fix(lint): every stack.objects reader skips a non-record entry, so no authoring rule throws on the publish door

.changeset/lint-non-record-objects-readers.md

@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+---
+"@objectstack/lint": patch
+---
+
+fix(lint): every `stack.objects` reader skips a non-record entry, so no authoring rule throws on the publish door
+
+A `null` member of `stack.objects` — what an empty YAML list item
+deserialises to, and what a partial editor write leaves behind — crashed
+13 of the 42 `AUTHORING_RULES` with
+`TypeError: Cannot read properties of null (reading 'name')`. The
+authoring rules are pure `(stack) => Finding[]` (ADR-0019) and run on the
+RAW `lint` path as well as the parsed one, so nothing upstream had judged
+the entry's shape. At the runtime publish gate they are called inside the
+gate rather than behind a try/catch of their own, so the throw was an
+exception on a WRITE path, not a skipped finding; on the CLI, `os lint` /
+`os validate` / `os compile` died on the first one instead of reporting
+the stack.
+
+The repair before this one guarded ONE seam — the object-graph index every
+field-path rule opens with. The crash stood at fourteen more readers of
+the same collection, each a hand-copied `asArray` whose array branch was
+an unchecked `v as AnyRec[]`. Copies are why: the defensive spelling was
+already present in about a dozen siblings and absent in the rest, so
+fixing one left the others answering the old way.
+
+So the copies are gone. `recordsOf` — the guarded reader, exported from
+`object-graph.ts` and package-private — is now the one coercion from a
+collection authored as an array OR as a name-keyed map into the records it
+holds, and fifteen files call it:
+
+- `validate-expressions.ts`, `validate-list-view-mode.ts`,
+  `validate-widget-bindings.ts`, `filter-walk.ts`,
+  `validate-object-references.ts`, `validate-record-title.ts`,
+  `validate-form-layout.ts`, `lint-autonumber-formats.ts`,
+  `lint-view-refs.ts`, `validate-org-axis-red-lines.ts`,
+  `validate-sharing-rule-enforceability.ts` — the eleven sites that threw.
+- `validate-searchable-fields.ts`'s `indexObjectSearchTargets` and
+  `validate-page-field-bindings.ts`'s `indexObjectFields` — two shared
+  indexers inside the reference-integrity suite, each in front of two
+  rules and both hidden behind whichever suite member threw first.
+- `object-field-groups.ts`'s `indexObjectFieldGroups`, which the
+  re-measure surfaced only once the eleven above stopped throwing.
+- `validate-security-posture.ts`, the one that never threw: an `[]`
+  member passed its `typeof v === 'object'` read and drew a second
+  `security-owd-unset` at `object "(object 0)"` — an `error` about an
+  entry no author wrote.
+
+The verdict is a SKIP, not a finding, matching the seam it extends: a junk
+`objects` member is a SHAPE defect and belongs to the schema, every rule
+already re-answers the question in its own per-object guard, and reporting
+it at the reader would emit one finding per member for one bad entry. On
+the name-keyed map shape a member whose VALUE is unreadable keeps its key
+(`{ name }`) — the author named it, only its body is illegible.
+
+No rule tier, id, message or accept-set changes. A valid object standing
+beside a junk one is judged exactly as it is judged alone; only a path
+index moves, and only for the rules that index `objects` raw, where
+`objects[1]` is the honest position.

packages/lint/src/filter-walk.ts

@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@
  */
 
 import { VALID_AST_OPERATORS } from '@objectstack/spec/data';
+import { recordsOf } from './object-graph.js';
 
 /** Any plain metadata record. */
 type AnyRec = Record<string, unknown>;
@@ -84,19 +85,6 @@ export interface AuthoredFilter {
   where: string;
 }
 
-/**
- * Coerce a collection (array or name-keyed map) to an array of records,
- * injecting `name` from the map key — so a rule works on both the parsed
- * (array) and normalized (map) stack shapes.
- */
-function asArray(v: unknown): AnyRec[] {
-  if (Array.isArray(v)) return v as AnyRec[];
-  if (v && typeof v === 'object') {
-    return Object.entries(v as AnyRec).map(([name, def]) => ({ name, ...(def as AnyRec) }));
-  }
-  return [];
-}
-
 function label(v: unknown, fallback: string): string {
   return typeof v === 'string' && v.length > 0 ? v : fallback;
 }
@@ -150,7 +138,7 @@ export function walkAuthoredFilters(
   if (!stack || typeof stack !== 'object') return;
 
   for (const { key, kind } of surfaces) {
-    const items = asArray((stack as AnyRec)[key]);
+    const items = recordsOf((stack as AnyRec)[key]);
     items.forEach((item, i) => {
       const name = label(item.name ?? item.id, `#${i}`);
       if (kind === 'dashboard') {

packages/lint/src/lint-autonumber-formats.ts

@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
  */
 
 import { parseAutonumberFormat, referencedFields } from '@objectstack/spec/data';
+import { recordsOf } from './object-graph.js';
 
 export interface AutonumberLintFinding {
   where: string;
@@ -38,23 +39,15 @@ export const AUTONUMBER_OPTIONAL_FIELD = 'autonumber-references-optional-field';
 export const AUTONUMBER_SELF_REFERENCE = 'autonumber-references-self';
 export const AUTONUMBER_LITERAL_TOKEN = 'autonumber-unrecognized-token';
 
