diff --git a/client/src/modules/version.js b/client/src/modules/version.js
index 44d4942..e23e393 100644
--- a/client/src/modules/version.js
+++ b/client/src/modules/version.js
@@ -11,6 +11,11 @@
 // that the two files can drift, so a test asserts they agree
 // (client/test/moduleRegistry.test.js) rather than trusting a bump to remember
 // both.
+// 1.8.0 - the ceiling lattice gains `admin` (ENGAGEMENT.md Phase 11). Nothing on
+// this half changed: a ceiling is declared on the server's `api` and enforced
+// there, and the admin screens that render one read the vocabulary from
+// `GET /admin/engagement/triggers` rather than holding a copy. This file bumps
+// anyway, for the reason at the top - the two halves state ONE version.
 // 1.7.0 — the engagement contract (docs/website/ENGAGEMENT.md Phase 2). Nothing
 // on this half changed: every member the version adds is on the server's `api`
 // and `ctx` (registerEventTriggers, registerAudiences, ctx.events.emit,
@@ -53,4 +58,4 @@
 // but the two halves state ONE version: a module declares a single coreApi range
 // and is served one chunk, so a client that claimed 1.0.0 while the server
 // answered 1.1.0 would be two answers to one question.
-export const MODULE_API_VERSION = '1.7.0'
+export const MODULE_API_VERSION = '1.8.0'
diff --git a/client/src/routes/admin/views/EngagementRules.jsx b/client/src/routes/admin/views/EngagementRules.jsx
index 482f578..0995149 100644
--- a/client/src/routes/admin/views/EngagementRules.jsx
+++ b/client/src/routes/admin/views/EngagementRules.jsx
@@ -494,6 +494,15 @@ function RuleEditor({ catalog, segments, rule, onSaved, onCancel }) {
 // It reads the RULES rather than a flag, so it disappears the moment one is
 // switched on and comes back if every one is switched off again. A deployment
 // that deleted them all sees nothing, which is right: they made that choice.
+//
+// **Phase 11 added a second notice of exactly the same shape, for news**
+// (ENGAGEMENT.md §7.1 Q9). Publishing a news post used to tickle every subscriber
+// directly, and that call is now an emit through the engine, so news push stops
+// on upgrade until the seeded `news.post` rule is switched on. Two notices rather
+// than one generalised "some rules are off" banner, deliberately: each names a
+// capability that USED to work without configuration and now does not, which is
+// a different statement from "you have a disabled rule" — and a rule an operator
+// created and disabled themselves must never produce a warning.
 const TEAM_TRIGGERS = [
   'team.forum.post',
   'team.announcement',
@@ -501,11 +510,32 @@ const TEAM_TRIGGERS = [
   'team.leadership.changed',
 ]
 
-function teamRulesAllOff(rules) {
-  const team = rules.filter((r) => TEAM_TRIGGERS.includes(r.triggerId || r.trigger_id))
-  return team.length > 0 && team.every((r) => !r.enabled)
+const NEWS_TRIGGERS = ['news.post']
+
+// One style for both notices, so the pair reads as one kind of message rather
+// than two that happen to look alike.
+const NOTICE_STYLE = {
+  fontSize: '0.85rem',
+  borderRadius: 8,
+  padding: '10px 12px',
+  marginBottom: 16,
+  border: '1px solid #7a6440',
+  color: '#e0b070',
 }
 
+const triggerOf = (rule) => rule.triggerId || rule.trigger_id
+
+// True only when rules for these triggers EXIST and every one of them is off.
+// Zero matching rules means the operator deleted them, which is a choice, not a
+// regression to warn about.
+function allOff(rules, triggers) {
+  const group = rules.filter((r) => triggers.includes(triggerOf(r)))
+  return group.length > 0 && group.every((r) => !r.enabled)
+}
+
+const teamRulesAllOff = (rules) => allOff(rules, TEAM_TRIGGERS)
+const newsRulesAllOff = (rules) => allOff(rules, NEWS_TRIGGERS)
+
 export default function EngagementRules() {
   const [catalog, setCatalog] = useState(null)
   const [segments, setSegments] = useState([])
@@ -583,13 +613,7 @@ export default function EngagementRules() {
   return (
     <section>
       {teamRulesAllOff(rules) && (
-        <div
-          className="sans"
-          style={{
-            fontSize: '0.85rem', borderRadius: 8, padding: '10px 12px', marginBottom: 16,
-            border: '1px solid #7a6440', color: '#e0b070',
-          }}
-        >
+        <div className="sans" style={NOTICE_STYLE}>
           <strong>Team notification emails are off.</strong> They used to be sent automatically; they
           are now rules, and the four below arrived switched off so that nothing starts mailing on its
           own. Switch on the ones this deployment wants — per-member preferences and per-Team mutes
@@ -597,6 +621,16 @@ export default function EngagementRules() {
         </div>
       )}
 
+      {newsRulesAllOff(rules) && (
+        <div className="sans" style={NOTICE_STYLE}>
+          <strong>News notifications are off.</strong> Publishing a news post used to send a push
+          notification to everyone subscribed to it. That is now the “News posts” rule below, and it
+          arrived switched off for the same reason the Team rules did. Switch it on to resume news
+          push — it also carries email and the in-app inbox, each still subject to each person’s own
+          preferences. The in-game town crier and the Discord announcement are unaffected either way.
+        </div>
+      )}
+
       <div style={{ display: 'flex', justifyContent: 'space-between', alignItems: 'center', marginBottom: 16 }}>
         <p className="sans" style={{ margin: 0, fontSize: '0.86rem', color: 'var(--muted)', maxWidth: 640 }}>
           A rule turns an event into mail: which event, who hears about it, on which channels, and how
diff --git a/client/src/routes/admin/views/EngagementTriggers.jsx b/client/src/routes/admin/views/EngagementTriggers.jsx
index da69fb9..de89807 100644
--- a/client/src/routes/admin/views/EngagementTriggers.jsx
+++ b/client/src/routes/admin/views/EngagementTriggers.jsx
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ const CEILING_NOTE = {
   members: 'only members of the thing it is about',
   subscribers: 'only people who opted in',
   staff: 'only staff',
+  admin: 'only administrators',
   authenticated: 'any signed-in account',
   everyone: 'anyone',
 }
diff --git a/server/db/seed.js b/server/db/seed.js
index 1b1a93b..e84ac21 100644
--- a/server/db/seed.js
+++ b/server/db/seed.js
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ const wikiDb = require('../src/model/wiki/wiki.db')
 const users = require('../src/model/users/users.model')
 const { ensureSchema, close } = require('../src/utils/db')
 const { seedTemplates } = require('../src/engagement/templates')
-const { seedTeamRules } = require('../src/engagement/coreRules')
+const { seedCoreRules } = require('../src/engagement/coreRules')
 const brand = require('../src/config/brand')
 
