diff --git a/internal/identity/identity.go b/internal/identity/identity.go
index eb48920..9ff2ee8 100644
--- a/internal/identity/identity.go
+++ b/internal/identity/identity.go
@@ -28,6 +28,9 @@ func Path(statePath string) string {
 	return filepath.Join(filepath.Dir(statePath), FileName)
 }
 
+// dirOf is where a node keeps everything it knows about itself.
+func dirOf(statePath string) string { return filepath.Dir(statePath) }
+
 // Identity is this node's own keypair, the name the mesh knows it by, and what it needs to get
 // back to that mesh without a person.
 //
@@ -44,6 +47,10 @@ type Identity struct {
 	Private []byte `json:"private"`
 
 	Membership Membership `json:"membership"`
+
+	// Overlay is this node's key on the private network. Generated here, like the identity above,
+	// and for the same reason: the mesh computes a graph it cannot impersonate.
+	Overlay OverlayKey `json:"overlay"`
 }
 
 // Membership is how this node reaches the mesh it belongs to, and who it believes.
diff --git a/internal/identity/overlay.go b/internal/identity/overlay.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4c3eb39
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/identity/overlay.go
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+package identity
+
+import (
+	"crypto/ecdh"
+	"crypto/rand"
+	"encoding/base64"
+	"fmt"
+)
+
+// The node's key on the private network, which is a different key from the one that says who it
+// is — and deliberately so.
+//
+// novox/hq 08-connectivity: each node generates its own keypair, the private half never leaves
+// the machine, and the public half is published to the mesh. That means the control plane
+// computes a peer graph it cannot itself impersonate: it knows every public key and holds no
+// private one, so it can say who may talk to whom without being able to pretend to be any of them.
+//
+// Separate from the identity keypair because they are verified by different things at different
+// times — the identity signs messages to the mesh, this one encrypts traffic between nodes — and
+// a key used for two purposes is one rotation away from breaking the other.
+
+// OverlayKey is a Curve25519 keypair, which is what WireGuard uses.
+type OverlayKey struct {
+	// Public is what travels. Base64, which is the form WireGuard configuration files use, so it
+	// is carried the way it will be written rather than converted at the last moment.
+	Public string `json:"public"`
+
+	// Private never leaves this machine. It is written to a file of its own that the interface
+	// configuration points at, so the control plane can compose that configuration without ever
+	// holding this.
+	Private string `json:"private"`
+}
+
+// GenerateOverlayKey makes this node's keypair for the private network.
+func GenerateOverlayKey() (OverlayKey, error) {
+	private, err := ecdh.X25519().GenerateKey(rand.Reader)
+	if err != nil {
+		return OverlayKey{}, fmt.Errorf("cannot generate this node's overlay key: %w", err)
+	}
+	return OverlayKey{
+		Public:  base64.StdEncoding.EncodeToString(private.PublicKey().Bytes()),
+		Private: base64.StdEncoding.EncodeToString(private.Bytes()),
+	}, nil
+}
+
+// OverlayKeyPath is where the private half lives: a file of its own, referenced by the interface
+// configuration rather than embedded in it.
+//
+// That separation is what lets the mesh compose the configuration. WireGuard's `PostUp` can set a
+// private key from a file, so the declaration the control plane sends names this path and carries
+// no secret — and the file it names was written by the node, from a key nothing else ever saw.
+func OverlayKeyPath(statePath string) string {
+	return dirOf(statePath) + "/overlay.key"
+}