objectstack-ai · os-support-ai · Sep 2, 2026 · Sep 1, 2026 · Sep 1, 2026 · Sep 2, 2026
diff --git a/.changeset/readonly-strip-hook-write-provenance.md b/.changeset/readonly-strip-hook-write-provenance.md
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+---
+"@objectstack/objectql": patch
+---
+
+fix(objectql): decide the read-only strip on hook-write PROVENANCE, so a hook can clear a field the caller also sent (#14088)
+
+`stripReadonlyFields` decided whether a `readonly` field's value came from a
+before-phase hook or from the caller with `Object.is(payload[name],
+supplied[name])`. Value equality cannot carry that question, and this is it
+failing: when both sides hold the same value the comparison cannot separate
+*the hook deliberately wrote it* from *the hook never touched it*, and the two
+demand opposite verdicts. The hook's write was deleted along with the caller's.
+
+**Measured downstream** (published 17.2.0, `duly_task`): a `readonly`
+`completed_at` stamped by a `beforeUpdate` hook on the transition into `done`
+and cleared on the transition out. Reopening a completed task works — unless
+the caller also sends `completed_at: null`, which is exactly what a form
+round-trip of the whole record does. `Object.is(null, null)` is `true`, the
+hook's clear is stripped, and the row commits `status = in_progress` still
+carrying its **old completion timestamp**, with no error. That row is the one
+a validation rule structurally cannot catch ("a completed task must carry a
+completion timestamp" has no purchase on its inverse), nothing downstream can
+tell it from a genuinely completed one, and every on-time metric reading
+`completed_at` counts it.
+
+This is the second failure of one sentence, not a new defect. #5591 / #6339
+retired the key-SET judgement because it made the strip's own written contract
+— "hook-written keys are NOT caller-supplied" — true only *by accident*. Value
+equality is accidental in precisely the same way; `null == null` is just its
+most common collision.
+
+**The repair is provenance, recorded rather than inferred.** A new
+`recordHookPayloadWrites` view is armed over the update payload after the
+caller's entry snapshot and sealed at the engine's post-hook confluence, where
+`hookContext.input.data` is final on **both** update branches. It records only
+the fact that an assignment executed — never the payload's contents — and
+`stripReadonlyFields` now keeps a key a hook demonstrably assigned. Both
+branches consume the one sealed record, so a bulk write and a by-id write can
+never reach different verdicts about who wrote a key.
+
+⛔ **Not a `null` special case.** `0`, `''`, `false` and a shared object
+reference collide identically, and all of them are echoed back by the same
+whole-record write-back idiom. A sentinel fix would have left every one of them
+open.
+
+⛔ **Not a relaxation of #2948 / #3003 / #5503.** A caller-supplied read-only
+value that no hook wrote is still dropped, still warns with the same text, and
+still reports through `onFieldsDropped` / `strictReadonlyWrites`. The
+discriminator is pinned in both directions: the same caller payload
+(`completed_at: null` over a stored timestamp) now **clears** when a hook wrote
+the null and is still **stripped** when no hook did. A caller cannot enter the
+record — echoing a key or a value is not an assignment — so no caller write can
+become hook-owned.
+
+**Known limit, deliberately fail-safe and pinned as a test.** A hook that
+*replaces* the payload object (`ctx.input.data = { ...ctx.input.data, x: 1 }`)
+rather than mutating it leaves no attributable record, and that call falls back
+to the previous value comparison — i.e. it keeps the old over-strip. Reading a
+replacement's keys as hook-owned would launder a caller's forged `created_by`
+into a platform write, so the fallback direction is the only safe one. A hook
+that means to own a read-only column should ASSIGN to it. The pre-existing
+shallow-snapshot limit (a hook mutating a caller-supplied object *in place*) is
+unchanged for the same reason.
diff --git a/content/docs/permissions/system-context.mdx b/content/docs/permissions/system-context.mdx
@@ -109,18 +109,18 @@ that silently does not happen.
 
 | # | Behaviour when `isSystem` | Package | What you get / what you lose | Anchor |
 |:--|:---|:---|:---|:---|
-| 18 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, single row** | objectql | Get: a `readonly` field CAN be written. Lose: the protection that stops a caller seeding e.g. `approval_status` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:10914` |
-| 19 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, bulk/predicate** | objectql | Same, on the multi-row path | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11076` |
-| 20 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (engine pass)** | objectql | Same, on create | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9772` |
+| 18 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, single row** | objectql | Get: a `readonly` field CAN be written. Lose: the protection that stops a caller seeding e.g. `approval_status` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:10981` |
+| 19 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, bulk/predicate** | objectql | Same, on the multi-row path | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11149` |
+| 20 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (engine pass)** | objectql | Same, on create | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9777` |
 | 21 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (protocol ingress)** | metadata-protocol | `isSystem` is the **only** exemption here. `preserveAudit` is deliberately not read on this path (#6640) — a non-system historical import is still stripped on create | `metadata-protocol/src/protocol.ts:1746` |
-| 22 | Strict-drop refusal never fires | objectql | Lose: a caller that opted into loud refusal gets **silence** — strict refuses exactly what the strip would have taken, and the strip took nothing | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9809`, `readonly-strict-errors.ts:66` |
-| 23 | **Referential-integrity check skipped** | objectql | Get: writes proceed against unreachable/unresolvable targets. Lose: an `isSystem` caller can write a **dangling reference** | `objectql/src/engine.ts:5730` |
-| 24 | Tenant-audit warning silenced; `bypassTenantAudit` threaded to the driver | objectql | Get: unscoped system writes stop warning. Lose: the signal that would flag a genuine user-path scoping bug | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3599`, `:3609`, `:3636` |
+| 22 | Strict-drop refusal never fires | objectql | Lose: a caller that opted into loud refusal gets **silence** — strict refuses exactly what the strip would have taken, and the strip took nothing | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9814`, `readonly-strict-errors.ts:66` |
+| 23 | **Referential-integrity check skipped** | objectql | Get: writes proceed against unreachable/unresolvable targets. Lose: an `isSystem` caller can write a **dangling reference** | `objectql/src/engine.ts:5735` |
+| 24 | Tenant-audit warning silenced; `bypassTenantAudit` threaded to the driver | objectql | Get: unscoped system writes stop warning. Lose: the signal that would flag a genuine user-path scoping bug | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3604`, `:3614`, `:3641` |
 | 25 | Engine-owned / append-only write guard bypassed | plugin-security | Get: generic writes to `managedBy` engine-owned objects | `system-write-guard.ts:96`, `:120` |
 | 26 | Identity write guard bypassed (ADR-0092) | plugin-auth | Get: direct writes to identity tables through the generic data path | `identity-write-guard.ts:98` |
-| 27 | Search-companion column **kept** in a read's rows when it was explicitly requested | objectql | Get: the internal companion column is readable. Lose: nothing for app code — this is the engine reading its own index | `objectql/src/engine.ts:6428` |
-| 28 | Dependent-count disclosure on a blocked delete | objectql | Get: the count of blocking children. Nothing was elevated past the caller, so nothing is withheld | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11662` |
-| 29 | Reference-cleanup log attributes the write to `'system'` | objectql | Get: an honest actor label instead of `anonymous` when the context carries neither `userId` nor `actor` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11591` |
+| 27 | Search-companion column **kept** in a read's rows when it was explicitly requested | objectql | Get: the internal companion column is readable. Lose: nothing for app code — this is the engine reading its own index | `objectql/src/engine.ts:6433` |
+| 28 | Dependent-count disclosure on a blocked delete | objectql | Get: the count of blocking children. Nothing was elevated past the caller, so nothing is withheld | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11742` |
+| 29 | Reference-cleanup log attributes the write to `'system'` | objectql | Get: an honest actor label instead of `anonymous` when the context carries neither `userId` nor `actor` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11671` |
 
 ### 3. Sharing (`plugin-sharing`)
 
@@ -179,8 +179,8 @@ a reader tracing where elevation travels needs them.
 
 | # | Site | Package | What it does |
 |:--|:---|:---|:---|
-| 62 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3406` | objectql | Propagates `isSystem` into the hook session so hooks can tell engine self-writes from user writes |
-| 63 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:14011` | objectql | `ScopedContext.isSystem` getter — re-exposes the underlying execution context's flag |
+| 62 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3411` | objectql | Propagates `isSystem` into the hook session so hooks can tell engine self-writes from user writes |
+| 63 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:14091` | objectql | `ScopedContext.isSystem` getter — re-exposes the underlying execution context's flag |
 | 64 | `plugin-reports/src/report-service.ts:556` | plugin-reports | Threads the flag into the engine call that runs a report |
 | 65 | `body-runner.ts:279` | runtime | Rebuilds an `ExecutionContext` from a hook session, carrying the flag across |
 
@@ -195,7 +195,7 @@ assuming `isSystem` covers it is a documented source of bugs.
 |:---|:---|:---|
 | "It suppresses triggers / record-change automation" | **No.** Only `skipTriggers` does. A bare `{ isSystem: true }` on a seed write re-fired automation on freshly seeded rows and wedged first boot | `metadata-protocol/src/seed-loader.ts:1909` (rationale at `:1819`–`1821`, #3760), `flow.zod.ts:685` |
 | "It skips the state machine" | **No.** That is `skipStateMachine`, carried by seed replay and by `treatAsHistorical` imports | `objectql/src/engine.ts` FSM gate; see [State Machine](/docs/protocol/objectql/state-machine) |
-| "It skips validation rules" | **No.** Field shape, `format`, `script` and the rest still run. The `readonly` strip runs *before* validation precisely so a discarded value is not judged | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9755`–`9772` |
+| "It skips validation rules" | **No.** Field shape, `format`, `script` and the rest still run. The `readonly` strip runs *before* validation precisely so a discarded value is not judged | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9760`–`9777` |
 | "It preserves a supplied `updated_at` / `updated_by`" | **No.** That is `preserveAudit`, a separate opt-in — and an UPDATE-path exemption only | `field.zod.ts:1516` (#3493 / #6640) |
 | "It stamps `created_by`" | **No.** Audit stamping reads `userId` from the context. A user-less system write stamps nothing — that is today's behaviour, not an error | `runtime-identity.ts:280`–`281` |
 | "It bypasses every guard" | **No.** The last-admin guard applies to **every** context, `isSystem` included — the deprovision path that actually locks an org out is the system one | `last-admin-guard.ts:286` |

