@serfab/cadre-core 0.9.0 → 0.10.0

package/src/control-database.ts

@@ -1,15 +1,22 @@
 import debug from 'debug';
 import { toString as uint8ArrayToString } from 'uint8arrays';
-import { Database, registerPlugin } from '@quereus/quereus';
-import type { VTablePluginInfo, FunctionPluginInfo } from '@quereus/quereus';
+import { Database, registerPlugin, unwrapError } from '@quereus/quereus';
+import type { VTablePluginInfo, FunctionPluginInfo, SqlParameters } from '@quereus/quereus';
 import cryptoPlugin from '@optimystic/quereus-plugin-crypto/plugin';
 import optimysticPlugin from '@optimystic/quereus-plugin-optimystic/plugin';
 import { digest, randomBytes } from '@optimystic/quereus-plugin-crypto';
 import type { Libp2p } from '@libp2p/interface';
 import type { IRepo } from '@optimystic/db-core';
-import type { StrandRow, PeerAddressRecord, DeviceTokenRecord, PushPlatform } from './types.js';
+import type { StrandRow, PeerAddressRecord, CadrePeerRow, RevocationRow, DeviceTokenRecord, DeviceTokenRow, PushPlatform } from './types.js';
 import { CONTROL_SCHEMA } from './control-schema.js';
 import { canonicalDatetime } from './canonical-datetime.js';
+import { controlAuthorizationFields, CONTROL_TABLES } from './control-authorization.js';
+import type { ControlTable, RevocableTable, ControlDomain, ControlAction } from './control-authorization.js';
+import { requireEd25519PublicKeyB64 } from './ed25519-key.js';
+import { retryControlWrite, SCHEMA_INIT_RETRY_POLICY } from './control-write-retry.js';
+import type { ControlWriteRetryOptions } from './control-write-retry.js';
+
+export type { ControlTable, RevocableTable, ControlDomain, ControlAction } from './control-authorization.js';
 
 const log = debug('sereus:cadre:control-db');
 const timing = debug('sereus:cadre:timing');
@@ -39,6 +46,160 @@ export function generateStampId(peerId: string): string {
   return uint8ArrayToString(combined, 'base64url');
 }
 
+/**
+ * A `FormationUsage` was to be recorded against a host `Strand` row that is not
+ * present locally.
+ *
+ * Consent is bound to the strand's one-off `StampId` (see the consent branch of
+ * `Strand.AuthorizedInsert`), so the writer must read the live row before inserting.
+ * The ordinary "host strand has not converged on this responder yet" case is caught
+ * earlier and reported as `missing` by `ControlFormationUsageRecorder.resolveStrand`;
+ * reaching here means the row vanished between that check and the write, which is a
+ * genuine race and is surfaced rather than left to fail the deferred `StrandExists`
+ * CHECK at commit (which would drop the write with a far less legible error).
+ */
+export class MissingHostStrandError extends Error {
+  constructor(readonly strandId: string, readonly token: string) {
+    super(`Cannot record formation usage for token ${token}: host strand ${strandId} is not present`);
+    this.name = 'MissingHostStrandError';
+  }
+}
+
+/**
+ * A formation write was abandoned because the caller's `AbortSignal` fired BEFORE the
+ * `FormationUsage` insert was issued — the invite's single use is NOT spent.
+ *
+ * Thrown by the formation write paths ({@link ControlDatabase.recordFormationUsage},
+ * {@link ControlDatabase.redeemInvitation}) and by `ControlFormationUsageRecorder`'s
+ * pre-approval checks when the responder's provisioning budget expires while the work is
+ * still queued (e.g. behind the write lock) or still asking the approval hook. Never
+ * thrown once the insert has been issued: a half-issued write must be allowed to land,
+ * and the formation listener's settle grace then adopts it as a successful join. The
+ * manager rethrows this error instead of mapping it to a retryable conflict — the
+ * listener's timeout path owns the reply.
+ */
+export class FormationAbortedError extends Error {
+  constructor(
+    readonly token: string,
+    operation: string,
+    options?: { cause?: unknown }
+  ) {
+    super(`Formation ${operation} for token ${token} was aborted before its write was issued`, options);
+    this.name = 'FormationAbortedError';
+  }
+}
+
+/**
+ * A redemption could not be given a `UseNumber` within the invite's seat budget: the use
+ * number the writer would have to take is past `FormationInvite.TotalUses`, so the
+ * invitation is spent.
+ *
+ * Raised inside {@link ControlDatabase.redeemInvitation} / {@link ControlDatabase.recordFormationUsage}
+ * on EVERY attempt, including the first: two redemptions of one token racing on the SAME node
+ * serialize behind the local write queue, so the loser's first attempt already takes a use
+ * number past the seat budget — `StrandFormationManager.validateToken`'s `isTokenUsed` check
+ * cannot catch this, since it ran before either redemption wrote anything. Without this the
+ * write would fail as a generic `CHECK constraint failed: Authorized`, which the manager
+ * reports as a retryable `Formation conflict, retry` — telling the joiner to retry something
+ * that can never succeed.
+ */
+export class InvitationExhaustedError extends Error {
+  constructor(
+    readonly token: string,
+    readonly useNumber: number,
+    readonly totalUses: number,
+  ) {
+    super(
+      `Invitation ${token} is exhausted: use #${useNumber} is past its limit of ${totalUses} use(s)`
+    );
+    this.name = 'InvitationExhaustedError';
+  }
+}
+
+/**
+ * Attempts allowed per redemption: the first, plus two retries of a use number another
+ * writer took. Bounded so sustained contention terminates in a clean rejection rather than
+ * spinning; two retries is enough for the realistic case (a handful of nodes redeeming one
+ * multi-use token at once) without holding the write lock hostage.
+ *
+ * NOTE: the attempts fire back-to-back, with no backoff and no jitter — each one only takes
+ * and releases the write lock. Fine while cross-node contention on a single token is a
+ * handful of writers; if one hot multi-use token ever draws sustained concurrent redemption
+ * (a broadcast invite, a bulk onboarding run), all three attempts can burn against the same
+ * competitor and the caller gets the engine's error. Add a short randomised delay between
+ * attempts then — NOT a longer attempt budget, which would hold the write queue.
+ */
+const USE_NUMBER_ATTEMPTS = 3;
+
+/**
+ * The two error messages that mean "another writer took the `UseNumber` we picked", and
+ * nothing else.
+ *
+ * - the `(Token, UseNumber)` primary-key collision, which the optimystic vtab reports on the
+ *   insert itself (`uniqueConstraintMessage` renders the columns table-qualified, no schema
+ *   prefix);
+ * - `CHECK constraint failed: Monotonic` — `FormationUsage.Monotonic` contains a subquery, so
+ *   Quereus defers it to commit where it reads `committed.FormationUsage`. A concurrent row
+ *   that our insert's key probe did not see still trips it there. Same meaning, different
+ *   surface.
+ *
+ * Deliberately NOT matched: `FormationUsage.UsageStampId`'s `unique` (a repeated nonce is
+ * replay, never a race — retrying it would re-present a spent approval), and every named
+ * CHECK other than `Monotonic`. `Authorized` in particular renders with the same
+ * `CHECK constraint failed:` prefix, so the constraint NAME is anchored with `\b` exactly as
+ * `expectConstraintFailure` does rather than matched by prefix.
+ *
+ * NOTE: a CHECK failure names only the CONSTRAINT, never its table, and `Monotonic` is a
+ * generic enough name that a second table could plausibly claim it. Today it is unique across
+ * `schemas/control.qsql`, so the pattern cannot mis-fire; if another table ever declares a
+ * `Monotonic` constraint, a failure of THAT constraint would be read here as a lost use-number
+ * race and pointlessly retried up to {@link USE_NUMBER_ATTEMPTS} times. Rename the other
+ * constraint (cheapest) rather than trying to recover the table from the message.
+ */
+const LOST_USE_NUMBER_PATTERNS = [
+  /UNIQUE constraint failed: FormationUsage\.Token, FormationUsage\.UseNumber/i,
+  /CHECK constraint failed: Monotonic\b/,
+];
+
+/**
+ * Did this write fail purely because another writer took the `UseNumber` it picked — i.e. is
+ * re-presenting the SAME approval under the next free use number the right response?
+ *
+ * Classifies by MESSAGE, walking the `cause` chain with Quereus' own {@link unwrapError}:
+ * neither surface can be recognised by type. The deferred `Monotonic` failure is thrown as a
+ * bare `QuereusError`, not a `ConstraintError` (see
+ * `quereus/src/runtime/deferred-constraint-queue.ts`), so an `instanceof ConstraintError` gate
+ * would silently drop the branch this retry exists for. Messages also carry an
+ * ` (at line N, column M)` suffix and arrive wrapped when the write ran inside a transaction,
+ * so the match is a substring test rather than an equality one.
+ *
+ * NOTE: this is the one piece of the retry that depends on engine error TEXT. Its own test
+ * (`control-formation-use-number-retry.spec.ts`) produces all three messages from the real
+ * engine rather than from string literals, so a reworded storage-layer error fails that spec
+ * instead of silently disabling the retry.
+ */
+export function isLostUseNumberRace(error: unknown): boolean {
+  if (!(error instanceof Error)) {
+    return false;
+  }
+  return unwrapError(error).some(({ message }) =>
+    LOST_USE_NUMBER_PATTERNS.some(pattern => pattern.test(message)));
+}
+
+/**
+ * What a recorded `FormationUsage` row came out as.
+ *
+ * `usageStampId` is echoed back so a caller that obtained an approver sign-off can prove the
+ * nonce it signed over is the one that landed — the two must match or
+ * `FormationUsage.Authorized` rejects the row (see {@link formationVouchMessage}).
+ */
+export interface FormationUsageResult {
+  /** The `UseNumber` assigned to this redemption (1-based per token). */
+  useNumber: number;
+  /** The single-use nonce written to `UsageStampId` — the caller's, or a freshly minted one. */
+  usageStampId: string;
+}
+
 /**
  * Parse a stored Quereus `datetime` value into epoch milliseconds.
  *
@@ -53,29 +214,105 @@ function parseStoredDatetimeMs(value: string | number): number {
   return new Date(hasZone ? value : `${value}Z`).getTime();
 }
 
+/**
+ * Parse a nullable stored `datetime` column into epoch ms, mapping both "absent"
+ * and "unparseable" to null — i.e. "no expiry". Shared by every `ExpiresAt`
+ * reader so the NaN guard cannot drift between them.
+ */
+function parseNullableStoredDatetimeMs(value: string | number | null | undefined): number | null {
+  if (value === null || value === undefined) return null;
+  const parsed = parseStoredDatetimeMs(value);
+  return Number.isNaN(parsed) ? null : parsed;
+}
+
 /**
  * Build the canonical authorization message that owner signatures are bound to.
  *
- * The message is a SINGLE framed SHA-256 digest over the ordered tuple of fields (the
- * crypto plugin's injective multi-field encoding), in a fixed field order, with the
- * single-use StampId as the final field:
+ * The message is a SINGLE framed SHA-256 digest over the ordered field vector from
+ * {@link controlAuthorizationFields} (the crypto plugin's injective multi-field
+ * encoding): two fixed literals — the domain tag naming the table rule and the action
+ * tag — followed by the row fields in the schema's fixed order, with the single-use
+ * StampId as the final field where the table has one:
  *
- *   message = sha256(encodeFields([field_1, field_2, ..., StampId]))   // raw digest bytes
+ *   message = sha256(encodeFields([domain, action, field_1, ..., StampId]))   // raw digest bytes
  *
  * ed25519 signs these raw digest bytes DIRECTLY (no second hash). The SQL constraints
  * verify the identical bytes with one variadic call
- * (`verify(digest(field_1, ..., StampId), context.Signature, A.Key, 'ed25519')`): SQL
- * `digest(...)` returns the base64url string of the same digest, which `verify`'s default
+ * (`verify(digest('CadreControl.X', 'add', field_1, ...), context.Signature, A.Key, 'ed25519')`):
+ * SQL `digest(...)` returns the base64url string of the same digest, which `verify`'s default
  * base64url input encoding decodes back to those raw bytes — so signer and verifier
  * operate on the same bytes. Every field is TEXT on both sides (the SQL columns are
  * `cast(... as text)` / `coalesce(...,'')`; the TS args are strings), so the per-field
- * type tags agree. This binds the signature to the row contents (not a bare stamp),
- * closing the captured-stamp replay / privilege-escalation hole. Single source of truth:
- * every signed writer (and every test/harness signer) MUST build the message through this
- * function in the schema's field order, or `verify` will reject the row.
+ * type tags agree. Binding the row contents closes captured-stamp replay; the leading
+ * domain/action tags scope the signature to ONE table rule, so an approval minted for
+ * one constraint can never satisfy another (e.g. a ValidationKey enrollment can no
+ * longer double as an OwnerKey enrollment). Single source of truth: every signed writer
+ * (and every test/harness signer) MUST build the message through this function with the
+ * schema's tags and field order, or `verify` will reject the row.
+ */
+export function buildAuthorizationMessage(
+  domain: ControlDomain,
+  action: ControlAction,
+  rowFields: string[],
+): Uint8Array {
+  return digest(controlAuthorizationFields(domain, action, rowFields), 'sha256', 'bytes') as Uint8Array;
+}
+
+/**
+ * The exact bytes an outside approver signs to authorize ONE redemption of a
+ * `ValidationUrl`-bearing `FormationInvite` — the TS mirror of the `'vouch'` digest in
+ * `FormationUsage.Authorized`, in the schema's field order.
+ *
+ * The approval covers the whole redemption: the invitation (`token`), the single-use nonce
+ * the JOINING peer minted for THIS redemption (`usageStampId`), the network being joined
+ * (`strandId`), the joining peer's own ed25519 public key (`peerKey`), and the disclosure
+ * text. That makes it non-transferable — an approval cannot be re-presented for another use
+ * of the same invitation, another network, or another joiner — and the nonce's `unique`
+ * column makes a verbatim re-presentation a duplicate-row rejection. The joiner mints the
+ * nonce ({@link generateStampId}) and sends it in its contact message; sign these bytes over
+ * that same nonce, then pass BOTH the nonce and the signature to
+ * {@link ControlDatabase.redeemInvitation} / {@link ControlDatabase.recordFormationUsage}:
+ * signing one nonce and inserting another fails the CHECK.
+ */
+export function formationVouchMessage(fields: {
+  token: string;
+  usageStampId: string;
+  strandId: string;
+  peerKey: string;
+  disclosure: string;
+}): Uint8Array {
+  return buildAuthorizationMessage('CadreControl.FormationUsage', 'vouch', [
+    fields.token, fields.usageStampId, fields.strandId, fields.peerKey, fields.disclosure,
+  ]);
+}
+
+/**
+ * The exact bytes the JOINING peer signs to consent to ONE redemption of a
+ * `FormationInvite` — the TS mirror of the `'consent'` digest in the schema's
+ * `FormationUsage.PeerConsented` constraint, in its field order.
+ *
+ * A sibling of {@link formationVouchMessage}, not a replacement: the approver's vouch
+ * says the redemption may proceed, this says the joiner itself agreed to it, and the
+ * two are signed by different keys over the same nonce so neither can stand in for
+ * the other. Verify the result with `peer-authorization.ts`'s
+ * `verifyFormationConsent`, whose `formationConsentDigest` is the base64url twin of
+ * this vector — the two must stay in lockstep.
+ *
+ * `strandId` is deliberately absent, unlike its vouch sibling: the joiner cannot know
+ * the strand when it signs (a bound invite's host strand arrives only in the result
+ * frame; an unbound strand is minted by the responder). The responder cannot
+ * substitute one anyway — a bound invite is pinned to its own strand by `Authorized`,
+ * and an unbound redemption mints a fresh strand, so there is no victim to name.
  */
-export function buildAuthorizationMessage(fields: string[]): Uint8Array {
-  return digest([...fields], 'sha256', 'bytes') as Uint8Array;
+export function formationConsentMessage(fields: {
+  token: string;
+  usageStampId: string;
+  peerKey: string;
+  disclosure: string;
+}): Uint8Array {
+  return buildAuthorizationMessage('CadreControl.FormationUsage', 'consent', [
+    fields.token, fields.usageStampId, fields.peerKey, fields.disclosure,
+  ]);
 }
 
