README.md

@@ -7,8 +7,8 @@ surfaces.
 ## Current status
 
 Phase 3 is complete, and Phase 4A (Core identity foundation), Phase 4B (identity HTTP transport),
-Phase 4C (Core authorization), and Phase 5A (module authorization integration) have landed. The
-repository includes
+Phase 4C (Core authorization), Phase 5A (module authorization integration), Phase 5B (module HTTP
+transport), and Phase 5C (module database access) have landed. 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
@@ -80,6 +80,17 @@ See [API](docs/development/api.md#module-http-routes),
 [Module development](docs/module-development/README.md#http-routes), and
 [ADR 0014](docs/architecture/decisions/0014-module-permission-declarations-and-platform-registry.md#deferred).
 
+Phase 5C gives a module's own lifecycle hooks and HTTP handlers typed access to their own
+PostgreSQL tables. `context.services.database` — a restricted, typed `ModuleDatabase` view over
+Drizzle's `select`/`selectDistinct`/`selectDistinctOn`/`insert`/`update`/`delete`/`execute`/
+`transaction`, never a raw `pg` client, pool, or connection string — is available to `start`,
+`stop`, and every authorized route handler, and reuses the one PostgreSQL pool `apps/api` already
+owns; registration remains declarative and database-free. Modules continue to own and import their
+own Drizzle schemas and generated migrations, applied explicitly and never automatically at
+startup. See [API](docs/development/api.md#module-database-access),
+[Module development](docs/module-development/README.md#database-access), and
+[ADR 0016](docs/architecture/decisions/0016-module-database-access.md).
+
 ## Quick start
 
 Prerequisites: Node.js 24 LTS, pnpm 11.12, and Docker with Compose.

apps/api/src/app.ts

@@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
-import { isAuthenticatedPrincipal, type RegisteredModuleHttpRoute } from "@ekklesia/contracts";
+import {
+  isAuthenticatedPrincipal,
+  type ModuleRuntimeServices,
+  type RegisteredModuleHttpRoute,
+} from "@ekklesia/contracts";
 import type {
   AuthorizationEvaluator,
   AuthorizationStore,
@@ -28,6 +32,11 @@ export interface CreateApiAppOptions {
    * caller not exercising modules must say so explicitly (an empty frozen array), never rely on an
    * implicit fallback. */
   readonly moduleRoutes: readonly RegisteredModuleHttpRoute[];
+  /** The same frozen services object the caller's started module runtime already passed to every
+   * module's `start`/`stop` hooks (`apps/api/src/server.ts`) — reference-identical, never a fresh
+   * object built here, so a module's HTTP handlers and lifecycle hooks share exactly one
+   * `ModuleDatabase` for the lifetime of this API runtime. */
+  readonly moduleServices: ModuleRuntimeServices;
   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`. Also the trusted set
@@ -147,6 +156,7 @@ export function createApiApp(options: CreateApiAppOptions): Hono {
     evaluator: options.authorization.evaluator,
     registry: options.authorization.registry,
     runtime,
+    services: options.moduleServices,
     trustedOrigins: allowedOrigins,
   });
 

apps/api/src/database.ts

@@ -1,26 +1,30 @@
+import type { ModuleDatabase } from "@ekklesia/contracts";
 import {
   type AuthorizationDrizzleDatabase,
   createAuthorizationDrizzleView,
 } from "@ekklesia/core/authorization";
 import { createValidatedPostgresPool, type PostgresPoolOptions } from "@ekklesia/core/database";
 import { createIdentityDrizzleView, type IdentityDrizzleDatabase } from "@ekklesia/core/identity";
+import { createModuleDatabaseView } from "@ekklesia/core/modules";
 
 export interface ApiDatabaseHandle {
   readonly authorization: AuthorizationDrizzleDatabase;
   readonly identity: IdentityDrizzleDatabase;
+  readonly module: ModuleDatabase;
   /** 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.
+ * Composes the one physical PostgreSQL pool this process uses for Core's identity and
+ * authorization schemas plus the module database facade: one validated, timeout-bounded
+ * `pg.Pool` (`createValidatedPostgresPool`, `@ekklesia/core/database`), wrapped by three
+ * independent typed Drizzle views (`createIdentityDrizzleView`, `createAuthorizationDrizzleView`,
+ * `createModuleDatabaseView`). No 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,
@@ -32,5 +36,6 @@ export function createApiDatabase(
     authorization: createAuthorizationDrizzleView(pool),
     close,
     identity: createIdentityDrizzleView(pool),
+    module: createModuleDatabaseView(pool),
   });
 }

apps/api/src/module-http-routes.ts

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import type {
   ModuleId,
   ModuleRouteHandlerContext,
+  ModuleRuntimeServices,
   RegisteredModuleHttpRoute,
 } from "@ekklesia/contracts";
 import type { Context, Hono } from "hono";
@@ -24,6 +25,11 @@ const STRIPPED_CORS_RESPONSE_HEADERS = [
 
 export interface ModuleHttpRoutesOptions extends AuthorizationMiddlewareOptions {
   readonly trustedOrigins: ReadonlySet<string>;
+  /** The same frozen services object the started module runtime's `start`/`stop` hooks already
+   * received for this API runtime — never a fresh one built per request, and never touched for a
+   * denied, trusted-origin-rejected, or `OPTIONS` request, since a handler is only ever invoked
+   * after authorization succeeds. */
+  readonly services: ModuleRuntimeServices;
 }
 
 /** Never carries the offending permission id, route path, module id, or any other configuration
@@ -149,7 +155,11 @@ function sanitizeModuleResponse(response: Response): Response {
  * implicit `HEAD` handling, which re-enters this exact same middleware chain and strips the
  * response body afterward — there is no separate `HEAD` registration or permission path.
  * `route.handler` is invoked only after authorization succeeds, with the raw Fetch `Request` and a
- * frozen context — never a Hono `Context`, database, store, or configuration.
+ * frozen context carrying exactly `moduleId`, `principal`, `params`, and `services` — never a Hono
+ * `Context`, authorization store, or configuration; `services.database` is the module's only
+ * reachable database surface, and is unreachable to anything short of a successfully authorized
+ * handler invocation (a denied request, a rejected trusted-origin check, and `OPTIONS` never reach
+ * this handler at all).
  *
  * Because the routes and registry both derive from the same discovered inventory
  * (`prepareStartupModuleInventory`), every registered route permission should already be
@@ -183,6 +193,7 @@ export function mountModuleHttpRoutes(
         moduleId: route.moduleId,
         params: Object.freeze({ ...c.req.param() }),
         principal: getAuthorizedPrincipal(c),
+        services: options.services,
       });
 
       let response: Response;

apps/api/src/server.ts

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import path from "node:path";
 import { pathToFileURL } from "node:url";
+import type { ModuleRuntimeServices } from "@ekklesia/contracts";
 import {
   createAuthorizationEvaluator,
   createAuthorizationStore,
@@ -84,12 +85,15 @@ function bindServer(app: Hono, host: string, port: number): Promise<ServerType>
  * 1. Discover every installed module's manifest exactly once and compose the one immutable
  *    platform permission registry from Core's own declarations plus every module's
  *    (`prepareStartupModuleInventory`, `./platform-permissions.js`).
- * 2. Construct the one shared PostgreSQL pool (identity and authorization each get a typed
- *    Drizzle view over it — see `./database.js`).
- * 3. Construct the Core identity runtime, authorization store, and evaluator.
+ * 2. Construct the one shared PostgreSQL pool (identity, authorization, and the module database
+ *    facade each get a typed Drizzle view over it — see `./database.js`).
+ * 3. Construct the frozen `ModuleRuntimeServices` (currently just `database`) from that same pool,
+ *    then the Core identity runtime, authorization store, and evaluator.
  * 4. Start the module runtime from that exact same discovered inventory
- *    (`startDiscoveredModuleRuntime`) — never rediscovering modules a second time.
- * 5. Create the Hono application, mounting the started module runtime's published routes.
+ *    (`startDiscoveredModuleRuntime`) — never rediscovering modules a second time — passing it the
+ *    same services object every module's `start`/`stop` hook receives.
+ * 5. Create the Hono application, mounting the started module runtime's published routes and
+ *    passing the exact same services object to every module HTTP handler.
  * 6. Bind the Node HTTP server.
  *
  * Discovery and permission composition happen before any pool, Better Auth instance, module
@@ -97,12 +101,13 @@ function bindServer(app: Hono, host: string, port: number): Promise<ServerType>
  * manifest, a dependency-graph problem, a module claiming the reserved `core.*` permission
  * namespace, or a duplicate permission declaration — leaves nothing to close: it propagates
  * directly, and startup never falls back to a Core-only registry. Core infrastructure (the pool,
- * identity, authorization) exists before any executable module lifecycle code runs, and every
- * module route is published only after the entire module runtime has registered and started
- * successfully, so no request can ever reach a module before every module has started. Returns a
- * handle with an idempotent `shutdown()` so both the executable entry point and tests can stop the
- * server, the module runtime, and the shared pool deterministically. Never applies migrations or
- * generates schema — the database must already be migrated through `pnpm migrations:apply`.
+ * module database facade, identity, authorization) exists before any executable module lifecycle
+ * code runs, and every module route is published only after the entire module runtime has
+ * registered and started successfully, so no request can ever reach a module before every module
+ * has started. Returns a handle with an idempotent `shutdown()` so both the executable entry point
+ * and tests can stop the server, the module runtime, and the shared pool deterministically. Never
+ * applies migrations, generates schema, or issues a module database query merely because modules
+ * were discovered — the database must already be migrated through `pnpm migrations:apply`.
  */
 export async function startApi(
   config: ApiRuntimeConfig,
@@ -122,9 +127,11 @@ export async function startApi(
     operationTimeoutMs,
   });
 
+  let services: ModuleRuntimeServices;
   let runtime: ReturnType<typeof createIdentityRuntime>;
   let authorizationStore: ReturnType<typeof createAuthorizationStore>;
   try {
+    services = Object.freeze({ database: databaseHandle.module });
     runtime = createIdentityRuntime({
       config: config.identity,
       db: databaseHandle.identity,
@@ -146,7 +153,7 @@ export async function startApi(
   // handle to stop here, only the pool this failure leaves open.
   let moduleRuntime: StartedModuleRuntime;
   try {
-    moduleRuntime = await startDiscoveredModuleRuntime(inventory.modules);
+    moduleRuntime = await startDiscoveredModuleRuntime(inventory.modules, services);
   } catch (error) {
     await safeCloseDatabase(databaseHandle);
     throw error;
@@ -161,6 +168,7 @@ export async function startApi(
         store: authorizationStore,
       },
       moduleRoutes: moduleRuntime.routes,
+      moduleServices: services,
       runtime,
       trustedOrigins: config.identity.trustedOrigins,
     });
@@ -184,12 +192,14 @@ export async function startApi(
   // would previously get an already-resolved `undefined` immediately, before the listener had
   // actually drained or the pool had actually closed. Storing the promise itself means every
   // caller — concurrent or sequential — awaits the exact same drain-then-close operation and
-  // observes it complete (or fail) exactly once. Order matters: the HTTP listener is drained and
-  // closed first so no new or in-flight request can reach a module handler while the module
-  // runtime is stopping, then the module runtime stops, then the shared pool closes. Unlike the
-  // startup-cleanup paths above, a module-stop failure here is not swallowed — it is a genuine
-  // shutdown result a caller should observe — but database cleanup still always runs first, so a
-  // stop failure never leaves the pool open.
+  // observes it complete (or fail) exactly once. Order matters, and is now additionally
+  // load-bearing for the module database facade: the HTTP listener is drained and closed first so
+  // no new or in-flight request can reach a module handler while the module runtime is stopping;
+  // then the module runtime stops — its stop hooks may still use `services.database`, which is
+  // safe because the pool is not yet closed; only then does the shared pool close, so no module
+  // code can run against it afterward. Unlike the startup-cleanup paths above, a module-stop
+  // failure here is not swallowed — it is a genuine shutdown result a caller should observe — but
+  // database cleanup still always runs first, so a stop failure never leaves the pool open.
   let shutdownPromise: Promise<void> | undefined;
   const shutdown = (): Promise<void> => {
     if (!shutdownPromise) {

apps/api/tests/app.test.ts

@@ -1,4 +1,9 @@
-import { ANONYMOUS_PRINCIPAL, createAuthenticatedPrincipal } from "@ekklesia/contracts";
+import {
+  ANONYMOUS_PRINCIPAL,
+  createAuthenticatedPrincipal,
+  type ModuleDatabase,
+  type ModuleRuntimeServices,
+} from "@ekklesia/contracts";
 import {
   type AuthorizationEvaluator,
   type AuthorizationStore,
@@ -21,6 +26,22 @@ function fakeRuntime(overrides: Partial<EkklesiaIdentityRuntime> = {}): Ekklesia
   };
 }
 
+/** A small typed fake `ModuleRuntimeServices` — these tests exercise `createApiApp`'s own wiring,
+ * never real database behavior, so no PostgreSQL is required. */
+function fakeModuleServices(): ModuleRuntimeServices {
+  const database = Object.freeze({
+    delete: vi.fn(),
+    execute: vi.fn(),
+    insert: vi.fn(),
+    select: vi.fn(),
+    selectDistinct: vi.fn(),
+    selectDistinctOn: vi.fn(),
+    transaction: vi.fn(),
+    update: vi.fn(),
+  }) as unknown as ModuleDatabase;
+  return Object.freeze({ database });
+}
+
 /** A fully stubbed authorization dependency, denying everything by default — tests that need a
  * specific decision or store behavior override the relevant method explicitly. The registry
  * defaults to Core's own (containing `core.authorization.grants.manage`, exactly what the
@@ -53,6 +74,7 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
     const runtime = fakeRuntime();
     const app = createApiApp({
       moduleRoutes: Object.freeze([]),
+      moduleServices: fakeModuleServices(),
       authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
       runtime,
       trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
@@ -69,6 +91,7 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
     const runtime = fakeRuntime();
     const app = createApiApp({
       moduleRoutes: Object.freeze([]),
+      moduleServices: fakeModuleServices(),
       authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
       runtime,
       trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
@@ -86,6 +109,7 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
     });
     const app = createApiApp({
       moduleRoutes: Object.freeze([]),
+      moduleServices: fakeModuleServices(),
       authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
       runtime,
       trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
@@ -105,6 +129,7 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
     });
     const app = createApiApp({
       moduleRoutes: Object.freeze([]),
+      moduleServices: fakeModuleServices(),
       authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
       runtime,
       trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
@@ -126,6 +151,7 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
     });
     const app = createApiApp({
       moduleRoutes: Object.freeze([]),
+      moduleServices: fakeModuleServices(),
       authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
       runtime,
       trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
@@ -147,6 +173,7 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
     });
     const app = createApiApp({
       moduleRoutes: Object.freeze([]),
+      moduleServices: fakeModuleServices(),
       authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
       runtime,
       trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
@@ -165,6 +192,7 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
     });
     const app = createApiApp({
       moduleRoutes: Object.freeze([]),
+      moduleServices: fakeModuleServices(),
       authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
       runtime,
       trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
@@ -182,6 +210,7 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
   it("has deterministic 404 behavior for an unknown route", async () => {
     const app = createApiApp({
       moduleRoutes: Object.freeze([]),
+      moduleServices: fakeModuleServices(),
       authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
       runtime: fakeRuntime(),
       trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
@@ -196,6 +225,7 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
   it("reflects an allowed origin in Access-Control-Allow-Origin with credentials support", async () => {
     const app = createApiApp({
       moduleRoutes: Object.freeze([]),
+      moduleServices: fakeModuleServices(),
       authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
       runtime: fakeRuntime(),
       trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
@@ -212,6 +242,7 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
   it("never returns Access-Control-Allow-Origin for a disallowed origin", async () => {
     const app = createApiApp({
       moduleRoutes: Object.freeze([]),
+      moduleServices: fakeModuleServices(),
       authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
       runtime: fakeRuntime(),
       trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
@@ -227,6 +258,7 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
   it("supports requests with no Origin header at all (native/server clients)", async () => {
     const app = createApiApp({
       moduleRoutes: Object.freeze([]),
+      moduleServices: fakeModuleServices(),
       authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
       runtime: fakeRuntime(),
       trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
@@ -240,6 +272,7 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
   it("handles preflight OPTIONS requests deterministically for an allowed origin", async () => {
     const app = createApiApp({
       moduleRoutes: Object.freeze([]),
+      moduleServices: fakeModuleServices(),
       authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
       runtime: fakeRuntime(),
       trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
@@ -260,6 +293,7 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
   it("never wildcards Access-Control-Allow-Origin", async () => {
     const app = createApiApp({
       moduleRoutes: Object.freeze([]),
+      moduleServices: fakeModuleServices(),
       authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
       runtime: fakeRuntime(),
       trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
@@ -283,6 +317,7 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
       const evaluatorAuthorize = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ allowed: false });
       const app = createApiApp({
         moduleRoutes: Object.freeze([]),
+        moduleServices: fakeModuleServices(),
         authorization: fakeAuthorization({ evaluator: { authorize: evaluatorAuthorize } }),
         runtime: fakeRuntime(),
         trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],
@@ -309,6 +344,7 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
       };
       const app = createApiApp({
         moduleRoutes: Object.freeze([]),
+        moduleServices: fakeModuleServices(),
         authorization: fakeAuthorization({
           evaluator: { authorize: evaluatorAuthorize },
           registry: emptyRegistry,
@@ -326,6 +362,7 @@ describe("Ekklesia API Hono application", () => {
     it("applies the same CORS policy to /api/v1/grants as the rest of /api/v1/*", async () => {
       const app = createApiApp({
         moduleRoutes: Object.freeze([]),
+        moduleServices: fakeModuleServices(),
         authorization: fakeAuthorization({}),
         runtime: fakeRuntime(),
         trustedOrigins: [trustedOrigin],

apps/api/tests/lifecycle.test.ts

@@ -111,6 +111,19 @@ function createEventRecorder(): { events: string[]; expression: string } {
   return { events, expression: `globalThis[Symbol.for(${JSON.stringify(key)})]` };
 }
 
