diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 57e40e5a..bcab7b39 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -4427,6 +4427,8 @@ version = "0.1.0"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
  "axum",
+ "serde",
+ "serde_json",
  "tokio",
  "tracing",
  "tracing-subscriber",
diff --git a/frontend/packages/swarm-ui/src/App.tsx b/frontend/packages/swarm-ui/src/App.tsx
index 6909ef8c..87b66170 100644
--- a/frontend/packages/swarm-ui/src/App.tsx
+++ b/frontend/packages/swarm-ui/src/App.tsx
@@ -1,15 +1,57 @@
-// Root shell component. Real route (`/`) is still a placeholder — the
-// swarm's hive roster is the next piece of work to land into it — but
-// it now mounts inside <Shell> and uses the ui/ primitives, so that
-// page lands as a content change, not a structural one.
+// Root shell component. `/` is now the real hive-roster overview page —
+// fetches swarm-controller's `GET /api/hives` and renders it through the
+// shared primitives. Status starts as a static "configured" chip; grows
+// into a real online/stale/offline tone once a status rollup exists
+// server-side — same component, richer data later, no rebuild.
+import { useEffect, useState } from 'preact/hooks';
 import { Route, Switch } from 'wouter-preact';
 import { Shell } from './shell/Shell.js';
 import { Panel } from './ui/panel/Panel.js';
+import { StatusChip } from './ui/status-chip/StatusChip.js';
+import { Table, type TableColumn } from './ui/table/Table.js';
+
+interface Hive {
+  name: string;
+  domain: string;
+}
+
+const COLUMNS: TableColumn<Hive>[] = [
+  { key: 'name', header: 'name', render: (h) => h.name },
+  {
+    key: 'domain',
+    header: 'domain',
+    render: (h) => (
+      <a href={`https://${h.domain}/`} target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">
+        {h.domain}
+      </a>
+    ),
+  },
+  // Static "configured" tone until a swarm-wide status rollup exists —
+  // there is no data source for online/stale/offline yet, and a chip
+  // that always renders "positive" would misreport a genuinely offline
+  // hive. See StatusChip's own doc comment for the same reasoning.
+  { key: 'status', header: 'status', render: () => <StatusChip label="configured" /> },
+];
 
 function Home() {
+  const [hives, setHives] = useState<Hive[] | null>(null);
+  const [error, setError] = useState<string | null>(null);
+
+  useEffect(() => {
+    fetch('/api/hives')
+      .then((r) => {
+        if (!r.ok) throw new Error(`http ${r.status}`);
+        return r.json() as Promise<Hive[]>;
+      })
+      .then(setHives)
+      .catch((e: unknown) => setError(String(e)));
+  }, []);
+
   return (
     <Panel title="overview">
-      <p>hive roster lands here, sequenced after this shell.</p>
+      {error ? <p>failed to load the hive roster: {error}</p> : null}
+      {!error && hives === null ? <p>loading…</p> : null}
+      {hives ? <Table columns={COLUMNS} rows={hives} rowKey={(h) => h.name} /> : null}
     </Panel>
   );
 }
diff --git a/frontend/packages/swarm-ui/src/swarm-ui.css b/frontend/packages/swarm-ui/src/swarm-ui.css
index 5289a7a2..e8bdca3f 100644
--- a/frontend/packages/swarm-ui/src/swarm-ui.css
+++ b/frontend/packages/swarm-ui/src/swarm-ui.css
@@ -5,3 +5,10 @@
    every page needs regardless of which components a route happens to
    use. */
 @import "@hive/shared/base.css";
+
+/* base.css covers body/typography but not links — every page here links
+   out (hive-roster rows to each hive's own dashboard, nav, footer…), so
+   this is genuinely page-level, not any one component's concern. */
+a {
+  color: var(--blue);
+}
diff --git a/nix/host-modules/swarm-controller.nix b/nix/host-modules/swarm-controller.nix
index 8cf0280d..80993a63 100644
--- a/nix/host-modules/swarm-controller.nix
+++ b/nix/host-modules/swarm-controller.nix
@@ -172,6 +172,18 @@ in
       };
 