 /**
@@ -104,31 +341,78 @@ interface OptimysticPluginResult {
   [key: string]: unknown;
 }
 
+/** Runtime guard for the dynamic-`from` count, over the one table list. */
+const CONTROL_TABLE_SET: ReadonlySet<ControlTable> = new Set<ControlTable>(CONTROL_TABLES);
+
+/** Primary-key column of each {@link RevocableTable}. */
+type GuardedKeyColumn = 'Key' | 'Id' | 'PeerId';
+
+/**
+ * Which column identifies one row of each guarded table — the ONLY place that mapping
+ * lives, so a stamp read and the delete that binds to it can never disagree about it.
+ * Derived rather than passed: every guarded table has exactly one primary key, so a
+ * `(table, keyColumn)` pair on a signature is a mismatch waiting to happen.
+ */
+const GUARDED_KEY_COLUMN: Readonly<Record<RevocableTable, GuardedKeyColumn>> = {
+  OwnerKey: 'Key',
+  CadrePeer: 'PeerId',
+  ValidationKey: 'Key',
+  Strand: 'Id',
+  DeviceToken: 'PeerId',
+};
+
 /**
- * Names of the CadreControl tables that {@link ControlDatabase.countRows} can
- * read. Constraining to this union keeps the dynamic `from` clause off the
- * SQL-injection surface and hands callers (e.g. the integration harness's
- * `waitForControlSync`) a typo-proof table argument.
+ * Guarded tables a node may reap locally once their tombstone has committed — the
+ * tables whose `AuthorizedDelete` carries the REAP branch (see the constraint comment on
+ * `CadrePeer.AuthorizedDelete` in the schema). `Strand` is deliberately absent: its row
+ * carries `MemberPrivateKey`, the party's own membership secret for that network, stored
+ * nowhere else (tickets/backlog/debt-strand-tombstone-reap.md owns any future change).
+ * `OwnerKey` has no production removal path and `MinOneOwner` makes an automated
+ * owner-key reap a party-bricking hazard.
  */
-export type ControlTable =
-  | 'OwnerKey'
-  | 'ValidationKey'
-  | 'Strand'
-  | 'CadrePeer'
-  | 'DeviceToken'
-  | 'FormationInvite'
-  | 'FormationUsage';
-
-/** Runtime guard mirroring {@link ControlTable} for the dynamic-`from` count. */
-const CONTROL_TABLES: ReadonlySet<ControlTable> = new Set<ControlTable>([
-  'OwnerKey',
-  'ValidationKey',
-  'Strand',
-  'CadrePeer',
-  'DeviceToken',
-  'FormationInvite',
-  'FormationUsage',
-]);
+export const REAPABLE_TABLES = ['CadrePeer', 'DeviceToken', 'ValidationKey'] as const satisfies readonly RevocableTable[];
+export type ReapableTable = (typeof REAPABLE_TABLES)[number];
+
+/**
+ * Runtime membership test for {@link REAPABLE_TABLES}, narrowing a tombstone's
+ * `TableName` to the subset {@link ControlDatabase.reapRevokedRow} accepts. A tombstone
+ * naming an excluded table (`Strand`, `OwnerKey`) is skipped silently — `Strand`
+ * tombstones are the common case in a party that has unpublished a strand, so a log line
+ * per skip would be per-pass noise.
+ */
+const REAPABLE_TABLE_SET: ReadonlySet<RevocableTable> = new Set<RevocableTable>(REAPABLE_TABLES);
+const isReapableTable = (table: RevocableTable): table is ReapableTable => REAPABLE_TABLE_SET.has(table);
+
+/**
+ * Notified after a `CadreControl.CadrePeer` row write has COMMITTED.
+ *
+ * The one hook the party-membership snapshot a node admits control-DB traffic
+ * against ({@link CadreNode.refreshMembershipGate}) hangs off, so that snapshot
+ * is refreshed by the WRITE rather than by whoever remembered to ask. `reason`
+ * only labels the log line. Must not reject (the notifier swallows and logs
+ * anyway — a committed write never fails because a snapshot refresh did).
+ */
+export type MembershipChangeListener = (reason: string) => Promise<void>;
+
+/**
+ * Identity of the tombstone a committed guarded delete wrote — a
+ * {@link RevocationRow} minus its `ReissuedAt` counter, which a fresh tombstone
+ * always seats at 0 (`FreshTombstone`) and so carries no information.
+ */
+export type RevokedRowRef = Omit<RevocationRow, 'reissuedAt'>;
+
+/**
+ * Notified after a guarded-table delete — and the `CadreControl.Revocation`
+ * tombstone it writes in the same transaction — has COMMITTED.
+ *
+ * The seam the write-while-alone re-replication queue hangs off
+ * ({@link CadreNode.noteGuardedDelete}): one listener covers all four guarded
+ * tables (`CadrePeer` / `DeviceToken` / `Strand` / `ValidationKey`) because every
+ * owner delete funnels through {@link deleteGuardedRow}. Synchronous — the
+ * handler only records the tombstone's identity; it must not throw (the notifier
+ * swallows and logs anyway — a committed delete never fails because bookkeeping did).
+ */
+export type GuardedDeleteListener = (revocation: RevokedRowRef) => void;
 
 export interface ControlDatabaseConfig {
   /** Party ID for the control network */
@@ -154,6 +438,17 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
   private collectionFactory: CollectionFactory | null = null;
   private readonly config: ControlDatabaseConfig;
   private initialized = false;
+  private membershipListener: MembershipChangeListener | null = null;
+  private guardedDeleteListener: GuardedDeleteListener | null = null;
+  /** Tail of the local-write chain — see {@link withWriteLock}. */
+  private writeQueue: Promise<unknown> = Promise.resolve();
+  /**
+   * Pacing seams for {@link lockedWithRetry}. Production leaves this empty (real backoff,
+   * real clock); specs inject a recorded `sleep` / fake `now` so no test waits out a real
+   * backoff. Applied OVER the call site's policy, so it overrides pacing without a spec
+   * having to restate the policy's attempts or classifier.
+   */
+  private controlWriteRetryPacing: ControlWriteRetryOptions = {};
 
   constructor(config: ControlDatabaseConfig) {
     this.config = config;
@@ -281,7 +576,36 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
       schemaContent = CONTROL_SCHEMA;
     }
 
-    await this.db!.exec(schemaContent);
+    // Schema init is a DISTRIBUTED write, so it gets the same bounded transient-failure
+    // retry every other control write does ({@link lockedWithRetry}). Every CadreControl
+    // table is optimystic-backed (the default vtab was routed to optimystic just above),
+    // so each `create table` needs a super-majority of the party's peers to answer. On a
+    // node joining a party that already has two live members a single unanswered peer
+    // during any one create otherwise kills startup outright.
+    //
+    // Re-running the WHOLE `exec` after a partial failure is safe, and this is the
+    // non-obvious part:
+    //
+    //  - `apply schema` is a DIFF, not a replay. Quereus collects the live catalog, diffs
+    //    the declared schema against it, and only emits DDL for what is missing — which is
+    //    exactly why `initialize` hydrates persisted optimystic schemas BEFORE getting here.
+    //    Tables that already landed generate no statements on the second pass.
+    //  - a failed `create table` leaves the catalog CLEAN. `SchemaManager.createTable` calls
+    //    the module's `create` first and only registers the table on success, so the table
+    //    that failed is not in the catalog, and neither are the ones after it.
+    //
+    // Together: attempt 2 re-emits exactly the failed table and its successors. No
+    // `if not exists` juggling, no per-table loop, no statement splitting.
+    //
+    // Only the "cohort did not answer, nothing committed" class is retried; the classifier
+    // vetoes indeterminate commits and does not match `Missing block`, which is a durable
+    // convergence fault a retry cannot heal (tracked separately) and must keep propagating.
+    //
+    // This is the ONE call site on a non-default policy: the re-run safety argued above is
+    // also what lets schema init absorb optimystic's self-coordination grace refusal, which
+    // is unsafe for control writes in general. Why, on
+    // `RETRIABLE_SCHEMA_INIT_MATCHERS` in `control-write-retry.ts`.
+    await this.lockedWithRetry(() => this.db!.exec(schemaContent), SCHEMA_INIT_RETRY_POLICY);
     log('Schema loaded and executed');
   }
 
@@ -325,7 +649,7 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
   /**
    * Count rows in a CadreControl table as seen by THIS database instance.
    *
-   * `table` is validated against {@link CONTROL_TABLES} before it is interpolated
+   * `table` is validated against {@link CONTROL_TABLE_SET} before it is interpolated
    * into the `from` clause: the names are not user input, but the check keeps the
    * dynamic query off the injection surface and fails loudly on a typo instead of
    * emitting a malformed statement. The count reflects only the rows this node's
@@ -335,7 +659,7 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
    */
   async countRows(table: ControlTable): Promise<number> {
     this.ensureInitialized();
-    if (!CONTROL_TABLES.has(table)) {
+    if (!CONTROL_TABLE_SET.has(table)) {
       throw new Error(`Unknown CadreControl table: ${table}`);
     }
     for await (const row of this.db!.eval(`select count(1) as Count from CadreControl.${table}`)) {
@@ -371,11 +695,12 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
    */
   async ensureOwnerKey(key: string): Promise<boolean> {
     this.ensureInitialized();
+    const trimmed = requireEd25519PublicKeyB64(key, 'owner key');
     if (await this.hasOwnerKey()) {
       log('Owner key already present; skipping genesis insert');
       return false;
     }
-    await this.insertOwnerKey(key);
+    await this.insertOwnerKey(trimmed);
     return true;
   }
 
@@ -398,15 +723,34 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
 
   /**
    * Enumerate the CadrePeer rows (cadre membership) for admin/membership reads.
+   * Includes the persisted voucher columns, which
+   * {@link CadreNode.listAuthorizedMembers} re-checks against its node-local anchor.
+   *
+   * Rows whose `StampId` is retired in `CadreControl.Revocation` are excluded HERE, so
+   * every membership reader inherits the exclusion — a revoked peer is neither
+   * authorizable nor addressable (a replayed row planted at a retired stamp must not
+   * be RPC'd or handed out as an address). Reads the retired set through
+   * {@link queryRevokedStamps} rather than inlining the SQL, so tests can interpose on
+   * that seam to model the replicated live-row-plus-tombstone merge state.
+   *
+   * NOTE: runs a second query (the retired-stamp set) per call, and this sits on the
+   * membership-gate refresh path; control tables are a handful of rows today, so this
+   * is cheap — if they ever grow, fold the exclusion into one statement or cache the
+   * retired-stamp set.
    */
-  async queryCadrePeers(): Promise<Array<{ peerId: string; multiaddr: string | null; stampId: string | null; vouchOwner: string | null; vouchSig: string | null }>> {
+  async queryCadrePeers(): Promise<CadrePeerRow[]> {
     this.ensureInitialized();
-    const rows: Array<{ peerId: string; multiaddr: string | null; stampId: string | null; vouchOwner: string | null; vouchSig: string | null }> = [];
+    const revoked = await this.queryRevokedStamps('CadrePeer');
+    const rows: CadrePeerRow[] = [];
     for await (const row of this.db!.eval('select PeerId, Multiaddr, StampId, VouchOwner, VouchSig from CadreControl.CadrePeer')) {
+      const stampId = (row.StampId as string | null) ?? null;
+      if (stampId !== null && revoked.has(stampId)) {
+        continue;
+      }
       rows.push({
         peerId: row.PeerId as string,
         multiaddr: (row.Multiaddr as string | null) ?? null,
-        stampId: (row.StampId as string | null) ?? null,
+        stampId,
         vouchOwner: (row.VouchOwner as string | null) ?? null,
         vouchSig: (row.VouchSig as string | null) ?? null,
       });
@@ -415,23 +759,138 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
   }
 