-function asArray(v: unknown): AnyRec[] {
-  if (Array.isArray(v)) return v as AnyRec[];
-  if (v && typeof v === 'object') {
-    return Object.entries(v as AnyRec).map(([name, def]) => ({ name, ...(def as AnyRec) }));
-  }
-  return [];
-}
-
 /**
  * Lint every `autonumber` field's format for unresolvable / fragile `{field}`
  * interpolation. Returns a (possibly empty) list of findings; never throws.
  */
 export function lintAutonumberFormats(stack: AnyRec): AutonumberLintFinding[] {
   const findings: AutonumberLintFinding[] = [];
-  for (const obj of asArray(stack.objects)) {
+  for (const obj of recordsOf(stack.objects)) {
     const objectName = typeof obj.name === 'string' ? obj.name : '(unnamed object)';
-    const fields = asArray(obj.fields);
+    const fields = recordsOf(obj.fields);
     // name → required?, for schema-aware reference checks.
     const fieldMeta = new Map<string, { required: boolean }>();
     for (const f of fields) {

packages/lint/src/lint-view-refs.ts

@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@
  */
 
 import { expandViewContainerWithDiagnostics, isAggregatedViewContainer } from '@objectstack/spec';
-import { listNames, suggestName } from './object-graph.js';
+import { listNames, recordsOf, suggestName } from './object-graph.js';
 
 export interface ViewRefFinding {
   where: string;
@@ -90,14 +90,6 @@ export interface ViewRefFinding {
 
 type AnyRec = Record<string, any>;
 
-/** Normalise a record-or-map metadata slot into an array, injecting `name` from
- *  the map key (mirrors the helper in the sibling authoring lints). */
-function asArray(v: unknown): AnyRec[] {
-  if (Array.isArray(v)) return v as AnyRec[];
-  if (v && typeof v === 'object') return Object.entries(v as AnyRec).map(([name, def]) => ({ name, ...(def as AnyRec) }));
-  return [];
-}
-
 export const VIEW_KEY_COLLISION = 'view-key-collision';
 export const VIEW_REF_FORM_TARGET_MISSING = 'view-ref-form-target-missing';
 export const VIEW_REF_FORM_TARGET_KIND = 'view-ref-form-target-kind';
@@ -185,7 +177,7 @@ export function lintViewRefs(stack: AnyRec): ViewRefFinding[] {
 
   // 1) Gather every aggregated container: top-level `views` + object-nested.
   const containers: Array<{ object: string; container: AnyRec }> = [];
-  for (const v of asArray(stack.views)) {
+  for (const v of recordsOf(stack.views)) {
     if (v.viewKind) {
       // Already an independent, expanded ViewItem — index it directly.
       const kind = v.viewKind === 'form' ? 'form' : 'list';
@@ -200,7 +192,7 @@ export function lintViewRefs(stack: AnyRec): ViewRefFinding[] {
     const object = viewContainerObjectName(v);
     if (object) containers.push({ object, container: v });
   }
-  for (const obj of asArray(stack.objects)) {
+  for (const obj of recordsOf(stack.objects)) {
     const object = typeof obj.name === 'string' ? obj.name : undefined;
     if (!object) continue;
     if (obj.list || obj.form || obj.listViews || obj.formViews) {
@@ -281,11 +273,11 @@ export function lintViewRefs(stack: AnyRec): ViewRefFinding[] {
   };
 
   // Object-nested first so the retained (deduped) finding keeps object context.
-  for (const obj of asArray(stack.objects)) {
+  for (const obj of recordsOf(stack.objects)) {
     const object = typeof obj.name === 'string' ? obj.name : undefined;
-    for (const action of asArray(obj.actions)) checkAction(action, object);
+    for (const action of recordsOf(obj.actions)) checkAction(action, object);
   }
-  for (const action of asArray(stack.actions)) checkAction(action);
+  for (const action of recordsOf(stack.actions)) checkAction(action);
 
   // 4) Validate every app-navigation `viewName` against its object's list views.
   //    The second door into the same `listViews` namespace as (3) — see the
@@ -366,12 +358,12 @@ export function lintViewRefs(stack: AnyRec): ViewRefFinding[] {
     }
   };
 
-  for (const [ai, app] of asArray(stack.apps).entries()) {
+  for (const [ai, app] of recordsOf(stack.apps).entries()) {
     const appName = typeof app.name === 'string' && app.name ? app.name : `#${ai}`;
     walkNav(app.navigation, appName);
     // `areas[]` is the other nav container; it was once skipped wholesale in
     // `stack.zod.ts`, so an areas-based app got no nav validation at all.
-    for (const area of asArray(app.areas)) {
+    for (const area of recordsOf(app.areas)) {
       walkNav(area.items, appName);
       walkNav(area.navigation, appName);
     }