diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 8422168..8ea59b7 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ Backend (from `server/`):
 cd server
 python3 -m venv .venv
 .venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
-.venv/bin/pip install -e ./packages/tavolo-platform -e ./packages/tavolo-scopone -e '.[dev]'
+.venv/bin/pip install -e ./packages/tavolo-platform -e ./packages/tavolo-scopone -e './packages/tavolo-app[dev]'
 .venv/bin/python -m unittest discover -s tests -t .
 .venv/bin/python -m unittest discover -s packages/tavolo-platform/tests
 .venv/bin/python -m unittest discover -s packages/tavolo-scopone/tests
diff --git a/server/Dockerfile b/server/Dockerfile
index d5c61fd..6d7c87e 100644
--- a/server/Dockerfile
+++ b/server/Dockerfile
@@ -55,14 +55,16 @@ RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache/pip \
  && /opt/venv/bin/pip install --upgrade pip \
  && /opt/venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
 
-COPY server/pyproject.toml server/README.md ./
-COPY server/src/ ./src/
-# Sibling distributions, installed from the local tree (PEP 420 namespace
-# packages sharing the `tavolo` namespace with the app above). --no-deps:
-# every third-party dependency is already pinned in requirements.txt.
+# The three sibling distributions, installed from the local tree (PEP 420
+# namespace packages sharing the `tavolo` namespace). --no-deps: every
+# third-party dependency is already pinned in requirements.txt.
 COPY server/packages/ ./packages/
 RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache/pip \
-    /opt/venv/bin/pip install --no-deps ./packages/tavolo-platform ./packages/tavolo-scopone .
+    /opt/venv/bin/pip install --no-deps ./packages/tavolo-platform ./packages/tavolo-scopone ./packages/tavolo-app
+# server/pyproject.toml only carries the [tool.aerich] section (the
+# db-migrate compose service runs `aerich upgrade` with working_dir=/app,
+# next to ./migrations).
+COPY server/pyproject.toml ./
 # aerich migration files are a release artifact: the db-migrate compose
 # service runs `aerich upgrade` from this image before the app starts.
 COPY server/migrations/ ./migrations/
diff --git a/server/README.md b/server/README.md
index 4a74cf3..9164ffb 100644
--- a/server/README.md
+++ b/server/README.md
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ and [`packages/tavolo-scopone/README.md`](packages/tavolo-scopone/README.md)):
 - **`tavolo-scopone`** (`packages/tavolo-scopone/`) — scopone
   scientifico, the four-player, fixed-partnership variant of the classic
   Italian card game: pure rules plus the platform adapter.
-- **`tavolo-app`** (`src/tavolo/`, this `pyproject.toml`) — the
+- **`tavolo-app`** (`packages/tavolo-app/`) — the
   composition root wiring the platform to the scopone game, with the
   environment-driven settings and the SPA shell.
 
@@ -279,18 +279,15 @@ must dismiss. A play attempted in this phase is rejected with an
 ```sh
 python3 -m venv .venv
 .venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
-.venv/bin/pip install -e ./packages/tavolo-platform -e ./packages/tavolo-scopone -e '.[dev]'
+.venv/bin/pip install -e ./packages/tavolo-platform -e ./packages/tavolo-scopone -e './packages/tavolo-app[dev]'
 # app integration suite:
 .venv/bin/python -m unittest discover -s tests -t .
