diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
index 9478dd1..63e63b4 100644
--- a/AGENTS.md
+++ b/AGENTS.md
@@ -55,6 +55,8 @@ own default include globs rather than the root config's `**/tests/**` + `**/src/
 
 Integration tests are `pnpm run test:integration` (config in `tests/vitest.config.ts`).
 Most files start their own in-process server; `api-endpoints` and `sdk-compat` need a real gateway on `localhost:8080` via `bash start.sh`, which needs Docker Postgres.
+`api-endpoints` additionally needs *seeded* data: it reads the first existing ontology rather than creating one, so against an empty store its whole first test yields nothing and 20 tests cascade into "expected undefined to be defined".
+Seed with any `scripts/demo/seed-*.sh` before blaming a change. With data seeded it is 36/37, the one failure being Actions apply returning 404 where the test expects 400; that failure predates this note.
 
 Suites that start their own server pass `new OntologyStore(null)` / `new ObjectStore(null)` so they
 stay off the shared file store; a store built with the default path loads `/tmp/openfoundry-data/`,
@@ -101,6 +103,24 @@ Without `DATABASE_URL` every service uses its in-memory or `/tmp/openfoundry-dat
 
 Dev login is `admin` / `admin123` (see `DEV_USERS` in `services/svc-multipass/src/routes/auth.ts`).
 
+## Identity and permissions
+
+Two different `requirePermission` exports coexist and only one is reachable.
+`services/svc-gateway/src/middleware/rbac.ts` has zero importers repo-wide; the one that actually guards 118 routes is `@openfoundry/permissions`, whose header-based variant reads `x-user-id` / `x-user-roles`.
+Those headers are a trusted-hop input, never a client input: the gateway proxy drops every `x-user-*` header so a caller cannot assert its own roles. Do not re-add them to the forwarded set, and do not introduce a second identity header without a hop that sets it from a verified token.
+Seed and sync scripts talk to the service ports directly, not through the gateway, so that strip does not reach them - which is also why a service port must never be publicly reachable.
+Role enforcement is still absent after that strip: what it removed was a role claim any caller could forge, not working enforcement, and nothing yet sets those headers from a verified token.
+Until a trusted hop does, `ENFORCE_PERMISSIONS=true` makes every gateway-proxied route answer 403, because the permission hook sees neither `x-user-id` nor `request.claims`.
+
+`request.claims` is never populated: `authPlugin` is registered unencapsulated at `services/svc-gateway/src/server.ts:153` without `fastify-plugin`, so its `onRequest` hook applies to nothing.
+Until that is fixed, no token-based permission check enforces anything. `claims.sub` is also a username, not a RID (`svc-multipass/src/routes/auth.ts:122`), and issued tokens carry no `roles` claim at all (`packages/auth-tokens/src/token-creator.ts`).
+
+Neither model is Foundry's, so do not converge on either as-is.
+Foundry grants *roles on a resource* - `POST /v2/filesystem/resources/{resourceRid}/roles/add`, inherited by the container's contents, with principals that may be groups - while roles themselves are platform-defined and read-only over the API (`GET /v2/admin/roles/{roleId}` and `getBatch` only, no create or delete).
+Against that, `@openfoundry/permissions` roles are global (an EDITOR may write every ontology in the deployment) and `rbac.ts` is a bare `(subject, resource, permission)` ACL with no role, container, group or owner.
+`createPgStoreHook` in `packages/permissions/src/middleware.ts` is the one piece already shaped right: admin bypass, then resource grant, then role fallback.
+Tenant isolation is a separate, *mandatory* layer in Foundry (Organizations) and is `org_rid` + RLS here - no permission check delivers it, and none should be described as doing so.
+
 ## Front-end to service sharp edges
 
 The console must not send `Content-Type: application/json` on a request with no body: Fastify rejects it with `FST_ERR_CTP_EMPTY_JSON_BODY`, which the gateway reports as a 500.
diff --git a/deploy/.env.production b/deploy/.env.production
index c84324d..7b3a714 100644
--- a/deploy/.env.production
+++ b/deploy/.env.production
@@ -53,4 +53,7 @@ TRACING_ENABLED=false
 TRACING_ENDPOINT=
 
 # --- Permissions --------------------------------------------------------------
+# The gateway strips client-asserted `x-user-*` headers and nothing yet sets them
+# from a verified token, so `true` makes guarded gateway-proxied routes answer 403.
+# See the identity-header note in services/svc-gateway/src/proxy.ts.
 ENFORCE_PERMISSIONS=true
diff --git a/deploy/docker-compose.yml b/deploy/docker-compose.yml
index f649b19..7dacab3 100644
--- a/deploy/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/deploy/docker-compose.yml
@@ -30,6 +30,8 @@ x-service-env: &service-env
   LOG_LEVEL: ${LOG_LEVEL:-warn}
   LOG_FORMAT: json
   NODE_ENV: production
+  # Guarded gateway-proxied routes answer 403 while this is "true": see the
+  # identity-header note in services/svc-gateway/src/proxy.ts.
   ENFORCE_PERMISSIONS: "true"
   S3_ENDPOINT: http://minio:9000
   S3_ACCESS_KEY: ${MINIO_ROOT_USER}
diff --git a/services/svc-gateway/src/proxy.test.ts b/services/svc-gateway/src/proxy.test.ts
index 39c6ca8..52a2981 100644
--- a/services/svc-gateway/src/proxy.test.ts
+++ b/services/svc-gateway/src/proxy.test.ts
@@ -206,6 +206,58 @@ describe("Gateway proxy routing", () => {
     expect(headers["x-forwarded-for"]).toBeDefined();
   });
 
