diff --git a/nix/host-modules/glue-matrix-bao-token.nix b/nix/host-modules/glue-matrix-bao-token.nix
index 4e84d8da..4f2fe486 100644
--- a/nix/host-modules/glue-matrix-bao-token.nix
+++ b/nix/host-modules/glue-matrix-bao-token.nix
@@ -42,7 +42,17 @@ let
   # Where the token lives in the store. A path, not a convention to guess at:
   # whoever writes it and whoever reads it must agree, and the agreement
   # belongs in one visible place.
-  tokenPath = "secret/swarm/matrix/registration-token";
+  #
+  # ⚠️ The `hives/<name>` segment is not decoration — it is what the reader's
+  # own grant covers. The store's read policy grants `swarm/agents/*` and
+  # `swarm/hives/<this hive>/*` and nothing else, so a path outside those is a
+  # 403 rather than a miss, however correct it looks. `swarm-secret-client`'s
+  # `matrix::registration_token_path` builds the same string from the same
+  # pieces; this literal is the nix half of that one agreement.
+  #
+  # `hiveName` has no fallback here for the reason ./glue-bao-tls.nix gives at
+  # its own use of it: it is asserted set for every hyperhive host.
+  tokenPath = "secret/swarm/hives/${hyperhiveCfg.hiveName}/matrix/registration-token";
 
   # A literal, not an option — ./hive-matrix.nix names its container
   # `containers.hive-matrix` directly and declares no `machine` to derive it
diff --git a/nix/module-eval.nix b/nix/module-eval.nix
index 5b948882..bc451438 100644
--- a/nix/module-eval.nix
+++ b/nix/module-eval.nix
@@ -1148,6 +1148,22 @@ let
         && lib.hasInfix "exit 1" loginBranch
         && lib.hasInfix "exit 0" (lib.last (lib.splitString "bao kv get" u.script));
     }
+    {
+      # The reader's own grant covers `swarm/hives/<this hive>/*` and
+      # `swarm/agents/*`; a path outside those answers 403, not "no such key".
+      # So the hive segment is what makes the read reachable, and a rename that
+      # drops it looks correct and fails identically on every boot.
+      name = "the matrix token path sits inside the prefix the reader is granted";
+      ok =
+        let
+          s = baoWithMatrix.systemd.services.swarm-bao-matrix-token.script;
+        in
+        lib.hasInfix "secret/swarm/hives/" s
+        && lib.hasInfix "/matrix/registration-token" s
+        # The shape it used to have: `matrix` where a principal kind belongs,
+        # which no grant covers.
+        && !(lib.hasInfix "secret/swarm/matrix/" s);
+    }
     {
       # The doctrine three glue files state, as a property a rewrite has to
       # keep: a client is defined by holding a certificate the store accepts,
diff --git a/swarm-secret-client/src/matrix.rs b/swarm-secret-client/src/matrix.rs
index 0a640b9b..69a130c7 100644
--- a/swarm-secret-client/src/matrix.rs
+++ b/swarm-secret-client/src/matrix.rs
@@ -26,6 +26,20 @@ pub fn account_path(agent: &str, account: &str) -> Result<String, Error> {
     Ok(format!("{prefix}/matrix/{account}"))
 }
 
+/// The path holding `hive`'s matrix registration token.
+///
+/// Keyed per **hive**, not per agent, like [`crate::queue::agent_client_path`]
+/// and unlike [`account_path`] above: one homeserver admits one hive's
+/// accounts, so the token that creates them is the hive's.
+///
+/// # Errors
+/// [`Error::PathSegment`] when `hive` contains anything but `[A-Za-z0-9_-]`,
+/// which is what keeps one hive's name from addressing another hive's secret.
+pub fn registration_token_path(hive: &str) -> Result<String, Error> {
+    let prefix = principal_prefix(Kind::Hive, hive)?;
+    Ok(format!("{prefix}/matrix/registration-token"))
+}
+
 /// What an account's path holds: the token, plus the homeserver it belongs to.
 ///
 /// The homeserver rides with the token rather than on the queue notice that
@@ -65,6 +79,32 @@ mod tests {
         assert_eq!(p, "swarm/agents/atlas/matrix/ops-relay");
     }
 
+    #[test]
+    fn the_registration_token_lands_under_the_hive_prefix_the_grant_covers() {
+        // Spelled out for the same reason as above, and with a second job here:
+        // the read policy grants `secret/data/swarm/hives/<hive>/*`, so this
+        // string is what makes the path reachable at all.
+        assert_eq!(
+            registration_token_path("pr1ma").expect("a plain name is legal"),
+            "swarm/hives/pr1ma/matrix/registration-token"
+        );
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn the_registration_token_is_not_a_top_level_namespace() {
+        // The path it used to hold. `Kind` is a closed set and `matrix` is not
+        // one of its members, so a path with `matrix` as the second segment is
+        // outside every grant — which is how it came to 403 on every read.
+        let p = registration_token_path("pr1ma").expect("legal");
+        assert!(!p.starts_with("swarm/matrix/"), "{p}");
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn a_traversal_in_the_hive_name_is_refused() {
+        let e = registration_token_path("../beta").expect_err("a traversal is not");
+        assert!(matches!(e, Error::PathSegment { kind: "hive", .. }), "{e}");
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn a_segment_cannot_escape_its_own_directory() {
         // Each of these is a *different* way to address another agent's tree,
diff --git a/swarm-secret-client/src/path.rs b/swarm-secret-client/src/path.rs
index c4f69ed5..a869fdd7 100644
--- a/swarm-secret-client/src/path.rs
+++ b/swarm-secret-client/src/path.rs
@@ -10,9 +10,9 @@ use crate::Error;
 
 /// The KV v2 mount every swarm secret lives under.
 ///
-/// A literal because the store's existing reader already hardcodes the same
-/// one (`secret/swarm/matrix/registration-token`); an option nobody sets would
-/// be two ways to say one thing.
+/// A literal because the nix-side reader spells the same one in
+/// `glue-matrix-bao-token.nix`; an option nobody sets would be two ways to say
+/// one thing.
 pub const MOUNT: &str = "secret";
 
 /// The root under [`MOUNT`] that every swarm secret lives beneath.