feat(lint): report a declared field with zero consumers across the registered metadata roots (#15922)

.changeset/lint-field-no-consumers.md

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+"@objectstack/lint": minor
+---
+
+New advisory rule `field-no-consumers` (`validateFieldConsumers`): a field declared on an object that nothing in the stack reads or displays is reported as a `warning` by `os validate`, `os build` and `os lint`.
+
+Until now such a field was schema-valid and passed every platform check — the declaration was inert and nothing in the toolchain said so. The rule is object-aware (the same field name on two objects gets two verdicts, resolved against the object whose declaration encloses each reference), and it distinguishes consumers from carriers: a view column, form section, page binding, flow node, dataset dimension, widget filter, formula, validation, hook or action is a consumer; a translation label, a seed value, an import-mapping column, a field-level permission grant or a flow that only writes the field is a carrier and never counts. The finding carries the verdict (`carrier-only` with the carrier paths a removal must clean, or `inert`), the roots scanned, and — when the name is also declared elsewhere — the other objects, so a per-object verdict is never mistaken for a name-level one.
+
+Exempt, each derived from the spec rather than listed by hand: the registry-injected system columns an author re-declared, the record's title field (ADR-0079 `nameField` ladder), and `master_detail` fields (ADR-0035 — cascade delete, `controlled_by_parent` sharing and roll-ups read the relationship by declaration). A stack that declares no consumer root at all (objects only, or objects plus carriers) is not judged: its consumers live in another package. Test fixtures are never scanned.
+
+Public surface: `validateFieldConsumers`, `FIELD_NO_CONSUMERS`, `FIELD_CONSUMER_ROOTS`, `FIELD_CARRIER_ROOTS`, and the `FieldConsumerFinding` / `FieldConsumerVerdict` / `FieldConsumerSeverity` types.

content/docs/deployment/cli.mdx

@@ -477,7 +477,7 @@ os compile --json                    # JSON output for CI pipelines
   → Normalizing stack definition...
   → Lowering inline handlers...
   → Validating protocol compliance...
-  → Running author-time rules (42)...
+  → Running author-time rules (43)...
   → Checking capability providers (#3366)...
   → Collecting package docs (ADR-0046)...
   → Writing artifact...

content/docs/deployment/validating-metadata.mdx

@@ -555,7 +555,7 @@ A clean run walks the registry and reports timing:
   Config: /path/to/support-desk/objectstack.config.ts
   Load time: 21ms
   → Validating against ObjectStack Protocol...
-  → Running author-time rules (42)...
+  → Running author-time rules (43)...
   → Checking capability providers (#3366)...
   → Checking package docs (ADR-0046)...
 

content/docs/getting-started/build-with-claude-code.mdx

@@ -263,7 +263,7 @@ visible: 'status != "resolved"'
 ◆ Validate
 ────────────────────────────────────────
   → Validating against ObjectStack Protocol...
-  → Running author-time rules (42)...
+  → Running author-time rules (43)...
 
   ✗ Author-time rules failed (1 issue)
   • stack · action 'resolve_ticket' visible: bare reference `status` — a

content/docs/ui/react-pages.mdx

@@ -380,7 +380,7 @@ objectstack validate
 ────────────────────────────────────────
   → Loading configuration...
   → Validating against ObjectStack Protocol...
-  → Running author-time rules (42)...
+  → Running author-time rules (43)...
   → Checking capability providers (#3366)...
   → Checking package docs (ADR-0046)...
 

packages/lint/src/authoring-rules.ts

@@ -118,6 +118,7 @@ import { validateCapabilityReferences } from './validate-capability-references.j
 import { validateFlowTriggerReadiness } from './validate-flow-trigger-readiness.js';
 import { validateApprovalApprovers } from './validate-approval-approvers.js';
 import { validateRecordTitle } from './validate-record-title.js';
+import { validateFieldConsumers } from './validate-field-consumers.js';
 import { validateSemanticRoles } from './validate-semantic-roles.js';
 import { validateFormLayout } from './validate-form-layout.js';
 import { validateSeedReplaySafety } from './validate-seed-replay-safety.js';
@@ -928,6 +929,31 @@ export const AUTHORING_RULES: readonly AuthoringRule[] = [
     surfaceReason: RUNTIME_OBJECT_ADVISORY_VOLUME,
     run: (stack) => validateRecordTitle(stack),
   },
+  // [#15922] A declared field that nothing in the stack reads or displays —
+  // the field-level remainder of #4698's "declared but never read" class,
+  // landed here under the hotcrm#1543 ruling. Object-aware (the same name on
+  // two objects gets two verdicts) and advisory: a consumer can live outside
+  // the stack (an API client, another package's hook, a Studio-authored view),
+  // so the ceiling for a static check is a warning — a refusal would narrow
+  // the authorable surface and is the maintainer's call. `normalized` because
+  // it needs no parsed stack (it resolves names, not shapes), so `os lint`
+  // runs it too.
+  //
+  // CLI-only for the FULL-SNAPSHOT reason, and it is the sharpest instance of
+  // that reason in the table: the rule's whole verdict is the ABSENCE of a
+  // reference across views / pages / flows / datasets, none of which the
+  // per-write snapshot carries, so on an object write it would report every
+  // field of the written object as inert.
+  {
+    name: 'validateFieldConsumers',
+    tier: 'advisory',
+    input: 'normalized',
+    commands: ALL,
+    source: 'packages/lint/src/validate-field-consumers.ts',
+    surfaces: CLI_ONLY,
+    surfaceReason: RUNTIME_NEEDS_FULL_SNAPSHOT,
+    run: (stack) => validateFieldConsumers(stack),
+  },
   // ADR-0085 — `stageField` / `highlightFields` / `Field.group` are pointers
   // into the object's field map; a dangling one is Zod-valid and silently inert
   // at render. Advisory: every consumer degrades gracefully.

packages/lint/src/index.ts

@@ -628,6 +628,20 @@ export type {
 
 export { validateNavAccess, NAV_OBJECT_UNGRANTED } from './validate-nav-access.js';
 export type { NavAccessFinding, NavAccessSeverity } from './validate-nav-access.js';
+// [#15922] A declared field with zero consumers across the registered
+// metadata roots — advisory, object-aware, one rule id with the verdict
+// carried on the finding (see the module note for the taxonomy decision).
+export {
+  validateFieldConsumers,
+  FIELD_NO_CONSUMERS,
+  CONSUMER_ROOTS as FIELD_CONSUMER_ROOTS,
+  CARRIER_ROOTS as FIELD_CARRIER_ROOTS,
+} from './validate-field-consumers.js';
+export type {
+  FieldConsumerFinding,
+  FieldConsumerSeverity,
+  FieldConsumerVerdict,
+} from './validate-field-consumers.js';
 
 export {
   validateTranslationReferences,