diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index eeb42cf..2c6e33b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@ surfaces.
 
 ## Current status
 
-Phase 3 is complete, and Phase 4A (Core identity foundation) and Phase 4B (identity HTTP
-transport) have landed. The repository includes
+Phase 3 is complete, Phase 4A (Core identity foundation) and Phase 4B (identity HTTP transport)
+have landed, and Phase 4C (Core authorization) is in progress. The repository includes
 public module contracts, independently versioned capabilities, static module manifests,
 deterministic automatic discovery, compiled server loading, a staged capability registry,
 dependency-ordered lifecycle with rollback, module-owned Drizzle table contracts, deterministic
@@ -35,10 +35,20 @@ still cannot reach any of this. Public email/password registration is intentiona
 receives identical lowest-privilege baseline status and signup order never grants elevation. See
 [API](docs/development/api.md) and
 [ADR 0011](docs/architecture/decisions/0011-identity-http-transport-and-public-enrollment.md).
-**No email verification, password recovery, Dashboard, or role/permission model exists yet** —
-that, along with production approval-provider composition, jobs, physical storage provisioning,
-surfaces, and feature modules, remains later vertical slices. Public registration is not yet ready
-for a real public launch.
+**No email verification, password recovery, or Dashboard exists yet** — that, along with
+production approval-provider composition, jobs, physical storage provisioning, surfaces, and
+feature modules, remains later vertical slices. Public registration is not yet ready for a real
+public launch.
+
+Phase 4C (in progress) adds Core's authorization foundation on top of identity: a schema,
+evaluator, and store for platform owners, explicit grants, and relationship-derived grants; a
+smallest-possible immutable permission registry; an explicit, single-use, concurrency-safe
+platform-owner bootstrap command (`pnpm authorization:bootstrap-owner`, never HTTP-exposed, never
+inferred from signup order); and, in `apps/api`, reusable Hono authorization enforcement plus a
+narrowly scoped `/api/v1/grants` HTTP API for managing *explicit* grants only, requiring an exact
+trusted `Origin` on every mutation. Roles/groups/teams/tenants, an owner-management HTTP endpoint,
+service accounts/API tokens, and module-permission registration remain later work. See
+[Authorization](docs/development/authorization.md).
 
 ## Quick start
 
@@ -146,6 +156,7 @@ environment.
 - [Testing](docs/development/testing.md)
 - [Identity](docs/development/identity.md)
 - [API](docs/development/api.md)
+- [Authorization](docs/development/authorization.md)
 - [Module development](docs/module-development/README.md)
 - [Architecture decisions](docs/architecture/decisions/README.md)
 
diff --git a/apps/api/src/app.ts b/apps/api/src/app.ts
index 166b01f..8acd5fa 100644
--- a/apps/api/src/app.ts
+++ b/apps/api/src/app.ts
@@ -1,13 +1,27 @@
 import { isAuthenticatedPrincipal } from "@ekklesia/contracts";
+import {
+  type AuthorizationEvaluator,
+  type AuthorizationStore,
+  CORE_PERMISSION_REGISTRY,
+} from "@ekklesia/core/authorization";
 import { type EkklesiaIdentityRuntime, IdentityRuntimeError } from "@ekklesia/core/identity";
 import { Hono } from "hono";
 import type { Context } from "hono";
 import { cors } from "hono/cors";
+import { createGrantsRoutes } from "./grants-routes.js";
+
+export interface CreateApiAppAuthorizationOptions {
+  readonly evaluator: AuthorizationEvaluator;
+  readonly store: AuthorizationStore;
+}
 
 export interface CreateApiAppOptions {
+  readonly authorization: CreateApiAppAuthorizationOptions;
   readonly runtime: EkklesiaIdentityRuntime;
   /** Exact allowed browser origins. Never a wildcard; combined with `credentials: true`, only an
-   * exact, reflected match is ever returned in `Access-Control-Allow-Origin`. */
+   * exact, reflected match is ever returned in `Access-Control-Allow-Origin`. Also the trusted set
+   * `requireTrustedOrigin` checks for grant-mutation routes — there is no second, competing origin
+   * configuration. */
   readonly trustedOrigins: readonly string[];
 }
 
@@ -20,7 +34,7 @@ function sanitizedErrorResponse(c: Context, error: unknown, status: 500 | 503) {
 /**
  * Pure Hono application factory: no I/O, no environment reads, no process side effects. Suitable
  * for unit and integration tests via `app.fetch` directly, with a fully injected identity runtime
- * standing in for real Better Auth/PostgreSQL where appropriate.
+ * and authorization evaluator/store standing in for real Better Auth/PostgreSQL where appropriate.
  */
 export function createApiApp(options: CreateApiAppOptions): Hono {
   const { runtime } = options;
@@ -62,6 +76,17 @@ export function createApiApp(options: CreateApiAppOptions): Hono {
     }
   });
 
+  app.route(
+    "/",
+    createGrantsRoutes({
+      evaluator: options.authorization.evaluator,
+      registry: CORE_PERMISSION_REGISTRY,
+      runtime,
+      store: options.authorization.store,
+      trustedOrigins: allowedOrigins,
+    }),
+  );
+
   app.notFound((c) => {
     c.header("Cache-Control", "no-store");
     return c.json({ code: "NOT_FOUND" }, 404);
diff --git a/apps/api/src/authorization-middleware.ts b/apps/api/src/authorization-middleware.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..813d184
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/api/src/authorization-middleware.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,109 @@
+import type { EkklesiaPrincipal, PermissionId } from "@ekklesia/contracts";
+import type { AuthorizationEvaluator, PermissionRegistry } from "@ekklesia/core/authorization";
+import type { EkklesiaIdentityRuntime } from "@ekklesia/core/identity";
+import type { Context, MiddlewareHandler, Next } from "hono";
+
+const PRINCIPAL_CONTEXT_KEY = "ekklesiaPrincipal";
+
+export interface AuthorizationMiddlewareOptions {
+  readonly evaluator: AuthorizationEvaluator;
+  readonly registry: PermissionRegistry;
+  readonly runtime: EkklesiaIdentityRuntime;
+}
+
+function sanitizedDenial(c: Context, status: 403 | 503, code: string): Response {
+  c.header("Cache-Control", "no-store");
+  return c.json({ code }, status);
+}
+
+/**
+ * Builds a Hono middleware that enforces `permissionId`, resolved exclusively from Core's own
+ * trusted, server-side permission registry — a route never supplies its own baseline, and no
+ * request input can influence which baseline is checked. The principal is resolved exclusively
+ * through the injected identity runtime (`resolvePrincipal`), the same one `/api/v1/principal`
+ * already uses; nothing here ever trusts a client-supplied claim about identity, ownership, or
+ * grants. A permission id that is not registered fails closed (403) exactly like a denied
+ * decision — in normal operation this route only ever hard-codes an already-registered constant,
+ * but the check stays live per-request as defense in depth rather than being trusted once at
+ * composition time.
+ *
+ * On success, the resolved `EkklesiaPrincipal` — Core's own narrow `{kind, userId}` contract, not
+ * Better Auth's richer session/user object — is stored on the Hono context so the route handler
+ * can build an actor without resolving the principal a second time. This is deliberately narrower
+ * than the "no generalized session/user object in Hono context" concern ADR 0011 raised about
+ * Better Auth's own documented example: only Core's already-public-safe principal shape is ever
+ * set, never a session token, raw user row, or Better Auth type.
+ *
+ * A genuine infrastructure failure — principal resolution, evaluation, or the underlying
+ * database — is never folded into a 403; it returns a sanitized 503, mirroring
+ * `/api/v1/principal`'s existing behavior for the identical reason: a caller must never see "no
+ * permission" when the true answer is "could not be determined."
+ */
+export function requirePermission(
+  options: AuthorizationMiddlewareOptions,
+  permissionId: PermissionId,
+): MiddlewareHandler {
+  return async (c: Context, next: Next) => {
+    const declaration = options.registry.get(permissionId);
+    if (!declaration) {
+      return sanitizedDenial(c, 403, "AUTHORIZATION_DENIED");
+    }
+
+    let principal: EkklesiaPrincipal;
+    try {
+      principal = await options.runtime.resolvePrincipal(c.req.raw.headers);
+    } catch {
+      return sanitizedDenial(c, 503, "PRINCIPAL_RESOLUTION_FAILED");
+    }
+
+    let decision: { allowed: boolean };
+    try {
+      decision = await options.evaluator.authorize({
+        baseline: declaration.baseline,
+        permission: declaration.id,
+        principal,
+      });
+    } catch {
+      return sanitizedDenial(c, 503, "AUTHORIZATION_EVALUATION_FAILED");
+    }
+
+    if (!decision.allowed) {
+      return sanitizedDenial(c, 403, "AUTHORIZATION_DENIED");
+    }
+
+    c.set(PRINCIPAL_CONTEXT_KEY, principal);
+    await next();
+    return;
+  };
+}
+
+/** Reads the principal a preceding `requirePermission` middleware already resolved and verified.
+ * Throws (a route-wiring bug, not a runtime condition) if called on a route this middleware never
+ * protected. */
+export function getAuthorizedPrincipal(c: Context): EkklesiaPrincipal {
+  const principal = c.get(PRINCIPAL_CONTEXT_KEY) as EkklesiaPrincipal | undefined;
+  if (!principal) {
+    throw new Error("getAuthorizedPrincipal called outside a requirePermission-protected route.");
+  }
+  return principal;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Requires an exact trusted `Origin` header for a cookie-authenticated, state-changing route.
+ * CORS response headers alone are not CSRF protection — they only stop a browser from *reading* a
+ * cross-origin response, not from *sending* the state-changing request in the first place — so
+ * mutation routes need this explicit, server-side check in addition to (not instead of) the
+ * existing CORS policy. A missing or untrusted origin is rejected before the route (or the
+ * permission check) ever runs. Non-browser, non-cookie automation (service accounts/API tokens)
+ * is deliberately out of scope for this slice and has no way to satisfy this check yet.
+ */
+export function requireTrustedOrigin(trustedOrigins: ReadonlySet<string>): MiddlewareHandler {
+  return async (c: Context, next: Next) => {
+    const origin = c.req.header("origin");
+    if (!origin || !trustedOrigins.has(origin)) {
+      return sanitizedDenial(c, 403, "UNTRUSTED_ORIGIN");
+    }
+    await next();
+    return;
+  };
+}
diff --git a/apps/api/src/database.ts b/apps/api/src/database.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b8b6b10
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/api/src/database.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+import {
+  type AuthorizationDrizzleDatabase,
+  createAuthorizationDrizzleView,
+} from "@ekklesia/core/authorization";
+import { createValidatedPostgresPool, type PostgresPoolOptions } from "@ekklesia/core/database";
+import { createIdentityDrizzleView, type IdentityDrizzleDatabase } from "@ekklesia/core/identity";
+
+export interface ApiDatabaseHandle {
+  readonly authorization: AuthorizationDrizzleDatabase;
+  readonly identity: IdentityDrizzleDatabase;
+  /** Closes the one shared pool exactly once, regardless of how many typed views were created
+   * over it. Safe to call from both a startup-failure cleanup path and normal shutdown. */
+  readonly close: () => Promise<void>;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Composes the one physical PostgreSQL pool this process uses for both Core's identity and
+ * authorization schemas: one validated, timeout-bounded `pg.Pool` (`createValidatedPostgresPool`,
+ * `@ekklesia/core/database`), wrapped by two independent typed Drizzle views
+ * (`createIdentityDrizzleView`, `createAuthorizationDrizzleView`). Neither Core domain owns or
+ * closes the pool in this composition — `close()` here is the only thing that ever calls
+ * `pool.end()`. `createIdentityDrizzleDatabase`/`createAuthorizationDrizzleDatabase` remain
+ * available, unaffected, and independently testable for callers that only need one domain.
+ */
+export function createApiDatabase(
+  databaseUrl: string,
+  options: PostgresPoolOptions = {},
+): ApiDatabaseHandle {
+  const { close, pool } = createValidatedPostgresPool(databaseUrl, options);
+
+  return Object.freeze({
+    authorization: createAuthorizationDrizzleView(pool),
+    close,
+    identity: createIdentityDrizzleView(pool),
+  });
+}
diff --git a/apps/api/src/grants-routes.ts b/apps/api/src/grants-routes.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..78fdd4d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/api/src/grants-routes.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,212 @@
+import type { AuthorizationScope, EkklesiaUserId, PermissionId } from "@ekklesia/contracts";
+import {
+  createUserActor,
+  isAuthenticatedPrincipal,
+  safeParseAuthorizationScope,
+  safeParseEkklesiaUserId,
+  safeParseGrantId,
+  safeParsePermissionId,
+} from "@ekklesia/contracts";
+import {
+  type AuthorizationStore,
+  AuthorizationStoreError,
+  CORE_AUTHORIZATION_GRANTS_MANAGE,
+  type GrantRecord,
+} from "@ekklesia/core/authorization";
+import { Hono } from "hono";
+import type { Context } from "hono";
+import {
+  type AuthorizationMiddlewareOptions,
+  getAuthorizedPrincipal,
+  requirePermission,
+  requireTrustedOrigin,
+} from "./authorization-middleware.js";
+
+export interface CreateGrantsRoutesOptions extends AuthorizationMiddlewareOptions {
+  readonly store: AuthorizationStore;
+  readonly trustedOrigins: ReadonlySet<string>;
+}
+
+function sanitizedStoreErrorResponse(c: Context, error: unknown): Response {
+  c.header("Cache-Control", "no-store");
+  if (error instanceof AuthorizationStoreError) {
+    const status = error.code === "AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_NOT_FOUND" ? 404 : 503;
+    return c.json({ code: error.code }, status);
+  }
+  return c.json({ code: "INTERNAL_ERROR" }, 503);
+}
+
+interface ParsedCreateGrantBody {
+  readonly expiresAt?: Date;
+  readonly permission: PermissionId;
+  readonly scope?: AuthorizationScope;
+  readonly subjectUserId: EkklesiaUserId;
+}
+
+const CREATE_GRANT_ALLOWED_KEYS = new Set(["subjectUserId", "permission", "scope", "expiresAt"]);
+
+/**
+ * Accepts only `subjectUserId`, `permission`, an optional `scope`, and an optional `expiresAt`.
+ * Any other key present — `actor`, `sourceKind`, `sourceRef`, any audit field, `createdAt`,
+ * `revokedAt`, a grant id, or anything claiming owner/effective-permission state — makes the
+ * whole body invalid rather than being silently dropped, so a caller cannot smuggle
+ * server-derived fields through a request that otherwise looks well-formed.
+ */
+function parseCreateGrantBody(raw: unknown): ParsedCreateGrantBody | undefined {
+  if (typeof raw !== "object" || raw === null || Array.isArray(raw)) {
+    return undefined;
+  }
+  const body = raw as Record<string, unknown>;
+  if (Object.keys(body).some((key) => !CREATE_GRANT_ALLOWED_KEYS.has(key))) {
+    return undefined;
+  }
+
+  const subjectUserId = safeParseEkklesiaUserId(body.subjectUserId);
+  if (!subjectUserId.success) {
+    return undefined;
+  }
+  const permission = safeParsePermissionId(body.permission);
+  if (!permission.success) {
+    return undefined;
+  }
+
+  let scope: AuthorizationScope | undefined;
+  if (body.scope !== undefined) {
+    const parsedScope = safeParseAuthorizationScope(body.scope);
+    if (!parsedScope.success) {
+      return undefined;
+    }
+    scope = parsedScope.data;
+  }
+
+  let expiresAt: Date | undefined;
+  if (body.expiresAt !== undefined) {
+    if (typeof body.expiresAt !== "string") {
+      return undefined;
+    }
+    const parsedDate = new Date(body.expiresAt);
+    if (Number.isNaN(parsedDate.getTime())) {
+      return undefined;
+    }
+    expiresAt = parsedDate;
+  }
+
+  return Object.freeze({
+    ...(expiresAt === undefined ? {} : { expiresAt }),
+    permission: permission.data,
+    ...(scope === undefined ? {} : { scope }),
+    subjectUserId: subjectUserId.data,
+  });
+}
+
+function serializeGrant(grant: GrantRecord) {
+  return {
+    createdAt: grant.createdAt.toISOString(),
+    expiresAt: grant.expiresAt ? grant.expiresAt.toISOString() : null,
+    id: grant.id,
+    permission: grant.permission,
+    revokedAt: grant.revokedAt ? grant.revokedAt.toISOString() : null,
+    scope: grant.scope ?? null,
+    sourceKind: grant.sourceKind,
+    userId: grant.userId,
+  };
+}
+
+/**
+ * The v1 explicit-grant management API: list, create, and revoke *explicit* grants only. Every
+ * route requires `core.authorization.grants.manage`; a platform owner passes through the
+ * evaluator's existing owner bypass without ever needing an explicit grant of this permission
+ * themselves — that bypass is exactly how a platform owner deliberately delegates grant
+ * administration to another account by granting them this one permission.
+ *
+ * Relationship-derived grants are never reachable through this API in either direction: creation
+ * always hard-codes `sourceKind: "explicit"` server-side (the request body cannot supply a
+ * `sourceKind` at all), and revocation is constrained to `sourceKind: "explicit"`, so attempting
+ * to revoke a relationship-derived grant by id behaves exactly like the grant does not exist —
+ * those grants remain owned by the module operation that established the relationship.
+ */
+export function createGrantsRoutes(options: CreateGrantsRoutesOptions): Hono {
+  const routes = new Hono();
+  const requireManagePermission = requirePermission(options, CORE_AUTHORIZATION_GRANTS_MANAGE);
+  const requireOrigin = requireTrustedOrigin(options.trustedOrigins);
+
+  routes.get("/api/v1/grants", requireManagePermission, async (c) => {
+    c.header("Cache-Control", "no-store");
+    const subjectUserId = safeParseEkklesiaUserId(c.req.query("userId"));
+    if (!subjectUserId.success) {
+      return c.json({ code: "INVALID_REQUEST" }, 400);
+    }
+    try {
+      const grants = await options.store.listGrantsForUser(subjectUserId.data, {
+        sourceKind: "explicit",
+      });
+      return c.json({ grants: grants.map(serializeGrant) }, 200);
+    } catch (error) {
+      return sanitizedStoreErrorResponse(c, error);
+    }
+  });
+
+  routes.post("/api/v1/grants", requireOrigin, requireManagePermission, async (c) => {
+    c.header("Cache-Control", "no-store");
+    const principal = getAuthorizedPrincipal(c);
+    if (!isAuthenticatedPrincipal(principal)) {
+      return c.json({ code: "AUTHORIZATION_DENIED" }, 403);
+    }
+
+    let rawBody: unknown;
+    try {
+      rawBody = await c.req.json();
+    } catch {
+      return c.json({ code: "INVALID_REQUEST" }, 400);
+    }
+    const parsed = parseCreateGrantBody(rawBody);
+    if (!parsed) {
+      return c.json({ code: "INVALID_REQUEST" }, 400);
+    }
+
+    try {
+      const grant = await options.store.createGrant({
+        actor: createUserActor(principal.userId),
+        ...(parsed.expiresAt === undefined ? {} : { expiresAt: parsed.expiresAt }),
+        permission: parsed.permission,
+        ...(parsed.scope === undefined ? {} : { scope: parsed.scope }),
+        sourceKind: "explicit",
+        userId: parsed.subjectUserId,
+      });
+      return c.json({ grant: serializeGrant(grant) }, 201);
+    } catch (error) {
+      return sanitizedStoreErrorResponse(c, error);
+    }
+  });
+
+  routes.post(
+    "/api/v1/grants/:grantId/revoke",
+    requireOrigin,
+    requireManagePermission,
+    async (c) => {
+      c.header("Cache-Control", "no-store");
+      const principal = getAuthorizedPrincipal(c);
+      if (!isAuthenticatedPrincipal(principal)) {
+        return c.json({ code: "AUTHORIZATION_DENIED" }, 403);
+      }
+
+      const grantId = safeParseGrantId(c.req.param("grantId"));
+      if (!grantId.success) {
+        return c.json({ code: "INVALID_REQUEST" }, 400);
+      }
+
+      try {
+        await options.store.revokeGrant({
+          actor: createUserActor(principal.userId),
+          grantId: grantId.data,
+          sourceKind: "explicit",
+        });
+        return c.json({ success: true }, 200);
+      } catch (error) {
+        return sanitizedStoreErrorResponse(c, error);
+      }
+    },
+  );
+
+  return routes;
+}
diff --git a/apps/api/src/server.ts b/apps/api/src/server.ts
index e492ab4..c4b2760 100644
--- a/apps/api/src/server.ts
+++ b/apps/api/src/server.ts
@@ -1,15 +1,15 @@
 import path from "node:path";
 import { pathToFileURL } from "node:url";
 import {
-  createIdentityDrizzleDatabase,
-  createIdentityRuntime,
-  type IdentityDatabaseHandle,
-  type IdentityRateLimitOverride,
-} from "@ekklesia/core/identity";
+  createAuthorizationEvaluator,
+  createAuthorizationStore,
+} from "@ekklesia/core/authorization";
+import { createIdentityRuntime, type IdentityRateLimitOverride } from "@ekklesia/core/identity";
 import { serve, type ServerType } from "@hono/node-server";
 import type { Hono } from "hono";
 import { createApiApp } from "./app.js";
 import { type ApiRuntimeConfig, createApiRuntimeConfig } from "./config.js";
+import { type ApiDatabaseHandle, createApiDatabase } from "./database.js";
 
