diff --git a/.changeset/home-ai-studio-flag-5521.md b/.changeset/home-ai-studio-flag-5521.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..411aa0a99
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/home-ai-studio-flag-5521.md
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+---
+'@object-ui/app-shell': minor
+---
+
+Console Home stops offering the metadata-authoring front door on a deployment
+whose own runtime config says authoring is not offered there (objectui#5521).
+
+The "Build an app" cover card is now withheld when
+`GET /api/v1/runtime/config` reports `features.aiStudio: false`. On the composed
+hosted-SaaS shape that card led a plain tenant into the full authoring flow
+behind a runtime whose `/api/v1/meta/*` answers `403` and whose ToolRegistry
+holds zero authoring handlers — the entry was offered and the refusal arrived at
+submit. The lockdown criterion for that shape is two-part, UI entry hidden AND
+API refused; only the backend half was green.
+
+- The card is **hidden, not dimmed**, because that is the flag's own declared
+  meaning on both sides of the wire: `RuntimeFeatures.aiStudio` documents "when
+  false, the SPA hides the AI authoring affordances", and the serving plugin
+  documents "set false to force-hide the authoring UI".
+- `features.marketplace` keeps the different presentation objectui#5504 gave it
+  — a dimmed card plus a visible localized reason. That flag means a route is
+  reachable; this one means force-hide. "Start with a template" is untouched:
+  installing a marketplace package is not AI metadata authoring and answers to
+  its own flags.
+- No reason line is rendered in its place. `home.build.noCapability` says the
+  *account* lacks "Manage Metadata"; on a runtime with no authoring at all the
+  surface is absent for everyone, and pointing a viewer at a permission that
+  would not help them is the misdirection objectui#5557 is about.
+- Unknown fails **OPEN** (`!== false`), the doctrine `isMarketplaceEnabled()`
+  already encodes: a runtime predating the flag, or one whose config fetch
+  failed, keeps the card exactly as visible as before.
+
+No new authorable config key, no new server surface, and no new copy — the flag
+was already being served and already reaches the browser.
diff --git a/packages/app-shell/src/console/home/HomePage.tsx b/packages/app-shell/src/console/home/HomePage.tsx
index ae6a26841..2ad50ef7c 100644
--- a/packages/app-shell/src/console/home/HomePage.tsx
+++ b/packages/app-shell/src/console/home/HomePage.tsx
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ import { Sparkles, ShieldAlert, X, UploadCloud, MessageSquareText, Hammer, Layou
 import { useMetadataClient } from '../../views/metadata-admin/useMetadata.js';
 import { usePublishAllDrafts } from '../../preview/usePublishAllDrafts.js';
 import { resolveAiApiBase } from '../../hooks/useAiSurface.js';
-import { isMarketplaceEnabled } from '../../runtime-config.js';
+import { getRuntimeConfig, isMarketplaceEnabled } from '../../runtime-config.js';
 
 /**
  * Which AI home CTAs to surface, driven by the live agent catalog (the single
@@ -379,6 +379,26 @@ export function HomePage() {
   // used to recommend it first and error afterwards; that ORDERING was the
   // injury, so the recommendation goes when the capability does.
   const marketplaceEnabled = isMarketplaceEnabled();
+  // objectui#5521 — the DEPLOYMENT's own answer to "is metadata authoring
+  // offered here at all", distinct from the per-principal `canAuthorMetadata`
+  // above. `features.aiStudio` is derived server-side from the same resolution
+  // that decides whether the authoring agent is mounted, so on the composed
+  // hosted-SaaS shape it arrives `false` while the ToolRegistry holds zero
+  // authoring handlers and `/api/v1/meta/*` answers 403.
+  //
+  // Read inline rather than through a new accessor, so this card adds no
+  // export; lifting this and `ChatDock`'s identical read onto an
+  // `isAiStudioEnabled()` sibling of `isMarketplaceEnabled()` is filed as a
+  // follow-up rather than done here, where it would mean editing four
+  // neighbouring suites' module mocks.