diff --git a/.changeset/readonly-strip-hook-write-provenance.md b/.changeset/readonly-strip-hook-write-provenance.md
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+---
+"@objectstack/objectql": patch
+---
+
+fix(objectql): decide the read-only strip on hook-write PROVENANCE, so a hook can clear a field the caller also sent (#14088)
+
+`stripReadonlyFields` decided whether a `readonly` field's value came from a
+before-phase hook or from the caller with `Object.is(payload[name],
+supplied[name])`. Value equality cannot carry that question, and this is it
+failing: when both sides hold the same value the comparison cannot separate
+*the hook deliberately wrote it* from *the hook never touched it*, and the two
+demand opposite verdicts. The hook's write was deleted along with the caller's.
+
+**Measured downstream** (published 17.2.0, `duly_task`): a `readonly`
+`completed_at` stamped by a `beforeUpdate` hook on the transition into `done`
+and cleared on the transition out. Reopening a completed task works — unless
+the caller also sends `completed_at: null`, which is exactly what a form
+round-trip of the whole record does. `Object.is(null, null)` is `true`, the
+hook's clear is stripped, and the row commits `status = in_progress` still
+carrying its **old completion timestamp**, with no error. That row is the one
+a validation rule structurally cannot catch ("a completed task must carry a
+completion timestamp" has no purchase on its inverse), nothing downstream can
+tell it from a genuinely completed one, and every on-time metric reading
+`completed_at` counts it.
+
+This is the second failure of one sentence, not a new defect. #5591 / #6339
+retired the key-SET judgement because it made the strip's own written contract
+— "hook-written keys are NOT caller-supplied" — true only *by accident*. Value
+equality is accidental in precisely the same way; `null == null` is just its
+most common collision.
+
+**The repair is provenance, recorded rather than inferred.** A new
+`recordHookPayloadWrites` view is armed over the update payload after the
+caller's entry snapshot and sealed at the engine's post-hook confluence, where
+`hookContext.input.data` is final on **both** update branches. It records only
+the fact that an assignment executed — never the payload's contents — and
+`stripReadonlyFields` now keeps a key a hook demonstrably assigned. Both
+branches consume the one sealed record, so a bulk write and a by-id write can
+never reach different verdicts about who wrote a key.
+
+⛔ **Not a `null` special case.** `0`, `''`, `false` and a shared object
+reference collide identically, and all of them are echoed back by the same
+whole-record write-back idiom. A sentinel fix would have left every one of them
+open.
+
+⛔ **Not a relaxation of #2948 / #3003 / #5503.** A caller-supplied read-only
+value that no hook wrote is still dropped, still warns with the same text, and
+still reports through `onFieldsDropped` / `strictReadonlyWrites`. The
+discriminator is pinned in both directions: the same caller payload
+(`completed_at: null` over a stored timestamp) now **clears** when a hook wrote
+the null and is still **stripped** when no hook did. A caller cannot enter the
+record — echoing a key or a value is not an assignment — so no caller write can
+become hook-owned.
+
+**Known limit, deliberately fail-safe and pinned as a test.** A hook that
+*replaces* the payload object (`ctx.input.data = { ...ctx.input.data, x: 1 }`)
+rather than mutating it leaves no attributable record, and that call falls back
+to the previous value comparison — i.e. it keeps the old over-strip. Reading a
+replacement's keys as hook-owned would launder a caller's forged `created_by`
+into a platform write, so the fallback direction is the only safe one. A hook
+that means to own a read-only column should ASSIGN to it. The pre-existing
+shallow-snapshot limit (a hook mutating a caller-supplied object *in place*) is
+unchanged for the same reason.
diff --git a/content/docs/permissions/system-context.mdx b/content/docs/permissions/system-context.mdx
@@ -109,18 +109,18 @@ that silently does not happen.
 
 | # | Behaviour when `isSystem` | Package | What you get / what you lose | Anchor |
 |:--|:---|:---|:---|:---|
-| 18 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, single row** | objectql | Get: a `readonly` field CAN be written. Lose: the protection that stops a caller seeding e.g. `approval_status` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:10914` |
-| 19 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, bulk/predicate** | objectql | Same, on the multi-row path | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11076` |
-| 20 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (engine pass)** | objectql | Same, on create | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9772` |
+| 18 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, single row** | objectql | Get: a `readonly` field CAN be written. Lose: the protection that stops a caller seeding e.g. `approval_status` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:10981` |
+| 19 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, bulk/predicate** | objectql | Same, on the multi-row path | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11149` |
+| 20 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (engine pass)** | objectql | Same, on create | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9777` |
 | 21 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (protocol ingress)** | metadata-protocol | `isSystem` is the **only** exemption here. `preserveAudit` is deliberately not read on this path (#6640) — a non-system historical import is still stripped on create | `metadata-protocol/src/protocol.ts:1746` |
-| 22 | Strict-drop refusal never fires | objectql | Lose: a caller that opted into loud refusal gets **silence** — strict refuses exactly what the strip would have taken, and the strip took nothing | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9809`, `readonly-strict-errors.ts:66` |
-| 23 | **Referential-integrity check skipped** | objectql | Get: writes proceed against unreachable/unresolvable targets. Lose: an `isSystem` caller can write a **dangling reference** | `objectql/src/engine.ts:5730` |
-| 24 | Tenant-audit warning silenced; `bypassTenantAudit` threaded to the driver | objectql | Get: unscoped system writes stop warning. Lose: the signal that would flag a genuine user-path scoping bug | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3599`, `:3609`, `:3636` |
+| 22 | Strict-drop refusal never fires | objectql | Lose: a caller that opted into loud refusal gets **silence** — strict refuses exactly what the strip would have taken, and the strip took nothing | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9814`, `readonly-strict-errors.ts:66` |
+| 23 | **Referential-integrity check skipped** | objectql | Get: writes proceed against unreachable/unresolvable targets. Lose: an `isSystem` caller can write a **dangling reference** | `objectql/src/engine.ts:5735` |
+| 24 | Tenant-audit warning silenced; `bypassTenantAudit` threaded to the driver | objectql | Get: unscoped system writes stop warning. Lose: the signal that would flag a genuine user-path scoping bug | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3604`, `:3614`, `:3641` |
 | 25 | Engine-owned / append-only write guard bypassed | plugin-security | Get: generic writes to `managedBy` engine-owned objects | `system-write-guard.ts:96`, `:120` |
 | 26 | Identity write guard bypassed (ADR-0092) | plugin-auth | Get: direct writes to identity tables through the generic data path | `identity-write-guard.ts:98` |
-| 27 | Search-companion column **kept** in a read's rows when it was explicitly requested | objectql | Get: the internal companion column is readable. Lose: nothing for app code — this is the engine reading its own index | `objectql/src/engine.ts:6428` |
-| 28 | Dependent-count disclosure on a blocked delete | objectql | Get: the count of blocking children. Nothing was elevated past the caller, so nothing is withheld | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11662` |
-| 29 | Reference-cleanup log attributes the write to `'system'` | objectql | Get: an honest actor label instead of `anonymous` when the context carries neither `userId` nor `actor` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11591` |
+| 27 | Search-companion column **kept** in a read's rows when it was explicitly requested | objectql | Get: the internal companion column is readable. Lose: nothing for app code — this is the engine reading its own index | `objectql/src/engine.ts:6433` |
+| 28 | Dependent-count disclosure on a blocked delete | objectql | Get: the count of blocking children. Nothing was elevated past the caller, so nothing is withheld | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11742` |
+| 29 | Reference-cleanup log attributes the write to `'system'` | objectql | Get: an honest actor label instead of `anonymous` when the context carries neither `userId` nor `actor` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11671` |
 
 ### 3. Sharing (`plugin-sharing`)
 
@@ -179,8 +179,8 @@ a reader tracing where elevation travels needs them.
 
 | # | Site | Package | What it does |
 |:--|:---|:---|:---|
-| 62 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3406` | objectql | Propagates `isSystem` into the hook session so hooks can tell engine self-writes from user writes |
-| 63 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:14011` | objectql | `ScopedContext.isSystem` getter — re-exposes the underlying execution context's flag |
+| 62 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3411` | objectql | Propagates `isSystem` into the hook session so hooks can tell engine self-writes from user writes |
+| 63 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:14091` | objectql | `ScopedContext.isSystem` getter — re-exposes the underlying execution context's flag |
 | 64 | `plugin-reports/src/report-service.ts:556` | plugin-reports | Threads the flag into the engine call that runs a report |
 | 65 | `body-runner.ts:279` | runtime | Rebuilds an `ExecutionContext` from a hook session, carrying the flag across |
 
@@ -195,7 +195,7 @@ assuming `isSystem` covers it is a documented source of bugs.
 |:---|:---|:---|
 | "It suppresses triggers / record-change automation" | **No.** Only `skipTriggers` does. A bare `{ isSystem: true }` on a seed write re-fired automation on freshly seeded rows and wedged first boot | `metadata-protocol/src/seed-loader.ts:1909` (rationale at `:1819`–`1821`, #3760), `flow.zod.ts:685` |
 | "It skips the state machine" | **No.** That is `skipStateMachine`, carried by seed replay and by `treatAsHistorical` imports | `objectql/src/engine.ts` FSM gate; see [State Machine](/docs/protocol/objectql/state-machine) |
-| "It skips validation rules" | **No.** Field shape, `format`, `script` and the rest still run. The `readonly` strip runs *before* validation precisely so a discarded value is not judged | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9755`–`9772` |
+| "It skips validation rules" | **No.** Field shape, `format`, `script` and the rest still run. The `readonly` strip runs *before* validation precisely so a discarded value is not judged | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9760`–`9777` |
 | "It preserves a supplied `updated_at` / `updated_by`" | **No.** That is `preserveAudit`, a separate opt-in — and an UPDATE-path exemption only | `field.zod.ts:1516` (#3493 / #6640) |
 | "It stamps `created_by`" | **No.** Audit stamping reads `userId` from the context. A user-less system write stamps nothing — that is today's behaviour, not an error | `runtime-identity.ts:280`–`281` |
 | "It bypasses every guard" | **No.** The last-admin guard applies to **every** context, `isSystem` included — the deprovision path that actually locks an org out is the system one | `last-admin-guard.ts:286` |

