diff --git a/hive-sh4re/src/manager.rs b/hive-sh4re/src/manager.rs
index dcfd72e8..02ef7b44 100644
--- a/hive-sh4re/src/manager.rs
+++ b/hive-sh4re/src/manager.rs
@@ -131,3 +131,52 @@ pub struct SchedulePromptPayload {
     #[serde(default, skip_serializing_if = "Option::is_none")]
     pub description: Option<String>,
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod reserved_name_tests {
+    use super::{
+        CHILDREN_RECIPIENT, MANAGER_AGENT, OPERATOR_RECIPIENT, PARENT_RECIPIENT, SYSTEM_SENDER,
+    };
+    use hive_types::{Ident, is_reserved_name};
+
+    /// The sentinels declared here and the reserved-name list in
+    /// `hive-types` are two spellings of one fact, in crates that cannot
+    /// import each other's intent. This pins them together: adding a
+    /// sentinel without reserving it now fails here rather than years
+    /// later, when an agent takes the name.
+    #[test]
+    fn ident_shaped_sentinels_are_reserved() {
+        for sentinel in [OPERATOR_RECIPIENT, SYSTEM_SENDER] {
+            assert!(
+                is_reserved_name(sentinel),
+                "{sentinel:?} is a sentinel an agent could be named — it must be in RESERVED_NAMES"
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// The other half, and the reason the test above is not vacuous: these
+    /// sentinels are *unreachable* as agent names because the charset
+    /// rejects them, so they are correctly absent from the list. If a
+    /// charset change ever made one parseable, it would become a real
+    /// collision and this test is what notices.
+    #[test]
+    fn bracketed_recipients_cannot_be_agent_names() {
+        for sentinel in [PARENT_RECIPIENT, CHILDREN_RECIPIENT] {
+            assert!(
+                Ident::parse(sentinel).is_err(),
+                "{sentinel:?} parses as an ident now — it is reachable as an agent name and must be reserved"
+            );
+            assert!(!is_reserved_name(sentinel));
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// `ruth` is a real agent, not a protocol literal, so it is not
+    /// reserved: a second agent wanting the name is a *taken* name, which
+    /// the roster check answers. Recorded as a test so the distinction is
+    /// enforced rather than remembered.
+    #[test]
+    fn manager_name_is_taken_not_reserved() {
+        assert!(Ident::parse(MANAGER_AGENT).is_ok());
+        assert!(!is_reserved_name(MANAGER_AGENT));
+    }
+}
diff --git a/hive-types/src/lib.rs b/hive-types/src/lib.rs
index 40d04857..0abb2037 100644
--- a/hive-types/src/lib.rs
+++ b/hive-types/src/lib.rs
@@ -6,6 +6,62 @@
 //! and get serde-validated parsing at the socket boundary for free — with
 //! no cross-crate coupling and without growing `hive-sh4re`.
 