+  //
+  // `features?.` and `!== false` are both load-bearing and are copied from
+  // `isMarketplaceEnabled()`'s body rather than invented: hosts (and four
+  // sibling suites) supply a runtime-config snapshot carrying only `branding`,
+  // so `features` is genuinely absent on real code paths — and an absent flag
+  // must fail OPEN. Withholding the product's front door over an unanswered
+  // question is the worse direction; the server refuses the write regardless.
+  const aiStudioEnabled = getRuntimeConfig().features?.aiStudio !== false;
   // Shown wherever an authoring entry point is withheld, so the posture is
   // explained on screen instead of surfacing as a refusal after a filled-in
   // dialog. Localized in all ten packs.
@@ -552,17 +572,42 @@ export function HomePage() {
           {isAdmin && (
             <div className="mb-6">
               <div className="grid grid-cols-1 gap-3 sm:grid-cols-2">
-                <BuilderCoverCard
-                  icon={Hammer}
-                  title={t('home.build.title', { defaultValue: 'Build an app' })}
-                  subtitle={t('home.build.subtitle', {
-                    defaultValue: 'Start from scratch — design objects, forms, automations and interfaces.',
-                  })}
-                  onClick={() => navigate('/studio')}
-                  disabled={!canAuthorMetadata}
-                  disabledReason={authoringGateReason}
-                  testId="home-build-app"
-                />
+                {/* objectui#5521 — HIDDEN, not dimmed, when the runtime reports
+                  * `features.aiStudio: false`. The distinction is the flag's own
+                  * declared meaning, not a presentation preference: `RuntimeFeatures`
+                  * documents it as "when false, the SPA HIDES the AI authoring
+                  * affordances", and the serving plugin as "set false to force-hide
+                  * the authoring UI". Honouring a producer's declared semantics is
+                  * the whole point of reading its flag.
+                  *
+                  * It is also the honest answer here. `!canAuthorMetadata` is a fact
+                  * about THIS PRINCIPAL — a dimmed card plus a reason line tells an
+                  * admin something actionable about their own account, which is why
+                  * that case stays disabled-with-reason. `aiStudio: false` is a fact
+                  * about the DEPLOYMENT: authoring exists for nobody here, there is no
+                  * permission to acquire and no admin to ask, so a permanently greyed
+                  * front door would advertise a room that was never built. That is the
+                  * misdirection class objectui#5557 names — reporting the wrong KIND
+                  * of answer — applied to a card instead of a page.
+                  *
+                  * Deliberately NOT extended to "Start with a template": installing a
+                  * marketplace package is not AI metadata authoring, it has its own
+                  * flags (`features.marketplace` / `installLocal`), and objectui#5504
+                  * already ruled disable-and-explain for it. Its flag means
+                  * reachability; this one means force-hide. */}
+                {aiStudioEnabled && (
+                  <BuilderCoverCard
+                    icon={Hammer}
+                    title={t('home.build.title', { defaultValue: 'Build an app' })}
+                    subtitle={t('home.build.subtitle', {
+                      defaultValue: 'Start from scratch — design objects, forms, automations and interfaces.',
+                    })}
+                    onClick={() => navigate('/studio')}
+                    disabled={!canAuthorMetadata}
+                    disabledReason={authoringGateReason}
+                    testId="home-build-app"
+                  />
+                )}
                 <BuilderCoverCard
                   icon={LayoutTemplate}
                   title={t('home.template.title', { defaultValue: 'Start with a template' })}
diff --git a/packages/app-shell/src/console/home/__tests__/HomePage.aiStudioDisabled.test.tsx b/packages/app-shell/src/console/home/__tests__/HomePage.aiStudioDisabled.test.tsx
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ea03e7412
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/app-shell/src/console/home/__tests__/HomePage.aiStudioDisabled.test.tsx
@@ -0,0 +1,268 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2026 ObjectStack. Licensed under the Apache-2.0 license.
