@@ -307,13 +307,13 @@ holds still. They are required to be HERE and to say WHEN they were true;
 their values are not compared. The reasoning, and the measurement behind it,
 are in `scripts/check-tenant-audit-census.mjs`.
 
-Measured on 2026-10-23 at `d45e01440`.
+Measured on 2026-10-23 at `487d57fed`.
 
 | corpus scale (not enforced) | count |
 | :--- | ---: |
-| tracked non-test sources scanned | 716 |
+| tracked non-test sources scanned | 723 |
 | engine-shaped types recognised | 87 |
 | declared objects in the registry | 117 |
-| same-named calls subtracted as non-engine | 172 |
+| same-named calls subtracted as non-engine | 174 |
 
 {/* END GENERATED: tenant-audit-census */}
@@ -90,14 +90,14 @@ holds still. They are required to be HERE and to say WHEN they were true;
 their values are not compared. The reasoning, and the measurement behind it,
 are in `scripts/check-tenant-audit-census.mjs`.
 
-Measured on 2026-10-23 at `d45e01440`.
+Measured on 2026-10-23 at `487d57fed`.
 
 | corpus scale (not enforced) | count |
 | :--- | ---: |
-| tracked non-test sources scanned | 716 |
+| tracked non-test sources scanned | 723 |
 | engine-shaped types recognised | 87 |
 | declared objects in the registry | 117 |
-| same-named calls subtracted as non-engine | 172 |
+| same-named calls subtracted as non-engine | 174 |
 
 ## Every site
 
@@ -132,12 +132,12 @@ Measured on 2026-10-23 at `d45e01440`.
 | `packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/adopt-membership.ts` | `update` | `SystemObjectName.MEMBER` | undecidable | PROVABLY NONE | 1 |
 | `packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/audience-gate-test-support.ts` | `insert` | `sys_invitation` | enabled | elevated | 1 |
 | `packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/auth-manager-database-hooks.ts` | `update` | `sys_user` | enabled | options unreadable | 2 |
+| `packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/auth-manager-membership-admission.ts` | `insert` | `sys_user_permission_set` | enabled | elevated | 1 |
 | `packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/auth-manager-password-session-policy.ts` | `update` | `sys_account` | enabled | options unreadable | 1 |
 | `packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/auth-manager-password-session-policy.ts` | `update` | `sys_session` | enabled | options unreadable | 3 |
 | `packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/auth-manager-password-session-policy.ts` | `update` | `sys_two_factor` | enabled | options unreadable | 1 |
 | `packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/auth-manager-password-session-policy.ts` | `update` | `sys_user` | enabled | options unreadable | 3 |
 | `packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/auth-manager-sign-in-lockout.ts` | `update` | `sys_user` | enabled | options unreadable | 3 |
-| `packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/auth-manager.ts` | `insert` | `sys_user_permission_set` | enabled | elevated | 1 |
 | `packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/auth-manager.ts` | `delete` | `sys_verification` | enabled | elevated | 1 |
 | `packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/auth-manager.ts` | `insert` | `sys_verification` | enabled | elevated | 1 |
 | `packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/auth-plugin.ts` | `update` | `sys_oauth_application` | enabled | PROVABLY NONE | 1 |
 
