diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
index 0217604..cdf9e70 100644
--- a/AGENTS.md
+++ b/AGENTS.md
@@ -168,6 +168,14 @@ them. Revisit only if the stated reason stops holding.
   workspace dir, so ci.sh's web-image build races another run's container creation on the
   `<project>-web` tag. Accepted for a single-maintainer cadence; serialize with a workflow
   `concurrency` group if it ever bites.
+- **`ICON_NAMES` (`src/ui/icons.ts`) is a host-owned registry, not a frozen plugin contract.** It is
+  deliberately not re-exported from `#plugin-api`, and README → Nav & permission gates already tells an
+  author that using a new icon means registering it there. So the palette may narrow when the last
+  reference to an id goes — `i-gear` left with the settings menu 2026-08-05 — and a plugin needing one
+  gets it re-registered in the same change. Accepted cost: an unknown sprite id renders a blank icon
+  instead of failing loud; the `every icon <use> resolves to a defined <symbol>` e2e test catches it for
+  anything reaching the nav. Removing an id is a core edit, so weigh it per icon rather than sweeping the
+  registry — a few ids are registered ahead of a caller (see `todo.md`).
 
 ## Docker only — no host tooling
 
diff --git a/e2e-tests/visual.spec.ts b/e2e-tests/visual.spec.ts
index 6be79f7..5edcf83 100644
--- a/e2e-tests/visual.spec.ts
+++ b/e2e-tests/visual.spec.ts
@@ -101,6 +101,7 @@ test("the public landing at / is ungated and links to sign in + register", async
   await expect(page.locator(".landing")).toBeVisible();
   // the same app shell every page renders — the menu shows even signed out (permission-filtered).
   await expect(page.locator(".sidebar")).toBeVisible();
+  await expect(page.locator('use[href="#i-gear"]')).toHaveCount(0); // no settings cog to offer a signed-out visitor
   await expect(page.getByRole("link", { name: "Log in" })).toHaveAttribute("href", "/login");
   await expect(page.getByRole("link", { name: "Create account" })).toHaveAttribute("href", "/registration");
   await shot(page, "live-05-public-landing");
diff --git a/public/css/styles.css b/public/css/styles.css
index bbea499..9cb0e5f 100644
--- a/public/css/styles.css
+++ b/public/css/styles.css
@@ -282,7 +282,6 @@ span.nav-self { cursor: default; }                 /* static / non-clickable */
   outline: 2px solid var(--focus); outline-offset: 1px;
 }
 
-/* profile / settings row */
 .footer-actions { display: flex; align-items: center; gap: 4px; }
 .profile {
   display: flex; align-items: center; gap: 9px; flex: 1 1 auto;
diff --git a/src/i18n/locales/en-US.ts b/src/i18n/locales/en-US.ts
index 0fa49a1..293c56d 100644
--- a/src/i18n/locales/en-US.ts
+++ b/src/i18n/locales/en-US.ts
@@ -151,9 +151,7 @@ const messages = {
   "shell.guest": "Guest",
   "shell.mainNav": "Main navigation",
   "shell.openMenu": "Open menu",
-  "shell.preferences": "Preferences",
   "shell.profile": "Profile",
-  "shell.settings": "Settings",
   "shell.sidebar": "Primary",
   "shell.signedInAs": "Signed in as {{name}}",
   "shell.signIn": "Sign in",
diff --git a/src/i18n/locales/sv-SE.ts b/src/i18n/locales/sv-SE.ts
index a2cf95e..2df132f 100644
--- a/src/i18n/locales/sv-SE.ts
+++ b/src/i18n/locales/sv-SE.ts
@@ -137,9 +137,7 @@ const messages: CoreMessages = {
   "shell.guest": "Gäst",
   "shell.mainNav": "Huvudmeny",
   "shell.openMenu": "Öppna menyn",
-  "shell.preferences": "Inställningar",
   "shell.profile": "Profil",
-  "shell.settings": "Inställningar",
   "shell.sidebar": "Primär",
   "shell.signedInAs": "Inloggad som {{name}}",
   "shell.signIn": "Logga in",
diff --git a/src/ui/icons.ts b/src/ui/icons.ts
index 95bd3ef..3ea8ffe 100644
--- a/src/ui/icons.ts
+++ b/src/ui/icons.ts
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@ export const ICON_NAMES: Record<string, string> = {
   "i-copy": "copy",
   "i-download": "download",
   "i-edit": "pencil",
-  "i-gear": "settings",
   "i-globe": "globe",
   "i-grid": "layout-grid",
   "i-kebab": "ellipsis-vertical",
diff --git a/src/ui/shell.test.ts b/src/ui/shell.test.ts
index d654288..68c0877 100644
--- a/src/ui/shell.test.ts
+++ b/src/ui/shell.test.ts
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ test("app shell offers Sign in (not Sign out) to an anonymous visitor — so a p
   const html = await render({ title: "Overview", brand: { name: "Acme" }, nav: "", body: "x" }); // no user, no signInHref → default
   assert.match(html, /href="\/login"[^>]*>[\s\S]*?Sign in/); // a path to sign in (default target)
   assert.doesNotMatch(html, /action="\/logout"/); // a guest has no session to end
+  assert.doesNotMatch(html, /<use href="#i-gear"/); // nor a settings cog to open
 
