diff --git a/app/api/stt/token/route.ts b/app/api/stt/token/route.ts
index 3ff213f..8e021a7 100644
--- a/app/api/stt/token/route.ts
+++ b/app/api/stt/token/route.ts
@@ -35,11 +35,11 @@ export async function GET() {
 				{ status: 502 },
 			);
 		}
-		const data = (await res.json()) as { token?: string };
-		if (!data.token) {
+		const data = (await res.json()) as { access_token?: string };
+		if (!data.access_token) {
 			return Response.json({ message: "Deepgram grant returned no token" }, { status: 502 });
 		}
-		return Response.json({ token: data.token });
+		return Response.json({ token: data.access_token });
 	} catch {
 		return Response.json({ message: "Deepgram unreachable" }, { status: 502 });
 	}
diff --git a/components/dictation.tsx b/components/dictation.tsx
index a7ec9bc..5f17e25 100644
--- a/components/dictation.tsx
+++ b/components/dictation.tsx
@@ -137,7 +137,10 @@ export function useDictation({ append }: { append: (text: string) => void }): Di
 	/** Open the Deepgram socket and wire its messages. `gen` guards staleness. */
 	const openSocket = useCallback(
 		(gen: number, token: string) => {
-			const ws = new WebSocket(DG_URL, ["token", token]);
+			// Minted JWTs authenticate via the "bearer" subprotocol — ["token",
+			// jwt] is rejected at the handshake (verified live; "token" is for
+			// raw API keys only, as in the owner's pi dictate extension).
+			const ws = new WebSocket(DG_URL, ["bearer", token]);
 			wsRef.current = ws;
 
 			ws.addEventListener("open", () => {
diff --git a/docs/research/stt.md b/docs/research/stt.md
index 85d080d..bf9f9ec 100644
--- a/docs/research/stt.md
+++ b/docs/research/stt.md
@@ -30,8 +30,18 @@ against our codebase. Decisions at the bottom.
 
 **Alternatives (why still Deepgram)**: OpenAI live-transcribe $0.017/min (~3.5×), no word timestamps/confidence, 60-min session cap. AssemblyAI Universal-Streaming $0.0025/min is cheaper but smaller ecosystem. Speechmatics best for non-English but ~2×. GCP is service-account-shaped — bad BYOK fit. Verdict: Deepgram stays the pragmatic default.
 
+## Cloud: Deepgram (the default) — landed
+
+**Live-verified facts (2026-09-17, cloud wave)**
+
+- The **grant response field is `access_token`**, not `token` — `POST /v1/auth/grant` returns `{ "access_token": "<jwt>" }`.
+- **Minted JWTs authenticate over the WebSocket via the `bearer` subprotocol**: `new WebSocket(url, ["bearer", jwt])`. The `token` subprotocol is for **raw API keys only** (the pi dictate extension's path) — `["token", jwt]` is rejected at the handshake (TLS-level close, no 401).
+- **The key needs ≥ Member permission** (console → API Keys → Create Key → *Advanced* options → permissions dropdown → Member). A default key can transcribe but gets `FORBIDDEN` from `/auth/grant`.
+- **Env precedence gotcha**: a real `DEEPGRAM_API_KEY` exported in the shell (e.g. `.zshrc`) **beats `.env.local`** in both `next dev` and the desktop shell's `authEnv()` seam. Stale exports silently override the file — don't export the key in shell rc files; `.env.local`/auth.json are the canonical seams.
+
 ## Local: whisper.cpp (the Advanced option)
 
+
 **Verified facts**
 
 - **Ship the whisper.cpp CLI (v1.9.4, MIT) as a child process** — the 2026 community norm; every maintained Node wrapper (nodejs-whisper, whisper-node) is just a CLI spawner anyway, and native bindings (smart-whisper last published Oct 2024; the official `addon.node` is a self-compiled reference demo) add electron-rebuild/ABI churn for nothing. Our server already spawns children; per-utterance spawn is fine (model load <1s, stateless).