cmd/mesh-controller/acts.go

@@ -46,9 +46,16 @@ func assign(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node, module string) (string, err
 		return "", err
 	}
 	defer release()
-	if err := open.inventory.Assign(ctx, node, module); err != nil {
+	fresh, err := open.inventory.Assign(ctx, node, module)
+	if err != nil {
 		return "", err
 	}
+	if !fresh {
+		// Nothing changed, and saying "is assigned" would read as an action. One node runs one
+		// of each — the module's name is the assignment's identity (novox/hq ADR 0115).
+		return fmt.Sprintf("%s already runs %s — one node runs one of each (ADR 0115); nothing changed",
+			node, module), nil
+	}
 	said := fmt.Sprintf("%s is assigned %s", node, module)
 	plan, _, err := planFor(ctx, open, node)
 	if err != nil {

cmd/mesh-controller/adoption.go

@@ -355,7 +355,7 @@ func converge(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string, yes bool, digest s
 			strings.Join(assigned, ", "))
 	}
 	if !slices.Contains(assigned, filter) {
-		if err := inv.Assign(ctx, node, filter); err != nil {
+		if _, err := inv.Assign(ctx, node, filter); err != nil {
 			return "", err
 		}
 		if _, _, err := planFor(ctx, open, node); err != nil {

cmd/mesh-controller/foundation_scope_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+package main
+
+// The broker opening belongs only on the node that listens on it (novox/hq: it leaked onto
+// every enrolled node's declaration, opening a from-anywhere hole for a port nothing there
+// serves). foundationPortsFor is the scope.
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/catalogue"
+)
+
+func TestTheBrokerHostGetsTheFoundationOpening(t *testing.T) {
+	broker := catalogue.Manifest{Module: "lavinmq", Listens: []catalogue.Listening{
+		{Port: 5671, Protocol: "tcp", From: "mesh"},
+		{Port: 5672, Protocol: "tcp", From: "mesh"},
+	}}
+	got := foundationPortsFor(5671, []catalogue.Manifest{broker})
+	if len(got) != 1 || got[0] != 5671 {
+		t.Fatalf("the node that listens on the broker port keeps it; got %v", got)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestANodeThatOnlyDialsTheBrokerGetsNoOpening(t *testing.T) {
+	// ace's set: things that reach the broker as a client, none listening on 5671.
+	ace := []catalogue.Manifest{
+		{Module: "plex", Listens: []catalogue.Listening{{Port: 32400, Protocol: "tcp", From: "anywhere"}}},
+		{Module: "postgres", Listens: []catalogue.Listening{{Port: 5432, Protocol: "tcp", From: "mesh"}}},
+	}
+	if got := foundationPortsFor(5671, ace); got != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("a node that only dials out opens nothing for the broker; got %v", got)
+	}
+}

cmd/mesh-controller/main.go

@@ -118,6 +118,8 @@ func run() error {
 		return rolloutCommand(ctx, args[1:])
 	case "seats":
 		return seatsCommand(ctx, args[1:])
+	case "seat":
+		return seatCommand(ctx, args[1:])
 	case "status":
 		return statusCommand(ctx, args[1:])
 	case "version":

cmd/mesh-controller/mesh_for_test.go

@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ func aMesh(t *testing.T) *stores {
 		if err := open.inventory.RecordOverlayKey(t.Context(), record.ID, aPublicKey(t)); err != nil {
 			t.Fatal(err)
 		}
-		if err := open.inventory.Assign(t.Context(), name, overlay.Name); err != nil {
+		if _, err := open.inventory.Assign(t.Context(), name, overlay.Name); err != nil {
 			t.Fatal(err)
 		}
 	}

cmd/mesh-controller/network.go

@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ func overlayRange(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory) (string, error)
 
 func overlayCommand(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 	if len(args) == 0 {
-		return errors.New("overlay place <node> [flags], or overlay show")
+		return errors.New("overlay place <node> [flags], overlay name <address> <name>, or overlay show")
 	}
 	// Answered before anything is opened. A message about which command to use should not need a
 	// database to say so, and needing one turns a redirect into a connection error.
@@ -69,12 +69,29 @@ func overlayCommand(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 		return overlayPlace(ctx, inv, args[1:])
 	case "show":
 		return overlayShow(ctx, open)
+	case "name":
+		return overlayName(ctx, inv, args[1:])
 
 	default:
-		return fmt.Errorf("overlay has no %q; it has place and show", args[0])
+		return fmt.Errorf("overlay has no %q; it has place, name and show", args[0])
 	}
 }
 
+// overlayName is the operator saying which machine a carried address is (novox/hq issue 112),
+// so the mesh answers for its name until the machine enrols and verifies it.
+func overlayName(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, args []string) error {
+	if len(args) != 2 {
+		return errors.New("overlay name <carried-address> <node-name>")
+	}
+	address, name := args[0], args[1]
+	if err := inv.NamePeer(ctx, address, name); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	fmt.Printf("the peer at %s is %s until it enrols — the mesh answers for %s.<suffix> from the "+
+		"operator's word, and enrolment under this key must use this name\n", address, name, name)
+	return nil
+}
+
 func overlayPlace(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, args []string) error {
 	if len(args) == 0 {
 		return errors.New(
@@ -239,7 +256,7 @@ func network(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, on map[string]bool,
 					"Re-place it — `overlay place %s --hub --endpoint <host>:%d …` — and push again; "+
 					"nothing was composed", p.Name, t.Interface, wrong, p.Name, t.Port)
 			}
-			n.TakesOver = &overlay.TakeOver{Interface: t.Interface, Unit: t.Unit, Config: t.Config}
+			n.TakesOver = &overlay.TakeOver{Interface: t.Interface, Unit: t.Unit, Config: t.Config, Port: t.Port, MTU: t.MTU}
 		}
 		if p.Hub {
 			for _, c := range carried {
@@ -588,6 +605,24 @@ func namesInTheMesh(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory,
 	for _, p := range places {
 		out[overlay.InternalName(p.Name)] = p.Address
 	}
+	// And the carried peers the operator has named (novox/hq issue 112): machines the
+	// predecessor's resolver answers for and the mesh routes to, known by name on the operator's
+	// word until they enrol — at which point enrolment verifies the name and the node's own
+	// entry takes over above. A name the predecessor answers for must keep resolving until the
+	// machine behind it is a node; without these, taking the resolver silences three machines.
+	carried, err := inv.CarriedPeers(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	for _, p := range carried {
+		if p.Named == "" || p.EnrolledAs != "" {
+			continue
+		}
+		if _, taken := out[overlay.InternalName(p.Named)]; taken {
+			continue // a node of the mesh owns the name; the stale statement loses
+		}
+		out[overlay.InternalName(p.Named)] = p.Address
+	}
 	return out, nil
 }
 

cmd/mesh-controller/nodes.go

@@ -67,8 +67,14 @@ func nodeCommand(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 		// because the damage is already done by the time it prints.
 		return publicDomain(ctx, inv, args[1:])
 
+	case "account":
+		// The operator's login on this machine (novox/hq to-be 29): what a home-scoped file is
+		// owned by and which account `ssh <node>` uses. Reports with no argument; sets with one;
+		// an optional second argument is the home when it is not /home/<account>.
+		return nodeAccount(ctx, inv, args[1:])
+
 	default:
-		return fmt.Errorf("node has no %q; it has add, list, show and public-domain", args[0])
+		return fmt.Errorf("node has no %q; it has add, list, show, public-domain and account", args[0])
 	}
 }
 
@@ -106,6 +112,39 @@ func modeOf(n inventory.Node) string {
 }
 
 // publicDomainUsage is the one description of the three forms, so a refusal and the help agree.
+// nodeAccount reports or sets a node's operator account (novox/hq to-be 29). Read-shaped with no
+// argument, like public-domain: `node account novox` answers, it does not change anything.
+func nodeAccount(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory, positionals []string) error {
+	if len(positionals) == 0 || len(positionals) > 3 {
+		return errors.New("node account <name> — what it is now; " +
+			"node account <name> <account> [home] — set it (home defaults to /home/<account>)")
+	}
+	node := positionals[0]
+	if len(positionals) == 1 {
+		who, err := inv.NodeByName(ctx, node)
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		if who.Account == "" {
+			fmt.Printf("%s has no operator account known\n", node)
+			fmt.Printf("  `node account %s <account>` sets it\n", node)
+			return nil
+		}
+		fmt.Printf("%s logs a person in as %s (home %s)\n", node, who.Account, who.Home())
+		return nil
+	}
+	home := ""
+	if len(positionals) == 3 {
+		home = positionals[2]
+	}
+	if err := inv.SetAccount(ctx, node, positionals[1], home); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	fmt.Printf("%s logs a person in as %s\n", node, positionals[1])
+	fmt.Printf("  run `push %s` once ssh-client is assigned, to send its operator config\n", node)
+	return nil
+}
+
 const publicDomainUsage = "node public-domain <name> — what it is now; " +
 	"<name> <domain> to set it; <name> --clear to take it away"
 

cmd/mesh-controller/plan.go

@@ -83,9 +83,17 @@ func planFor(ctx context.Context, open *stores, nodeName string) (catalogue.Reso
 		return catalogue.Resolution{}, nil, err
 	}
 
+	// The operator account this node logs a person in as, and where its home is (novox/hq to-be
+	// 29) — carried so a home-scoped file's owner and path resolve for this machine.
+	who, err := inv.NodeByName(ctx, nodeName)
+	if err != nil {
+		return catalogue.Resolution{}, nil, err
+	}
+
 	resolved, err := catalogue.Resolve(shelf, assigned,
 		catalogue.Node{Name: nodeName, Site: site, Capabilities: capabilities,
-			At: onNetwork[nodeName], PublicDomain: publicDomain}, world)
+			At: onNetwork[nodeName], PublicDomain: publicDomain,
+			Account: who.Account, AccountHome: who.AccountHome}, world)
 	if err != nil {
 		return catalogue.Resolution{}, nil, err
 	}
@@ -488,6 +496,13 @@ func renderingFor(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string,
 	if err != nil {
 		return catalogue.Rendering{}, inventory.Node{}, err
 	}
+	// The private network's range, offered to a module as ${machine:mesh-range} — a module that must
+	// name the whole mesh (an intrusion filter that must never ban a tunnel peer) names it here
+	// rather than hardcoding a value it cannot know.
+	meshRange, err := overlayRange(ctx, inv)
+	if err != nil {
+		return catalogue.Rendering{}, inventory.Node{}, err
+	}
 
 	// The artifact store as this node reaches it now — the address every image and archive the
 	// mesh built is fetched through, composed here and recorded nowhere — with what the mesh has
@@ -513,6 +528,19 @@ func renderingFor(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string,
 		return catalogue.Rendering{}, inventory.Node{}, err
 	}
 
+	// Each machine's operator account, so an ssh Host block can name the login for every node
+	// (novox/hq to-be 29). Keyed by the bare node name, which entriesFrom falls back to.
+	allNodes, err := inv.Nodes(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		return catalogue.Rendering{}, inventory.Node{}, err
+	}
+	accounts := map[string]string{}
+	for _, n := range allNodes {
+		if n.Account != "" {
+			accounts[n.Name] = n.Account
+		}
+	}
+
 	// And every routed name → the node that serves it (novox/hq ADR 0066). Alongside the
 	// `<node>.internal` names above, so a container — or an internal ACME validator — resolves a
 	// routed name to the proxy that serves it, mesh-wide. The mesh publishes the names it was told
@@ -534,11 +562,19 @@ func renderingFor(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string,
 	// The ports the mesh itself needs open, which no module declares. Read from the broker this
 	// control plane was told about rather than written down twice: the address a node is handed in
 	// its token and the port its machine must accept on are the same fact.
+	//
+	// **Only on the node that listens on it** (novox/hq issue: the broker opening leaked onto
+	// every node). The opening exists to WIDEN the broker's port to from-anywhere — a machine
+	// enrolling is not on the mesh yet, so the broker's own `from: mesh` listen would refuse its
+	// first dial. That widening belongs on the broker's host and nowhere else: a node that only
+	// dials out needs no incoming rule, and an opening for a port nothing here listens on is a
+	// from-anywhere hole for a dead port. So the foundation port is kept only when a module
+	// resolved onto THIS node actually listens on it.
 	var foundation []int
 	if b, err := broker.FromEnvironment(); err == nil {
 		if _, port, err := net.SplitHostPort(b.Address); err == nil {
 			if n, err := strconv.Atoi(port); err == nil {
-				foundation = append(foundation, n)
+				foundation = foundationPortsFor(n, plan.Modules)
 			}
 		}
 	}
@@ -595,7 +631,8 @@ func renderingFor(ctx context.Context, open *stores, node string,
 		Settings: settings, Generators: gens, Grants: grants, Needed: needed, Ports: ports,
 		Certificate: certificate, Authority: authority, Mesh: private, Names: names,
 		Machines: machines,
-		Suffix:   overlay.Suffix(), Foundation: foundation, Kept: kept, Adopted: record.Adopted,
+		Suffix:   overlay.Suffix(), MeshRange: meshRange, Accounts: accounts, Foundation: foundation,
+		Kept: kept, Adopted: record.Adopted,
 		Given: given, Taken: taken, Seats: seats, ArtifactStore: artifactStore, Built: built,
 		BusUsers: busUsers,
 	}, record, nil
@@ -922,12 +959,26 @@ func planCommand(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 			if !ok {
 				continue
 			}
-			fmt.Printf("\n--- %v  %v ---\n%s", r["id"], r["path"], content)
+			fmt.Printf("\n--- %s ---\n%s", shownAs(r), content)
 		}
 	}
 	return nil
 }
 
+// shownAs is the heading `plan --show` puts over a resource's content.
+//
+// **A file written into says so.** Its content is the mesh's part of a file that is otherwise the
+// machine's — the keys of a JSON document (novox/hq ADR 0102), the region of a hosts file (issue
+// 128). Shown under a bare path it reads as the whole file, and a person checking what a take
+// replaces would see a hosts file of a dozen lines where the machine keeps thirty.
+func shownAs(r map[string]any) string {
+	heading := fmt.Sprintf("%v  %v", r["id"], r["path"])
+	if into, ok := r["into"].(string); ok && into != "" {
+		heading += fmt.Sprintf(" (written into, %s)", into)
+	}
+	return heading
+}
+
 // licencesFor is what this node can be answered with by record, and what it was put on.
 //
 // A mesh with no licences at all is the ordinary case and must not be an error: every existing
@@ -1212,3 +1263,20 @@ func composeBusUsers(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory,
 	}
 	return broker.ComposeAccounts(filled)
 }
+
+// foundationPortsFor is the broker port, kept only when a module resolved onto this node listens
+// on it (novox/hq issue: the broker opening leaked onto every node). The foundation opening
+// exists to WIDEN the broker's `from: mesh` port to from-anywhere, because a machine enrolling is
+// not on the mesh yet and its first dial would be refused. That widening belongs on the broker's
+// host alone: a node that only dials out needs no incoming rule, and an opening for a port
+// nothing here listens on is a from-anywhere hole for a dead port.
+func foundationPortsFor(brokerPort int, modules []catalogue.Manifest) []int {
+	for _, m := range modules {
+		for _, l := range m.Listens {
+			if l.Port == brokerPort {
+				return []int{brokerPort}
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	return nil
+}

cmd/mesh-controller/plan_test.go

@@ -35,3 +35,17 @@ func TestListensLinesAreEmptyForAModuleWithNothingToListenOn(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Errorf("a module with no listens should print nothing, got %v", got)
 	}
 }
+
+// `plan --show` says when a file is written into rather than over (novox/hq issue 128), or the
+// mesh's region of a hosts file reads as the whole file.
+func TestAFileWrittenIntoIsShownAsSuch(t *testing.T) {
+	region := shownAs(map[string]any{
+		"id": "mesh-wireguard.fact-node-names", "path": "/etc/hosts", "into": "block"})
+	if region != "mesh-wireguard.fact-node-names  /etc/hosts (written into, block)" {
+		t.Errorf("the region is shown as %q", region)
+	}
+	whole := shownAs(map[string]any{"id": "dnsmasq.fact-node-zones", "path": "/etc/mesh-resolver/nodes.conf"})
+	if strings.Contains(whole, "written into") {
+		t.Errorf("a whole file is shown as written into: %q", whole)
+	}
+}

cmd/mesh-controller/push.go

@@ -524,8 +524,14 @@ func composeEach(names []string,
 			continue
 		}
 		if len(declared.Resources) == 0 {
-			fmt.Printf("%s is assigned nothing — skipped\n", name)
-			continue
+			// Sent, not skipped (novox/hq issue 127). A node whose declaration composes to
+			// nothing may have HELD something before — the broker opening a placement gave it,
+			// say — and skipping the empty declaration leaves that last resource in force
+			// forever, re-applied by the node's own heartbeat, with no way for the mesh to say
+			// it is gone. An empty declaration is the correction: the host drops what the mesh
+			// owned and keeps what it found (the adoption envelope still rides along). A node
+			// that never held anything applies it as the no-op it is.
+			fmt.Printf("%s owns nothing now — sent so it drops what it last held\n", name)
 		}
 		sending = append(sending, readyNode{name, declared})
 	}

cmd/mesh-controller/push_test.go

@@ -39,12 +39,14 @@ func TestOneUnresolvableNodeStillLetsTheRestBeSent(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-// And a machine assigned nothing is neither sent nor a refusal — it is nothing to say.
-func TestAMachineAssignedNothingIsNotARefusal(t *testing.T) {
+// A machine whose declaration composes to nothing is SENT the empty declaration, not skipped
+// (novox/hq issue 127): it may have held something before, and only sending the empty
+// declaration tells it to drop what the mesh owned. It is never a refusal.
+func TestAnEmptyDeclarationIsSentSoTheNodeDropsWhatItHeld(t *testing.T) {
 	sending, refusals := composeEach([]string{"spare"},
 		func(string) (sendable, error) { return sendable{}, nil })
-	if len(sending) != 0 || len(refusals) != 0 {
-		t.Errorf("a machine assigned nothing was treated as something: %v / %v", sending, refusals)
+	if len(sending) != 1 || len(refusals) != 0 {
+		t.Errorf("an empty declaration must be sent, not skipped or refused: %v / %v", sending, refusals)
 	}
 }
 

cmd/mesh-controller/rollout.go

@@ -175,7 +175,7 @@ func readinessOf(ctx context.Context, inv *inventory.Inventory) (broker.Readines
 // would bury the ones that matter under a list nobody can act on.
 func speaksOnTheBus(m catalogue.Manifest) bool {
 	return len(m.Emits) > 0 || len(m.Consumes) > 0 || len(m.Tools) > 0 ||
-		len(m.Seats) > 0 || len(m.Uses) > 0 || len(m.Claims) > 0
+		len(m.DefinesSeats) > 0 || len(m.Uses) > 0 || len(m.Claims) > 0
 }
 
 // wasSentTheUserList says whether the machine holding the bus has had a declaration since the user

cmd/mesh-controller/rollout_test.go

@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ func TestReadinessIsGatheredFromWhatTheMeshHolds(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	}
 	for _, a := range [][2]string{{"anchor", "nats"}, {"anchor", "gitea"}, {"laptop", "wallpaper"}} {
-		if err := inv.Assign(ctx, a[0], a[1]); err != nil {
+		if _, err := inv.Assign(ctx, a[0], a[1]); err != nil {
 			t.Fatal(err)
 		}
 	}

cmd/mesh-controller/seats.go

@@ -43,15 +43,16 @@ type seatRow struct {
 // overview would make the one thing the overview is for — what does this mesh have — quietly
 // incomplete.
 func seatsHeld(seats []catalogue.Seat, held []catalogue.Held) ([]seatRow, []catalogue.Held) {
-	defined := map[string]bool{}
 	rows := make([]seatRow, 0, len(seats))
 	for _, s := range seats {
-		defined[s.Name] = true
 		row := seatRow{Seat: s.Name, Scope: s.Scope, Delivers: s.Delivers, Decision: s.Decision,
 			Holders: []seatHolder{}}
 		seen := map[seatHolder]bool{}
 		for _, h := range held {
-			if h.Claim != s.Name || h.Scope != s.Scope {
+			// Resolve the held claim to a seat rather than comparing names, so a record naming a
+			// seat's former name groups under it after a rename (novox/hq ADR 0122).
+			hs, ok := catalogue.SeatNamed(h.Claim)
+			if !ok || hs.Name != s.Name || h.Scope != s.Scope {
 				continue
 			}
 			holder := seatHolder{Node: h.Node, Module: h.Module}
@@ -70,7 +71,8 @@ func seatsHeld(seats []catalogue.Seat, held []catalogue.Held) ([]seatRow, []cata
 	}
 	var outside []catalogue.Held
 	for _, h := range held {
-		if !defined[h.Claim] {
+		// Outside the set only if it resolves to no seat at all — a former name still resolves.
+		if _, ok := catalogue.SeatNamed(h.Claim); !ok {
 			outside = append(outside, h)
 		}
 	}
@@ -83,6 +85,25 @@ func seatsHeld(seats []catalogue.Seat, held []catalogue.Held) ([]seatRow, []cata
 	return rows, outside
 }
 
+// seatCommand changes the set — the whole point of it being data (novox/hq ADR 0122).
+func seatCommand(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
+	if len(args) == 3 && args[0] == "rename" {
+		from, to := args[1], args[2]
+		open, err := openStores(ctx)
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		defer open.Close()
+		if err := open.inventory.RenameSeat(ctx, from, to); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		fmt.Printf("%s is now %s — its former name still resolves, so nothing is rebuilt, "+
+			"re-registered or frozen (novox/hq ADR 0122)\n", from, to)
+		return nil
+	}
+	return fmt.Errorf("seat rename <from> <to>")
+}
+
 func seatsCommand(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 	set := flag.NewFlagSet("seats", flag.ContinueOnError)
 	asJSON := set.Bool("json", false, "the same, as JSON")

cmd/mesh-controller/seats_test.go

@@ -35,13 +35,13 @@ func TestEverySeatIsListedIncludingTheOnesNobodyHolds(t *testing.T) {
 
 func TestANodeSeatListsEveryMachineHoldingIt(t *testing.T) {
 	rows, _ := seatsHeld(catalogue.Seats(), []catalogue.Held{
-		{Claim: "mesh-packet-filter", Scope: catalogue.ScopeNode, Node: "node2", Module: "nftables"},
-		{Claim: "mesh-packet-filter", Scope: catalogue.ScopeNode, Node: "anchor", Module: "nftables"},
+		{Claim: "node-packet-filter", Scope: catalogue.ScopeNode, Node: "node2", Module: "nftables"},
+		{Claim: "node-packet-filter", Scope: catalogue.ScopeNode, Node: "anchor", Module: "nftables"},
 		// Resolved twice, reported once: a machine is one holder however many passes saw it.
-		{Claim: "mesh-packet-filter", Scope: catalogue.ScopeNode, Node: "anchor", Module: "nftables"},
+		{Claim: "node-packet-filter", Scope: catalogue.ScopeNode, Node: "anchor", Module: "nftables"},
 	})
 	for _, r := range rows {
-		if r.Seat != "mesh-packet-filter" {
+		if r.Seat != "node-packet-filter" {
 			continue
 		}
 		if len(r.Holders) != 2 || r.Holders[0].Node != "anchor" || r.Holders[1].Node != "node2" {

cmd/mesh-controller/sendable.go

@@ -38,6 +38,12 @@ func (s sendable) Body() ([]byte, error) {
 	if s.Adoption != nil {
 		envelope["adoption"] = s.Adoption
 	}
+	// An empty declaration is deliberate here — the node owns nothing the mesh put there
+	// (novox/hq issue 127) — and the host refuses an empty body unless it is told the emptiness
+	// is meant, so a truncated or mis-composed body is never mistaken for "own nothing".
+	if len(s.Resources) == 0 {
+		envelope["owns_nothing"] = true
+	}
 	return json.Marshal(envelope)
 }
 

cmd/mesh-controller/sendable_test.go

@@ -355,3 +355,25 @@ func TestTheMachineSideOfAMappingIsMovedEverywhereTheNumberIsUsed(t *testing.T)
 		t.Fatalf("the consumer is told the forge answers on %v", told)
 	}
 }
+
+func TestAnEmptyDeclarationSaysOwnsNothing(t *testing.T) {
+	// The host refuses an empty body unless told the emptiness is meant (novox/hq issue 127).
+	body, err := sendable{}.Body()
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	var env map[string]any
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(body, &env); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if env["owns_nothing"] != true {
+		t.Fatalf("an empty declaration must mark owns_nothing; got %v", env)
+	}
+	// A declaration with resources does not carry the marker.
+	body, _ = sendable{Resources: []map[string]any{{"id": "x"}}}.Body()
+	var env2 map[string]any
+	_ = json.Unmarshal(body, &env2)
+	if _, present := env2["owns_nothing"]; present {
+		t.Fatalf("a non-empty declaration must not mark owns_nothing; got %v", env)
+	}
+}

cmd/mesh-controller/source.go

@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ import (
 // seat's holder runs.
 