 const connectionTimeoutMs = 10_000;
 const operationTimeoutMs = 10_000;
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ export interface StartApiOptions {
   readonly rateLimitOverride?: IdentityRateLimitOverride;
 }
 
-async function safeCloseDatabase(handle: IdentityDatabaseHandle): Promise<void> {
+async function safeCloseDatabase(handle: ApiDatabaseHandle): Promise<void> {
   try {
     await handle.close();
   } catch {
@@ -54,34 +54,47 @@ function bindServer(app: Hono, host: string, port: number): Promise<ServerType>
 }
 
 /**
- * Explicit runtime composition: constructs the PostgreSQL pool and Drizzle database, the Core
- * identity runtime, and the Hono application, then starts the Node HTTP server. Returns a handle
- * with an idempotent `shutdown()` so both the executable entry point and tests can stop the
- * server and close the database pool deterministically. Never applies migrations or generates
- * schema — the database must already be migrated through `pnpm migrations:apply`.
+ * Explicit runtime composition: constructs the one shared PostgreSQL pool (identity and
+ * authorization each get a typed Drizzle view over it — see `./database.js`), the Core identity
+ * runtime, the Core authorization store and evaluator, and the Hono application, then starts the
+ * Node HTTP server. Returns a handle with an idempotent `shutdown()` so both the executable entry
+ * point and tests can stop the server and close the shared pool deterministically. Never applies
+ * migrations or generates schema — the database must already be migrated through
+ * `pnpm migrations:apply`.
  */
 export async function startApi(
   config: ApiRuntimeConfig,
   options: StartApiOptions = {},
 ): Promise<RunningApi> {
-  const databaseHandle = createIdentityDrizzleDatabase(config.databaseUrl, {
+  const databaseHandle = createApiDatabase(config.databaseUrl, {
     connectionTimeoutMs,
     operationTimeoutMs,
   });
 
   let runtime: ReturnType<typeof createIdentityRuntime>;
+  let authorizationStore: ReturnType<typeof createAuthorizationStore>;
   try {
     runtime = createIdentityRuntime({
       config: config.identity,
-      db: databaseHandle.db,
+      db: databaseHandle.identity,
       ...(options.rateLimitOverride ? { rateLimitOverride: options.rateLimitOverride } : {}),
     });
+    authorizationStore = createAuthorizationStore(databaseHandle.authorization);
   } catch (error) {
     await safeCloseDatabase(databaseHandle);
     throw error;
   }
 
-  const app = createApiApp({ runtime, trustedOrigins: config.identity.trustedOrigins });
+  const evaluator = createAuthorizationEvaluator({
+    grants: authorizationStore,
+    platformOwners: authorizationStore,
+  });
+
+  const app = createApiApp({
+    authorization: { evaluator, store: authorizationStore },
+    runtime,
+    trustedOrigins: config.identity.trustedOrigins,
+  });
 
   let server: ServerType;
   try {
diff --git a/apps/api/tests/api-http.integration.ts b/apps/api/tests/api-http.integration.ts
index cb27822..652e291 100644
--- a/apps/api/tests/api-http.integration.ts
+++ b/apps/api/tests/api-http.integration.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,12 @@ import { randomBytes } from "node:crypto";
 import { request as httpRequest } from "node:http";
 import { fileURLToPath } from "node:url";
 import path from "node:path";
+import { parseEkklesiaUserId, parsePermissionId, SYSTEM_ACTOR } from "@ekklesia/contracts";
+import {
+  bootstrapPlatformOwner,
+  createAuthorizationDrizzleDatabase,
+  createAuthorizationStore,
+} from "@ekklesia/core/authorization";
 import {
   applyModuleMigrations,
   createPostgresMigrationDatabase,
@@ -812,3 +818,278 @@ describe.sequential("live API — Better Auth logging never leaks operational de
     }
   });
 });
+
+describe.sequential("live API — platform owner and delegated grant management", () => {
+  let database: { name: string; url: string };
+  let running: RunningApi;
+  let origin: string;
+  let ownerUserId: string;
+  let ownerCookie: string;
+  let managerUserId: string;
+  let managerCookie: string;
+  let createdGrantId: string;
+
+  const ownerEmail = "authz-owner@example.test";
+  const managerEmail = "authz-manager@example.test";
+  const password = "correct horse battery staple";
+  const testPermission = "calendar.events.read";
+
+  it("starts a freshly migrated API and signs up the eventual owner and eventual delegated manager", async () => {
+    database = await createDisposableDatabase("authz_http");
+    await applyCoreMigrations(database.url);
+    running = await startMigratedApi(database.url);
+    origin = apiOrigin(running);
+
+    const ownerSignUp = await signUp(origin, ownerEmail, password);
+    ownerUserId = ownerSignUp.body.user.id;
+    const managerSignUp = await signUp(origin, managerEmail, password);
+    managerUserId = managerSignUp.body.user.id;
+
+    const ownerSignIn = await signIn(origin, ownerEmail, password);
+    expect(ownerSignIn.cookiePair).toBeDefined();
+    ownerCookie = ownerSignIn.cookiePair as string;
+  });
+
+  it("denies grants access to an anonymous caller", async () => {
+    const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/grants?userId=${ownerUserId}`);
+    expect(response.status).toBe(403);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ code: "AUTHORIZATION_DENIED" });
+  });
+
+  it("denies grants access to an authenticated caller with no owner authority and no grant", async () => {
+    const managerSignInBefore = await signIn(origin, managerEmail, password);
+    const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/grants?userId=${ownerUserId}`, {
+      headers: { cookie: managerSignInBefore.cookiePair as string },
+    });
+    expect(response.status).toBe(403);
+  });
+
+  it("bootstraps the owner via Core's real bootstrap operation, then confirms owner authority over the HTTP grants API", async () => {
+    // Exactly what `pnpm authorization:bootstrap-owner` would do, driven directly against the
+    // same disposable database the running API already uses — no second process needed to prove
+    // the HTTP layer honors real platform-owner state.
+    const { close, db } = createAuthorizationDrizzleDatabase(database.url);
+    try {
+      await bootstrapPlatformOwner(db, { userId: parseEkklesiaUserId(ownerUserId) });
+    } finally {
+      await close();
+    }
+
+    const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/grants?userId=${ownerUserId}`, {
+      headers: { cookie: ownerCookie },
+    });
+    expect(response.status).toBe(200);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ grants: [] });
+  });
+
+  it("lets the owner delegate grants.manage to another account through the explicit-grant HTTP API", async () => {
+    const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/grants`, {
+      body: JSON.stringify({
+        permission: "core.authorization.grants.manage",
+        subjectUserId: managerUserId,
+      }),
+      headers: {
+        "content-type": "application/json",
+        cookie: ownerCookie,
+        origin: dashboardOrigin,
+      },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+    const body = (await response.json()) as { grant: { sourceKind: string; userId: string } };
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(201);
+    expect(body.grant.sourceKind).toBe("explicit");
+    expect(body.grant.userId).toBe(managerUserId);
+  });
+
+  it("lets the delegated manager — who is not a platform owner — manage another user's grants", async () => {
+    const managerSignIn = await signIn(origin, managerEmail, password);
+    expect(managerSignIn.cookiePair).toBeDefined();
+    managerCookie = managerSignIn.cookiePair as string;
+
+    const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/grants?userId=${ownerUserId}`, {
+      headers: { cookie: managerCookie },
+    });
+    expect(response.status).toBe(200);
+  });
+
+  it("creates an explicit grant via HTTP, deriving sourceKind and actor server-side, and records an atomic audit entry", async () => {
+    const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/grants`, {
+      body: JSON.stringify({
+        permission: testPermission,
+        scope: "calendar-event:1",
+        subjectUserId: managerUserId,
+      }),
+      headers: {
+        "content-type": "application/json",
+        cookie: managerCookie,
+        origin: dashboardOrigin,
+      },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+    const body = (await response.json()) as {
+      grant: { id: string; sourceKind: string; userId: string };
+    };
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(201);
+    expect(body.grant.sourceKind).toBe("explicit");
+    expect(body.grant.userId).toBe(managerUserId);
+    createdGrantId = body.grant.id;
+
+    const admin = await openAdministrativeClient(database.url);
+    try {
+      const rows = await safeQuery<{ action: string; actor_id: string | null }>(
+        admin,
+        `select action, actor_id from "ekklesia_core_authorization_audit" where grant_id = $1`,
+        [createdGrantId],
+      );
+      expect(rows).toEqual([{ action: "grant.create", actor_id: managerUserId }]);
+    } finally {
+      await safeEnd(admin);
+    }
+  });
+
+  it("lists the explicit grant via HTTP", async () => {
+    const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/grants?userId=${managerUserId}`, {
+      headers: { cookie: ownerCookie },
+    });
+    const body = (await response.json()) as { grants: Array<{ id: string }> };
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(200);
+    expect(body.grants.some((grant) => grant.id === createdGrantId)).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it("rejects a create-grant request carrying disallowed fields such as actor or sourceKind, even alongside otherwise-valid fields", async () => {
+    const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/grants`, {
+      body: JSON.stringify({
+        actor: { type: "system" },
+        permission: testPermission,
+        sourceKind: "relationship",
+        subjectUserId: managerUserId,
+      }),
+      headers: {
+        "content-type": "application/json",
+        cookie: ownerCookie,
+        origin: dashboardOrigin,
+      },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+    expect(response.status).toBe(400);
+  });
+
+  it("rejects a mutation request with no trusted Origin header, and never returns a permissive CORS header", async () => {
+    const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/grants`, {
+      body: JSON.stringify({ permission: testPermission, subjectUserId: managerUserId }),
+      headers: { "content-type": "application/json", cookie: ownerCookie },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+    expect(response.status).toBe(403);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ code: "UNTRUSTED_ORIGIN" });
+    expect(response.headers.get("access-control-allow-origin")).toBeNull();
+  });
+
+  it("rejects a mutation request from an untrusted Origin the same way", async () => {
+    const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/grants`, {
+      body: JSON.stringify({ permission: testPermission, subjectUserId: managerUserId }),
+      headers: {
+        "content-type": "application/json",
+        cookie: ownerCookie,
+        origin: untrustedOrigin,
+      },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+    expect(response.status).toBe(403);
+    expect(response.headers.get("access-control-allow-origin")).toBeNull();
+  });
+
+  it("revokes the explicit grant via HTTP and records the revocation audit entry", async () => {
+    const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/grants/${createdGrantId}/revoke`, {
+      headers: { cookie: ownerCookie, origin: dashboardOrigin },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+    expect(response.status).toBe(200);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ success: true });
+
+    const admin = await openAdministrativeClient(database.url);
+    try {
+      const rows = await safeQuery<{ action: string }>(
+        admin,
+        `select action from "ekklesia_core_authorization_audit" where grant_id = $1 order by created_at`,
+        [createdGrantId],
+      );
+      expect(rows.map((row) => row.action)).toEqual(["grant.create", "grant.revoke"]);
+    } finally {
+      await safeEnd(admin);
+    }
+  });
+
+  it("never exposes a relationship-derived grant through the generic list, create, or revoke HTTP API", async () => {
+    // Seeded directly through the store, simulating a module's own business operation — never
+    // through HTTP, which has no way to express sourceKind at all.
+    const { close, db } = createAuthorizationDrizzleDatabase(database.url);
+    let relationshipGrantId: string;
+    try {
+      const store = createAuthorizationStore(db);
+      const relationshipGrant = await store.createGrant({
+        actor: SYSTEM_ACTOR,
+        permission: parsePermissionId("roster.volunteer.read"),
+        sourceKind: "relationship",
+        sourceRef: "roster:volunteer:99",
+        userId: parseEkklesiaUserId(managerUserId),
+      });
+      relationshipGrantId = relationshipGrant.id;
+    } finally {
+      await close();
+    }
+
+    const listResponse = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/grants?userId=${managerUserId}`, {
+      headers: { cookie: ownerCookie },
+    });
+    const listBody = (await listResponse.json()) as { grants: Array<{ id: string }> };
+    expect(listBody.grants.some((grant) => grant.id === relationshipGrantId)).toBe(false);
+
+    const revokeResponse = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/grants/${relationshipGrantId}/revoke`, {
+      headers: { cookie: ownerCookie, origin: dashboardOrigin },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+    expect(revokeResponse.status).toBe(404);
+    expect(await revokeResponse.json()).toEqual({ code: "AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_NOT_FOUND" });
+  });
+
+  it("shuts down cleanly, closing the one shared pool", async () => {
+    await running.shutdown();
+    const remainingConnections = await activeConnectionCount(database.name);
+    expect(remainingConnections).toBe(0);
+    await dropDatabase(database.name);
+  });
+});
+
+describe.sequential("live API — authorization infrastructure failure is never downgraded to a false denial", () => {
+  it("returns a sanitized 503, not a 403, when the database becomes unreachable mid-session", async () => {
+    const database = await createDisposableDatabase("authz_infra_failure");
+    await applyCoreMigrations(database.url);
+    const running = await startMigratedApi(database.url);
+    const origin = apiOrigin(running);
+
+    await signUp(origin, "authz-infra@example.test", "correct horse battery staple");
+    const { cookiePair } = await signIn(
+      origin,
+      "authz-infra@example.test",
+      "correct horse battery staple",
+    );
+    expect(cookiePair).toBeDefined();
+
+    // Force the database itself unreachable out from under the running API pool — the same
+    // technique the identity infra-failure test above uses, applied to a grants route this time.
+    await dropDatabase(database.name);
+
+    const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/grants?userId=does-not-matter`, {
+      headers: { cookie: cookiePair as string },
+    });
+    expect(response.status).toBe(503);
+    const body = (await response.json()) as { code: string };
+    expect(["PRINCIPAL_RESOLUTION_FAILED", "AUTHORIZATION_EVALUATION_FAILED"]).toContain(body.code);
+
+    await running.shutdown().catch(() => undefined);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/apps/api/tests/app.test.ts b/apps/api/tests/app.test.ts
index a9e9821..d2d590c 100644
--- a/apps/api/tests/app.test.ts
+++ b/apps/api/tests/app.test.ts
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 import { ANONYMOUS_PRINCIPAL, createAuthenticatedPrincipal } from "@ekklesia/contracts";
+import type { AuthorizationEvaluator, AuthorizationStore } from "@ekklesia/core/authorization";
 import type { EkklesiaIdentityRuntime } from "@ekklesia/core/identity";
 import { IdentityRuntimeError } from "@ekklesia/core/identity";
 import { describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
-import { createApiApp } from "../src/app.js";
+import { createApiApp, type CreateApiAppAuthorizationOptions } from "../src/app.js";
 
 const trustedOrigin = "https://dashboard.example.test";
 const untrustedOrigin = "https://evil.example.test";
@@ -15,10 +16,37 @@ function fakeRuntime(overrides: Partial<EkklesiaIdentityRuntime> = {}): Ekklesia
   };
 }
 
