diff --git a/src/auth/workspace.test.ts b/src/auth/workspace.test.ts
index cdfd514..2441da2 100644
--- a/src/auth/workspace.test.ts
+++ b/src/auth/workspace.test.ts
@@ -20,6 +20,9 @@ correct password must not end up signed in here with no routes to reach.
 
 const ROLES: ConsoleRole[] = ['nearle-admin', 'store-admin', 'store-manager'];
 
+/** The role this console turns away, used by the wording tests below. */
+const REFUSED_ROLE: ConsoleRole = 'store-admin';
+
 test('this build is the platform console, with nothing to configure', () => {
   // A constant rather than a build flag. The merchant console reads one because
   // it once served both sites; here a variable would only create a way to
@@ -57,3 +60,17 @@ test('each refused role is named in words a person uses', () => {
   assert.match(wrongConsoleMessage('store-admin'), /Store admin/);
   assert.match(wrongConsoleMessage('store-manager'), /Store user/);
 });
+
+test('the refusal tells them what to do, not what a category of account does', () => {
+  // "Store admin accounts sign in at…" is a true statement about accounts in
+  // general. "That is a Store admin account" is about the one in the box in
+  // front of them, and the second sentence is an instruction rather than a
+  // description. Both consoles use this shape, because a person sees one of
+  // them and the pair should not read as two different products.
+  const message = wrongConsoleMessage(REFUSED_ROLE);
+
+  assert.match(message, /^That is a .+ account\. Sign in at .+\.$/);
+  // Two sentences, not a paragraph. This is read by somebody who expected to be
+  // inside the application by now.
+  assert.ok(message.length < 90, `too long to read at a glance: ${message}`);
+});
diff --git a/src/auth/workspace.ts b/src/auth/workspace.ts
index 8985178..c661645 100644
--- a/src/auth/workspace.ts
+++ b/src/auth/workspace.ts
@@ -49,9 +49,18 @@ const MERCHANT_HOST =
  * Names the host rather than linking to it. A live link from one sign-in screen
  * to another reads as a redirect that failed, and this is not a failure — it is
  * the right answer to the wrong door.
+ *
+ * Both consoles say this the same way — "That is a X account. Sign in at Y." —
+ * because a person only ever sees one of them and the pair should not read as
+ * two different products. The earlier versions did: one opened "This is the
+ * Nearle platform console…", the other closed with "…not here."
+ *
+ * It addresses what they typed rather than describing a category of account.
+ * "Store admin accounts sign in at…" is true of accounts in general; "That is a
+ * Store admin account" is about the one in the box in front of them.
  */
 export function wrongConsoleMessage(role: ConsoleRole): string {
-  return `This is the Nearle platform console. ${roleWord(role)} accounts sign in at ${MERCHANT_HOST}.`;
+  return `That is a ${roleWord(role)} account. Sign in at ${MERCHANT_HOST}.`;
 }
 
 function roleWord(role: ConsoleRole): string {