   // When chrome supplies signInHref (the current page as return_to), the link carries it.
   const withReturn = await render({ title: "Overview", brand: { name: "Acme" }, nav: "", body: "x", signInHref: "/login?return_to=%2Fscheduling" });
diff --git a/todo.md b/todo.md
index 1d1e910..5d5fb06 100644
--- a/todo.md
+++ b/todo.md
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
 
 ## Unfinnished work
 
-- [ ] There is a "Settings" in the bottom left (a little cog) showing a "Preferences" in a little menu when clicked. That is not in any spec, it exists when not even logged in and erh. Just remove.
 - [ ] On the first page there is a button saying "Log in" and in the bottom left corner another button says "Sign in". Use a uniform language.
 - [ ] When logged in, there is a "profile" link in the little box when I've clicked my username in the bottom left corner. There is no profile, so the link is dead. Remove it.
 - [ ] The little menues, like when choosing language or clicking my username, they do not dissapear when clicking outside them, I must click the original trigger or choose something. See if there are more modern ways of handling this with HTML and CSS. I think there is a modal-thing or something?
@@ -10,6 +9,7 @@
 - [ ] Guard against the double-clicked submit, without client-side JavaScript. The README's non-technical persona double-clicks a button that doesn't respond instantly, so a second identical POST is an expected event, not misuse — today it creates two users, mints two recovery codes, or registers two OAuth2 clients. Constraints: HTML/CSS only (no client JS — priority: zero-JS spine), and it must not break an action that is *legitimately* repeatable (an increase-by-one button is not a duplicate, it is two increments). Sketch to evaluate: a CSS-only affordance so the second click has nothing to hit (`:active`/`:focus` state, or the submit visually and semantically settling), paired with the host recognising a duplicate on the server — same session, same route, same payload, within a short window — and then logging it and dropping the second rather than replaying it. Open questions: what identifies "the same submission" (a one-time token minted into each rendered form is stronger than hashing the payload, and the CSRF plumbing already mints per-request tokens), how long the window is, where the record lives given the app is stateless (in-memory like the revoke denylist, or push it to the upstream the plugin already writes to), and how a plugin declares a route as repeatable — an opt-out on the route, or opt-in per form. Raised 2026-08-04 with the personas.
 - [ ] Decide the caching contract for rendered pages. Responses now carry `Vary: Accept-Language` (they content-negotiate), but nothing sets `Cache-Control` — so a shared cache in front of the app has no instruction, and a signed-in page is not marked `private`. Pre-existing, surfaced by the i18n review 2026-08-03: either set the headers deliberately (public pages cacheable, gated pages `private, no-store`) or record in AGENTS.md that the reverse proxy owns this.
 - [ ] Decide whether the single generic Keto `Resource` namespace should become per-domain namespaces (`Shift`, `Document`, …), as Ory's own examples model it. One global `Resource` bucket is the project's own "no catch-all names" rule (`utils`, `helpers`, `misc`) applied to namespaces. Raised 2026-08-03; a design question, not a naming one.
+- [ ] Decide what `ICON_NAMES` (`src/ui/icons.ts`) actually is. Its comment says "the icons the UI actually references", but `i-chart`, `i-copy`, `i-download` and `i-sliders` have no caller anywhere — so either they go the way `i-gear` just did, or the comment should say the palette is curated and may carry an id ahead of its first use. Not cosmetic: the sprite is inlined into every page, and the rule decides whether a future removal is routine cleanup or a plugin-facing regression (see AGENTS.md → the `ICON_NAMES` deviation). Pre-existing, surfaced by the review 2026-08-05.
 - [ ] Decide (once) whether the CSRF token staying unbound to `sub`/session is accepted. `src/auth/csrf.ts` signs `<nonce>.<HMAC(secret, nonce)>` with no session binding, so any validly-signed token passes for any user — an attacker who can write cookies on the origin (a sibling subdomain, or a plaintext hop with `SECURE_COOKIES=false`) can fix a token they know. Standard for unbound signed double-submit and plausibly fine behind `SameSite=Lax` + HSTS. Accepted ⇒ record it in AGENTS.md → "Deliberate architectural deviations" and in README → Security model under "Not guaranteed"; not accepted ⇒ bind the nonce to `sub` (small change). Raised by review 2026-08-02; left undecided because it is a maintainer call, and an undocumented exception reads as a bug to the next reviewer.
 
