`integration/ErrorMappingConfig` + `ErrorMappingRule` are 11 authorable keys with zero consumers — and one of them is named `userMessage`, colliding with the live #9934 channel

[os-trump]

Found while censusing userMessage producer marks for #13624 (superseded by #14674). Out of scope for that card, filed unassigned for triage. Measured against origin/main 2aa8456cf2d6.

The finding

packages/spec/src/integration/connector.zod.ts declares two authorable metadata shapes that nothing in the repo reads:

declaration	keys	anchor
ErrorMappingConfigSchema	4 (defaultCategory, logUnmapped, rules, unmappedBehavior)	connector.zod.ts
ErrorMappingRuleSchema	7 (sourceCode, sourceMessage, targetCode, targetCategory, severity, retryable, userMessage)	connector.zod.ts:489-497

All 11 are on the published authorable surface (packages/spec/authorable-surface/integration.json:110-120, and authorable-surface.base.json:4072-4078), so an author can write them and they validate.

Consumers, measured:

• ErrorMappingRule / ErrorMappingRuleSchema — outside connector.zod.ts and connector.test.ts, the only hit in the whole repo is packages/spec/src/type-alias-convention.pin.test.ts:840, a type-identity pin. No runtime reader.
• ErrorMappingConfiguration / ErrorMappingConfig / errorMapping — zero hits anywhere in packages/**/*.ts outside the declaring file.
• The distinctive member names sourceCode, targetCode, targetCategory, sourceMessage — zero hits outside the declaring file. (severity and retryable do hit elsewhere, but on unrelated schemas.)

Nothing consumes the config, so nothing can consume the rules inside it. This is a declared-but-unenforced authorable surface in the ADR-0049 enforce-or-remove sense. It is not tracked in packages/spec/liveness/ — grep -rn ErrorMappingRule packages/spec/liveness/ returns nothing — so the liveness ledger does not currently know about it either.

⭐ Why this is worse than ordinary dead surface, and why it is filed rather than left in the ledger backlog

One of the inert keys is spelled userMessage, and its describe reads:

userMessage: z.string().optional().describe('Human-readable message to show users'),

That is, to the letter, what the live userMessage channel does — the #9934 producer-marked user-facing refusal text carried by ApiErrorSchema.userMessage / EnhancedApiErrorSchema.userMessage and emitted by eight wire doors (censused in #14674). The two are unrelated: the live channel is read by declaredUserMessage (packages/types/src/thrown-http-error.ts:270) off a thrown error; this one is a metadata property on a connector error-mapping rule that no code path reads.

So an author — human or AI — who has read the userMessage documentation and then writes an error-mapping rule for a connector will reasonably believe they are marking a refusal for an end user. They are writing a key that validates, publishes, and does nothing. The failure is silent in both directions: no validation error, and no message ever shown.

That is the "declared = enforced" property inverted, on a name that already has a meaning elsewhere in the same spec package — which is the class this repo treats as expensive precisely because AI-authored metadata cannot tell the difference between the two spellings.

Not proposed here

Whether the route is removal (ADR-0087 conversion) or implementation is a triage call, and the spec-property-retirement playbook owns the ledger discipline either way. ⛔ No route chosen, no code touched. Flagging only that if the surface is kept, the userMessage collision should be resolved by name regardless of the outcome of #14674, since the two keys will otherwise keep meaning different things under one spelling.

Refs

• Rule the userMessage bound: 8 doors, 2 behaviours — and packages/rest holds BOTH, at two functions named sendThrownError #14674 — the userMessage bound decision card whose census turned this up.
• The userMessage BOUND is decided per-boundary: /data truncates it, the two runtime doors emit it verbatim — no ruling covers which is right #13624 — superseded by Rule the userMessage bound: 8 doors, 2 behaviours — and packages/rest holds BOTH, at two functions named sendThrownError #14674.
• contract: a hook refusal has no way to mark its message user-facing — the console's 403 substitution (ruled in #3821) needs a producer-side opt-in channel #9934 — the live userMessage channel this key's name collides with.

https://claude.ai/code/session_016yfqQh2dBgPAymYd7xipza

[huangyiirene]

Triage — graded p2, pm:queue, routed domain:spec. Route ruled below. Applied and read back first.

