diff --git a/test/integration/genesis.ts b/test/integration/genesis.ts
index 83b4a98..5ba629d 100644
--- a/test/integration/genesis.ts
+++ b/test/integration/genesis.ts
@@ -175,6 +175,25 @@ export async function genesis(o: GenesisOptions): Promise<GenesisResult> {
       `digest assigned by ${registry}.`);
   }
 
+  // 3a. THE CONTROL PLANE WAS BUILT, not carried.
+  //
+  // **The distinction the installer now exists to make** (novox/hq ADR 0073). A mesh running an
+  // image it was handed cannot rebuild the thing that runs it, and looks identical from the
+  // outside to one that can — same container, same digest, same registry. The difference is
+  // whether a build happened, and the only place that is visible is the installer saying so.
+  //
+  // Checked against the commit this bed asked for, not merely that some build occurred: an
+  // installer that quietly built something else would satisfy a weaker check and raise a mesh
+  // nobody asked for.
+  const wanted = o.sourceRef.slice(0, 8);
+  if (!new RegExp(`built mesh-control from ${wanted}`).test(said)) {
+    return stop("after the last step",
+      `the installer never said it built mesh-control from ${wanted}. What runs may have been ` +
+      `carried rather than made here, which is a mesh that cannot rebuild its own control plane. ` +
+      `The installer said:\n${said.split("\n").filter((l) => /built|build/.test(l)).join("\n") || "(nothing about building)"}`);
+  }
+  report.push(`  built here        mesh-control from ${wanted}, by the carried builder`);
+
   // 3b. And the registry really serves it. A reference is a claim; a tag list is the registry agreeing.
   const tags = await on(`curl -s --max-time 10 http://${registry}/v2/mesh-control/tags/list`);
   report.push(`  registry holds    ${tags.out.trim() || "nothing"}`);
diff --git a/test/integration/whole-mesh-full.test.ts b/test/integration/whole-mesh-full.test.ts
index c98e48c..b2d666c 100644
--- a/test/integration/whole-mesh-full.test.ts
+++ b/test/integration/whole-mesh-full.test.ts
@@ -644,6 +644,20 @@ async function genesis(images: HeldImage[]): Promise<GenesisResult> {
       `digest assigned by ${MESH_REGISTRY}.`);
   }
 
+  // 3a. THE CONTROL PLANE WAS BUILT, not carried.
+  //
+  // **The distinction the installer now exists to make** (novox/hq ADR 0073). A mesh running an
+  // image it was handed cannot rebuild the thing that runs it, and looks identical from the
+  // outside to one that can — same container, same digest, same registry. The difference is
+  // whether a build happened, and the only place that is visible is the installer saying so.
+  const wanted = sourceRef.slice(0, 8);
+  if (!new RegExp(`built mesh-control from ${wanted}`).test(said)) {
+    return stop("after the last step",
+      `the installer never said it built mesh-control from ${wanted}. What runs may have been ` +
+      `carried rather than made here, which is a mesh that cannot rebuild its own control plane.`);
+  }
+  report.push(`  built here        mesh-control from ${wanted}, by the carried builder`);
+
   // 3b. And the registry really serves it, asked of the registry rather than of the container. A
   //     reference is a claim; a tag list is the registry agreeing.
   const tags = await on(CONTROL,