diff --git a/nix/host-modules/hive-c0re/default.nix b/nix/host-modules/hive-c0re/default.nix
index fc3086b9..01362c69 100644
--- a/nix/host-modules/hive-c0re/default.nix
+++ b/nix/host-modules/hive-c0re/default.nix
@@ -251,9 +251,20 @@ in
         # path. Same secret the agent containers get (forwarded there via
         # nspawn --load-credential); this just also hands it to c0re itself.
         # Empty list (no credential) when otel is off or no header is set.
-        LoadCredential = lib.optional (
-          config.services.hyperhive.otel.enable && config.services.hyperhive.otel.headersCredential != null
-        ) "otel-headers:${config.services.hyperhive.otel.headersCredential}";
+        LoadCredential =
+          lib.optional (
+            config.services.hyperhive.otel.enable && config.services.hyperhive.otel.headersCredential != null
+          ) "otel-headers:${config.services.hyperhive.otel.headersCredential}"
+          # The swarm-queue client secret this hive authenticates with to
+          # publish its own status. `LoadCredential` and not a copy: root
+          # reads the plaintext at unit start and hive-core sees it 0400
+          # under `%d`, so the secret never gains a second on-disk copy
+          # and the daemon never needs read access to wherever it lives.
+          # (The callout responder copies instead only because it
+          # delivers into a container, across a filesystem boundary.)
+          ++ lib.optional (
+            config.services.hyperhive.swarm.statusPublish.clientSecretFile != null
+          ) "swarm-status-client.secret:${config.services.hyperhive.swarm.statusPublish.clientSecretFile}";
         # Sandboxing. hive-c0re is unprivileged (runs as hive-core, never
         # setuid), makes HTTP requests to forge/matrix/Anthropic (keeps INET),
         # and delegates all privileged ops to hive-priv via a Unix socket.
diff --git a/nix/host-modules/hive-c0re/environment.nix b/nix/host-modules/hive-c0re/environment.nix
index 41003e78..a88572fb 100644
--- a/nix/host-modules/hive-c0re/environment.nix
+++ b/nix/host-modules/hive-c0re/environment.nix
@@ -209,3 +209,22 @@ in
     in
     "${s.address}:${toString s.port}";
 }
+//
+  # Swarm-queue coordinates for offering this hive's status upward
+  # (hive-c0re::swarm_status). All four together or none: a half-set
+  # environment is a deployment bug the daemon refuses to treat as
+  # "no queue configured", because the failure it would otherwise
+  # produce is a hive that comes up fine and silently never reports.
+  # The three-option version of that same rule is asserted at eval in
+  # ./../swarm.nix, so this can only ever emit a complete set.
+  lib.optionalAttrs (config.services.hyperhive.swarm.statusPublish.natsUrl != null) {
+    HIVE_C0RE_NATS_URL = config.services.hyperhive.swarm.statusPublish.natsUrl;
+    HIVE_C0RE_OIDC_TOKEN_ENDPOINT = config.services.hyperhive.swarm.statusPublish.tokenEndpoint;
+    # The identity swarm-authelia.nix already declares for every entry in
+    # `swarm.hives` — the hive does not choose its own name here, it uses
+    # the one the roster gave it.
+    HIVE_C0RE_OIDC_CLIENT_ID = "hive-${config.services.hyperhive.hiveName}";
+    # `%d` is systemd's credentials directory — see the LoadCredential in
+    # ./default.nix. The daemon reads a path, never a value.
+    HIVE_C0RE_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET_FILE = "%d/swarm-status-client.secret";
+  }
diff --git a/nix/host-modules/swarm.nix b/nix/host-modules/swarm.nix
index e2756ca2..4d8c9d37 100644
--- a/nix/host-modules/swarm.nix
+++ b/nix/host-modules/swarm.nix
@@ -53,6 +53,23 @@ let
   pinnedHives = lib.attrNames (
     lib.filterAttrs (_: hive: hive.certFingerprint != null) swarmCfg.hives
   );
+
+  # Whether this host can derive its own status-publishing coordinates —
+  # ONE condition for all three of them, deliberately.
+  #
+  # 🩸 They were three independent conditions first, and that was wrong in
+  # a way only an eval gate finds: `enableRequiredServices` turns on
+  # matrix and authelia but NOT nats (nats has no mode that enables it —
+  # see the auto-deploy question on the swarm-queue issue), so an ordinary
+  # all-local hive resolved authelia's two coordinates and not the queue
+  # URL. Two of three set is exactly what the assertion below rejects, so
+  # every `enableAllLocalDefaults` hive would have stopped evaluating.
+  #
+  # Deriving all three from one predicate makes the partial state
+  # unrepresentable rather than merely detected: a default set is all or
+  # nothing, and the assertion is then only ever about what an operator
+  # typed.
+  queueLocal = swarmCfg.nats.enable && swarmCfg.authelia.enable && cfg.hiveName != null;
 in
 {
   options.services.hyperhive.swarm.hives = lib.mkOption {
@@ -298,6 +315,43 @@ in
           designed for it.
         '';
       }
+      {
+        # Deliberately an assertion and not a silent "then publish
+        # nothing": a half-set trio is a config an operator believes is
+        # working, and its runtime failure mode is the expensive one —
+        # the daemon comes up fine, never connects, and the hive reads
+        # `never_reported` on a dashboard nobody is watching yet.
