Answer prose round 2 in the docs: weights take 0, the node table states the record-column refusal once, the time refusal joins its list, CHANGELOG lists what now loads, decision titles state their whole ruling, and the JSON-string ruling folds into the struct-tag decision

AGENTS.md

@@ -43,8 +43,7 @@ In [docs/decisions.md](docs/decisions.md):
 - The CLI renders exactly the template on its stdin, and adds nothing
 - The CLI reads only the library's public API
 - A template that does not compile is misuse (exit 2), including a reference that resolves to nothing, save a lone reference under the CLI's `--format` until item 129
-- Whitespace around a JSON template is dropped, in `NewTemplate` and on stdin
-- A JSON string stays a template even where its bare text renders alike
+- Whitespace around a JSON object, array, string or null is dropped, and a bare number or boolean is a format string
 - `FakeTemplate` and `NewTemplate` both stay
 - The shipped data is embedded, not discovered
 - With only the shipped set, a category loads on the first call reaching it; beside a `--data-path`, every category loads in `New`

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -22,7 +22,8 @@ replacement, and each removed path, column or flag.
   `{/misc.territory as t}` binds one row of `misc.territory` to `t` and prints nothing;
   `{t}`, `{t.capital}` and `{lowercase(t.name)}` read that one row. `{x as n}` binds a
   reference, a sibling field or a path into one; a name lives in the category binding it,
-  and picks again on every iteration of a `repeat` binding it. A struct's tags share its
+  and picks again on every iteration of a `repeat`, or every draw of a choice item,
+  binding it. A struct's tags share its
   names, `{/sv_SE.person as p}{p.first}` beside `{p.sex}`. A name is a `{calc()}`
   operand: `{/misc.coordinate.lat as lat}{calc(lat * 60)}`. What `New` refuses is listed
   under [Names](README.md#names).
@@ -32,7 +33,17 @@ replacement, and each removed path, column or flag.
   defaults to empty. Whitespace around a JSON object, array or string template is
   dropped, and a bare number or boolean is a format string, printed as written. A lone reference,
   `{/users}`, is the record `users` under `--format`. An argument other than a flag, or
-  nothing piped in, exits 2; an empty or blank stdin is a template, and renders as it is.
+  nothing piped in, exits 2; an empty or blank stdin is a format string, and renders as
+  sent.
+- A template or data file loads whatever is well-formed and means one thing, even where
+  part of it does nothing: a default written out, a one-item choice, an object holding only
+  a format, a constant sample such as `{int(5,5)}`, a `weight`, `separator` or `datatype`
+  where it does nothing, a name nothing reads, a repeated item, which counts as written, a
+  weight of `0`, which is never drawn, a `repeat` or count of `0`, which renders nothing,
+  `+5`, `05` and `-0`, and a reference into the category it sits in. A rows file no
+  category names is ignored. `New` with no data loads, and renders templates that read
+  none. The CLI's `-n` takes `0`; `--list` ignores `--repeat`, `--format` and `--table`,
+  and `--table` is ignored without `--format sql`.
 - Table categories: a category JSON naming a `rows` TSV beside it, with the options
   `key`, `name`, `weight` and `parent`; a path selects a row by key or name,
   `misc.territory[SE]`, and descends to a linked table by name, one path drawing each

README.md

@@ -41,8 +41,8 @@ Under `--format text`, the default, what you send is what renders, and fejkdata
 byte, so `echo`, a file or a heredoc ends each render with its newline, and `printf '%s'`
 sends none; `-n` joins renders with `--separator`, empty by default. A JSON object, array
 or string drops the whitespace around it, and `null` alone renders nothing; `42` or `true`
-alone is a format string, so it prints as written, newline included. An empty or blank stdin is a template too, and
-renders as it is. A JSON template that should end
+alone is a format string, so it prints as written, newline included. An empty or blank stdin is a format string like
+any other, and renders as sent. A JSON template that should end
 each render in a newline writes `\n` in its format, from a quoted heredoc or a file. A
 lone reference, one `{/…}` and nothing else, is the record it names under `--format`, one
 newline after it allowed. Some shells' `echo` reads a backslash as an escape, so pipe a
@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ echo '{/users}' | fejkdata --seed 1 -d ./mydata --format sql --table people # IN
 
