current_scope 0.2.0 → 0.3.0

data/lib/current_scope/gating_tripwire.rb

@@ -21,9 +21,30 @@ module CurrentScope
   # chain (render/redirect) — so an action that renders straight from a
   # before_action escapes the tripwire. It is a strong dev/test aid, not total
   # coverage (Grape/Rack endpoints are out of reach for the same reason).
+  # What a catch DOES is config.gating_tripwire (:raise in dev/test, :warn
+  # elsewhere) — :warn logs each ungated controller#action once instead of
+  # 500ing, so a real app can inventory its ungated surface.
   module GatingTripwire
     extend ActiveSupport::Concern
 
+    class << self
+      # The :warn latch. ponytail: a plain Set, not a Mutex — worst case under
+      # a race is one extra line, and a flood is the thing being prevented.
+      # Per-SITE, not per-process (unlike Guard.ledger_warning_emitted?): the
+      # point of :warn is an inventory, so every distinct controller#action
+      # must get its own line.
+      def warning_unseen?(site)
+        @warned ||= Set.new
+        @warned.add?(site) ? true : false
+      end
+
+      # Cleared on engine to_prepare — a reload can change whether a site is
+      # gated, so a stale latch is a false all-clear — and by tests.
+      def reset_warnings!
+        @warned = nil
+      end
+    end
+
     included do
       after_action :current_scope_verify_gated!
     end
@@ -43,11 +64,21 @@ module CurrentScope
       # controller carrying only this mixin (no Guard) never sets it.
       return if instance_variable_defined?(:@current_scope_checked) && @current_scope_checked
 
-      raise CurrentScope::ConfigurationError,
-            "\"#{controller_path}##{action_name}\" completed without running current_scope_check! — " \
-            "this controller is not gated by CurrentScope::Guard. Include CurrentScope::Guard on its " \
-            "base controller, or mark this action public with " \
-            "`current_scope_skip_tripwire! only: :#{action_name}`."
+      raise CurrentScope::ConfigurationError, current_scope_tripwire_message if CurrentScope.config.gating_tripwire == :raise
+
+      # :warn — same remediation text, once per controller#action. The latch
+      # check comes first so an already-warned site (every request after the
+      # first, on a fail-open that keeps serving traffic) pays no string build.
+      return unless GatingTripwire.warning_unseen?("#{controller_path}##{action_name}")
+
+      Rails.logger&.warn("[CurrentScope] #{current_scope_tripwire_message}")
+    end
+
+    def current_scope_tripwire_message
+      "\"#{controller_path}##{action_name}\" completed without running current_scope_check! — " \
+        "this controller is not gated by CurrentScope::Guard. Include CurrentScope::Guard on its " \
+        "base controller, or mark this action public with " \
+        "`current_scope_skip_tripwire! only: :#{action_name}`."
     end
   end
 end

