aontu 0.61.0 → 0.63.0

package/dist/cli.js

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 "use strict";
 /* Copyright (c) 2025 Richard Rodger, MIT License */
 Object.defineProperty(exports, "__esModule", { value: true });
-exports.vetWaiter = void 0;
+exports.vetWaiter = exports.KNOWN_VERBS = void 0;
 exports.replCommand = replCommand;
 exports.evalSource = evalSource;
 exports.main = main;
@@ -18,21 +18,20 @@ exports.runTemplate = runTemplate;
 exports.runMod = runMod;
 exports.runHash = runHash;
 exports.runGet = runGet;
+exports.runHelp = runHelp;
+exports.runExplain = runExplain;
+exports.runInit = runInit;
+exports.nearestVerb = nearestVerb;
+exports.looksLikeVerb = looksLikeVerb;
 exports.runWhy = runWhy;
 exports.renderWhyText = renderWhyText;
 exports.runSet = runSet;
+exports.runAllow = runAllow;
 exports.runAgentsMd = runAgentsMd;
 exports.runFmt = runFmt;
 exports.watchChange = watchChange;
 exports.watchSignature = watchSignature;
 exports.deprecatedAt = deprecatedAt;
-// Command-line interface for Aontu.
-//
-//   aontu [options] [file]
-//
-// With a file argument, the file is evaluated and the result printed.
-// With no file on an interactive terminal, a REPL is started. With no
-// file and piped input, the source is read from stdin. See HELP below.
 // Named imports, not `import * as`: the namespace form makes tsc emit the
 const query_1 = require("./query");
 // __importStar downlevel helper, whose branches no supported Node takes.
@@ -55,6 +54,9 @@ const view_1 = require("./view");
 const agentsmd_1 = require("./agentsmd");
 const format_1 = require("./format");
 const utility_1 = require("./utility");
+const helpdoc_1 = require("./helpdoc");
+const hints_1 = require("./hints");
+const keyorder_1 = require("./keyorder");
 const HELP = `Usage: aontu [options] [file]
        aontu vet [options] <schema> <data> [more-data...]
        aontu subsume [options] <general> <specific>
@@ -68,14 +70,20 @@ const HELP = `Usage: aontu [options] [file]
        aontu render [--at <path>] [--profile <file>]... [--unit <path>]
                     [--stdout | --out <dir> | --check <dir> | --coverage]
                     [--coverage-at <path>] [--strict] <file>
-       aontu template [--resugar] [--check] [--marker <token>] <file>
+       aontu template [--resugar] [--check] [--marker <token>]
+                      [--profile <file>] <file>
        aontu hash [options] <file>
        aontu mod tidy|verify|vendor|manifest [options] [dir]
        aontu get <path> [options] <file>
        aontu why <path> [options] <file>
        aontu set <path>=<value>... --entry <file> --overlay <file>
-       aontu agentsmd [--write <AGENTS.md>] <file>
-       aontu fmt [-w|-l|--check|-d|--lint] [--marker <token>] <file>...
+       aontu allow --role <role> [--at <path>] <roles-file> <path>...
+       aontu agentsmd [--write <AGENTS.md>] [--depth <n>] <file>
+       aontu fmt [-w|-l|--check|-d|--lint] [--marker <token>]
+                 [--profile <file>] <file>...
+       aontu help [topic] [--format text|json]
+       aontu explain <code> | --list [--format text|json]
+       aontu init [dir]
        aontu lsp
        aontu mcp [--root <dir>]
 
@@ -83,6 +91,34 @@ Evaluate an aontu source file and print the result as JSON.
 With no file on an interactive terminal, start a REPL.
 With no file and piped input, read the source from stdin.
 
+NEW TO THE LANGUAGE? This page documents the TOOL. The documentation
+of the LANGUAGE travels inside this binary, and this is how to reach it:
+
+  aontu help              List the topics this binary carries
+  aontu help tasks        Which verb does the job you have
+  aontu help language     The whole grammar, on one page
+  aontu help examples     The ladder, from plain JSON upward
+  aontu help codes        What a refusal means
+  aontu help grammar      The published ABNF
+  aontu explain <code>    What one error code a report carries means
+  aontu explain --list    Every registered code with its class
+
+Every one of those answers with no network and no checkout. The
+long-form documentation -- the tutorial, the language and API
+references, the how-to guides -- is in docs/ of the repository, which
+is where to go when the topics above are not enough; the contributor
+and agent guide is AGENTS.md beside it.
+
+NOTHING TO EDIT YET? aontu init [dir] writes a working model, an
+instance of it, and the four checks to run -- so the first
+document is an edit of something that already holds, rather than an
+invention. It refuses to overwrite.
+
+The one construct to know before writing anything: &: inside a map is
+a TEMPLATE that every key of that map must satisfy. A quoted "*" is a
+key named *, not a wildcard, and a schema written that way constrains
+nothing while still reporting valid.
+
 The vet verb validates data documents against a schema document and
 reports what does not hold, as text or as a machine-readable object.
 
@@ -92,7 +128,11 @@ query between a document and its own earlier versions.
 
 Options:
   -c, --canon     Print the canonical form instead of generated JSON
-  -h, --help      Show this help and exit
+  --format <f>    text (default) or json. The json form wraps the
+                  answer as {aontu, findings, ok, out}, so a failure
+                  here reads like every other verb's
+  -h, --help      Show this help and exit (the verbs and their flags);
+                  aontu help is the LANGUAGE, and lists its own topics
   --jsonl         REPL: answer every command as one JSON line
   -v, --version   Print the version and exit
   --trust <t>     Include capability: system (default), none, or
@@ -123,12 +163,28 @@ Vet options:
   --closed          Refuse keys the anchor does not declare
   --partial         Residue is reported but does not fail the run
   --max-errors <n>  Cap the finding list (default 20)
+  --coverage        Report what the check EXAMINED: how many data
+                    leaves a schema declaration constrained, the
+                    shallowest data paths none did, and the
+                    declarations no data met
+  --strict-coverage --coverage, and exit 1 when the run was VACUOUS --
+                    when no data leaf was constrained at all. The
+                    verdict word is unchanged, so nothing that passes
+                    today starts failing without this flag
+  --coverage-at <p> Measure coverage under this path of the data only
   --format <f>      text (default), json or sarif
   --watch           Re-run whenever a watched file changes
 
+A check that examined NOTHING and a check that passed answer the same
+without --coverage. The usual cause is a schema written with the
+wildcard other tools use: a quoted "*" is a key NAMED *, not a
+template, so it constrains nothing and the run still reports valid.
+The template is &: -- see aontu help language.
+
 Vet exit codes:
   0  valid       data unifies, and is concrete (or --partial)
-  1  invalid     at least one contradiction
+  1  invalid     at least one contradiction, or a vacuous run under
+                 --strict-coverage
   2  usage       bad option, or a file that cannot be read
   3  incomplete  no contradiction, but the truth is not yet satisfied
   4  error       the schema is unusable on its own
@@ -264,8 +320,9 @@ up on its own, or a relation, root or path that names nothing.
 Render options:
   --at <path>       Render the value at this path ($.a.b); the root by
                     default
-  --profile <file>  A profile document, profile: {lang, ...}, vetted
-                    against aontu:profile; repeatable, one per language
+  --profile <file>  A profile document, aontu: render: Lang: {lang,
+                    ...}, vetted against aontu:render; repeatable,
+                    one per language
   --unit <path>     Render only the unit with this path
   --stdout          One unit's bytes and nothing else (with --unit when
                     the instance has several)
@@ -289,8 +346,8 @@ does not stand up or the instance is not aontu:code.
 A render entry file whose extension is not .aon is a TEMPLATE: a
 generator in the target's own syntax, whose marker lines carry aontu
 and whose other lines are output. It is desugared before it is
-evaluated, and --marker names the marker for a language the table does
-not know.
+evaluated, and a language the table does not know names its marker with
+--marker, or declares it once in a profile file that --profile reads.
 
 Template options:
   --resugar       The file is the canonical aontu; print the template
@@ -298,7 +355,9 @@ Template options:
   --check         Desugar and resugar, and exit 1 if the file is not
                   what the round trip answers
   --marker <t>    The marker, when the extension does not name it
-                  (default //-, and #- --- /*- by extension)
+                  (default //-, and #- --- /*- <!--- by extension)
+  --profile <f>   A profile file, whose template.ext names the
+                  extensions it marks and template.marker the marker
 
 The template verb prints the canonical aontu form of a generator
 written in the target's own syntax: a marked line is aontu source, and
@@ -326,14 +385,61 @@ change contradicts a pinned value -- aontu why locates it, and
 --in-place rewrites it), 2 usage, 3 incomplete, 4 the entry does not
 stand up on its own.
 
+Allow options:
+  --role <role>     The role the caller is operating under (required)
+  --at <path>       Where the roles map lives in the role model
+                    (default $.roles)
+  --format <f>      text (default) or json
+
+The allow verb asks a role model whether a role may modify every one
+of the given subtrees, and answers before the change is made. The
+role model is an aontu document: one entry per role, each carrying
+allow (the subtrees it may modify) and optionally deny (the ones it
+may not), as path strings starting at $; * in a path matches any one
+key. A path is allowed when an allow entry is at or above it, and
+refused when a deny entry is at, above or below it, whatever the
+order. Every path starts with $, and may be spelled as set's
+assignment, <path>=<value>, whose value must be one value: a value
+carrying a second pair would write a subtree the gate was not asked
+about.
+
+Allow exit codes: 0 allowed (every path), 1 refused (at least one
+path, or a role the model does not declare), 2 usage, 4 the role
+model does not stand up on its own.
+
 Agentsmd options:
   --write <file>  Splice the stanza into this file between the
                   aontu:begin and aontu:end markers, appending them
                   when they are absent; the rest is left alone
+  --depth <n>     How deep the shape line projects (default 2). Two
+                  levels name the root keys and say top under them; a
+                  caller that wants the fields asks for them
 
 Agentsmd exit codes: 0 generated, 2 usage, 4 the document does not
 stand up on its own.
 
+Help options:
+  --format <f>    text (default) or json, the topic and its text
+
+The help verb prints the embedded teaching pack: the language, not the
+tool. With no topic it lists them. Topics are tasks, language,
+examples, codes and grammar; the corpus is generated from docs/skill/
+and grammar/aontu.abnf, so it cannot drift from those sources.
+
+Help exit codes: 0 printed, 2 an unknown topic (the topics are listed)
+or a bad option.
+
+Explain options:
+  --list          Every registered error code with its class
+  --format <f>    text (default) or json
+
+The explain verb answers what one error code means, from the same
+table the engine attaches to a finding. Every registered code has an
+entry, so a code read out of a report always resolves.
+
+Explain exit codes: 0 explained, 2 an unknown code (near matches are
+named) or a bad option.
+
 Fmt options:
   -w, --write     Rewrite each file in place, when its form would change
   -l, --list      Print the name of each file whose form would change
@@ -344,7 +450,9 @@ Fmt options:
                   shapes, on standard error, and print nothing else
   --strict        With --lint, and exit 1 when there is a finding
   --marker <t>    The file is a generator, and this is its marker
-                  (default //-, and #- --- /*- by extension)
+                  (default //-, and #- --- /*- <!--- by extension)
+  --profile <f>   A profile file, whose template.ext names the
+                  extensions it marks and template.marker the marker
 
 The fmt verb prints one document in the agreed form; with no file it
 reads standard input. Several files need one of the options above.