 const log = require('../src/utils/logger')('seed')
@@ -82,10 +82,13 @@ async function seedDefaults() {
   // failed to seed costs the shipped default, which `renderByKey` falls back to
   // anyway, and must not stop a boot.
   await seedTemplates()
-  // The four Team rules, seeded ONCE and all disabled (ENGAGEMENT.md Phase 6).
-  // Guarded by a settings key rather than re-ensured, so a rule an operator
-  // deleted stays deleted and one they enabled stays enabled.
-  await seedTeamRules()
+  // Core's five rules — the four Team ones (Phase 6) and news (Phase 11) —
+  // seeded ONCE and all disabled. Each GROUP carries its own settings-key guard
+  // rather than re-ensured, so a rule an operator deleted stays deleted and one
+  // they enabled stays enabled; and so the news rule reaches the deployments that
+  // were already stamped for Teams, which are exactly the ones that lose their
+  // raw news push to the engine (ENGAGEMENT.md §7.1 Q9).
+  await seedCoreRules()
   log.info('settings and wiki defaults ensured')
 }
 
diff --git a/server/engagement-triggers.json b/server/engagement-triggers.json
index 80bf010..f873359 100644
--- a/server/engagement-triggers.json
+++ b/server/engagement-triggers.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "_comment": "Generated event-trigger inventory - the authoritative freeze of CORE's engagement contract (docs/website/ENGAGEMENT.md 4.3). Regenerate with `npm run engagement:manifest` in website/server. A renamed variable, a changed type or a widened ceiling breaks stored templates and rules, so the diff here is the review signal. A module ships its own copy in its bundle; this file never contains one.",
-  "moduleApiVersion": "1.7.0",
+  "moduleApiVersion": "1.8.0",
   "triggers": [
     {
       "id": "news.post",
@@ -38,8 +38,8 @@
           "name": "postUrl",
           "type": "url",
           "required": true,
-          "example": "/news/five-on-friday-yew-invasion",
-          "description": "Site-relative path to the post."
+          "example": "/site/news",
+          "description": "Site-relative path to the post. The news list today — the site has no per-post route."
         }
       ]
     },
diff --git a/server/src/config/coreTriggers.js b/server/src/config/coreTriggers.js
index 8fa2db1..d9ff10a 100644
--- a/server/src/config/coreTriggers.js
+++ b/server/src/config/coreTriggers.js
@@ -49,8 +49,15 @@ const TRIGGERS = [
         description: 'A plain-text summary, already stripped of markup.' },
       { name: 'category', type: 'string', required: false, example: 'Five on Friday',
         description: 'The post category, when it has one.' },
-      { name: 'postUrl', type: 'url', required: true, example: '/news/five-on-friday-yew-invasion',
-        description: 'Site-relative path to the post.' },
+      // **`/site/news`, the LIST, and not a per-post path.** The example said
+      // `/news/<slug>` when this was declared with no caller; Phase 11 gave it
+      // one and the path turned out not to exist — `App.jsx` mounts `/site/news`
+      // and nothing under it, which is why `announceJobs.logic.js` links the list
+      // from the Discord and town-crier announcements too. An `example` is what
+      // the template editor previews and test-sends with (§4.3 property 3), so an
+      // example naming a 404 is a preview that looks right and a mail that is not.
+      { name: 'postUrl', type: 'url', required: true, example: '/site/news',
+        description: 'Site-relative path to the post. The news list today — the site has no per-post route.' },
     ],
   },
 
diff --git a/server/src/engagement/audiences.js b/server/src/engagement/audiences.js
index d7721f4..29a9285 100644
--- a/server/src/engagement/audiences.js
+++ b/server/src/engagement/audiences.js
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 // ── Resolving a rule's audience to recipients ──────────────────────────────
 //
 // ENGAGEMENT.md §5.1a / §4.5, Phase 4a. A rule names an audience two ways and
-// only ever one at a time: a **plain ceiling name** (`owner`, `staff`,
+// only ever one at a time: a **plain ceiling name** (`owner`, `staff`, `admin`,
 // `subscribers`, `authenticated`, `everyone`) resolved from core's own tables, or
 // an **`audience_segment_id`** pointing at an operator-composed tree of
 // module-declared audiences (segments.js). This file turns either into user ids.
@@ -88,9 +88,14 @@ async function resolveForRule(rule, event) {
       }
     }
     case 'staff':
+    case 'admin':
+      // Both role-gated, and resolved through the ONE query rather than two.
+      // `ceilings.ROLE_CEILINGS` holds which roles each names, so the day a
+      // third is added the resolver does not need a third case — and, more to
+      // the point, cannot get one of them wrong while the others stay right.
       return {
-        userIds: await recipients.staff(ceilings.STAFF_CEILING_ROLES),
-        ceiling: 'staff',
+        userIds: await recipients.staff(ceilings.ROLE_CEILINGS[rule.audience].roles),
+        ceiling: rule.audience,
         dormant: false,
         reason: null,
       }
diff --git a/server/src/engagement/coreRules.js b/server/src/engagement/coreRules.js
index 54deade..8d159b8 100644
--- a/server/src/engagement/coreRules.js
+++ b/server/src/engagement/coreRules.js
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-// ── The four Team rules core ships, all of them OFF ────────────────────────
+// ── The five rules core ships, all of them OFF ─────────────────────────────
 //
 // ENGAGEMENT.md Phase 6, decision 3. Before this phase the Team pipeline mailed
 // people with no operator configuration at all: the code decided who was mailed
@@ -24,6 +24,17 @@
 // that has seen this seed never sees it again — deleted rules stay deleted, and
 // an enabled rule stays enabled rather than being reset to off.
 
+// **Phase 11 added a fifth, for `news.post`, and it needed its OWN one-shot key
+// rather than an entry in the list above.** The Team key is already stamped on
+// every deployment that has booted since Phase 6, and the guard reads its
+// presence — so appending to `RULES` would have seeded the news rule on fresh
+// installs only, and on exactly the upgrades that need it, never. Those are the
+// deployments where `pushDispatch.publish('news.post', …)` used to run and no
+// longer does (§7.1 Q9): they would have lost news push with no rule to switch
+// on and no way to tell why. One key per seed GROUP is the rule this establishes;
+// a sixth rule for a new trigger takes a sixth key, and a rule added to an
+// existing group is a rule that only fresh installs will ever see.
+
 const rulesDb = require('../model/engagement/engagementRules.db')
 const settingsDb = require('../model/settings/settings.db')
 const log = require('../utils/logger')('engagement')
@@ -32,6 +43,9 @@ const log = require('../utils/logger')('engagement')
 // the settings table can tell when it ran; only its presence is read.
 const SEEDED_KEY = 'engagement_team_rules_seeded'
 
