diff --git a/swarm-authelia-bridge/src/introspect.rs b/swarm-authelia-bridge/src/introspect.rs
index 575e28d9..e12be0a8 100644
--- a/swarm-authelia-bridge/src/introspect.rs
+++ b/swarm-authelia-bridge/src/introspect.rs
@@ -9,6 +9,15 @@
 //! HTTP call are exactly the conditions an attacker would like this to
 //! fall open under.
 //!
+//! [`Verdict`] has three variants where admission has two: the extra one
+//! carries **whose fault a denial was**, a different question from who is
+//! admitted (`main`'s `classify` is the single place that answers the
+//! latter). Collapsing them answered `401 missing or invalid bearer token`
+//! when *this bridge's own* credentials were the problem — a false
+//! accusation pointing away from the fault, in the case most likely right
+//! after a config change. `Unavailable` is **not a softer denial**: it
+//! denies exactly as hard and only changes the report.
+//!
 //! Authenticates the introspection call itself with **this bridge's own**
 //! client credentials (a resource server introspecting a token proves its
 //! own identity to the `IdP`, per RFC 7662) — a separate authelia machine
@@ -16,7 +25,6 @@
 
 use std::time::Duration;
 
-use anyhow::{Context, Result};
 use serde::Deserialize;
 
 /// Generous relative to `swarm-nats-auth`'s 1.5s (that one is bounded by
@@ -30,39 +38,71 @@ struct IntrospectionResponse {
     active: bool,
 }
 
-/// Ask authelia whether `token` is currently valid. `Ok(true)` only on a
-/// 2xx body with `active: true`; every other outcome is `Ok(false)`
-/// (logged) or `Err` when the call could not be made at all — callers
-/// must treat both as a denial.
-pub async fn is_active(
+/// The outcome of asking authelia about a token.
+///
+/// Total by construction — there is no `Result` wrapper, because every way
+/// the call can go wrong is already a variant. A caller that forgets a case
+/// does not compile, and there is no error path that could be `?`-ed past
+/// into an accidental admission.
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq)]
+pub enum Verdict {
+    /// 2xx with `active: true`. The only admitting outcome.
+    Active,
+    /// 2xx with `active: false` — authelia evaluated the token and said no.
+    /// The **caller's** credential is the problem.
+    Inactive,
+    /// The question could not be answered: the request failed, authelia
+    /// answered non-2xx (which for RFC 7662 means *the introspection call
+    /// itself* was rejected — an invalid token is a 200 with
+    /// `active: false`), or the body did not parse. In every case the fault
+    /// is on **this bridge's** side of the exchange, not the caller's.
+    Unavailable,
+}
+
+/// Ask authelia whether `token` is currently valid.
+///
+/// Never fails: see [`Verdict`]. Each non-admitting outcome is logged at
+/// `warn` with the detail that distinguishes it, since the response the
+/// caller gets is deliberately vague.
+pub async fn introspect(
     http: &reqwest::Client,
     url: &str,
     client_id: &str,
     client_secret: &str,
     token: &str,
-) -> Result<bool> {
-    let resp = http
+) -> Verdict {
+    let resp = match http
         .post(url)
         .basic_auth(client_id, Some(client_secret))
         .form(&[("token", token)])
         .timeout(INTROSPECTION_TIMEOUT)
         .send()
         .await
-        .context("introspection request")?;
+    {
+        Ok(resp) => resp,
+        Err(e) => {
+            tracing::warn!(error = ?e, "introspection request failed; cannot validate");
+            return Verdict::Unavailable;
+        }
+    };
 
     let status = resp.status();
     if !status.is_success() {
-        tracing::warn!(%status, "introspection returned non-2xx; denying");
-        return Ok(false);
+        // Most often: this bridge's own client credentials are being
+        // rejected by authelia. Logged with the status because that is the
+        // one thing separating "my secret is stale" from "authelia is
+        // unwell", and neither is the caller's business.
+        tracing::warn!(%status, "introspection returned non-2xx; cannot validate");
+        return Verdict::Unavailable;
     }
-    let body: IntrospectionResponse = match resp.json().await {
-        Ok(b) => b,
+    match resp.json::<IntrospectionResponse>().await {
+        Ok(body) if body.active => Verdict::Active,
+        Ok(_) => Verdict::Inactive,
         Err(e) => {
-            tracing::warn!(error = ?e, "introspection body did not parse; denying");
-            return Ok(false);
+            tracing::warn!(error = ?e, "introspection body did not parse; cannot validate");
+            Verdict::Unavailable
         }
-    };
-    Ok(body.active)
+    }
 }
 
