diff --git a/‎.changeset/20929-field-consumers-inline-grid-columns.md‎
Lines changed: 12 additions & 0 deletions b/‎.changeset/20929-field-consumers-inline-grid-columns.md‎
Lines changed: 12 additions & 0 deletions
diff --git a/‎packages/lint/src/validate-field-consumers.test.ts‎
Lines changed: 80 additions & 0 deletions b/‎packages/lint/src/validate-field-consumers.test.ts‎
Lines changed: 80 additions & 0 deletions
diff --git a/‎packages/lint/src/validate-field-consumers.ts‎
Lines changed: 83 additions & 4 deletions b/‎packages/lint/src/validate-field-consumers.ts‎
Lines changed: 83 additions & 4 deletions
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+---
+'@objectstack/lint': patch
+---
+
+`field-no-consumers` no longer calls a field inert when an inline grid column names it
+
+`os validate`, `os build` and `os lint` warned that a child object's field was inert ("no site of any kind names it") when the only thing naming it was an inline master-detail grid column, such as `{ name: 'quantity' }`. The warning told an author to delete a field the grid draws. A column's `name` is now read as a reference to the child object's field, on both carriers of the column:
+
+- a relationship field's `inlineColumns`. The field sits on the child object and its `reference` names the parent, so the column names a field of the object that declares the relationship field. The grid is drawn only when that field sets `inlineEdit`. Without it, the columns draw nothing, and the field is reported `carrier-only` with the column listed as a site a removal must clean.
+- a form view's `subforms[].columns`, on the view's `form` and on every `formViews` entry. The column names a field of the entry's `childObject`, not of the object the view is bound to.
+
+`name` anywhere else is still a literal and never a field reference. The rule id, the `warning` severity and the finding's shape are unchanged. The message now also lists an inline grid column among the consumers, and an `inlineColumns` entry on a field without `inlineEdit` among the carriers.
@@ -589,3 +589,83 @@ describe('[#19289] validateFieldConsumers — a `user` field displays a field on
     expect(run).toThrow(/`reference` is an object/);
   });
 });
+
+/**
+ * [#20929] An inline grid column's `name` names a field of the CHILD object.
+ *
+ * `name` is a `LITERAL_KEYS` literal, so the general walk never read a column's
+ * `name`, and the recommended identity-only column (`{ name: 'qty' }`) says
+ * nothing else. `os validate` then warned that a field the grid draws was
+ * inert. The fix reads `name` at that one position, against the child object
+ * each carrier resolves. It does not drop `name` from the literals.
+ *
+ * One fixture carries every assertion. `inv` is the parent and `line` the
+ * child, related by `line.invoice`. On `line`, `qty` is named only by the grid
+ * column under test, and `memo` is named nowhere: `memo` is the control, still
+ * reported. The parent declares a `qty` of its own that nothing reads, so it is
+ * reported too. A column credited to the wrong object shows up as `inv.qty`
+ * going quiet while `line.qty` stays reported.
+ */
+describe('[#20929] validateFieldConsumers — an inline grid column names a field of the CHILD object', () => {
+  const data = { provider: 'object', object: 'inv' };
+  const columns = [{ name: 'qty' }];
+
+  const stack = (relationship: AnyRec, view: AnyRec = {}, extra: AnyRec = {}): AnyRec => ({
+    objects: [
+      { name: 'inv', fields: { name: { type: 'text' }, qty: { type: 'number' } } },
+      {
+        name: 'line',
+        fields: {
+          name: { type: 'text' },
+          invoice: { type: 'master_detail', reference: 'inv', ...relationship },
+          qty: { type: 'number' },
+          memo: { type: 'text' },
+        },
+      },
+    ],
+    views: [{ list: { type: 'grid', data, columns: [{ field: 'name' }] }, ...view }],
+    ...extra,
+  });
+
+  /** `object.field` → verdict, for every field the rule reports. */
+  const verdicts = (s: AnyRec): Record<string, string> =>
+    Object.fromEntries(validateFieldConsumers(s).map((f) => [`${f.object}.${f.field}`, f.verdict]));
+
+  /** The child's `qty` credited; the parent's `qty` and the control still reported. */
+  const CREDITED = { 'inv.qty': 'inert', 'line.memo': 'inert' };
+
+  it('baseline: with no grid anywhere, all three fields are reported inert', () => {
+    expect(verdicts(stack({}))).toEqual({ 'inv.qty': 'inert', 'line.qty': 'inert', 'line.memo': 'inert' });
+  });
+
+  it("a relationship field's `inlineColumns`: the child is the object that DECLARES the field, not the related one", () => {
+    expect(verdicts(stack({ inlineEdit: 'grid', inlineColumns: columns }))).toEqual(CREDITED);
+  });
+