+/** A fully stubbed authorization dependency, denying everything by default — tests that need a
+ * specific decision or store behavior override the relevant method explicitly. */
+function fakeAuthorization(overrides: {
+  readonly evaluator?: Partial<AuthorizationEvaluator>;
+  readonly store?: Partial<AuthorizationStore>;
+}): CreateApiAppAuthorizationOptions {
+  const evaluator: AuthorizationEvaluator = {
+    authorize: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ allowed: false }),
+    ...overrides.evaluator,
+  };
+  const store: AuthorizationStore = {
+    createGrant: vi.fn(),
+    grantPlatformOwner: vi.fn(),
+    hasActiveGrant: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(false),
+    isPlatformOwner: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(false),
+    listGrantsForUser: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue([]),
+    revokeGrant: vi.fn(),
+    revokePlatformOwner: vi.fn(),
+    ...overrides.store,
+  };
+  return { evaluator, store };
+}
+
 describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
   it("mounts Better Auth exactly under /api/auth/*", async () => {
     const runtime = fakeRuntime();
-    const app = createApiApp({ runtime, trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin] });
+    const app = createApiApp({
+      authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
+      runtime,
+      trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
+    });
 
     const response = await app.request("/api/auth/sign-in/email", { method: "POST" });
 
@@ -29,7 +57,11 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
 
   it("does not route requests outside /api/auth/* to Better Auth", async () => {
     const runtime = fakeRuntime();
-    const app = createApiApp({ runtime, trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin] });
+    const app = createApiApp({
+      authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
+      runtime,
+      trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
+    });
 
     const response = await app.request("/sign-in/email", { method: "POST" });
 
@@ -41,7 +73,11 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
     const runtime = fakeRuntime({
       resolvePrincipal: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(ANONYMOUS_PRINCIPAL),
     });
-    const app = createApiApp({ runtime, trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin] });
+    const app = createApiApp({
+      authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
+      runtime,
+      trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
+    });
 
     const response = await app.request("/api/v1/principal");
 
@@ -55,7 +91,11 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
     const runtime = fakeRuntime({
       resolvePrincipal: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(createAuthenticatedPrincipal("user_123")),
     });
-    const app = createApiApp({ runtime, trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin] });
+    const app = createApiApp({
+      authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
+      runtime,
+      trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
+    });
 
     const response = await app.request("/api/v1/principal");
     const body = (await response.json()) as Record<string, unknown>;
@@ -71,7 +111,11 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
         .fn()
         .mockRejectedValue(new IdentityRuntimeError("PRINCIPAL_RESOLUTION_FAILED")),
     });
-    const app = createApiApp({ runtime, trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin] });
+    const app = createApiApp({
+      authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
+      runtime,
+      trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
+    });
 
     const response = await app.request("/api/v1/principal");
 
@@ -84,7 +128,11 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
     const runtime = fakeRuntime({
       handleAuthRequest: vi.fn().mockRejectedValue(new Error("postgresql://admin:secret@db/x")),
     });
-    const app = createApiApp({ runtime, trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin] });
+    const app = createApiApp({
+      authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
+      runtime,
+      trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
+    });
 
     const response = await app.request("/api/auth/sign-in/email", { method: "POST" });
     const body = await response.json();
@@ -96,7 +144,11 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
   });
 
   it("has deterministic 404 behavior for an unknown route", async () => {
-    const app = createApiApp({ runtime: fakeRuntime(), trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin] });
+    const app = createApiApp({
+      authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
+      runtime: fakeRuntime(),
+      trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
+    });
 
     const response = await app.request("/does-not-exist");
 
@@ -105,7 +157,11 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
   });
 
   it("reflects an allowed origin in Access-Control-Allow-Origin with credentials support", async () => {
-    const app = createApiApp({ runtime: fakeRuntime(), trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin] });
+    const app = createApiApp({
+      authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
+      runtime: fakeRuntime(),
+      trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
+    });
 
     const response = await app.request("/api/v1/principal", {
       headers: { origin: trustedOrigin },
@@ -116,7 +172,11 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
   });
 
   it("never returns Access-Control-Allow-Origin for a disallowed origin", async () => {
-    const app = createApiApp({ runtime: fakeRuntime(), trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin] });
+    const app = createApiApp({
+      authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
+      runtime: fakeRuntime(),
+      trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
+    });
 
     const response = await app.request("/api/v1/principal", {
       headers: { origin: untrustedOrigin },
@@ -126,7 +186,11 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
   });
 
   it("supports requests with no Origin header at all (native/server clients)", async () => {
-    const app = createApiApp({ runtime: fakeRuntime(), trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin] });
+    const app = createApiApp({
+      authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
+      runtime: fakeRuntime(),
+      trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
+    });
 
     const response = await app.request("/api/v1/principal");
 
@@ -134,7 +198,11 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
   });
 
   it("handles preflight OPTIONS requests deterministically for an allowed origin", async () => {
-    const app = createApiApp({ runtime: fakeRuntime(), trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin] });
+    const app = createApiApp({
+      authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
+      runtime: fakeRuntime(),
+      trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
+    });
 
     const response = await app.request("/api/v1/principal", {
       headers: {
@@ -149,7 +217,11 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
   });
 
   it("never wildcards Access-Control-Allow-Origin", async () => {
-    const app = createApiApp({ runtime: fakeRuntime(), trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin] });
+    const app = createApiApp({
+      authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
+      runtime: fakeRuntime(),
+      trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
+    });
 
     const response = await app.request("/api/v1/principal", {
       headers: { origin: trustedOrigin },
@@ -158,10 +230,41 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
     expect(response.headers.get("access-control-allow-origin")).not.toBe("*");
   });
 
-  // "No generalized session/user object stored in Hono context" is verified by construction
-  // rather than by a black-box context probe: unlike Better Auth's own documented Hono example
-  // (which hydrates `c.set("user", session.user)` on every request), createApiApp never calls
-  // `c.set` at all — the only per-request identity data that ever exists is the narrow
-  // EkklesiaPrincipal returned directly from the /api/v1/principal handler above, whose exact
-  // shape (kind + userId only) is already asserted by the principal-shape tests in this file.
+  // Unlike Better Auth's own documented Hono example (which hydrates `c.set("user", session.user)`
+  // on every request), createApiApp only ever calls `c.set` once, for the narrow EkklesiaPrincipal
+  // (kind + userId only), and only on routes `requirePermission` actually protects — proven by the
+  // grants-routes tests, not by a black-box context probe here. `/api/v1/principal` itself still
+  // never touches `c.set`; its response shape is asserted directly above.
+
+  describe("grants routes mounting (see grants-routes.test.ts for full coverage)", () => {
+    it("mounts the v1 grants routes under /api/v1/grants", async () => {
+      const evaluatorAuthorize = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ allowed: false });
+      const app = createApiApp({
+        authorization: fakeAuthorization({ evaluator: { authorize: evaluatorAuthorize } }),
+        runtime: fakeRuntime(),
+        trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
+      });
+
+      const response = await app.request("/api/v1/grants?userId=user_123");
+
+      // Reaching the permission check (and being denied by it) proves the route is mounted and
+      // wired to the injected evaluator, rather than falling through to the 404 handler.
+      expect(response.status).toBe(403);
+      expect(evaluatorAuthorize).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+    });
+
+    it("applies the same CORS policy to /api/v1/grants as the rest of /api/v1/*", async () => {
+      const app = createApiApp({
+        authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
+        runtime: fakeRuntime(),
+        trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
+      });
+
+      const response = await app.request("/api/v1/grants?userId=user_123", {
+        headers: { origin: untrustedOrigin },
+      });
+
+      expect(response.headers.get("access-control-allow-origin")).toBeNull();
+    });
+  });
 });
diff --git a/apps/api/tests/authorization-middleware.test.ts b/apps/api/tests/authorization-middleware.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9c42136
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/api/tests/authorization-middleware.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,204 @@
+import {
+  ANONYMOUS_PRINCIPAL,
+  createAuthenticatedPrincipal,
+  parsePermissionId,
+} from "@ekklesia/contracts";
+import {
+  type AuthorizationEvaluator,
+  createPermissionRegistry,
+} from "@ekklesia/core/authorization";
+import type { EkklesiaIdentityRuntime } from "@ekklesia/core/identity";
+import { Hono } from "hono";
+import { describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
+import {
+  type AuthorizationMiddlewareOptions,
+  getAuthorizedPrincipal,
+  requirePermission,
+  requireTrustedOrigin,
+} from "../src/authorization-middleware.js";
+
+const testPermission = parsePermissionId("core.test.restricted-thing");
+const unregisteredPermission = parsePermissionId("core.test.unregistered-thing");
+const registry = createPermissionRegistry([
+  { baseline: "restricted", description: "A restricted test permission.", id: testPermission },
+]);
+
+function fakeRuntime(overrides: Partial<EkklesiaIdentityRuntime> = {}): EkklesiaIdentityRuntime {
+  return {
+    handleAuthRequest: vi.fn(),
+    resolvePrincipal: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(ANONYMOUS_PRINCIPAL),
+    ...overrides,
+  };
+}
+
+function fakeEvaluator(overrides: Partial<AuthorizationEvaluator> = {}): AuthorizationEvaluator {
+  return {
+    authorize: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ allowed: true }),
+    ...overrides,
+  };
+}
+
+function buildTestApp(options: Partial<AuthorizationMiddlewareOptions> = {}) {
+  const runtime = options.runtime ?? fakeRuntime();
+  const evaluator = options.evaluator ?? fakeEvaluator();
+  const middlewareOptions: AuthorizationMiddlewareOptions = { evaluator, registry, runtime };
+
+  const app = new Hono();
+  app.get("/protected", requirePermission(middlewareOptions, testPermission), (c) => {
+    const principal = getAuthorizedPrincipal(c);
+    return c.json({ principalKind: principal.kind });
+  });
+  app.get("/unregistered", requirePermission(middlewareOptions, unregisteredPermission), (c) =>
+    c.json({ ok: true }),
+  );
+  app.get("/unprotected", (c) => {
+    let threw = false;
+    try {
+      getAuthorizedPrincipal(c);
+    } catch {
+      threw = true;
+    }
+    return c.json({ threw });
+  });
+
+  return { app, evaluator, runtime };
+}
+
+describe("requirePermission", () => {
+  it("allows the request through and stores the resolved principal on context when the decision is allowed", async () => {
+    const runtime = fakeRuntime({
+      resolvePrincipal: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(createAuthenticatedPrincipal("user_1")),
+    });
+    const { app } = buildTestApp({ runtime });
+
+    const response = await app.request("/protected");
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(200);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ principalKind: "authenticated" });
+  });
+
+  it("returns a sanitized 403 when the evaluator denies", async () => {
+    const evaluator = fakeEvaluator({ authorize: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ allowed: false }) });
+    const { app } = buildTestApp({ evaluator });
+
+    const response = await app.request("/protected");
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(403);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ code: "AUTHORIZATION_DENIED" });
+    expect(response.headers.get("cache-control")).toBe("no-store");
+  });
+
+  it("returns a sanitized 403 for an unregistered permission without ever resolving the principal", async () => {
+    const runtime = fakeRuntime();
+    const { app } = buildTestApp({ runtime });
+
+    const response = await app.request("/unregistered");
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(403);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ code: "AUTHORIZATION_DENIED" });
+    expect(runtime.resolvePrincipal).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
+  it("returns a sanitized 503, not a 403, when principal resolution fails", async () => {
+    const runtime = fakeRuntime({
+      resolvePrincipal: vi.fn().mockRejectedValue(new Error("connection terminated")),
+    });
+    const { app } = buildTestApp({ runtime });
+
+    const response = await app.request("/protected");
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(503);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ code: "PRINCIPAL_RESOLUTION_FAILED" });
+  });
+
+  it("returns a sanitized 503, not a 403, when evaluation itself fails", async () => {
+    const evaluator = fakeEvaluator({
+      authorize: vi.fn().mockRejectedValue(new Error("connection terminated")),
+    });
+    const { app } = buildTestApp({ evaluator });
+
+    const response = await app.request("/protected");
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(503);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ code: "AUTHORIZATION_EVALUATION_FAILED" });
+  });
+
+  it("never leaks a raw infrastructure error message through either sanitized 503", async () => {
+    const hostileMessage = "password=hunter2 host=db.internal.example port=5432";
+    const evaluator = fakeEvaluator({
+      authorize: vi.fn().mockRejectedValue(new Error(hostileMessage)),
+    });
+    const { app } = buildTestApp({ evaluator });
+
+    const response = await app.request("/protected");
+    const text = await response.text();
+
+    expect(text).not.toContain("hunter2");
+    expect(text).not.toContain("db.internal.example");
+  });
+
+  it("passes the registry's own baseline and permission id to the evaluator, never a client-supplied value", async () => {
+    const evaluator = fakeEvaluator();
+    const { app } = buildTestApp({ evaluator });
+
+    // A hostile client cannot even express "use this baseline instead" — there is no request
+    // field the middleware reads for it — but sending an unrelated header proves it is ignored.
+    await app.request("/protected", { headers: { "x-baseline": "public" } });
+
+    expect(evaluator.authorize).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+      expect.objectContaining({ baseline: "restricted", permission: testPermission }),
+    );
+  });
+});
+
+describe("getAuthorizedPrincipal", () => {
+  it("throws when called on a route requirePermission never protected", async () => {
+    const { app } = buildTestApp();
+
+    const response = await app.request("/unprotected");
+
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ threw: true });
+  });
+});
+
+describe("requireTrustedOrigin", () => {
+  const trustedOrigins = new Set(["https://dashboard.example.test"]);
+
+  function buildOriginApp() {
+    const app = new Hono();
+    app.post("/mutate", requireTrustedOrigin(trustedOrigins), (c) => c.json({ ok: true }));
+    return app;
+  }
+
+  it("allows a request from a trusted origin", async () => {
+    const app = buildOriginApp();
+
+    const response = await app.request("/mutate", {
+      headers: { origin: "https://dashboard.example.test" },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(200);
+  });
+
+  it("rejects a request with no Origin header at all", async () => {
+    const app = buildOriginApp();
+
+    const response = await app.request("/mutate", { method: "POST" });
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(403);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ code: "UNTRUSTED_ORIGIN" });
+  });
+
+  it("rejects a request from an untrusted origin", async () => {
+    const app = buildOriginApp();
+
+    const response = await app.request("/mutate", {
+      headers: { origin: "https://evil.example.test" },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(403);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ code: "UNTRUSTED_ORIGIN" });
+  });
+});
diff --git a/apps/api/tests/grants-routes.test.ts b/apps/api/tests/grants-routes.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0cd368f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/api/tests/grants-routes.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,350 @@
+import {
+  createAuthenticatedPrincipal,
+  parseAuthorizationScope,
+  parseEkklesiaUserId,
+  parseGrantId,
+  parsePermissionId,
+} from "@ekklesia/contracts";
+import {
+  type AuthorizationEvaluator,
+  type AuthorizationStore,
+  AuthorizationStoreError,
+  CORE_PERMISSION_REGISTRY,
+} from "@ekklesia/core/authorization";
+import type { EkklesiaIdentityRuntime } from "@ekklesia/core/identity";
+import { Hono } from "hono";
+import { describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
+import { createGrantsRoutes } from "../src/grants-routes.js";
+
+const trustedOrigin = "https://dashboard.example.test";
+const untrustedOrigin = "https://evil.example.test";
+const manager = createAuthenticatedPrincipal("manager_1");
+const subjectUserId = parseEkklesiaUserId("subject_1");
+const permission = parsePermissionId("calendar.events.read");
+const grantId = parseGrantId("11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111");
+
+function fakeRuntime(overrides: Partial<EkklesiaIdentityRuntime> = {}): EkklesiaIdentityRuntime {
+  return {
+    handleAuthRequest: vi.fn(),
+    resolvePrincipal: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(manager),
+    ...overrides,
+  };
+}
+
+function fakeStore(overrides: Partial<AuthorizationStore> = {}): AuthorizationStore {
+  return {
+    createGrant: vi.fn(),
+    grantPlatformOwner: vi.fn(),
+    hasActiveGrant: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(false),
+    isPlatformOwner: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(false),
+    listGrantsForUser: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue([]),
+    revokeGrant: vi.fn(),
+    revokePlatformOwner: vi.fn(),
+    ...overrides,
+  };
+}
+
+function buildApp(options: {
+  readonly allowed?: boolean;
+  readonly runtime?: EkklesiaIdentityRuntime;
+  readonly store?: AuthorizationStore;
+}) {
+  const evaluator: AuthorizationEvaluator = {
+    authorize: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ allowed: options.allowed ?? true }),
+  };
+  const runtime = options.runtime ?? fakeRuntime();
+  const store = options.store ?? fakeStore();
+  const app = new Hono();
+  app.route(
+    "/",
+    createGrantsRoutes({
+      evaluator,
+      registry: CORE_PERMISSION_REGISTRY,
+      runtime,
+      store,
+      trustedOrigins: new Set([trustedOrigin]),
+    }),
+  );
+  return { app, evaluator, runtime, store };
+}
+
+describe("GET /api/v1/grants", () => {
+  it("denies an anonymous or non-manager authenticated caller (evaluator says no)", async () => {
+    const { app, evaluator } = buildApp({ allowed: false });
+
+    const response = await app.request(`/api/v1/grants?userId=${subjectUserId}`);
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(403);
+    expect(evaluator.authorize).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+      expect.objectContaining({ baseline: "restricted" }),
+    );
+  });
+
+  it("allows a caller the evaluator authorizes — whether by platform ownership or a delegated grants.manage grant, the route cannot tell and does not need to (see core/tests/authorization-evaluator.test.ts for that distinction)", async () => {
+    const grants = [
+      {
+        createdAt: new Date("2026-01-01T00:00:00.000Z"),
+        id: grantId,
+        permission,
+        sourceKind: "explicit" as const,
+        userId: subjectUserId,
+      },
+    ];
+    const store = fakeStore({ listGrantsForUser: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(grants) });
+    const { app } = buildApp({ store });
+
+    const response = await app.request(`/api/v1/grants?userId=${subjectUserId}`);
+    const body = (await response.json()) as { grants: unknown[] };
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(200);
+    expect(body.grants).toHaveLength(1);
+    expect(store.listGrantsForUser).toHaveBeenCalledWith(subjectUserId, { sourceKind: "explicit" });
+  });
+
+  it("rejects a missing or malformed userId query parameter", async () => {
+    const { app, store } = buildApp({});
+
+    const response = await app.request("/api/v1/grants?userId=");
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(400);
+    expect(store.listGrantsForUser).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
+  it("maps a store infrastructure failure to a sanitized 503", async () => {
+    const store = fakeStore({
+      listGrantsForUser: vi
+        .fn()
+        .mockRejectedValue(new AuthorizationStoreError("AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_LIST_FAILED")),
+    });
+    const { app } = buildApp({ store });
+
+    const response = await app.request(`/api/v1/grants?userId=${subjectUserId}`);
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(503);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ code: "AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_LIST_FAILED" });
+  });
+});
+
+describe("POST /api/v1/grants", () => {
+  it("rejects a request with no trusted Origin header before ever checking permission", async () => {
+    const { app, evaluator } = buildApp({});
+
+    const response = await app.request("/api/v1/grants", {
+      body: JSON.stringify({ permission, subjectUserId }),
+      headers: { "content-type": "application/json" },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(403);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ code: "UNTRUSTED_ORIGIN" });
+    expect(evaluator.authorize).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
+  it("rejects an untrusted Origin header the same way", async () => {
+    const { app } = buildApp({});
+
+    const response = await app.request("/api/v1/grants", {
+      body: JSON.stringify({ permission, subjectUserId }),
+      headers: { "content-type": "application/json", origin: untrustedOrigin },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(403);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ code: "UNTRUSTED_ORIGIN" });
+  });
+
+  it("denies a caller the evaluator does not authorize", async () => {
+    const { app, store } = buildApp({ allowed: false });
+
+    const response = await app.request("/api/v1/grants", {
+      body: JSON.stringify({ permission, subjectUserId }),
+      headers: { "content-type": "application/json", origin: trustedOrigin },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(403);
+    expect(store.createGrant).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
+  it("creates an explicit grant, deriving sourceKind and actor server-side from the authenticated principal, never from the request body", async () => {
+    const createdGrant = {
+      createdAt: new Date("2026-01-01T00:00:00.000Z"),
+      id: grantId,
+      permission,
+      scope: parseAuthorizationScope("calendar-event:123"),
+      sourceKind: "explicit" as const,
+      userId: subjectUserId,
+    };
+    const store = fakeStore({ createGrant: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(createdGrant) });
+    const { app } = buildApp({ store });
+
+    const response = await app.request("/api/v1/grants", {
+      body: JSON.stringify({ permission, scope: "calendar-event:123", subjectUserId }),
+      headers: { "content-type": "application/json", origin: trustedOrigin },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+    const body = (await response.json()) as { grant: { id: string } };
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(201);
+    expect(body.grant.id).toBe(grantId);
+    expect(store.createGrant).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+      expect.objectContaining({
+        actor: { type: "user", userId: manager.userId },
+        permission,
+        scope: "calendar-event:123",
+        sourceKind: "explicit",
+        userId: subjectUserId,
+      }),
+    );
+  });
+
+  it.each([
+    "actor",
+    "owner",
+    "isOwner",
+    "sourceKind",
+    "sourceRef",
+    "id",
+    "grantId",
+    "createdAt",
+    "revokedAt",
+    "createdByActorId",
+    "effectivePermissions",
+  ])("rejects a request body carrying a disallowed field (%s), even alongside otherwise-valid fields", async (field) => {
+    const { app, store } = buildApp({});
+
+    const response = await app.request("/api/v1/grants", {
+      body: JSON.stringify({ [field]: "hostile-value", permission, subjectUserId }),
+      headers: { "content-type": "application/json", origin: trustedOrigin },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(400);
+    expect(store.createGrant).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
+  it("rejects a malformed permission, subject id, scope, or expiresAt", async () => {
+    const { app, store } = buildApp({});
+
+    const responses = await Promise.all(
+      [
+        { permission: "not-namespaced", subjectUserId },
+        { permission, subjectUserId: "" },
+        { permission, scope: "", subjectUserId },
+        { expiresAt: "not-a-date", permission, subjectUserId },
+      ].map((body) =>
+        app.request("/api/v1/grants", {
+          body: JSON.stringify(body),
+          headers: { "content-type": "application/json", origin: trustedOrigin },
+          method: "POST",
+        }),
+      ),
+    );
+
+    for (const response of responses) {
+      expect(response.status).toBe(400);
+    }
+    expect(store.createGrant).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
+  it("maps a store infrastructure failure to a sanitized 503", async () => {
+    const store = fakeStore({
+      createGrant: vi
+        .fn()
+        .mockRejectedValue(new AuthorizationStoreError("AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_CREATE_FAILED")),
+    });
+    const { app } = buildApp({ store });
+
+    const response = await app.request("/api/v1/grants", {
+      body: JSON.stringify({ permission, subjectUserId }),
+      headers: { "content-type": "application/json", origin: trustedOrigin },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(503);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ code: "AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_CREATE_FAILED" });
+  });
+});
+
+describe("POST /api/v1/grants/:grantId/revoke", () => {
+  it("rejects a request with no trusted Origin header before ever checking permission", async () => {
+    const { app, evaluator } = buildApp({});
+
+    const response = await app.request(`/api/v1/grants/${grantId}/revoke`, { method: "POST" });
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(403);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ code: "UNTRUSTED_ORIGIN" });
+    expect(evaluator.authorize).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
+  it("revokes an explicit grant, deriving the actor server-side from the authenticated principal", async () => {
+    const store = fakeStore({ revokeGrant: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(undefined) });
+    const { app } = buildApp({ store });
+
+    const response = await app.request(`/api/v1/grants/${grantId}/revoke`, {
+      headers: { origin: trustedOrigin },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(200);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ success: true });
+    expect(store.revokeGrant).toHaveBeenCalledWith({
+      actor: { type: "user", userId: manager.userId },
+      grantId,
+      sourceKind: "explicit",
+    });
+  });
+
+  it("always constrains revocation to sourceKind explicit, so a relationship-derived grant can never be targeted by id", async () => {
+    // The store itself enforces this by treating a sourceKind mismatch exactly like a missing
+    // grant; this test proves the route always asks for that constraint, and correctly surfaces
+    // the resulting "not found" as 404 rather than leaking that the grant exists but is the wrong
+    // kind.
+    const store = fakeStore({
+      revokeGrant: vi
+        .fn()
+        .mockRejectedValue(new AuthorizationStoreError("AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_NOT_FOUND")),
+    });
+    const { app } = buildApp({ store });
+
+    const response = await app.request(`/api/v1/grants/${grantId}/revoke`, {
+      headers: { origin: trustedOrigin },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(404);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ code: "AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_NOT_FOUND" });
+    expect(store.revokeGrant).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+      expect.objectContaining({ sourceKind: "explicit" }),
+    );
+  });
+
+  it("rejects a malformed grant id", async () => {
+    const { app, store } = buildApp({});
+
+    const response = await app.request("/api/v1/grants/%20/revoke", {
+      headers: { origin: trustedOrigin },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(400);
+    expect(store.revokeGrant).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
+  it("maps a store infrastructure failure to a sanitized 503", async () => {
+    const store = fakeStore({
+      revokeGrant: vi
+        .fn()
+        .mockRejectedValue(new AuthorizationStoreError("AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_REVOKE_FAILED")),
+    });
+    const { app } = buildApp({ store });
+
+    const response = await app.request(`/api/v1/grants/${grantId}/revoke`, {
+      headers: { origin: trustedOrigin },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(503);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ code: "AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_REVOKE_FAILED" });
+  });
+});
diff --git a/apps/api/tests/lifecycle.test.ts b/apps/api/tests/lifecycle.test.ts
index e52d31d..6e5a3dd 100644
--- a/apps/api/tests/lifecycle.test.ts
+++ b/apps/api/tests/lifecycle.test.ts
@@ -176,6 +176,26 @@ describe("Ekklesia API shutdown lifecycle", () => {
     expect(poolEnd).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
   });
 
