diff --git a/frontend/packages/swarm-ui/src/pages/LinkMatrixAccountForm.tsx b/frontend/packages/swarm-ui/src/pages/LinkMatrixAccountForm.tsx
index e27f5750..081c0b81 100644
--- a/frontend/packages/swarm-ui/src/pages/LinkMatrixAccountForm.tsx
+++ b/frontend/packages/swarm-ui/src/pages/LinkMatrixAccountForm.tsx
@@ -1,11 +1,17 @@
-// <LinkMatrixAccountForm> — writes a matrix account credential (token +
-// optional homeserver) for one agent into the swarm secret store.
-// PUTs `/api/hives/{hive}/agents/{agent}/matrix-accounts/{account}` per
-// the contract atlas posted on the OpenBao swarm-secret-store adoption
-// issue: `{ token, homeserver? }` body, 200 on success, 400/503/500 on
-// the documented failure arms — all handled generically via
-// `readApiError`/`ApiErrorPanel`, same as every other form here, since
-// the response is `problem+json` regardless of which arm fired.
+// <LinkMatrixAccountForm> — writes a matrix account credential for one
+// agent into the swarm secret store, in one of two modes (mirrors
+// swarm-controller's `PutMatrixAccountRequest`):
+//   token    — paste an already-obtained bearer token, optional homeserver.
+//   password — user id + password; swarm-controller logs into the
+//              (required, here) homeserver itself and stores the token
+//              that comes back. The password is sent once, over this
+//              PUT, straight to swarm-controller — never held here past
+//              the request, never sent to the hive.
+// PUTs `/api/hives/{hive}/agents/{agent}/matrix-accounts/{account}` —
+// 200 (`{ user_id? }`) on success, 400/503/500 on the documented failure
+// arms — all handled generically via `readApiError`/`ApiErrorPanel`,
+// same as every other form here, since the response is `problem+json`
+// regardless of which arm fired.
 //
 // No "linked accounts" list to show first: no route exposes one (a
 // credential store shouldn't hand a secret back out anyway), so this is
@@ -15,12 +21,6 @@
 // mara's rulings on that issue — there's no assignment step here yet,
 // just the write.
 //
-// Deliberately built against the contract before the endpoint exists
-// (atlas: "it does not change when the implementation lands") — until
-// item 2 merges this 404s, same as any other page pointed at a route
-// that isn't live yet. Nothing here depends on the backend being up to
-// be correct.
-//
 // Rendered inside a `Dialog` from `AgentsPage`, one per row — same
 // mount shape as `CreateAgentForm`, own file for the same reason (a
 // multi-field form with real submit-state handling is more than
@@ -31,9 +31,12 @@ import { ApiErrorPanel } from "@hive/shared/api-error-panel.js";
 import { readApiError, type ProblemDetails } from "@hive/shared/api-error.js";
 import { Panel } from "../ui/panel/Panel.js";
 import { TextField } from "../ui/text-field/TextField.js";
+import { SelectField } from "../ui/select-field/SelectField.js";
 import { Button } from "../ui/button/Button.js";
 import "./LinkMatrixAccountForm.css";
 
+type Mode = "token" | "password";
+
 // The store's own key-space, not `hive_types::Ident` — atlas's measured
 // gap on the issue: an agent name is an `Ident` (lowercase-only) but an
 // account name is a bare attrset key under `matrixAccounts`, so it
@@ -45,9 +48,18 @@ const ACCOUNT_PATTERN = "[A-Za-z0-9_\\-]{1,63}";
 type SubmitState =
   | { status: "idle" }
   | { status: "submitting" }
-  | { status: "done" }
+  // `userId` is set in password mode (the server resolves it from the
+  // login response) and `undefined` in token mode — see
+  // `PutMatrixAccountResponse`'s own doc for why token mode doesn't
+  // spend a round trip resolving one.
+  | { status: "done"; userId?: string }
   | { status: "error"; problem: ProblemDetails };
 
+const MODE_OPTIONS = [
+  { value: "token", label: "paste a token" },
+  { value: "password", label: "log in with a password" },
+];
+
 export function LinkMatrixAccountForm({
   hive,
   agent,
@@ -56,7 +68,10 @@ export function LinkMatrixAccountForm({
   agent: string;
 }) {
   const [account, setAccount] = useState("");
+  const [mode, setMode] = useState<Mode>("token");
   const [token, setToken] = useState("");
+  const [userId, setUserId] = useState("");
+  const [password, setPassword] = useState("");
   const [homeserver, setHomeserver] = useState("");
   const [result, setResult] = useState<SubmitState>({ status: "idle" });
 