@@ -387,27 +495,58 @@ function version() {
         return '0.0.0';
     }
 }
+const EVAL_ANSI = new RegExp('\u001b\\[[0-9;]*m', 'g');
+function evalFinding(code, text) {
+    return {
+        class: (0, hints_1.codeClass)(code),
+        code,
+        message: text.split('\n')[0].replace(EVAL_ANSI, ''),
+        path: '$',
+        severity: 'error',
+        sites: [],
+    };
+}
 // Evaluate source, returning either the rendered output or the error
-// message. Never throws.
+// message, and the failure in the finding shape. Never throws.
 function evalSource(aontu, src, mode) {
     try {
-        // exactJSON, not JSON.stringify: a document using the `0d` exact
-        // leaves generates bigints and Decimals, which JSON.stringify cannot
-        // write (D9). The CLI prints INDENTED JSON and the shared suite's
-        // `gens` mode prints COMPACT JSON, but both go through this one
-        // emitter -- an indent argument rather than a second implementation,
-        // so the two cannot drift from each other or from the Go port.
         const text = 'canon' === mode
             ? aontu.unify(src).canon
             : (0, aontu_1.exactJSON)(aontu.generate(src), 2);
-        return { ok: true, text };
+        return { ok: true, text, findings: [] };
     }
     catch (err) {
         const msg = (err instanceof aontu_1.AontuError || true === err?.aontu)
             ? err.message
             : String(err?.message ?? err);
-        return { ok: false, text: msg };
+        const errs = 'function' === typeof err?.errs ? err.errs() : [];
+        const first = errs[0];
+        return {
+            ok: false,
+            text: msg,
+            findings: null == first ? [] : [evalFinding(first.why, msg)],
+        };
+    }
+}
+// The bare command's answer, in the form the caller asked for. The
+// text form is what it has always printed, on the stream the verdict
+// chooses; `--format json` is the same answer as one object, on
+// stdout, so a harness reads one stream and one shape either way.
+// Mirrors emit in go/cmd/aontu/main.go.
+function emitEval(res, format) {
+    if ('json' === format) {
+        process.stdout.write((0, aontu_1.exactJSON)({
+            aontu: { version: version(), verb: 'eval' },
+            findings: res.findings,
+            ok: res.ok,
+            out: res.ok ? res.text : '',
+        }, 2) + '\n');
+    }
+    else {
+        ;
+        (res.ok ? process.stdout : process.stderr).write(res.text + '\n');
     }
+    return res.ok ? 0 : 1;
 }
 // The one-line warning of the staged default flip. Once per (kind,
 // path): a fixpoint re-resolves nothing (includes load at parse), but
@@ -444,16 +583,6 @@ function trustOpts(trust, entryRoot) {
             return { ...text, trustWarn: makeTrustWarn(), trustWarnRoot: entryRoot };
     }
 }
-// EVERY VERB honours the include capability, not just the bare
-// command. G5 wired `--trust`/`--include-root` to `aontu <file>` alone,
-// so `aontu vet schema.aon data.json` -- the surface an agent actually
-// scripts -- ran the full system resolver with no flag to confine it
-// and no warning (use-cases/REVIEW.md finding G). The flags are
-// stripped here, before each verb parses its own tail, so a verb only
-// has to pass the profile on to its engine.
-//
-// Returns undefined when the spelling is wrong, with the message
-// already printed: the caller answers the usage class.
 function takeTrust(argv) {
     const rest = [];
     let trust = { kind: 'system-warn', textExt: [] };
@@ -542,40 +671,40 @@ function verbOpts(trust, entryRoot) {
 function entryRootOf(file) {
     return null == file ? process.cwd() : (0, node_path_1.dirname)((0, node_path_1.resolve)(file));
 }
-function runFile(file, mode, trust) {
+function runFile(file, mode, format, trust) {
     let src;
     try {
         src = (0, node_fs_1.readFileSync)(file, 'utf8');
     }
     catch (err) {
+        if (looksLikeVerb(file)) {
+            process.stderr.write(`aontu: \`${file}\` is not a file, and not a verb this port knows\n`);
+            const near = nearestVerb(file, KNOWN_VERBS);
+            if ('' !== near) {
+                process.stderr.write(`aontu: did you mean \`aontu ${near}\`?\n`);
+            }
+            process.stderr.write('aontu: `aontu --help` lists the verbs, `aontu help` the topics\n');
+            return 2;
+        }
         process.stderr.write(`aontu: cannot read ${file}: ${err.message}\n`);
         return 1;
     }
     const path = (0, node_path_1.resolve)(file);
-    // `fs` IS WHAT MAKES A FRAME EXCERPT THE FILE IT NAMES. Without it,
-    // err.ts's resolveSrc falls back to the ENTRY text, so a frame whose
-    // arrow says `lib/types.aon:2:6` printed the entry's line 2 under it
-    // -- a real file name over another file's line, which
-    // docs/reference-api.md forbids in the same words it uses to require
-    // the name.
     const aontu = new aontu_1.Aontu({
         path,
         errfs: { existsSync: node_fs_1.existsSync, readFileSync: node_fs_1.readFileSync },
         ...trustOpts(trust, (0, node_path_1.dirname)(path)),
     });
-    const res = evalSource(aontu, src, mode);
-    (res.ok ? process.stdout : process.stderr).write(res.text + '\n');
-    return res.ok ? 0 : 1;
+    return emitEval(evalSource(aontu, src, mode), format);
 }
-function runStdin(mode, trust) {
+function runStdin(mode, format, trust) {
     return new Promise((resolve) => {
         let src = '';
         process.stdin.setEncoding('utf8');
         process.stdin.on('data', (d) => (src += d));
         process.stdin.on('end', () => {
             const res = evalSource(new aontu_1.Aontu(trustOpts(trust, process.cwd())), src, mode);
-            (res.ok ? process.stdout : process.stderr).write(res.text + '\n');
-            resolve(res.ok ? 0 : 1);
+            resolve(emitEval(res, format));
         });
     });
 }
@@ -696,14 +825,6 @@ function runRepl(initialMode, jsonl, trust) {
         rl.prompt();
     });
     rl.on('close', () => {
-        // The closing newline is for a HUMAN, so it is written only for
-        // one: it moves the terminal off the prompt line that `rl` left
-        // hanging. In `--jsonl` there is no prompt, every answer already
-        // ends in its own newline, and this one appended a bare empty line
-        // to the stream -- a record that is not JSON, at the end of a
-        // protocol whose whole contract is one JSON object per line. A
-        // harness parsing every line it receives failed on it, after the
-        // commands had all succeeded. Mirrors go/cmd/aontu/repl.go.
         if (!jsonl) {
             process.stdout.write('\n');
         }
@@ -713,15 +834,6 @@ function runRepl(initialMode, jsonl, trust) {
         process.exitCode = 0;
     });
 }
-// THE VET VERB (G2 phase 3).
-//
-// Exit codes are VERDICT CLASSES, not a pass/fail bit: an agent loop
-// branches on "the data contradicts the truth" (1) differently from
-// "the data has not supplied everything the truth requires" (3), and
-// differently again from "the schema itself is broken" (4), which is
-// never the data's fault. 2 stays what it already was for this CLI --
-// the caller got the invocation wrong -- which is why an unreadable
-// file is a 2 rather than a 4.
 const VET_EXIT = {
     valid: 0,
     invalid: 1,
@@ -739,6 +851,9 @@ function parseVetArgs(argv) {
     let partial = false;
     let maxErrors;
     let watch = false;
+    let coverage = false;
+    let strictCoverage = false;
+    let coverageAt;
     for (let i = 0; i < argv.length; i++) {
         const arg = argv[i];
         // `-h`/`--help` before anything else, INCLUDING the file count:
@@ -762,14 +877,6 @@ function parseVetArgs(argv) {
             format = f;
         }
         else if ('--max-errors' === arg) {
-            // ONE GRAMMAR, spelled the same way in both ports: decimal
-            // digits, one to nine of them, at least 1. `Number()` alone
-            // accepted `1.0`, `1e2`, `0x10` and ` 3`, which Go's parser
-            // refuses -- so the same documented invocation meant different
-            // things in the two shipped commands. The nine-digit ceiling is
-            // where the ports would part company again: beyond it Go's
-            // integer conversion saturates, and a cap nobody can reach is
-            // not worth a divergence.
             const raw = argv[++i];
             if (!/^[0-9]{1,9}$/.test(raw ?? '') || 1 > Number(raw)) {
                 return { err: 'aontu: --max-errors needs a positive whole number' };
@@ -782,6 +889,24 @@ function parseVetArgs(argv) {
         else if ('--partial' === arg) {
             partial = true;
         }
+        else if ('--coverage' === arg) {
+            coverage = true;
+        }
+        else if ('--strict-coverage' === arg) {
+            // IMPLIES THE ACCOUNTING, because a gate cannot fire on what was
+            // never measured. Asking for the strict form and having to
+            // remember `--coverage` beside it is a usage trap with one
+            // correct answer, so the flag takes it.
+            coverage = true;
+            strictCoverage = true;
+        }
+        else if ('--coverage-at' === arg) {
+            coverageAt = argv[++i];
+            if (null == coverageAt) {
+                return { err: 'aontu: --coverage-at needs a path' };
+            }
+            coverage = true;
+        }
         else if ('--watch' === arg) {
             watch = true;
         }
@@ -805,6 +930,9 @@ function parseVetArgs(argv) {
             partial,
             maxErrors,
             watch,
+            coverage,
+            strictCoverage,
+            coverageAt,
         },
     };
 }
@@ -826,10 +954,6 @@ function renderFinding(f) {
         out.push(`  actual:   ${f.actual}`);
     }
     for (const s of f.sites) {
-        // Every site carries the canon of the value it stands for: that is
-        // what makes the two sides of a conflict readable side by side. A
-        // site's file is always a string -- empty when the value belongs to
-        // neither document -- so there is nothing to coalesce here.
         out.push(`  ${s.role}: ${s.file}:${s.row}:${s.col} (${s.value})`);
     }
     return out.join('\n');
@@ -837,11 +961,46 @@ function renderFinding(f) {
 function renderVetText(report) {
     const head = `verdict: ${report.verdict}` +
         (report.truncated ? ' (findings truncated)' : '');
-    if (0 === report.findings.length) {
-        return head;
+    const body = 0 === report.findings.length ? []
+        : ['', ...report.findings.map(renderFinding)];
+    const cover = null == report.coverage ? []
+        : ['', ...renderVetCoverage(report.coverage)];
+    return [head, ...body, ...cover].join('\n');
+}
+// The coverage block (G11 phase 5). VACUOUS FIRST and in the
+// imperative, because it is the one line that changes what the reader
+// should do: a `valid` verdict above it means nothing.
+function renderVetCoverage(c) {
+    const out = [];
+    if (c.vacuous) {
+        out.push('coverage: VACUOUS — no data leaf was constrained' +
+            ' by the schema; this run checked nothing');
     }
-    return [head, ''].concat(report.findings.map(renderFinding)).join('\n');
+    out.push(`coverage: ${c.checked}/${c.leaves} data leaves checked,` +
+        ` ${c.declared} schema declarations`);
+    // The lists are the SHALLOWEST paths, so each names a subtree rather
+    // than every leaf under it, and both are capped: a report a reader
+    // scrolls past is a report nobody reads.
