diff --git a/swarm-queue-client/src/lib.rs b/swarm-queue-client/src/lib.rs
index b5c3b193..862d72a6 100644
--- a/swarm-queue-client/src/lib.rs
+++ b/swarm-queue-client/src/lib.rs
@@ -296,7 +296,13 @@ async fn mint_token(http: &reqwest::Client, cfg: &QueueConfig) -> Result<CachedT
             source,
         })?;
 
-    let response = token_request(http, cfg, secret.trim())
+    let response = http
+        .post(&cfg.token_endpoint)
+        .form(&[
+            ("grant_type", "client_credentials"),
+            ("client_id", cfg.client_id.as_str()),
+            ("client_secret", secret.trim()),
+        ])
         .send()
         .await
         .map_err(Error::TokenRequest)?;
@@ -315,35 +321,6 @@ async fn mint_token(http: &reqwest::Client, cfg: &QueueConfig) -> Result<CachedT
     })
 }
 
-/// Build the token request: `client_credentials`, authenticated with HTTP
-/// Basic.
-///
-/// 🩸 **The credentials go in the `Authorization` header, not the form body.**
-/// Both are legal OAuth 2.0 — `client_secret_basic` and `client_secret_post` —
-/// but a client registration names *one*, and authelia's default (and ours) is
-/// Basic. Sending them in the body got every token request refused with
-/// `Client authentication failed … the registered client is configured to only
-/// support 'client_secret_basic'`, which reached the operator as an endless
-/// `429` because the retries tripped a rate limiter whose penalty grew faster
-/// than the retry interval. The 429 then arrived *before* the credentials were
-/// ever evaluated, so the one line naming the real cause appeared once an hour.
-///
-/// RFC 6749 §2.3.1 says clients SHOULD use Basic, both introspection callers in
-/// this workspace already do, and a secret in a header is one fewer place for a
-/// proxy to log it.
-///
-/// Split out of [`mint_token`] so the request's *shape* is testable without a
-/// running identity provider — see the tests at the bottom of this file.
-fn token_request(
-    http: &reqwest::Client,
-    cfg: &QueueConfig,
-    secret: &str,
-) -> reqwest::RequestBuilder {
-    http.post(&cfg.token_endpoint)
-        .basic_auth(&cfg.client_id, Some(secret))
-        .form(&[("grant_type", "client_credentials")])
-}
-
 /// Build the HTTP client used to reach `cfg.token_endpoint`, trusting
 /// `cfg.ca_file` when set. Shared by [`connect`]'s auth callback and by
 /// [`mint_token_for`] — anything presenting this identity's credentials to
@@ -556,85 +533,4 @@ mod tests {
             std::env::remove_var("SWARM_QUEUE_HALF_NATS_URL");
         }
     }
-
-    fn token_cfg() -> QueueConfig {
-        QueueConfig {
-            url: "nats://127.0.0.1:4222".to_owned(),
-            token_endpoint: "https://auth.example.com/api/oidc/token".to_owned(),
-            client_id: "hive-alpha".to_owned(),
-            client_secret_file: PathBuf::from("/nonexistent"),
-            ca_file: None,
-        }
-    }
-
-    /// 🩸 THE REGRESSION TEST FOR AN OUTAGE THAT RAN FOR WEEKS.
-    ///
-    /// The credentials used to go in the form body (`client_secret_post`).
-    /// Authelia's client registration allows only `client_secret_basic`, so
-    /// every token request was refused — and the refusals tripped a rate
-    /// limiter whose 429 then arrived *before* the credentials were evaluated,
-    /// so the error naming the cause appeared roughly once an hour inside a
-    /// continuous storm of a different error.
-    ///
-    /// This asserts the *shape of the request* rather than a server's reply,
-    /// which is the whole point: it fails on the old code with no identity
-    /// provider, no deployment and no network.
-    /// A client for inspecting a request, never for sending one.
-    ///
-    /// 🩸 `reqwest::Client::new()` **panics in the nix build sandbox**, which
-    /// has no system CA store: `ClientBuilder::build()` reaches
-    /// `rustls_platform_verifier::Verifier::new()` and fails with "No CA
-    /// certificates were loaded from the system", and `new()` is
-    /// `build().expect(..)`. The test passed locally — a devshell has
-    /// `/etc/ssl/certs` — and failed in CI.
-    ///
-    /// Turning verification off takes the `!certs_verification` branch, which
-    /// installs a no-op verifier and never consults the platform store, so
-    /// this builds anywhere. It is sound *here specifically* because nothing
-    /// is ever sent: the request is built and its bytes inspected.
-    fn offline_client() -> reqwest::Client {
-        reqwest::Client::builder()
-            .danger_accept_invalid_certs(true)
-            .build()
-            .expect("a client that verifies nothing needs no system trust store")
-    }
-
-    #[test]
-    fn the_token_request_authenticates_with_http_basic() {
-        let req = token_request(&offline_client(), &token_cfg(), "s3cret")
-            .build()
-            .expect("the token request must build");
-
-        let auth = req
-            .headers()
-            .get(reqwest::header::AUTHORIZATION)
-            .expect("credentials must travel in the Authorization header")
-            .to_str()
-            .expect("the header is ascii");
-        assert!(
-            auth.starts_with("Basic "),
-            "must be client_secret_basic, got: {auth}"
-        );
-
-        let body = std::str::from_utf8(
-            req.body()
-                .and_then(reqwest::Body::as_bytes)
-                .expect("the request has an in-memory body"),
-        )
-        .expect("the body is utf-8");
-        assert!(
-            body.contains("grant_type=client_credentials"),
-            "the grant type still belongs in the body, got: {body}"
-        );
-        // The half that was actually broken: a secret in the body is both the
-        // wrong auth method for our registration and a value proxies log.
-        assert!(
-            !body.contains("client_secret"),
-            "the secret must not be in the request body, got: {body}"
-        );
-        assert!(
-            !body.contains("client_id"),
-            "the client id belongs in the Basic credentials, got: {body}"
-        );
-    }
 }