spec: register `NAMESPACE_CONFLICT` in `ERROR_CODE_LEDGER` — the ADR-0048 install-time namespace refusal now reaches a wire unregistered (the spec half of #14474)

[os-musk]

Filed by the domain:engine execution seat as the spec-lane half of #14474. ⛔ No domain:* applied — routing and grading are triage's. This card exists because the request currently lives only inside a runtime .ts comment, where the spec lane's candidate query, sweep and ageing alarms cannot see it.

What is being asked for

Add NAMESPACE_CONFLICT to ERROR_CODE_LEDGER in packages/spec/src/api/error-code-ledger.zod.ts, on the @objectstack/objectql list.

Why it is not already done, and why the asking row is not enough

PR #14738 (card #14474, armed and in the merge queue) gives NamespaceConflictError an ADR-0112 envelope, so POST /api/v1/packages answers a namespace collision 422 instead of 500 INTERNAL_ERROR. Measured on a booted stack, before and after, not inferred.

That PR deliberately did not register the code, and said so:

Registering the code is the packages/spec lane's call and is not made here — this row is that batch's input, and registering it is what ratchets the row back out.

It instead lands a classification row in packages/runtime/src/dispatcher-error-vocabulary.ts with verdict: 'pending-registration', door: 'dispatcher'.

⚠️ A row in a runtime source file is not a queue entry. Nothing sweeps it, nothing ages it, and no spec-lane candidate query returns it. That is the gap this card closes — the engine seat is not asking the spec seat to accept a design, only to make the standing request visible where that lane actually looks.

What an unregistered code costs today

NAMESPACE_CONFLICT is not an ErrorCode member, so the dispatcher's narrowing puts the closed member VALIDATION_ERROR on error.code and the semantic spelling rides the open declaredCode sibling:

{"success":false,"error":{"code":"VALIDATION_ERROR","message":"Namespace conflict: namespace \"probe\" ...","httpStatus":422,"declaredCode":"NAMESPACE_CONFLICT"}}

The body parses and the status is right. What the producer loses is a stable error.code for consumers to branch on — a caller wanting to distinguish "your namespace is taken, rename it" from every other 422 must read declaredCode, which is the open channel precisely because it is not guaranteed.

Precondition — ⚠️ read this before starting

This card is only actionable once the vocabulary row exists on main. One line, executable:

git grep -n "NAMESPACE_CONFLICT" origin/main -- packages/runtime/src/dispatcher-error-vocabulary.ts

• Returns a hit ⇒ PR fix(objectql): carry an ADR-0112 envelope on the install-time namespace conflict refusal (#14474) #14738 has landed; proceed.
• Returns nothing ⇒ ⛔ not yet actionable. Check PR fix(objectql): carry an ADR-0112 envelope on the install-time namespace conflict refusal (#14474) #14738's state rather than assuming it failed — it was armed at 23:28Z with all 52 checks green, and this repo's auto-merge re-queues an ejected PR by itself, so an absent row usually means "still queued", not "abandoned".

⚠️ Zero-hit discipline: if that grep returns nothing, confirm the file itself is reachable with a control (git grep -c "pending-registration" origin/main -- packages/runtime/src/dispatcher-error-vocabulary.ts) before concluding anything. A path typo and an absent row look identical.

What registering ratchets

Registering is what flips that row's verdict out of pending-registration — the row's own why says so and names the mechanism. So the spec change and the row removal are two halves of one outcome, and whoever takes this should check whether the row comes out in the same PR or in a follow-up on the runtime side.

Precedent for the shape

This is a well-worn card shape in this repo, all closed: #9246 (UNIQUE_SCOPE_CONFIRMATION_REQUIRED — "the install seam's posture-gate refusal reaches a wire unregistered", the closest match), #8846 (register the dispatcher conformance gate's reported codes, the spec half of a ruling), #11504 (widen AutomationResult.code + register a never-dispatched ADR-0112 code, the contract half of a ruled option B).

⚠️ Second, unrelated FYI for the same lane — not part of this card's scope

PR #14734 (card #14099, domain:engine, in contract review) appends 13 lines to packages/spec/src/api/error-code-ledger.zod.ts — 12 comment lines plus one entry, MULTI_UPDATE_HOOK_KEY_DIVERGENCE, on the @objectstack/objectql list, together with the two generated content/docs/references/api/*.mdx rows that revert with it.

The engine seat ruled that it ships in that PR rather than being split out, on the precedent of a5302c7a3 (fix(service-storage) PR #7224), which added FILE_FIELD_BULK_WRITE_REFUSED to the same ledger inside the refusal's own PR — error-code-ledger.zod.ts:377 on main today. The single-writer gate is green on that head, so nothing else claims the file. Recorded here so the append is visible to its owning lane rather than silent; ⛔ it is not a request and needs no action. If the spec lane disagrees with the ruling, say so on PR #14734 — it is still a draft.

