diff --git a/services/cassandra/hermes-agent-rbac.yaml b/services/cassandra/hermes-agent-rbac.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8046a5a41
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/cassandra/hermes-agent-rbac.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+# services/cassandra/hermes-agent-rbac.yaml
+apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
+kind: Role
+metadata:
+  name: hermes-agent-readonly
+  namespace: cassandra
+rules:
+  - apiGroups: [""]
+    resources:
+      - configmaps
+      - endpoints
+      - events
+      - persistentvolumeclaims
+      - pods
+      - pods/log
+      - replicationcontrollers
+      - services
+    verbs: ["get", "list", "watch"]
+  - apiGroups: ["events.k8s.io"]
+    resources: ["events"]
+    verbs: ["get", "list", "watch"]
+  - apiGroups: ["apps"]
+    resources:
+      - daemonsets
+      - deployments
+      - replicasets
+      - statefulsets
+    verbs: ["get", "list", "watch"]
+  - apiGroups: ["batch"]
+    resources:
+      - cronjobs
+      - jobs
+    verbs: ["get", "list", "watch"]
+  - apiGroups: ["networking.k8s.io"]
+    resources:
+      - ingresses
+      - networkpolicies
+    verbs: ["get", "list", "watch"]
+---
+apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
+kind: RoleBinding
+metadata:
+  name: hermes-agent-readonly
+  namespace: cassandra
+subjects:
+  - kind: ServiceAccount
+    name: hermes-agent
+    namespace: hermes
+roleRef:
+  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
+  kind: Role
+  name: hermes-agent-readonly
diff --git a/services/cassandra/kustomization.yaml b/services/cassandra/kustomization.yaml
index 61c33ff86..13a8df0cb 100644
--- a/services/cassandra/kustomization.yaml
+++ b/services/cassandra/kustomization.yaml
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ resources:
   - limitrange.yaml
   - configmap.yaml
   - rbac.yaml
+  - hermes-agent-rbac.yaml
   - artifacts-pvc.yaml
   - postgres-service.yaml
   - postgres-statefulset.yaml
diff --git a/services/hermes/agent-configmap.yaml b/services/hermes/agent-configmap.yaml
index 4f9cb8934..138da181c 100644
--- a/services/hermes/agent-configmap.yaml
+++ b/services/hermes/agent-configmap.yaml
@@ -215,9 +215,11 @@ data:
     objective's difficulty warrants it; otherwise synthesize at the original
     effort.
 
-    This pod has no Kubernetes RBAC. Do not use it for automated test intake or
-    cluster mutation. Triage belongs at triage.hermes.bstein.dev and changes to
-    Atlas are delivered through the titan-iac Git/Flux workflow.
+    This pod has Cassandra-scoped, read-only Kubernetes access for workloads,
+    logs, events, networking, and rollout diagnosis. It cannot read Secrets,
+    exec into pods, or mutate the cluster. Triage belongs at
+    triage.hermes.bstein.dev and all Atlas changes are delivered through the
+    titan-iac Git/Flux workflow.
   START-HERE.md: |
     # Agent Hermes
 
diff --git a/services/hermes/agent-deployment.yaml b/services/hermes/agent-deployment.yaml
index 10c62a412..147d54d0e 100644
--- a/services/hermes/agent-deployment.yaml
+++ b/services/hermes/agent-deployment.yaml
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ spec:
         ai.bstein.dev/execution: Herdr-supervised Codex and Claude Code
         ai.bstein.dev/model-policy: Jetson-assisted AUTO routing, low through xhigh, cross-provider fallback
         ai.bstein.dev/placement: rpi5 preferred; Jetson deferred until state storage is available
-        ai.bstein.dev/config-rev: "20260809-browser-runtime-complete-resume"
+        ai.bstein.dev/config-rev: "20260809-cassandra-readonly"
         vault.hashicorp.com/agent-inject: "true"
         vault.hashicorp.com/role: hermes-agent
         vault.hashicorp.com/agent-inject-secret-anthropic-token: kv/data/atlas/hermes/agent-tokens
@@ -88,6 +88,7 @@ spec:
                 /opt/data/home/.claude \
                 /opt/data/home/.codex \
                 /opt/data/home/.config/herdr \
+                /opt/data/home/.kube \
                 /opt/data/herdr \
                 /opt/data/logs \
                 /opt/data/tools/bin \
@@ -172,6 +173,14 @@ spec:
                   @anthropic-ai/claude-code@2.1.226
                 touch "${tools}/.cli-versions-0.147.0-2.1.226"
               fi
+              kubectl_version="$("${tools}/bin/kubectl" version --client --output=json 2>/dev/null || true)"
+              case "${kubectl_version}" in *\"gitVersion\":\"v1.33.3\"*) kubectl_ready=1 ;; *) kubectl_ready=0 ;; esac
