diff --git a/assets/boot.html b/assets/boot.html
index e736026..6d680ff 100644
--- a/assets/boot.html
+++ b/assets/boot.html
@@ -19,13 +19,22 @@
      The pages on disk are fragments and the shell is a template, and it is the
      worker that puts them together. So this page has one job: register the
      worker and reload once it is running, which lands on the real app at the
-     address that was asked for. It is only ever seen once per device. -->
+     address that was asked for. It is only ever seen once per device.
+
+     There is no fallback for a device that cannot install one. There used to
+     be -- this page loaded the renderer itself and composed the page in the
+     browser -- and it existed for one case: the app served over plain http://
+     from a LAN address, which is not a secure context, so no worker can
+     register. This app is served over TLS, where that case cannot arise, and
+     the fallback was a second way of building every page that nothing
+     exercised. What is left when registration fails is a sentence saying so,
+     because there is nothing honest to show instead. -->
 
 <main class="boot container py-5 text-center">
   <div class="spinner-border text-secondary mb-3" role="status" aria-hidden="true"></div>
   <p id="boot-status" class="text-body-secondary">Preparing the offline copy…</p>
   <noscript><p class="alert alert-warning d-inline-block">This app builds its
-    pages in the browser and needs JavaScript.</p></noscript>
+    pages on the device and needs JavaScript.</p></noscript>
 </main>
 
 <script>
@@ -50,7 +59,7 @@
   }
 
   function start() {
-    if (tries >= 2) return compose('The offline copy could not start.');
+    if (tries >= 2) return fail('The offline copy could not start.');
     try { sessionStorage.setItem('boot:tries', String(tries + 1)); } catch (err) {}
 
     navigator.serviceWorker.register('sw.js').then(function (registration) {
@@ -58,70 +67,26 @@
       // controlled yet. Otherwise wait for the one installing to get there.
       if (registration.active) return go();
       var worker = registration.installing || registration.waiting;
-      if (!worker) return compose('The offline copy did not install.');
+      if (!worker) return fail('The offline copy did not install.');
       worker.addEventListener('statechange', function (event) {
         if (event.target.state === 'activated') go();
       });
     }, function (err) {
-      compose('Could not install the offline copy: ' + err.message);
+      fail('Could not install the offline copy: ' + err.message);
     });
   }
 
-  // Everything below is the path where there will never be a worker: a browser
-  // without them, or -- much more likely -- the app served over plain http://
-  // from a LAN address, which is not a secure context. Rather than spin here
-  // forever, the page composes itself, using the same renderer and the same
-  // templates the worker would have used. No offline copy and no bookmark, but
-  // the text reads. Delete this if the app is only ever served over TLS.
-  function compose(why) {
-    console.warn(why);
-    status('Loading…');
-    script('js/nunjucks.min.js')
-      .then(function () { return script('js/render.js'); })
-      .then(function () {
-        var view = createRenderer(readText);
-        var page = location.pathname.split('/').pop();
-        return readText('./' + page + location.search)
-          .catch(function () {
-            return view.notice('Not available',
-              'This page could not be loaded. Check your connection and try again.');
-          })
-          // mark is null: the bookmark lives in the worker's IndexedDB, and
-          // there is no worker to ask. bookmark.njk renders the slot hidden
-          // and it fills itself the moment one appears.
-          .then(function (fragment) { return view.compose(fragment, null); });
-      })
-      .then(become, function (err) { status('Could not start: ' + err.message); });
-  }
-
-  function script(src) {
-    return new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
-      var el = document.createElement('script');
-      el.src = src;
-      el.onload = function () { resolve(); };
-      el.onerror = function () { reject(new Error('cannot load ' + src)); };
-      document.head.appendChild(el);
-    });
-  }
-
-  function readText(path) {
-    return fetch(path, { credentials: 'same-origin' }).then(function (res) {
-      if (!res.ok) throw new Error(path + ': ' + res.status);
-      return res.text();
-    });
-  }
-
-  // Replaces this document in place: same URL, same history entry, no second
-  // request. Written rather than assigned into the DOM because the shell
-  // carries <script> tags, and scripts put into a page any other way never run.
-  function become(html) {
-    document.open();
-    document.write(html);
-    document.close();
+  // The end of the road. Every page in this app is put together by the
+  // worker, so a device that cannot install one has nothing to read here --
+  // and a spinner that turns forever says less than the reason does.
+  function fail(why) {
+    var spinner = document.querySelector('.boot .spinner-border');
+    if (spinner) spinner.remove();
+    status(why);
   }
 
