diff --git a/test/integration/genesis.ts b/test/integration/genesis.ts
index 0f25fba..191101e 100644
--- a/test/integration/genesis.ts
+++ b/test/integration/genesis.ts
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
  * description of genesis, and both the single-node bed and the four-node bed call it.
  */
 import { existsSync, writeFileSync } from "node:fs";
+import { execFileSync } from "node:child_process";
 import { tmpdir } from "node:os";
 import { join, resolve } from "node:path";
 import { exec, instanceNameOf, push } from "../../src/lifecycle/operate.ts";
@@ -110,13 +111,27 @@ export async function genesis(o: GenesisOptions): Promise<GenesisResult> {
   // The catalogue. `mesh-bootstrap --catalog` reads manifests from a CHECKOUT on the machine,
   // because at this moment the mesh has no forge, no build machine and — until the registry step
   // finishes — no registry. A manifest is a file, and somebody has to have put it there.
-  await must(`mkdir -p ${modules.map((m) => `${catalogueOnMachine}/modules/${m}`).join(" ")}`);
+  //
+  // **The WHOLE checkout, not the three genesis names.** `--catalog` is documented as a checkout
+  // of the catalogue repository, and phase two reads more from it than genesis does — postgres,
+  // mesh-catalog, the packet filter, whatever extras. Stocking only the bootstrap three left
+  // phase two unable to read a manifest that was never put there (novox/hq installer step 14). The
+  // production equivalent is an operator with a full checkout, or the installer cloning the repo;
+  // the lab stands in for that by copying the whole tree once.
+  const bundleTar = join(tmpdir(), `mesh-lab-catalogue-${process.pid}-${node}.tar`);
+  execFileSync("tar", ["-cf", bundleTar, "-C", o.catalogDir, "."]);
+  await must(`mkdir -p ${catalogueOnMachine}/modules`);
+  await push(o.instanceId, node, bundleTar, "/tmp/catalogue.tar");
+  await must(`tar -xf /tmp/catalogue.tar -C ${catalogueOnMachine}/modules`);
+  // The three genesis itself needs must be present, or the pivot cannot even begin — checked here
+  // rather than discovered at step 8, where the message is about a missing file.
   for (const module of modules) {
-    const from = resolve(o.catalogDir, module, "module.json");
-    if (!existsSync(from)) return stop("preparing the catalogue", `the catalogue has no ${module}/module.json at ${from}`);
-    await push(o.instanceId, node, from, `${catalogueOnMachine}/modules/${module}/module.json`);
+    const at = `${catalogueOnMachine}/modules/${module}/module.json`;
+    if (!(await on(`test -f ${at}`)).ok) {
+      return stop("preparing the catalogue", `the catalogue has no ${module}/module.json`);
+    }
   }
-  report.push(`  catalogue         ${modules.join(", ")} at ${catalogueOnMachine}`);
+  report.push(`  catalogue         full checkout at ${catalogueOnMachine} (${modules.join(", ")} + phase two)`);
 
   const local = join(tmpdir(), `mesh-lab-substrate-${process.pid}-${node}.lock`);
   writeFileSync(local, o.bundleTemplate);