diff --git a/swarm-queue-client/src/lib.rs b/swarm-queue-client/src/lib.rs
index 862d72a6..e998648d 100644
--- a/swarm-queue-client/src/lib.rs
+++ b/swarm-queue-client/src/lib.rs
@@ -296,13 +296,7 @@ async fn mint_token(http: &reqwest::Client, cfg: &QueueConfig) -> Result<CachedT
             source,
         })?;
 
-    let response = http
-        .post(&cfg.token_endpoint)
-        .form(&[
-            ("grant_type", "client_credentials"),
-            ("client_id", cfg.client_id.as_str()),
-            ("client_secret", secret.trim()),
-        ])
+    let response = token_request(http, cfg, secret.trim())
         .send()
         .await
         .map_err(Error::TokenRequest)?;
@@ -321,6 +315,35 @@ async fn mint_token(http: &reqwest::Client, cfg: &QueueConfig) -> Result<CachedT
     })
 }
 
+/// Build the token request: `client_credentials`, authenticated with HTTP
+/// Basic.
+///
+/// 🩸 **The credentials go in the `Authorization` header, not the form body.**
+/// Both are legal OAuth 2.0 — `client_secret_basic` and `client_secret_post` —
+/// but a client registration names *one*, and authelia's default (and ours) is
+/// Basic. Sending them in the body got every token request refused with
+/// `Client authentication failed … the registered client is configured to only
+/// support 'client_secret_basic'`, which reached the operator as an endless
+/// `429` because the retries tripped a rate limiter whose penalty grew faster
+/// than the retry interval. The 429 then arrived *before* the credentials were
+/// ever evaluated, so the one line naming the real cause appeared once an hour.
+///
+/// RFC 6749 §2.3.1 says clients SHOULD use Basic, both introspection callers in
+/// this workspace already do, and a secret in a header is one fewer place for a
+/// proxy to log it.
+///
+/// Split out of [`mint_token`] so the request's *shape* is testable without a
+/// running identity provider — see the tests at the bottom of this file.
+fn token_request(
+    http: &reqwest::Client,
+    cfg: &QueueConfig,
+    secret: &str,
+) -> reqwest::RequestBuilder {
+    http.post(&cfg.token_endpoint)
+        .basic_auth(&cfg.client_id, Some(secret))
+        .form(&[("grant_type", "client_credentials")])
+}
+
 /// Build the HTTP client used to reach `cfg.token_endpoint`, trusting
 /// `cfg.ca_file` when set. Shared by [`connect`]'s auth callback and by
 /// [`mint_token_for`] — anything presenting this identity's credentials to
@@ -533,4 +556,65 @@ mod tests {
             std::env::remove_var("SWARM_QUEUE_HALF_NATS_URL");
         }
     }
+
+    fn token_cfg() -> QueueConfig {
+        QueueConfig {
+            url: "nats://127.0.0.1:4222".to_owned(),
+            token_endpoint: "https://auth.example.com/api/oidc/token".to_owned(),
+            client_id: "hive-alpha".to_owned(),
+            client_secret_file: PathBuf::from("/nonexistent"),
+            ca_file: None,
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// 🩸 THE REGRESSION TEST FOR AN OUTAGE THAT RAN FOR WEEKS.
+    ///
+    /// The credentials used to go in the form body (`client_secret_post`).
+    /// Authelia's client registration allows only `client_secret_basic`, so
+    /// every token request was refused — and the refusals tripped a rate
+    /// limiter whose 429 then arrived *before* the credentials were evaluated,
+    /// so the error naming the cause appeared roughly once an hour inside a
+    /// continuous storm of a different error.
+    ///
+    /// This asserts the *shape of the request* rather than a server's reply,
+    /// which is the whole point: it fails on the old code with no identity
+    /// provider, no deployment and no network.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_token_request_authenticates_with_http_basic() {
+        let req = token_request(&reqwest::Client::new(), &token_cfg(), "s3cret")
+            .build()
+            .expect("the token request must build");
+
+        let auth = req
+            .headers()
+            .get(reqwest::header::AUTHORIZATION)
+            .expect("credentials must travel in the Authorization header")
+            .to_str()
+            .expect("the header is ascii");
+        assert!(
+            auth.starts_with("Basic "),
+            "must be client_secret_basic, got: {auth}"
+        );
+
+        let body = std::str::from_utf8(
+            req.body()
+                .and_then(reqwest::Body::as_bytes)
+                .expect("the request has an in-memory body"),
+        )
+        .expect("the body is utf-8");
+        assert!(
+            body.contains("grant_type=client_credentials"),
+            "the grant type still belongs in the body, got: {body}"
+        );
+        // The half that was actually broken: a secret in the body is both the
+        // wrong auth method for our registration and a value proxies log.
+        assert!(
+            !body.contains("client_secret"),
+            "the secret must not be in the request body, got: {body}"
+        );
+        assert!(
+            !body.contains("client_id"),
+            "the client id belongs in the Basic credentials, got: {body}"
+        );
+    }
 }