Validation on Bard field not working

[tognolini-ecom]

Bug description

Validation gets bypassed on Bard field when editing entry if the Bard field is filled with some text and then immediately (and manually) that field is emptied.

How to reproduce

• Create a simple collection (eg "Books") and add a Bard field to that collection blueprint. Make Bard field required.
• Now: create a book entry, fill entry title, fill the Bard with some random text, hit save, everything works as expected.
• If then you edit that entry, erase content in the Bard and hit save, validation works as expected.
• But then if you fill again the Bard with some content, and then immediately erase that content and then hit save, validation gets bypassed, and the entry is saved.
• Bard field's handle is not using any of the reserved words detailed in the docs https://statamic.dev/tips/reserved-words

screen-recording-2025-07-29.mp4

Logs

Environment

Environment
Application Name: Statamic
Laravel Version: 12.21.0
PHP Version: 8.4.10
Composer Version: 2.8.10
Environment: local
Debug Mode: ENABLED
URL: statamic-bard.test
Maintenance Mode: OFF
Timezone: UTC
Locale: en

Cache
Config: NOT CACHED
Events: NOT CACHED
Routes: NOT CACHED
Views: CACHED

Drivers
Broadcasting: log
Cache: file
Database: sqlite
Logs: stack / single
Mail: log
Queue: sync
Session: file

Storage
public/storage: NOT LINKED

Statamic
Addons: 0
Sites: 1
Stache Watcher: Enabled (auto)
Static Caching: Disabled
Version: 5.61.0 PRO

Installation

Fresh statamic/statamic site via CLI

Additional details

No response