either is
+	// taken as asked at the moment it is registered.
+	Asked time.Time
 }
 
 // Current reports whether what the mesh holds is what the source last had.
@@ -97,13 +105,23 @@ func (i *Inventory) RegisterModule(ctx context.Context, m catalogue.Manifest, fr
 		return err
 	}
 
+	asked := from.Asked
+	if asked.IsZero() {
+		asked = time.Now()
+	}
+
 	// A module registered without provenance keeps whatever it had. Handing over a manifest by
 	// hand is a legitimate way to fix something in a hurry, and it should not silently erase the
 	// record of where the module normally comes from — which is the only thing that would say,
 	// afterwards, that the machine is running something nobody can rebuild.
-	_, err = i.store.Pool().Exec(ctx,
-		`insert into module (name, manifest, version, source, source_path, source_seat, ref, built_from, source_head)
-		 values ($1, $2, nullif($3,''), nullif($4,''), $7, $8, nullif($5,''), nullif($6,''), nullif($6,''))
+	//
+	// **An older request never replaces a newer one** (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/219). Builds of one
+	// module in flight together finish in any order, and each stood on the bases the mesh held when
+	// it was asked; the one asked later is what the module is, whichever is heard last. An outcome
+	// of an earlier request is kept in the build records and changes nothing here.
+	tag, err := i.store.Pool().Exec(ctx,
+		`insert into module (name, manifest, version, source, source_path, source_seat, ref, built_from, source_head, built_asked)
+		 values ($1, $2, nullif($3,''), nullif($4,''), $7, $8, nullif($5,''), nullif($6,''), nullif($6,''), $9)
 		 on conflict (name) do update set
 		     manifest   = excluded.manifest,
 		     version    = excluded.version,
@@ -115,9 +133,23 @@ func (i *Inventory) RegisterModule(ctx context.Context, m catalogue.Manifest, fr
 		                        else excluded.source_seat end,
 		     ref        = coalesce(excluded.ref, module.ref),
 		     built_from = coalesce(excluded.built_from, module.built_from),
-		     source_head = coalesce(excluded.built_from, module.source_head)`,
-		m.Module, raw, m.Version, from.Repository, from.Ref, from.BuiltFrom, from.Path, from.Seat)
-	return err
+		     source_head = coalesce(excluded.built_from, module.source_head),
+		     built_asked = excluded.built_asked
+		 where module.built_asked is null or module.built_asked <= excluded.built_asked`,
+		m.Module, raw, m.Version, from.Repository, from.Ref, from.BuiltFrom, from.Path, from.Seat, asked)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	if tag.RowsAffected() == 0 {
+		var current time.Time
+		if err := i.store.Pool().QueryRow(ctx,
+			`select built_asked from module where name = $1`, m.Module).Scan(&current); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		return fmt.Errorf("%w: %s is at a build asked %s, and this one was asked %s",
+			ErrSuperseded, m.Module, current.UTC().Format(time.RFC3339), asked.UTC().Format(time.RFC3339))
+	}
+	return nil
 }
 
 // registeredInThatShape is whether the catalogue already holds this module as a tools container on

internal/inventory/dependencies_test.go

@@ -100,3 +100,23 @@ func TestABundleStandsOnTheToolchainItIsCompiledIn(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	}
 }
+
+// novox/hq 04-ISSUES/212: a toolchain standing on the SDK's package is planned after the SDK, so a
+// release of the SDK rebuilds the toolchain, and every bundle compiled in it after that.
+func TestAToolchainStandingOnTheSDKFollowsIt(t *testing.T) {
+	entries := []Entry{
+		{Manifest: catalogue.Manifest{Module: "mesh-sdk"}},
+		{Manifest: catalogue.Manifest{Module: "mesh-tools", Build: &catalogue.Build{
+			On: []catalogue.BuildsOn{{Arg: "MESH_SDK", Module: "mesh-sdk", Artifact: "lib"}}}}},
+	}
+	edges := dependenciesOf(entries, nil, nil)
+	found := false
+	for _, e := range edges {
+		if e.From == "mesh-tools" && e.To == "mesh-sdk" {
+			found = true
+		}
+	}
+	if !found {
+		t.Errorf("no edge from the toolchain to the SDK: %v", edges)
+	}
+}

