diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 1f20f27..076486f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -713,8 +713,8 @@ included, since the plugin folder *is* the repo. A baked image needs no extra st
   contract, turning a sign-in redirect into a 500, so discovery refuses one there at boot.
 - **The host never upgrades or dedupes your dependencies.** Two plugins depending on the same package
   each get their own copy at their own version, so neither can break the other by upgrading — and
-  keeping yours current, and audited, is yours to own. Renovate here watches the host's manifests
-  only.
+  keeping yours current, and audited, is yours to own. Renovate here watches every manifest in this
+  repo, the example plugins included — a plugin in its own repo needs its own.
 - **Depend on packages that ship JavaScript.** Node refuses to strip types under `node_modules`, so a
   dependency whose entry is `.ts` fails at import with `ERR_UNSUPPORTED_NODE_MODULES_TYPE_STRIPPING`.
 
@@ -759,8 +759,7 @@ The menu is **driven entirely by config** and assembled from two sources:
    in or bind-mounting your own dir onto `/app/config` (a commented example sits in
    `compose.override.yml`). The file imports its typed builder from **`#menu-config`** (the
    subpath import mapped to `src/ui/menu-config.ts`), so it resolves wherever it's mounted
-   (keep the mounted `config/` a plain dir — no `package.json` of its own — or `#menu-config`
-   resolves against that instead and boot fails loud):
+   (keep the mounted `config/` a plain dir — no `package.json` of its own):
    ```ts
    import { defineMenu } from "#menu-config";
    export default defineMenu({ branding: { name: "Acme Ops" }, override: { hide: ["teams"] } });
diff --git a/renovate.json b/renovate.json
index b6327ea..e3366e4 100644
--- a/renovate.json
+++ b/renovate.json
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 {
   "$schema": "https://docs.renovatebot.com/renovate-schema.json",
   "extends": ["config:recommended"],
+  "description": "ignorePaths overrides config:recommended's :ignoreModulesAndTests, which ignores **/examples/** — an example plugin's dependencies get update PRs like any other manifest here",
+  "ignorePaths": ["**/node_modules/**"],
   "automerge": true,
   "commitBody": "Release-Bump: {{{updateType}}}",
   "packageRules": [
diff --git a/src/auth/flow-view.test.ts b/src/auth/flow-view.test.ts
index 0aa0ec2..7e9aef9 100644
--- a/src/auth/flow-view.test.ts
+++ b/src/auth/flow-view.test.ts
@@ -113,6 +113,7 @@ test("the code field guards a pasted space: one-time-code autofill + numeric inp
   );
   assert.deepEqual(view.fields.find((f) => f.name === "code"), {
     autocomplete: "one-time-code", // Kratos sends none for the OTP node — enable OS/email autofill
+    hint: "Digits only — no spaces.", // the pattern refusal alone reads as a bare "match the requested format"
     icon: "i-shield",
     id: "field-code",
     inputmode: "numeric",
diff --git a/src/auth/flow-view.ts b/src/auth/flow-view.ts
index 04826cb..8a8d677 100644
--- a/src/auth/flow-view.ts
+++ b/src/auth/flow-view.ts
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import type { Flow, FlowType, UiNode } from "./kratos-public.ts";
 export interface FlowField {
   autocomplete?: string;
   error?: { text: string };
+  hint?: string; // muted helper text under the input
   icon?: string; // Lucide sprite id for the input
   id: string;
   inputmode?: string; // virtual-keyboard hint (e.g. "numeric" for the OTP code)
@@ -139,7 +140,7 @@ function toField(node: UiNode, name: string, type: string, t: Translate): FlowFi
     ...(autocomplete ? { autocomplete } : {}),
     ...(errorMsg ? { error: { text: kratosText(t, errorMsg.text, idKey(errorMsg.id)) } } : {}),
     ...(icon ? { icon } : {}),
-    ...(isCode ? { inputmode: "numeric", pattern: "[0-9]*" } : {}),
+    ...(isCode ? { hint: t("auth.field.code.hint"), inputmode: "numeric", pattern: "[0-9]*" } : {}),
     ...(node.attributes["required"] === true ? { required: true } : {}),
     ...(value ? { value } : {}),
   };
diff --git a/src/i18n/locales/en-US.ts b/src/i18n/locales/en-US.ts
index 1c4bbc7..a1e095b 100644
--- a/src/i18n/locales/en-US.ts
+++ b/src/i18n/locales/en-US.ts
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ const messages = {
   "auth.continue": "Continue",
   // Kratos labels its own form fields; these translate the ones the built-in identity schema uses,
   // keyed on the input name. A deployment's extra traits keep Kratos' label until a plugin covers them.
+  "auth.field.code.hint": "Digits only — no spaces.",
   "auth.field.email": "Email",
   "auth.field.identifier": "Email",
   "auth.field.password": "Password",
diff --git a/src/i18n/locales/sv-SE.ts b/src/i18n/locales/sv-SE.ts
index 0fcd4d3..ff6cdbe 100644
--- a/src/i18n/locales/sv-SE.ts
+++ b/src/i18n/locales/sv-SE.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import type { CoreMessages } from "./en-US.ts";
 
