diff --git a/api/router.ts b/api/router.ts
index cdb3f45..3c8ea08 100644
--- a/api/router.ts
+++ b/api/router.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import { createRouter } from '@@/create-router';
 import { createSidecarProxy } from '@@/sidecar/create-proxy';
 import { getLinkwardenConfig, setLinkwardenConfig, getAccount } from '../db/queries';
+import { stripHopByHop } from '../sidecar/upstream';
 
 /**
  * Mounted at `/api/linkwarden`.
@@ -32,7 +33,51 @@ const proxy = createSidecarProxy({
   timeoutSeconds: 120,
 });
 
-router.route('/lw', proxy.router);
+/*
+  ── The factory's ROUTER is not used, and that is the whole reason this is written out ──
+
+  `createSidecarProxy` is for AUTHENTICATED proxying: its forwarder does `ctx.get('user').id`, because
+  every other sidecar behind it is reached by somebody with an Officer session. This door is declared in
+  `unauthenticatedPaths`, so there is no user, and mounting the factory's router here answered every
+  request with `TypeError: undefined is not an object` as a 500. Measured on alpha, not reasoned about.
+
+  Vault hand-writes its public router for exactly this reason and I should have followed it rather than
+  reaching for the shared thing because it was shared.
+
+  What the factory IS still used for, and why it is still constructed: `getHttpUrl()`, so the port the
+  sidecar announced is discovered in one place; and `registerProxiedPrefix`, which runs at construction
+  and tells the body parser to leave `/api/linkwarden/lw` alone. Both matter, and neither is the router.
+*/
+router.all('/lw/*', async (ctx) => {
+  const base = proxy.getHttpUrl();
+  if (!base) return ctx.text('the Linkwarden sidecar is not running', 503);
+
+  const url = new URL(ctx.req.url);
+  const subpath = url.pathname.slice('/api/linkwarden/lw'.length) || '/';
+
+  /*
+    Authorization is FORWARDED, not replaced — the opposite of the door below.
+
+    The client's own credential is the only one in play here, and Linkwarden is the only thing entitled
+    to judge it. Officer adds no security to a stock extension because it has nothing to check: this is
+    the same exposure through one address instead of two, which is what lets Linkwarden stop listening
+    on its own.
+  */
+  const hasBody = ctx.req.method !== 'GET' && ctx.req.method !== 'HEAD';
+  const init: RequestInit & { duplex?: 'half' } = {
+    method: ctx.req.method,
+    headers: stripHopByHop(ctx.req.raw.headers),
+    redirect: 'manual',
+    ...(hasBody ? { body: ctx.req.raw.body, duplex: 'half' as const } : {}),
+  };
+
+  try {
+    const upstream = await fetch(`${base}${subpath}${url.search}`, init);
+    return new Response(upstream.body, { status: upstream.status, headers: stripHopByHop(upstream.headers) });
+  } catch {
+    return ctx.text('Linkwarden unreachable', 502);
+  }
+});
 
 // ── where the instance is ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────