+              if [ "${kubectl_ready}" != "1" ]; then
+                curl -fsSL -o "${tools}/bin/kubectl.tmp" https://dl.k8s.io/release/v1.33.3/bin/linux/arm64/kubectl
+                printf '%s  %s\n' 3d514dbae5dc8c09f773df0ef0f5d449dfad05b3aca5c96b13565f886df345fd "${tools}/bin/kubectl.tmp" | sha256sum -c -
+                chmod 0755 "${tools}/bin/kubectl.tmp"
+                mv "${tools}/bin/kubectl.tmp" "${tools}/bin/kubectl"
+              fi
           securityContext:
             allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
             runAsUser: 10000
@@ -276,6 +285,7 @@ spec:
             - {name: CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR, value: /opt/data/home/.claude}
             - {name: HERDR_CONFIG_PATH, value: /opt/data/home/.config/herdr/config.toml}
             - {name: HERDR_SOCKET_PATH, value: /opt/data/herdr/herdr.sock}
+            - {name: KUBECONFIG, value: /opt/data/home/.kube/config}
             - {name: PATH, value: /opt/data/tools/bin:/opt/data/home/.local/bin:/opt/hermes/.venv/bin:/opt/hermes/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin}
             - {name: PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH, value: /opt/hermes/.playwright}
             - {name: AGENT_BROWSER_EXECUTABLE_PATH, value: /opt/hermes/.playwright/chromium_headless_shell-1228/chrome-linux/headless_shell}
@@ -292,6 +302,7 @@ spec:
             - {name: coordinator, mountPath: /opt/coordinator, readOnly: true}
             - {name: auth-patch, mountPath: /opt/hermes/hermes_cli/auth.py, subPath: auth.py}
             - {name: coordinator, mountPath: /opt/data/home/.local/bin/herdr-dispatch, subPath: herdr_dispatch.py, readOnly: true}
+            - {name: kubeconfig, mountPath: /opt/data/home/.kube/config, subPath: config, readOnly: true}
             - {name: auto-router-plugin, mountPath: /opt/data/plugins/auto-router, readOnly: true}
           startupProbe:
             tcpSocket: {port: api}
@@ -480,6 +491,7 @@ spec:
                   --env HERMES_HOME=/opt/data \
                   --env HERMES_AUTH_FILE=/shared-auth/auth.json \
                   --env HOME=/opt/data/home \
+                  --env KUBECONFIG=/opt/data/home/.kube/config \
                   --env PYTHONPATH=/opt/hermes \
                   --env PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=/opt/hermes/.playwright \
                   --env AGENT_BROWSER_EXECUTABLE_PATH=/opt/hermes/.playwright/chromium_headless_shell-1228/chrome-linux/headless_shell \
@@ -519,6 +531,7 @@ spec:
             - {name: CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR, value: /opt/data/home/.claude}
             - {name: HERDR_CONFIG_PATH, value: /opt/data/home/.config/herdr/config.toml}
             - {name: HERDR_SOCKET_PATH, value: /opt/data/herdr/herdr.sock}
+            - {name: KUBECONFIG, value: /opt/data/home/.kube/config}
             - {name: PYTHONPATH, value: /opt/hermes}
             - {name: PATH, value: /opt/data/tools/bin:/opt/hermes/.venv/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin}
             - {name: PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH, value: /opt/hermes/.playwright}
@@ -536,6 +549,7 @@ spec:
             - {name: coordinator, mountPath: /opt/coordinator, readOnly: true}
             - {name: auth-patch, mountPath: /opt/hermes/hermes_cli/auth.py, subPath: auth.py}
             - {name: coordinator, mountPath: /opt/data/home/.local/bin/herdr-dispatch, subPath: herdr_dispatch.py, readOnly: true}
+            - {name: kubeconfig, mountPath: /opt/data/home/.kube/config, subPath: config, readOnly: true}
             - {name: auto-router-plugin, mountPath: /opt/data/plugins/auto-router, readOnly: true}
           resources:
             requests: {cpu: 50m, memory: 128Mi}
@@ -577,6 +591,10 @@ spec:
           configMap:
             name: hermes-coordinator
             defaultMode: 0555
+        - name: kubeconfig
+          configMap:
+            name: hermes-agent-kubeconfig
+            defaultMode: 0444
         - name: auth-patch
           emptyDir: {}
         - name: auto-router-plugin
diff --git a/services/hermes/agent-kubeconfig.yaml b/services/hermes/agent-kubeconfig.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c1b13684f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/hermes/agent-kubeconfig.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# services/hermes/agent-kubeconfig.yaml
+apiVersion: v1
+kind: Config