 const messages: CoreMessages = {
   "auth.continue": "Fortsätt",
+  "auth.field.code.hint": "Endast siffror — inga mellanslag.",
   "auth.field.email": "E-postadress",
   "auth.field.identifier": "E-postadress",
   "auth.field.password": "Lösenord",
diff --git a/src/ui/menu-config.test.ts b/src/ui/menu-config.test.ts
index a5657bb..d53f19f 100644
--- a/src/ui/menu-config.test.ts
+++ b/src/ui/menu-config.test.ts
@@ -1,16 +1,20 @@
 import assert from "node:assert/strict";
-import { mkdtempSync, rmSync, writeFileSync } from "node:fs";
+import { mkdirSync, mkdtempSync, rmSync, writeFileSync } from "node:fs";
 import { tmpdir } from "node:os";
 import { join } from "node:path";
 import { test, type TestContext } from "node:test";
 import { DEFAULT_MENU, loadMenuConfig } from "./menu-config.ts";
 
 // Write a throwaway menu.ts (a plain object — defineMenu is identity) and clean it up after.
-function scaffold(t: TestContext, source: string): string {
+function scaffold(t: TestContext, source: string, strays: string[] = []): string {
   const dir = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), "pp-menu-"));
   t.after(() => rmSync(dir, { force: true, recursive: true }));
   const file = join(dir, "menu.ts");
   writeFileSync(file, source);
+  for (const stray of strays) {
+    if (stray.endsWith(".json")) writeFileSync(join(dir, stray), "{}");
+    else mkdirSync(join(dir, stray), { recursive: true });
+  }
   return file;
 }
 
@@ -37,3 +41,14 @@ test("loadMenuConfig fails loud on a malformed config", async (t) => {
   await assert.rejects(loadMenuConfig({ file: scaffold(t, `export default { branding: { theme: "neon" } };`) }), /theme/);
   await assert.rejects(loadMenuConfig({ file: scaffold(t, `export default { override: { hide: "teams" } };`) }), /hide.*array/s);
 });
+
+test("loadMenuConfig refuses a stray package.json or node_modules beside the config", async (t) => {
+  const valid = `export default { branding: { name: "Acme Ops" } };`;
+
+  for (const stray of ["node_modules", "package.json"]) {
+    await assert.rejects(
+      loadMenuConfig({ file: scaffold(t, valid, [stray]) }),
+      new RegExp(`config/${stray.replace(".", "\\.")} must not exist.*delete`, "s"),
+    );
+  }
+});
diff --git a/src/ui/menu-config.ts b/src/ui/menu-config.ts
index 7c24373..d897c67 100644
--- a/src/ui/menu-config.ts
+++ b/src/ui/menu-config.ts
@@ -50,6 +50,14 @@ export async function loadMenuConfig(options: LoadMenuOptions = {}): Promise<Men
   const file = options.file ?? MENU_CONFIG_FILE;
   if (!existsSync(file)) return DEFAULT_MENU; // clean clone: no central override
 