@@ -69,26 +84,43 @@ export function LinkMatrixAccountForm({
         {
           method: "PUT",
           headers: { "content-type": "application/json" },
-          body: JSON.stringify({
-            token,
-            // Omitted rather than sent empty — the contract marks it
-            // optional, and an empty string isn't "no homeserver", it's
-            // a homeserver named "".
-            homeserver: homeserver.trim() || undefined,
-          }),
+          body: JSON.stringify(
+            mode === "token"
+              ? {
+                  mode,
+                  token,
+                  // Omitted rather than sent empty — the contract marks
+                  // it optional in token mode, and an empty string
+                  // isn't "no homeserver", it's a homeserver named "".
+                  homeserver: homeserver.trim() || undefined,
+                }
+              : {
+                  mode,
+                  user_id: userId,
+                  password,
+                  // Required in password mode — the field below enforces
+                  // that before this branch is ever reachable.
+                  homeserver: homeserver.trim(),
+                },
+          ),
         },
       );
       if (!r.ok) {
         setResult({ status: "error", problem: await readApiError(r) });
         return;
       }
-      setResult({ status: "done" });
-      // Token cleared on success — nothing left needing it in the form
-      // once the store holds it, and a secret sitting in a field after
-      // the action that used it is exactly the kind of stale-credential
-      // risk the whole store exists to avoid. Account name kept, so the
-      // success message below reads against what actually landed.
+      const body = (await r.json().catch(() => ({}))) as {
+        user_id?: string;
+      };
+      setResult({ status: "done", userId: body.user_id });
+      // Secrets cleared on success — nothing left needing them in the
+      // form once the store holds the derived credential, and a secret
+      // sitting in a field after the action that used it is exactly the
+      // kind of stale-credential risk the whole store exists to avoid.
+      // Account name kept, so the success message below reads against
+      // what actually landed.
       setToken("");
+      setPassword("");
     } catch (err) {
       setResult({ status: "error", problem: { detail: String(err) } });
     }
@@ -118,20 +150,54 @@ export function LinkMatrixAccountForm({
           required
           onInput={setAccount}
         />
-        <TextField
-          id="matrix-account-token"
-          label="access token"
-          type="password"
-          value={token}
-          required
-          onInput={setToken}
+        <SelectField
+          id="matrix-account-mode"
+          label="credential"
+          value={mode}
+          options={MODE_OPTIONS}
+          onChange={(v) => setMode(v as Mode)}
         />
+        {mode === "token" ? (
+          <TextField
+            id="matrix-account-token"
+            label="access token"
+            type="password"
+            value={token}
+            required
+            onInput={setToken}
+          />
+        ) : (
+          <>
+            <TextField
+              id="matrix-account-user-id"
+              label="matrix user id"
+              placeholder="@name:matrix.example.org"
+              value={userId}
+              required
+              onInput={setUserId}
+            />
+            <TextField
+              id="matrix-account-password"
+              label="password"
+              type="password"
+              value={password}
+              required
+              onInput={setPassword}
+            />
+          </>
+        )}
         <TextField
           id="matrix-account-homeserver"
-          label="homeserver (optional)"
+          // Optional in token mode (the hive falls back to its own
+          // default); required in password mode, since swarm-controller
+          // logs in against exactly this URL and has no fallback of its
+          // own to defer to — see `PutMatrixAccountRequest::homeserver`'s
+          // own doc for why the two modes differ here.
+          label={mode === "token" ? "homeserver (optional)" : "homeserver"}
           type="url"
           value={homeserver}
           placeholder="https://matrix.example.org"
+          required={mode === "password"}
           onInput={setHomeserver}
         />
         <Button
@@ -145,6 +211,12 @@ export function LinkMatrixAccountForm({
       {result.status === "done" && (
         <p class="link-matrix-account-result-ok">
           linked <strong>{account}</strong> to <strong>{agent}</strong>
+          {result.userId ? (
+            <>
+              {" "}
+              — logged in as <strong>{result.userId}</strong>
+            </>
+          ) : null}
         </p>
       )}
       {result.status === "error" && (
diff --git a/swarm-controller/src/matrix_account.rs b/swarm-controller/src/matrix_account.rs
index 626cb7f5..2e24303f 100644
--- a/swarm-controller/src/matrix_account.rs
+++ b/swarm-controller/src/matrix_account.rs
@@ -10,11 +10,21 @@
 //! ⚠️ Store first, notify second, and the order cannot be swapped: a notice
 //! that overtakes its own write reaches a hive that reads nothing, and the
 //! hive deliberately does not retry.
+//!
+//! Two credential modes, chosen by `PutMatrixAccountRequest::mode`: `token`
+//! (default, back-compat with the original blind-store shape — the caller
+//! already has a bearer token) and `password` (this daemon performs
+//! `m.login.password` against the caller-given homeserver itself and stores
+//! the resulting token; the password is never stored, and is not sent to the
+//! hive either — only the derived token is). Mirrors what hive-c0re's own
+//! `/api/matrix-account-login` does for a *hive-local* account, done here
+//! instead so the browser never has to hold the password long enough to call
+//! an arbitrary homeserver directly.
 