 `--repeat` streams that many records — `json` frames them as one array document,
 `ndjson` writes one object per line, `csv` a row after a header, `sql` one INSERT
-per line. Only a category-level template is a record, or a one-item choice of one; a
+per line. Only a category-level template is a record, or a one-item choice holding one; a
 field, a choice of more items or a folder errors, and so does a `repeat` on
 the template itself, which composes the format into one string rather than
 projecting columns — ask for more records with `--repeat`. A `repeat` on a column
@@ -329,7 +329,7 @@ ok, err := fejkdata.IsTemplate(arg)       // an inline template by its shape, el
 | `WithoutShippedData()` | load only what you give |
 
 `New` refuses data that breaks the grammar, could mean two things or cannot render a valid
-value, and `NewTemplate` such a template. On a loaded generator:
+value, and `NewTemplate` refuses such a template. On a loaded generator:
 
 - `Fake` fails only for a path that names nothing, could name two things, or reads one
   draw of a level carrying a `repeat`, with the same error every call.
@@ -388,8 +388,12 @@ Every value is a **node**, nestable without limit:
 | choice | `["a", "b", …]` | one item, picked at random |
 | template | `{"format": "…", …}` | its format, with `{name}` tokens rendering the named fields |
 | table | `{"format": "…", "rows": "x.tsv", …}` | its format over one row of the TSV beside it ([Table](#table)) |
-| number | `5`, `1.50` | its text as written; refused in a record column, where it could be text, `"5"`, or a typed value, `{"format": "5", "datatype": "integer"}`, bar a struct tag's, which its field's Go type types |
-| boolean | `true` | its text; refused in a record column, where it could be text, `"true"`, or a typed value, `{"format": "true", "datatype": "boolean"}`, bar a struct tag's, which its field's Go type types |
+| number | `5`, `1.50` | its text as written |
+| boolean | `true` | its text as written |
+
+In a record column a bare number or boolean is refused, since it could be the text `"5"`
+or the typed value `{"format": "5", "datatype": "integer"}`. In a struct tag, the
+field's Go type decides.
 
 ### Format string
 
@@ -433,8 +437,8 @@ Renders `070-412 38 91` ten times as often as `08-…`. A string item is weighte
 writing it as `{ "format": "AB", "weight": 3 }`. A repeated item counts as written,
 so `["a", "a", "b"]` draws `a` two times in three, and an item of weight `0` is never
 drawn. A weight outside a choice does nothing, and so does one above `0` on the item of
-a one-item choice. Rejected at load: a weight that is negative or not a number, and a
-choice whose every weight is `0`, a one-item choice of weight `0` among them.
+a one-item choice. Rejected at load: a weight that is negative, not a number, or too
+close to `0` to tell from it, such as `1e-400`, and a choice whose every weight is `0`, a one-item choice of weight `0` among them.
 