+    for (const [label, paths] of [
+        ['unchecked', c.unchecked], ['unused', c.unused],
+    ]) {
+        if (0 === paths.length) {
+            continue;
+        }
+        const shown = paths.slice(0, COVERAGE_LIST_MAX);
+        for (const p of shown) {
+            out.push(`  ${label}: ${p}`);
+        }
+        if (shown.length < paths.length) {
+            out.push(`  ${label}: … and ${paths.length - shown.length} more`);
+        }
+    }
+    return out;
 }
+// How many coverage paths the TEXT form prints per list. The JSON form
+// carries every one: a machine reads the whole list, a person reads the
+// first few and the count.
+const COVERAGE_LIST_MAX = 10;
 // The machine-readable form. `aontu` names the producer, so a report
 // read from a file or a pipe says which version and which verb made it
 // without the consumer having to know.
@@ -851,6 +1010,7 @@ function renderVetJson(report) {
         verdict: report.verdict,
         truncated: report.truncated,
         findings: report.findings,
+        ...(null == report.coverage ? {} : { coverage: report.coverage }),
     }, 2);
 }
 // The machine-interchange form (G2 phase 5): SARIF 2.1.0, rendered by
@@ -885,12 +1045,17 @@ function vetOnce(args, trust) {
         process.stderr.write(`aontu: cannot read ${err.path}: ${err.message}\n`);
         return 2;
     }
-    // Each data file is vetted on its own, because a parsed tree is
-    // single-use (docs/reference-api.md) -- and because two data files
-    // are two candidates for the same truth, not one merged candidate.
     let verdict = 'valid';
     let truncated = false;
     const findings = [];
+    let cov;
+    // Initialised rather than left undefined: it is filled in the same
+    // block that sets `cov`, so a fallback at the read below would be an
+    // arm nothing can take. The FIRST file replaces it wholesale, which
+    // is what makes the fold an intersection rather than an empty set.
+    let unusedEvery = new Set();
+    let unusedSeen = false;
+    const uncheckedAll = new Set();
     for (const source of sources) {
         const report = (0, aontu_1.vet)(schemaSrc, source.src, {
             ...verbOpts(trust, entryRootOf(args.schema)),
@@ -900,51 +1065,62 @@ function vetOnce(args, trust) {
             maxErrors: args.maxErrors,
             schemaUrl: args.schema,
             dataUrl: source.file,
-            // The paths as well as the labels: a relative `@"file"` load
-            // inside either document resolves from ITS OWN directory, the
-            // way `aontu <file>` already resolves one (runFile above). The
-            // path is passed AS TYPED, not resolved: it doubles as the
-            // label above, and a report that mixed the typed path with an
-            // absolute one would name the same file two ways.
             schemaPath: args.schema,
             dataPath: source.file,
+            coverage: args.coverage,
+            coverageAt: args.coverageAt,
         });
         if (VET_RANK[verdict] < VET_RANK[report.verdict]) {
             verdict = report.verdict;
         }
         truncated = truncated || report.truncated;
         findings.push(...report.findings);
-        // A SCHEMA-SIDE FAULT IS THE SAME FAULT FOR EVERY DATA FILE, so it
-        // is reported ONCE. `error` means exactly that -- the run could not
-        // be set up from the truth's side, never the data's (the exit table
-        // in docs/reference-api.md) -- so the report the first file
-        // produced is the report every later file would produce, character
-        // for character. Concatenating them repeated one broken schema N
-        // times and, past the cap, marked the report `truncated` over a
-        // single underlying fault. It only became visible once the `error`
-        // verdict started carrying findings at all: while the list was
-        // empty there was nothing to duplicate.
+        if (null != report.coverage) {
+            const c = report.coverage;
+            cov = null == cov ? { ...c } : {
+                checked: cov.checked + c.checked,
+                declared: c.declared,
+                leaves: cov.leaves + c.leaves,
+                unchecked: [],
+                unused: [],
+                vacuous: false,
+            };
+            for (const p of c.unchecked) {
+                uncheckedAll.add(p);
+            }
+            const mine = new Set(c.unused);
+            unusedEvery = unusedSeen
+                ? new Set([...unusedEvery].filter((u) => mine.has(u))) : mine;
+            unusedSeen = true;
+        }
         if ('error' === report.verdict) {
             break;
         }
     }
-    // The cap is on the REPORT, not on each file. Capping every file's
-    // list and then concatenating them let `--max-errors 1` emit one
-    // finding PER FILE -- and leave `truncated` false while doing it,
-    // because no single file had been cut. The engine still caps each
-    // run, so a pathological file cannot flood the aggregate before it
-    // gets here; this is the second, honest cut.
     const cap = args.maxErrors ?? vet_1.VET_MAX_ERRORS;
     const kept = cap < findings.length ? findings.slice(0, cap) : findings;
+    if (null != cov) {
+        cov.unchecked = [...uncheckedAll].sort(keyorder_1.cmpCodePoint);
+        cov.unused = [...unusedEvery].sort(keyorder_1.cmpCodePoint);
+        cov.vacuous = 0 === cov.checked && 0 < cov.leaves;
+    }
     const report = {
         verdict,
         truncated: truncated || cap < findings.length,
         findings: kept,
+        ...(null == cov ? {} : { coverage: cov }),
     };
     const text = 'json' === args.format ? renderVetJson(report) :
         'sarif' === args.format ? renderVetSarif(report) :
             renderVetText(report);
     process.stdout.write(text + '\n');
+    if (true === args.strictCoverage && true === report.coverage?.vacuous) {
+        process.stderr.write('aontu: no data leaf was constrained by the schema:' +
+            ' this run checked nothing\n' +
+            'aontu: `aontu help language` — a map template is `&:`,' +
+            ' and a quoted "*" is a key named *\n');
+        return 1;
+    }
     return VET_EXIT[verdict];
 }
 // How often `--watch` polls for a change. Polling by mtime+size rather
@@ -964,19 +1140,6 @@ function watchSignature(files) {
 function sleep(ms) {
     return new Promise((done) => setTimeout(done, ms));
 }
-// Resolve true when any watched file's signature moves off `before`.
-// This is the real waiter: it never resolves false, so a real watch
-// runs until the process is interrupted; tests inject their own waiter
-// to bound the loop, and pass a short pollMs when they drive this one
-// directly. The interval is a required argument (the command passes
-// WATCH_POLL_MS) so there is no defaulting branch a test could never
-// take.
-//
-// The BASELINE is an argument, not a snapshot taken here: the loop
-// records it BEFORE each vet run, so a save landing between the run's
-// reads and the wait still compares as a change. A waiter that
-// snapshotted on entry would adopt that unvetted save as its baseline
-// and wait indefinitely on a stale report.
 async function watchChange(files, before, pollMs) {
     for (;;) {
         await sleep(pollMs);
@@ -1005,9 +1168,6 @@ async function watchVet(args, wait, trust) {
     }
     return code;
 }
-// The vet verb. Non-watch runs are synchronous and return the exit
-// class directly; `--watch` returns a promise that resolves only when
-// the waiter says stop (never, for the real one).
 function runVet(argv, wait) {
     const trusted = takeTrust(argv);
     if (null == trusted) {
@@ -1218,30 +1378,7 @@ function parseBreakingArgs(argv) {
         },
     };
 }
-// A source file the include resolver can actually load. `git#<rev>`
-// materialises these and nothing else: an include names an Aontu
-// document (`.aon`/`.aontu`, the two extensions `@"foo"` tries) or a
-// JSON one, so the rest of a revision's tree cannot be part of any
-// include closure and copying it would be pure cost.
 const INCLUDABLE = /\.(aon|aontu|jsonic|json)$/;
-// Resolve one --against spelling to an old version.
-//
-// A `git#<rev>` spelling is the old version of the WHOLE TREE, not of
-// the entry file alone. It used to be `git show <rev>:./<file>`, whose
-// text was then evaluated with `generalPath`/`specificPath` pointing at
-// the WORKING file -- so every `@"..."` include in the old document
-// resolved against the working tree, and the "old" side was old entry
-// text meeting new includes. A breaking change inside an included file
-// therefore compared against itself and answered `compatible`: the
-// documented CI gate silently un-gated every non-entry file of the
-// multi-file layout real models use (use-cases/BUGS.md §26). The old
-// tree's includable sources are copied into a temporary directory and
-// the old document is evaluated from THERE.
-//
-// Sources outside the revision -- package includes under node_modules,
-// the bundled `std/system` -- still resolve as they do today: they are
-// not in the tree, and their versions travel with the lockfile rather
-// than with this comparison.
 function oldVersion(spec, file) {
     if (!spec.startsWith('git#')) {
         try {
@@ -1269,23 +1406,9 @@ function oldVersion(spec, file) {
     // that only some failures take.
     const temp = (0, node_fs_1.mkdtempSync)((0, node_path_1.join)((0, node_os_1.tmpdir)(), 'aontu-against-'));
     try {
-        // THE REPO-RELATIVE PATH COMES FROM GIT, not from path arithmetic.
-        // Relativising `rev-parse --show-toplevel` against `resolve(file)`
-        // puts two DIFFERENT COORDINATE SYSTEMS on either side of the
-        // subtraction: git prints the real path, while the caller's is
-        // whatever they typed. On macOS a temp file under /var is
-        // /private/var to git, and on Windows a TMP short name
-        // (RUNNER~1) is the long form to git -- so the subtraction gave a
-        // `../..` climb, the entry was "not in that revision", and the
-        // documented CI spelling failed on both platforms while passing on
-        // Linux (this PR's own CI). `--show-prefix` is the same question
-        // asked in git's coordinates: the repo-relative directory of the
-        // cwd, already slash-separated and already normalised.
         const prefix = git(['rev-parse', '--show-prefix'], dir).trim();
         const entryRel = prefix + (0, node_path_1.basename)(file);
         const top = git(['rev-parse', '--show-toplevel'], dir).trim();
-        // `-z` so a path with a newline or a quote cannot be mistaken for
-        // two paths (git otherwise quotes such names).
         const listed = git(['ls-tree', '-r', '-z', '--name-only', rev], top)
             .split('\0').filter((p) => '' !== p);
         if (!listed.includes(entryRel)) {
@@ -1315,13 +1438,6 @@ function oldVersion(spec, file) {
 function policyCompat(newSrc, path, include) {
     const aontu = new aontu_1.Aontu();
     const ctx = aontu.ctx({ collect: true });
-    // The declaration is read by EVALUATING the document, so this leg
-    // runs the include resolver too and has to run it under BOTH of the
-    // verb's include options -- a `breaking --trust none` that read its
-    // own mode through an unconfined resolver would confine the
-    // comparison and not the question (use-cases/REVIEW.md finding G),
-    // and one that took the capability alone read no mode at all when
-    // the declaration arrived through a `--text-ext` include.
     const v = aontu.unify(newSrc, { path, ...(0, utility_1.includeOpts)(include) }, ctx);
     if (0 < ctx.err.length || true === v?.isNil) {
         return undefined;
@@ -1340,11 +1456,6 @@ function policyCompat(newSrc, path, include) {
     return 'backward' === m || 'forward' === m || 'full' === m || 'none' === m
         ? m : undefined;
 }
-// Is the evaluated old version's value at the finding path deprecated?
-// The --allow-deprecated-removal downgrade (G3 phase 4): removing (or
-// otherwise changing) a value the old version already deprecated warns
-// instead of breaking. The Go port exports the same reader as
-// aontu.DeprecatedAt.
 function deprecatedAt(oldSrc, path, filePath) {
     const aontu = new aontu_1.Aontu();
     const ctx = aontu.ctx({ collect: true });
@@ -1411,9 +1522,6 @@ function runBreaking(argv) {
         process.stderr.write(`aontu: cannot read ${err.path}: ${err.message}\n`);
         return 2;
     }
-    // The declared mode: --mode overrides the document's own policy;
-    // neither means backward, the index's framing (v1-valid documents
-    // stay valid).
     const mode = args.mode ??
         policyCompat(newSrc, args.file, verbOpts(trust, entryRootOf(args.file))) ??