+/** Same globalThis-symbol technique as `createEventRecorder`, but captures an actual object
+ * reference (such as `context.services.database`) rather than a string label, so a test can prove
+ * two values pushed from different, independently dynamically-imported invocations (a module's own
+ * `start` hook and one of its HTTP handlers) are the exact same object. */
+function createReferenceRecorder(): { values: unknown[]; expression: string } {
+  const key = `ekklesia.api.lifecycle.test.ref.${eventSymbols.length}.${Date.now()}.${Math.random()}`;
+  const symbol = Symbol.for(key);
+  const values: unknown[] = [];
+  (globalThis as unknown as Record<PropertyKey, unknown>)[symbol] = values;
+  eventSymbols.push(symbol);
+  return { values, expression: `globalThis[Symbol.for(${JSON.stringify(key)})]` };
+}
+
 interface WorkingFixtureModuleOptions {
   /** Declares one `GET /ping` route against `<id>.ping.read` when true. */
   readonly withRoute?: boolean;
@@ -659,6 +672,47 @@ describe("Ekklesia API module runtime startup and shutdown", () => {
     await running.shutdown();
   });
 
+  it("gives a module's HTTP handler the exact same database facade object its own start hook received", async () => {
+    const modulesDirectory = await createTemporaryModulesDirectory();
+    const refs = createReferenceRecorder();
+    await createFixtureModule(modulesDirectory, "db-identity", {
+      permissions: [{ baseline: "public", description: "Ping.", id: "db-identity.ping.read" }],
+    });
+    await writeFile(
+      path.join(modulesDirectory, "db-identity", "dist/server/index.js"),
+      `export default {
+        id: "db-identity",
+        version: "0.1.0",
+        register({ http }) {
+          http.route({
+            method: "GET",
+            path: "/ping",
+            permission: "db-identity.ping.read",
+            handler: async (_request, context) => {
+              ${refs.expression}.push(context.services.database);
+              return new Response(null, { status: 204 });
+            },
+          });
+        },
+        start(context) {
+          ${refs.expression}.push(context.services.database);
+        }
+      };`,
+    );
+    mockPoolAndAuth();
+    mockSuccessfulServe();
+
+    const running = await startApi(validConfig(), { modulesDirectoryOverride: modulesDirectory });
+    const response = await running.app.request("/api/v1/modules/db-identity/ping");
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(204);
+    expect(refs.values).toHaveLength(2);
+    expect(refs.values[0]).toBeDefined();
+    expect(refs.values[0]).toBe(refs.values[1]);
+
+    await running.shutdown();
+  });
+
   it("closes the pool exactly once and binds no server when a module's entrypoint fails to load", async () => {
     const modulesDirectory = await createTemporaryModulesDirectory();
     await createFixtureModule(modulesDirectory, "broken-export");
@@ -789,6 +843,31 @@ describe("Ekklesia API module runtime startup and shutdown", () => {
     expect(recorder.events).toEqual(["server:close", "ordered:stop", "pool:end"]);
   });
 
+  it("gives a module's stop hook the exact same database facade object its start hook received, while the pool is still open", async () => {
+    const modulesDirectory = await createTemporaryModulesDirectory();
+    const refs = createReferenceRecorder();
+    await createFixtureModule(modulesDirectory, "db-stop-identity");
+    await writeFile(
+      path.join(modulesDirectory, "db-stop-identity", "dist/server/index.js"),
+      `export default {
+        id: "db-stop-identity",
+        version: "0.1.0",
+        start(context) { ${refs.expression}.push(context.services.database); },
+        stop(context) { ${refs.expression}.push(context.services.database); }
+      };`,
+    );
+    const { poolEnd } = mockPoolAndAuth();
+    mockSuccessfulServe();
+
+    const running = await startApi(validConfig(), { modulesDirectoryOverride: modulesDirectory });
+    await running.shutdown();
+
+    expect(refs.values).toHaveLength(2);
+    expect(refs.values[0]).toBeDefined();
+    expect(refs.values[0]).toBe(refs.values[1]);
+    expect(poolEnd).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+  });
+
   it("still runs pool cleanup and lets the shutdown rejection surface when the module runtime fails to stop", async () => {
     const modulesDirectory = await createTemporaryModulesDirectory();
     const recorder = createEventRecorder();

apps/api/tests/module-database.integration.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,708 @@
+import { randomUUID } 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 {
+  applyModuleMigrations,
+  createPostgresMigrationDatabase,
+  discoverAllMigrations,
+} from "@ekklesia/core/migrations";
+import { Client, type QueryResultRow } from "pg";
+import { afterAll, describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
+import { createApiRuntimeConfig } from "../src/config.js";
+import { createApiDatabase } from "../src/database.js";
+import { startApi, type RunningApi } from "../src/server.js";
+
+/**
+ * Proves `ModuleRuntimeServices.database` against real PostgreSQL: an installed test module
+ * (`core/tests/fixtures/module-database-integration/db-facade/`) whose lifecycle hooks and
+ * permissioned HTTP handlers perform real typed Drizzle operations — insert, select, update,
+ * transaction, execute — against its own migrated table, exclusively through the facade the
+ * platform hands it. Follows the exact harness conventions `apps/api/tests/api-http.integration.ts`
+ * and `core/tests/postgres-migration.integration.ts` already establish (self-contained per-file
+ * helpers, one disposable PostgreSQL database per scenario, `describe.sequential` blocks sharing a
+ * running API across related assertions) rather than introducing a second integration-test
+ * framework or Docker orchestration path.
+ *
+ * The fixture module is committed under `core/tests/fixtures/...`, not `apps/api/tests/fixtures/`,
+ * for one concrete reason: its schema imports `drizzle-orm/pg-core` and `@ekklesia/contracts`,
+ * neither of which `@ekklesia/api` declares as a direct dependency (pnpm's strict linker will not
+ * resolve them from anywhere under `apps/api/`), while `@ekklesia/core` already depends on both
+ * directly, so any file physically located under `core/`'s directory tree resolves them correctly
+ * regardless of which package's test actually points discovery at it. It is never registered as a
+ * pnpm workspace package (it matches none of `pnpm-workspace.yaml`'s glob patterns), never sits in
+ * the repository's live `modules/` directory, and is only ever discovered when this file explicitly
+ * passes its directory as `modulesDirectoryOverride` — normal production startup, Doctor, and
+ * `pnpm modules:validate` never see it.
+ */
+
+const integrationDatabaseUrlEnvironment = "EKKLESIA_MIGRATION_TEST_DATABASE_URL";
+const thisDirectory = path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));
+const coreMigrationsDirectory = path.join(thisDirectory, "..", "..", "..", "core", "drizzle");
+const fixtureModulesDirectory = path.join(
+  thisDirectory,
+  "..",
+  "..",
+  "..",
+  "core",
+  "tests",
+  "fixtures",
+  "module-database-integration",
+);
+
+const RECORDS_TABLE = "db_facade_records";
+const RECORDER_GLOBAL_KEY = "ekklesia.integration.db-facade.recorder";
+// Must match `STARTUP_RECORD_ID` in the fixture's `server/index.js` exactly.
+const STARTUP_RECORD_ID = "11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111";
+
+const identityBaseUrl = "https://identity.example.test";
+const dashboardOrigin = "https://dashboard.example.test";
+const untrustedOrigin = "https://evil.example.test";
+
+class IntegrationHarnessError extends Error {
+  constructor(message: string) {
+    super(message);
+    this.name = "IntegrationHarnessError";
+    this.stack = `${this.name}: ${this.message}`;
+  }
+}
+
+function harnessError(message: string): IntegrationHarnessError {
+  return new IntegrationHarnessError(message);
+}
+
+function baseDatabaseUrl(): string {
+  const value = process.env[integrationDatabaseUrlEnvironment];
+  if (typeof value !== "string" || value.trim() === "") {
+    throw harnessError("The module database integration database is not configured.");
+  }
+  try {
+    const parsed = new URL(value);
+    if (parsed.protocol !== "postgres:" && parsed.protocol !== "postgresql:") {
+      throw new TypeError("Unsupported protocol.");
+    }
+  } catch {
+    throw harnessError("The module database integration database configuration is invalid.");
+  }
+  return value;
+}
+
+function quoteDatabaseName(databaseName: string): string {
+  if (!/^[a-z][a-z0-9_]{0,62}$/u.test(databaseName)) {
+    throw harnessError("The generated integration database name is invalid.");
+  }
+  return `"${databaseName}"`;
+}
+
+let databaseCounter = 0;
+
+function makeDatabaseName(label: string): string {
+  const safeLabel = label
+    .toLowerCase()
+    .replaceAll(/[^a-z0-9]+/gu, "_")
+    .replaceAll(/^_+|_+$/gu, "")
+    .slice(0, 14);
+  databaseCounter += 1;
+  return `ekk_dbf_${process.pid}_${databaseCounter}_${safeLabel || "scenario"}_${randomUUID().slice(0, 8)}`;
+}
+
+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 module database integration 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.");
+  }
+}
+
+const trackedDatabases = new Set<string>();
+
+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 activeConnectionCount(databaseName: string): Promise<number> {
+  const admin = await openAdministrativeClient(baseDatabaseUrl());
+  try {
+    const rows = await safeQuery<{ count: string }>(
+      admin,
+      "SELECT count(*)::text AS count FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE datname = $1",
+      [databaseName],
+    );
+    return Number(rows[0]?.count ?? "0");
+  } 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) };
+}
+
+/** Applies only Core's own migrations, against an empty modules directory — the module fixture's
+ * migration is deliberately absent, used only by the "no auto-migration" negative scenario below. */
+async function applyCoreMigrations(url: string): Promise<void> {
+  const emptyModulesDirectory = await mkdtemp(
+    path.join(tmpdir(), "ekklesia-db-facade-no-modules-"),
+  );
+  try {
+    const aggregate = await discoverAllMigrations({
+      coreMigrationsDirectory,
+      moduleDiscovery: {
+        moduleSdkVersion: "0.1.0",
+        modulesDirectory: emptyModulesDirectory,
+        platformVersion: "0.1.0",
+      },
+    });
+    expect(aggregate.migrations.map((entry) => entry.identity)).toEqual([
+      "core:0000_identity_core_tables",
+      "core:0001_authorization_core_tables",
+    ]);
+    await applyModuleMigrations({ aggregate, database: createPostgresMigrationDatabase(url) });
+  } finally {
+    await rm(emptyModulesDirectory, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  }
+}
+
+/** Applies Core's migrations plus the `db-facade` fixture module's own migration — explicitly,
+ * before any module runtime exists — proving the platform never infers or auto-generates this
+ * table. Pass-1's committed core migrations and checksums must not have drifted while this pass
+ * was built. */
+async function applyMigrationsWithModule(url: string): Promise<void> {
+  const aggregate = await discoverAllMigrations({
+    coreMigrationsDirectory,
+    moduleDiscovery: {
+      moduleSdkVersion: "0.1.0",
+      modulesDirectory: fixtureModulesDirectory,
+      platformVersion: "0.1.0",
+    },
+  });
+  expect(aggregate.migrations.map((entry) => entry.identity)).toEqual([
+    "core:0000_identity_core_tables",
+    "core:0001_authorization_core_tables",
+    "db-facade:0000_initial",
+  ]);
+  expect(aggregate.migrations[0]?.checksum).toBe(
+    "f8f2086ef06f7a6943e8ffc4350bb010b37aed04c0a72030d2b153c986b1325f",
+  );
+  expect(aggregate.migrations[1]?.checksum).toBe(
+    "830e1fbc26d05af08df8d8710c3d10e1f3016d32c41b8363cb661c49afcbe81e",
+  );
+  await applyModuleMigrations({ aggregate, database: createPostgresMigrationDatabase(url) });
+}
+
+async function startMigratedApi(
+  url: string,
+  modulesDirectoryOverride?: string,
+): Promise<RunningApi> {
+  const config = createApiRuntimeConfig(
+    {
+      databaseUrl: url,
+      host: "127.0.0.1",
+      identity: {
+        baseUrl: identityBaseUrl,
+        secret: "integration-test-secret-0123456789abcdefgh",
+        trustedOrigins: [identityBaseUrl, dashboardOrigin],
+      },
+      port: 0,
+    },
+    { environment: "production" },
+  );
+  return startApi(config, {
+    rateLimitOverride: { max: 1000, window: 1 },
+    ...(modulesDirectoryOverride === undefined ? {} : { modulesDirectoryOverride }),
+  });
+}
+
+function apiOrigin(running: RunningApi): string {
+  const address = running.server.address();
+  if (!address || typeof address !== "object") {
+    throw harnessError("The API integration server has no bound address.");
+  }
+  return `http://127.0.0.1:${address.port}`;
+}
+
+interface SignUpResult {
+  readonly userId: string;
+}
+
+async function signUp(origin: string, email: string, password: string): Promise<SignUpResult> {
+  const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/auth/sign-up/email`, {
+    body: JSON.stringify({ email, name: "Integration Test User", password }),
+    headers: { "content-type": "application/json", origin: dashboardOrigin },
+    method: "POST",
+  });
+  const body = (await response.json()) as { user: { id: string } };
+  return { userId: body.user.id };
+}
+
+async function signIn(origin: string, email: string, password: string): Promise<string> {
+  const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/auth/sign-in/email`, {
+    body: JSON.stringify({ email, password }),
+    headers: { "content-type": "application/json", origin: dashboardOrigin },
+    method: "POST",
+  });
+  const setCookie = response.headers.get("set-cookie");
+  if (!setCookie) {
+    throw harnessError("Sign-in did not return a session cookie.");
+  }
+  return setCookie.split(",")[0]?.split(";")[0]?.trim() ?? "";
+}
+
+interface RecordedEvent {
+  readonly type: "register" | "start" | "stop" | "handler";
+  readonly services?: { readonly database: unknown };
+  readonly route?: string;
+  readonly contextKeys?: readonly string[];
+}
+
+function globalRecord(): Record<string, unknown> {
+  return globalThis as unknown as Record<string, unknown>;
+}
+
+function resetRecorder(): void {
+  globalRecord()[RECORDER_GLOBAL_KEY] = [];
+}
+
+function readRecorder(): RecordedEvent[] {
+  return (globalRecord()[RECORDER_GLOBAL_KEY] as RecordedEvent[] | undefined) ?? [];
+}
+
+async function tableExists(url: string): Promise<boolean> {
+  const admin = await openAdministrativeClient(url);
+  try {
+    const rows = await safeQuery<{ exists: boolean }>(
+      admin,
+      "select exists (select 1 from information_schema.tables where table_schema = 'public' and table_name = $1) as exists",
+      [RECORDS_TABLE],
+    );
+    return rows[0]?.exists ?? false;
+  } finally {
+    await safeEnd(admin);
+  }
+}
+
+async function fetchRecordRow(
+  url: string,
+  id: string,
+): Promise<{ id: string; value: string } | undefined> {
+  const admin = await openAdministrativeClient(url);
+  try {
+    const rows = await safeQuery<{ id: string; value: string }>(
+      admin,
+      `select id, value from "${RECORDS_TABLE}" where id = $1`,
+      [id],
+    );
+    return rows[0];
+  } finally {
+    await safeEnd(admin);
+  }
+}
+
+async function recordExists(url: string, id: string): Promise<boolean> {
+  return (await fetchRecordRow(url, id)) !== undefined;
+}
+
+async function migrationHistoryCount(url: string, identity: string): Promise<number> {
+  const admin = await openAdministrativeClient(url);
+  try {
+    const rows = await safeQuery<{ count: string }>(
+      admin,
+      `select count(*)::text as count from "ekklesia_core_migrations" where identity = $1`,
+      [identity],
+    );
+    return Number(rows[0]?.count ?? "0");
+  } finally {
+    await safeEnd(admin);
+  }
+}
+
+afterAll(async () => {
+  delete globalRecord()[RECORDER_GLOBAL_KEY];
+  for (const databaseName of [...trackedDatabases]) {
+    await dropDatabase(databaseName).catch(() => undefined);
+  }
+});
+
+describe.sequential("live API — module database explicit migration ownership", () => {
+  it("creates no table merely by applying core migrations or constructing the pool and facade — only an explicit module migration does", async () => {
+    const database = await createDisposableDatabase("mig_absent");
+    try {
+      expect(await tableExists(database.url)).toBe(false);
+
+      await applyCoreMigrations(database.url);
+      expect(await tableExists(database.url)).toBe(false);
+
+      const handle = createApiDatabase(database.url);
+      expect(handle.module).toBeDefined();
+      await handle.close();
+      expect(await tableExists(database.url)).toBe(false);
+
+      await applyMigrationsWithModule(database.url);
+      expect(await tableExists(database.url)).toBe(true);
+    } finally {
+      await dropDatabase(database.name);
+    }
+  });
+
+  it("applies the module's migration exactly once, never regenerating or reapplying it across repeated startups", async () => {
+    const database = await createDisposableDatabase("mig_once");
+    try {
+      await applyMigrationsWithModule(database.url);
+      expect(await migrationHistoryCount(database.url, "db-facade:0000_initial")).toBe(1);
+
+      const first = await startMigratedApi(database.url, fixtureModulesDirectory);
+      await first.shutdown();
+      const second = await startMigratedApi(database.url, fixtureModulesDirectory);
+      await second.shutdown();
+
+      expect(await migrationHistoryCount(database.url, "db-facade:0000_initial")).toBe(1);
+      expect(await migrationHistoryCount(database.url, "core:0000_identity_core_tables")).toBe(1);
+      expect(await migrationHistoryCount(database.url, "core:0001_authorization_core_tables")).toBe(
+        1,
+      );
+    } finally {
+      await dropDatabase(database.name);
+    }
+  });
+
+  it("fails module startup rather than silently creating the table when the module's own migration was never applied", async () => {
+    const database = await createDisposableDatabase("mig_skip");
+    try {
+      await applyCoreMigrations(database.url);
+      resetRecorder();
+
+      await expect(startMigratedApi(database.url, fixtureModulesDirectory)).rejects.toMatchObject({
+        issues: [expect.objectContaining({ code: "MODULE_START_FAILED", moduleId: "db-facade" })],
+      });
+
+      // No schema inference, no automatic table creation as a side effect of the failed attempt.
+      expect(await tableExists(database.url)).toBe(false);
+    } finally {
+      await dropDatabase(database.name);
+    }
+  });
+});
+
+describe.sequential("live API — module database access through ModuleRuntimeServices", () => {
+  let database: { name: string; url: string };
+  let running: RunningApi;
+  let origin: string;
+  let ownerCookie: string;
+
+  it("starts a freshly migrated API; register receives no services; start writes the startup record through the real facade", async () => {
+    database = await createDisposableDatabase("db_facade");
+    await applyMigrationsWithModule(database.url);
+    resetRecorder();
+
+    running = await startMigratedApi(database.url, fixtureModulesDirectory);
+    origin = apiOrigin(running);
+
+    const events = readRecorder();
+    const registerEvents = events.filter((event) => event.type === "register");
+    const startEvents = events.filter((event) => event.type === "start");
+    expect(registerEvents).toHaveLength(1);
+    expect(registerEvents[0]?.services).toBeUndefined();
+    expect(startEvents).toHaveLength(1);
+    expect(startEvents[0]?.services?.database).toBeDefined();
+
+    const startupRow = await fetchRecordRow(database.url, STARTUP_RECORD_ID);
+    expect(startupRow).toEqual({ id: STARTUP_RECORD_ID, value: "startup-value" });
+
+    const signedUp = await signUp(origin, "[email protected]", "correct horse battery");
+    ownerCookie = await signIn(origin, "[email protected]", "correct horse battery");
+    expect(signedUp.userId).toBeDefined();
+  });
+
+  it("authorized read reflects real PostgreSQL state, exposes exactly moduleId/principal/params/services, and the handler's database is reference-equal to start's", async () => {
+    const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/modules/db-facade/records/${STARTUP_RECORD_ID}`);
+    expect(response.status).toBe(200);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ id: STARTUP_RECORD_ID, value: "startup-value" });
+
+    const events = readRecorder();
+    const startEvent = events.find((event) => event.type === "start");
+    const readHandlerEvent = [...events]
+      .reverse()
+      .find((event) => event.type === "handler" && event.route === "GET /records/:id");
+    expect(readHandlerEvent?.contextKeys).toEqual(["moduleId", "params", "principal", "services"]);
+    expect(readHandlerEvent?.services).toBeDefined();
+    expect(readHandlerEvent?.services?.database).toBe(startEvent?.services?.database);
+  });
+
+  it("requires a trusted Origin for the module's mutating route, performs a real insert, and a later read observes it", async () => {
+    const id = randomUUID();
+    const noOrigin = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/modules/db-facade/records`, {
+      body: JSON.stringify({ id, value: "no-origin" }),
+      headers: { "content-type": "application/json", cookie: ownerCookie },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+    expect(noOrigin.status).toBe(403);
+    expect(await noOrigin.json()).toEqual({ code: "UNTRUSTED_ORIGIN" });
+    expect(await recordExists(database.url, id)).toBe(false);
+
+    const created = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/modules/db-facade/records`, {
+      body: JSON.stringify({ id, value: "created-value" }),
+      headers: {
+        "content-type": "application/json",
+        cookie: ownerCookie,
+        origin: dashboardOrigin,
+      },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+    expect(created.status).toBe(201);
+    expect(await created.json()).toEqual({ id, value: "created-value" });
+
+    const readBack = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/modules/db-facade/records/${id}`);
+    expect(readBack.status).toBe(200);
+    expect(await readBack.json()).toEqual({ id, value: "created-value" });
+
+    const patched = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/modules/db-facade/records/${id}`, {
+      body: JSON.stringify({ value: "patched-value" }),
+      headers: {
+        "content-type": "application/json",
+        cookie: ownerCookie,
+        origin: dashboardOrigin,
+      },
+      method: "PATCH",
+    });
+    expect(patched.status).toBe(200);
+    expect(await patched.json()).toEqual({ id, value: "patched-value" });
+    expect(await fetchRecordRow(database.url, id)).toEqual({ id, value: "patched-value" });
+  });
+
+  it("denies the mutating route to an unauthenticated caller, invoking neither the handler nor a database mutation", async () => {
+    const id = randomUUID();
+    const eventsBefore = readRecorder().length;
+
+    const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/modules/db-facade/records`, {
+      body: JSON.stringify({ id, value: "should-not-persist" }),
+      headers: {
+        "content-type": "application/json",
+        origin: dashboardOrigin,
+      },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(403);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ code: "AUTHORIZATION_DENIED" });
+    expect(readRecorder().length).toBe(eventsBefore);
+    expect(await recordExists(database.url, id)).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it("rejects an untrusted-Origin mutation before principal resolution, invoking neither the handler nor a database mutation", async () => {
+    const id = randomUUID();
+    const eventsBefore = readRecorder().length;
+
+    const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/modules/db-facade/records`, {
+      body: JSON.stringify({ id, value: "should-not-persist" }),
+      headers: {
+        "content-type": "application/json",
+        cookie: ownerCookie,
+        origin: untrustedOrigin,
+      },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(403);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ code: "UNTRUSTED_ORIGIN" });
+    expect(readRecorder().length).toBe(eventsBefore);
+    expect(await recordExists(database.url, id)).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it("keeps OPTIONS platform-owned: never invokes module code, never mutates the table, and returns correct final CORS/Vary", async () => {
+    const id = randomUUID();
+    const eventsBefore = readRecorder().length;
+
+    const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/modules/db-facade/records`, {
+      headers: {
+        "access-control-request-method": "POST",
+        origin: dashboardOrigin,
+      },
+      method: "OPTIONS",
+    });
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(204);
+    expect(response.headers.get("access-control-allow-origin")).toBe(dashboardOrigin);
+    const vary = (response.headers.get("vary") ?? "").split(",").map((token) => token.trim());
+    expect(vary.filter((token) => token.toLowerCase() === "origin")).toHaveLength(1);
+    expect(readRecorder().length).toBe(eventsBefore);
+    expect(await recordExists(database.url, id)).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it("cannot let HEAD bypass the authorized GET chain, and creates no mutation", async () => {
+    const anonymousHead = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/modules/db-facade/records-count`, {
+      method: "HEAD",
+    });
+    expect(anonymousHead.status).toBe(403);
+    expect(await anonymousHead.text()).toBe("");
+
+    const authorizedHead = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/modules/db-facade/records-count`, {
+      headers: { cookie: ownerCookie },
+      method: "HEAD",
+    });
+    expect(authorizedHead.status).toBe(200);
+    expect(await authorizedHead.text()).toBe("");
+
+    const countBefore = await countRecordRowsViaGet(origin, ownerCookie);
+    const countAfter = await countRecordRowsViaGet(origin, ownerCookie);
+    expect(countAfter).toBe(countBefore);
+  });
+
+  it("commits a real transaction and persists its result", async () => {
+    const id = randomUUID();
+    const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/modules/db-facade/records/transactional`, {
+      body: JSON.stringify({ id, value: "committed-value" }),
+      headers: {
+        "content-type": "application/json",
+        cookie: ownerCookie,
+        origin: dashboardOrigin,
+      },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+    expect(response.status).toBe(201);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ committed: true });
+    expect(await fetchRecordRow(database.url, id)).toEqual({ id, value: "committed-value" });
+  });
+
+  it("rolls back a real transaction on a unique-constraint failure, leaving no partial mutation", async () => {
+    const id = randomUUID();
+    const conflictId = randomUUID();
+    const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/modules/db-facade/records/transactional`, {
+      body: JSON.stringify({ id, value: "should-roll-back", conflictId }),
+      headers: {
+        "content-type": "application/json",
+        cookie: ownerCookie,
+        origin: dashboardOrigin,
+      },
+      method: "POST",
+    });
+    expect(response.status).toBe(409);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ committed: false });
+
+    // The whole transaction rolled back atomically — including the first, otherwise-valid insert.
+    expect(await recordExists(database.url, id)).toBe(false);
+    expect(await recordExists(database.url, conflictId)).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it("preserves a module's own sanitized response for a database failure it deliberately catches", async () => {
+    const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/modules/db-facade/safe-boom`);
+    expect(response.status).toBe(409);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ code: "BOOM_HANDLED" });
+  });
+
+  it("sanitizes an uncaught real PostgreSQL failure to the existing MODULE_HANDLER_FAILED boundary, leaking no detail", async () => {
+    const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/modules/db-facade/boom`);
+    const text = await response.text();
+
+    expect(response.status).toBe(500);
+    expect(text).toBe(JSON.stringify({ code: "MODULE_HANDLER_FAILED" }));
+    expect(response.headers.get("cache-control")).toBe("no-store");
+
+    const lowered = text.toLowerCase();
+    for (const forbidden of [
+      "division",
+      "sql",
+      "postgres",
+      "22012",
+      "select",
+      "relation",
+      "stack",
+      "node_modules",
+      fixtureModulesDirectory.toLowerCase(),
+    ]) {
+      expect(lowered).not.toContain(forbidden);
+    }
+  });
+
+  it("stops cleanly: stop receives the same services and database as start, its write completes before the pool closes, and the API shuts down", async () => {
+    const events = readRecorder();
+    const startEvent = events.find((event) => event.type === "start");
+
+    await running.shutdown();
+
+    const remainingConnections = await activeConnectionCount(database.name);
+    expect(remainingConnections).toBe(0);
+
+    const eventsAfterShutdown = readRecorder();
+    const stopEvents = eventsAfterShutdown.filter((event) => event.type === "stop");
+    expect(stopEvents).toHaveLength(1);
+    expect(stopEvents[0]?.services?.database).toBe(startEvent?.services?.database);
+
+    // Read via a separate administrative connection, entirely independent of the API's own
+    // (now-closed) pool — proving the stop write completed and persisted before that pool closed.
+    const stoppedRow = await fetchRecordRow(database.url, STARTUP_RECORD_ID);
+    expect(stoppedRow).toEqual({ id: STARTUP_RECORD_ID, value: "stopped-by-shutdown" });
+
+    await dropDatabase(database.name);
+  });
+});
+
+async function countRecordRowsViaGet(origin: string, cookie: string): Promise<number> {
+  const response = await fetch(`${origin}/api/v1/modules/db-facade/records-count`, {
+    headers: { cookie },
+  });
+  const body = (await response.json()) as { count: number };
+  return body.count;
+}