+  it("a form view's `subforms[].columns`: the child is the entry's `childObject`, not the view's object", () => {
+    const form = { type: 'simple', data, subforms: [{ childObject: 'line', columns }] };
+    expect(verdicts(stack({}, { form }))).toEqual(CREDITED);
+  });
+
+  it("each `formViews` entry's `subforms[].columns`, the same way", () => {
+    const edit = { type: 'simple', data, subforms: [{ childObject: 'line', columns }] };
+    expect(verdicts(stack({}, { formViews: { edit } }))).toEqual(CREDITED);
+  });
+
+  it('`inlineColumns` on a field that does not set `inlineEdit` draws no grid: a carrier, listed for removal', () => {
+    const findings = validateFieldConsumers(stack({ inlineColumns: columns }));
+    expect(Object.fromEntries(findings.map((f) => [`${f.object}.${f.field}`, f.verdict]))).toEqual({
+      'inv.qty': 'inert',
+      'line.qty': 'carrier-only',
+      'line.memo': 'inert',
+    });
+    expect(findings.find((f) => f.object === 'line' && f.field === 'qty')?.carriers).toEqual([
+      'objects[1].fields.invoice.inlineColumns[0].name',
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  it('`name` anywhere else stays a literal: a dataset measure named like the field credits nothing', () => {
+    const datasets = [{ name: 'line_stats', object: 'line', measures: [{ name: 'qty', aggregate: 'count' }] }];
+    expect(verdicts(stack({}, {}, { datasets }))).toEqual({ 'inv.qty': 'inert', 'line.qty': 'inert', 'line.memo': 'inert' });
+  });
+});
@@ -40,7 +40,8 @@
  *     hook or action body, a dataset dimension or measure, a widget filter, a
  *     sharing-rule condition.
  *   - **display** — the field is drawn: a view column, a form section, a page
- *     binding, `highlightFields`, `searchableFields`, an index.
+ *     binding, an inline grid column ({@link creditInlineGridColumns}),
+ *     `highlightFields`, `searchableFields`, an index.
  *   - **carrier** — the field is merely carried along: a translation label, a
  *     seed value, an import-mapping column, a field-level permission grant, a
  *     flow's WRITE of the field, prose that names it. These are what a REMOVAL
@@ -271,13 +272,27 @@ const WRITE_KEYS: ReadonlySet<string> = new Set([
   'fields', 'values', 'set', 'record', 'data', 'input', 'defaults', 'records',
 ]);
 
+/**
+ * [#20929] Keys whose array entries are INLINE CHILD COLLECTIONS: each entry
+ * names its child object in `childObject` and the child's grid in `columns`.
+ * Today that is a form view's `subforms` (`FormViewSchema.subforms`, on a view
+ * container's `form` and on every `formViews` entry), whose `columns` is the
+ * same `InlineGridColumnSchema` a relationship field's `inlineColumns` takes.
+ */
+const CHILD_COLLECTION_KEYS: ReadonlySet<string> = new Set(['subforms']);
+
 /**
  * Keys whose value is a literal from some other vocabulary, never a field
  * name. Without this list `type: 'summary'` on a roll-up reads as a reference
  * to a field named `summary`, and `accept: ['image/png']` as one to `image`.
  * `source` is deliberately ABSENT: it is the text of a CEL envelope
  * (`{ language: 'cel', source: 'record.quantity * record.unit_price' }`), and
  * skipping it read every tagged-template formula as reading nothing.
+ *
+ * `name` is a literal here and stays one: it is the identity of nearly every
+ * record in a stack. The one position where it names a field is an inline
+ * grid column, and that position is read on its own, against the child object,
+ * by {@link creditInlineGridColumns}, never by dropping `name` from this set.
  */
 const LITERAL_KEYS: ReadonlySet<string> = new Set([
   'type', 'reference', 'accept', 'provider', 'dialect', 'operator', 'aggregate', 'mode',
@@ -457,6 +472,49 @@ function scanText(
   }
 }
 
+/**
+ * [#20929] Credit the fields an inline grid's columns name, on the CHILD object.
+ *
+ * A column's `name` is the child field the grid reads and writes on every row
+ * (`InlineGridColumnSchema.name`), and the recommended entry is identity-only
+ * (`{ name: 'quantity' }`), so the name is often all a column says. The
+ * general walk skips `name` as a {@link LITERAL_KEYS} literal, which made every
+ * field a grid draws read as inert. This is the one position where `name` is
+ * read as a reference, and only against the child object its carrier resolves:
+ *
+ *   - a relationship field's `inlineColumns`: the field sits ON the child and
+ *     its `reference` names the PARENT, whose form draws the grid. So the child
+ *     is the object that DECLARES the field, not the related one. objectui's
+ *     `attachInlineSubforms` builds `{ childObject: <declaring object>,
+ *     columns: inlineColumns }`, and `collectHydratedInlineColumnErrors` in
+ *     `stack.zod.ts` resolves the carrier the same way.
