diff --git a/.github/workflows/hyprcosmic.yml b/.github/workflows/hyprcosmic.yml
index 4492697..9dab4d9 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/hyprcosmic.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/hyprcosmic.yml
@@ -132,17 +132,24 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install into a staging root
         run: make install DESTDIR="$PWD/stage" prefix=/usr
 
-      # These two assertions are Patch D as an executable statement. HyprCosmic
-      # installs beside COSMIC rather than over it, which is what keeps the stock
-      # session available to log into when this compositor will not start. If a
-      # future edit sends the binary back to $(bindir)/cosmic-comp, that stops
-      # being true silently -- unless something fails here.
-      - name: Assert it installs beside COSMIC, not over it
+      # HyprCosmic replaces COSMIC rather than sitting beside it, so this build
+      # is *the* cosmic-comp on a machine that installs it and has to place
+      # everything upstream's does. The compositor starts without the two .ron
+      # defaults and then has no shortcuts and no tiling exceptions, which is a
+      # failure that looks like "the keyboard does nothing" rather than like a
+      # missing file -- worth an assertion rather than a bug report.
+      #
+      # The negative assertion is the one that would rot quietly: nothing may go
+      # back to the private libexec directory this fork used to install into,
+      # because a stray copy there is a second compositor that nothing runs and
+      # that no `uninstall` removes.
+      - name: Assert it installs as the compositor, at upstream's paths
         run: |
           set -eux
-          test -x stage/usr/libexec/hyprcosmic/cosmic-comp
-          test ! -e stage/usr/bin/cosmic-comp
-          test ! -e stage/usr/share/cosmic/com.system76.CosmicSettings.Shortcuts/v1/defaults
+          test -x stage/usr/bin/cosmic-comp
+          test -f stage/usr/share/cosmic/com.system76.CosmicSettings.Shortcuts/v1/defaults
+          test -f stage/usr/share/cosmic/com.system76.CosmicSettings.WindowRules/v1/tiling_exception_defaults
+          test ! -e stage/usr/libexec/hyprcosmic/cosmic-comp
           find stage -type f -printf '%M %10s %P\n'
 
       - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index b5c74ed..68ddd06 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ export prefix ?= /usr
 sysconfdir ?= /etc
 bindir = $(prefix)/bin
 libdir = $(prefix)/lib
-libexecdir ?= $(prefix)/libexec
 sharedir = $(prefix)/share
 
 BINARY = cosmic-comp
@@ -10,7 +9,7 @@ CARGO_TARGET_DIR ?= target
 TARGET = debug
 DEBUG ?= 0
 
-.PHONY = all clean install install-defaults uninstall vendor
+.PHONY = all clean install uninstall vendor
 
 ifeq ($(DEBUG),0)
 	TARGET = release
@@ -22,15 +21,20 @@ ifneq ($(VENDOR),0)
 	ARGS += --offline --locked
 endif
 
-# HyprCosmic installs *beside* the distro's COSMIC rather than over it. Both
-# sessions stay on the greeter's menu -- /usr/share/wayland-sessions holds
-# cosmic.desktop and hyprcosmic.desktop at the same time -- which only works
-# while this binary stays out of $(bindir)/cosmic-comp, where it would replace
-# the compositor the stock session runs. A private directory is what keeps
-# installing HyprCosmic from being a one-way door: if the fork misbehaves, the
-# stock session is still there to log into and fix it from.
-compdir ?= $(libexecdir)/hyprcosmic
-TARGET_BIN="$(DESTDIR)$(compdir)/$(BINARY)"
+# HyprCosmic is a fork of COSMIC, not an add-on to it, so this binary goes where
+# a cosmic-comp goes: $(bindir)/cosmic-comp. It is the compositor on a machine
+# that installs it, and a HyprCosmic package accordingly conflicts with the
+# distribution's cosmic-comp over this path -- which is the honest relationship
+# between two builds of the same program, and is how every other distro-level
+# fork declares itself.
+#
+# This used to install to a private $(libexecdir)/hyprcosmic so both sessions
+# could coexist. That bought a fallback and cost coherence: two compositors on
+# disk, a session that had to name absolute paths to find its own, and no
+# answer to "which cosmic-comp is running". The fallback survives in a better
+# form -- cosmic-session installs cosmic.desktop as well as hyprcosmic.desktop,
+# so the greeter still offers a stock COSMIC shell, now served by this binary.
+TARGET_BIN="$(DESTDIR)$(bindir)/$(BINARY)"
 
 KEYBINDINGS_CONF="$(DESTDIR)$(sharedir)/cosmic/com.system76.CosmicSettings.Shortcuts/v1/defaults"
 TILING_EXCEPTIONS_CONF="$(DESTDIR)$(sharedir)/cosmic/com.system76.CosmicSettings.WindowRules/v1/tiling_exception_defaults"
@@ -57,19 +61,17 @@ ifeq ($(VENDOR),1)
 	rm -rf vendor; tar pxf vendor.tar
 endif
 
-# The binary only. The two .ron files are COSMIC's *shared* defaults, and they
-# sit at paths the distro's own cosmic-comp package already owns, so installing
-# them from here would make a HyprCosmic package conflict with that one over two
-# files it has no reason to change. The fork reads the stock copies instead --
-# which is honest, because a HyprCosmic session needs the rest of COSMIC present
-# anyway for the greeter, the portals and the settings daemon.
+# Upstream's install, restored. The two .ron files are the compositor's shared
+# defaults and it will not find a shortcut or a tiling exception without them,
+# so a build that means to be the only cosmic-comp on the machine has to place
+# them. They were split out into `install-defaults` while this fork installed
+# beside a COSMIC it could borrow them from; there is nothing to borrow from now.
 #
-# `install-defaults` keeps them reachable for anyone building this fork on its
-# own, without a COSMIC install to borrow them from.
+# `bind` lines in cosmic.conf are still written to the Shortcuts *custom* key,
+# which cosmic-comp merges over these defaults. That is unchanged and is what
+# keeps `cosmic-conf apply` from having to edit the file installed here.
 install:
 	install -Dm0755 "$(CARGO_TARGET_DIR)/$(TARGET)/$(BINARY)" "$(TARGET_BIN)"
-
-install-defaults:
 	install -Dm0644 "data/keybindings.ron" "$(KEYBINDINGS_CONF)"
 	install -Dm0644 "data/tiling-exceptions.ron" "$(TILING_EXCEPTIONS_CONF)"
 
@@ -80,11 +82,11 @@ install-bare-session: install
 	install -Dm0644 "data/cosmic-comp.service" "$(DESTDIR)$(libdir)/systemd/user/cosmic-comp.service"
 	install -Dm0755 "data/cosmic-service" "$(DESTDIR)/$(bindir)/cosmic-service"
 
-# Only what `install` placed. Removing KEYBINDINGS_CONF here would delete a file
-# belonging to the distro's cosmic-comp, breaking the stock session on the way
-# out -- the exact failure the private compdir above exists to prevent.
+# Upstream's uninstall, restored along with the install it undoes. It leaves
+# TILING_EXCEPTIONS_CONF behind, which is upstream's omission rather than a
+# decision of this fork's, and is left alone so the two files stay diffable.
 uninstall:
-	rm "$(TARGET_BIN)"
+	rm "$(TARGET_BIN)" "$(KEYBINDINGS_CONF)"
 
 uninstall-bare-session:
 	rm "$(DESTDIR)$(sharedir)/wayland-sessions/cosmic.desktop"