diff --git a/internal/cli/interactive.go b/internal/cli/interactive.go
index 29d77f8e..fe357947 100644
--- a/internal/cli/interactive.go
+++ b/internal/cli/interactive.go
@@ -198,26 +198,14 @@ func resolveFamily(p *ui.Printer, pr prompter, path string) (push.Family, error)
 		return s.Family, nil
 	}
 	p.PromptHint("We couldn't tell the data type from what's there — which is it?")
+	opts := push.FamilyNouns()
 	ans, err := pr.Select("What kind of data is this?",
 		"tabular = a CSV table; image = labels.csv + images/; text = labels.csv + texts/",
-		[]string{"tabular", "image", "text"}, "tabular")
+		opts, opts[0])
 	if err != nil {
 		return 0, err
 	}
-	return familyFromNoun(ans), nil
-}
-
-// familyFromNoun maps the plain family words the picker offers back to the
-// push.Family enum.
-func familyFromNoun(s string) push.Family {
-	switch s {
-	case "image":
-		return push.FamilyImage
-	case "text":
-		return push.FamilyText
-	default:
-		return push.FamilyTabular
-	}
+	return push.FamilyFromNoun(ans), nil
 }
 
 // pickTask renders the family's tasks — "Display name — one-liner ·
diff --git a/internal/push/category.go b/internal/push/category.go
index d9385ddb..e22aebc2 100644
--- a/internal/push/category.go
+++ b/internal/push/category.go
@@ -146,17 +146,56 @@ func CategoriesByFamily(fam Family) []CategorySpec {
 	return out
 }
 
+// familyNounTable is the single source of truth pairing each Family with the
+// plain word shown in prompts, echoes, and the interactive family picker. The
+// slice order is the picker's display order — tabular first, since it's the
+// most common family and the default when the layout sniff is ambiguous. That
+// order is deliberately NOT the Family iota order (which is layout-internal).
+// FamilyNoun (forward), FamilyFromNoun (reverse), and FamilyNouns (picker
+// options + default) all derive from this one table, so they can't drift apart.
+var familyNounTable = []struct {
+	family Family
+	noun   string
+}{
+	{FamilyTabular, "tabular"},
+	{FamilyImage, "image"},
+	{FamilyText, "text"},
+}
+
 // FamilyNoun is the plain word for a family, used in prompts and echoes
-// ("tasks for tabular data", "this is image data").
+// ("tasks for tabular data", "this is image data"). Falls back to the picker
+// default ("tabular") for an unrecognized family.
 func FamilyNoun(fam Family) string {
-	switch fam {
-	case FamilyImage:
-		return "image"
-	case FamilyText:
-		return "text"
-	default:
-		return "tabular"
+	for _, e := range familyNounTable {
+		if e.family == fam {
+			return e.noun
+		}
+	}
+	return "tabular"
+}
+
+// FamilyFromNoun maps a family noun ("image"/"text"/"tabular") back to its
+// Family — the reverse of FamilyNoun. Unrecognized input falls back to
+// FamilyTabular, matching the picker default so a stray answer degrades to the
+// safe common case.
+func FamilyFromNoun(noun string) Family {
+	for _, e := range familyNounTable {
+		if e.noun == noun {
+			return e.family
+		}
+	}
+	return FamilyTabular
+}
+
+// FamilyNouns returns the family nouns in picker/display order; the first
+// element is the choice the picker pre-selects. The interactive family
+// prompt derives both its options and its default from here.
+func FamilyNouns() []string {
+	nouns := make([]string, len(familyNounTable))
+	for i, e := range familyNounTable {
+		nouns[i] = e.noun
 	}
+	return nouns
 }
 
 // SelfSupervisedText reports whether a text category trains without an