   if ('serviceWorker' in navigator) start();
-  else compose('This browser has no service worker support.');
+  else fail('This browser has no service worker support.');
 })();
 </script>
 </body>
diff --git a/assets/js/app.js b/assets/js/app.js
index 02c4a56..7341f81 100644
--- a/assets/js/app.js
+++ b/assets/js/app.js
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 // Page startup.
 //
-// Pages arrive whole -- composed by the service worker, or by boot.html on the
-// visit before there is one -- so there is nothing here that builds a page.
+// Pages arrive whole -- the service worker composes every one of them -- so
+// there is nothing here that builds a page.
 // What is left is the three things a composed document cannot do for itself:
 // put a swapped-in page where it belongs before it is painted, land the
 // reference picker where the reader asked to go, and tell the chrome when a
@@ -94,11 +94,10 @@
     }
   }
 
-  // A worker-composed page is an ordinary document and the browser scrolls to
-  // the anchor itself. One composed by boot.html is not: it replaced a
-  // document the browser had already finished with, so the fragment identifier
-  // has been spent. Repeating it costs nothing in the first case and is what
-  // makes a link to GEN#v1_1 land on the verse in the second.
+  // The browser scrolls to the anchor itself on a document it navigated to,
+  // so this is for the one it does not: a reload that landed on boot.html and
+  // was reloaded again into the real page. Costs nothing when the browser has
+  // already been there.
   function scrollToHash() {
     var el = hashTarget();
     if (el) jumpTo(el);
@@ -166,25 +165,12 @@
   //
   // Toggling the class rather than the style because Bootstrap declares
   // .d-none !important, which an inline display would lose to.
-  //
-  // Only the digest line is missing on a page boot.html composed -- there was
-  // no worker to name a version -- so the element itself is always here.
   function showVersion() {
     var el = document.getElementById('app-version');
     if (!el) return;
     el.classList.toggle('d-none', !document.querySelector('#content .index'));
   }
 
-  // api/bookmark has no origin server -- it is answered by the worker -- so
-  // there is nothing to ask until the worker is controlling this page.
-  // controller, not ready: ready can resolve a tick before clients.claim()
-  // takes effect, and a request sent in that gap reaches the network and 404s.
-  function whenControlled(fn) {
-    if (!('serviceWorker' in navigator)) return;
-    if (navigator.serviceWorker.controller) return fn();
-    navigator.serviceWorker.addEventListener('controllerchange', fn, { once: true });
-  }
-
   // Deferred scripts run before DOMContentLoaded fires, so this always lands,
   // and it lands after htmx has processed the shell.
   document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function () {
@@ -192,15 +178,12 @@
     showVersion();
 
     // Registered from the page it is going to serve, not from a page of its
-    // own: there is nothing to wait for and nothing to reload. This load is
-    // already the real app -- the worker installs alongside it, and takes over
-    // composing, the bookmark and the offline download from the next
-    // navigation on.
+    // own: this load is already the real app, composed by the worker that is
+    // controlling it. What this catches is the copy on disk having changed
+    // since -- the browser refetches sw.js, sees different bytes, and installs
+    // the new one alongside, which takes over from the next navigation on.
     if ('serviceWorker' in navigator) {
       navigator.serviceWorker.register('sw.js').catch(function () {});
     }
-    whenControlled(function () {
-      document.body.dispatchEvent(new CustomEvent('worker-ready'));
-    });
   });
 })();
diff --git a/assets/js/render.js b/assets/js/render.js
index 3d07404..44052cf 100644
--- a/assets/js/render.js
+++ b/assets/js/render.js
@@ -1,17 +1,15 @@
-// The renderer, shared by the two things that ever build a page: the service
-// worker, which composes every navigation once it is installed, and boot.html,
-// which composes the one navigation that arrives before there is a worker to
-// do it.
+// The renderer: the templates in templates/, and the two things sw.js does
+// with them -- compose a fragment into the shell, and stand a notice in for a
+// page that could not be delivered.
 //
-// Sharing it is the whole point. A shell only the worker could build is what
-// made a first visit show a spinner and reload; with the same templates and
-// the same code reachable from the page, the first visit is already the app
-// and the worker is what makes the second one fast and the hundredth one
-// offline.
+// A file of its own rather than more of sw.js because it is the half with
+// nothing to do with the network: no routes, no caches, no requests. It was
+// loaded by boot.html as well once, which composed pages in the browser for a
+// device that could not install a worker; nothing but the worker builds a page
+// now.
 //
-// Loaded as a plain script by both -- importScripts in the worker, a <script>
-// tag in the page -- so it defines a global rather than exporting. Nunjucks
-// must already be loaded.
+// Loaded with importScripts, so it defines a global rather than exporting.
+// Nunjucks must already be loaded.
 (function (scope) {
   'use strict';
 