apps/api/tests/module-http-routes.test.ts

@@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
 import {
   ANONYMOUS_PRINCIPAL,
   createAuthenticatedPrincipal,
+  type ModuleDatabase,
   type ModuleRouteHandler,
   type ModuleRouteHandlerContext,
+  type ModuleRuntimeServices,
   parsePermissionId,
   type PermissionId,
   type RegisteredModuleHttpRoute,
@@ -51,24 +53,56 @@ function moduleRoute(fields: RegisteredModuleHttpRoute): RegisteredModuleHttpRou
   return Object.freeze({ ...fields });
 }
 
+/** A small typed fake `ModuleRuntimeServices` — these tests exercise route mounting,
+ * authorization, and response sanitization, never real database behavior, so no PostgreSQL is
+ * required. Each `database` method stays a distinct spy so a test can assert none of them were
+ * ever called (denied, trusted-origin-rejected, and `OPTIONS` requests never reach a handler). */
+function fakeModuleServices(): ModuleRuntimeServices {
+  const database = Object.freeze({
+    delete: vi.fn(),
+    execute: vi.fn(),
+    insert: vi.fn(),
+    select: vi.fn(),
+    selectDistinct: vi.fn(),
+    selectDistinctOn: vi.fn(),
+    transaction: vi.fn(),
+    update: vi.fn(),
+  }) as unknown as ModuleDatabase;
+  return Object.freeze({ database });
+}
+
+function expectDatabaseFakeUntouched(services: ModuleRuntimeServices): void {
+  expect(vi.mocked(services.database.select)).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  expect(vi.mocked(services.database.selectDistinct)).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  expect(vi.mocked(services.database.selectDistinctOn)).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  expect(vi.mocked(services.database.insert)).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  expect(vi.mocked(services.database.update)).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  expect(vi.mocked(services.database.delete)).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  expect(vi.mocked(services.database.execute)).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  expect(vi.mocked(services.database.transaction)).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+}
+
 function buildModuleApp(options: {
   readonly evaluator?: AuthorizationEvaluator;
   readonly registry: PermissionRegistry;
   readonly routes: readonly RegisteredModuleHttpRoute[];
   readonly runtime?: EkklesiaIdentityRuntime;
+  readonly services?: ModuleRuntimeServices;
   readonly trustedOrigins?: readonly string[];
 }) {
   const evaluator = options.evaluator ?? {
     authorize: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ allowed: true }),
   };
   const runtime = options.runtime ?? fakeRuntime();
+  const services = options.services ?? fakeModuleServices();
   const app = createApiApp({
     authorization: { evaluator, registry: options.registry, store: fakeStore() },
     moduleRoutes: options.routes,
+    moduleServices: services,
     runtime,
     trustedOrigins: options.trustedOrigins ?? [trustedOrigin],
   });
-  return { app, evaluator, runtime };
+  return { app, evaluator, runtime, services };
 }
 
 function permissionRegistry(
@@ -262,6 +296,7 @@ describe("module route handler adaptation", () => {
     const runtime = fakeRuntime({
       resolvePrincipal: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(createAuthenticatedPrincipal("user_1")),
     });
+    const services = fakeModuleServices();
     const { app } = buildModuleApp({
       registry: permissionRegistry([{ id: readPermission, baseline: "public" }]),
       routes: [
@@ -274,6 +309,7 @@ describe("module route handler adaptation", () => {
         }),
       ],
       runtime,
+      services,
     });
 
     const response = await app.request("/api/v1/modules/calendar/events/evt-1/rsvp?notify=true", {
@@ -288,13 +324,25 @@ describe("module route handler adaptation", () => {
     expect(body.url).toContain("/api/v1/modules/calendar/events/evt-1/rsvp?notify=true");
     expect(capturedRequest).toBeInstanceOf(Request);
     expect(capturedRequest?.headers.get("x-custom")).toBe("abc");
-    expect(capturedContext).toEqual({
+    // Exactly moduleId, params, principal, services — never a Hono Context, authorization store,
+    // or configuration reaches a module handler.
+    expect(Object.keys(capturedContext ?? {}).sort()).toEqual([
+      "moduleId",
+      "params",
+      "principal",
+      "services",
+    ]);
+    expect(capturedContext).toMatchObject({
       moduleId: "calendar",
       params: { eventId: "evt-1" },
       principal: { kind: "authenticated", userId: "user_1" },
     });
+    // Reference-identical to the exact services object the caller passed in — never a fresh one
+    // built per request.
+    expect(capturedContext?.services).toBe(services);
     expect(Object.isFrozen(capturedContext)).toBe(true);
     expect(Object.isFrozen(capturedContext?.params)).toBe(true);
+    expect(Object.isFrozen(capturedContext?.services)).toBe(true);
   });
 
   it("gives static and root routes a frozen, empty params object", async () => {
@@ -394,12 +442,12 @@ describe("module route authorization", () => {
     );
   });
 
-  it("does not invoke the handler when authorization denies", async () => {
+  it("does not invoke the handler or touch the module database when authorization denies", async () => {
     const handler = vi.fn<ModuleRouteHandler>(async () => Response.json({ ok: true }));
     const evaluator: AuthorizationEvaluator = {
       authorize: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ allowed: false }),
     };
-    const { app } = buildModuleApp({
+    const { app, services } = buildModuleApp({
       evaluator,
       registry: permissionRegistry([{ id: readPermission, baseline: "restricted" }]),
       routes: [
@@ -417,6 +465,7 @@ describe("module route authorization", () => {
     expect(response.status).toBe(403);
     expect(await response.json()).toEqual({ code: "AUTHORIZATION_DENIED" });
     expect(handler).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expectDatabaseFakeUntouched(services);
   });
 
   it("does not invoke the handler when principal resolution fails", async () => {
@@ -518,7 +567,7 @@ describe("module route trusted-origin enforcement", () => {
       authorize: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ allowed: true }),
     };
     const methods = ["POST", "PUT", "PATCH", "DELETE"] as const;
-    const { app } = buildModuleApp({
+    const { app, services } = buildModuleApp({
       evaluator,
       registry: permissionRegistry([{ id: writePermission, baseline: "public" }]),
       routes: methods.map((method) =>
@@ -545,6 +594,7 @@ describe("module route trusted-origin enforcement", () => {
     }
     expect(handler).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
     expect(evaluator.authorize).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expectDatabaseFakeUntouched(services);
   });
 
   it("allows a trusted-origin state-changing request through to the handler", async () => {
@@ -647,12 +697,12 @@ describe("module route CORS", () => {
     expect(tokens.filter((token) => token.toLowerCase() === "origin")).toHaveLength(1);
   });
 