 ### Architectural review findings (2026-07-02)
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ Prioritized. Overall verdict: architecture is sound (contract-first plugin API,
 - [x] The human developer understands the security model in the auth in this project. (Two README sections. [Users, groups & permissions](README.md#users-groups--permissions) carries the weight: the entity model, a worked graph, a per-route can/cannot walkthrough, and the trap that a per-row grant never widens a coarse gate — placed before Building plugins because a manifest's `permission:` gate is unreadable without it. [Security model](README.md#security-model) is deliberately short, only the facts a deployment gets wrong without them: the private network as the *only* guard on the Ory APIs, signed-not-encrypted claims, the 30-day Kratos session behind the ~10m JWT, and non-instant offboarding. The first attempt answered the *threat* model instead — a 12-row attack/defense table — which was the wrong question and mostly restated code readable at its source; cut. Also corrected the hardening checklist: `REQUIRE_SECURE_SECRETS` guards only `CSRF_SECRET`, so the committed Kratos/Hydra/Postgres/demo-admin secrets are now listed in "What you must supply". The mandatory-`exp` guard gained a test in `src/auth/jwt-middleware.test.ts`.)
 - [x] Add i18n support. (Catalogs are TS modules per locale — `src/i18n/locales/<tag>.ts` for the host, `plugins/<id>/i18n/<tag>.ts` for a plugin, looked up plugin-first then core; en-US + sv-SE ship. A request is served by `?locale=sv-SE` → `Accept-Language` → `en-US`, exact on a full tag but a lone language takes the first regional catalog; no cookie — when the URL asked, the host carries `?locale` onto the links it renders and `ctx.localeHref()` does it for a plugin's. `ctx.t(key, vars)` plus `t`/`locale`/`locales`/`localeHref`/`dir` merged into every view (any include depth); `{{var}}` interpolation, plurals via `Intl.PluralRules`, an unknown key renders as itself — which is what makes a nav label either a key or plain text. Every catalog is checked against its set's en-US at boot (keys, kind, plural categories) and a mismatch stops startup. Kratos' own flow text is mapped by its numeric id (only ids verified against the live stack; its generic trait-label id is deliberately unmapped, field labels key on the input name instead). Zero-JS language picker in the shell + the auth/consent pages, `<html lang dir>` from the locale. Core, both example plugins and their views translated; unit tests + `e2e-tests/language.spec.ts` in the visual gate; documented in README → Languages, decisions in AGENTS.md.)
 - [x] Settle the identity-vs-user vocabulary. (Plainpages says **user** everywhere — Keto namespace `User`, subjects `user:<kratos-id>`, `ctx.user`. Ory calls the record an "identity", but its own docs say it uses that term interchangeably with "users"/"accounts", so this is house style rather than a renamed concept, and "user" is the word readers know (Nielsen heuristic #2). README → Auth carries one note recording the mapping; the only place Ory's spelling survives is the `Identity` DTO in `src/auth/kratos-admin.ts`, which mirrors the Kratos wire shape. Recorded in AGENTS.md.)
+- [x] There is a "Settings" in the bottom left (a little cog) showing a "Preferences" in a little menu when clicked. That is not in any spec, it exists when not even logged in and erh. Just remove. (Dropped from the sidebar footer in `views/partials/shell.ejs`, which now carries the profile menu — or Sign in when anonymous — plus the language picker. The `shell.settings`/`shell.preferences` catalog keys went with it in both locales, as did the then-unreferenced `i-gear` icon: `ICON_NAMES` is by definition the icons the UI references, so `views/partials/icons.ejs` was regenerated from it. Kratos' own `/settings` account flow is a different thing and is untouched. Covered by `src/ui/shell.test.ts` signed-in and anonymous, plus the public-landing case in `e2e-tests/visual.spec.ts`.)
 