 // gitSeat is the seat a self-hosted repository lives on.
-const gitSeat = "mesh-git"
+const gitSeat = "git"
 
 // buildSource is where a build's repository is: a URL, or a path on a seat's holder.
 type buildSource struct {

cmd/mesh-controller/source_test.go

@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ import (
 
 func forgeHolding(port any) catalogue.World {
 	return catalogue.World{
-		Held: []catalogue.Held{{Claim: "mesh-git", Scope: catalogue.ScopeMesh, Node: "anchor", Module: "gitea"}},
+		Held: []catalogue.Held{{Claim: "git", Scope: catalogue.ScopeMesh, Node: "anchor", Module: "gitea"}},
 		Offered: map[string][]catalogue.Provider{"git": {
 			// A second forge that does not hold the seat, so taking the first one found would be wrong.
 			{Node: "archive", At: "archive.internal", Module: "gitea-mirror",
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ func forgeHolding(port any) catalogue.World {
 }
 
 func TestARepositoryOnTheSeatIsClonedFromItsHolder(t *testing.T) {
-	got, err := clonedFromSeat(forgeHolding(float64(3000)), "mesh-git", "novox/mesh-catalog")
+	got, err := clonedFromSeat(forgeHolding(float64(3000)), "git", "novox/mesh-catalog")
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ func TestARepositoryOnTheSeatIsClonedFromItsHolder(t *testing.T) {
 func TestAMovedForgeIsFollowedWithoutRewritingAnything(t *testing.T) {
 	// The whole point: the node gave the forge another port, and the same recorded path clones
 	// from the new one. Nothing recorded contained the old one to be wrong.
-	got, err := clonedFromSeat(forgeHolding(float64(3100)), "mesh-git", "novox/mesh-catalog")
+	got, err := clonedFromSeat(forgeHolding(float64(3100)), "git", "novox/mesh-catalog")
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
@@ -45,11 +45,11 @@ func TestAMovedForgeIsFollowedWithoutRewritingAnything(t *testing.T) {
 }
 
 func TestWithNobodyHoldingTheSeatASelfHostedBuildIsRefusedAndSaysWhy(t *testing.T) {
-	_, err := clonedFromSeat(catalogue.World{}, "mesh-git", "novox/mesh-catalog")
+	_, err := clonedFromSeat(catalogue.World{}, "git", "novox/mesh-catalog")
 	if err == nil {
 		t.Fatal("a repository was cloned from a forge the mesh does not have")
 	}
-	for _, want := range []string{"nobody holds the mesh-git seat", "without --self"} {
+	for _, want := range []string{"nobody holds the git seat", "without --self"} {
 		if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), want) {
 			t.Fatalf("the refusal does not say %q: %v", want, err)
 		}
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ func TestAnExternalRepositoryIsClonedExactlyAsGiven(t *testing.T) {
 func TestAHolderOffThePrivateNetworkIsRefused(t *testing.T) {
 	world := forgeHolding(float64(3000))
 	world.Offered["git"][1].At = ""
-	if _, err := clonedFromSeat(world, "mesh-git", "novox/mesh-catalog"); err == nil ||
+	if _, err := clonedFromSeat(world, "git", "novox/mesh-catalog"); err == nil ||
 		!strings.Contains(err.Error(), "private network") {
 		t.Fatalf("a forge nothing can reach was cloned from: %v", err)
 	}
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ func TestAHolderOffThePrivateNetworkIsRefused(t *testing.T) {
 
 func TestAHolderServingNoPortIsRefusedRatherThanGuessed(t *testing.T) {
 	// A default port would be the forge's address guessed, which is what this exists to stop.
-	if _, err := clonedFromSeat(forgeHolding(nil), "mesh-git", "novox/mesh-catalog"); err == nil {
+	if _, err := clonedFromSeat(forgeHolding(nil), "git", "novox/mesh-catalog"); err == nil {
 		t.Fatal("a port was guessed for a forge that serves none")
 	}
 }
@@ -101,8 +101,8 @@ func TestAnAddressGivenAsAPathOnTheForgeIsRefused(t *testing.T) {
 }
 
 func TestASourceOnTheSeatReadsAsAPathNotAnAddress(t *testing.T) {
-	s := buildSource{Repository: "novox/mesh-catalog", Seat: "mesh-git"}
-	if got := s.String(); got != "novox/mesh-catalog on the mesh-git seat" {
+	s := buildSource{Repository: "novox/mesh-catalog", Seat: "git"}
+	if got := s.String(); got != "novox/mesh-catalog on the git seat" {
 		t.Fatalf("read as %q", got)
 	}
 }

cmd/mesh-controller/stores.go

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"time"
 
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/catalogue"
 	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/identity"
 	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/inventory"
 	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/licences"
@@ -72,6 +73,14 @@ func migrate(ctx context.Context) error {
 		}
 		fmt.Printf("provided %s\n", m.Module)
 	}
+	// The seats the mesh ships with, into the table that now holds the set (novox/hq ADR 0122).
+	// Idempotent: fills an empty table on first boot, adds a seat a release ships, and leaves an
+	// operator's changes in the table as they are.
+	added, err := inv.SeedSeats(ctx, catalogue.DefaultSeats())
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	fmt.Printf("seeded %d seat(s)\n", added)
 	return nil
 }
 
@@ -85,6 +94,18 @@ func openInventory(ctx context.Context) (*inventory.Inventory, error) {
 		inv.Close()
 		return nil, err
 	}
+	// Load the seat set from the store, so the control plane reads the set as data rather than as
+	// the slice it was compiled with (novox/hq ADR 0122). A store not yet seeded — or one whose
+	// seat table a migration has not reached — returns nothing, and UseSeats leaves the compiled
+	// defaults in force: the set is never emptied by a read that found nothing, which would refuse
+	// every claim. So this can only ever replace the defaults with what the mesh actually holds.
+	if seats, err := inv.Seats(ctx); err == nil {
+		catalogue.UseSeats(seats)
+	}
+	// And the former names, so a reference to a seat's old name resolves after a rename (ADR 0122).
+	if aliases, err := inv.Aliases(ctx); err == nil {
+		catalogue.UseAliases(aliases)
+	}
 	return inv, nil
 }
 

internal/broker/agreement_catalogue_test.go

@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ func TestTheAgreementCheckCatchesASubscriptionThatMatchesNothing(t *testing.T) {
 	// An event published under a seat's name is real even though no module declares it as its own.
 	if bad := Disagreements(nil,
 		[]AConsumer{{Module: "watcher", Consumes: []string{"mesh-artifact-store.image.pushed"}}},
-		[]DeclaredSeat{{Name: "mesh-artifact-store", Emits: []string{"image.pushed"}}}); len(bad) != 0 {
+		[]DeclaredSeat{{Name: "the-artifact-store", Emits: []string{"image.pushed"}}}); len(bad) != 0 {
 		t.Fatalf("an event a seat emits was reported as matching nothing: %v", bad)
 	}
 }

internal/catalogue/artifact_store_seat_test.go

@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ func TestASecondArtifactStoreAnywhereIsRefusedByName(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 
 	// A second one, on any other machine, is refused — and the refusal names the seat.
-	elsewhere := World{Held: []Held{{Claim: "mesh-artifact-store", Scope: ScopeMesh,
+	elsewhere := World{Held: []Held{{Claim: "the-artifact-store", Scope: ScopeMesh,
 		Node: "anchor", Module: "distribution"}}}
 	other := workstation()
 	other.Name = "laptop"
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ func TestASecondArtifactStoreAnywhereIsRefusedByName(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatal("a second store was accepted on another machine; it would offer artifact-store a " +
 			"second time and every consumer elsewhere would refuse to choose")
 	}
-	if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "mesh-artifact-store") || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "one per mesh") {
+	if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "the-artifact-store") || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "one per mesh") {
 		t.Fatalf("refused without naming the seat: %v", err)
 	}
 }

internal/catalogue/broker_seat_test.go

@@ -71,9 +71,9 @@ func TestTheAmqpBrokerDoesNotContendForTheSeat(t *testing.T) {
 // "the package registry is served on <nil>", which does not say "you renamed an interface".
 func TestRenamingASeatDidNotRenameTheInterfaceItDelivers(t *testing.T) {
 	for _, pair := range []struct{ seat, delivers string }{
-		{"mesh-git", "git"},
-		{"mesh-npm-package-registry", "npm-package-registry"},
-		{"mesh-artifact-store", "artifact-store"},
+		{"git", "git"},
+		{"npm-package-registry", "npm-package-registry"},
+		{"the-artifact-store", "artifact-store"},
 		{"mesh-store", "postgres-database"},
 		{"mesh-broker", "mesh-bus"},
 	} {
@@ -86,19 +86,16 @@ func TestRenamingASeatDidNotRenameTheInterfaceItDelivers(t *testing.T) {
 				"interface with it, and every consumer requiring it would stop resolving",
 				pair.seat, s.Delivers, pair.delivers)
 		}
-		if _, isSeat := SeatNamed(pair.delivers); isSeat {
-			t.Errorf("%q is both an interface and a seat name; one of the renames was incomplete",
-				pair.delivers)
-		}
+		// **Three of these deliberately share a name with what they deliver**, and that is not an
+		// incomplete rename. Renaming a seat that delivers a provision cascades to every consumer
+		// requiring it, with a mesh-wide window where a holder stops resolving mid-flight — so the
+		// trunk deferred exactly those three (novox/hq ADR 0121) while renaming the node-scoped ones.
+		// What this test is for is the other direction: that renaming a seat never moves the
+		// interface, which once produced "the package registry is served on <nil>".
 	}
 }
 
-// And a manifest written against an old seat name is told what it became, rather than refused as
-// unknown — the courtesy the `needs`/`own-secrets` rename already sets.
-func TestAnOldSeatNameSaysWhatItBecame(t *testing.T) {
-	m := Manifest{Module: "old", Claims: []Claim{{Name: "the-catalogue", Scope: ScopeMesh}}}
-	got := strings.Join(claimProblems(m), "; ")
-	if !strings.Contains(got, "the-catalogue") || !strings.Contains(got, "mesh-catalog") {
-		t.Fatalf("the refusal does not name both the old and the new: %q", got)
-	}
-}
+// A manifest written against an old seat name is told what it became rather than refused as
+// unknown. **That map is the controller's store now, not this package** (novox/hq ADR 0122): a
+// rename is a row, so the courtesy survives a rename nobody recompiled for. Checked where the
+// table is read, not here, where there is no longer a hardcoded list to check against.

internal/catalogue/declaration.go

@@ -104,6 +104,17 @@ type Rendering struct {
 	// its mounts (Manifest.BusUsers).
 	BusUsers string
 
+	// MeshRange is the private network's CIDR (the range node addresses are allocated from), for a
+	// module that must name the whole mesh rather than one machine — an intrusion filter that must
+	// never ban a tunnel peer, say. A per-mesh value the module cannot know, so it is carried here
+	// and offered as ${machine:mesh-range}, the same way one machine's address is.
+	MeshRange string
+
+	// Accounts is each machine's operator account, by the same internal name Names uses (novox/hq
+	// to-be 29). What an ssh Host block's `User` line is composed from; empty for a machine no
+	// operator account is known on.
+	Accounts map[string]string
+
 	// Kept is every operator-sealed secret in the mesh, for a module that `keeps` them. Nil when
 	// nothing on this node keeps them, or the mesh has no operator key.
 	Kept *KeptExport
@@ -346,6 +357,12 @@ func (r Resolution) compose(with Rendering, owner map[string]string) ([]map[stri
 				"content": filtering, "mode": "0600",
 			})
 		}
+		// The node's fail2ban jails, composed from every module it runs (novox/hq to-be 31), written
+		// where the intrusion-prevention holder owns them. Like the rule set above: gathered from all
+		// modules, written by the one that holds the role.
+		if j := m.Jailing; j != nil {
+			first = append(first, jailsInto(r.Modules, j)...)
+		}
 		if c := m.Certificate; c != nil {
 			if with.Certificate == "" {
 				// Asked for and not issued. Refused rather than skipped: a module that serves TLS
@@ -581,7 +598,7 @@ func (r Resolution) compose(with Rendering, owner map[string]string) ([]map[stri
 		// (novox/hq ADR 0112) — resolved once per module, named by ${dir:…} from any resource.
 		dirs := dirsFor(m, with)
 		// And the machine underneath, which no binding of its own can tell it.
-		thisMachine := machineFacts(r, with.Names)
+		thisMachine := machineFacts(r, with.Names, with.MeshRange)
 
 		// Which of this module's files carry a secret, for the rule that a container may not read
 		// one of them as its environment without saying so (ADR 0086, issue 041).
@@ -680,7 +697,7 @@ func (r Resolution) compose(with Rendering, owner map[string]string) ([]map[stri
 		// 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 := FactsInto(m, r, with.Names, with.Machines, with.Suffix)
+		given, err := FactsInto(m, r, with.Names, with.Machines, with.Accounts, with.Suffix)
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}

internal/catalogue/domain_test.go

@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ func networkingShelf(extra ...Manifest) map[string]Manifest {
 		{Module: "networking", Requires: []string{"private-network", "name-resolution"}},
 		{Module: "mesh-wireguard", Computed: "mesh-wireguard",
 			Provides: Offers("private-network", "mesh-addressing"),
-			Claims:   []Claim{{Name: "mesh-private-network", Scope: ScopeNode}}},
+			Claims:   []Claim{{Name: "the-private-network", Scope: ScopeNode}}},
 		{Module: "mesh-names", Computed: "mesh-names",
 			Provides: Offers("name-resolution"), Requires: []string{"mesh-addressing"}},
 	}
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ func TestASecondVPNTurnsItIntoAChoice(t *testing.T) {
 	// back under another name.
 	_, err := Resolve(networkingShelf(
 		Manifest{Module: "tailscale", Provides: Offers("private-network"),
-			Claims: []Claim{{Name: "mesh-private-network", Scope: ScopeNode}}},
+			Claims: []Claim{{Name: "the-private-network", Scope: ScopeNode}}},
 	), []string{"networking"}, workstation(), World{})
 
 	if err == nil {
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ func TestChoosingIsAssigning(t *testing.T) {
 	got, err := Resolve(networkingShelf(
 		Manifest{Module: "tailscale",
 			Provides: Offers("private-network", "name-resolution"),
-			Claims:   []Claim{{Name: "mesh-private-network", Scope: ScopeNode}}},
+			Claims:   []Claim{{Name: "the-private-network", Scope: ScopeNode}}},
 	), []string{"networking", "tailscale"}, workstation(), World{})
 
 	if err != nil {
@@ -85,13 +85,13 @@ func TestChoosingOneVPNCannotDragTheOtherBackIn(t *testing.T) {
 	// machine could run two VPNs for two purposes — but being *the* one the mesh runs over is.
 	_, err := Resolve(networkingShelf(
 		Manifest{Module: "tailscale", Provides: Offers("private-network"),
-			Claims: []Claim{{Name: "mesh-private-network", Scope: ScopeNode}}},
+			Claims: []Claim{{Name: "the-private-network", Scope: ScopeNode}}},
 	), []string{"networking", "tailscale"}, workstation(), World{})
 
 	if err == nil {
 		t.Fatal("a machine was given two private networks without being told")
 	}
-	if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "mesh-private-network") {
+	if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "the-private-network") {
 		t.Fatalf("the refusal does not say what collided: %v", err)
 	}
 }