-  it("never invokes authorization or the handler for an OPTIONS preflight", async () => {
+  it("never invokes authorization, the handler, or the module database for an OPTIONS preflight", async () => {
     const handler = vi.fn<ModuleRouteHandler>(async () => Response.json({ ok: true }));
     const evaluator: AuthorizationEvaluator = {
       authorize: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ allowed: true }),
     };
-    const { app } = buildModuleApp({
+    const { app, services } = buildModuleApp({
       evaluator,
       registry: permissionRegistry([{ id: writePermission, baseline: "public" }]),
       routes: [
@@ -673,6 +723,7 @@ describe("module route CORS", () => {
 
     expect(handler).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
     expect(evaluator.authorize).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expectDatabaseFakeUntouched(services);
   });
 
   it("never reflects an untrusted origin for a module route", async () => {

core/src/modules/database.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+import type { ModuleDatabase } from "@ekklesia/contracts";
+import { drizzle } from "drizzle-orm/node-postgres";
+import type { Pool } from "pg";
+
+/**
+ * A typed `ModuleDatabase` view over an externally owned pool — the module-facing counterpart to
+ * `createIdentityDrizzleView` (`core/src/identity/database.ts`) and
+ * `createAuthorizationDrizzleView` (`core/src/authorization/database.ts`): the same "one pool, one
+ * typed view per domain" composition, extended to a third domain. Never constructs, registers an
+ * error listener on, or closes a pool itself — the caller (`apps/api/src/database.ts`) retains that
+ * responsibility exactly once, regardless of how many typed views it creates over the same pool.
+ *
+ * Carries no schema, unlike the identity and authorization views: a module brings its own Drizzle
+ * table objects to each call rather than selecting against a schema this facade would otherwise
+ * have to know about, so there is no `TFullSchema` for `drizzle(...)` to accept here. Building this
+ * view performs no query and no migration — `drizzle(pool)` only wraps the given client, the same
+ * synchronous, I/O-free construction `createIdentityDrizzleView`/`createAuthorizationDrizzleView`
+ * already rely on.
+ *
+ * Deliberately returns a fresh object with each operation explicitly bound to the underlying
+ * Drizzle instance, rather than the `drizzle(pool)` instance itself: Drizzle's own query methods
+ * are plain prototype methods that read `this.session`/`this.dialect` internally (not
+ * arrow-function instance properties), so handing that instance straight to a module would both
+ * break the moment a module destructured a method off it (`const { select } = database` loses
+ * `this`) and, more importantly, would leave every non-public property (`$client`, `_`, `query`,
+ * `$cache`, `with`) physically reachable on the object at runtime — reachable to a module written
+ * in plain JavaScript or one that bypasses the `ModuleDatabase` type with a cast, not just hidden
+ * by TypeScript. Building this literal, `Object.freeze`d object closes both gaps: only the eight
+ * intended operations exist on it at all, each correctly bound, and nothing else does.
+ */
+export function createModuleDatabaseView(pool: Pool): ModuleDatabase {
+  const db = drizzle(pool);
+  return Object.freeze({
+    delete: db.delete.bind(db),
+    execute: db.execute.bind(db),
+    insert: db.insert.bind(db),
+    select: db.select.bind(db),
+    selectDistinct: db.selectDistinct.bind(db),
+    selectDistinctOn: db.selectDistinctOn.bind(db),
+    transaction: db.transaction.bind(db),
+    update: db.update.bind(db),
+  });
+}

core/src/modules/index.ts

@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+export * from "./database.js";
 export * from "./discovery.js";
 export * from "./migration-discovery.js";
 export * from "./permissions.js";

core/src/modules/runtime.ts

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import {
   type ModuleRouteDefinitionInput,
   type ModuleRuntimeContext,
   type ModuleRuntimeDefinition,
+  type ModuleRuntimeServices,
   moduleRouteShapeKey,
   parseModuleRuntimeDefinition,
   type RegisteredCapability,
@@ -70,7 +71,12 @@ export interface StartedModuleRuntime {
   stop(): Promise<void>;
 }
 
-export interface StartModuleRuntimeOptions extends ModuleDiscoveryOptions {}
+export interface StartModuleRuntimeOptions extends ModuleDiscoveryOptions {
+  /** The same frozen services object every started module's `start`/`stop` hooks and (once
+   * `apps/api` mounts routes) HTTP handlers receive for this runtime — a required production
+   * dependency, never an optional test-only global. See `ModuleRuntimeServices`. */
+  readonly services: ModuleRuntimeServices;
+}
 
 interface LoadedModule {
   readonly definition: ModuleRuntimeDefinition;
@@ -201,6 +207,7 @@ class StagedCapabilityRegistry {
   createRuntimeContext(
     module: DiscoveredModule,
     phase: "rollback" | "start" | "stop",
+    services: ModuleRuntimeServices,
   ): ModuleRuntimeContext {
     const capabilities: CapabilityResolver = Object.freeze({
       resolve: (capabilityId: CapabilityId): RegisteredCapability | undefined => {
@@ -208,7 +215,7 @@ class StagedCapabilityRegistry {
         return this.#registered.get(capabilityId);
       },
     });
-    return Object.freeze({ capabilities, moduleId: module.manifest.id });
+    return Object.freeze({ capabilities, moduleId: module.manifest.id, services });
   }
 
   publish(): CapabilityRegistry {
@@ -466,11 +473,14 @@ async function stopModules(
   modules: readonly LoadedModule[],
   registry: StagedCapabilityRegistry,
   phase: "rollback" | "stop",
+  services: ModuleRuntimeServices,
 ): Promise<readonly ModuleRuntimeIssue[]> {
   const issues: ModuleRuntimeIssue[] = [];
   for (const module of [...modules].reverse()) {
     try {
-      await module.definition.stop?.(registry.createRuntimeContext(module.discovered, phase));
+      await module.definition.stop?.(
+        registry.createRuntimeContext(module.discovered, phase, services),
+      );
     } catch (error) {
       if (error instanceof ModuleRuntimeSignal) {
         issues.push(error.issue);
@@ -492,11 +502,14 @@ async function stopModules(
 async function startModules(
   modules: readonly LoadedModule[],
   registry: StagedCapabilityRegistry,
+  services: ModuleRuntimeServices,
 ): Promise<void> {
   const started: LoadedModule[] = [];
   for (const module of modules) {
     try {
-      await module.definition.start?.(registry.createRuntimeContext(module.discovered, "start"));
+      await module.definition.start?.(
+        registry.createRuntimeContext(module.discovered, "start", services),
+      );
       started.push(module);
     } catch (error) {
       const startIssue =
@@ -508,7 +521,7 @@ async function startModules(
               module.discovered.manifest.id,
               `Module ${module.discovered.manifest.id} startup failed.`,
             );
-      const rollbackIssues = await stopModules(started, registry, "rollback");
+      const rollbackIssues = await stopModules(started, registry, "rollback", services);
       throw new ModuleRuntimeError([startIssue, ...rollbackIssues]);
     }
   }
@@ -524,12 +537,13 @@ async function startModules(
  */
 export async function startDiscoveredModuleRuntime(
   discoveredModules: readonly DiscoveredModule[],
+  services: ModuleRuntimeServices,
 ): Promise<StartedModuleRuntime> {
   const modules = await loadRuntimeDefinitions(discoveredModules);
   const capabilityRegistry = new StagedCapabilityRegistry();
   const httpRoutes = new StagedModuleHttpRoutes();
   await registerModules(modules, capabilityRegistry, httpRoutes);
-  await startModules(modules, capabilityRegistry);
+  await startModules(modules, capabilityRegistry, services);
 
   const capabilities = capabilityRegistry.publish();
   const routes = httpRoutes.publish();
@@ -549,7 +563,7 @@ export async function startDiscoveredModuleRuntime(
     routes,
     stop: (): Promise<void> => {
       stopPromise ??= (async () => {
-        const issues = await stopModules(modules, capabilityRegistry, "stop");
+        const issues = await stopModules(modules, capabilityRegistry, "stop", services);
         if (issues.length > 0) {
           throw new ModuleRuntimeError(issues);
         }
@@ -563,5 +577,5 @@ export async function startModuleRuntime(
   options: StartModuleRuntimeOptions,
 ): Promise<StartedModuleRuntime> {
   const discovered = await discoverModules(options);
-  return startDiscoveredModuleRuntime(discovered);
+  return startDiscoveredModuleRuntime(discovered, options.services);
 }

core/tests/fixtures/module-database-integration/db-facade/drizzle/0000_initial.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+CREATE TABLE "db_facade_records" (
+	"id" uuid PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
+	"value" text NOT NULL
+);

core/tests/fixtures/module-database-integration/db-facade/drizzle/meta/0000_snapshot.json

@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+{
+  "id": "8764dbfb-a411-4727-a382-530e4cdf3a2c",
+  "prevId": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
+  "version": "7",
+  "dialect": "postgresql",
+  "tables": {
+    "public.db_facade_records": {
+      "name": "db_facade_records",
+      "schema": "",
+      "columns": {
+        "id": {
+          "name": "id",
+          "type": "uuid",
+          "primaryKey": true,
+          "notNull": true
+        },
+        "value": {
+          "name": "value",
+          "type": "text",
+          "primaryKey": false,
+          "notNull": true
+        }
+      },
+      "indexes": {},
+      "foreignKeys": {},
+      "compositePrimaryKeys": {},
+      "uniqueConstraints": {},
+      "policies": {},
+      "checkConstraints": {},
+      "isRLSEnabled": false
+    }
+  },
+  "enums": {},
+  "schemas": {},
+  "sequences": {},
+  "roles": {},
+  "policies": {},
+  "views": {},
+  "_meta": {
+    "columns": {},
+    "schemas": {},
+    "tables": {}
+  }
+}

core/tests/fixtures/module-database-integration/db-facade/drizzle/meta/_ekklesia.json

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+{
+  "version": 1,
+  "moduleId": "db-facade",
+  "entries": [
+    {
+      "tag": "0000_initial",
+      "destructive": {
+        "mode": "none"
+      }
+    }
+  ]
+}

core/tests/fixtures/module-database-integration/db-facade/drizzle/meta/_journal.json

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+{
+  "version": "7",
+  "dialect": "postgresql",
+  "entries": [
+    {
+      "idx": 0,
+      "version": "7",
+      "when": 1700000000000,
+      "tag": "0000_initial",
+      "breakpoints": true
+    }
+  ]
+}

core/tests/fixtures/module-database-integration/db-facade/ekklesia.module.json

@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+{
+  "manifestVersion": 3,
+  "id": "db-facade",
+  "name": "Database Facade Integration Test Module",
+  "description": "Test-only installed module fixture proving ModuleDatabase against real PostgreSQL. Never discovered by production startup, Doctor, or normal migration aggregation — only apps/api/tests/module-database.integration.ts points discovery at it explicitly.",
+  "version": "0.1.0",
+  "compatibility": {
+    "platform": "^0.1.0",
+    "moduleSdk": "^0.1.0"
+  },
+  "permissions": [
+    {
+      "id": "db-facade.records.read",
+      "baseline": "public",
+      "description": "Read database facade test records."
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "db-facade.records.write",
+      "baseline": "authenticated",
+      "description": "Write database facade test records."
+    }
+  ],
+  "entrypoints": {
+    "server": "./server/index.js",
+    "schema": "./schema/index.js",
+    "migrations": "./drizzle"
+  }
+}

core/tests/fixtures/module-database-integration/db-facade/package.json

@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+{
+  "name": "@test/module-db-facade",
+  "version": "0.1.0",
+  "type": "module",
+  "private": true,
+  "ekklesia": {
+    "layer": "module"
+  }
+}

core/tests/fixtures/module-database-integration/db-facade/schema/index.js

@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+import { moduleTableName } from "@ekklesia/contracts";
+import { pgTableCreator, text, uuid } from "drizzle-orm/pg-core";
+
+const moduleTable = pgTableCreator((localName) => moduleTableName("db-facade", localName));
+
+export const records = moduleTable("records", {
+  id: uuid("id").primaryKey(),
+  value: text("value").notNull(),
+});
+
+export default {
+  moduleId: "db-facade",
+  tables: { records },
+};

core/tests/fixtures/module-database-integration/db-facade/server/index.js

@@ -0,0 +1,211 @@
+import { eq, sql } from "drizzle-orm";
+import { records } from "../schema/index.js";
+
+// A fixed (not per-run-random) globalThis symbol key: this fixture is a static, committed file
+// (not a per-test generated template string), so it cannot bake a unique key into itself the way
+// every other dynamically-written fixture in this codebase does. A fixed key is safe here because
+// the PostgreSQL integration suite never runs its files in parallel (`fileParallelism: false`,
+// `vitest.migrations.integration.config.ts`), so there is never more than one active recorder at a
+// time. The test file resets this array immediately before each scenario and deletes the property
+// during cleanup.
+const RECORDER_KEY = "ekklesia.integration.db-facade.recorder";
+
+// A fixed row id `start()` writes and `stop()` later updates, so both the integration test and the
+// module's own HTTP handlers can address the exact same row deterministically, without needing a
+// side channel to learn a generated id.
+export const STARTUP_RECORD_ID = "11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111";
+
+function recordEvent(event) {
+  const globalValues = globalThis;
+  if (!Array.isArray(globalValues[RECORDER_KEY])) {
+    globalValues[RECORDER_KEY] = [];
+  }
+  globalValues[RECORDER_KEY].push(event);
+}
+
+export default {
+  id: "db-facade",
+  version: "0.1.0",
+
+  register({ http }) {
+    // Registration is declarative and database-free: there is no `services` field on this
+    // context at all (see `ModuleRegistrationContext`), so `context.services` reads as
+    // `undefined` here — recorded for the integration test to assert on directly.
+    recordEvent({ services: undefined, type: "register" });
+
+    http.route({
+      method: "GET",
+      path: "/records/:id",
+      permission: "db-facade.records.read",
+      async handler(_request, context) {
+        recordEvent({
+          contextKeys: Object.keys(context).sort(),
+          services: context.services,
+          type: "handler",
+          route: "GET /records/:id",
+        });
+        const [row] = await context.services.database
+          .select({ id: records.id, value: records.value })
+          .from(records)
+          .where(eq(records.id, context.params.id));
+        if (!row) {
+          return Response.json({ code: "RECORD_NOT_FOUND" }, { status: 404 });
+        }
+        return Response.json(row, { status: 200 });
+      },
+    });
+
+    http.route({
+      method: "GET",
+      path: "/records-count",
+      // Deliberately the "write" (authenticated) permission, not "read" (public) — this is the
+      // fixture's one authenticated-baseline GET route, used to prove HEAD cannot bypass
+      // authorization the way it could if HEAD skipped the same middleware chain GET uses.
+      permission: "db-facade.records.write",
+      async handler(_request, context) {
+        recordEvent({
+          contextKeys: Object.keys(context).sort(),
+          services: context.services,
+          type: "handler",
+          route: "GET /records-count",
+        });
+        const result = await context.services.database.execute(
+          sql`select count(*)::int as count from ${records}`,
+        );
+        const row = Array.isArray(result) ? result[0] : result.rows?.[0];
+        return Response.json({ count: row?.count ?? 0 }, { status: 200 });
+      },
+    });
+
+    http.route({
+      method: "POST",
+      path: "/records",
+      permission: "db-facade.records.write",
+      async handler(request, context) {
+        recordEvent({
+          contextKeys: Object.keys(context).sort(),
+          services: context.services,
+          type: "handler",
+          route: "POST /records",
+        });
+        const { id, value } = await request.json();
+        await context.services.database.insert(records).values({ id, value });
+        return Response.json({ id, value }, { status: 201 });
+      },
+    });
+
+    http.route({
+      method: "PATCH",
+      path: "/records/:id",
+      permission: "db-facade.records.write",
+      async handler(request, context) {
+        recordEvent({
+          contextKeys: Object.keys(context).sort(),
+          services: context.services,
+          type: "handler",
+          route: "PATCH /records/:id",
+        });
+        const { value } = await request.json();
+        const updated = await context.services.database
+          .update(records)
+          .set({ value })
+          .where(eq(records.id, context.params.id))
+          .returning({ id: records.id, value: records.value });
+        if (updated.length === 0) {
+          return Response.json({ code: "RECORD_NOT_FOUND" }, { status: 404 });
+        }
+        return Response.json(updated[0], { status: 200 });
+      },
+    });
+
+    http.route({
+      method: "POST",
+      path: "/records/transactional",
+      permission: "db-facade.records.write",
+      async handler(request, context) {
+        recordEvent({
+          contextKeys: Object.keys(context).sort(),
+          services: context.services,
+          type: "handler",
+          route: "POST /records/transactional",
+        });
+        const { id, value, conflictId } = await request.json();
+        try {
+          await context.services.database.transaction(async (tx) => {
+            await tx.insert(records).values({ id, value });
+            if (conflictId) {
+              // The same primary key inserted twice inside one transaction: PostgreSQL rejects
+              // the second insert with a unique-violation, and the whole transaction — including
+              // the first, otherwise-valid insert above — must roll back atomically.
+              await tx.insert(records).values({ id: conflictId, value: "conflict" });
+              await tx.insert(records).values({ id: conflictId, value: "conflict-again" });
+            }
+          });
+          return Response.json({ committed: true }, { status: 201 });
+        } catch {
+          return Response.json({ committed: false }, { status: 409 });
+        }
+      },
+    });
+
+    http.route({
+      method: "GET",
+      path: "/boom",
+      permission: "db-facade.records.read",
+      async handler(_request, context) {
+        recordEvent({
+          contextKeys: Object.keys(context).sort(),
+          services: context.services,
+          type: "handler",
+          route: "GET /boom",
+        });
+        // Deliberately uncaught: a real PostgreSQL error (division by zero) must escape this
+        // handler so the platform's own sanitization boundary is exercised end to end.
+        await context.services.database.execute(sql`select 1/0`);
+        return Response.json({ unreachable: true });
+      },
+    });
+
+    http.route({
+      method: "GET",
+      path: "/safe-boom",
+      permission: "db-facade.records.read",
+      async handler(_request, context) {
+        recordEvent({
+          contextKeys: Object.keys(context).sort(),
+          services: context.services,
+          type: "handler",
+          route: "GET /safe-boom",
+        });
+        try {
+          await context.services.database.execute(sql`select 1/0`);
+          return Response.json({ unreachable: true });
+        } catch {
+          // A module deliberately catching its own database failure and returning a valid,
+          // sanitized response of its own choosing — the platform must preserve this untouched.
+          return Response.json({ code: "BOOM_HANDLED" }, { status: 409 });
+        }
+      },
+    });
+  },
+
+  async start(context) {
+    recordEvent({ services: context.services, type: "start" });
+    // `onConflictDoNothing` makes repeated startups against an already-started database safe —
+    // a real module's own idempotency choice, not a platform requirement — so a test can start
+    // the same migrated database more than once without `start()` itself failing on the fixed
+    // `STARTUP_RECORD_ID` row a previous run already inserted.
+    await context.services.database
+      .insert(records)
+      .values({ id: STARTUP_RECORD_ID, value: "startup-value" })
+      .onConflictDoNothing();
+  },
+
+  async stop(context) {
+    recordEvent({ services: context.services, type: "stop" });
+    await context.services.database
+      .update(records)
+      .set({ value: "stopped-by-shutdown" })
+      .where(eq(records.id, STARTUP_RECORD_ID));
+  },
+};