diff --git a/.changeset/readonly-strip-hook-write-provenance.md b/.changeset/readonly-strip-hook-write-provenance.md
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+---
+"@objectstack/objectql": patch
+---
+
+fix(objectql): decide the read-only strip on hook-write PROVENANCE, so a hook can clear a field the caller also sent (#14088)
+
+`stripReadonlyFields` decided whether a `readonly` field's value came from a
+before-phase hook or from the caller with `Object.is(payload[name],
+supplied[name])`. Value equality cannot carry that question, and this is it
+failing: when both sides hold the same value the comparison cannot separate
+*the hook deliberately wrote it* from *the hook never touched it*, and the two
+demand opposite verdicts. The hook's write was deleted along with the caller's.
+
+**Measured downstream** (published 17.2.0, `duly_task`): a `readonly`
+`completed_at` stamped by a `beforeUpdate` hook on the transition into `done`
+and cleared on the transition out. Reopening a completed task works — unless
+the caller also sends `completed_at: null`, which is exactly what a form
+round-trip of the whole record does. `Object.is(null, null)` is `true`, the
+hook's clear is stripped, and the row commits `status = in_progress` still
+carrying its **old completion timestamp**, with no error. That row is the one
+a validation rule structurally cannot catch ("a completed task must carry a
+completion timestamp" has no purchase on its inverse), nothing downstream can
+tell it from a genuinely completed one, and every on-time metric reading
+`completed_at` counts it.
+
+This is the second failure of one sentence, not a new defect. #5591 / #6339
+retired the key-SET judgement because it made the strip's own written contract
+— "hook-written keys are NOT caller-supplied" — true only *by accident*. Value
+equality is accidental in precisely the same way; `null == null` is just its
+most common collision.
+
+**The repair is provenance, recorded rather than inferred.** A new
+`recordHookPayloadWrites` view is armed over the update payload after the
+caller's entry snapshot and sealed at the engine's post-hook confluence, where
+`hookContext.input.data` is final on **both** update branches. It records only
+the fact that an assignment executed — never the payload's contents — and
+`stripReadonlyFields` now keeps a key a hook demonstrably assigned. Both
+branches consume the one sealed record, so a bulk write and a by-id write can
+never reach different verdicts about who wrote a key.
+
+⛔ **Not a `null` special case.** `0`, `''`, `false` and a shared object
+reference collide identically, and all of them are echoed back by the same
+whole-record write-back idiom. A sentinel fix would have left every one of them
+open.
+
+⛔ **Not a relaxation of #2948 / #3003 / #5503.** A caller-supplied read-only
+value that no hook wrote is still dropped, still warns with the same text, and
+still reports through `onFieldsDropped` / `strictReadonlyWrites`. The
+discriminator is pinned in both directions: the same caller payload
+(`completed_at: null` over a stored timestamp) now **clears** when a hook wrote
+the null and is still **stripped** when no hook did. A caller cannot enter the
+record — echoing a key or a value is not an assignment — so no caller write can
+become hook-owned.
+
+**Known limit, deliberately fail-safe and pinned as a test.** A hook that
+*replaces* the payload object (`ctx.input.data = { ...ctx.input.data, x: 1 }`)
+rather than mutating it leaves no attributable record, and that call falls back
+to the previous value comparison — i.e. it keeps the old over-strip. Reading a
+replacement's keys as hook-owned would launder a caller's forged `created_by`
+into a platform write, so the fallback direction is the only safe one. A hook
+that means to own a read-only column should ASSIGN to it. The pre-existing
+shallow-snapshot limit (a hook mutating a caller-supplied object *in place*) is
+unchanged for the same reason.
diff --git a/content/docs/permissions/system-context.mdx b/content/docs/permissions/system-context.mdx
@@ -109,18 +109,18 @@ that silently does not happen.
 
 | # | Behaviour when `isSystem` | Package | What you get / what you lose | Anchor |
 |:--|:---|:---|:---|:---|
-| 18 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, single row** | objectql | Get: a `readonly` field CAN be written. Lose: the protection that stops a caller seeding e.g. `approval_status` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:10914` |
-| 19 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, bulk/predicate** | objectql | Same, on the multi-row path | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11076` |
-| 20 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (engine pass)** | objectql | Same, on create | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9772` |
+| 18 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, single row** | objectql | Get: a `readonly` field CAN be written. Lose: the protection that stops a caller seeding e.g. `approval_status` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:10981` |
+| 19 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, bulk/predicate** | objectql | Same, on the multi-row path | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11149` |
+| 20 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (engine pass)** | objectql | Same, on create | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9777` |
 | 21 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (protocol ingress)** | metadata-protocol | `isSystem` is the **only** exemption here. `preserveAudit` is deliberately not read on this path (#6640) — a non-system historical import is still stripped on create | `metadata-protocol/src/protocol.ts:1746` |
-| 22 | Strict-drop refusal never fires | objectql | Lose: a caller that opted into loud refusal gets **silence** — strict refuses exactly what the strip would have taken, and the strip took nothing | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9809`, `readonly-strict-errors.ts:66` |
-| 23 | **Referential-integrity check skipped** | objectql | Get: writes proceed against unreachable/unresolvable targets. Lose: an `isSystem` caller can write a **dangling reference** | `objectql/src/engine.ts:5730` |
-| 24 | Tenant-audit warning silenced; `bypassTenantAudit` threaded to the driver | objectql | Get: unscoped system writes stop warning. Lose: the signal that would flag a genuine user-path scoping bug | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3599`, `:3609`, `:3636` |
+| 22 | Strict-drop refusal never fires | objectql | Lose: a caller that opted into loud refusal gets **silence** — strict refuses exactly what the strip would have taken, and the strip took nothing | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9814`, `readonly-strict-errors.ts:66` |
+| 23 | **Referential-integrity check skipped** | objectql | Get: writes proceed against unreachable/unresolvable targets. Lose: an `isSystem` caller can write a **dangling reference** | `objectql/src/engine.ts:5735` |
+| 24 | Tenant-audit warning silenced; `bypassTenantAudit` threaded to the driver | objectql | Get: unscoped system writes stop warning. Lose: the signal that would flag a genuine user-path scoping bug | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3604`, `:3614`, `:3641` |
 | 25 | Engine-owned / append-only write guard bypassed | plugin-security | Get: generic writes to `managedBy` engine-owned objects | `system-write-guard.ts:96`, `:120` |
 | 26 | Identity write guard bypassed (ADR-0092) | plugin-auth | Get: direct writes to identity tables through the generic data path | `identity-write-guard.ts:98` |
-| 27 | Search-companion column **kept** in a read's rows when it was explicitly requested | objectql | Get: the internal companion column is readable. Lose: nothing for app code — this is the engine reading its own index | `objectql/src/engine.ts:6428` |
-| 28 | Dependent-count disclosure on a blocked delete | objectql | Get: the count of blocking children. Nothing was elevated past the caller, so nothing is withheld | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11662` |
-| 29 | Reference-cleanup log attributes the write to `'system'` | objectql | Get: an honest actor label instead of `anonymous` when the context carries neither `userId` nor `actor` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11591` |
+| 27 | Search-companion column **kept** in a read's rows when it was explicitly requested | objectql | Get: the internal companion column is readable. Lose: nothing for app code — this is the engine reading its own index | `objectql/src/engine.ts:6433` |
+| 28 | Dependent-count disclosure on a blocked delete | objectql | Get: the count of blocking children. Nothing was elevated past the caller, so nothing is withheld | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11742` |
+| 29 | Reference-cleanup log attributes the write to `'system'` | objectql | Get: an honest actor label instead of `anonymous` when the context carries neither `userId` nor `actor` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11671` |
 
 ### 3. Sharing (`plugin-sharing`)
 
@@ -179,8 +179,8 @@ a reader tracing where elevation travels needs them.
 
 | # | Site | Package | What it does |
 |:--|:---|:---|:---|
-| 62 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3406` | objectql | Propagates `isSystem` into the hook session so hooks can tell engine self-writes from user writes |
-| 63 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:14011` | objectql | `ScopedContext.isSystem` getter — re-exposes the underlying execution context's flag |
+| 62 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3411` | objectql | Propagates `isSystem` into the hook session so hooks can tell engine self-writes from user writes |
+| 63 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:14091` | objectql | `ScopedContext.isSystem` getter — re-exposes the underlying execution context's flag |
 | 64 | `plugin-reports/src/report-service.ts:556` | plugin-reports | Threads the flag into the engine call that runs a report |
 | 65 | `body-runner.ts:279` | runtime | Rebuilds an `ExecutionContext` from a hook session, carrying the flag across |
 
@@ -195,7 +195,7 @@ assuming `isSystem` covers it is a documented source of bugs.
 |:---|:---|:---|
 | "It suppresses triggers / record-change automation" | **No.** Only `skipTriggers` does. A bare `{ isSystem: true }` on a seed write re-fired automation on freshly seeded rows and wedged first boot | `metadata-protocol/src/seed-loader.ts:1909` (rationale at `:1819`–`1821`, #3760), `flow.zod.ts:685` |
 | "It skips the state machine" | **No.** That is `skipStateMachine`, carried by seed replay and by `treatAsHistorical` imports | `objectql/src/engine.ts` FSM gate; see [State Machine](/docs/protocol/objectql/state-machine) |
-| "It skips validation rules" | **No.** Field shape, `format`, `script` and the rest still run. The `readonly` strip runs *before* validation precisely so a discarded value is not judged | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9755`–`9772` |
+| "It skips validation rules" | **No.** Field shape, `format`, `script` and the rest still run. The `readonly` strip runs *before* validation precisely so a discarded value is not judged | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9760`–`9777` |
 | "It preserves a supplied `updated_at` / `updated_by`" | **No.** That is `preserveAudit`, a separate opt-in — and an UPDATE-path exemption only | `field.zod.ts:1516` (#3493 / #6640) |
 | "It stamps `created_by`" | **No.** Audit stamping reads `userId` from the context. A user-less system write stamps nothing — that is today's behaviour, not an error | `runtime-identity.ts:280`–`281` |
 | "It bypasses every guard" | **No.** The last-admin guard applies to **every** context, `isSystem` included — the deprovision path that actually locks an org out is the system one | `last-admin-guard.ts:286` |