       environment.SWARM_CONTROLLER_SOCKET = cfg.socketPath;
+      # The swarm's hive directory, JSON-encoded — same shape hive-c0re
+      # already builds for HYPERHIVE_PEERS (../hive-c0re/environment.nix),
+      # just the full directory (this daemon has no "self" hive to
+      # exclude, unlike a per-hive c0re's peer list) rather than
+      # peers-minus-self. Consumed by `GET /api/hives`
+      # (swarm-controller/src/main.rs::load_hives).
+      environment.SWARM_CONTROLLER_HIVES = builtins.toJSON (
+        lib.mapAttrsToList (name: h: {
+          inherit name;
+          inherit (h) domain;
+        }) config.services.hyperhive.swarm.hives
+      );
     };
   };
 }
diff --git a/swarm-controller/Cargo.toml b/swarm-controller/Cargo.toml
index 038587e8..0c3b628f 100644
--- a/swarm-controller/Cargo.toml
+++ b/swarm-controller/Cargo.toml
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ path = "src/main.rs"
 [dependencies]
 anyhow.workspace = true
 axum.workspace = true
+serde.workspace = true
+serde_json.workspace = true
 tokio.workspace = true
 tracing.workspace = true
 tracing-subscriber.workspace = true
diff --git a/swarm-controller/src/main.rs b/swarm-controller/src/main.rs
index cea02ed4..6ff68409 100644
--- a/swarm-controller/src/main.rs
+++ b/swarm-controller/src/main.rs
@@ -3,11 +3,11 @@
 //! `services.hyperhive.swarm.controller.enable` on, and serves HTTP over a
 //! unix socket that the hive-gateway's nginx proxies to.
 //!
-//! **Today it serves one endpoint and owns no state.** That is deliberate:
-//! this slice exists to make the *unit* real — service user, runtime and
-//! state directories, socket, nginx reachability — so the swarm-level
-//! surfaces that follow have somewhere to land. Guessing those surfaces
-//! now would bake in a shape nobody has agreed to.
+//! Holds one piece of read-only state: the swarm's hive directory, loaded
+//! once at startup from an env var the NixOS module sets
+//! (`services.hyperhive.swarm.controller`) — see [`load_hives`]. Still no
+//! persistence and no writes; a config change means a redeploy, same as
+//! every other option this process reads.
 //!
 //! Distinct from `hive-c0re`, which is per-hive: c0re owns the agents on
 //! one host, this owns what is true across hives.
@@ -23,10 +23,12 @@
 
 use std::os::unix::fs::PermissionsExt as _;
 use std::path::PathBuf;
+use std::sync::Arc;
 
 use anyhow::{Context, Result};
-use axum::{Json, routing::get};
-use utoipa::OpenApi;
+use axum::{Json, extract::State, routing::get};
+use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
+use utoipa::{OpenApi, ToSchema};
 use utoipa_axum::{router::OpenApiRouter, routes};
 
 /// Where the daemon binds, overridable via `SWARM_CONTROLLER_SOCKET`.
@@ -50,9 +52,9 @@ fn socket_path() -> PathBuf {
 }
 
 /// Root of the auto-generated `OpenAPI` spec, served raw at
-/// `/api/openapi.json` — see the module doc comment above. One tag today
-/// (`health`); grows alongside the swarm-level surfaces this daemon picks
-/// up, same as `hive-c0re::dashboard::ApiDoc`'s tag list did.
+/// `/api/openapi.json` — see the module doc comment above. Tag list
+/// grows alongside the swarm-level surfaces this daemon picks up, same
+/// as `hive-c0re::dashboard::ApiDoc`'s tag list did.
 #[derive(OpenApi)]
 #[openapi(
     info(
@@ -60,7 +62,10 @@ fn socket_path() -> PathBuf {
         description = "swarm-controller's HTTP surface, served over its unix \
                         socket behind the gateway's swarm-UI vhost."
     ),
-    tags((name = "health", description = "liveness probe"))
+    tags(
+        (name = "health", description = "liveness probe"),
+        (name = "hives", description = "the swarm's hive directory"),
+    )
 )]
 struct ApiDoc;
 
@@ -76,6 +81,61 @@ async fn health() -> &'static str {
     concat!("swarm-controller ", env!("CARGO_PKG_VERSION"), "\n")
 }
 