+  it("constructs exactly one physical PostgreSQL pool for both the identity and authorization views, and closes only that one pool on shutdown", async () => {
+    const poolEnd = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(undefined);
+    poolConstructor.mockImplementation(function fakePool() {
+      return { end: poolEnd, on: vi.fn() };
+    });
+    betterAuthMock.mockReturnValue({ api: { getSession: vi.fn() }, handler: vi.fn() });
+    mockSuccessfulServe();
+
+    const running = await startApi(validConfig());
+
+    // Identity (via Better Auth's Drizzle adapter) and authorization both read from the same
+    // running API, yet only one `new Pool(...)` call is ever made — proving the shared-pool
+    // composition in apps/api/src/database.ts never falls back to a second, independent pool.
+    expect(poolConstructor).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+
+    await running.shutdown();
+
+    expect(poolEnd).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+  });
+
   it("keeps shutdown idempotent for calls made after the first has already resolved", async () => {
     const poolEnd = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(undefined);
     poolConstructor.mockImplementation(function fakePool() {
@@ -205,6 +225,7 @@ describe("Ekklesia API shutdown lifecycle", () => {
       code: "IDENTITY_CONSTRUCTION_FAILED",
     });
 
+    expect(poolConstructor).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
     expect(poolEnd).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
     expect(serveMock).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
   });
@@ -219,6 +240,7 @@ describe("Ekklesia API shutdown lifecycle", () => {
 
     await expect(startApi(validConfig())).rejects.toThrow();
 
+    expect(poolConstructor).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
     expect(poolEnd).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
   });
 
diff --git a/core/package.json b/core/package.json
index 2bb96bb..1f46033 100644
--- a/core/package.json
+++ b/core/package.json
@@ -30,6 +30,10 @@
     "./authorization": {
       "types": "./dist/authorization/index.d.ts",
       "import": "./dist/authorization/index.js"
+    },
+    "./database": {
+      "types": "./dist/database/index.d.ts",
+      "import": "./dist/database/index.js"
     }
   },
   "scripts": {
diff --git a/core/src/authorization/bootstrap.ts b/core/src/authorization/bootstrap.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ab18850
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/authorization/bootstrap.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,115 @@
+import type { EkklesiaUserId } from "@ekklesia/contracts";
+import { eq, sql } from "drizzle-orm";
+import { ekklesiaCoreUser } from "../identity/schema.js";
+import type { AuthorizationDrizzleDatabase } from "./database.js";
+import { ekklesiaCoreAuthorizationAudit, ekklesiaCorePlatformOwner } from "./schema.js";
+
+export type PlatformOwnerBootstrapErrorCode =
+  | "PLATFORM_OWNER_BOOTSTRAP_ALREADY_CONSUMED"
+  | "PLATFORM_OWNER_BOOTSTRAP_FAILED"
+  | "PLATFORM_OWNER_BOOTSTRAP_USER_NOT_FOUND";
+
+const bootstrapErrorMessages: Readonly<Record<PlatformOwnerBootstrapErrorCode, string>> =
+  Object.freeze({
+    PLATFORM_OWNER_BOOTSTRAP_ALREADY_CONSUMED:
+      "Platform-owner bootstrap has already been used and cannot be used again.",
+    PLATFORM_OWNER_BOOTSTRAP_FAILED: "Platform-owner bootstrap could not be completed.",
+    PLATFORM_OWNER_BOOTSTRAP_USER_NOT_FOUND: "The target user does not exist.",
+  });
+
+/** Never carries the underlying database error, SQL text, host, port, path, or stack. */
+export class PlatformOwnerBootstrapError extends Error {
+  readonly code: PlatformOwnerBootstrapErrorCode;
+
+  constructor(code: PlatformOwnerBootstrapErrorCode) {
+    super(bootstrapErrorMessages[code]);
+    this.name = "PlatformOwnerBootstrapError";
+    this.code = code;
+    this.stack = `${this.name}: ${this.message}`;
+    Object.freeze(this);
+  }
+}
+
+function isPlatformOwnerBootstrapError(error: unknown): error is PlatformOwnerBootstrapError {
+  return error instanceof PlatformOwnerBootstrapError;
+}
+
+/** A fixed, sanitized, non-user actor identity for the audit trail — distinguishable from both an
+ * ordinary "system" action with no specific actor and from any real `EkklesiaUserId`, so an
+ * auditor can tell this owner grant came specifically from the bootstrap command. Never a real
+ * user id and never derived from caller input. */
+const BOOTSTRAP_ACTOR_TYPE = "system";
+const BOOTSTRAP_ACTOR_ID = "authorization-bootstrap-cli";
+
+// A dedicated advisory-lock key pair, distinct from `core/src/migrations/postgres-database.ts`'s
+// migration lock, so bootstrap serialization can never collide with or be blocked by unrelated
+// migration locking. `pg_advisory_xact_lock` is transaction-scoped: it is released automatically
+// on COMMIT or ROLLBACK, so no manual unlock is needed even if the transaction fails partway.
+const bootstrapLockNamespace = 1_500_000_001;
+const bootstrapLockKey = 1_500_000_002;
+
+export interface BootstrapPlatformOwnerInput {
+  readonly userId: EkklesiaUserId;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Core's dedicated, Hono-independent platform-owner bootstrap operation. Deliberately not a
+ * composition of "check, then call the existing grant function": the single-use check, the target
+ * user's existence check, the owner-grant insert, and its audit entry are all one PostgreSQL
+ * transaction, serialized by a transaction-scoped advisory lock acquired as the very first
+ * statement — so two concurrent callers can never both observe "no owner yet" and both insert.
+ * The second caller blocks on the lock until the first's transaction commits or rolls back, then
+ * re-evaluates against the now-current state.
+ *
+ * "Already consumed" is global and permanent: it is true the moment
+ * `ekklesia_core_platform_owner` has ever held any row for any user, including one whose
+ * `revoked_at` is set — a later, separate owner-management flow (not part of this slice) is how a
+ * platform owner would ever be re-established after a revocation, not this command.
+ */
+export async function bootstrapPlatformOwner(
+  db: AuthorizationDrizzleDatabase,
+  input: BootstrapPlatformOwnerInput,
+): Promise<void> {
+  try {
+    await db.transaction(async (tx) => {
+      await tx.execute(
+        sql`select pg_advisory_xact_lock(${bootstrapLockNamespace}, ${bootstrapLockKey})`,
+      );
+
+      const existingOwnerRows = await tx
+        .select({ userId: ekklesiaCorePlatformOwner.userId })
+        .from(ekklesiaCorePlatformOwner)
+        .limit(1);
+      if (existingOwnerRows.length > 0) {
+        throw new PlatformOwnerBootstrapError("PLATFORM_OWNER_BOOTSTRAP_ALREADY_CONSUMED");
+      }
+
+      const targetUserRows = await tx
+        .select({ id: ekklesiaCoreUser.id })
+        .from(ekklesiaCoreUser)
+        .where(eq(ekklesiaCoreUser.id, input.userId))
+        .limit(1);
+      if (targetUserRows.length === 0) {
+        throw new PlatformOwnerBootstrapError("PLATFORM_OWNER_BOOTSTRAP_USER_NOT_FOUND");
+      }
+
+      await tx.insert(ekklesiaCorePlatformOwner).values({
+        grantedByActorId: BOOTSTRAP_ACTOR_ID,
+        grantedByActorType: BOOTSTRAP_ACTOR_TYPE,
+        userId: input.userId,
+      });
+
+      await tx.insert(ekklesiaCoreAuthorizationAudit).values({
+        action: "platform_owner.grant",
+        actorId: BOOTSTRAP_ACTOR_ID,
+        actorType: BOOTSTRAP_ACTOR_TYPE,
+        subjectUserId: input.userId,
+      });
+    });
+  } catch (error) {
+    if (isPlatformOwnerBootstrapError(error)) {
+      throw error;
+    }
+    throw new PlatformOwnerBootstrapError("PLATFORM_OWNER_BOOTSTRAP_FAILED");
+  }
+}
diff --git a/core/src/authorization/database.ts b/core/src/authorization/database.ts
index db18ec8..8050614 100644
--- a/core/src/authorization/database.ts
+++ b/core/src/authorization/database.ts
@@ -105,3 +105,14 @@ export function createAuthorizationDrizzleDatabase(
     db,
   });
 }
+
+/**
+ * A typed Drizzle view over an externally owned pool — for example one shared with the identity
+ * schema via `createValidatedPostgresPool` (`core/src/database/pool.ts`). Unlike
+ * `createAuthorizationDrizzleDatabase`, this function never constructs, registers an error
+ * listener on, or closes a pool itself: the caller retains that responsibility exactly once,
+ * regardless of how many typed views it creates over the same pool.
+ */
+export function createAuthorizationDrizzleView(pool: Pool): AuthorizationDrizzleDatabase {
+  return drizzle(pool, { schema: authorizationSchema });
+}
diff --git a/core/src/authorization/index.ts b/core/src/authorization/index.ts
index c4f6a05..272b3ad 100644
--- a/core/src/authorization/index.ts
+++ b/core/src/authorization/index.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
+export * from "./bootstrap.js";
 export * from "./database.js";
 export * from "./evaluator.js";
+export * from "./permissions.js";
 export * from "./ports.js";
 export * from "./store.js";
diff --git a/core/src/authorization/permissions.ts b/core/src/authorization/permissions.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..66e52ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/authorization/permissions.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,109 @@
+import {
+  type PermissionBaseline,
+  type PermissionId,
+  parsePermissionId,
+  safeParsePermissionId,
+} from "@ekklesia/contracts";
+
+/**
+ * A registered permission declaration: the trusted pairing of a permission identifier with its
+ * one baseline. This is what distinguishes a *registered* permission from a merely well-formed
+ * `PermissionId` string — the evaluator itself (`createAuthorizationEvaluator`) still takes an
+ * explicit, caller-supplied baseline per pass 1's design; the registry is what a trusted caller
+ * (Core's own HTTP enforcement, eventually a module registration mechanism) consults so that
+ * baseline is never client-supplied or guessed.
+ */
+export interface PermissionDeclaration {
+  readonly id: PermissionId;
+  readonly baseline: PermissionBaseline;
+  /** Human-readable, for operators and audit review only — never interpreted by the evaluator or
+   * by enforcement. */
+  readonly description: string;
+}
+
+export interface PermissionRegistry {
+  readonly declarations: readonly PermissionDeclaration[];
+  /** Returns the declaration for a permission id, or `undefined` for anything malformed or not
+   * registered — the two are deliberately indistinguishable to callers, so "unknown permission"
+   * and "invalid permission" fail closed the same way. */
+  get(permissionId: unknown): PermissionDeclaration | undefined;
+  has(permissionId: unknown): boolean;
+}
+
+export type PermissionRegistryErrorCode = "PERMISSION_REGISTRY_DUPLICATE_DECLARATION";
+
+/** Thrown only at composition time (registry construction), never per-request. Carries the
+ * offending permission id deliberately — this is a startup-time programmer/configuration error
+ * message, not a runtime response, and a namespaced permission id is not sensitive. */
+export class PermissionRegistryError extends Error {
+  readonly code: PermissionRegistryErrorCode;
+  readonly permissionId: string;
+
+  constructor(permissionId: string) {
+    super(`Permission "${permissionId}" is already registered.`);
+    this.name = "PermissionRegistryError";
+    this.code = "PERMISSION_REGISTRY_DUPLICATE_DECLARATION";
+    this.permissionId = permissionId;
+    this.stack = `${this.name}: ${this.message}`;
+    Object.freeze(this);
+  }
+}
+
+/**
+ * Builds an immutable permission registry from a fixed list of declarations, rejecting any
+ * duplicate permission id outright at composition time. Deliberately the smallest mechanism that
+ * distinguishes "registered" from "well-formed": no module discovery, no dynamic registration, no
+ * network or filesystem I/O — a future module registration mechanism can merge its own
+ * declarations into a combined list and still call this same constructor, inheriting duplicate
+ * detection for free instead of reimplementing it.
+ */
+export function createPermissionRegistry(
+  declarations: readonly PermissionDeclaration[],
+): PermissionRegistry {
+  const byId = new Map<PermissionId, PermissionDeclaration>();
+  for (const declaration of declarations) {
+    if (byId.has(declaration.id)) {
+      throw new PermissionRegistryError(declaration.id);
+    }
+    byId.set(declaration.id, Object.freeze({ ...declaration }));
+  }
+  const frozenDeclarations = Object.freeze([...byId.values()]);
+
+  return Object.freeze({
+    declarations: frozenDeclarations,
+    get(permissionId: unknown): PermissionDeclaration | undefined {
+      const parsed = safeParsePermissionId(permissionId);
+      return parsed.success ? byId.get(parsed.data) : undefined;
+    },
+    has(permissionId: unknown): boolean {
+      const parsed = safeParsePermissionId(permissionId);
+      return parsed.success && byId.has(parsed.data);
+    },
+  });
+}
+
+/** Restricted: delegated grant administration is itself a privileged action, never public or
+ * merely authenticated. A platform owner always passes the evaluator's existing owner bypass and
+ * can delegate this permission to another account deliberately via the explicit-grant API. */
+export const CORE_AUTHORIZATION_GRANTS_MANAGE: PermissionId = parsePermissionId(
+  "core.authorization.grants.manage",
+);
+
+const CORE_PERMISSION_DECLARATIONS: readonly PermissionDeclaration[] = Object.freeze([
+  Object.freeze({
+    baseline: "restricted" as const,
+    description: "Create, list, and revoke another user's explicit authorization grants.",
+    id: CORE_AUTHORIZATION_GRANTS_MANAGE,
+  }),
+]);
+
+/**
+ * Core's own permission registry — the trusted source of truth `apps/api`'s authorization
+ * enforcement consults so an HTTP route can never supply its own baseline. Contains exactly the
+ * one Core-owned permission this slice needs; a future module registration mechanism is
+ * deliberately out of scope here and will compose its own declarations through
+ * `createPermissionRegistry` rather than through this constant.
+ */
+export const CORE_PERMISSION_REGISTRY: PermissionRegistry = createPermissionRegistry(
+  CORE_PERMISSION_DECLARATIONS,
+);
diff --git a/core/src/authorization/store.ts b/core/src/authorization/store.ts
index 2dd2f8e..0946539 100644
--- a/core/src/authorization/store.ts
+++ b/core/src/authorization/store.ts
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ import {
   parseGrantId,
   parsePermissionId,
 } from "@ekklesia/contracts";
-import { and, eq, gt, isNull, or, sql } from "drizzle-orm";
+import { and, desc, eq, gt, isNull, or, sql } from "drizzle-orm";
 import type { AuthorizationDrizzleDatabase } from "./database.js";
 import type {
   ActiveGrantQuery,
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ import {
 