diff --git a/.changeset/readonly-strip-hook-write-provenance.md b/.changeset/readonly-strip-hook-write-provenance.md
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+---
+"@objectstack/objectql": patch
+---
+
+fix(objectql): decide the read-only strip on hook-write PROVENANCE, so a hook can clear a field the caller also sent (#14088)
+
+`stripReadonlyFields` decided whether a `readonly` field's value came from a
+before-phase hook or from the caller with `Object.is(payload[name],
+supplied[name])`. Value equality cannot carry that question, and this is it
+failing: when both sides hold the same value the comparison cannot separate
+*the hook deliberately wrote it* from *the hook never touched it*, and the two
+demand opposite verdicts. The hook's write was deleted along with the caller's.
+
+**Measured downstream** (published 17.2.0, `duly_task`): a `readonly`
+`completed_at` stamped by a `beforeUpdate` hook on the transition into `done`
+and cleared on the transition out. Reopening a completed task works — unless
+the caller also sends `completed_at: null`, which is exactly what a form
+round-trip of the whole record does. `Object.is(null, null)` is `true`, the
+hook's clear is stripped, and the row commits `status = in_progress` still
+carrying its **old completion timestamp**, with no error. That row is the one
+a validation rule structurally cannot catch ("a completed task must carry a
+completion timestamp" has no purchase on its inverse), nothing downstream can
+tell it from a genuinely completed one, and every on-time metric reading
+`completed_at` counts it.
+
+This is the second failure of one sentence, not a new defect. #5591 / #6339
+retired the key-SET judgement because it made the strip's own written contract
+— "hook-written keys are NOT caller-supplied" — true only *by accident*. Value
+equality is accidental in precisely the same way; `null == null` is just its
+most common collision.
+
+**The repair is provenance, recorded rather than inferred.** A new
+`recordHookPayloadWrites` view is armed over the update payload after the
+caller's entry snapshot and sealed at the engine's post-hook confluence, where
+`hookContext.input.data` is final on **both** update branches. It records only
+the fact that an assignment executed — never the payload's contents — and
+`stripReadonlyFields` now keeps a key a hook demonstrably assigned. Both
+branches consume the one sealed record, so a bulk write and a by-id write can
+never reach different verdicts about who wrote a key.
+
+⛔ **Not a `null` special case.** `0`, `''`, `false` and a shared object
+reference collide identically, and all of them are echoed back by the same
+whole-record write-back idiom. A sentinel fix would have left every one of them
+open.
+
+⛔ **Not a relaxation of #2948 / #3003 / #5503.** A caller-supplied read-only
+value that no hook wrote is still dropped, still warns with the same text, and
+still reports through `onFieldsDropped` / `strictReadonlyWrites`. The
+discriminator is pinned in both directions: the same caller payload
+(`completed_at: null` over a stored timestamp) now **clears** when a hook wrote
+the null and is still **stripped** when no hook did. A caller cannot enter the
+record — echoing a key or a value is not an assignment — so no caller write can
+become hook-owned.
+
+**Known limit, deliberately fail-safe and pinned as a test.** A hook that
+*replaces* the payload object (`ctx.input.data = { ...ctx.input.data, x: 1 }`)
+rather than mutating it leaves no attributable record, and that call falls back
+to the previous value comparison — i.e. it keeps the old over-strip. Reading a
+replacement's keys as hook-owned would launder a caller's forged `created_by`
+into a platform write, so the fallback direction is the only safe one. A hook
+that means to own a read-only column should ASSIGN to it. The pre-existing
+shallow-snapshot limit (a hook mutating a caller-supplied object *in place*) is
+unchanged for the same reason.
diff --git a/content/docs/permissions/system-context.mdx b/content/docs/permissions/system-context.mdx
@@ -109,18 +109,18 @@ that silently does not happen.
 
 | # | Behaviour when `isSystem` | Package | What you get / what you lose | Anchor |
 |:--|:---|:---|:---|:---|
-| 18 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, single row** | objectql | Get: a `readonly` field CAN be written. Lose: the protection that stops a caller seeding e.g. `approval_status` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:10914` |
-| 19 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, bulk/predicate** | objectql | Same, on the multi-row path | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11076` |
-| 20 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (engine pass)** | objectql | Same, on create | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9772` |
+| 18 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, single row** | objectql | Get: a `readonly` field CAN be written. Lose: the protection that stops a caller seeding e.g. `approval_status` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:10981` |
+| 19 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, bulk/predicate** | objectql | Same, on the multi-row path | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11149` |
+| 20 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (engine pass)** | objectql | Same, on create | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9777` |
 | 21 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (protocol ingress)** | metadata-protocol | `isSystem` is the **only** exemption here. `preserveAudit` is deliberately not read on this path (#6640) — a non-system historical import is still stripped on create | `metadata-protocol/src/protocol.ts:1746` |
-| 22 | Strict-drop refusal never fires | objectql | Lose: a caller that opted into loud refusal gets **silence** — strict refuses exactly what the strip would have taken, and the strip took nothing | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9809`, `readonly-strict-errors.ts:66` |
-| 23 | **Referential-integrity check skipped** | objectql | Get: writes proceed against unreachable/unresolvable targets. Lose: an `isSystem` caller can write a **dangling reference** | `objectql/src/engine.ts:5730` |
-| 24 | Tenant-audit warning silenced; `bypassTenantAudit` threaded to the driver | objectql | Get: unscoped system writes stop warning. Lose: the signal that would flag a genuine user-path scoping bug | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3599`, `:3609`, `:3636` |
+| 22 | Strict-drop refusal never fires | objectql | Lose: a caller that opted into loud refusal gets **silence** — strict refuses exactly what the strip would have taken, and the strip took nothing | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9814`, `readonly-strict-errors.ts:66` |
+| 23 | **Referential-integrity check skipped** | objectql | Get: writes proceed against unreachable/unresolvable targets. Lose: an `isSystem` caller can write a **dangling reference** | `objectql/src/engine.ts:5735` |
+| 24 | Tenant-audit warning silenced; `bypassTenantAudit` threaded to the driver | objectql | Get: unscoped system writes stop warning. Lose: the signal that would flag a genuine user-path scoping bug | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3604`, `:3614`, `:3641` |
 | 25 | Engine-owned / append-only write guard bypassed | plugin-security | Get: generic writes to `managedBy` engine-owned objects | `system-write-guard.ts:96`, `:120` |
 | 26 | Identity write guard bypassed (ADR-0092) | plugin-auth | Get: direct writes to identity tables through the generic data path | `identity-write-guard.ts:98` |
-| 27 | Search-companion column **kept** in a read's rows when it was explicitly requested | objectql | Get: the internal companion column is readable. Lose: nothing for app code — this is the engine reading its own index | `objectql/src/engine.ts:6428` |
-| 28 | Dependent-count disclosure on a blocked delete | objectql | Get: the count of blocking children. Nothing was elevated past the caller, so nothing is withheld | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11662` |
-| 29 | Reference-cleanup log attributes the write to `'system'` | objectql | Get: an honest actor label instead of `anonymous` when the context carries neither `userId` nor `actor` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11591` |
+| 27 | Search-companion column **kept** in a read's rows when it was explicitly requested | objectql | Get: the internal companion column is readable. Lose: nothing for app code — this is the engine reading its own index | `objectql/src/engine.ts:6433` |
+| 28 | Dependent-count disclosure on a blocked delete | objectql | Get: the count of blocking children. Nothing was elevated past the caller, so nothing is withheld | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11742` |
+| 29 | Reference-cleanup log attributes the write to `'system'` | objectql | Get: an honest actor label instead of `anonymous` when the context carries neither `userId` nor `actor` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11671` |
 
 ### 3. Sharing (`plugin-sharing`)
 
@@ -179,8 +179,8 @@ a reader tracing where elevation travels needs them.
 
 | # | Site | Package | What it does |
 |:--|:---|:---|:---|
-| 62 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3406` | objectql | Propagates `isSystem` into the hook session so hooks can tell engine self-writes from user writes |
-| 63 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:14011` | objectql | `ScopedContext.isSystem` getter — re-exposes the underlying execution context's flag |
+| 62 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3411` | objectql | Propagates `isSystem` into the hook session so hooks can tell engine self-writes from user writes |
+| 63 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:14091` | objectql | `ScopedContext.isSystem` getter — re-exposes the underlying execution context's flag |
 | 64 | `plugin-reports/src/report-service.ts:556` | plugin-reports | Threads the flag into the engine call that runs a report |
 | 65 | `body-runner.ts:279` | runtime | Rebuilds an `ExecutionContext` from a hook session, carrying the flag across |
 
@@ -195,7 +195,7 @@ assuming `isSystem` covers it is a documented source of bugs.
 |:---|:---|:---|
 | "It suppresses triggers / record-change automation" | **No.** Only `skipTriggers` does. A bare `{ isSystem: true }` on a seed write re-fired automation on freshly seeded rows and wedged first boot | `metadata-protocol/src/seed-loader.ts:1909` (rationale at `:1819`–`1821`, #3760), `flow.zod.ts:685` |
 | "It skips the state machine" | **No.** That is `skipStateMachine`, carried by seed replay and by `treatAsHistorical` imports | `objectql/src/engine.ts` FSM gate; see [State Machine](/docs/protocol/objectql/state-machine) |
-| "It skips validation rules" | **No.** Field shape, `format`, `script` and the rest still run. The `readonly` strip runs *before* validation precisely so a discarded value is not judged | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9755`–`9772` |
+| "It skips validation rules" | **No.** Field shape, `format`, `script` and the rest still run. The `readonly` strip runs *before* validation precisely so a discarded value is not judged | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9760`–`9777` |
 | "It preserves a supplied `updated_at` / `updated_by`" | **No.** That is `preserveAudit`, a separate opt-in — and an UPDATE-path exemption only | `field.zod.ts:1516` (#3493 / #6640) |
 | "It stamps `created_by`" | **No.** Audit stamping reads `userId` from the context. A user-less system write stamps nothing — that is today's behaviour, not an error | `runtime-identity.ts:280`–`281` |
 | "It bypasses every guard" | **No.** The last-admin guard applies to **every** context, `isSystem` included — the deprovision path that actually locks an org out is the system one | `last-admin-guard.ts:286` |