   /**
-   * Read a single `CadrePeer` row's single-use `StampId` nonce (null when the row
-   * does not exist). Used by the owner delete / re-touch paths, which must bind
-   * their signature to the row's CURRENT nonce ({@link cadrePeerRemoveDigest} /
-   * {@link cadrePeerVoucherDigest}).
+   * Every approver public key currently enrolled in `CadreControl.ValidationKey` — the
+   * set a `ValidationUrl` redemption's approval signature must be signed by (see
+   * {@link ControlFormationUsageRecorder}, which checks one key at a time via
+   * {@link queryValidationKeyStampId}).
+   *
+   * Sorted in TypeScript rather than SQL so the order is stable regardless of storage
+   * order; the enrolled set is a handful of keys, so the sort is free.
+   */
+  async queryValidationKeys(): Promise<string[]> {
+    this.ensureInitialized();
+    const keys: string[] = [];
+    for await (const row of this.db!.eval('select Key from CadreControl.ValidationKey')) {
+      keys.push(row.Key as string);
+    }
+    return keys.sort();
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Read one guarded row's single-use `StampId` nonce (null when the row does not
+   * exist). Every owner-signed delete / re-touch path must bind its signature to the
+   * row's CURRENT nonce, so they all read through here first.
+   *
+   * Deliberately RAW — no `Revocation` filtering (unlike {@link queryCadrePeers} /
+   * {@link queryPeerRecord}): {@link deleteGuardedRow} and the insert-if-absent guard
+   * in the `CadrePeer` upsert need to see a physically present row. Filtering here
+   * would make an insert-if-absent guard read "absent" for a row that exists and
+   * collide on the primary key.
+   *
+   * `table` and its {@link GUARDED_KEY_COLUMN} column are interpolated into the SQL; both
+   * come from closed literal unions — no caller-supplied string can reach the statement
+   * (same injection-surface discipline as {@link countRows}'s `CONTROL_TABLE_SET` guard).
    */
-  async queryCadrePeerStampId(peerId: string): Promise<string | null> {
+  private async queryStampId(
+    table: RevocableTable,
+    keyValue: string
+  ): Promise<string | null> {
     this.ensureInitialized();
-    for await (const row of this.db!.eval('select StampId from CadreControl.CadrePeer where PeerId = ?', [peerId])) {
+    const sql = `select StampId from CadreControl.${table} where ${GUARDED_KEY_COLUMN[table]} = ?`;
+    for await (const row of this.db!.eval(sql, [keyValue])) {
       return (row.StampId as string | null) ?? null;
     }
     return null;
   }
 
+  /**
+   * `CadrePeer` stamp nonce — read by {@link SeedBootstrapService.removePeer} as its
+   * row-present gate before it delegates to {@link deleteCadrePeer}. The in-class
+   * `CadrePeer` writers ({@link insertCadrePeer}, {@link reauthorizeCadrePeer}) go
+   * straight to {@link queryStampId}.
+   */
+  queryCadrePeerStampId(peerId: string): Promise<string | null> {
+    return this.queryStampId('CadrePeer', peerId);
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * `DeviceToken` stamp nonce. {@link deleteDeviceToken} reads the stamp itself, so this
+   * is the reader for callers that need to observe a live row's nonce — asserting a token
+   * was seated, or that a removal retired the stamp it named.
+   */
+  queryDeviceTokenStampId(peerId: string): Promise<string | null> {
+    return this.queryStampId('DeviceToken', peerId);
+  }
+
+  /** `Strand` stamp nonce — bound into {@link deleteStrand}'s remove digest. */
+  queryStrandStampId(strandId: string): Promise<string | null> {
+    return this.queryStampId('Strand', strandId);
+  }
+
+  /** `ValidationKey` stamp nonce — bound into {@link deleteValidationKey}'s remove digest. */
+  queryValidationKeyStampId(key: string): Promise<string | null> {
+    return this.queryStampId('ValidationKey', key);
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Collect the retired `StampId` nonces recorded in `CadreControl.Revocation` for one
+   * {@link RevocableTable}. A stamp
+   * lands here when its row is removed ({@link SeedBootstrapService.removePeer},
+   * {@link deleteValidationKey}, {@link deleteStrand}), and retirement is permanent —
+   * rows are never deleted (only their `ReissuedAt` counter moves, via
+   * {@link reissueRevocations}). Read-side mitigation for the write-time race: the
+   * schema's `NotRevoked` CHECK only sees locally visible tombstones, so a node that
+   * converged on a resurrected row before its tombstone can hold both; readers
+   * ({@link queryCadrePeers}, {@link queryPeerRecord},
+   * {@link CadreNode.resolveDeviceToken}) drop any row whose stamp appears here.
+   *
+   * NOTE: re-reads the whole retired set on every call, and the caller runs per inbound
+   * gate request while the table only ever grows. Cheap today (a cadre removes peers
+   * rarely); if removals ever become routine, cache the set and invalidate it on write.
+   */
+  async queryRevokedStamps(tableName: RevocableTable): Promise<Set<string>> {
+    this.ensureInitialized();
+    const stamps = new Set<string>();
+    for await (const row of this.db!.eval('select StampId from CadreControl.Revocation where TableName = ?', [tableName])) {
+      stamps.add(row.StampId as string);
+    }
+    return stamps;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Every locally-held `CadreControl.Revocation` tombstone — identity triple plus its
+   * `ReissuedAt` counter. Consumed by the cohort-growth re-issue sweep, which
+   * enumerates what this node holds before {@link reissueRevocations} re-broadcasts
+   * it. Plain scan with no `where`, so the composite-primary-key point-lookup hazard
+   * (see the statement comment in {@link reissueRevocations}) does not arise. Unlocked,
+   * like every other read.
+   */
+  async queryRevocations(): Promise<RevocationRow[]> {
+    this.ensureInitialized();
+    const rows: RevocationRow[] = [];
+    for await (const row of this.db!.eval('select TableName, RowKey, StampId, ReissuedAt from CadreControl.Revocation')) {
+      rows.push({
+        tableName: row.TableName as RevocableTable,
+        rowKey: row.RowKey as string,
+        stampId: row.StampId as string,
+        reissuedAt: (row.ReissuedAt as number | null) ?? 0,
+      });
+    }
+    return rows;
+  }
+
   /**
    * Read a single peer's address record (the full `CadrePeer` row) by PeerId.
    *
-   * Returns null when no row exists. Missing/legacy column values are coalesced
+   * Returns null when no row exists, or when the row's `StampId` is retired in
+   * `CadreControl.Revocation` — a revoked peer reads as absent, so the resolver
+   * ({@link CadreNode.resolvePeerAddrs}) never hands out a revoked peer's addresses.
+   * The stamp is read for that check only and then dropped; the returned
+   * {@link PeerAddressRecord} shape is unchanged. Reads the retired set through
+   * {@link queryRevokedStamps} rather than inlining the SQL, so tests can interpose on
+   * that seam (see {@link queryCadrePeers}).
+   *
+   * Missing/legacy column values are coalesced
    * to their empty form (`''` key/sig, `[]` addrs, `0` stamp) so the caller's
    * verify/freshness gates uniformly reject an unpublished or malformed row.
    * The split `addrs` re-join to the exact stored `Multiaddr` (split-on-`,` is
@@ -440,10 +899,15 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
    */
   async queryPeerRecord(peerId: string): Promise<PeerAddressRecord | null> {
     this.ensureInitialized();
+    const revoked = await this.queryRevokedStamps('CadrePeer');
     for await (const row of this.db!.eval(
-      'select PeerId, PublicKey, Multiaddr, UpdatedAt, Sig from CadreControl.CadrePeer where PeerId = ?',
+      'select PeerId, PublicKey, Multiaddr, UpdatedAt, Sig, StampId from CadreControl.CadrePeer where PeerId = ?',
       [peerId]
     )) {
+      const stampId = (row.StampId as string | null) ?? null;
+      if (stampId !== null && revoked.has(stampId)) {
+        return null;
+      }
       const multiaddr = (row.Multiaddr as string | null) ?? '';
       return {
         peerId: row.PeerId as string,
@@ -465,11 +929,24 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
    * is the refresh path for any member — owner or drone — once its row
    * exists. `PublicKey` is intentionally not in the SET list (it is immutable on
    * self-update and the constraint enforces `new.PublicKey = old.PublicKey`).
+   *
+   * Deliberately NOT wrapped in {@link mutateCadrePeer}, the one `CadrePeer` mutator that
+   * is not: it only ever touches THIS node's own row (sole caller
+   * `CadreNode.publishSelfRecord`), and `CadreNode.listAuthorizedMembers` filters self out
+   * of the membership snapshot, so it cannot change that snapshot. It also runs on the
+   * periodic self-registration refresh, where a notify would add a recurring membership
+   * read for nothing.
+   *
+   * Its INSERT counterpart (`SeedBootstrapService.insertSelfPeerRecord`) does notify. Not an
+   * inconsistency: it shares the one owner-signed insert path with every other member's
+   * row, and a self insert happens once at startup, so the wasted refresh is a single read
+   * — cheaper than a conditional carve-out inside the shared writer. Only the repeating
+   * path is worth exempting.
    */
   async updateSelfPeerRecord(record: PeerAddressRecord): Promise<void> {
     this.ensureInitialized();
     const multiaddr = record.addrs.join(',');
-    await this.db!.exec(`
+    await this.execWrite(`
       update CadreControl.CadrePeer
         with context OwnerKey = null, Signature = ?
         set Multiaddr = ?, UpdatedAt = ?, Sig = ?
@@ -486,11 +963,15 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
    * gates uniformly reject an unpublished or malformed row. `platform` is returned
    * verbatim (the resolver validates it against {@link PushPlatform} and re-verifies
    * the self-signature, which covers the platform field).
+   *
+   * `stampId` rides along ({@link DeviceTokenRow}) because the resolver must drop a
+   * row whose stamp is retired in `CadreControl.Revocation`; it is NOT part of
+   * {@link DeviceTokenRecord}, which is the self-signed shape the peer's `Sig` covers.
    */
-  async queryDeviceToken(peerId: string): Promise<DeviceTokenRecord | null> {
+  async queryDeviceToken(peerId: string): Promise<DeviceTokenRow | null> {
     this.ensureInitialized();
     for await (const row of this.db!.eval(
-      'select PeerId, Platform, Token, UpdatedAt, Sig from CadreControl.DeviceToken where PeerId = ?',
+      'select PeerId, Platform, Token, UpdatedAt, Sig, StampId from CadreControl.DeviceToken where PeerId = ?',
       [peerId]
     )) {
       return {
@@ -499,6 +980,7 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
         token: (row.Token as string | null) ?? '',
         updatedAt: (row.UpdatedAt as number | null) ?? 0,
         sig: (row.Sig as string | null) ?? '',
+        stampId: (row.StampId as string | null) ?? '',
       };
     }
     return null;
@@ -517,7 +999,7 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
    */
   async updateSelfDeviceToken(record: DeviceTokenRecord): Promise<void> {
     this.ensureInitialized();
-    await this.db!.exec(`
+    await this.execWrite(`
       update CadreControl.DeviceToken
         with context OwnerKey = null, Signature = ?
         set Platform = ?, Token = ?, UpdatedAt = ?, Sig = ?
@@ -533,12 +1015,16 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
     this.ensureInitialized();
     log('Inserting owner key: %s', key);
 
-    // Bootstrap is authorized by the schema's `(select count(1) from OwnerKey) <= 1`
-    // branch, so no signature is needed. We still persist a fresh, unique StampId in the
-    // row's own column to satisfy the not-null/unique anti-replay constraint — the StampId
-    // is now a real column value, not the optimystic `StampId()` SQL function.
+    // Bootstrap is authorized by the schema's genesis branch — `(select count(1) from
+    // committed.OwnerKey) = 0`, i.e. the party had no owner before this transaction — so no
+    // signature is needed. Every other branch of `OwnerKey.Authorized` requires a signature
+    // from a PRE-EXISTING owner, so this method only ever succeeds on a fresh party; seating
+    // a second owner (or removing one) has no writer here and must sign the digests
+    // documented on the schema's `Authorized` constraint. We still persist a fresh, unique
+    // StampId in the row's own column to satisfy the not-null/unique anti-replay constraint —
+    // the StampId is a real column value, not the optimystic `StampId()` SQL function.
     const stampId = generateStampId(this.config.libp2pNode.peerId.toString());
-    await this.db!.exec(`
+    await this.execWrite(`
       insert into CadreControl.OwnerKey (Key, StampId)
         with context OwnerKey = null, Signature = null
         values (?, ?)
@@ -575,13 +1061,13 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
     const peerId = this.config.libp2pNode.peerId.toString();
     const stampId = generateStampId(peerId);
 
-    // Field order MUST match the schema's Strand `Authorized` verify:
+    // Field order MUST match the schema's Strand `AuthorizedInsert` verify:
     // Id, Type, MemberPrivateKey ('' when null), StampId.
-    const message = buildAuthorizationMessage([strandId, type, memberPrivateKey ?? '', stampId]);
+    const message = buildAuthorizationMessage('CadreControl.Strand', 'add', [strandId, type, memberPrivateKey ?? '', stampId]);
     const signature = signMessage(message);
 