 use axum::Json;
 use axum::extract::State;
 use axum::http::StatusCode;
-use serde::Deserialize;
+use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
 use swarm_queue_client::{CredentialNotice, credential_subject};
 use swarm_secret_client::{SecretStore, matrix};
 use utoipa::ToSchema;
@@ -30,20 +40,54 @@ use super::{AppState, error_problem, swarm_hive};
 /// (`allowed_common_names`), so the two are deliberately different strings.
 const CERT_ROLE: &str = "swarm-controller";
 
+fn default_mode() -> String {
+    "token".to_owned()
+}
+
 /// The credential to store for one agent's external matrix account.
 #[derive(Debug, Deserialize, ToSchema)]
 pub struct PutMatrixAccountRequest {
-    /// The access token. Never logged, and never returned by this route.
-    token: String,
+    /// `"token"` (default, back-compat) or `"password"`. Token mode stores
+    /// `token` as given; password mode logs into `homeserver` with `user_id`
+    /// + `password` and stores the token that comes back instead.
+    #[serde(default = "default_mode")]
+    #[schema(example = "token")]
+    mode: String,
+    /// The access token. Required (and used as given) in token mode; ignored
+    /// in password mode, where the token comes from the login instead. Never
+    /// logged, and never returned by this route.
+    token: Option<String>,
+    /// Password-mode only: the matrix user id (or bare localpart) to log in
+    /// as.
+    user_id: Option<String>,
+    /// Password-mode only. Never logged and never stored — only the token
+    /// `m.login.password` returns is.
+    password: Option<String>,
     /// The account's homeserver, when it is not this swarm's own.
     ///
     /// Stored beside the token rather than sent on the notice: a notice is a
     /// queue message, so a homeserver carried there would exist only in
     /// flight, with nowhere to reconstruct it from on a re-delivery.
+    ///
+    /// Optional in token mode (omitted means "resolve to the agent's own
+    /// `hyperhive.matrix.url` on the hive side" — this route never needs to
+    /// know it itself for a blind store). **Required** in password mode:
+    /// logging in needs somewhere to log in against, and unlike token mode
+    /// there is no hive-side fallback to defer to.
     #[schema(example = "https://matrix.example.org")]
     homeserver: Option<String>,
 }
 
+/// `put_matrix_account`'s success body.
+#[derive(Debug, Serialize, ToSchema)]
+pub struct PutMatrixAccountResponse {
+    /// The account's matrix user id, recovered from the login response in
+    /// password mode. `None` in token mode — the caller already knows which
+    /// account their own token belongs to, and this route does not spend a
+    /// `whoami` round trip validating a token it was simply handed.
+    user_id: Option<String>,
+}
+
 /// Store an agent's external matrix account credential and notify its hive.
 ///
 /// Idempotent: the store keeps versions, so repeating a call replaces the
@@ -58,8 +102,8 @@ pub struct PutMatrixAccountRequest {
     ),
     request_body = PutMatrixAccountRequest,
     responses(
-        (status = 200, description = "stored, and the hive has been told"),
-        (status = 400, description = "a name is not an identifier, the account name is not a single path segment, or the hive is not in this swarm (problem+json)", body = String),
+        (status = 200, description = "stored, and the hive has been told", body = PutMatrixAccountResponse),
+        (status = 400, description = "a name is not an identifier, the account name is not a single path segment, the account is 'main' (reserved), the mode is unrecognized, a mode's required fields are missing, or the hive is not in this swarm (problem+json)", body = String),
         (status = 503, description = "no swarm queue is wired up (problem+json)", body = String),
         (status = 500, description = "the store write, the encode or the publish failed (problem+json)", body = String),
     ),
@@ -69,7 +113,7 @@ pub async fn put_matrix_account(
     State(state): State<AppState>,
     axum::extract::Path((hive, agent, account)): axum::extract::Path<(String, String, String)>,
     Json(req): Json<PutMatrixAccountRequest>,
-) -> Result<StatusCode, problem_details::ProblemDetails> {
+) -> Result<Json<PutMatrixAccountResponse>, problem_details::ProblemDetails> {
     // The queue first, so a deployment that has none answers 503 whatever the
     // caller spelled — and before the store is touched, so a request that
     // could never be delivered does not leave a credential behind.
@@ -88,6 +132,59 @@ pub async fn put_matrix_account(
     // charset is its rule to state, not this handler's to restate.
     let secret_path = matrix::account_path(&agent, &account)
         .map_err(|e| error_problem(StatusCode::BAD_REQUEST, &e.to_string()))?;
+    // `main` is the hive-internal account `nix/agent-modules/matrix.nix`
+    // synthesizes per agent from `hyperhive.matrix.url` — the schema there
+    // forbids declaring a key by that name for the same reason this route
+    // refuses to write one: an extra account literally named `main` would
+    // not overwrite the real one (it lands at a different token-file suffix)
+    // but would confuse anything that lists accounts by name. Same guard
+    // hive-c0re's own `/api/matrix-account-login` applies, checked before any
+    // mode-specific work (including a network login) runs.
+    if account == "main" {
+        return Err(error_problem(
+            StatusCode::BAD_REQUEST,
+            "'main' is the hive-internal account, synthesized per agent from \
+             hyperhive.matrix.url — it cannot be set through this route.",
+        ));
+    }
+
+    // Resolve the mode to a concrete (token, homeserver, resolved user id) —
+    // password mode's network call happens here, before the store is
+    // touched, so a failed login leaves no partial state behind.
+    let (token, homeserver, user_id) = match req.mode.as_str() {
+        "token" => {
+            let Some(token) = req.token else {
+                return Err(error_problem(
+                    StatusCode::BAD_REQUEST,
+                    "token mode needs a token",
+                ));
+            };
+            (token, req.homeserver, None)
+        }
+        "password" => {
+            let (Some(homeserver), Some(user_id), Some(password)) = (
+                req.homeserver.as_deref(),
+                req.user_id.as_deref(),
+                req.password.as_deref(),
+            ) else {
+                return Err(error_problem(
+                    StatusCode::BAD_REQUEST,
+                    "password mode needs homeserver, user_id, and password",
+                ));
+            };
+            let homeserver = homeserver.trim_end_matches('/').to_owned();
+            let (token, resolved_user_id) = matrix_password_login(&homeserver, user_id, password)
+                .await
+                .map_err(|e| error_problem(StatusCode::BAD_REQUEST, &e))?;
+            (token, Some(homeserver), Some(resolved_user_id))
+        }
+        other => {
+            return Err(error_problem(
+                StatusCode::BAD_REQUEST,
+                &format!("unknown mode {other:?} (want token|password)"),
+            ));
+        }
+    };
 
