diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index f0b2d66..d70606f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -73,8 +73,6 @@ cmjs/
     │   ├── card.html            # Article list card layout
     │   ├── article.html         # Full article view layout
     │   └── author-profile.html  # Author profile card layout
-    ├── blog-config/
-    │   └── tags.json        # Tag id → human-readable label registry — see "Tag labels" below
     └── articles/
         └── author/                              # One directory per author
             ├── author.md                        # Author profile (optional)
@@ -133,24 +131,6 @@ metadata never requires fetching anything beyond the directory listing that alre
 no further per-article request at all, which is what makes the "Article discovery & caching"
 section below possible.
 
-### Tag labels
-
-A tag in the file name is just an id (e.g. `guides`) — the human-readable label shown on
-tag pills comes from `cmjs/blog-config/tags.json`:
-
-```json
-{
-  "schemaVersion": 1,
-  "tags": [
-    { "id": "guides", "label": "Guides", "description": "", "aliases": [], "active": true }
-  ]
-}
-```
-
-Registering an id here is optional — an unregistered tag id still works, it just displays as
-its raw id instead of a friendly label. `year-YYYY` year ids don't need to be registered here;
-they're recognised automatically by pattern and don't use this label registry.
-
 ### Frontmatter format
 
 ```yaml
diff --git a/cmjs/blog-config/.gitkeep b/cmjs/blog-config/.gitkeep
deleted file mode 100644
index 8b13789..0000000
--- a/cmjs/blog-config/.gitkeep
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-
diff --git a/cmjs/blog-config/tags.json b/cmjs/blog-config/tags.json
deleted file mode 100644
index b568eda..0000000
--- a/cmjs/blog-config/tags.json
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,89 +0,0 @@
-{
-  "schemaVersion": 1,
-  "tags": [
-    {
-      "id": "guides",
-      "label": "Guides",
-      "description": "",
-      "aliases": [],
-      "active": true
-    },
-    {
-      "id": "news",
-      "label": "News",
-      "description": "",
-      "aliases": [],
-      "active": true
-    },
-    {
-      "id": "tutorials",
-      "label": "Tutorials",
-      "description": "",
-      "aliases": [],
-      "active": true
-    },
-    {
-      "id": "announcements",
-      "label": "Announcements",
-      "description": "",
-      "aliases": [],
-      "active": true
-    },
-    {
-      "id": "interviews",
-      "label": "Interviews",
-      "description": "",
-      "aliases": [],
-      "active": true
-    },
-    {
-      "id": "opinion",
-      "label": "Opinion",
-      "description": "",
-      "aliases": [],
-      "active": true
-    },
-    {
-      "id": "case-studies",
-      "label": "Case Studies",
-      "description": "",
-      "aliases": [],
-      "active": true
-    },
-    {
-      "id": "community",
-      "label": "Community",
-      "description": "",
-      "aliases": [],
-      "active": true
-    },
-    {
-      "id": "releases",
-      "label": "Releases",
-      "description": "",
-      "aliases": [],
-      "active": true
-    },
-    {
-      "id": "behind-the-scenes",
-      "label": "Behind the Scenes",
-      "description": "",
-      "aliases": [],
-      "active": true
-    },
-    {
-      "id": "faq",
-      "label": "FAQ",
-      "description": "",
-      "aliases": [],
-      "active": true
-    },
-    {
-      "id": "resources",
-      "label": "Resources",
-      "description": "",
-      "aliases": [],
-      "active": true
-    }
-  ]
-}
diff --git a/cmjs/js/discovery.js b/cmjs/js/discovery.js
index e783e3d..5b5fb3e 100644
--- a/cmjs/js/discovery.js
+++ b/cmjs/js/discovery.js
@@ -84,18 +84,6 @@ export function resolveMediaUrl(value, articlePath = '') {
     return new URL(path.replace(/^\//, ''), articlePath || BASE_URL).href;
 }
 
-let tagCache = null;
-export async function fetchTagRegistry() {
-    if (tagCache) return tagCache;
-    try {
-        const response = await fetch(`${BASE_URL}blog-config/tags.json`);
-        if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${response.status}`);
-        const registry = await response.json();
-        tagCache = Array.isArray(registry.tags) ? registry.tags : [];
-    } catch { tagCache = []; }
-    return tagCache;
-}
-
 let articleCache = null;
 let crawlPromise = null;
 let crawlStats = { total: 0, loaded: 0, authorsTotal: 0, authorsFailed: 0 };
diff --git a/cmjs/js/views.js b/cmjs/js/views.js
index 7aa4430..68a2e31 100644
--- a/cmjs/js/views.js
+++ b/cmjs/js/views.js
@@ -1,10 +1,9 @@
 import { templates } from './templates.js';
-import { deriveContentFields, discoverArticles, fetchAuthorProfile, fetchTagRegistry, findArticle, getCrawlStats, hydrateArticles, onArticlesProgress, resolveMediaUrl } from './discovery.js';
+import { deriveContentFields, discoverArticles, fetchAuthorProfile, findArticle, getCrawlStats, hydrateArticles, onArticlesProgress, resolveMediaUrl } from './discovery.js';
 import { parseFrontmatter } from './frontmatter.js';
 import { t, getLocale } from './i18n.js';
 
 const PAGE_SIZE = 20;
-let tagLabels = new Map();
 
 // Bumped at the start of every list-rendering view. A progress listener
 // checks its own snapshot of this before touching the DOM, so a background
@@ -12,10 +11,6 @@ let tagLabels = new Map();
 // navigated away from (e.g. clicked into a different filter/page).