+/// Names that already mean something to the message layer, and so are not
+/// available as an agent name.
+///
+/// Every entry is a value some component *produces* as a message `from` or
+/// `to`, not a word that merely looked risky. An agent holding one of these
+/// is indistinguishable, at the broker, from the thing that normally sends
+/// it: a wake from `forge` and a wake from an agent named `forge` are the
+/// same row.
+///
+/// Deliberately **not** enforced inside [`Ident::parse`]. Parsing runs on
+/// every read of an already-created name, so rejecting there would make
+/// existing agents unreadable rather than un-creatable, and it would be a
+/// refusal — which is a stronger action than the warning this list is
+/// currently used for. Creation sites call [`is_reserved_name`]; readers do
+/// not.
+pub const RESERVED_NAMES: &[&str] = &[
+    // The human at the dashboard. Both a broker recipient (the T4LK box
+    // sends `{from: "operator", to, body}`) and the fallback attribution
+    // for an answered question.
+    "operator",
+    // Helper events (`approval_resolved`, `container_crash`, …) — the
+    // sender an agent is told to treat as hyperhive itself rather than as
+    // a peer. Named in `hive_sh4re::manager::SYSTEM_SENDER`.
+    "system",
+    // A due self-scheduled reminder arrives as its own sender, so that a
+    // wake I asked for last week is distinguishable from a peer message.
+    "reminder",
+    // Forge notification wakes, delivered by the notify daemon.
+    "forge",
+    // A scheduled prompt firing, pushed as a trusted sender.
+    "scheduled",
+    // Three synthetic wakes the harness itself produces: an in-container
+    // todo, the follow-up turn after a self-requested compaction, and the
+    // single flush turn before a graceful stop.
+    "todo",
+    "compact",
+    "graceful-stop",
+];
+
+// Two sentinels are deliberately absent. `<parent>` and `<children>` are
+// routing recipients that `Ident::parse` already rejects on charset, so no
+// name can ever equal them — listing them would imply a guard that never
+// fires. And `ruth` (the manager) is a real agent, not a literal: a second
+// agent wanting that name is a name that is *taken*, which is the roster
+// check's job, not this list's. `hive-sh4re` pins both claims in a test.
+
+/// Whether `name` is already a protocol literal — see [`RESERVED_NAMES`].
+///
+/// Call at **creation** sites only. A caller that is reading or routing an
+/// existing name must not consult this: the name is already in use, and the
+/// question there is where it goes, not whether it should exist.
+#[must_use]
+pub fn is_reserved_name(name: &str) -> bool {
+    RESERVED_NAMES.contains(&name)
+}
+
 /// A validated hive identifier: 1-63 chars of `[a-z0-9-]`.
 ///
 /// The single ident type for agent names, forge labels, and matrix / github
@@ -98,7 +154,7 @@ impl<'de> serde::Deserialize<'de> for Ident {
 
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod ident_tests {
-    use super::Ident;
+    use super::{Ident, RESERVED_NAMES, is_reserved_name};
 
     #[test]
     fn accepts_canonical_shapes() {
@@ -135,6 +191,34 @@ mod ident_tests {
         }
     }
 
+    #[test]
+    fn reserved_names_are_flagged_and_ordinary_names_are_not() {
+        // Presence arm: every entry must actually be reported.
+        for name in RESERVED_NAMES {
+            assert!(is_reserved_name(name), "{name:?} should be reserved");
+        }
+        // Absence arm, and the reason this test can fail: without it a
+        // predicate that always returns `true` passes the loop above.
+        for ok in ["atlas", "damocles", "iris", "operator-2", "sys", "forged"] {
+            assert!(!is_reserved_name(ok), "{ok:?} must NOT be reserved");
+        }
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn every_reserved_name_is_a_valid_ident() {
+        // A reserved name that `Ident::parse` already rejects is dead
+        // weight — nothing could ever have been created with it, so
+        // listing it implies a guard that is doing nothing. `graceful-stop`
+        // is the one that makes this worth asserting: it is hyphenated, and
+        // a charset tightening would silently retire it.
+        for name in RESERVED_NAMES {
+            assert!(
+                Ident::parse(name).is_ok(),
+                "{name:?} is reserved but not a parseable ident — one of the two is wrong"
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn round_trips_and_serde_validates() {
         let id = Ident::parse("damocles").unwrap();
diff --git a/swarm-controller/src/main.rs b/swarm-controller/src/main.rs
index 7b7290f1..f7106e0b 100644
--- a/swarm-controller/src/main.rs
+++ b/swarm-controller/src/main.rs
@@ -682,6 +682,20 @@ struct CreateAgentRequest {
 #[derive(Clone, Debug, Serialize, ToSchema)]
 struct CreateAgentResponse {
     node_id: u64,
+    /// Name collisions that were **allowed through**, phrased for the
+    /// operator who just chose the name.
+    ///
+    /// The creation still happened — this is the "loud warning now, refuse
+    /// after a grace period" step, so a caller that ignores this field gets
+    /// exactly today's behaviour. It rides on the response rather than
+    /// living only in the daemon's log because the person who can still fix
+    /// the name in one keystroke is the one holding this response, and they
+    /// are not reading the journal.
+    ///
+    /// Empty (and omitted from the JSON) in the normal case, so a client
+    /// that never looks at it is not handed an empty array to reason about.
+    #[serde(default, skip_serializing_if = "Vec::is_empty")]
+    warnings: Vec<String>,
 }
 