         'backward';
@@ -1446,8 +1554,6 @@ function runBreaking(argv) {
             if (null != old.temp) {
                 temps.push(old.temp);
             }
-            // backward: the NEW document is the general side — every old
-            // instance must still be admitted. forward: the old one is.
             const checks = [];
             if ('backward' === mode || 'full' === mode) {
                 checks.push({ general: [newSrc, args.file], specific: [oldSrc, spec] });
@@ -1462,17 +1568,9 @@ function runBreaking(argv) {
                     at: args.at,
                     generalUrl: check.general[1],
                     specificUrl: check.specific[1],
-                    // The old side's relative loads resolve from ITS own tree --
-                    // the materialised revision for a git spelling, the named
-                    // file's directory otherwise -- so an included file's change
-                    // is part of the comparison rather than invisible to it.
                     generalPath: check.general[1] === spec ? oldPath : args.file,
                     specificPath: check.specific[1] === spec ? oldPath : args.file,
                 });
-                // The deprecated-removal downgrade: a finding about a value the
-                // OLD version already deprecated becomes a warning, and warnings
-                // do not move the verdict. Deprecate-then-remove is the
-                // supported rename path (the design's own sequencing).
                 let verdict = report.verdict;
                 if (args.allowDeprecatedRemoval) {
                     let liveFindings = 0;
@@ -1523,12 +1621,6 @@ function renderBreakingJson(report, mode) {
         findings: report.findings,
     }, 2);
 }
-// ---------------------------------------------------------------------
-// The trim reporter (G3 phase 6): report redundant entries as paths.
-// Report-only — REWRITING needs G7's format-preserving patch surface —
-// which is why --check is REQUIRED rather than defaulted: `aontu trim
-// f.aon` reads as "trim this file", and doing something else silently
-// is worse than saying so.
 const TRIM_HELP = 'aontu trim --check <file> (try --help)';
 const TRIM_EXIT = {
     clean: 0,
@@ -1598,8 +1690,6 @@ function runTrim(argv) {
 }
 function renderTrimText(report) {
     const head = `verdict: ${report.verdict}`;
-    // WHY, when the document could not be evaluated at all: rendered as
-    // vet renders a finding, because it IS one (the review's finding F).
     const errors = report.errors ?? [];
     if (0 < errors.length) {
         return [head, ''].concat(errors.map(renderFinding)).join('\n');
@@ -1648,27 +1738,10 @@ const VIEW_EDGES = ['upward', 'all', 'none'];
 // is a terminal, which is the CLI's to know and the library's never --
 // the same division err.ts already draws for the error frames.
 const VIEW_STYLES = ['auto', 'none', 'ansi', 'css'];
-// `--style auto` resolved, which only the CLI can do. The mechanism is
-// the PROFILE's and the library knows it -- an SVG carries its
-// stylesheet unless told not to, which is what makes a figure stand
-// alone. What the library cannot know is whether the DESTINATION is a
-// terminal, so that is the only thing decided here: escapes on the
-// text profile when stdout is a terminal and NO_COLOR is unset, the
-// same two conditions the error frames use. `undefined` leaves the
-// profile's own default in place.
 function viewStyleOf(asked, as) {
     if (undefined !== asked && 'auto' !== asked) {
         return asked;
     }
-    // STDOUT'S OWN TERMINAL-NESS, and NO_COLOR read here rather than
-    // through colorActive(). The figure goes to STDOUT and the error
-    // frames go to STDERR, and they are not the same destination: main()
-    // has already called setColor for stderr, so asking colorActive()
-    // would answer the wrong question twice --- no escapes for
-    // `aontu view tree m.aon 2>/dev/null` at a terminal, and escapes
-    // into the pipe for `aontu view tree m.aon | less`. The NO_COLOR
-    // rule is the one no-color.org states and err.ts implements:
-    // set, to anything but empty, means no colour.
     const no = process.env.NO_COLOR;
     return 'text' === as && true === process.stdout.isTTY
         && (null == no || '' === no) ? 'ansi' : undefined;
@@ -1690,24 +1763,6 @@ const VIEW_USAGE_CODES = [
     'view_document_shape', 'view_style_profile', 'view_style_unknown',
 ];
 const MOD_HELP = 'aontu mod tidy|verify|vendor|manifest [dir] (try --help)';
-// The module tooling (G6 phase 3, ts/src/mod-tool.ts). All LOCAL:
-// `tidy` resolves the closure from what is in the stores and rewrites
-// the lockfile, `verify` asks whether the stores still mean what the
-// lockfile pins and changes nothing, `vendor` materialises the locked
-// closure into the project, `manifest` prints what a publish would
-// push.
-//
-// TIDY AND VERIFY ARE DIFFERENT QUESTIONS, and that is why both exist.
-// Tidy recomputes and rewrites by design -- a pin is what a module
-// means NOW -- so it makes the lockfile agree with whatever the store
-// holds, tampering included. Verify is the gate: a CI job runs it
-// BEFORE tidy, or instead of it.
-//
-// `get` and `publish` are the NETWORK half of the design and are not in
-// this build. They are named here rather than left to fall out as an
-// unknown subcommand, because a reader of the design will type them and
-// deserves to be told which half is missing rather than that the word
-// is wrong.
 function runMod(argv) {
     const rest = [];
     let format = 'text';
@@ -1754,10 +1809,6 @@ function runMod(argv) {
         process.stderr.write(`aontu: mod needs tidy, verify, vendor or manifest\n${MOD_HELP}\n`);
         return 2;
     }
-    // THE OLD LAYOUT IS NAMED, NOT READ. The lockfile and the vendored
-    // closure moved under aontu_meta/; a project that still carries them
-    // at its root would otherwise look untouched by any of these verbs,
-    // which is the one silence worth breaking.
     if ((0, node_fs_1.existsSync)((0, node_path_1.join)(dir, 'aon_vendor')) || (0, node_fs_1.existsSync)((0, node_path_1.join)(dir, 'mod-lock.aon'))) {
         process.stderr.write('aontu: aon_vendor/ and mod-lock.aon now live under aontu_meta/: ' +
             'move them, or run aontu mod tidy and aontu mod vendor\n');
@@ -1781,9 +1832,6 @@ const MOD_SUBS = ['tidy', 'verify', 'vendor', 'manifest'];
 const MOD_EXIT = {
     ok: 0,
     missing: 1,
-    // A REFUSED GATE, with `breaking`: a store that no longer means what
-    // the lockfile pins is the integrity check saying no, and a CI job
-    // reading exit codes should not have to learn a third class for it.
     mismatch: 1,
     // Likewise a lockfile that does not cover the project: the gate has
     // nothing to check, which is a refusal and not a pass.
@@ -1829,11 +1877,6 @@ function modText(sub, report) {
         for (const f of report.findings) {
             lines.push(f.path + ': ' + f.message);
         }
-        // What a manifest lacks is a declaration the module does not make
-        // or an entry file that is not there, and neither is something a
-        // fetch would supply -- so this is not the tail the other two
-        // subcommands share. The name says which kind it is: `mod.version`
-        // is a declaration, `service.aon` is a file.
         for (const miss of report.missing) {
             lines.push(miss + ': missing');
         }
@@ -1843,8 +1886,6 @@ function modText(sub, report) {
         for (const mod of report.verified) {
             lines.push(mod + ': verified');
         }
-        // BOTH HASHES, because the useful question is which way it moved:
-        // an empty `got` is a module that no longer stands up at all.
         for (const m of report.mismatched) {
             lines.push(m.mod + ': pinned ' + m.want + ' but the store means ' +
                 ('' === m.got ? 'nothing (it does not evaluate)' : m.got));
@@ -1877,6 +1918,9 @@ function modText(sub, report) {
     }
     return lines.join('\n');
 }
+function vacuous(what, why) {
+    process.stderr.write(`aontu: ${what}: ${why}\n`);
+}
 function runRelations(argv) {
     const trusted = takeTrust(argv);
     if (null == trusted) {
@@ -1921,12 +1965,20 @@ function runRelations(argv) {
         return 2;
     }
     const report = (0, aontu_1.relationCheck)(src, {
-        path: files[0], ...verbOpts(trust, entryRootOf(files[0])),
+        path: files[0], count: true,
+        ...verbOpts(trust, entryRootOf(files[0])),
     });
     const text = 'json' === format
         ? renderRelationsJson(report)
         : renderRelationsText(report);
     process.stdout.write(text + '\n');
+    // `pass` over NO declarations is the vacuous case, and the engine
+    // knows it exactly: `_reldecls` is empty. The count is asked for
+    // here rather than derived, so the answer costs no second
+    // evaluation.
+    if (0 === report.declared) {
+        vacuous('this document declares no relations', '`pass` means nothing was checked, not that the graph is sound');
+    }
     return RELATIONS_EXIT[report.verdict];
 }
 function runReaches(argv) {
@@ -2129,12 +2181,6 @@ function runView(argv) {
             rest.push(arg);
         }
     }
-    // ESCAPES NEVER GO INTO A FILE. A pinned golden holding terminal
-    // control codes is not a golden anybody can read, and a byte
-    // comparison against one would fail on the reader's terminal
-    // settings. `auto` resolves to `none` there on its own; asking for
-    // `ansi` explicitly is a usage error rather than a silent downgrade,
-    // so a script that wanted colour is told where it went.
     if ('ansi' === style && (undefined !== out || undefined !== opts.views)) {
         process.stderr.write('aontu: --style ansi writes to a terminal, not to a file\n');
         return 2;
@@ -2142,10 +2188,6 @@ function runView(argv) {
     // THE VIEW DOCUMENT draws every figure a document declares, so it
     // names no kind: the declarations do, one each.
     if (undefined !== opts.views) {
-        // A declaration names its own profile, so the style is left to
-        // each figure's own default; `--style none` still reaches every
-        // one of them, which is how a host page that binds the CSS
-        // variables asks for eight figures without eight stylesheets.
         opts.style = viewStyleOf(style, undefined);
         return runViewSet(rest, opts, trust, { format, check, strict, out });
     }
@@ -2203,7 +2245,7 @@ function runView(argv) {
             return 2;
         }
     }
-    const report = (0, view_1.view)(srcs[0], {
+    const viewOpts = {
         ...opts,
         style: viewStyleOf(style, opts.as ?? (0, view_1.viewDefaultProfile)(kind)),
         kind,
@@ -2211,7 +2253,15 @@ function runView(argv) {
         roots,
         ...verbOpts(trust, entryRootOf(files[0])),
         docs: files.slice(1).map((path, i) => ({ src: srcs[i + 1], path })),
-    });
+    };
+    const report = (0, view_1.view)(srcs[0], viewOpts);
+    if ('error' !== report.verdict && null != report.text) {
+        const bare = (0, view_1.view)('{}', viewOpts);
+        if ('error' !== bare.verdict && bare.text === report.text) {
+            vacuous('nothing to draw', 'this figure is what the same view draws for an empty document' +
+                ' — the model declares nothing this kind can show');
+        }
+    }
     if ('json' === format) {
         process.stdout.write(renderViewJson(report) + '\n');
     }
@@ -2253,13 +2303,6 @@ function runView(argv) {
     }
     return strict && 'lossy' === report.verdict ? 1 : VIEW_EXIT[report.verdict];
 }
-// `aontu view --views <path> <file>`: every figure the document
-// declares, from one evaluation, all or nothing.