data/lib/current_scope/guard.rb

@@ -3,9 +3,9 @@ module CurrentScope
   # its own permission: the current controller#action IS the permission key,
   # so new controllers are gated (fail-closed) the moment they exist.
   #
-  # Member actions that need record-level decisions (scoped roles, SoD)
-  # declare a private current_scope_record method returning the record. Three
-  # rules for the hook:
+  # Any controller whose actions take part in record-level decisions (scoped
+  # roles, SoD) declares a private current_scope_record method returning the
+  # record. Three rules for the hook:
   #   - it runs for EVERY gated action, collection actions included — return
   #     nil when there is no record
   #   - it runs BEFORE the controller's own before_actions, so it must load
@@ -17,6 +17,41 @@ module CurrentScope
   #         set_report if request.path_parameters[:id]
   #       end
   #
+  # The hook is a DECLARATION, and the gate reads it as one. Returning nil says
+  # "this action has no record" — that is what lets a subject holding only
+  # scoped grants through a collection gate, with scope_for narrowing the list
+  # (#19). Declaring no hook at all says nothing, so the gate assumes nothing
+  # and scoped grants cannot open it (NO_RECORD below) — otherwise a controller
+  # that simply forgot the hook would hand a scoped subject every record of its
+  # type. Nothing is lost by silence: without a hook, scoped grants could never
+  # open a collection gate anyway. A collection-only controller that wants them
+  # to says so in one line:
+  #
+  #       def current_scope_record = nil
+  #
+  # A controller may ALSO declare a private current_scope_model naming the type
+  # its collection actions deal in:
+  #
+  #       def current_scope_model = Report
+  #
+  # Same discovery rules as current_scope_record (private, fixed name,
+  # optional). The Guard threads it to the resolver so the record-less scoped
+  # branch can bind to that type instead of matching a scoped grant on ANY
+  # type (#50); absent means the type is unknown. A plain method, so a host
+  # may branch on action_name for a per-action answer.
+  #
+  # The declaration is TRUSTED, like current_scope_record: since #65 a listed
+  # collection-read gate derives its answer from the declared type's scoped
+  # list — full_access included — so declaring the WRONG type opens this
+  # controller's reads to subjects holding scoped full_access grants of that
+  # type. Review the declaration the way you review the record hook.
+  #
+  # The two hooks PAIR, they don't substitute: current_scope_model WITHOUT
+  # current_scope_record is inert, because declaring no record hook passes
+  # NO_RECORD (below) and the record-less branch never runs — the declared
+  # type is never consulted. A collection controller opting scoped grants in
+  # declares BOTH: `def current_scope_record = nil` plus the model.
+  #
   # Skip the gate for public endpoints with skip_before_action :current_scope_check!.
   # MutationGuard (included here) adds the read-only-while-impersonating gate as
   # its OWN before_action, so it runs first and survives that skip.
@@ -24,6 +59,44 @@ module CurrentScope
     extend ActiveSupport::Concern
     include MutationGuard
 
+    # "This controller never said whether there is a record here." Passed to the
+    # resolver instead of nil when the controller declares no
+    # current_scope_record hook at all.
+    #
+    # The distinction matters because the resolver honors a scoped grant on a
+    # record-less target — that is how a scoped-only subject reaches their index
+    # (#19). A declared hook returning nil is the host stating "there is no
+    # record here", which is exactly what the contract above asks for, and the
+    # resolver can trust it. No hook is not that statement: it is silence, and
+    # reading silence as "collection action" lets a controller with member
+    # actions hand a scoped subject every record of its type — strictly worse
+    # than the 403 it gave before this path existed.
+    #
+    # Neither nil nor a Class, so the resolver's record-less branch skips it and
+    # the decision falls to deny. Org-wide and full_access are unaffected — they
+    # never read the record — so silence costs a host nothing it had before:
+    # scoped grants could never open a collection gate anyway. Declaring the
+    # hook is how you opt in.
+    NO_RECORD = Object.new.freeze
+
+    class << self
+      # Warn-once latch for a failed would-be-denial recording, mirroring
+      # Event.warn_missing_events_table_once. Lives on the module, not the
+      # controller: the failure is per-process (a missing table, a dead
+      # connection), so per-instance state would warn once per request and
+      # defeat the point.
+      #
+      # ponytail: a plain ivar, not a Mutex. Worst case under a race is a second
+      # warning line — the thing being prevented is a flood, not a duplicate.
+      def ledger_warning_emitted? = @ledger_warning_emitted
+      def ledger_warning_emitted! = @ledger_warning_emitted = true
+
+      # Test seam: the latch would otherwise leak across examples, silently
+      # disarming the warning for every test after the first and making the
+      # suite order-dependent.
+      def reset_ledger_warning! = @ledger_warning_emitted = false
+    end
+
     included do
       before_action :current_scope_check!
     end
@@ -45,21 +118,224 @@ module CurrentScope
               "skip_before_action :current_scope_check!."
       end
 
-      record = respond_to?(:current_scope_record, true) ? send(:current_scope_record) : nil
+      record = resolve_current_scope_record
+      model = resolve_current_scope_model
+
+      # Stash the declared type for the advisory path (allowed_to? in a view),
+      # keyed to THIS controller so a cross-controller question can't borrow it
+      # (#50, KTD-6). Additive — the gate decision below reads `model` directly,
+      # not the ambient copy.
+      #
+      # NOT when the record hook is absent (NO_RECORD): the gate skips the
+      # record-less branch for NO_RECORD (the R9 inert case), so it DENIES a
+      # scoped subject — and the advisory path must agree, not show a link the
+      # gate 403s. Stashing the model here without a declared record is the one
+      # place the view could diverge from the gate. (#50 review, cubic)
+      CurrentScope::Current.collection_model = record.equal?(NO_RECORD) ? nil : model
+      CurrentScope::Current.collection_model_path = controller_path
 