 #[cfg(test)]
@@ -77,4 +117,16 @@ mod tests {
         assert!(!no.active);
         assert!(serde_json::from_str::<IntrospectionResponse>(r#"{"sub":"someone"}"#).is_err());
     }
+
+    /// A 2xx body whose `active` is false is a *verdict*, not an error —
+    /// the distinction `Verdict` exists to preserve, asserted at the one
+    /// place the two are told apart from the wire.
+    #[test]
+    fn an_inactive_token_is_a_verdict_not_a_failure() {
+        let body: IntrospectionResponse = serde_json::from_str(r#"{"active":false}"#).unwrap();
+        assert!(
+            !body.active,
+            "authelia answering `active: false` is authelia working, not authelia failing"
+        );
+    }
 }
diff --git a/swarm-authelia-bridge/src/main.rs b/swarm-authelia-bridge/src/main.rs
index 82029a25..da061911 100644
--- a/swarm-authelia-bridge/src/main.rs
+++ b/swarm-authelia-bridge/src/main.rs
@@ -156,44 +156,102 @@ async fn handle_request(
 }
 
 /// Extract + introspect the bearer token. `Err` carries the response to
-/// return outright (401 for anything short of an active token) — kept
-/// separate from `handle`'s error path, which is "the op itself failed,"
-/// a different case from "the caller was never let in."
+/// return outright — kept separate from `handle`'s error path, which is
+/// "the op itself failed," a different case from "the caller was never let
+/// in."
+///
+/// Anything short of an active token is refused; **which status** depends
+/// on whose credential failed, see [`Refusal`].
 async fn authorize(state: &AppState, headers: &HeaderMap) -> Result<(), Response> {
-    let deny = || {
-        (
-            StatusCode::UNAUTHORIZED,
-            Json(BridgeResponse::Error {
-                message: "missing or invalid bearer token".to_owned(),
-            }),
-        )
-            .into_response()
-    };
     let Some(auth) = headers.get(axum::http::header::AUTHORIZATION) else {
-        return Err(deny());
+        return Err(refuse(Refusal::Caller));
     };
     let Ok(auth) = auth.to_str() else {
-        return Err(deny());
+        return Err(refuse(Refusal::Caller));
     };
     let Some(token) = auth.strip_prefix("Bearer ") else {
-        return Err(deny());
+        return Err(refuse(Refusal::Caller));
     };
-    match introspect::is_active(
+    let verdict = introspect::introspect(
         &state.http,
         &state.config.introspection_url,
         &state.config.client_id,
         &state.config.client_secret,
         token,
     )
-    .await
-    {
-        Ok(true) => Ok(()),
-        Ok(false) => Err(deny()),
-        Err(e) => {
-            tracing::warn!(error = %format!("{e:#}"), "introspection call failed; denying");
-            Err(deny())
+    .await;
+    classify(verdict).map_err(refuse)
+}
+
+/// The admission decision, and the only place that makes it.
+///
+/// Fail-closed: `Ok(())` is reachable from exactly one variant. Split out
+/// of [`authorize`] so the rule is testable without an authelia — and it is
+/// the *real* rule, not a restatement of it, because this is the function
+/// the request path calls.
+fn classify(verdict: introspect::Verdict) -> Result<(), Refusal> {
+    match verdict {
+        introspect::Verdict::Active => Ok(()),
+        introspect::Verdict::Inactive => Err(Refusal::Caller),
+        introspect::Verdict::Unavailable => Err(Refusal::Bridge),
+    }
+}
+
+/// Whose credential was at fault when a request was refused.
+///
+/// The distinction is the whole point: these used to be one 401, so a
+/// caller whose token was fine was told its token was invalid whenever
+/// *this bridge* could not authenticate itself to authelia.
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq)]
+enum Refusal {
+    /// No token, an unusable header, or a token authelia rejected.
+    Caller,
+    /// This bridge could not get an answer out of authelia at all, so the
+    /// request was never evaluated.
+    Bridge,
+}
+
+impl Refusal {
+    /// `401` for the caller; `503` for us.
+    ///
+    /// 401 would be wrong for [`Refusal::Bridge`] under RFC 7235 — nothing
+    /// about the caller's credential was determined — and it is also the
+    /// least useful thing to say, because a client that believes its token
+    /// is bad will go and mint a new one, which cannot help.
+    ///
+    /// 503 rather than 500 because the overwhelmingly common cause is
+    /// transient by construction: this bridge's own secret is minted on
+    /// authelia's first boot and delivered by a separate unit, so the
+    /// window where it is absent closes on its own. A client retrying is
+    /// doing the right thing.
+    fn status(self) -> StatusCode {
+        match self {
+            Refusal::Caller => StatusCode::UNAUTHORIZED,
+            Refusal::Bridge => StatusCode::SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE,
         }
     }
+
+    /// Deliberately coarse for [`Refusal::Caller`]: an unauthenticated
+    /// caller learns that it was refused, never which of the four ways.
+    /// The `Bridge` message says only that validation could not happen —
+    /// no status code, no upstream detail, nothing about the secret. The
+    /// discriminating detail is in this bridge's journal, where it belongs.
+    fn message(self) -> &'static str {
+        match self {
+            Refusal::Caller => "missing or invalid bearer token",
+            Refusal::Bridge => "cannot validate credentials",
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+fn refuse(refusal: Refusal) -> Response {
+    (
+        refusal.status(),
+        Json(BridgeResponse::Error {
+            message: refusal.message().to_owned(),
+        }),
+    )
+        .into_response()
 }
 