diff --git a/.changeset/readonly-strip-hook-write-provenance.md b/.changeset/readonly-strip-hook-write-provenance.md
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+---
+"@objectstack/objectql": patch
+---
+
+fix(objectql): decide the read-only strip on hook-write PROVENANCE, so a hook can clear a field the caller also sent (#14088)
+
+`stripReadonlyFields` decided whether a `readonly` field's value came from a
+before-phase hook or from the caller with `Object.is(payload[name],
+supplied[name])`. Value equality cannot carry that question, and this is it
+failing: when both sides hold the same value the comparison cannot separate
+*the hook deliberately wrote it* from *the hook never touched it*, and the two
+demand opposite verdicts. The hook's write was deleted along with the caller's.
+
+**Measured downstream** (published 17.2.0, `duly_task`): a `readonly`
+`completed_at` stamped by a `beforeUpdate` hook on the transition into `done`
+and cleared on the transition out. Reopening a completed task works — unless
+the caller also sends `completed_at: null`, which is exactly what a form
+round-trip of the whole record does. `Object.is(null, null)` is `true`, the
+hook's clear is stripped, and the row commits `status = in_progress` still
+carrying its **old completion timestamp**, with no error. That row is the one
+a validation rule structurally cannot catch ("a completed task must carry a
+completion timestamp" has no purchase on its inverse), nothing downstream can
+tell it from a genuinely completed one, and every on-time metric reading
+`completed_at` counts it.
+
+This is the second failure of one sentence, not a new defect. #5591 / #6339
+retired the key-SET judgement because it made the strip's own written contract
+— "hook-written keys are NOT caller-supplied" — true only *by accident*. Value
+equality is accidental in precisely the same way; `null == null` is just its
+most common collision.
+
+**The repair is provenance, recorded rather than inferred.** A new
+`recordHookPayloadWrites` view is armed over the update payload after the
+caller's entry snapshot and sealed at the engine's post-hook confluence, where
+`hookContext.input.data` is final on **both** update branches. It records only
+the fact that an assignment executed — never the payload's contents — and
+`stripReadonlyFields` now keeps a key a hook demonstrably assigned. Both
+branches consume the one sealed record, so a bulk write and a by-id write can
+never reach different verdicts about who wrote a key.
+
+⛔ **Not a `null` special case.** `0`, `''`, `false` and a shared object
+reference collide identically, and all of them are echoed back by the same
+whole-record write-back idiom. A sentinel fix would have left every one of them
+open.
+
+⛔ **Not a relaxation of #2948 / #3003 / #5503.** A caller-supplied read-only
+value that no hook wrote is still dropped, still warns with the same text, and
+still reports through `onFieldsDropped` / `strictReadonlyWrites`. The
+discriminator is pinned in both directions: the same caller payload
+(`completed_at: null` over a stored timestamp) now **clears** when a hook wrote
+the null and is still **stripped** when no hook did. A caller cannot enter the
+record — echoing a key or a value is not an assignment — so no caller write can
+become hook-owned.
+
+**Known limit, deliberately fail-safe and pinned as a test.** A hook that
+*replaces* the payload object (`ctx.input.data = { ...ctx.input.data, x: 1 }`)
+rather than mutating it leaves no attributable record, and that call falls back
+to the previous value comparison — i.e. it keeps the old over-strip. Reading a
+replacement's keys as hook-owned would launder a caller's forged `created_by`
+into a platform write, so the fallback direction is the only safe one. A hook
+that means to own a read-only column should ASSIGN to it. The pre-existing
+shallow-snapshot limit (a hook mutating a caller-supplied object *in place*) is
+unchanged for the same reason.
diff --git a/content/docs/permissions/system-context.mdx b/content/docs/permissions/system-context.mdx
@@ -109,18 +109,18 @@ that silently does not happen.
 
 | # | Behaviour when `isSystem` | Package | What you get / what you lose | Anchor |
 |:--|:---|:---|:---|:---|
-| 18 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, single row** | objectql | Get: a `readonly` field CAN be written. Lose: the protection that stops a caller seeding e.g. `approval_status` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:10914` |
-| 19 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, bulk/predicate** | objectql | Same, on the multi-row path | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11076` |
-| 20 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (engine pass)** | objectql | Same, on create | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9772` |
+| 18 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, single row** | objectql | Get: a `readonly` field CAN be written. Lose: the protection that stops a caller seeding e.g. `approval_status` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:10981` |
+| 19 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, bulk/predicate** | objectql | Same, on the multi-row path | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11149` |
+| 20 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (engine pass)** | objectql | Same, on create | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9777` |
 | 21 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (protocol ingress)** | metadata-protocol | `isSystem` is the **only** exemption here. `preserveAudit` is deliberately not read on this path (#6640) — a non-system historical import is still stripped on create | `metadata-protocol/src/protocol.ts:1746` |
-| 22 | Strict-drop refusal never fires | objectql | Lose: a caller that opted into loud refusal gets **silence** — strict refuses exactly what the strip would have taken, and the strip took nothing | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9809`, `readonly-strict-errors.ts:66` |
-| 23 | **Referential-integrity check skipped** | objectql | Get: writes proceed against unreachable/unresolvable targets. Lose: an `isSystem` caller can write a **dangling reference** | `objectql/src/engine.ts:5730` |
-| 24 | Tenant-audit warning silenced; `bypassTenantAudit` threaded to the driver | objectql | Get: unscoped system writes stop warning. Lose: the signal that would flag a genuine user-path scoping bug | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3599`, `:3609`, `:3636` |
+| 22 | Strict-drop refusal never fires | objectql | Lose: a caller that opted into loud refusal gets **silence** — strict refuses exactly what the strip would have taken, and the strip took nothing | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9814`, `readonly-strict-errors.ts:66` |
+| 23 | **Referential-integrity check skipped** | objectql | Get: writes proceed against unreachable/unresolvable targets. Lose: an `isSystem` caller can write a **dangling reference** | `objectql/src/engine.ts:5735` |
+| 24 | Tenant-audit warning silenced; `bypassTenantAudit` threaded to the driver | objectql | Get: unscoped system writes stop warning. Lose: the signal that would flag a genuine user-path scoping bug | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3604`, `:3614`, `:3641` |
 | 25 | Engine-owned / append-only write guard bypassed | plugin-security | Get: generic writes to `managedBy` engine-owned objects | `system-write-guard.ts:96`, `:120` |
 | 26 | Identity write guard bypassed (ADR-0092) | plugin-auth | Get: direct writes to identity tables through the generic data path | `identity-write-guard.ts:98` |
-| 27 | Search-companion column **kept** in a read's rows when it was explicitly requested | objectql | Get: the internal companion column is readable. Lose: nothing for app code — this is the engine reading its own index | `objectql/src/engine.ts:6428` |
-| 28 | Dependent-count disclosure on a blocked delete | objectql | Get: the count of blocking children. Nothing was elevated past the caller, so nothing is withheld | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11662` |
-| 29 | Reference-cleanup log attributes the write to `'system'` | objectql | Get: an honest actor label instead of `anonymous` when the context carries neither `userId` nor `actor` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11591` |
+| 27 | Search-companion column **kept** in a read's rows when it was explicitly requested | objectql | Get: the internal companion column is readable. Lose: nothing for app code — this is the engine reading its own index | `objectql/src/engine.ts:6433` |
+| 28 | Dependent-count disclosure on a blocked delete | objectql | Get: the count of blocking children. Nothing was elevated past the caller, so nothing is withheld | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11742` |
+| 29 | Reference-cleanup log attributes the write to `'system'` | objectql | Get: an honest actor label instead of `anonymous` when the context carries neither `userId` nor `actor` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11671` |
 
 ### 3. Sharing (`plugin-sharing`)
 
@@ -179,8 +179,8 @@ a reader tracing where elevation travels needs them.
 
 | # | Site | Package | What it does |
 |:--|:---|:---|:---|
-| 62 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3406` | objectql | Propagates `isSystem` into the hook session so hooks can tell engine self-writes from user writes |
-| 63 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:14011` | objectql | `ScopedContext.isSystem` getter — re-exposes the underlying execution context's flag |
+| 62 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3411` | objectql | Propagates `isSystem` into the hook session so hooks can tell engine self-writes from user writes |
+| 63 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:14091` | objectql | `ScopedContext.isSystem` getter — re-exposes the underlying execution context's flag |
 | 64 | `plugin-reports/src/report-service.ts:556` | plugin-reports | Threads the flag into the engine call that runs a report |
 | 65 | `body-runner.ts:279` | runtime | Rebuilds an `ExecutionContext` from a hook session, carrying the flag across |
 
@@ -195,7 +195,7 @@ assuming `isSystem` covers it is a documented source of bugs.
 |:---|:---|:---|
 | "It suppresses triggers / record-change automation" | **No.** Only `skipTriggers` does. A bare `{ isSystem: true }` on a seed write re-fired automation on freshly seeded rows and wedged first boot | `metadata-protocol/src/seed-loader.ts:1909` (rationale at `:1819`–`1821`, #3760), `flow.zod.ts:685` |
 | "It skips the state machine" | **No.** That is `skipStateMachine`, carried by seed replay and by `treatAsHistorical` imports | `objectql/src/engine.ts` FSM gate; see [State Machine](/docs/protocol/objectql/state-machine) |
-| "It skips validation rules" | **No.** Field shape, `format`, `script` and the rest still run. The `readonly` strip runs *before* validation precisely so a discarded value is not judged | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9755`–`9772` |
+| "It skips validation rules" | **No.** Field shape, `format`, `script` and the rest still run. The `readonly` strip runs *before* validation precisely so a discarded value is not judged | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9760`–`9777` |
 | "It preserves a supplied `updated_at` / `updated_by`" | **No.** That is `preserveAudit`, a separate opt-in — and an UPDATE-path exemption only | `field.zod.ts:1516` (#3493 / #6640) |
 | "It stamps `created_by`" | **No.** Audit stamping reads `userId` from the context. A user-less system write stamps nothing — that is today's behaviour, not an error | `runtime-identity.ts:280`–`281` |
 | "It bypasses every guard" | **No.** The last-admin guard applies to **every** context, `isSystem` included — the deprovision path that actually locks an org out is the system one | `last-admin-guard.ts:286` |