       # The real actor (Current.actor) enters here explicitly — the resolver
       # never reads Current itself (PDP purity). It only matters under SoD
       # :either while impersonating; otherwise actor == subject.
       allowed, reason = CurrentScope.resolver.decide(
         subject: CurrentScope::Current.user, permission: permission,
-        record: record, actor: CurrentScope::Current.actor
+        record: record, model: model, actor: CurrentScope::Current.actor
       )
-      raise CurrentScope::AccessDenied.new(permission, reason: reason) unless allowed
+      unless allowed
+        # The nudge runs BEFORE the report-mode branch, and that ordering is the
+        # whole point of it in a retrofit. Report mode downgrades a :no_grant to
+        # an observation and lets the request through — so a nudge placed after
+        # the early return would go silent for exactly the host report mode
+        # exists for. And a missing record hook is the one gap report mode CANNOT
+        # explain on its own: the would_deny row for that action never clears, no
+        # matter what you grant, because the gate has no record to match a scoped
+        # grant against. This is the line that says why. Log-only either way, so
+        # it cannot affect the branch below. (#37/#41 interaction)
+        nudge_on_inert_scoped_grant(permission, record, reason)
+        nudge_on_undeclared_collection_model(permission, record, reason)
+
+        return report_would_deny(permission, record) if report_only_denial?(reason, permission, record)
+
+
+        raise CurrentScope::AccessDenied.new(permission, reason: reason)
+      end
 
       record_sod_bypass(permission, record) if reason == :sod_bypassed
       nudge_on_nil_sod_record(permission, record)
     end
 
