diff --git a/nix/host-modules/swarm-authelia.nix b/nix/host-modules/swarm-authelia.nix
index 35653e48..4aa98003 100644
--- a/nix/host-modules/swarm-authelia.nix
+++ b/nix/host-modules/swarm-authelia.nix
@@ -72,12 +72,35 @@ let
   # be what an operator sees, not a coercion error from here.
   cookieDomain = if swarmDomain == null then "invalid" else swarmDomain;
 
+  # One machine client per hive in the roster. A hive's identity belongs
+  # to the DIRECTORY, not to whichever service happens to consume it:
+  # the rule is that a hive's credentials all derive from the SAME
+  # identity, so one hive holds ONE client and mints a different token
+  # per service from it. Were the queue to declare this list, the next
+  # consumer would collide on the same client id — and only at the
+  # moment it landed.
+  hiveClients = lib.mapAttrsToList (name: _: {
+    id = "hive-${name}";
+    description = "HyperHive hive ${name}";
+    kind = "machine";
+    redirectUris = [ ];
+  }) hyperhiveCfg.swarm.hives;
+
+  # Everything downstream renders and mints from this, not from the
+  # declared list alone.
+  allClients = cfg.oidc.clients ++ lib.optionals cfg.oidc.hiveIdentities hiveClients;
+
   # authelia refuses to start with an OIDC provider that has no clients,
   # so the provider is derived from the client list rather than carrying
   # its own `enable`: one fact, and it cannot contradict itself. An empty
   # list is the default, which makes every hive that has not opted in
   # byte-identical to before.
-  oidcEnabled = cfg.oidc.clients != [ ];
+  #
+  # ⚠️ Derived from `allClients`, so hive identities can turn the provider
+  # on by themselves. That is only reachable where the queue is already
+  # enabled (`hiveIdentities` defaults to it) — and a queue-enabled hive
+  # already contributes a client, so no existing deployment flips.
+  oidcEnabled = allClients != [ ];
 
   # Secrets that are 64 random bytes of hex and nothing more. The OIDC
   # hmac key joins them; the issuer key does not (see below — it is RSA).
@@ -193,7 +216,7 @@ let
 
     ${lib.concatMapStrings (c: ''
       mint ${lib.escapeShellArg c.id}
-    '') cfg.oidc.clients}
+    '') allClients}
 
     # Re-rendered every boot, deliberately: the secret is minted once,
     # but the metadata around it (a new redirect URI, a renamed client)
@@ -204,7 +227,7 @@ let
       printf -- 'identity_providers:\n'
       printf -- '  oidc:\n'
       printf -- '    clients:\n'
-      ${lib.concatMapStrings renderClient cfg.oidc.clients}
+      ${lib.concatMapStrings renderClient allClients}
     } > ${lib.escapeShellArg "${clientsFile}.tmp"}
     chmod 0600 ${lib.escapeShellArg "${clientsFile}.tmp"}
     mv ${lib.escapeShellArg "${clientsFile}.tmp"} ${lib.escapeShellArg clientsFile}
@@ -308,6 +331,29 @@ in
       '';
     };
 
+    oidc.hiveIdentities = lib.mkOption {
+      type = lib.types.bool;
+      default = hyperhiveCfg.swarm.nats.enable;
+      defaultText = lib.literalExpression "services.hyperhive.swarm.nats.enable";
+      description = ''
+        Mint one machine client per hive in
+        {option}`services.hyperhive.swarm.hives`, so each hive can
+        authenticate to swarm services as itself.
+
+        Defaults to whether the swarm message queue is enabled, because
+        that is the first service that needs a hive to prove who it is.
+        It is an option rather than a hard-coded condition so a second
+        consumer — the swarm telemetry collector — can turn it on
+        without the queue, and so a swarm that wants the identities
+        provisioned ahead of either can say so.
+
+        The clients are inert until something authenticates with them:
+        each is a client id and a secret sitting on this host. What
+        delivers a secret to a hive that is not this host is a separate
+        problem and deliberately not solved here.
+      '';
+    };
+
     oidc.clients = lib.mkOption {
       type = lib.types.listOf (
         lib.types.submodule {
@@ -464,14 +510,35 @@ in
     # means whoever wrote it believes a browser is involved. Failing here
     # is how that belief gets corrected at the point it was expressed,
     # rather than at a token endpoint months later.
-    assertions = map (c: {
-      assertion = c.kind != "machine" || c.redirectUris == [ ];
-      message =
-        "services.hyperhive.swarm.authelia.oidc.clients: client '${c.id}' is "
-        + "kind = \"machine\" but declares redirectUris. A client_credentials "
-        + "client has nobody to redirect; drop the URIs or make it "
-        + "kind = \"interactive\".";
-    }) cfg.oidc.clients;
+    assertions =
+      map (c: {
+        assertion = c.kind != "machine" || c.redirectUris == [ ];
+        message =
+          "services.hyperhive.swarm.authelia.oidc.clients: client '${c.id}' is "
+          + "kind = \"machine\" but declares redirectUris. A client_credentials "
+          + "client has nobody to redirect; drop the URIs or make it "
+          + "kind = \"interactive\".";
+      }) allClients
+      # Two clients sharing an id renders two YAML entries under one name.
+      # Newly reachable now that part of the list is DERIVED: a hive called
+      # `x` and a service client called `hive-x` never met before. Authelia
+      # would reject it, but three layers away and at boot — naming both
+      # sources here is the cheaper failure.
+      ++ [
+        {
+          assertion = lib.length (lib.unique (map (c: c.id) allClients)) == lib.length allClients;
+          message =
+            "services.hyperhive.swarm.authelia: duplicate OIDC client id(s): "
+            + lib.concatStringsSep ", " (
+              lib.unique (
+                lib.filter (id: lib.count (x: x == id) (map (c: c.id) allClients) > 1) (map (c: c.id) allClients)
+              )
+            )
+            + ". Hive identities are named `hive-<name>` from "
+            + "services.hyperhive.swarm.hives; rename the hive or the "
+            + "colliding client.";
+        }
+      ];
 
     # Authelia's own gateway surface: the vhost that fronts it and the
     # name the hive resolver answers for. Both live here rather than in