+// Phase 11's, and separate for the reason above. Same shape, same semantics.
+const NEWS_SEEDED_KEY = 'engagement_news_rule_seeded'
+
 const RULES = [
   {
     trigger_id: 'team.forum.post',
@@ -98,20 +112,57 @@ const RULES = [
   },
 ]
 
+// Phase 11's one rule, in its own list so it can carry its own one-shot key.
+const NEWS_RULES = [
+  {
+    trigger_id: 'news.post',
+    name: 'News posts',
+    // `subscribers`, which is the trigger's declared default and the population
+    // `pushDispatch.publish('news.post', …)` used to reach directly: users who
+    // opted into this id on at least one channel. Not `authenticated`, even
+    // though the trigger's ceiling permits it — a news post is worth telling
+    // people who asked to be told, and mailing the whole user table on every
+    // publish is how a notification feature earns a spam complaint.
+    audience: 'subscribers',
+    // **All three channels, unlike the Team rules' `email` alone**, and that is
+    // the continuity half of §7.1 Q9's answer. Push is on this rule because push
+    // is what the raw tickle did; leaving it off would mean an operator who
+    // enabled the rule to restore news push got mail instead. In-app rides along
+    // because the inbox is the surface a tickle deep-links into (Phase 7).
+    channels: ['email', 'inapp', 'push'],
+    // The generic body plus the structural projection (§4.6.1 property 1):
+    // `news.post` declares its own `title` and `postUrl`, which the projection
+    // leaves exactly as emitted, so an unauthored mail already names the post and
+    // links it. `inapp.event` is the in-app renderer's; push carries no content
+    // by construction and needs no template.
+    template_keys: { email: 'notify.event', inapp: 'inapp.event', digest: 'notify.digest' },
+    // An hour, per USER — `news.post` declares no `subjectKey`, so the cooldown
+    // subject is the recipient. "Do not tell me about news more than once an
+    // hour" is the useful rule; keying it per post would make it a no-op, since
+    // every post is a new subject.
+    cooldown_seconds: 3600,
+    max_sends_per_hour: 1000,
+  },
+]
+
 /**
- * Seed the four rules, once. Returns a small summary for the boot log.
+ * Seed one group of rules, once, under its own guard key.
  *
  * Never throws: it is on the boot path beside `seedTemplates`, and a rule that
  * failed to seed costs an operator one visit to the "new rule" form, not a
  * deployment.
+ *
+ * @param {string} key   the one-shot settings guard for THIS group
+ * @param {object[]} rules
+ * @param {string} note  what the boot log should say when it inserts
  */
-async function seedTeamRules() {
+async function seedGroup(key, rules, note) {
   const summary = { inserted: 0, skipped: 0 }
   try {
-    const seen = await settingsDb.get(SEEDED_KEY)
-    if (seen) return { ...summary, skipped: RULES.length }
+    const seen = await settingsDb.get(key)
+    if (seen) return { ...summary, skipped: rules.length }
 
-    for (const rule of RULES) {
+    for (const rule of rules) {
       try {
         await rulesDb.insert({
           audience_segment_id: null,
@@ -133,17 +184,46 @@ async function seedTeamRules() {
     // Stamped even on a partial run. Re-running would duplicate the rules that
     // did insert, and a duplicate rule is two mails per event — a worse outcome
     // than the one missing rule an operator can add from the screen.
-    await settingsDb.set(SEEDED_KEY, new Date().toISOString())
+    await settingsDb.set(key, new Date().toISOString())
     if (summary.inserted) {
-      log.info('seeded Team engagement rules, all disabled', {
-        rules: summary.inserted,
-        note: 'Team email stays off until an operator enables one',
-      })
+      log.info('seeded engagement rules, all disabled', { rules: summary.inserted, note })
     }
   } catch (err) {
-    log.error('team rule seeding failed', { message: err.message })
+    log.error('rule seeding failed', { key, message: err.message })
   }
   return summary
 }
 
-module.exports = { seedTeamRules, RULES, SEEDED_KEY }
+/** The four Team rules (Phase 6). */
+const seedTeamRules = () =>
+  seedGroup(SEEDED_KEY, RULES, 'Team email stays off until an operator enables one')
+
+/** The one news rule (Phase 11). */
+const seedNewsRule = () =>
+  seedGroup(NEWS_SEEDED_KEY, NEWS_RULES, 'News notifications stay off until an operator enables this rule')
+
+/**
+ * Both groups, which is what the boot path calls.
+ *
+ * Sequential rather than concurrent, and not for correctness — each group has its
+ * own guard key and its own rows — but so the boot log reads in a fixed order and
+ * a failure names one group rather than an interleaving of two.
+ */
+async function seedCoreRules() {
+  const team = await seedTeamRules()
+  const news = await seedNewsRule()
+  return {
+    inserted: team.inserted + news.inserted,
+    skipped: team.skipped + news.skipped,
+  }
+}
+
+module.exports = {
+  seedCoreRules,
+  seedTeamRules,
+  seedNewsRule,
+  RULES,
+  NEWS_RULES,
+  SEEDED_KEY,
+  NEWS_SEEDED_KEY,
+}
diff --git a/server/src/model/notificationChannelPrefs/notificationChannelPrefs.model.js b/server/src/model/notificationChannelPrefs/notificationChannelPrefs.model.js
index 18e5c20..cb5b2fa 100644
Binary files a/server/src/model/notificationChannelPrefs/notificationChannelPrefs.model.js and b/server/src/model/notificationChannelPrefs/notificationChannelPrefs.model.js differ
diff --git a/server/src/modules/ceilings.js b/server/src/modules/ceilings.js
index ae5f809..4969d4f 100644
--- a/server/src/modules/ceilings.js
+++ b/server/src/modules/ceilings.js
@@ -20,16 +20,29 @@
 //             ├── subscribers      logged-in users who opted into this id
 //             ├── members          a module-declared list (a Team, the governors)
 //             ├── staff            admin / editor / moderator
+//             │     └── admin      admins only
 //             └── owner            the one user the event is about
 //
-// The four leaves are mutually INCOMPARABLE, deliberately. `owner` is not a
+// The four branches are mutually INCOMPARABLE, deliberately. `owner` is not a
 // subset of `subscribers` (an owner need not have subscribed), `staff` is not a
 // subset of `members`, and no pair of them has a common descendant. That is what
 // makes `meet()` below return null rather than guessing, and a null meet is a
 // refused save (§5.1a rule 3) rather than a silent widening.
 //
+// **`admin` was added in Phase 11 and it is the one genuine refinement in the
+// tree.** Phase 2 shipped six values, and §8.6 then turned out to describe three
+// triggers as admin-audience — `uo.audit.staff_action`, `uo.economy.milestone`,
+// `uo.world.saved` — for which the narrowest available value was `staff`, i.e.
+// admin / editor / moderator. Ceilinging them there would have permitted a rule
+// that mails the staff audit digest to every editor, which is the same class of
+// mistake the whole file exists to prevent. It is a CHILD rather than a seventh
+// leaf because every admin is staff — the containment the other pairs lack — and
+// that is why `permits`, `meet` and `meetAll` needed no change at all beyond the
+// new `PARENT` entry. It is a module-contract change (a module may now declare
+// `ceiling: 'admin'`) and took MODULE_API_VERSION to 1.8.0.
+//
 // Nothing here reaches the database, the network or a user record. It is
-// arithmetic over six constants, so it is safe to require anywhere.
+// arithmetic over seven constants, so it is safe to require anywhere.
 