+    # Report mode lifts EXACTLY ONE wall: :no_grant — "nobody has granted this
+    # subject this permission yet", which is the entire state of a host that has
+    # mounted the gate and not yet seeded its grants. That is the thing report
+    # mode exists to survey.
+    #
+    # Matched POSITIVELY, on one reason, and that is the whole design. Every
+    # other denial is a real refusal about a real rule and must still 403:
+    # :sod_veto (relaxing it lets an initiator actually self-approve — a fraud
+    # action executed, not a role gap surfaced), :impersonation_gate, and
+    # :not_full_access (the management console — report mode must never hand out
+    # the UI where grants are made).
+    #
+    # An "everything except the vetoes I know about" rule would have been correct
+    # the day it was written and wrong by the next release: :not_full_access did
+    # not exist when this was designed, and it is excluded here by construction
+    # rather than by anyone remembering to add it. New reasons are refusals until
+    # someone deliberately says otherwise — fail-closed, applied to the mode
+    # itself.
+    #
+    # ...but :no_grant is not always the innocent reason it looks like. See below.
+    def report_only_denial?(reason, permission, record)
+      CurrentScope.config.report_only? &&
+        reason == :no_grant &&
+        !sod_veto_blind_spot?(permission, record)
+    end
+
+    # The SoD blind spot: a :no_grant that is NOT evidence the veto approved.
+    #
+    # The veto has nothing to measure without a record, so the resolver skips it
+    # and the decision falls through to the ordinary grant check. What comes back
+    # is :no_grant — indistinguishable from an ordinary missing grant, but meaning
+    # "nobody asked the veto", not "the veto passed".
+    #
+    # In :enforce that costs nothing; :no_grant is a 403 either way, so the
+    # skipped veto never decides anything (config.warn_on_nil_sod_record exists to
+    # surface it on the ALLOW path). Report mode is what turns it into a hole:
+    # :no_grant is exactly what it downgrades, so a host that mis-declares
+    # current_scope_record on an SoD action gets the action EXECUTED with the
+    # four-eyes rule never consulted. The subject could be the initiator. Nobody
+    # checked.
+    #
+    # So report mode declines to speak where the veto couldn't, and downgrades
+    # only a denial the veto actually saw and passed. This costs a retrofitting
+    # host nothing real: an SoD action reached without a record is a
+    # misconfiguration they must fix regardless, and it still 403s as it does
+    # today.
+    #
+    # ASKS the resolver rather than re-deriving "did the veto run" — the resolver
+    # owns that condition and a second copy would drift, with the drifting copy
+    # being the one guarding the fraud control. An earlier draft of this did
+    # enumerate its own "record-less" set (nil, NO_RECORD, Class) and missed the
+    # commonest mistake of all: a hook returning `params[:id]`, a String, which
+    # the resolver skips the veto for but that guess would have waved through.
+    def sod_veto_blind_spot?(permission, record)
+      CurrentScope.resolver.sod_veto_skipped?(permission: permission, record: record)
+    end
+
+    # Observe and proceed.
+    def report_would_deny(permission, record)
+      Rails.logger&.warn(
+        "[CurrentScope] report-only: would DENY #{permission.inspect} " \
+        "(reason: no_grant) — grant it before setting config.enforcement = :enforce"
+      )
+      response.set_header("X-Current-Scope-Reason", "would_deny")
+      record_would_deny_event(permission, record)
+    end
+
+    # R3: report mode NEVER raises — that is its whole promise, and it has to hold
+    # regardless of audit posture or the state of the ledger.
+    #
+    # Every other caller of Event.record! is a mutation being performed, where
+    # :strict re-raising to roll back an unaudited change is exactly right. This
+    # is not a mutation: it observes a request that is being let through anyway.
+    # Inheriting that raise would mean a host running audit = :strict who hasn't
+    # run the events migration 500s on every ungranted request — the opposite of
+    # what report mode promises, landing on the exact host it exists for.
+    #
+    # The rescue wraps ONLY this call. Event.record! is the one thing here with a
+    # documented raise contract, so it is the one thing worth catching; a broad
+    # rescue over the whole observation would also swallow a broken logger or
+    # response, which are app-fatal anyway and shouldn't be hidden. (#59 review)
+    def record_would_deny_event(permission, record)
+      subject = CurrentScope::Current.user
+      # No ambient subject ⇒ nothing to attribute the row to, and Event.record!
+      # raises on a nil actor. Guard on the SUBJECT, not on `target` — a record