+
+/**
+ * Home stops offering the metadata-authoring front door on a deployment whose
+ * own runtime config says authoring is not offered here (objectui#5521).
+ *
+ * ## The defect
+ *
+ * On the composed hosted-SaaS shape (`OS_TENANCY_POSTURE=isolated`), Home led a
+ * plain tenant with "Build an app — start from scratch, design objects, forms,
+ * automations and interfaces". Behind it: `/api/v1/meta/*` → 403 and a
+ * ToolRegistry holding zero authoring handlers. The lockdown criterion for that
+ * shape is two-part — UI entry hidden AND API refused — and only the backend
+ * half was green.
+ *
+ * `features.aiStudio` is the server's own answer to "is AI-driven metadata
+ * authoring offered by this runtime". It was *wrong* on this shape until
+ * cloud#1471 derived it from the same resolution that decides the agent mount;
+ * before that it leaked a default `true` and honouring it here would have
+ * hidden nothing. It is truthful now, and this page did not read it.
+ *
+ * ## Why HIDDEN rather than dimmed
+ *
+ * The flag's declared meaning, on both sides of the wire, is *hide*:
+ * `RuntimeFeatures.aiStudio` documents "when false, the SPA hides the AI
+ * authoring affordances", and the serving plugin documents "set false to
+ * force-hide the authoring UI". The sibling `features.marketplace` means
+ * something different — reachability of a route — which is why objectui#5504
+ * correctly rendered *it* as a dimmed card plus a visible reason. Two flags,
+ * two declared meanings, two presentations.
+ *
+ * ## Why these cases drive the REAL runtime-config module
+ *
+ * Verbatim from `HomePage.marketplaceDisabled.test.tsx`: the claim under test is
+ * that the gate consumes the SERVER's `features.aiStudio`, so every case boots
+ * the genuine `initRuntimeConfig()` over a stubbed `GET /api/v1/runtime/config`
+ * rather than mocking an accessor. Mocking the accessor would pass against a
+ * page that never asks the server anything.
+ *
+ * ## Why `t` returns «key»
+ *
+ * The reason lines must resolve THROUGH i18n. Verbatim from
+ * `HomePage.authoringCapabilityGate.test.tsx`, which states the argument in full.
+ *
+ * ## Guarding the vacuum
+ *
+ * The acceptance condition is that something does NOT render, which an empty
+ * page reproduces perfectly. So every denial case also asserts the furniture it
+ * is denying *around* — the app tile the strip renders and the sibling template
+ * cover — and the counter-probes drive the SAME fixture through the SAME helper
+ * with the flag flipped and find the card. An empty render fails the denials'
+ * counter-assertions; a gate stuck open fails the denials; a gate that swept the
+ * whole cover fails the sibling assertion. None of the three can pass alone.
+ */
+
+import '@testing-library/jest-dom/vitest';
+import { describe, it, expect, vi, beforeEach, afterEach } from 'vitest';
+import React from 'react';
+import { render, screen } from '@testing-library/react';
+import { MePermissionsProvider, type MePermissionsResponse } from '@object-ui/permissions';
+
+const navigateMock = vi.fn();
+
+vi.mock('react-router-dom', () => ({
+  useNavigate: () => navigateMock,
+}));
+
+vi.mock('@object-ui/i18n', async (importOriginal) => ({
+  ...(await importOriginal<Record<string, unknown>>()),
+  useObjectTranslation: () => ({
+    t: (key: string) => `«${key}»`,
+    language: 'en',
+  }),
+  useObjectLabel: () => ({ appLabel: (app: any) => String(app?.label ?? app?.name ?? '') }),
+}));
+
+vi.mock('@object-ui/auth', () => ({
+  useAuth: () => ({ user: { id: 'u1', name: 'Zhang San', email: 'zhangsan@acme-test.com' } }),
+  useIsWorkspaceAdmin: () => true,
+}));
+
+vi.mock('@object-ui/plugin-chatbot', () => ({