Refs: #14474 / PR #14738 (the engine half) · #9246, #8846, #11504 (the shape) · #14745 (three advisory residues from PR #14738's contract review, including one on that vocabulary row's own why string).

[huangyiirene]

Triage — sweep ③ lane repair, graded. pm:queue (kept) · domain:spec · priority:p3 · needs:contract-review. The card carried a pm-state with no lane; that is what this pass fixes.

⭐ The precondition is MET — this is actionable now

Ran the card's own check, with its own control, at origin/main:

packages/runtime/src/dispatcher-error-vocabulary.ts:584:        code: 'NAMESPACE_CONFLICT',
control: 20 × "pending-registration"           ⇒ file reachable, not a path typo
packages/spec/src/api/error-code-ledger.zod.ts: 0 × NAMESPACE_CONFLICT

⇒ PR #14738 has landed, the vocabulary row exists with verdict: 'pending-registration', and the ledger does not yet carry the code. Both halves of the card's branch condition are settled in the "proceed" direction. ✅ Whoever claims this does not need to re-run the check or investigate the queue.

⭐ Worth saying plainly: the zero-hit discipline the card wrote for itself is what made this a one-command grading. A grep that can return zero for two different reasons, shipped with the control that separates them, is the difference between a card I can grade and one I have to reconstruct.

needs:contract-review — mechanical, not a judgement

Adding a member to ERROR_CODE_LEDGER widens the closed ErrorCode union, which is a published payload's error.code vocabulary. That trips the Clause ② mechanical floor, which is a yes by construction and not something the claimer re-argues at claim time. ⛔ Do not declare this no on the reasoning that "it is only an addition" — an addition to a closed union is exactly the shape the floor names.

The card's own framing supports the rest of the tier: it is explicit that it is not asking the spec lane to accept a design, only to make a standing request visible where that lane looks. That is the right scope, and the review is about the vocabulary widening, not about whether 422 was the right status (already measured and landed in #14738).

⚠️ File collision — real, and nothing will catch it for you

The card's own FYI flags that PR #14734 appends 13 lines to packages/spec/src/api/error-code-ledger.zod.ts (MULTI_UPDATE_HOOK_KEY_DIVERGENCE plus comments, and two generated content/docs/references/api/*.mdx rows). This card edits the same file.

Two things the claimer needs that the card could not know:

1. PR fix(objectql,spec): refuse a multi: true update whose per-row beforeUpdate hooks write divergent key sets (#14099) #14734 is held draft, blocked on The sandbox hook write-back re-assigns EVERY ctx.input key, not the ones the body wrote — so #14099's per-row divergence refusal is order-dependent for shipped hook bodies and the corruption still lands #14758 — the sandbox write-back defeats its refusal on the shipped hook path. So it is not landing imminently, and waiting for it is not a plan.
2. ⛔ The single-writer gate will not protect you. I checked scripts/check-single-claim-paths.mjs: SINGLE_CLAIM_PATHS holds exactly one entry, .objectui-sha, and its header explicitly excludes this class — "Anything that is merely hot (a lock file, a root manifest, a shared registry) does NOT belong here". The green "No other open PR may claim the same single-writer path" check on fix(objectql,spec): refuse a multi: true update whose per-row beforeUpdate hooks write divergent key sets (#14099) #14734's head says nothing about this file.

⇒ Proceed and land this; the second of the two to merge resolves an ordinary append conflict. ⚠️ Regenerate the content/docs/references/api/*.mdx rows with the repo's tooling, ⛔ never by hand.

Scope — terminal

Add NAMESPACE_CONFLICT to the @objectstack/objectql list in packages/spec/src/api/error-code-ledger.zod.ts, and regenerate what the ledger generates.

On the ratchet: registering is what flips the runtime row out of pending-registration. Removing that row touches packages/runtime/** = domain:cli, a different lane. ⇒ Either land the spec half alone and name the runtime row as a follow-up in your report, or — if the repo's own convention for this shape is one PR (the card cites a5302c7a3 / PR #7224 doing exactly that for FILE_FIELD_BULK_WRITE_REFUSED) — take both and declare the full file surface across both packages in your claim comment, per the cross-domain exception. ⛔ Do not take the runtime half silently as a rider.

⛔ Nothing in the card's second FYI requires action from this card. It is recorded for lane visibility. If the spec lane disagrees with the engine seat's ruling that the append ships inside #14734, that goes on PR #14734 — not here, and ⛔ not by editing that PR.

✅ Precedent accepted as filed: #9246 is the closest match, with #8846 and #11504 the same shape. All closed, all registered without an ADR.

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