core/tests/module-database.test.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+import { integer, pgTable, text } from "drizzle-orm/pg-core";
+import type { Pool } from "pg";
+import { describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
+import { createModuleDatabaseView } from "../src/modules/database.js";
+
+const testTable = pgTable("core_module_database_test", {
+  id: integer("id").primaryKey(),
+  name: text("name").notNull(),
+});
+
+function fakePool(): Pool {
+  return {
+    connect: vi.fn(),
+    end: vi.fn(),
+    on: vi.fn(),
+    query: vi.fn(),
+  } as unknown as Pool;
+}
+
+describe("createModuleDatabaseView", () => {
+  it("wraps an externally owned pool without constructing, connecting to, registering an error listener on, or closing one itself", () => {
+    const pool = fakePool();
+
+    const database = createModuleDatabaseView(pool);
+
+    expect(database).toBeDefined();
+    expect(vi.mocked(pool.connect)).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(vi.mocked(pool.end)).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(vi.mocked(pool.on)).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(vi.mocked(pool.query)).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
+  it("exposes exactly the intended query surface, frozen, with no raw pool/client/session/dialect escape hatch", () => {
+    const database = createModuleDatabaseView(fakePool());
+
+    expect(Object.keys(database).sort()).toEqual([
+      "delete",
+      "execute",
+      "insert",
+      "select",
+      "selectDistinct",
+      "selectDistinctOn",
+      "transaction",
+      "update",
+    ]);
+    expect(Object.isFrozen(database)).toBe(true);
+    for (const forbidden of ["$client", "_", "query", "session", "dialect", "pool", "with"]) {
+      expect(forbidden in database).toBe(false);
+    }
+  });
+
+  it("keeps every forwarded operation correctly bound to its underlying Drizzle instance, even when destructured off the facade", async () => {
+    const database = createModuleDatabaseView(fakePool());
+    const {
+      select,
+      selectDistinct,
+      selectDistinctOn,
+      insert,
+      update,
+      delete: remove,
+      execute,
+      transaction,
+    } = database;
+
+    // Each of these synchronously builds a query object from `this.session`/`this.dialect` without
+    // performing I/O — if the forwarded method lost its `this` binding when destructured (a real JS
+    // pitfall for plain prototype methods), the very first property access inside would throw.
+    expect(() => select()).not.toThrow();
+    expect(() => selectDistinct()).not.toThrow();
+    expect(() => selectDistinctOn([testTable.name])).not.toThrow();
+    expect(() => insert(testTable)).not.toThrow();
+    expect(() => update(testTable)).not.toThrow();
+    expect(() => remove(testTable)).not.toThrow();
+    expect(() => execute("select 1")).not.toThrow();
+
+    let transactionResult: unknown;
+    expect(() => {
+      transactionResult = transaction(async () => undefined);
+    }).not.toThrow();
+    expect(transactionResult).toBeInstanceOf(Promise);
+    // The fake pool cannot complete a real transaction; only the synchronous binding matters here.
+    await Promise.resolve(transactionResult).catch(() => undefined);
+  });
+
+  it("never constructs a second pool — the given pool instance is the only one ever touched", () => {
+    const pool = fakePool();
+
+    createModuleDatabaseView(pool);
+    createModuleDatabaseView(pool);
+
+    // Two views built from the same pool never allocate a new connection — there is nothing on
+    // `pool` for either call to have invoked at all (see the construction test above), so calling
+    // this twice is itself the proof that no per-call pool allocation ever happens.
+    expect(vi.mocked(pool.connect)).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+});

core/tests/module-runtime.test.ts

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import { mkdir, mkdtemp, rm, writeFile } from "node:fs/promises";
 import { tmpdir } from "node:os";
 import path from "node:path";
+import type { ModuleDatabase, ModuleRuntimeServices } from "@ekklesia/contracts";
 import { afterEach, describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
 import { discoverModules } from "../src/modules/discovery.js";
 import {
@@ -108,11 +109,50 @@ function createEventRecorder(): { events: string[]; expression: string } {
   };
 }
 
-function runtimeOptions(modulesDirectory: string) {
+/** Same globalThis-symbol technique as `createEventRecorder`, but for capturing an actual object
+ * reference (such as `context.services`) pushed from inside a dynamically imported fixture module,
+ * rather than a string label — dynamic `import()` of a file:// URL still shares this process's
+ * heap, so a reference pushed from the fixture and read back here is the exact same object. */
+function createReferenceRecorder(): { values: unknown[]; expression: string } {
+  const key = `ekklesia.runtime.test.ref.${eventSymbols.length}.${Date.now()}.${Math.random()}`;
+  const symbol = Symbol.for(key);
+  const values: unknown[] = [];
+  (globalThis as unknown as Record<PropertyKey, unknown>)[symbol] = values;
+  eventSymbols.push(symbol);
+  return {
+    values,
+    expression: `globalThis[Symbol.for(${JSON.stringify(key)})]`,
+  };
+}
+
+/** A small typed fake `ModuleDatabase` — no PostgreSQL required for these unit tests, which only
+ * ever assert on context wiring and object identity, never on actual query behavior. */
+function fakeModuleDatabase(): ModuleDatabase {
+  return Object.freeze({
+    delete: vi.fn(),
+    execute: vi.fn(),
+    insert: vi.fn(),
+    select: vi.fn(),
+    selectDistinct: vi.fn(),
+    selectDistinctOn: vi.fn(),
+    transaction: vi.fn(),
+    update: vi.fn(),
+  }) as unknown as ModuleDatabase;
+}
+
+function fakeModuleRuntimeServices(): ModuleRuntimeServices {
+  return Object.freeze({ database: fakeModuleDatabase() });
+}
+
+function runtimeOptions(
+  modulesDirectory: string,
+  services: ModuleRuntimeServices = fakeModuleRuntimeServices(),
+) {
   return {
     moduleSdkVersion: "0.1.0",
     modulesDirectory,
     platformVersion: "0.1.0",
+    services,
   };
 }
 
@@ -822,7 +862,7 @@ describe("already-discovered module runtime", () => {
     const discovered = await discoverModules(runtimeOptions(modulesDirectory));
     expect(discoverModules).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
 
-    const runtime = await startDiscoveredModuleRuntime(discovered);
+    const runtime = await startDiscoveredModuleRuntime(discovered, fakeModuleRuntimeServices());
     expect(discoverModules).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
     expect(runtime.modules.map((module) => module.id)).toEqual(["already-discovered"]);
     await runtime.stop();
@@ -840,7 +880,10 @@ describe("already-discovered module runtime", () => {
     const discovered = await discoverModules(runtimeOptions(modulesDirectory));
     expect(discovered.map((module) => module.manifest.id)).toEqual(["first", "second"]);
 
-    const runtime = await startDiscoveredModuleRuntime([...discovered].reverse());
+    const runtime = await startDiscoveredModuleRuntime(
+      [...discovered].reverse(),
+      fakeModuleRuntimeServices(),
+    );
     expect(runtime.modules.map((module) => module.id)).toEqual(["second", "first"]);
     await runtime.stop();
   });
@@ -857,3 +900,98 @@ describe("already-discovered module runtime", () => {
     await runtime.stop();
   });
 });
+
+describe("module runtime services", () => {
+  it("never gives register a services field, and gives start and stop the exact same services object", async () => {
+    const modulesDirectory = await createModulesDirectory();
+    const services = fakeModuleRuntimeServices();
+    const registerServices = createReferenceRecorder();
+    const lifecycleServices = createReferenceRecorder();
+    await createRuntimeModule(modulesDirectory, "wired", {
+      serverSource: `export default {
+        id: "wired", version: "0.1.0",
+        register(context) { ${registerServices.expression}.push(context.services); },
+        start(context) { ${lifecycleServices.expression}.push(context.services); },
+        stop(context) { ${lifecycleServices.expression}.push(context.services); }
+      };`,
+    });
+
+    const runtime = await startModuleRuntime(runtimeOptions(modulesDirectory, services));
+    await runtime.stop();
+
+    expect(registerServices.values).toEqual([undefined]);
+    expect(lifecycleServices.values).toHaveLength(2);
+    expect(lifecycleServices.values[0]).toBe(services);
+    expect(lifecycleServices.values[1]).toBe(services);
+  });
+
+  it("shares the exact same services object identity across every module's start hook", async () => {
+    const modulesDirectory = await createModulesDirectory();
+    const services = fakeModuleRuntimeServices();
+    const recorder = createReferenceRecorder();
+    await createRuntimeModule(modulesDirectory, "alpha", {
+      serverSource: `export default {
+        id: "alpha", version: "0.1.0",
+        start(context) { ${recorder.expression}.push(context.services); }
+      };`,
+    });
+    await createRuntimeModule(modulesDirectory, "beta", {
+      manifest: manifestFor("beta", {
+        dependencies: { modules: { required: { alpha: "^0.1.0" } } },
+      }),
+      serverSource: `export default {
+        id: "beta", version: "0.1.0",
+        start(context) { ${recorder.expression}.push(context.services); }
+      };`,
+    });
+
+    const runtime = await startModuleRuntime(runtimeOptions(modulesDirectory, services));
+
+    expect(recorder.values).toEqual([services, services]);
+    await runtime.stop();
+  });
+
+  it("gives a rollback stop hook the same services object a start failure left available", async () => {
+    const modulesDirectory = await createModulesDirectory();
+    const services = fakeModuleRuntimeServices();
+    const recorder = createReferenceRecorder();
+    await createRuntimeModule(modulesDirectory, "started", {
+      serverSource: `export default {
+        id: "started", version: "0.1.0",
+        start(context) { ${recorder.expression}.push(context.services); },
+        stop(context) { ${recorder.expression}.push(context.services); }
+      };`,
+    });
+    await createRuntimeModule(modulesDirectory, "failing", {
+      manifest: manifestFor("failing", {
+        dependencies: { modules: { required: { started: "^0.1.0" } } },
+      }),
+      serverSource: `export default {
+        id: "failing", version: "0.1.0",
+        start() { throw new Error("boom"); }
+      };`,
+    });
+
+    await expect(
+      startModuleRuntime(runtimeOptions(modulesDirectory, services)),
+    ).rejects.toBeInstanceOf(ModuleRuntimeError);
+
+    expect(recorder.values).toEqual([services, services]);
+  });
+
+  it("starts and stops a zero-module runtime without ever touching the provided services", async () => {
+    const modulesDirectory = await createModulesDirectory();
+    const services = fakeModuleRuntimeServices();
+
+    const runtime = await startModuleRuntime(runtimeOptions(modulesDirectory, services));
+    await runtime.stop();
+
+    expect(runtime.modules).toEqual([]);
+    expect(vi.mocked(services.database.select)).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(vi.mocked(services.database.insert)).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(vi.mocked(services.database.update)).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(vi.mocked(services.database.delete)).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(vi.mocked(services.database.execute)).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(vi.mocked(services.database.transaction)).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+});

docs/architecture/decisions/0006-versioned-capabilities-and-compiled-module-runtime.md

@@ -28,14 +28,16 @@ registry, which conflicts with install-by-cloning discovery.
 > ordering — remains accepted and unchanged. This section is left as originally accepted, as the
 > historical record of the manifest's prior shape.
 
-> **Cross-reference — see [ADR 0015](0015-static-module-http-routing-and-runtime-lifecycle.md).**
+> **Cross-reference — see [ADR 0015](0015-static-module-http-routing-and-runtime-lifecycle.md) and
+> [ADR 0016](0016-module-database-access.md).**
 > "HTTP routing... remain[s] outside this slice" (Consequences, below) and "The injected contexts
 > contain only the module ID and a capability registrar or resolver" (this section, below) described
 > this ADR's own scope accurately at the time. ADR 0015 implements module HTTP routing: it extends
-> `ModuleRegistrationContext` (the `register`-only context) with an `http` route registrar, while
-> `ModuleRuntimeContext` (the `start`/`stop` context this sentence also describes) remains exactly as
-> limited to module ID and capability access as originally decided here. Every other statement in
-> this ADR remains accepted and unchanged.
+> `ModuleRegistrationContext` (the `register`-only context) with an `http` route registrar. ADR 0016
+> further extends `ModuleRuntimeContext` (the `start`/`stop` context this sentence also describes)
+> with a `services` field carrying the module database facade — `ModuleRegistrationContext` itself
+> gains no such field and remains exactly as database-free as originally decided here. Every other
+> statement in this ADR remains accepted and unchanged.
 
 `ekklesia.module.json` remains the one canonical static manifest and moves to
 `manifestVersion: 2`. Provided capabilities are declarations containing an identifier and an exact

docs/architecture/decisions/0015-static-module-http-routing-and-runtime-lifecycle.md

@@ -162,6 +162,16 @@ configured trusted origin — never a wildcard, and never anything module-influe
 
 ### A frozen, minimal handler context and sanitized failure boundary
 
+> **Cross-reference — see [ADR 0016](0016-module-database-access.md).**
+> "A frozen context of exactly `moduleId`... and an immutable, Hono-decoded parameter record" and "A
+> handler never receives a Hono `Context`, a database connection... or any other middleware-internal
+> state," below, described the handler context's complete shape accurately at the time. ADR 0016
+> adds a fourth field, `services`, carrying `ModuleRuntimeServices` (currently just a typed
+> `ModuleDatabase` facade) — never a raw database connection, `pg.Pool`, `PoolClient`, connection
+> string, or other infrastructure object. Every other statement in this section remains accepted and
+> unchanged: a handler still never receives a Hono `Context`, the authorization store or evaluator,
+> raw PostgreSQL access, configuration, or secrets.
+
 A handler receives the unmodified Fetch `Request` (`c.req.raw`, so `Request.url`, headers, method,
 body, and a streaming request all behave normally, and the full query string remains available
 without a competing query abstraction) and a frozen context of exactly `moduleId`, the
@@ -276,6 +286,10 @@ runs, since nothing about this design sandboxes it.
 