+/// One hive in the swarm's directory — the same `name`/`domain` pair
+/// `services.hyperhive.swarm.hives` (nix/host-modules/swarm.nix) declares,
+/// carried across unchanged rather than reshaped, so this stays a direct
+/// mirror of the nix source of truth instead of a second vocabulary for
+/// the same two fields.
+#[derive(Clone, Debug, PartialEq, Serialize, Deserialize, ToSchema)]
+struct HiveEntry {
+    name: String,
+    domain: String,
+}
+
+#[derive(Clone)]
+struct AppState {
+    /// Loaded once at startup ([`load_hives`]); never mutated, so an
+    /// `Arc` clone per request is the whole synchronization story.
+    hives: Arc<Vec<HiveEntry>>,
+}
+
+/// Env var the controller's NixOS module sets from
+/// `services.hyperhive.swarm.hives`, JSON-encoded — same shape hive-c0re
+/// already builds for `HYPERHIVE_PEERS`
+/// (nix/host-modules/hive-c0re/environment.nix), just the full directory
+/// (this daemon has no "self" to exclude) rather than peers-minus-self.
+const HIVES_ENV: &str = "SWARM_CONTROLLER_HIVES";
+
+/// Parses [`HIVES_ENV`] into the swarm's hive directory. Unset or
+/// unparseable both fall back to an empty list with a warning rather than
+/// failing startup — a swarm-controller that can't yet see its own config
+/// (dev run, a module not wired up yet) should still serve `/health`.
+fn load_hives() -> Vec<HiveEntry> {
+    let Some(raw) = std::env::var_os(HIVES_ENV) else {
+        return Vec::new();
+    };
+    match serde_json::from_str(&raw.to_string_lossy()) {
+        Ok(hives) => hives,
+        Err(e) => {
+            tracing::warn!(error = %e, env = HIVES_ENV, "failed to parse hive directory, serving an empty list");
+            Vec::new()
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+/// The swarm's hive directory — every hive, including whichever one this
+/// controller instance happens to run on (there is no "self" to exclude
+/// at the swarm level, unlike `hive-c0re`'s peer list).
+#[utoipa::path(
+    get,
+    path = "/api/hives",
+    responses((status = 200, description = "every hive in the swarm", body = Vec<HiveEntry>)),
+    tag = "hives"
+)]
+async fn get_hives(State(state): State<AppState>) -> Json<Vec<HiveEntry>> {
+    Json((*state.hives).clone())
+}
+
 #[tokio::main]
 async fn main() -> Result<()> {
     tracing_subscriber::fmt()
@@ -114,17 +174,24 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
         .with_context(|| format!("chmod {}", path.display()))?;
     tracing::info!(socket = %path.display(), "swarm-controller listening");
 
-    let (router, api) = OpenApiRouter::with_openapi(ApiDoc::openapi())
+    let state = AppState {
+        hives: Arc::new(load_hives()),
+    };
+
+    let (router, api) = OpenApiRouter::<AppState>::with_openapi(ApiDoc::openapi())
         .routes(routes!(health))
+        .routes(routes!(get_hives))
         .split_for_parts();
     // Just the JSON, not the UI — Swagger UI itself is nginx-hosted from
     // the nix store (see the module doc comment above). `api` is
     // `Clone`; each request gets its own owned copy for `Json` to
     // serialize, same as `hive-c0re::dashboard::serve`.
-    let app = router.route(
-        "/api/openapi.json",
-        get(move || async move { Json(api.clone()) }),
-    );
+    let app = router
+        .route(
+            "/api/openapi.json",
+            get(move || async move { Json(api.clone()) }),
+        )
+        .with_state(state);
     axum::serve(listener, app)
         .await
         .context("serving swarm-controller")
@@ -132,7 +199,7 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
 
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
-    use super::DEFAULT_SOCKET;
+    use super::{DEFAULT_SOCKET, HIVES_ENV, HiveEntry, load_hives};
     use std::path::Path;
 
     /// The socket must not share a directory with anything else, because
@@ -156,4 +223,58 @@ mod tests {
              exposes everything else in that directory to the gateway's nginx"
         );
     }
+
+    /// One test, not three, deliberately: `HIVES_ENV` is a real process
+    /// env var, and `cargo test`'s default parallel runner would race
+    /// separate missing/malformed/valid tests against each other. Driving
+    /// all three states sequentially inside one test needs no mutex and
+    /// still proves each branch of `load_hives`.
+    ///
+    /// SAFETY: single-threaded mutation of a process env var no other
+    /// test in this crate reads; restored (removed) before returning.
+    #[test]
+    fn load_hives_covers_missing_malformed_and_valid() {
+        unsafe {
+            std::env::remove_var(HIVES_ENV);
+        }
+        assert_eq!(
+            load_hives(),
+            Vec::<HiveEntry>::new(),
+            "unset env var is an empty directory, not a startup failure"
+        );
+
+        unsafe {
+            std::env::set_var(HIVES_ENV, "not json");
+        }
+        assert_eq!(
+            load_hives(),
+            Vec::<HiveEntry>::new(),
+            "unparseable env var falls back to empty rather than panicking — \
+             /health must still answer even if this daemon's own config is wrong"
+        );
+
+        unsafe {
+            std::env::set_var(
+                HIVES_ENV,
+                r#"[{"name":"pr1ma","domain":"pr1ma.example.com"},{"name":"umbra","domain":"umbra.example.com"}]"#,
+            );
+        }
+        assert_eq!(
+            load_hives(),
+            vec![
+                HiveEntry {
+                    name: "pr1ma".to_string(),
+                    domain: "pr1ma.example.com".to_string(),
+                },
+                HiveEntry {
+                    name: "umbra".to_string(),
+                    domain: "umbra.example.com".to_string(),
+                },
+            ]
+        );
+
+        unsafe {
+            std::env::remove_var(HIVES_ENV);
+        }
+    }
 }