diff --git a/nix/host-modules/deploy.nix b/nix/host-modules/deploy.nix
index bf2e6cdb..a58de18f 100644
--- a/nix/host-modules/deploy.nix
+++ b/nix/host-modules/deploy.nix
@@ -57,6 +57,10 @@ in
       [ "services" "hyperhive" "swarm" "authelia" "enable" ]
       [ "services" "hyperhive" "deploy" "authelia" ]
     )
+    (lib.mkRenamedOptionModule
+      [ "services" "hyperhive" "swarm" "nats" "enable" ]
+      [ "services" "hyperhive" "deploy" "nats" ]
+    )
   ];
 
   options.services.hyperhive.deploy = {
@@ -119,6 +123,19 @@ in
       '';
     };
 
+    nats = lib.mkOption {
+      type = lib.types.bool;
+      default = false;
+      description = ''
+        Run the swarm's message queue in a `swarm-nats` container on this
+        host. A swarm has one queue, so this belongs on the same host as
+        the rest of the shared services.
+
+        Off by default, and off means *absent*: no container is created
+        and nothing else in the evaluated config changes.
+      '';
+    };
+
     controller = lib.mkOption {
       type = lib.types.bool;
       default = false;
diff --git a/nix/host-modules/local-defaults.nix b/nix/host-modules/local-defaults.nix
index 4cff68d3..8f8a927c 100644
--- a/nix/host-modules/local-defaults.nix
+++ b/nix/host-modules/local-defaults.nix
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ in
     # ran its first boot on — so they belong to the mode that asserts this
     # box is the whole deployment, not to the options' own `default`.
     #
-    # Deriving them from `swarm.nats.enable` / `deploy.authelia`
+    # Deriving them from `deploy.nats` / `deploy.authelia`
     # inside those defaults is the mixing this file exists to prevent: the
     # option would be describing a deployment shape instead of describing
     # itself, and "what does all-local turn on?" would stop having one
diff --git a/nix/host-modules/swarm-authelia.nix b/nix/host-modules/swarm-authelia.nix
index 53aea22e..a9ddf5b9 100644
--- a/nix/host-modules/swarm-authelia.nix
+++ b/nix/host-modules/swarm-authelia.nix
@@ -467,8 +467,8 @@ in
 
     oidc.hiveIdentities = lib.mkOption {
       type = lib.types.bool;
-      default = hyperhiveCfg.swarm.nats.enable;
-      defaultText = lib.literalExpression "services.hyperhive.swarm.nats.enable";
+      default = deployCfg.nats;
+      defaultText = lib.literalExpression "services.hyperhive.deploy.nats";
       description = ''
         Mint one machine client per hive in
         {option}`services.hyperhive.swarm.hives`, so each hive can
diff --git a/nix/host-modules/swarm-controller.nix b/nix/host-modules/swarm-controller.nix
index 04840c5e..4c61eb9c 100644
--- a/nix/host-modules/swarm-controller.nix
+++ b/nix/host-modules/swarm-controller.nix
@@ -539,7 +539,7 @@ in
           services.hyperhive.swarm.controller.queue.natsUrl is unset.
 
           It defaults to loopback only when this host also runs the queue
-          (`services.hyperhive.swarm.nats.enable`). A controller on its
+          (`services.hyperhive.deploy.nats`). A controller on its
           own host has to be told where the queue is.
         '';
       }
diff --git a/nix/host-modules/swarm-nats.nix b/nix/host-modules/swarm-nats.nix
index aed7c984..973f191f 100644
--- a/nix/host-modules/swarm-nats.nix
+++ b/nix/host-modules/swarm-nats.nix
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ let
   hostPath = name: "${secretDir}/${name}";
 
   # The responder needs all three credentials. Gating on them rather than
-  # on `cfg.enable` keeps a half-configured hive at "queue up, denying
+  # on `deployCfg.nats` keeps a half-configured hive at "queue up, denying
   # everyone" instead of "unit crash-looping on a missing file".
   #
   # In auto mode the seeds are minted on this host before the container
@@ -210,18 +210,9 @@ in
   # per-service vhost pattern do not apply.
 
   options.services.hyperhive.swarm.nats = {
-    enable = lib.mkOption {
-      type = lib.types.bool;
-      default = false;
-      description = ''
-        Run the swarm's message queue in a `swarm-nats` container on this
-        host. A swarm has one queue, so this belongs on the same host as
-        the rest of the shared services.
-
-        Off by default, and off means *absent*: no container is created
-        and nothing else in the evaluated config changes.
-      '';
-    };
+    # `enable` moved to `services.hyperhive.deploy.nats` — see
+    # ./deploy.nix. What stays here is what the queue IS: its domain,
+    # ports, accounts and callout wiring.
 