+  it("does not forward client-asserted x-user-* headers to upstream", async () => {
+    const mockResponse = new Response("{}", {
+      status: 200,
+      headers: { "content-type": "application/json" },
+    });
+    vi.mocked(globalThis.fetch).mockResolvedValueOnce(mockResponse);
+
+    const app = await createServer({ config: TEST_CONFIG });
+    await app.inject({
+      method: "GET",
+      url: "/api/v2/ontologies",
+      headers: {
+        // Downstream, requirePermission("ontology:read") would honour these.
+        "x-user-id": "mallory",
+        "x-user-roles": "ADMIN",
+      },
+    });
+
+    const [, fetchOptions] = vi.mocked(globalThis.fetch).mock.calls[0];
+    const headers = (fetchOptions as RequestInit).headers as Record<string, string>;
+    expect(headers["x-user-id"]).toBeUndefined();
+    expect(headers["x-user-roles"]).toBeUndefined();
+  });
+
+  it("strips x-user-* regardless of header casing, and keeps other headers", async () => {
+    const mockResponse = new Response("{}", {
+      status: 200,
+      headers: { "content-type": "application/json" },
+    });
+    vi.mocked(globalThis.fetch).mockResolvedValueOnce(mockResponse);
+
+    const app = await createServer({ config: TEST_CONFIG });
+    await app.inject({
+      method: "GET",
+      url: "/api/v2/ontologies",
+      headers: {
+        "X-User-Roles": "ADMIN",
+        "X-User-Groups": "platform-admins",
+        authorization: "Bearer token-123",
+        "x-uploaded-by": "alice",
+      },
+    });
+
+    const [, fetchOptions] = vi.mocked(globalThis.fetch).mock.calls[0];
+    const headers = (fetchOptions as RequestInit).headers as Record<string, string>;
+    const names = Object.keys(headers).map((k) => k.toLowerCase());
+    expect(names.some((n) => n.startsWith("x-user-"))).toBe(false);
+    // Everything the caller is entitled to assert still goes through.
+    expect(headers["authorization"]).toBe("Bearer token-123");
+    expect(headers["x-uploaded-by"]).toBe("alice");
+  });
+
   it("strips upstream hop-by-hop headers from response", async () => {
     const mockResponse = new Response("{}", {
       status: 200,
diff --git a/services/svc-gateway/src/proxy.ts b/services/svc-gateway/src/proxy.ts
index 2672c15..2153b22 100644
--- a/services/svc-gateway/src/proxy.ts
+++ b/services/svc-gateway/src/proxy.ts
@@ -15,6 +15,37 @@ const HOP_BY_HOP_HEADERS = new Set([
   "upgrade",
 ]);
 
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+// Client-asserted identity headers
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+/**
+ * Headers by which a caller asserts *who it is* rather than *what it wants*.
+ *
+ * Downstream services treat these as trusted: the permission middleware in
+ * `@openfoundry/permissions` reads `x-user-roles` and grants whatever those
+ * roles imply. They are therefore only ever safe when a trusted hop sets them
+ * from a verified token, and never safe to forward from the public edge.
+ *
+ * The gateway is that edge, so it drops every `x-user-*` header arriving from
+ * a client. Nothing legitimate sends them today: the console authenticates
+ * with `Authorization: Bearer`, and the seed and sync scripts talk to the
+ * service ports directly rather than through this proxy.
+ *
+ * This only removes an inbound trust. It does not grant anyone access, and it
+ * does not populate the headers either; `request.claims` is never set either,
+ * because `authPlugin` is registered unencapsulated in `server.ts`.
+ *
+ * Known consequence: role-based enforcement does NOT work after this change.
+ * What was removed is fake enforcement - a client could assert its own roles -
+ * and real enforcement waits on the gateway task that validates JWTs and sets
+ * these headers from validated claims. Until that trusted hop exists, running
+ * with `ENFORCE_PERMISSIONS=true` makes every gateway-proxied route answer 403,
+ * because the permission hook sees neither `x-user-id` nor `request.claims`.
+ * That is known and accepted, not an oversight.
+ */
+const CLIENT_ASSERTED_IDENTITY_PREFIX = "x-user-";
+
 // ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 // Proxy
 // ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -26,6 +57,7 @@ const HOP_BY_HOP_HEADERS = new Set([
  * Behaviour:
  * - Preserves method, path, query string, headers, and body.
  * - Strips hop-by-hop headers from both the outgoing and incoming directions.
+ * - Strips client-asserted `x-user-*` identity headers from the outgoing direction.
  * - Injects `X-Forwarded-For` and `X-Request-Id` headers.
  * - Returns 502 Bad Gateway when the target is unreachable.
  */
@@ -40,8 +72,11 @@ export async function proxyRequest(
   // Build outgoing headers, stripping hop-by-hop entries.
   const outgoingHeaders: Record<string, string> = {};
   for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(request.headers)) {
-    if (HOP_BY_HOP_HEADERS.has(key.toLowerCase())) continue;
-    if (key.toLowerCase() === "host") continue; // let fetch set the correct Host
+    const lowerKey = key.toLowerCase();
+    if (HOP_BY_HOP_HEADERS.has(lowerKey)) continue;
+    if (lowerKey === "host") continue; // let fetch set the correct Host
+    // Never forward a caller's own claim about its identity or roles.
+    if (lowerKey.startsWith(CLIENT_ASSERTED_IDENTITY_PREFIX)) continue;
     if (value !== undefined) {
       outgoingHeaders[key] = Array.isArray(value) ? value.join(", ") : value;
     }