diff --git a/nix/host-modules/lib/name-guards.nix b/nix/host-modules/lib/name-guards.nix
deleted file mode 100644
index f9de705b..00000000
--- a/nix/host-modules/lib/name-guards.nix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,66 +0,0 @@
-# Assertions about names an operator chooses, so a module states WHAT is
-# forbidden and not how to phrase the refusal.
-{ lib }:
-let
-  # One shape for both guards. Reports EVERY offender, not the first: fixing
-  # one per rebuild is the slowest possible way to learn a rule.
-  #
-  # Offenders come after their label rather than before it, so one name and
-  # five read the same — no English verb agrees with both.
-  guard =
-    {
-      option,
-      names,
-      forbidden,
-      hit,
-      problem,
-      forbiddenLabel,
-      why,
-    }:
-    let
-      offenders = lib.filter (n: lib.any (f: hit f n) forbidden) names;
-      quote = xs: lib.concatMapStringsSep ", " (x: "'${x}'") xs;
-    in
-    {
-      assertion = offenders == [ ];
-      message = ''
-        ${option} ${problem}: ${quote offenders}
-        ${forbiddenLabel}: ${quote forbidden}
-
-        ${why}
-      '';
-    };
-in
-{
-  # No name may BE one of `reserved`.
-  mustNotEqual =
-    {
-      option,
-      names,
-      reserved,
-      why,
-    }:
-    guard {
-      inherit option names why;
-      forbidden = reserved;
-      hit = f: n: f == n;
-      problem = "has reserved name(s)";
-      forbiddenLabel = "Reserved";
-    };
-
-  # No name may CONTAIN one of `fragments`.
-  mustNotContain =
-    {
-      option,
-      names,
-      fragments,
-      why,
-    }:
-    guard {
-      inherit option names why;
-      forbidden = fragments;
-      hit = lib.hasInfix;
-      problem = "has name(s) containing a reserved word";
-      forbiddenLabel = "Forbidden as substrings";
-    };
-}
diff --git a/nix/host-modules/swarm-otel.nix b/nix/host-modules/swarm-otel.nix
index e4e40e17..baf64d13 100644
--- a/nix/host-modules/swarm-otel.nix
+++ b/nix/host-modules/swarm-otel.nix
@@ -72,13 +72,6 @@ let
   # would be an eval error rather than a silently missing guard.
   reservedOwners = import ../reserved-names.nix;
 
-  # Words no hive name may CONTAIN, because identifiers are composed from a
-  # hive name. That file explains why it is not merged into the list above.
-  reservedFragments = import ../reserved-hive-fragments.nix;
-
-  nameGuards = import ./lib/name-guards.nix { inherit lib; };
-  hiveNames = lib.attrNames hyperhiveCfg.swarm.hives;
-
   # A published target is declared as ONE url, because that url is also the
   # audience its token is minted for — but prometheus wants the same fact in
   # three fields. Split it here rather than asking a service to state it
@@ -665,30 +658,33 @@ in
           Put it back, or give this module a different swarmTierName.
         '';
       }
-      (nameGuards.mustNotEqual {
-        option = "services.hyperhive.swarm.hives";
-        names = hiveNames;
-        reserved = reservedOwners;
-        why = ''
-          The collector names components `<kind>/<owner>` with the hive name
-          as owner, and `//` resolves the clash silently: the swarm tier's
-          parts win, that hive's pipeline and `hive=` stamp disappear, and it
-          keeps pushing into a route that goes nowhere. Rename the hive.
+      {
+        # A hive whose name is one this module claims for itself collides in
+        # the collector's component namespace, and `//` resolves it silently:
+        # the swarm tier's parts win, that hive's `metrics/<name>` pipeline
+        # disappears, and its `resource/<name>` stamp goes with it — so the
+        # hive still connects and pushes into nothing, unlabelled.
+        #
+        # Checked rather than documented for the same reason the port range
+        # is: the names are all known at evaluation time, and the runtime
+        # symptom is a hive that looks healthy and reports no metrics, with
+        # nothing in any log naming the cause.
+        assertion = !lib.any (h: lib.elem h reservedOwners) (lib.attrNames hyperhiveCfg.swarm.hives);
+        message = ''
+          services.hyperhive.swarm.hives contains ${
+            lib.concatMapStringsSep ", " (h: "'${h}'") (
+              lib.filter (h: lib.elem h reservedOwners) (lib.attrNames hyperhiveCfg.swarm.hives)
+            )
+          }, which the swarm collector reserves for its own pipelines.
+
+          The collector names components `<kind>/<owner>` and uses the hive
+          name as the owner, so such a hive would silently replace the
+          swarm tier's parts and lose its own — it would keep accepting
+          pushes into a pipeline that routes nowhere.
+
+          Rename the hive. Reserved: ${lib.concatMapStringsSep ", " (n: "'${n}'") reservedOwners}.
         '';
-      })
-      (nameGuards.mustNotContain {
-        option = "services.hyperhive.swarm.hives";
-        names = hiveNames;
-        fragments = reservedFragments;
-        why = ''
-          Hive-scoped identifiers are composed from a hive name —
-          `hive-<name>`, `hive-<name>-agent` — so a name containing one of
-          these produces an identifier that is also somebody else's. The
-          failure is a wrong grant rather than an error: the client
-          authenticates and receives another principal's permissions, and a
-          NATS denial arrives as a timeout. Rename the hive.
-        '';
-      })
+      }
       {
         # A published target that is not an `https://host/path` url. Without
         # this the split returns null and the failure surfaces as
diff --git a/nix/reserved-hive-fragments.nix b/nix/reserved-hive-fragments.nix
deleted file mode 100644
index f13b8e88..00000000
--- a/nix/reserved-hive-fragments.nix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,19 +0,0 @@
-# Words no HIVE name may CONTAIN. The substring half of `./reserved-names.nix`.
-#
-# Separate because the two differ in every dimension: subject (hive names only
-# vs hive AND agent), matcher (substring vs equality), and admission rule (a
-# fixed segment of a COMPOSED identifier vs a value some component emits).
-# Folding them would widen the other one — containment over `forge` refuses
-# `forgeworks`, which names no failure.
-[
-  # `hive-<name>` — every hive's OIDC client id, and the string the queue's
-  # auth-callout responder strips to decide which hive a connection is.
-  "hive"
-  # `hive-<name>-agent` — the client its agent containers present. A hive named
-  # `foo-agent` mints exactly the id hive `foo`'s agents do.
-  "agent"
-  # Also an exact-match entry next door, for the collector's `<kind>/<owner>`
-  # components. Here because it is the word this swarm composes identifiers
-  # from everywhere.
-  "swarm"
-]
diff --git a/nix/reserved-names.nix b/nix/reserved-names.nix
index 60ecefdf..f7fbb6b2 100644
--- a/nix/reserved-names.nix
+++ b/nix/reserved-names.nix
@@ -25,9 +25,6 @@
 # `from`/`to`, or a component name the collector builds pipelines from — not a
 # word that merely looked risky. A name in here that nothing emits is a refusal
 # with no failure behind it.
-#
-# ⚠️ Matched by EQUALITY. Words forbidden *inside* a hive name live in
-# `./reserved-hive-fragments.nix` — read its header before merging the two.
 [
   # ---- message-layer senders -------------------------------------------
   # The human at the dashboard: a broker recipient (the T4LK box sends