@@ -0,0 +1,267 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2026 ObjectStack. Licensed under the Apache-2.0 license.
+
+/**
+ * [#25224 cut 8] Who may join, and what joining settles — the audience gate
+ * better-auth's `user.validateUserInfo` callback runs on every user creation,
+ * the membership reconciler's one assembly of inputs that both creation seams
+ * call, and the self-registration permission set a self-serve sign-up was
+ * promised (landed, or reported as not granted) — moved out of
+ * `auth-manager.ts` whole.
+ *
+ * A MOVE, not a redesign. Each function below is the body of the
+ * `AuthManager` method of the same name as it stood, re-indented one level
+ * and otherwise unedited: the same audience verdicts and refusal codes, the
+ * same bootstrap, invitation and operator-provisioning questions asked of the
+ * manager, the same membership policy read, the same grant landing and the
+ * same degradation report.
+ *
+ * ## How the moved bodies reach the class
+ *
+ * The shape #23050 set for `rest-server.ts` (its `data-action-routes.ts`
+ * header carries the full reasoning), which `auth-manager-actor-guards.ts`,
+ * `auth-manager-sign-in-lockout.ts`, `auth-manager-password-session-policy.ts`,
+ * `auth-manager-database-hooks.ts`, `auth-manager-email-sms-delivery.ts`,
+ * `auth-manager-plugin-assembly.ts` and `auth-manager-database-secret.ts`
+ * follow, applied per method. The class keeps all four methods — the
+ * published `dist/*.d.ts` lists each one — and each body is one literal of
+ * exactly the {@link MembershipAdmissionHost} members that method reads, plus
+ * a `.call`. The three that were `async` no longer are: each returns the moved
+ * function's own promise, so a caller awaits the same promise the body
+ * settles, with no extra wrapper.
+ *
+ * A method goes as a closure that calls it on the manager at call time, so a
+ * test double or spy set on the manager is still the one a body reaches: the
+ * bootstrap, invitation and operator-provisioning probes the audience gate
+ * asks (which stay on the class), the stagings it writes, and
+ * `getMembershipPolicy` (a live platform setting). `config` goes as a GETTER:
+ * the class reassigns it after construction (`setRuntimeBaseUrl` and
+ * `applyConfigPatch`), so it is read off the manager when a body reads it, as
+ * before.
+ *
+ * `AuthManager` is imported here by VALUE, for one read: the public static
+ * `AuthManager.OPERATOR_PROVISIONING_TICKET_FIELD`, inside
+ * `validateAudienceAdmission`, when better-auth calls the gate. The two
+ * modules import each other, and that is safe because nothing reads the class
+ * while they are first evaluated: this module's top level is imports, an
+ * interface and function declarations.
+ *
+ * Nothing re-exports this module, so the published surface does not move.
+ */
+
+import { AuthManager } from './auth-manager.js';
+import {
+  classifyCreationMethod,
+  decideAudienceAdmission,
+  AUDIENCE_CONFIG_ERROR,
+  type AudienceCreationClass,
+} from './audience-posture.js';
+import { GRANT_SET_NAME_FIELD } from './grant-set-name.js';
+import { withSystemReadContext } from './objectql-adapter.js';
+import { reconcileMembership, type ReconcileOutcome } from './reconcile-membership.js';
+import { shouldStampOwnerVerifiedAtCreation } from './walled-owner-operator-stamp.js';
+
+/**
+ * The `AuthManager` members the functions below read — every one of them, and
+ * no other; each function's `this` is the `Pick` of the members IT reads. Each
+ * is typed AS the class member (an indexed access on the class), so a change
+ * to a member's signature on the class is a change here too, and naming a
+ * member the class does not have is a compile error. See the module header for
+ * why `config` is a getter.
+ */
+export interface MembershipAdmissionHost {
+  readonly config: AuthManager['config'];
+  audienceLogError: AuthManager['audienceLogError'];
+  enterpriseOAuthProviderIds: AuthManager['enterpriseOAuthProviderIds'];
+  getAudience: AuthManager['getAudience'];
+  getMembershipPolicy: AuthManager['getMembershipPolicy'];
+  hasPendingInvitationFor: AuthManager['hasPendingInvitationFor'];
+  isBootstrapCreation: AuthManager['isBootstrapCreation'];
+  isOperatorProvisioning: AuthManager['isOperatorProvisioning'];
+  selfRegistrationSetResolvable: AuthManager['selfRegistrationSetResolvable'];
+  stageOwnerVerifiedStamp: AuthManager['stageOwnerVerifiedStamp'];
+  stageSelfRegistrationGrant: AuthManager['stageSelfRegistrationGrant'];
+}
+
+/** The body of `AuthManager#settleMembership`; the method's docblock there is its contract. */
