diff --git a/.changeset/validate-zero-apps-row.md b/.changeset/validate-zero-apps-row.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2dd4667266
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/validate-zero-apps-row.md
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+---
+"@objectstack/cli": patch
+---
+
+`os validate`'s summary now prints `UI: 0 Apps` instead of dropping the whole
+`UI:` row when a stack declares zero apps (#10504).
+
+Measured on the `blank` scaffold (`create-objectstack my-app -t blank`,
+published 17.1.0, reproduced unchanged at this branch's head): a project with
+no navigable UI and a project whose summary simply does not report on UI at
+all printed identically — the `UI:` row was *absent*, not printed as `0`, so
+a newcomer whose Console comes up empty had no way to tell which of the two
+they were looking at. Both cases exited `0`.
+
+`printMetadataStats` (`packages/cli/src/utils/format.ts`, shared by
+`os validate`, `os info` and `os compile`) gains an opt-in `zeroFallback` per
+summary section — the one item to force-print at `0` instead of dropping the
+whole row when every item in that section is zero. It is set only on `UI`
+(`Apps`), matching the triage ruling on #10504: the `blank`/`crud`/`full`
+templates all ship zero apps deliberately, so a *warning* would fire on every
+clean scaffold's first run. This is a legibility fix only — nothing about
+what `validate` accepts, rejects, or exits with has changed, and `Data:`,
+`Logic:`, `Security:` keep their existing drop-at-zero behavior (tracked
+separately in #10952).
+
+The `--json` path already reported `"apps": 0` explicitly at zero — no change
+needed there; a separate, unrelated `--json` warnings gap is tracked in
+#10953.
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/utils/format.ts b/packages/cli/src/utils/format.ts
index a69f69c369..54dea2bdd7 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/utils/format.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/utils/format.ts
@@ -806,7 +806,24 @@ function printSeedSummary(sources: SeedSourceSummary[]) {
 }
 
 export function printMetadataStats(stats: MetadataStats) {
-  const sections: Array<{ label: string; items: Array<[string, number]> }> = [
+  const sections: Array<{
+    label: string;
+    items: Array<[string, number]>;
+    /**
+     * #10504 — a section whose every item is `0` used to vanish from the
+     * summary entirely, and that reads as "this summary does not report on
+     * this section" rather than "this project has none of it" — exactly the
+     * same output for a newcomer's freshly scaffolded project (intentionally
+     * zero apps) and for a summary that simply never covers UI. Triage ruled
+     * this narrowly for `UI:` — the newcomer-facing "is there a navigable
+     * app" signal — not as a blanket rule for every section, so this is an
+     * opt-in per section naming the one item to force-print at zero, not a
+     * change to the drop behavior of `Data:`/`Logic:`/`Security:` (those
+     * still omit the whole row when every item in them is zero — see #10952
+     * for whether that should change too).
+     */
+    zeroFallback?: string;
+  }> = [
     {
       label: 'Data',
       items: [
@@ -826,6 +843,7 @@ export function printMetadataStats(stats: MetadataStats) {
         ['Reports', stats.reports],
         ['Actions', stats.actions],
       ],
+      zeroFallback: 'Apps',
     },
     {
       label: 'Logic',
@@ -846,10 +864,15 @@ export function printMetadataStats(stats: MetadataStats) {
   ];
 
   for (const section of sections) {
-    const nonZero = section.items.filter(([, v]) => v > 0);
-    if (nonZero.length === 0) continue;
-    
-    const line = nonZero.map(([k, v]) => `${chalk.white(v)} ${chalk.dim(k)}`).join('  ');
+    let shown = section.items.filter(([, v]) => v > 0);
+    if (shown.length === 0) {
+      if (!section.zeroFallback) continue;
+      const fallback = section.items.find(([k]) => k === section.zeroFallback);
+      if (!fallback) continue; // defensive — zeroFallback must name a real item
+      shown = [fallback];
+    }
+
+    const line = shown.map(([k, v]) => `${chalk.white(v)} ${chalk.dim(k)}`).join('  ');
     console.log(`  ${chalk.bold(section.label + ':')} ${line}`);
   }
 
