diff --git a/daemon/src/main.rs b/daemon/src/main.rs
index 7e9e723..bdb4397 100644
--- a/daemon/src/main.rs
+++ b/daemon/src/main.rs
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ mod fido;
 mod lockout;
 mod policy_apply;
 mod polkit;
+mod recovery;
 mod state;
 mod storage;
 
diff --git a/daemon/src/recovery.rs b/daemon/src/recovery.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f5c3c54
--- /dev/null
+++ b/daemon/src/recovery.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+//! Pure recovery-code logic: generation, Argon2id hashing, verification.
+//! No I/O — that lives in `storage::recovery::RecoveryStore`.
+
+#![allow(dead_code)] // wired through RecoveryStore (Task 4) and AppState (Task 5).
+
+use argon2::{
+    password_hash::{rand_core::OsRng as PhcOsRng, PasswordHash, PasswordHasher, PasswordVerifier, SaltString},
+    Argon2,
+};
+use rand::Rng;
+
+/// Default validity window for a freshly generated recovery code. 7 days:
+/// long enough for an admin to mail the code to a remote user, short enough
+/// to limit blast radius if the file leaks.
+pub(crate) const DEFAULT_TTL_SECS: u64 = 7 * 24 * 3600;
+
+#[derive(Debug, thiserror::Error)]
+pub(crate) enum RecoveryError {
+    #[error("argon2: {0}")]
+    Argon2(String),
+}
+
+/// Generate a fresh 8-digit recovery code.
+pub(crate) fn generate_code() -> String {
+    let n: u32 = rand::rng().random_range(0..100_000_000);
+    format!("{n:08}")
+}
+
+/// Hash a code with Argon2id, producing a PHC-format string.
+pub(crate) fn hash_code(code: &str) -> Result<String, RecoveryError> {
+    let salt = SaltString::generate(&mut PhcOsRng);
+    let argon = Argon2::default();
+    let phc = argon
+        .hash_password(code.as_bytes(), &salt)
+        .map_err(|e| RecoveryError::Argon2(e.to_string()))?
+        .to_string();
+    Ok(phc)
+}
+
+/// Constant-time verify a candidate code against a stored PHC hash.
+pub(crate) fn verify_code(candidate: &str, phc: &str) -> Result<bool, RecoveryError> {
+    let parsed = PasswordHash::new(phc).map_err(|e| RecoveryError::Argon2(e.to_string()))?;
+    Ok(Argon2::default()
+        .verify_password(candidate.as_bytes(), &parsed)
+        .is_ok())
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    #[test]
+    fn generated_code_is_eight_digits() {
+        for _ in 0..50 {
+            let c = generate_code();
+            assert_eq!(c.len(), 8);
+            assert!(c.chars().all(|ch| ch.is_ascii_digit()));
+        }
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn hash_roundtrips_correct_code() {
+        let phc = hash_code("12345678").unwrap();
+        assert!(phc.starts_with("$argon2id$"), "phc was {phc}");
+        assert!(verify_code("12345678", &phc).unwrap());
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn verify_rejects_wrong_code() {
+        let phc = hash_code("12345678").unwrap();
+        assert!(!verify_code("87654321", &phc).unwrap());
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn verify_errors_on_malformed_phc() {
+        assert!(verify_code("12345678", "not a phc string").is_err());
+    }
+}