Install the build agent at genesis, the module that builds since ADR 0190 (hq issue 596)

Genesis's builder step read modules/builder from the catalogue, which retired it on 2026-10-03 for
the build agent (node-build-agent on every machine), so no genesis got past step 13. The step now
installs build-agent from the catalogue, puts the builder image it carried and published where the
manifest names the image it builds, and issues its bus account as any module's.

internal/bootstrap/builder.go

@@ -1,13 +1,16 @@
 package bootstrap
 
 import (
+	"bytes"
 	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
-	"strings"
 )
 
-// BuilderModule is the module that lets a mesh produce anything at all.
-const BuilderModule = "builder"
+// BuilderModule is the module that lets a mesh produce anything at all: the build agent, which holds
+// the node seat `node-build-agent` (novox/hq ADR 0190). The one-holder `builder` module it replaced
+// left the catalogue on 2026-10-03, and genesis went on asking for it (issue 596).
+const BuilderModule = "build-agent"
 
 // BuilderRepository is what its image is called in this mesh's own registry.
 const BuilderRepository = "mesh-builder"
@@ -50,10 +53,10 @@ func InstallBuilder(ctx context.Context, o Options, d Deps, control controlPlane
 	manifest, err := readManifest(o.Catalogue, BuilderModule)
 	if err != nil {
 		return out, fmt.Errorf("%w\n"+
-			"This is the manifest that makes the builder an ordinary module. Without it the mesh "+
+			"This is the manifest that makes the build agent an ordinary module. Without it the mesh "+
 			"has the image and no way to run it, so nothing can be built here", err)
 	}
-	pinned, places, err := pinPlaceholder(manifest, published.Reference, BuilderModule)
+	pinned, places, err := pinTheCarriedBuilder(manifest, published.Reference)
 	if err != nil {
 		return out, err
 	}
@@ -66,21 +69,72 @@ func InstallBuilder(ctx context.Context, o Options, d Deps, control controlPlane
 	}
 
 	// Before the push, so the account is in the declaration the machine receives rather than in
-	// the one after it. A builder that arrives without its credential starts, finds nothing it may
-	// read, and waits — which looks exactly like a builder with no work.
-	account := o.Node + "-" + BuilderModule
-	if _, err := control.tell(ctx, "builder", "issue", account, "--node", o.Node); err != nil {
-		// Said and carried on. An account that already exists is the ordinary case on a re-run,
-		// and the push below is what makes either state true on the machine.
-		if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "already") {
-			return out, fmt.Errorf("the builder has no broker account, so it can take no work: %w", err)
-		}
-		say("  broker account    " + account + " — already issued")
-	} else {
-		out.Account = true
-		say("  broker account    " + account + ", scoped to what it consumes and emits")
+	// the one after it. A build agent that arrives without its credential starts, finds nothing it
+	// may read, and waits — which looks exactly like an agent with no work. The same act as any
+	// module's account (`module issue`), which a re-run repeats harmlessly.
+	if _, err := control.tell(ctx, "module", "issue", BuilderModule, "--node", o.Node); err != nil {
+		return out, fmt.Errorf("the build agent has no account on the bus, so it can take no work: %w", err)
 	}
+	out.Account = true
+	say("  bus account       " + BuilderModule + " on " + o.Node + ", scoped to what it consumes and emits")
 
 	out.Installed.Pushed, err = pushNode(ctx, o, control, say)
 	return out, err
 }
+
+// pinTheCarriedBuilder names the image this installer carried and published in the build agent's
+// manifest, in place of the artifact the mesh would build for it.
+//
+// **The one module genesis cannot have built** (novox/hq ADR 0073): the build agent is what builds,
+// and at this step the mesh has no build agent. The catalogue's manifest names its server container by
+// the artifact it builds (`"artifact": "server"`, an image built from mesh-controller's
+// cmd/mesh-builder); the image this installer carries is that build, made from the same program. So
+// every container built from that image artifact runs the published reference instead, and the rest
+// of the manifest — its build, its seat, its requirements — is the catalogue's as written. The mesh
+// rebuilds it from the catalogue like any module from then on.
+//
+// A manifest still carrying the old placeholder digest is pinned the old way. One naming neither an
+// image artifact nor a placeholder is refused: there would be nothing to put the carried image in.
+func pinTheCarriedBuilder(manifest []byte, reference string) ([]byte, int, error) {
+	if bytes.Contains(manifest, []byte(placeholderDigest)) {
+		return pinPlaceholder(manifest, reference, BuilderModule)
+	}
+	var m map[string]any
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(manifest, &m); err != nil {
+		return nil, 0, fmt.Errorf("the %s module's manifest is not readable: %w", BuilderModule, err)
+	}
+	images := map[string]bool{}
+	if build, ok := m["build"].(map[string]any); ok {
+		artifacts, _ := build["artifacts"].([]any)
+		for _, a := range artifacts {
+			if art, ok := a.(map[string]any); ok && art["kind"] == "image" {
+				if name, ok := art["name"].(string); ok {
+					images[name] = true
+				}
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	places := 0
+	resources, _ := m["resources"].([]any)
+	for _, r := range resources {
+		res, ok := r.(map[string]any)
+		if !ok || res["type"] != "container" {
+			continue
+		}
+		if name, ok := res["artifact"].(string); ok && images[name] {
+			delete(res, "artifact")
+			res["image"] = reference
+			places++
+		}
+	}
+	if places == 0 {
+		return nil, 0, fmt.Errorf(
+			"the %s module's manifest runs no container from an image it builds, so there is nowhere to "+
+				"put the builder this installer carried and published (%s)", BuilderModule, reference)
+	}
+	pinned, err := json.MarshalIndent(m, "", "  ")
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, 0, err
+	}
+	return append(pinned, '\n'), places, nil
+}

