diff --git a/pkg/embeddednats/embeddednats.go b/pkg/embeddednats/embeddednats.go
index 1c96e9f1..26cdd10f 100644
--- a/pkg/embeddednats/embeddednats.go
+++ b/pkg/embeddednats/embeddednats.go
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import (
 	"crypto/tls"
 	"fmt"
 	"net/url"
+	"os"
 	"time"
 
 	server "github.com/nats-io/nats-server/v2/server"
@@ -106,6 +107,13 @@ func StartHostAuth(storeDir, host string, port int, auth server.Authentication)
 // blocks until the server is ready to accept connections (up to 5s) and returns
 // the running server; the caller must Shutdown it.
 func StartServer(cfg ServerConfig) (*server.Server, error) {
+	// Diagnostic toggle: UNIBUS_NATS_DEBUG=1 enables the embedded nats-server's own
+	// logger (route/RAFT/JetStream errors), which is otherwise silenced. Off by
+	// default so production behavior is unchanged; only set it when debugging the
+	// cluster route layer.
+	debugLevel := os.Getenv("UNIBUS_NATS_DEBUG")
+	debugNATS := debugLevel == "1" || debugLevel == "2"
+	traceNATS := debugLevel == "2"
 	opts := &server.Options{
 		JetStream:  true,
 		StoreDir:   cfg.StoreDir,
@@ -114,8 +122,17 @@ func StartServer(cfg ServerConfig) (*server.Server, error) {
 		ServerName: cfg.ServerName,
 		DontListen: false,
 		// Keep the embedded server quiet by default; the host app logs the URLs.
-		NoLog:  true,
-		NoSigs: true,
+		NoLog:   !debugNATS,
+		Debug:   debugNATS,
+		Trace:   traceNATS,
+		Logtime: true,
+		NoSigs:  true,
+	}
+	if debugNATS {
+		// Expose the nats-server monitoring endpoint (loopback) so the operator can
+		// inspect /jsz, /routez, /varz while debugging the cluster meta-group.
+		opts.HTTPHost = "127.0.0.1"
+		opts.HTTPPort = 8222
 	}
 	if cfg.Auth != nil {
 		opts.CustomClientAuthentication = cfg.Auth
@@ -141,6 +158,10 @@ func StartServer(cfg ServerConfig) (*server.Server, error) {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("embeddednats: new server: %w", err)
 	}
 
+	if debugNATS {
+		ns.ConfigureLogger()
+	}
+
 	go ns.Start()
 
 	if !ns.ReadyForConnections(5 * time.Second) {
@@ -162,6 +183,21 @@ func applyClusterOpts(opts *server.Options, c *ClusterConfig) error {
 		Port:     c.Port,
 		Username: c.Username,
 		Password: c.Password,
+		// Disable route connection pooling (nats-server 2.10+ defaults to a pool of
+		// 3 connections per peer). On a small cluster the pool churns with
+		// "duplicate route"/"client closed" reconnects that interrupt the meta-group
+		// RAFT heartbeats, causing perpetual leader re-elections so the JetStream
+		// meta never becomes current and stream/KV creation hangs (issue 0006g).
+		// PoolSize=-1 forces the classic single route per peer, which is stable for
+		// the 3-node unibus cluster.
+		PoolSize: -1,
+		// NoAdvertise stops the server from gossiping its locally-discovered IPs to
+		// peers. The cluster nodes are Docker hosts, so without this NATS advertises
+		// the docker bridge addresses (172.x / 10.0.x) as reachable routes; peers
+		// then try to dial those private, mutually-unreachable IPs, churning the
+		// route layer and destabilizing the JetStream meta-group. With NoAdvertise
+		// the nodes use ONLY the explicit public-IP routes we configure (issue 0006g).
+		NoAdvertise: true,
 	}
 	if c.TLS != nil {
 		opts.Cluster.TLSConfig = c.TLS
diff --git a/pkg/membership/jetstream_store.go b/pkg/membership/jetstream_store.go
index 74f561ef..264f1294 100644
--- a/pkg/membership/jetstream_store.go
+++ b/pkg/membership/jetstream_store.go
@@ -85,8 +85,18 @@ func OpenJetStream(js jetstream.JetStream, cfg JetStreamConfig) (Store, error) {
 	if opTimeout <= 0 {
 		opTimeout = defaultKVOpTime
 	}
-	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 15*time.Second)
-	defer cancel()
+	// Bootstrap budget for creating/opening the buckets. On a single node JetStream
+	// is ready the instant the server starts, so the first attempt succeeds. On a
+	// COLD multi-node cluster the JetStream meta-group must first elect a leader and
+	// each node must establish contact with it before its $JS.API responds. A KV
+	// op is a NATS request/reply: if it is published before the node's JetStream is
+	// ready the request is dropped (not queued), and a single long-context call then
+	// just blocks until it times out (issue 0006g). So we RETRY each bucket op with
+	// short per-attempt contexts until it succeeds or the overall bootstrap budget
+	// is exhausted; once the cluster is ready the next retry lands and the buckets
+	// are created, after which they persist and every node opens them quickly.
+	bootstrapBudget := 120 * time.Second
+	deadline := time.Now().Add(bootstrapBudget)
 
 	s := &jetstreamStore{opTimeout: opTimeout}
 	for _, b := range []struct {
@@ -99,14 +109,27 @@ func OpenJetStream(js jetstream.JetStream, cfg JetStreamConfig) (Store, error) {
 		{bucketRoomKeys, &s.keys},
 		{bucketUsers, &s.users},
 	} {
-		kv, err := js.CreateOrUpdateKeyValue(ctx, jetstream.KeyValueConfig{
-			Bucket:   b.name,
-			Replicas: cfg.Replicas,
-			History:  1,
-			Storage:  jetstream.FileStorage,
-		})
-		if err != nil {
-			return nil, fmt.Errorf("membership: open KV bucket %q (replicas=%d): %w", b.name, cfg.Replicas, err)
+		var kv jetstream.KeyValue
+		var lastErr error
+		for {
+			opCtx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 5*time.Second)
+			kv, lastErr = js.CreateOrUpdateKeyValue(opCtx, jetstream.KeyValueConfig{
+				Bucket:   b.name,
+				Replicas: cfg.Replicas,
+				History:  1,
+				Storage:  jetstream.FileStorage,
+			})
+			cancel()
+			if lastErr == nil {
+				break
+			}
+			if time.Now().After(deadline) {
+				return nil, fmt.Errorf("membership: open KV bucket %q (replicas=%d) after %s: %w", b.name, cfg.Replicas, bootstrapBudget, lastErr)
+			}
+			// JetStream not ready yet (no meta leader / request dropped). Wait and
+			// re-publish the op; in a cluster cold start this lands once the meta
+			// group settles.
+			time.Sleep(1 * time.Second)
 		}
 		*b.dst = kv
 	}