@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+---
+'@objectstack/plugin-email': minor
+'@objectstack/spec': patch
+'@objectstack/service-automation': patch
+---
+
+feat(plugin-email)!: email templates resolve from the registry; the built-in seed, the declared-template boot sweep and the live projector retire
+
+Clause-②: yes (narrowing)
+
+<!-- adr-0087: not-required (no-migration-prescription) No metadata moves: no spec key, authorable spelling or stored shape is removed, renamed or re-shaped, and no stored row is rewritten, converted or dropped, so there is nothing for `objectstack migrate meta` to rewrite. What changes is where @objectstack/plugin-email reads a template (the email_template metadata in the registry instead of the sys_email_template rows it used to copy there) and which runtime exports and plugin options exist. The retired names are runtime functions, two types, a string constant and two EmailServicePluginOptions members of @objectstack/plugin-email, each with its one-line fix below; measured consumers in this repository outside the package (a showcase test and three dogfood tests) are rewritten here. The legacy sys_email_template rows stay where they are, untouched: promoting the customized ones to environment-level templates is the v18 migration ceremony's (ADR-0131 C7), not this change's. The other categories are closed on facts: every bumped package publishes (not unpublished); no ADR-0087 id covers these paths and this diff adds none (not registered / already-registered); and the retired names include runtime functions, not only a type surface (not runtime-interface-only / type-surface-only). The body does carry a FROM → TO block for the retired runtime exports and plugin options, but that is a code change the compiler carries to each caller, not a metadata migration for `objectstack migrate meta`, and ADR-0087's disposition vocabulary has no category that fits this shape exactly, so the maintainer is asked to rule the reading. -->
+
+**BREAKING** (retired exports and plugin options of `@objectstack/plugin-email`), graded `minor` on the v18 prerelease line: Changesets is in pre mode with the tag `next`, so this ships in an `18.0.0-next.N`. It carries ADR-0131 D6/D10 and the maintainer's ruling C on ADR-0131 §6 Q1.
+
+**What changes.**
+
+- **Templates resolve from the registry.** `sendTemplate` and `renderTemplate` read `email_template` metadata by `(name, locale)` at every send: the protocol's layered list (`GET /meta/email_template`'s items — the environment's item over each code package's declaration), or the ObjectQL registry on a host with no metadata door. The locale ladder is unchanged: the named locale exactly, then `en-US`, then — only for a call that named none — the bundle's lowest locale tag.
+- **The built-in auth templates are code-declared items** of the email plugin's own package (`com.objectstack.service.email`), registered at plugin init, so they now appear in Studio's email-template list. An app that declares the same `(name, locale)` wins over the built-in; the built-in still serves the locales the app leaves out; a Studio save overrides either at environment level. Every built-in renders byte-identical to the row it used to be seeded into, in every locale (pinned on the rendered subject, HTML and text).
+- **A Studio save is live on the next send**, with no projection and no restart. The `PUT /meta/email_template/:name` response no longer carries `projectionApplied`, because nothing is projected.
+- **No `sys_email_template` row is written at boot or read at send.** The table and its rows stay; the organization door stays closed.
+- **A malformed template fails its send loudly** with the schema's own message, instead of falling through to the built-in copy of the same slot.
+
+**What moves for consumers.**
+
+- FROM `createSysEmailTemplateLoader(engine, options?)` TO `createRegistryEmailTemplateLoader(sources)`, where `sources` is `{ protocol?, registry? }` (type `EmailTemplateRegistrySources`) or a function returning it. FROM the types `TemplateLoaderEngine` / `CreateTemplateLoaderOptions` TO `EmailTemplateRegistrySources`.
+- FROM `bootstrapDeclaredEmailTemplates(...)`, `upsertDeclaredEmailTemplate(...)` or `deactivateDeclaredEmailTemplate(...)` TO nothing: templates are not copied into rows any more. Delete the call.
+- FROM `mapTemplateToRow(tpl)` TO nothing: there is no row projection. To resolve a template the way the mailer does, call `createRegistryEmailTemplateLoader(...).load(name, locale)`.
+- FROM `EMAIL_TEMPLATE_OBJECT` TO the literal `'sys_email_template'`, only if you still address the legacy table. FROM the type `BootstrapDeclaredEmailTemplatesResult` TO nothing.
+- FROM `new EmailServicePlugin({ seedTemplates: false })` TO `new EmailServicePlugin()`: there is no seed to switch off. Delete the option.
+- FROM `new EmailServicePlugin({ templates: [...] })` TO the stack's `emailTemplates: [...]` (or a `*.email-template.ts` file): declared templates resolve from the registry. Delete the option.
+
+**What a deployment observes.** A `sys_email_template` row an organization customized before its door closed is no longer what sends: the template's code declaration (or an environment-level Studio save) is. The v18 migration ceremony promotes those rows to environment-level templates; to make such an edit live before it runs, re-save the template in Studio.