 // child → parent. A tree, which is what makes `permits` a walk to the root and
 // `meet` a comparison rather than a search: two nodes in a tree have a greatest
@@ -40,6 +53,7 @@ const PARENT = {
   subscribers: 'authenticated',
   members: 'authenticated',
   staff: 'authenticated',
+  admin: 'staff',
   owner: 'authenticated',
 }
 
@@ -51,6 +65,7 @@ const LABELS = {
   subscribers: 'Signed-in users subscribed to this event',
   members: 'Members of a module-declared list',
   staff: 'Staff only',
+  admin: 'Administrators only',
   owner: 'Only the user the event is about',
 }
 
@@ -66,9 +81,50 @@ const LABELS = {
 // TOLD, which is the tier gate's population.
 const STAFF_CEILING_ROLES = ['admin', 'editor', 'moderator']
 
+// And which the `admin` ceiling names. One role, and it is written as a list for
+// the same reason `STAFF_CEILING_ROLES` is: `recipients.staff(roles)` takes a
+// list, so the two ceilings resolve through one query rather than through two
+// that could drift.
+const ADMIN_CEILING_ROLES = ['admin']
+
 /** Does this user fall inside the `staff` ceiling? */
 const isStaffRole = (role) => STAFF_CEILING_ROLES.includes(role)
 
+/** Does this user fall inside the `admin` ceiling? */
+const isAdminRole = (role) => ADMIN_CEILING_ROLES.includes(role)
+
+// The ceilings that name a ROLE, and the test for each. Two consumers read this
+// rather than asking about `staff` by name: the audience resolver, and the
+// preferences catalog's `visibleTo`.
+//
+// **`visibleTo` is why this is a table and not two `if`s.** Its rule is that an
+// id nobody outside a role can ever be reached by must not appear by name in a
+// player's preferences screen — `uo.cheat.detected` is the case the lattice was
+// written for. That rule was expressed as `ceiling !== 'staff'` when `staff` was
+// the only role-gated value; the day `admin` was added, that spelling would have
+// silently published every admin-ceilinged id to every player. A table cannot
+// drift the same way: adding a role-gated ceiling without adding it here is a
+// registration that fails its own test, not a leak.
+const ROLE_CEILINGS = {
+  staff: { roles: STAFF_CEILING_ROLES, test: isStaffRole },
+  admin: { roles: ADMIN_CEILING_ROLES, test: isAdminRole },
+}
+
+/** Is this ceiling one that only certain roles can ever be reached by? */
+const isRoleCeiling = (ceiling) => Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(ROLE_CEILINGS, ceiling)
+
+/**
+ * Could a viewer with this role EVER be reached by an id ceilinged here?
+ *
+ * The question a catalog asks before offering a toggle, and it fails closed: a
+ * role-gated ceiling with no role, or an unknown role, is a no.
+ */
+function reachableBy(ceiling, role) {
+  const gate = ROLE_CEILINGS[ceiling]
+  if (!gate) return true
+  return gate.test(role)
+}
+
 const CEILINGS = Object.keys(PARENT)
 
 /** Is this one of the six? The gate every registration and every rule save runs. */
@@ -119,4 +175,18 @@ function meetAll(list) {
   return list.reduce((acc, next) => (acc === null ? null : meet(acc, next)), list[0])
 }
 
-module.exports = { CEILINGS, LABELS, STAFF_CEILING_ROLES, isStaffRole, isCeiling, permits, meet, meetAll }
+module.exports = {
+  CEILINGS,
+  LABELS,
+  STAFF_CEILING_ROLES,
+  ADMIN_CEILING_ROLES,
+  ROLE_CEILINGS,
+  isStaffRole,
+  isAdminRole,
+  isRoleCeiling,
+  reachableBy,
+  isCeiling,
+  permits,
+  meet,
+  meetAll,
+}
diff --git a/server/src/modules/version.js b/server/src/modules/version.js
index 24e6bca..157b28e 100644
--- a/server/src/modules/version.js
+++ b/server/src/modules/version.js
@@ -9,6 +9,26 @@
 // Deliberately separate from PROTOCOL_VERSION (which versions the shard wire and
 // has nothing to say about a website module) and from any module's own version.
 
+// 1.8.0 - a seventh value in the audience ceiling lattice: `admin`, a child of
+// `staff` (docs/website/ENGAGEMENT.md Phase 11, decision 1). A module may now
+// declare `ceiling: 'admin'` on a trigger or an audience, so the set of values
+// `registerEventTriggers` and `registerAudiences` accept grew. Additions only,
+// so minor: every declaration valid before is valid now, no stored value
+// changes, and module-uo's `coreApi: "^1.3.0"` still resolves.
+//
+// It exists because Phase 11's operator-facing triggers - `uo.audit.staff_action`,
+// `uo.economy.milestone`, `uo.world.saved` - are described everywhere as
+// admin-audience, and the narrowest value the lattice had was `staff`, which
+// means admin / editor / moderator. Ceilinging them there would have permitted a
+// rule that mails the staff audit digest to every editor.
+//
+// **What a module has to know about it beyond the new name.** `admin` is the one
+// pair in the tree with real containment - every admin is staff - so it is the
+// only place `permits` is true between two non-`authenticated` values:
+// `permits('staff', 'admin')` holds and nothing else of that shape does. A
+// trigger ceilinged `staff` therefore accepts an `admin` audience, which is the
+// intended narrowing, and the reverse is refused as it should be.
+
 // 1.7.0 — the engagement contract (docs/website/ENGAGEMENT.md Phase 2).
 // Additions only, so minor: `api.registerEventTriggers([...])`,
 // `api.registerAudiences([...])`, `ctx.events.emit(triggerId, envelope)` and
@@ -81,6 +101,6 @@
 // an admin action a module performs belongs in core's one audit log, the
 // extension slot needs the user its prefix names, and §2.7 forbids a module
 // reading core's `APP_BASE_URL` for itself. Additions only, so minor.
-const MODULE_API_VERSION = '1.7.0'
+const MODULE_API_VERSION = '1.8.0'
 
