diff --git a/scripts/provision-user-dirs.ts b/scripts/provision-user-dirs.ts
new file mode 100644
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/provision-user-dirs.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+// Create the per-user root under DATA_PATH for the given accounts.
+//
+//   bun scripts/provision-user-dirs.ts a@b.com c@d.com
+//   DRY_RUN=1 bun scripts/provision-user-dirs.ts a@b.com
+//
+// Takes emails as arguments rather than reading the user table: the directory layout does not depend
+// on the database, and keeping the DB out means this runs with nothing else up. At invite time the
+// caller already knows the email.
+//
+// This is the directory skeleton ONLY. It is deliberately not a revival of the old provision.ts, which
+// also seeded shell rc files and wrote a generated CLAUDE.md + settings.json describing the user's
+// Docker container. That architecture is gone. What survives from it is the useful part: a user has a
+// root, and a home inside it.
+//
+// Idempotent — an existing directory is left exactly as it is, so re-running is safe.
+
+import { mkdirSync, existsSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { join } from 'node:path';
+
+const DATA_PATH = process.env.DATA_PATH ?? join(process.cwd(), 'data');
+
+// Mirrors the shape the owner's root grew organically. Most of these are also created on demand by
+// whichever feature owns them (attachments, dashboards, email_accounts…), so pre-creating them buys
+// legibility more than function — the tree shows what a user has without having to use it first.
+//
+// `home` is the exception, and the reason this exists at all: nothing creates it today. getOwnerHomeDir
+// returns process.env.HOME_DIR whenever it is set, which it always is on a real install, so the
+// per-user home has never actually been reached. It is where a non-owner's sessions will run.
+const USER_DIRS = [
+  'home',
+  'attachments',
+  'cache',
+  'dashboards',
+  'email_accounts',
+  'general_chat_sessions',
+  'logs',
+  'sidecar',
+] as const;
+
+const DRY_RUN = process.env.DRY_RUN === '1';
+const emails = process.argv.slice(2).filter(Boolean);
+
+if (!emails.length) {
+  console.error('Usage: bun scripts/provision-user-dirs.ts <email> [email...]');
+  process.exit(2);
+}
+
+// A stray argument would create a junk directory next to real user roots, and it would look like a
+// user. Cheap to refuse.
+const invalid = emails.filter((e) => !/^[^\s@/]+@[^\s@/]+\.[^\s@/]+$/.test(e));
+if (invalid.length) {
+  console.error(`Not valid email addresses: ${invalid.join(', ')}`);
+  process.exit(2);
+}
+
+console.log(`DATA_PATH = ${DATA_PATH}`);
+console.log(`${DRY_RUN ? 'Would provision' : 'Provisioning'} ${emails.length} user root(s)\n`);
+
+for (const email of emails) {
+  const root = join(DATA_PATH, email);
+  console.log(`${email}${existsSync(root) ? '' : '   [new root]'}`);
+
+  for (const dir of USER_DIRS) {
+    const path = join(root, dir);
+    if (existsSync(path)) {
+      console.log(`  · ${dir} (exists)`);
+      continue;
+    }
+    if (!DRY_RUN) mkdirSync(path, { recursive: true });
+    console.log(`  ${DRY_RUN ? '+' : '✓'} ${dir}`);
+  }
+  console.log('');
+}