diff --git a/go/buscompose/buscompose_test.go b/go/buscompose/buscompose_test.go
index 119acae..dea1de5 100644
--- a/go/buscompose/buscompose_test.go
+++ b/go/buscompose/buscompose_test.go
@@ -64,7 +64,8 @@ func engineBeyond(user, g string) bool {
 		return false
 	}
 	return strings.HasPrefix(g, "mesh.seat."+EngineSeat+".") && strings.Contains(g, "."+node) ||
-		strings.HasPrefix(g, "$SRV.") || strings.Contains(g, ".node-engine-"+node)
+		strings.HasPrefix(g, "$SRV.") || strings.Contains(g, ".node-engine-"+node) ||
+		strings.Contains(g, "KV_"+EngineActsBucket) || strings.HasPrefix(g, "$KV."+EngineActsBucket+"."+node+".")
 }
 
 // createsAnAccountsConsumer is the grants part's create and read of a durable consumer an account needs, by its stream
diff --git a/go/buscompose/creates_streams_test.go b/go/buscompose/creates_streams_test.go
index 6ea8184..98892d1 100644
--- a/go/buscompose/creates_streams_test.go
+++ b/go/buscompose/creates_streams_test.go
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@ func TestTheGrantsPartCreatesOnlyDeclaredStreams(t *testing.T) {
 			{Module: GrantsModule, State: []Bucket{{Module: GrantsModule, Name: "assertions"}}, Reads: []string{VaultBusAccounts}},
 			{Module: RuntimeModule},
 		}},
+		// The node-engine's own manifest, placed on every node though no node is assigned it (novox/hq ADR 0563 §2, §3).
+		Engine: &Declared{Module: EngineModule, State: []Bucket{{Module: EngineModule, Name: EngineActsState}}},
 	}
 	users, err := Users(records)
 	if err != nil {
@@ -64,6 +66,15 @@ func TestTheGrantsPartCreatesOnlyDeclaredStreams(t *testing.T) {
 		{GrantsModule, "$JS.API.STREAM.CREATE.ASSIGNMENTS", false},
 		{GrantsModule, "$JS.API.STREAM.INFO.EVENTS", false},
 		{"mesh-delivery-builder", "$JS.API.STREAM.CREATE.KV_mesh-delivery-builder_steps", false},
+		// The node-engine's acts: created by the grants part, written by each node's engine under its own keys alone.
+		{GrantsModule, "$JS.API.STREAM.CREATE.KV_mesh-host_acts", true},
+		{"node.ace", "$JS.API.STREAM.CREATE.KV_mesh-host_acts", false},
+		{"node.ace", "$KV.mesh-host_acts.ace.act.hand-over-1", true},
+		{"node.ace", "$KV.mesh-host_acts.ace.open.hand-over.abc", true},
+		{"node.ace", "$KV.mesh-host_acts.novox.act.hand-over-1", false},
+		{"node.ace", "$JS.API.DIRECT.GET.KV_mesh-host_acts.$KV.mesh-host_acts.ace.ask.hand-over-1", true},
+		{"node.ace", "$JS.API.DIRECT.GET.KV_mesh-host_acts.$KV.mesh-host_acts.novox.ask.hand-over-1", false},
+		{"novox.node-tools", "$KV.mesh-host_acts.novox.act.hand-over-1", false},
 		// The sealed user list (ADR 0547 clause 7): the grants part writes its own bucket and no other.
 		{GrantsModule, "$JS.API.STREAM.CREATE.OBJ_mesh-grants-user-list", true},
 		{GrantsModule, "$O.mesh-grants-user-list.C.abc", true},
diff --git a/go/buscompose/engine.go b/go/buscompose/engine.go
index 95fa03d..501084b 100644
--- a/go/buscompose/engine.go
+++ b/go/buscompose/engine.go
@@ -11,6 +11,17 @@ import (
 // EngineSeat is the seat.
 const EngineSeat = catalogue.EngineSeat
 
+// EngineModule is the node-engine's manifest's module name, and EngineActsState its state the acts asked through the
+// node seat and its own asks are kept in (ADR 0563 §2, §3: "the engine's own state"): the bucket mesh-host_acts, keys
+// `<node>.act.<id>`, `<node>.open.<act>.<digest>` and `<node>.ask.<id>`, each written by that node's engine alone.