diff --git a/.changeset/readonly-strip-hook-write-provenance.md b/.changeset/readonly-strip-hook-write-provenance.md
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+---
+"@objectstack/objectql": patch
+---
+
+fix(objectql): decide the read-only strip on hook-write PROVENANCE, so a hook can clear a field the caller also sent (#14088)
+
+`stripReadonlyFields` decided whether a `readonly` field's value came from a
+before-phase hook or from the caller with `Object.is(payload[name],
+supplied[name])`. Value equality cannot carry that question, and this is it
+failing: when both sides hold the same value the comparison cannot separate
+*the hook deliberately wrote it* from *the hook never touched it*, and the two
+demand opposite verdicts. The hook's write was deleted along with the caller's.
+
+**Measured downstream** (published 17.2.0, `duly_task`): a `readonly`
+`completed_at` stamped by a `beforeUpdate` hook on the transition into `done`
+and cleared on the transition out. Reopening a completed task works — unless
+the caller also sends `completed_at: null`, which is exactly what a form
+round-trip of the whole record does. `Object.is(null, null)` is `true`, the
+hook's clear is stripped, and the row commits `status = in_progress` still
+carrying its **old completion timestamp**, with no error. That row is the one
+a validation rule structurally cannot catch ("a completed task must carry a
+completion timestamp" has no purchase on its inverse), nothing downstream can
+tell it from a genuinely completed one, and every on-time metric reading
+`completed_at` counts it.
+
+This is the second failure of one sentence, not a new defect. #5591 / #6339
+retired the key-SET judgement because it made the strip's own written contract
+— "hook-written keys are NOT caller-supplied" — true only *by accident*. Value
+equality is accidental in precisely the same way; `null == null` is just its
+most common collision.
+
+**The repair is provenance, recorded rather than inferred.** A new
+`recordHookPayloadWrites` view is armed over the update payload after the
+caller's entry snapshot and sealed at the engine's post-hook confluence, where
+`hookContext.input.data` is final on **both** update branches. It records only
+the fact that an assignment executed — never the payload's contents — and
+`stripReadonlyFields` now keeps a key a hook demonstrably assigned. Both
+branches consume the one sealed record, so a bulk write and a by-id write can
+never reach different verdicts about who wrote a key.
+
+⛔ **Not a `null` special case.** `0`, `''`, `false` and a shared object
+reference collide identically, and all of them are echoed back by the same
+whole-record write-back idiom. A sentinel fix would have left every one of them
+open.
+
+⛔ **Not a relaxation of #2948 / #3003 / #5503.** A caller-supplied read-only
+value that no hook wrote is still dropped, still warns with the same text, and
+still reports through `onFieldsDropped` / `strictReadonlyWrites`. The
+discriminator is pinned in both directions: the same caller payload
+(`completed_at: null` over a stored timestamp) now **clears** when a hook wrote
+the null and is still **stripped** when no hook did. A caller cannot enter the
+record — echoing a key or a value is not an assignment — so no caller write can
+become hook-owned.
+
+**Known limit, deliberately fail-safe and pinned as a test.** A hook that
+*replaces* the payload object (`ctx.input.data = { ...ctx.input.data, x: 1 }`)
+rather than mutating it leaves no attributable record, and that call falls back
+to the previous value comparison — i.e. it keeps the old over-strip. Reading a
+replacement's keys as hook-owned would launder a caller's forged `created_by`
+into a platform write, so the fallback direction is the only safe one. A hook
+that means to own a read-only column should ASSIGN to it. The pre-existing
+shallow-snapshot limit (a hook mutating a caller-supplied object *in place*) is
+unchanged for the same reason.
diff --git a/content/docs/permissions/system-context.mdx b/content/docs/permissions/system-context.mdx
@@ -109,18 +109,18 @@ that silently does not happen.
 
 | # | Behaviour when `isSystem` | Package | What you get / what you lose | Anchor |
 |:--|:---|:---|:---|:---|
-| 18 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, single row** | objectql | Get: a `readonly` field CAN be written. Lose: the protection that stops a caller seeding e.g. `approval_status` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:10914` |
-| 19 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, bulk/predicate** | objectql | Same, on the multi-row path | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11076` |
-| 20 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (engine pass)** | objectql | Same, on create | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9772` |
+| 18 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, single row** | objectql | Get: a `readonly` field CAN be written. Lose: the protection that stops a caller seeding e.g. `approval_status` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:10981` |
+| 19 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, bulk/predicate** | objectql | Same, on the multi-row path | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11149` |
+| 20 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (engine pass)** | objectql | Same, on create | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9777` |
 | 21 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (protocol ingress)** | metadata-protocol | `isSystem` is the **only** exemption here. `preserveAudit` is deliberately not read on this path (#6640) — a non-system historical import is still stripped on create | `metadata-protocol/src/protocol.ts:1746` |
-| 22 | Strict-drop refusal never fires | objectql | Lose: a caller that opted into loud refusal gets **silence** — strict refuses exactly what the strip would have taken, and the strip took nothing | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9809`, `readonly-strict-errors.ts:66` |
-| 23 | **Referential-integrity check skipped** | objectql | Get: writes proceed against unreachable/unresolvable targets. Lose: an `isSystem` caller can write a **dangling reference** | `objectql/src/engine.ts:5730` |
-| 24 | Tenant-audit warning silenced; `bypassTenantAudit` threaded to the driver | objectql | Get: unscoped system writes stop warning. Lose: the signal that would flag a genuine user-path scoping bug | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3599`, `:3609`, `:3636` |
+| 22 | Strict-drop refusal never fires | objectql | Lose: a caller that opted into loud refusal gets **silence** — strict refuses exactly what the strip would have taken, and the strip took nothing | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9814`, `readonly-strict-errors.ts:66` |
+| 23 | **Referential-integrity check skipped** | objectql | Get: writes proceed against unreachable/unresolvable targets. Lose: an `isSystem` caller can write a **dangling reference** | `objectql/src/engine.ts:5735` |
+| 24 | Tenant-audit warning silenced; `bypassTenantAudit` threaded to the driver | objectql | Get: unscoped system writes stop warning. Lose: the signal that would flag a genuine user-path scoping bug | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3604`, `:3614`, `:3641` |
 | 25 | Engine-owned / append-only write guard bypassed | plugin-security | Get: generic writes to `managedBy` engine-owned objects | `system-write-guard.ts:96`, `:120` |
 | 26 | Identity write guard bypassed (ADR-0092) | plugin-auth | Get: direct writes to identity tables through the generic data path | `identity-write-guard.ts:98` |
-| 27 | Search-companion column **kept** in a read's rows when it was explicitly requested | objectql | Get: the internal companion column is readable. Lose: nothing for app code — this is the engine reading its own index | `objectql/src/engine.ts:6428` |
-| 28 | Dependent-count disclosure on a blocked delete | objectql | Get: the count of blocking children. Nothing was elevated past the caller, so nothing is withheld | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11662` |
-| 29 | Reference-cleanup log attributes the write to `'system'` | objectql | Get: an honest actor label instead of `anonymous` when the context carries neither `userId` nor `actor` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11591` |
+| 27 | Search-companion column **kept** in a read's rows when it was explicitly requested | objectql | Get: the internal companion column is readable. Lose: nothing for app code — this is the engine reading its own index | `objectql/src/engine.ts:6433` |
+| 28 | Dependent-count disclosure on a blocked delete | objectql | Get: the count of blocking children. Nothing was elevated past the caller, so nothing is withheld | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11742` |
+| 29 | Reference-cleanup log attributes the write to `'system'` | objectql | Get: an honest actor label instead of `anonymous` when the context carries neither `userId` nor `actor` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11671` |
 
 ### 3. Sharing (`plugin-sharing`)
 
@@ -179,8 +179,8 @@ a reader tracing where elevation travels needs them.
 
 | # | Site | Package | What it does |
 |:--|:---|:---|:---|
-| 62 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3406` | objectql | Propagates `isSystem` into the hook session so hooks can tell engine self-writes from user writes |
-| 63 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:14011` | objectql | `ScopedContext.isSystem` getter — re-exposes the underlying execution context's flag |
+| 62 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3411` | objectql | Propagates `isSystem` into the hook session so hooks can tell engine self-writes from user writes |
+| 63 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:14091` | objectql | `ScopedContext.isSystem` getter — re-exposes the underlying execution context's flag |
 | 64 | `plugin-reports/src/report-service.ts:556` | plugin-reports | Threads the flag into the engine call that runs a report |
 | 65 | `body-runner.ts:279` | runtime | Rebuilds an `ExecutionContext` from a hook session, carrying the flag across |
 
@@ -195,7 +195,7 @@ assuming `isSystem` covers it is a documented source of bugs.
 |:---|:---|:---|
 | "It suppresses triggers / record-change automation" | **No.** Only `skipTriggers` does. A bare `{ isSystem: true }` on a seed write re-fired automation on freshly seeded rows and wedged first boot | `metadata-protocol/src/seed-loader.ts:1909` (rationale at `:1819`–`1821`, #3760), `flow.zod.ts:685` |
 | "It skips the state machine" | **No.** That is `skipStateMachine`, carried by seed replay and by `treatAsHistorical` imports | `objectql/src/engine.ts` FSM gate; see [State Machine](/docs/protocol/objectql/state-machine) |
-| "It skips validation rules" | **No.** Field shape, `format`, `script` and the rest still run. The `readonly` strip runs *before* validation precisely so a discarded value is not judged | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9755`–`9772` |
+| "It skips validation rules" | **No.** Field shape, `format`, `script` and the rest still run. The `readonly` strip runs *before* validation precisely so a discarded value is not judged | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9760`–`9777` |
 | "It preserves a supplied `updated_at` / `updated_by`" | **No.** That is `preserveAudit`, a separate opt-in — and an UPDATE-path exemption only | `field.zod.ts:1516` (#3493 / #6640) |
 | "It stamps `created_by`" | **No.** Audit stamping reads `userId` from the context. A user-less system write stamps nothing — that is today's behaviour, not an error | `runtime-identity.ts:280`–`281` |
 | "It bypasses every guard" | **No.** The last-admin guard applies to **every** context, `isSystem` included — the deprovision path that actually locks an org out is the system one | `last-admin-guard.ts:286` |

