feat(tooling): gate designer field payload keys against the installed FieldSchema

.changeset/designer-field-key-parity-gate.md

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+---
+---
+
+Tooling and tests only; no published behaviour changes.
+
+Adds `check:designer-field-key-parity`, a gate that compares the field designers'
+statically declared payload shapes (`FieldMetadataPayload`, `ServerFieldSchema`,
+`DesignerFieldDefinition`) against the accept set of the installed
+`@objectstack/spec` `FieldSchema`, plus the draft-I/O round-trip half as a test in
+`@object-ui/app-shell`. Both are new checks over existing code — nothing shipped
+in a package changed, and no offending key was fixed: each one the gate surfaced is
+filed as its own card and recorded in the gate's ledger.

.github/workflows/ci.yml

@@ -251,6 +251,25 @@ jobs:
         if: steps.relevant.outputs.should_run == 'true'
         run: pnpm check:action-forward-parity
 
+      # A field designer offering a control that writes a key `FieldSchema`
+      # refuses BY NAME is a save-blocking 422 (`INVALID_METADATA`) that blocks
+      # EVERY later save of the object, and the author cannot tell from the UI
+      # which key did it. It had been filed three times — objectui#4644
+      # `indexed`, #4687 `distance_metric`, #4676 `placeholder` — each closed
+      # with a per-key tombstone written AFTER the instance was found in
+      # production, and nothing detected the next one (objectui#5761). This gate
+      # compares the designers' statically declared payload shapes against the
+      # installed `FieldSchema`'s own accept set. Reads sources with `typescript`
+      # and the installed spec, so it needs the install and nothing built — same
+      # placement rationale as the step above. It covers a documented SUBSET of
+      # the write path (keys reaching the payload only via a `patchDef` spread
+      # are outside its reach); the boundary is stated in the script's docblock,
+      # and its draft-I/O half runs in the test suite as
+      # `object-fields-io.spec-keys.test.ts`.
+      - name: Verify designer field payloads declare only keys FieldSchema accepts
+        if: steps.relevant.outputs.should_run == 'true'
+        run: pnpm check:designer-field-key-parity
+
       # lucide retires a spelling by DROPPING IT FROM the runtime `icons` record
       # while keeping it as a deprecated named export. A retired name therefore
       # still imports, still type-checks and still renders wherever it is used as

