diff --git a/plugins/example/manifest.ts b/plugins/example/manifest.ts
index 1ea71cdc..26ded1eb 100644
--- a/plugins/example/manifest.ts
+++ b/plugins/example/manifest.ts
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ export const manifest: PluginManifest = {
   color: '#94a3b8',
 
   // One permission gating the whole surface. `ownerOnly: false` means a role can be granted it — which is
-  // the interesting case, because it is the one the capability gate actually has to resolve.
+  // the interesting case, because it is the one the permission gate actually has to resolve.
   permissions: [
     {
       key: 'example',
diff --git a/src/servers/capabilities/registry.ts b/src/servers/capabilities/registry.ts
index 1c06088c..81a1e504 100644
--- a/src/servers/capabilities/registry.ts
+++ b/src/servers/capabilities/registry.ts
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ export type Capability = {
 };
 
 /**
- * The PLATFORM's own capabilities. A plugin's are added on top at runtime — see `setPluginCapabilities`.
+ * The PLATFORM's own capabilities. A plugin's are added on top at runtime — see `setPluginPermissions`.
  *
  * Kept separate from the live `CAPABILITIES` below so two invariants hold by construction rather than by
  * anyone remembering them: a plugin can never become `core` (granted to everyone, undeniable), and a
@@ -428,7 +428,7 @@ const CORE_REGISTRY: Capability[] = [
 // exports are live bindings, so an importer holding `CAPABILITY_BY_KEY` sees the reassignment — every
 // consumer reads these inside a function, never at module scope, which is what makes that safe.
 //
-// Nothing mutates the arrays in place. `setPluginCapabilities` replaces them, for the same reason
+// Nothing mutates the arrays in place. `setPluginPermissions` replaces them, for the same reason
 // `buildHonoApp` replaces the app rather than adding routes to it: a half-updated lookup is worse than a
 // stale one, and replacement has no half.
 
@@ -480,7 +480,7 @@ export const CORE_CAPABILITIES = CORE_REGISTRY.filter((c) => c.kind === 'core');
  * question. A key colliding with a core one is REFUSED here rather than silently overriding — a plugin
  * that could redefine `chat` or `terminal` could widen it.
  */
-export function setPluginCapabilities(pluginCapabilities: Capability[]): { rejected: string[] } {
+export function setPluginPermissions(pluginCapabilities: Capability[]): { rejected: string[] } {
   const coreKeys = new Set(CORE_REGISTRY.map((c) => c.key));
   const seen = new Set<string>();
   const accepted: Capability[] = [];
diff --git a/src/servers/plugins/generate.ts b/src/servers/plugins/generate.ts
index 5d77f956..41ab4492 100644
--- a/src/servers/plugins/generate.ts
+++ b/src/servers/plugins/generate.ts
@@ -19,8 +19,8 @@ import type { PluginState } from './mount';
 // ── What is NOT here ──
 //
 // The dock tile. It is permission-filtered, and permission is a runtime question: a grant takes effect on
-// the next request, not on the next build. So the tile comes from `/api/user/capabilities` like every
-// other plugin manifest, and this file carries only what the BUNDLER needs.
+// the next request, not on the next build. So the tile is served by the self endpoint at request time,
+// and this file carries only what the BUNDLER needs.
 