+
+**`@objectstack/spec`** (patch): the `email_template` liveness ledger is re-anchored to the registry loader, and `category` and `isSystem` are graded `dead` — their only consumer was the retired row projection. The `notify` node's `template` description and refusal messages, and the `IEmailService` contract's documentation, name the email templates rather than `sys_email_template` rows. No schema shape changes.
+
+**`@objectstack/service-automation`** (patch): the notify node's `template` help text served at `GET /api/v1/automation/actions` names the email templates rather than `sys_email_template` rows.
@@ -168,11 +168,11 @@ the localizable path:
 ```
 
 - `template` names the bundle. The delivery path resolves `(name, locale)`
-  against `sys_email_template` at delivery time and renders subject/body from
-  that row. **The locale is resolved per recipient, after fan-out**: the
+  among the email templates at delivery time and renders subject/body from
+  that member. **The locale is resolved per recipient, after fan-out**: the
   recipient's own `sys_user.locale` when set, else the deployment default
   (`II18nService.getDefaultLocale()`) — so two recipients of one notification
-  whose `locale` columns differ receive different rows of the same bundle
+  whose `locale` columns differ receive different members of the same bundle
   (maintainer ruling, 2026-09-01). A recipient whose column is empty or unset
   always falls back to the deployment default; no value ever dead-letters a
   delivery. A `payload.locale` set by the producer — the pre-ruling single
@@ -212,24 +212,26 @@ instead of duplicating it.
 
 Worth knowing, because it explains what an administrator can and cannot change.
 
-`sendTemplate` resolves rows of the `sys_email_template` platform object, not
-your source files. At boot the email plugin **materializes** every declared
-`email_template` into that object — validating each one through the canonical
-schema first, so a malformed template is a warning rather than a broken boot.
-Runtime saves are materialized on the same seam, so a Studio edit takes effect
-without a restart.
-
-Change a template's wording in **Studio** — the `email_template` metadata. The
-`sys_email_template` rows themselves are closed to organization writes: a create
-or an edit through the data API is refused `403 PERMISSION_DENIED`, and only the
-platform writes them, from the built-in templates and the `email_template`
-metadata.
-
-Materialization is **seed-not-clobber**. Declared templates carry package
-provenance and are re-seeded on every boot, but a row an administrator created
-or edited before that door closed is never overwritten. That is also the reason
-a source change that "does not take effect" is usually such a customized row
-winning, not a failed seed.
+`sendTemplate` resolves the `email_template` **metadata** itself, by
+`(name, locale)`, at every send — the same item `GET /api/v1/meta/email_template`
+serves. Three populations live there: the built-in auth templates the email
+plugin declares, the templates your app declares, and the ones saved in Studio,
+which land at environment level and override a declaration of the same
+`(name, locale)`. A template your app declares overrides the built-in copy of
+its `(name, locale)`; the built-in still serves the locales your app leaves out.
+Each template is validated through the canonical schema when it is resolved, so
+a malformed one fails its send loudly instead of falling through to the
+built-in copy.
+
+Change a template's wording in **Studio** — the `email_template` metadata. A
+save is live on the very next send, with no restart.
+
+The `sys_email_template` platform object is no longer read or written by the
+send path. It keeps the rows earlier releases wrote, and it is closed to
+organization writes: a create or an edit through the data API is refused
+`403 PERMISSION_DENIED`. A row an administrator customized before that door
+closed is not what sends; the v18 upgrade promotes such rows to
+environment-level templates.
 
 `bodyText` is optional: when you omit it the service derives a plain-text
 alternative by stripping tags from the rendered HTML. Authoring one explicitly
 
@@ -183,7 +183,7 @@ The largest single consumer — **17 of the 124 sites**.
