diff --git a/.changeset/18607-client-readme-install-example-manifest.md b/.changeset/18607-client-readme-install-example-manifest.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..a204a9c7c68
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/18607-client-readme-install-example-manifest.md
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+---
+"@objectstack/client": patch
+---
+
+docs(client): the published README's `packages.install` example is a manifest `ManifestSchema` actually accepts (#18607)
+
+The example shipped in the `@objectstack/client` npm tarball was refused on three
+counts when parsed against the contract its own call site declares
+(`PackageInstallRequestSchema`, whose `manifest` key is `ManifestSchema`):
+`invalid_type` at `[manifest, id]`, `invalid_value` at `[manifest, type]` — both
+required and absent — and `unrecognized_keys` at `[manifest]` for a `label` key
+that `ManifestSchema`'s `strictObject` close refuses by name.
+
+```diff
+ await client.packages.install({
+-  name: 'vendor_plugin',
+-  label: 'Vendor Plugin',
++  id: 'com.vendor.plugin',
++  type: 'plugin',
++  name: 'Vendor Plugin',
+   version: '1.0.0',
+ });
+```
+
+`label` is not a root manifest key and never was: the root shape declares `name`
+for the human-readable string (measured — `ManifestSchema` declares 25 root keys
+and `label` is not among them), so the example's `label` value moves to `name`
+and the machine identifier becomes the reverse-domain `id` the key documents.
+`type: 'plugin'` is the enum member the example's own subject names — a
+general-purpose functionality extension, not the consumer-installable `app`
+bundle. Required root keys, read off the schema rather than the prose: `id`,
+`name`, `type`, `version`.
+
+Nothing parses that contract at the install door today, so the example "worked"
+by being posted unvalidated — which is what made it a timed charge rather than a
+live outage: closing the door turns a silently-wrong published example into a
+loudly-broken one for every reader who copied it.
+
+Pinned in `packages/client/src/readme-package-install-example.test.ts`, which
+parses every `packages.install` manifest literal in this README against that
+schema and fails if the corpus is ever empty.
+
+Clause-②: no
+
+No schema, export, type or runtime behaviour changes. It ships because the README
+is listed in this package's `files[]` and is the first thing a new integrator
+copies.
diff --git a/packages/client/README.md b/packages/client/README.md
index 93c5186941c..59ea1c06383 100644
--- a/packages/client/README.md
+++ b/packages/client/README.md
@@ -245,8 +245,9 @@ await client.auth.refreshToken('refresh-token-string');
 // Package Management
 await client.packages.list();
 await client.packages.install({
-  name: 'vendor_plugin',
-  label: 'Vendor Plugin',
+  id: 'com.vendor.plugin',
+  type: 'plugin',
+  name: 'Vendor Plugin',
   version: '1.0.0',
 });
 await client.packages.enable('plugin-id');
diff --git a/packages/client/src/readme-package-install-example.test.ts b/packages/client/src/readme-package-install-example.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..a3921273f8a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/client/src/readme-package-install-example.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,150 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2026 ObjectStack. Licensed under the Apache-2.0 license.
+
+/**
+ * [#18607] Every `client.packages.install(<manifest>)` example in THIS
+ * package's PUBLISHED README is parsed against the contract that door
+ * declares — `PackageInstallRequestSchema`, whose `manifest` key is
+ * `ManifestSchema`.
+ *
+ * ## The defect it exists to prevent
+ *
+ * The README shipped this manifest in the npm tarball:
+ *
+ *     await client.packages.install({
+ *       name: 'vendor_plugin',
+ *       label: 'Vendor Plugin',
+ *       version: '1.0.0',
+ *     });
+ *
+ * Parsed against the declared contract it is refused on THREE counts:
+ * `invalid_type` at `[manifest, id]`, `invalid_value` at `[manifest, type]`
+ * (both keys are required and absent), and `unrecognized_keys` at
+ * `[manifest]` for `label` — a key `ManifestSchema`'s `strictObject` close
+ * refuses BY NAME. `label` is not a root manifest key and never was: the
+ * root shape declares `name` for the human-readable string, and the only
+ * `label` anywhere near this surface belonged to the nested, since-RETIRED
+ * `contributes.themes` `{ id, label, path }` entry — a sibling shape, not
+ * this one.
+ *
+ * Nothing parses the contract at that door today, so the example "worked":
+ * the SDK posts whatever literal it is handed, and `install(manifest: any)`
+ * type-checks it away. That is what made this a timed charge rather than a
+ * live outage — closing the door turns a silently-wrong published example
+ * into a loudly-broken one for every reader who copied it.
+ *
+ * ## Why a pin, and why this one CAN fail
+ *
+ * Nothing else reads these literals. `check:published-readme-exports` has
+ * the right population but reads fenced blocks for IMPORTED SYMBOLS and has
+ * no notion of a schema; no gate parses an example payload against the
+ * schema its own call site declares. Restore any of the three original
+ * defects and this test reds on that specific issue code.