diff --git a/packages/cli/test/print-metadata-stats-zero-row.test.ts b/packages/cli/test/print-metadata-stats-zero-row.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f0455117c9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/cli/test/print-metadata-stats-zero-row.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,105 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2026 ObjectStack. Licensed under the Apache-2.0 license.
+
+/**
+ * #10504 — `os validate` dropped the whole `UI:` row at zero apps, so a
+ * project with no navigable UI read identically to one whose summary simply
+ * does not report on UI at all.
+ *
+ * Measured on the `blank` scaffold (published 17.1.0) and reproduced at this
+ * branch's head against the real CLI (`bin/run-dev.js validate`): the only
+ * difference between a zero-apps run and a one-app run was one `*.app.ts`
+ * plus two config lines, and the `UI:` line was ABSENT (not printed as `0`)
+ * for the zero-apps run. Both exited `0`.
+ *
+ * Triage ruled the shape in issue comment 5366623624: print `UI: 0 Apps`
+ * rather than warn — the `blank`/`crud`/`full` templates all ship zero apps
+ * deliberately (`src/objects/` only, no `*.app.ts` has ever existed under
+ * `packages/create-objectstack/src/templates/**`), so a warning would fire on
+ * every clean scaffold's first run.
+ *
+ * This pins `printMetadataStats` directly (the function `os validate`,
+ * `os info` and `os compile` all share) rather than spawning the full CLI —
+ * faster, and it isolates the assertion to the rendering logic the fix
+ * actually touches, following the `formatZodErrors` unit-test pattern in
+ * `format-zod-union.test.ts`.
+ */
+
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
+import { printMetadataStats, type MetadataStats } from '../src/utils/format.js';
+
+/** Drop SGR sequences so an assertion reads the words, not chalk's opinion. */
+const stripAnsi = (s: string) => s.replace(/\u001B\[[0-9;]*m/g, '');
+
+/** Run `printMetadataStats` and return everything it printed, as one string. */
+function render(stats: MetadataStats): string {
+  const captured: string[] = [];
+  const original = console.log;
+  console.log = (...args: unknown[]) => {
+    captured.push(args.map(String).join(' '));
+  };
+  try {
+    printMetadataStats(stats);
+  } finally {
+    console.log = original;
+  }
+  return stripAnsi(captured.join('\n'));
+}
+
+/** The card's own shape: one object, two fields, no apps — the `blank` scaffold. */
+const ZERO_APPS_STATS: MetadataStats = {
+  objects: 1,
+  objectExtensions: 0,
+  fields: 2,
+  views: 0,
+  pages: 0,
+  apps: 0,
+  dashboards: 0,
+  reports: 0,
+  actions: 0,
+  flows: 0,
+  workflows: 0,
+  agents: 0,
+  apis: 0,
+  positions: 0,
+  permissions: 0,
+  datasources: 0,
+  translations: 0,
+  plugins: 0,
+  devPlugins: 0,
+};
+
+/** The card's "one app" run: identical, plus one app. */
+const ONE_APP_STATS: MetadataStats = { ...ZERO_APPS_STATS, apps: 1 };
+
+describe('[#10504] printMetadataStats renders the UI: row at zero apps', () => {
+  it('prints "UI: 0 Apps" — not an absent row — when apps=0', () => {
+    const out = render(ZERO_APPS_STATS);
+    // The regression: before the fix this line was NOT in the output at all,
+    // and `out` would contain no `UI:` line whatsoever.
+    expect(out).toContain('UI: 0 Apps');
+  });
+
+  it('the 0→1 transition triage said should become legible: prints "UI: 1 Apps" for one app', () => {
+    const out = render(ONE_APP_STATS);
+    expect(out).toContain('UI: 1 Apps');
+    // And NOT the zero-apps line — the two ends must read differently.
+    expect(out).not.toContain('UI: 0 Apps');
+  });
+
+  it('control: Data: keeps rendering unaffected (its section carries no zeroFallback)', () => {
+    const out = render(ZERO_APPS_STATS);
+    expect(out).toContain('Data: 1 Objects  2 Fields');
+  });
+
+  it('does not widen the fix to Logic:/Security: — those sections still drop the whole row at zero (tracked separately in #10952)', () => {
+    // Every Logic/Security item is 0 in ZERO_APPS_STATS. This asserts today's
+    // (still-general, unresolved) drop behavior for the sections #10504's
+    // triage ruling did NOT name, so an unrelated future change that widens
+    // zeroFallback to them fails HERE first, loudly, rather than silently
+    // drifting past this card's narrow scope. If #10952 lands the wider fix,
+    // this assertion is the deliberate one to update — name it in that PR.
+    const out = render(ZERO_APPS_STATS);
+    expect(out).not.toContain('Logic:');
+    expect(out).not.toContain('Security:');
+  });
+});