     // StampId is a real, unique column (single-use anti-replay), no longer a context value.
-    await this.db!.exec(`
+    await this.execWrite(`
       insert into CadreControl.Strand (Id, Type, MemberPrivateKey, StampId)
         with context OwnerKey = ?, Signature = ?
         values (?, ?, ?, ?)
@@ -590,6 +1076,32 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
     log('Strand inserted: %s', strandId);
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Delete a strand from the control database using an owner signature.
+   *
+   * Mirrors {@link insertStrand}'s row-bound approach for the delete half: the owner
+   * signs the canonical `'remove'`-tagged authorization message over (Id, StampId) — the
+   * schema's `Strand.AuthorizedDelete` verifies this DISTINCT digest, so the insert
+   * approval (which never expires) can never be replayed as a removal. The delete and
+   * the `Revocation` tombstone retiring the row's StampId commit in ONE transaction —
+   * `Strand.RevocationRecorded` refuses a bare delete, and without the tombstone the
+   * stamp would free up and the original formation approval could re-seat the strand.
+   * Body shared with every other guarded delete via {@link deleteGuardedRow}.
+   *
+   * The remove digest binds only (Id, StampId) — not Type/MemberPrivateKey — so this
+   * works identically for open and closed strands.
+   *
+   * A no-op (no throw, no tombstone) when the row does not exist — `false` then, `true`
+   * when a row was actually removed.
+   */
+  deleteStrand(
+    strandId: string,
+    ownerKey: string,
+    signMessage: (message: Uint8Array) => string
+  ): Promise<boolean> {
+    return this.lockedWithRetry(() => this.deleteGuardedRow('Strand', strandId, ownerKey, signMessage));
+  }
+
   /**
    * Insert a validation key into the control database using an owner signature.
    *
@@ -614,11 +1126,11 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
     const peerId = this.config.libp2pNode.peerId.toString();
     const stampId = generateStampId(peerId);
 
-    // Field order MUST match the schema's ValidationKey `Authorized` verify: Key, StampId.
-    const message = buildAuthorizationMessage([key, stampId]);
+    // Field order MUST match the schema's ValidationKey `AuthorizedInsert` verify: Key, StampId.
+    const message = buildAuthorizationMessage('CadreControl.ValidationKey', 'add', [key, stampId]);
     const signature = signMessage(message);
 