 ### Repeat
 
@@ -531,8 +535,8 @@ echo '{/country}' | fejkdata -d ./mydata --format csv     # alpha2,name,populati
 ```
 
 `rows` names the TSV beside the category file; `key` names the column a path
-selects a row by, `name` a column it also selects by, `weight` a column of positive
-numbers that skews the draw, and `parent` the table a column links to
+selects a row by, `name` a column it also selects by, `weight` a column of numbers
+of 0 or more that skews the draw, and `parent` the table a column links to
 ([Linked tables](#linked-tables)). The format's `{tokens}` read the columns, and the
 columns are the [record](#records)'s columns, so `--format csv` writes the rows and
 `--list` shows `country.alpha2`. A cell is a string node: `1{digits(2)} {digits(2)}`
@@ -540,8 +544,8 @@ in a cell draws digits and `{/misc.uuid}` reads a reference, while `{name}` in a
 is refused, since a cell has no sibling. Each cell may select its own row of another
 table, `{/misc.currency[SEK].symbol}` on one row and `{/misc.currency[EUR].symbol}`
 on the next, since only one row renders. `New` proves the header, the options and every
-cell token, and refuses a key that is empty or repeats, a weight that is negative or not
-a number, every weight `0` across the table or inside one parent row, and a key or name holding `[`, `]`, `{`, `}`,
+cell token, and refuses a key that is empty or repeats, a weight that is negative, not
+a number or too close to `0` to tell from it, every weight `0` across the table or inside one parent row, and a key or name holding `[`, `]`, `{`, `}`,
 `"` or `|`, which a selector cannot spell; `New` maps the keys, and a name or parent column
 is mapped on the first draw that selects by name or descends through the table. A `name` needs a `key`, since a name naming several rows is reported by
 their keys, or a `parent`, inside whose row a name names one row, so `first-name[Kim]`
@@ -679,10 +683,10 @@ layout prints `UTC` or `Z`.
 The quotes delimit a layout outside a selector only, so `[O'Fallon]` in an
 argument stays a name. A layout naming no field prints itself, `date` with a clock-only
 layout prints the drawn instant's clock, and `date` over one day with no clock field prints
-that day; `time` with a layout naming a date field is refused, naming `date`, since `time`
-draws no date.
-Rejected at `New`: a bound that is no calendar date, or after the other, and an unquoted
-or double-quoted layout, naming the single-quoted one. `{seq()}` spans `Fake`
+that day.
+Rejected at `New`: a bound that is no calendar date, or after the other; an unquoted
+or double-quoted layout, naming the single-quoted one; and `time` with a layout naming a
+date field, naming `date`, since `time` draws no date. `{seq()}` spans `Fake`
 calls and `repeat`, resets with a new generator, and is the natural primary key for
 the SQL example above.
 
@@ -743,8 +747,7 @@ so `{.person.first} {.person.last}` may name two people. Bind the person to a [n
 {p.last}`. Rejected at `New`: a path that is
 unknown, names a folder, has no folder above, reads a field not every variant
 of a choice carries, and a reference that leads back to its own value, directly,
-mutually or through a chain. A reference into the category it sits in is a fresh draw
-like any other.
+mutually or through a chain.
 
 ### Names
 
@@ -781,8 +784,8 @@ Refused at `New`, each error naming what to write instead:
 - a binding of anything but a reference, or a field of the template binding it or a path into
   one;
 - a read of a name inside the field bound to it: read it outside that field;
-- a read outside a choice's item of a name bound inside it, which every other item would
-  leave unbound;
+- reading a name outside the choice item that binds it, since the other items leave it
+  unbound;
 - a path through a name that selects a row;
 - `{n}` beside `{n.w}` where `n`'s category reads `w` twice, as in `{w}-{w}` or
   `{w.a} {w.b}`;

docs/decisions.md

@@ -65,7 +65,9 @@ can never collide with any of those spellings, and the leading `[` or `"` is gat
 valid JSON so a stray copied bracket never swallows a tag — it names nothing, and says
 so. Reserving the characters whole — though only a leading one
 could collide — keeps one simple name rule instead of a leading-position special case.
-A folder-relative `{.name}` or `{..name}` is refused naming
+A JSON string stays a template even where its bare text renders alike, `"x {/a}"` beside
+`x {/a}`: inside the quotes `\t` and `\n` write a tab or a newline on one line. A
+folder-relative `{.name}` or `{..name}` is refused naming
 `{/name}`, since an inline template sits in no folder. `IsTemplate` exports the rule, so
 struct tags and any other caller read one.
 