-//
-// A declared `out` is resolved against the DOCUMENT's own directory,
-// not the caller's: a view document is committed beside the figures it
-// gates, and a gate that only passes from one working directory is not
-// a gate.
 function runViewSet(rest, opts, trust, how) {
     if (1 !== rest.length) {
         process.stderr.write('aontu: view --views takes one file\n');
@@ -2383,8 +2426,6 @@ function renderViewJson(report) {
 }
 function renderRelationsText(report) {
     const head = `verdict: ${report.verdict}`;
-    // WHY, when the document could not be evaluated at all: rendered as
-    // vet renders a finding, because it IS one (the review's finding F).
     const errors = report.errors ?? [];
     if (0 < errors.length) {
         return [head, ''].concat(errors.map(renderFinding)).join('\n');
@@ -2406,19 +2447,6 @@ function renderRelationsJson(report) {
         ...(null == report.errors ? {} : { errors: report.errors }),
     }, 2);
 }
-// ---------------------------------------------------------------------
-// JSON SCHEMA EXPORT (SUPPORT.md act 2, the review's finding I): the
-// bridge to every structured-output API, which constrains generation to
-// JSON Schema and nothing else. Export the model, let the provider
-// generate under it, then `vet` the result against the model itself --
-// the hybrid an enterprise actually deploys, and impossible without
-// this verb.
-//
-// THE SCHEMA GOES TO STDOUT AND THE LOSSES TO STDERR, so `aontu
-// jsonschema x.aon > schema.json` writes a schema and still tells the
-// reader what it could not carry. `--strict` makes a loss a refusal,
-// for the CI job that would rather fail than ship a schema weaker than
-// its model.
 const JSONSCHEMA_HELP = 'aontu jsonschema [--at <path>] [--strict] <file> (try --help)';
 function runJsonSchema(argv) {
     const trusted = takeTrust(argv);
@@ -2502,14 +2530,6 @@ function runJsonSchema(argv) {
     return 'error' === report.verdict ? 4 :
         strict && 'lossy' === report.verdict ? 1 : 0;
 }
-// ---------------------------------------------------------------------
-// THE RENDER VERB (docs/design/RENDER.0.md D8): evaluate a document,
-// vet the value at --at against aontu:code, fold code.units into bytes,
-// and put them where the flag says -- one unit on stdout, every unit
-// below --out (all or nothing), or compared against --check. Exit codes
-// mirror jsonschema's: 0 ok; 1 lossy under --strict or drift under
-// --check; 2 usage or I/O, a refused unit path included; 4 the
-// document does not stand up or the instance is not aontu:code.
 const RENDER_HELP = 'aontu render [--at <path>] [--profile <file>]... [--unit <path>] ' +
     '[--stdout | --out <dir> | --check <dir> | --coverage] ' +
     '[--coverage-at <path>] [--strict] [--marker <token>] <file> (try --help)';
@@ -2638,45 +2658,20 @@ function runRender(argv) {
         process.stderr.write(`aontu: cannot read ${err.path}: ${err.message}\n`);
         return 2;
     }
-    // THE ENTRY MAY BE A TEMPLATE (TEMPLATE.0.md; P8), and its EXTENSION
-    // decides, as an include's extension decides what the include is
-    // (ADR-012): a generator is a file in the target's own syntax, so it
-    // carries the target's extension and never `.aon`. Desugared here
-    // rather than anywhere deeper, because a template is an entry
-    // spelling and not a value: an include is still aontu.
-    if (!files[0].endsWith('.aon')) {
-        src = (0, template_1.desugarTemplate)(src, marker ?? (0, template_1.markerFor)(files[0]));
-    }
-    // THE PROFILES (D5): each --profile file is a document whose root is
-    // `profile: {lang, ...}`, evaluated under the verb's trust and vetted
-    // against aontu:profile as a settled value before the fold reads it
-    // (renderProfile, which also fills the defaults). Two files claiming
-    // one lang is a usage error: the fold could not choose.
-    const profiles = [];
-    const langs = new Map();
-    for (const pf of profileFiles) {
-        let text;
-        try {
-            text = (0, node_fs_1.readFileSync)(pf, 'utf8');
-        }
-        catch (err) {
-            process.stderr.write(`aontu: cannot read ${err.path}: ${err.message}\n`);
-            return 2;
-        }
-        const loaded = (0, aontu_1.renderProfile)(text, { path: (0, node_path_1.resolve)(pf), ...verbOpts(trust, entryRootOf(pf)) });
-        if (undefined !== loaded.errors) {
-            process.stderr.write(loaded.errors.map(renderFinding).join('\n') + '\n');
-            return 4;
-        }
-        const profile = loaded.profile;
-        const prev = langs.get(profile.lang);
-        if (undefined !== prev) {
-            process.stderr.write(`aontu: two profiles claim ${profile.lang}: ${prev} and ${pf}\n`);
-            return 2;
-        }
-        langs.set(profile.lang, pf);
-        profiles.push(profile);
+    const loadedProfiles = loadProfiles(profileFiles, trust);
+    if ('number' === typeof loadedProfiles) {
+        return loadedProfiles;
     }
+    const profiles = loadedProfiles;
+    if (!files[0].endsWith('.aon')) {
+        src = (0, template_1.desugarTemplate)(src, marker ??
+            (0, template_1.markerFromProfiles)(profiles, files[0]) ?? (0, template_1.markerFor)(files[0]));
+    }
+    // A RENDER WITH NO PROFILE PRODUCES NO UNITS, and said so with zero
+    // bytes and exit 0. The profile is what maps a model onto a
+    // language, so without one there is nothing for the renderer to
+    // write -- which is a usable answer only if the caller is told.
+    const noProfiles = 0 === profiles.length;
     const report = (0, aontu_1.render)(src, {
         at, unit, strict, profiles, path: files[0],
         coverage, coverageAt,
@@ -2686,6 +2681,13 @@ function runRender(argv) {
         trace: 'json' === format,
         ...verbOpts(trust, entryRootOf(files[0])),
     });
+    // Said once, whatever the format: stdout stays the report.
+    if ('error' !== report.verdict && 0 === report.units.length) {
+        vacuous('nothing was rendered', noProfiles
+            ? 'no profile was given, and the document declares none' +
+                ' (see aontu help tasks)'
+            : 'the document produced no units under this profile');
+    }
     if ('json' === format) {
         process.stdout.write((0, aontu_1.exactJSON)({
             aontu: { version: version(), verb: 'render' },
@@ -2803,18 +2805,19 @@ function renderExit(report, drift) {
     }
     return 0 < drift ? 1 : 0;
 }
-// ---------------------------------------------------------------------
-// THE TEMPLATE SURFACE (docs/design/TEMPLATE.0.md; RENDER.0.md P8): the
-// two transforms and the round trip between them. `render` reads a
-// template directly, by its extension; this verb is for seeing the
-// canonical form, for writing one by hand and sugaring it, and for the
-// check that keeps a committed template and its meaning in agreement.
 const TEMPLATE_HELP = 'aontu template [--resugar] [--check] [--marker <token>] <file> (try --help)';
 function runTemplate(argv) {
+    const trusted = takeTrust(argv);
+    if (null == trusted) {
+        return 2;
+    }
+    argv = trusted.argv;
+    const trust = trusted.trust;
     const files = [];
     let resugar = false;
     let check = false;
     let marker = undefined;
+    const profileFiles = [];
     for (let i = 0; i < argv.length; i++) {
         const arg = argv[i];
         if ('-h' === arg || '--help' === arg) {
@@ -2834,6 +2837,14 @@ function runTemplate(argv) {
                 return 2;
             }
         }
+        else if ('--profile' === arg) {
+            const pf = argv[++i];
+            if (null == pf) {
+                process.stderr.write('aontu: --profile needs a file\n');
+                return 2;
+            }
+            profileFiles.push(pf);
+        }
         else if (arg.startsWith('-')) {
             process.stderr.write(`aontu: unknown template option ${arg} (try --help)\n`);
             return 2;
@@ -2846,10 +2857,6 @@ function runTemplate(argv) {
         process.stderr.write(`aontu: template needs one file\n${TEMPLATE_HELP}\n`);
         return 2;
     }
-    // THE TWO ARE DIRECTIONS, NOT MODES THAT COMPOSE: `--check` reads a
-    // template and asks whether the round trip answers it back, and
-    // `--resugar` reads the canonical form instead. A run cannot be both
-    // at once, because the file is one thing or the other.
     if (resugar && check) {
         process.stderr.write('aontu: template takes one of --resugar or --check\n');
         return 2;
@@ -2862,18 +2869,13 @@ function runTemplate(argv) {
         process.stderr.write(`aontu: cannot read ${err.path}: ${err.message}\n`);
         return 2;
     }
-    const mark = marker ?? (0, template_1.markerFor)(files[0]);
+    const declared = loadProfiles(profileFiles, trust);
+    if ('number' === typeof declared) {
+        return declared;
+    }
+    const mark = marker ?? (0, template_1.markerFromProfiles)(declared, files[0]) ??
+        (0, template_1.markerFor)(files[0]);
     if (check) {
-        // THE ROUND TRIP IS THE CHECK (D6): the file held to the spelling
-        // the two transforms answer. What that names is a marker line the
-        // transform would not have written -- one without its space, or one
-        // whose aontu is indented after the marker rather than before it,
-        // since the marker keeps its own indentation. It does NOT name a
-        // changed body line: a template's whitespace is output, so a
-        // trimmed trailing space is still a valid template and it is
-        // `render --check` against the committed files that catches it.
-        // The first line that differs is the report, since a whole diff of
-        // a generator is the file again.
         const back = (0, template_1.resugarTemplate)((0, template_1.desugarTemplate)(src, mark), mark);
         if (back === src) {
             return 0;
@@ -2884,12 +2886,6 @@ function runTemplate(argv) {
         while (n < want.length && n < have.length && want[n] === have[n]) {
             n++;
         }
-        // THE TWO ARE THE SAME LENGTH, always: each transform maps one
-        // line to one line and applies the same trailing-newline rule, so
-        // `back` has as many lines as `src`. The loop above therefore stops
-        // at a real difference rather than by running out of either -- an
-        // equal prefix all the way to the end IS `back === src`, which
-        // returned above. So both indexes are in range here.
         process.stderr.write(`aontu: ${files[0]}:${n + 1} is not what the round trip answers\n` +
             `  have: ${JSON.stringify(have[n])}\n` +
             `  want: ${JSON.stringify(want[n])}\n`);
@@ -2899,13 +2895,38 @@ function runTemplate(argv) {
         (0, template_1.resugarTemplate)(src, mark) : (0, template_1.desugarTemplate)(src, mark));
     return 0;
 }
-// ---------------------------------------------------------------------
-// The canon-hash (G6 phase 1): the pin an agent, a lockfile or a
-// registry stores for "this module, this meaning". The hash covers the
-// module evaluated STANDALONE -- its own include closure resolved and
-// unified at its own root, before any consumer context -- which is what
-// makes the pin transitive: an edit two includes deep changes the
-// unified root, hence the hash.
+// The profiles named by --profile, vetted, or the exit code that says
+// why not. A profile is a language declared as data: `render` matches
+// one to a unit by `lang`, and `template` and `fmt` match one to a file
+// by the extensions its `template.ext` names.