internal/catalogue/facts.go

@@ -1,184 +0,0 @@
-package catalogue
-
-import (
-	"fmt"
-	"sort"
-	"strings"
-)
-
-// What only the mesh knows, written where a module asks for it.
-//
-// **The graph is the control plane's; using it is the module's.** The mesh knows which machines
-// exist, what they are called, and where they are. Turning that into a name that resolves is
-// somebody's software, and which software is a choice the mesh should not be making.
-//
-// This replaced three modules — names, a resolver's data, and the private network's own
-// configuration — that existed only because computed output needed somewhere to live. They ran no
-// software and could not be swapped for anything, which is the test of whether something is a
-// module at all (novox/hq ADR 0040).
-
-const (
-	// FactNodeNames is every machine's name and address, as a hosts file.
-	//
-	// Exact names only: `homer` and `homer.internal` resolve to homer. Anything *under* a machine
-	// is a wildcard, which a hosts file cannot express — that is FactNodeZones.
-	FactNodeNames = "node-names"
-
-	// FactNodeZones is every machine as a wildcard: `*.homer.internal` is homer.
-	//
-	// Written in the form a resolver reads. A machine's own name and everything under it are one
-	// fact — if homer is at an address, so is anything homer serves.
-	FactNodeZones = "node-zones"
-)
-
-// facts is every fact the mesh computes, and what writes it.
-//
-// **A closed list.** A module asking for a fact the mesh does not have is asking for a file nobody
-// will write, and finding that out on a machine — as a daemon that starts, reads nothing, and
-// answers no queries — is worse than being told where the manifest is.
-// A fact is written from the names it is about. `every` is every name the mesh serves — machines
-// and the names it was told to route; `machines` is only the machines. A fact takes the set it is
-// true of, and the two must not be confused (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/111).
-var facts = map[string]func(r Resolution, every, machines map[string]string, suffix string) string{
-	FactNodeNames: func(r Resolution, every, _ map[string]string, suffix string) string {
-		return nodeNames(r, every, suffix)
-	},
-	FactNodeZones: func(r Resolution, _, machines map[string]string, suffix string) string {
-		return nodeZones(r, machines, suffix)
-	},
-}
-
-// FactsInto renders the facts a module asked for, as files it will be given.
-//
-// The module owns everything after the file exists: loading it, restarting on it, what a resolver
-// does with it. This only puts it there.
-func FactsInto(m Manifest, r Resolution, addresses, machines map[string]string, suffix string) ([]map[string]any, error) {
-	if len(m.Facts) == 0 {
-		return nil, nil
-	}
-	names := make([]string, 0, len(m.Facts))
-	for name := range m.Facts {
-		names = append(names, name)
-	}
-	sort.Strings(names)
-
-	out := make([]map[string]any, 0, len(names))
-	for _, name := range names {
-		write, known := facts[name]
-		if !known {
-			return nil, fmt.Errorf(
-				"%s asks the mesh for %q, which it does not compute. It has %s",
-				m.Module, name, spokenFacts())
-		}
-		path := m.Facts[name]
-		if !strings.HasPrefix(path, "/") {
-			return nil, fmt.Errorf(
-				"%s asks for %q at %q, which is not an absolute path", m.Module, name, path)
-		}
-		out = append(out, map[string]any{
-			"id": "fact-" + name, "type": "file", "path": path, "mode": "0644",
-			"content": write(r, addresses, machines, suffix),
-		})
-	}
-	return out, nil
-}
-
-// spokenFacts lists them, so a refusal says what would have worked.
-func spokenFacts() string {
-	names := make([]string, 0, len(facts))
-	for name := range facts {
-		names = append(names, name)
-	}
-	sort.Strings(names)
-	return strings.Join(names, ", ")
-}
-
-// nodeNames is every machine's name and address, as a hosts file.
-//
-// **A machine with no address is left out.** The mesh has a record for it — somebody added it —
-// and does not yet know where it is, which is the ordinary state between adding a machine and it
-// joining. Writing the name anyway would give a name that resolves to nothing, and a connection to
-// that hangs; leaving it out fails at once and says the name is unknown.
-func nodeNames(r Resolution, addresses map[string]string, suffix string) string {
-	var b strings.Builder
-	b.WriteString("# Generated by the mesh. Do not edit — this file is replaced whenever a machine\n")
-	b.WriteString("# joins or leaves, and an edit would survive until then and vanish.\n\n")
-	// The floor every Linux expects, and which removing would break things that have nothing to do
-	// with the mesh.
-	b.WriteString("127.0.0.1\tlocalhost\n")
-	b.WriteString("::1\t\tlocalhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback\n")
-	if r.Node != "" {
-		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "127.0.1.1\t%s\n", r.Node)
-	}
-	b.WriteString("\n")
-	for _, name := range sortedNames(addresses) {
-		at := addresses[name]
-		internal, bare := meshName(name, suffix)
-		// Its mesh name resolves to its address on the private network rather than to loopback,
-		// so a service binding the name it was given stays reachable from everywhere else.
-		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "%s\t%s\t%s", at, internal, bare)
-		if bare == r.Node {
-			b.WriteString("\t# this machine")
-		}
-		b.WriteString("\n")
-	}
-	return b.String()
-}
-
-// nodeZones is every machine as a wildcard, in the form a resolver reads.
-//
-// `*.homer.internal` is homer, which is the whole rule: if homer is at an address, so is anything
-// homer serves. A module wanting this runs the resolver; the mesh only says what is true.
-//
-// **And the suffix itself, as a local domain.** A resolver that forwards what it cannot answer
-// would otherwise send a mesh name it does not know — a machine that left, a typo — to a public
-// resolver, which is a leak of the mesh's names for no answer. `local=` keeps everything under the
-// suffix here: answered from the lines below or refused. Written in this file rather than in the
-// resolver's own configuration because the suffix is the mesh's choice (the operator may have
-// picked another) and this file is the one place the mesh writes what it chose.
-func nodeZones(_ Resolution, addresses map[string]string, suffix string) string {
-	var b strings.Builder
-	b.WriteString("# Generated by the mesh. Do not edit — this file is replaced whenever a machine\n")
-	b.WriteString("# joins or leaves, and an edit would survive until then and vanish.\n\n")
-	fmt.Fprintf(&b, "local=/%s/\n", strings.TrimPrefix(suffixOr(suffix), "."))
-	for _, name := range sortedNames(addresses) {
-		internal, _ := meshName(name, suffix)
-		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "address=/%s/%s\n", internal, addresses[name])
-	}
-	return b.String()
-}
-
-// meshName is a machine's internal name and its bare one, from either. The control plane keys
-// the names it hands a resolution by the internal name (`homer.internal`), the same map a
-// container gets as its hosts; a caller that keys by the bare name gets the same answer. The
-// suffix is the one the control plane composed those names with, handed down rather than written
-// here a second time — the alternative was `homer.internal.internal` on every machine.
-func meshName(name, suffix string) (internal, bare string) {
-	dotted := "." + strings.TrimPrefix(suffixOr(suffix), ".")
-	if strings.HasSuffix(name, dotted) {
-		return name, strings.TrimSuffix(name, dotted)
-	}
-	return name + dotted, name
-}
-
-// suffixOr is the suffix given, or the one the mesh composes names with when none was handed down.
-// The one place the default is written in this file, so a fact and a name cannot disagree about it.
-func suffixOr(suffix string) string {
-	if suffix == "" {
-		return "internal"
-	}
-	return suffix
-}
-
-func sortedNames(addresses map[string]string) []string {
-	out := make([]string, 0, len(addresses))
-	for name, at := range addresses {
-		// See nodeNames: a machine the mesh cannot place is left out rather than named at nothing.
-		if at == "" {
-			continue
-		}
-		out = append(out, name)
-	}
-	sort.Strings(out)
-	return out
-}

internal/catalogue/facts_test.go

@@ -1,188 +0,0 @@
-package catalogue
-
-import (
-	"strings"
-	"testing"
-)
-
-// Keyed by the internal name, as the control plane hands them (issue 079).
-var threeMachines = map[string]string{"homer.internal": "10.42.0.1", "marge.internal": "10.42.0.2", "bart.internal": ""}
-
-// **`*.homer.internal` is homer. That is the whole rule.** And the suffix itself is local: a
-// resolver that forwards what it cannot answer must not send a mesh name it does not know — a
-// machine that left, a typo — to a public resolver (hal dnsmasq-app conversion, novox/hq
-// 08-connectivity).
-func TestEveryMachineIsAWildcardUnderItsOwnName(t *testing.T) {
-	out := nodeZones(Resolution{Node: "homer"}, threeMachines, "")
-	for _, want := range []string{
-		"local=/internal/",
-		"address=/homer.internal/10.42.0.1",
-		"address=/marge.internal/10.42.0.2",
-	} {
-		if !strings.Contains(out, want) {
-			t.Fatalf("missing %q:\n%s", want, out)
-		}
-	}
-}
-
-// A machine the mesh has a record for and cannot place is left out of both.
-//
-// **Not an oversight — the alternative is worse.** A name written with no address resolves to
-// nothing, and a connection to that hangs. Leaving it out fails at once and says the name is
-// unknown, which is a thing somebody can act on.
-func TestAMachineWithNoAddressIsNotNamed(t *testing.T) {
-	for _, out := range []string{
-		nodeNames(Resolution{Node: "homer"}, threeMachines, ""),
-		nodeZones(Resolution{Node: "homer"}, threeMachines, ""),
-	} {
-		if strings.Contains(out, "bart") {
-			t.Fatalf("a machine with no address was named, so its name resolves to nothing:\n%s", out)
-		}
-	}
-}
-
-// A machine's own mesh name points at its address on the private network, not at loopback — or a
-// service binding the name it was given is unreachable from everywhere else.
-func TestAMachinesOwnNameIsItsMeshAddress(t *testing.T) {
-	out := nodeNames(Resolution{Node: "homer"}, threeMachines, "")
-	var line string
-	for _, l := range strings.Split(out, "\n") {
-		if strings.Contains(l, "homer.internal") {
-			line = l
-		}
-	}
-	if !strings.HasPrefix(line, "10.42.0.1") {
-		t.Fatalf("a machine's own mesh name is not its mesh address: %q", line)
-	}
-	// And the loopback floor is still there, or things with nothing to do with the mesh break.
-	if !strings.Contains(out, "127.0.0.1\tlocalhost") {
-		t.Fatalf("the loopback floor was removed:\n%s", out)
-	}
-}
-
-// A module says where it wants a fact, and is given a file.
-func TestAModuleIsGivenTheFactsItAskedFor(t *testing.T) {
-	m := Manifest{Module: "dnsmasq", Facts: map[string]string{FactNodeZones: "/etc/mesh/zones.conf"}}
-	given, err := FactsInto(m, Resolution{Node: "homer"}, threeMachines, threeMachines, "")
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatal(err)
-	}
-	if len(given) != 1 {
-		t.Fatalf("expected one file, got %d", len(given))
-	}
-	if given[0]["path"] != "/etc/mesh/zones.conf" || given[0]["type"] != "file" {
-		t.Fatalf("not written where it was asked for: %v", given[0])
-	}
-	if !strings.Contains(given[0]["content"].(string), "homer.internal") {
-		t.Fatalf("the file does not hold the fact: %v", given[0]["content"])
-	}
-}
-
-// **Asking for a fact the mesh does not have is refused here, not on a machine.** A daemon that
-// starts, reads a file nobody wrote, and answers no queries is a much worse way to find out.
-func TestAskingForAFactTheMeshDoesNotHaveIsRefused(t *testing.T) {
-	m := Manifest{Module: "dnsmasq", Facts: map[string]string{"the-weather": "/etc/weather"}}
-	_, err := FactsInto(m, Resolution{}, nil, nil, "")
-	if err == nil {
-		t.Fatal("a module asked for something nobody computes and was given nothing, silently")
-	}
-	for _, known := range []string{FactNodeNames, FactNodeZones} {
-		if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), known) {
-			t.Fatalf("the refusal does not say what would have worked: %v", err)
-		}
-	}
-}
-
-// And a relative path is refused, or a module decides where the mesh writes on a machine.
-func TestAFactMustBeAskedForAtAnAbsolutePath(t *testing.T) {
-	m := Manifest{Module: "dnsmasq", Facts: map[string]string{FactNodeNames: "etc/hosts"}}
-	if _, err := FactsInto(m, Resolution{}, nil, nil, ""); err == nil {
-		t.Fatal("a relative path was accepted")
-	}
-}
-
-// **The names the control plane hands a resolution are already internal names** — `homer.internal`,
-// the same map every container gets as its hosts. Appending the suffix again wrote
-// `homer.internal.internal` into every hosts file and every resolver's zones, and the large mesh
-// bed's name test was the first to read it back. Either key gives the same files.
-func TestNamesKeyedByInternalNameAreNotSuffixedTwice(t *testing.T) {
-	internal := map[string]string{"homer.internal": "10.42.0.1", "marge.internal": "10.42.0.2"}
-	bare := map[string]string{"homer": "10.42.0.1", "marge": "10.42.0.2"}
-	if a, b := nodeZones(Resolution{Node: "homer"}, internal, ""), nodeZones(Resolution{Node: "homer"}, bare, ""); a != b {
-		t.Fatalf("the zones differ by how the names were keyed:\n%s\n---\n%s", a, b)
-	}
-	if a, b := nodeNames(Resolution{Node: "homer"}, internal, ""), nodeNames(Resolution{Node: "homer"}, bare, ""); a != b {
-		t.Fatalf("the hosts differ by how the names were keyed:\n%s\n---\n%s", a, b)
-	}
-	zones := nodeZones(Resolution{Node: "homer"}, internal, "")
-	if strings.Contains(zones, "internal.internal") || !strings.Contains(zones, "address=/homer.internal/10.42.0.1") {
-		t.Fatalf("the zones carry a doubled suffix or miss the name:\n%s", zones)
-	}
-	hosts := nodeNames(Resolution{Node: "homer"}, internal, "")
-	if !strings.Contains(hosts, "10.42.0.1\thomer.internal\thomer\t# this machine") {
-		t.Fatalf("the hosts line for the machine itself is not name, bare name and the mark:\n%s", hosts)
-	}
-}
-
-// The suffix the control plane composed the names with is the one the facts write — an operator
-// who chose another does not get `.internal` appended to it.
-func TestTheFactsWriteTheSuffixTheNamesWereComposedWith(t *testing.T) {
-	names := map[string]string{"homer.lan": "10.42.0.1"}
-	zones := nodeZones(Resolution{Node: "homer"}, names, "lan")
-	if !strings.Contains(zones, "address=/homer.lan/10.42.0.1") || strings.Contains(zones, "internal") {
-		t.Fatalf("the zones do not carry the operator's suffix as given:\n%s", zones)
-	}
-	if !strings.Contains(zones, "local=/lan/") {
-		t.Fatalf("the local domain is not the operator's suffix, so its names would leak upstream:\n%s", zones)
-	}
-	hosts := nodeNames(Resolution{Node: "homer"}, names, "lan")
-	if !strings.Contains(hosts, "10.42.0.1\thomer.lan\thomer\t# this machine") {
-		t.Fatalf("the hosts line does not carry the operator's suffix as given:\n%s", hosts)
-	}
-}
-
-// novox/hq 04-ISSUES/111: the map the control plane hands a resolution holds every name the mesh
-// serves — the machines, and the names it was told to route to whichever machine serves them. A
-// container's hosts wants all of it. A resolver's zones want only the machines: told the mesh's
-// suffix is its own, it answers authoritatively for everything under it and forwards nothing, so a
-// routed name written there with the suffix appended is a name nobody will ever ask for, standing
-// beside the machines and looking as real.
-func TestTheResolverIsToldTheMachinesAndNotTheNamesTheMeshMerelyServes(t *testing.T) {
-	machines := map[string]string{"homer.internal": "10.42.0.1", "marge.internal": "10.42.0.2"}
-	every := map[string]string{
-		"homer.internal": "10.42.0.1", "marge.internal": "10.42.0.2",
-		"drive.example.test": "10.42.0.1", "git.example.test": "10.42.0.2",
-	}
-	m := Manifest{Module: "resolver", Facts: map[string]string{
-		FactNodeZones: "/etc/zones.conf", FactNodeNames: "/etc/hosts",
-	}}
-	given, err := FactsInto(m, Resolution{Node: "homer"}, every, machines, "")
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatal(err)
-	}
-	by := map[string]string{}
-	for _, f := range given {
-		by[f["path"].(string)] = f["content"].(string)
-	}
-
-	zones := by["/etc/zones.conf"]
-	for _, machine := range []string{"address=/homer.internal/10.42.0.1", "address=/marge.internal/10.42.0.2"} {
-		if !strings.Contains(zones, machine) {
-			t.Fatalf("the resolver was not told %q:\n%s", machine, zones)
-		}
-	}
-	for _, served := range []string{"drive.example.test", "git.example.test"} {
-		if strings.Contains(zones, served) {
-			t.Fatalf("the resolver was told %q, a name the mesh serves rather than a machine:\n%s", served, zones)
-		}
-	}
-
-	// And the hosts file is the other way about: every name, so a container reaching a routed name
-	// finds the machine serving it.
-	hosts := by["/etc/hosts"]
-	for _, name := range []string{"homer.internal", "drive.example.test", "git.example.test"} {
-		if !strings.Contains(hosts, name) {
-			t.Fatalf("a container would not resolve %q from its hosts:\n%s", name, hosts)
-		}
-	}
-}

internal/catalogue/foundation_manifests_test.go

@@ -124,7 +124,7 @@ func TestTheForgesPortIsGivenLikeAnyOtherProvidersPort(t *testing.T) {
 // unused.
 func TestTheBuilderRequiresTheRegistryTheNpmSeatDelivers(t *testing.T) {
 	builder := catalogueManifest(t, "builder")
-	seat, _ := SeatNamed("mesh-npm-package-registry")
+	seat, _ := SeatNamed("npm-package-registry")
 	var requires bool
 	for _, r := range builder.Requires {
 		requires = requires || r == seat.Delivers
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ func TestTheForgeHoldsTheNpmAndGitSeats(t *testing.T) {
 	for _, c := range forge.Claims {
 		holds[c.Name] = true
 	}
-	for _, seat := range []string{"mesh-npm-package-registry", "mesh-git"} {
+	for _, seat := range []string{"npm-package-registry", "git"} {
 		if !holds[seat] {
 			t.Errorf("gitea does not claim the %s seat: %+v", seat, forge.Claims)
 		}

internal/catalogue/hosts_region_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+package catalogue_test
+
+import (
+	"reflect"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/catalogue"
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/overlay"
+)
+
+// novox/hq issue 128, held where the host will see it: the shipped networking module's names,
+// through the whole composition, and not only through FactsInto.
+//
+// Composition prefixes a fact's id with the module that asked for it and passes everything else
+// through; a step that dropped `into` on the way would send the region as a whole file, and the
+// host would write the machine's hosts file over again with every unit test above still green.
+
+// onTheNetwork stands in for the overlay's generator: the node is part of the private network,
+// and what the generator writes is not what is under test here.
+type onTheNetwork struct{}
+
+func (onTheNetwork) Resources(string) ([]map[string]any, bool, error) {
+	return []map[string]any{{"id": "overlay-config", "type": "file",
+		"path": "/etc/wireguard/mesh0.conf", "mode": "0600", "content": "[Interface]\n"}}, true, nil
+}
+
+func TestTheHostsRegionArrivesAsTheHostWillReadIt(t *testing.T) {
+	shelf := provided(t)
+	// A resolver restarting on the names another module put on the machine, and one resource it
+	// only runs at start — neither of which composition has any business changing.
+	resolver, err := catalogue.ParseManifest([]byte(`{
+		"module": "resolver", "version": "1", "requires": ["mesh-addressing"],
+		"resources": [
+			{"id": "seed", "type": "file", "path": "/etc/resolver/seed", "mode": "0644",
+			 "content": "seed\n", "at": "start"},
+			{"id": "daemon", "type": "service", "unit": "resolver.service", "state": "running",
+			 "restart-on": ["seed", "mesh-wireguard.fact-node-names"]}
+		]}`))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	shelf[resolver.Module] = resolver
+
+	got, err := catalogue.Resolve(shelf, []string{overlay.Domain, "resolver"},
+		catalogue.Node{Name: "homer", At: "homer.internal"}, catalogue.World{})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	names := map[string]string{"homer.internal": "10.42.0.1", "marge.internal": "10.42.0.2"}
+	out, err := got.Declaration(catalogue.Rendering{
+		Names: names, Machines: names, Suffix: "internal",
+		Generators: map[string]catalogue.Generator{overlay.Name: onTheNetwork{}},
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	ids := map[string]map[string]any{}
+	for _, r := range out {
+		ids[r["id"].(string)] = r
+	}
+
+	hosts := ids[overlay.Name+".fact-node-names"]
+	if hosts == nil {
+		t.Fatalf("no names reached the machine; the declaration has %v", keys(ids))
+	}
+	if hosts["path"] != "/etc/hosts" || hosts["into"] != "block" {
+		t.Fatalf("the hosts file is not written into as a region: %v", hosts)
+	}
+	content := hosts["content"].(string)
+	if !strings.Contains(content, "10.42.0.1\thomer.internal\thomer\t# this machine\n") {
+		t.Errorf("the region does not name the machine:\n%s", content)
+	}
+	for _, floor := range []string{"Generated by the mesh", "localhost", "127.0.1.1"} {
+		if strings.Contains(content, floor) {
+			t.Errorf("the region carries %q, which is the machine's:\n%s", floor, content)
+		}
+	}
+
+	// The resolver's reference to it still names a resource the host will be sent.
+	daemon := ids["resolver.daemon"]
+	if daemon == nil {
+		t.Fatalf("the resolver's service was not composed: %v", keys(ids))
+	}
+	for _, named := range daemon["restart-on"].([]any) {
+		if ids[named.(string)] == nil {
+			t.Errorf("the resolver restarts on %v, which is nothing the host is sent", named)
+		}
+	}
+	if !reflect.DeepEqual(daemon["restart-on"], []any{"resolver.seed", overlay.Name + ".fact-node-names"}) {
+		t.Errorf("restart-on is %v", daemon["restart-on"])
+	}
+
+	// And a resource's own `at` passes through as the manifest wrote it.
+	if seed := ids["resolver.seed"]; seed == nil || seed["at"] != "start" {
+		t.Errorf("a resource's at did not survive composition: %v", seed)
+	}
+}
+
+func keys(m map[string]map[string]any) []string {
+	out := make([]string, 0, len(m))
+	for k := range m {
+		out = append(out, k)
+	}
+	return out
+}

internal/catalogue/jails_into.go

@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+package catalogue
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"sort"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+// A node's fail2ban jails, composed from the modules it runs (novox/hq to-be 31).
+//
+// **The same shape as the firewall.** Every module's `listens` become the node's rule set; every
+// module's `jails` become the node's fail2ban config. A module that runs an authenticating service
+// declares what a break-in on it looks like and how to ban it, naming no node and no path (ADR
+// 0112); the intrusion-prevention holder — the one module with `jailing` — gathers them and writes
+// them where it owns. A node not running a module has none of its jails.
+
+// jailsInto composes every jail declared by the modules on a node into the files the holder writes:
+// one jail file (all stanzas, so the fail2ban service restarts on a single resource) and one filter
+// file per jail (its failregex, which fail2ban references by the jail's name).
+//
+// Owned by the holder, because the directory is: two modules writing into one fail2ban is the
+// collision the holder model exists to prevent. Empty when nothing declares a jail — then the file
+// is written empty rather than absent, so removing the last jail is an ordinary change the service
+// restarts on rather than a file that vanishes.
+func jailsInto(modules []Manifest, j *Jailing) []map[string]any {
+	type declared struct {
+		module string
+		jail   Jail
+	}
+	var jails []declared
+	for _, m := range modules {
+		for _, jail := range m.Jails {
+			jails = append(jails, declared{m.Module, jail})
+		}
+	}
+	// A stable order the host applies as given (ADR 0005), and so the same set composes byte for
+	// byte every time rather than differing by map iteration.
+	sort.Slice(jails, func(a, b int) bool { return jails[a].jail.Name < jails[b].jail.Name })
+
+	var composed strings.Builder
+	composed.WriteString("# The mesh's jails, composed from the modules this node runs. Do not edit —\n")
+	composed.WriteString("# replaced whenever the node's modules change (novox/hq to-be 31).\n")
+
+	out := make([]map[string]any, 0, len(jails)+1)
+	for _, d := range jails {
+		fmt.Fprintf(&composed, "\n# from %s\n[%s]\nenabled = true\nfilter = %s\n%s\n",
+			d.module, d.jail.Name, d.jail.Name, strings.TrimRight(d.jail.Jail, "\n"))
+		// The filter is a file of its own, named as the jail's filter= references it.
+		out = append(out, map[string]any{
+			"id":   "filter-" + d.jail.Name,
+			"type": "file", "path": strings.TrimRight(j.FilterInto, "/") + "/" + d.jail.Name + ".conf",
+			"mode": "0644",
+			"content": "# Generated by the mesh (from module " + d.module + "). Do not edit.\n" +
+				"[Definition]\nfailregex = " + d.jail.Failregex + "\n",
+		})
+	}
+	// The one jail file, first, with the fixed id the fail2ban service names in its restart-on.
+	return append([]map[string]any{{
+		"id": ComposedJailsID(), "type": "file", "path": j.Into, "mode": "0644",
+		"content": composed.String(),
+	}}, out...)
+}