content/docs/guide/ci-cd-pipeline.md

@@ -173,7 +173,7 @@ it green — which is how two of `type-check`'s gates came to be missing from th
 | Job key | Appears as | What it runs | When |
 |---|---|---|---|
 | `changeset-check` | Changeset Fixed Group Check | `scripts/check-changeset-fixed.mjs` — every workspace package must be in the changeset `fixed` group or explicitly ignored. It checks group *membership*; it does **not** check whether the PR added a changeset. | Every run |
-| `type-check` | Type Check | `scripts/check-type-check-coverage.mjs`, then `pnpm check:phantom-deps`, then `pnpm check:self-import`, then `pnpm check:esm-specifiers`, then `pnpm check:spec-symbols`, then `pnpm check:action-forward-parity`, then `pnpm check:icon-record-names`, then `pnpm check:i18n-keys`, then `pnpm check:i18n-drift`, then `pnpm type-check:scripts`, then `pnpm type-check`, then `pnpm type-check:vitest-setup`. The coverage guard runs first because turbo silently skips packages that have no `type-check` script, so a package without one would otherwise read as passing (#2911). `pnpm check:phantom-deps` fails when a released package imports a bare specifier its own `package.json` does not declare — a *phantom dependency*, invisible locally because the workspace root's `devDependencies` sit on the upward resolution path from every package directory and on no consumer's, so `require.resolve('react', { paths: ['packages/core/src'] })` succeeds while `@object-ui/core` declares react in no field at all ([#4394](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/4394)). `pnpm check:self-import` runs next because it reuses that gate's parser: it fails when a file inside a package names its OWN package, a specifier that resolves through the package's `exports` map to `dist/` while `type-check` waits on `^build` — the *dependencies'* builds, never the package's own — so on a cold cache the declarations do not exist yet and the file fails with `TS2307`. Locally it is always green, because every local workflow builds before it type-checks and leaves a `dist/` behind; PR #4789's first run was red on exactly one such line ([#4801](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/4801)). `pnpm check:esm-specifiers` follows it for the same reason — sources only, no build: it fails when a published package whose build preserves import specifiers (a bare emitting `tsc`, which never rewrites them) writes a relative specifier with no file extension. Node's ESM resolver does not extension-search relative specifiers, so such a specifier makes the published entry unloadable outside a bundler; `@object-ui/react`'s entry died with `ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND` while every bundler-based consumer, the whole test suite and CI stayed green ([#4538](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/4538)). The half that actually *imports* each built entry needs a full build and runs in `node-esm-load-gate.yml`. `pnpm check:action-forward-parity` fails when an action renderer's forward whitelist drops a key the action runtime reads — the class that shipped six times one key at a time, each time green, because the key parses and publishes while the payload is dropped one hop before the runner ([#4050](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/4050)). `pnpm check:icon-record-names` fails when an authored icon NAME that reaches a resolver reading lucide's runtime `icons` record is not a live key of that record. lucide retires a spelling by dropping it from that record while keeping it as a deprecated named export, so the retired name still imports, still type-checks and still renders wherever it is used as a *component* — `Edit === SquarePen` is true — and resolves to nothing wherever it is used as a *string*: nothing goes red in either direction, which is why the class was repaired twice in two packages before anyone gated it ([#5586](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/5586), [#5622](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/5622), [#5633](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/5633)). It carries no list of retired spellings — the record itself is the judgement — and it re-discovers the resolver population from source on every run, which is how its first pass found four record-reading resolvers nobody had catalogued. It sits here because it parses the sources with `typescript` and reads the installed lucide: the install, and nothing built. The two locale gates sit in the middle because both parse the sources with `typescript`: they need the install and nothing built. `pnpm check:i18n-keys` fails when a `t()` call site asks for a key the `en` pack does not define ([#3530](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/3530)); `pnpm check:i18n-drift` fails when a change to an `en` string is not accompanied by the nine translation packs ([#3650](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/3650)), and it is why this job's checkout sets `fetch-depth: 0` — it diffs against the merge base, which a depth-1 clone cannot resolve. `pnpm type-check:scripts` (`tsconfig.scripts.json`) covers `scripts/**/*.ts`, which `pnpm type-check` cannot reach at all — `scripts/` has no package.json, so turbo never walks it, and the coverage guard decides coverage per *package*. Until [#3494](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/3494) that left the pin tests in `scripts/__tests__/` — including the one pinning this very page — compiled by nothing. `pnpm type-check:vitest-setup` (`tsconfig.vitest-setup.json`) closes the same gap for the four repo-root `vitest.setup.*` files, uncovered until [#3515](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/3515); it runs *last*, after `pnpm type-check`, because `vitest.setup.dom.tsx` side-effect-imports four `@object-ui/*` packages and resolves them through the declarations that turbo's `^build` produces. | Every run; on a PR the steps short-circuit when only ignored paths changed |