internal/inventory/heldhere_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+package inventory
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/broker"
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/catalogue"
+)
+
+// novox/hq issue 218: a seat held once for the mesh is granted and issued only to the holder on record;
+// a node seat to every machine's claimant; a mesh seat with no holder on record as derived.
+func TestOnlyTheRecordedHolderHoldsAMeshSeat(t *testing.T) {
+	claimed := []broker.Seat{
+		{Name: "mesh-store", Scope: catalogue.ScopeMesh},
+		{Name: "node-packet-filter", Scope: catalogue.ScopeNode},
+		{Name: "unrecorded", Scope: catalogue.ScopeMesh},
+	}
+	holdings := []catalogue.Held{{Claim: "mesh-store", Scope: catalogue.ScopeMesh, Node: "control", Module: "postgres"}}
+	names := func(ss []broker.Seat) (out []string) {
+		for _, s := range ss {
+			out = append(out, s.Name)
+		}
+		return
+	}
+	if got := names(heldHere(claimed, holdings, "control", "postgres")); len(got) != 3 {
+		t.Errorf("the holder lost a seat: %v", got)
+	}
+	got := names(heldHere(claimed, holdings, "other", "postgres"))
+	if len(got) != 2 || got[0] != "node-packet-filter" || got[1] != "unrecorded" {
+		t.Errorf("a claimant on another machine holds %v; want the node seat and the unrecorded one, not the store", got)
+	}
+}

internal/inventory/migrations/0055-an-older-build-never-replaces-a-newer.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+-- A build is ordered by when it was asked, not when it finished (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/219).
+--
+-- Two builds of one module can be in flight together — two merge plans a few minutes apart, each
+-- asking for everything standing on what it changed — and they finish in any order. Each build
+-- stands on the bases the mesh held when it was *asked*, so the one asked later is the newer one.
+-- The mesh ordered builds by `at`, which is when the outcome was recorded, and registered whatever
+-- it heard last: an older request that took longer replaced a newer one as what the module is, and
+-- the next push sent machines an image built on a base the mesh had already replaced.
+--
+-- `build.asked` is when the build was requested, read from the correlation id the controller wrote
+-- (`build-<unix nanoseconds>`). Nullable: an id of any other shape says no request time, and such a
+-- build is placed where it was recorded, which is the order the mesh had before this.
+alter table build add column asked timestamptz;
+
+update build
+   set asked = to_timestamp((substring(id from '^build-([0-9]{19})$'))::numeric / 1000000000)
+ where id ~ '^build-[0-9]{19}$';
+
+-- `module.built_asked` is when the build the module's registered manifest came from was asked, so
+-- a later-heard outcome of an earlier request is recorded and not registered. A manifest handed over
+-- by hand is a request made when it is handed over. Null for a module registered before this was
+-- kept: its next registration, whichever it is, sets it.
+alter table module add column built_asked timestamptz;