+  // Guarded before the import: Node's own ERR_PACKAGE_IMPORT_NOT_DEFINED names neither cause nor remedy.
+  const dir = dirname(file);
+  for (const stray of ["node_modules", "package.json"]) {
+    if (existsSync(join(dir, stray))) {
+      throw new Error(`config/${stray} must not exist — it makes config/ its own package scope, so the #menu-config import in config/menu.ts no longer resolves; delete config/{node_modules,package.json,package-lock.json} and keep config/ a plain dir`);
+    }
+  }
+
   let mod: { default?: unknown };
   try {
     mod = await import(pathToFileURL(file).href);
diff --git a/todo.md b/todo.md
index da4c85f..e624651 100644
--- a/todo.md
+++ b/todo.md
@@ -2,22 +2,19 @@
 
 ## Unfinnished work
 
-- [ ] Add a way to configure plugins directly when installing. Most reasonable is an .env file in the plugin folder, I think, but I am open to suggestions.
-- [ ] Give `config/` the same named refusal plugin folders now get for a stray `package.json`. It already fails loud, but as `ERR_PACKAGE_IMPORT_NOT_DEFINED` wrapped in a `config/menu.ts failed to import`, naming neither the cause nor the remedy — and now that a plugin folder may legitimately hold a `package.json`, the asymmetry between the two drop-in dirs lives only in prose.
-- [ ] Decide Renovate's reach over plugin dependencies before the first example plugin takes one. `renovate.json` extends `config:recommended`, whose `:ignoreModulesAndTests` ignores `**/examples/**`, so an example plugin's `package.json` would get no update PRs and nobody would notice. Either narrow the ignorePath or state that plugin deps are the plugin owner's to update (README → Plugin dependencies already says so for external plugins).
+- [ ] Add a way to configure plugins directly when installing. **Decided: the manifest declares it, not an `.env`** — a declared schema is validatable at boot, so a missing or mistyped setting fails loud and named the way a stray `package.json` now does, and the picker/docs can be generated from the declaration. Open: where the operator *supplies* the values (env var per key, a `config/` file, or both), and whether a secret may be declared at all.
 - [ ] Rename the plugin "admin" to something less generic, like "auth-admin" or "users-groups-admin".
 - [ ] Guard the group paths against self-lockout, or accept them explicitly. The self-revoke guard covers only your own *direct* grants on the Users screen; unticking a permission on a group you belong to, removing yourself from that group, or deleting it can all still strip your own effective access with no warning. Recorded in AGENTS.md as a known gap — the robust fix is a "last effective holder" check, which needs a reverse Keto query.
 - [ ] The permission picker has no concurrency baseline, so two operators editing the same user/group silently discard each other's change. Sketch: post the rendered set as a hidden baseline; if it no longer matches Keto, re-render with "this changed while you had the page open" rather than applying.
 - [ ] A grant whose plugin was uninstalled is invisible and unremovable in the GUI. `grantDiff` deliberately never revokes an undeclared name, but nothing *shows* it either — so it can't be audited or cleaned, and reinstalling that plugin silently reactivates access nobody remembers granting. Sketch: a read-only "held, but no installed plugin offers this" list with a remove action.
 - [ ] A plugin may gate a route on a permission it never declares — declaring stays optional on purpose. The cost is a dead end: the picker is built from declarations only, so that route is ungrantable from the GUI with no boot error and a permanent 403 as the operator's only clue. Sketch: a discovery *warning* (not an error) naming the gated-but-undeclared permission.
 - [ ] Saving permissions gives no confirmation, and a partial failure is silent. `applyGrants` loops writes then deletes with no transaction, so a Keto error midway leaves a half-applied set behind the generic error page; and a successful save is indistinguishable from "nothing changed". The `alert alert-pos` pattern the recovery-code banner uses is already available.
-- [ ] The seeded admin@plainpages.local is assigned twice to the same permission; should only be once.
 - [ ] In Playwright tests, try different resolutions and sizes, from BIG desktop down to tiny phone.
