diff --git a/piker/fsp/_api.py b/piker/fsp/_api.py
index 30a00633..a332ec5f 100644
--- a/piker/fsp/_api.py
+++ b/piker/fsp/_api.py
@@ -40,6 +40,8 @@ from tractor.msg import NamespacePath
 from ..data._sharedmem import (
     ShmArray,
     maybe_open_shm_array,
+    attach_shm_array,
+    _Token,
 )
 from ..log import get_logger
 
@@ -72,6 +74,13 @@ class Fsp:
     # - custom function wrappers,
     # https://wrapt.readthedocs.io/en/latest/wrappers.html#custom-function-wrappers
 
+    # actor-local map of source flow shm tokens
+    # + the consuming fsp *to* the consumers output
+    # shm flow.
+    _flow_registry: dict[
+        tuple[_Token, str], _Token,
+    ] = {}
+
     def __init__(
         self,
         func: Callable[..., Awaitable],
@@ -93,7 +102,7 @@ class Fsp:
         self.config: dict[str, Any] = config
 
         # register with declared set.
-        _fsp_registry[self.ns_path] = func
+        _fsp_registry[self.ns_path] = self
 
     @property
     def name(self) -> str:
@@ -111,6 +120,24 @@ class Fsp:
     ):
         return self.func(*args, **kwargs)
 
+    # TODO: lru_cache this? prettty sure it'll work?
+    def get_shm(
+        self,
+        src_shm: ShmArray,
+
+    ) -> ShmArray:
+        '''
+        Provide access to allocated shared mem array
+        for this "instance" of a signal processor for
+        the given ``key``.
+
+        '''
+        dst_token = self._flow_registry[
+            (src_shm._token, self.name)
+        ]
+        shm = attach_shm_array(dst_token)
+        return shm
+
 
 def fsp(
     wrapped=None,
@@ -132,19 +159,27 @@ def fsp(
     return Fsp(wrapped, outputs=(wrapped.__name__,))
 
 
+def mk_fsp_shm_key(
+    sym: str,
+    target: Fsp
+
+) -> str:
+    uid = tractor.current_actor().uid
+    return f'{sym}.fsp.{target.name}.{".".join(uid)}'
+
+
 def maybe_mk_fsp_shm(
     sym: str,
-    target: fsp,
+    target: Fsp,
     readonly: bool = True,
 
-) -> (ShmArray, bool):
+) -> (str, ShmArray, bool):
     '''
     Allocate a single row shm array for an symbol-fsp pair if none
     exists, otherwise load the shm already existing for that token.
 
     '''
     assert isinstance(sym, str), '`sym` should be file-name-friendly `str`'
-    uid = tractor.current_actor().uid
 
     # TODO: load output types from `Fsp`
     # - should `index` be a required internal field?
@@ -153,7 +188,7 @@ def maybe_mk_fsp_shm(
         [(field_name, float) for field_name in target.outputs]
     )
 
-    key = f'{sym}.fsp.{target.name}.{".".join(uid)}'
+    key = mk_fsp_shm_key(sym, target)
 
     shm, opened = maybe_open_shm_array(
         key,
@@ -161,4 +196,4 @@ def maybe_mk_fsp_shm(
         dtype=fsp_dtype,
         readonly=True,
     )
-    return shm, opened
+    return key, shm, opened