 module.exports = { MODULE_API_VERSION }
diff --git a/server/src/router/v1/admin/admin.controller.js b/server/src/router/v1/admin/admin.controller.js
index 8447d3a..04bed7e 100644
--- a/server/src/router/v1/admin/admin.controller.js
+++ b/server/src/router/v1/admin/admin.controller.js
@@ -12,12 +12,12 @@ const announceJobs = require('../../../model/announceJobs/announceJobs.model')
 const emailConfig = require('../../../model/emailConfig/emailConfig.model')
 const emailDedupe = require('../../../model/emailDedupe/emailDedupe.model')
 const forumSettings = require('../../../model/teams/teamForumSettings.model')
-const pushDispatch = require('../../../utils/pushDispatch')
 const { cleanBody } = require('../../../utils/sanitizeHtml')
 const { parseJsonSetting } = require('../../../utils/settingsJson')
 const { validateThemeVisual } = require('../../../utils/themeResolve')
 const { validateBrandAssets, resolveBrandAssets } = require('../../../utils/brandAssets')
 const { validateNavOverrides, resolveNavOverrides, NAV_KEYS } = require('../../../utils/navOverrides')
+const newsEmit = require('../../../utils/newsNotify')
 const htmlShell = require('../../../utils/htmlShell')
 
 const log = require('../../../utils/logger')('admin')
@@ -47,13 +47,36 @@ async function announceIfNewlyPublished(post, transition) {
   // sidecar hiccup cannot break saving a post: the same guarantee the enqueue
   // above gives.
   await registries.dispatchPostHook('onSaved', { post, transition })
-  // Opt-in push tickle to news.post subscribers, on the same transition.
-  // Fire-and-forget + self-guarding, so a dead ntfy relay never breaks saving.
-  if (jobId) {
-    Promise.resolve(pushDispatch.publish('news.post', { ref: String(post.id) })).catch((err) =>
-      log.warn('news push failed', { postId: post.id, message: err.message }),
-    )
-  }
+  // **The engagement engine, and it REPLACES the raw push tickle that used to be
+  // here** (ENGAGEMENT.md §7.1 Q9, decided 2026-08-31 at the start of Phase 11).
+  //
+  // `news.post` has been a declared payload contract with no caller since Phase 2
+  // — a rule naming it could never fire — so on a real deployment the only mail
+  // or inbox item a rule could produce came from Teams. This is the call that
+  // fixes that, and it is deliberately the only thing about this function that
+  // changed: the announce legs above (a one-shot DELIVERY to a channel of the
+  // deployment, with retry) and the post hooks (idempotent STATE mirroring, which
+  // also runs on delete) are different KINDS of thing and both still fire exactly
+  // as they did. `registries.js` already states those two apart; this adds a third
+  // distinction of the same kind rather than replacing either.
+  //
+  // **What it replaced, and what that costs.** `pushDispatch.publish('news.post',
+  // …)` stood here and tickled every subscriber directly. It is gone, so push now
+  // rides the engine like every other channel — which means it goes nowhere until
+  // an operator enables the `news.post` rule core seeds `enabled = 0` beside the
+  // four Team ones (engagement/coreRules.js). That IS a behaviour change on
+  // upgrade and it is the org lead's decision, taken over keeping the raw call
+  // beside the emit "for one release": that is an exception with a deadline
+  // nobody owns, and Phase 6 refused the analogous carve-out for Teams. The admin
+  // Rules screen says so, and the release note names it.
+  //
+  // **Gated on `jobId`, the same value the push was gated on.** That is the single
+  // "newly published news" transition test and re-deriving it here would be a
+  // second chance to disagree with the first — an edit or a re-publish must not
+  // re-fire. Fire-and-forget, like everything else in this function: `emit` does
+  // not await delivery by design, and a rule lookup must not be able to fail
+  // saving a post.
+  if (jobId) newsEmit.emitNewsPost(post)
 }
 
 // ── Dashboard & site mode ─────────────────────────────────────────────
diff --git a/server/src/utils/newsNotify.js b/server/src/utils/newsNotify.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4a5c663
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/src/utils/newsNotify.js
@@ -0,0 +1,112 @@
+// ── The `news.post` emitter (ENGAGEMENT.md §7.1 Q9, Phase 11) ──────────────
+//
+// Core's own trigger, and until this phase the only one of its five with no
+// caller at all: `config/coreTriggers.js` declared the payload contract in Phase
+// 2 and said in as many words that nothing emitted yet, and Phase 6 migrated
+// only the four `team.*` ones onto the engine. So an operator could write a rule
+// on `news.post` and it could never fire.
+//
+// It is one call, and every line of care here is about what it must NOT disturb.
+// `announceIfNewlyPublished` fans one publish three ways now, and they are
+// different in kind:
+//
+//   • `announceJobs.enqueueIfNeeded` — a one-shot DELIVERY to a channel of the
+//     deployment (the in-game town crier, Discord #news), with retry and
+//     classification. Not per-person. Not the engine's.
+//   • `registries.dispatchPostHook('onSaved')` — idempotent STATE mirroring,
+//     which also runs on delete and refreshes silently on an edit. Not the
+//     engine's either.
+//   • this — a PER-PERSON notification, subject to a rule, a preference, a
+//     suppression and a channel. The engine's, and the only one that was missing.
+//
+// A module keeps both of its doors onto a publish (the announce leg and the post
+// hook) and gains no third: `news.post` is core's id, `ctx.events.emit` binds the
+// owner at the call and never reads it from the arguments, and §7.2's one
+// namespace means an id has exactly one owner across both facets. A module that
+// wants a person-facing notification of its own declares its own trigger.
+//
+// **Nothing here throws.** It is called from a path that has already saved the
+// post; a notification is a courtesy and a courtesy that can fail the write
+// behind it is a defect. Same posture as `teamNotify.js`, for the same reason.
+
+const engagementEmit = require('./engagementEmit')
+const log = require('./logger')('news-notify')
+
+// How much of a post body the mail carries when the post has no excerpt of its
+// own. Same length as the Team excerpt: long enough to tell whether it is worth
+// opening, short enough that the mail is not a copy of the article.
+const EXCERPT_CHARS = 200
+
+// **The site has no per-post route.** `App.jsx` mounts `/site/news` (the list)
+// and nothing under it, which is why `announceJobs.logic.js` links the list from
+// the Discord and town-crier announcements too. So the mail links what exists.
+// Declared `required: true` on the trigger, so this is a constant rather than an
+// optional — a variable that is sometimes absent is a template that sometimes
+// renders a dead button.
+//
+// Site-RELATIVE, because `engagementEmit.RELATIVE_URL` validates `url` variables
+// that way: a payload value that ends up in an href must not be able to carry an
+// absolute one somewhere else. The mail renderer absolutizes it against the
+// deployment's base.
+const NEWS_PATH = '/site/news'
+
+/** Markup out, whitespace collapsed, truncated. The mail is plain text. */
+function excerptFrom(post) {
+  const source = post.excerpt || post.body || ''
+  const text = String(source)
+    .replace(/<[^>]*>/g, ' ')
+    .replace(/&nbsp;/g, ' ')
+    .replace(/&amp;/g, '&')
+    .replace(/&lt;/g, '<')
+    .replace(/&gt;/g, '>')
+    .replace(/&quot;/g, '"')
+    .replace(/\s+/g, ' ')
+    .trim()
+  if (!text) return null
+  return text.length > EXCERPT_CHARS ? `${text.slice(0, EXCERPT_CHARS - 1)}…` : text
+}
+
+/**
+ * Emit `news.post` for a post that has just transitioned into published news.
+ *
+ * The caller gates on `announceJobs.enqueueIfNeeded`'s job id — the single
+ * transition signal — so this does not re-derive it. Passing a post that did not
+ * transition would produce a duplicate mail, which is why this function does not
+ * take the transition and cannot be tempted to read it differently.
+ *
+ * @param {object} post the saved post row
+ * @returns {boolean} whether the emit was accepted (for tests; callers ignore it)
+ */
+function emitNewsPost(post) {
+  try {
+    if (!post || post.id == null) return false
+    const excerpt = excerptFrom(post)
+    const result = engagementEmit.emit('core', 'news.post', {
+      data: {
+        title: post.title || 'A new post',
+        // Omitted rather than sent empty when the post has neither an excerpt nor
+        // a body worth quoting. `excerpt` is `required: false`, and an absent
+        // optional renders as absent; an empty string renders as a blank line
+        // where a summary should be.
+        ...(excerpt ? { excerpt } : {}),
+        ...(post.category ? { category: String(post.category) } : {}),
+        postUrl: NEWS_PATH,
+      },
+      // **The cooldown subject is the USER, not the post**, which is why there is
+      // no `subject` here and no `subjectKey` on the declaration. "Do not mail me
+      // about news more than once an hour" is the useful rule; keying it per post
+      // would make every cooldown a no-op, since every post is a new subject.
+      //
+      // `dedupeKey` IS per post, and that is the other half of the same thought:
+      // the engine must not write two outbox rows for one publish if this is ever
+      // reached twice, and the post id is the only stable name for "this publish".
+      dedupeKey: `news.post:${post.id}`,
+    })
+    return Boolean(result && result.ok)
+  } catch (err) {
+    log.warn('news event not emitted', { postId: post && post.id, message: err.message })
+    return false
+  }
+}
+
+module.exports = { emitNewsPost, excerptFrom, NEWS_PATH, EXCERPT_CHARS }
diff --git a/server/test/engagementCeilings.test.js b/server/test/engagementCeilings.test.js
index a0a58b4..cd299fe 100644
--- a/server/test/engagementCeilings.test.js
+++ b/server/test/engagementCeilings.test.js
@@ -16,10 +16,10 @@ const assert = require('node:assert/strict')
 
