diff --git a/docs/agent-lifecycle/persistence.md b/docs/agent-lifecycle/persistence.md
index 72f48d0c..4f9062b5 100644
--- a/docs/agent-lifecycle/persistence.md
+++ b/docs/agent-lifecycle/persistence.md
@@ -745,6 +745,10 @@ container lifetime:
    on the host before every start; the harness binds its sockets
    there as the agent user. Why the mode matters:
    [`boundary.md`](../trust-boundary/boundary.md#the-per-agent-socket-dir).
+   A namespaced agent has the dir bound at `/agents/<name>/sockets` and
+   linked from `/run/hive-agent/<name>`; the activation chowns nothing, because
+   a mount point under `/run` would belong to root and the id mapping would
+   give the agent user no ids there.
 
 ## Matrix per-agent daemon + token-arrival trigger
 
diff --git a/hive-c0re/src/lifecycle/host_config.rs b/hive-c0re/src/lifecycle/host_config.rs
index 669f07d7..1d868a16 100644
--- a/hive-c0re/src/lifecycle/host_config.rs
+++ b/hive-c0re/src/lifecycle/host_config.rs
@@ -465,11 +465,7 @@ async fn set_nspawn_flags(
     // to the agent user. Don't chown or chmod it here.
     let socket_dir = crate::agent_sockets::agent_dir_for(agent_name);
     crate::priv_client::ensure_agent_socket_dir(agent_name, private_users).await?;
-    binds.push(BindMount {
-        host_path: socket_dir.to_string_lossy().into_owned(),
-        container_path: socket_dir.to_string_lossy().into_owned(),
-        read_only: false,
-    });
+    binds.push(socket_bind(agent_name, &socket_dir, private_users));
 
     // Every container runs in a private network namespace with a veth
     // pair attached to the host bridge — including the manager (all
@@ -495,6 +491,29 @@ async fn set_nspawn_flags(
     .await
 }
 
+/// The bind of the agent's socket dir.
+///
+/// A namespaced agent's binds are mounted `owneridmap`, which maps the owner of
+/// the mount point inside the container to the host owner. nspawn mounts a
+/// fresh tmpfs on `/run` before the binds, so a mount point under `/run` is
+/// created by nspawn owned by root, and the agent user would have no mapping
+/// (EOVERFLOW). A namespaced agent gets the dir at `/agents/<name>/sockets`,
+/// whose mount point hive-priv owns to the agent; the agent module links
+/// `/run/hive-agent/<name>` to it.
+fn socket_bind(agent_name: &str, socket_dir: &Path, private_users: Option<bool>) -> BindMount {
+    let host_path = socket_dir.to_string_lossy().into_owned();
+    let container_path = if private_users == Some(true) {
+        format!("/agents/{agent_name}/sockets")
+    } else {
+        host_path.clone()
+    };
+    BindMount {
+        host_path,
+        container_path,
+        read_only: false,
+    }
+}
+
 /// What hive-priv is told about the agent's user namespace: the record's flag,
 /// or `None` (leave the agent as it is) when there is no record or it cannot be
 /// read, so a swarm outage never turns a namespaced agent off or on.
@@ -555,6 +574,21 @@ mod tests {
     /// The flag in the record is what hive-priv is told, both ways. No record
     /// and an unreadable one say nothing, so a swarm outage changes no agent's
     /// namespace; a record from before the field reads false.
+    /// Only a namespaced agent's socket dir moves off `/run`.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_socket_dir_leaves_run_only_for_a_namespaced_agent() {
+        let dir = std::path::Path::new("/run/hive-agent/iris");
+        for private_users in [None, Some(false)] {
+            let b = super::socket_bind("iris", dir, private_users);
+            assert_eq!(b.container_path, "/run/hive-agent/iris");
+            assert_eq!(b.host_path, "/run/hive-agent/iris");
+        }
+        let b = super::socket_bind("iris", dir, Some(true));
+        assert_eq!(b.container_path, "/agents/iris/sockets");
+        assert_eq!(b.host_path, "/run/hive-agent/iris");
+        assert!(!b.read_only);
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn the_records_flag_is_what_the_start_path_passes() {
         assert_eq!(
diff --git a/nix/agent-modules/user.nix b/nix/agent-modules/user.nix
index 6498223c..04b25d96 100644
--- a/nix/agent-modules/user.nix
+++ b/nix/agent-modules/user.nix
@@ -199,7 +199,12 @@ in
         "d ${homeDir}/.local/state 0755 ${owner} - -"
         "L ${homeDir}/.local/state/nix - - - - ${persisted}"
         "L ${homeDir}/.nix-profile - - - - ${homeDir}/.local/state/nix/profiles/profile"
-      ];
+      ]
+      # A namespaced agent's socket dir is bound at /agents/<name>/sockets, not
+      # under /run, whose tmpfs nspawn mounts before the binds and so owns the
+      # mount point to root (hive-c0re `socket_bind`). The harness keeps the
+      # /run/hive-agent path. A dir already bound there is left alone.
+      ++ lib.optional config.services.hyperhive.agent.user.privateUsers "L /run/hive-agent/${userName} - - - - /agents/${userName}/sockets";
 
     # `NOPASSWD: ALL` for the agent user. Lets claude's Bash tool
     # keep working with anything that expected root (systemctl,
diff --git a/nix/vm-tests/agent-ephemeral-rootfs.nix b/nix/vm-tests/agent-ephemeral-rootfs.nix
index 5e5098d6..a49d7676 100644
--- a/nix/vm-tests/agent-ephemeral-rootfs.nix
+++ b/nix/vm-tests/agent-ephemeral-rootfs.nix
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ let
     ++ [
       {
         host_path = nsSocketDir;
-        container_path = nsSocketDir;
+        container_path = "/agents/${nsAgent}/sockets";
         read_only = false;
       }
     ];
@@ -368,6 +368,9 @@ pkgs.testers.runNixOSTest {
         assert as_ns(f"cat /agents/{NS_AGENT}/state/pre.txt") == "before"
         assert as_ns(f"stat -c %u:%g /agents/{NS_AGENT}/state/pre.txt") == "1000:1000"
         as_ns(f"echo after > /agents/{NS_AGENT}/state/post.txt")
+        # The socket dir is bound off /run (an owneridmap mount point under the
+        # container's /run tmpfs would belong to root) and linked back.
+        assert as_ns(f"readlink /run/hive-agent/{NS_AGENT}") == f"/agents/{NS_AGENT}/sockets"
         as_ns(f"touch /run/hive-agent/{NS_AGENT}/web.sock")
         assert as_ns(f"cat /agents/{NS_AGENT}/config/cfg") == "from-config"
         host.fail(f"nixos-container run {NS} -- runuser -l {NS_AGENT} -c 'touch /agents/{NS_AGENT}/config/new'")