+      # can be non-nil while the subject is nil.
+      return if subject.nil?
+
+      # NO_RECORD (the controller declared no hook) and nil (it declared "no
+      # record here") both mean there is nothing to attribute the row to but the
+      # subject. Compared by identity — NO_RECORD is an Object instance, so
+      # `is_a?` would match every record there is.
+      target = record.equal?(NO_RECORD) ? nil : record
+
+      CurrentScope::Event.record!(
+        event: "access.would_deny", target: target || subject,
+        details: { permission: permission, reason: "no_grant" }
+      )
+    rescue StandardError => e
+      # ponytail: swallow and warn ONCE. An unrecordable observation is a lost
+      # log line; a raise here is a 500 on a request report mode promised to pass.
+      warn_ledger_failure_once(e)
+      nil
+    end
+
+    # The failure this catches is PERSISTENT, not incidental: :report + audit
+    # :strict + an un-migrated events table fails identically on every request.
+    # Warning per-request floods the log with one repeated line and buries the
+    # thing the operator actually needs — that the ledger is empty because the
+    # table is missing, and what to do about it. And it is the exact situation
+    # report mode exists for, so it is the one a host is most likely to be in.
+    #
+    # Warn-once per process, mirroring Event.warn_missing_events_table_once —
+    # the same failure, the same treatment. (#59 review) The message names the
+    # fix for a missing table and otherwise reports the real error, because
+    # telling someone with a dead connection to run migrations sends them after
+    # the wrong problem.
+    def warn_ledger_failure_once(error)
+      return if CurrentScope::Guard.ledger_warning_emitted?
+
+      CurrentScope::Guard.ledger_warning_emitted!
+      Rails.logger&.warn("[CurrentScope] report-only: #{ledger_failure_hint(error)} " \
+                         "The request WAS allowed through — only the access.would_deny " \
+                         "row is missing. This warns once per process.")
+    end
+
+    # ASKS Event whether this is the un-migrated-table case rather than pattern-
+    # matching the message here. Event's signature already excludes missing-COLUMN
+    # errors — a partial migration is not an absent table, and its own comment
+    # says why: it "would point operators at the wrong fix". A looser test here
+    # reintroduced exactly that, telling someone their table was missing while
+    # they were looking right at it. (#59 review)
+    def ledger_failure_hint(error)
+      if CurrentScope::Event.missing_events_table?(error)
+        "the current_scope_events table is missing, so would-be denials are not being " \
+        "recorded and `rails current_scope:report` will be empty. Run " \
+        "`rails current_scope:install:migrations && rails db:migrate`, or set " \
+        "config.audit = false if you don't want the ledger."
+      else
+        "could not record a would-be denial (#{error.class}: #{error.message.to_s.truncate(120)})."
+      end
+    end
+
+    # The record this gate decides against, or NO_RECORD when the controller
+    # never declared the hook (see NO_RECORD). A declared hook's answer — record
+    # or nil — is passed through exactly as given.
+    #
+    # Deliberately reads the DECLARATION, not the route. Guessing member-vs-
+    # collection from path parameters cannot be made correct: `:id` misses
+    # `param: :slug`; "any key not suffixed _id" misses `param: :external_id`
+    # and falsely accuses a nested parent with a custom param. Each rule fails
+    # on the next routing DSL option, because the route simply does not encode
+    # what the host means. The hook does, and the contract above already asks
+    # every gated controller to declare it.
+    def resolve_current_scope_record
+      return NO_RECORD unless respond_to?(:current_scope_record, true)
+
+      send(:current_scope_record)
+    end
+
+    # The type this controller's collection actions deal in, or nil when the
+    # host never declared current_scope_model. Mirrors
+    # resolve_current_scope_record, minus the sentinel: for the RECORD,
+    # "declared nil" and "declared nothing" are different statements and
+    # NO_RECORD keeps them apart; for the TYPE both collapse to the same fact —
+    # unknown — so a plain nil carries it.
+    def resolve_current_scope_model
+      return nil unless respond_to?(:current_scope_model, true)
+
+      send(:current_scope_model)
+    end
+
     # Break-glass audit (KTD-1): the resolver stays pure and only reports
     # :sod_bypassed; the Guard — which runs once per REAL gated action, never on
     # advisory allowed_to?/scope_for — records the override exactly once and
@@ -77,14 +353,136 @@ module CurrentScope
       response.set_header("X-Current-Scope-Reason", "sod_bypassed")
     end
 