 const ceilings = require('../src/modules/ceilings')
 
-test('the six ceilings are the vocabulary, and nothing else is', () => {
+test('the seven ceilings are the vocabulary, and nothing else is', () => {
   assert.deepEqual(
     [...ceilings.CEILINGS].sort(),
-    ['authenticated', 'everyone', 'members', 'owner', 'staff', 'subscribers'],
+    ['admin', 'authenticated', 'everyone', 'members', 'owner', 'staff', 'subscribers'],
   )
   for (const id of ceilings.CEILINGS) assert.ok(ceilings.LABELS[id], `${id} has an operator label`)
   assert.equal(ceilings.isCeiling('nobody'), false)
@@ -33,9 +33,9 @@ test('everyone permits every ceiling; every ceiling permits itself', () => {
   }
 })
 
-test('authenticated permits the four leaves but not everyone', () => {
-  for (const leaf of ['subscribers', 'members', 'staff', 'owner']) {
-    assert.equal(ceilings.permits('authenticated', leaf), true)
+test('authenticated permits every branch and admin beneath staff, but not everyone', () => {
+  for (const below of ['subscribers', 'members', 'staff', 'owner', 'admin']) {
+    assert.equal(ceilings.permits('authenticated', below), true)
   }
   assert.equal(ceilings.permits('authenticated', 'everyone'), false)
 })
@@ -55,6 +55,70 @@ test('a staff ceiling does NOT permit owner — fewer people is not less exposur
   }
 })
 
+// ── `admin`, added in Phase 11 ─────────────────────────────────────────────
+//
+// The one genuine refinement in the tree: every admin is staff, which is the
+// containment no other pair has. These assert that it is a NARROWING and not a
+// second way to widen — the failure this file exists to keep out, in its newest
+// possible costume.
+
+test('staff permits admin and admin does not permit staff — the one true refinement', () => {
+  assert.equal(ceilings.permits('staff', 'admin'), true)
+  assert.equal(ceilings.permits('admin', 'staff'), false)
+  assert.equal(ceilings.meet('staff', 'admin'), 'admin')
+  assert.equal(ceilings.meet('admin', 'staff'), 'admin')
+})
+
+test('admin is incomparable with every branch that is not staff', () => {
+  for (const other of ['subscribers', 'members', 'owner']) {
+    assert.equal(ceilings.permits('admin', other), false, `admin must not permit ${other}`)
+    assert.equal(ceilings.permits(other, 'admin'), false, `${other} must not permit admin`)
+    assert.equal(ceilings.meet('admin', other), null, `admin ∧ ${other} has no bound`)
+  }
+})
+
+test('an admin-ceilinged trigger refuses a staff audience', () => {
+  // The acceptance criterion in as many words: a rule cannot give an
+  // admin-ceiling trigger a `staff` audience. `permits` is what both the save
+  // check and the send-time re-check call.
+  assert.equal(ceilings.permits('admin', 'staff'), false)
+  // …and the narrowing direction is allowed, which is what makes the node useful
+  // rather than merely restrictive.
+  assert.equal(ceilings.permits('staff', 'admin'), true)
+})
+
+test('the role ceilings are a table, so a new one cannot be forgotten', () => {
+  // `visibleTo` used to ask `ceiling !== 'staff'`. That spelling was correct
+  // while `staff` was the only role-gated value and would have silently published
+  // every admin-ceilinged id to every player's preferences screen the day `admin`
+  // arrived. The table is what makes that impossible to get wrong quietly.
+  assert.deepEqual(Object.keys(ceilings.ROLE_CEILINGS).sort(), ['admin', 'staff'])
+  for (const id of Object.keys(ceilings.ROLE_CEILINGS)) {
+    assert.ok(ceilings.isRoleCeiling(id), `${id} is a role ceiling`)
+    assert.ok(ceilings.ROLE_CEILINGS[id].roles.length, `${id} names at least one role`)
+  }
+  assert.equal(ceilings.isRoleCeiling('subscribers'), false)
+})
+
+test('reachableBy gates the role ceilings and lets everything else through', () => {
+  assert.equal(ceilings.reachableBy('admin', 'admin'), true)
+  assert.equal(ceilings.reachableBy('admin', 'editor'), false)
+  assert.equal(ceilings.reachableBy('admin', 'moderator'), false)
+  assert.equal(ceilings.reachableBy('admin', 'user'), false)
+  assert.equal(ceilings.reachableBy('staff', 'editor'), true)
+  assert.equal(ceilings.reachableBy('staff', 'user'), false)
+  // Fails closed on a missing viewer, which is how a signed-out catalog read
+  // reaches it.
+  assert.equal(ceilings.reachableBy('staff', undefined), false)
+  assert.equal(ceilings.reachableBy('admin', undefined), false)
+  // Everything that is not role-gated is visible to anyone, including the `null`
+  // a stream-only catalog item carries.
+  for (const open of ['everyone', 'authenticated', 'subscribers', 'members', 'owner']) {
+    assert.equal(ceilings.reachableBy(open, 'user'), true, `${open} is not role-gated`)
+  }
+  assert.equal(ceilings.reachableBy(null, 'user'), true)
+})
+
 test('an unknown ceiling is permitted by nothing, on either side', () => {
   assert.equal(ceilings.permits('everyone', 'god'), false)
   assert.equal(ceilings.permits('god', 'owner'), false)
@@ -70,6 +134,7 @@ test('A OR B takes the NARROWER of the two ceilings, not the wider', () => {
 