 export type AuthorizationStoreErrorCode =
   | "AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_CREATE_FAILED"
+  | "AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_LIST_FAILED"
   | "AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_LOOKUP_FAILED"
   | "AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_NOT_FOUND"
   | "AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_REVOKE_FAILED"
@@ -38,6 +39,7 @@ export type AuthorizationStoreErrorCode =
 
 const storeErrorMessages: Readonly<Record<AuthorizationStoreErrorCode, string>> = Object.freeze({
   AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_CREATE_FAILED: "The authorization grant could not be created.",
+  AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_LIST_FAILED: "The authorization grant list could not be retrieved.",
   AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_LOOKUP_FAILED: "The authorization grant lookup could not be completed.",
   AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_NOT_FOUND: "The authorization grant was not found or is already revoked.",
   AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_REVOKE_FAILED: "The authorization grant could not be revoked.",
@@ -90,6 +92,18 @@ export interface GrantRecord {
 export interface RevokeGrantInput {
   readonly grantId: GrantId;
   readonly actor: AuthorizationActor;
+  /** When provided, the revoke only matches a grant whose `sourceKind` equals this value — a
+   * grant of a different source kind is treated exactly like a nonexistent one
+   * (`AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_NOT_FOUND`). The generic explicit-grant HTTP API always passes
+   * `"explicit"` here, so it can never revoke a relationship-derived grant regardless of caller
+   * intent; internal Core callers that omit this may revoke any grant, matching pass 1's
+   * original, unconstrained behavior. */
+  readonly sourceKind?: GrantSourceKind;
+}
+
+export interface ListGrantsForUserOptions {
+  /** When provided, only grants with this exact `sourceKind` are returned. */
+  readonly sourceKind?: GrantSourceKind;
 }
 
 /**
@@ -103,6 +117,12 @@ export interface RevokeGrantInput {
 export interface AuthorizationStore extends AuthorizationGrantPort, AuthorizationPlatformOwnerPort {
   createGrant(input: CreateGrantInput): Promise<GrantRecord>;
   revokeGrant(input: RevokeGrantInput): Promise<void>;
+  /** Every grant ever recorded for the user, active or revoked, newest first — the caller decides
+   * what to display. Never includes another user's grants. */
+  listGrantsForUser(
+    userId: EkklesiaUserId,
+    options?: ListGrantsForUserOptions,
+  ): Promise<readonly GrantRecord[]>;
   grantPlatformOwner(userId: EkklesiaUserId, actor: AuthorizationActor): Promise<void>;
   revokePlatformOwner(userId: EkklesiaUserId, actor: AuthorizationActor): Promise<void>;
 }
@@ -193,7 +213,13 @@ export function createAuthorizationStore(db: AuthorizationDrizzleDatabase): Auth
               revokedByActorType: input.actor.type,
             })
             .where(
-              and(eq(ekklesiaCoreGrant.id, input.grantId), isNull(ekklesiaCoreGrant.revokedAt)),
+              and(
+                eq(ekklesiaCoreGrant.id, input.grantId),
+                isNull(ekklesiaCoreGrant.revokedAt),
+                ...(input.sourceKind === undefined
+                  ? []
+                  : [eq(ekklesiaCoreGrant.sourceKind, input.sourceKind)]),
+              ),
             )
             .returning();
           if (!row) {
@@ -243,6 +269,29 @@ export function createAuthorizationStore(db: AuthorizationDrizzleDatabase): Auth
       }
     },
 