-    # A5 dev/test aid (opt-in): the request was ALLOWED, but if it's an SoD
+    # A5 dev/test aid (on by default in dev/test, #41): the request was ALLOWED, but if it's an SoD
     # action gated with a nil record, the SoD veto was silently skipped — a sign
     # current_scope_record returned nil on a member action. Lives here (the gate
     # seam), not in the shared resolver, so it never fires on advisory
     # allowed_to?/scope_for calls. Prod behavior is unchanged either way.
+    # The denial-side mirror of nudge_on_nil_sod_record (#41): this controller
+    # declared NO current_scope_record hook, and the subject holds a scoped grant
+    # that would have applied if it had.
+    #
+    # That is a controller with member actions that forgot the hook. It fails
+    # closed — correctly — but the resulting 403 is byte-identical to "you were
+    # never granted this", so whoever debugs it goes and stares at the grants,
+    # which are fine, instead of the controller, which isn't.
+    #
+    # Keyed on NO_RECORD, NOT on nil, and the difference is the whole nudge:
+    #
+    #   - NO_RECORD  = "this controller never said whether there's a record here."
+    #     Silence. Scoped grants can't open the gate, so a genuinely-granted
+    #     subject is refused and nothing says why. THIS is the bug.
+    #   - nil        = "there is no record here", stated deliberately by the host.
+    #     Since #49 a scoped role ticking the key OPENS that gate, so a subject
+    #     with a matching grant isn't denied at all and there is nothing to nudge
+    #     about. Nudging here would fire on every legitimate collection request.
+    #
+    # (Plan 023 predates #49 and guards on `record.nil?` — which can no longer
+    # fire for the case it was written for, and excludes the case that can. Pinned
+    # by tests below rather than left to the next reader to rediscover.)
+    def nudge_on_inert_scoped_grant(permission, record, reason)
+      return unless CurrentScope.config.warn_on_inert_scoped_grant
+      return unless reason == :no_grant
+      return unless record.equal?(NO_RECORD)
+      return unless CurrentScope.resolver.scoped_grant_exists?(
+        subject: CurrentScope::Current.user, permission: permission
+      )
+
+      # Says only what the predicate proves. scoped_grant_exists? has no resource
+      # filter — it can't have one, the missing record IS the bug — so it
+      # establishes that a matching scoped grant exists on SOME record, not that
+      # it would have applied to whichever record this action meant. Claiming
+      # "would satisfy it" overstates that, and a diagnostic that overstates is
+      # how a diagnostic starts being ignored. (#61 review, qodo)
+      message =
+        "[CurrentScope] denied \"#{permission}\" (no_grant) — this subject holds a scoped grant " \
+        "for it on some record, and #{controller_path} declares no current_scope_record, so the " \
+        "gate had no record to match it against. If this is a member action, declare the hook " \
+        "(`def current_scope_record = set_thing`) — if the subject holds the grant on the record " \
+        "in question, that fixes this. If the controller is collection-only, " \
+        "`def current_scope_record = nil` says so and lets scoped grants through."
+
+      # R9 (#50): this controller declared current_scope_model WITHOUT
+      # current_scope_record — the model hook is INERT, because no record hook
+      # means NO_RECORD and the record-less branch (the only reader of the
+      # declared type) never runs. That trigger is byte-for-byte this nudge's
+      # own, so it is one clause on this line, not a second nudge: two log
+      # lines saying the same thing on the same request is the noise the
+      # diagnostics contract exists to avoid.
+      if respond_to?(:current_scope_model, true)
+        message += " NOTE: this controller declares current_scope_model, but that hook is inert " \
+                   "without current_scope_record — the record hook is what's missing here."
+      end
+
+      Rails.logger&.warn(message)
+    end
+
+    # #50's adoption gap, named at the moment it bites: the resolver denied
+    # :model_undeclared — a declared collection action (record nil) with no
+    # current_scope_model, while a scoped grant explicitly ticks the key. The
+    # reason ALREADY proves that whole condition (the resolver derived it), so
+    # the predicate here is the reason and nothing else — re-deriving it from
+    # record/grants would be the drifting second copy KTD-5 warns about.
+    # `record` is taken to mirror its sibling's call shape, not consulted.
+    # Log-only; the reason rides X-Current-Scope-Reason with or without this.
+    def nudge_on_undeclared_collection_model(permission, _record, reason)
+      return unless CurrentScope.config.warn_on_undeclared_collection_model
+
+      # Both labels are the same cell — a scoped grant satisfies the key but
+      # the gate had no usable type to bind it to — with different fixes, so
+      # each gets its own sentence. :model_invalid names the actual value the
+      # hook returned, because "declares no current_scope_model" would be a
+      # lie to the host that DID declare one and typo'd it (the release-gate
+      # finding this branch exists for).
+      case reason
+      when :model_undeclared
+        # The grant is known to satisfy the key on SOME record of SOME type — a
+        # tick, or (on a listed read, #65) a full_access role, which ticks
+        # nothing. The missing declaration is exactly why the gate couldn't
+        # check which, and it also can't check record liveness — so the fix is
+        # named as "may fix", never promised. (#61 wording precedent; the
+        # resolver's label-predicate comment relies on this hedge.)
+        Rails.logger&.warn(
+          "[CurrentScope] denied \"#{permission}\" (model_undeclared) — this is a declared " \
+          "collection action (current_scope_record returned nil) and the subject holds a scoped " \
+          "grant that satisfies the key, but #{controller_path} declares no current_scope_model, " \
+          "so the gate had no type to bind it to and failed closed. Declaring the type this " \
+          "collection deals in (`def current_scope_model = TheType`) may fix this — the grant " \
+          "must be of that type, and for a listed read its record must still be in the model's " \
+          "default scope."
+        )
+      when :model_invalid
+        # Re-read the hook rather than thread the value through the call —
+        # keeping the call site at its siblings' 3-arg shape, so a host that
+        # collides with this (private, but un-namespaced) method name at the
+        # old arity gets its own method called, not an ArgumentError-500 on a
+        # denied request (PR #93 review, qodo + cubic). Display-only re-read:
+        # the hook is a plain method and the decision is already made.
+        model = resolve_current_scope_model
+        # A diagnostic must never alter the denial path — an object whose
+        # inspect raises would turn this 403 into a 500 (PR #93 review, cubic).
+        described = begin
+          model.inspect
+        rescue StandardError
+          "(uninspectable object)"
+        end
+        Rails.logger&.warn(
+          "[CurrentScope] denied \"#{permission}\" (model_invalid) — #{controller_path}'s " \
+          "current_scope_model returned #{described}, which is not a concrete " \
+          "ActiveRecord model class, so the gate could not bind the record-less check to it " \
+          "and failed closed. Return the AR class this collection lists " \
+          "(`def current_scope_model = TheType`) — a String, instance, or abstract class " \
+          "cannot be matched against scoped grants."
+        )
+      end
+    end
+
     def nudge_on_nil_sod_record(permission, record)
       return unless CurrentScope.config.warn_on_nil_sod_record
-      return unless record.nil?
+      # NO_RECORD counts: it IS the member-action-with-no-record case this nudge
+      # exists to catch, so it must not go quiet just because the Guard now
+      # labels that case instead of passing a bare nil.
+      return unless record.nil? || record.equal?(NO_RECORD)
       return unless CurrentScope.config.sod_actions.include?(permission.split("#").last)
 