 ### Architectural review findings (2026-07-02)
 
diff --git a/views/partials/icons.ejs b/views/partials/icons.ejs
index a446e21..47ed253 100644
--- a/views/partials/icons.ejs
+++ b/views/partials/icons.ejs
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@
   <symbol id="i-copy" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><rect width="14" height="14" x="8" y="8" rx="2" ry="2" /><path d="M4 16c-1.1 0-2-.9-2-2V4c0-1.1.9-2 2-2h10c1.1 0 2 .9 2 2" /></symbol>
   <symbol id="i-download" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M12 15V3" /><path d="M21 15v4a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H5a2 2 0 0 1-2-2v-4" /><path d="m7 10 5 5 5-5" /></symbol>
   <symbol id="i-edit" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M21.174 6.812a1 1 0 0 0-3.986-3.987L3.842 16.174a2 2 0 0 0-.5.83l-1.321 4.352a.5.5 0 0 0 .623.622l4.353-1.32a2 2 0 0 0 .83-.497z" /><path d="m15 5 4 4" /></symbol>
-  <symbol id="i-gear" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M9.671 4.136a2.34 2.34 0 0 1 4.659 0 2.34 2.34 0 0 0 3.319 1.915 2.34 2.34 0 0 1 2.33 4.033 2.34 2.34 0 0 0 0 3.831 2.34 2.34 0 0 1-2.33 4.033 2.34 2.34 0 0 0-3.319 1.915 2.34 2.34 0 0 1-4.659 0 2.34 2.34 0 0 0-3.32-1.915 2.34 2.34 0 0 1-2.33-4.033 2.34 2.34 0 0 0 0-3.831A2.34 2.34 0 0 1 6.35 6.051a2.34 2.34 0 0 0 3.319-1.915" /><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="3" /></symbol>
   <symbol id="i-globe" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="10" /><path d="M12 2a14.5 14.5 0 0 0 0 20 14.5 14.5 0 0 0 0-20" /><path d="M2 12h20" /></symbol>
   <symbol id="i-grid" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><rect width="7" height="7" x="3" y="3" rx="1" /><rect width="7" height="7" x="14" y="3" rx="1" /><rect width="7" height="7" x="14" y="14" rx="1" /><rect width="7" height="7" x="3" y="14" rx="1" /></symbol>
   <symbol id="i-kebab" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="1" /><circle cx="12" cy="5" r="1" /><circle cx="12" cy="19" r="1" /></symbol>
diff --git a/views/partials/shell.ejs b/views/partials/shell.ejs
index 4226976..cf33667 100644
--- a/views/partials/shell.ejs
+++ b/views/partials/shell.ejs
@@ -84,12 +84,6 @@
             <% } %>
 
             <%- include("locale-switch") %>
-
-            <%- include("menu", {
-              up: true,
-              trigger: { class: "btn icon-btn", label: t("shell.settings"), html: '<svg class="ico"><use href="#i-gear"/></svg>' },
-              items: [{ head: t("shell.settings") }, { label: t("shell.preferences"), icon: "i-gear" }],
-            }) %>
           </div>
         </div>
       </aside>