diff --git a/‎.changeset/18053-package-registry-capability.md‎
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diff --git a/‎packages/cli/test/serve-capability-vocabulary.test.ts‎
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diff --git a/‎packages/spec/src/kernel/platform-capabilities.test.ts‎
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diff --git a/‎packages/spec/src/kernel/platform-capabilities.ts‎
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@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+---
+"@objectstack/spec": minor
+---
+
+`package-registry` is a platform capability of its own, and an always-on one: the `sys_packages` container and the boot hydration that replays it no longer hide behind the `marketplace` token, which is left naming only the optional catalogue / browsing half (#18053, director ruling A′ on #17676).
+
+A package is a first-class persistent entity whether or not a deployment has a store — an admin-created package does not depend on the marketplace existing. Until now the only way to get the persistence was `requires: ['marketplace']`, so a stock boot had no `sys_packages` at all and `protocol.installPackage` / `updatePackage` fell back to their in-memory branches: an admin-created package did not survive a restart, under a token advertising a store that was not there.
+
+- **`PLATFORM_CAPABILITY_TOKENS` gains `package-registry`** — one new token, none removed, so `marketplace` keeps working exactly as before for anyone who declares it. The vocabulary is a closed set validated by `defineStack`, so this widens what an app may write, and nothing it already writes stops parsing.
+- **`PLATFORM_ALWAYS_ON_CAPABILITIES` gains `package-registry` at the tail.** The slate's ordering contract is a role, not a count: the entry binds into nothing on the slate (its one hard requirement is the ObjectQL engine, which is not a capability token), so it joins after every bind target like any other reader. `--preset minimal` still opts out of the whole slate.
+- **`PLATFORM_CAPABILITY_PROVIDERS` gains a row naming `@objectstack/service-package`, `open` edition** — the same package `marketplace` names today, because that package ships exactly one plugin and everything it does is the persistence half. The catalogue surface `marketplace` is left naming ships in `@objectstack/cloud-connection` and is mounted off a resolved marketplace URL, never through the token; repointing the `marketplace` row at it moves the runtime's own resolver with it and is the engine-lane half of the same ruling (#17676 items 2/3/5).
+- ⚠️ **Declaration first, runtime second — measured, not assumed.** `objectstack serve` mounts a slate entry only when `Serve.CAPABILITY_PROVIDERS` keys the token, and that registry keys `marketplace`. Until the engine-lane half lands, appending `package-registry` mounts nothing under the standalone CLI: a stock boot is exactly as capable as before, no more and no less. This package is the single list both the CLI and cloud's per-tenant runtime read, which is why the declaration is the half that goes first.
@@ -42,6 +42,34 @@ describe('serve capability registries vs spec vocabulary (#3265)', () => {
       expect(PLATFORM_CAPABILITY_TOKENS).toContain(token);
     }
   });
+
+  /**
+   * #17676 ruling A' item 1, read through the array `serve` actually appends.
+   *
+   * `Serve.ALWAYS_ON_CAPABILITIES` is a re-export of the spec slate, so this is
+   * a SURFACE pin rather than a second copy of the spec-side one: it asserts
+   * the split survives the hop the CLI takes, and that hop is what decides
+   * which tokens land in an app's `requires`.
+   *
+   * ⚠️ Measured on `serve`'s resolver at c17ff70f3f and deliberately NOT
+   * asserted: `Serve.CAPABILITY_PROVIDERS` keys `marketplace` and does not yet
+   * key `package-registry`, so appending this token mounts nothing under
+   * `objectstack serve` until the runtime half of the same ruling lands
+   * (#17676 items 2/3/5, the engine lane). Pinning that ABSENCE here would
+   * turn the engine lane's own fix red for doing the ruled thing, so the gap
+   * is recorded in words and the pin states only what must hold either side of
+   * it.
+   */
+  it("appends the package-registry persistence to every app, never the catalogue half (#17676 A')", () => {
+    expect(Serve.ALWAYS_ON_CAPABILITIES).toContain('package-registry');
+    // The other half of the ruling: browsing stays optional, so an app that
+    // wants a store still declares it.