 # per-package suites (each package is self-contained):
 .venv/bin/python -m unittest discover -s packages/tavolo-platform/tests
 .venv/bin/python -m unittest discover -s packages/tavolo-scopone/tests
-# type checks:
+# type checks (see packages/tavolo-app/README.md for the app modules):
 .venv/bin/python -m mypy -p tavolo.platform
 .venv/bin/python -m mypy -p tavolo.scopone
-.venv/bin/python -m mypy --namespace-packages --explicit-package-bases \
-  src/tavolo/app.py src/tavolo/config.py src/tavolo/static.py \
-  src/tavolo/aerich_config.py src/tavolo/logging_config.py
 ```
 
 Tests run fully in-process: in-memory sqlite for Postgres, in-memory stores
@@ -348,12 +345,14 @@ packages/tavolo-scopone/      # scopone scientifico game (own pyproject + tests)
   ├── engine.py               # pure scopone scientifico rules
   ├── errors.py               # scopone-specific rule violations
   └── plugin.py               # ScoponeEngine: the GameEngine adapter
-src/tavolo/                   # tavolo-app: composition root (this pyproject.toml)
-├── app.py                    # session/OIDC/Tortoise/OpenAPI/Platform/DeadlineScheduler mixins
-├── config.py                 # env -> frozen Settings
-├── aerich_config.py          # aerich CLI configuration
-├── logging_config.py         # logging setup
-└── static.py                 # SPA shell hosting
+packages/tavolo-app/          # deployable app: composition root (own pyproject)
+  src/tavolo/
+  ├── app.py                  # session/OIDC/Tortoise/OpenAPI/Platform/DeadlineScheduler mixins
+  ├── config.py               # env -> frozen Settings
+  ├── aerich_config.py        # aerich CLI configuration
+  ├── logging_config.py       # logging setup
+  └── static.py               # SPA shell hosting
+pyproject.toml                # tooling shim: [tool.aerich] + [tool.mypy] for server/ CWD
 migrations/                   # aerich migrations for the platform models
 tests/                        # app integration suite (platform + scopone wired together)
 ```
diff --git a/server/packages/tavolo-app/README.md b/server/packages/tavolo-app/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2b3fc34
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/packages/tavolo-app/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+# tavolo-app
+
+The deployable tavolo application: the composition root wiring
+[`tavolo-platform`](../tavolo-platform/README.md) to the
+[`tavolo-scopone`](../tavolo-scopone/README.md) game.
+
+## Contents
+
+- `app.py` — assembles the `KayaApp` (session/OIDC/Tortoise/OpenAPI
+  mixins plus `PlatformMixin` and the deadline scheduler), registers the
+  `ScoponeEngine` with its configured timeouts, and exposes
+  `tavolo.app:app` for granian.
+- `config.py` — environment-driven frozen `Settings`.
+- `aerich_config.py` — Tortoise ORM configuration consumed by the aerich
+  CLI (migrations live in `server/migrations/`; aerich itself is
+  configured via the `[tool.aerich]` section of `server/pyproject.toml`).
+- `logging_config.py` — logging setup.
+- `static.py` — SPA shell hosting for the compiled frontend.
+
+## Development (from `packages/tavolo-app/`)
+
+```sh
+.venv/bin/python -m mypy --namespace-packages --explicit-package-bases \
+  src/tavolo/app.py \
+  src/tavolo/config.py \
+  src/tavolo/static.py \
+  src/tavolo/aerich_config.py \
+  src/tavolo/logging_config.py
+```
+
+End-to-end coverage of the wired stack lives in `server/tests/`.
diff --git a/server/packages/tavolo-app/pyproject.toml b/server/packages/tavolo-app/pyproject.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e9b624b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/packages/tavolo-app/pyproject.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+[build-system]
+requires = ["setuptools>=68"]
+build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
+
+[project]
+name = "tavolo-app"
+version = "0.1.0"
+description = "Tavolo multiplayer card-game application: platform + scopone game wiring"
+readme = "README.md"
+requires-python = ">=3.10"
+dependencies = [
+    "tavolo-platform",
+    "tavolo-scopone",
+    "kaya-core",
+    "kaya-cors",
+    "kaya-session",
+    "kaya-session-redis",
+    "kaya-oidc",
+    "kaya-openapi",
+    "kaya-rsgi",
+    "granian>=2.0",
+    "asyncpg",
+    "aerich",