 test('incomparable ceilings have no meet — the save is refused, not guessed', () => {
   assert.equal(ceilings.meet('staff', 'members'), null)
+  assert.equal(ceilings.meet('admin', 'owner'), null)
   assert.equal(ceilings.meet('owner', 'subscribers'), null)
   assert.equal(ceilings.meet('staff', 'nonsense'), null)
 })
diff --git a/server/test/engagementTriggers.test.js b/server/test/engagementTriggers.test.js
index 63c59c1..88be5c8 100644
--- a/server/test/engagementTriggers.test.js
+++ b/server/test/engagementTriggers.test.js
@@ -419,10 +419,14 @@ test('GET /admin/engagement/triggers serves core\'s declarations and the ceiling
   assert.ok(news.variables.some((v) => v.name === 'title' && v.example))
   // The lattice travels with the catalog so the rule editor never offers an
   // audience the server will refuse.
+  // `staff` permits itself and `admin` beneath it — the one refinement in the
+  // tree (Phase 11). Every other branch permits itself alone.
   const staff = res.body.ceilings.find((c) => c.id === 'staff')
-  assert.deepEqual(staff.permits, ['staff'])
+  assert.deepEqual(staff.permits, ['staff', 'admin'])
+  const admin = res.body.ceilings.find((c) => c.id === 'admin')
+  assert.deepEqual(admin.permits, ['admin'])
   const everyone = res.body.ceilings.find((c) => c.id === 'everyone')
-  assert.equal(everyone.permits.length, 6)
+  assert.equal(everyone.permits.length, 7)
 })
 