+| `type-check` | Type Check | `scripts/check-type-check-coverage.mjs`, then `pnpm check:phantom-deps`, then `pnpm check:self-import`, then `pnpm check:esm-specifiers`, then `pnpm check:spec-symbols`, then `pnpm check:action-forward-parity`, then `pnpm check:designer-field-key-parity`, then `pnpm check:icon-record-names`, then `pnpm check:i18n-keys`, then `pnpm check:i18n-drift`, then `pnpm type-check:scripts`, then `pnpm type-check`, then `pnpm type-check:vitest-setup`. The coverage guard runs first because turbo silently skips packages that have no `type-check` script, so a package without one would otherwise read as passing (#2911). `pnpm check:phantom-deps` fails when a released package imports a bare specifier its own `package.json` does not declare — a *phantom dependency*, invisible locally because the workspace root's `devDependencies` sit on the upward resolution path from every package directory and on no consumer's, so `require.resolve('react', { paths: ['packages/core/src'] })` succeeds while `@object-ui/core` declares react in no field at all ([#4394](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/4394)). `pnpm check:self-import` runs next because it reuses that gate's parser: it fails when a file inside a package names its OWN package, a specifier that resolves through the package's `exports` map to `dist/` while `type-check` waits on `^build` — the *dependencies'* builds, never the package's own — so on a cold cache the declarations do not exist yet and the file fails with `TS2307`. Locally it is always green, because every local workflow builds before it type-checks and leaves a `dist/` behind; PR #4789's first run was red on exactly one such line ([#4801](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/4801)). `pnpm check:esm-specifiers` follows it for the same reason — sources only, no build: it fails when a published package whose build preserves import specifiers (a bare emitting `tsc`, which never rewrites them) writes a relative specifier with no file extension. Node's ESM resolver does not extension-search relative specifiers, so such a specifier makes the published entry unloadable outside a bundler; `@object-ui/react`'s entry died with `ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND` while every bundler-based consumer, the whole test suite and CI stayed green ([#4538](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/4538)). The half that actually *imports* each built entry needs a full build and runs in `node-esm-load-gate.yml`. `pnpm check:action-forward-parity` fails when an action renderer's forward whitelist drops a key the action runtime reads — the class that shipped six times one key at a time, each time green, because the key parses and publishes while the payload is dropped one hop before the runner ([#4050](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/4050)). `pnpm check:designer-field-key-parity` fails when one of the field designers' statically declared payload shapes (`FieldMetadataPayload`, `ServerFieldSchema`, `DesignerFieldDefinition`) declares a key the installed `@objectstack/spec` `FieldSchema` refuses by NAME. Such a key makes `PUT /api/v1/meta/object/:name` return a hard 422 `INVALID_METADATA` that blocks *every subsequent save* of that object, and the author cannot tell from the designer UI which key did it — the class had been filed three times, each closed with a per-key tombstone written after the instance was found in production, with nothing detecting the next one ([#4644](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/4644) `indexed`, [#4687](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/4687) `distance_metric`, [#4676](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/4676) `placeholder`, gated by [#5761](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/5761)). It reads the accept set off the schema itself rather than from a list, and it covers a deliberately documented *subset* of the write path: a key that reaches the payload only through a `patchDef` spread or an index signature is outside its reach, and the boundary is stated in the script's own docblock. Its draft-I/O half — the `readFields`/`writeFields` round-trip, which has no declared shape to read — runs in the test suite as `object-fields-io.spec-keys.test.ts`. Same placement rationale as the gates around it: it parses the sources with `typescript` and imports the installed spec, so it needs the install and nothing built. `pnpm check:icon-record-names` fails when an authored icon NAME that reaches a resolver reading lucide's runtime `icons` record is not a live key of that record. lucide retires a spelling by dropping it from that record while keeping it as a deprecated named export, so the retired name still imports, still type-checks and still renders wherever it is used as a *component* — `Edit === SquarePen` is