@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+---
+'@objectstack/service-automation': patch
+---
+
+fix(service-automation): a flow write node's refusal of a stored-metadata table ends on the same prescription sentence as the save-time refusal (#21624)
+
+Clause-②: no
+
+A flow `create_record`, `update_record` or `delete_record` node aimed at a stored-metadata table is refused twice: at save by `FlowSchema`, and at run time by the node itself, for a definition the parse never judged. Both refusals tell the author where a metadata change goes instead, and until now they said it in two spellings of one sentence: the run-time refusal named the elevation as `runAs: 'system'`, the save-time one as `runAs`, a system context.
+
+**What changes.** The run-time refusal's message keeps its lead (the node type, what it would have done and the table, and that the write was not run) and now ends on `STORED_METADATA_BODY_PRESCRIPTION`, imported from `@objectstack/spec/kernel`: the one sentence the save-time refusal and the hook refusal also end on. Its elevation clause now reads "Elevation (`runAs`, a system context) does not change this."
+
+**What does not change.** Which writes are refused, the refusal's `PERMISSION_DENIED` code, its guard classification (a `fault` edge does not route it) and every other object's writes are exactly as before.
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ import type {
 import type { AutomationContext, IDataEngine } from '@objectstack/spec/contracts';
 import type { DroppedFieldsEvent } from '@objectstack/spec/data';
 import { StandardErrorCode } from '@objectstack/spec/api';
-import { isStoredMetadataBodyObject } from '@objectstack/spec/kernel';
+import { isStoredMetadataBodyObject, STORED_METADATA_BODY_PRESCRIPTION } from '@objectstack/spec/kernel';
 import {
     collectStoredMetadataFilterFields,
     ephemeralStoredHashDigest,
@@ -355,6 +355,11 @@ const STORED_METADATA_WRITE_VERB = {
  * a non-platform principal's write to these tables with in a secured
  * composition, and the code the body-write boundary for the same ruling
  * carries. No code is minted. `undefined` for any other object.
+ *
+ * Its message names the node, the verb and the table, then ends on the
+ * family's ONE prescription, `STORED_METADATA_BODY_PRESCRIPTION`, imported from
+ * `@objectstack/spec/kernel`: the sentence `FlowSchema`'s save-time refusal of
+ * the same node ends on, so the save and the run tell an author the same thing.
  */
 function storedMetadataWriteRefusal(
     nodeType: keyof typeof STORED_METADATA_WRITE_VERB,
@@ -364,9 +369,8 @@ function storedMetadataWriteRefusal(
     return {
         ...refuseNode(
             `${nodeType}: refusing to ${STORED_METADATA_WRITE_VERB[nodeType]} '${objectName}': it holds stored `
-            + 'metadata, and a flow may not write it directly, so the write was not run. Change metadata through the '
-            + 'metadata API (`PUT /api/v1/meta/:type/:name`, the metadata protocol), where it is validated and its '
-            + "provenance is recorded. Elevation (`runAs: 'system'`) does not change this.",
+            + 'metadata, and a flow may not write it directly, so the write was not run. '
+            + STORED_METADATA_BODY_PRESCRIPTION,
         ),
         code: StandardErrorCode.enum.PERMISSION_DENIED,
     };
 
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ import { ObjectQLPlugin, type ObjectQL } from '@objectstack/objectql';
 import { SqlDriver } from '@objectstack/driver-sql';
 import { SecurityPlugin, securityDefaultPermissionSets } from '@objectstack/plugin-security';
 import { ObjectStackProtocolImplementation } from '@objectstack/metadata-protocol';
+import { STORED_METADATA_BODY_PRESCRIPTION } from '@objectstack/spec/kernel';
 import { AutomationServicePlugin } from '../plugin.js';
 import type { AutomationEngine, NodeExecutor } from '../engine.js';
 
@@ -78,6 +79,16 @@ const BODY_FRAGMENT = '"label":"Pin body"';
  */
 const STAND_IN_TARGET = 'pin_stand_in_target';
 
+/**
+ * The closing sentence of `text`, measured against the family's ONE
+ * prescription, which both the save-time and the run-time refusal end on. Read
+ * from the imported constant, never restated, so a later rewording of that one
+ * sentence moves these pins with it.
+ */
+function closingPrescriptionOf(text: string): string {
+  return text.slice(-STORED_METADATA_BODY_PRESCRIPTION.length);
+}
+
 /** One write node in a flow definition aimed at a family table, and where it sits. */
 interface FamilyTarget {
   readonly path: string;
@@ -264,7 +275,10 @@ function harness(ql: ObjectQL, automation: AutomationEngine) {
       (thrown!.issues ?? []).map((i) => ({ code: i.code, path: i.path.join('.') })),
       `${def.name}: the save-time refusal's issues`,
     ).toEqual(targets.map((t) => ({ code: 'custom', path: t.path })));
-    for (const issue of thrown!.issues ?? []) expect(issue.message).toContain('the metadata protocol');
+    for (const issue of thrown!.issues ?? []) {
+      expect(closingPrescriptionOf(issue.message), `${def.name}: the save-time refusal ends on the family's prescription`)
+        .toBe(STORED_METADATA_BODY_PRESCRIPTION);
+    }
     expect(await automation.getFlow(def.name), `${def.name}: a refused flow was registered`).toBeNull();
     expect(await Promise.all(tables.map((object) => snapshot(object))), `${def.name}: the save-time refusal changed a table`)
       .toEqual(before);
@@ -342,7 +356,8 @@ async function expectRefused(h: Harness, object: FamilyTable, nodeType: WriteNod
   const where = `${nodeType} on ${object}, runAs '${runAs}'`;
   expect(run.res.success, `${where}: the run must fail`).toBe(false);
   expect(run.res.status, `${where}: the run's status`).toBe('failed');
-  expect(String(run.res.error), `${where}: the refusal names the metadata protocol`).toContain('the metadata protocol');
+  expect(closingPrescriptionOf(String(run.res.error)), `${where}: the run-time refusal ends on the family's prescription`)
+    .toBe(STORED_METADATA_BODY_PRESCRIPTION);
   expect(run.downstreamRan, `${where}: the node downstream of the refusal ran`).toBe(false);
   expect(run.familyWrites, `${where}: the engine's write verb was called on the family table`).toBe(0);
   expect(await h.snapshot(object), `${where}: the family table changed`).toBe(before);