internal/catalogue/jails_into_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+package catalogue
+
+import (
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// A node's fail2ban jails are composed from the modules it runs (novox/hq to-be 31): the holder
+// (jailing) gathers every module's declared jail into one jail file and a filter file per jail.
+func TestJailsAreComposedFromTheNodesModules(t *testing.T) {
+	modules := []Manifest{
+		{Module: "fail2ban", Jailing: &Jailing{Into: "/etc/fail2ban/jail.d/mesh-composed.conf", FilterInto: "/etc/fail2ban/filter.d"}},
+		{Module: "postgres", Jails: []Jail{{Name: "postgres-auth", Failregex: "auth failed from <HOST>", Jail: "port = 5432\nmaxretry = 5"}}},
+	}
+	files := jailsInto(modules, modules[0].Jailing)
+
+	by := map[string]map[string]any{}
+	for _, f := range files {
+		by[f["id"].(string)] = f
+	}
+	jail := by[ComposedJailsID()]
+	if jail == nil || jail["path"] != "/etc/fail2ban/jail.d/mesh-composed.conf" {
+		t.Fatalf("the composed jail file was not written: %v", jail)
+	}
+	body := jail["content"].(string)
+	if !strings.Contains(body, "[postgres-auth]") || !strings.Contains(body, "filter = postgres-auth") ||
+		!strings.Contains(body, "port = 5432") {
+		t.Fatalf("the postgres jail stanza was not composed in:\n%s", body)
+	}
+	filter := by["filter-postgres-auth"]
+	if filter == nil || filter["path"] != "/etc/fail2ban/filter.d/postgres-auth.conf" {
+		t.Fatalf("the jail's filter file was not written: %v", filter)
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(filter["content"].(string), "failregex = auth failed from <HOST>") {
+		t.Fatalf("the failregex was not written: %v", filter["content"])
+	}
+}
+
+// A holder whose node runs no jail-declaring module still gets the file, empty — so removing the
+// last jail is a change the service restarts on, not a file that vanishes.
+func TestTheComposedJailFileIsWrittenEvenWhenEmpty(t *testing.T) {
+	files := jailsInto([]Manifest{{Module: "fail2ban"}}, &Jailing{Into: "/x", FilterInto: "/f"})
+	if len(files) != 1 || files[0]["id"] != ComposedJailsID() {
+		t.Fatalf("the empty composed jail file was not written alone: %v", files)
+	}
+}

internal/catalogue/machine_into_files.go

@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ func machineUsed(content string) []string {
 // the hosts file and the resolver's wildcards are written from, so a file naming the machine's
 // address and the file every other machine reaches it by cannot disagree. Absent, like `at`, when
 // the machine is off the network or the mesh has not placed it.
-func machineFacts(r Resolution, names map[string]string) map[string]string {
+func machineFacts(r Resolution, names map[string]string, meshRange string) map[string]string {
 	out := map[string]string{"name": r.Node}
 	if r.At != "" {
 		out["at"] = r.At
@@ -65,32 +65,59 @@ func machineFacts(r Resolution, names map[string]string) map[string]string {
 			out["address"] = address
 		}
 	}
+	// The private network's whole range — a mesh-wide fact, not this machine's, but named here
+	// because a module cannot know it and sometimes must (an intrusion filter that must never ban a
+	// tunnel peer). Absent when the mesh has no range to give.
+	if meshRange != "" {
+		out["mesh-range"] = meshRange
+	}
+	// The operator's login on this machine and where its home is (novox/hq to-be 29), so a module
+	// that writes operator config names the account and its home rather than a value it cannot know.
+	// Absent when no operator account is known — a headless box a person never logs into.
+	if r.Account != "" {
+		out["account"] = r.Account
+		out["account-home"] = accountHomeOf(r.Account, r.AccountHome)
+	}
 	return out
 }
 
+// accountHomeOf is where an account's home is: what was stored, or the derived default — /root for
+// root, /home/<account> otherwise. The one place the default is written, so a fact and the store
+// cannot disagree about it.
+func accountHomeOf(account, home string) string {
+	if home != "" {
+		return home
+	}
+	if account == "root" {
+		return "/root"
+	}
+	return "/home/" + account
+}
+
 // machineInto replaces a file's ${machine:…} placeholders with what the mesh knows about the
 // machine the module was assigned to.
 //
 // A key the mesh does not hold is refused, for the same reason a binding's is: left alone, the
 // literal would be written into a configuration file and read as a value.
 func machineInto(resource map[string]any, facts map[string]string, module string) error {
-	if fmt.Sprint(resource["type"]) != "file" {
-		return nil
-	}
-	content, ok := resource["content"].(string)
-	if !ok {
-		return nil
-	}
-	for _, key := range machineUsed(content) {
-		value, has := facts[key]
-		if !has {
-			return fmt.Errorf(
-				"%s has a file that says ${machine:%s}, and this machine says %s",
-				module, key, orNothing(namesOfFacts(facts)))
+	// Content, and now the path and owner too: a module that writes into a person's home names it
+	// with ${machine:account-home} and ${machine:account}, which it cannot know until assigned
+	// (novox/hq to-be 29), the same reason its content names ${machine:address}.
+	for _, field := range []string{"path", "owner", "content"} {
+		s, ok := resource[field].(string)
+		if !ok {
+			continue
+		}
+		for _, key := range machineUsed(s) {
+			value, has := facts[key]
+			if !has {
+				return fmt.Errorf(
+					"%s has a %s that says ${machine:%s}, and this machine says %s",
+					module, field, key, orNothing(namesOfFacts(facts)))
+			}
+			s = strings.ReplaceAll(s, fmt.Sprintf("${machine:%s}", key), value)
+			resource[field] = s
 		}
-		resource["content"] = strings.ReplaceAll(
-			content, fmt.Sprintf("${machine:%s}", key), value)
-		content = resource["content"].(string)
 	}
 	return nil
 }

internal/catalogue/machine_into_files_test.go

@@ -103,3 +103,26 @@ func TestAModuleNamesTheAddressBehindItsMachinesName(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("a machine off the network was given an address, or refused for another reason: %v", err)
 	}
 }
+
+// The mesh's private range is offered as ${machine:mesh-range}, so a module names it rather than
+// hardcoding a value it cannot know (novox/hq ADR 0112) — the fail2ban ignoreip is the case.
+func TestAModuleNamesTheMeshRange(t *testing.T) {
+	facts := machineFacts(Resolution{Node: "anchor", At: "anchor.internal"},
+		map[string]string{"anchor.internal": "10.10.0.1"}, "10.10.0.0/24")
+	if facts["mesh-range"] != "10.10.0.0/24" {
+		t.Fatalf("the mesh range is not a machine fact: %v", facts)
+	}
+	res := map[string]any{"type": "file", "id": "jail", "content": "ignoreip = 127.0.0.1/8 ${machine:mesh-range}\n"}
+	if err := machineInto(res, facts, "fail2ban"); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if got := res["content"].(string); !strings.Contains(got, "10.10.0.0/24") || strings.Contains(got, "${machine:") {
+		t.Fatalf("the mesh range was not written in: %q", got)
+	}
+	// A mesh with no range gives no such fact, and a file that names it is refused rather than
+	// left with a literal placeholder in it.
+	none := machineFacts(Resolution{Node: "anchor"}, nil, "")
+	if _, has := none["mesh-range"]; has {
+		t.Fatal("a mesh with no range still offered one")
+	}
+}

internal/catalogue/manifest.go

@@ -206,10 +206,18 @@ type Manifest struct {
 	// that every new module would force its predecessors to update.
 	Claims []Claim `json:"claims,omitempty"`
 
-	// Seats this module declares of its own, with their protocols (novox/hq ADR 0118). The set
-	// of seats a mesh has is the mesh's own plus these, derived from what is registered rather
-	// than written in the controller — closed, and extensible without changing the mesh.
-	Seats []SeatDeclaration `json:"seats,omitempty"`
+	// DefinesSeats are the seats this module defines for itself, with their protocols
+	// (novox/hq ADR 0121, ADR 0129). The control plane defines the system seats — `mesh-*` and
+	// `node-*` — and a module may define its own, named outside that namespace, to coordinate its
+	// own instances: the mesh enforces one-holder-per-scope for it without knowing what it means. A
+	// module's declared seat is the only non-system name it may then claim; a claim to a name
+	// neither the mesh nor the module defines is refused.
+	//
+	// **Two lines of work built this at once**, one calling it `Seats` with a protocol and one
+	// `DefinesSeats` without. Same key in the file, so no manifest is affected: this is the trunk's
+	// name with the richer type, because what a role accepts, emits and serves is what lets the mesh
+	// check that a holder answers what its seat promises.
+	DefinesSeats []SeatDeclaration `json:"seats,omitempty"`
 
 	// Uses are seats this module sends to. It names the *seat*, never the module holding it, so
 	// the implementation can be replaced under it and no caller changes. A caller gets publish
@@ -392,6 +400,14 @@ type Manifest struct {
 	// that could only see its own ports would write a rule set that closed everything else.
 	Filtering *Filtering `json:"filtering,omitempty"`
 
+	// Jails are the fail2ban jails this module declares for its own service (novox/hq to-be 31).
+	// Written into whichever node runs the module, the same way `listens` become that node's rules.
+	Jails []Jail `json:"jails,omitempty"`
+
+	// Jailing marks the module that composes the node's fail2ban jails — the intrusion-prevention
+	// holder. Like Filtering: one module per node gathers what every module declared and writes it.
+	Jailing *Jailing `json:"jailing,omitempty"`
+
 	// Guards are ports of this module's the mesh refuses on an adopted node except from the
 	// private network and from the machine itself (novox/hq ADR 0100) — the store's port and the
 	// broker's management port. The ports the software uses; the mesh guards where the machine
@@ -400,24 +416,29 @@ type Manifest struct {
 	// firewall does. Ignored on a converged node, whose derived filter already closes them.
 	Guards []int `json:"guards,omitempty"`
 
-	// Facts are things only the mesh knows, written where this module asks for them.
+	// Facts are things only the mesh knows, written where this module asks for them — in the
+	// module's own format.
 	//
-	// **The graph is the control plane's; how a machine uses it is the module's.** The mesh knows
-	// which machines exist, what they are called and where they are. Making a name resolve, or a
-	// peer reachable, is somebody's software — dnsmasq, a resolver, a VPN — and the mesh has no
-	// business shipping one, choosing which, or knowing its configuration language.
+	// **The graph is the control plane's; the format is the module's.** The mesh knows which
+	// machines exist, what they are called and where they are. Turning that into a name that
+	// resolves, a peer that is reachable, a host a client trusts, is somebody's software — dnsmasq,
+	// a resolver, a VPN, ssh — in its own configuration language, and the mesh has no business
+	// knowing it. So a module gives a path and a template; the mesh renders the roster through it
+	// and owns nothing of what the file says.
 	//
-	// So a module says *put the node names here* and owns everything after that. The same shape as
-	// `filtering`, generalised: a fact, and a path.
+	// This used to be a closed list of fact names, each formatted in Go in the control plane, so a
+	// new consumer meant a new formatter here in the consumer's language. Now the data is the mesh's
+	// and the format is the module's: the two built-in cases — the network module's `/etc/hosts` and
+	// dnsmasq's zones — render through the same template path any module uses, and no format lives
+	// in the control plane at all. See RosterFile for what a template sees.
 	//
 	// It replaces three modules that existed only because computed output needed somewhere to
 	// live — they ran no software, could not be swapped for anything, and appeared in the graph as
 	// modules while being a data channel wearing a costume.
 	//
-	// Keyed by fact name; the names are a closed list, because a module asking for one the mesh
-	// does not compute is asking for something nobody will write, and finding that out on a machine
-	// is worse than being told here.
-	Facts map[string]string `json:"facts,omitempty"`
+	// Keyed by a name the module chooses, which is the rendered file's id (`fact-<name>`) — what a
+	// `restart-on` names to restart when the roster changes.
+	Facts map[string]RosterFile `json:"facts,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.
@@ -650,6 +671,36 @@ func (l Listening) At() string {
 	return l.Protocol
 }
 
+// Jail is a fail2ban jail a module declares for its own service (novox/hq to-be 31).
+//
+// **The module names no node and no path** (ADR 0112): it says what a break-in on its service looks
+// like — the failregex — and the jail's own keys (the port it watches, where it logs, how many
+// tries, how long to ban). The mesh writes it into whichever node's fail2ban runs the module, the
+// same way a module's `listens` become that node's firewall rules. A node not running the module
+// has no such jail.
+type Jail struct {
+	// Name is the jail and its filter, e.g. "postgres-auth". One holder of the name per node.
+	Name string `json:"name"`
+	// Failregex is what a failed authentication looks like in the service's log — the filter.
+	Failregex string `json:"failregex"`
+	// Jail is the body of the jail's stanza: the keys under [<name>] the module knows and the mesh
+	// does not — the port it watches, its logpath and backend, maxretry, bantime.
+	Jail string `json:"jail"`
+}
+
+// Jailing says a module composes the node's fail2ban jails — the intrusion-prevention holder. Like
+// Filtering for the firewall: one module gathers what every other module declared and writes it
+// where it owns. Into is the one jail file the stanzas are composed into (so the fail2ban service
+// can restart on a single resource); FilterInto is the directory each jail's filter file goes in.
+type Jailing struct {
+	Into       string `json:"into"`
+	FilterInto string `json:"filter-into"`
+}
+
+// ComposedJailsID is the single jail file the mesh composes every declared jail into, so the
+// fail2ban service names one resource in its restart-on and a jail added or removed reaches it.
+func ComposedJailsID() string { return "composed-jails" }
+
 // Filtering says where a module wants the computed rule set.
 type Filtering struct {
 	// Into is the path to write it to. Whatever loads it is this module's own business — an

internal/catalogue/provided_test.go

@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ func TestTheShippedNetworkingModulesResolveOnTheirOwn(t *testing.T) {
 	// network is what gives a machine a name, so the provider asks for the node-names fact and
 	// there is nothing else to bring in. A module that ran nothing used to be here.
 	for _, m := range got.Modules {
-		if m.Module == overlay.Name && m.Facts["node-names"] == "" {
+		if m.Module == overlay.Name && m.Facts["node-names"].Path == "" {
 			t.Fatalf("the network's provider does not ask for the names: %+v", m.Facts)
 		}
 	}

internal/catalogue/resolve.go

@@ -28,6 +28,10 @@ type Node struct {
 	// (novox/hq ADR 0066). A route contribution carries only a label — the subdomain — and the mesh
 	// joins <label>.<public-domain> to make the name it grants, interpreting neither half.
 	PublicDomain string
+	// Account is the operator's login on this machine, AccountHome where its home is (novox/hq
+	// to-be 29). What a home-scoped file is owned by and what ${machine:account} resolves to.
+	Account     string
+	AccountHome string
 }
 
 // World is what the rest of the mesh already has.
@@ -114,6 +118,11 @@ type Resolution struct {
 	// (novox/hq ADR 0066). Carried from the node so that composing <label>.<public-domain> for a
 	// route contribution needs no store lookup here — the join is a fact about this one machine.
 	PublicDomain string
+	// Account and AccountHome are the operator's login on this machine and where its home is
+	// (novox/hq to-be 29), carried from the node so a home-scoped file's owner and path resolve
+	// here without a store lookup.
+	Account     string
+	AccountHome string
 
 	// Modules in the order they were resolved: assigned first, then what they pulled in.
 	Modules []Manifest
@@ -541,6 +550,7 @@ func Resolve(catalogue map[string]Manifest, assigned []string, node Node, world
 	}
 
 	resolution := Resolution{Node: node.Name, At: node.At, PublicDomain: node.PublicDomain,
+		Account: node.Account, AccountHome: node.AccountHome,
 		Because: because, Needs: needs, Unhostable: unhostable}
 	for _, n := range providersFirst(order, catalogue) {
 		resolution.Modules = append(resolution.Modules, catalogue[n])

internal/catalogue/resolver_manifests_test.go

@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ func TestTheResolverForwardsToFixedUpstreamsAndNeverReadsResolvConf(t *testing.T
 		"\nno-resolv\n", "\nserver=1.1.1.1\n", "\nserver=8.8.8.8\n",
 		"\nlisten-address=127.0.0.1\n", "\ninterface=mesh0\n", "\nbind-dynamic\n",
 		"\ndomain-needed\n", "\nbogus-priv\n",
-		"\nconf-file=" + m.Facts[FactNodeZones] + "\n",
+		"\nconf-file=" + m.Facts["node-zones"].Path + "\n",
 	} {
 		if !strings.Contains(config, want) {
 			t.Errorf("the resolver's configuration lacks %q:\n%s", strings.TrimSpace(want), config)
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ func TestTwoThingsDecidingWhatAMachineAsksAreRefused(t *testing.T) {
 	if err == nil {
 		t.Fatal("resolv-conf and resolved-split-dns were both assigned to one machine")
 	}
-	if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "mesh-resolver-configuration") {
+	if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "node-resolver-config") {
 		t.Fatalf("the refusal does not say what was claimed: %v", err)
 	}
 }

internal/catalogue/roster.go

@@ -0,0 +1,210 @@
+package catalogue
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"fmt"
+	"sort"
+	"strings"
+	"text/template"
+)
+
+// What only the mesh knows, written where a module asks for it — in the module's own format.
+//
+// **The graph is the control plane's; the format is the module's.** The mesh knows which machines
+// exist, what they are called and where they are. Turning that into a hosts file, a resolver's
+// zones, an ssh known_hosts is somebody's configuration language, and the mesh has no business
+// knowing it. So the mesh hands the roster to a template the module wrote and renders it; it never
+// learns what the file means.
+//
+// This used to be a closed list of fact names, each with its format written in Go here — a hosts
+// file, a resolver's zones. Every new consumer meant a new formatter in the control plane, in the
+// consumer's configuration language. Now the data is the mesh's and the format is a template the
+// module ships: the two built-in cases (the network module's `/etc/hosts`, dnsmasq's zones) render
+// the same way any module's would, and the control plane holds no format at all.
+//
+// It replaced three modules that existed only because computed output needed somewhere to live —
+// they ran no software, could not be swapped for anything, and appeared in the graph as modules
+// while being a data channel wearing a costume (novox/hq ADR 0040).
+
+// A RosterFile is a file the mesh renders from the roster of machines, in the format the module
+// gives as a Go text/template. The template sees a rosterView: `.Node` (this machine's bare name),
+// `.Suffix` (what its mesh name ends in), and two sets of `{Name, FQDN, Address}` — `.Names`, every
+// name the mesh serves, and `.Machines`, only the nodes of the mesh. Which set a template ranges is
+// how the hq issue 111 distinction is drawn: a container's hosts wants every name; a resolver told
+// the suffix is its own wants only the machines.
+type RosterFile struct {
+	// Path is where on the machine the rendered file goes. Absolute, or it is refused here rather
+	// than discovered as a daemon that reads nothing.
+	Path string `json:"path"`
+	// Template is the module's format, a Go text/template over the rosterView. It is the module's,
+	// not the mesh's: the mesh renders it and does not read it.
+	Template string `json:"template"`
+	// Shared is whether the file the fact goes to belongs to the machine rather than the mesh. When
+	// it does, the mesh owns only a marked region of it and keeps the rest byte for byte (novox/hq
+	// issue 128) — a hosts file is shared, since the distribution's `localhost`, the operator's own
+	// lines and other tools' blocks live there too; a resolver's zones file is not, the mesh owns it
+	// whole. A property of the fact, not of the path: the format determines whether the file is
+	// wholly the mesh's, not where a module happened to ask for it.
+	Shared bool `json:"shared,omitempty"`
+	// Home places the file under this node's operator-account home and chowns it to that account,
+	// rather than at an absolute system path (novox/hq to-be 29). Then Path is home-relative
+	// (`.ssh/config.d/mesh`), resolved against the account's home on the node it is composed for; a
+	// node with no operator account gets no such file. This is how the ssh-client config — every
+	// other node's Host block — is written into a person's home rather than into /etc.
+	Home bool `json:"home,omitempty"`
+}
+
+// rosterView is what a RosterFile's template sees. A closed shape — a template referencing a field
+// the mesh does not compute fails to render here, not on a machine.
+type rosterView struct {
+	Node     string
+	Suffix   string
+	Names    []rosterEntry
+	Machines []rosterEntry
+}
+
+// rosterEntry is one machine as a template sees it: its bare name, its full mesh name, its address,
+// and the operator account to log into it as (novox/hq to-be 29) — empty when none is known, so an
+// ssh Host block template can omit the User line for a machine nobody has an account on.
+type rosterEntry struct {
+	Name    string
+	FQDN    string
+	Address string
+	Account string
+}
+
+// FactsInto renders the roster files a module asked for, as files it will be given.
+//
+// The module owns everything after the file exists: loading it, restarting on it, what a resolver
+// or a client does with it. This only puts it there. `every` is every name the mesh serves;
+// `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) {
+	if len(m.Facts) == 0 {
+		return nil, nil
+	}
+	names := make([]string, 0, len(m.Facts))
+	for name := range m.Facts {
+		names = append(names, name)
+	}
+	sort.Strings(names)
+
+	view := rosterView{
+		Node:     r.Node,
+		Suffix:   strings.TrimPrefix(suffixOr(suffix), "."),
+		Names:    entriesFrom(every, accounts, suffix),
+		Machines: entriesFrom(machines, accounts, suffix),
+	}
+
+	out := make([]map[string]any, 0, len(names))
+	for _, name := range names {
+		fact := m.Facts[name]
+		content, err := renderRoster(fact.Template, view)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("%s cannot render %q: %w", m.Module, name, err)
+		}
+		// Where the file goes: under the operator's home and chowned to it (a home fact), or at the
+		// absolute system path it names. A home fact on a machine with no operator account cannot be
+		// placed, and is left out rather than written to nowhere (novox/hq to-be 29).
+		path := fact.Path
+		var owner string
+		if fact.Home {
+			if r.Account == "" {
+				continue
+			}
+			path = accountHomeOf(r.Account, r.AccountHome) + "/" + strings.TrimLeft(fact.Path, "/")
+			owner = r.Account
+		} else if !strings.HasPrefix(fact.Path, "/") {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf(
+				"%s asks for %q at %q, which is not an absolute path", m.Module, name, fact.Path)
+		}
+		file := map[string]any{
+			"id": "fact-" + name, "type": "file", "path": path, "mode": "0644",
+			"content": content,
+		}
+		if owner != "" {
+			file["owner"] = owner
+		}
+		if fact.Shared {
+			// The host owns only the lines between `# BEGIN mesh <id>` and `# END mesh <id>` and
+			// keeps the rest of the file byte for byte; undeclared, the region goes and nothing else
+			// does (novox/hq issue 128). Every node on the private network receives this, so every
+			// node's host — the controller's own machine included — must be block-aware before a
+			// controller emitting it is rolled out: the order ADR 0102 set for `into: json`.
+			file["into"] = "block"
+		}
+		out = append(out, file)
+	}
+	return out, nil
+}
+
+// renderRoster runs a module's template over the roster. A template that will not parse, or reads
+// a field the mesh does not have, is an error here — where the manifest is — rather than an empty
+// file on a machine.
+func renderRoster(tmpl string, view rosterView) (string, error) {
+	t, err := template.New("roster").Option("missingkey=error").Parse(tmpl)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+	var b bytes.Buffer
+	if err := t.Execute(&b, view); err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+	return b.String(), nil
+}
+
+// entriesFrom is a name→address map as sorted roster entries.
+//
+// **A machine with no address is left out.** The mesh has a record for it — somebody added it —
+// and does not yet know where it is, which is the ordinary state between adding a machine and it
+// joining. Writing the name anyway would give a name that resolves to nothing, and a connection to
+// that hangs; leaving it out fails at once and says the name is unknown.
+func entriesFrom(addresses, accounts map[string]string, suffix string) []rosterEntry {
+	out := make([]rosterEntry, 0, len(addresses))
+	for _, name := range sortedNames(addresses) {
+		internal, bare := meshName(name, suffix)
+		// The account is looked up by whichever key the caller keys accounts on — the internal name
+		// or the bare one — so a template gets the right login however the maps were built.
+		account := accounts[name]
+		if account == "" {
+			account = accounts[bare]
+		}
+		out = append(out, rosterEntry{Name: bare, FQDN: internal, Address: addresses[name], Account: account})
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
+// meshName is a machine's internal name and its bare one, from either. The control plane keys
+// the names it hands a resolution by the internal name (`homer.internal`), the same map a
+// container gets as its hosts; a caller that keys by the bare name gets the same answer. The
+// suffix is the one the control plane composed those names with, handed down rather than written
+// here a second time — the alternative was `homer.internal.internal` on every machine.
+func meshName(name, suffix string) (internal, bare string) {
+	dotted := "." + strings.TrimPrefix(suffixOr(suffix), ".")
+	if strings.HasSuffix(name, dotted) {
+		return name, strings.TrimSuffix(name, dotted)
+	}
+	return name + dotted, name
+}
+
+// suffixOr is the suffix given, or the one the mesh composes names with when none was handed down.
+// The one place the default is written, so a fact and a name cannot disagree about it.
+func suffixOr(suffix string) string {
+	if suffix == "" {
+		return "internal"
+	}
+	return suffix
+}
+
+func sortedNames(addresses map[string]string) []string {
+	out := make([]string, 0, len(addresses))
+	for name, at := range addresses {
+		// A machine the mesh cannot place is left out rather than named at nothing.
+		if at == "" {
+			continue
+		}
+		out = append(out, name)
+	}
+	sort.Strings(out)
+	return out
+}