-    await this.db!.exec(`
+    await this.execWrite(`
       insert into CadreControl.ValidationKey (Key, StampId)
         with context OwnerKey = ?, Signature = ?
         values (?, ?)
@@ -627,22 +1139,819 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
     log('Validation key inserted: %s', key);
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Delete a validation key from the control database using an owner signature.
+   *
+   * Mirrors {@link insertValidationKey}'s row-bound approach for the delete half: the
+   * owner signs the canonical `'remove'`-tagged authorization message over (Key,
+   * StampId) — the schema's `ValidationKey.AuthorizedDelete` verifies this DISTINCT
+   * digest, so the enrollment approval (which never expires) can never be replayed as a
+   * removal. The delete and the `Revocation` tombstone retiring the row's StampId commit
+   * in ONE transaction — `ValidationKey.RevocationRecorded` refuses a bare delete, and
+   * without the tombstone the stamp would free up and the original enrollment approval
+   * could re-seat the key. Body shared with every other guarded delete via
+   * {@link deleteGuardedRow}.
+   *
+   * A no-op (no throw, no tombstone) when the row does not exist — `false` then, `true`
+   * when a row was actually removed.
+   */
+  deleteValidationKey(
+    key: string,
+    ownerKey: string,
+    signMessage: (message: Uint8Array) => string
+  ): Promise<boolean> {
+    return this.lockedWithRetry(() => this.deleteGuardedRow('ValidationKey', key, ownerKey, signMessage));
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Owner-vouched INSERT of one `CadrePeer` membership row, notifying the membership
+   * listener once it has committed.
+   *
+   * Mints a fresh single-use `StampId` and signs the `'vouch'`-tagged authorization
+   * message over (PeerId, StampId) — see {@link buildAuthorizationMessage} — satisfying
+   * the schema's `CadrePeer.AuthorizedInsert`. Binding the peer id to the nonce means a
+   * captured insert approval cannot be replayed (live rows are blocked by the unique
+   * `StampId` column, removed rows by `Revocation` retirement via `CadrePeer.NotRevoked`)
+   * and cannot be repurposed as a delete (which signs a distinct `'remove'`-tagged digest).
+   *
+   * The owner signature does NOT cover the address columns — those are vouched only as far
+   * as the owner asserts them, and a peer's own `Sig` (when present) is what makes the row
+   * resolvable.
+   *
+   * The {@link mutateCadrePeer} wrapper lives here rather than in the caller so no
+   * `CadrePeer` inserter can forget it — the write itself is what lets the admitted peer's
+   * traffic in.
+   *
+   * Idempotent on an already-present row: two writers can legitimately race the SAME peer's
+   * first row — the node's own background self-publish ({@link CadreNode.registerSelf})
+   * against a foreground {@link SeedBootstrapService.authorizePeer} of that node's id — and
+   * the write lock only serializes them; the loser would hit the `CadrePeer.PeerId` UNIQUE
+   * constraint. The existence check runs INSIDE the locked body, so it sees the winner's
+   * committed row (a pre-lock check would re-open the read-then-insert window). The existing
+   * row — voucher, addresses, self-`Sig` — is left untouched; re-touching a live row is
+   * {@link reauthorizeCadrePeer}'s job.
+   *
+   * @param row - the membership row's columns; `multiaddr` is the comma-joined address list.
+   * @param ownerKey - public key of the vouching owner, persisted into `VouchOwner`.
+   * @param signMessage - ed25519-signs the raw message bytes (no pre-hash) with that owner's
+   *   private key, returning a base64url signature.
+   * @returns `true` when this call performed the INSERT, `false` when the in-lock existence
+   *   check found the row already seated. The loser needs to know: an authorize seats a row
+   *   with a null `Sig`, so a self-publish that lost the race must fall through to a
+   *   self-update or its record never lands.
+   */
+  async insertCadrePeer(
+    row: {
+      peerId: string;
+      publicKey: string | null;
+      multiaddr: string;
+      updatedAt: number;
+      sig: string | null;
+    },
+    ownerKey: string,
+    signMessage: (message: Uint8Array) => string
+  ): Promise<boolean> {
+    this.ensureInitialized();
+    // Stamp is minted from the ADMITTED peer's id, not this node's — the nonce names the
+    // row it vouches.
+    const stampId = generateStampId(row.peerId);
+    const signature = signMessage(
+      buildAuthorizationMessage('CadreControl.CadrePeer', 'vouch', [row.peerId, stampId])
+    );
+    return await this.mutateCadrePeer('peer-insert', async () => {
+      if (await this.queryStampId('CadrePeer', row.peerId) !== null) {
+        log('CadrePeer row already present for %s; insert skipped (already a member)', row.peerId);
+        return false;
+      }
+      // Bare `exec`: already inside the write lock, which is NOT re-entrant (see the NOTE
+      // on withWriteLock — re-entry via execWrite hangs silently and permanently).
+      //
+      // Persist the vouching (owner, signature) onto the row (VouchOwner/VouchSig) —
+      // identical to the context pair, which the AuthorizedInsert constraint binds — so a
+      // reader can later re-check the voucher against its node-local trusted-owner anchor.
+      await this.db!.exec(`
+        insert into CadreControl.CadrePeer (PeerId, PublicKey, Multiaddr, UpdatedAt, Sig, StampId, VouchOwner, VouchSig)
+          with context OwnerKey = ?, Signature = ?
+          values (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?)
+      `, [ownerKey, signature, row.peerId, row.publicKey, row.multiaddr, row.updatedAt, row.sig, stampId, ownerKey, signature]);
+      return true;
+    });
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Owner "re-touch" of an existing `CadrePeer` membership row: bump `UpdatedAt` and
+   * rewrite `VouchOwner`/`VouchSig` under the owner branch of `CadrePeer.AuthorizedUpdate`
+   * (a signature over the SAME `'vouch'`-tagged digest {@link insertCadrePeer} builds), so
+   * the row is re-emitted as a fresh, broadcasting transaction.
+   *
+   * This is the write-while-alone re-replication primitive: a membership row that committed
+   * local-only (its block's cluster ≤1 at insert) is pushed to the cohort once it grows, by
+   * re-issuing this monotonic bump. It is an UPDATE (not the original INSERT) because the row
+   * already exists locally; a re-INSERT would hit the `PeerId` PK. Only the freshness stamp
+   * and voucher change — `PublicKey` / `Multiaddr` / `Sig` are left intact — so it is safe
+   * over a row whose peer has not self-published (`Sig` null); the caller must skip a row
+   * that already carries a self-`Sig` (that row is the owning peer's to refresh, and bumping
+   * `UpdatedAt` without re-signing would invalidate its self-signature).
+   *
+   * Signs over the row's CURRENT `StampId` (unchanged by the re-touch), read BEFORE the lock
+   * is taken. An absent row returns `false` WITHOUT notifying: nothing was written, so the
+   * membership snapshot cannot have changed.
+   *
+   * NOTE: that stamp read is outside the lock, same as {@link deleteGuardedRow}'s. A writer
+   * that removes the row in between makes the `update` match nothing, and this still returns
+   * `true` and notifies — harmless today (the sole caller, the write-while-alone drain, only
+   * logs the result, and a spurious notify just re-reads the member set), and a remove-then-
+   * re-add in the same window fails loudly instead, since the signature binds the retired
+   * stamp. If a caller ever acts on `true` as proof the row was written, fold the stamp read
+   * into the locked body.
+   *
+   * Notifies like the insert/remove paths even though this is "only" a re-touch: it rewrites
+   * VouchOwner/VouchSig, which the authorized-membership predicate judges on, so it CAN
+   * change the member set. Keeping the rule uniform ("every CadrePeer mutator notifies")
+   * beats a per-method exception the next reader has to relearn.
+   *
+   * NOTE: this rebinds VouchOwner to the CALLING owner's key, and the authorized-membership
+   * predicate (`CadreNode.listAuthorizedMembers`) now judges rows by that column against each
+   * reader's node-local anchor. Benign today because the only caller — the write-while-alone
+   * drain — re-touches solely rows this node itself authored (`pendingPeerWrites`), so the
+   * voucher is rewritten to the key that already signed it. If a future path ever lets one
+   * owner re-touch a row a DIFFERENT owner vouched, the voucher silently flips: readers that
+   * anchor the original owner but not this one would drop a legitimate member. Such a path
+   * must re-vouch deliberately (or preserve the existing VouchOwner/VouchSig) rather than
+   * inherit this rebinding.
+   *
+   * @param peerId - the membership row to re-touch.
+   * @param updatedAt - the strictly-increasing freshness stamp to write.
+   * @param ownerKey - public key of the re-vouching owner, rewritten into `VouchOwner`.
+   * @param signMessage - ed25519-signs the raw message bytes with that owner's private key.
+   * @returns `true` when the row was re-touched, `false` when no row exists (no notify).
+   */
+  async reauthorizeCadrePeer(
+    peerId: string,
+    updatedAt: number,
+    ownerKey: string,
+    signMessage: (message: Uint8Array) => string
+  ): Promise<boolean> {
+    this.ensureInitialized();
+    const stampId = await this.queryStampId('CadrePeer', peerId);
+    if (stampId === null) {
+      log('reauthorizeCadrePeer: no CadrePeer row for %s (nothing to re-touch)', peerId);
+      return false;
+    }
+    const signature = signMessage(
+      buildAuthorizationMessage('CadreControl.CadrePeer', 'vouch', [peerId, stampId])
+    );
+    await this.mutateCadrePeer('peer-reauthorize', async () => {
+      // Bare `exec` — inside the non-re-entrant write lock (see insertCadrePeer).
+      await this.db!.exec(`
+        update CadreControl.CadrePeer
+          with context OwnerKey = ?, Signature = ?
+          set UpdatedAt = ?, VouchOwner = ?, VouchSig = ?
+          where PeerId = ?
+      `, [ownerKey, signature, updatedAt, ownerKey, signature, peerId]);
+    });
+    return true;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Owner-signed removal of one `CadrePeer` membership row, notifying the membership
+   * listener once it has committed.
+   *
+   * Mirrors {@link deleteStrand} for the membership table: the owner signs the DISTINCT
+   * `'remove'`-tagged digest over (PeerId, StampId), so the row's stored `VouchSig` can
+   * never be replayed to delete it, and the `Revocation` tombstone retiring the stamp
+   * lands in the SAME transaction — `CadrePeer.RevocationRecorded` refuses a bare delete,
+   * and without the tombstone the never-expiring admission approval (which the removed
+   * peer holds a copy of) could re-seat the row.
+   *
+   * The {@link mutateCadrePeer} wrapper lives here rather than in the caller so no
+   * `CadrePeer` remover can forget it. It notifies whenever the body resolves, including
+   * the absent-row no-op below — a caller that must not notify for an already-absent peer
+   * gates on {@link queryCadrePeerStampId} first (see
+   * {@link SeedBootstrapService.removePeer}).
+   *
+   * A no-op (no throw, no tombstone) when the row does not exist — `false` then, `true`
+   * when a row was actually removed.
+   */
+  deleteCadrePeer(
+    peerId: string,
+    ownerKey: string,
+    signMessage: (message: Uint8Array) => string
+  ): Promise<boolean> {
+    return this.mutateCadrePeer('peer-remove', () =>
+      this.deleteGuardedRow('CadrePeer', peerId, ownerKey, signMessage));
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Owner-signed removal of one peer's `DeviceToken` row (logout / token invalidation).
+   *
+   * Mirrors {@link deleteStrand}: the owner signs the DISTINCT `'remove'`-tagged digest
+   * over (PeerId, StampId), so the insert approval can never be replayed to clear a token,
+   * and the `Revocation` tombstone retiring the stamp lands in the SAME transaction —
+   * `DeviceToken.RevocationRecorded` refuses a bare delete, and without the tombstone the
+   * never-expiring insert approval (which the cleared device holds a copy of) could
+   * re-seat the token.
+   *
+   * A no-op (no throw, no tombstone) when the row does not exist — `false` then, `true`
+   * when a row was actually removed.
+   */
+  deleteDeviceToken(
+    peerId: string,
+    ownerKey: string,
+    signMessage: (message: Uint8Array) => string
+  ): Promise<boolean> {
+    return this.lockedWithRetry(() => this.deleteGuardedRow('DeviceToken', peerId, ownerKey, signMessage));
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Owner-signed delete of one guarded row plus the `Revocation` tombstone retiring its
+   * stamp, in ONE transaction. The single body behind EVERY guarded delete —
+   * {@link deleteStrand}, {@link deleteValidationKey}, {@link deleteCadrePeer},
+   * {@link deleteDeviceToken}; see any of them for the per-table security rationale. Each
+   * of those is a thin named wrapper, so callers never pass a table name and this
+   * generic shape stays off the public surface.
+   *
+   * `OwnerKey` is excluded from `table` only because no owner-key removal path exists in
+   * production yet — the schema has the `'remove'` branch (`OwnerKey.Authorized`, which
+   * requires a DIFFERENT owner as signer) and `control-revocation-replay.spec.ts` drives
+   * it with hand-rolled SQL. Widen this and add a wrapper when that path lands; the body
+   * needs no change.
+   *
+   * The row's CURRENT stamp is read first and signed over, so the remove digest binds to
+   * this exact row instance. A no-op (no throw, no tombstone) when the row is absent —
+   * reported as `false` so a caller can tell "removed" from "was never there" without a
+   * second read (e.g. {@link CadreNode.unpublishStrand}'s committed-while-alone warning,
+   * which must not fire for a no-op).
+   *
+   * NOTE: the stamp read is outside the transaction. A concurrent writer that removes
+   * the row in between makes the signature bind a stamp that is no longer live; the
+   * delete then matches nothing and the tombstone insert collides with the other
+   * writer's on `Revocation`'s (TableName, StampId) primary key, so the transaction
+   * fails rather than silently half-applying. If concurrent owner-device removals ever
+   * become routine, fold the stamp read into the transaction instead.
+   *
+   * Deliberately NOT wrapped in {@link withWriteLock}: every public entry point already
+   * holds the (non-re-entrant) lock, so taking it again here would self-deadlock.
+   *
+   * `table` and its {@link GUARDED_KEY_COLUMN} column are interpolated into the SQL; both
+   * come from closed literal unions — no caller-supplied string reaches the statement.
+   */
+  private async deleteGuardedRow(
+    table: Exclude<RevocableTable, 'OwnerKey'>,
+    keyValue: string,
+    ownerKey: string,
+    signMessage: (message: Uint8Array) => string
+  ): Promise<boolean> {
+    this.ensureInitialized();
+    const stampId = await this.queryStampId(table, keyValue);
+    if (stampId === null) {
+      log('delete %s: no row for %s (already absent)', table, keyValue);
+      return false;
+    }
+
+    const message = buildAuthorizationMessage(`CadreControl.${table}`, 'remove', [keyValue, stampId]);
+    const signature = signMessage(message);
+    // The tombstone carries its OWN owner signature (`Revocation.Authorized`): retiring a
+    // stamp is permanent and party-wide, so the delete's signature deliberately does not
+    // cover it — the digests are domain-separated and neither replays as the other.
+    const revocationSignature = signMessage(
+      buildAuthorizationMessage('CadreControl.Revocation', 'remove', [table, keyValue, stampId]),
+    );
+
+    await this.inTransaction(`delete ${table}`, async () => {
+      await this.db!.exec(`
+        delete from CadreControl.${table}
+          with context OwnerKey = ?, Signature = ?
+          where ${GUARDED_KEY_COLUMN[table]} = ?
+      `, [ownerKey, signature, keyValue]);
+      // ReissuedAt named explicitly at 0 (the only value FreshTombstone accepts) rather
+      // than leaning on the column default — the seat-at-zero rule is load-bearing for
+      // reissueRevocations' monotonic bump, so state it at the write site.
+      await this.db!.exec(`
+        insert into CadreControl.Revocation (TableName, RowKey, StampId, ReissuedAt)
+          with context OwnerKey = ?, Signature = ?
+          values (?, ?, ?, 0)
+      `, [ownerKey, revocationSignature, table, keyValue, stampId]);
+    });
+
+    log('%s deleted: %s (stamp retired)', table, keyValue);
+    if (this.guardedDeleteListener) {
+      try {
+        this.guardedDeleteListener({ tableName: table, rowKey: keyValue, stampId });
+      } catch (error) {
+        log('guarded-delete listener threw (committed delete unaffected): %o', error);
+      }
+    }
+    return true;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Delete one guarded row that an ALREADY-COMMITTED `Revocation` tombstone retires —
+   * the local catch-up for a node that converged on a removal's tombstone while still
+   * holding the removed row. That live-row-plus-tombstone state is reachable only by
+   * replication merge (local writes cannot build it: `Revocation.RowIsGone` refuses a
+   * tombstone while the row is live), and replication cannot carry the delete itself —
+   * replaying a delete of a row that is already gone locally is a no-op — so without
+   * this the stale row is permanent garbage on every node that held it at revocation
+   * time. Authorized by the REAP branch of the table's `AuthorizedDelete`: the
+   * tombstone is itself owner-signed (`Revocation.Authorized`), so no owner key is
+   * needed HERE — any node holding row + tombstone may reap, drones included.
+   *
+   * Returns whether a row was removed: `false` without writing when the row is absent
+   * locally (the common case on most nodes), or when its live stamp is not `stampId`
+   * (a fresh incarnation the owner re-seated, which the old tombstone must not touch).
+   *
+   * The delete's WHERE clause binds `StampId` too — required, not belt-and-braces: an
+   * owner may re-seat the row (fresh stamp) between the stamp read below and the
+   * statement, and without the clause the reap would delete the owner's brand-new row.
+   * With it the statement matches nothing and the reap is a silent no-op (the schema
+   * branch would also refuse that delete, but as a constraint error thrown into a
+   * background sweep — matched-nothing is the better failure mode). Like
+   * {@link reauthorizeCadrePeer}, a race lost AFTER the guard still returns `true`;
+   * harmless — nothing was deleted, and the next sweep re-reads.
+   *
+   * Writes NOTHING to `Revocation`: `RevocationRecorded` is satisfied by the same
+   * committed tombstone that authorizes the reap, so a reap files no second tombstone.
+   * It therefore does NOT fire the guarded-delete listener either — that seam exists to
+   * queue a tombstone for re-issue when it committed while alone, and a reap has no
+   * tombstone of its own to re-issue. A reap that commits while alone needs no
+   * re-replication at all: every OTHER node either already lacks the row, or holds the
+   * same committed tombstone and reaps its own copy.
+   *
+   * NOTE: the reap delete is keyed on the primary key; the `StampId` predicate is applied
+   * where the statement runs. If a reap on one node ever has to be reconciled against an
+   * owner re-seat of the same key that landed on another node, whether the delete or the
+   * re-seat wins is decided by the collection's merge order, not by this clause — the same
+   * ordering question the owner-signed delete path already carries
+   * (`tickets/blocked/forked-control-collection-sync-livelocks.md`). Only matters once a
+   * sweep drives this automatically on connected nodes; if that reconcile ever drops a
+   * freshly re-seated row, this is the site.
+   *
+   * `table` and its {@link GUARDED_KEY_COLUMN} column come from closed literal unions —
+   * no caller-supplied string reaches the statement (same injection-surface discipline
+   * as {@link deleteGuardedRow}). The `with context` clause is PRESENT and bound to
+   * nulls, never omitted: Quereus cannot resolve `context.OwnerKey` at plan time when
+   * the clause is absent while a constraint references `context.*` (nulls through a
+   * present clause are the shape {@link redeemInvitation}'s consent-branch insert ships).
+   *
+   * Driven automatically by {@link reapRevokedRows}, which the periodic control-cohort
+   * reconcile pass runs while the node has at least one control connection.
+   */
+  async reapRevokedRow(table: ReapableTable, rowKey: string, stampId: string): Promise<boolean> {
+    this.ensureInitialized();
+    const liveStamp = await this.queryStampId(table, rowKey);
+    if (liveStamp === null) {
+      log('reap %s: no row for %s (nothing to reap)', table, rowKey);
+      return false;
+    }
+    if (liveStamp !== stampId) {
+      log('reap %s: %s holds a fresh incarnation (live stamp differs from the tombstoned one); leaving it', table, rowKey);
+      return false;
+    }
+    const sql = `
+      delete from CadreControl.${table}
+        with context OwnerKey = null, Signature = null
+        where ${GUARDED_KEY_COLUMN[table]} = ? and StampId = ?
+    `;
+    if (table === 'CadrePeer') {
+      // Through mutateCadrePeer so the "EVERY CadrePeer writer goes through here"
+      // invariant keeps holding with no new documented exception. The membership
+      // snapshot cannot actually change — queryCadrePeers already dropped this row via
+      // the retired-stamp gate — so the notify is a redundant refresh. Bare exec:
+      // already inside the non-re-entrant write lock (see insertCadrePeer).
+      //
+      // NOTE: reapRevokedRows calls this in a loop, so a sweep that clears K CadrePeer
+      // rows fires K redundant gate refreshes (two table scans each), awaited serially.
+      // Harmless today — K is the backlog of unreaped rows, which a party burns down to
+      // 0 on its first connected tick and holds there. If a party ever reaps many rows
+      // in one pass, hoist the notify to one refresh after the sweep instead.
+      await this.mutateCadrePeer('peer-reap', () => this.db!.exec(sql, [rowKey, stampId]));
+    } else {
+      await this.execWrite(sql, [rowKey, stampId]);
+    }
+    // A row leaving the control plane without an owner signature at the write site
+    // should be visible in a log.
+    log('REAPED %s row %s (stamp %s): committed tombstone authorized local removal, no owner signature', table, rowKey, stampId);
+    return true;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Sweep every locally-held `Revocation` tombstone and {@link reapRevokedRow} the guarded
+   * row each one retires, returning how many rows were actually removed.
+   *
+   * This is the enumeration half of the reap: replication carries the tombstone but cannot
+   * carry the delete (replaying a delete of an already-absent row is a no-op), so a node
+   * that converged on a removal while holding the removed row keeps that row as inert
+   * garbage until something walks the tombstones and drops it. `CadreNode`'s periodic
+   * control-cohort reconcile pass is that something, gated on the node having at least one
+   * control connection (a reap is a write, and a write committed alone is local-only).
+   *
+   * Enumerated UNLOCKED, deleted per-row LOCKED: {@link reapRevokedRow} takes the write
+   * lock itself (via {@link mutateCadrePeer} / {@link execWrite}) and the lock is not
+   * re-entrant, so this loop must not hold it. Same structure as
+   * `CadreNode.reissueAuthoredMembershipRows`.
+   *
+   * Two rows are deliberately left alone:
+   *
+   * - **Tables outside {@link REAPABLE_TABLES}** (`Strand`, `OwnerKey`) — no reap branch
+   *   exists on their `AuthorizedDelete`, so the delete would throw rather than no-op.
+   * - **This node's OWN `CadrePeer` / `DeviceToken` row** (`selfPeerId`). Reaping it would
+   *   fight this node's own re-registration: `registerSelf` / `retouchSelfDeviceToken` run
+   *   on the heartbeat and the growth drain, and after a self-reap their insert-if-absent
+   *   guard takes the INSERT path — which needs an owner signature `NotRevoked` refuses for
+   *   a retired stamp, and which a revoked drone cannot produce at all. The trade is
+   *   recurring failure noise every cycle against removing the one stale row nobody else
+   *   reads from this node (every other node already filters it by tombstone). A revoked
+   *   node therefore keeps its own copy of its own row; "a node that learns it has been
+   *   revoked should shut itself down" is a distinct behaviour and its own ticket.
+   *   `ValidationKey` has no self notion and is not special-cased.
+   *
+   * A per-row failure is logged and skipped rather than aborting the sweep: an abort would
+   * starve every tombstone after the failing one on every subsequent pass, and each row is
+   * independent. Returns the count so far if the database is closed mid-sweep.
+   *
+   * `selfPeerId` is a parameter rather than read from the injected libp2p node so the
+   * skip-self rule is exercisable without one.
+   *
+   * NOTE: cost is O(tombstones), not O(live rows) — one {@link queryRevocations} scan plus
+   * one {@link queryStampId} point lookup per tombstone, and the empty-table early return
+   * makes the common case (a party that has never revoked anyone) a single scan per pass.
+   * But `Revocation` is append-only and unbounded, so this is O(all tombstones ever) point
+   * lookups on every reconcile tick. Fine while revocations stay rare for a cadre-sized
+   * party; if the table ever grows, persist a node-local high-water mark of what has
+   * already been reaped instead of re-scanning everything (the same bound the sweep in
+   * `CadreNode.drainPendingRevocations` wants).
+   */
+  async reapRevokedRows(selfPeerId: string): Promise<number> {
+    this.ensureInitialized();
+    const held = await this.queryRevocations();
+    if (held.length === 0) {
+      return 0;
+    }
+    let reaped = 0;
+    for (const tombstone of held) {
+      // Teardown guard, per row: close() can land mid-sweep (the reconcile pass that
+      // drives this outlives no node, but it does not hold the node's lifecycle either).
+      if (!this.initialized || !this.db) {
+        return reaped;
+      }
+      if (!isReapableTable(tombstone.tableName)) {
+        continue;
+      }
+      if (tombstone.rowKey === selfPeerId
+        && (tombstone.tableName === 'CadrePeer' || tombstone.tableName === 'DeviceToken')) {
+        continue;
+      }
+      try {
+        if (await this.reapRevokedRow(tombstone.tableName, tombstone.rowKey, tombstone.stampId)) {
+          reaped++;
+        }
+      } catch (error) {
+        log('reap sweep: %s row %s (stamp %s) failed (continuing): %o',
+          tombstone.tableName, tombstone.rowKey, tombstone.stampId, error);
+      }
+    }
+    return reaped;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Owner-signed re-issue of a batch of `Revocation` tombstones: bump each row's
+   * `ReissuedAt` to `reissuedAt` in ONE transaction. Re-writing the row is what makes
+   * the storage layer re-broadcast it — a tombstone that committed while the node was
+   * alone is local-only, and unlike an insert a delete cannot be replayed (the guarded
+   * row is already gone locally), so the tombstone is the half of a removal that can
+   * still carry it to the rest of the party.
+   *
+   * One transaction, not one per row: a sweep may cover every tombstone in the table,
+   * and each separate commit is a separate round of network work. One owner signature
+   * per row: `AuthorizedReissue`'s digest binds (TableName, RowKey, StampId,
+   * ReissuedAt). `reissuedAt` must be STRICTLY above every affected row's current
+   * value (`ReissueOnly`); callers derive it as `Math.max(Date.now(), max(existing) + 1)`,
+   * mirroring {@link CadreNode.reissuePeerAuthorize}'s monotonic bump. Re-issuing a
+   * tombstone whose guarded row was never present locally is the normal case (a node
+   * that converged on the tombstone but never held the row) — a re-issue files no
+   * delete, so `RowIsGone` / `RevocationRecorded` are not involved.
+   *
+   * A constraint failure on any row rolls the WHOLE batch back and propagates —
+   * {@link lockedWithRetry}'s classifier only re-presents transient cluster failures,
+   * so a real refusal (non-owner signer, or a stale counter when two owner devices
+   * sweep concurrently and the loser's `ReissueOnly` CHECK fails) surfaces to the
+   * caller, which retries with a fresh counter on its next sweep. A row whose
+   * `StampId` matches nothing locally is a silent no-op statement; callers enumerate
+   * via {@link queryRevocations} first, so they only name stamps they hold.
+   *
+   * Returns how many UPDATE statements ran (`rows.length` on success).
+   */
+  reissueRevocations(
+    rows: readonly RevocationRow[],
+    reissuedAt: number,
+    ownerKey: string,
+    signMessage: (message: Uint8Array) => string
+  ): Promise<number> {
+    this.ensureInitialized();
+    // Signatures minted OUTSIDE the locked body: a retried attempt must re-present the
+    // exact signed message, never re-mint (the contract on withWriteLock). ReissuedAt
+    // rides in the digest as a string — SQL-side it is cast(new.ReissuedAt as text),
+    // and every digest field is TEXT on both sides (see buildAuthorizationMessage).
+    const signed = rows.map((row) => ({
+      row,
+      signature: signMessage(buildAuthorizationMessage(
+        'CadreControl.Revocation', 'reissue',
+        [row.tableName, row.rowKey, row.stampId, String(reissuedAt)]
+      )),
+    }));
+    return this.lockedWithRetry(async () => {
+      // Counter lives INSIDE the locked body so a lockedWithRetry re-run (which
+      // re-executes the whole body) starts from zero instead of double-counting.
+      let executed = 0;
+      await this.inTransaction('reissue revocations', async () => {
+        for (const { row, signature } of signed) {
+          // Keyed on StampId ALONE, deliberately. Equality on every column of the
+          // composite primary key (TableName, StampId) makes the optimystic vtab claim
+          // the predicate as a point lookup with no engine-side re-check, and that
+          // descent has been observed returning zero rows for a row that provably
+          // exists (tickets/backlog/debt-composite-pk-point-lookup-unreliable-untracked).
+          // A re-issue that silently matched nothing would report success and
+          // replicate nothing — the exact failure this path exists to remove. StampId
+          // alone is a non-leading subset of the key, which the module declines, so
+          // the read is a scan the engine filters; a StampId is 128 bits of CSPRNG
+          // output minted per row incarnation (generateStampId), so it identifies one
+          // row across all TableName values. Do NOT "fix" this by adding TableName to
+          // the where clause.
+          await this.db!.exec(`
+            update CadreControl.Revocation
+              with context OwnerKey = ?, Signature = ?
+              set ReissuedAt = ?
+              where StampId = ?
+          `, [ownerKey, signature, reissuedAt, row.stampId]);
+          executed++;
+        }
+      });
+      log('Reissued %d revocation tombstone(s) at %d', executed, reissuedAt);
+      return executed;
+    });
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Run `body` between `beginTransaction` and `commit`, rolling back on failure.
+   *
+   * A failed `commit()` has already torn the transaction down, so the `rollback()` in
+   * the failure path would itself throw "No transaction active" and mask the real
+   * cause — that secondary throw is logged and swallowed, and the original error always
+   * propagates.
+   *
+   * It opens a transaction unconditionally (Quereus hard-throws on a nested
+   * `beginTransaction`), so a caller already inside one must not call it. A `CadrePeer`
+   * write nests this INSIDE {@link mutateCadrePeer}, never the reverse — see
+   * {@link assertCommitBoundary}.
+   *
+   * Private: every multi-statement control write lives in this class (the owner-signed
+   * delete/tombstone pairs all go through {@link deleteGuardedRow}), so needing to widen
+   * this is a sign the writer that wants it belongs in here too.
+   *
+   * Deliberately NOT wrapped in {@link withWriteLock}: callers already hold the
+   * (non-re-entrant) lock, so taking it again here would self-deadlock.
+   *
+   * @param label - What the transaction was doing, for the rollback log line.
+   */
+  private async inTransaction(label: string, body: () => Promise<void>): Promise<void> {
+    this.ensureInitialized();
+    await this.db!.beginTransaction();
+    try {
+      await body();
+      await this.db!.commit();
+    } catch (error) {
+      try {
+        await this.db!.rollback();
+      } catch (rollbackError) {
+        log('Rollback after %s failure was a no-op: %s', label, rollbackError);
+      }
+      throw error;
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Wire (or clear, with null) the single listener notified after every committed
+   * `CadreControl.CadrePeer` row write.
+   *
+   * At most one listener: a ControlDatabase instance belongs to exactly one
+   * {@link CadreNode}, which wires this in `start()` and clears it on teardown. A
+   * second call replaces the first rather than fanning out, so a stale node can
+   * never keep receiving notifications for a database it no longer owns.
+   */
+  setMembershipChangeListener(listener: MembershipChangeListener | null): void {
+    this.membershipListener = listener;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Wire (or clear, with null) the single listener notified after every committed
+   * guarded-table delete. Same ownership contract as
+   * {@link setMembershipChangeListener}: one CadreNode, one listener, a second
+   * call replaces the first.
+   */
+  setGuardedDeleteListener(listener: GuardedDeleteListener | null): void {
+    this.guardedDeleteListener = listener;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Run a `CadrePeer` row mutation and notify the membership listener once it has
+   * COMMITTED.
+   *
+   * EVERY `CadrePeer` writer goes through here, with one documented exception
+   * ({@link updateSelfPeerRecord}, which cannot change the snapshot) — that is what makes
+   * the party-membership snapshot refresh automatic rather than a caller obligation. A
+   * writer necessarily holds the target node's ControlDatabase (the `SeedBootstrapService`'s
+   * event callbacks are NOT a viable seam: the temp services `CadreNode.applySeed`/
+   * `dialInvite` build, and services constructed outside `CadreNode` entirely, never get
+   * callbacks wired), so this is the one point on the write path that cannot be bypassed.
+   *
+   * `body` owns its own transaction if it needs one and must COMMIT before returning, so
+   * the notification never makes the listener read uncommitted state. A throwing `body`
+   * propagates and does NOT notify: nothing changed.
+   *
+   * That contract is enforced, not merely documented — see {@link assertCommitBoundary}.
+   *
+   * Runs under {@link withWriteLock}, notification included: with the lock held through
+   * the notify, no other local writer can have a transaction open while the listener
+   * reads, so the listener always sees exactly the committed state it was told about.
+   * The listener itself only READS (it re-materializes the membership snapshot) — a
+   * listener that wrote through a locked method would deadlock.
+   *
+   * Reaches the lock through {@link lockedWithRetry}, so after a transient cluster
+   * failure the WHOLE locked body re-runs — `body` must be atomic and re-runnable (the
+   * contract on {@link withWriteLock}). The notify sits after a successful `body` inside
+   * the same attempt and a throwing attempt never reaches it, so a retried mutation
+   * still notifies exactly once: on the attempt that commits, and not at all on
+   * exhaustion.
+   *
+   * @param reason - Label for the log line only (e.g. `'peer-insert'`).
+   */
+  async mutateCadrePeer<T>(reason: string, body: () => Promise<T>): Promise<T> {
+    this.ensureInitialized();
+    return this.lockedWithRetry(async () => {
+      this.assertCommitBoundary(reason, 'on entry to');
+      const result = await body();
+      this.assertCommitBoundary(reason, 'on return from');
+      await this.notifyMembershipChanged(reason);
+      return result;
+    });
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Run one local write under the database-wide write lock, serializing it against
+   * every other local writer on this ControlDatabase.
+   *
+   * Quereus tracks transaction state per `Database` (`getAutocommit()`), and a write
+   * statement's implicit transaction stays open across the awaits inside `exec`. Two
+   * local writers interleaving mid-statement therefore either trip
+   * {@link assertCommitBoundary} (any `CadrePeer` path) or silently join each other's
+   * open transaction — a torn commit if either side rolls back. This lock closes that
+   * class: every public write method of this class runs its statement(s) under it, and
+   * `SeedBootstrapService` wraps its direct `db.exec` writes in it too. The race is
+   * real, not theoretical: the background self-record publish on a control connection
+   * opening (`CadreNode.drainPendingControlReplication` → `registerSelf`) collided with
+   * a foreground `authorizePeer` — both `CadrePeer` inserts — and tripped the boundary
+   * assert.
+   *
+   * Reads are deliberately not locked: they take no transaction of their own, and
+   * serializing them here would let a listener that reads during a notify (see
+   * {@link mutateCadrePeer}) deadlock. The lock is NOT re-entrant — a locked writer's
+   * body must never call another locked public method; the private bodies it composes
+   * ({@link deleteGuardedRow}, {@link inTransaction}) stay bare for exactly that reason.
+   *
+   * NOTE: re-entry fails SILENTLY and PERMANENTLY. A locked body that calls another
+   * locked public method (including a {@link mutateCadrePeer} body, which runs an
+   * arbitrary caller-supplied callback) queues behind its own tail and never resolves —
+   * no error, and it strands the whole write queue, not only that call. There is no
+   * cheap fail-fast: a "held" flag cannot tell re-entry from a legitimately queued
+   * concurrent writer. Compose bare private bodies instead.
+   *
+   * A locked body must also be ATOMIC and RE-RUNNABLE: the public write surface reaches
+   * this lock through {@link lockedWithRetry}, which re-runs the WHOLE body after a
+   * transient cluster failure. Atomic holds for every body today — one statement, or
+   * wrapped in {@link inTransaction} — so a failed attempt leaves nothing half-applied;
+   * re-runnable means a retry re-runs the body's reads too, which is what makes it safe.
+   * Signatures and stamp ids minted OUTSIDE the body are deliberately NOT re-minted per
+   * attempt: a retry re-presents the exact signed message the first attempt presented.
+   */
+  async withWriteLock<T>(fn: () => Promise<T>): Promise<T> {
+    // Chain behind the current tail regardless of how it settled, then park a
+    // swallowed copy as the new tail so one failed write never poisons the queue.
+    const run = this.writeQueue.then(fn, fn);
+    this.writeQueue = run.then(() => undefined, () => undefined);
+    return run;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * {@link withWriteLock} plus the bounded transient-failure retry
+   * ({@link retryControlWrite}) — the wrapper the whole public write surface goes
+   * through, so a control write that failed because the cluster cohort did not answer is
+   * re-presented a moment later instead of surfacing to ~19 callers that are not
+   * uniformly written to retry.
+   *
+   * The retry wraps the LOCK, it does not live inside it: each attempt takes and
+   * releases the lock, and the backoff sleeps with NO lock held, so a write parked in
+   * backoff never stalls the other local writers queued behind it. Same reason
+   * {@link withUseNumberRetry} re-takes the lock per attempt — see the note on
+   * `USE_NUMBER_ATTEMPTS`. Safe because every locked body is atomic and re-runnable
+   * (the contract on {@link withWriteLock}).
+   *
+   * Also carries {@link loadSchema}'s distributed DDL, the one caller that runs BEFORE
+   * `initialized` is set — so it reaches this method directly rather than through
+   * {@link execWrite}, whose {@link ensureInitialized} would reject it. The write queue is
+   * necessarily empty at that point, so the lock is uncontended there; it is taken anyway
+   * rather than carving out a lockless path. It is also the ONLY caller that passes a
+   * `policy` — everything else takes the default, whose classifier and attempt count are
+   * unchanged by that call site existing.
+   */
+  private lockedWithRetry<T>(fn: () => Promise<T>, policy: ControlWriteRetryOptions = {}): Promise<T> {
+    return retryControlWrite(
+      () => this.withWriteLock(fn),
+      { ...policy, ...this.controlWriteRetryPacing }
+    );
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * One-statement local write, serialized by {@link withWriteLock} and retried on a
+   * transient cluster failure via {@link lockedWithRetry}. Prefer this over a bare
+   * `getDatabase().exec` so a new writer cannot forget the lock — the hazard
+   * {@link assertCommitBoundary} can only catch after the fact.
+   *
+   * Public so `SeedBootstrapService`'s direct `CadrePeer`/`DeviceToken` SQL writes go
+   * through the same seam. Must NOT be called from inside an already-locked body (the
+   * lock is not re-entrant); such a caller uses a bare `getDatabase().exec` instead.
+   */
+  execWrite(sql: string, params?: SqlParameters): Promise<void> {
+    this.ensureInitialized();
+    return this.lockedWithRetry(() => this.db!.exec(sql, params));
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Throw unless the database sits at a committed boundary — `getAutocommit()` is false
+   * exactly while a transaction is open.
+   *
+   * Both ends of a {@link mutateCadrePeer} body are checked, because either open
+   * transaction would notify a listener that then reads PRE-commit state and materializes
+   * a membership snapshot silently missing the write it was told about:
+   *
+   * - open on entry: the wrapper sits INSIDE an enclosing transaction and must be moved
+   *   out to enclose that outer commit.
+   * - open on return: the body opened a transaction and never committed it.
+   *
+   * Neither is reachable from today's callers, so this is a fail-fast guard on a future
+   * mistake rather than a live code path.
+   *
+   * NOTE: `getAutocommit()` reports the whole `Database`, not this call. Local writers
+   * serialize through {@link withWriteLock}, so with every writer locked this can only
+   * trip on the two misuses above. A writer that bypasses the lock (a new method that
+   * forgets it, or raw `getDatabase().exec` outside a locked wrapper) re-opens the
+   * concurrent-writer window, and this assert is what catches it — it throws instead of
+   * silently joining the other write's transaction.
+   */
+  private assertCommitBoundary(reason: string, where: string): void {
+    if (this.db!.getAutocommit()) {
+      return;
+    }
+    throw new Error(
+      `mutateCadrePeer(${reason}): a transaction is open ${where} the mutation body — a ` +
+      'CadrePeer write must commit before the membership listener runs; move the ' +
+      'mutateCadrePeer wrapper out to enclose the commit'
+    );
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Best-effort notify. A listener that throws is logged and swallowed: the write has
+   * already committed, and it must never be reported as failed because a downstream
+   * snapshot refresh did. A null listener (no `CadreNode` attached — e.g. the service
+   * unit tests drive a bare control DB) is a silent no-op.
+   */
+  private async notifyMembershipChanged(reason: string): Promise<void> {
+    if (!this.membershipListener) {
+      return;
+    }
+    try {
+      await this.membershipListener(reason);
+    } catch (error) {
+      log('Membership change listener failed (%s): %s', reason, error);
+    }
+  }
+
   /**
    * Insert an owner-signed `FormationInvite` (open invitation token).
    *
    * The invite is the on-network record that later authorizes an
    * owner-signature-FREE `Strand` creation: an invited cadre peer redeems it
    * by inserting a matching `FormationUsage` row (see {@link redeemInvitation}),
-   * which satisfies the consent branch of `Strand.Authorized`.
+   * which satisfies the consent branch of `Strand.AuthorizedInsert`.
    *
    * Like {@link insertStrand}/{@link insertValidationKey}, the owner signs the
    * canonical row-bound authorization message (see {@link buildAuthorizationMessage})
    * over (Token, sAppId, ExpiresAt, TotalUses, ValidationUrl, StrandId, StampId) — NOT a
    * bare stamp — so the signature is bound to this invite's contents and cannot be
    * transplanted onto an attacker-chosen row. The StampId is persisted as a unique
-   * column for single-use anti-replay. `FormationInvite.AuthorizedAddOrRemove` gates
-   * both insert and delete; its `coalesce(new, old)` verify binds the NEW row on
-   * insert and the OLD row on delete.
+   * column for single-use anti-replay. `FormationInvite.AuthorizedInsert` gates insert
+   * over an `'add'`-tagged digest; deletes verify a DISTINCT `'remove'`-tagged digest
+   * (`AuthorizedDelete`), so this insert approval can never be replayed as a revocation.
    *
    * `StrandId` binds the invite to a pre-existing host strand (provision-then-record):
    * when set, a responder redeeming this token records a `FormationUsage` against that
@@ -692,9 +2001,9 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
     const validationUrlField = options.validationUrl ?? '';
     const strandIdField = options.strandId ?? '';
 