+function loadProfiles(profileFiles, trust) {
+    const profiles = [];
+    const langs = new Map();
+    for (const pf of profileFiles) {
+        let text;
+        try {
+            text = (0, node_fs_1.readFileSync)(pf, 'utf8');
+        }
+        catch (err) {
+            process.stderr.write(`aontu: cannot read ${err.path}: ${err.message}\n`);
+            return 2;
+        }
+        const loaded = (0, aontu_1.renderProfile)(text, { path: (0, node_path_1.resolve)(pf), ...verbOpts(trust, entryRootOf(pf)) });
+        if (undefined !== loaded.errors) {
+            process.stderr.write(loaded.errors.map(renderFinding).join('\n') + '\n');
+            return 4;
+        }
+        const profile = loaded.profile;
+        const prev = langs.get(profile.lang);
+        if (undefined !== prev) {
+            process.stderr.write(`aontu: two profiles claim ${profile.lang}: ${prev} and ${pf}\n`);
+            return 2;
+        }
+        langs.set(profile.lang, pf);
+        profiles.push(profile);
+    }
+    return profiles;
+}
 const HASH_HELP = 'aontu hash <file> (try --help)';
 function runHash(argv) {
     const trusted = takeTrust(argv);
@@ -2960,14 +2981,6 @@ function runHash(argv) {
     const ctx = aontu.ctx({ collect: true });
     const v = aontu.unify(src, { path: files[0] }, ctx);
     if (0 < ctx.err.length || true === v?.isNil) {
-        // A document that does not stand up on its own has no meaning to
-        // pin, and a hash of a broken evaluation would be a pin that
-        // silently agrees with every other broken evaluation.
-        // WHY it does not stand up, not just that it does not: the same
-        // diagnosis `aontu <file>` prints (the review's finding F).
-        // evalFailure unconditionally, as every other call site does: it
-        // owns the "ctx.err is never empty here" contract, and a guard
-        // that pretends otherwise is a dead arm asserting nothing.
         process.stderr.write(`aontu: ${files[0]} does not evaluate on its own; nothing to hash\n` +
             renderFinding((0, query_1.evalFailure)(ctx)) + '\n');
         return 4;
@@ -2982,12 +2995,6 @@ function runHash(argv) {
     process.stdout.write(text + '\n');
     return 0;
 }
-// ---------------------------------------------------------------------
-// The query surface (G7 phase 1): one node of an evaluated document,
-// selected by path and rendered. Evaluation is still GLOBAL -- what
-// `get` buys is the size of the ANSWER, not the cost of producing it --
-// and the projections are lattice abstractions, each a valid Aontu
-// document that subsumes the truth it summarises.
 const GET_HELP = 'aontu get <path> <file> (try --help)';
 function runGet(argv) {
     const trusted = takeTrust(argv);
@@ -3156,11 +3163,6 @@ function runWhy(argv) {
     }
     return 'no_path' === report.findings[0]?.code ? 1 : 4;
 }
-// One contribution per line, numbered in source order, each with what
-// was written, where, and how it got here. A siteless contribution
-// prints no location rather than a `-1:-1` that means nothing —
-// exported for the direct test, because the site SHAPE allows one
-// while no document has yet produced one (ADR-002).
 function renderWhyText(record) {
     const head = `${record.path} = ${record.value}`;
     if (0 === record.conjuncts.length) {
@@ -3176,12 +3178,6 @@ function renderWhyText(record) {
             ('literal' === c.role ? '' : `  (${c.role})`);
     })).join('\n');
 }
-// ---------------------------------------------------------------------
-// The overlay patch verb (G7 phase 5): change a document by APPENDING
-// to an overlay, not by rewriting it. An overlay entry is just another
-// conjunct and unification is order-independent, so this needs no
-// rewriter — the format-preserving in-place edit is stage 2, and needs
-// a comment-preserving CST the parser stack does not have.
 const SET_HELP = 'aontu set <path>=<value> --entry <file> --overlay <file> (try --help)';
 function runSet(argv) {
     const trusted = takeTrust(argv);
@@ -3288,27 +3284,10 @@ function runSet(argv) {
         }, 2) + '\n');
     }
     else {
-        // A replacement is REPORTED as the edit it is, not left for the
-        // reader to infer from a changed file: `where: what -> what`, in
-        // source spelling, because the spelling is what changed.
-        //
-        // PAST TENSE ONLY WHERE IT HAPPENED. A refused write leaves the
-        // file exactly as it was, and one assignment can be replaceable
-        // while another makes the whole run invalid — so `replaced:` there
-        // tells an operator the pin was changed when it was not, and unlike
-        // `--dry-run` there is nothing else on the line to say otherwise.
         const verb = wrote ? 'replaced' : 'would replace';
         const edits = report.replaced.map((r) => `${verb}: ${r.file}:${r.row}:${r.col} ${r.from} -> ${r.to}`);
         const head = [`verdict: ${report.verdict}`].concat(edits).join('\n') +
             (wrote ? `\nwrote: ${overlayFile}` : dryRun ? '\n(dry run)' : '');
-        // A SUCCESSFUL COMMAND WRITES ITS STATUS TO STDOUT, findings or
-        // not. Routing on `findings.length` was right while every finding
-        // this verb could produce was an ERROR; `--in-place` made a WARNING
-        // possible, and a run that held, wrote the file and exited 0 then
-        // sent its whole report to stderr — leaving stdout empty, so
-        // `$(aontu set ...)` captured nothing and only the JSON form
-        // behaved like a success. The verdict decides the stream; warnings
-        // are diagnostics and go to stderr beside it.
         const failed = 'invalid' === report.verdict || 'error' === report.verdict;
         const findingText = report.findings.map(renderFinding);
         if (failed) {
@@ -3327,6 +3306,148 @@ function runSet(argv) {
     }
     return VET_EXIT[report.verdict];
 }
+const ALLOW_HELP = 'aontu allow --role <role> <roles-file> <path> [more-paths...] (try --help)';
+const ALLOW_EXIT = {
+    allowed: 0,
+    refused: 1,
+    error: 4,
+};
+// One line per asked path: the answer, and the entry that gave it, as
+// a path into the role model so `aontu why` can locate the rule.
+function renderAllowDecision(d, role) {
+    const head = `${d.path}: ${d.allowed ? 'allowed' : 'refused'}`;
+    switch (d.reason) {
+        case 'allow':
+        case 'deny':
+            return `${head} by ${d.by} (${d.pattern})`;
+        case 'uncovered':
+            return `${head} (no allow entry of ${role} covers it)`;
+        default:
+            return `${head} (role ${role} is not declared)`;
+    }
+}
+function renderAllowText(report) {
+    const lines = [`verdict: ${report.verdict}`, `role: ${report.role}`]
+        .concat(report.paths.map((d) => renderAllowDecision(d, report.role)));
+    if (0 === report.findings.length) {
+        return lines.join('\n');
+    }
+    return lines.concat('', report.findings.map(renderFinding)).join('\n');
+}
+// Does the text after `=` parse as exactly one value? Parsed, never
+// evaluated, with loads denied: the question is the shape of the
+// argument, and reading a file to answer it would be the write the
+// gate exists to precede.
+function oneValue(value) {
+    try {
+        const probe = new aontu_1.Aontu({ trust: { include: 'none' } })
+            .parse('v: ' + value);
+        return 1 === Object.keys(probe.peg).length;
+    }
+    catch {
+        return false;
+    }
+}
+function runAllow(argv) {
+    const trusted = takeTrust(argv);
+    if (null == trusted) {
+        return 2;
+    }
+    argv = trusted.argv;
+    const trust = trusted.trust;
+    const rest = [];
+    let role;
+    let at;
+    let format = 'text';
+    for (let i = 0; i < argv.length; i++) {
+        const arg = argv[i];
+        if ('-h' === arg || '--help' === arg) {
+            process.stdout.write(HELP);
+            return 0;
+        }
+        if ('--role' === arg) {
+            role = argv[++i];
+            if (null == role) {
+                process.stderr.write('aontu: --role needs a role name\n');
+                return 2;
+            }
+        }
+        else if ('--at' === arg) {
+            at = argv[++i];
+            if (null == at) {
+                process.stderr.write('aontu: --at needs a path\n');
+                return 2;
+            }
+        }
+        else if ('--format' === arg) {
+            const f = argv[++i];
+            if ('text' !== f && 'json' !== f) {
+                process.stderr.write('aontu: --format needs text or json\n');
+                return 2;
+            }
+            format = f;
+        }
+        else if (arg.startsWith('-')) {
+            process.stderr.write(`aontu: unknown allow option ${arg} (try --help)\n`);
+            return 2;
+        }
+        else {
+            rest.push(arg);
+        }
+    }
+    if (null == role || rest.length < 2) {
+        process.stderr.write(`aontu: allow needs --role, a role model and at least one path\n` +
+            `${ALLOW_HELP}\n`);
+        return 2;
+    }
+    const [file, ...asked] = rest;
+    // A role is ONE KEY of the roles map. A dotted name would be read as
+    // a path by `why` when it follows the entry the report names, and an
+    // empty one names the map itself.
+    if ('' === role || role.includes('.')) {
+        process.stderr.write('aontu: --role needs one key, without dots\n');
+        return 2;
+    }
+    const paths = [];
+    for (const arg of asked) {
+        const eq = arg.indexOf('=');
+        const path = eq < 0 ? arg : arg.slice(0, eq);
+        if (!path.startsWith('$')) {
+            process.stderr.write(`aontu: a path starts with $ (got ${JSON.stringify(arg)})\n`);
+            return 2;
+        }
+        if (0 <= eq && !oneValue(arg.slice(eq + 1))) {
+            process.stderr.write(`aontu: the value of ${path} is not one value\n`);
+            return 2;
+        }
+        paths.push(path);
+    }
+    let src;
+    try {
+        src = (0, node_fs_1.readFileSync)(file, 'utf8');
+    }
+    catch (err) {
+        process.stderr.write(`aontu: cannot read ${err.path}: ${err.message}\n`);
+        return 2;
+    }
+    const report = (0, aontu_1.allow)(src, role, paths, {
+        at, path: file, ...verbOpts(trust, entryRootOf(file)),
+    });
+    const text = 'json' === format ?
+        (0, aontu_1.exactJSON)({
+            aontu: { version: version(), verb: 'allow' },
+            findings: report.findings,
+            paths: report.paths,
+            role: report.role,
+            verdict: report.verdict,
+        }, 2) :
+        renderAllowText(report);
+    // The report IS the answer, refused or not, so it goes to stdout as
+    // vet's does; the exit code carries the verdict for a caller that
+    // reads nothing else.
+    process.stdout.write(text + '\n');
+    return ALLOW_EXIT[report.verdict];
+}
 // ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 // The generated AGENTS.md stanza (G7 phase 6): the prose entrypoint,
 // derived from the definition, so it cannot drift from the formal
@@ -3341,6 +3462,10 @@ function runAgentsMd(argv) {
     const trust = trusted.trust;
     const files = [];
     let write;
+    // The SHAPE's depth (G11 phase 7). Default 2, unchanged: the stanza
+    // is spliced into a file people read, and a deeper shape is a
+    // question the caller asks rather than one it is handed.