internal/inventory/older_build_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+package inventory
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"errors"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/catalogue"
+)
+
+// novox/hq 04-ISSUES/219: two builds of one module in flight together, the one asked first heard
+// last. The newer request stood on the newer base; the older one's late outcome is recorded and is
+// not what the module is.
+
+func postgresBuild(id string, asked time.Time, image string) Build {
+	b := aBuild(id, "postgres", "")
+	b.Asked = asked
+	b.Against = []string{"mesh-tools/runtime@sha256:" + id}
+	b.Made = []Artifact{{Name: "server", Kind: "image", Reference: "postgres@sha256:" + image}}
+	return b
+}
+
+func TestAnOlderRequestFinishingLaterIsNotWhatTheModuleHolds(t *testing.T) {
+	inv := fresh(t)
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	older := time.Date(2026, 10, 3, 21, 33, 45, 0, time.UTC)
+	newer := time.Date(2026, 10, 3, 21, 51, 57, 0, time.UTC)
+
+	// The newer request finishes first, the older one last — recorded in that order.
+	if err := inv.RecordBuild(ctx, postgresBuild("newer", newer, "4bcd5f73")); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if err := inv.RecordBuild(ctx, postgresBuild("older", older, "0ab07fa9")); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	held, err := inv.Held(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if got := held["postgres/server"]; got != "postgres@sha256:4bcd5f73" {
+		t.Errorf("postgres holds %q; want the newer request's image 4bcd5f73", got)
+	}
+	against, err := inv.BuiltAgainst(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if got := against["postgres"]; len(got) != 1 || got[0] != "mesh-tools/runtime@sha256:newer" {
+		t.Errorf("postgres stands on %v; want what the newer request stood on", got)
+	}
+
+	// Both are still recorded, the late one first as what happened lately.
+	builds, err := inv.Builds(ctx, "postgres", 5)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if len(builds) != 2 || builds[0].ID != "older" || !builds[0].Asked.Equal(older) {
+		t.Fatalf("both builds, newest heard first, with when they were asked: %+v", builds)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestABuildWithNoKnownRequestTimeIsOrderedByWhenItWasRecorded(t *testing.T) {
+	// What the mesh did before it kept the request time, so a row from before still answers.
+	inv := fresh(t)
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	for _, id := range []string{"first", "second"} {
+		b := aBuild(id, "shell", "")
+		b.Made = []Artifact{{Name: "config", Kind: "archive", Reference: "…/" + id}}
+		if err := inv.RecordBuild(ctx, b); err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+	}
+	held, err := inv.Held(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if got := held["shell/config"]; got != "…/second" {
+		t.Errorf("shell holds %q; want the one recorded last", got)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestARegistrationFromAnOlderRequestDoesNotReplaceANewerOne(t *testing.T) {
+	inv := fresh(t)
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	older := time.Date(2026, 10, 3, 21, 33, 45, 0, time.UTC)
+	newer := time.Date(2026, 10, 3, 21, 51, 57, 0, time.UTC)
+	from := func(asked time.Time) Source {
+		return Source{Repository: "novox/mesh-catalog", Seat: "git", Path: "modules/postgres",
+			BuiltFrom: "efff5415", Asked: asked}
+	}
+
+	if err := inv.RegisterModule(ctx, catalogue.Manifest{Module: "postgres", Version: "fixed"}, from(newer)); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	err := inv.RegisterModule(ctx, catalogue.Manifest{Module: "postgres", Version: "stale"}, from(older))
+	if !errors.Is(err, ErrSuperseded) {
+		t.Fatalf("an older request's registration was not refused as superseded: %v", err)
+	}
+	shelf, err := inv.Catalogue(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if got := shelf["postgres"].Version; got != "fixed" {
+		t.Fatalf("postgres is %q; want the newer request's manifest", got)
+	}
+
+	// A later request, and a manifest handed over by hand — asked when it is handed over — both
+	// replace it as before.
+	if err := inv.RegisterModule(ctx, catalogue.Manifest{Module: "postgres", Version: "later"},
+		from(newer.Add(time.Minute))); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if err := inv.RegisterModule(ctx, catalogue.Manifest{Module: "postgres", Version: "by-hand"}, Source{}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if shelf, _ := inv.Catalogue(ctx); shelf["postgres"].Version != "by-hand" {
+		t.Fatalf("postgres is %q; want the manifest handed over by hand", shelf["postgres"].Version)
+	}
+	src, err := inv.SourceOf(ctx, "postgres")
+	if err != nil || src.Repository != "novox/mesh-catalog" {
+		t.Fatalf("a hand registration erased the provenance: %+v %v", src, err)
+	}
+}

internal/link/build.go

@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@ package link
 
 import (
 	"encoding/json"
+	"strconv"
+	"strings"
+	"time"
 )
 
 // Asking a machine to build a module, and hearing what came out.
@@ -17,6 +20,32 @@ import (
 // holds no opinion about what they contain, and a host that also built things would be a host
 // with a container runtime requirement and a git dependency (novox/hq ADR 0005).
 
+// NewBuildID is the correlation for a build asked at that moment: `build-<unix nanoseconds>`.
+//
+// **The id carries when the build was asked, and that is read back** (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/219). Builds
+// of one module can be in flight together and finish in any order; what a module currently is must
+// be the newest *request's* outcome, not the last one heard, and the id is the one thing every
+// outcome echoes whichever builder answered it. One place writes the shape and one reads it.
+func NewBuildID(asked time.Time) string {
+	return "build-" + strconv.FormatInt(asked.UnixNano(), 10)
+}
+
+// BuildAskedAt is when the build with this id was asked, as NewBuildID wrote it. False for an id
+// of any other shape — one written before this was read, or by hand — whose request time the mesh
+// does not know.
+func BuildAskedAt(id string) (time.Time, bool) {
+	digits, ok := strings.CutPrefix(id, "build-")
+	if !ok || digits == "" {
+		return time.Time{}, false
+	}
+	nanos, err := strconv.ParseInt(digits, 10, 64)
+	// A number too small to be a moment this mesh could have asked at is a name, not a time.
+	if err != nil || nanos < time.Date(2020, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC).UnixNano() {
+		return time.Time{}, false
+	}
+	return time.Unix(0, nanos).UTC(), true
+}
+
 // BuildRequest is one module to build.
 type BuildRequest struct {
 	// ID correlates the answer with the asking. Not the module name: two builds of one module can