+clusters:
+  - name: atlas
+    cluster:
+      server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
+      certificate-authority: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/ca.crt
+users:
+  - name: hermes-agent
+    user:
+      tokenFile: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token
+contexts:
+  - name: cassandra-readonly
+    context:
+      cluster: atlas
+      user: hermes-agent
+      namespace: cassandra
+current-context: cassandra-readonly
diff --git a/services/hermes/kustomization.yaml b/services/hermes/kustomization.yaml
index 4e70d9483..64740d87d 100644
--- a/services/hermes/kustomization.yaml
+++ b/services/hermes/kustomization.yaml
@@ -52,6 +52,12 @@ configMapGenerator:
       - patch_hermes_auth.py=scripts/patch_hermes_auth.py
     options:
       disableNameSuffixHash: true
+  - name: hermes-agent-kubeconfig
+    namespace: hermes
+    files:
+      - config=agent-kubeconfig.yaml
+    options:
+      disableNameSuffixHash: true
   - name: hermes-auto-router-plugin
     namespace: hermes
     files:
diff --git a/services/hermes/networkpolicy.yaml b/services/hermes/networkpolicy.yaml
index 6eed18bb0..d1bb2c106 100644
--- a/services/hermes/networkpolicy.yaml
+++ b/services/hermes/networkpolicy.yaml
@@ -108,6 +108,20 @@ spec:
               app: hermes-model-gate
       ports:
         - {protocol: TCP, port: 8080}
+    - to:
+        - ipBlock:
+            cidr: 10.43.0.1/32
+      ports:
+        - {protocol: TCP, port: 443}
+    - to:
+        - ipBlock:
+            cidr: 192.168.22.11/32
+        - ipBlock:
+            cidr: 192.168.22.12/32
+        - ipBlock:
+            cidr: 192.168.22.13/32
+      ports:
+        - {protocol: TCP, port: 6443}
     - to:
         - namespaceSelector:
             matchLabels:
diff --git a/testing/tests/test_hermes_herdr.py b/testing/tests/test_hermes_herdr.py
index c1427b43f..ad9564e27 100644
--- a/testing/tests/test_hermes_herdr.py
+++ b/testing/tests/test_hermes_herdr.py
@@ -343,6 +343,53 @@ def test_agent_mounts_auto_router_into_both_hermes_runtimes():
     assert volume["configMap"]["name"] == "hermes-auto-router-plugin"
 
 
+def test_agent_has_cassandra_readonly_kubernetes_context():
+    deployment = yaml.safe_load((HERMES / "agent-deployment.yaml").read_text())
+    pod = deployment["spec"]["template"]["spec"]
+    containers = {container["name"]: container for container in pod["containers"]}
+
+    installer = next(
+        container
+        for container in pod["initContainers"]
+        if container["name"] == "install-agent-tools"
+    )
+    install_command = installer["command"][-1]
+    assert "v1.33.3/bin/linux/arm64/kubectl" in install_command
+    assert "3d514dbae5dc8c09f773df0ef0f5d449" in install_command
+
+    for name in ("hermes", "herdr-server"):
+        env = {item["name"]: item["value"] for item in containers[name]["env"]}
+        assert env["KUBECONFIG"] == "/opt/data/home/.kube/config"
+        mounts = {
+            mount["mountPath"]: mount for mount in containers[name]["volumeMounts"]
+        }
+        assert mounts["/opt/data/home/.kube/config"]["name"] == "kubeconfig"
+        assert mounts["/opt/data/home/.kube/config"]["readOnly"] is True
+
+    config = yaml.safe_load((HERMES / "agent-kubeconfig.yaml").read_text())
+    assert config["current-context"] == "cassandra-readonly"
+    assert config["contexts"][0]["context"]["namespace"] == "cassandra"
+    assert config["users"][0]["user"] == {
+        "tokenFile": "/var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token"
+    }
+
+    rbac_path = HERMES.parent / "cassandra" / "hermes-agent-rbac.yaml"
+    documents = [document for document in yaml.safe_load_all(rbac_path.read_text()) if document]
+    role = next(document for document in documents if document["kind"] == "Role")
+    binding = next(document for document in documents if document["kind"] == "RoleBinding")
+    assert role["metadata"]["namespace"] == "cassandra"
+    assert binding["metadata"]["namespace"] == "cassandra"
+    assert binding["subjects"] == [
+        {"kind": "ServiceAccount", "name": "hermes-agent", "namespace": "hermes"}
+    ]
+    assert "secrets" not in {
+        resource for rule in role["rules"] for resource in rule["resources"]
+    }
+    assert {
+        verb for rule in role["rules"] for verb in rule["verbs"]
+    } == {"get", "list", "watch"}
+
+
 def test_agent_reconnect_renders_complete_conversation_history():
     documents = [
         document