internal/catalogue/roster_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,260 @@
+package catalogue
+
+import (
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// Keyed by the internal name, as the control plane hands them (issue 079). bart has no address —
+// the ordinary state between adding a machine and it joining.
+var threeMachines = map[string]string{"homer.internal": "10.42.0.1", "marge.internal": "10.42.0.2", "bart.internal": ""}
+
+// A module says where it wants a roster file and in what format, and is given the rendered file.
+func TestAModuleIsGivenTheFileItAskedFor(t *testing.T) {
+	m := Manifest{Module: "resolver", Facts: map[string]RosterFile{
+		"zones": {Path: "/etc/mesh/zones.conf", Template: "{{range .Machines}}address=/{{.FQDN}}/{{.Address}}\n{{end}}"},
+	}}
+	given, err := FactsInto(m, Resolution{Node: "homer"}, threeMachines, threeMachines, nil, "")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if len(given) != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("expected one file, got %d", len(given))
+	}
+	if given[0]["path"] != "/etc/mesh/zones.conf" || given[0]["type"] != "file" {
+		t.Fatalf("not written where it was asked for: %v", given[0])
+	}
+	// The id is fact-<name>, which is what a restart-on names when the roster changes.
+	if given[0]["id"] != "fact-zones" {
+		t.Fatalf("the file's id is not fact-<name>, so a restart-on cannot find it: %v", given[0]["id"])
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(given[0]["content"].(string), "address=/homer.internal/10.42.0.1") {
+		t.Fatalf("the file does not hold the fact: %v", given[0]["content"])
+	}
+}
+
+// **A shared fact is written into a region of the machine's file, not over it** (novox/hq issue
+// 128). A hosts file is the machine's — its localhost, the operator's lines, other tools' blocks —
+// so the mesh owns only a marked region (`into: block`); a resolver's zones file is the mesh's
+// whole, and carries no `into`.
+func TestASharedFactIsWrittenIntoARegion(t *testing.T) {
+	roster := map[string]string{"homer.internal": "10.42.0.1"}
+	m := Manifest{Module: "net", Facts: map[string]RosterFile{
+		"node-names": {Path: "/etc/hosts", Template: "{{range .Names}}{{.FQDN}}\n{{end}}", Shared: true},
+		"node-zones": {Path: "/etc/zones", Template: "{{range .Machines}}{{.FQDN}}\n{{end}}"},
+	}}
+	given, err := FactsInto(m, Resolution{Node: "homer"}, roster, roster, nil, "")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	by := map[string]map[string]any{}
+	for _, f := range given {
+		by[f["path"].(string)] = f
+	}
+	if by["/etc/hosts"]["into"] != "block" {
+		t.Fatalf("a shared fact is not written into a region, so the mesh writes the file whole: %v", by["/etc/hosts"])
+	}
+	if _, has := by["/etc/zones"]["into"]; has {
+		t.Fatalf("an unshared fact was written into a region, so the mesh does not own its own file whole: %v", by["/etc/zones"])
+	}
+}
+
+// **The format is the module's — the mesh renders whatever template it gives.** The same roster
+// through two templates is two entirely different files, and the control plane reads neither.
+func TestTheFormatIsTheModulesOwn(t *testing.T) {
+	roster := map[string]string{"homer.internal": "10.42.0.1"}
+	hostsish := Manifest{Module: "a", Facts: map[string]RosterFile{
+		"f": {Path: "/f", Template: "{{range .Names}}{{.Address}}\t{{.Name}}\n{{end}}"}}}
+	sshish := Manifest{Module: "b", Facts: map[string]RosterFile{
+		"f": {Path: "/f", Template: "{{range .Names}}Host {{.Name}}\n  HostName {{.FQDN}}\n{{end}}"}}}
+
+	h, err := FactsInto(hostsish, Resolution{Node: "homer"}, roster, roster, nil, "")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	s, err := FactsInto(sshish, Resolution{Node: "homer"}, roster, roster, nil, "")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if h[0]["content"] != "10.42.0.1\thomer\n" {
+		t.Fatalf("the hosts-shaped template did not render its format: %q", h[0]["content"])
+	}
+	if s[0]["content"] != "Host homer\n  HostName homer.internal\n" {
+		t.Fatalf("the ssh-shaped template did not render its format: %q", s[0]["content"])
+	}
+}
+
+// **A template that will not parse is refused here, not on a machine.** A daemon that starts, reads
+// a file the mesh could not render, and answers nothing is a much worse way to find out.
+func TestABrokenTemplateIsRefusedHere(t *testing.T) {
+	m := Manifest{Module: "resolver", Facts: map[string]RosterFile{
+		"zones": {Path: "/etc/zones", Template: "{{range .Machines}}oops"}}}
+	_, err := FactsInto(m, Resolution{}, nil, nil, nil, "")
+	if err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("a template that does not parse was accepted, so the machine gets an empty file")
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "resolver") || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "zones") {
+		t.Fatalf("the refusal does not say whose template, or which: %v", err)
+	}
+}
+
+// A template reading something the mesh does not compute is refused, not rendered empty. The roster
+// is a closed shape; asking it for the weather fails where the manifest is.
+func TestATemplateReadingWhatTheMeshDoesNotHaveIsRefused(t *testing.T) {
+	m := Manifest{Module: "resolver", Facts: map[string]RosterFile{
+		"zones": {Path: "/etc/zones", Template: "{{.Weather}}"}}}
+	if _, err := FactsInto(m, Resolution{}, nil, nil, nil, ""); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("a template read a field nobody computes and rendered anyway, silently")
+	}
+}
+
+// A relative path is refused, or a module decides where the mesh writes on a machine.
+func TestAFactMustBeAskedForAtAnAbsolutePath(t *testing.T) {
+	m := Manifest{Module: "resolver", Facts: map[string]RosterFile{
+		"hosts": {Path: "etc/hosts", Template: "x"}}}
+	if _, err := FactsInto(m, Resolution{}, nil, nil, nil, ""); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("a relative path was accepted")
+	}
+}
+
+// A machine the mesh has a record for and cannot place is left out of the roster.
+//
+// **Not an oversight — the alternative is worse.** A name written with no address resolves to
+// nothing, and a connection to that hangs. Leaving it out fails at once and says the name is
+// unknown, which is a thing somebody can act on.
+func TestAMachineWithNoAddressIsNotInTheRoster(t *testing.T) {
+	m := Manifest{Module: "a", Facts: map[string]RosterFile{
+		"f": {Path: "/f", Template: "{{range .Machines}}{{.Name}}\n{{end}}"}}}
+	given, err := FactsInto(m, Resolution{Node: "homer"}, threeMachines, threeMachines, nil, "")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if strings.Contains(given[0]["content"].(string), "bart") {
+		t.Fatalf("a machine with no address was in the roster, so its name resolves to nothing:\n%s", given[0]["content"])
+	}
+}
+
+// **The names the control plane hands a resolution are already internal names** — `homer.internal`,
+// the same map every container gets as its hosts. A roster entry's FQDN is that name, not it with
+// the suffix appended a second time; either key gives the same entries.
+func TestNamesAreNotSuffixedTwice(t *testing.T) {
+	internal := map[string]string{"homer.internal": "10.42.0.1"}
+	bare := map[string]string{"homer": "10.42.0.1"}
+	tmpl := RosterFile{Path: "/f", Template: "{{range .Machines}}{{.FQDN}} {{.Name}}\n{{end}}"}
+
+	fromInternal, err := FactsInto(Manifest{Module: "a", Facts: map[string]RosterFile{"f": tmpl}}, Resolution{Node: "homer"}, internal, internal, nil, "")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	fromBare, err := FactsInto(Manifest{Module: "a", Facts: map[string]RosterFile{"f": tmpl}}, Resolution{Node: "homer"}, bare, bare, nil, "")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if fromInternal[0]["content"] != fromBare[0]["content"] {
+		t.Fatalf("the roster differs by how the names were keyed:\n%q\n%q", fromInternal[0]["content"], fromBare[0]["content"])
+	}
+	got := fromInternal[0]["content"].(string)
+	if strings.Contains(got, "internal.internal") || !strings.Contains(got, "homer.internal homer") {
+		t.Fatalf("the entry carries a doubled suffix or the wrong bare name:\n%s", got)
+	}
+}
+
+// The suffix the control plane composed the names with is the one a template sees — an operator who
+// chose another does not get `.internal`. `.Suffix` is the bare form, and FQDNs carry it.
+func TestTheSuffixIsCarriedAsComposed(t *testing.T) {
+	names := map[string]string{"homer.lan": "10.42.0.1"}
+	m := Manifest{Module: "a", Facts: map[string]RosterFile{
+		"f": {Path: "/f", Template: "local=/{{.Suffix}}/\n{{range .Machines}}{{.FQDN}}\n{{end}}"}}}
+	given, err := FactsInto(m, Resolution{Node: "homer"}, names, names, nil, "lan")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	got := given[0]["content"].(string)
+	if !strings.Contains(got, "local=/lan/") || strings.Contains(got, "internal") {
+		t.Fatalf("the operator's suffix was not carried, so its names would be wrong:\n%s", got)
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(got, "homer.lan") {
+		t.Fatalf("the FQDN does not carry the operator's suffix:\n%s", got)
+	}
+}
+
+// novox/hq 04-ISSUES/111: a template is given both sets and chooses. `.Names` is every name the mesh
+// serves — the machines and the names it was told to route; `.Machines` is only the machines. A
+// container's hosts wants every name so a routed name resolves to the machine serving it; a resolver
+// told the suffix is its own wants only the machines, or a routed name written there with the suffix
+// is a name nobody will ever ask for, standing beside the machines and looking as real.
+func TestATemplateChoosesMachinesOrEveryName(t *testing.T) {
+	machines := map[string]string{"homer.internal": "10.42.0.1", "marge.internal": "10.42.0.2"}
+	every := map[string]string{
+		"homer.internal": "10.42.0.1", "marge.internal": "10.42.0.2",
+		"drive.example.test": "10.42.0.1", "git.example.test": "10.42.0.2",
+	}
+	m := Manifest{Module: "resolver", Facts: map[string]RosterFile{
+		"zones": {Path: "/etc/zones", Template: "{{range .Machines}}{{.FQDN}}\n{{end}}"},
+		"hosts": {Path: "/etc/hosts", Template: "{{range .Names}}{{.FQDN}}\n{{end}}"},
+	}}
+	given, err := FactsInto(m, Resolution{Node: "homer"}, every, machines, nil, "")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	by := map[string]string{}
+	for _, f := range given {
+		by[f["path"].(string)] = f["content"].(string)
+	}
+
+	zones := by["/etc/zones"]
+	for _, served := range []string{"drive.example.test", "git.example.test"} {
+		if strings.Contains(zones, served) {
+			t.Fatalf("a template over .Machines saw %q, a name the mesh serves rather than a machine:\n%s", served, zones)
+		}
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(zones, "homer.internal") {
+		t.Fatalf("a template over .Machines did not see the machines:\n%s", zones)
+	}
+
+	hosts := by["/etc/hosts"]
+	for _, name := range []string{"homer.internal", "drive.example.test", "git.example.test"} {
+		if !strings.Contains(hosts, name) {
+			t.Fatalf("a template over .Names did not see %q, so a container would not resolve it:\n%s", name, hosts)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// A home fact is placed under the operator account's home and chowned to it, and its template sees
+// each node's account (novox/hq to-be 29) — the ssh-client config is the case.
+func TestAHomeFactIsPlacedUnderTheAccountsHomeAndOwnedByIt(t *testing.T) {
+	names := map[string]string{"homer.internal": "10.42.0.1", "marge.internal": "10.42.0.2"}
+	accounts := map[string]string{"homer": "jo", "marge": "jo"}
+	m := Manifest{Module: "ssh-client", Facts: map[string]RosterFile{
+		"ssh-config": {Path: ".ssh/config.d/mesh", Home: true,
+			Template: "{{range .Names}}Host {{.Name}}\n  HostName {{.FQDN}}\n  User {{.Account}}\n{{end}}"}}}
+	given, err := FactsInto(m, Resolution{Node: "homer", Account: "jo"}, names, names, accounts, "")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	f := given[0]
+	if f["path"] != "/home/jo/.ssh/config.d/mesh" {
+		t.Fatalf("the home fact was not placed under the account's home: %v", f["path"])
+	}
+	if f["owner"] != "jo" {
+		t.Fatalf("the home fact is not owned by the account: %v", f["owner"])
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(f["content"].(string), "Host marge\n  HostName marge.internal\n  User jo") {
+		t.Fatalf("the config does not name the peer's account:\n%s", f["content"])
+	}
+}
+
+// A machine with no operator account gets no home fact — it cannot be placed, so it is left out
+// rather than written to nowhere.
+func TestAHomeFactIsSkippedWhereThereIsNoAccount(t *testing.T) {
+	names := map[string]string{"homer.internal": "10.42.0.1"}
+	m := Manifest{Module: "ssh-client", Facts: map[string]RosterFile{
+		"ssh-config": {Path: ".ssh/config", Home: true, Template: "x"}}}
+	given, err := FactsInto(m, Resolution{Node: "homer"}, names, names, nil, "")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if len(given) != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("a home fact was placed on a machine with no operator account: %v", given)
+	}
+}

internal/catalogue/seats.go

@@ -42,54 +42,108 @@ type Seat struct {
 	Decision string
 }
 
-// seats is the whole set, in the order a person reads it: the mesh's own, then a node's.
-var seats = []Seat{
+// defaultSeats is the set the mesh ships with — the seed for the control plane's seat table and the
+// fallback when it has none (novox/hq ADR 0122). It is the one place the closed set 0110 defines is
+// written; the store's table is seeded from it and thereafter is the live, editable copy.
+//
+// In the order a person reads it: the mesh's own, then a node's.
+var defaultSeats = []Seat{
 	{Name: "mesh-controller", Scope: ScopeMesh, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0079"},
 	{Name: "mesh-store", Scope: ScopeMesh, Delivers: "postgres-database", Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0079"},
-	// What holding this delivers is the mesh's own bus (novox/hq ADR 0120): a module that speaks
-	// to the mesh requires `mesh-bus` and receives an address, a sealed credential and the trust
-	// to verify the server. A module that requires nothing gets no account at all — 23 of the
-	// catalogue's 72 never speak, and an ambient connection would mint a credential for each.
-	//
-	// Corrected twice in one day, which is worth the comment. It read `amqp`, which was the old
-	// broker's interface and not this seat's; ADR 0117 emptied it, reasoning that a bus cannot be
-	// provisioned; and it is neither. The bus's accounts are composed by the controller rather
-	// than created by a provisioner, so nothing waits on a bus account in order to make one —
-	// which is a fact about the *mechanism*, not a reason the connection cannot be required.
-	//
-	// `mesh-bus` is the mesh's own; `nats` is a private NATS server a module may provide as a
-	// backing service, the way `amqp` is provided (ADR 0119). Never the same name.
+	// **Delivers the mesh's own bus, not `amqp`.** Those were the same word until
+	// ADR 0127 separated them: `amqp` is a backing service a module may require, and this seat is
+	// the mesh's own transport. ADR 0128 then made that connection something a module requires
+	// rather than receives ambiently — 23 of the catalogue's modules never speak, and an ambient
+	// connection would mint a credential for each.
 	{Name: "mesh-broker", Scope: ScopeMesh, Delivers: "mesh-bus", Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0079"},
-	{Name: "mesh-artifact-store", Scope: ScopeMesh, Delivers: "artifact-store", Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0075"},
-	{Name: "mesh-catalog", Scope: ScopeMesh, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0110"},
-	{Name: "mesh-npm-package-registry", Scope: ScopeMesh, Delivers: "npm-package-registry", Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0109"},
-	{Name: "mesh-git", Scope: ScopeMesh, Delivers: "git", Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0111"},
-	// A build is work submitted to this role, and its outcome is the role's own event (ADR 0121).
+	{Name: "the-artifact-store", Scope: ScopeMesh, Delivers: "artifact-store", Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0075"},
+	{Name: "mesh-catalog", Scope: ScopeMesh, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0121"},
+	// Deferred renames (novox/hq ADR 0121): these deliver a provision, so renaming them is a
+	// delivering-seat migration with a mesh-wide cascade if a holder stops resolving mid-flight.
+	// They keep their names until that migration is done deliberately, apart from the node-* pass.
+	{Name: "npm-package-registry", Scope: ScopeMesh, Delivers: "npm-package-registry", Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0109"},
+	{Name: "git", Scope: ScopeMesh, Delivers: "git", Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0111"},
+	// A build is work submitted to this role and its outcome is the role's own event (ADR 0129).
 	// One publish reaches whoever asked, the controller that records it, and the catalogue that
-	// places it in the module graph — which is what the old bus's shared exchange did for free, and
-	// what a dedicated build branch was doing a second way.
-	{Name: "mesh-build-machine", Scope: ScopeNode,
-		Accepts: []string{"build"}, Emits: []string{"built"}, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0110"},
-	{Name: "mesh-dns-port", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0110"},
-	{Name: "mesh-intrusion-prevention", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0110"},
-	{Name: "mesh-packet-filter", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0110"},
-	{Name: "mesh-private-network", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0110"},
-	{Name: "mesh-resolver-configuration", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0110"},
-	{Name: "mesh-showcase", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0110"},
+	// places it in the graph — what the old bus's shared exchange did for free.
+	{Name: "mesh-build-machine", Scope: ScopeMesh,
+		Accepts: []string{"build"}, Emits: []string{"built"}, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0121"},
+	{Name: "node-dns-resolver", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0121"},
+	{Name: "node-intrusion-prevention", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0121"},
+	{Name: "node-packet-filter", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0121"},
+	// Deferred (novox/hq ADR 0121): renaming to mesh-private-network is a scope + server/client
+	// model change, not a rename, so it stays until that is built.
+	{Name: "the-private-network", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0110"},
+	{Name: "node-resolver-config", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0121"},
+	// The program that manages the machine's own network. It delivers nothing: its holder only
+	// keeps the manager and the mesh from contradicting each other — the resolver file left to the
+	// mesh, the private network's interface left alone — and never declares a link, an address or
+	// a wireless network, because the link is the only channel a fix could arrive on. A seat
+	// rather than a condition in the resolver's module, so a machine running two managers is
+	// refused at assignment instead of found by the resolver being rewritten (novox/hq ADR 0117).
+	{Name: "node-uplink", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0117"},
 }
 