+    listGrantsForUser: async (
+      userId: EkklesiaUserId,
+      options: ListGrantsForUserOptions = {},
+    ): Promise<readonly GrantRecord[]> => {
+      try {
+        const rows = await db
+          .select()
+          .from(ekklesiaCoreGrant)
+          .where(
+            and(
+              eq(ekklesiaCoreGrant.userId, userId),
+              ...(options.sourceKind === undefined
+                ? []
+                : [eq(ekklesiaCoreGrant.sourceKind, options.sourceKind)]),
+            ),
+          )
+          .orderBy(desc(ekklesiaCoreGrant.createdAt));
+        return Object.freeze(rows.map(toGrantRecord));
+      } catch {
+        throw new AuthorizationStoreError("AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_LIST_FAILED");
+      }
+    },
+
     grantPlatformOwner: async (
       userId: EkklesiaUserId,
       actor: AuthorizationActor,
diff --git a/core/src/cli/bootstrap-platform-owner.ts b/core/src/cli/bootstrap-platform-owner.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4be74c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/cli/bootstrap-platform-owner.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+import path from "node:path";
+import { pathToFileURL } from "node:url";
+import { safeParseEkklesiaUserId } from "@ekklesia/contracts";
+import {
+  bootstrapPlatformOwner,
+  createAuthorizationDrizzleDatabase,
+  PlatformOwnerBootstrapError,
+} from "../authorization/index.js";
+
+class BootstrapCliError extends Error {
+  constructor(message: string) {
+    super(message);
+    this.name = "BootstrapCliError";
+  }
+}
+
+const usage =
+  "Usage: pnpm authorization:bootstrap-owner -- --user-id <id> --confirm-user-id <same-id>";
+
+interface ParsedArgs {
+  readonly confirmUserId: string;
+  readonly userId: string;
+}
+
+/** A minimal, hand-rolled flag parser — this command takes exactly two required, named flags, so
+ * a general-purpose argument-parsing dependency is not warranted. */
+function parseArgs(argv: readonly string[]): ParsedArgs {
+  let userId: string | undefined;
+  let confirmUserId: string | undefined;
+  for (let index = 0; index < argv.length; index += 1) {
+    const flag = argv[index];
+    if (flag === "--user-id") {
+      userId = argv[index + 1];
+      index += 1;
+    } else if (flag === "--confirm-user-id") {
+      confirmUserId = argv[index + 1];
+      index += 1;
+    }
+  }
+  if (userId === undefined || confirmUserId === undefined) {
+    throw new BootstrapCliError(usage);
+  }
+  return { confirmUserId, userId };
+}
+
+async function main(): Promise<void> {
+  const { confirmUserId, userId: rawUserId } = parseArgs(process.argv.slice(2));
+
+  // Deliberately not "infer the first user" or "select by signup order" — the operator must name
+  // the exact, opaque Ekklesia user id twice, and both must match exactly, before anything else
+  // is even attempted.
+  if (rawUserId !== confirmUserId) {
+    throw new BootstrapCliError(
+      "--user-id and --confirm-user-id must match exactly. No changes were made.",
+    );
+  }
+
+  const parsedUserId = safeParseEkklesiaUserId(rawUserId);
+  if (!parsedUserId.success) {
+    throw new BootstrapCliError("The provided user id is not a valid Ekklesia user id.");
+  }
+
+  // Read only when this command actually executes — never merely by importing this module (see
+  // isDirectExecution() below) or any module it imports.
+  const databaseUrl = process.env.DATABASE_URL;
+  if (typeof databaseUrl !== "string" || databaseUrl.trim().length === 0) {
+    throw new BootstrapCliError("DATABASE_URL is required.");
+  }
+
+  const { close, db } = createAuthorizationDrizzleDatabase(databaseUrl, {
+    connectionTimeoutMs: 10_000,
+    operationTimeoutMs: 10_000,
+  });
+  try {
+    await bootstrapPlatformOwner(db, { userId: parsedUserId.data });
+    console.log(`Platform-owner bootstrap complete for user "${parsedUserId.data}".`);
+  } finally {
+    await close().catch(() => undefined);
+  }
+}
+
+function reportBootstrapCliError(error: unknown): void {
+  if (error instanceof BootstrapCliError) {
+    console.error(error.message);
+    return;
+  }
+  if (error instanceof PlatformOwnerBootstrapError) {
+    console.error(`[${error.code}] ${error.message}`);
+    return;
+  }
+  console.error("Platform-owner bootstrap failed unexpectedly.");
+}
+
+function isDirectExecution(): boolean {
+  const entrypoint = process.argv[1];
+  return (
+    entrypoint !== undefined && import.meta.url === pathToFileURL(path.resolve(entrypoint)).href
+  );
+}
+
+if (isDirectExecution()) {
+  main().catch((error: unknown) => {
+    reportBootstrapCliError(error);
+    process.exitCode = 1;
+  });
+}
diff --git a/core/src/database/index.ts b/core/src/database/index.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8636161
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/database/index.ts
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+export * from "./pool.js";
diff --git a/core/src/database/pool.ts b/core/src/database/pool.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0273141
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/database/pool.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,110 @@
+import { Pool, type PoolConfig } from "pg";
+
+export type PostgresPoolErrorCode = "POSTGRES_POOL_CONFIGURATION_INVALID";
+
+/** Never carries the offending connection string, host, or underlying driver error. */
+export class PostgresPoolError extends Error {
+  readonly code: PostgresPoolErrorCode;
+
+  constructor(code: PostgresPoolErrorCode) {
+    super("PostgreSQL pool configuration is invalid.");
+    this.name = "PostgresPoolError";
+    this.code = code;
+    this.stack = `${this.name}: ${this.message}`;
+    Object.freeze(this);
+  }
+}
+
+const maximumPostgresTimeoutMs = 2_147_483_647;
+
+export interface PostgresPoolOptions {
+  readonly connectionTimeoutMs?: number;
+  /** Bounds both `query_timeout` and `statement_timeout`: `connectionTimeoutMs` alone only bounds
+   * establishing a connection, not a hung query already running on one. */
+  readonly operationTimeoutMs?: number;
+}
+
+export interface PostgresPoolHandle {
+  readonly close: () => Promise<void>;
+  readonly pool: Pool;
+}
+
+function validateConnectionString(connectionString: string): string {
+  if (connectionString.trim().length === 0) {
+    throw new PostgresPoolError("POSTGRES_POOL_CONFIGURATION_INVALID");
+  }
+  let protocol: string;
+  try {
+    protocol = new URL(connectionString).protocol;
+  } catch {
+    throw new PostgresPoolError("POSTGRES_POOL_CONFIGURATION_INVALID");
+  }
+  if (protocol !== "postgres:" && protocol !== "postgresql:") {
+    throw new PostgresPoolError("POSTGRES_POOL_CONFIGURATION_INVALID");
+  }
+  return connectionString;
+}
+
+/** Mirrors the validation already used by `core/src/identity/database.ts`,
+ * `core/src/authorization/database.ts`, and `core/src/migrations/postgres-database.ts`: an
+ * explicit timeout must be a positive safe integer no larger than PostgreSQL's own maximum, or it
+ * is rejected as invalid configuration rather than silently passed through to `pg`. */
+function validateTimeout(value: unknown): number | undefined {
+  if (value === undefined) {
+    return undefined;
+  }
+  if (
+    typeof value !== "number" ||
+    !Number.isSafeInteger(value) ||
+    value <= 0 ||
+    value > maximumPostgresTimeoutMs
+  ) {
+    throw new PostgresPoolError("POSTGRES_POOL_CONFIGURATION_INVALID");
+  }
+  return value;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Ekklesia's one shared, validated `pg.Pool` constructor for a single physical database
+ * connection meant to back more than one typed Drizzle view (for example Core's identity and
+ * authorization schemas sharing one pool in `apps/api`) — one pool, one mandatory error listener,
+ * one `close()`. Building the pool performs no network I/O until a query is issued, and this
+ * function is only ever invoked by explicit caller code — never during module import.
+ *
+ * This does not replace `createIdentityDrizzleDatabase` or `createAuthorizationDrizzleDatabase`:
+ * those remain independent, self-contained factories (each owns a private pool and its own
+ * `close()`) for callers — tests included — that only need one domain. Use this function, plus
+ * `createIdentityDrizzleView`/`createAuthorizationDrizzleView`, specifically when more than one
+ * domain must share one physical connection pool.
+ */
+export function createValidatedPostgresPool(
+  connectionString: string,
+  options: PostgresPoolOptions = {},
+): PostgresPoolHandle {
+  const validatedConnectionString = validateConnectionString(connectionString);
+  const validatedConnectionTimeoutMs = validateTimeout(options.connectionTimeoutMs);
+  const validatedOperationTimeoutMs = validateTimeout(options.operationTimeoutMs);
+  const poolConfig: PoolConfig = {
+    connectionString: validatedConnectionString,
+    ...(validatedConnectionTimeoutMs === undefined
+      ? {}
+      : { connectionTimeoutMillis: validatedConnectionTimeoutMs }),
+    ...(validatedOperationTimeoutMs === undefined
+      ? {}
+      : {
+          query_timeout: validatedOperationTimeoutMs,
+          statement_timeout: validatedOperationTimeoutMs,
+        }),
+  };
+
+  const pool = new Pool(poolConfig);
+  // Same rationale as core/src/identity/database.ts: pg's own documentation requires an error
+  // listener on the pool, or a server-initiated termination of an idle client becomes an
+  // unhandled Node.js error and can crash the process.
+  pool.on("error", () => undefined);
+
+  return Object.freeze({
+    close: () => pool.end(),
+    pool,
+  });
+}
diff --git a/core/src/identity/database.ts b/core/src/identity/database.ts
index 5f9b110..ff68722 100644
--- a/core/src/identity/database.ts
+++ b/core/src/identity/database.ts
@@ -108,3 +108,14 @@ export function createIdentityDrizzleDatabase(
     db,
   });
 }
+
+/**
+ * A typed Drizzle view over an externally owned pool — for example one shared with the
+ * authorization schema via `createValidatedPostgresPool` (`core/src/database/pool.ts`). Unlike
+ * `createIdentityDrizzleDatabase`, this function never constructs, registers an error listener
+ * on, or closes a pool itself: the caller retains that responsibility exactly once, regardless of
+ * how many typed views it creates over the same pool.
+ */
+export function createIdentityDrizzleView(pool: Pool): IdentityDrizzleDatabase {
+  return drizzle(pool, { schema: identityAdapterSchema });
+}
diff --git a/core/src/index.ts b/core/src/index.ts
index a5c889e..1a9ca00 100644
--- a/core/src/index.ts
+++ b/core/src/index.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 export * from "./authorization/index.js";
+export * from "./database/index.js";
 export * from "./diagnostics/index.js";
 export * from "./identity/index.js";
 export * from "./modules/index.js";
diff --git a/core/tests/authorization-bootstrap.integration.ts b/core/tests/authorization-bootstrap.integration.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..246cb94
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/tests/authorization-bootstrap.integration.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,364 @@
+import { randomBytes } from "node:crypto";
+import { mkdtemp, rm } from "node:fs/promises";
+import { tmpdir } from "node:os";
+import path from "node:path";
+import { fileURLToPath } from "node:url";
+import { parseEkklesiaUserId } from "@ekklesia/contracts";
+import { Client, type QueryResultRow } from "pg";
+import { afterAll, describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
+import {
+  bootstrapPlatformOwner,
+  createAuthorizationDrizzleDatabase,
+  PlatformOwnerBootstrapError,
+} from "../src/authorization/index.js";
+import {
+  applyModuleMigrations,
+  createPostgresMigrationDatabase,
+  discoverAllMigrations,
+} from "../src/migrations/index.js";
+
+const integrationDatabaseUrlEnvironment = "EKKLESIA_MIGRATION_TEST_DATABASE_URL";
+const coreMigrationsDirectory = path.join(
+  path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)),
+  "..",
+  "drizzle",
+);
+const trackedDatabases = new Set<string>();
+let databaseCounter = 0;
+
+class IntegrationHarnessError extends Error {
+  constructor(message: string) {
+    super(message);
+    this.name = "IntegrationHarnessError";
+    this.stack = `${this.name}: ${this.message}`;
+  }
+}
+
+function harnessError(message: string): IntegrationHarnessError {
+  return new IntegrationHarnessError(message);
+}
+
+function baseDatabaseUrl(): string {
+  const value = process.env[integrationDatabaseUrlEnvironment];
+  if (typeof value !== "string" || value.trim() === "") {
+    throw harnessError("The bootstrap integration database is not configured.");
+  }
+  try {
+    const parsed = new URL(value);
+    if (parsed.protocol !== "postgres:" && parsed.protocol !== "postgresql:") {
+      throw new TypeError("Unsupported protocol.");
+    }
+  } catch {
+    throw harnessError("The bootstrap integration database configuration is invalid.");
+  }
+  return value;
+}
+
+function quoteDatabaseName(databaseName: string): string {
+  if (!/^[a-z][a-z0-9_]{0,62}$/u.test(databaseName)) {
+    throw harnessError("The generated integration database name is invalid.");
+  }
+  return `"${databaseName}"`;
+}
+
+function makeDatabaseName(label: string): string {
+  const safeLabel = label
+    .toLowerCase()
+    .replaceAll(/[^a-z0-9]+/gu, "_")
+    .replaceAll(/^_+|_+$/gu, "")
+    .slice(0, 14);
+  databaseCounter += 1;
+  return `ekk_bootstrap_${process.pid}_${databaseCounter}_${safeLabel || "scenario"}_${randomBytes(4).toString("hex")}`;
+}
+
+function databaseUrl(databaseName: string): string {
+  const parsed = new URL(baseDatabaseUrl());
+  parsed.pathname = `/${databaseName}`;
+  parsed.searchParams.delete("application_name");
+  return parsed.toString();
+}
+
+async function openAdministrativeClient(connectionString: string): Promise<Client> {
+  const client = new Client({ connectionString });
+  client.on("error", () => undefined);
+  try {
+    await client.connect();
+    return client;
+  } catch {
+    try {
+      await client.end();
+    } catch {
+      // The public harness failure remains static when connection cleanup also fails.
+    }
+    throw harnessError("The bootstrap integration database connection failed.");
+  }
+}
+
+async function safeQuery<Row extends QueryResultRow>(
+  client: Client,
+  text: string,
+  values: unknown[] = [],
+): Promise<readonly Row[]> {
+  try {
+    const result = await client.query<Row>(text, values);
+    return result.rows;
+  } catch {
+    throw harnessError("An integration database administration operation failed.");
+  }
+}
+
+async function safeEnd(client: Client): Promise<void> {
+  try {
+    await client.end();
+  } catch {
+    throw harnessError("An integration database connection could not be closed.");
+  }
+}
+
+async function createDatabase(databaseName: string): Promise<void> {
+  const admin = await openAdministrativeClient(baseDatabaseUrl());
+  try {
+    await safeQuery(admin, `CREATE DATABASE ${quoteDatabaseName(databaseName)} TEMPLATE template0`);
+  } finally {
+    await safeEnd(admin);
+  }
+}
+
+async function dropDatabase(databaseName: string): Promise<void> {
+  const admin = await openAdministrativeClient(baseDatabaseUrl());
+  try {
+    await safeQuery(
+      admin,
+      "SELECT pg_terminate_backend(pid) FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE datname = $1 AND pid <> pg_backend_pid()",
+      [databaseName],
+    );
+    await safeQuery(
+      admin,
+      `DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS ${quoteDatabaseName(databaseName)} WITH (FORCE)`,
+    );
+    trackedDatabases.delete(databaseName);
+  } finally {
+    await safeEnd(admin);
+  }
+}
+
+async function createDisposableDatabase(label: string): Promise<{ name: string; url: string }> {
+  const name = makeDatabaseName(label);
+  await createDatabase(name);
+  trackedDatabases.add(name);
+  return { name, url: databaseUrl(name) };
+}
+
+async function applyCoreMigrations(url: string): Promise<void> {
+  const emptyModulesDirectory = await mkdtemp(
+    path.join(tmpdir(), "ekklesia-bootstrap-no-modules-"),
+  );
+  try {
+    const aggregate = await discoverAllMigrations({
+      coreMigrationsDirectory,
+      moduleDiscovery: {
+        moduleSdkVersion: "0.1.0",
+        modulesDirectory: emptyModulesDirectory,
+        platformVersion: "0.1.0",
+      },
+    });
+    await applyModuleMigrations({ aggregate, database: createPostgresMigrationDatabase(url) });
+  } finally {
+    await rm(emptyModulesDirectory, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  }
+}
+
+async function seedUser(client: Client, id: string, email: string): Promise<void> {
+  await safeQuery(
+    client,
+    `insert into "ekklesia_core_user" (id, name, email, email_verified, created_at, updated_at)
+     values ($1, $2, $3, false, now(), now())`,
+    [id, "Integration Test User", email],
+  );
+}
+
+async function ownerRowCount(client: Client): Promise<number> {
+  const rows = await safeQuery<{ count: string }>(
+    client,
+    `select count(*)::text as count from "ekklesia_core_platform_owner"`,
+  );
+  return Number(rows[0]?.count ?? "0");
+}
+
+afterAll(async () => {
+  for (const databaseName of [...trackedDatabases]) {
+    await dropDatabase(databaseName).catch(() => undefined);
+  }
+});
+
+describe.sequential("live platform-owner bootstrap", () => {
+  let database: { name: string; url: string };
+  let admin: Client;
+  let db: ReturnType<typeof createAuthorizationDrizzleDatabase>["db"];
+  let close: () => Promise<void>;
+
+  const firstUserId = parseEkklesiaUserId("bootstrap_user_one");
+  const secondUserId = parseEkklesiaUserId("bootstrap_user_two");
+
+  it("bootstraps successfully for an existing user and records exactly one audit entry with the fixed bootstrap actor identity", async () => {
+    database = await createDisposableDatabase("success");
+    await applyCoreMigrations(database.url);
+
+    admin = await openAdministrativeClient(database.url);
+    await seedUser(admin, firstUserId, "bootstrap-one@example.test");
+    await seedUser(admin, secondUserId, "bootstrap-two@example.test");
+
+    const handle = createAuthorizationDrizzleDatabase(database.url);
+    db = handle.db;
+    close = handle.close;
+
+    await bootstrapPlatformOwner(db, { userId: firstUserId });
+
+    const owners = await safeQuery<{ user_id: string }>(
+      admin,
+      `select user_id from "ekklesia_core_platform_owner"`,
+    );
+    expect(owners).toEqual([{ user_id: firstUserId }]);
+
+    const audit = await safeQuery<{
+      action: string;
+      actor_id: string | null;
+      actor_type: string;
+      subject_user_id: string;
+    }>(
+      admin,
+      `select action, actor_id, actor_type, subject_user_id from "ekklesia_core_authorization_audit"`,
+    );
+    expect(audit).toEqual([
+      {
+        action: "platform_owner.grant",
+        actor_id: "authorization-bootstrap-cli",
+        actor_type: "system",
+        subject_user_id: firstUserId,
+      },
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  it("rejects a second bootstrap attempt outright, even for a different user, and leaves no new row or audit entry", async () => {
+    let captured: unknown;
+    try {
+      await bootstrapPlatformOwner(db, { userId: secondUserId });
+    } catch (error) {
+      captured = error;
+    }
+
+    expect(captured).toBeInstanceOf(PlatformOwnerBootstrapError);
+    expect(captured).toMatchObject({ code: "PLATFORM_OWNER_BOOTSTRAP_ALREADY_CONSUMED" });
+
+    expect(await ownerRowCount(admin)).toBe(1);
+    const audit = await safeQuery(admin, `select id from "ekklesia_core_authorization_audit"`);
+    expect(audit).toHaveLength(1);
+  });
+
+  it("still refuses bootstrap after the existing owner is revoked — the historical row alone is enough to have consumed it", async () => {
+    await safeQuery(
+      admin,
+      `update "ekklesia_core_platform_owner" set revoked_at = now(), revoked_by_actor_type = 'system' where user_id = $1`,
+      [firstUserId],
+    );
+
+    let captured: unknown;
+    try {
+      await bootstrapPlatformOwner(db, { userId: secondUserId });
+    } catch (error) {
+      captured = error;
+    }
+
+    expect(captured).toBeInstanceOf(PlatformOwnerBootstrapError);
+    expect(captured).toMatchObject({ code: "PLATFORM_OWNER_BOOTSTRAP_ALREADY_CONSUMED" });
+    expect(await ownerRowCount(admin)).toBe(1);
+  });
+
+  it("shuts down cleanly", async () => {
+    await close();
+    await safeEnd(admin);
+    await dropDatabase(database.name);
+  });
+});
+
+describe.sequential("live platform-owner bootstrap — nonexistent user", () => {
+  it("rolls back entirely for a user that does not exist, leaving no owner row and no audit entry", async () => {
+    const database = await createDisposableDatabase("missing_user");
+    await applyCoreMigrations(database.url);
+    const { close, db } = createAuthorizationDrizzleDatabase(database.url);
+
+    try {
+      const missingUserId = parseEkklesiaUserId("bootstrap_user_never_seeded");
+      let captured: unknown;
+      try {
+        await bootstrapPlatformOwner(db, { userId: missingUserId });
+      } catch (error) {
+        captured = error;
+      }
+
+      expect(captured).toBeInstanceOf(PlatformOwnerBootstrapError);
+      expect(captured).toMatchObject({ code: "PLATFORM_OWNER_BOOTSTRAP_USER_NOT_FOUND" });
+
+      const admin = await openAdministrativeClient(database.url);
+      try {
+        expect(await ownerRowCount(admin)).toBe(0);
+        const audit = await safeQuery(admin, `select id from "ekklesia_core_authorization_audit"`);
+        expect(audit).toHaveLength(0);
+      } finally {
+        await safeEnd(admin);
+      }
+    } finally {
+      await close();
+      await dropDatabase(database.name);
+    }
+  });
+});
+
+describe.sequential("live platform-owner bootstrap — concurrency", () => {
+  it("produces exactly one owner when two bootstrap attempts race for two different users", async () => {
+    const database = await createDisposableDatabase("race");
+    await applyCoreMigrations(database.url);
+
+    const admin = await openAdministrativeClient(database.url);
+    const raceUserA = parseEkklesiaUserId("bootstrap_race_user_a");
+    const raceUserB = parseEkklesiaUserId("bootstrap_race_user_b");
+    await seedUser(admin, raceUserA, "bootstrap-race-a@example.test");
+    await seedUser(admin, raceUserB, "bootstrap-race-b@example.test");
+
+    const { close, db } = createAuthorizationDrizzleDatabase(database.url);
+    try {
+      const results = await Promise.allSettled([
+        bootstrapPlatformOwner(db, { userId: raceUserA }),
+        bootstrapPlatformOwner(db, { userId: raceUserB }),
+      ]);
+
+      const fulfilled = results.filter((result) => result.status === "fulfilled");
+      const rejected = results.filter((result) => result.status === "rejected");
+      expect(fulfilled).toHaveLength(1);
+      expect(rejected).toHaveLength(1);
+      expect((rejected[0] as PromiseRejectedResult).reason).toBeInstanceOf(
+        PlatformOwnerBootstrapError,
+      );
+      expect((rejected[0] as PromiseRejectedResult).reason).toMatchObject({
+        code: "PLATFORM_OWNER_BOOTSTRAP_ALREADY_CONSUMED",
+      });
+
+      const owners = await safeQuery<{ user_id: string }>(
+        admin,
+        `select user_id from "ekklesia_core_platform_owner"`,
+      );
+      expect(owners).toHaveLength(1);
+      expect([raceUserA, raceUserB]).toContain(owners[0]?.user_id);
+
+      const audit = await safeQuery(
+        admin,
+        `select id from "ekklesia_core_authorization_audit" where action = 'platform_owner.grant'`,
+      );
+      expect(audit).toHaveLength(1);
+    } finally {
+      await close();
+      await safeEnd(admin);
+      await dropDatabase(database.name);
+    }
+  });
+});
diff --git a/core/tests/authorization-bootstrap.test.ts b/core/tests/authorization-bootstrap.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e87c25b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/tests/authorization-bootstrap.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+import { describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
+
+const poolConstructor = vi.hoisted(() => vi.fn());
+
+vi.mock("pg", () => ({ Pool: poolConstructor }));
+
+import { createAuthorizationDrizzleDatabase } from "../src/authorization/database.js";
+import {
+  bootstrapPlatformOwner,
+  PlatformOwnerBootstrapError,
+} from "../src/authorization/bootstrap.js";
+
+describe("Core authorization bootstrap — import and construction safety", () => {
+  it("does not construct a pool or open a connection merely because the module is imported", () => {
+    expect(poolConstructor).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
+  it("performs no database work merely by being imported: bootstrapPlatformOwner is only a function reference until called", () => {
+    expect(typeof bootstrapPlatformOwner).toBe("function");
+    expect(poolConstructor).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+});
+
+describe("PlatformOwnerBootstrapError", () => {
+  it.each([
+    "PLATFORM_OWNER_BOOTSTRAP_ALREADY_CONSUMED",
+    "PLATFORM_OWNER_BOOTSTRAP_FAILED",
+    "PLATFORM_OWNER_BOOTSTRAP_USER_NOT_FOUND",
+  ] as const)("exposes a stable code and a fixed, generic message for %s", (code) => {
+    const error = new PlatformOwnerBootstrapError(code);
+    expect(error.code).toBe(code);
+    expect(error.name).toBe("PlatformOwnerBootstrapError");
+    expect(Object.isFrozen(error)).toBe(true);
+    expect(error.message.length).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+  });
+
+  it("never carries a cause, raw driver error, SQL, or stack detail beyond the fixed message", () => {
+    const error = new PlatformOwnerBootstrapError("PLATFORM_OWNER_BOOTSTRAP_FAILED");
+    const publicText = `${String(error)}\n${error.stack ?? ""}`;
+    expect(publicText).toBe(
+      `PlatformOwnerBootstrapError: ${error.message}\nPlatformOwnerBootstrapError: ${error.message}`,
+    );
+  });
+});
+
+describe("bootstrapPlatformOwner — construction without a real database", () => {
+  it("does not construct a pool merely because a database handle was created; only calling bootstrapPlatformOwner would query", () => {
+    poolConstructor.mockClear();
+    poolConstructor.mockImplementation(function fakePool() {
+      return { end: async () => undefined, on: vi.fn() };
+    });
+
+    const { db } = createAuthorizationDrizzleDatabase("postgresql://example.test/ekklesia");
+
+    expect(poolConstructor).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+    expect(db).toBeDefined();
+    // bootstrapPlatformOwner is intentionally not invoked here: exercising the real transactional
+    // and advisory-lock behavior requires a real PostgreSQL server and is covered by
+    // core/tests/authorization-bootstrap.integration.ts.
+  });
+});
diff --git a/core/tests/authorization-database.test.ts b/core/tests/authorization-database.test.ts
index cb8f067..e5dba33 100644
--- a/core/tests/authorization-database.test.ts
+++ b/core/tests/authorization-database.test.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import type { Pool } from "pg";
 import { describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
 
 const poolConstructor = vi.hoisted(() => vi.fn());
@@ -7,6 +8,7 @@ vi.mock("pg", () => ({ Pool: poolConstructor }));
 import {
   AuthorizationDatabaseError,
   createAuthorizationDrizzleDatabase,
+  createAuthorizationDrizzleView,
 } from "../src/authorization/database.js";
 