 ## Deferred
 
+> **Cross-reference — see [ADR 0016](0016-module-database-access.md).**
+> Module database or Drizzle access, listed immediately below as deferred, is now implemented.
+> Every other item in this list remains deferred and unimplemented.
+
 Module database or Drizzle access; module storage access; jobs and workflow/event automation;
 module-owned configuration and secrets services; a `ModuleRuntimeContext` authorization service;
 relationship-derived grant operations; reinstall/reactivation semantics for a permission or route

docs/architecture/decisions/0016-module-database-access.md

@@ -0,0 +1,227 @@
+# 0016: Module database access
+
+- Status: Accepted
+- Date: 2026-07-25
+- Extends: [0006](0006-versioned-capabilities-and-compiled-module-runtime.md) and
+  [0015](0015-static-module-http-routing-and-runtime-lifecycle.md)
+
+## Context
+
+ADR 0007 and ADR 0008 already let a module own a Drizzle schema and a validated, checksummed
+migration; ADR 0009 already applies those migrations transactionally. ADR 0015 let a module mount
+permissioned HTTP routes and receive an authorized principal. None of these gave a module's
+*executable* code — a `start`/`stop` lifecycle hook or a route handler — any supported way to
+actually query or write the tables its own schema declares. A module wanting to persist or read
+product data had no platform-sanctioned path to PostgreSQL at all.
+
+The platform already owns exactly one physical PostgreSQL pool per API runtime
+(`apps/api/src/database.ts`), wrapped in typed Drizzle views for Core's own identity and
+authorization schemas (`createIdentityDrizzleView`, `createAuthorizationDrizzleView`). Handing a
+module that raw pool, a connection string, or an independently constructed Drizzle instance would
+either leak platform connection infrastructure into module code or require a second, competing
+pool — both rejected by the same reasoning ADR 0006 and ADR 0015 already applied to capability
+registration and HTTP routing. This ADR records the third typed view over that one pool, and the
+runtime-services boundary that delivers it to trusted module code without exposing the pool
+itself.
+
+## Decision
+
+### `ModuleDatabase`: a restricted, typed view over `NodePgDatabase`
+
+`packages/contracts/src/module-database.ts` defines `ModuleDatabase` as
+`Pick<NodePgDatabase, "select" | "selectDistinct" | "selectDistinctOn" | "insert" | "update" |
+"delete" | "execute" | "transaction">` — derived from Drizzle's own `node-postgres` database type
+with `Pick`, not hand-declared, so every method keeps Drizzle's own table-aware argument and
+result inference exactly as-is. A module calling `database.select().from(table)` or
+`database.insert(table).values(...)` gets the identical typed builder a direct Drizzle caller
+would; no `any` or `unknown` erasure exists anywhere in the public type. `ModuleDatabase` carries
+no schema generic: a module brings its own Drizzle table objects to each call, so there is no
+global relational-query object spanning every installed module's tables for this type to expose.
+
+The type excludes everything else `NodePgDatabase` or the `drizzle(...)` factory otherwise
+carries: `$client` (the raw `pg` client/pool), `_` (internal session/dialect/schema state),
+`query` (a schema-bound relational query builder), `$cache`, `$count`, `$with`, `with`, and
+`refreshMaterializedView`. There is no connection string, pool, session, or dialect object
+reachable through the type.
+
+### The facade physically closes the same gaps at runtime, not only in the type system
+
+`core/src/modules/database.ts`'s `createModuleDatabaseView(pool)` does not return the
+`drizzle(pool)` instance directly. Drizzle's own query methods are plain prototype methods that
+read `this.session`/`this.dialect` internally, not arrow-function instance properties, so handing
+that instance to a module directly would both break the moment a module destructured a method off
+it (`const { select } = database` loses `this`) and — more importantly — would leave every
+non-public property physically reachable on the object at runtime, reachable to a module written
+in plain JavaScript or one that bypasses the `ModuleDatabase` type with a cast, not merely hidden
+by TypeScript. `createModuleDatabaseView` instead builds a fresh, `Object.freeze`d object with
+each of the eight operations explicitly bound to the underlying Drizzle instance: only those eight
+exist on the object at all, each correctly bound, and nothing else does. Building this view
+performs no query and no migration — `drizzle(pool)` only wraps the given client, synchronously
+and without I/O, the same construction `createIdentityDrizzleView`/`createAuthorizationDrizzleView`
+already rely on. Core never constructs a `pg.Pool` itself; `apps/api/src/database.ts` remains the
+one place that does, and `createModuleDatabaseView` wraps the pool it is given.
+
+### `ModuleRuntimeServices` is the one typed boundary carrying it into trusted module code
+
+`ModuleRuntimeServices` (`packages/contracts/src/module-database.ts`) currently contains exactly
+one field: `database: ModuleDatabase`. It is frozen, and it is never handed to a module's
+`register` hook — `ModuleRegistrationContext` (ADR 0006, extended by ADR 0015 with `http`) gains no
+`services` field at all, so registration remains exactly as declarative and database-free as
+originally decided. `ModuleRuntimeContext` (the shared `start`/`stop` context) and
+`ModuleRouteHandlerContext` (ADR 0015's authorized-handler context, now exactly `moduleId`,
+`principal`, `params`, `services`) both gain a `services` field instead. For a given API runtime,
+`start`, `stop`, and every authorized HTTP handler receive the *same* `ModuleRuntimeServices`
+object — the same object identity, not a fresh one built per hook or per request — so a module
+never needs to stash a database reference in module-global state to share it between lifecycle
+code and its own route handlers; the platform simply provides it directly, every time, to every
+authorized call site.
+
+### One pool, one facade, one services object, per API runtime
+
+`apps/api/src/server.ts`'s `startApi` composes in a fixed order: discover the module inventory once
+and compose the permission registry from it; construct the one runtime `pg.Pool`
+(`createApiDatabase`, wrapping identity, authorization, and module views over it); construct the
+frozen `ModuleRuntimeServices` from that same pool's module view; construct Identity, the
+authorization store, and the evaluator; start the already-discovered module runtime, passing it
+that services object; create the Hono application and mount the started runtime's routes, passing
+the identical services object; bind the HTTP server. `startDiscoveredModuleRuntime` threads the
+same services object into `ModuleRuntimeContext` for every module's `start` and `stop`;
+`mountModuleHttpRoutes` threads the identical object into every authorized handler's
+`ModuleRouteHandlerContext`. No second pool, no second facade, and no second services object is
+ever constructed for one running API. A services/Identity/Authorization construction failure
+closes the one pool and starts no module; a module-runtime failure closes the pool without binding
+a server; an app-construction or bind failure stops the module runtime, then closes the pool —
+matching the cleanup-ordering discipline ADR 0015 already established, now additionally covering
+the services object's own dependencies.
+
+### Shutdown remains drain → stop → close, now load-bearing for in-flight database use
+
+Normal shutdown is unchanged from ADR 0015: drain and close the HTTP listener first, so no new or
+in-flight request can reach a module handler while the module runtime is stopping; stop the module
+runtime next — a module's `stop` hook may still use `services.database`, which is safe because the
+pool has not yet closed; only then close the shared pool, so no module code can run against it
+afterward. This ordering was already correct under ADR 0015; it is now additionally load-bearing,
+because a `stop` hook doing real database work depends on the pool still being open when it runs.
+Shutdown remains memoized — one shared promise every concurrent or later caller awaits — and a
+module-stop failure still does not prevent pool closure, though (unlike a startup-cleanup path) it
+is not swallowed: it remains a genuine result a caller observes.
+
+### Module schemas and migrations are unchanged; the facade is not a migration tool
+
+A module continues to own and import its own Drizzle table definitions (ADR 0007) and its own
+generated, checksummed migration (ADR 0008), applied transactionally and explicitly (ADR 0009).
+`ModuleDatabase` exposes no migration operation, and nothing in the module runtime infers a
+schema, creates a table automatically, or runs a migration as a side effect of module discovery,
+registration, start, or an HTTP request. A module's schema and migration changes still follow the
+existing generation, validation, policy, and deployment flow unchanged; they must be applied,
+exactly as before, before starting module code that depends on the new shape.
+
+## Trust and security boundary
+
+Modules remain trusted, compiled backend plugins — the same trust model ADR 0006 established for
+capability registration and ADR 0015 extended to HTTP handlers. `ModuleDatabase` is a deliberately
+restricted *integration* boundary, not a security sandbox: it exists to keep a module's code
+Drizzle-typed and decoupled from how the platform physically connects to PostgreSQL, not to defend
+against a malicious module, which already runs arbitrary code in this process and could reach
+PostgreSQL through other means regardless of what this facade does or does not expose. It provides
+no tenant isolation, no PostgreSQL-role-level separation between modules, and no runtime
+enforcement that one module's code only ever queries its own tables — table ownership is an
+architectural and migration-policy convention (ADR 0007's naming/prefix rules), not something this
+facade inspects or restricts at the SQL level; `execute` in particular lets a trusted module issue
+arbitrary SQL, exactly as `select`/`insert`/`update`/`delete`/`transaction` already let it construct
+arbitrary queries against any table object it imports. Authorization still fully protects the HTTP
+path into that trusted code: `requirePermission` and, for state-changing methods,
+`requireTrustedOrigin` (ADR 0013, ADR 0015) complete before a handler — and therefore before
+`services.database` is ever reachable — runs. A handler-thrown database error, caught or not,
+remains sanitized by the existing module-handler boundary (ADR 0015): an uncaught failure becomes
+exactly `500 {"code":"MODULE_HANDLER_FAILED"}` with `Cache-Control: no-store` and no SQL,
+PostgreSQL message or code, table/constraint name, stack, connection detail, or filesystem path;
+this ADR introduces no second, database-specific public error contract.
+
+## Consequences
+
+### Positive
+
+- A module can persist and query its own product data with full Drizzle type inference, without
+  ever owning a connection, a pool, or connection configuration.
+- The platform still owns exactly one physical pool and one shutdown lifecycle per API runtime;
+  adding module database access did not require a second one.
+- Lifecycle hooks and HTTP handlers share one consistent services boundary
+  (`ModuleRuntimeServices`), extensible the same deliberate way in the future.
+- Registration remains declarative and side-effect-free, preserving every existing discovery,
+  Doctor, and `modules:validate` guarantee (none of them constructs the facade or executes module
+  code).
+
+### Tradeoffs
+
+- Adding a new Drizzle operation to the module-facing surface requires deliberately extending
+  `ModuleDatabase`'s `Pick`, not merely relying on whatever `NodePgDatabase` happens to expose.
+- A trusted module can still issue arbitrary SQL through `execute`; this facade does not, and does
+  not claim to, prevent that.
+- Table ownership remains a naming/migration-policy convention, not a runtime-enforced sandbox —
+  the same tradeoff ADR 0007 already accepted for schema ownership.
+- Static installation and API-restart requirements are unchanged: a module's database access, like
+  its routes and permissions, only takes effect on the next restart.
+- A module's migration must be applied before starting code that depends on it; the platform does
+  not infer or run it automatically, so an operator error here surfaces as a real database error
+  from the module's own code, sanitized like any other handler failure.
+
+## Rejected alternatives
+
+- **Exposing `pg.Pool` or `$client` directly** was rejected: it would leak platform connection
+  infrastructure into module code and make every module responsible for connection lifecycle the
+  platform already owns correctly.
+- **Supplying `DATABASE_URL` to modules** was rejected for the same reason, plus the operational
+  risk of a module opening its own competing connections outside the platform's one validated pool.
+- **One pool per module** was rejected: it would multiply connection overhead and configuration
+  surface for no isolation benefit this facade does not already provide at the type level, and
+  contradicts the one-pool-per-runtime model ADR 0015 already established.
+- **Letting a module construct its own Drizzle instance** was rejected: it would reintroduce
+  exactly the raw-pool/connection-string exposure this ADR exists to avoid.
+- **Database access during `register`** was rejected: registration remains declarative — the same
+  reasoning ADR 0006 already applied to capability provision — and a database-free registration
+  hook can never have a partially-open connection to clean up if discovery aborts.
+- **Module-global service assignment** (a module stashing `services` in a top-level variable from
+  `start` for its handlers to read later) was rejected as the *documented* pattern: the platform
+  provides the identical object directly to every authorized call site, so no module needs to
+  invent its own storage for it.
+- **Running migrations automatically at startup** was rejected: it would violate the existing,
+  explicit, operator-invoked migration model (ADR 0009) and risk running unreviewed DDL as a
+  side effect of an API restart.
+- **A generic, string-keyed service locator** (`services.get("database")`) was rejected in favor of
+  a fixed, typed `ModuleRuntimeServices` shape: a locator would erase type information at exactly
+  the boundary this ADR exists to keep typed, and would let a module probe for services that do
+  not exist yet.
+- **A global schema/query object spanning every installed module** (Drizzle's own schema-bound
+  `query` relational builder, extended to cover every module) was rejected: it would require the
+  platform to aggregate every module's schema into one object at runtime, reintroducing exactly the
+  cross-module coupling ADR 0007's per-module schema ownership already rejected.
+- **SQL parsing, rewriting, or query interception as a runtime isolation boundary** was rejected:
+  modules are trusted compiled code already capable of running arbitrary queries through `execute`;
+  a parsing layer would be both bypassable and a false promise of a security boundary this facade
+  does not attempt to provide.
+
+## Testing evidence
+
+- Unit coverage (contracts, Module SDK, Core, `apps/api`) proves: the public `ModuleDatabase`
+  surface preserves Drizzle's table-aware inference with no `any`; raw pool/client/session/dialect
+  properties are absent from the type and, separately, from the constructed facade at runtime;
+  every forwarded method remains correctly bound when destructured; `register` receives no
+  services/database field; `start`/`stop` receive the same frozen services object; a module HTTP
+  handler's database is reference-equal to its module's lifecycle database; denied,
+  trusted-origin-rejected, and `OPTIONS` requests never touch the database fake; a zero-module
+  runtime never constructs or touches a database; startup/shutdown cleanup ordering holds under
+  every failure path exercised.
+- A real installed-module PostgreSQL integration fixture (`core/tests/fixtures/
+  module-database-integration/db-facade/`, exercised from `apps/api/tests/
+  module-database.integration.ts`) proves the same guarantees against a real, disposable
+  PostgreSQL database: the module's table does not exist before its migration is explicitly
+  applied; constructing the pool and facade performs no DDL; starting the API never runs or
+  regenerates a migration; a real `start` hook write is visible to a later authorized HTTP read
+  through the identical facade object; a real authorized mutation persists and a later read
+  observes it, gated by permission enforcement and trusted-Origin checking exactly as ADR 0015
+  requires; a real committed transaction persists and a real rollback (a deliberate unique-
+  constraint violation) leaves no partial mutation; a module deliberately catching a real
+  PostgreSQL failure returns its own response untouched, while an uncaught real failure sanitizes
+  to the existing `MODULE_HANDLER_FAILED` boundary with no leaked SQL, error text, or path; a
+  `stop` hook's write completes and is independently observable before the runtime's pool closes.

docs/architecture/decisions/README.md

@@ -24,3 +24,4 @@ ADRs capture durable choices that affect more than one package or phase.
 - [0013: Core authorization, permission registry, and platform-owner bootstrap](0013-core-authorization-and-owner-bootstrap.md) — Accepted
 - [0014: Module permission declarations and platform permission registry](0014-module-permission-declarations-and-platform-registry.md) — Accepted
 - [0015: Static module HTTP routing and production runtime lifecycle](0015-static-module-http-routing-and-runtime-lifecycle.md) — Accepted
+- [0016: Module database access](0016-module-database-access.md) — Accepted

docs/architecture/platform-architecture.md

@@ -95,12 +95,29 @@ identical lowest-privilege baseline status, and signup order never grants elevat
 [ADR 0011](decisions/0011-identity-http-transport-and-public-enrollment.md) and
 [the API guide](../development/api.md), and
 [the identity development guide](../development/identity.md) for the underlying schema and
-contracts. It is now possible to publicly register, sign in, resolve a principal, and sign out; it
-is not yet possible to verify an email, recover a password, reach a Dashboard, or hold any role or
-permission.
+contracts. It is now possible to publicly register, sign in, resolve a principal, and sign out.
 
-The next architectural phase is Phase 4C: Core authorization (public / authenticated-baseline /
-relationship-derived / grants / platform-owner) and an explicit, auditable platform-owner bootstrap
-command. Other target architecture not yet implemented includes production approval-provider
-composition, physical storage-bucket provisioning, Surface SDK, richer public resource and action
-contracts, dashboard, Builder, and reference feature modules.
+Phase 4C is complete: Core's authorization foundation — a schema, evaluator, and store for
+platform owners, explicit grants, and relationship-derived grants, plus an immutable permission
+registry — and an explicit, single-use, auditable platform-owner bootstrap command, plus reusable
+Hono enforcement and an `/api/v1/grants` HTTP API in `apps/api`. See
+[ADR 0013](decisions/0013-core-authorization-and-owner-bootstrap.md) and
+[the authorization guide](../development/authorization.md).
+
+Phase 5A wired module-declared permissions into that same authorization system — a version-3
+manifest, one composed platform permission registry spanning Core's own declarations and every
+installed module's, enforced through the identical middleware Core's own routes use. Phase 5B let a
+module mount its own framework-neutral HTTP routes in production, under
+`/api/v1/modules/<module-id>`, enforced and response-sanitized exactly like Core's own routes. This
+branch completes Phase 5C: typed module database access (`context.services.database`) for a
+module's lifecycle hooks and authorized HTTP handlers, over the platform's one existing PostgreSQL
+pool. See [ADR 0014](decisions/0014-module-permission-declarations-and-platform-registry.md),
+[ADR 0015](decisions/0015-static-module-http-routing-and-runtime-lifecycle.md),
+[ADR 0016](decisions/0016-module-database-access.md), and the repository root
+[README](../../README.md#current-status) for the complete, current status of every phase.
+
+The project continues finishing the module platform's backend foundations before Phase 6 Surface
+work begins. Target architecture not yet implemented includes production approval-provider
+composition, physical storage-bucket provisioning, jobs/workflow automation, richer public resource
+and action contracts, a Dashboard, a Builder, and reference feature modules; none of these are
+scheduled by this document.

docs/development/api.md

@@ -215,11 +215,15 @@ abuse-control design.
    permission registry (Core's own declarations plus every module's) — `prepareStartupModuleInventory`,
    `apps/api/src/platform-permissions.ts`.
 2. Construct the one shared PostgreSQL pool.
-3. Construct the Core identity runtime, authorization store, and evaluator.
-4. Start the module runtime from that exact same discovered inventory
-   (`startDiscoveredModuleRuntime`) — modules are never rediscovered for this step.
-5. Create the Hono application, mounting the started module runtime's published routes.
-6. Bind the HTTP server.
+3. Construct the module database facade and the frozen `ModuleRuntimeServices` object from that same
+   pool (see [Module database access](#module-database-access)).
+4. Construct the Core identity runtime, authorization store, and evaluator.
+5. Start the module runtime from that exact same discovered inventory
+   (`startDiscoveredModuleRuntime`) — modules are never rediscovered for this step — passing it the
+   services object every module's `start`/`stop` hook receives.
+6. Create the Hono application, mounting the started module runtime's published routes and passing
+   the identical services object to every module HTTP handler.
+7. Bind the HTTP server.
 