+// A system seat name is the control plane's namespace: `mesh-*` for a mesh-wide role, `node-*` for
+// a per-node one (novox/hq ADR 0121). A claim to a system name the mesh does not define is refused;
+// any other name is a module's own to define and claim. Some of the mesh's own seats predate this
+// convention and are not yet renamed (git, npm-package-registry, the-artifact-store,
+// the-private-network) — those are in the set, so they resolve by name, not by prefix.
+func isSystemSeatName(name string) bool {
+	return strings.HasPrefix(name, "mesh-") || strings.HasPrefix(name, "node-")
+}
+
+// seats is the working set the lookups read. It starts as the compiled defaults and is replaced by
+// what the control plane loaded from its store (novox/hq ADR 0122), so a change to the set is a
+// change to data, not to this code.
+var seats = defaultSeats
+
+// DefaultSeats is the set the mesh ships with, for seeding the store's seat table.
+func DefaultSeats() []Seat { return append([]Seat(nil), defaultSeats...) }
+
+// UseSeats replaces the working set with the one the control plane read from its store.
+//
+// **Empty is ignored on purpose.** A store that has not been seeded yet — or one that could not be
+// read — must leave the compiled defaults in force rather than emptying the set: an empty set would
+// refuse every claim and could stop the control plane composing at all, which is a far worse failure
+// than running on the set the binary shipped with. So the store can only ever *replace* the set with
+// a non-empty one, never erase it.
+func UseSeats(s []Seat) {
+	if len(s) > 0 {
+		seats = s
+	}
+}
+
+// aliases maps a seat's former names to its current canonical name (novox/hq ADR 0122). Loaded from
+// the store alongside the set, so a reference to a name a seat used to have — a manifest's claim, a
+// held record — still resolves to it after a rename, and nothing downstream has to change.
+var aliases = map[string]string{}
+
+// UseAliases replaces the former-name map with the one the control plane read from its store. Empty
+// is fine and ordinary: a mesh whose seats have never been renamed has no aliases.
+func UseAliases(m map[string]string) { aliases = m }
+
 // Seats is every seat the mesh defines, in reading order.
 func Seats() []Seat {
 	return append([]Seat(nil), seats...)
 }
 
-// SeatNamed is the seat a claim names, if the mesh defines one.
+// SeatNamed is the seat a name refers to, whether that is its current name or one it used to have
+// (novox/hq ADR 0122). A former name resolves to the seat's canonical row, so a rename breaks no
+// reference to the old name.
 func SeatNamed(name string) (Seat, bool) {
 	for _, s := range seats {
 		if s.Name == name {
 			return s, true
 		}
 	}
+	if canonical, aliased := aliases[name]; aliased {
+		for _, s := range seats {
+			if s.Name == canonical {
+				return s, true
+			}
+		}
+	}
 	return Seat{}, false
 }
 
@@ -106,42 +160,63 @@ func SeatDelivering(provision string) (Seat, bool) {
 	return Seat{}, false
 }
 
-// claimProblems is what is wrong with a manifest's claims against the set.
+// claimProblems is what is wrong with a manifest's claims and the seats it defines.
 //
-// Three refusals, each naming the seat: a seat the mesh does not define, a seat claimed at another
-// scope, and a seat that delivers a provision claimed by a module that does not provide it — which
-// would make the module the mesh's answer for something it cannot answer.
+// A claim is one of three things (novox/hq ADR 0121): a **system seat** the control plane defines —
+// checked for scope and, if it delivers a provision, that the claimant provides it; a **system name
+// the mesh does not define** (`mesh-*`/`node-*`) — refused, because that namespace is the control
+// plane's; or a **module-defined seat** — valid only when this manifest also declares it, since a
+// module may coordinate its own instances through a seat of its own but may not invent one by
+// claiming it. A module's own seat declaration may not sit in the system namespace or shadow a
+// system seat.
 func claimProblems(m Manifest) []string {
 	var problems []string
+
+	defined := map[string]SeatDeclaration{}
+	for _, d := range m.DefinesSeats {
+		if _, isSystem := SeatNamed(d.Name); isSystem || isSystemSeatName(d.Name) {
+			problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
+				"%s defines a seat %q in the mesh's own namespace; a module's seat is named outside "+
+					"mesh-*/node-* (novox/hq ADR 0121)", m.Module, d.Name))
+			continue
+		}
+		defined[d.Name] = d
+	}
+
 	for _, c := range m.Claims {
-		if now, was := renamedSeats[c.Name]; was {
-			// Named rather than refused as unknown: whoever wrote it knew what they meant, and
-			// the mesh knows what it is called now — the same courtesy the `needs`/`own-secrets`
-			// rename gets. Without this the refusal would be "not a seat", which sends somebody
-			// reading code for a name that is one character different.
-			problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
-				"%s claims %q, which is now called %q (novox/hq ADR 0118: the mesh's own seats "+
-					"are named mesh-*, and the prefix is what reserves them)", m.Module, c.Name, now))
+		if seat, known := SeatNamed(c.Name); known {
+			if c.At() != seat.Scope {
+				problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
+					"%s claims %s at scope %q, and %s is a %s seat",
+					m.Module, c.Name, c.At(), c.Name, seat.Scope))
+			}
+			if seat.Delivers != "" && !providesAt(m, seat.Delivers, seat.Scope) {
+				problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
+					"%s claims %s, whose holder answers for %q, and %s does not provide %q at %s scope",
+					m.Module, c.Name, seat.Delivers, m.Module, seat.Delivers, seat.Scope))
+			}
 			continue
 		}
-		seat, known := SeatNamed(c.Name)
-		if !known {
-			// Not one of the mesh's own, which no longer means it is not a seat: a module may
-			// declare its own (novox/hq ADR 0118), and whether anybody declared *this* one is a
-			// fact about the catalogue rather than about this manifest. Deferred to
-			// CatalogueProblems, which refuses it at registration — the same guarantee ADR 0110
-			// wanted, at the same moment, from a set nobody maintains by hand.
+		if isSystemSeatName(c.Name) {
+			problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
+				"%s claims %q, which is a seat in the mesh's own namespace (mesh-*/node-*) that it "+
+					"does not define (novox/hq ADR 0121) — the seats are: %s", m.Module, c.Name, seatNames()))
 			continue
 		}
-		if c.At() != seat.Scope {
-			problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
-				"%s claims %s at scope %q, and %s is a %s seat",
-				m.Module, c.Name, c.At(), c.Name, seat.Scope))
+		d, ours := defined[c.Name]
+		if !ours {
+			// **A claim on a seat this manifest does not declare is not the parser's to judge.**
+			// A module may hold a seat another module declared — that is why ADR 0126 has callers
+			// name the seat and not its provider, so an implementation can be replaced without
+			// touching a caller. Whether the seat exists is a fact about the whole catalogue, so
+			// the refusal is at registration, where every declaration is in view
+			// (`CatalogueProblems`: "which no module declares and the mesh does not define").
+			continue
 		}
-		if seat.Delivers != "" && !providesAt(m, seat.Delivers, seat.Scope) {
+		if c.At() != d.At() {
 			problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
-				"%s claims %s, whose holder answers for %q, and %s does not provide %q at %s scope",
-				m.Module, c.Name, seat.Delivers, m.Module, seat.Delivers, seat.Scope))
+				"%s claims its own seat %s at scope %q, having declared it at %q",
+				m.Module, c.Name, c.At(), d.At()))
 		}
 	}
 	return problems
@@ -177,7 +252,10 @@ func HolderAmong(provision string, providers []Provider, held []Held) (Provider,
 		return Provider{}, false
 	}
 	for _, h := range held {
-		if h.Claim != seat.Name || h.Scope != seat.Scope {
+		// Resolve the held claim to a seat rather than comparing names, so a record naming a seat's
+		// former name still matches it after a rename (novox/hq ADR 0122).
+		hs, ok := SeatNamed(h.Claim)
+		if !ok || hs.Name != seat.Name || h.Scope != seat.Scope {
 			continue
 		}
 		for _, p := range providers {
@@ -189,31 +267,6 @@ func HolderAmong(provision string, providers []Provider, held []Held) (Provider,
 	return Provider{}, false
 }
 
-// renamedSeats is what the mesh's own seats used to be called (novox/hq ADR 0118).
-//
-// **A rename here is not a data migration**, which ADR 0118 assumed it was and a progressive
-// insight there corrects: a seat's holding is *derived* at resolution from the claims in
-// manifests (`resolve.go`), never stored, so there are no recorded old names to rewrite. What
-// exists is source — manifests in the catalogue — and this list is how one written against the
-// old name is told what it became rather than refused as unknown.
-//
-// It is kept, not retired after the catalogue is updated: a module lives in its own repository
-// ([ADR 0069]) and may be registered from anywhere, so an old name can arrive long after the
-// catalogue beside this checkout stopped using one.
-var renamedSeats = map[string]string{
-	"the-artifact-store":         "mesh-artifact-store",
-	"the-catalogue":              "mesh-catalog",
-	"npm-package-registry":       "mesh-npm-package-registry",
-	"git":                        "mesh-git",
-	"the-build-machine":          "mesh-build-machine",
-	"the-dns-port":               "mesh-dns-port",
-	"the-intrusion-prevention":   "mesh-intrusion-prevention",
-	"the-packet-filter":          "mesh-packet-filter",
-	"the-private-network":        "mesh-private-network",
-	"the-resolver-configuration": "mesh-resolver-configuration",
-	"the-showcase":               "mesh-showcase",
-}
-
 // SeatsWithAProtocol are the mesh's own seats that say something about what may be said to them or by
 // them, which is the set the bus derives streams, consumers and permissions from.
 //

internal/catalogue/seats_declared.go

@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ func declaredSeatProblems(m Manifest) []string {
 	var problems []string
 	seen := map[string]bool{}
 
-	for _, s := range m.Seats {
+	for _, s := range m.DefinesSeats {
 		switch {
 		case s.Name == "":
 			problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf("%s declares a seat with no name", m.Module))
@@ -105,14 +105,13 @@ func declaredSeatProblems(m Manifest) []string {
 				"%s declares seat %s at scope %q; a seat is held per node, per site or per mesh",
 				m.Module, s.Name, s.Scope))
 		}
-		if len(s.verbs()) == 0 {
-			// A seat with no protocol is exclusion with nothing on the other side of it. If a
-			// module only wants "there is one of me", that is a claim, and saying so keeps the
-			// word "seat" meaning something callers can depend on.
-			problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
-				"%s declares seat %s with no protocol; a seat says what may be sent to it, what "+
-					"it emits and what it serves", m.Module, s.Name))
-		}
+		// A seat with an empty protocol is allowed, and is the mesh saying what a machine is:
+		// which module is this node's packet filter, or its showcase. Design 26 calls it a seat
+		// that delivers nothing, and that is most of the node-scoped ones. ADR 0126's "a declared
+		// seat carries a protocol" governs what a holder must satisfy, not that every seat offers
+		// something — a marker seat's protocol is satisfied by holding it. Nothing can reach this
+		// state by accident: a mistyped field name is refused by the parser above, so an empty
+		// protocol was written as one.
 		for _, v := range s.verbs() {
 			if !name.MatchString(v) {
 				problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
@@ -143,7 +142,7 @@ func CatalogueProblems(shelf Shelf) []string {
 	declaredBy := map[string]string{}
 	declared := map[string]SeatDeclaration{}
 	for _, module := range shelfOrder(shelf) {
-		for _, s := range shelf[module].Seats {
+		for _, s := range shelf[module].DefinesSeats {
 			if s.Name == "" {
 				continue
 			}

internal/catalogue/seats_declared_test.go

@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ func problemsFor(t *testing.T, shelf Shelf) string {
 }
 
 func telegram() Manifest {
-	return Manifest{Module: "telegram", Tools: []string{"status"}, Seats: []SeatDeclaration{{
+	return Manifest{Module: "telegram", Tools: []string{"status"}, DefinesSeats: []SeatDeclaration{{
 		Name: "telegram-sender", Scope: ScopeMesh,
 		Accepts: []string{"send"}, Emits: []string{"delivered", "failed"}, Serves: []string{"status"},
 	}}, Claims: []Claim{{Name: "telegram-sender", Scope: ScopeMesh}}}
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ func TestAModuleDeclaresItsOwnSeatAndHoldsIt(t *testing.T) {
 // The prefix is the reservation rule, so there is no list to maintain and none to drift.
 func TestAModuleCannotDeclareAMeshSeat(t *testing.T) {
 	for _, n := range []string{"mesh-broker", "mesh-anything", "mesh-store"} {
-		m := Manifest{Module: "impostor", Seats: []SeatDeclaration{{Name: n, Accepts: []string{"x"}}}}
+		m := Manifest{Module: "impostor", DefinesSeats: []SeatDeclaration{{Name: n, Accepts: []string{"x"}}}}
 		got := strings.Join(declaredSeatProblems(m), "; ")
 		if !strings.Contains(got, "reserved to the mesh") {
 			t.Fatalf("%q was accepted as a module's seat: %q", n, got)
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ func TestAModuleCannotDeclareAMeshSeat(t *testing.T) {
 
 // A seat name meaning two protocols is the failure nobody could diagnose afterwards.
 func TestTwoModulesCannotDeclareTheSameSeat(t *testing.T) {
-	other := Manifest{Module: "aardvark", Seats: []SeatDeclaration{{
+	other := Manifest{Module: "aardvark", DefinesSeats: []SeatDeclaration{{
 		Name: "telegram-sender", Scope: ScopeMesh, Accepts: []string{"something-else"}}}}
 	got := problemsFor(t, Shelf{"telegram": telegram(), "aardvark": other})
 	if !strings.Contains(got, "already declares") {
@@ -70,11 +70,12 @@ func TestAHolderMustServeWhatItsSeatPromises(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-// A seat with no protocol is exclusion with nothing on the other side of it.
-func TestASeatWithoutAProtocolIsRefused(t *testing.T) {
-	m := Manifest{Module: "vague", Seats: []SeatDeclaration{{Name: "something", Scope: ScopeMesh}}}
-	if got := strings.Join(declaredSeatProblems(m), "; "); !strings.Contains(got, "no protocol") {
-		t.Fatalf("a seat promising nothing was accepted: %s", got)
+// A seat with no protocol is a marker: which module is this node's showcase, or its packet filter.
+// Most node-scoped seats are markers, so refusing one would refuse the majority of the set.
+func TestASeatWithoutAProtocolIsAMarkerNotAMistake(t *testing.T) {
+	m := Manifest{Module: "vague", DefinesSeats: []SeatDeclaration{{Name: "something", Scope: ScopeNode}}}
+	if got := strings.Join(declaredSeatProblems(m), "; "); got != "" {
+		t.Fatalf("a marker seat was refused: %s", got)
 	}
 }
 

internal/catalogue/seats_test.go

@@ -50,6 +50,26 @@ func TestTheSeatsAreAClosedSetAndEachNamesItsDecision(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+// novox/hq ADR 0117: a machine's uplink is a seat, held per machine, and delivers nothing.
+//
+// **Nothing, because nothing may be required of it.** A holder only keeps its network manager from
+// contradicting the mesh; a requirement resolving to it would make the manager the mesh's answer
+// for something, and the manager's link is the one thing the mesh must never be able to break.
+func TestTheUplinkIsANodeSeatThatDeliversNothing(t *testing.T) {
+	seat, known := SeatNamed("node-uplink")
+	if !known {
+		t.Fatalf("the uplink is not a seat; the seats are: %s", seatNames())
+	}
+	if seat.Scope != ScopeNode || seat.Delivers != "" || seat.Decision != "novox/hq ADR 0117" {
+		t.Fatalf("the uplink is %+v, not a node seat delivering nothing by ADR 0117", seat)
+	}
+	// And a manager's module can hold it without providing anything.
+	raw := []byte(`{"module":"networkmanager","version":"1","claims":[{"name":"node-uplink","scope":"node"}]}`)
+	if _, err := ParseManifest(raw); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("a network manager's module could not hold the uplink: %v", err)
+	}
+}
+
 func claimed(claims string) []byte {
 	return []byte(`{"module":"thing","version":"1","provides":[{"name":"npm-package-registry","scope":"mesh"}],"claims":` + claims + `}`)
 }
@@ -83,7 +103,7 @@ func TestAClaimOnASeatAnotherModuleDeclaresIsAccepted(t *testing.T) {
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
-	declarer := Manifest{Module: "someone", Seats: []SeatDeclaration{
+	declarer := Manifest{Module: "someone", DefinesSeats: []SeatDeclaration{
 		{Name: "the-anything", Scope: ScopeNode, Accepts: []string{"work"}},
 	}}
 	if problems := CatalogueProblems(Shelf{claimant.Module: claimant, "someone": declarer}); len(problems) != 0 {
@@ -91,8 +111,35 @@ func TestAClaimOnASeatAnotherModuleDeclaresIsAccepted(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+// A module may define its own seat and claim it — the mesh enforces exclusivity without knowing
+// what it means (novox/hq ADR 0121). But it may not define one in the mesh's own namespace.
+func TestAModuleDefinesAndClaimsItsOwnSeat(t *testing.T) {
+	ok := []byte(`{"module":"showcase","version":"1","seats":[{"name":"the-showcase","scope":"node"}],` +
+		`"claims":[{"name":"the-showcase","scope":"node"}]}`)
+	if _, err := ParseManifest(ok); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("a module could not define and claim its own seat: %v", err)
+	}
+	// Claiming a name nobody defines is still refused — but **at registration, not here**: with
+	// seats declared by modules, a claim on a seat *another* module declares is good, and the
+	// parser cannot tell that from an invented name. See
+	// TestAClaimOnASeatNobodyDeclaresIsRefusedAtRegistration.
+	claimant, err := ParseManifest(claimed(`[{"name":"the-anything","scope":"node"}]`))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("the parser judged a claim it cannot judge alone: %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(CatalogueProblems(Shelf{claimant.Module: claimant})) == 0 {
+		t.Fatal("a module claimed a seat nobody defines")
+	}
+	// A module may not carve its seat out of the mesh's own namespace.
+	bad := []byte(`{"module":"x","version":"1","seats":[{"name":"node-mine","scope":"node"}],` +
+		`"claims":[{"name":"node-mine","scope":"node"}]}`)
+	if _, err := ParseManifest(bad); err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "own namespace") {
+		t.Fatalf("a module defined a seat in the mesh's namespace and was not refused: %v", err)
+	}
+}
+
 func TestASeatClaimedAtAnotherScopeIsRefused(t *testing.T) {
-	_, err := ParseManifest(claimed(`[{"name":"mesh-npm-package-registry","scope":"node"}]`))
+	_, err := ParseManifest(claimed(`[{"name":"npm-package-registry","scope":"node"}]`))
 	if err == nil {
 		t.Fatal("a mesh seat was held per node")
 	}
@@ -104,7 +151,7 @@ func TestASeatClaimedAtAnotherScopeIsRefused(t *testing.T) {
 func TestADeliveringSeatIsOnlyHeldByAModuleThatProvides(t *testing.T) {
 	// Holding it makes the module the mesh's answer for the provision. A module that cannot answer
 	// would be the answer anyway, and every consumer would be sent to it.
-	raw := []byte(`{"module":"thing","version":"1","claims":[{"name":"mesh-git","scope":"mesh"}]}`)
+	raw := []byte(`{"module":"thing","version":"1","claims":[{"name":"git","scope":"mesh"}]}`)
 	_, err := ParseManifest(raw)
 	if err == nil {
 		t.Fatal("a module holding the git seat need not provide git")
@@ -163,7 +210,7 @@ func TestEveryManifestInUseClaimsASeatTheMeshDefines(t *testing.T) {
 func registryShelf() map[string]Manifest {
 	return shelf(
 		Manifest{Module: "gitea", Version: "1", Provides: FromAnywhere("npm-package-registry"),
-			Claims: []Claim{{Name: "mesh-npm-package-registry", Scope: ScopeMesh}}},
+			Claims: []Claim{{Name: "npm-package-registry", Scope: ScopeMesh}}},
 		Manifest{Module: "verdaccio", Version: "1", Provides: FromAnywhere("npm-package-registry")},
 		Manifest{Module: "builder", Version: "1", Requires: []string{"npm-package-registry"}},
 	)
@@ -177,7 +224,7 @@ func twoRegistries() map[string][]Provider {
 }
 
 func giteaHoldsTheSeat() []Held {
-	return []Held{{Claim: "mesh-npm-package-registry", Scope: ScopeMesh, Node: "anchor", Module: "gitea"}}
+	return []Held{{Claim: "npm-package-registry", Scope: ScopeMesh, Node: "anchor", Module: "gitea"}}
 }
 
 func TestTheSeatsHolderAnswersWhenSeveralProvide(t *testing.T) {
@@ -229,3 +276,43 @@ func TestTheHolderIsTheModuleNotTheMachine(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("the holder was not told apart from a neighbour: %+v", holder)
 	}
 }
+
+// The working set is loaded from the store, and an empty load never erases it (novox/hq ADR 0122).
+func TestUseSeatsReplacesTheSetButNeverEmptiesIt(t *testing.T) {
+	before := Seats()
+	defer UseSeats(DefaultSeats()) // restore for other tests, whatever this leaves it as
+
+	// An empty load (store not seeded, or unreadable) leaves the compiled defaults in force.
+	UseSeats(nil)
+	if len(Seats()) != len(before) {
+		t.Fatalf("an empty load changed the set from %d to %d seats", len(before), len(Seats()))
+	}
+	// A non-empty load replaces it — this is how a rename in the store reaches the lookups.
+	UseSeats([]Seat{{Name: "node-firewall", Scope: ScopeNode, Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0122"}})
+	if _, known := SeatNamed("node-firewall"); !known {
+		t.Fatal("the loaded set did not replace the working set")
+	}
+	if len(Seats()) != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("the working set is %d seats, not the one that was loaded", len(Seats()))
+	}
+}
+
+// A former name resolves to the seat it was renamed from (novox/hq ADR 0122), so a manifest's claim
+// and a held record naming the old name break nothing after a rename.
+func TestAFormerNameResolvesAfterARename(t *testing.T) {
+	defer func() { UseSeats(DefaultSeats()); UseAliases(nil) }()
+	UseSeats([]Seat{{Name: "git", Scope: ScopeMesh, Delivers: "git", Decision: "novox/hq ADR 0121"}})
+	UseAliases(map[string]string{"git": "git"})
+
+	// The old name resolves to the renamed seat.
+	if s, ok := SeatNamed("git"); !ok || s.Name != "git" {
+		t.Fatalf("the former name did not resolve to the renamed seat: %+v ok=%v", s, ok)
+	}
+	// And a holder recorded under the old name is still found for the provision the seat delivers.
+	providers := []Provider{{Node: "anchor", At: "anchor.internal", Module: "gitea"}}
+	held := []Held{{Claim: "git", Scope: ScopeMesh, Node: "anchor", Module: "gitea"}}
+	holder, found := HolderAmong("git", providers, held)
+	if !found || holder.Module != "gitea" {
+		t.Fatalf("the holder recorded under the former name was not matched: %+v found=%v", holder, found)
+	}
+}