 - [ ] Decide whether `e2e-tests/` should be typechecked. It is outside `tsconfig.include`, so the gate never checks its most logic-bearing file (`console-guard.ts`). Including it needs the DOM lib and `@playwright/test` present wherever `npm run typecheck` runs, which today is the `web` image that installs neither.
 - [ ] Decide whether Playwright's `workers` should be pinned. Unset, it sizes the pool from `os.cpus()`, which reports the host's cores regardless of a container CPU quota — and with `retries: 0` a starved runner turns a slow test straight into a red gate. Fine on the current act_runner; revisit if CI ever runs constrained.
 - [ ] Record the browser floor Plainpages requires, and whether the fallback is the contract or a courtesy. The stylesheet needs `:has()` (Dec 2023); the menus need the popover API (Safari 17) and CSS anchor positioning for placement (newer still, and unguarded — the `@supports` test covers popover only). An iPadOS 16 tablet, capped at Safari 16, therefore gets panels flowing inline rather than working menus. Either state a supported floor or accept the fallback for those devices; nobody has rendered that path on real hardware.
 - [ ] Decide whether the profile dropdown still earns a dropdown. It holds one item, Sign out, behind a click, and its "Signed in as X" head repeats what the trigger already shows.
-- [ ] Trim whitespace around the verification code in the form — a copy+pasted code from the email currently fails.
+- [ ] Trim whitespace around the verification code — a copy+pasted code from the email fails, today as a browser `pattern` refusal rather than a Kratos rejection, now carrying a digits-only hint so that refusal isn't bare. The paste still fails. **Own session.** No zero-JS fix exists: `pattern` is rejective and cannot transform, so loosening it only lets the untrimmed value through. The real fix is a host-side proxy of the flow POST, which is feasible and half-built — `submitFlow` (`src/auth/kratos-public.ts:132`) already relays cookies and normalises a 422 `redirect_browser_to`, and has no callers outside tests. CSRF improves rather than breaks: the host already writes Kratos' cookie onto its own origin (`src/auth/routes.ts:77`), so the POST becomes same-origin, and `form-action 'self'` could finally join the CSP. Two risks: one `flow.ui.action` serves all five flows, so this rewrites the sign-in path, not just code entry; and Go's nosurf checks Referer only over https, which no test here covers. **Check first:** `kratos-admin.ts:75` returns a `recovery_link` alongside the code — if the stock courier mail carries one (unverified), a template change fixes the UX with no host code. Code entry has no E2E coverage today either way.
 - [ ] Guard against the double-clicked submit, without client-side JavaScript. A non-technical user clicks a button twice when nothing happens fast enough, 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, and it must not break an action that is *legitimately* repeatable. Sketch: a CSS-only affordance so the second click has nothing to hit, paired with the host recognising a duplicate on the server — same session, route and payload within a short window — then logging and dropping it. Open questions: what identifies "the same submission" (a one-time token minted into each rendered form beats hashing the payload, and the CSRF plumbing already mints per-request tokens), the window length, where the record lives given the app is stateless, and how a plugin declares a route repeatable.
 - [ ] Decide the caching contract for rendered pages. Responses carry `Vary: Accept-Language` but nothing sets `Cache-Control`, so a shared cache has no instruction and a signed-in page is not marked `private`. Either set the headers deliberately (public cacheable, gated `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 applied to namespaces. A design question, not a naming one.
@@ -39,6 +36,9 @@ Prioritized. Overall verdict: architecture is sound; these are refinements.
 
 ## Finnished work
 
+- [x] Refuse a stray `package.json`/`node_modules` in `config/` by name, as plugin folders already are.
+- [x] Let Renovate reach the example plugins' manifests (`ignorePaths` overrides `config:recommended`).
+- [x] The seeded admin is granted each permission once — `seedPermissions` dedupes and the grant PUT is idempotent.
 - [x] Run the E2E runner as the invoking user so its artifacts aren't root-owned.
 - [x] Install node_modules above `WORKDIR /app` so no mount leaves a root-owned dir in the checkout.
 - [x] Enforce `<resource>:<action>` permission names at discovery; split `admin` per screen.