       Rails.logger&.warn(

data/lib/current_scope/mutation_guard.rb

@@ -36,19 +36,44 @@ module CurrentScope
       )
     end
 
-    # A real actor stands behind a distinct effective subject (act-as). Read
-    # from the ambient context directly, so the gate holds even where the
-    # Permissions helpers are not mixed in.
+    # A real actor stands behind a distinct effective subject (act-as).
+    # Delegates to the one definition on Current (not the Permissions mixin,
+    # which isn't mixed in everywhere this gate runs) so the gate and the
+    # view-level read-only signal share a single authoritative predicate.
     def current_scope_impersonating?
-      user = CurrentScope::Current.user
-      user.present? && CurrentScope::Current.actor != user
+      CurrentScope::Current.impersonating?
     end
 
     # Denials render forbidden and surface the machine-readable reason on the
     # response so refusals are diagnosable by clients and tests.
+    #
+    # The ONLY place the reason header is written. Every denial in the gem —
+    # the Guard's, this gate's, and the engine's own front door — raises
+    # AccessDenied and lands here, so a denial cannot exist that forgets the
+    # header. (The engine's front door used to render its own `head :forbidden`
+    # and was exactly that denial: no header, no body. #23.)
     def current_scope_denied(exception = nil)
       reason = exception.respond_to?(:reason) ? exception.reason : nil
       response.headers["X-Current-Scope-Reason"] = reason.to_s if reason
+      current_scope_render_denied(reason)
+    end
+
+    # How a denial renders — the one part a controller may vary. Default: a
+    # bodyless 403, which is what a host app's denial has always been and must
+    # stay. This runs inside HOST controllers (Guard mixes it in), so rendering
+    # a body here would push an engine-shaped response into an app that never
+    # asked for one, with no layout or view to render it in. The engine's own
+    # controller overrides this to explain itself; nothing else should.
+    #
+    # `current_scope_`-prefixed like every other method this concern mixes into
+    # a host controller (current_scope_check!, current_scope_denied,
+    # current_scope_mutation_guard!, current_scope_record). A bare
+    # `render_access_denied` is a name a host app could plausibly already have,
+    # and we would silently call theirs.
+    #
+    # Takes the reason: an overrider that renders a body needs to know WHICH
+    # denial it is answering, or it will explain the wrong one.
+    def current_scope_render_denied(_reason = nil)
       head :forbidden
     end
   end