     # ⚠️ Deliberately NO `package` option, unlike this module's siblings.
     # `services.nats` upstream does not expose one — it resolves
@@ -408,7 +399,7 @@ in
     };
   };
 
-  config = lib.mkIf cfg.enable {
+  config = lib.mkIf deployCfg.nats {
     # The responder as well as the server: a denial reaches the client as a
     # timeout, so the server's own log is the only place it is an error.
     services.hyperhive.swarm.otel.journaldUnits = [
@@ -423,7 +414,7 @@ in
         # several layers from "the operator never set the issuer".
         assertion = cfg.autoGenerateCallout || cfg.calloutIssuerPublicKey != "";
         message = ''
-          services.hyperhive.swarm.nats.enable requires
+          services.hyperhive.deploy.nats requires
           nats.calloutIssuerPublicKey — the public half of the account
           nkey that signs user JWTs for this queue.
 
@@ -440,7 +431,7 @@ in
         # somebody connects.
         assertion = cfg.autoGenerateCallout || cfg.calloutUserPublicKey != "";
         message = ''
-          services.hyperhive.swarm.nats.enable requires
+          services.hyperhive.deploy.nats requires
           nats.calloutUserPublicKey — the public half of the user nkey
           the auth-callout responder authenticates as.
 
@@ -485,7 +476,7 @@ in
       {
         assertion = autheliaUrl != null;
         message = ''
-          services.hyperhive.swarm.nats.enable requires
+          services.hyperhive.deploy.nats requires
           services.hyperhive.swarm.authelia.url — the queue authenticates
           clients by validating tokens that authelia issued.
 
@@ -684,7 +675,7 @@ in
           # door nobody can open, which is the deliberate interim state.
           #
           # ⚠️ It is gated on the seeds being configured rather than on
-          # `cfg.enable`, so a half-configured hive gets a running,
+          # `deployCfg.nats`, so a half-configured hive gets a running,
           # refusing queue instead of a unit that crash-loops on a
           # missing file. A queue that denies everyone is a legible
           # failure; a restart loop is not.
diff --git a/nix/host-modules/swarm-required-services.nix b/nix/host-modules/swarm-required-services.nix
index 6ad0d4e7..545e4981 100644
--- a/nix/host-modules/swarm-required-services.nix
+++ b/nix/host-modules/swarm-required-services.nix
@@ -60,7 +60,6 @@ in
     # derives `nats.autoGenerateCallout` from the all-local mode, so that
     # mode was minting the queue's callout nkeys and then never starting
     # the queue they authenticate against.
-    nats.enable = lib.mkDefault swarmCfg.enableRequiredServices;
 
     # The metrics pair and the log store used to derive here too. They now
     # live under `deploy.*` (below, and ./deploy.nix) because "does THIS
@@ -89,6 +88,9 @@ in
   # at whoever runs it.
   config.services.hyperhive.deploy.authelia = lib.mkDefault swarmCfg.enableRequiredServices;
 
+  # The queue. Same rule: once per swarm, optional.
+  config.services.hyperhive.deploy.nats = lib.mkDefault swarmCfg.enableRequiredServices;
+
   # The metrics pair, deriving together on purpose: a store with no UI is
   # unreadable and a UI with no store is empty, so there is no sensible
   # deployment that takes one and not the other from this switch. An
diff --git a/nix/host-modules/swarm.nix b/nix/host-modules/swarm.nix
index 5682ac8b..5e8d6a5b 100644
--- a/nix/host-modules/swarm.nix
+++ b/nix/host-modules/swarm.nix
@@ -80,18 +80,23 @@ let
   # 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.
+  # a way only an eval gate finds: at the time `enableRequiredServices`
+  # turned on matrix and authelia but NOT nats, 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.
+  #
+  # (The queue does derive from that switch now — ./swarm-required-services.nix
+  # — so the original asymmetry is gone. The reasoning below is why the
+  # single predicate stays anyway: it makes the partial state
+  # unrepresentable rather than merely detected, which does not depend on
+  # which services happen to derive together this month.)
   #
   # 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 && deployCfg.authelia && cfg.hiveName != null;
+  queueLocal = deployCfg.nats && deployCfg.authelia && cfg.hiveName != null;
 in
 {
   options.services.hyperhive.swarm.hives = lib.mkOption {