@@ -123,10 +121,9 @@
       //
       // chrome is what the shell needs and the fragment cannot carry: the
       // bookmark, the navbar picker's model, and the two versions the worker
-      // was built with. All three are null from boot.html, which has no worker
-      // to ask for any of them; the first two render as a hidden slot that
-      // fills itself if one ever appears, and the third renders as nothing,
-      // because no worker is the whole of what there is to report.
+      // was built with. reference is null on the book list, which is the
+      // picker's hidden state; the other two are always there, because the
+      // worker composing this is the thing that knows them.
       compose: function (fragment, chrome) {
         var title = (TITLE_RE.exec(fragment) || ['', ''])[1].trim();
         var content = fragment.replace(TITLE_RE, '');
@@ -134,9 +131,9 @@
         return render(name, {
           title: title,
           content: content,
-          mark: (chrome && chrome.mark) || null,
-          reference: (chrome && chrome.reference) || null,
-          version: (chrome && chrome.version) || null
+          mark: chrome.mark,
+          reference: chrome.reference,
+          version: chrome.version
         });
       },
 
diff --git a/assets/sw.js b/assets/sw.js
index edacb5f..63bd90d 100644
--- a/assets/sw.js
+++ b/assets/sw.js
@@ -9,8 +9,7 @@
 //
 //   GET  /              the book list
 //   GET  /:page         one book -- /GEN, /EXO
-//   GET  /api/bookmark  the navbar slot
-//   POST /api/bookmark  set the bookmark, and return the slot
+//   POST /api/bookmark  set the bookmark, and return the navbar slot
 //   GET  /api/reference the navbar's chapter and verse picker
 //   GET  /api/verse     the dialog for one verse
 //   GET  /api/toast     one confirmation, by name
@@ -28,11 +27,9 @@
 // navigation -- one route, both callers, which is the whole reason the request
 // object carries `navigate`.
 //
-// The composing is in js/render.js, which boot.html can load too. Normally it
-// does not: boot.html registers this worker and reloads into it. It composes in
-// the page when no worker is possible at all -- no secure context, or a browser
-// without them -- and then it does so from these same templates rather than
-// leaving a spinner up forever.
+// The composing is in js/render.js. Every page in the app comes through it:
+// boot.html registers this worker and reloads into it, and from there nothing
+// else ever builds one.
 //
 // Every same-origin GET is network-first: ask the network, fall back to the
 // cache when it fails. Offline, fetch rejects immediately, so the fallback is
@@ -461,16 +458,12 @@ router.get('/', (call) => servePage('./', '', call));
 router.get('/:page', (call) =>
   servePage('./' + call.params.page, call.params.page, call));
 
-router.get('/api/bookmark', () => bookmarkFragment(''));
-
 // The picker, and the two moves it makes.
 //
 //   no parameters   the whole picker, standing where the anchor in the address
-//                   bar puts it. Asked for by the picker itself: on load,
+//                   bar puts it. Asked for by the picker itself: on load, and
 //                   after a history restore -- which swaps the history element
-//                   straight in and processes no out-of-band elements -- and
-//                   when a worker first appears under a page boot.html
-//                   composed.
+//                   straight in and processes no out-of-band elements.
 //   at=ch3          the verses of that chapter, and land on the chapter.
 //   at=v3_16        the same verses, that one selected, and land on the verse.
 //
@@ -490,9 +483,8 @@ router.get('/api/bookmark', () => bookmarkFragment(''));
 // is rendered at 1:1 like any other. The page then asks this route for itself,
 // and that request is the one carrying the anchor.
 //
-// Which also puts the picker where it belongs after a back or forward, and
-// under a page boot.html composed once a worker turns up, for nothing extra:
-// those requests carry the address bar too.
+// Which also puts the picker where it belongs after a back or forward, for
+// nothing extra: those requests carry the address bar too.
 //
 // Two response headers carry what a change means beyond the options:
 //
@@ -734,13 +726,11 @@ function getBookmark() {
     .then((mark) => mark || DEFAULT_BOOKMARK);
 }
 
