diff --git a/swarm-authelia-bridge/src/main.rs b/swarm-authelia-bridge/src/main.rs
index 1561ca7a..ccd4d6c9 100644
--- a/swarm-authelia-bridge/src/main.rs
+++ b/swarm-authelia-bridge/src/main.rs
@@ -254,6 +254,10 @@ fn refuse(refusal: Refusal) -> Response {
 
 async fn handle(state: &AppState, name: String) -> Result<BridgeResponse> {
     store::validate_username(&name)?;
+    // After the charset check and before anything touches the store: a
+    // reserved name is refused on its own terms, not as a side effect of a
+    // collision with whatever happens to be in the file today.
+    store::reject_reserved_name(&name)?;
     let cfg = &state.config;
 
     // Held across the whole load → insert → publish sequence, not just the
diff --git a/swarm-authelia-bridge/src/store.rs b/swarm-authelia-bridge/src/store.rs
index 1d6ad3b4..571ab23e 100644
--- a/swarm-authelia-bridge/src/store.rs
+++ b/swarm-authelia-bridge/src/store.rs
@@ -57,6 +57,44 @@ pub struct User {
     pub extra: BTreeMap<String, serde_norway::Value>,
 }
 
+/// Names an agent may never take, because something else already answers to
+/// them.
+///
+/// **Derived, not invented** — every entry is a literal that exists in the
+/// code today. The first three are broker *recipients* (`send(to: …)`); the
+/// rest are message *senders*, and they matter for a reason that is not
+/// cosmetic: the harness switches on the sender name, so an agent called
+/// `todo` would have its messages interpreted as todo-wakes and one called
+/// `system` as helper events. That is a parse, not a display quirk.
+///
+/// Sorted so a reader can scan it; the lookup is a linear walk over eight
+/// short strings on a path that already reads a file off disk.
+pub const RESERVED_AGENT_NAMES: &[&str] = &[
+    "forge", "manager", "operator", "reminder", "root", "schedule", "system", "todo",
+];
+
+/// Refuse a name the swarm has already given a meaning.
+///
+/// ⚠️ **Deliberately NOT part of [`validate_username`].** That function runs
+/// from [`validate`] over *every* user on *every* write, including humans
+/// this bridge did not create. Folding the reserved list into it would mean
+/// that a store already containing an operator called `operator` could never
+/// be written again — a rule about what an agent may be *named* would have
+/// become a rule about what the file may *contain*, and bricked it.
+///
+/// So this is called from the one path that names a new agent, and nowhere
+/// else.
+pub fn reject_reserved_name(name: &str) -> Result<()> {
+    if RESERVED_AGENT_NAMES.contains(&name) {
+        bail!(
+            "{name:?} is reserved: the swarm already routes messages to or from that name, so an \
+             agent with it would have its own messages misread. Reserved: {}",
+            RESERVED_AGENT_NAMES.join(", ")
+        );
+    }
+    Ok(())
+}
+
 /// Same conservative charset `swarmctl::users::validate_username` already
 /// enforces — usernames are YAML map keys, log lines, and access-control
 /// subjects, so keeping them to plain ASCII means nothing downstream ever
@@ -301,6 +339,50 @@ some_future_top_level_key: 7
         );
     }
 
+    /// Every reserved word is refused, named individually rather than looped
+    /// over the constant — a test that iterates the list it is testing passes
+    /// just as happily when the list is empty.
+    #[test]
+    fn every_reserved_name_is_refused() {
+        for name in [
+            "operator", "manager", "root", "todo", "forge", "reminder", "system", "schedule",
+        ] {
+            assert!(
+                reject_reserved_name(name).is_err(),
+                "{name:?} must be reserved"
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// The control: an ordinary agent name is not caught. Without this the
+    /// arm above would pass a function that refused everything.
+    #[test]
+    fn an_ordinary_name_is_not_reserved() {
+        for name in ["atlas", "iris", "damocles", "operator-2", "todos"] {
+            reject_reserved_name(name)
+                .unwrap_or_else(|e| panic!("{name:?} should be allowed: {e}"));
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// 🔑 The rule must NOT live in `validate_username`, because that runs
+    /// from `validate` over every user on every write — including humans this
+    /// bridge did not create. A store that already contains an operator named
+    /// `operator` has to stay writable, or a naming rule about *agents* would
+    /// silently become a rule about what the *file* may contain.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_reserved_name_already_in_the_store_does_not_block_writes() {
+        let mut store = UserStore::default();
+        store
+            .users
+            .insert("operator".to_owned(), user("$argon2id$a"));
+
+        render_yaml(&store).expect("an existing subject with a reserved name must stay writable");
+        assert!(
+            reject_reserved_name("operator").is_err(),
+            "...while still being refused as a NEW agent name"
+        );
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn usernames_outside_the_conservative_set_are_refused() {
         for bad in ["", "-leading", "has space", "quote\"d", "sla/sh"] {