+ *   - a child collection's `columns` ({@link CHILD_COLLECTION_KEYS}): the child
+ *     is the entry's `childObject`. The object the enclosing view is bound to
+ *     is the parent, so the context the walk carries is the wrong one here.
+ *
+ * A name the child does not declare is counted unresolved, like every other
+ * token that looks like a field and lands on no object.
+ */
+function creditInlineGridColumns(
+  ledger: ConsumerLedger,
+  columns: unknown,
+  childObject: string | undefined,
+  kind: SiteKind,
+  root: string,
+  columnsPath: string,
+): void {
+  if (!Array.isArray(columns)) return;
+  columns.forEach((column: unknown, i: number) => {
+    const field = isRec(column) ? strName(column.name) : undefined;
+    if (field === undefined || !ledger.objectsByField.has(field)) return;
+    if (ledger.declares(childObject, field)) {
+      ledger.record(childObject, field, { root, path: `${columnsPath}[${i}].name`, kind });
+    } else {
+      ledger.unresolved += 1;
+    }
+  });
+}
+
 /** The object context a record establishes for its own subtree, if any. */
 function contextOf(ledger: ConsumerLedger, rec: AnyRec, ctx: string | undefined): string | undefined {
   const named = (v: unknown): string | undefined => (ledger.isObject(v) ? v : undefined);
@@ -513,6 +571,11 @@ function walk(
   }
   const rec = node as AnyRec;
   const inner = contextOf(ledger, rec, ctx);
+  // [#20929] An entry of a child collection: its grid draws `childObject`'s
+  // fields, whatever object the enclosing view is bound to.
+  if (CHILD_COLLECTION_KEYS.has(leafKey)) {
+    creditInlineGridColumns(ledger, rec.columns, strName(rec.childObject), 'display', root, `${path}.columns`);
+  }
   for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(rec)) {
     const childPath = `${path}.${key}`;
     const childSegments = [...segments, key];
@@ -574,6 +637,20 @@ function walkObject(ledger: ConsumerLedger, obj: AnyRec, objectName: string, obj
     if (reference && displayField && ledger.declares(reference, displayField)) {
       ledger.record(reference, displayField, { root: 'objects', path: `${fieldPath}.displayField`, kind: 'display' });
     }
+    // [#20929] The grid's columns name fields of THIS object, the child. The
+    // grid exists only where the field sets `inlineEdit`: the spec's help text
+    // says `inlineColumns` is "used only when this field sets inlineEdit", and
+    // objectui's `attachInlineSubforms` skips the field otherwise. Without it
+    // the columns name the field and draw nothing, so they are a carrier a
+    // removal must clean, not a consumer.
+    creditInlineGridColumns(
+      ledger,
+      field.inlineColumns,
+      objectName,
+      field.inlineEdit ? 'display' : 'carrier',
+      'objects',
+      `${fieldPath}.inlineColumns`,
+    );
     for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(field)) {
       if (FIELD_SELF_KEYS.has(key) || key === 'displayField') continue;
       walk(ledger, value, objectName, 'objects', `${fieldPath}.${key}`, [key], key);
@@ -720,10 +797,12 @@ export function validateFieldConsumers(stack: AnyRec): FieldConsumerFinding[] {
       path,
       message:
         `field "${field}" on object "${object}" is declared but nothing in this stack reads or displays ` +
-        `it: no view column, form section, page binding, flow node, dataset, widget, formula, validation, ` +
-        `hook or action names it, no declared field group places it on the synthesized layout, and no ` +
+        `it: no view column, inline grid column, form section, page binding, flow node, dataset, widget, ` +
+        `formula, validation, hook or action names it, no declared field group places it on the ` +
+        `synthesized layout, and no ` +
         `seed or import mapping matches on it. A translation label, a seed value, an import-mapping ` +
-        `target, a permission grant or a flow that only WRITES it is a carrier, not a consumer. ` +
+        `target, a permission grant, a flow that only WRITES it, or an \`inlineColumns\` entry on a ` +
+        `relationship field that does not set \`inlineEdit\` (no grid is drawn) is a carrier, not a consumer. ` +
         `${verdictClause}${sharedClause}`,
       hint:
         `Give "${field}" a consumer — a view column, a form section, a page binding, a formula, a ` +