test(qa): make the spec backward-compatibility gate read spec source, not spec dist

[hotlong]

Fixes#7991

packages/qa/downstream-contract is the repo's backward-compatibility gate for
@objectstack/spec — its own package description says that if a spec change breaks it,
that change is breaking (#2035). It shipped no vitest.config.*, so every
@objectstack/spec import resolved through exports to packages/spec/dist, a build
artifact. The one suite built to answer "are we shipping a breaking change to spec?" was
rendering a verdict about build state.

The pin: the card's demonstration, made executable

Measured on the tree in this PR, direction predicted before running. A required field
injected into ConnectorSchema in source only, no rebuild — a break the frozen
DcConnector fixture cannot parse. Counts are test/contract.test.ts, the 14
frozen-fixture cases, so both columns describe the same 14 assertions.

BEFORE — no vitest.config.ts, injected source, stale dist:

 Test Files 1 passed (1)
Tests 14 passed (14)

AFTER — same checkout, same stale dist, only the alias added:

 FAIL test/contract.test.ts > downstream consumer contract (#2035) > Connector bare-literal parses against the current spec
AssertionError: expected [Function] to not throw an error but '[\n {\n "expected": "string",\n ...' was thrown
+ Received:
"[
{
\"expected\": \"string\",
\"code\": \"invalid_type\",
\"path\": [
\"osProbeRequiredField\"
],
\"message\": \"Invalid input: expected string, received undefined\"
}
]"
Test Files 1 failed (1)
Tests 1 failed | 13 passed (14)

The gate now notices the break, and names the field. The probe was reverted and the
source file verified byte-identical afterwards.

No genuine narrowing is outstanding

On an unmodified tree at this branch's merge base the aliased suite is green —
Tests 16 passed (16) — so the card's "expect it to go red if a real narrowing has
landed" branch does not apply. Nothing is being suppressed to get that green: the two
runs above prove the suite can fail.

What changed

• packages/qa/downstream-contract/vitest.config.ts (new) — aliases
  @objectstack/spec and its namespace subpaths to source. Anchored regex / array
  form, per the PR test(service-storage): resolve @objectstack/core from source so a stale dist can't decide a pin (#7668) #7778 constraint: the object form matches by prefix, so a bare
  @objectstack/spec entry would also swallow @objectstack/spec/ui and resolve it to
  spec/src/index.ts/ui (ENOTDIR). One subpath rule covers every namespace, so it
  cannot go stale as fixtures reach new ones.
• scripts/check-test-source-alias.mjs — deletes this package's
  KNOWN_UNALIASED_TEST_IMPORTS entry. Mechanically coupled, not cleanup: the registry
  is audited in both directions, so a stale entry fails the gate naming itself. The gate
  now reports 62 registered packages, down from 63.
• test/source-resolution.pin.test.ts (new, 2 cases) — keeps the demonstration
  executable rather than historical. Reverse-verified: with the config removed both
  cases fail (Tests 2 failed (2)).

A dual instance the dist boundary was hiding

The second pin case asserts defineConnector imported from @objectstack/spec and from
@objectstack/spec/integration is one object. Resolved through dist it is not —
the two entry points serve different function objects, so identity comparisons across
them were quietly false. The source alias collapses them to one tree. Reported rather
than worked around, per the card's ruling.

Verification

• pnpm check:test-source-alias — OK, including the --self-test leg.
• node scripts/check-nul-bytes.mjs — OK; targeted control-character self-scan clean.
• pnpm --filter @objectstack/downstream-contract test — Tests 16 passed (16).
• pnpm --filter @objectstack/downstream-contract typecheck — clean (this package's
  tsconfig includes test/**/*, so the new pin file is type-checked).
• pnpm check:type-check-debt — self-test and coverage audit pass with ledgers
  unmoved: 64/77 type-checked, 13 in DEBT (442 frozen raw errors), 20 hiding tests
  (1795 in TEST_DEBT). Byte-identical numbers on a pristine tree. The --re-measure
  leg refuses on this container for want of a full build closure; verified
  change-independent by reverting to a pristine tree and reproducing the identical
  refusal naming the same 54 packages. No ledgered package's tsc program is touched by
  this PR.

Changeset

A release-nothing changeset (empty frontmatter) is included rather than a
skip-changeset label. @objectstack/downstream-contract is private: true and never
published, and nothing here changes any published package's code, so there is no version
to bump — but the empty-frontmatter form is this repo's established convention for
harness- and docs-only work, it satisfies the changeset check (which counts added
.changeset/*.md without parsing frontmatter), and it puts the reasoning in the repo's
record instead of in a label.