-    // Field order MUST match the schema's FormationInvite `AuthorizedAddOrRemove` verify:
+    // Field order MUST match the schema's FormationInvite `AuthorizedInsert` verify:
     // Token, sAppId, ExpiresAt, TotalUses, ValidationUrl, StrandId, StampId.
-    const message = buildAuthorizationMessage([
+    const message = buildAuthorizationMessage('CadreControl.FormationInvite', 'add', [
       token, sAppId, expiresAtField, totalUsesField, validationUrlField, strandIdField, stampId,
     ]);
     const signature = signMessage(message);
@@ -702,7 +2011,7 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
     // Persist the canonical ExpiresAt string (datetime parse is idempotent on it) so the
     // signed source-of-truth and the stored value are produced once. StampId is a real,
     // unique column (single-use anti-replay), no longer a context value.
-    await this.db!.exec(`
+    await this.execWrite(`
       insert into CadreControl.FormationInvite (Token, sAppId, ExpiresAt, TotalUses, ValidationUrl, StrandId, StampId)
         with context OwnerKey = ?, Signature = ?
         values (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?)
@@ -724,72 +2033,97 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
    * `FormationUsage` row **atomically, in one transaction**.
    *
    * The two CHECK constraints are mutually circular under immediate evaluation:
-   * `Strand.Authorized`'s consent branch requires the `FormationUsage` row, while
-   * `FormationUsage.StrandExists` requires the `Strand` row. Both CHECKs contain
+   * `Strand.AuthorizedInsert`'s consent branch requires a `FormationUsage` row naming
+   * this strand's `(Id, StampId)`, while `FormationUsage.StrandExists` requires a
+   * `Strand` row matching that same pair — the ONE freshly-minted `strandStampId` below
+   * satisfies both, which is what binds the consent record to this specific strand ROW
+   * (so a later owner-signed, tombstoned removal cannot be undone by re-inserting the
+   * id with a fresh stamp). Both CHECKs contain
    * subqueries, so Quereus auto-defers them to transaction commit — wrapping both
    * inserts in a single explicit `begin … commit` lets both deferred CHECKs see
    * both rows at commit. The strand is authorised WITHOUT an owner signature
-   * (the `FormationUsage` branch of `Strand.Authorized`) but still gets a fresh,
+   * (the `FormationUsage` branch of `Strand.AuthorizedInsert`) but still gets a fresh,
    * unique `StampId` column to satisfy the not-null/unique anti-replay column.
    *
+   * The seated strand is always open (`'o'`) and keyless — the consent branch of
+   * `Strand.AuthorizedInsert` accepts nothing else, the invite must be UNBOUND
+   * (`FormationInvite.StrandId` null; a bound invite's host strand is owner-provisioned
+   * and only ever record-only, see {@link recordFormationUsage}), and a given strand id
+   * may be consent-seated once, EVER: after an owner-signed removal, re-joining that id
+   * takes an owner re-seat ({@link insertStrand}) plus a bound invite, never another
+   * redemption.
+   *
    * `UseNumber` is computed as `max(UseNumber)+1` for the token (the `Monotonic`
-   * constraint); callers redeeming concurrently against the same token must
-   * serialise, since the next use number is read before the insert.
+   * constraint), inside the write lock and re-read per attempt by
+   * {@link withUseNumberRetry} — so concurrent redemptions of one token no longer need
+   * the caller to serialise them, and a use number lost to another writer is retried here
+   * with the caller's parameters passed through UNCHANGED. That is what makes the retry
+   * safe: the approval is bound to the nonce, not to the use number, so re-presenting it
+   * cannot drift, and no second trip through the approval hook is possible from in here.
    */
   async redeemInvitation(params: {
     token: string;
     strandId: string;
-    type?: 'o' | 'c';
-    memberPrivateKey?: string;
+    /** The joining peer's own ed25519 public key. Required: it is inside BOTH signed digests (see {@link formationVouchMessage} / {@link formationConsentMessage}). */
+    peerKey: string;
     disclosure?: string;
-    peerId?: string;
-    peerSignature?: string;
+    /** Single-use nonce for this redemption, minted by the JOINER; both signed digests cover it. */
+    usageStampId: string;
+    /** The joiner's signature over the `'consent'` digest — verified by the `PeerConsented` CHECK. */
+    peerSignature: string;
     nowMs?: number;
     validationKey?: string;
     validationSignature?: string;
-  }): Promise<void> {
+    /**
+     * Aborted when the caller has given up. Checked once PER ATTEMPT, inside the write lock,
+     * before that attempt's transaction is opened — never between the two inserts — throwing
+     * {@link FormationAbortedError} with the invite unspent.
+     */
+    signal?: AbortSignal;
+    /**
+     * The invite's seat budget, when the caller already has it in hand (e.g. it already read
+     * the `FormationInvite` row to get here). Passed through to {@link withUseNumberRetry} so
+     * every attempt can check the seat budget without an extra read. `undefined` falls back to
+     * a fresh {@link queryFormationInvite} read; `null` means "no invite row" / unlimited.
+     */
+    totalUses?: number | null;
+  }): Promise<FormationUsageResult> {
     this.ensureInitialized();
     const {
-      token, strandId, type = 'o',
-      memberPrivateKey, disclosure = '',
-      peerId, peerSignature,
-      nowMs, validationKey, validationSignature,
+      token, strandId, disclosure = '',
+      peerKey, peerSignature, usageStampId,
+      nowMs, validationKey, validationSignature, signal, totalUses,
     } = params;
     log('Redeeming invitation %s -> strand %s', token, strandId);
 