 test('GET /admin/engagement/audiences never serves a resolver', () => {
diff --git a/server/test/newsNotify.test.js b/server/test/newsNotify.test.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..672925d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/test/newsNotify.test.js
@@ -0,0 +1,127 @@
+// ── Core's `news.post` emitter (ENGAGEMENT.md §7.1 Q9, Phase 11) ───────────
+//
+// `news.post` was a declared payload contract with NO CALLER from Phase 2 until
+// this phase — a rule naming it could never fire, so on a real deployment the
+// only mail or inbox item a rule could produce came from Teams. This is the test
+// for the call that fixes it, and for the two things about it that are decisions
+// rather than plumbing:
+//
+//   1. The emit REPLACED `pushDispatch.publish('news.post', …)`, so news push now
+//      rides a rule. Core seeds that rule DISABLED, which is why news push stops
+//      on upgrade — deliberately, on the Phase 6 Team precedent.
+//   2. The seed carries its OWN one-shot key. The Team key is already stamped on
+//      every deployment that has booted since Phase 6, and those are exactly the
+//      deployments that lose their raw push — so joining that group would have
+//      seeded the news rule on fresh installs only.
+
+const { test } = require('node:test')
+const assert = require('node:assert/strict')
+
+const registries = require('../src/modules/registries')
+const newsNotify = require('../src/utils/newsNotify')
+const coreRules = require('../src/engagement/coreRules')
+
+registries.registerCore()
+
+const POST = {
+  id: 412,
+  title: 'Five on Friday — the Yew invasion',
+  excerpt: 'Four new champion spawns, and the fate of the Yew moongate.',
+  category: 'Five on Friday',
+}
+
+test('a publish emits news.post with the declaration\'s own variables', () => {
+  const ok = newsNotify.emitNewsPost(POST)
+  assert.equal(ok, true)
+})
+
+test('the emitted payload satisfies the declared contract', () => {
+  // `emit` throws in dev on a payload that misses a required variable, so the
+  // assertion that it did not throw above is already most of this. This says
+  // which variables, so a future declaration change breaks here with a name.
+  const declaration = registries.eventTrigger('news.post')
+  const required = declaration.variables.filter((v) => v.required).map((v) => v.name)
+  assert.deepEqual(required.sort(), ['postUrl', 'title'])
+})
+
+test('postUrl is the news LIST, because the site has no per-post route', () => {
+  // `App.jsx` mounts `/site/news` and nothing under it, which is why
+  // `announceJobs.logic.js` links the list from the Discord and town-crier
+  // announcements too. The declaration's `example` used to name `/news/<slug>`,
+  // a path that 404s — and an example is what the template editor previews and
+  // test-sends with, so a wrong one is a preview that looks right.
+  assert.equal(newsNotify.NEWS_PATH, '/site/news')
+  assert.ok(newsNotify.NEWS_PATH.startsWith('/'), 'site-relative, because it ends up in an href')
+  assert.ok(!newsNotify.NEWS_PATH.startsWith('//'), 'not protocol-relative')
+  const declaration = registries.eventTrigger('news.post')
+  const postUrl = declaration.variables.find((v) => v.name === 'postUrl')
+  assert.equal(postUrl.example, newsNotify.NEWS_PATH, 'the example is the value the emitter sends')
+})
+
+test('a post with no excerpt falls back to the body, stripped of markup', () => {
+  const text = newsNotify.excerptFrom({ body: '<p>Hello&nbsp;<b>world</b></p>' })
+  assert.equal(text, 'Hello world')
+})
+
+test('an empty post omits the excerpt rather than sending a blank one', () => {
+  // `excerpt` is declared optional. An absent optional renders as absent; an
+  // empty string renders as a blank line where a summary should be.
+  assert.equal(newsNotify.excerptFrom({}), null)
+  assert.equal(newsNotify.excerptFrom({ body: '<p>   </p>' }), null)
+})
+
+test('a long body is truncated rather than reproduced in the mail', () => {
+  const text = newsNotify.excerptFrom({ body: 'x'.repeat(500) })
+  assert.equal(text.length, newsNotify.EXCERPT_CHARS)
+  assert.ok(text.endsWith('…'))
+})
+
+test('a malformed post is a no-op, never an exception on the publish path', () => {
+  // This runs inside `announceIfNewlyPublished`, after the post has been saved.
+  // A notification that can fail the write behind it is a defect.
+  assert.equal(newsNotify.emitNewsPost(null), false)
+  assert.equal(newsNotify.emitNewsPost({}), false)
+})
+
+// ── The seed, and why it is its own group ──────────────────────────────────
+
+test('the news rule is seeded, disabled, on all three channels', () => {
+  assert.equal(coreRules.NEWS_RULES.length, 1)
+  const [rule] = coreRules.NEWS_RULES
+  assert.equal(rule.trigger_id, 'news.post')
+  assert.equal(rule.audience, 'subscribers')
+  // **Push is on this rule** because push is what the raw tickle did. Leaving it
+  // off would mean an operator who enabled the rule to restore news push got
+  // mail instead.
+  assert.deepEqual(rule.channels, ['email', 'inapp', 'push'])
+  // Nothing core seeds is ever enabled — `seedGroup` stamps `enabled: 0` over
+  // every entry, so the rule cannot ship on even by accident.
+  assert.equal(rule.enabled, undefined)
+})
+
+test('the news seed has its own one-shot key, separate from the Team group\'s', () => {
+  // The failure this prevents: the Team key is already stamped on every
+  // deployment that has booted since Phase 6, and the guard reads its presence.
+  // Appending to the Team list would have seeded the news rule on fresh installs
+  // only — and on exactly the upgrades that lose their raw news push, never.
+  assert.notEqual(coreRules.NEWS_SEEDED_KEY, coreRules.SEEDED_KEY)
+  assert.equal(coreRules.SEEDED_KEY, 'engagement_team_rules_seeded')
+  assert.equal(coreRules.NEWS_SEEDED_KEY, 'engagement_news_rule_seeded')
+})
+
+test('the audience the rule names is one the trigger\'s ceiling permits', () => {
+  const ceilings = require('../src/modules/ceilings')
+  const declaration = registries.eventTrigger('news.post')
+  for (const rule of [...coreRules.RULES, ...coreRules.NEWS_RULES]) {
+    const d = registries.eventTrigger(rule.trigger_id)
+    assert.ok(d, `${rule.trigger_id} is declared`)
+    assert.ok(
+      ceilings.permits(d.ceiling, rule.audience),
+      `${rule.trigger_id}: audience "${rule.audience}" is within ceiling "${d.ceiling}"`,
+    )
+  }
+  // Named explicitly, because it is the one seeded rule whose ceiling is wider
+  // than its audience: a rule editor may widen news to `authenticated`, and
+  // deliberately may not widen a Team event past `members`.
+  assert.equal(declaration.ceiling, 'authenticated')
+})
diff --git a/server/test/notificationChannelPrefs.test.js b/server/test/notificationChannelPrefs.test.js
index a6c70bf..dad54d8 100644
--- a/server/test/notificationChannelPrefs.test.js
+++ b/server/test/notificationChannelPrefs.test.js
@@ -35,6 +35,9 @@ after(() => db.close())
 const USER = 7
 const PLAYER = { id: USER, role: 'player' }
 const ADMIN = { id: USER, role: 'admin' }
+// Phase 11 added the `admin` ceiling beneath `staff`, so the interesting viewer
+// is no longer "player vs staff" but the one INSIDE `staff` and outside `admin`.
+const EDITOR = { id: USER, role: 'editor' }
 
 // ── In-memory stand-ins for the two tables ─────────────────────────────────
 //
@@ -338,6 +341,60 @@ test('a staff-ceilinged trigger is not offered to a player, and is to staff', as
   assert.equal(prefRows.size, 0)
 })
 
+
+// **The Phase 11 ceiling, and the reason `visibleTo` stopped asking about `staff`
+// by name.** Its rule used to be `ceiling !== 'staff'`, which was correct while
+// `staff` was the only role-gated value and would have silently published every
+// admin-ceilinged id to every player the day `admin` arrived. An editor is the
+// viewer that tells the two apart: inside `staff`, outside `admin`.
+test('an admin-ceilinged trigger is hidden from a player AND from an editor', async () => {
+  const api = registries.stage('uo')
+  api.registerEventTriggers([{
+    id: 'uo.audit.staff_action',
+    label: 'A staff member acted in game',
+    ceiling: 'admin',
+    audience: 'admin',
+    variables: [{ name: 'action', type: 'string', required: true, example: 'set' }],
+  }])
+  registries.apply(api.staged)
+
+  const asPlayer = await prefs.getForUser(USER, PLAYER)
+  assert.equal(item(asPlayer, 'uo.audit.staff_action'), undefined, 'a player is not told it exists')
+
+  // The one an `!== staff` test would have got wrong: an editor IS staff, and a
+  // digest of what staff did in game is not for them.
+  const asEditor = await prefs.getForUser(USER, EDITOR)
+  assert.equal(item(asEditor, 'uo.audit.staff_action'), undefined, 'an editor is not told either')
+
+  const asAdmin = await prefs.getForUser(USER, ADMIN)
+  assert.ok(item(asAdmin, 'uo.audit.staff_action'), 'an admin is')
+
+  // A gate, not a display rule: an editor who knows the id still cannot store a
+  // preference for it.
+  await notifCtrl.putChannelPrefs(
+    { user: EDITOR, body: { prefs: [{ id: 'uo.audit.staff_action', channel: 'email', mode: 'instant' }] } },
+    mockRes(),
+  )
+  assert.equal(prefRows.size, 0)
+})
+
+// The counterpart, so the generalisation did not quietly hide more than it should.
+test('a staff-ceilinged trigger is still offered to an editor', async () => {
+  const api = registries.stage('uo')
+  api.registerEventTriggers([{
+    id: 'uo.page.new',
+    label: 'A player opened a help page',
+    ceiling: 'staff',
+    audience: 'staff',
+    variables: [{ name: 'pageType', type: 'string', required: true, example: 'Stuck' }],
+  }])
+  registries.apply(api.staged)
+
+  const asEditor = await prefs.getForUser(USER, EDITOR)
+  assert.ok(item(asEditor, 'uo.page.new'), 'an editor is inside the staff ceiling')
+  assert.equal(item(await prefs.getForUser(USER, PLAYER), 'uo.page.new'), undefined)
+})
+
 // ── The channel registry itself ────────────────────────────────────────────
 
 test('the registry refuses a channel that under-declares', async () => {