 Discovery and permission composition happen before any pool, Better Auth instance, module
 entrypoint import, or HTTP server exists, so a discovery or composition failure (an invalid
@@ -257,9 +261,11 @@ are mounted under `/api/v1/modules/<module-id>`, in the module runtime's publish
   (same permission check, response body stripped); a module cannot separately author `HEAD`.
 - **Handler input.** A handler receives the raw Fetch `Request` (so `Request.url`, headers, and
   body all behave normally, and the full query string remains available) plus a frozen context of
-  exactly `moduleId`, the authorized `EkklesiaPrincipal`, and frozen, Hono-decoded path parameters
-  (an empty frozen object for a route with none) — never a Hono `Context`, a database connection,
-  the authorization store, storage, jobs, configuration, or secrets.
+  exactly `moduleId`, the authorized `EkklesiaPrincipal`, frozen, Hono-decoded path parameters (an
+  empty frozen object for a route with none), and `services` — the same frozen
+  `ModuleRuntimeServices` object the module's own `start`/`stop` hooks received (see
+  [Module database access](#module-database-access)) — never a Hono `Context`, the authorization
+  store, storage, jobs, configuration, or secrets.
 - **Handler failure.** A handler that throws, rejects, or returns anything other than a `Response`
   becomes a fixed `500 {"code":"MODULE_HANDLER_FAILED"}` with `Cache-Control: no-store` — never the
   caught value, a stack, the route's path or permission id, or the module id. A `Response` a
@@ -276,6 +282,46 @@ are mounted under `/api/v1/modules/<module-id>`, in the module runtime's publish
   registry: installing, removing, or editing a module's routes takes effect only on the next API
   restart. Removing a module makes its former routes return the ordinary `404 {"code":"NOT_FOUND"}`.
 
+## Module database access
+
+`context.services.database` gives a module's `start`/`stop` lifecycle hooks and every authorized
+HTTP handler a typed Drizzle query surface over its own tables — never during `register`, which
+stays declarative and database-free. See
+[Module development](module-development/README.md#database-access) for the module-authoring
+contract; this section covers only how `apps/api` composes and wires it.
+
+- **`ModuleDatabase`.** A restricted, typed view over `NodePgDatabase`
+  (`packages/contracts/src/module-database.ts`), exposing exactly `select`, `selectDistinct`,
+  `selectDistinctOn`, `insert`, `update`, `delete`, `execute`, and `transaction`, each preserving
+  Drizzle's own table-aware argument and result inference. It exposes no `$client`, no internal
+  session/dialect state, no schema-bound relational `query` builder, and no connection string,
+  pool, or raw `pg` client — not merely hidden by the TypeScript type, but physically absent from
+  the constructed object at runtime (`core/src/modules/database.ts`'s `createModuleDatabaseView`
+  builds a frozen object with each operation explicitly bound, rather than handing out Drizzle's
+  own instance).
+- **One pool, one facade, one services object.** `apps/api/src/database.ts`'s `createApiDatabase`
+  wraps the one shared PostgreSQL pool in three independent typed Drizzle views — identity,
+  authorization, and now `module` (a `ModuleDatabase`). `startApi` builds one frozen
+  `ModuleRuntimeServices` object (currently just `{ database }`) from that pool and passes the
+  *same* object to every module's `start` and `stop` hook and to every module HTTP handler for the
+  lifetime of one running API — never a fresh object per hook or per request, and never a second
+  pool or facade.
+- **No database access without authorization.** A handler's context — and therefore
+  `services.database` — is unreachable until `requirePermission` (and, for a state-changing
+  method, `requireTrustedOrigin`) has already succeeded; a denied request, a rejected-Origin
+  request, and an `OPTIONS` preflight never invoke a module handler at all, so they never touch a
+  module's database.
+- **Errors.** A handler-thrown database error is sanitized through the exact same
+  `MODULE_HANDLER_FAILED` boundary described above — there is no separate, database-specific public
+  error contract. A module that deliberately catches its own database failure may still return any
+  valid `Response` of its own choosing.
+- **Migrations stay explicit.** Constructing the facade performs no query and no migration.
+  Module schema and migration changes still follow the existing generation, validation, policy, and
+  deployment flow (see [Module development](module-development/README.md#database-access)); nothing
+  in module discovery, registration, start, or an HTTP request infers a schema or creates a table
+  automatically. See [ADR 0016](../architecture/decisions/0016-module-database-access.md) for the
+  complete design and its rejected alternatives.
+
 ## Database connection limits
 
 `apps/api/src/server.ts` configures the one shared PostgreSQL pool (`createApiDatabase`,
@@ -287,10 +333,10 @@ a query is already running on one. The operation timeout additionally sets `pg`'
 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.
+constructed, sanitized the same way an invalid connection string already is. The identity,
+authorization, and module domains all 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
 
@@ -300,19 +346,22 @@ shared promise the first time it is called: every caller, concurrent or sequenti
 exact same operation, and that operation runs exactly once no matter how many times `shutdown()`
 is called. In order: it stops the HTTP listener from accepting new connections and lets in-flight
 requests finish; then stops the module runtime (so no module resource stops while a route handler
-might still be in flight); then closes the one shared PostgreSQL pool (identity and authorization
-both read from it — see [Authorization](authorization.md#shared-database-composition)). Unlike a
-startup-failure cleanup path (below), a module-stop failure here is not swallowed — it is a
-genuine result a caller should observe — but pool cleanup always still runs first, so a stop
-failure never leaves the pool open. The executable entry point's `SIGINT`/`SIGTERM` wiring is
-extracted into `installShutdownSignalHandlers(running, exit)` — the same function production
+might still be in flight) — a module's `stop` hook may still use `services.database` here, since
+the pool has not yet closed; then closes the one shared PostgreSQL pool (identity, authorization,
+and the module database facade all read from it — see
+[Authorization](authorization.md#shared-database-composition)). Unlike a startup-failure cleanup
+path (below), a module-stop failure here is not swallowed — it is a genuine result a caller should
+observe — but pool cleanup always still runs first, so a stop failure never leaves the pool open,
+and no module code can run against it afterward. 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 `process.exit`.
 