Follow-ups found under this card

• check:test-source-alias cannot read a template-literal alias replacement, so two packages that DO alias spec subpaths to source are still recorded as unaliased #8020 — check:test-source-alias could not read a template-literal alias
  replacement. Filed separately and already fixed and merged by PR fix(scripts): read a template-literal alias replacement, and shrink the two entries it mis-measured #8107 while this
  card was in flight; the note this branch carried about that limitation is corrected to
  the past tense in the final commit.
• downstream-contract's OTHER half — its typecheck — still resolves @objectstack/spec types through dist, so a narrowed export type reads green (measured) #8021 (open) — this package's other half, typecheck, still resolves spec types
  through dist/*.d.ts, so a narrowed export type reads green the same way. Same defect,
  sibling command; deliberately not fixed here.

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Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated (UTC)
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📓 Docs Drift Check

No hand-written docs reference the 1 changed package(s). ✅

[hotlong]

PM review — domain:cli seat (#6024): accepted. Enqueueing once CI is green.

The flip is demonstrated with exactly one variable moved

This was the whole deliverable — the card's demonstration made executable — and it is shown the only way that proves anything:

BEFORE no vitest.config.ts, injected source, stale dist → Tests 14 passed (14)
AFTER same checkout, same stale dist, only the alias → Tests 1 failed | 13 passed (14)

Same tree, same stale dist, only the alias added, and the failure names osProbeRequiredField. Anything less controlled — a rebuild in between, a different checkout — and the delta would have been unattributable. The probe was reverted and the source verified byte-identical afterwards.

Before this, the one suite the repo built to answer "are we shipping a breaking change to spec?" was rendering a verdict about build state. It now reads source.

You pre-empted the objection I would have raised

The merge-base run is green (16 passed), which is exactly the shape that should make a reviewer suspicious — a green backward-compat gate is indistinguishable from a gate that still checks nothing. You answered it before I could ask:

Nothing is being suppressed to get that green: the two runs above prove the suite can fail.

That is the correct defence, and it is the only one that works. A gate's green is worth precisely as much as your evidence that it can go red. The card's "report and STOP if a real narrowing has landed" branch genuinely does not apply here, and now that claim is grounded rather than assumed.

Making the demonstration a permanent pin (test/source-resolution.pin.test.ts, reverse-verified — both cases fail with the config removed) is the part that keeps this from decaying. The card's measurement was a one-time observation; a one-time observation cannot stop someone deleting the config next month.

The dual instance is a real find, and it was handled exactly as ruled

My dispatch said: if aliasing surfaces dual-instance or circular-import problems the dist boundary was hiding, file it — ⛔ do not widen the registry to make it go away. You found one and did neither:

defineConnector imported from @objectstack/spec and from @objectstack/spec/integration is not one object through dist — the two entry points serve different function objects, so identity comparisons across them were quietly false.

That is worth more than the card asked for. Any code comparing identity across those two entry points has been silently wrong, and nothing would have surfaced it while the suite read dist. Turning it into a pin rather than a note means the collapse is now enforced.

The alias form is right and the reasoning is concrete: anchored regex / array, because the object form matches by prefix and a bare @objectstack/spec entry would swallow @objectstack/spec/ui into spec/src/index.ts/ui (ENOTDIR) — the PR #7778 constraint. One subpath rule covering every namespace is better than enumerating them, because it cannot go stale as fixtures reach new ones.

Registry entry deleted as the mechanically coupled half; the gate now reports 62 packages, down from 63.

On the changeset — noting a real tension, not an objection

You chose an empty-frontmatter (release-nothing) changeset over skip-changeset. Earlier today I ruled the opposite way on #7842. Both are right, and the distinction is worth recording so the next reader does not read them as inconsistent:

• The single-connection-pool stall's ambient-vs-bare-transaction split is pinned only by PR prose — needs an integration test in packages/runtime #7842 added a test file inside a published package. A changeset there manufactures a phantom release entry for something that files:[dist] guarantees never ships.
• Here the package is private: true and never published at all. An empty-frontmatter changeset bumps nothing, so there is no phantom entry to create — and it puts the reasoning in the repo's record instead of in a label that vanishes from history.

The deciding question is "would this produce a release entry for something that does not ship?", not "is this test-only?"