diff --git a/.changeset/readonly-strip-hook-write-provenance.md b/.changeset/readonly-strip-hook-write-provenance.md
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+---
+"@objectstack/objectql": patch
+---
+
+fix(objectql): decide the read-only strip on hook-write PROVENANCE, so a hook can clear a field the caller also sent (#14088)
+
+`stripReadonlyFields` decided whether a `readonly` field's value came from a
+before-phase hook or from the caller with `Object.is(payload[name],
+supplied[name])`. Value equality cannot carry that question, and this is it
+failing: when both sides hold the same value the comparison cannot separate
+*the hook deliberately wrote it* from *the hook never touched it*, and the two
+demand opposite verdicts. The hook's write was deleted along with the caller's.
+
+**Measured downstream** (published 17.2.0, `duly_task`): a `readonly`
+`completed_at` stamped by a `beforeUpdate` hook on the transition into `done`
+and cleared on the transition out. Reopening a completed task works — unless
+the caller also sends `completed_at: null`, which is exactly what a form
+round-trip of the whole record does. `Object.is(null, null)` is `true`, the
+hook's clear is stripped, and the row commits `status = in_progress` still
+carrying its **old completion timestamp**, with no error. That row is the one
+a validation rule structurally cannot catch ("a completed task must carry a
+completion timestamp" has no purchase on its inverse), nothing downstream can
+tell it from a genuinely completed one, and every on-time metric reading
+`completed_at` counts it.
+
+This is the second failure of one sentence, not a new defect. #5591 / #6339
+retired the key-SET judgement because it made the strip's own written contract
+— "hook-written keys are NOT caller-supplied" — true only *by accident*. Value
+equality is accidental in precisely the same way; `null == null` is just its
+most common collision.
+
+**The repair is provenance, recorded rather than inferred.** A new
+`recordHookPayloadWrites` view is armed over the update payload after the
+caller's entry snapshot and sealed at the engine's post-hook confluence, where
+`hookContext.input.data` is final on **both** update branches. It records only
+the fact that an assignment executed — never the payload's contents — and
+`stripReadonlyFields` now keeps a key a hook demonstrably assigned. Both
+branches consume the one sealed record, so a bulk write and a by-id write can
+never reach different verdicts about who wrote a key.
+
+⛔ **Not a `null` special case.** `0`, `''`, `false` and a shared object
+reference collide identically, and all of them are echoed back by the same
+whole-record write-back idiom. A sentinel fix would have left every one of them
+open.
+
+⛔ **Not a relaxation of #2948 / #3003 / #5503.** A caller-supplied read-only
+value that no hook wrote is still dropped, still warns with the same text, and
+still reports through `onFieldsDropped` / `strictReadonlyWrites`. The
+discriminator is pinned in both directions: the same caller payload
+(`completed_at: null` over a stored timestamp) now **clears** when a hook wrote
+the null and is still **stripped** when no hook did. A caller cannot enter the
+record — echoing a key or a value is not an assignment — so no caller write can
+become hook-owned.
+
+**Known limit, deliberately fail-safe and pinned as a test.** A hook that
+*replaces* the payload object (`ctx.input.data = { ...ctx.input.data, x: 1 }`)
+rather than mutating it leaves no attributable record, and that call falls back
+to the previous value comparison — i.e. it keeps the old over-strip. Reading a
+replacement's keys as hook-owned would launder a caller's forged `created_by`
+into a platform write, so the fallback direction is the only safe one. A hook
+that means to own a read-only column should ASSIGN to it. The pre-existing
+shallow-snapshot limit (a hook mutating a caller-supplied object *in place*) is
+unchanged for the same reason.
diff --git a/content/docs/permissions/system-context.mdx b/content/docs/permissions/system-context.mdx
@@ -109,18 +109,18 @@ that silently does not happen.
 
 | # | Behaviour when `isSystem` | Package | What you get / what you lose | Anchor |
 |:--|:---|:---|:---|:---|
-| 18 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, single row** | objectql | Get: a `readonly` field CAN be written. Lose: the protection that stops a caller seeding e.g. `approval_status` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:10914` |
-| 19 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, bulk/predicate** | objectql | Same, on the multi-row path | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11076` |
-| 20 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (engine pass)** | objectql | Same, on create | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9772` |
+| 18 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, single row** | objectql | Get: a `readonly` field CAN be written. Lose: the protection that stops a caller seeding e.g. `approval_status` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:10981` |
+| 19 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, bulk/predicate** | objectql | Same, on the multi-row path | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11149` |
+| 20 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (engine pass)** | objectql | Same, on create | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9777` |
 | 21 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (protocol ingress)** | metadata-protocol | `isSystem` is the **only** exemption here. `preserveAudit` is deliberately not read on this path (#6640) — a non-system historical import is still stripped on create | `metadata-protocol/src/protocol.ts:1746` |
-| 22 | Strict-drop refusal never fires | objectql | Lose: a caller that opted into loud refusal gets **silence** — strict refuses exactly what the strip would have taken, and the strip took nothing | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9809`, `readonly-strict-errors.ts:66` |
-| 23 | **Referential-integrity check skipped** | objectql | Get: writes proceed against unreachable/unresolvable targets. Lose: an `isSystem` caller can write a **dangling reference** | `objectql/src/engine.ts:5730` |
-| 24 | Tenant-audit warning silenced; `bypassTenantAudit` threaded to the driver | objectql | Get: unscoped system writes stop warning. Lose: the signal that would flag a genuine user-path scoping bug | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3599`, `:3609`, `:3636` |
+| 22 | Strict-drop refusal never fires | objectql | Lose: a caller that opted into loud refusal gets **silence** — strict refuses exactly what the strip would have taken, and the strip took nothing | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9814`, `readonly-strict-errors.ts:66` |
+| 23 | **Referential-integrity check skipped** | objectql | Get: writes proceed against unreachable/unresolvable targets. Lose: an `isSystem` caller can write a **dangling reference** | `objectql/src/engine.ts:5735` |
+| 24 | Tenant-audit warning silenced; `bypassTenantAudit` threaded to the driver | objectql | Get: unscoped system writes stop warning. Lose: the signal that would flag a genuine user-path scoping bug | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3604`, `:3614`, `:3641` |
 | 25 | Engine-owned / append-only write guard bypassed | plugin-security | Get: generic writes to `managedBy` engine-owned objects | `system-write-guard.ts:96`, `:120` |
 | 26 | Identity write guard bypassed (ADR-0092) | plugin-auth | Get: direct writes to identity tables through the generic data path | `identity-write-guard.ts:98` |
-| 27 | Search-companion column **kept** in a read's rows when it was explicitly requested | objectql | Get: the internal companion column is readable. Lose: nothing for app code — this is the engine reading its own index | `objectql/src/engine.ts:6428` |
-| 28 | Dependent-count disclosure on a blocked delete | objectql | Get: the count of blocking children. Nothing was elevated past the caller, so nothing is withheld | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11662` |
-| 29 | Reference-cleanup log attributes the write to `'system'` | objectql | Get: an honest actor label instead of `anonymous` when the context carries neither `userId` nor `actor` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11591` |
+| 27 | Search-companion column **kept** in a read's rows when it was explicitly requested | objectql | Get: the internal companion column is readable. Lose: nothing for app code — this is the engine reading its own index | `objectql/src/engine.ts:6433` |
+| 28 | Dependent-count disclosure on a blocked delete | objectql | Get: the count of blocking children. Nothing was elevated past the caller, so nothing is withheld | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11742` |
+| 29 | Reference-cleanup log attributes the write to `'system'` | objectql | Get: an honest actor label instead of `anonymous` when the context carries neither `userId` nor `actor` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11671` |
 
 ### 3. Sharing (`plugin-sharing`)
 
@@ -179,8 +179,8 @@ a reader tracing where elevation travels needs them.
 
 | # | Site | Package | What it does |
 |:--|:---|:---|:---|
-| 62 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3406` | objectql | Propagates `isSystem` into the hook session so hooks can tell engine self-writes from user writes |
-| 63 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:14011` | objectql | `ScopedContext.isSystem` getter — re-exposes the underlying execution context's flag |
+| 62 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3411` | objectql | Propagates `isSystem` into the hook session so hooks can tell engine self-writes from user writes |
+| 63 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:14091` | objectql | `ScopedContext.isSystem` getter — re-exposes the underlying execution context's flag |
 | 64 | `plugin-reports/src/report-service.ts:556` | plugin-reports | Threads the flag into the engine call that runs a report |
 | 65 | `body-runner.ts:279` | runtime | Rebuilds an `ExecutionContext` from a hook session, carrying the flag across |
 
@@ -195,7 +195,7 @@ assuming `isSystem` covers it is a documented source of bugs.
 |:---|:---|:---|
 | "It suppresses triggers / record-change automation" | **No.** Only `skipTriggers` does. A bare `{ isSystem: true }` on a seed write re-fired automation on freshly seeded rows and wedged first boot | `metadata-protocol/src/seed-loader.ts:1909` (rationale at `:1819`–`1821`, #3760), `flow.zod.ts:685` |
 | "It skips the state machine" | **No.** That is `skipStateMachine`, carried by seed replay and by `treatAsHistorical` imports | `objectql/src/engine.ts` FSM gate; see [State Machine](/docs/protocol/objectql/state-machine) |
-| "It skips validation rules" | **No.** Field shape, `format`, `script` and the rest still run. The `readonly` strip runs *before* validation precisely so a discarded value is not judged | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9755`–`9772` |
+| "It skips validation rules" | **No.** Field shape, `format`, `script` and the rest still run. The `readonly` strip runs *before* validation precisely so a discarded value is not judged | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9760`–`9777` |
 | "It preserves a supplied `updated_at` / `updated_by`" | **No.** That is `preserveAudit`, a separate opt-in — and an UPDATE-path exemption only | `field.zod.ts:1516` (#3493 / #6640) |
 | "It stamps `created_by`" | **No.** Audit stamping reads `userId` from the context. A user-less system write stamps nothing — that is today's behaviour, not an error | `runtime-identity.ts:280`–`281` |
 | "It bypasses every guard" | **No.** The last-admin guard applies to **every** context, `isSystem` included — the deprovision path that actually locks an org out is the system one | `last-admin-guard.ts:286` |

