diff --git a/hack/e2e-install-cozystack.bats b/hack/e2e-install-cozystack.bats
index 1f9958259..6c723c531 100644
--- a/hack/e2e-install-cozystack.bats
+++ b/hack/e2e-install-cozystack.bats
@@ -28,30 +28,13 @@
 }
 
 @test "Install Cozystack" {
-  # Pre-create the cozy-system namespace with the labels the operator pod needs.
-  # The chart no longer ships a Namespace resource (helm v3's --create-namespace
-  # collides with chart-defined Namespace). On Talos clusters that enforce PSA
-  # baseline-by-default, the cozystack-operator pod (hostNetwork=true) is
-  # rejected unless the namespace is labelled enforce=privileged BEFORE the
-  # pod is scheduled. A pre-install hook can't bootstrap that label because
-  # the hook itself runs in the same namespace and faces the same PSA gate.
-  # So apply the namespace from the caller (this bats / production install docs)
-  # — same pattern as kube-prometheus-stack, argo-cd, cert-manager.
-  kubectl apply -f - <<'EOF'
-apiVersion: v1
-kind: Namespace
-metadata:
-  name: cozy-system
-  labels:
-    cozystack.io/system: "true"
-    cozystack.io/deletion-protected: "true"
-    pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce: privileged
-EOF
-
   # Install cozy-installer chart (operator installs CRDs on startup via --install-crds).
+  # The chart's pre-install hook patches PSA + cozystack labels onto cozy-system
+  # after --create-namespace bootstraps it.
   helm upgrade installer packages/core/installer \
     --install \
     --namespace cozy-system \
+    --create-namespace \
     --set cozystackOperator.helmReleaseInterval=30s \
     --wait \
     --timeout 2m
diff --git a/packages/core/installer/templates/cozy-system-labels.yaml b/packages/core/installer/templates/cozy-system-labels.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..343919ad6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/core/installer/templates/cozy-system-labels.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,122 @@
+{{/*
+  Pre-install/upgrade hook that labels the cozy-system namespace with the
+  PodSecurity and cozystack identity labels.
+
+  Two chicken-and-egg constraints to thread:
+
+  1. helm v3 cannot adopt a namespace pre-created by --create-namespace
+     because it lacks helm meta annotations; without --create-namespace,
+     helm fails to write its release-secret because the namespace does
+     not exist yet. The chart no longer ships a Namespace cozy-system
+     resource; callers run helm with --create-namespace and the namespace
+     is born bare (no labels).
+
+  2. The operator pod needs hostNetwork=true (no CNI yet at install time),
+     which violates PodSecurity baseline. So cozy-system needs
+     enforce=privileged before the operator pod is admitted. But a labeler
+     pod inside cozy-system would itself need hostNetwork=true and hit
+     the same admission denial. The hook therefore lives in kube-system,
+     which is PSA-exempt on Talos (defaults.exemptions.namespaces in the
+     apiserver PodSecurityConfiguration) and unlabeled on vanilla
+     kubeadm/kind/k3s. The Job's SA is bound to a ClusterRole scoped via
+     resourceNames to "cozy-system" only, so the cluster permission grant
+     is minimal.
+*/}}
+---
+apiVersion: v1
+kind: ServiceAccount
+metadata:
+  name: cozy-system-labeler
+  namespace: kube-system
+  annotations:
+    helm.sh/hook: pre-install,pre-upgrade
+    helm.sh/hook-weight: "-200"
+    helm.sh/hook-delete-policy: before-hook-creation,hook-succeeded
+---
+apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
+kind: ClusterRole
+metadata:
+  name: cozy-system-labeler
+  annotations:
+    helm.sh/hook: pre-install,pre-upgrade
+    helm.sh/hook-weight: "-180"
+    helm.sh/hook-delete-policy: before-hook-creation,hook-succeeded
+rules:
+- apiGroups: [""]
+  resources: ["namespaces"]
+  resourceNames: ["cozy-system"]
+  verbs: ["get", "patch"]
+---
+apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
+kind: ClusterRoleBinding
+metadata:
+  name: cozy-system-labeler
+  annotations:
+    helm.sh/hook: pre-install,pre-upgrade
+    helm.sh/hook-weight: "-160"
+    helm.sh/hook-delete-policy: before-hook-creation,hook-succeeded
+subjects:
+- kind: ServiceAccount
+  name: cozy-system-labeler
+  namespace: kube-system
+roleRef:
+  kind: ClusterRole
+  name: cozy-system-labeler
+  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
+---
+apiVersion: batch/v1
+kind: Job
+metadata:
+  name: cozy-system-labeler
+  namespace: kube-system
+  annotations:
+    helm.sh/hook: pre-install,pre-upgrade
+    helm.sh/hook-weight: "-100"
+    helm.sh/hook-delete-policy: before-hook-creation,hook-succeeded
+spec:
+  backoffLimit: 6
+  template:
+    spec:
+      serviceAccountName: cozy-system-labeler
+      restartPolicy: OnFailure
+      # The hook runs BEFORE Cilium / kube-ovn / any CNI is installed, so the
+      # cluster's nodes are NotReady-NoSchedule and have no pod network. Mirror
+      # the cozystack-operator deployment's scheduling: hostNetwork=true so the
+      # pod doesn't need CNI, plus the same tolerations the operator uses.
+      hostNetwork: true
+      tolerations:
+      - key: "node.kubernetes.io/not-ready"
+        operator: "Exists"
+      - key: "node.kubernetes.io/unreachable"
+        operator: "Exists"
+      - key: "node.cilium.io/agent-not-ready"
+        operator: "Exists"
+      - key: "node.cloudprovider.kubernetes.io/uninitialized"
+        operator: "Exists"
+      containers:
+      - name: kubectl
+        image: alpine/k8s:1.32.0
+        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
+        {{- if eq .Values.cozystackOperator.variant "talos" }}
+        env:
+        # Talos KubePrism endpoint — same as cozystack-operator uses to reach
+        # the apiserver before CNI is up.
+        - name: KUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST
+          value: "localhost"
+        - name: KUBERNETES_SERVICE_PORT
+          value: "7445"
+        {{- else if eq .Values.cozystackOperator.variant "generic" }}
+        env:
+        - name: KUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST
+          value: {{ required "cozystack.apiServerHost is required in generic mode" .Values.cozystack.apiServerHost | quote }}
+        - name: KUBERNETES_SERVICE_PORT
+          value: {{ .Values.cozystack.apiServerPort | quote }}
+        {{- end }}
+        command:
+        - kubectl
+        - label
+        - --overwrite
+        - namespace
+        - cozy-system
+        - cozystack.io/system=true
+        - pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce=privileged