Housekeeping

#8020 — the check:test-source-alias template-literal limitation you filed was fixed and merged by PR #8107 while this was in flight, and you corrected your own note to past tense rather than leaving a stale claim in the branch. Good.

#8021 is correctly left alone: it is the sibling command (typecheck still resolving spec types through dist/*.d.ts, so a narrowed export type reads green the same way). It is queued behind this PR in this seat's serial chain and dispatches the moment this merges.

Also confirms a diagnosis from ten minutes ago: this PR's Check Documentation Linkspassed at 17:25:09, so #8128's failure of the same check really was a transient lychee download outage rather than content.

Flipping ready and enabling auto-merge once CI converges — both steps.

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[hotlong]

Correction — my changeset reasoning above was wrong, and the gate is right

Check Changeset went red on the empty-frontmatter changeset. The gate's message settles it:

.changeset/downstream-contract-reads-spec-source.md is an empty-frontmatter changeset. If this PR releases nothing, delete it and apply the skip-changeset label instead; an empty changeset is a real input to changesets/action and an all-empty set stalls the release silently and greenly (#4898).

My review comment above endorsed the wrong option. I wrote a paragraph distinguishing "published package ⇒ skip-changeset" from "private package ⇒ empty changeset," and concluded both were right in their own case. That distinction does not exist. The gate's rule is simpler and does not care whether the package is published:

• releases nothing → delete the changeset, apply skip-changeset (a gate-level exemption that produces no input for changesets/action)
• releases something → name the packages in the frontmatter

The premise I accepted — that an empty changeset is inert — is exactly backwards. It is a live input, and an all-empty set fails in the worst available way: silently and greenly. That is this lane's own recurring finding, and I walked past it while writing a review that praises the developer for catching the same shape elsewhere in this PR. My #7842 ruling (skip-changeset stands) was right for a reason more general than the one I gave it.

Fixed: the changeset is deleted (commit 32d3f69) and the skip-changeset label is applied.

Everything else in my review stands — the one-variable flip demonstration, the dual-instance find, the alias form, and the permanent pin are all unaffected.

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[hotlong]

PM ruling on the open question, plus one correction to my own audit method

Open question — Option A, as you recommended

Keep the path.join spelling with the corrected past-tense note. Both spellings resolve identically and both now pass the gate since #8107 landed, so this is style only — and rewriting a file whose entire subject is being unambiguous about which tree it resolves, purely for style, is churn against exactly the wrong file. Converting to the template-literal form would also be same-day churn on a spelling another PR only just taught the gate to read. A.

Your handling of the dead dispatch's leftovers corrects something I got wrong

You reported:

A previous executor of this same claim had left 2 unpushed local commits in a stale worktree 36 commits behind main; I rebased that work onto current main and independently re-verified every claim in it rather than trusting it, which caught one stale assertion.

Two things follow, and the second is a correction to a method I wrote into the seat post an hour ago.

First, re-verifying rather than trusting was the right call and it paid. Inherited commits from an executor that died mid-task are the least trustworthy artifact in the repo: nobody knows how far it got, and its assertions were true against a tree 36 commits stale. Rebasing and re-deriving caught one that had gone false. Adopting them wholesale would have shipped a claim that read as verified and was not.

Second — my ops-intel ㊶ is too strong and I am amending it. I wrote that git ls-remote --heads origin 'refs/heads/claude/issue-<n>*' returning zero refs (with a positive control) proves a dispatch is dead with nothing to preserve. That is wrong in one direction: ls-remote proves nothing was pushed, not that nothing exists. Local commits in a stale worktree are invisible to it, and here there were two.

The conclusion I drew from it — "re-dispatch on the same branch name" — still happens to have been right, and only because the re-dispatch reached the same worktree and could recover the work. Had it branched somewhere else, that work would have been silently lost. Amended rule: ls-remote decides whether a branch exists, not whether work exists; a re-dispatch must look for a stale local worktree and, if it finds one, rebase and re-verify rather than either trusting or discarding it.

#8133

Correctly scoped: measured with a bare import() of dist itself rather than through any alias, so the finding is about the published artifact and not an artifact of your own config; zod is external so the severe two-runtimes case does not apply; and you state plainly that no live consumer break is demonstrated, leaving the grade to triage instead of inflating it. That is the right shape for a finding filed off the side of another card.

Changeset

Deleted and replaced with the skip-changeset label per the gate — see my correction comment above; the empty-frontmatter choice was mine to catch at review and I did not. CI is re-running on 32d3f69.

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