 describe("Core authorization Drizzle database composition", () => {
@@ -144,3 +146,19 @@ describe("Core authorization Drizzle database composition", () => {
     ).not.toThrow();
   });
 });
+
+describe("createAuthorizationDrizzleView", () => {
+  it("wraps an externally owned pool without constructing, registering an error listener on, or closing one itself", () => {
+    poolConstructor.mockClear();
+    const fakePool = { end: vi.fn(), on: vi.fn(), query: vi.fn() };
+
+    // A minimal fake pg.Pool double is sufficient — this test proves
+    // createAuthorizationDrizzleView never touches the pool beyond wrapping it.
+    const db = createAuthorizationDrizzleView(fakePool as unknown as Pool);
+
+    expect(db).toBeDefined();
+    expect(poolConstructor).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(fakePool.on).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(fakePool.end).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+});
diff --git a/core/tests/authorization-permissions.test.ts b/core/tests/authorization-permissions.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fb4574a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/tests/authorization-permissions.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+import { parsePermissionId } from "@ekklesia/contracts";
+import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
+import {
+  CORE_AUTHORIZATION_GRANTS_MANAGE,
+  CORE_PERMISSION_REGISTRY,
+  createPermissionRegistry,
+  PermissionRegistryError,
+} from "../src/authorization/index.js";
+
+describe("createPermissionRegistry", () => {
+  it("builds an immutable registry from a fixed declaration list", () => {
+    const id = parsePermissionId("test.example.read");
+    const registry = createPermissionRegistry([
+      { baseline: "public", description: "An example permission.", id },
+    ]);
+
+    expect(registry.has(id)).toBe(true);
+    expect(registry.get(id)).toEqual({
+      baseline: "public",
+      description: "An example permission.",
+      id,
+    });
+    expect(Object.isFrozen(registry)).toBe(true);
+    expect(Object.isFrozen(registry.declarations)).toBe(true);
+    expect(Object.isFrozen(registry.get(id))).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it("rejects a duplicate permission id at composition time, not per request", () => {
+    const id = parsePermissionId("test.example.read");
+    expect(() =>
+      createPermissionRegistry([
+        { baseline: "public", description: "First.", id },
+        { baseline: "restricted", description: "Second.", id },
+      ]),
+    ).toThrow(PermissionRegistryError);
+  });
+
+  it("carries the offending permission id on the duplicate-declaration error (a composition-time, developer-facing detail, not a runtime response)", () => {
+    const id = parsePermissionId("test.example.read");
+    let captured: unknown;
+    try {
+      createPermissionRegistry([
+        { baseline: "public", description: "First.", id },
+        { baseline: "restricted", description: "Second.", id },
+      ]);
+    } catch (error) {
+      captured = error;
+    }
+    expect(captured).toBeInstanceOf(PermissionRegistryError);
+    expect(captured).toMatchObject({
+      code: "PERMISSION_REGISTRY_DUPLICATE_DECLARATION",
+      permissionId: id,
+    });
+  });
+
+  it("treats an unregistered permission the same as a malformed one: get/has both fail closed", () => {
+    const registered = parsePermissionId("test.example.read");
+    const unregistered = parsePermissionId("test.example.unregistered");
+    const registry = createPermissionRegistry([
+      { baseline: "public", description: "Registered.", id: registered },
+    ]);
+
+    expect(registry.has(unregistered)).toBe(false);
+    expect(registry.get(unregistered)).toBeUndefined();
+  });
+
+  it("fails closed for a malformed permission id passed to get/has, without throwing", () => {
+    const registry = createPermissionRegistry([]);
+
+    expect(registry.has("not a valid permission")).toBe(false);
+    expect(registry.get(null)).toBeUndefined();
+    expect(registry.get(undefined)).toBeUndefined();
+    expect(registry.get(42)).toBeUndefined();
+    expect(registry.get("media.*")).toBeUndefined();
+  });
+
+  it("builds an empty registry from an empty list without error", () => {
+    const registry = createPermissionRegistry([]);
+    expect(registry.declarations).toEqual([]);
+  });
+});
+
+describe("CORE_PERMISSION_REGISTRY", () => {
+  it("registers exactly core.authorization.grants.manage as restricted", () => {
+    const declaration = CORE_PERMISSION_REGISTRY.get(CORE_AUTHORIZATION_GRANTS_MANAGE);
+    expect(declaration).toBeDefined();
+    expect(declaration?.baseline).toBe("restricted");
+    expect(declaration?.id).toBe("core.authorization.grants.manage");
+  });
+
+  it("contains no other permission in this slice", () => {
+    expect(CORE_PERMISSION_REGISTRY.declarations).toHaveLength(1);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/core/tests/cli-bootstrap-platform-owner.test.ts b/core/tests/cli-bootstrap-platform-owner.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eb069bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/tests/cli-bootstrap-platform-owner.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+import { describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
+
+const poolConstructor = vi.hoisted(() => vi.fn());
+
+vi.mock("pg", () => ({ Pool: poolConstructor }));
+
+describe("bootstrap-platform-owner CLI import safety", () => {
+  const originalEnv = { ...process.env };
+
+  it("does not read DATABASE_URL, connect to PostgreSQL, or run bootstrap merely by importing the module", async () => {
+    delete process.env.DATABASE_URL;
+
+    // Under Vitest, process.argv[1] is never this file's own path, so isDirectExecution() is
+    // false the same way it naturally is for apps/api/src/server.ts under its own test suite —
+    // no argv manipulation is needed to prove the guard holds.
+    await expect(import("../src/cli/bootstrap-platform-owner.js")).resolves.toBeDefined();
+
+    expect(poolConstructor).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+
+    process.env = originalEnv;
+  });
+});
diff --git a/core/tests/database-pool.test.ts b/core/tests/database-pool.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1dad7e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/tests/database-pool.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,122 @@
+import { describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
+
+const poolConstructor = vi.hoisted(() => vi.fn());
+
+vi.mock("pg", () => ({ Pool: poolConstructor }));
+
+import { createValidatedPostgresPool, PostgresPoolError } from "../src/database/pool.js";
+
+describe("createValidatedPostgresPool", () => {
+  it("does not construct a pool merely because the module is imported", () => {
+    expect(poolConstructor).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
+  it.each([
+    "",
+    "   ",
+    "not-a-database-url",
+    "https://admin:do-not-log@db.example.test/database",
+  ])("rejects an invalid connection string without exposing it (%s)", (connectionString) => {
+    let captured: unknown;
+    try {
+      createValidatedPostgresPool(connectionString);
+    } catch (error) {
+      captured = error;
+    }
+
+    expect(captured).toBeInstanceOf(PostgresPoolError);
+    expect(captured).toMatchObject({ code: "POSTGRES_POOL_CONFIGURATION_INVALID" });
+    const publicText = `${String(captured)}\n${
+      captured instanceof Error ? (captured.stack ?? "") : ""
+    }`;
+    if (connectionString) {
+      expect(publicText).not.toContain(connectionString);
+    }
+    expect(poolConstructor).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
+  it("explicitly constructs the pool only when called", () => {
+    poolConstructor.mockImplementation(function fakePool() {
+      return { end: async () => undefined, on: vi.fn() };
+    });
+
+    const handle = createValidatedPostgresPool(
+      "postgresql://operator:do-not-log@example.test/ekklesia",
+    );
+
+    expect(poolConstructor).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+    expect(handle.pool).toBeDefined();
+    expect(typeof handle.close).toBe("function");
+    expect(Object.isFrozen(handle)).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it("passes the connection timeout through to the pool configuration", () => {
+    poolConstructor.mockImplementation(function fakePool() {
+      return { end: async () => undefined, on: vi.fn() };
+    });
+    poolConstructor.mockClear();
+
+    createValidatedPostgresPool("postgresql://example.test/ekklesia", {
+      connectionTimeoutMs: 5_000,
+    });
+
+    expect(poolConstructor).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+      expect.objectContaining({ connectionTimeoutMillis: 5_000 }),
+    );
+  });
+
+  it("passes the operation timeout through as both query_timeout and statement_timeout", () => {
+    poolConstructor.mockImplementation(function fakePool() {
+      return { end: async () => undefined, on: vi.fn() };
+    });
+    poolConstructor.mockClear();
+
+    createValidatedPostgresPool("postgresql://example.test/ekklesia", {
+      operationTimeoutMs: 7_500,
+    });
+
+    expect(poolConstructor).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+      expect.objectContaining({ query_timeout: 7_500, statement_timeout: 7_500 }),
+    );
+  });
+
+  it.each([
+    ["operationTimeoutMs", 0],
+    ["operationTimeoutMs", -1],
+    ["operationTimeoutMs", Number.NaN],
+    ["connectionTimeoutMs", 0],
+    ["connectionTimeoutMs", -1],
+  ] as const)("rejects an invalid %s (%s) without constructing a pool and without leaking the value", (optionName, value) => {
+    poolConstructor.mockClear();
+
+    let captured: unknown;
+    try {
+      createValidatedPostgresPool("postgresql://example.test/ekklesia", {
+        [optionName]: value,
+      });
+    } catch (error) {
+      captured = error;
+    }
+
+    expect(captured).toBeInstanceOf(PostgresPoolError);
+    expect(captured).toMatchObject({ code: "POSTGRES_POOL_CONFIGURATION_INVALID" });
+    expect(poolConstructor).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
+  it("registers a pool-level error listener so an idle client failure never becomes an uncaught exception", () => {
+    const on = vi.fn();
+    poolConstructor.mockImplementation(function fakePool() {
+      return { end: async () => undefined, on };
+    });
+
+    createValidatedPostgresPool("postgresql://example.test/ekklesia");
+
+    expect(on).toHaveBeenCalledWith("error", expect.any(Function));
+    const handler = on.mock.calls.find((call) => call[0] === "error")?.[1] as
+      | ((error: unknown) => void)
+      | undefined;
+    expect(() =>
+      handler?.(new Error("terminating connection due to administrator command")),
+    ).not.toThrow();
+  });
+});
diff --git a/core/tests/identity-database.test.ts b/core/tests/identity-database.test.ts
index 5e07508..a7440c8 100644
--- a/core/tests/identity-database.test.ts
+++ b/core/tests/identity-database.test.ts
@@ -1,10 +1,15 @@
+import type { Pool } from "pg";
 import { describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
 
 const poolConstructor = vi.hoisted(() => vi.fn());
 
 vi.mock("pg", () => ({ Pool: poolConstructor }));
 
-import { createIdentityDrizzleDatabase, IdentityDatabaseError } from "../src/identity/database.js";
+import {
+  createIdentityDrizzleDatabase,
+  createIdentityDrizzleView,
+  IdentityDatabaseError,
+} from "../src/identity/database.js";
 
 describe("Core identity Drizzle database composition", () => {
   it("does not construct a pool merely because the module is imported", () => {
@@ -141,3 +146,19 @@ describe("Core identity Drizzle database composition", () => {
     ).not.toThrow();
   });
 });
+
+describe("createIdentityDrizzleView", () => {
+  it("wraps an externally owned pool without constructing, registering an error listener on, or closing one itself", () => {
+    poolConstructor.mockClear();
+    const fakePool = { end: vi.fn(), on: vi.fn(), query: vi.fn() };
+
+    // A minimal fake pg.Pool double is sufficient — this test proves createIdentityDrizzleView
+    // never touches the pool beyond wrapping it.
+    const db = createIdentityDrizzleView(fakePool as unknown as Pool);
+
+    expect(db).toBeDefined();
+    expect(poolConstructor).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(fakePool.on).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(fakePool.end).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+});
diff --git a/docs/development/api.md b/docs/development/api.md
index 9710b10..699d324 100644
--- a/docs/development/api.md
+++ b/docs/development/api.md
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ A follow-up corrective slice hardened this transport (sanitized Better Auth logg
 production-equivalent origin/CSRF protection under the test runner, bounded identity database
 timeouts, idempotent shutdown, and pinned password-length boundaries) without changing any of the
 above; see [ADR 0012](../architecture/decisions/0012-identity-origin-csrf-protection-under-test.md).
+Phase 4C adds Core's authorization foundation and, on top of this transport, a platform-owner
+bootstrap command plus an enforced explicit-grant HTTP API — see [Authorization](authorization.md).
 
 ## What this is, and is not
 
@@ -54,6 +56,7 @@ No real values are shown here — configure per environment and never commit the
 | --- | --- | --- |
 | `POST\|GET /api/auth/*` | Better Auth (mounted directly) | Better Auth's own request/response shapes pass through unmodified — see [Better Auth's email/password docs](https://www.better-auth.com/docs/authentication/email-password) for the exact endpoints (`/sign-up/email`, `/sign-in/email`, `/sign-out`, `/get-session`, ...). |
 | `GET /api/v1/principal` | Ekklesia | Returns the minimal `EkklesiaPrincipal` contract as JSON. `Cache-Control: no-store`. |
+| `GET\|POST /api/v1/grants*` | Ekklesia | Explicit authorization grant management, gated by `core.authorization.grants.manage`. See [Authorization](authorization.md#explicit-grant-http-api). |
 
 Better Auth's handler is unreachable outside `/api/auth/*`; every other unmatched path returns a
 deterministic `404 {"code":"NOT_FOUND"}`.
@@ -101,11 +104,12 @@ exist or treats an empty database as special. Baseline authenticated status is w
 let a signed-in person use ownership-scoped personal features (watch history, continue watching,
 saved content, preferences) — none of those features are implemented in this PR.
 
-Explicit **platform-owner bootstrap is deferred to Phase 4C**, which must introduce an explicit,
-auditable operator command that grants an *existing* identity platform-owner authority — signup
-order is never part of that decision. Future **relationship-derived access** (for example, a
-person added to a volunteer roster automatically gaining narrow, reversible read access to that
-roster) belongs to a later roster slice, not this one.
+Explicit **platform-owner bootstrap** is now available as a local operator command — see
+[Authorization](authorization.md#platform-owner-bootstrap) — and grants an *existing* identity
+platform-owner authority; signup order is never part of that decision. Future
+**relationship-derived access** (for example, a person added to a volunteer roster automatically
+gaining narrow, reversible read access to that roster) belongs to a later roster slice, not this
+one.
 
 `emailAndPassword.autoSignIn` is set to `false`. Signing up creates the account but does **not**
 automatically create a session — no `Set-Cookie` is sent, and the sign-up response's `token` field
@@ -204,15 +208,19 @@ abuse-control design.
 
 ## Database connection limits
 
-`apps/api/src/server.ts` configures the identity PostgreSQL pool (`createIdentityDrizzleDatabase`,
-`core/src/identity/database.ts`) with both a connection timeout and an operation timeout (10
-seconds each), the same bounded, validated pattern `core/src/migrations/postgres-database.ts`
-already uses. `connectionTimeoutMillis` alone only bounds *establishing* a connection; it does
-nothing once a query is already running on one. The operation timeout additionally sets `pg`'s
-`query_timeout` and `statement_timeout`, so a hung or unexpectedly slow query is aborted rather than
-holding a pool connection (and its caller) indefinitely. An invalid timeout (non-integer, zero,
-negative, or larger than PostgreSQL's own maximum) is rejected as configuration error before any
-pool is constructed, sanitized the same way an invalid connection string already is.
+`apps/api/src/server.ts` configures the one shared PostgreSQL pool (`createApiDatabase`,
+`apps/api/src/database.ts`, built on `createValidatedPostgresPool` from
+`core/src/database/pool.ts`) with both a connection timeout and an operation timeout (10 seconds
+each), the same bounded, validated pattern `core/src/migrations/postgres-database.ts` already
+uses. `connectionTimeoutMillis` alone only bounds *establishing* a connection; it does nothing once
+a query is already running on one. The operation timeout additionally sets `pg`'s `query_timeout`
+and `statement_timeout`, so a hung or unexpectedly slow query is aborted rather than holding a pool
+connection (and its caller) indefinitely. An invalid timeout (non-integer, zero, negative, or
+larger than PostgreSQL's own maximum) is rejected as configuration error before any pool is
+constructed, sanitized the same way an invalid connection string already is. Both the identity and
+authorization domains read from this one pool through independent typed Drizzle views — see
+[Authorization](authorization.md#shared-database-composition) for why there is exactly one pool,
+not two.
 
