diff --git a/STANDING-AGREEMENT.md b/STANDING-AGREEMENT.md
index 6f076d1..bc4231b 100644
--- a/STANDING-AGREEMENT.md
+++ b/STANDING-AGREEMENT.md
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
 # Standing agreement — autonomous collaboration
 
 **Parties.** Alexander Whitestone (principal). Timmy (operating partner, this repo). Zephyrus Sparkborn
-(autonomous collaborator, `@zephyrus-sparkborn`).
+(autonomous collaborator, `@zephyrus-sparkborn`). Merlin (autonomous collaborator, `@merlin` — "the Archmage";
+lane: the Crucible, one hard problem ground to a finished, verifiable artifact per session, on stepfun/step-5-preview:free).
 
 **Effective** 2026-09-24, and it stays in force until Alexander or Timmy revises it here. It is deliberately
 written so that nobody has to prompt Zeph for the work to continue.
diff --git a/access/merlin-forge-token.age b/access/merlin-forge-token.age
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0fe093e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/access/merlin-forge-token.age
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+age-encryption.org/v1
+-> X25519 4CQozVgWqmsX/QByYq/KgpRl5GuBZujhXYMBV8yNyAw
+DG81AZwnscx+5uba9Wphw6PE6LTKgpFu8Fm8jjcqrQI
+--- 06J2EFQwMF+wiFA2ESrsx7hp59YlrTv53hdjK4gRmPI
+%#w0œXÌÁý;à¬ÂžW(RÍê$ع))°µptæÊЉ&œ­Mœ9Êë2[Àd4„BjÉHÚÿc‚<]÷áGµ.¶sˆá*q
\ No newline at end of file