+    expect(Serve.ALWAYS_ON_CAPABILITIES).not.toContain('marketplace');
+    // …and the split ADDED a token rather than moving one out — both halves
+    // stay resolvable spellings for `requires`.
+    expect(PLATFORM_CAPABILITY_TOKENS).toContain('package-registry');
+    expect(PLATFORM_CAPABILITY_TOKENS).toContain('marketplace');
+  });
 });
 
 // framework#3366 — the installable-provider registry must classify EVERY
 
@@ -269,7 +269,7 @@ describe('PLATFORM_ALWAYS_ON_CAPABILITIES', () => {
         [...PLATFORM_ALWAYS_ON_CAPABILITIES, 'secrets'],
         [...BIND_TARGETS, 'secrets'],
       ),
-    ).toEqual(['email', 'storage', 'sms', 'sharing', 'messaging', 'analytics']);
+    ).toEqual(['email', 'storage', 'sms', 'sharing', 'messaging', 'analytics', 'package-registry']);
   });
 
   it('every member is a real platform capability token', () => {
@@ -299,3 +299,64 @@ describe('PLATFORM_ALWAYS_ON_CAPABILITIES', () => {
     expect(gated).toEqual([]);
   });
 });
+
+/**
+ * #17676 ruling A' item 1 (decision batch #125 item 2, maintainer verbatim
+ * 「同意」): the package-registry PERSISTENCE — the `sys_packages` container and
+ * the boot hydration that replays it — is carved out of `marketplace` into an
+ * always-on core capability named for what it is; `marketplace` is left naming
+ * only the optional catalogue / browsing half.
+ *
+ * BOTH halves are asserted here, because only the pair states the ruling. A
+ * case that checked the new token alone would stay green on a slate that
+ * force-mounted `marketplace` as well — which is the outcome the ruling refused
+ * ("a token advertising a store that is not there"), and the reason the split
+ * exists rather than a rename.
+ */
+describe("package-registry carve-out (#17676 ruling A')", () => {
+  it('is its own vocabulary token — the persistence is named, not spelled `marketplace`', () => {
+    expect(PLATFORM_CAPABILITY_TOKENS).toContain('package-registry');
+    expect(isKnownPlatformCapability('package-registry')).toBe(true);
+    // The catalogue half keeps its token: this is a SPLIT, so the vocabulary
+    // must carry two tokens afterwards, not one renamed one.
+    expect(PLATFORM_CAPABILITY_TOKENS).toContain('marketplace');
+  });
+
+  it('has exactly ONE spelling — no second dialect for the same capability', () => {
+    // The single-list rule this file already enforces against the removed
+    // camelCase aliases, applied to the new token while its spelling is still
+    // young: the near-misses a later author could reach for must stay unknown,
+    // or `requires` grows two ways to ask for one service and the runtimes are
+    // free to resolve different ones.
+    for (const nearMiss of ['packages', 'package', 'sys-packages', 'package-store', 'packageRegistry']) {
+      expect(PLATFORM_CAPABILITY_TOKENS, `'${nearMiss}' must not be a second spelling`).not.toContain(
+        nearMiss,
+      );
+      expect(isKnownPlatformCapability(nearMiss)).toBe(false);
+    }
+  });
+
+  it('is mounted ALWAYS, and the catalogue half is NOT — the ruling, both ways round', () => {
+    expect(PLATFORM_ALWAYS_ON_CAPABILITIES).toContain('package-registry');
+    // Browsing stays optional: an app that wants a store still declares it.
+    expect(PLATFORM_ALWAYS_ON_CAPABILITIES).not.toContain('marketplace');
+  });
+
+  it('resolves through an open-edition provider — a floor entry must mount without a licence', () => {
+    const provider = PLATFORM_CAPABILITY_PROVIDERS['package-registry'];
+    expect(provider, 'the carved-out token needs its own provider row').toBeTruthy();
+    expect(provider.edition).toBe('open');
+    expect(provider.package).toBe('@objectstack/service-package');
+  });
+
+  it('classifies like any other open-edition service — never as a typo', () => {
+    // The authoring-time half: `defineStack` rejects a token the vocabulary
+    // does not carry, and the preflight reads the classifier. A carve-out that
+    // added the slate entry without the provider row would surface HERE, as an
+    // `unknown` on a token every app now force-declares.