 | 55 | Activation write / authoring refusals do not fire | runtime | Get: activation artifacts writable and authorable without the activation-authoring capability | `packages/runtime/src/domains/activation-gate.ts#refuseUngrantedActivationWrite`, `#refuseUngrantedActivationAuthoring` |
 | 56 | Automation run-state read, flow-authoring write, the paused-run caller gate (screen read and resume), the two operator run-lifecycle writes and the elevated self-triggered start at every door that starts a flow by name all pass | runtime | Get: run state, flow writes, a paused run's screen and its resume with no grant and without being the run's starter — and cancelling or restoring a suspension without the platform-operator rung. The screen read and the resume ask one predicate, so this is one bypass for both. The lifecycle bypass is the in-process owner's door: plugin-approvals' revise-window recall (ADR-0044) cancels on behalf of a decision it already authorized and recorded. And starting a flow declared `runAs: 'system'` whose type is self-triggered (`autolaunched`, `record_change`, `schedule`) through any door that starts a flow by name — the trigger route, an action of `type: 'flow'` (REST `/actions` and the MCP `run_action` bridge) and a declared endpoint of `type: 'flow'` — which every other caller, the guest principal included, is refused `403 PERMISSION_DENIED` (the maintainer's rulings, letters B and A). The three doors ask one predicate, so this is one bypass for all of them, and it is the in-process caller's, such as a job: inbound HTTP never carries the flag | `packages/runtime/src/domains/automation.ts#mayReadRunState`, `#refuseUngrantedFlowWrite`, `#isRunStarterOrRunStateReader`, `#refuseUngrantedRunLifecycleWrite`, `packages/runtime/src/flow-start-admission.ts#refusesElevatedSelfTriggeredStart` |
 | 57 | Audience-binding suggestion authority gate passes | plugin-security | Get: a system caller lists, accepts and dismisses suggestions without `manage_metadata` and, under a wall, without the platform-operator rung | `packages/plugins/plugin-security/src/suggested-audience-bindings.ts#assertDeploymentAuthority` |
-| 58 | Email-template organization door passes; webhook provenance stamp skipped | plugin-email, plugin-webhooks | Get (`sys_email_template`): a create or update of a template row. The door refuses every other write that names a caller, `403 PERMISSION_DENIED` (ADR-0131 D6), so the seeds, the boot sweep and the projection of a Studio save are the only writers. Lose (`sys_webhook`): the row is not marked as an admin customization | `packages/plugins/plugin-email/src/email-template-door.ts#isOrganizationWrite`, `packages/plugins/plugin-webhooks/src/webhook-provenance.ts#bindWebhookProvenanceStamp` |
+| 58 | Email-template organization door passes; webhook provenance stamp skipped | plugin-email, plugin-webhooks | Get (`sys_email_template`): a create or update of a template row. The door refuses every other write that names a caller, `403 PERMISSION_DENIED` (ADR-0131 D6); the plugin itself no longer writes the table (templates resolve from the registry), so the v18 migration ceremony's promotion is the one remaining writer. Lose (`sys_webhook`): the row is not marked as an admin customization | `packages/plugins/plugin-email/src/email-template-door.ts#isOrganizationWrite`, `packages/plugins/plugin-webhooks/src/webhook-provenance.ts#bindWebhookProvenanceStamp` |
 | 59 | **Automation flow data nodes re-add the `owner_id` stamp** (the one place row 2's gap is compensated inline) | service-automation | Get: a flow-authored INSERT under system elevation still lands owned, when the run resolved a user. Fill-only — flow-authored values win | `packages/services/service-automation/src/runtime-identity.ts#stampSystemInsertOwner`, called from `packages/services/service-automation/src/builtin/crud-nodes.ts#registerCrudNodes` |
 | 60 | Inbox caller refusal names `isSystem` as what was carried | service-messaging | Get: nothing — the refusal still fires. The flag only shapes the diagnostic, because privilege is not an authorization subject | `packages/services/service-messaging/src/inbox-caller.ts#resolveInboxRecipient` |
 | 61 | **`organization_id` is not auto-stamped on INSERT** — the organization-axis twin of the `owner_id` gap above | organizations | Get: an elevated write may name another organization deliberately, which is what the per-organization seed replay, the orphan-row claim, imports and migrations all rely on. Lose: the fill-only stamp, so an elevated insert that names no organization lands `organization_id = NULL` and the wall hides it. ⛔ Neither path rewrites a supplied `organization_id`: the non-elevated path fills only an absent one, and a supplied value meets the Layer 0 write wall, which refuses a forged one `403 PERMISSION_DENIED` exactly as it refuses an update re-pointing a row. Elevation skips the stamp and the wall alike, which is why it is the seam the legitimate cross-organization writers use | `packages/plugins/organizations/src/organizations-plugin.ts#start` |
@@ -359,10 +359,10 @@ still holds equal to the census on every pull request:
 | Appearances of the bare identifier `isSystem` in non-test sources | 813 | — |
 | — parsed as a declaration | 28 | ✅ |
 | — parsed as an object-literal / type key (producers and option objects) | 310 | — |
-| — parsed as a property **read** | 130 | ✅ |
+| — parsed as a property **read** | 129 | ✅ |
 | — parsed in some other syntactic position (a local, a cast, a conditional) | 9 | ✅ |
 | — the remainder: text inside comments and string literals | 358 | — |
-| Of those reads: reads of one of the unrelated metadata fields | 6 | ✅ |
+| Of those reads: reads of one of the unrelated metadata fields | 5 | ✅ |
 | Of those reads: reads of `ExecutionContext.isSystem` | **124** | ✅ |
 | — behaviour-bearing (rows 1–61 above) | 121 | ✅ |
 | — carry the flag onward only (rows 62–64 above) | 3 | ✅ |