+    let depth = 2;
     for (let i = 0; i < argv.length; i++) {
         const arg = argv[i];
         if ('-h' === arg || '--help' === arg) {
@@ -3354,6 +3479,14 @@ function runAgentsMd(argv) {
                 return 2;
             }
         }
+        else if ('--depth' === arg) {
+            const n = Number(argv[++i]);
+            if (!Number.isInteger(n) || n < 1) {
+                process.stderr.write('aontu: --depth needs a positive integer\n');
+                return 2;
+            }
+            depth = n;
+        }
         else if (arg.startsWith('-')) {
             process.stderr.write(`aontu: unknown agentsmd option ${arg} (try --help)\n`);
             return 2;
@@ -3375,7 +3508,7 @@ function runAgentsMd(argv) {
         return 2;
     }
     const report = (0, aontu_1.agentsMd)(src, {
-        name: files[0], path: files[0],
+        depth, name: files[0], path: files[0],
         ...verbOpts(trust, entryRootOf(files[0])),
     });
     if (!report.ok) {
@@ -3408,28 +3541,17 @@ function runAgentsMd(argv) {
     process.stdout.write(`wrote: ${write}\n`);
     return 0;
 }
-// Exit without truncating output.
-//
-// process.exit() terminates immediately, discarding anything still
-// queued on stdout. A write to a PIPE is asynchronous once it exceeds
-// the pipe buffer, so `write(big); exit(0)` silently truncated output at
-// 65536 bytes — while a write to a TTY or a file, being synchronous,
-// looked fine. Setting exitCode instead lets the process end naturally,
-// after the queue drains.
-//
-// This predates the exact leaves but they make it trivially reachable
-// (one long biginteger canon exceeds the buffer), and it lands squarely
-// on the parity-probe discipline in AGENTS.md, which derives expected
-// spec values by piping BOTH CLIs and comparing. A truncated pipe there
-// reads as a port divergence.
-// ---------------------------------------------------------------------
-// The source formatter (docs/design/FMT.0.md): one agreed form, in the
-// tradition of gofmt. The verb prints, lists, checks, diffs or rewrites;
-// the form itself is the library's (ts/src/format.ts), and the two
-// ports agree on it row by row in test/spec/fmt.tsv.
-const FMT_HELP = 'aontu fmt [-w|-l|--check|-d|--lint] [--marker <token>] <file>... (try --help)';
+const FMT_HELP = 'aontu fmt [-w|-l|--check|-d|--lint] [--marker <token>] ' +
+    '[--profile <file>] <file>... (try --help)';
 function runFmt(argv) {
+    const trusted = takeTrust(argv);
+    if (null == trusted) {
+        return 2;
+    }
+    argv = trusted.argv;
+    const trust = trusted.trust;
     const files = [];
+    const profileFiles = [];
     let marker = undefined;
     const flags = {
         write: false, list: false, check: false, diff: false, lint: false, strict: false,
@@ -3469,6 +3591,14 @@ function runFmt(argv) {
                 return 2;
             }
         }
+        else if ('--profile' === arg) {
+            const pf = argv[++i];
+            if (null == pf) {
+                process.stderr.write('aontu: --profile needs a file\n');
+                return 2;
+            }
+            profileFiles.push(pf);
+        }
         else if (arg.startsWith('-')) {
             process.stderr.write(`aontu: unknown fmt option ${arg} (try --help)\n`);
             return 2;
@@ -3492,6 +3622,10 @@ function runFmt(argv) {
             process.stdin.on('end', () => resolve(fmtOne('<stdin>', src, flags, marker)));
         });
     }
+    const declared = loadProfiles(profileFiles, trust);
+    if ('number' === typeof declared) {
+        return declared;
+    }
     // Several files onto standard output would be one stream nobody can
     // split again (the note's X-6): the verb refuses unless an option
     // says what to do with each.
@@ -3510,32 +3644,18 @@ function runFmt(argv) {
             process.stderr.write(`aontu: cannot read ${err.path}: ${err.message}\n`);
             return 2;
         }
-        const mark = fmtMarker(file, src, marker);
+        const mark = fmtMarker(file, src, marker ?? (0, template_1.markerFromProfiles)(declared, file));
         if (false === mark) {
             process.stderr.write(`aontu: ${file} is not aontu source (.aon, .aontu) and carries no ` +
                 `${(0, template_1.markerFor)(file)} marker line, so there is no aontu in it to ` +
-                'format; --marker names the marker for a language the table does ' +
-                'not know\n');
+                'format; --marker names the marker for a language the table ' +
+                'does not know, and --profile reads one that declares it\n');
             return 2;
         }
         worst = Math.max(worst, fmtOne(file, src, flags, mark));
     }
     return worst;
 }
-// WHAT A FILE IS, BY ITS EXTENSION (ADR-012's rule, and the one
-// `render` reads an entry by): `.aon` and `.aontu` are aontu source,
-// and anything else is a GENERATOR written in the target's own syntax
-// (docs/design/TEMPLATE.0.md), whose marker lines carry the document
-// this formats and whose other lines are output. `undefined` is aontu,
-// a string is the generator's marker, and `false` is neither.
-//
-// A FILE WITH NO MARKER LINE IN IT IS NEITHER, and that is what keeps
-// FMT.0.md §9's boundary where it stood: a `.json`, `.yaml` or `.toml`
-// include is another language's file, and reading one as a generator
-// would answer it back unchanged having understood none of it. The
-// marker is the evidence that a file was written to carry aontu at
-// all. `--marker` says so outright, and then the file is a generator
-// whatever it is called.
 function fmtMarker(file, src, marker) {
     if (undefined !== marker) {
         return marker;
@@ -3591,11 +3711,8 @@ function fmtOne(name, src, flags, marker) {
     }
     return flags.check ? 1 : strict;
 }
-// The real pair takes the process's own stdin and stdout, which no
-// in-process test can lend it; the executable-entry tests in
-// cli.test.ts run each through a child process instead, so these two
-// lines are excluded from the in-process count, as the stdio wiring
-// of lsp-server.ts is.
+// Excluded: the real pair takes the process stdio, so ts/test/cli.test.ts
+// drives each server through a child process instead.
 /* node:coverage ignore next 4 */
 const SERVERS = {
     lsp: () => void (0, lsp_server_1.main)(),
@@ -3635,22 +3752,301 @@ function parseTrustArg(value) {
     }
     return undefined;
 }
+const HELP_VERB_HELP = 'aontu help [topic] (try `aontu help` for the topics)';
+const EXPLAIN_HELP = 'aontu explain <code> (try `aontu explain --list`)';
+function helpIndexText(index) {
+    const width = index.reduce((w, t) => Math.max(w, t.topic.length), 0);
+    return 'aontu help <topic> — the language, offline.\n\n' +
+        index.map((t) => '  ' + t.topic.padEnd(width) + '  ' + t.summary).join('\n') +
+        '\n\n' +
+        '`aontu --help` documents the verbs, their flags and their exit\n' +
+        'codes. `aontu explain <code>` explains one error code.\n' +
+        'Start at `aontu help tasks` if you know the job but not the verb.';
+}
+function runHelp(argv) {
+    let format = 'text';
+    const topics = [];
+    for (let i = 0; i < argv.length; i++) {
+        const arg = argv[i];
+        if ('-h' === arg || '--help' === arg) {
+            process.stdout.write(HELP);
+            return 0;
+        }
+        else if ('--format' === arg) {
+            const f = argv[++i];
+            if ('text' !== f && 'json' !== f) {
+                process.stderr.write('aontu: --format needs text or json\n');
+                return 2;
+            }
+            format = f;
+        }
+        else if (arg.startsWith('-')) {
+            process.stderr.write(`aontu: unknown help option ${arg} (try --help)\n`);
+            return 2;
+        }
+        else {
+            topics.push(arg);
+        }
+    }
+    if (1 < topics.length) {
+        process.stderr.write(`aontu: help takes one topic\n${HELP_VERB_HELP}\n`);
+        return 2;
+    }
+    if (0 === topics.length) {
+        process.stdout.write(('json' === format
+            ? (0, aontu_1.exactJSON)({
+                aontu: { version: version(), verb: 'help' },
+                topics: helpdoc_1.HELPDOC.map((t) => ({ topic: t.topic, summary: t.summary, source: t.source })),
+            }, 2)
+            : helpIndexText(helpdoc_1.HELPDOC)) + '\n');
+        return 0;
+    }
+    const found = helpdoc_1.HELPDOC.find((t) => topics[0] === t.topic);
+    if (null != found) {
+        if ('json' === format) {
+            process.stdout.write((0, aontu_1.exactJSON)({
+                aontu: { version: version(), verb: 'help' },
+                topic: found.topic,
+                summary: found.summary,
+                source: found.source,
+                text: found.text,
+            }, 2) + '\n');
+            return 0;
+        }
+        process.stdout.write(found.text);
+        return 0;
+    }
+    // AN UNKNOWN TOPIC IS A USAGE ERROR AND NAMES THE ALTERNATIVES,
+    // because the caller who typed it has no other way to find out what
+    // exists -- that is the whole condition this verb was added for.
+    process.stderr.write(`aontu: no help topic \`${topics[0]}\`\n` +
+        `aontu: topics are ${helpdoc_1.HELPDOC.map((t) => t.topic).join(', ')}\n`);
+    return 2;
+}
+// The dynamic prefixes a generated code extends (`func:upper`,
+// `op[+]`). Mirrors CODE_PREFIXES in ts/src/hints.ts, which is not
+// exported; a code that extends one is registered through its prefix
+// and carries that prefix's hint.
+const EXPLAIN_PREFIXES = ['func:', 'op:', 'op[', 'var[', 'ref['];
+function explainCode(code) {
+    const cls = (0, hints_1.codeClass)(code);
+    let hint = hints_1.hints[code] ?? '';
+    let registered = null != hints_1.codeClasses[code];
+    if (!registered) {
+        for (const prefix of EXPLAIN_PREFIXES) {
+            if (code.startsWith(prefix)) {
+                // No guard on `hint` here: every hint key is also a registry
+                // key (the spec suite asserts codeClasses set-equal with
+                // test/spec/errcodes.tsv, and hints is a subset of it), so a
+                // code that reaches this loop is unregistered and therefore
+                // has no hint of its own.
+                registered = true;
+                hint = hints_1.hints[prefix] ?? '';
+                break;
+            }
+        }
+    }
+    return { cls, hint, registered };
+}
+// Every code in the shared registry, sorted by code point so both
+// ports list them in the same order.
+function explainCodes() {
+    return Object.keys(hints_1.codeClasses).sort(keyorder_1.cmpCodePoint);
+}
+function explainListText(format) {
+    const codes = explainCodes();
+    if ('json' === format) {
+        return (0, aontu_1.exactJSON)({
+            aontu: { version: version(), verb: 'explain' },
+            codes: codes.map((code) => ({
+                code,
+                class: (0, hints_1.codeClass)(code),
+                // Whether this port carries explanation text for the code. The
+                // registry is in parity; the hint tables are not, so a consumer
+                // that wants only explained codes can filter rather than guess.
+                explained: '' !== explainCode(code).hint,
+            })),
+        }, 2);
+    }
+    const width = codes.reduce((w, c) => Math.max(w, c.length), 0);
+    return codes.map((c) => c.padEnd(width) + '  ' + (0, hints_1.codeClass)(c) +
+        ('' === explainCode(c).hint ? '  (no text)' : '')).join('\n');
+}
+function runExplain(argv) {
+    let format = 'text';
+    let list = false;
+    const codes = [];
+    for (let i = 0; i < argv.length; i++) {
+        const arg = argv[i];
+        if ('-h' === arg || '--help' === arg) {
+            process.stdout.write(HELP);
+            return 0;
+        }
+        else if ('--list' === arg) {
+            list = true;
+        }
+        else if ('--format' === arg) {
+            const f = argv[++i];
+            if ('text' !== f && 'json' !== f) {
+                process.stderr.write('aontu: --format needs text or json\n');
+                return 2;
+            }
+            format = f;
+        }
+        else if (arg.startsWith('-')) {
+            process.stderr.write(`aontu: unknown explain option ${arg} (try --help)\n`);
+            return 2;
+        }
+        else {
+            codes.push(arg);
+        }
+    }
+    if (list) {
+        if (0 < codes.length) {
+            process.stderr.write(`aontu: --list takes no code\n${EXPLAIN_HELP}\n`);
+            return 2;
+        }
+        process.stdout.write(explainListText(format) + '\n');
+        return 0;
+    }
+    if (1 !== codes.length) {
+        process.stderr.write(`aontu: explain needs one code\n${EXPLAIN_HELP}\n`);
+        return 2;
+    }
+    const code = codes[0];
+    const { cls, hint, registered } = explainCode(code);
+    if (!registered) {
+        // AN UNKNOWN CODE IS A USAGE ERROR AND NAMES NEAR MATCHES. A
+        // caller reading a code out of a report has almost certainly typed
+        // it correctly, so the likely cause is a code from another tool or
+        // a truncated one, and the near matches say which.