+    "httpx",
+    "PyJWT[crypto]",
+    "pwo",
+    "PyYAML",
+    "redis",
+]
+
+[project.optional-dependencies]
+dev = [
+    "mypy",
+    "httpx-ws",
+]
+otel = [
+    "kaya-otel>=0.0.4",
+]
+
+[tool.setuptools.packages.find]
+where = ["src"]
+namespaces = true
+
+[tool.mypy]
+python_version = "3.12"
+ignore_missing_imports = true
+plugins = []
diff --git a/server/src/tavolo/aerich_config.py b/server/packages/tavolo-app/src/tavolo/aerich_config.py
similarity index 100%
rename from server/src/tavolo/aerich_config.py
rename to server/packages/tavolo-app/src/tavolo/aerich_config.py
diff --git a/server/src/tavolo/app.py b/server/packages/tavolo-app/src/tavolo/app.py
similarity index 100%
rename from server/src/tavolo/app.py
rename to server/packages/tavolo-app/src/tavolo/app.py
diff --git a/server/src/tavolo/config.py b/server/packages/tavolo-app/src/tavolo/config.py
similarity index 100%
rename from server/src/tavolo/config.py
rename to server/packages/tavolo-app/src/tavolo/config.py
diff --git a/server/src/tavolo/logging_config.py b/server/packages/tavolo-app/src/tavolo/logging_config.py
similarity index 100%
rename from server/src/tavolo/logging_config.py
rename to server/packages/tavolo-app/src/tavolo/logging_config.py
diff --git a/server/src/tavolo/static.py b/server/packages/tavolo-app/src/tavolo/static.py
similarity index 100%
rename from server/src/tavolo/static.py
rename to server/packages/tavolo-app/src/tavolo/static.py
diff --git a/server/pyproject.toml b/server/pyproject.toml
index a762017..405d6bb 100644
--- a/server/pyproject.toml
+++ b/server/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,47 +1,11 @@
-[build-system]
-requires = ["setuptools>=68"]
-build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
-
-[project]
-name = "tavolo-app"
-version = "0.1.0"
-description = "Tavolo multiplayer card-game application: platform + scopone game wiring"
-readme = "README.md"
-requires-python = ">=3.10"
-dependencies = [
-    "tavolo-platform",
-    "tavolo-scopone",
-    "kaya-core",
-    "kaya-cors",
-    "kaya-session",
-    "kaya-session-redis",
-    "kaya-oidc",
-    "kaya-openapi",
-    "kaya-rsgi",
-    "granian>=2.0",
-    "asyncpg",
-    "aerich",
-    "httpx",
-    "PyJWT[crypto]",
-    "pwo",
-    "PyYAML",
-    "redis",
-]
-
-[project.optional-dependencies]
-dev = [
-    "mypy",
-    "httpx-ws",
-]
-otel = [
-    "kaya-otel>=0.0.4",
-]
-
-[tool.setuptools.packages.find]
-where = ["src"]
-namespaces = true
-
-# Database migrations (aerich). See the Migrations section in README.md.
+# NOTE: the tavolo-app distribution lives in packages/tavolo-app/ (same
+# kaya-style layout as tavolo-platform and tavolo-scopone). This file
+# exists only for tooling that reads configuration from the working
+# directory:
+# - aerich reads [tool.aerich] from here (server/ locally, /app in the
+#   db-migrate compose service), next to ./migrations;
+# - mypy reads [tool.mypy] from here when run from server/.
+# See the Migrations section in README.md.
 [tool.aerich]
 tortoise_orm = "tavolo.aerich_config.TORTOISE_ORM"
 location = "./migrations"
diff --git a/server/requirements.txt b/server/requirements.txt
index 7fd6756..593c1e3 100644
--- a/server/requirements.txt
+++ b/server/requirements.txt
@@ -4,11 +4,12 @@
 #
 #    pip-compile --allow-unsafe --extra-index-url=https://pypi.org/simple --index-url=https://gitea.woggioni.net/api/packages/woggioni/pypi/simple --output-file=requirements.txt pyproject.toml
 #
-# NOTE: the tavolo-platform and tavolo-scopone sibling packages are NOT
-# pinned here: they are installed from ./packages in the Dockerfile and in
-# development (pip install -e ./packages/* -e .). All of their third-party
-# dependencies are direct dependencies of tavolo-app, so this lock covers
-# the full closure.
+# NOTE: the tavolo-platform, tavolo-scopone and tavolo-app sibling packages
+# are NOT pinned here: they are installed from ./packages in the Dockerfile
+# and in development (pip install -e ./packages/tavolo-platform
+# -e ./packages/tavolo-scopone -e ./packages/tavolo-app). All of their
+# third-party dependencies are direct dependencies of tavolo-app, so this
+# lock covers the full closure.
 #
 --index-url https://gitea.woggioni.net/api/packages/woggioni/pypi/simple
 --extra-index-url https://pypi.org/simple