+        #
+        # Safe to add to an existing deployment: every `statusPublish`
+        # default is either all-local or all-null, so no config that
+        # evaluates today can be caught by this. It also encodes a
+        # property of the code rather than an intended shape — hive-c0re
+        # genuinely cannot publish with two of three coordinates — which
+        # is the distinction the `serviceDomains'` comment at the top of
+        # this file was written about.
+        assertion =
+          let
+            set = lib.filter (v: v != null) [
+              swarmCfg.statusPublish.natsUrl
+              swarmCfg.statusPublish.tokenEndpoint
+              swarmCfg.statusPublish.clientSecretFile
+            ];
+          in
+          builtins.length set == 0 || builtins.length set == 3;
+        message = ''
+          services.hyperhive.swarm.statusPublish needs natsUrl,
+          tokenEndpoint and clientSecretFile set together or not at all
+          — this hive has only some of them.
+
+          Currently:
+            natsUrl          = ${toString swarmCfg.statusPublish.natsUrl}
+            tokenEndpoint    = ${toString swarmCfg.statusPublish.tokenEndpoint}
+            clientSecretFile = ${toString swarmCfg.statusPublish.clientSecretFile}
+
+          Set the missing ones to publish this hive's status to the
+          swarm, or set all three to null to turn publishing off.
+        '';
+      }
     ];
   };
 
@@ -343,4 +397,84 @@ in
     };
   };
 
+  # How this hive reaches the swarm queue to offer its own status
+  # (hive-c0re's `swarm_status`). Three coordinates, defaulted from the
+  # local swarm services when this host runs them, and set by hand
+  # otherwise — one code path for both deployments.
+  #
+  # The alternative was the shape swarm-controller uses: emit the
+  # coordinates only when authelia and NATS are local, and nothing
+  # otherwise. That is right for the controller, which *is* a swarm-host
+  # service — but a hive is the one thing in a swarm that routinely is
+  # not on the swarm host, so the same rule would mean status publishing
+  # works on exactly the deployment that needs it least.
+  #
+  # There is no `enable`: three coordinates that are all set is the
+  # enable. An extra flag would let a hive be configured-but-off, which
+  # is one more state to explain and one more way to be silently quiet.
+  options.services.hyperhive.swarm.statusPublish = {
+    natsUrl = lib.mkOption {
+      type = lib.types.nullOr lib.types.str;
+      default = if queueLocal then "nats://127.0.0.1:${toString swarmCfg.nats.port}" else null;
+      defaultText = lib.literalExpression ''"nats://127.0.0.1:''${swarm.nats.port}" when this host runs the queue and the IdP, else null'';
+      example = "nats://10.100.0.1:4222";
+      description = ''
+        Where the swarm queue listens, as seen from *this* hive.
+
+        Defaults to loopback when this host runs the queue container
+        itself (it shares the host netns, so loopback is correct there
+        and is not the "localhost means the wrong thing" trap that
+        applies inside agent containers). A hive that is not the swarm
+        host has to name the swarm's mesh address.
+
+        Null disables status publishing: this hive computes its own
+        readiness as always, and simply offers it to nobody. The swarm
+        controller then reports it `never_reported`, which is the honest
+        reading.
+      '';
+    };
+
+    tokenEndpoint = lib.mkOption {
+      type = lib.types.nullOr lib.types.str;
+      default =
+        if queueLocal && swarmCfg.authelia.url != null then
+          "${swarmCfg.authelia.url}/api/oidc/token"
+        else
+          null;
+      defaultText = lib.literalExpression ''"''${swarm.authelia.url}/api/oidc/token" when this host runs both the queue and the IdP, else null'';
+      example = "https://auth.example.com/api/oidc/token";
+      description = ''
+        The swarm IdP's OAuth2 token endpoint. This hive mints a
+        `client_credentials` access token there and presents it when
+        connecting to the queue, which authenticates it as
+        `hive-<hiveName>` — the client
+        {file}`nix/host-modules/swarm-authelia.nix` already declares for
+        every entry in {option}`services.hyperhive.swarm.hives`.
+      '';
+    };
+
+    clientSecretFile = lib.mkOption {
+      type = lib.types.nullOr lib.types.str;
+      default =
+        if queueLocal then "${swarmCfg.authelia.hostClientSecretDir}/hive-${cfg.hiveName}.secret" else null;
+      defaultText = lib.literalExpression ''"''${swarm.authelia.hostClientSecretDir}/hive-''${hiveName}.secret" when this host runs both the queue and the IdP, else null'';
+      example = "/var/lib/secrets/swarm-queue-client.secret";
+      description = ''
+        Path to a file holding the plaintext client secret for this
+        hive's `hive-<hiveName>` identity.
+
+        A path and not a value: a secret in the Nix store is world
+        readable, and one in the environment is readable by anything
+        that can open {file}`/proc/<pid>/environ`.
+
+        Defaults to authelia's own minted secret when the IdP runs on
+        this host. On any other hive the secret has to get here somehow,
+        and the swarm does not distribute it — copy it out of the swarm
+        host's
+        {option}`services.hyperhive.swarm.authelia.hostClientSecretDir`
+        with whatever secret management this deployment already uses.
+      '';
+    };
+  };
+
 }