diff --git a/.changeset/22328-auth-seeded-hook-registered-at-ready.md b/.changeset/22328-auth-seeded-hook-registered-at-ready.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..1dd7c6f4d5a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/22328-auth-seeded-hook-registered-at-ready.md
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+---
+'@objectstack/plugin-auth': patch
+---
+
+The auth plugin registers its `app:seeded` membership-backfill handler when its backfill is armed, not when the plugin starts
+
+Clause-②: no
+
+The one-time membership backfill (ADR-0093 D6) re-runs on `app:seeded`, so users written by a seed that settles after `kernel:ready` still get a membership. Its handler used to be registered in `start()` and kept from acting early by a runtime flag: until the backfill's own `kernel:ready` hook armed it, the handler returned without doing anything. The handler is now registered by that `kernel:ready` hook, at the moment it arms the backfill, so it does not exist before the settings engine binds. The boot-ordering gate reads this from the source, which it cannot do with a flag.
+
+- **What the backfill does is unchanged.** An `app:seeded` that fires before the backfill is armed still does nothing, and one that fires after it still re-runs the pass.
+- **No option, setting or export changes.** `OS_SKIP_MEMBERSHIP_BACKFILL=1` still registers no `app:seeded` handler at all.
diff --git a/packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/auth-plugin.test.ts b/packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/auth-plugin.test.ts
index 59117093927..2359e3f6e69 100644
--- a/packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/auth-plugin.test.ts
+++ b/packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/auth-plugin.test.ts
@@ -1635,9 +1635,13 @@ describe('AuthPlugin', () => {
       await authPlugin.start(mockContext);
     };
 
-    it('registers an app:seeded hook alongside kernel:ready', async () => {
+    it('registers its app:seeded hook from the arming kernel:ready handler, never from start()', async () => {
+      // #22257 — the handler cannot run before the settings engine binds
+      // because it does not exist before this plugin's kernel:ready handler.
       await boot();
-      expect(mockContext.hook).toHaveBeenCalledWith('app:seeded', expect.any(Function));
+      expect(hookCapture.handlers.get('app:seeded') ?? []).toHaveLength(0);
+      await hookCapture.trigger('kernel:ready');
+      expect(hookCapture.handlers.get('app:seeded') ?? []).toHaveLength(1);
     });
 
     it('app:seeded runs the one-time pass when kernel:ready had no target organization yet', async () => {
diff --git a/packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/auth-plugin.ts b/packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/auth-plugin.ts
index 07dd012853f..49113b925d9 100644
--- a/packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/auth-plugin.ts
+++ b/packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/auth-plugin.ts
@@ -1352,16 +1352,28 @@ export class AuthPlugin implements Plugin {
       runBackfillOnDefaultOrg = runBackfill;
       ctx.hook('kernel:ready', () => {
         backfillArmed = true;
+        // #2996: app seeds insert `sys_user` via raw engine.insert, bypassing
+        // better-auth's `user.create.after` reconciler. A seed that overruns
+        // OS_INLINE_SEED_BUDGET_MS finishes in the background AFTER kernel:ready,
+        // so its users would miss a kernel:ready pass that had no target yet.
+        // The trigger stays; the ledger makes it a no-op once the one-time pass
+        // has been recorded. An in-budget seed settles during Phase 2, before the
+        // pass is armed, and the `kernel:ready` pass covers its rows.
+        //
+        // [#22257] Registered HERE, in the same synchronous step that arms the
+        // pass, never from `start()`: a handler that does not exist before the
+        // bind cannot run before it. Every `app:seeded` that fires before this
+        // point was already a no-op through `backfillArmed`, and every one after
+        // it reaches this handler — the kernel's hook map is read at dispatch
+        // time, so an emit still in flight picks it up too. The structure is
+        // what `check:settings-bind-window` can see; a flag is not.
+        // `backfillArmed` stays: the `default-org-created` trigger
+        // (`runBackfillOnDefaultOrg`) can still reach `runBackfill` from the
+        // `objectql` middleware during Phase 2 and from the bootstrap's own
+        // `kernel:ready` hook, which runs before this one.
+        ctx.hook('app:seeded', () => runBackfill('app:seeded'));
         return runBackfill('kernel:ready');
       });
-      // #2996: app seeds insert `sys_user` via raw engine.insert, bypassing
-      // better-auth's `user.create.after` reconciler. A seed that overruns
-      // OS_INLINE_SEED_BUDGET_MS finishes in the background AFTER kernel:ready,
-      // so its users would miss a kernel:ready pass that had no target yet.
-      // The trigger stays; the ledger makes it a no-op once the one-time pass
-      // has been recorded. An in-budget seed settles during Phase 2, before the
-      // pass is armed, and the `kernel:ready` pass covers its rows.
-      ctx.hook('app:seeded', () => runBackfill('app:seeded'));
     }
 
     // Identity-source provenance for accounts created OUTSIDE better-auth's