true — and resolves to nothing wherever it is used as a *string*: nothing goes red in either direction, which is why the class was repaired twice in two packages before anyone gated it ([#5586](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/5586), [#5622](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/5622), [#5633](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/5633)). It carries no list of retired spellings — the record itself is the judgement — and it re-discovers the resolver population from source on every run, which is how its first pass found four record-reading resolvers nobody had catalogued. It sits here because it parses the sources with `typescript` and reads the installed lucide: the install, and nothing built. The two locale gates sit in the middle because both parse the sources with `typescript`: they need the install and nothing built. `pnpm check:i18n-keys` fails when a `t()` call site asks for a key the `en` pack does not define ([#3530](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/3530)); `pnpm check:i18n-drift` fails when a change to an `en` string is not accompanied by the nine translation packs ([#3650](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/3650)), and it is why this job's checkout sets `fetch-depth: 0` — it diffs against the merge base, which a depth-1 clone cannot resolve. `pnpm type-check:scripts` (`tsconfig.scripts.json`) covers `scripts/**/*.ts`, which `pnpm type-check` cannot reach at all — `scripts/` has no package.json, so turbo never walks it, and the coverage guard decides coverage per *package*. Until [#3494](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/3494) that left the pin tests in `scripts/__tests__/` — including the one pinning this very page — compiled by nothing. `pnpm type-check:vitest-setup` (`tsconfig.vitest-setup.json`) closes the same gap for the four repo-root `vitest.setup.*` files, uncovered until [#3515](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/3515); it runs *last*, after `pnpm type-check`, because `vitest.setup.dom.tsx` side-effect-imports four `@object-ui/*` packages and resolves them through the declarations that turbo's `^build` produces. | Every run; on a PR the steps short-circuit when only ignored paths changed |
 | `test` | Test (shard N/4) | `pnpm test --shard=N/4` across a 4-runner matrix with `fail-fast: false`, so every shard reports its own failures. No coverage instrumentation — v8 adds 40–100% overhead. | Pull requests and merge-queue builds (everything but `push`); steps short-circuit on a PR that changed only ignored paths |
 | `test-coverage` | Test (coverage shard N/4) | `pnpm test:coverage --reporter=blob --shard=N/4` across a 4-runner matrix with `fail-fast: false`. Each shard writes `.vitest-reports/blob-N-4.json` — raw coverage and test results in one file — and uploads it as an artifact even when the shard is red, which is what makes a failing coverage run diagnosable at all (vitest deletes `coverage/` on a red run unless `coverage.reportOnFailure` is set, [#5402](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/5402)). The configured coverage thresholds are neutralised on the shard legs, because a quarter of the suite judged against a whole-suite threshold is not a defect signal; they are enforced once, on the merged report, by the job below ([#5403](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/5403)). | **Push only** |
 | `coverage-report` | Test (coverage) | Downloads the four blob reports, refuses to continue unless all four arrived, merges them with `pnpm test:coverage --merge-reports` into one complete report — which is where the configured coverage thresholds are enforced, over the whole merged map, the shard legs having overridden them to zero — and publishes that report as the `coverage-report` artifact (kept 7 days, the same as the blobs it is derived from). Its last step runs on every path and states the outcome: the job is **red, with an error annotation**, whenever the gate did not run for the commit — before [#5403](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/5403) the final step carried the implicit `success()` and was silently skipped by 311 of 373 coverage jobs, which is how four days of a 100%-failing coverage job went unnoticed. A breach of the thresholds is reported *separately* from a lane that never delivered, because the two call for opposite actions. ⛔ It never merges a report from fewer than four shards: a wrong coverage number is worse than a missing one. The Codecov upload this job used to carry was retired by [#5436](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/5436) — `CODECOV_TOKEN` was never set, so it failed on every push; the trend dashboard and PR coverage comments are gone with it, the gate is not. | **Push only** |

package.json

@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@
     "type-check:vitest-setup": "tsc -p tsconfig.vitest-setup.json",
     "check:spec-symbols": "node scripts/check-spec-symbol-derivation.mjs",
     "check:action-forward-parity": "node scripts/check-action-forward-parity.mjs",
+  "check:designer-field-key-parity": "node scripts/check-designer-field-key-parity.mjs",
     "check:icon-record-names": "node scripts/check-lucide-icon-record-names.mjs",
     "check:phantom-deps": "node scripts/check-phantom-dependencies.mjs",
     "check:self-import": "node scripts/check-package-self-import.mjs",