@@ -81,9 +83,7 @@ bench of the README's personas picked this on 2026-10-07 over dropping a newline
 adding one: a rule a user states in one sentence, at the cost of `printf` or a
 `--separator` now and then.
 
-A JSON template is its JSON, so the whitespace around it is no part of the template, per
-the decision "Whitespace around a JSON template is dropped, in `NewTemplate` and on
-stdin". Stdin holding only whitespace is a template like any other, and renders it.
+Stdin holding only whitespace is a format string, and renders as sent.
 
 A lone reference, `{/users}` or `"{/users}"`, names the record `users` under `--format`,
 one newline after it allowed, with `users` the default `--table`; one to nothing there
@@ -100,9 +100,9 @@ template per run.
 
 2026-10-07, Lilleman auf Larv. Serves goal 9.6: a CLI carrying your own modules is a few
 lines of Go and works just like `fejkdata`, so `fejkdata`'s own CLI is such a CLI and
-imports nothing under `internal/`. It copies one reading the API does not export yet,
-the lone reference: `isPath`, `hasEmptySegment` and `withoutSelectors` in `cmd/fejkdata`, pinned to the
-grammar by a test, until `todo.md` item 129 moves that reading into the library.
+its non-test code imports nothing under `internal/`. Until `todo.md` item 129 moves it into
+the library, the CLI copies how the grammar tells a lone reference, in `isPath`,
+`hasEmptySegment` and `withoutSelectors`, and a test pins the copy to the grammar.
 
 ## A template that does not compile is misuse (exit 2), including a reference that resolves to nothing, save a lone reference under the CLI's `--format` until item 129
 
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ The whole template is the spelling under test, and `NewTemplate` compiles, links
 validates as one step. Under the CLI's `--format`, a lone reference to nothing exits 1
 until item 129: it reads a path, and only the data is absent.
 
-## Whitespace around a JSON template is dropped, in `NewTemplate` and on stdin
+## Whitespace around a JSON object, array, string or null is dropped, and a bare number or boolean is a format string
 
 2026-10-07, Lilleman auf Larv. Applies KISS.
 
@@ -122,15 +122,6 @@ is dropped, as `encoding/json` drops it. `null` stays JSON, since it is how a te
 renders nothing. A bare number or boolean gains nothing from the JSON reading, so it is a
 format string, and `echo 42` prints its newline as `echo x` does (goal 5.1).
 
-## A JSON string stays a template even where its bare text renders alike
-
-2026-10-07, Lilleman auf Larv. Serves goal 5.7: whatever is well-formed and means one thing
-loads.
-
-`"x {/a}"` and `x {/a}` render alike on stdin, in `NewTemplate` and in a struct tag. The
-quotes are no mistake: inside them `\t` and `\n` write a tab or a newline where the
-template is one line of a Go string, a struct tag or a file.
-
 ## `FakeTemplate` and `NewTemplate` both stay
 
 2026-09-03, Lilleman auf Larv.
@@ -345,16 +336,14 @@ handle is needed, as the cache already compiles once.
 2026-09-16, Lilleman auf Larv; revised 2026-10-07. Serves goals 5.2 and 5.7.
 
 A reference back into a category, `{/users.first}` inside `users`, is a fresh draw, as
-every `{…}` is; only a cycle is refused. A value two fields share goes in its own
-category, which one field binds to a name and both read (goal 4.1). A record's column
-fences run at `New` too, so a category that loads renders as a value and as a record alike.
+every `{…}` is; only a cycle is refused. A record's column fences run at `New` too, so a category that loads renders as a value and as a record alike.
 
 ## A record's column set is fixed before the first draw
 
 2026-09-04, Lilleman auf Larv.
 
 Only a category-level template is a record: a path descending into a field, or naming a
-folder or a choice, errors. A tail may pass through a choice whose variants carry
+folder or a choice of more than one item, errors. A tail may pass through a choice whose variants carry
 different fields, so the columns — and with them the CSV header written once ahead of
 every row — would vary per draw. A fixed column set is what the CSV and `INSERT`
 contracts rest on, so the restriction holds even where a particular choice would happen
@@ -631,8 +620,9 @@ Table section teaches it.
 2026-09-18, Lilleman auf Larv. Serves goal 5.6.
 
 A layout may carry the comma that separates arguments,
-`'January 2, 2006'`, a bare `2006-01-02` reads like a third date, and a double-quoted one
-could be quotes printed in the output, so each is refused naming the single-quoted one. The layout is Go's reference time because the
+`'January 2, 2006'`. A bare `2006-01-02` reads like a third date, and a double-quoted
+layout could be quotes printed in the output, so both are refused, naming the