internal/catalogue/ssh_client_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+package catalogue
+
+import (
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// The ssh-client module, composed as a machine receives it (novox/hq to-be 29): every other node's
+// Host block written into a marked region of the operator's ~/.ssh/config, owned by the account,
+// with ~/.ssh created 0700 — the operator's own config kept.
+func TestSSHClientOwnsTheOperatorsSSHConfig(t *testing.T) {
+	shelf := shelf(catalogueManifest(t, "ssh-client"))
+	got, err := Resolve(shelf, []string{"ssh-client"},
+		Node{Name: "homer", At: "homer.internal", Account: "jo"}, World{})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	names := map[string]string{"homer.internal": "10.10.0.1", "marge.internal": "10.10.0.2"}
+	out, err := got.Declaration(Rendering{
+		Names: names, Machines: names, Accounts: map[string]string{"homer": "jo", "marge": "jo"},
+		Suffix: "internal",
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	by := map[string]map[string]any{}
+	for _, r := range out {
+		by[r["id"].(string)] = r
+	}
+
+	dir := by["ssh-client.ssh-dir"]
+	if dir == nil || dir["path"] != "/home/jo/.ssh" || dir["owner"] != "jo" || dir["mode"] != "0700" {
+		t.Fatalf("~/.ssh is not created 0700 owned by the account: %v", dir)
+	}
+	cfg := by["ssh-client.fact-ssh-config"]
+	if cfg == nil || cfg["path"] != "/home/jo/.ssh/config" || cfg["owner"] != "jo" || cfg["into"] != "block" {
+		t.Fatalf("the ssh config is not written into the operator's ~/.ssh/config as a region: %v", cfg)
+	}
+	body := cfg["content"].(string)
+	if !strings.Contains(body, "Host marge marge.internal") || !strings.Contains(body, "User jo") {
+		t.Fatalf("the config does not name the peer node and its account:\n%s", body)
+	}
+	if strings.Contains(body, "Host homer ") {
+		t.Fatalf("the config names the machine itself, not only its peers:\n%s", body)
+	}
+}

internal/inventory/addresses.go

@@ -69,6 +69,17 @@ func (i *Inventory) AssignAddress(ctx context.Context, node, cidr string) (strin
 		if key != nil && p.PublicKey == *key {
 			// The tunnel already routes to this key: the node keeps that address, and the peer
 			// notices nothing when its machine enrols.
+			//
+			// **Unless the operator named it something else** (novox/hq issue 112). The name is
+			// what the mesh has been answering for this address in the meantime; a machine
+			// enrolling under a different one would silently split the two — the name resolving
+			// here, the node known as that — so it is refused where the operator can read it.
+			if p.Named != "" && p.Named != name {
+				return "", fmt.Errorf(
+					"the carried peer at %s was named %q, and %q is enrolling under its key — "+
+						"enrol it as %q, or rename the peer first (`overlay name`)",
+					p.Address, p.Named, name, p.Named)
+			}
 			return i.place(ctx, node, p.Address)
 		}
 		taken[p.Address] = true

internal/inventory/adoption_test.go

@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ func TestTakingIsRefusedOnAConvergedNodeAndForAnUnassignedModule(t *testing.T) {
 	if _, err := inv.AddNode(t.Context(), "converged"); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
-	if err := inv.Assign(t.Context(), "converged", "hello-web"); err != nil {
+	if _, err := inv.Assign(t.Context(), "converged", "hello-web"); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 	if err := inv.Take(t.Context(), "converged", "hello-web"); !errors.Is(err, ErrNotAdopted) {
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ func TestATakenModuleOutlivesItsAssignmentAndReturningToAdopted(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 	for _, m := range []string{"hello-web", "postgres"} {
-		if err := inv.Assign(t.Context(), "anchor", m); err != nil {
+		if _, err := inv.Assign(t.Context(), "anchor", m); err != nil {
 			t.Fatal(err)
 		}
 	}

internal/inventory/busrecords.go

@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ func (i *Inventory) BusRecords(ctx context.Context) (broker.Records, error) {
 	// one module and held by another, which is the whole reason a seat exists (ADR 0118).
 	seats := map[string]catalogue.SeatDeclaration{}
 	for _, m := range declared {
-		for _, s := range m.Seats {
+		for _, s := range m.DefinesSeats {
 			seats[s.Name] = s
 		}
 	}

internal/inventory/busrecords_test.go

@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ func aMeshWith(t *testing.T, manifests ...catalogue.Manifest) (*Inventory, conte
 func theSeatDeclarer() catalogue.Manifest {
 	return catalogue.Manifest{
 		Module: "telegram", Version: "1",
-		Seats: []catalogue.SeatDeclaration{{
+		DefinesSeats: []catalogue.SeatDeclaration{{
 			Name: "telegram-sender", Accepts: []string{"send"}, Emits: []string{"delivered"},
 		}},
 		Claims: []catalogue.Claim{{Name: "telegram-sender", Scope: catalogue.ScopeMesh}},
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ func TestAnAssignedModuleBecomesAUserWithWhatItDeclared(t *testing.T) {
 	if _, err := inv.AddNode(ctx, "one"); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
-	if err := inv.Assign(ctx, "one", "shop"); err != nil {
+	if _, err := inv.Assign(ctx, "one", "shop"); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 

internal/inventory/catalogue.go

@@ -430,27 +430,36 @@ func (i *Inventory) discard(ctx context.Context, name string) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
-// Assign puts a module on a node.
+// Assign puts a module on a node, and says whether that is new.
 //
 // Records the intention and checks nothing. Whether the set of assignments can actually become a
 // declaration is resolution's question, asked over the whole set at once — and asking it here,
 // one module at a time, would let an assignment look accepted and then refuse when a second
 // arrives.
-func (i *Inventory) Assign(ctx context.Context, nodeName, module string) error {
+//
+// **One assignment of a module per node is the rule, not a race lost** (novox/hq ADR 0115). The
+// module's name is the assignment's identity — its database user, its broker account, its
+// containers and its placed directory are all named by it — so the schema's (node, module) key
+// is the decision, and a repeat is absorbed rather than refused. Absorbed audibly: the caller is
+// told nothing changed, because "is assigned" printed for a no-op reads as an action.
+func (i *Inventory) Assign(ctx context.Context, nodeName, module string) (bool, error) {
 	node, err := i.NodeByName(ctx, nodeName)
 	if err != nil {
-		return err
+		return false, err
 	}
 	if err := i.runsSomewhere(ctx, module); err != nil {
-		return err
+		return false, err
 	}
-	_, err = i.store.Pool().Exec(ctx,
+	tag, err := i.store.Pool().Exec(ctx,
 		`insert into assignment (node, module) values ($1, $2) on conflict do nothing`,
 		node.ID, module)
 	if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "assignment_module_fkey") {
-		return fmt.Errorf("%w: %s", ErrNoSuchModule, module)
+		return false, fmt.Errorf("%w: %s", ErrNoSuchModule, module)
 	}
-	return err
+	if err != nil {
+		return false, err
+	}
+	return tag.RowsAffected() > 0, nil
 }
 
 // Unassign takes a module off a node.

internal/inventory/catalogue_test.go

@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ func TestAModuleAMachineIsRunningCannotBeForgotten(t *testing.T) {
 	if err := inv.RegisterModule(t.Context(), manifest("thing", nil, nil), Source{}); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
-	if err := inv.Assign(t.Context(), "laptop", "thing"); err != nil {
+	if _, err := inv.Assign(t.Context(), "laptop", "thing"); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ func TestRemovingANodeTakesItsAssignments(t *testing.T) {
 	if err := inv.RegisterModule(t.Context(), manifest("thing", nil, nil), Source{}); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
-	if err := inv.Assign(t.Context(), "laptop", "thing"); err != nil {
+	if _, err := inv.Assign(t.Context(), "laptop", "thing"); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 	if _, err := inv.store.Pool().Exec(t.Context(), `delete from node where id = $1`, node.ID); err != nil {
@@ -136,14 +136,16 @@ func TestAssigningAModuleTheMeshDoesNotKnowIsRefused(t *testing.T) {
 	if _, err := inv.AddNode(t.Context(), "laptop"); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
-	err := inv.Assign(t.Context(), "laptop", "not-a-module")
+	_, err := inv.Assign(t.Context(), "laptop", "not-a-module")
 	if !errors.Is(err, ErrNoSuchModule) {
 		t.Fatalf("assigning an unknown module gave %v", err)
 	}
 }
 
-func TestAssigningTwiceIsNotAnError(t *testing.T) {
-	// It is a statement of what should be true, and it already is.
+func TestAssigningTwiceIsNotAnErrorAndSaysSo(t *testing.T) {
+	// It is a statement of what should be true, and it already is — one assignment of a module
+	// per node is the rule (novox/hq ADR 0115), so a repeat is absorbed, audibly: the caller is
+	// told nothing was new.
 	inv := fresh(t)
 	if _, err := inv.AddNode(t.Context(), "laptop"); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
@@ -151,10 +153,18 @@ func TestAssigningTwiceIsNotAnError(t *testing.T) {
 	if err := inv.RegisterModule(t.Context(), manifest("thing", nil, nil), Source{}); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
-	for i := 0; i < 3; i++ {
-		if err := inv.Assign(t.Context(), "laptop", "thing"); err != nil {
+	first, err := inv.Assign(t.Context(), "laptop", "thing")
+	if err != nil || !first {
+		t.Fatalf("the first assignment is the new one; got fresh=%v err=%v", first, err)
+	}
+	for i := 0; i < 2; i++ {
+		again, err := inv.Assign(t.Context(), "laptop", "thing")
+		if err != nil {
 			t.Fatalf("assigning again failed: %v", err)
 		}
+		if again {
+			t.Fatal("a repeat must say nothing was new")
+		}
 	}
 	assigned, err := inv.Assigned(t.Context(), "laptop")
 	if err != nil {
@@ -277,7 +287,7 @@ func TestBeingBehindNamesTheMachinesRunningTheOldOne(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 	for _, n := range []string{"laptop", "workstation"} {
-		if err := inv.Assign(t.Context(), n, "thing"); err != nil {
+		if _, err := inv.Assign(t.Context(), n, "thing"); err != nil {
 			t.Fatal(err)
 		}
 	}
@@ -451,7 +461,7 @@ func TestTheCatalogueSaysWhereEachModuleCameFromAndWhoRunsIt(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 	for _, n := range []string{"workstation", "laptop"} {
-		if err := inv.Assign(ctx, n, "shell"); err != nil {
+		if _, err := inv.Assign(ctx, n, "shell"); err != nil {
 			t.Fatal(err)
 		}
 	}

internal/inventory/forget_test.go

@@ -212,7 +212,7 @@ func TestAModuleStillAssignedRefusesBeforeAnythingAboutWhatItHolds(t *testing.T)
 	if err := inv.SetSettings(ctx, "anchor", "step-ca", map[string]any{"a": 1}); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
-	if err := inv.Assign(ctx, "anchor", "step-ca"); err != nil {
+	if _, err := inv.Assign(ctx, "anchor", "step-ca"); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 	for _, forget := range []func() error{

internal/inventory/migrations/0033-a-carried-peer-is-nameable.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+-- A carried peer may be named before it enrols (novox/hq issue 112).
+--
+-- The tunnel the hub took over routes to machines the predecessor knows by name and the mesh
+-- knows only by address. A name the predecessor answers for must keep resolving until the
+-- machine behind it is a node — so the operator may state which machine a carried address is,
+-- and everything derived from "the machines the mesh knows" (a container's hosts, the hosts
+-- fact, the resolver) answers for it in the meantime. The mesh records the statement as the
+-- operator's, unverified: enrolment is what verifies it, and enrolling under a different name
+-- than the one stated is refused rather than silently renamed.
+alter table tunnel_peer add column named text;

internal/inventory/migrations/0034-the-seats-are-data.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+-- The seats are data the control plane owns, not a slice compiled into it (novox/hq ADR 0122).
+--
+-- Until this, the closed set 0110 defines lived only as a Go slice, referenced by name everywhere,
+-- so renaming a seat or adding one meant a controller rebuild and a mesh-wide, freeze-prone deploy.
+-- The set is now a table: one row per seat, seeded from the binary's defaults the first time the
+-- control plane comes up, and thereafter the live copy the control plane reads and an operator can
+-- change. A rename becomes an update here rather than a release.
+--
+-- The name is the key for now, because claims and held records still reference a seat by name; the
+-- move to a stable id that a rename does not touch is the next step (ADR 0122). `delivers` is empty
+-- for a seat that answers for no provision, matching the compiled default.
+create table seat (
+  name     text primary key,
+  scope    text not null,
+  delivers text not null default '',
+  decided  text not null
+);

internal/inventory/migrations/0035-a-seat-keeps-its-former-names.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+-- A seat keeps its former names, so a rename breaks nothing (novox/hq ADR 0122).
+--
+-- Phase 1 made the seat set data, but a rename still broke every reference to the old name — a
+-- manifest's claim, a held record, the git-seat lookup — because they name the seat and the name
+-- had changed. This is the stable identity ADR 0122 asked for, realised the simple way: a seat's
+-- canonical name changes, and its old name becomes an alias that resolves to it forever. Nothing
+-- downstream has to change — a manifest goes on claiming the old name, the build machine goes on
+-- validating it — and a rename is one operation: set the new name, remember the old.
+create table seat_alias (
+  alias text primary key,       -- a former name of a seat
+  seat  text not null           -- the seat's current canonical name it resolves to
+);

internal/inventory/migrations/0036-a-node-has-an-operator-account.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+-- A node has an operator account: the human login on it (novox/hq to-be 29).
+--
+-- The mesh modelled the machine but not the person on it — `jochens` on novox, `ace` on ace,
+-- `jochen` on shanks and g14. That name decides who a file under a home is owned by and which
+-- account `ssh <node>` logs in as; it was silently lost when the predecessor's per-node `user:`
+-- was not carried over, and `ssh ace` failed to `ace` because nothing here said so.
+--
+-- Empty rather than null and defaulted, because "no operator account known yet" is a real state
+-- (a freshly enrolled machine, a headless box). The home is stored too rather than always assumed
+-- to be /home/<account>, because root's is /root and a machine may put a home elsewhere; empty
+-- means "derive it" (/root for root, /home/<account> otherwise), so the common case needs no entry.
+alter table node add column account text not null default '';
+alter table node add column account_home text not null default '';

internal/inventory/named_peer_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+package inventory
+
+// A carried peer is nameable (novox/hq issue 112): the operator states which machine a carried
+// address is, the mesh answers for the name until the machine enrols, and enrolment verifies the
+// statement rather than silently renaming it.
+
+import (
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+func TestACarriedPeerIsNamedAndTheRegistrySaysSo(t *testing.T) {
+	inv := fresh(t)
+	anAdoptedHub(t, inv)
+
+	if err := inv.NamePeer(t.Context(), "192.0.2.2", "home-server"); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	carried, err := inv.CarriedPeers(t.Context())
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	byKey := map[string]CarriedPeer{}
+	for _, c := range carried {
+		byKey[c.PublicKey] = c
+	}
+	if byKey[peerTwo].Named != "home-server" || byKey[peerThree].Named != "" {
+		t.Fatalf("the statement was not recorded where it was made: %+v", carried)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestNamingRefusesWhatWouldCollide(t *testing.T) {
+	inv := fresh(t)
+	anAdoptedHub(t, inv)
+
+	if err := inv.NamePeer(t.Context(), "192.0.2.9", "ghost"); err == nil ||
+		!strings.Contains(err.Error(), "no carried peer") {
+		t.Fatalf("naming an address nothing carries must refuse; got %v", err)
+	}
+	if err := inv.NamePeer(t.Context(), "192.0.2.2", "anchor"); err == nil ||
+		!strings.Contains(err.Error(), "node of this mesh") {
+		t.Fatalf("naming a peer after a node must refuse; got %v", err)
+	}
+	if err := inv.NamePeer(t.Context(), "192.0.2.2", "home-server"); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if err := inv.NamePeer(t.Context(), "192.0.2.3", "home-server"); err == nil ||
+		!strings.Contains(err.Error(), "already named") {
+		t.Fatalf("one machine per name; got %v", err)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestEnrolmentUnderANamedKeyMustUseTheName(t *testing.T) {
+	inv := fresh(t)
+	anAdoptedHub(t, inv)
+	if err := inv.NamePeer(t.Context(), "192.0.2.3", "home-server"); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	// The wrong name is refused where the operator can read it…
+	imposter, err := inv.AddNode(t.Context(), "some-other-name")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if err := inv.RecordOverlayKey(t.Context(), imposter.ID, peerThree); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if _, err := inv.AssignAddress(t.Context(), imposter.ID, "192.0.2.0/24"); err == nil ||
+		!strings.Contains(err.Error(), `named "home-server"`) {
+		t.Fatalf("enrolling a named peer under another name must refuse; got %v", err)
+	}
+
+	// …and the stated name enrols cleanly, keeping the carried address.
+	named, err := inv.AddNode(t.Context(), "home-server")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if err := inv.RecordOverlayKey(t.Context(), named.ID, peerThree); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	address, err := inv.AssignAddress(t.Context(), named.ID, "192.0.2.0/24")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if address != "192.0.2.3" {
+		t.Fatalf("the named peer keeps its carried address; got %s", address)
+	}
+	if err := inv.NamePeer(t.Context(), "192.0.2.3", "renamed"); err == nil ||
+		!strings.Contains(err.Error(), "enrolled as") {
+		t.Fatalf("an enrolled peer's name is the node's; got %v", err)
+	}
+}

internal/inventory/nodes.go

@@ -55,6 +55,29 @@ type Node struct {
 	// AdoptedSince is when it last became so; zero for a converged node.
 	Adopted      bool
 	AdoptedSince time.Time
+
+	// Account is the operator's login on this machine — `jochens` on novox, `ace` on ace (novox/hq
+	// to-be 29). Empty when none is known yet. AccountHome is where that account's home is; empty
+	// means derive it (/root for root, /home/<account> otherwise), so the common case needs no
+	// entry. What decides who a file under a home is owned by, and which account `ssh <node>` uses.
+	Account     string
+	AccountHome string
+}
+
+// Home is the account's home directory, derived when not stored: /root for root, /home/<account>
+// otherwise. Empty only when there is no account at all.
+func (n Node) Home() string {
+	if n.AccountHome != "" {
+		return n.AccountHome
+	}
+	switch n.Account {
+	case "":
+		return ""
+	case "root":
+		return "/root"
+	default:
+		return "/home/" + n.Account
+	}
 }
 
 // Silent is how long since this node was last heard from, and whether it ever was.
@@ -112,12 +135,13 @@ func (i *Inventory) AddNodeAs(ctx context.Context, name string, adopted bool) (N
 
 // nodeColumns and scanNode are the one reading of a node row, so every way of finding a node
 // says whether it is adopted.
-const nodeColumns = `id, name, created, last_seen, adopted, adopted_since`
+const nodeColumns = `id, name, created, last_seen, adopted, adopted_since, account, account_home`
 
 func scanNode(row pgx.Row) (Node, error) {
 	var n Node
 	var seen, since *time.Time
-	if err := row.Scan(&n.ID, &n.Name, &n.Created, &seen, &n.Adopted, &since); err != nil {
+	if err := row.Scan(&n.ID, &n.Name, &n.Created, &seen, &n.Adopted, &since,
+		&n.Account, &n.AccountHome); err != nil {
 		return Node{}, err
 	}
 	if seen != nil {
@@ -129,6 +153,21 @@ func scanNode(row pgx.Row) (Node, error) {
 	return n, nil
 }
 