+const (
+	EngineModule    = "mesh-host"
+	EngineActsState = "acts"
+)
+
+// EngineActsBucket is that state's bucket.
+var EngineActsBucket = BucketName(EngineModule, EngineActsState)
+
 // engineGrants is what a node's engine is granted to hold its node seat and to ask the operator (ADR 0563 §1, §3): it
 // answers its own node's verbs (the caller-named subjects are added beside them with every principal's), says the
 // seat's events about its node, answers discovery for the seat, asks who answers what (the login shell's execute, ADR
@@ -26,5 +37,9 @@ func engineGrants(p Principal) (pub, sub []string) {
 	sub = append(sub, announcing(EngineSeat)...)
 	pub = append(pub, discovering()...)
 	tp, ts := seatTrafficGrants(SeatTrafficOf(asks.EngineAsker(p.Node), nil, p.Uses, nil))
+	// And its acts and asks, under its own node's keys alone; never the bucket's creation, which is the grants part's.
+	if own, err := NodeKeysGrants(EngineActsBucket, p.Node); err == nil {
+		pub = append(pub, own...)
+	}
 	return append(pub, tp...), append(sub, ts...)
 }
diff --git a/go/buscompose/users.go b/go/buscompose/users.go
index 01616d1..5629510 100644
--- a/go/buscompose/users.go
+++ b/go/buscompose/users.go
@@ -134,6 +134,11 @@ type Records struct {
 	// account agents run as, judged unable to become root by its node-engine, and serves no login shell
 	// execute. A machine absent is not free: no record of a pass is no pass.
 	RootFree map[string]bool
+	// Engine is the node-engine's own declaration, from its manifest (EngineModule): placed on every node though no node is
+	// assigned it, since every node runs it (novox/hq ADR 0563 §2, §3). Its state, logs and streams are created by the
+	// grants part as a placed module's are; it adds no principal, since each node's engine speaks as the node's account.
+	// Nil where its manifest was not read.
+	Engine *Declared
 	// Announced is each module's last announcement of the states it keeps (novox/hq ADR 0495, issue 1790), as the
 	// controller keeps it; a module absent has announced nothing yet. Nil where none was read.
 	Announced map[string]announce.States
@@ -451,7 +456,15 @@ func runnerServes(d Declared) bool {
 // name. What the grants part may create, and nothing beside.
 func declaredStreamsOf(r Records) []string {
 	seen := map[string]bool{}
+	placed := [][]Declared{}
 	for _, mods := range r.Assigned {
+		placed = append(placed, mods)
+	}
+	// The node-engine's manifest is placed on every node (ADR 0563): its declared state is created as a placed module's.
+	if r.Engine != nil {
+		placed = append(placed, []Declared{*r.Engine})
+	}
+	for _, mods := range placed {
 		for _, d := range mods {
 			for _, b := range d.State {
 				seen["KV_"+b.Bucket()] = true
diff --git a/go/buscompose/writers.go b/go/buscompose/writers.go
index fff55d1..7649cb2 100644
--- a/go/buscompose/writers.go
+++ b/go/buscompose/writers.go
@@ -245,6 +245,11 @@ var WritersTable = []WriterRow{
 	{State: "a machine's have", Writer: "the node-engine of the machine, under its own keys `<node>.>`",
 		KeptIn: "key-value " + delivery.HaveBucket + ", twenty revisions of each key",
 		Others: "read through `reads` as node-engine.have", Subjects: kvOf(delivery.HaveBucket), Writes: ownNodeKeys},
+	// The acts a node's engine was asked through its node seat, and its own asks (novox/hq ADR 0563 §2, §3): the
+	// node-engine's declared state, created by the grants part, written by each node's engine under its own keys.
+	{State: "a machine's hand acts", Writer: "the node-engine of the machine, under its own keys `<node>.>`, compare-and-set",
+		KeptIn: "key-value " + EngineActsBucket + ", the node-engine's declared state acts",
+		Others: "read through the node seat's verb acts", Subjects: kvOf(EngineActsBucket), Writes: ownNodeKeys},
 	// The contents of a declaration's files over 64 KiB (novox/hq ADR 0486 §2): the controller alone writes the bucket, each
 	// object under the digest of its content; a node-engine reads one by its name, with no list and no write.
 	{State: "a declaration's large files", Writer: "controller, each object under the sha256 digest of its content; the " +