diff --git a/pkg/busauth/authenticator.go b/pkg/busauth/authenticator.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3de74a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/busauth/authenticator.go
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+package busauth
+
+import (
+	"encoding/base64"
+
+	server "github.com/nats-io/nats-server/v2/server"
+	"github.com/nats-io/nkeys"
+)
+
+// nkeyAuthenticator is a NATS server.Authentication that authorizes a client by
+// verifying the nkey signature over the server-presented nonce and then
+// consulting the bus user allowlist. Authorization is checked on every new
+// connection via the injected predicate (not a static Options.Nkeys map), so
+// revoking a user denies its next connection without restarting the server.
+type nkeyAuthenticator struct {
+	// isAuthorized reports whether the lowercase-hex Ed25519 public key behind an
+	// nkey belongs to an active bus user. Injected (membership.Store.IsAuthorized)
+	// so this package stays free of the store dependency.
+	isAuthorized func(signPubHex string) bool
+}
+
+// NewNkeyAuthenticator builds a NATS custom authenticator backed by isAuthorized.
+// Pass it to embeddednats so the data plane only accepts registered identities.
+func NewNkeyAuthenticator(isAuthorized func(signPubHex string) bool) server.Authentication {
+	return &nkeyAuthenticator{isAuthorized: isAuthorized}
+}
+
+// Check verifies the client's nkey signature against the nonce the server
+// presented, then maps the nkey to its allowlist key and checks authorization.
+// Any malformed input or failed verification yields false (fail closed). The
+// signature decoding mirrors nats-server's own (raw-url base64, then std base64
+// fallback) so genuine clients using nats.Nkey are accepted unchanged.
+func (a *nkeyAuthenticator) Check(c server.ClientAuthentication) bool {
+	opts := c.GetOpts()
+	if opts.Nkey == "" {
+		return false
+	}
+	sig, err := base64.RawURLEncoding.DecodeString(opts.Sig)
+	if err != nil {
+		sig, err = base64.StdEncoding.DecodeString(opts.Sig)
+		if err != nil {
+			return false
+		}
+	}
+	pub, err := nkeys.FromPublicKey(opts.Nkey)
+	if err != nil {
+		return false
+	}
+	if err := pub.Verify(c.GetNonce(), sig); err != nil {
+		return false
+	}
+	signPubHex, err := SignPubHexFromNkey(opts.Nkey)
+	if err != nil {
+		return false
+	}
+	return a.isAuthorized(signPubHex)
+}
diff --git a/pkg/embeddednats/embeddednats.go b/pkg/embeddednats/embeddednats.go
index 1116b97..7291fda 100644
--- a/pkg/embeddednats/embeddednats.go
+++ b/pkg/embeddednats/embeddednats.go
@@ -30,6 +30,16 @@ func Start(storeDir string, port int) (*server.Server, error) {
 // to expose it to the LAN so remote peers (phones, other PCs) can connect. An
 // empty host falls back to the nats-server default ("0.0.0.0", all interfaces).
 func StartHost(storeDir, host string, port int) (*server.Server, error) {
+	return StartHostAuth(storeDir, host, port, nil)
+}
+
+// StartHostAuth is StartHost with an optional custom client authenticator. When
+// auth is non-nil it is installed as Options.CustomClientAuthentication, so the
+// data plane only accepts clients the authenticator approves (nkey signature +
+// bus allowlist). When auth is nil the server accepts any client (the legacy,
+// network-trusted behavior) — used by dev stacks and tests that have not enabled
+// bus auth.
+func StartHostAuth(storeDir, host string, port int, auth server.Authentication) (*server.Server, error) {
 	opts := &server.Options{
 		JetStream:  true,
 		StoreDir:   storeDir,
@@ -40,6 +50,14 @@ func StartHost(storeDir, host string, port int) (*server.Server, error) {
 		NoLog:  true,
 		NoSigs: true,
 	}
+	if auth != nil {
+		opts.CustomClientAuthentication = auth
+		// A CustomClientAuthentication alone does not make the server advertise a
+		// nonce in its INFO line, and nats.go refuses to connect with an nkey to a
+		// server that does not ("nkeys not supported by the server"). Forcing the
+		// nonce makes nkey clients sign the challenge our authenticator verifies.
+		opts.AlwaysEnableNonce = true
+	}
 
 	ns, err := server.NewServer(opts)
 	if err != nil {