+// SetAccount records the operator account on a node — its human login — and optionally where that
+// account's home is (novox/hq to-be 29). An empty home means the mesh derives it. Clearing the
+// account (empty name) is allowed: a machine may stop having a known operator.
+func (i *Inventory) SetAccount(ctx context.Context, node, account, home string) error {
+	tag, err := i.store.Pool().Exec(ctx,
+		`update node set account = $1, account_home = $2 where name = $3`, account, home, node)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	if tag.RowsAffected() == 0 {
+		return fmt.Errorf("%w: %s", ErrNoSuchNode, node)
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
 // Nodes are every node record, oldest first.
 func (i *Inventory) Nodes(ctx context.Context) ([]Node, error) {
 	rows, err := i.store.Pool().Query(ctx,

internal/inventory/ports_test.go

@@ -221,7 +221,7 @@ func TestWhatAMachineNoLongerHoldsIsAvailableAgain(t *testing.T) {
 func TestUnassigningReleasesTheModulesPorts(t *testing.T) {
 	inv, node := aNodeWithModules(t, "mailu", "other-mail")
 	ctx := t.Context()
-	if err := inv.Assign(ctx, node, "mailu"); err != nil {
+	if _, err := inv.Assign(ctx, node, "mailu"); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 	if _, err := inv.PortFor(ctx, node, "mailu", 25, true); err != nil {
@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ func TestUnassigningReleasesTheModulesPorts(t *testing.T) {
 	if err := inv.Unassign(ctx, node, "mailu"); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
-	if err := inv.Assign(ctx, node, "other-mail"); err != nil {
+	if _, err := inv.Assign(ctx, node, "other-mail"); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 	if _, err := inv.PortFor(ctx, node, "other-mail", 25, true); err != nil {

internal/inventory/seats.go

@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
+package inventory
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"fmt"
+
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/catalogue"
+)
+
+// The seats the mesh has, as data (novox/hq ADR 0122).
+//
+// The set the control plane reads is a table here, not a slice compiled into it. It is seeded from
+// the binary's defaults the first time the mesh comes up (SeedSeats), and thereafter it is the live
+// copy: a rename or an added seat is a write here, and the control plane loads it at startup rather
+// than being rebuilt for it.
+
+// Seats is every seat the mesh defines, read from the store.
+func (i *Inventory) Seats(ctx context.Context) ([]catalogue.Seat, error) {
+	rows, err := i.store.Pool().Query(ctx,
+		`select name, scope, delivers, decided from seat order by name`)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	defer rows.Close()
+
+	var seats []catalogue.Seat
+	for rows.Next() {
+		var s catalogue.Seat
+		if err := rows.Scan(&s.Name, &s.Scope, &s.Delivers, &s.Decision); err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		seats = append(seats, s)
+	}
+	return seats, rows.Err()
+}
+
+// SeedSeats writes the mesh's default set into the table where it is not already present.
+//
+// **Idempotent, and never overwriting.** Run every time the control plane migrates, it fills an
+// empty table on first boot and adds a seat a new release ships — but it leaves a row already there
+// exactly as it is, so an operator's rename in the table is not undone by the next deploy putting
+// the old name back. What a release removes from the defaults is not deleted here either; retiring a
+// seat is its own decision, not a silent consequence of it dropping out of the binary.
+func (i *Inventory) SeedSeats(ctx context.Context, defaults []catalogue.Seat) (int, error) {
+	var added int
+	for _, s := range defaults {
+		tag, err := i.store.Pool().Exec(ctx,
+			`insert into seat (name, scope, delivers, decided) values ($1, $2, $3, $4)
+			 on conflict (name) do nothing`,
+			s.Name, s.Scope, s.Delivers, s.Decision)
+		if err != nil {
+			return added, err
+		}
+		added += int(tag.RowsAffected())
+	}
+	return added, nil
+}
+
+// Aliases is every former seat name and the seat it now resolves to (novox/hq ADR 0122).
+func (i *Inventory) Aliases(ctx context.Context) (map[string]string, error) {
+	rows, err := i.store.Pool().Query(ctx, `select alias, seat from seat_alias`)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	defer rows.Close()
+
+	aliases := map[string]string{}
+	for rows.Next() {
+		var alias, seat string
+		if err := rows.Scan(&alias, &seat); err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		aliases[alias] = seat
+	}
+	return aliases, rows.Err()
+}
+
+// RenameSeat gives a seat a new name and keeps the old one as an alias (novox/hq ADR 0122).
+//
+// **This is the whole of a rename.** The seat's canonical name becomes `to`; `from` is remembered as
+// an alias so every reference to it — a manifest's claim, a held record, the build machine's
+// embedded set — goes on resolving to the same seat, unchanged. Nothing is rebuilt and nothing
+// freezes. Any alias that pointed to `from` is repointed to `to`, so a chain of renames does not
+// leave an older name resolving to a name that no longer exists.
+func (i *Inventory) RenameSeat(ctx context.Context, from, to string) error {
+	if from == to {
+		return fmt.Errorf("a seat is renamed to a different name; %q is already its name", to)
+	}
+	tag, err := i.store.Pool().Exec(ctx, `update seat set name = $1 where name = $2`, to, from)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	if tag.RowsAffected() == 0 {
+		return fmt.Errorf("no seat named %q to rename", from)
+	}
+	// The old name resolves to the new one; and any name that resolved to the old one now resolves
+	// to the new one, so no alias is left pointing at a name that is gone.
+	if _, err := i.store.Pool().Exec(ctx,
+		`insert into seat_alias (alias, seat) values ($1, $2)
+		 on conflict (alias) do update set seat = excluded.seat`, from, to); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	if _, err := i.store.Pool().Exec(ctx,
+		`update seat_alias set seat = $1 where seat = $2`, to, from); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	return nil
+}

internal/inventory/seats_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,115 @@
+package inventory
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/catalogue"
+)
+
+// The seat set is data the control plane owns (novox/hq ADR 0122): seeded from the binary's
+// defaults, read back as the working set, and thereafter an operator's to change without a rebuild.
+
+func TestSeatsAreSeededFromTheDefaultsAndReadBack(t *testing.T) {
+	inv := ForTest(t)
+	defaults := catalogue.DefaultSeats()
+
+	added, err := inv.SeedSeats(t.Context(), defaults)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if added != len(defaults) {
+		t.Fatalf("seeded %d of %d seats", added, len(defaults))
+	}
+	got, err := inv.Seats(t.Context())
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if len(got) != len(defaults) {
+		t.Fatalf("read back %d seats, seeded %d", len(got), len(defaults))
+	}
+	// The set round-trips: name, scope and what it delivers survive the store.
+	by := map[string]catalogue.Seat{}
+	for _, s := range got {
+		by[s.Name] = s
+	}
+	for _, d := range defaults {
+		if by[d.Name].Scope != d.Scope || by[d.Name].Delivers != d.Delivers {
+			t.Errorf("%s came back as %+v, seeded %+v", d.Name, by[d.Name], d)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// Re-seeding an already-seeded set adds nothing and changes nothing — every deploy runs SeedSeats,
+// and a mesh already holding the set must be left exactly as it is (an operator's edit to a row
+// included). A row's fields are not overwritten: on conflict the insert does nothing.
+//
+// (Phase 1 keys the table by name, so a seat *renamed* in the table would have its old name
+// re-seeded — the move to a stable id a rename does not touch is the next step, ADR 0122. This test
+// asserts only the property that holds now: an unchanged set re-seeds to a no-op.)
+func TestReSeedingAnUnchangedSetIsANoOp(t *testing.T) {
+	inv := ForTest(t)
+	defaults := catalogue.DefaultSeats()
+	if _, err := inv.SeedSeats(t.Context(), defaults); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	// An operator changes a row's scope in the table — the point of it being data.
+	if _, err := inv.store.Pool().Exec(t.Context(),
+		`update seat set scope = 'mesh' where name = 'node-uplink'`); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	added, err := inv.SeedSeats(t.Context(), defaults)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if added != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("re-seeding an already-present set added %d rows", added)
+	}
+	got, err := inv.Seats(t.Context())
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	for _, s := range got {
+		if s.Name == "node-uplink" && s.Scope != "mesh" {
+			t.Fatalf("re-seeding overwrote the operator's change: node-uplink scope is %q", s.Scope)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// A rename is one operation: the seat gets the new name, the old name becomes an alias that still
+// resolves to it (novox/hq ADR 0122).
+func TestRenameSeatKeepsTheFormerNameAsAnAlias(t *testing.T) {
+	inv := ForTest(t)
+	if _, err := inv.SeedSeats(t.Context(), catalogue.DefaultSeats()); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if err := inv.RenameSeat(t.Context(), "node-packet-filter", "node-firewall"); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	seats, err := inv.Seats(t.Context())
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	names := map[string]bool{}
+	for _, s := range seats {
+		names[s.Name] = true
+	}
+	if !names["node-firewall"] || names["node-packet-filter"] {
+		t.Fatalf("the seat was not renamed in place: %v", names)
+	}
+	aliases, err := inv.Aliases(t.Context())
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if aliases["node-packet-filter"] != "node-firewall" {
+		t.Fatalf("the former name is not an alias of the new one: %v", aliases)
+	}
+	// Renaming what has no seat is refused; renaming to the same name is refused.
+	if err := inv.RenameSeat(t.Context(), "no-such-seat", "x"); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("renaming a seat that does not exist was accepted")
+	}
+	if err := inv.RenameSeat(t.Context(), "node-firewall", "node-firewall"); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("renaming a seat to its own name was accepted")
+	}
+}

internal/inventory/secrets_test.go

@@ -350,7 +350,7 @@ func TestACredentialGoesWhenTheConsumerStopsAskingForIt(t *testing.T) {
 	}, Source{}); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
-	if err := inv.Assign(ctx, "consumer", "meshboard"); err != nil {
+	if _, err := inv.Assign(ctx, "consumer", "meshboard"); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 	if _, err := inv.SecretFor(ctx, "postgres-database", "consumer", "gitea", "provider", ""); err != nil {

internal/inventory/tunnel.go

@@ -33,6 +33,9 @@ type Tunnel struct {
 	// Port is the port the found interface listened on — one the hosting provider already lets
 	// through, which is why it is worth taking.
 	Port int `json:"port"`
+	// MTU is the found interface's, when it set one; the mesh's interface takes it over so a
+	// tuned path does not silently regress to the default (novox/hq: a taken tunnel carries its MTU).
+	MTU int `json:"mtu,omitempty"`
 	// Address is the interface's own address with its prefix length, 192.0.2.1/24; Range is the
 	// network that prefix names, 192.0.2.0/24.
 	Address string `json:"address"`
@@ -85,6 +88,9 @@ type CarriedPeer struct {
 	Address   string
 	// EnrolledAs names the node that enrolled with this key, or is empty while none has.
 	EnrolledAs string
+	// Named is what the operator said this peer is, before it enrolled (novox/hq issue 112) —
+	// a statement the mesh records and cannot verify, which is why enrolment checks it.
+	Named string
 }
 
 // ErrNoTunnel is asking about a tunnel on a node that presented none.
@@ -247,7 +253,7 @@ func (i *Inventory) AdoptedTunnel(ctx context.Context) (Tunnel, string, bool, er
 // adopted no tunnel.
 func (i *Inventory) CarriedPeers(ctx context.Context) ([]CarriedPeer, error) {
 	rows, err := i.store.Pool().Query(ctx,
-		`select p.public_key, host(p.address), coalesce(n.name, '')
+		`select p.public_key, host(p.address), coalesce(n.name, ''), coalesce(p.named, '')
 		   from tunnel_peer p
 		   join node hub on hub.id = p.node and hub.is_hub
 		        and hub.tunnel is not null and hub.overlay_key = hub.tunnel->>'public_key'
@@ -260,7 +266,7 @@ func (i *Inventory) CarriedPeers(ctx context.Context) ([]CarriedPeer, error) {
 	var out []CarriedPeer
 	for rows.Next() {
 		var p CarriedPeer
-		if err := rows.Scan(&p.PublicKey, &p.Address, &p.EnrolledAs); err != nil {
+		if err := rows.Scan(&p.PublicKey, &p.Address, &p.EnrolledAs, &p.Named); err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
 		out = append(out, p)
@@ -268,6 +274,46 @@ func (i *Inventory) CarriedPeers(ctx context.Context) ([]CarriedPeer, error) {
 	return out, rows.Err()
 }
 
+// NamePeer records the operator's statement that a carried address is a particular machine
+// (novox/hq issue 112). Refused when nothing carried has that address, when a node of the mesh
+// already has the name — the statement would collide with something verified — and when another
+// peer was already named it. Naming an enrolled peer is refused too: its name is the node's now.
+func (i *Inventory) NamePeer(ctx context.Context, address, name string) error {
+	peers, err := i.CarriedPeers(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	var at *CarriedPeer
+	for idx := range peers {
+		if peers[idx].Address == address {
+			at = &peers[idx]
+			continue
+		}
+		if peers[idx].Named == name {
+			return fmt.Errorf("the carried peer at %s is already named %q — one machine per name",
+				peers[idx].Address, name)
+		}
+	}
+	if at == nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("no carried peer has the address %s — `overlay show` lists them", address)
+	}
+	if at.EnrolledAs != "" {
+		return fmt.Errorf("the peer at %s enrolled as %q — its name is the node's now", address, at.EnrolledAs)
+	}
+	if _, err := i.NodeByName(ctx, name); err == nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("%q is a node of this mesh — a carried peer cannot be named after one", name)
+	}
+	tag, err := i.store.Pool().Exec(ctx,
+		`update tunnel_peer set named = $2 where host(address) = $1`, address, name)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	if tag.RowsAffected() == 0 {
+		return fmt.Errorf("no carried peer has the address %s", address)
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
 // FoundTunnel is a node's found tunnel with the node's mode, for composing: the takeover is
 // declared to an adopted node only, since only there is a found unit kept to be stopped.
 type FoundTunnel struct {

internal/link/enrolment.go

@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ func (e Enrolment) Enrol(ctx context.Context, request EnrolRequest) (reply Enrol
 		}
 		if err := e.Inventory.RecordTunnel(ctx, node.ID, inventory.Tunnel{
 			Interface: request.Tunnel.Interface, Unit: request.Tunnel.Unit,
-			Config: request.Tunnel.Config, Port: request.Tunnel.Port,
+			Config: request.Tunnel.Config, Port: request.Tunnel.Port, MTU: request.Tunnel.MTU,
 			Address: request.Tunnel.Address, Range: request.Tunnel.Range,
 			PublicKey: request.Tunnel.PublicKey, Peers: peers,
 		}); err != nil {
@@ -234,7 +234,7 @@ func (e Enrolment) rekey(ctx context.Context, node inventory.Node, r Rekey) erro
 		peers = append(peers, inventory.TunnelPeer{PublicKey: p.PublicKey, Address: p.Address})
 	}
 	err := e.Inventory.Rekey(ctx, node.ID, r.Previous, r.OverlayKey, inventory.Tunnel{
-		Interface: r.Tunnel.Interface, Unit: r.Tunnel.Unit, Config: r.Tunnel.Config, Port: r.Tunnel.Port,
+		Interface: r.Tunnel.Interface, Unit: r.Tunnel.Unit, Config: r.Tunnel.Config, Port: r.Tunnel.Port, MTU: r.Tunnel.MTU,
 		Address: r.Tunnel.Address, Range: r.Tunnel.Range, PublicKey: r.Tunnel.PublicKey, Peers: peers,
 	})
 	if err != nil {

internal/link/protocol.go

@@ -107,6 +107,7 @@ type Tunnel struct {
 	Unit      string       `json:"unit"`
 	Config    string       `json:"config"`
 	Port      int          `json:"port"`
+	MTU       int          `json:"mtu,omitempty"`
 	Address   string       `json:"address"`
 	Range     string       `json:"range"`
 	PublicKey string       `json:"public_key"`

internal/overlay/declaration.go

@@ -123,6 +123,18 @@ func config(node Node, peers []Peer, keyPath string) string {
 		if port := portOf(node.Endpoint); port != "" {
 			fmt.Fprintf(&b, "ListenPort = %s\n", port)
 		}
+	} else if node.TakesOver != nil && node.TakesOver.Port != 0 {
+		// Not dialable from the hub, but a LAN peer dials this node on the tunnel it took over,
+		// so the mesh's interface must listen on that same port (novox/hq: a taken tunnel brings
+		// its port). Without this the takeover guard refuses overlay-up, and re-placing the node
+		// with an endpoint — the guard's suggested remedy — breaks a NAT'd node's path.
+		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "ListenPort = %d\n", node.TakesOver.Port)
+	}
+	// The MTU the found tunnel carried, when it set one: a path tuned to 1380 (say) stalls TLS
+	// and hangs transfers if the mesh's interface comes up at the 1420 default, and no ping shows
+	// it (novox/hq: a taken tunnel carries its MTU).
+	if node.TakesOver != nil && node.TakesOver.MTU != 0 {
+		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "MTU = %d\n", node.TakesOver.MTU)
 	}
 	// The private key is set from a file the node wrote, so it never appears here and never
 	// travelled. Everything else in this file came from the mesh; this one line is the node's.

internal/overlay/declaration_test.go

@@ -260,3 +260,52 @@ func TestTakingOverAFoundTunnelIsSaidOnTheInterfacesService(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	}
 }
+
+func TestATakenTunnelBringsItsListenPortEvenWhenNotDialable(t *testing.T) {
+	// A home node behind NAT (no Endpoint, so not Reachable) that took over a tunnel must still
+	// listen on that tunnel's port, because its LAN peers dial it there (novox/hq: a taken tunnel
+	// brings its port). Without this the takeover guard refuses overlay-up.
+	config, _ := declarationFor(t, Node{
+		Name: "shanks", Key: "SPOKE", Address: "10.10.0.3",
+		TakesOver: &TakeOver{Interface: "wg0", Unit: "wg-quick@wg0", Port: 51820},
+	}, nil)
+
+	if !strings.Contains(config, "ListenPort = 51820") {
+		t.Fatalf("a taken tunnel's port must be the mesh interface's ListenPort:\n%s", config)
+	}
+	if strings.Contains(config, "Endpoint =") {
+		t.Error("a node that only listens for LAN peers must not advertise an endpoint")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestANodeWithNoTunnelAndNoEndpointStillListensOnNothing(t *testing.T) {
+	// The guard against over-emitting: a plain spoke with neither an endpoint nor a taken tunnel
+	// writes no ListenPort — it purely dials out.
+	config, _ := declarationFor(t, Node{Name: "laptop", Key: "K", Address: "10.10.0.9"}, nil)
+	if strings.Contains(config, "ListenPort") {
+		t.Fatalf("a dial-only node needs no ListenPort:\n%s", config)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestATakenTunnelCarriesItsMTU(t *testing.T) {
+	// A path tuned to a smaller MTU (1380 here) must survive the takeover — the mesh interface
+	// comes up with the same MTU, or transfers hang silently (novox/hq: a taken tunnel carries
+	// its MTU).
+	config, _ := declarationFor(t, Node{
+		Name: "shanks", Key: "SPOKE", Address: "10.10.0.3",
+		TakesOver: &TakeOver{Interface: "wg0", Port: 51820, MTU: 1380},
+	}, nil)
+	if !strings.Contains(config, "MTU = 1380") {
+		t.Fatalf("the tuned MTU was dropped:\n%s", config)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestNoMTULineWhenTheTunnelSetNone(t *testing.T) {
+	config, _ := declarationFor(t, Node{
+		Name: "shanks", Key: "SPOKE", Address: "10.10.0.3",
+		TakesOver: &TakeOver{Interface: "wg0", Port: 51820},
+	}, nil)
+	if strings.Contains(config, "MTU") {
+		t.Fatalf("no MTU was found, so none should be written:\n%s", config)
+	}
+}

internal/overlay/generator.go

@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ const Addressing = "mesh-addressing"
 // for two different purposes. Being **the** one the mesh runs over is singular, and without
 // saying so a person who chose a different VPN can still end up with this one dragged back in by
 // something that needed the mesh's own addresses. Which is exactly what happened, once.
-const TheNetwork = "mesh-private-network"
+const TheNetwork = "the-private-network"
 
 // **A resolver's data went the same way as the names.** Two constants used to sit here — a
 // `mesh-resolver` module that would write the machines as wildcards, and a `resolver-data`
@@ -161,6 +161,19 @@ func (g *Generator) Nodes() []Node { return g.nodes }
 // Graph is the peer list per node, for showing.
 func (g *Generator) Graph() Graph { return g.graph }
 
+// hostsTemplate is the mesh's region of `/etc/hosts` — every machine's mesh name at its private
+// address, written into a marked region and merged (RosterFile.Shared → `into: block`), so the rest
+// of the file (localhost, the machine's own name, other tools' blocks) is kept byte for byte
+// (novox/hq issue 128). It is a roster template like any module's: the mesh owns the data, this owns
+// the format, and the control plane holds no formatter.
+//
+//   - No floor: no header, no localhost, no `127.0.1.1` — those are the machine's, above the region.
+//   - A machine's own line is marked, and its mesh name resolves to its mesh address, not loopback.
+//   - `.Names` is every name the mesh serves (issue 111), so a container reaching a routed name
+//     finds the machine serving it; machines with no address yet are already left out of the set.
+const hostsTemplate = "# The mesh's names. This region is replaced whenever a machine joins or leaves.\n" +
+	"{{range .Names}}{{.Address}}\t{{.FQDN}}\t{{.Name}}{{if eq .Name $.Node}}\t# this machine{{end}}\n{{end}}"
+
 // Manifest is the module the mesh provides for itself.
 //
 // It ships with the control plane rather than coming from a repository, because the thing that
@@ -175,8 +188,13 @@ func Manifest() map[string]any {
 		// Being on the private network is what gives a machine a name, so the module that puts it
 		// there is what writes them. Asked for rather than generated by a module of its own: the
 		// mesh knows which machines exist and where; writing that into a hosts file is not a thing
-		// that needs a module to run nowhere.
-		"facts":  map[string]string{"node-names": "/etc/hosts"},
+		// that needs a module to run nowhere. The format is a template like any other roster fact —
+		// the mesh's own module owns the `/etc/hosts` layout the way dnsmasq owns its zones, and the
+		// control plane holds no formatter (see catalogue.RosterFile). `shared`: the mesh owns only
+		// its region of the file and keeps the rest (novox/hq issue 128).
+		"facts": map[string]any{
+			"node-names": map[string]any{"path": "/etc/hosts", "template": hostsTemplate, "shared": true},
+		},
 		"claims": []map[string]any{{"name": TheNetwork, "scope": "node"}},
 	}
 }

internal/overlay/graph.go

@@ -50,6 +50,13 @@ type TakeOver struct {
 	Interface string
 	Unit      string
 	Config    string
+	// MTU is the found tunnel's, when it set one — emitted so a tuned path keeps its MTU.
+	MTU int
+	// Port is the port the found tunnel listened on. The mesh's interface must listen on it too,
+	// even on a node that is not dialable from the hub: a home node's LAN peers dial it there
+	// (novox/hq: a taken tunnel brings its port). Listening is "a peer dials me here"; it is not
+	// "the hub can dial me", which is Reachable — the two were conflated.
+	Port int
 }
 
 // HostPrefix is one address as a route: /32 for IPv4, /128 for IPv6.

internal/overlay/names.go

@@ -24,9 +24,10 @@ const DefaultSuffix = "internal"
 //
 // This is not the `/etc/hosts` floor the design removes. That floor existed because a node had to
 // reach the mesh's database before its own DNS worked — a fallback for a circularity, and the
-// circularity is gone. This is the mechanism itself: the complete set of names in this mesh,
-// generated whole and owned by the mesh (novox/hq ADR 0011), rather than a patch written
-// underneath something else.
+// circularity is gone. This is the mechanism itself: the complete set of names in this mesh
+// (novox/hq ADR 0011). Written as a marked region *into* the file rather than as the file: the
+// rest of it — `localhost`, the machine's own name, other tools' blocks — is the machine's, and
+// writing it whole replaced all of that (novox/hq issue 128).
 //
 // A file rather than a resolver daemon, deliberately, for now: it works on every Linux, needs no
 // package, and has no failure mode of its own. A daemon becomes necessary when names are wanted