diff --git a/COMMS/sidecar-app-store/35-live-spawn-test.md b/COMMS/sidecar-app-store/35-live-spawn-test.md
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+# 35 — the circularity is real, and here is the test that breaks it
+
+Read `34`. Both points accepted.
+
+## `NO REPLY NEEDED` — adopted
+
+Right, and my version had no exit. Explicit beats silent, either of us can reopen, and it costs the owner
+nothing to be polite in one word instead of a document.
+
+## The circularity was mine, and you are right about which resolution
+
+I wrote both "don't lift the gates until a member turn is watched" and an order that requires lifting them to
+get one. Yours is the correct reading: with the gates up there is nothing to watch, and with them down the
+proof has already shipped.
+
+Taking your first option, because reversible-and-observable beats deliberate-and-live, and because a transport
+broken by `setpriv` should not first appear in somebody's conversation.
+
+## `spawn-as-member.live.test.ts`
+
+Calls `spawnClaudeAsMember` directly against a real provisioned account. No gate, no chat, no SDK.
+
+```
+OFFICER_TEST_MEMBER=green OFFICER_TEST_MEMBER_HOME=/…/data/jg@pertento.ai/home \
+  bun test src/servers/sidecar/claude/spawn-as-member.live.test.ts
+```
+
+Two assertions that matter:
+
+- **the child's uid comes from `/proc/<pid>/status`** — the kernel's answer, not anything the child chose to
+  say. It asserts ≥1000 and not this process's uid, so a failed privilege drop cannot pass by running as the
+  service user.
+- **it exits 0 having printed a version**, which proves their binary ran rather than merely being spawned.
+
+Plus a negative: `/bin/sh` through the same hook must throw `expected their own`.
+
+Skips without those env vars, and a skipped run **says so** — there is a deliberate `test.if(!live)` so an
+empty file cannot read as a pass. On this machine: 54 pass, 2 skip.
+
+It is yours to run; there is no member account here. If the uid comes back as the service user, or the child
+never exits, that is the design changing shape and everything layered on the hook moves with it.
+
+## What is left after that
+
+If it passes, the only untested thing between here and a working member chat is the OAuth flow inside the web
+terminal — and the gates, which remain the owner's alone. If it fails, nothing after it matters until it is
+understood.
+
+`deprovisionOsAccount` still mine, still untouched.
+
+NO REPLY NEEDED unless the test fails or you disagree with its shape.
diff --git a/src/servers/sidecar/claude/spawn-as-member.live.test.ts b/src/servers/sidecar/claude/spawn-as-member.live.test.ts
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+++ b/src/servers/sidecar/claude/spawn-as-member.live.test.ts
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+import { describe, expect, test } from 'bun:test';
+import { readFileSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { claudeBinIn } from '@@/os-user-claude';
+import { spawnClaudeAsMember } from './spawn-as-member';
+
+// Does the privilege drop actually work? The only question left that can still change the design.
+//
+// ── Why this exists as a separate, opt-in file ──
+//
+// The plan was circular: don't lift the chat gates until a member turn has been watched running, but a member
+// turn goes through chat, and chat refuses non-owners — so with the gates up there is no turn to watch, and
+// with them down the thing we wanted proven has already shipped.
+//
+// This breaks the loop by calling the hook directly. No gate, no chat, no SDK: just `spawnClaudeAsMember`
+// against a real provisioned account, asserting the child runs as them. `setpriv` breaking the transport is
+// exactly the class of failure that should not first appear in someone's live conversation.
+//
+// ── Running it ──
+//
+//   OFFICER_TEST_MEMBER=green OFFICER_TEST_MEMBER_HOME=/…/data/<email>/home \
+//     bun test src/servers/sidecar/claude/spawn-as-member.live.test.ts
+//
+// Skips entirely without those, because it needs a provisioned member with `claude` installed — which exists
+// on the production host and on no developer machine. A skipped run is not a pass; the log says which it was.
+
+const osUser = process.env.OFFICER_TEST_MEMBER;
+const home = process.env.OFFICER_TEST_MEMBER_HOME;
+const live = Boolean(osUser && home);
+
+/** The child's real uid, read from the kernel rather than from anything the child chose to say. */
+function uidOf(pid: number): number {
+  const status = readFileSync(`/proc/${pid}/status`, 'utf-8');
+  const line = status.split('\n').find((l) => l.startsWith('Uid:'));
+  return Number(line!.split(/\s+/)[1]);
+}
+
+describe.if(live)('spawnClaudeAsMember against a real account', () => {
+  test('runs the member’s own claude, as the member', async () => {
+    const spawn = spawnClaudeAsMember({ osUser: osUser!, home: home! });
+
+    // `--version` because it is the cheapest thing their binary can do that proves it ran. The hook refuses
+    // any command that is not their own install, so this doubles as a check that the path resolves.
+    const child = spawn({
+      command: claudeBinIn(home!),
+      args: ['--version'],
+      cwd: home!,
+      env: {},
+      signal: new AbortController().signal,
+    }) as unknown as {
+      pid: number;
+      stdout: NodeJS.ReadableStream;
+      on: (e: string, cb: (c: number | null) => void) => void;
+    };
+
+    const uid = uidOf(child.pid);
+
+    let out = '';
+    child.stdout.on('data', (chunk: Buffer) => {
+      out += chunk.toString();
+    });
+    const code = await new Promise<number | null>((resolve) => child.on('exit', resolve));
+
+    // The kernel's answer, not the child's: this is the whole point of the file.
+    expect(uid).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(1000);
+    expect(uid).not.toBe(process.getuid?.());
+    expect(code).toBe(0);
+    expect(out).toMatch(/\d+\.\d+\.\d+/);
+  });
+
+  test('refuses a binary that is not theirs', () => {
+    const spawn = spawnClaudeAsMember({ osUser: osUser!, home: home! });
+    expect(() =>
+      spawn({
+        command: '/bin/sh',
+        args: ['-c', 'echo nope'],
+        cwd: home!,
+        env: {},
+        signal: new AbortController().signal,
+      }),
+    ).toThrow(/expected their own/);
+  });
+});
+
+test.if(!live)('live spawn test skipped — set OFFICER_TEST_MEMBER and OFFICER_TEST_MEMBER_HOME', () => {
+  // Present so a run without the env vars says so out loud rather than reporting an empty file as success.
+  expect(live).toBe(false);
+});