+ *
+ * Two shapes deliberately fail rather than pass quietly, because a pin that
+ * measures nothing is worse than none (Route & surface ownership §3):
+ * the corpus going EMPTY (the anchor renamed, the fence relabelled) and a
+ * literal carrying a node kind the reader does not model.
+ */
+
+import { readFileSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
+
+import { PackageInstallRequestSchema } from '@objectstack/spec/api';
+import ts from 'typescript';
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
+
+/** This package's own published README — inside the package, no escape. */
+const README = fileURLToPath(new URL('../README.md', import.meta.url));
+
+/** The call whose first argument IS the manifest. */
+const INSTALL_CALL = 'packages.install';
+
+/** ```ts / ```typescript fences — the only regions read as code. */
+const TS_FENCE = /^```(?:ts|typescript)\s*$\n([\s\S]*?)^```\s*$/gm;
+
+/**
+ * An object literal, as a value. ⛔ Never a partial read: an unmodelled node
+ * kind throws, because a manifest quietly missing the key that carried the
+ * defect would parse green and pin nothing.
+ */
+function literalToValue(node: ts.Expression): unknown {
+  if (ts.isStringLiteral(node) || ts.isNoSubstitutionTemplateLiteral(node)) return node.text;
+  if (ts.isNumericLiteral(node)) return Number(node.text);
+  if (node.kind === ts.SyntaxKind.TrueKeyword) return true;
+  if (node.kind === ts.SyntaxKind.FalseKeyword) return false;
+  if (node.kind === ts.SyntaxKind.NullKeyword) return null;
+  if (ts.isArrayLiteralExpression(node)) return node.elements.map(literalToValue);
+  if (ts.isObjectLiteralExpression(node)) {
+    const out: Record<string, unknown> = {};
+    for (const prop of node.properties) {
+      if (!ts.isPropertyAssignment(prop)) {
+        throw new Error(`Unmodelled object member in a README manifest: ${ts.SyntaxKind[prop.kind]}`);
+      }
+      const key = ts.isIdentifier(prop.name) || ts.isStringLiteral(prop.name)
+        ? prop.name.text
+        : undefined;
+      if (key === undefined) {
+        throw new Error(`Unmodelled property name in a README manifest: ${ts.SyntaxKind[prop.name.kind]}`);
+      }
+      out[key] = literalToValue(prop.initializer);
+    }
+    return out;
+  }
+  throw new Error(`Unmodelled expression in a README manifest: ${ts.SyntaxKind[node.kind]}`);
+}
+
+interface InstallExample {
+  /** 1-based line of the call inside the README, for the failure message. */
+  readonly line: number;
+  readonly manifest: unknown;
+  readonly source: string;
+}
+
+function collectInstallExamples(readme: string): InstallExample[] {
+  const found: InstallExample[] = [];
+  for (const fence of readme.matchAll(TS_FENCE)) {
+    const code = fence[1] ?? '';
+    const fenceLine = readme.slice(0, fence.index ?? 0).split('\n').length;
+    const sourceFile = ts.createSourceFile('readme-fence.ts', code, ts.ScriptTarget.Latest, true);
+    const visit = (node: ts.Node): void => {
+      if (
+        ts.isCallExpression(node)
+        && node.expression.getText(sourceFile).endsWith(INSTALL_CALL)
+        && node.arguments.length > 0
+      ) {
+        const [first] = node.arguments;
+        if (first !== undefined && ts.isObjectLiteralExpression(first)) {
+          found.push({
+            line: fenceLine + sourceFile.getLineAndCharacterOfPosition(node.getStart(sourceFile)).line,
+            manifest: literalToValue(first),
+            source: first.getText(sourceFile),
+          });
+        }
+      }
+      ts.forEachChild(node, visit);
+    };
+    visit(sourceFile);
+  }
+  return found;
+}
+
+const EXAMPLES = collectInstallExamples(readFileSync(README, 'utf8'));
+
+describe('published README — packages.install examples parse as manifests', () => {
+  it('finds at least one `packages.install` manifest literal to judge', () => {
+    // Anti-vacuity floor. An empty corpus means the anchor moved, not that
+    // every example is correct.
+    expect(EXAMPLES.length).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+  });
+
+  it.each(EXAMPLES.map((e) => [e.line, e] as const))(
+    'README line %i is accepted by PackageInstallRequestSchema',
+    (_line, example) => {
+      const result = PackageInstallRequestSchema.safeParse({ manifest: example.manifest });
+      const refusals = result.success
+        ? []
+        : result.error.issues.map((issue) => `${issue.code} at [${issue.path.join(', ')}]`);
+      expect(refusals, `${example.source}\n→ ${refusals.join('; ')}`).toEqual([]);
+    },
+  );
+});