 const GENERATED_PATH = join(PLATFORM_DIR, 'src/apps/officer-web/Plugins.gen.tsx');
 const BUILD_DIR = join(PLATFORM_DIR, 'build');
diff --git a/src/servers/plugins/manifest.ts b/src/servers/plugins/manifest.ts
index a8764d62..b624203d 100644
--- a/src/servers/plugins/manifest.ts
+++ b/src/servers/plugins/manifest.ts
@@ -15,9 +15,10 @@
 /**
  * A permission the plugin adds to the platform's permission system.
  *
- * Called `permissions` and NOT `capabilities`: that word already means three different things in this
- * codebase — the permission registry, the file-based item store under `$OFFICER_ROOT/capabilities`, and
- * the routing keys a sidecar registers with. A fourth would be one too many.
+ * Called `permissions`, and that word is used throughout the plugin system deliberately. The other one
+ * already means three different things here — the permission registry, the file-based item store under
+ * `$OFFICER_ROOT/capabilities`, and the routing keys a sidecar registers with — and a fourth meaning
+ * would be one too many. Nothing in this system uses it.
  */
 export type PluginPermission = {
   /** Stable identifier, stored as the grant's subject. Renaming one is a data change. */
@@ -26,10 +27,10 @@ export type PluginPermission = {
   description: string;
   // There is deliberately NO `ownerOnly`, and no kind of any sort.
   //
-  // Every plugin permission is grantable, per role, at read or write — the same configuration as every
-  // core capability, on the same page, with no special cases to learn. A plugin that wanted to be
-  // owner-only would be a plugin the owner cannot delegate, and "which members may reach this" is a
-  // decision that belongs to the person running the server rather than to the person who wrote the code.
+  // Every plugin permission is grantable, per role, at read or write — the same configuration the
+  // platform's own permissions get, on the same page, with no special cases to learn. A plugin that
+  // wanted to be owner-only would be a plugin the owner cannot delegate, and "which members may reach
+  // this" is a decision belonging to whoever runs the server rather than whoever wrote the code.
   //
   // Finer visibility — whose rows a member sees, what a read means for this plugin's data — is the
   // PLUGIN's business and lives in its own queries. The platform's answer is uniform: read, write, or
@@ -151,9 +152,9 @@ export function manifestProblems(appName: string, manifest: Partial<PluginManife
         problems.push(`permissions[${i}].key is required`);
         continue;
       }
-      // The permission key shares the capability registry's namespace, so a plugin colliding with a core
-      // capability would silently widen or narrow it. Prefixing is not enforced here — the installer
-      // checks against the live registry, which is the only thing that knows what is taken.
+      // The key shares the platform's permission namespace, so a plugin colliding with a built-in one
+      // would silently widen or narrow it. Prefixing is not enforced here — the installer checks against
+      // the live registry, which is the only thing that knows what is taken.
       if (typeof permission.label !== 'string' || !permission.label) {
         problems.push(`permissions[${i}].label is required`);
       }
diff --git a/src/servers/plugins/mount.ts b/src/servers/plugins/mount.ts
index 48064f85..ad0f00d2 100644
--- a/src/servers/plugins/mount.ts
+++ b/src/servers/plugins/mount.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import { listPluginInstalls, type PluginInstall } from 'officerdb';
 import type { MountedPlugin } from '../hono';
 import { rebuildHonoApp } from '../hono';
-import { setPluginCapabilities, type Capability } from '../capabilities/registry';
+import { setPluginPermissions, type Capability } from '../capabilities/registry';
 import { discoverPlugins } from './discover';
 import { mountPrefix, type DiscoveredPlugin } from './manifest';
 import { generatePluginsModule, rebuildFrontend } from './generate';
@@ -87,18 +87,18 @@ export async function mountablePlugins(snapshot: PluginsSnapshot): Promise<Mount
 }
 
 /**
- * Turn a plugin's declared permissions into capabilities the platform's own machinery understands.
+ * Turn a plugin's declared permissions into the entries the platform's own registry understands.
  *
- * ALWAYS `app`, because a plugin permission is always grantable: the same read/write/none per role that
- * every core capability gets, on the same page. `core`, `execution`, `confined` and `admin` stay the
- * platform's to assign, and a plugin cannot name any of them — its manifest has no field for a kind, so
- * the escalation question is removed rather than answered.
+ * ALWAYS `app`, because a plugin permission is always grantable: the same read/write/none per role the
+ * platform's own permissions get, on the same page. The restricted levels stay the platform's to assign
+ * and a plugin cannot name any of them — its manifest has no field for one, so the escalation question is
+ * removed rather than answered.
  *
  * The FIRST permission gates the plugin's whole surface. Later ones are registered as grantable keys that
  * claim no path — a plugin wanting genuinely separate surfaces needs sub-path claims in the manifest, and
  * that can be added when something needs it rather than guessed at now.
  */
-function pluginCapabilities(state: PluginState): Capability[] {
+function pluginPermissions(state: PluginState): Capability[] {
   const { plugin } = state;
   const prefix = mountPrefix(plugin);
 
@@ -133,11 +133,11 @@ export type RefreshResult = {
 export async function refreshPluginMounts(options: { skipFrontend?: boolean } = {}): Promise<RefreshResult> {
   const snapshot = await snapshotPlugins();
 
-  // Capabilities BEFORE routes. The capability gate runs ahead of every router, so a route mounted without
+  // Permissions BEFORE routes. The permission gate runs ahead of every router, so a route mounted without
   // its permission registered is a route the gate cannot resolve — and an unresolvable path is denied,
   // which would make a freshly installed plugin 403 until something else happened to refresh.
   const enabled = snapshot.states.filter((s) => s.install?.enabled);
-  const { rejected } = setPluginCapabilities(enabled.flatMap(pluginCapabilities));
+  const { rejected } = setPluginPermissions(enabled.flatMap(pluginPermissions));
   if (rejected.length) {
     console.error(`[plugins] permission keys refused (already taken by the platform): ${rejected.join(', ')}`);
   }
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ export async function refreshPluginMounts(options: { skipFrontend?: boolean } =
  *
  * Presentation comes from the manifest and the route from `mountPrefix`, so there is one source for both
  * and nothing to keep in step. `capability` is the plugin's first permission when it has one, which is
- * what lets `/api/user/capabilities` filter the tile out for an account that cannot reach the screen —
+ * what lets the self endpoint filter the tile out for an account that cannot reach the screen —
  * a member must not be handed the manifest of a feature they may not use, even to hide it.
  *
  * Built here rather than baked into the generated frontend module on purpose: WHO sees a tile is a