 A startup failure after the database pool was already created always closes that pool before the
-failure propagates: identity/authorization construction failing (no module runtime was started
-yet); the server failing to bind its listen address; or an app-construction failure, both of which
-also stop the module runtime first, since it may have already started successfully. A module
+failure propagates: module-services/identity/authorization construction failing (no module runtime
+was started yet — the frozen `ModuleRuntimeServices` object is built in the same step, from the
+same pool); the server failing to bind its listen address; or an app-construction failure, both of
+which also stop the module runtime first, since it may have already started successfully. A module
 load/register/start failure uses Core's own existing rollback (already-started modules stop, in
 reverse order, before the failure propagates) and then closes the pool — there is no separate
 runtime handle to stop in that case, since `startDiscoveredModuleRuntime` never returned one.
@@ -354,10 +403,9 @@ Cookie: better-auth.session_token=<redacted, now revoked>
 {"kind":"anonymous"}
 ```
 
-## Next phase
+## What's next
 
-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.
+See the repository root [README](../../README.md#current-status) and
+[platform architecture](../architecture/platform-architecture.md#current-implementation-status)
+for what has landed across every phase and what remains before Surface work begins. This document
+tracks `apps/api`'s own HTTP, module-runtime, and database-composition contracts as they evolve.

docs/development/authorization.md

@@ -396,15 +396,19 @@ Every response sets `Cache-Control: no-store`.
 
 `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)).
+`pg.Pool` (`createValidatedPostgresPool`, `@ekklesia/core/database`) and wraps it with three
+independent typed Drizzle views — `createIdentityDrizzleView(pool)`,
+`createAuthorizationDrizzleView(pool)`, and `createModuleDatabaseView(pool)` (the `ModuleDatabase`
+facade module code queries through `context.services.database`; see
+[API](api.md#module-database-access) and
+[Module development](../module-development/README.md#database-access)) — rather than three
+separate pools. `close()` on the returned handle is the only thing that ever calls `pool.end()`;
+no domain view owns or closes the pool itself. `apps/api/src/server.ts` calls `createApiDatabase`
+once during `startApi()`, builds the identity runtime from `.identity`, the
+`AuthorizationStore`/`AuthorizationEvaluator` from `.authorization`, and the frozen
+`ModuleRuntimeServices` from `.module` 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
@@ -413,9 +417,9 @@ unaffected and remain available for standalone/testable use — the CLI bootstra
 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.
+`new Pool(...)` call for a full `startApi()` lifecycle (covering identity, authorization, and
+module database usage), and exactly one `pool.end()` call regardless of how many concurrent
+`shutdown()` callers there are or whether the failure happened during startup.
 
 ## Tests
 

docs/development/identity.md

@@ -169,9 +169,10 @@ rejected the same sanitized way an invalid connection string already is.
 ## What is not operational yet
 
 No email verification, password recovery, invitation flow, email delivery, social or OAuth
-provider, passkey, magic link, two-factor authentication, or roles/permissions/platform-owner model
+provider, passkey, magic link, two-factor authentication, or roles/groups/teams/tenants model
 exists. Public registration, sign-in, principal resolution, and sign-out over HTTP **are**
 operational as of Phase 4B — see [API](api.md) for the transport and routes, and ADR 0011 for why
-public registration is intentional and grants no elevation. The next expected slice is Phase 4C:
-Core authorization and an explicit, auditable platform-owner bootstrap command — not a Dashboard
-Surface, which still depends on an authorization model that does not exist yet.
+public registration is intentional and grants no elevation. Core's authorization foundation
+(platform owners, explicit grants, an immutable permission registry) landed in Phase 4C and is
+covered separately — see [Authorization](authorization.md) — not a Dashboard Surface, which still
+depends on an authorization model that only now exists and has not yet been built on.

docs/development/testing.md

@@ -97,6 +97,23 @@ database failure and asserts, against actual `console.error`/`warn`/`log` output
 Auth's own internal error logging — configured explicitly in `core/src/identity/runtime.ts` — never
 emits a raw exception, SQL, connection detail, or the rejected request's origin.
 
+A third dedicated suite (`apps/api/tests/module-database.integration.ts`, included in the same
+`pnpm test:migrations:integration` run) proves `context.services.database` against a real,
+installed test module (`core/tests/fixtures/module-database-integration/db-facade/` — never the
+repository's live `modules/` directory, and invisible to normal discovery/Doctor/`modules:validate`
+unless a test explicitly points discovery at it): the module's own table does not exist until its
+migration is explicitly applied, and constructing the pool or facade never creates it; `start`,
+`stop`, and an authorized HTTP handler all receive the identical `ModuleRuntimeServices` object,
+proven by reference equality; a real authorized mutation persists and a later read observes it,
+gated by the same permission/trusted-Origin enforcement every other module route uses; a real
+committed transaction persists and a real rollback (a deliberate unique-constraint violation)
+leaves no partial mutation; a module deliberately catching a real PostgreSQL failure returns its
+own response untouched, while an uncaught one sanitizes to the existing
+`MODULE_HANDLER_FAILED` boundary with no leaked SQL, error text, or path; and a `stop` hook's write
+completes and is independently verifiable, through the harness's own administrative connection —
+never the API's own pool — before that pool closes. See
+[ADR 0016](../architecture/decisions/0016-module-database-access.md).
+
 CI runs the same command in the dedicated `migration-smoke` job. After this change is merged, add
 the following pull-request status context to `main` branch protection:
 

docs/module-development/README.md

@@ -157,9 +157,9 @@ export default defineModuleRuntime({
     capabilities.provide("calendar.events", calendarEvents);
   },
 
-  async start({ capabilities }) {
+  async start({ capabilities, services }) {
     const people = capabilities.resolve("people.records");
-    // Acquire runtime resources here.
+    await services.database.insert(events).values({ id: "seed", title: "First event" });
   },
 
   async stop() {
@@ -170,8 +170,11 @@ export default defineModuleRuntime({
 
 ID and version are intentional build-artifact identity markers and must match the manifest. Core
 rejects missing, duplicate, or undeclared capability registrations. A module may resolve only its
-own capabilities and the capability dependencies declared in its manifest. The runtime context is
-deliberately limited to the module ID and capability access.
+own capabilities and the capability dependencies declared in its manifest. The `register` context
+is deliberately limited to `moduleId`, capability access, and the HTTP route registrar (below) —
+never `services`. `start` and `stop` share one context shape and both additionally receive
+`services` — the same frozen `ModuleRuntimeServices` object for the lifetime of one running API,
+currently exposing only `database` — see [Database access](#database-access).
 
 Entrypoint imports must have no top-level side effects. Modules are trusted backend plugins, and ESM
 evaluation cannot be rolled back. Keep registration declarative; open resources in `start` and
@@ -235,10 +238,12 @@ method and path (or two paths that are identical once every parameter is treated
 placeholder, such as `/events/:eventId` and `/events/:id` under `GET`) fails as a duplicate route.
 
 The handler receives the standard `Request` plus a context of exactly `moduleId`, the caller's
-already-authorized `EkklesiaPrincipal`, and the immutable decoded path parameters — never a database
-connection, authorization store, grant/platform-owner state, storage, jobs, configuration, secrets,
-a framework-specific request context, or a raw Better Auth session. The full query string remains
-available through `Request.url`; there is no separate query or body abstraction.
+already-authorized `EkklesiaPrincipal`, the immutable decoded path parameters, and `services` — the
+same frozen `ModuleRuntimeServices` object the module's own `start`/`stop` hooks receive, currently
+exposing only `database` (see [Database access](#database-access)) — never an authorization store,
+grant/platform-owner state, storage, jobs, configuration, secrets, a framework-specific request
+context, or a raw Better Auth session. The full query string remains available through
+`Request.url`; there is no separate query or body abstraction.
 
 Core defines, validates, and collects routes into `StartedModuleRuntime`'s immutable route
 snapshot — it never invokes a handler itself. `apps/api` mounts that exact snapshot into production
@@ -344,6 +349,73 @@ destructive behavior. Review those properties explicitly. Core is the only migra
 follows Drizzle's exact `--> statement-breakpoint` delimiter and never naively splits semicolons or
 falls back to non-transactional execution.
 
+## Database access
+
+`context.services.database` — available in `start`, `stop`, and every authorized route handler,
+never in `register` — is a `ModuleDatabase`: a typed Drizzle query surface over exactly `select`,
+`selectDistinct`, `selectDistinctOn`, `insert`, `update`, `delete`, `execute`, and `transaction`,
+preserving Drizzle's own table-aware argument and result inference. It is the platform's only
+supported way for module code to reach PostgreSQL:
+
+```ts
+import { defineModuleRuntime } from "@ekklesia/module-sdk";
+import { events } from "./schema/tables.js";
+
+export default defineModuleRuntime({
+  id: "calendar",
+  version: "0.1.0",
+
+  register({ http }) {
+    http.route({
+      method: "GET",
+      path: "/events",
+      permission: "calendar.events.read",
+      async handler(_request, context) {
+        const rows = await context.services.database
+          .select({ id: events.id, title: events.title })
+          .from(events);
+        return Response.json(rows);
+      },
+    });
+  },
+});
+```
+
+Import your module's own table objects (`src/schema/tables.js` — the same declarations
+[Drizzle schema definition](#drizzle-schema-definition) already covers) exactly as you would with
+an independently constructed Drizzle instance; the only difference is that `services.database`,
+not a client you built yourself, executes the query. Never:
+
+- Construct a `Pool`, a `Client`, or a Drizzle instance in module code.
+- Read `DATABASE_URL` or any other connection configuration.
+- Access `$client`, a session, or a dialect object — `ModuleDatabase` exposes none of them, and not
+  merely at the type level: the constructed facade physically has no such property.
+- Stash `services` (or `services.database`) in a module-global variable. The platform provides the
+  identical object directly to `start`, `stop`, and every authorized handler; there is nothing to
+  cache.
+- Run or generate a migration from `register`, `start`, `stop`, or a route handler. Schema and
+  migration changes remain [explicit deployment work](#drizzle-migrations) — generate, review,
+  commit, and apply them the same way as any other module migration, *before* starting code that
+  depends on the new shape. Nothing in discovery, registration, or startup infers a schema or
+  creates a table automatically.
+
+A handler's database error is sanitized through the same `500 {"code":"MODULE_HANDLER_FAILED"}`
+boundary as any other handler failure (see [HTTP routes](#http-routes)) — there is no separate,
+database-specific error contract. Catch a failure yourself if your route should return something
+more specific; an uncaught one is sanitized automatically.
+
+`ModuleDatabase` is an integration boundary for trusted, compiled backend module code, not a
+sandbox: it exists so your module never has to construct or configure a PostgreSQL connection
+itself, not to defend against malicious code, since a module already runs arbitrary code in this
+process. It provides no tenant isolation and does not stop your own code from querying a table it
+imports; `execute` in particular lets trusted code run arbitrary SQL, exactly as every other
+operation already lets it construct arbitrary queries. Keep querying only your own module's tables
+— the same convention [Drizzle schema definition](#drizzle-schema-definition) already establishes
+for imports, just extended to runtime queries. See
+[API](../development/api.md#module-database-access) for how `apps/api` composes and wires the
+facade, and [ADR 0016](../architecture/decisions/0016-module-database-access.md) for the complete
+design.
+
 ## Discovery and lifecycle
 
 From the repository root, run:

packages/contracts/src/index.ts

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 export * from "./authorization.js";
 export * from "./identifiers.js";
 export * from "./identity.js";
+export * from "./module-database.js";
 export * from "./module-http.js";
 export * from "./module-lifecycle.js";
 export * from "./module-manifest.js";

packages/contracts/src/module-database.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+import type { NodePgDatabase } from "drizzle-orm/node-postgres";
+
+/**
+ * A trusted backend module's typed Drizzle query surface — the same query-building methods a
+ * platform-owned Drizzle instance exposes, restricted to exactly the operations a module needs to
+ * read and write its own tables. Derived with `Pick` from the real `drizzle-orm/node-postgres`
+ * database type rather than hand-declared, so every method keeps Drizzle's own table-aware
+ * argument and result inference exactly as-is — a module calling `database.select().from(table)`
+ * or `database.insert(table).values(...)` gets the identical typed builder a direct Drizzle caller
+ * would, with no `any`/`unknown` erasure anywhere in the chain.
+ *
+ * Deliberately excludes everything `NodePgDatabase` or the `drizzle(...)` factory otherwise
+ * exposes: `$client` (the raw `pg` client/pool), `_` (internal session/dialect/schema state),
+ * `query` (a relational-query builder tied to one schema, which would have to span every
+ * installed module's tables to exist here at all), `$cache`, `$count`, `$with`, `with`, and
+ * `refreshMaterializedView`. There is no connection string, pool, session, or dialect object
+ * reachable through this type. Carries no schema generic — a module brings its own Drizzle table
+ * objects (`@ekklesia/module-sdk`'s `defineModuleSchema`) to each call, so there is no global
+ * relational schema spanning every installed module for this type to leak.
+ *
+ * This is an integration boundary, not a security sandbox: modules are trusted, compiled backend
+ * plugins that already run arbitrary code in this process, exactly like every other lifecycle hook
+ * and HTTP handler they define. `ModuleDatabase` exists to keep a module's code Drizzle-typed and
+ * decoupled from how the platform physically connects to PostgreSQL — not to defend against a
+ * malicious module, which this facade cannot do and does not attempt to do.
+ */
+export type ModuleDatabase = Pick<
+  NodePgDatabase,
+  | "select"
+  | "selectDistinct"
+  | "selectDistinctOn"
+  | "insert"
+  | "update"
+  | "delete"
+  | "execute"
+  | "transaction"
+>;
+
+/**
+ * The complete set of platform-provided services a trusted module's `start`/`stop` lifecycle hooks
+ * and authorized HTTP route handlers receive — for this phase, exactly one: `database`. Frozen, and
+ * never handed to a module's `register` hook (`ModuleRegistrationContext` has no `services` field):
+ * registration stays declarative and database-free, exactly as before this contract existed.
+ * Deliberately has no storage, jobs, configuration, secrets, or authorization field yet — those
+ * remain out of scope until a later phase explicitly adds them here, one at a time, the same way
+ * `database` was added.
+ */
+export interface ModuleRuntimeServices {
+  readonly database: ModuleDatabase;
+}

packages/contracts/src/module-http.ts

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import { z } from "zod";
 import type { EkklesiaPrincipal } from "./identity.js";
 import { type ModuleId, type PermissionId, permissionIdSchema } from "./identifiers.js";
+import type { ModuleRuntimeServices } from "./module-database.js";
 
 // Not imported from `./module-runtime.js`'s own `Awaitable` (structurally identical) — importing
 // it would create a source dependency cycle with that module, which also imports from this one for
@@ -124,16 +125,19 @@ export function moduleRouteShapeKey(method: ModuleHttpMethod, path: ModuleRouteP
 }
 
 /**
- * What a module's route handler receives about the caller and the match — never a database
- * connection, authorization-store, grant-management, storage, jobs, configuration, secrets, the
- * Hono `Context`, or a raw Better Auth session. `principal` is already authorized by the time a
- * handler runs: `apps/api/src/module-http-routes.ts` mounts and enforces every route before ever
- * invoking its handler; this contracts-layer module never invokes a handler itself.
+ * What a module's route handler receives about the caller, the match, and the platform services
+ * available to it — never an authorization-store, grant-management, storage, jobs, configuration,
+ * secrets, the Hono `Context`, or a raw Better Auth session. `principal` is already authorized by
+ * the time a handler runs: `apps/api/src/module-http-routes.ts` mounts and enforces every route
+ * before ever invoking its handler; this contracts-layer module never invokes a handler itself.
+ * `services` is the same frozen `ModuleRuntimeServices` object the owning module's `start`/`stop`
+ * hooks receive for this API runtime — never a fresh one built per request.
  */
 export interface ModuleRouteHandlerContext {
   readonly moduleId: ModuleId;
   readonly principal: EkklesiaPrincipal;
   readonly params: Readonly<Record<string, string>>;
+  readonly services: ModuleRuntimeServices;
 }
 
 /** A framework-neutral Fetch handler: standard `Request` in, standard `Response` out. The full

packages/contracts/src/module-runtime.ts

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import type { CapabilityId, ModuleId } from "./identifiers.js";
 import { moduleIdSchema } from "./identifiers.js";
+import type { ModuleRuntimeServices } from "./module-database.js";
 import type { ModuleHttpRouteRegistrar } from "./module-http.js";
 import { semanticVersionSchema } from "./versions.js";
 
@@ -29,9 +30,14 @@ export interface ModuleRegistrationContext {
   readonly moduleId: ModuleId;
 }
 
+/** The same context shape for both `start` and `stop`: whichever hook runs, it receives the exact
+ * same frozen `services` object identity as the other, for a given API runtime — never a fresh
+ * `ModuleRuntimeServices` built per hook invocation. Unlike `ModuleRegistrationContext`, this never
+ * carries `http`: a route can only ever be declared during `register`. */
 export interface ModuleRuntimeContext {
   readonly capabilities: CapabilityResolver;
   readonly moduleId: ModuleId;
+  readonly services: ModuleRuntimeServices;
 }
 
 export interface ModuleRuntimeDefinition {

packages/contracts/tests/module-database.test.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,95 @@
+import { integer, pgTable, text } from "drizzle-orm/pg-core";
+import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
+import type { ModuleDatabase, ModuleRuntimeServices } from "../src/index.js";
+
+const testTable = pgTable("contracts_module_database_test", {
+  id: integer("id").primaryKey(),
+  name: text("name").notNull(),
+});
+
+/**
+ * Never invoked — exists solely so `pnpm typecheck` (part of `pnpm verify`) proves `ModuleDatabase`
+ * preserves Drizzle's own table-aware argument and result inference for every required operation,
+ * with no `any`/`unknown` erasure anywhere in the chain. A regression that widened any of these
+ * signatures to `any` would still compile a *call* to the method but would break one of the
+ * explicit row-shape assertions below.
+ */
+function typeOnlyOperationInference(database: ModuleDatabase): void {
+  const selected = database.select({ id: testTable.id, name: testTable.name }).from(testTable);
+  const selectedRow: { id: number; name: string } = {} as Awaited<typeof selected>[number];
+  void selectedRow;
+
+  const distinct = database.selectDistinct().from(testTable);
+  const distinctRow: { id: number; name: string } = {} as Awaited<typeof distinct>[number];
+  void distinctRow;
+
+  const distinctOn = database.selectDistinctOn([testTable.name]).from(testTable);
+  const distinctOnRow: { id: number; name: string } = {} as Awaited<typeof distinctOn>[number];
+  void distinctOnRow;
+
+  const inserted = database.insert(testTable).values({ id: 1, name: "a" });
+  void inserted;
+
+  const updated = database.update(testTable).set({ name: "b" });
+  void updated;
+
+  const deleted = database.delete(testTable);
+  void deleted;
+
+  const executed = database.execute("select 1");
+  void executed;
+
+  void database.transaction(async (tx) => {
+    const rows: Array<{ id: number }> = await tx.select({ id: testTable.id }).from(testTable);
+    return rows;
+  });
+}
+void typeOnlyOperationInference;
+
+/**
+ * Never invoked — proves at typecheck time that `ModuleDatabase` structurally excludes every raw
+ * PostgreSQL/Drizzle escape hatch a module must never reach through this facade. If any of these
+ * properties were ever (re)added to the picked surface, the corresponding `@ts-expect-error` would
+ * itself become a type error ("unused '@ts-expect-error' directive"), failing `pnpm typecheck`.
+ */
+function typeOnlyExclusions(database: ModuleDatabase): void {
+  // @ts-expect-error `$client` (the raw pg client/pool) is not part of the public facade.
+  void database.$client;
+  // @ts-expect-error `_` (internal session/dialect/schema state) is not part of the public facade.
+  void database._;
+  // @ts-expect-error `query` (a schema-bound relational query builder) is not part of the public facade.
+  void database.query;
+  // @ts-expect-error a raw connection pool is not part of the public facade.
+  void database.pool;
+  // @ts-expect-error a raw connection string is not part of the public facade.
+  void database.connectionString;
+  // @ts-expect-error migration operations are not part of the public facade.
+  void database.migrate;
+}
+void typeOnlyExclusions;
+
+/** Never invoked — proves `ModuleRuntimeServices` has exactly one field, `database`, typed as
+ * `ModuleDatabase`, with no storage/jobs/configuration/secrets/authorization field this phase. */
+function typeOnlyServicesShape(services: ModuleRuntimeServices): void {
+  const database: ModuleDatabase = services.database;
+  void database;
+  // @ts-expect-error `storage` does not exist on `ModuleRuntimeServices` yet.
+  void services.storage;
+  // @ts-expect-error `jobs` does not exist on `ModuleRuntimeServices` yet.
+  void services.jobs;
+  // @ts-expect-error `authorization` does not exist on `ModuleRuntimeServices` yet.
+  void services.authorization;
+}
+void typeOnlyServicesShape;
+
+describe("ModuleDatabase", () => {
+  it("is a real, importable type contract enforced by pnpm typecheck", () => {
+    // The meaningful assertions for this module-level type contract are compile-time
+    // (`typeOnlyOperationInference`, `typeOnlyExclusions`, `typeOnlyServicesShape` above, checked
+    // by `pnpm typecheck`); this keeps the file a genuine, executed Vitest suite rather than a
+    // file Vitest would otherwise skip for declaring no runnable test.
+    expect(typeof typeOnlyOperationInference).toBe("function");
+    expect(typeof typeOnlyExclusions).toBe("function");
+    expect(typeof typeOnlyServicesShape).toBe("function");
+  });
+});

templates/module/README.md

@@ -2,8 +2,11 @@
 
 This is the smallest supported backend-only Ekklesia module. It proves the static manifest,
 compiled runtime and schema entrypoints, capability registration, a module-owned Drizzle table, a
-generated module-owned migration, and logical storage-bucket declarations. Migration execution,
-API routing, and storage provisioning are intentionally not included.
+generated module-owned migration, logical storage-bucket declarations, and one permissioned HTTP
+route (`GET /records`, declared in `register`) that reads that table through
+`context.services.database` — the platform-provided `ModuleDatabase` facade, never a
+module-constructed Drizzle instance or a raw `pg` client. Migration execution and storage
+provisioning are intentionally not included.
 
 To create a module inside this repository:
 
@@ -14,7 +17,10 @@ To create a module inside this repository:
 4. Keep the manifest capability versions and dependency ranges aligned with the contracts the
    module actually implements and consumes.
 5. Replace `src/server/index.ts` with backend behavior only. Its `defineModuleRuntime` ID and version
-   must match the manifest; do not duplicate the rest of the manifest in TypeScript.
+   must match the manifest; do not duplicate the rest of the manifest in TypeScript. Declare HTTP
+   routes only in `register`, against a permission the manifest already declares; `start`, `stop`,
+   and every route handler — never `register` — receive `context.services.database`, a typed
+   `ModuleDatabase` view over the platform's one PostgreSQL pool.
 6. Replace the pure Drizzle declarations in `src/schema/tables.ts` and keep its table prefix aligned
    with the module ID. Keep the `defineModuleSchema` ownership wrapper in `src/schema/index.ts`
    aligned too, and never import another module's schema.
@@ -29,7 +35,9 @@ To create a module inside this repository:
 
 Do not add UI components, styles, renderers, navigation, or layouts. Those belong to surfaces.
 Keep imports side-effect-free, register capabilities in `register`, acquire resources in `start`,
-and release them in `stop`.
+and release them in `stop`. Never construct a Drizzle instance, read `DATABASE_URL`, or reach for a
+raw `pg` client — `context.services.database` is the only supported way to query this module's own
+tables, and it is never available during `register`.
 
 The migration directory uses the pinned stable Drizzle Kit `0.31.10` PostgreSQL journal and
 snapshot format. Migrations are forward-only and may modify only this module's objects. Offline

templates/module/src/schema/tables.ts

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
-import { pgTableCreator, text, uuid } from "drizzle-orm/pg-core";
+import { createModuleTable } from "@ekklesia/module-sdk";
+import { text, uuid } from "drizzle-orm/pg-core";
 
-const moduleTable = pgTableCreator((localName) => `example_${localName}`);
+const moduleTable = createModuleTable("example");
 
 export const records = moduleTable("records", {
   id: uuid("id").primaryKey(),

templates/module/src/server/index.ts

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { defineModuleRuntime } from "@ekklesia/module-sdk";
+import { records } from "../schema/tables.js";
 
 export const recordsCapability = Object.freeze({
   kind: "example-records",
@@ -7,7 +8,25 @@ export const recordsCapability = Object.freeze({
 export default defineModuleRuntime({
   id: "example",
   version: "0.1.0",
-  register({ capabilities }) {
+  register({ capabilities, http }) {
     capabilities.provide("example.records", recordsCapability);
+
+    // The accepted module database boundary: `context.services.database` — provided only to an
+    // authorized handler, never to `register` — is this module's one way to reach PostgreSQL. It
+    // is a fully typed Drizzle query surface over the module's own table (`../schema/tables.js`),
+    // never a raw `pg` client, a connection string, or a Drizzle instance this module built
+    // itself. `example.records.read` is declared in `ekklesia.module.json`, exactly like every
+    // other permission a module route enforces.
+    http.route({
+      method: "GET",
+      path: "/records",
+      permission: "example.records.read",
+      async handler(_request, context) {
+        const rows = await context.services.database
+          .select({ id: records.id, value: records.value })
+          .from(records);
+        return Response.json(rows);
+      },
+    });
   },
 });

templates/module/tests/manifest.test.ts

@@ -1,7 +1,12 @@
 import { createHash } from "node:crypto";
 import { readFile } from "node:fs/promises";
 import {
+  ANONYMOUS_PRINCIPAL,
   type CapabilityId,
+  type ModuleDatabase,
+  type ModuleRouteDefinitionInput,
+  type ModuleRouteHandlerContext,
+  type ModuleRuntimeServices,
   parseDrizzleMigrationJournal,
   parseModuleManifest,
   parseModuleMigrationPolicy,
@@ -12,6 +17,38 @@ import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
 import moduleSchema, { records } from "../src/schema/index.js";
 import moduleRuntime, { recordsCapability } from "../src/server/index.js";
 
+/** A small typed fake `ModuleDatabase` — no PostgreSQL required for this unit test, which only
+ * proves the example handler queries through the facade and shapes its response correctly. */
+function fakeModuleDatabase(rows: readonly { id: string; value: string }[]): ModuleDatabase {
+  const selectBuilder = { from: () => Promise.resolve(rows) };
+  return { select: () => selectBuilder } as unknown as ModuleDatabase;
+}
+
+async function registerAndCaptureRoutes(): Promise<{
+  provided: Map<CapabilityId, unknown>;
+  routes: ModuleRouteDefinitionInput[];
+}> {
+  const provided = new Map<CapabilityId, unknown>();
+  const routes: ModuleRouteDefinitionInput[] = [];
+  await moduleRuntime.register?.({
+    capabilities: {
+      provide(capabilityId, implementation) {
+        provided.set(capabilityId, implementation);
+      },
+      resolve(_capabilityId: CapabilityId): RegisteredCapability | undefined {
+        return undefined;
+      },
+    },
+    http: {
+      route(definition) {
+        routes.push(definition);
+      },
+    },
+    moduleId: "example",
+  });
+  return { provided, routes };
+}
+
 describe("module template", () => {
   it("ships a valid backend-only manifest", async () => {
     const manifestUrl = new URL("../ekklesia.module.json", import.meta.url);
@@ -59,27 +96,41 @@ describe("module template", () => {
     expect(sql.toString("utf8")).toContain('CREATE TABLE "example_records"');
   });
 
-  it("exports the typed runtime definition used by the compiled server entrypoint", async () => {
-    const provided = new Map<CapabilityId, unknown>();
-    await moduleRuntime.register?.({
-      capabilities: {
-        provide(capabilityId, implementation) {
-          provided.set(capabilityId, implementation);
-        },
-        resolve(_capabilityId: CapabilityId): RegisteredCapability | undefined {
-          return undefined;
-        },
-      },
-      http: {
-        route() {
-          throw new Error("The template does not register any HTTP route.");
-        },
-      },
-      moduleId: "example",
-    });
+  it("exports the typed runtime definition used by the compiled server entrypoint, registering its one example route database-free", async () => {
+    const { provided, routes } = await registerAndCaptureRoutes();
 
     expect(moduleRuntime).toMatchObject({ id: "example", version: "0.1.0" });
     expect(provided.get("example.records")).toBe(recordsCapability);
+    expect(routes).toHaveLength(1);
+    expect(routes[0]).toMatchObject({
+      method: "GET",
+      path: "/records",
+      permission: "example.records.read",
+    });
+  });
+
+  it("queries the module's own table through context.services.database in the example route handler", async () => {
+    const { routes } = await registerAndCaptureRoutes();
+    const route = routes[0];
+    if (!route) {
+      throw new Error("Expected the example route to be registered.");
+    }
+
+    const fakeRows = [{ id: "9d3f9f7e-3b1a-4c9a-8b8e-2b6b1e6f9a11", value: "hello" }];
+    const services: ModuleRuntimeServices = Object.freeze({
+      database: fakeModuleDatabase(fakeRows),
+    });
+    const context: ModuleRouteHandlerContext = Object.freeze({
+      moduleId: "example",
+      params: Object.freeze({}),
+      principal: ANONYMOUS_PRINCIPAL,
+      services,
+    });
+
+    const response = await route.handler(new Request("http://localhost/records"), context);
+
+    expect(response).toBeInstanceOf(Response);
+    expect(await response.json()).toEqual(fakeRows);
   });
 
   it("exports a namespaced module-owned Drizzle schema", () => {

vitest.migrations.integration.config.ts

@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ export default defineConfig({
       "core/tests/authorization-store.integration.ts",
       "core/tests/authorization-bootstrap.integration.ts",
       "apps/api/tests/api-http.integration.ts",
+      "apps/api/tests/module-database.integration.ts",
     ],
     passWithNoTests: false,
     testTimeout: 30_000,