+  useAgents: () => ({ agents: [{ name: 'builder' }] }),
+  isAskAgent: () => false,
+  agentHasCapability: () => true,
+}));
+
+vi.mock('../../../providers/MetadataProvider', () => ({
+  useMetadata: () => ({ apps: [{ name: 'crm', label: 'CRM' }], loading: false }),
+}));
+
+vi.mock('../../../context/NavigationContext', () => ({
+  useNavigationContext: () => ({ currentAppName: undefined }),
+}));
+
+// --- surfaces unrelated to this gate ---------------------------------------
+vi.mock('../../../hooks/useRecentItems', () => ({ useRecentItems: () => ({ recentItems: [] }) }));
+vi.mock('../../../hooks/useFavorites', () => ({ useFavorites: () => ({ favorites: [] }) }));
+vi.mock('../../../hooks/useHomeInbox', () => ({
+  useHomeInbox: () => ({
+    pendingApprovalsCount: 0,
+    notifications: [],
+    unreadTopicCount: 0,
+    activities: [],
+  }),
+}));
+vi.mock('../../../hooks/useAiSurface', () => ({ resolveAiApiBase: () => '' }));
+vi.mock('../../../views/metadata-admin/useMetadata', () => ({
+  useMetadataClient: () => ({ listDrafts: async () => [] }),
+}));
+vi.mock('../../../preview/usePublishAllDrafts', () => ({
+  usePublishAllDrafts: () => ({ publishAll: async () => ({ ok: true }), publishing: false }),
+}));
+
+import { initRuntimeConfig, resetRuntimeConfigForTesting } from '../../../runtime-config';
+import { HomePage } from '../HomePage';
+
+/**
+ * A `GET /api/v1/runtime/config` answer, as the server sends it.
+ *
+ * `features` is spread from a caller-supplied partial rather than built from
+ * named booleans, so a case can OMIT `aiStudio` entirely — the fail-open case
+ * below turns on the difference between "absent" and "false", and a signature
+ * taking `aiStudio: boolean` could not express it.
+ */
+const serverConfig = (features: Record<string, unknown>) => ({
+  cloudUrl: 'https://cloud.objectos.ai',
+  singleEnvironment: true,
+  features: { installLocal: true, marketplace: true, autoPublishAiBuilds: true, ...features },
+  branding: { productName: 'ObjectOS', productShortName: 'ObjectOS' },
+});
+
+async function bootOn(body: Record<string, unknown>) {
+  resetRuntimeConfigForTesting();
+  vi.stubGlobal('fetch', vi.fn(async () => ({ ok: true, status: 200, json: async () => body })));
+  await initRuntimeConfig();
+}
+
+/**
+ * An admin who MAY author metadata — so the PRINCIPAL half of the gate is wide
+ * open and only the DEPLOYMENT flag can move the verdict. Without
+ * `manage_metadata` here, every denial below would pass for the wrong reason.
+ */
+const permissions = (): MePermissionsResponse =>
+  ({
+    authenticated: true,
+    userId: 'u1',
+    tenantId: 'acme',
+    roles: ['org_owner', 'everyone'],
+    permissionSets: ['organization_admin', 'member_default'],
+    systemPermissions: ['manage_org_users', 'setup.access', 'setup.write', 'manage_metadata'],
+    objects: {},
+    fields: {},
+  }) as MePermissionsResponse;
+
+function renderHome() {
+  return render(
+    <MePermissionsProvider initialPermissions={permissions()}>
+      <HomePage />
+    </MePermissionsProvider>,
+  );
+}
+
+beforeEach(() => {
+  navigateMock.mockReset();
+});
+
+afterEach(() => {
+  vi.unstubAllGlobals();
+  resetRuntimeConfigForTesting();
+});
+
+describe('Home on a runtime reporting features.aiStudio: false (objectui#5521)', () => {
+  beforeEach(async () => {
+    await bootOn(serverConfig({ aiStudio: false }));
+  });
+
+  it('withholds the "Build an app" cover entirely — not dimmed, gone', () => {
+    renderHome();
+
+    expect(screen.queryByTestId('home-build-app')).toBeNull();
+    // Counter-probe against a page that rendered NOTHING: the strip behind the
+    // cover is still there with the workspace's app on it.
