diff --git a/crates/buzz-core/src/lib.rs b/crates/buzz-core/src/lib.rs
index 8ee3d0315..d193ae162 100644
--- a/crates/buzz-core/src/lib.rs
+++ b/crates/buzz-core/src/lib.rs
@@ -28,6 +28,8 @@ pub mod observer;
 pub mod pairing;
 /// Presence status types shared across crates.
 pub mod presence;
+/// Tenant identity — the server-resolved community key carried on scoped paths.
+pub mod tenant;
 /// Schnorr signature and event ID verification.
 pub mod verification;
 
@@ -35,6 +37,7 @@ pub use error::VerificationError;
 pub use event::StoredEvent;
 pub use nostr::{Event, EventId, Filter, Keys, Kind, PublicKey};
 pub use presence::PresenceStatus;
+pub use tenant::{CommunityId, TenantContext};
 pub use verification::verify_event;
 
 #[cfg(any(test, feature = "test-utils"))]
diff --git a/crates/buzz-core/src/tenant.rs b/crates/buzz-core/src/tenant.rs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..32cec5d80
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/buzz-core/src/tenant.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,112 @@
+//! Tenant identity: the server-resolved community key carried on every scoped path.
+//!
+//! These types live in `buzz-core` (zero I/O deps) so the DB, auth, pub/sub,
+//! search, audit, media, and relay-wiring layers all name a community the same
+//! way without depending on each other.
+//!
+//! ## The fence
+//!
+//! The whole multi-tenant safety story rests on one invariant from the formal
+//! model (conformance "row zero"): a request's community is *resolved from the
+//! connection host by the server*, never supplied or influenced by the client.
+//!
+//! [`TenantContext`] encodes that invariant in the type system. It has no
+//! `Default`, no `Deserialize`, and no public constructor other than
+//! [`TenantContext::resolved`], which is meant to be called *only* from the
+//! host-resolution path. Downstream code receives `&TenantContext` and can read
+//! the community but cannot mint one — so "the client chose this community"
+//! cannot type-check anywhere outside resolution.
+
+use std::fmt;
+use uuid::Uuid;
+
+/// A community: the first-class tenant key on every scoped row.
+///
+/// Opaque UUID newtype. Equality and ordering are the underlying UUID's.
+/// There is deliberately no `community_id` parsed from client input anywhere;
+/// a `CommunityId` only ever originates from host resolution or from a DB row
+/// the server already scoped.
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq, Hash, PartialOrd, Ord)]
+pub struct CommunityId(Uuid);
+
+impl CommunityId {
+    /// Wrap a UUID that the server has already established as a community id
+    /// (e.g. read back from the `communities` table during host resolution).
+    ///
+    /// This is intentionally not a parse-from-client entry point: callers must
+    /// already hold a server-trusted UUID.
+    pub const fn from_uuid(id: Uuid) -> Self {
+        Self(id)
+    }
+
+    /// The underlying UUID, for DB binds and Redis key construction.
+    pub const fn as_uuid(&self) -> &Uuid {
+        &self.0
+    }
+}
+
+impl fmt::Display for CommunityId {
+    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> fmt::Result {
+        fmt::Display::fmt(&self.0, f)
+    }
+}
+
+/// The resolved tenant of an in-flight request, bound once at connection /
+/// request establishment before any handler observes tenant data.
+///
+/// Carried by reference (`&TenantContext`) through every scoped call. This is
+/// the *only* way to name a community downstream, and it cannot be constructed
+/// from client input — see the module-level "fence" note.
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, PartialEq, Eq)]
+pub struct TenantContext {
+    community: CommunityId,
+    host: String,
+}
+
+impl TenantContext {
+    /// Construct a context from a completed host resolution.
+    ///
+    /// Call this *only* from the host-resolution path (the function that maps a
+    /// connection's host to a `communities` row). Everywhere else takes
+    /// `&TenantContext` and reads it; nothing else mints one.
+    pub fn resolved(community: CommunityId, host: impl Into<String>) -> Self {
+        Self {
+            community,
+            host: host.into(),
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// The community every scoped operation under this request must use.
+    pub const fn community(&self) -> CommunityId {
+        self.community
+    }
+
+    /// The host that resolved to this community.
+    ///
+    /// Authoritative for the NIP-05 domain and audit labelling; never re-derive
+    /// the community from it downstream — the community is already fixed.
+    pub fn host(&self) -> &str {
+        &self.host
+    }
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    #[test]
+    fn community_id_roundtrips_uuid() {
+        let u = Uuid::from_u128(0x1234_5678_9abc_def0_1122_3344_5566_7788);
+        let c = CommunityId::from_uuid(u);
+        assert_eq!(c.as_uuid(), &u);
+        assert_eq!(c.to_string(), u.to_string());
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn tenant_context_exposes_resolution_inputs() {
+        let u = Uuid::from_u128(1);
+        let ctx = TenantContext::resolved(CommunityId::from_uuid(u), "relay.example");
+        assert_eq!(ctx.community().as_uuid(), &u);
+        assert_eq!(ctx.host(), "relay.example");
+    }
+}