[tor-talk] Hidden Service and exit circuit questions?

[Allen]

> can an exit node initiate contact with my HS without ever going through a
rendezvous 

No, there is a handshake process needed to establish a Tor connection
between the two machines, and that handshake only works through the
rendezvous point.  See

https://www.torproject.org/docs/hidden-services.html.en

https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/tree/rend-spec.txt