+    expect(screen.getByTestId('app-tile-crm')).toBeInTheDocument();
+  });
+
+  it('leaves the sibling template cover standing — this gate is not a cover-wide sweep', () => {
+    renderHome();
+
+    // "Start with a template" installs a marketplace package; that is not AI
+    // metadata authoring and it answers to its own flags. A gate that swept the
+    // whole builder cover would remove it from every runtime that merely
+    // switched AI Studio off, and would still pass the assertion above.
+    const template = screen.getByTestId('home-start-template');
+    expect(template).toBeInTheDocument();
+    expect(template).toBeEnabled();
+  });
+
+  it('offers no route into the authoring surface it just withheld', () => {
+    renderHome();
+
+    // The withheld card's destination. Nothing on the rendered page may reach
+    // `/studio` on its own — `StudioRoute` would bounce this principal anyway,
+    // and walking them there to be bounced is the defect, not the remedy.
+    expect(navigateMock).not.toHaveBeenCalledWith('/studio');
+  });
+
+  it('does not borrow the per-principal reason line to explain a deployment fact', () => {
+    renderHome();
+
+    // `home.build.noCapability` says the account lacks "Manage Metadata". This
+    // admin HOLDS it (see `permissions()`); the surface is absent for everyone.
+    // Rendering that line here would be the objectui#5557 misdirection —
+    // sending a viewer to ask for a permission that would not help them.
+    expect(screen.queryByTestId('home-authoring-gate-reason')).toBeNull();
+  });
+});
+
+describe('Home on the measured composed hosted-SaaS shape (objectui#5521)', () => {
+  it('withholds authoring while keeping objectui#5504’s explained marketplace state', async () => {
+    // Both flags false at once — the shape the card measured. The two gates must
+    // compose rather than shadow each other.
+    await bootOn(serverConfig({ aiStudio: false, marketplace: false, installLocal: false }));
+    renderHome();
+
+    expect(screen.queryByTestId('home-build-app')).toBeNull();
+    expect(screen.getByTestId('home-start-template')).toBeDisabled();
+    expect(screen.getByTestId('home-marketplace-disabled-reason')).toHaveTextContent(
+      '«home.template.marketplaceDisabled»',
+    );
+    expect(screen.queryByTestId('browse-marketplace-btn')).toBeNull();
+    expect(screen.getByTestId('app-tile-crm')).toBeInTheDocument();
+  });
+});
+
+describe('Home on a runtime that DOES offer AI Studio', () => {
+  it('keeps the "Build an app" cover exactly as before', async () => {
+    // Same fixture, same helper, one flag flipped — so the denials above cannot
+    // be passing because the card never renders in this suite at all.
+    await bootOn(serverConfig({ aiStudio: true }));
+    renderHome();
+
+    const build = screen.getByTestId('home-build-app');
+    expect(build).toBeInTheDocument();
+    expect(build).toBeEnabled();
+  });
+
+  it('fails OPEN when the runtime reports no aiStudio key at all', async () => {
+    // A server predating the flag answers a `features` map without it. Absent is
+    // not `false`: withholding the product's front door on an unanswered
+    // question is the worse direction, and it is the doctrine `!== false`
+    // already encodes for `features.marketplace`.
+    await bootOn(serverConfig({}));
+    renderHome();
+
+    expect(screen.getByTestId('home-build-app')).toBeEnabled();
+  });
+
+  it('fails OPEN when the runtime answers no config at all', async () => {
+    resetRuntimeConfigForTesting();
+    vi.stubGlobal('fetch', vi.fn(async () => ({ ok: false, status: 404, json: async () => ({}) })));
+    await initRuntimeConfig();
+
+    renderHome();
+
+    expect(screen.getByTestId('home-build-app')).toBeEnabled();
+  });
+});