internal/bootstrap/builder_test.go

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package bootstrap
 
 import (
 	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"strings"
@@ -44,15 +45,15 @@ func TestTheBuildersPackageRegistryPortIsASettingAndNotTheManifest(t *testing.T)
 		[]byte(theBuildersBinding), quietly); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
-	if got := c.settings["builder-settings.json"]; got != `{"serves":{"port":3100}}` {
+	if got := c.settings[BuilderModule+"-settings.json"]; got != `{"serves":{"port":3100}}` {
 		t.Errorf("the builder was told %q about the package registry's port", got)
 	}
 	// The manifest reaches the mesh as the catalogue wrote it. A port rewritten into it here is a
 	// port the next registration from the catalogue silently takes back.
-	if got := c.settings["builder-module.json"]; got != theBuildersBinding {
+	if got := c.settings[BuilderModule+"-module.json"]; got != theBuildersBinding {
 		t.Errorf("the installer changed the builder's manifest:\n%s", got)
 	}
-	set, push := c.index("settings set builder"), c.index("push anchor")
+	set, push := c.index("settings set "+BuilderModule), c.index("push anchor")
 	if set < 0 || push < 0 || set > push {
 		t.Fatalf("the port was not set before the push that raises the builder: %v", c.told)
 	}
@@ -167,3 +168,73 @@ func TestAForgeManifestTheCatalogueDoesNotHaveIsNamed(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Errorf("a missing forge manifest was not explained: %v", err)
 	}
 }
+
+// theCataloguesModule is the catalogue's own manifest of a module, never a copy: the clone beside a merge
+// check (MESH_CHECK_BESIDE), where it must be; else a checkout beside this one; else the test skips aloud.
+func theCataloguesModule(t *testing.T, module string) []byte {
+	t.Helper()
+	inside := filepath.Join("mesh-catalog", "modules", module, "module.json")
+	if root := os.Getenv("MESH_CHECK_BESIDE"); root != "" {
+		raw, err := os.ReadFile(filepath.Join(root, inside))
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("the catalogue beside this check (MESH_CHECK_BESIDE=%s) has no %s: %v", root, inside, err)
+		}
+		return raw
+	}
+	raw, err := os.ReadFile(filepath.Join("..", "..", "..", inside))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Skipf("NOT JUDGED: no catalogue beside this checkout and no MESH_CHECK_BESIDE; the merge check judges it")
+	}
+	return raw
+}
+
+// **Genesis installs the build agent the catalogue holds** (novox/hq issue 596, ADR 0190): the
+// one-holder `builder` left the catalogue on 2026-10-03, and genesis stopped at step 13 asking for it.
+// The catalogue's own manifest is read, and the image the installer carried is put where the manifest
+// names the image it builds.
+func TestGenesisInstallsTheCataloguesBuildAgent(t *testing.T) {
+	manifest := theCataloguesModule(t, BuilderModule)
+	const reference = "127.0.0.1:5000/mesh-builder@sha256:" + "4444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444"
+	pinned, places, err := pinTheCarriedBuilder(manifest, reference)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	var m struct {
+		Module string `json:"module"`
+		Claims []struct {
+			Name string `json:"name"`
+		} `json:"claims"`
+		Resources []map[string]any `json:"resources"`
+	}
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(pinned, &m); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if m.Module != BuilderModule || len(m.Claims) == 0 || m.Claims[0].Name != "node-build-agent" {
+		t.Fatalf("genesis installs %q claiming %v; the build agent holds node-build-agent (ADR 0190)", m.Module, m.Claims)
+	}
+	running := 0
+	for _, r := range m.Resources {
+		if r["type"] != "container" {
+			continue
+		}
+		if _, still := r["artifact"]; still {
+			t.Errorf("the container %v still names an artifact nothing has built yet", r["name"])
+		}
+		if r["image"] == reference {
+			running++
+		}
+	}
+	if places != 1 || running != 1 {
+		t.Errorf("the carried builder runs in %d container(s) (%d place(s) said); the build agent runs one", running, places)
+	}
+}
+
+// A manifest that runs nothing from an image it builds has nowhere to put the carried builder, and is
+// refused rather than registered running nothing.
+func TestABuildAgentManifestWithNowhereForTheCarriedBuilderIsRefused(t *testing.T) {
+	_, _, err := pinTheCarriedBuilder([]byte(`{"module":"build-agent","resources":[{"id":"server","type":"container","name":"x","artifact":"server"}],"build":{"artifacts":[{"name":"server","kind":"bundle"}]}}`),
+		"127.0.0.1:5000/mesh-builder@sha256:"+strings.Repeat("4", 64))
+	if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "nowhere to put") {
+		t.Fatalf("a manifest with no image artifact was pinned: %v", err)
+	}
+}