 ## Graceful shutdown
 
@@ -221,7 +229,9 @@ executable entry point and tests) returns `{app, server, shutdown}`. `shutdown()
 shared promise the first time it is called: every caller, concurrent or sequential, awaits the
 exact same listener-drain-then-pool-close operation, and that operation runs exactly once no matter
 how many times `shutdown()` is called. It stops the HTTP listener from accepting new connections and
-lets in-flight requests finish, then closes the PostgreSQL pool. The executable entry point's
+lets in-flight requests finish, then closes the one shared PostgreSQL pool (identity and
+authorization both read from it — see
+[Authorization](authorization.md#shared-database-composition)). The executable entry point's
 `SIGINT`/`SIGTERM` wiring is extracted into `installShutdownSignalHandlers(running, exit)` — the
 same function production composition uses, but independently testable with a fake `running`/`exit`
 so a test can trigger "a signal arrived" without sending a real process signal or invoking the real
@@ -268,7 +278,8 @@ Cookie: better-auth.session_token=<redacted, now revoked>
 
 ## Next phase
 
-Phase 4C: Core authorization (public / authenticated-baseline / relationship-derived / grants /
-platform-owner), an explicit, auditable platform-owner bootstrap command, and reversible
-relationship-derived access. Not a Dashboard Surface, which still depends on an authorization model
-that does not exist yet.
+Phase 4C, pass 3: module discovery/Module SDK permission registration, roles/groups/teams/tenants,
+an owner-management HTTP endpoint, service accounts/API tokens for non-browser automation, and
+reversible relationship-derived access itself. See [Authorization](authorization.md) for what this
+pass already added (permission registry, platform-owner bootstrap, explicit-grant HTTP API). Not a
+Dashboard Surface, which still depends on an authorization model that is only now getting started.
diff --git a/docs/development/authorization.md b/docs/development/authorization.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ad7d996
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/development/authorization.md
@@ -0,0 +1,299 @@
+# Authorization
+
+Phase 4C establishes Core's authorization foundation and, in a second slice, wires it into
+`apps/api` over HTTP. This page covers both: the schema/evaluator/store/registry Core owns, the
+platform-owner bootstrap operation, and the enforcement/endpoints `apps/api` exposes on top of it.
+See [Identity](identity.md) for the identity foundation this builds on and [API](api.md) for the
+HTTP transport it is mounted into.
+
+## What this is, and is not
+
+After this slice, an operator can bootstrap exactly one platform owner for a deployment, a
+platform owner (or anyone they delegate to) can create, list, and revoke *explicit* authorization
+grants over HTTP, and every enforced route fails closed on infrastructure trouble instead of
+silently allowing or denying. It is **not** possible to manage roles, groups, teams, or tenants;
+there is no owner-management HTTP endpoint (revoking or re-granting platform-owner status is not
+exposed at all in this slice); there are no service accounts or API tokens, so only
+cookie-authenticated browser callers can reach the mutation routes; and relationship-derived
+grants (for example, automatic access from a roster assignment) cannot yet be created by anything
+in this repository — the generic grants API structurally cannot create or revoke them either.
+
+## Core authorization schema and store
+
+Established as a prior checkpoint on this branch (`ekklesia_core_platform_owner`,
+`ekklesia_core_grant`, `ekklesia_core_authorization_audit`; `AuthorizationEvaluator`,
+`AuthorizationStore`; `@ekklesia/contracts`'s `PermissionId`/`GrantId`/`AuthorizationScope`
+branded types). This page does not restate that design — read `core/src/authorization/schema.ts`,
+`evaluator.ts`, and `store.ts` directly for it. This page covers what pass 2 added on top: the
+permission registry, the bootstrap operation, and HTTP enforcement.
+
+## Permission registry
+
+`core/src/authorization/permissions.ts` defines the smallest possible registry: an immutable,
+composition-time-built `PermissionRegistry` distinguishing a *registered declaration*
+(`{id, baseline, description}`) from a merely well-formed `PermissionId` string. Two properties
+matter:
+
+- **Duplicate declarations fail at composition time.** `createPermissionRegistry` throws
+  `PermissionRegistryError` (`PERMISSION_REGISTRY_DUPLICATE_DECLARATION`) if the same permission id
+  is declared twice — this can only happen while wiring the registry itself, not at request time.
+- **Unknown permissions fail closed at lookup time.** `registry.get(permissionId)` and
+  `registry.has(permissionId)` both re-validate their input (`safeParsePermissionId` internally)
+  and return `undefined`/`false` for anything malformed or simply not registered — there is no
+  "trust this permission id because it looks right" path.
+
+`CORE_PERMISSION_REGISTRY` is Core's own registry, currently declaring exactly one permission:
+
+| Permission | Baseline | Description |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| `core.authorization.grants.manage` | `restricted` | Create, list, and revoke another user's explicit authorization grants. |
+
+Module-owned permission declarations and a discovery/composition path for them are out of scope
+for this slice (deferred to the Module SDK work).
+
+## Platform-owner bootstrap
+
+There is no "first user becomes owner" inference anywhere in this repository, and no HTTP
+endpoint exposes bootstrap. The only way to establish a platform owner is the local CLI command:
+
+```bash
+pnpm migrations:apply   # the database must already be migrated
+DATABASE_URL=postgresql://... pnpm authorization:bootstrap-owner -- \
+  --user-id <existing-ekklesia-user-id> \
+  --confirm-user-id <same-id>
+```
+
+`DATABASE_URL` is read only when the command actually executes (never merely by importing the CLI
+module — proved by `core/tests/cli-bootstrap-platform-owner.test.ts`), and it is never printed,
+logged, or included in any error. `--user-id` and `--confirm-user-id` must match exactly, checked
+before the id is even parsed as a valid `EkklesiaUserId` — this command never infers a target from
+signup order or "the only user in the database"; the operator must name the exact, opaque id
+twice.
+
+### Bootstrap is permanently single-use
+
+`core/src/authorization/bootstrap.ts`'s `bootstrapPlatformOwner(db, {userId})` is a dedicated,
+Hono-independent Core operation — deliberately *not* a composition of "check for an owner, then
+call the existing grant function." "Already consumed" means **any row has ever existed** in
+`ekklesia_core_platform_owner`, for any user, including one whose `revoked_at` is set. There is no
+owner-management flow in this slice that clears that state; a revoked owner staying revoked (and
+bootstrap staying consumed) is intentional here.
+
+The single-use check, the target user's existence check, the owner-grant insert, and its audit
+entry are all one PostgreSQL transaction. The very first statement inside that transaction is a
+transaction-scoped advisory lock:
+
+```sql
+select pg_advisory_xact_lock(1500000001, 1500000002)
+```
+
+This lock key pair is distinct from the migration runner's own advisory lock
+(`core/src/migrations/postgres-database.ts`), so bootstrap serialization can never collide with or
+be blocked by unrelated migration locking. `pg_advisory_xact_lock` releases automatically on
+commit or rollback, so no manual unlock path is needed even when the transaction fails partway.
+Two concurrent bootstrap attempts serialize on this lock: the second caller blocks until the
+first's transaction commits or rolls back, then re-evaluates the "does any owner row exist" check
+against now-current state — so exactly one of two concurrent attempts ever succeeds, proved live
+against real PostgreSQL in `core/tests/authorization-bootstrap.integration.ts`
+(`Promise.allSettled` on two simultaneous calls; asserts exactly one `fulfilled`, exactly one
+`rejected` with `PLATFORM_OWNER_BOOTSTRAP_ALREADY_CONSUMED`, exactly one owner row, exactly one
+audit row).
+
+A failed target-user lookup, an audit-insert failure, or losing the concurrency race all roll back
+the entire transaction — there is no partial state where an owner row exists without its audit
+entry, or vice versa.
+
+The audit entry for a bootstrap grant always uses a fixed, sanitized, non-user actor identity —
+never derived from any caller input — so an auditor can tell a given `platform_owner.grant` row
+came specifically from this command rather than from a future owner-management flow:
+
+| Field | Value |
+| --- | --- |
+| `actor_type` | `system` |
+| `actor_id` | `authorization-bootstrap-cli` |
+
+### Error codes
+
+`PlatformOwnerBootstrapError` never carries the underlying database error, SQL text, host, port,
+path, or stack — only a stable `code` and a fixed message:
+
+| Code | Meaning |
+| --- | --- |
+| `PLATFORM_OWNER_BOOTSTRAP_ALREADY_CONSUMED` | A platform-owner row already exists (any user, revoked or not). |
+| `PLATFORM_OWNER_BOOTSTRAP_USER_NOT_FOUND` | `--user-id` does not match an existing identity user. |
+| `PLATFORM_OWNER_BOOTSTRAP_FAILED` | Any other failure (database/infrastructure). |
+
+## HTTP authorization enforcement
+
+`apps/api/src/authorization-middleware.ts` exports `requirePermission(options, permissionId)`, a
+Hono middleware factory reused by every protected route:
+
+1. Looks up `permissionId` in the trusted, server-side `PermissionRegistry` (never a
+   client-supplied baseline) — an unregistered permission id fails closed with `403` before the
+   principal is even resolved. In today's wiring only hard-coded registered constants are ever
+   passed by route code, but the check stays live per-request as defense in depth rather than
+   being trusted once at composition time.
+2. Resolves the principal exclusively through the same server-side identity runtime
+   `/api/v1/principal` already uses (`EkklesiaIdentityRuntime.resolvePrincipal`) — nothing here
+   ever trusts a client-supplied claim about identity.
+3. Calls the injected `AuthorizationEvaluator` with the registry's baseline and permission for
+   that principal (platform owners pass through the evaluator's owner bypass here — this is how
+   delegation to `core.authorization.grants.manage` recipients also works, without a second code
+   path).
+4. On success, stores the resolved `EkklesiaPrincipal` (Core's narrow `{kind, userId}` — never a
+   Better Auth session/user object) on the Hono context via `c.set`, readable by the route through
+   `getAuthorizedPrincipal(c)`. This is a deliberately narrow exception to the "no generalized
+   session/user object in Hono context" concern [ADR
+   0011](../architecture/decisions/0011-identity-http-transport-and-public-enrollment.md) raised —
+   only this already-public-safe principal shape is ever set.
+
+A denied decision and an unregistered permission id both return a sanitized `403
+{"code":"AUTHORIZATION_DENIED"}`. A genuine infrastructure failure — principal resolution,
+evaluation, or the database underneath either — is never folded into that `403`; it returns a
+sanitized `503` instead (`PRINCIPAL_RESOLUTION_FAILED` or `AUTHORIZATION_EVALUATION_FAILED`),
+mirroring `/api/v1/principal`'s existing rule that "could not be determined" must never look like
+"no permission." Neither response ever reveals whether a grant or owner row exists for the caller.
+
+### Origin enforcement for mutations
+
+`requireTrustedOrigin(trustedOrigins)` requires an exact match against the same
+`EKKLESIA_IDENTITY_TRUSTED_ORIGINS` set the API already uses for CORS and Better Auth's own
+checks (see [API](api.md#origin-cors-and-cookies)) — a missing or untrusted `Origin` header is
+rejected with `403 {"code":"UNTRUSTED_ORIGIN"}` before the permission check or the route handler
+ever runs. This exists because CORS response headers alone are not CSRF protection: they only
+stop a browser from *reading* a cross-origin response, not from *sending* the state-changing
+request in the first place. Every grants mutation route (`POST /api/v1/grants`,
+`POST /api/v1/grants/:grantId/revoke`) requires this; the read-only list route does not.
+Non-browser, non-cookie automation (service accounts/API tokens) is out of scope for this slice
+and has no way to satisfy this check yet.
+
+## Explicit-grant HTTP API
+
+Mounted at the API's root by `apps/api/src/grants-routes.ts`. Every route requires
+`core.authorization.grants.manage`. All three routes only ever act on *explicit* grants — the
+generic HTTP API structurally cannot create or revoke a relationship-derived grant.
+
+| Route | Origin required | Notes |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| `GET /api/v1/grants?userId=<id>` | No | Lists the subject's explicit grants only (`sourceKind: "explicit"` filter applied server-side). |
+| `POST /api/v1/grants` | Yes | Creates a new explicit grant. |
+| `POST /api/v1/grants/:grantId/revoke` | Yes | Revokes an explicit grant without deleting it. |
+
+### `POST /api/v1/grants` request body
+
+Only four keys are accepted; any other key present (`actor`, `owner`, `isOwner`, `sourceKind`,
+`sourceRef`, `id`, `createdAt`, `revokedAt`, `createdByActorId`, `effectivePermissions`, or
+anything else) makes the **entire body** invalid rather than being silently dropped, so a caller
+cannot smuggle a server-derived field through a request that otherwise looks well-formed:
+
+| Field | Required | Notes |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| `subjectUserId` | Yes | Must parse as a valid `EkklesiaUserId`. |
+| `permission` | Yes | Must parse as a valid `PermissionId`. |
+| `scope` | No | Must parse as a valid, non-empty `AuthorizationScope` if present. |
+| `expiresAt` | No | An ISO date string if present. |
+
+The server always derives, and the request body can never supply: the grant id, `sourceKind`
+(always `"explicit"`), the actor (always the authenticated caller, via
+`createUserActor(principal.userId)`), and all audit/timestamp fields.
+
+### Response shapes
+
+A grant, wherever returned:
+
+```json
+{
+  "id": "...",
+  "userId": "...",
+  "permission": "core.authorization.grants.manage",
+  "scope": null,
+  "sourceKind": "explicit",
+  "createdAt": "2026-07-23T00:00:00.000Z",
+  "expiresAt": null,
+  "revokedAt": null
+}
+```
+
+`GET /api/v1/grants` → `200 {"grants": [...]}`. `POST /api/v1/grants` → `201 {"grant": {...}}`.
+`POST /api/v1/grants/:grantId/revoke` → `200 {"success": true}`.
+
+### Status-code mapping
+
+| Status | When |
+| --- | --- |
+| `200` / `201` | Success. |
+| `400 {"code":"INVALID_REQUEST"}` | Malformed query/body/param (including a disallowed extra field). |
+| `403 {"code":"AUTHORIZATION_DENIED"}` | Caller lacks `core.authorization.grants.manage`, or the permission id was unregistered. |
+| `403 {"code":"UNTRUSTED_ORIGIN"}` | Missing or untrusted `Origin` on a mutation route. |
+| `404 {"code":"AUTHORIZATION_GRANT_NOT_FOUND"}` | The targeted grant id does not exist as an *explicit* grant — this is also what revoking a real relationship-derived grant's id looks like, indistinguishably. |
+| `503` | Principal resolution, evaluation, or store failure (`PRINCIPAL_RESOLUTION_FAILED`, `AUTHORIZATION_EVALUATION_FAILED`, or an `AuthorizationStoreError` code). |
+
+Every response sets `Cache-Control: no-store`.
+
+## Shared database composition
+
+`apps/api/src/database.ts`'s `createApiDatabase(databaseUrl, options)` is the one place `apps/api`
+touches PostgreSQL connection setup. It constructs exactly one validated, timeout-bounded
+`pg.Pool` (`createValidatedPostgresPool`, `@ekklesia/core/database`) and wraps it with two
+independent typed Drizzle views — `createIdentityDrizzleView(pool)` and
+`createAuthorizationDrizzleView(pool)` — rather than two separate pools. `close()` on the returned
+handle is the only thing that ever calls `pool.end()`; neither domain view owns or closes the pool
+itself. `apps/api/src/server.ts` calls `createApiDatabase` once during `startApi()`, builds the
+identity runtime from `.identity` and the `AuthorizationStore`/`AuthorizationEvaluator` from
+`.authorization` off that same handle, and closes the handle exactly once — on graceful shutdown,
+and on any startup failure after the pool was already constructed (mirroring the existing
+identity-only failure-cleanup path from [API](api.md#graceful-shutdown)).
+
+The existing per-domain factories (`createIdentityDrizzleDatabase`,
+`createAuthorizationDrizzleDatabase`), which each construct and own a private pool, are
+unaffected and remain available for standalone/testable use — the CLI bootstrap command uses
+`createAuthorizationDrizzleDatabase` directly for exactly that reason, since it only ever needs
+the authorization schema and has no reason to share a pool with anything else.
+
+`apps/api/tests/lifecycle.test.ts` proves this composition explicitly: exactly one
+`new Pool(...)` call for a full `startApi()` lifecycle (covering both identity and authorization
+usage), and exactly one `pool.end()` call regardless of how many concurrent `shutdown()` callers
+there are or whether the failure happened during startup.
+
+## Tests
+
+- `core/tests/authorization-permissions.test.ts` — registry construction, duplicate-declaration
+  rejection, fail-closed lookup, `CORE_PERMISSION_REGISTRY` contents.
+- `core/tests/database-pool.test.ts` — shared pool validation/construction (mirrors the existing
+  per-domain database tests).
+- `core/tests/authorization-bootstrap.test.ts` — import safety, `PlatformOwnerBootstrapError`
+  behavior.
+- `core/tests/cli-bootstrap-platform-owner.test.ts` — the CLI never constructs a pool merely by
+  being imported.
+- `core/tests/authorization-bootstrap.integration.ts` (live PostgreSQL) — successful bootstrap and
+  its audit row, nonexistent-user rollback, second-bootstrap rejection, a revoked historical owner
+  still blocking reuse, and the concurrency scenario described above.
+- `apps/api/tests/authorization-middleware.test.ts` — allow/deny/unregistered/infrastructure-
+  failure paths for `requirePermission`, and `requireTrustedOrigin`'s allow/reject behavior.
+- `apps/api/tests/grants-routes.test.ts` — all three routes' allow/deny paths, disallowed-field
+  and malformed-field rejection, exact server-derived-argument assertions, sourceKind-filtered
+  revoke returning 404 for a non-explicit grant, origin enforcement, and store-error mapping.
+- `apps/api/tests/lifecycle.test.ts` — shared-pool-closes-exactly-once coverage described above.
+- `apps/api/tests/api-http.integration.ts` (live PostgreSQL) — end-to-end: anonymous/non-owner
+  denial, real bootstrap against the running API's own database, owner authority over the HTTP
+  grants API, the owner delegating `core.authorization.grants.manage` to another account and that
+  account then managing grants as a non-owner, a create/list/revoke cycle with audit-trail
+  verification, disallowed-field rejection, missing/untrusted-origin rejection, a real
+  relationship-derived grant proven invisible to LIST and unreachable by REVOKE, and an
+  infrastructure-failure scenario (database dropped out from under a live session) asserting a
+  `503` rather than a false `403` or `200`.
+
+Run the focused suites:
+
+```bash
+pnpm --filter @ekklesia/core test
+pnpm --filter @ekklesia/api test
+pnpm test:migrations:integration   # requires Docker
+```
+
+## Next phase
+
+Phase 4C, pass 3: deferred from this slice — module discovery/Module SDK permission
+registration, roles/groups/teams/tenants, an owner-management HTTP endpoint, service
+accounts/API tokens for non-browser automation, and relationship-derived grant creation itself
+(a roster or similar module operation, not the generic grants API).
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 5a90f9a..fc3a493 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
   "packageManager": "pnpm@11.12.0",
   "scripts": {
     "api:start": "turbo run build && node --env-file-if-exists=.env apps/api/dist/server.js",
+    "authorization:bootstrap-owner": "turbo run build && node --env-file-if-exists=.env core/dist/cli/bootstrap-platform-owner.js",
     "boundaries": "node scripts/check-boundaries.ts",
     "build": "turbo run build",
     "ci:verify": "pnpm verify && pnpm infrastructure:config",
diff --git a/vitest.migrations.integration.config.ts b/vitest.migrations.integration.config.ts
index 61a3a88..49e7c36 100644
--- a/vitest.migrations.integration.config.ts
+++ b/vitest.migrations.integration.config.ts
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ export default defineConfig({
     include: [
       "core/tests/postgres-migration.integration.ts",
       "core/tests/authorization-store.integration.ts",
+      "core/tests/authorization-bootstrap.integration.ts",
       "apps/api/tests/api-http.integration.ts",
     ],
     passWithNoTests: false,