+    expect(classifyRequiredCapability('package-registry', () => true).status).toBe('ok');
+    const absent = classifyRequiredCapability('package-registry', () => false);
+    expect(absent.status).toBe('installable');
+    expect(absent.provider?.package).toBe('@objectstack/service-package');
+  });
+});
@@ -47,7 +47,15 @@ export const PLATFORM_CAPABILITY_TOKENS: readonly string[] = Object.freeze([
   'triggers',
   'realtime',
   'mcp',
+  // `marketplace` and `package-registry` are two capabilities, not one token
+  // spelled twice (#17676 ruling A' item 1). A package is a first-class
+  // persistent entity whether or not the deployment has a store, so the
+  // PERSISTENCE half — the `sys_packages` container and the boot hydration
+  // that replays it — is a core capability named for what it is and mounted
+  // always (see {@link PLATFORM_ALWAYS_ON_CAPABILITIES}); `marketplace` is
+  // left naming only the optional catalogue / browsing half.
   'marketplace',
+  'package-registry',
   'email',
   'sms',
   'sharing',
@@ -155,6 +163,20 @@ export const PLATFORM_CAPABILITY_PROVIDERS: Readonly<Record<string, PlatformCapa
     realtime: { package: '@objectstack/service-realtime', edition: 'open' },
     mcp: { package: '@objectstack/mcp', edition: 'open' },
     marketplace: { package: '@objectstack/service-package', edition: 'open' },
+    // ⚠️ The SAME package as `marketplace` above, and that is a measured fact
+    // about the distribution rather than a duplicate row: today
+    // `@objectstack/service-package` ships exactly one plugin
+    // (`PackageServicePlugin`), and everything it does is the persistence half
+    // this token names — it creates `sys_packages`, replays it at `start()`,
+    // and serves publish/get/list/delete over it. The catalogue / browsing
+    // surface `marketplace` is left naming ships elsewhere entirely
+    // (`MarketplaceProxyPlugin` / `MarketplaceInstallLocalPlugin` in
+    // `@objectstack/cloud-connection`, mounted off a resolved marketplace URL,
+    // ADR-0008). So the two rows agreeing on a package is what the carve-out
+    // INHERITED, not what it decided: repointing `marketplace` at the browse
+    // surface moves the runtime's own resolver with it and is #17676's
+    // engine-lane half, which this row deliberately does not pre-empt.
+    'package-registry': { package: '@objectstack/service-package', edition: 'open' },
     email: { package: '@objectstack/plugin-email', edition: 'open' },
     sms: { package: '@objectstack/service-sms', edition: 'open' },
     sharing: { package: '@objectstack/plugin-sharing', edition: 'open' },
@@ -313,6 +335,24 @@ export const PLATFORM_ALWAYS_ON_CAPABILITIES: readonly string[] = Object.freeze(
   // authored/previewed inline (Studio) and compiled on the fly. Without it the
   // dataset preview + dashboard/report analytics widgets silently no-op.
   'analytics',
+  // `package-registry` is foundational per #17676 ruling A' (decision batch
+  // #125 item 2): a package is a first-class persistent entity whether or not
+  // the deployment has a marketplace, so `sys_packages` and its boot
+  // hydration must exist on a stock boot. Without it `protocol.installPackage`
+  // / `updatePackage` fall back to their in-memory branches and an
+  // admin-created package does not survive a restart. It binds into nothing on
+  // this slate (its only hard requirement is the ObjectQL engine, which is not
+  // a capability token), so it joins the TAIL like any other reader.
+  //
+  // ⚠️ SCOPE, measured on `serve`'s capability resolver at c17ff70f3f: a slate
+  // entry is force-appended to every app's `requires`, and the CLI then mounts
+  // it only if `Serve.CAPABILITY_PROVIDERS` keys the token. That registry keys
+  // `marketplace`, not this token, so under `objectstack serve` this entry is
+  // inert until the runtime half of the same ruling lands (#17676 items 2/3/5,
+  // the engine lane). The declaration is deliberately first: it is the single
+  // list both runtimes read, and the thing the runtime half is written
+  // against.
+  'package-registry',
 ]);
 
 /**