+export async function settleMembership(this: Pick<MembershipAdmissionHost, 'config' | 'getMembershipPolicy'>, userId: unknown): Promise<ReconcileOutcome | undefined> {
+  try {
+    const result = await reconcileMembership(
+      this.config.dataEngine,
+      typeof userId === 'string' && userId ? userId : undefined,
+      {
+        // #5152 — read through the accessor, not `this.config` directly: it is
+        // the single source the backfill path reads too.
+        policy: this.getMembershipPolicy(),
+        resolveTargetOrg: async () => {
+          const tenancy = this.config.getTenancy?.();
+          // Single-org → default org; multi-org → none (invite/JIT own it).
+          return tenancy ? await tenancy.defaultOrgId() : null;
+        },
+        logger: this.config.logger,
+      },
+    );
+    return result.outcome;
+  } catch {
+    // reconcileMembership never throws, but guard regardless — membership
+    // bookkeeping must never break user creation or session creation.
+    return undefined;
+  }
+}
+
+/** The body of `AuthManager#validateAudienceAdmission`; the method's docblock there is its contract. */
+export async function validateAudienceAdmission(
+  this: Pick<MembershipAdmissionHost, 'audienceLogError' | 'config' | 'enterpriseOAuthProviderIds' | 'getAudience' | 'hasPendingInvitationFor' | 'isBootstrapCreation' | 'isOperatorProvisioning' | 'selfRegistrationSetResolvable' | 'stageOwnerVerifiedStamp' | 'stageSelfRegistrationGrant'>,
+  data: {
+    user?: Record<string, unknown>;
+    source?: { action?: string; method?: string; oauth?: { providerId?: string } };
+  },
+  ctx?: unknown,
+): Promise<{ error: string; errorDescription?: string } | undefined> {
+  try {
+    // link-account / provider sign-in concern an EXISTING user's identity,
+    // not audience admission — the posture judges only who may COME INTO
+    // EXISTENCE.
+    if (data?.source?.action !== 'create-user') return undefined;
+    const audience = this.getAudience();
+    const email = typeof data?.user?.email === 'string' ? (data.user.email as string) : undefined;
+    // [#14157] A creation the deployment's own boot command staged is the
+    // OPERATOR class — the vendor's `source.method` cannot carry that,
+    // because the seed reaches better-auth through the same `signUpEmail`
+    // API a person's sign-up does. See `stageOperatorProvisioning` for why
+    // this is a declared ticket and not a wider bootstrap probe.
+    // [#14373] …and why email alone no longer decides it: the ticket's
+    // random value must also match, read off the SAME endpoint context the
+    // `disableSignUp` before-hook already reads `ctx.body.email` from
+    // (`getCurrentAuthEndpointContext()` — one context per request, shared
+    // across the before/after hooks and this validateUserInfo callback).
+    const provisioningTicket = (ctx as { body?: Record<string, unknown> } | undefined)?.body?.[
+      AuthManager.OPERATOR_PROVISIONING_TICKET_FIELD
+    ];
+    const creationClass: AudienceCreationClass = this.isOperatorProvisioning(email, provisioningTicket)
+      ? 'operator'
+      : classifyCreationMethod(data?.source, {
+          enterpriseOAuthProviderIds: this.enterpriseOAuthProviderIds(),
+        });
+    let isBootstrap = false;
+    let hasPendingInvitation = false;
+    if (creationClass === 'self-serve') {
+      // Only the gated class pays for the probes.
+      isBootstrap = await this.isBootstrapCreation();
+      if (!isBootstrap && email) hasPendingInvitation = await this.hasPendingInvitationFor(email);
+    }
+    const verdict = decideAudienceAdmission({
+      audience,
+      creationClass,
+      email,
+      hasPendingInvitation,
+      isBootstrap,
+    });
+    if (!verdict.admit) {
+      if (verdict.code === AUDIENCE_CONFIG_ERROR) {
+        // Config-unusable refusals are the operator's bug, not policy —
+        // report at error level with the offending value in the line
+        // (#5205: never let "your posture is not a posture" read as
+        // "policy said no").
+        this.audienceLogError(`[audience] refusing self-registration: ${verdict.message}`, {
+          method: data?.source?.method,
+        });
+      } else {
+        this.config.logger?.info?.('[audience] self-registration refused by posture', {
+          code: verdict.code,
+          method: data?.source?.method,
+          posture: audience.posture,
+        });
+      }
+      return { error: verdict.code, errorDescription: verdict.message };
+    }
+    // [#12751] Walled deployments: an ADMITTED creation of the declared