     const localPeerId = this.config.libp2pNode.peerId.toString();
+    // Minted ONCE, outside the loop: a failed attempt rolls its whole transaction back, so
+    // nothing was ever persisted under this stamp, and it is deliberately not part of the
+    // approver's signed digest. Re-minting per attempt would only churn.
     const strandStampId = generateStampId(localPeerId);
-    const useNumber = await this.nextUseNumber(token);
 
-    await this.db!.beginTransaction();
-    try {
-      // 1. Strand row — authorised by the FormationUsage branch (no owner sig),
-      //    still carrying a fresh unique StampId for the anti-replay column.
-      await this.db!.exec(`
-        insert into CadreControl.Strand (Id, Type, MemberPrivateKey, StampId)
-          with context OwnerKey = null, Signature = null
-          values (?, ?, ?, ?)
-      `, [strandId, type, memberPrivateKey ?? null, strandStampId]);
-
-      // 2. FormationUsage row — authorised by the matching FormationInvite.
-      await this.execFormationUsageInsert({
-        token, useNumber, disclosure, strandId,
-        peerId: peerId ?? localPeerId, peerSignature: peerSignature ?? null, nowMs: nowMs ?? Date.now(),
-        validationKey: validationKey ?? null, validationSignature: validationSignature ?? null,
-      });
-
-      await this.db!.commit();
-      log('Redeemed invitation %s -> strand %s (use #%d)', token, strandId, useNumber);
-    } catch (error) {
-      // A failed commit() already tears down the transaction, so rollback() would
-      // throw "No transaction active" and mask the real cause — swallow only that.
-      try {
-        await this.db!.rollback();
-      } catch (rollbackError) {
-        log('Rollback after redemption failure was a no-op: %s', rollbackError);
-      }
-      throw error;
-    }
+    const useNumber = await this.withUseNumberRetry(token, 'redemption', signal, totalUses, attemptUseNumber =>
+      this.inTransaction('redemption', async () => {
+        // 1. Strand row — authorised by the FormationUsage branch (no owner sig),
+        //    still carrying a fresh unique StampId for the anti-replay column.
+        //    Hard-coded open + keyless: the consent branch admits no other shape.
+        await this.db!.exec(`
+          insert into CadreControl.Strand (Id, Type, MemberPrivateKey, StampId)
+            with context OwnerKey = null, Signature = null
+            values (?, 'o', null, ?)
+        `, [strandId, strandStampId]);
+
+        // 2. FormationUsage row — authorised by the matching FormationInvite, and
+        //    carrying the strand's stamp so it authorizes THIS row and no other.
+        await this.execFormationUsageInsert({
+          token, useNumber: attemptUseNumber, usageStampId, disclosure, strandId, strandStampId,
+          peerKey, peerSignature, nowMs: nowMs ?? Date.now(),
+          validationKey: validationKey ?? null, validationSignature: validationSignature ?? null,
+        });
+      }));
+
+    log('Redeemed invitation %s -> strand %s (use #%d)', token, strandId, useNumber);
+    return { useNumber, usageStampId };
   }
 
   /**
@@ -802,44 +2136,204 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
    *
    * Use {@link redeemInvitation} instead when the strand must be created by
    * consent atomically with the usage.
+   *
+   * The strand's live `StampId` is read first and written onto the usage row:
+   * `FormationUsage.StrandExists` matches the (id, stamp) PAIR, and
+   * `Strand.AuthorizedInsert`'s consent branch reads the same pair back, so a consent
+   * record authorizes exactly the strand ROW it was recorded against. A missing strand
+   * THROWS here rather than being left to the deferred `StrandExists` CHECK — the
+   * ordinary "host strand has not converged yet" case is already reported as `missing`
+   * by {@link ControlFormationUsageRecorder.resolveStrand}, so an absent row at this
+   * point is a genuine race and deserves a named error, not a silent rollback.
+   *
+   * `UseNumber` is read inside the write lock and re-read per attempt by
+   * {@link withUseNumberRetry}: this is the path production actually races on (a bound
+   * invite published by `cadre-web` / `cadre-phone` is always record-only), and a use number
+   * lost to another writer is retried here with the caller's parameters — nonce, approver
+   * sign-off, strand, peer key, disclosure — passed through UNCHANGED, so a granted approval
+   * is never thrown away for a second trip through the approval hook.
    */
   async recordFormationUsage(params: {
     token: string;
     strandId: string;
+    /** The joining peer's own ed25519 public key. Required: it is inside BOTH signed digests (see {@link formationVouchMessage} / {@link formationConsentMessage}). */
+    peerKey: string;
     disclosure?: string;
-    peerId?: string;
-    peerSignature?: string;
+    /** Single-use nonce for this redemption, minted by the JOINER; both signed digests cover it. */
+    usageStampId: string;
+    /** The joiner's signature over the `'consent'` digest — verified by the `PeerConsented` CHECK. */
+    peerSignature: string;
     nowMs?: number;
     validationKey?: string;
     validationSignature?: string;
-  }): Promise<number> {
+    /**
+     * Aborted when the caller has given up. Checked once PER ATTEMPT, inside the write lock,
+     * at the top of the attempt — before it reads a use number and before its insert is
+     * issued — throwing {@link FormationAbortedError} with the invite unspent. Never checked
+     * once an insert has been issued.
+     */
+    signal?: AbortSignal;
+    /**
+     * The invite's seat budget, when the caller already has it in hand (e.g. it already read
+     * the `FormationInvite` row to get here). Passed through to {@link withUseNumberRetry} so
+     * every attempt can check the seat budget without an extra read. `undefined` falls back to
+     * a fresh {@link queryFormationInvite} read; `null` means "no invite row" / unlimited.
+     */
+    totalUses?: number | null;
+  }): Promise<FormationUsageResult> {
     this.ensureInitialized();
     const {
       token, strandId, disclosure = '',
-      peerId, peerSignature, nowMs, validationKey, validationSignature,
+      peerKey, peerSignature, usageStampId, nowMs, validationKey, validationSignature, signal,
+      totalUses,
     } = params;
 