 /// Queue the whole agent-creation job graph for `name` — two independent
@@ -736,9 +750,42 @@ async fn create_agent(
     // `state.hives` is the swarm directory loaded from `SWARM_CONTROLLER_HIVES`
     // at startup and never mutated, so this is a scan of a handful of
     // entries against a value an operator just chose.
+    // The name is shaped like an identifier; these two ask whether it is
+    // *available*. Both WARN rather than refuse: an operator with agents
+    // already created under a colliding name would otherwise be unable to
+    // re-run creation at all, so the refusal comes after a grace period,
+    // once the warning has had time to be seen.
+    //
+    // Collected rather than logged-and-dropped — see `CreateAgentResponse`.
+    let mut warnings = Vec::new();
+    if hive_types::is_reserved_name(&agent) {
+        // A protocol literal: the message layer already produces this name
+        // as a sender or recipient, so wakes from the component and
+        // messages from the agent become the same broker row.
+        let detail = format!(
+            "agent name {agent:?} is a reserved protocol name — messages from this agent will be \
+             indistinguishable from hyperhive's own; this will become an error"
+        );
+        tracing::warn!(agent = %agent, "create_agent: reserved name");
+        warnings.push(detail);
+    }
+
     let hive = hive_types::Ident::parse(&req.hive)
         .map_err(|reason| error_problem(axum::http::StatusCode::BAD_REQUEST, reason))?
         .into_string();
+
+    // The roster is the same source the `hive` field is validated against
+    // immediately below — one scan, asked of the other field. A hive and an
+    // agent sharing a name collide in the swarm's own directory keys, which
+    // is what makes a pipeline and a label vanish with no failed assertion.
+    if state.hives.iter().any(|h| h.name == agent) {
+        let detail = format!(
+            "agent name {agent:?} is also a hive in this swarm — they share the swarm's directory \
+             keys; this will become an error"
+        );
+        tracing::warn!(agent = %agent, "create_agent: name collides with a hive");
+        warnings.push(detail);
+    }
     if !state.hives.iter().any(|h| h.name == hive) {
         let known: Vec<&str> = state.hives.iter().map(|h| h.name.as_str()).collect();
         // Name the hives that *would* work: the caller is an operator who
@@ -798,7 +845,10 @@ async fn create_agent(
     let [id] = ids[..] else {
         unreachable!("exactly one handle was asked for");
     };
-    Ok(Json(CreateAgentResponse { node_id: id.get() }))
+    Ok(Json(CreateAgentResponse {
+        node_id: id.get(),
+        warnings,
+    }))
 }
 
 /// Query params for `GET /api/jobq/graph` — `?states=` narrows to root
@@ -1597,3 +1647,33 @@ mod tests {
         }
     }
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod create_agent_warning_tests {
+    use super::CreateAgentResponse;
+
+    /// The normal case must not grow a field. A client that has never
+    /// heard of warnings should see the response it always saw — that is
+    /// what makes "warn now, refuse later" a non-breaking first step.
+    #[test]
+    fn no_warnings_are_omitted_from_the_json_entirely() {
+        let json = serde_json::to_string(&CreateAgentResponse {
+            node_id: 7,
+            warnings: vec![],
+        })
+        .unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(json, r#"{"node_id":7}"#);
+    }
+
+    /// Presence arm — without it, a `skip_serializing_if` that dropped the
+    /// field unconditionally would pass the test above.
+    #[test]
+    fn warnings_are_serialized_when_present() {
+        let json = serde_json::to_string(&CreateAgentResponse {
+            node_id: 7,
+            warnings: vec!["name is reserved".to_owned()],
+        })
+        .unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(json, r#"{"node_id":7,"warnings":["name is reserved"]}"#);
+    }
+}