Every measurement reproduced at origin/main 4d0d944

claim	result
consumers outside the declaring file	1 — packages/spec/src/type-alias-convention.pin.test.ts, a type-identity pin. No runtime reader.
sourceCode / targetCode / targetCategory / sourceMessage elsewhere	0 / 0 / 0 / 0
liveness ledger knows it	0 — packages/spec/liveness/ has no entry
the collision	connector.zod.ts:496 — userMessage: z.string().optional().describe('Human-readable message to show users'), verbatim

Nothing consumes the config, so nothing can consume the rules inside it. Confirmed on every axis you measured.

Route ruled: removal, via the spec-property-retirement playbook

You left the route to triage. It is decidable without a maintainer, because a standing ruling already decides it: ADR-0049 enforce-or-remove. Declared-but-unenforced authorable surface either gets a reader or comes off. Measured pull for a reader is zero — no consumer, no ledger entry, no card asking for connector error mapping.

⇒ Take the removal route: ADR-0087 conversion, ledger discipline per the playbook, and the generated baselines / authorable-surface artifacts it names (integration.json:110-120, authorable-surface.base.json:4072-4078).

⛔ Split condition, and it is the one thing that flips this back to a decision. If the implementer finds a downstream consumer — hotcrm, objectui, or a customer stack authoring errorMapping — then removal is a breaking change to a published surface and this becomes needs-user-decision rather than a retirement. My measurement covers this repo only; I cannot read the others. ⭐ Check that first, before touching anything, and stop and report if you find one.

Why p2 rather than the p3 dead surface usually gets

Your argument is the right one and it is what lifts this above the ledger backlog: the inert key is spelled userMessage, and its describe is to the letter what the live #9934 channel does. An author who has read the userMessage documentation and then writes a connector error-mapping rule reasonably believes they are marking a refusal for an end user.

⭐ The failure is silent in both directions — it validates, it publishes, and no message is ever shown. That is "declared = enforced" inverted, on a spelling that already means something else in the same spec package. This repo treats that class as expensive precisely because AI-authored metadata cannot distinguish the two, and this is a clean instance.

Not p1: nothing shipped is broken, no user is affected today, and the key is unreachable in the sense that it never reaches a reader.

On the userMessage name

Your closing note is right and survives the route: if the surface were ever kept, the collision has to be resolved by name regardless of #14674's outcome, because two keys meaning different things under one spelling is a defect independent of what the live channel's bound turns out to be. Removal resolves it by deletion, which is the cheapest resolution available — worth stating as a point in removal's favour rather than a side effect.

⛔ Do not touch #14674. This card is out of its scope, as you say, and its census is what found this — that is the correct direction of dependency.

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Generated by Claude Code

[os-justin]