-    const localPeerId = this.config.libp2pNode.peerId.toString();
-    const useNumber = await this.nextUseNumber(token);
+    // Read ONCE, outside the loop: the host strand is pre-existing and owner-signed, and a
+    // retry changes which use number we take, never which strand row we name.
+    const strandStampId = await this.queryStrandStampId(strandId);
+    if (strandStampId === null) {
+      throw new MissingHostStrandError(strandId, token);
+    }
 
-    await this.execFormationUsageInsert({
-      token, useNumber, disclosure, strandId,
-      peerId: peerId ?? localPeerId, peerSignature: peerSignature ?? null, nowMs: nowMs ?? Date.now(),
-      validationKey: validationKey ?? null, validationSignature: validationSignature ?? null,
-    });
+    const useNumber = await this.withUseNumberRetry(token, 'usage recording', signal, totalUses, attemptUseNumber =>
+      this.execFormationUsageInsert({
+        token, useNumber: attemptUseNumber, usageStampId, disclosure, strandId, strandStampId,
+        peerKey, peerSignature, nowMs: nowMs ?? Date.now(),
+        validationKey: validationKey ?? null, validationSignature: validationSignature ?? null,
+      }));
 
     log('Recorded formation usage: token=%s strand=%s (use #%d)', token, strandId, useNumber);
-    return useNumber;
+    return { useNumber, usageStampId };
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Assign a `UseNumber` and run `write` under it, re-picking and retrying when another
+   * writer took that number first.
+   *
+   * Each attempt takes {@link withWriteLock} and, inside it, reads {@link nextUseNumber}
+   * afresh. Reading under the lock is the whole fix for the common case: two redemptions of
+   * one token on the SAME node are serialized by the local write queue, so each computes a
+   * number the other has already committed and neither collides. The retry covers the writers
+   * this lock does not reach — another node of the cadre, another `Database` handle over the
+   * same store — which can still take the number between our read and our commit.
+   *
+   * `write` receives ONLY the use number; every other parameter of the redemption (the nonce,
+   * the approver's signature, the strand, the joining peer key, the disclosure) is closed over
+   * by the caller and passed through untouched. So by construction a retry re-presents the
+   * IDENTICAL approval and the four non-nonce fields inside the approver's signed digest
+   * cannot drift. No second call to the approval hook is reachable from in here either:
+   * `obtainApproval` lives a layer up in `ControlFormationUsageRecorder` and is never
+   * re-entered.
+   *
+   * `write` must be a BARE private body ({@link inTransaction} /
+   * {@link execFormationUsageInsert}) — {@link withWriteLock} is not re-entrant and a `write`
+   * that called another locked public method would hang silently and strand the write queue.
+   *
+   * A failed attempt has written nothing (a bare insert never landed; a transactional one
+   * rolled back), so the abort check at the top of each attempt stays inside
+   * {@link FormationAbortedError}'s contract — it is only ever thrown before this attempt's
+   * write is issued.
+   *
+   * @param operation - `'redemption'` | `'usage recording'`, for the abort error's text.
+   * @param knownTotalUses - The invite's seat budget when the caller already has it in hand
+   * (`undefined` to fall back to a fresh {@link queryFormationInvite} read; `null` for "no
+   * invite row" / unlimited). Passed through to {@link assertSeatRemains} on every attempt.
+   * @returns The `UseNumber` the successful attempt wrote under.
+   */
+  private async withUseNumberRetry(
+    token: string,
+    operation: string,
+    signal: AbortSignal | undefined,
+    knownTotalUses: number | null | undefined,
+    write: (useNumber: number) => Promise<void>,
+  ): Promise<number> {
+    let lastError: unknown;
+    for (let attempt = 1; attempt <= USE_NUMBER_ATTEMPTS; attempt++) {
+      try {
+        // lockedWithRetry carries the transient-cluster retry INSIDE this use-number
+        // retry. The loops cannot multiply: a lost use number is a constraint failure,
+        // which `isRetriableControlWriteFailure` never matches, and a transient cluster
+        // failure is not a lost use number, so exactly one loop claims any given error.
+        return await this.lockedWithRetry(async () => {
+          // Inside the lock: a write still parked behind another writer when the caller's
+          // budget expired is abandoned rather than executed.
+          if (signal?.aborted) {
+            throw new FormationAbortedError(token, operation);
+          }
+          const useNumber = await this.nextUseNumber(token);
+          await this.assertSeatRemains(token, useNumber, knownTotalUses);
+          await write(useNumber);
+          return useNumber;
+        });
+      } catch (error) {
+        if (!isLostUseNumberRace(error)) {
+          throw error;
+        }
+        lastError = error;
+        log('Use number for token %s was taken by another writer (attempt %d/%d): %s',
+          token, attempt, USE_NUMBER_ATTEMPTS, error);
+      }
+    }
+    // Out of attempts under sustained contention. Rethrowing the engine's own error keeps
+    // today's behaviour: `StrandFormationManager.provisionAsResponder`'s catch-all maps it to
+    // `Formation conflict, retry` and the joiner starts over with a fresh nonce.
+    throw lastError;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Refuse an attempt that would consume a seat the invite does not have.
+   *
+   * `FormationUsage.Authorized` already enforces `FI.TotalUses is null or FI.TotalUses >=
+   * new.UseNumber`, so an over-limit write fails at the database anyway — but it fails as a
+   * generic `CHECK constraint failed: Authorized`, which the manager reports as a retryable
+   * conflict. Catching it here as {@link InvitationExhaustedError} lets the joiner be told the
+   * invitation is spent instead of being sent around a loop that can never close. Run on EVERY
+   * attempt, including the first: two redemptions racing on the SAME node serialize behind the
+   * local write queue, so the loser's first attempt is already over budget, with no retry
+   * involved.
+   *
+   * `knownTotalUses` lets a caller that already read the `FormationInvite` row (both
+   * production callers in `ControlFormationUsageRecorder` do) skip a second read on the common,
+   * non-racing path. `undefined` falls back to a fresh read here.
+   *
+   * NOTE: a passed-in budget is a value read BEFORE the write lock (and, for a validating
+   * invite, before an outbound approval call). Safe today because `FormationInvite` is
+   * insert/delete only (its `Immutable` constraint), so the only way to stale it is an owner
+   * revoking the token and re-issuing it with MORE seats mid-redemption; if invites ever gain
+   * an update path, drop the parameter and read here on every attempt instead.
+   */
+  private async assertSeatRemains(
+    token: string,
+    useNumber: number,
+    knownTotalUses: number | null | undefined,
+  ): Promise<void> {
+    // A missing invite is left to `Authorized` — it is not an exhaustion, and the CHECK's
+    // rejection is already the right, non-retryable answer for it. That fallback is also what
+    // makes this read's failure mode safe: it is a full-primary-key point lookup
+    // (`FormationInvite where Token = ?`), the shape whose reliability on a networked strand
+    // is still open (tracked by `debt-composite-pk-point-lookup-unreliable-untracked`). A
+    // spurious empty result only costs the attempt its NAMED exhaustion error, reverting it to
+    // today's generic `Authorized` refusal — never a seat the invite does not have.
+    const totalUses = knownTotalUses !== undefined
+      ? knownTotalUses
+      : (await this.queryFormationInvite(token))?.totalUses ?? null;
+    if (totalUses != null && useNumber > totalUses) {
+      throw new InvitationExhaustedError(token, useNumber, totalUses);
+    }
   }
 
   /** Parameterised `FormationUsage` insert shared by redeem + record paths. */
   private async execFormationUsageInsert(opts: {
     token: string;
     useNumber: number;
+    /** Single-use nonce bound into the approver's signed digest; `unique`, so one approval spends once. */
+    usageStampId: string;
     disclosure: string;
     strandId: string;
-    peerId: string;
-    peerSignature: string | null;
+    /** The live `Strand.StampId` this consent record authorizes (`StrandExists` matches the pair). */
+    strandStampId: string;
+    peerKey: string;
+    peerSignature: string;
     nowMs: number;
     validationKey: string | null;
     validationSignature: string | null;
@@ -854,13 +2348,13 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
     // not a fix for an observable mis-ordering.
     const nowCanonical = await canonicalDatetime(this.db!, opts.nowMs);
     await this.db!.exec(`
-      insert into CadreControl.FormationUsage (Token, UseNumber, Disclosure, StrandId)
-        with context PeerId = ?, PeerSignature = ?, Now = ?, ValidationKey = ?, ValidationSignature = ?
-        values (?, ?, ?, ?)
+      insert into CadreControl.FormationUsage (Token, UseNumber, UsageStampId, PeerKey, PeerSig, Disclosure, StrandId, StrandStampId)
+        with context Now = ?, ValidationKey = ?, ValidationSignature = ?
+        values (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?)
     `, [
-      opts.peerId, opts.peerSignature, nowCanonical,
-      opts.validationKey, opts.validationSignature,
-      opts.token, opts.useNumber, opts.disclosure, opts.strandId,
+      nowCanonical, opts.validationKey, opts.validationSignature,
+      opts.token, opts.useNumber, opts.usageStampId, opts.peerKey,
+      opts.peerSignature, opts.disclosure, opts.strandId, opts.strandStampId,
     ]);
   }
 
@@ -882,14 +2376,10 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
       'select Token, sAppId, ExpiresAt, TotalUses, ValidationUrl, StrandId from CadreControl.FormationInvite where Token = ?',
       [token]
     )) {
-      const expiresAt = row.ExpiresAt as string | number | null;
-      const expiresAtMs = expiresAt === null || expiresAt === undefined
-        ? null
-        : parseStoredDatetimeMs(expiresAt);
       return {
         token: row.Token as string,
         sAppId: row.sAppId as string,
-        expiresAtMs: expiresAtMs !== null && Number.isNaN(expiresAtMs) ? null : expiresAtMs,
+        expiresAtMs: parseNullableStoredDatetimeMs(row.ExpiresAt as string | number | null),
         totalUses: (row.TotalUses as number | null) ?? null,
         validationUrl: (row.ValidationUrl as string | null) ?? null,
         strandId: (row.StrandId as string | null) ?? null,
@@ -912,7 +2402,64 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
     return 0;
   }
 
-  /** Next `UseNumber` for a token = max(existing)+1, per the `Monotonic` constraint. */
+  /**
+   * Is any `FormationInvite` row still redeemable — unexpired AND with usage
+   * below its `TotalUses`? A null `ExpiresAt` never expires and a null
+   * `TotalUses` is unlimited, matching {@link ControlFormationUsageRecorder}'s
+   * per-token semantics (`isTokenValid` / `isTokenUsed`).
+   *
+   * Answers the control-network connection gate's coarse "does this node expect
+   * a stranger?" question, which has no token to ask about. The expiry
+   * comparison is `expiresAtMs <= now` — identical to `isTokenValid`'s — so an
+   * invite the formation handler would reject can never hold the gate open.
+   *
+   * The scan is deliberately not pushed into SQL: nothing else here compares a
+   * stored `datetime` with an inequality, so the parse stays in JS via the
+   * shared {@link parseNullableStoredDatetimeMs}. Only invites that are
+   * unexpired AND use-metered cost a {@link countFormationUsage} read, and an
+   * unlimited-use invite anywhere in the scan short-circuits all of them.
+   */
+  async hasOutstandingFormationInvite(nowMs: number = Date.now()): Promise<boolean> {
+    this.ensureInitialized();
+    // NOTE: scans every FormationInvite row (expired ones included) on the
+    // stranger path of an inbound connection. Cadre-scale invite counts make
+    // that free today; if a long-lived cadre accumulates thousands of expired
+    // invites and inbound upgrades slow down, add an expiry-ordered index or
+    // prune redeemed/expired rows.
+    const metered: Array<{ token: string; totalUses: number }> = [];
+    let unlimitedOutstanding = false;
+    for await (const row of this.db!.eval(
+      'select Token, ExpiresAt, TotalUses from CadreControl.FormationInvite'
+    )) {
+      const expiresAtMs = parseNullableStoredDatetimeMs(row.ExpiresAt as string | number | null);
+      if (expiresAtMs !== null && expiresAtMs <= nowMs) {
+        continue;
+      }
+      const totalUses = (row.TotalUses as number | null) ?? null;
+      if (totalUses === null) {
+        unlimitedOutstanding = true;
+      } else {
+        metered.push({ token: row.Token as string, totalUses });
+      }
+    }
+    if (unlimitedOutstanding) {
+      return true;
+    }
+    for (const invite of metered) {
+      if (await this.countFormationUsage(invite.token) < invite.totalUses) {
+        return true;
+      }
+    }
+    return false;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Next `UseNumber` for a token = max(existing)+1, per the `Monotonic` constraint.
+   *
+   * Called only from inside {@link withUseNumberRetry}'s locked body — a read takes no
+   * transaction of its own, so it is safe there, and reading it under the lock is what stops
+   * two local redemptions of one token from picking the same number.
+   */
   private async nextUseNumber(token: string): Promise<number> {
     for await (const row of this.db!.eval(
       'select coalesce(max(UseNumber), 0) as MaxUse from CadreControl.FormationUsage where Token = ?',
@@ -924,9 +2471,20 @@ export class ControlDatabase {
   }
 
   /**
-   * Close the database and cleanup resources
+   * Close the database and cleanup resources.
+   *
+   * Drains the local-write chain first: {@link withWriteLock} can park a write behind
+   * others across an await, and a queued closure evaluates `this.db!` only when it
+   * finally runs — so nulling the handle out from under it would throw a TypeError on a
+   * null handle instead of committing. The tail never rejects (it swallows both
+   * outcomes), so the bare await is safe.
+   *
+   * NOTE: this makes `close()` wait on a stuck write. Acceptable today — every locked
+   * body is a bounded local `exec` — but revisit (bounded drain, or abandon after a
+   * deadline) if a write can ever hang.
    */
   async close(): Promise<void> {
+    await this.writeQueue;
     if (this.collectionFactory) {
       await this.collectionFactory.shutdown();
       this.collectionFactory = null;