+    // platform owner through an operator provisioning path (operator class,
+    // or the bootstrap carve-out) is stamped email-verified at creation —
+    // maintainer ruling 2026-08-28, 「运营方创建即视为已验证」. The decision
+    // (and the per-path argument) lives in `walled-owner-operator-stamp.ts`;
+    // this seam only STAGES it, because the admission gate is the one place
+    // that holds the vendor's own `source.method` signal AND the bootstrap
+    // probe. Consumed once by the composed `user.create.before` hook, so the
+    // row is BORN verified; an email UPDATE can never traverse that seam,
+    // which is what keeps a later change-to-owner-address from inheriting
+    // the stamp.
+    if (
+      email &&
+      shouldStampOwnerVerifiedAtCreation({ email, creationClass, isBootstrap })
+    ) {
+      this.stageOwnerVerifiedStamp(email);
+    }
+    if (verdict.grantPermissionSet) {
+      const setName = audience.selfRegistrationPermissionSet;
+      if (!setName) {
+        // Unreachable past entry validation; keep the fail-closed floor —
+        // admitting without the declared grant would be ADR-0078's
+        // "declared but inert" at runtime.
+        const message =
+          `audience posture '${audience.posture}' permits self-registration but declares no ` +
+          'selfRegistrationPermissionSet — self-registration is refused until the configuration is fixed.';
+        this.audienceLogError(`[audience] ${message}`);
+        return { error: AUDIENCE_CONFIG_ERROR, errorDescription: message };
+      }
+      const resolvable = await this.selfRegistrationSetResolvable(setName);
+      if (!resolvable) {
+        const message =
+          `the declared self-registration permission set '${setName}' cannot be resolved ` +
+          '(not in the security catalog, switched off in sys_metadata_activation, or the store ' +
+          'is unavailable) — ' +
+          'self-registration is refused rather than admitting an ungranted user. ' +
+          'Declare or switch on the set, or point selfRegistrationPermissionSet at an existing one.';
+        this.audienceLogError(`[audience] ${message}`);
+        return { error: AUDIENCE_CONFIG_ERROR, errorDescription: message };
+      }
+      if (email) this.stageSelfRegistrationGrant(email, setName);
+    }
+    return undefined;
+  } catch (error) {
+    // Fail CLOSED: an admission question this gate cannot answer must not
+    // admit. Operator/provider classes never reach I/O, so they cannot land
+    // here.
+    const message = 'audience admission could not be evaluated — self-registration refused.';
+    this.audienceLogError(`[audience] ${message}`, {
+      error: (error as Error)?.message ?? String(error),
+    });
+    return { error: AUDIENCE_CONFIG_ERROR, errorDescription: message };
+  }
+}
+
+/** The body of `AuthManager#landSelfRegistrationGrant`; the method's docblock there is its contract. */
+export async function landSelfRegistrationGrant(
+  this: Pick<MembershipAdmissionHost, 'config'>,
+  engine: unknown,
+  userId: string,
+  setName: string,
+  organizationId: string,
+): Promise<void> {
+  const sys = withSystemReadContext(engine as never) as any;
+  const existing: any[] = await sys.find('sys_user_permission_set', {
+    where: { user_id: userId, [GRANT_SET_NAME_FIELD]: setName },
+    limit: 1,
+  });
+  if (existing.length > 0) return;
+  const id = `ups_${Date.now().toString(36)}${Math.random().toString(36).slice(2, 10)}`;
+  await sys.insert(
+    'sys_user_permission_set',
+    { id, user_id: userId, [GRANT_SET_NAME_FIELD]: setName, organization_id: organizationId },
+    { context: { isSystem: true } },
+  );
+  this.config.logger?.info?.('[audience] granted the declared self-registration permission set', {
+    userId,
+    permissionSet: setName,
+    organizationId,
+  });
+}
+
+/** The body of `AuthManager#reportUngrantedSelfRegistrant`; the method's docblock there is its contract. */
+export function reportUngrantedSelfRegistrant(this: Pick<MembershipAdmissionHost, 'audienceLogError'>, userId: string, setName: string, cause: string): void {
+  this.audienceLogError(
+    `[audience] a self-registrant was ADMITTED but the declared permission set '${setName}' was NOT granted ` +
+    `(user ${userId}) — the account works and everything looks normal, but it holds only baseline access, ` +
+    `and nothing retries this. Fix: verify the set exists and is active for the target organization, then grant it ` +
+    `manually (sys_user_permission_set) or have the user re-created. Cause: ${cause}`,
+  );
+}