+// The navbar slot, and the toast that says what just happened to it. The
+// toast rides out of band, so one response updates the slot and raises it
+// without the page having to ask for the second one -- same template and same
+// table api/toast answers from, so the two cannot drift apart.
 async function bookmarkFragment(say) {
-  let html = await view.render('bookmark.njk', { mark: await getBookmark() });
-  if (say) {
-    // Out of band, so one response updates the navbar slot and raises the
-    // toast without the page having to ask for the second one. Same template
-    // and same table api/toast answers from, so the two cannot drift apart.
-    html += '\n' + await toastFragment(say, true);
-  }
-  return html;
+  return await view.render('bookmark.njk', { mark: await getBookmark() })
+       + '\n' + await toastFragment(say, true);
 }
diff --git a/assets/templates/bookmark.njk b/assets/templates/bookmark.njk
index 86942ea..7357c26 100644
--- a/assets/templates/bookmark.njk
+++ b/assets/templates/bookmark.njk
@@ -2,22 +2,12 @@
    worker holds, and returned on its own by api/bookmark after a write. Both
    paths must produce the same element for the swap to be seamless.
 
-   mark is null in one case only: boot.html composed this page, so there was
-   no worker to ask. The slot is then hidden rather than absent and fetches
-   itself once app.js reports a worker is controlling -- which is why the htmx
-   attributes are on the empty state and not the filled one. A filled slot is
-   only ever replaced by the modal's form, which names #bookmark itself.
-
-   Empty state is d-none, not the hidden attribute: Bootstrap declares .d-flex
-   after Reboot's [hidden] rule, both !important and at the same specificity,
-   so the utility would win. #}
-<span class="bookmark navbar-text {% if mark %}d-flex{% else %}d-none{% endif %} align-items-center gap-1"
-      id="bookmark"
-      {%- if not mark %}
-      hx-get="api/bookmark" hx-trigger="worker-ready from:body"
-      hx-target="this" hx-swap="outerHTML"
-      {%- endif %}>
-{%- if mark %}
+   Always filled: getBookmark() answers with the default when nothing has been
+   set and when storage cannot be read at all, so there is no empty state to
+   render. There was one -- a hidden slot that fetched itself once a worker
+   turned up -- for pages boot.html composed before there was a worker to ask.
+   Nothing composes a page but the worker now, and the worker always knows. #}
+<span class="bookmark navbar-text d-flex align-items-center gap-1" id="bookmark">
   {# A word and a colon, not a badge: this is one line of text that happens to
      end in a link, and a pill in front of it read as a control. Outside the
      anchor so that only the reference is underlined -- Reboot underlines an
@@ -28,5 +18,4 @@
      anchor, which a swap into #content would not do. #}
   <a class="bookmark-link link-light text-truncate" href="{{ mark.href }}"
      hx-boost="false">{{ mark.ref }}</a>
-{%- endif %}
 </span>
diff --git a/assets/templates/reference.njk b/assets/templates/reference.njk
index 220962f..9d18eab 100644
--- a/assets/templates/reference.njk
+++ b/assets/templates/reference.njk
@@ -28,8 +28,7 @@
                     line, so one response moves both.
      a restore      htmx swaps the history element straight in and processes
                     no out-of-band elements at all, so the picker asks for
-                    itself instead. worker-ready is in the same trigger, for a
-                    page boot.html composed before there was a worker to ask.
+                    itself instead.
      an anchor      a link to GEN#v3_16 should open with the picker reading
                     3:16, and the fragment never reaches the worker: a browser
                     asks for /GEN and keeps the rest. So a picker that arrived
@@ -57,7 +56,7 @@
      id="reference"
      {%- if oob %} hx-swap-oob="true"{% endif %}
      hx-get="api/reference"
-     hx-trigger="{% if reference and not settled %}load[!!location.hash], {% endif %}worker-ready from:body, htmx:historyRestore from:body"
+     hx-trigger="{% if reference and not settled %}load[!!location.hash], {% endif %}htmx:historyRestore from:body"
      hx-target="this" hx-swap="outerHTML">
 {%- if reference %}
   <span class="reference-book text-light fw-semibold"
diff --git a/assets/templates/version.njk b/assets/templates/version.njk
index 493eafd..2f14bf1 100644
--- a/assets/templates/version.njk
+++ b/assets/templates/version.njk
@@ -10,11 +10,6 @@
    without this document being rebuilt, so the value only becomes current on
    the next full load -- which is the reload you would do to check it anyway.
 