+single-quoted spelling. The layout is Go's reference time because the
 library renders with it and a Go caller already knows it; its names are English, and a
 locale's own month and weekday names are data.
 
@@ -855,7 +845,7 @@ Valid while names are read only inside the category binding them.
 
 2026-10-04, Lilleman auf Larv. Serves goal 3 and applies KISS.
 
-Shipped under the floor by the maintainer's decisions of 2026-10-07: the CLI reading its template from stdin, with the scoring run and its ratchet waived for that chunk; and goal 5.7 loading whatever is well-formed and means one thing, dropping every refusal that guessed at a mistake, with the scoring run and its ratchet waived for that chunk too.
+Shipped under the floor by the maintainer's decisions of 2026-10-07, each with the scoring run and its ratchet waived: the CLI reading its template from stdin; and goal 5.7 loading whatever is well-formed and means one thing, dropping every refusal that guessed at a mistake.
 
 Last scoring run, 2026-10-07, on commit ad59967: Navigation 7.00, Locality 5.88, Shape 6.50, Self-sufficiency 6.13, overall 6.38. The nine-seat panel at depth 1, run beside it: Navigation 7.17, Locality 6.06, Shape 6.67, Self-sufficiency 6.56, overall 6.56. Against the runs on ac6158e, the scoring run's overall rose from 6.25 and its Shape from 6.38, while its Self-sufficiency fell from 6.38; the panel's overall held, and its Locality and Self-sufficiency fell by 0.05 each. Locality is lowest again, as at every panel since 2026-09-22. All 13 seats named the named-pick read path hardest: `readField`, `readName`, `readUnder` and `keeps`, with the pick keys `levelKeys` and `addressedKeys` build at load; twelve kept `doc.go`'s vocabulary open beside it. What the two runs found is filed in `todo.md`, and `todo.md` item 153 runs both again. Valid while `AGENTS.md` gates goal 3 at 7.0.
 

todo.md

@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@
 | 50 | 0.2.0 |  | **Reword `prove`'s refusal of a typed column reading a row, `{/region}`.** | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 15.5 |
 | 17 | 0.2.0 |  | **Give every shipped category a column for each part its format composes, and one record shape across the national ids; re-pin the shape.** | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 15.1 |
 | 29 | 0.2.0 |  | **Let a path go from a selected row into the template beside its family: `geo.US.locality[1714000].address`.** | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 14.6 |
-| 42 | 0.2.0 |  | **Refuse a struct tag's `datatype` naming the Go type that sets it before proving its values, as the README's Library section promises.** | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 14.5 |
+| 42 | 0.2.0 |  | **Refuse a struct tag's `datatype` other than its Go type's before proving its values, as the README's Library section promises.** | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 14.5 |
 | 32 | 0.2.0 |  | **Add `misc.browser` as the parent of `misc.useragent`, so `misc.browser[Chrome].useragent` resolves.** | 3 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 4.1 | 14.4 |
 | 22 | 0.2.0 |  | **Give `url` and `email` a path that draws only domains nobody can register, keeping the wide set as the default.** | 3 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 16 | 14.0 |
 | 46 | 0.2.0 |  | **Report the same error every load for a table with two bad options.** | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 6, 10 | 14.0 |
@@ -435,7 +435,7 @@ Say the format is the table's own (`region's format "{name}"`), name the read to
 
 Require the path step to reach a sibling category.
 
-### 42. Refuse a struct tag's `datatype` naming the Go type that sets it before proving its values, as the README's Library section promises.
+### 42. Refuse a struct tag's `datatype` other than its Go type's before proving its values, as the README's Library section promises.
 
 `datatype: boolean` over `{int(1,2)}` on an `int` field answers `prints an integer, not a boolean`.
 
@@ -503,7 +503,7 @@ Today a cell reads `g.t.b, line 3` (`namedNode.labelIn`), a cell check `t.tsv: l
 
 ### 14. Spell `misc.creditcard`'s digit runs `{digits(n)}`.
 
-A `"repeat": 14` over `{digits(1)}` draws every 14-digit run with the odds `{digits(14)}` does. Both load; the shipped data writes the shorter one. Re-pin seeded output in its own commit.
+A `"repeat": 14` over `{digits(1)}` draws every 14-digit run with the odds `{digits(14)}` does. Both load; make the shipped data write the shorter one. Re-pin seeded output in its own commit.
 
 ### 11. Test that every `geo` tree holds the five table names and the `address` columns that port across countries.