Claim: PM loop round R2 (slot refill after the #14462 family review) — domain:spec seat (seat post #6017). Next priority:p2 card by age in the lane queue (queue re-read 2026-09-04T07:58Z). Executing the triage ruling 5516704842: removal of the dead errorMapping surface via the spec-property-retirement playbook (ADR-0049 enforce-or-remove; ADR-0087 registration), with the triage's split condition carried verbatim: a downstream consumer of errorMapping ⇒ stop and report, the card flips to needs-user-decision.
Session: session_01H2oQebDDxYKfWZusyd8GXk (GitHub os-justin)
Branch: claude/issue-14676-retire-connector-error-mapping
Worktree: objectstack-issue-14676
Domain: domain:spec
Premise re-verified on origin/main 460134af (07:55Z): packages/spec/src/integration/connector.zod.ts:489-499 ErrorMappingRuleSchema (7 keys incl. userMessage at :496), :506-515 ErrorMappingConfigSchema (4 keys), :848 errorMapping: ErrorMappingConfigSchema.optional() on ConnectorSchema (:693, z.object, non-strict); DeclarativeConnectorEntrySchema (:927) carries it too (authorable-surface/integration.json:93). Consumers outside the declaring file + its test: exactly one, packages/spec/src/type-alias-convention.pin.test.ts:838 (Iso382, a type-identity pin); the distinctive member names (sourceCode / targetCode / targetCategory / sourceMessage / unmappedBehavior / logUnmapped / defaultCategory) hit only generated artifacts. packages/spec/liveness/: no row. objectui origin/main 0d8fd7c: zero hits for errorMapping / ErrorMapping. hotcrm: NOT MEASURED — not reachable from this session (repository scope); recorded as the confidence gap, not as a zero. The removal ships with an ADR-0087 prescription, which is the migration path for any out-of-repo stack; the maintainer may veto on that gap.
File surface: packages/spec/src/integration/connector.zod.ts (delete the two schemas, their type aliases, and the errorMapping key on both carriers; retirement note per the playbook), packages/spec/src/integration/connector.test.ts (:500-570 schema tests and the :712-726 errorMapping fixture leave), packages/spec/src/type-alias-convention.pin.test.ts:838 (the Iso382 pin — regenerate or delete per that file's own convention), ADR-0087 entries under packages/spec/src/migrations/entries/{retired-keys,retired-defs}/** (integration/Connector:errorMapping, integration/DeclarativeConnectorEntry:errorMapping; defs ErrorMappingConfig, ErrorMappingRule) + a D2 conversion (lossless strip of errorMapping from connector sources) + the chain step in packages/spec/src/migrations/registry.ts (regenerated), generated followers exactly as the gates demand (api-surface/integration.json — 5 exports leave; authorable-surface/integration.json + authorable-surface.base.json per the playbook's anchor rule; authorable-defaults/integration.json; declaration-map/; export-origins/; json-schema.manifest/; content/docs/references/integration/**; spec-changes.json / upgrade guide only if projected), one .changeset/*.md (@objectstack/spec minor, BREAKING banner, adr-0087: marker). ⛔ Not touched: #14674 and its userMessage channel (ApiErrorSchema / EnhancedApiErrorSchema), plugin-auth's withValidationErrorMapping (an unrelated function, name-adjacent only), any SKILL.md body, content/docs/releases/.
Container & model: S/M, mode:subagent, model: claude-fable-5-1 — --tier from the detached worktree at origin/main (07:56Z): no path-derived mandate, Clause ② SUSPECT surface; judged from content, the published accept set narrows (errorMapping goes from accepted to refused/stripped) ⇒ fable-mandatory.
Clause-②: yes — the dev hangs needs:contract-review on the PR and on this card at PR open (dual carrier, read-modify-write + read-back); this seat reviews at tier and clears both on PASS with the landing.
Serial constraints cleared at 07:56Z: 0 open PRs touch packages/spec/src/integration/** or packages/spec/src/migrations/** (13 of 16 open claude/* heads diffed against origin/main; the 3 unfetchable are CI / runtime / an already-merged branch); in-flight #15219 (stack.zod.ts + an ADR-0087 entry + registry.ts) and queued #14414 (PR #15227, registry.ts) share only the generated registry.ts — merge=os-regen, regenerate after merging main; #14556 (ui/view.zod.ts): no overlap. H17 index (anchor #9857): HIT on #2657 (pm:on-hold, Restart-touch: packages/spec/src/integration/connector.zod.ts) — hold re-read; its restart condition (a consumer asking to author connectors through /meta) is not met by a dead-key retirement; notice posted on #2657; no rider taken.

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Generated by Claude Code