-   version is null in one case: boot.html composed this page, so there was no
-   worker to ask. Nothing is rendered at all then, which is the honest answer
-   -- no worker means no version, and the bookmark slot in the navbar is empty
-   for the same reason. app.js finds no element and leaves it at that.
-
    Rendered on every page and shown under the book list alone. Populating it
    only for the index would look like the smaller change and would not work:
    the shell is composed once per full navigation, and a boosted link to the
@@ -22,10 +17,8 @@
    decides, not the composer -- app.js looks for the index in #content after
    every swap. The body class this was rendered with cannot be asked, for the
    same reason: it goes stale the moment a link is clicked. #}
-{%- if version %}
 <div class="app-version d-none text-center mt-5 mb-2" id="app-version">
   <p class="app-version-digests form-text m-0">
     shell {{ version.shell }} &middot; library {{ version.library }}
   </p>
 </div>
-{%- endif %}
diff --git a/server.py b/server.py
index ffdd69a..0cb0d27 100644
--- a/server.py
+++ b/server.py
@@ -11,13 +11,13 @@ Beyond serving files it has three jobs.
 
 The first is the boot page. The pages here are fragments and the shell around
 them is a template, so a browser asking for one directly would get a bare
-fragment with no chrome. Navigations are answered with boot.html, which loads
-the same renderer the service worker uses, composes the page that was asked
-for, and replaces itself with it -- so a first visit is the real app at the
-real URL, with no reload. Requests the worker and htmx make are ordinary
-fetches rather than navigations, so they pass straight through and get the
-fragment. Once a worker is installed it intercepts the navigation first and
-composes it there, and this page is not reached at all.
+fragment with no chrome. Navigations are answered with boot.html instead, which
+registers the service worker and reloads once it is running -- landing on the
+real app at the address that was asked for. Requests the worker and htmx make
+are ordinary fetches rather than navigations, so they pass straight through and
+get the fragment. Once a worker is installed it intercepts the navigation
+first and composes it there, and this page is not reached at all: it is seen
+once per device.
 
 The second is stamping the service worker. A browser only notices a new worker
 when the bytes of sw.js change, so something has to record what is on disk.
@@ -30,11 +30,12 @@ The third is cache headers: the worker owns the offline copy, and if the
 worker or the boot page that registers it are served stale, a new version can
 never reach a device that already installed the old one.
 
-Expects to sit behind something that terminates TLS. Without it the app still
-works -- boot.html composes every page in the browser -- but there is no
-offline copy: browsers only register a service worker in a secure context, and
-the bookmark lives in that worker, so over plain http:// from a LAN address the
-app reads online-only and the bookmark slot stays empty.
+Expects to sit behind something that terminates TLS, and does not work without
+it. Every page is composed by the service worker, browsers only register one in
+a secure context, and boot.html has no fallback that builds a page without one
+-- so over plain http:// from a LAN address the boot page says it could not
+install and stops there. localhost is a secure context, which is why running
+this directly for development still works.
 """
 
 from __future__ import annotations
@@ -235,8 +236,9 @@ class Handler(SimpleHTTPRequestHandler):
             self.send_header("Cache-Control", "public, max-age=604800")
         # One URL, two bodies: a navigation to /GEN gets the boot page and a
         # fetch of it gets the fragment. Without this the browser cache keeps
-        # one entry for both, and boot.html asking for its own fragment is
-        # handed back a copy of itself -- a document nested inside a document.
+        # one entry for both, and the worker asking for the fragment it is
+        # about to compose is handed back the boot page instead -- which is a
+        # document nested inside a document, or a spinner where the text goes.
         self.send_header("Vary", "Sec-Fetch-Mode")
         # Lets the worker claim the whole origin even if it moves off root.
         self.send_header("Service-Worker-Allowed", "/")
diff --git a/utils/compile_bible.py b/utils/compile_bible.py
index c0dd773..18dd0c6 100644
--- a/utils/compile_bible.py
+++ b/utils/compile_bible.py
@@ -23,9 +23,8 @@ different jobs and the seam is where a second output format would attach:
   WRITING     That tree becomes one semantic fragment per book: a <title> and
               one root element carrying data-template, not a document. The
               shell around it is assembled from the nunjucks templates in
-              assets/templates/ -- by the service worker, or by boot.html when
-              there can never be one -- so chrome changes never require running
-              this. The markup carries structure and no presentation: every
+              assets/templates/ by the service worker, so chrome changes never
+              require running this. The markup carries structure and no presentation: every
               USFM distinction survives as a class or data attribute, so the
               whole corpus can be restyled from the stylesheet without being
               regenerated.