 async fn handle(state: &AppState, name: String) -> Result<BridgeResponse> {
@@ -265,3 +323,65 @@ async fn generate_password(bin: &std::path::Path) -> Result<String> {
             )
         })
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::{Refusal, StatusCode, classify, introspect::Verdict};
+
+    /// Fail-closed, asserted per variant rather than as one negation:
+    /// splitting blame out of a single denial is exactly the change that
+    /// could have widened admission, so each refusing variant is named on
+    /// its own line.
+    #[test]
+    fn only_an_active_token_is_admitted() {
+        assert_eq!(classify(Verdict::Active), Ok(()));
+        assert_eq!(
+            classify(Verdict::Inactive),
+            Err(Refusal::Caller),
+            "authelia evaluated the token and said no"
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            classify(Verdict::Unavailable),
+            Err(Refusal::Bridge),
+            "a bridge that cannot ask must not admit — this variant reports a \
+             different fault, it is not a softer denial"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// The whole point of the split, asserted on the value rather than
+    /// on message text — the previous code picked its status by matching on
+    /// a log message's wording, which is what let the two collapse.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_refusal_names_whose_credential_failed() {
+        assert_eq!(
+            Refusal::Caller.status(),
+            StatusCode::UNAUTHORIZED,
+            "the caller's token is the problem; retrying with the same one will not help"
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            Refusal::Bridge.status(),
+            StatusCode::SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE,
+            "the request was never evaluated — 401 here accuses the caller of our fault"
+        );
+        assert_ne!(
+            Refusal::Caller.status(),
+            Refusal::Bridge.status(),
+            "collapsing these back into one status is the bug this exists to prevent"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// No response body may leak which of the four caller-side causes
+    /// applied, nor anything about this bridge's own credential.
+    #[test]
+    fn refusal_messages_say_nothing_useful_to_an_attacker() {
+        for refusal in [Refusal::Caller, Refusal::Bridge] {
+            let message = refusal.message();
+            for leak in ["secret", "client_id", "authelia", "http", "status"] {
+                assert!(
+                    !message.to_ascii_lowercase().contains(leak),
+                    "{refusal:?} message leaks {leak:?}: {message:?}"
+                );
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}