 let currentGeneration = 0;
 
-async function ensureTags() {
-    if (!tagLabels.size) tagLabels = new Map((await fetchTagRegistry()).map(tag => [tag.id, tag.label]));
-}
-
 function formatDate(value) {
     if (!value) return '';
     const date = new Date(`${String(value).slice(0, 10)}T12:00:00`);
@@ -46,7 +41,7 @@ function clearSearchInput() {
 function filterLabel(filter) {
     if (!filter) return '';
     if (filter.type === 'author') return t('filterAuthor', { value: filter.value });
-    if (filter.type === 'tag') return t('filterTag', { value: tagLabels.get(filter.value) || filter.value });
+    if (filter.type === 'tag') return t('filterTag', { value: filter.value });
     return t('filterYear', { value: filter.value.replace(/^year-/i, '') });
 }
 
@@ -81,7 +76,7 @@ function renderTags(container, tags) {
         const link = document.createElement('a');
         link.className = 'tag';
         link.href = `#tag/${encodeURIComponent(identifier)}`;
-        link.textContent = tagLabels.get(identifier) || identifier;
+        link.textContent = identifier;
         container.appendChild(link);
     });
 }
@@ -137,12 +132,15 @@ function renderFilterNavigation(articles, activeFilter = null) {
         const tagList = document.createElement('div');
         tagList.className = 'filter-list';
         if (!years) tagList.appendChild(allArticlesLink());
-        [...tagLabels.entries()]
-            .filter(([id]) => tagCounts.has(id))
-            .sort((a, b) => (tagLabels.get(a[0]) || a[0]).localeCompare(tagLabels.get(b[0]) || b[0], getLocale()))
-            .forEach(([id, label]) => {
+        // A `year-YYYY` id is also a normal entry in `article.tags` (that's how
+        // it's recognised as the category — see buildStub() in discovery.js),
+        // but it belongs in the years nav above, not duplicated here.
+        [...tagCounts.keys()]
+            .filter(id => !/^year-20\d{2}$/i.test(id))
+            .sort((a, b) => a.localeCompare(b, getLocale()))
+            .forEach(id => {
                 const active = activeFilter?.type === 'tag' && activeFilter.value === id;
-                tagList.appendChild(renderFilterLink(label, `#tag/${encodeURIComponent(id)}`, tagCounts.get(id), active));
+                tagList.appendChild(renderFilterLink(id, `#tag/${encodeURIComponent(id)}`, tagCounts.get(id), active));
             });
         tags.appendChild(tagList);
     }
@@ -293,7 +291,6 @@ export async function loadArticleList(filter = null, page = 1) {
 
     const unsubscribe = onArticlesProgress((partialArticles, done) => { render(partialArticles, done); });
     try {
-        await ensureTags();
         const allArticles = await discoverArticles();
         await render(allArticles, true);
     } catch (error) {
@@ -377,9 +374,8 @@ export async function loadSearch(query, page = 1) {
     // after, which router.js recognises and parses back into (query, page).
     const filter = { type: 'search', value: query };
     try {
-        await ensureTags();
         const needle = query.toLocaleLowerCase(getLocale());
-        const matchesQuery = article => [article.title, article.description, article.author, article.authorName, article.category, ...article.tags.map(tag => tagLabels.get(tag) || tag)]
+        const matchesQuery = article => [article.title, article.description, article.author, article.authorName, article.category, ...article.tags]
             .some(value => String(value || '').toLocaleLowerCase(getLocale()).includes(needle));
 
         const stubs = await discoverArticles();
@@ -475,7 +471,6 @@ export async function loadArticle(hash) {
     const view = document.getElementById('article-view');
     view.innerHTML = `<p class="loading">${t('loadingGeneric')}</p>`;
     try {
-        await ensureTags();
         const article = await findArticle(hash);
         const [raw, profile] = await Promise.all([
             fetch(article.path).then(response => { if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${response.status}`); return response.text(); }),