diff --git a/scripts/notify-test.ts b/scripts/notify-test.ts
index d57309b3..265e0462 100644
--- a/scripts/notify-test.ts
+++ b/scripts/notify-test.ts
@@ -6,13 +6,25 @@
  *   bun run notify:test --user 2                 # someone else
  *   bun run notify:test --code officer/core:job --id 412
  *
- * Talks to the sidecar over loopback, which is how every other producer reaches it — so this exercises
- * the real path rather than a special one. It reports what the channels actually did, because the thing
- * that wastes a day here is that a send with nothing configured returns success and delivers nothing.
+ * Goes through the PLATFORM, with a key it mints and revokes for the one send — the same door an app or
+ * a commander uses, so this exercises the real path rather than a special one. It reports what the
+ * channels actually did, because the thing that wastes a day here is that a send with nothing configured
+ * returns success and delivers nothing.
+ *
+ * It used to POST to the sidecar directly on loopback. That stopped working on 2026-08-25, when the
+ * sidecar began requiring proof that the platform is the caller — anything on the machine could otherwise
+ * notify any user, which on a box running agents is anything with a shell. The secret lives only in the
+ * server's memory, so a CLI cannot present it and should not be able to.
+ *
+ * Minting a key is legitimate HERE and nowhere else: this runs as the owner, on the owner's machine, with
+ * the database open in front of it. Anything that cannot already do that has no business sending either.
  */
 import { readFileSync } from 'node:fs';
 import { join } from 'node:path';
 import { DATA_PATH } from '../src/servers/data-path';
+import { mintApiKey } from '../src/servers/auth-token';
+import { createApiKey, revokeApiKeysByName } from 'officerdb';
+import { PORT, OFFICER_API_URL } from '../src/servers/officer-url.mjs';
 
 const arg = (name: string): string | undefined => {
   const i = process.argv.indexOf(`--${name}`);
@@ -69,12 +81,37 @@ const body = {
 
 console.log(`[notify:test] sending ${JSON.stringify(body)}`);
 
-const res = await fetch(`${base}/_officer/notify`, {
-  method: 'POST',
-  headers: { 'content-type': 'application/json', 'X-Officer-User': String(userId) },
-  body: JSON.stringify(body),
-  signal: AbortSignal.timeout(20_000),
-});
+// A key for this one send, revoked immediately afterwards whatever happens. Named so a leftover from a
+// killed run is obvious in the key list rather than looking like something a person made.
+const KEY_NAME = 'notify:test (temporary)';
+await revokeApiKeysByName(userId, KEY_NAME).catch(() => {});
+const { secret, keyHash, prefix } = mintApiKey();
+await createApiKey({ userId, name: KEY_NAME, keyHash, prefix });
+
+const publicHost = (() => {
+  try {
+    return process.env.PUBLIC_URL ? new URL(process.env.PUBLIC_URL.replace(/^"|"$/g, '')).host : undefined;
+  } catch {
+    return undefined;
+  }
+})();
+
+let res: Response;
+try {
+  res = await fetch(`${OFFICER_API_URL}/api/notify/_officer/notify`, {
+    method: 'POST',
+    headers: {
+      'content-type': 'application/json',
+      Authorization: `Bearer ${secret}`,
+      // Origin validation matches Host against PUBLIC_URL, so a bare loopback request is refused.
+      Host: publicHost ?? `127.0.0.1:${PORT}`,
+    },
+    body: JSON.stringify(body),
+    signal: AbortSignal.timeout(20_000),
+  });
+} finally {
+  await revokeApiKeysByName(userId, KEY_NAME).catch(() => {});
+}
 
 const out = (await res.json()) as { ok?: boolean; error?: string; results?: Array<Record<string, unknown>> };