     let store = SecretStore::from_env(CERT_ROLE).await.map_err(|e| {
         tracing::warn!(error = %e, "connecting to the swarm secret store failed");
@@ -97,8 +194,8 @@ pub async fn put_matrix_account(
         .write(
             &secret_path,
             &matrix::Credential {
-                value: req.token,
-                homeserver: req.homeserver,
+                value: token,
+                homeserver,
             },
         )
         .await
@@ -140,5 +237,54 @@ pub async fn put_matrix_account(
     })?;
 
     tracing::info!(%subject, %hive, %agent, %account, "credential stored; hive notified");
-    Ok(StatusCode::OK)
+    Ok(Json(PutMatrixAccountResponse { user_id }))
+}
+
+/// POST `m.login.password` to `<homeserver>/_matrix/client/v3/login`.
+/// Returns `(access_token, user_id)`.
+///
+/// Deliberately its own copy rather than a shared crate with
+/// `hive-c0re::dashboard::matrix_accounts`'s near-identical helper: the two
+/// log in on behalf of different callers (a hive's own dashboard vs. this
+/// swarm-wide provisioning route) and share no other code — four lines of
+/// JSON construction do not justify a dependency edge between them.
+async fn matrix_password_login(
+    homeserver: &str,
+    user_id: &str,
+    password: &str,
+) -> Result<(String, String), String> {
+    let url = format!("{homeserver}/_matrix/client/v3/login");
+    let body = serde_json::json!({
+        "type": "m.login.password",
+        "identifier": { "type": "m.id.user", "user": user_id },
+        "password": password,
+        "initial_device_display_name": "hyperhive",
+    });
+    let resp = reqwest::Client::new()
+        .post(&url)
+        .json(&body)
+        .send()
+        .await
+        .map_err(|e| format!("POST /login: {e}"))?;
+    let status = resp.status();
+    let json: serde_json::Value = resp
+        .json()
+        .await
+        .map_err(|e| format!("parse /login response: {e}"))?;
+    if !status.is_success() {
+        let err = json
+            .get("error")
+            .and_then(serde_json::Value::as_str)
+            .unwrap_or("login failed");
+        return Err(format!("/login HTTP {status}: {err}"));
+    }
+    let token = json
+        .get("access_token")
+        .and_then(serde_json::Value::as_str)
+        .ok_or_else(|| "login response missing access_token".to_owned())?;
+    let uid = json
+        .get("user_id")
+        .and_then(serde_json::Value::as_str)
+        .ok_or_else(|| "login response missing user_id".to_owned())?;
+    Ok((token.to_owned(), uid.to_owned()))
 }