diff --git a/scripts/marketplace-sync.ts b/scripts/marketplace-sync.ts
index 97d340b9..7ab10f1b 100644
--- a/scripts/marketplace-sync.ts
+++ b/scripts/marketplace-sync.ts
@@ -66,7 +66,19 @@ const git = (dir: string, args: string[]): string | null => {
   return new TextDecoder().decode(result.stdout).trim() || null;
 };
 
-const PLUGINS_DIR = resolve(import.meta.dir, '..', 'plugins');
+/*
+  Which plugins directory to publish FROM.
+
+  There are two, and they are not the same thing. `platform/plugins/` holds what this machine has
+  INSTALLED — updated by `plugins:update`, which is a git pull, and therefore always at whatever version
+  was last installed. `officer-dev/plugins/` holds every repo in the org, cloned for working on, and is
+  where a release is actually made.
+
+  Publishing from the install directory means the catalogue advertises the version this machine happens
+  to be running rather than the version that was released. That is exactly what happened on 2026-08-27:
+  21 plugins were tagged and the store went on showing 1.0.0.
+*/
+const PLUGINS_DIR = process.env.PLUGINS_DIR ?? resolve(import.meta.dir, '..', 'plugins');
 
 async function syncOne(dir: string): Promise<Sync | null> {
   const appName = basename(dir);
diff --git a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Plugins/PluginGrid.tsx b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Plugins/PluginGrid.tsx
index fa4dc61b..a4c81e09 100644
--- a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Plugins/PluginGrid.tsx
+++ b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Plugins/PluginGrid.tsx
@@ -29,7 +29,14 @@ const Card = ({ entry, search }: { entry: Entry; search: string }) => {
   return (
     <Link
       to={{ search: `?${next}` }}
-      className="group flex flex-col gap-2 rounded-xl border border-duck-dark/10 bg-white/40 p-3 transition-colors hover:border-duck-teal/40 hover:bg-duck-teal/5"
+      /* `bg-duck-dark/5`, NOT `bg-white/40`. This app's surfaces are a darkening of the panel behind them
+         — every other card and section here does the same — and a translucent WHITE reads as a pale box
+         floating on a dark theme rather than as a card. It looked fine against a light background and
+         nowhere else, which is what you get for picking a colour instead of a token.
+
+         Hover changes the BORDER and nothing else. A background swap on a grid of twenty-one makes the
+         whole thing twitch as the pointer crosses it; a border is enough to say which one you are on. */
+      className="group flex flex-col gap-2 rounded-xl border border-duck-dark/10 bg-duck-dark/5 p-3 transition-colors hover:border-duck-teal/60"
     >
       <div className="flex items-start gap-3">
         {entry.image ? (
@@ -62,7 +69,7 @@ const Card = ({ entry, search }: { entry: Entry; search: string }) => {
       {!!entry.tags?.length && (
         <div className="mt-auto flex flex-wrap gap-1">
           {entry.tags.map((tag) => (
-            <span key={tag} className="rounded-full bg-duck-dark/5 px-2 py-0.5 text-[10px] text-duck-dark/50">
+            <span key={tag} className="rounded-full bg-duck-dark/10 px-2 py-0.5 text-[10px] text-duck-dark/60">
               {tag}
             </span>
           ))}
diff --git a/todo/plugin-ecosystem/marketplace-browse-by-tag.md b/todo/plugin-ecosystem/marketplace-browse-by-tag.md
index a1443c57..7fb59d2d 100644
--- a/todo/plugin-ecosystem/marketplace-browse-by-tag.md
+++ b/todo/plugin-ecosystem/marketplace-browse-by-tag.md
@@ -12,21 +12,23 @@ order: 5
 own tags in its manifest, the sync caches them, and `CatalogueEntry.tags` serves them normalised. All 21
 are tagged and every tag has at least three plugins behind it.
 
-**The UI is not started.** What the owner asked for, 2026-08-27:
+**The UI landed the same day** (`d58f5881`, card styling corrected in a follow-up): tags down the left
+with counts, cards in a grid on the right, detail replacing the grid with a back link that keeps `?tag=`.
+Both the filter and the selection are in the URL so browser Back works. The screen also moved from
+`useDashboardState` to `useAuthoredLayout`, or none of it would have reached anyone who had opened it
+before.
+
+What is left here is what the owner has not looked at yet, and one thing he named and I have not built:
+
+- **"more that I want to implement here, one of them very challenging but fun"** — not described yet.
+- Whether "Untagged" earns its place in the left-hand list.
+- Whether the cards want to be bigger.
+
+Original ask, 2026-08-27, kept because it is the spec:
 
 - tags listed down the LEFT, as the filter
 - plugins on the right as **cards in a grid**, app-store style — not the current master/detail list
 - clicking a card opens the detail, with a **back button returning where you were**
 
-Two things to settle before building:
-
-- **"All" has to be the default selection**, or a store that filters opens on nothing.
-- **Does the detail replace the grid or sit beside it?** A back button implies replace, which changes the
-  screen from master-detail to list-then-page. The current screen is explicitly built the other way
-  (`?selected=` rather than a route, deliberately — see `docs/navigation-audit.md`), so this is a real
-  change rather than a tweak.
-
-Whatever it becomes, the filter AND the selection both belong in the URL, or Back breaks.
-
-**More is wanted here beyond this** — the owner has said so, including "one very challenging but fun"
-thing not yet described.
+Both questions it raised were answered in the building: "All" is the default, and the detail REPLACES
+the grid — a grid needs the width and a detail beside one gets half of it.