+        process.stderr.write(`aontu: no such error code \`${code}\`\n`);
+        const near = nearestVerb(code, explainCodes());
+        if ('' !== near) {
+            process.stderr.write(`aontu: did you mean \`${near}\`?\n`);
+        }
+        process.stderr.write('aontu: `aontu explain --list` lists every registered code\n');
+        return 2;
+    }
+    if ('json' === format) {
+        process.stdout.write((0, aontu_1.exactJSON)({
+            aontu: { version: version(), verb: 'explain' },
+            code,
+            class: cls,
+            hint,
+        }, 2) + '\n');
+        return 0;
+    }
+    // A REGISTERED CODE WITH NO HINT SAYS SO rather than printing an
+    // empty block, which would read as an explanation that happened to
+    // be blank.
+    const body = '' === hint
+        ? '(no explanation text is registered for this code)'
+        : hint;
+    process.stdout.write(`code:  ${code}\nclass: ${cls}\n\n${body}\n`);
+    return 0;
+}
+const INIT_HELP = 'aontu init [dir] (try --help)';
+function runInit(argv) {
+    const dirs = [];
+    for (const arg of argv) {
+        if ('-h' === arg || '--help' === arg) {
+            process.stdout.write(HELP);
+            return 0;
+        }
+        if (arg.startsWith('-')) {
+            process.stderr.write(`aontu: unknown init option ${arg} (try --help)\n`);
+            return 2;
+        }
+        dirs.push(arg);
+    }
+    if (1 < dirs.length) {
+        process.stderr.write(`aontu: init takes one directory\n${INIT_HELP}\n`);
+        return 2;
+    }
+    const dir = dirs[0] ?? '.';
+    const standing = helpdoc_1.INITDOC.filter((f) => (0, node_fs_1.existsSync)((0, node_path_1.join)(dir, f.name)));
+    if (0 < standing.length) {
+        process.stderr.write(`aontu: ${dir} already holds ${standing.map((f) => f.name).join(', ')}\n` +
+            'aontu: init never overwrites; move them aside or name an' +
+            ' empty directory\n');
+        return 2;
+    }
+    try {
+        (0, node_fs_1.mkdirSync)(dir, { recursive: true });
+        for (const f of helpdoc_1.INITDOC) {
+            (0, node_fs_1.writeFileSync)((0, node_path_1.join)(dir, f.name), f.text, { mode: f.mode });
+        }
+    }
+    catch (err) {
+        process.stderr.write(`aontu: cannot write in ${dir}: ${err.message}\n`);
+        return 2;
+    }
+    process.stdout.write(helpdoc_1.INITDOC.map((f) => (0, node_path_1.join)(dir, f.name)).join('\n') + '\n' +
+        '\nA model, an instance of it, and the four questions to ask.\n' +
+        'Run the checks:  sh ' + (0, node_path_1.join)(dir, 'check.sh') + '\n' +
+        'Learn the language:  aontu help language\n');
+    return 0;
+}
+const KNOWN_VERBS = [
+    'agentsmd', 'allow', 'breaking', 'explain', 'fmt', 'get', 'hash',
+    'help', 'init', 'jsonschema', 'lsp', 'mcp', 'mod', 'reaches',
+    'relations', 'render', 'set', 'subsume', 'template', 'trim', 'vet',
+    'view', 'why',
+];
+exports.KNOWN_VERBS = KNOWN_VERBS;
+// looksLikeVerb reports whether an unreadable argument was meant as a
+// verb rather than as a path. A bare word has no separator and no
+// extension; `./help`, `help.aon`, `/tmp/help` and `sub/dir` are paths
+// and keep the file diagnosis. Mirrors go/cmd/aontu/main.go.
+function looksLikeVerb(arg) {
+    return '' !== arg &&
+        !/[/\\.]/.test(arg) &&
+        !arg.startsWith('-');
+}
+function nearestVerb(word, verbs) {
+    let best = '';
+    let bestDist = Infinity;
+    const limit = Math.min(3, 1 + Math.floor(word.length / 4));
+    for (const v of [...verbs].sort(keyorder_1.cmpCodePoint)) {
+        const d = editDistance(word.toLowerCase(), v);
+        if (d < bestDist) {
+            best = v;
+            bestDist = d;
+        }
+    }
+    return bestDist > limit ? '' : best;
+}
+function editDistance(a, b) {
+    const ar = [...a];
+    const br = [...b];
+    let prev2 = new Array(br.length + 1).fill(0);
+    let prev = new Array(br.length + 1).fill(0).map((_, j) => j);
+    let cur = new Array(br.length + 1).fill(0);
+    for (let i = 1; i <= ar.length; i++) {
+        cur[0] = i;
+        for (let j = 1; j <= br.length; j++) {
+            const cost = ar[i - 1] === br[j - 1] ? 0 : 1;
+            let m = Math.min(prev[j] + 1, cur[j - 1] + 1, prev[j - 1] + cost);
+            if (1 < i && 1 < j &&
+                ar[i - 1] === br[j - 2] && ar[i - 2] === br[j - 1] &&
+                prev2[j - 2] + 1 < m) {
+                m = prev2[j - 2] + 1;
+            }
+            cur[j] = m;
+        }
+        prev2 = [...prev];
+        prev = [...cur];
+    }
+    return prev[br.length];
+}
 function main(argv, servers = SERVERS) {
-    // COLOUR OFF WHEN THE DESTINATION IS NOT A TERMINAL. Error frames
-    // hardcoded their ANSI escapes, so a piped report and a `--jsonl`
-    // answer carried terminal control codes into whatever read them (the
-    // review's finding F). `NO_COLOR` is honoured by the library itself;
-    // only the CLI can see whether its stderr is a terminal, so only the
-    // CLI can make this call. `undefined` means "leave it to NO_COLOR".
     (0, aontu_1.setColor)(true === process.stderr.isTTY ? undefined : false);
     let mode = 'json';
-    // A LIST, though the bare command evaluates exactly one document.
-    // It used to be one variable and the last argument won, which made a
-    // MISTYPED VERB a silent success: `aontu vet2 schema.aon good.json`
-    // printed good.json and exited 0, because `vet2` matched no
-    // subcommand, fell through to this loop as a file name, and was
-    // overwritten twice. In a tool loop that reads as a passing
-    // validation. Counting them is what lets the refusal below happen.
+    // THE REPORT FORM (G11 phase 7), default text: every existing caller
+    // reads exactly what it always read, and a caller that asks for json
+    // gets the failure in the finding shape every other verb reports.
+    let format = 'text';
     const files = [];
     let trust = { kind: 'system-warn', textExt: [] };
     let textExt = [];
@@ -3659,15 +4055,6 @@ function main(argv, servers = SERVERS) {
     // than the design's --json, which would read as the `:json` output
     // mode the REPL already has.
     let jsonl = false;
-    // Subcommand dispatch, and deliberately only for a FIRST argument:
-    // `aontu vet` is the verb, while `aontu somefile vet` keeps meaning
-    // what it always did. A file named `vet` is still reachable as
-    // `aontu ./vet`.
-    //
-    // Promise.resolve either way: a non-watch run returns its exit class
-    // synchronously (and has already written its report), while `--watch`
-    // resolves only when the watch ends — so one await-shaped line serves
-    // both without a branch to keep covered.
     if ('vet' === argv[2]) {
         return void Promise.resolve(runVet(argv.slice(3))).then(finish);
     }
@@ -3693,6 +4080,9 @@ function main(argv, servers = SERVERS) {
     if ('set' === argv[2]) {
         return finish(runSet(argv.slice(3)));
     }
+    if ('allow' === argv[2]) {
+        return finish(runAllow(argv.slice(3)));
+    }
     if ('why' === argv[2]) {
         return finish(runWhy(argv.slice(3)));
     }
@@ -3702,6 +4092,17 @@ function main(argv, servers = SERVERS) {
     if ('hash' === argv[2]) {
         return finish(runHash(argv.slice(3)));
     }
+    // G11 phases 1 and 3. Dispatched with the rest, so `aontu ./help`
+    // still reads a file named help exactly as `aontu ./vet` does.
+    if ('help' === argv[2]) {
+        return finish(runHelp(argv.slice(3)));
+    }
+    if ('explain' === argv[2]) {
+        return finish(runExplain(argv.slice(3)));
+    }
+    if ('init' === argv[2]) {
+        return finish(runInit(argv.slice(3)));
+    }
     if ('mod' === argv[2]) {
         return finish(runMod(argv.slice(3)));
     }
@@ -3748,6 +4149,14 @@ function main(argv, servers = SERVERS) {
             }
             trust = parsed;
         }
+        else if ('--format' === arg) {
+            const f = args[++i];
+            if ('text' !== f && 'json' !== f) {
+                process.stderr.write('aontu: --format needs text or json\n');
+                return finish(2);
+            }
+            format = f;
+        }
         else if ('--jsonl' === arg) {
             jsonl = true;
             // A JSONL answer is machine-read by definition, even when the
@@ -3782,27 +4191,16 @@ function main(argv, servers = SERVERS) {
             files.push(arg);
         }
     }
-    // ONE DOCUMENT. The bare form has always been `aontu [options]
-    // [file]`, singular, and anything past the first was silently
-    // discarded rather than refused -- so every way of getting the verb
-    // wrong (a typo, a verb this port does not have, a verb spelled for
-    // another tool) ended in a plausible answer about the wrong file.
-    // Exit 2, the usage class, and the message names the cause rather
-    // than the symptom: nothing here can tell a mistyped verb from a
-    // second file, but the reader can.
     if (1 < files.length) {
         process.stderr.write(`aontu: the bare command evaluates one document, and ${files.length}` +
             ' were given\naontu: a mistyped verb reads as a file name' +
             ' (try --help)\n');
         return finish(2);
     }
-    // The extensions ride with the capability from here on, so the three
-    // entry shapes below (file, REPL, stdin) each get them by threading
-    // the one value they already thread.
     trust = { ...trust, textExt };
     const file = files[0];
     if (null != file) {
-        finish(runFile(file, mode, trust));
+        finish(runFile(file, mode, format, trust));
     }
     // `--jsonl` overrides the TTY gate: the mode exists to be DRIVEN by
     // a harness over a pipe, so gating it on an interactive terminal
@@ -3812,7 +4210,7 @@ function main(argv, servers = SERVERS) {
         runRepl(mode, jsonl, trust);
     }
     else {
-        runStdin(mode, trust).then((code) => finish(code));
+        runStdin(mode, format, trust).then((code) => finish(code));
     }
-} /* node:coverage ignore next 18 */
+} /* node:coverage ignore next 20 */
 //# sourceMappingURL=cli.js.map