diff --git a/.changeset/readonly-strip-hook-write-provenance.md b/.changeset/readonly-strip-hook-write-provenance.md
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+---
+"@objectstack/objectql": patch
+---
+
+fix(objectql): decide the read-only strip on hook-write PROVENANCE, so a hook can clear a field the caller also sent (#14088)
+
+`stripReadonlyFields` decided whether a `readonly` field's value came from a
+before-phase hook or from the caller with `Object.is(payload[name],
+supplied[name])`. Value equality cannot carry that question, and this is it
+failing: when both sides hold the same value the comparison cannot separate
+*the hook deliberately wrote it* from *the hook never touched it*, and the two
+demand opposite verdicts. The hook's write was deleted along with the caller's.
+
+**Measured downstream** (published 17.2.0, `duly_task`): a `readonly`
+`completed_at` stamped by a `beforeUpdate` hook on the transition into `done`
+and cleared on the transition out. Reopening a completed task works — unless
+the caller also sends `completed_at: null`, which is exactly what a form
+round-trip of the whole record does. `Object.is(null, null)` is `true`, the
+hook's clear is stripped, and the row commits `status = in_progress` still
+carrying its **old completion timestamp**, with no error. That row is the one
+a validation rule structurally cannot catch ("a completed task must carry a
+completion timestamp" has no purchase on its inverse), nothing downstream can
+tell it from a genuinely completed one, and every on-time metric reading
+`completed_at` counts it.
+
+This is the second failure of one sentence, not a new defect. #5591 / #6339
+retired the key-SET judgement because it made the strip's own written contract
+— "hook-written keys are NOT caller-supplied" — true only *by accident*. Value
+equality is accidental in precisely the same way; `null == null` is just its
+most common collision.
+
+**The repair is provenance, recorded rather than inferred.** A new
+`recordHookPayloadWrites` view is armed over the update payload after the
+caller's entry snapshot and sealed at the engine's post-hook confluence, where
+`hookContext.input.data` is final on **both** update branches. It records only
+the fact that an assignment executed — never the payload's contents — and
+`stripReadonlyFields` now keeps a key a hook demonstrably assigned. Both
+branches consume the one sealed record, so a bulk write and a by-id write can
+never reach different verdicts about who wrote a key.
+
+⛔ **Not a `null` special case.** `0`, `''`, `false` and a shared object
+reference collide identically, and all of them are echoed back by the same
+whole-record write-back idiom. A sentinel fix would have left every one of them
+open.
+
+⛔ **Not a relaxation of #2948 / #3003 / #5503.** A caller-supplied read-only
+value that no hook wrote is still dropped, still warns with the same text, and
+still reports through `onFieldsDropped` / `strictReadonlyWrites`. The
+discriminator is pinned in both directions: the same caller payload
+(`completed_at: null` over a stored timestamp) now **clears** when a hook wrote
+the null and is still **stripped** when no hook did. A caller cannot enter the
+record — echoing a key or a value is not an assignment — so no caller write can
+become hook-owned.
+
+**Known limit, deliberately fail-safe and pinned as a test.** A hook that
+*replaces* the payload object (`ctx.input.data = { ...ctx.input.data, x: 1 }`)
+rather than mutating it leaves no attributable record, and that call falls back
+to the previous value comparison — i.e. it keeps the old over-strip. Reading a
+replacement's keys as hook-owned would launder a caller's forged `created_by`
+into a platform write, so the fallback direction is the only safe one. A hook
+that means to own a read-only column should ASSIGN to it. The pre-existing
+shallow-snapshot limit (a hook mutating a caller-supplied object *in place*) is
+unchanged for the same reason.
diff --git a/content/docs/permissions/system-context.mdx b/content/docs/permissions/system-context.mdx
@@ -109,18 +109,18 @@ that silently does not happen.
 
 | # | Behaviour when `isSystem` | Package | What you get / what you lose | Anchor |
 |:--|:---|:---|:---|:---|
-| 18 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, single row** | objectql | Get: a `readonly` field CAN be written. Lose: the protection that stops a caller seeding e.g. `approval_status` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:10914` |
-| 19 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, bulk/predicate** | objectql | Same, on the multi-row path | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11076` |
-| 20 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (engine pass)** | objectql | Same, on create | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9772` |
+| 18 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, single row** | objectql | Get: a `readonly` field CAN be written. Lose: the protection that stops a caller seeding e.g. `approval_status` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:10981` |
+| 19 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — UPDATE, bulk/predicate** | objectql | Same, on the multi-row path | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11149` |
+| 20 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (engine pass)** | objectql | Same, on create | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9777` |
 | 21 | **`readonly` strip bypassed — INSERT (protocol ingress)** | metadata-protocol | `isSystem` is the **only** exemption here. `preserveAudit` is deliberately not read on this path (#6640) — a non-system historical import is still stripped on create | `metadata-protocol/src/protocol.ts:1746` |
-| 22 | Strict-drop refusal never fires | objectql | Lose: a caller that opted into loud refusal gets **silence** — strict refuses exactly what the strip would have taken, and the strip took nothing | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9809`, `readonly-strict-errors.ts:66` |
-| 23 | **Referential-integrity check skipped** | objectql | Get: writes proceed against unreachable/unresolvable targets. Lose: an `isSystem` caller can write a **dangling reference** | `objectql/src/engine.ts:5730` |
-| 24 | Tenant-audit warning silenced; `bypassTenantAudit` threaded to the driver | objectql | Get: unscoped system writes stop warning. Lose: the signal that would flag a genuine user-path scoping bug | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3599`, `:3609`, `:3636` |
+| 22 | Strict-drop refusal never fires | objectql | Lose: a caller that opted into loud refusal gets **silence** — strict refuses exactly what the strip would have taken, and the strip took nothing | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9814`, `readonly-strict-errors.ts:66` |
+| 23 | **Referential-integrity check skipped** | objectql | Get: writes proceed against unreachable/unresolvable targets. Lose: an `isSystem` caller can write a **dangling reference** | `objectql/src/engine.ts:5735` |
+| 24 | Tenant-audit warning silenced; `bypassTenantAudit` threaded to the driver | objectql | Get: unscoped system writes stop warning. Lose: the signal that would flag a genuine user-path scoping bug | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3604`, `:3614`, `:3641` |
 | 25 | Engine-owned / append-only write guard bypassed | plugin-security | Get: generic writes to `managedBy` engine-owned objects | `system-write-guard.ts:96`, `:120` |
 | 26 | Identity write guard bypassed (ADR-0092) | plugin-auth | Get: direct writes to identity tables through the generic data path | `identity-write-guard.ts:98` |
-| 27 | Search-companion column **kept** in a read's rows when it was explicitly requested | objectql | Get: the internal companion column is readable. Lose: nothing for app code — this is the engine reading its own index | `objectql/src/engine.ts:6428` |
-| 28 | Dependent-count disclosure on a blocked delete | objectql | Get: the count of blocking children. Nothing was elevated past the caller, so nothing is withheld | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11662` |
-| 29 | Reference-cleanup log attributes the write to `'system'` | objectql | Get: an honest actor label instead of `anonymous` when the context carries neither `userId` nor `actor` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11591` |
+| 27 | Search-companion column **kept** in a read's rows when it was explicitly requested | objectql | Get: the internal companion column is readable. Lose: nothing for app code — this is the engine reading its own index | `objectql/src/engine.ts:6433` |
+| 28 | Dependent-count disclosure on a blocked delete | objectql | Get: the count of blocking children. Nothing was elevated past the caller, so nothing is withheld | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11742` |
+| 29 | Reference-cleanup log attributes the write to `'system'` | objectql | Get: an honest actor label instead of `anonymous` when the context carries neither `userId` nor `actor` | `objectql/src/engine.ts:11671` |
 
 ### 3. Sharing (`plugin-sharing`)
 
@@ -179,8 +179,8 @@ a reader tracing where elevation travels needs them.
 
 | # | Site | Package | What it does |
 |:--|:---|:---|:---|
-| 62 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3406` | objectql | Propagates `isSystem` into the hook session so hooks can tell engine self-writes from user writes |
-| 63 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:14011` | objectql | `ScopedContext.isSystem` getter — re-exposes the underlying execution context's flag |
+| 62 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:3411` | objectql | Propagates `isSystem` into the hook session so hooks can tell engine self-writes from user writes |
+| 63 | `objectql/src/engine.ts:14091` | objectql | `ScopedContext.isSystem` getter — re-exposes the underlying execution context's flag |
 | 64 | `plugin-reports/src/report-service.ts:556` | plugin-reports | Threads the flag into the engine call that runs a report |
 | 65 | `body-runner.ts:279` | runtime | Rebuilds an `ExecutionContext` from a hook session, carrying the flag across |
 
@@ -195,7 +195,7 @@ assuming `isSystem` covers it is a documented source of bugs.
 |:---|:---|:---|
 | "It suppresses triggers / record-change automation" | **No.** Only `skipTriggers` does. A bare `{ isSystem: true }` on a seed write re-fired automation on freshly seeded rows and wedged first boot | `metadata-protocol/src/seed-loader.ts:1909` (rationale at `:1819`–`1821`, #3760), `flow.zod.ts:685` |
 | "It skips the state machine" | **No.** That is `skipStateMachine`, carried by seed replay and by `treatAsHistorical` imports | `objectql/src/engine.ts` FSM gate; see [State Machine](/docs/protocol/objectql/state-machine) |
-| "It skips validation rules" | **No.** Field shape, `format`, `script` and the rest still run. The `readonly` strip runs *before* validation precisely so a discarded value is not judged | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9755`–`9772` |
+| "It skips validation rules" | **No.** Field shape, `format`, `script` and the rest still run. The `readonly` strip runs *before* validation precisely so a discarded value is not judged | `objectql/src/engine.ts:9760`–`9777` |
 | "It preserves a supplied `updated_at` / `updated_by`" | **No.** That is `preserveAudit`, a separate opt-in — and an UPDATE-path exemption only | `field.zod.ts:1516` (#3493 / #6640) |
 | "It stamps `created_by`" | **No.** Audit stamping reads `userId` from the context. A user-less system write stamps nothing — that is today's behaviour, not an error | `runtime-identity.ts:280`–`281` |
 | "It bypasses every guard" | **No.** The last-admin guard applies to **every** context, `isSystem` included — the deprovision path that actually locks an org out is the system one | `last-admin-guard.ts:286` |