Name goal 4's check and the rewrite the refusal offers, scope the render-draw decision to unselected paths, and state the step-up clash

README.md

@@ -823,12 +823,13 @@ the Development section below, and who ships a register the four above then draw
 3. **Valid by construction** — every value passes the check its real consumer
    applies; facts that belong together come from one draw, within a value and
    across categories.
-4. **Templates are intuitive, and text means what it says** — a template does what
-   its writer expects on first reading. A format renders as written; only `{…}`
-   varies, random characters included (`{digits(3)}`), and a selected row, `[SE]`,
-   is that row wherever it is written. Where a reader could expect two outputs, the
-   template is a load error naming a spelling for each. One spelling per result; the
-   wrong one is a load error naming the right one.
+4. **Templates are intuitive, and text means what it says** — a template renders what
+   every writer reading it would expect, judged by simulated writers from the Audience.
+   A format renders as written; only `{…}` varies, random characters included
+   (`{digits(3)}`), and a selected row, `[SE]`, is that row wherever it is written.
+   Where two writers could expect different outputs, the template is a load error
+   naming a spelling for each. One spelling per result; the wrong one is a load error
+   naming the right one.
 5. **Every mistake is a load error** — `New` rejects the data and `NewTemplate`
    the inline template; on a loaded generator `Fake` fails only for an unknown
    path, `FakeStruct` only for a non-struct argument or a type its tags do not

docs/decisions.md

@@ -217,7 +217,8 @@ handle is needed, as the cache already compiles once.
 
 ## A render shares one reference draw per category, per group
 
-Every reference path into a category in one `Fake`, or one record, reads one draw of it,
+Every reference path into a category that selects no row, in one `Fake` or one record,
+reads one draw of it,
 so a value's facts agree across its fields, nested templates and columns alike —
 `{/currency.code}` in one field and `{/currency.symbol}` in another name one currency,
 whichever view renders them. A `repeat` iteration is a render of its own, since
@@ -361,17 +362,21 @@ accepted one changes, so the door stays open for the address records the plan de
 
 ## A selected row is fixed, not drawn, and an unnamed read beside it is refused
 
-Decided 2026-09-27 by the maintainer, for goal 4; valid while a selector names exactly one row.
+Decided 2026-09-27 by the maintainer, for goals 3 and 4; valid while a selector names
+exactly one row.
 
 - Selected rows never conflict: `{/misc.territory[SE].capital} / {/misc.territory[FI].capital}`
-  renders `Stockholm / Helsinki`, and so may two items of one choice.
-- What a path draws beneath a selected row is one draw per selection, shared by every
-  path through it: `{/geo.SE.region[12].locality.name}` twice names one locality.
-- A read naming no row of a table whose family a selection in the render and group
-  names is refused, naming the selected path and a `drawGroup`: beside
-  `{/misc.territory[SE].capital}`, a writer reading `{/misc.territory.currency}` expects
-  `SEK`, and `Stockholm pays in EUR` would pass review. It stays refused beside two
-  selections, since adding `[FI]` to that template would otherwise make it load.
+  renders `Stockholm / Helsinki`, and two items of one choice may select different rows.
+- What a path draws beneath a selected row is one draw per selection, per render and
+  group, shared by every path through it: `{/geo.SE.municipality[1281].locality.name}`
+  twice names one locality. `[1281]` and `[Lund]` select one row, so they are one
+  selection.
+- A read whose path selects no row is refused beside a selection in its family, in the
+  same render and group, naming the rewrite through each selection and a `drawGroup`:
+  beside `{/misc.territory[SE].capital}`, a writer reading `{/misc.territory.currency}`
+  expects `SEK`, so the error names `{/misc.territory[SE].currency}`, since
+  `Stockholm pays in EUR` would pass review. A second selection does not make the
+  unnamed read load.
 
 Checked against three simulated template writers from the Audience, who agreed on each
 case but the last, where two expected a render and all three accepted the refusal.

todo.md

@@ -48,8 +48,9 @@ This round, in order:
   path `Fake` accepts, which a selector is too. Delete the dead `table.descends` and
   the redundant `string(key)` in `checkNoRepeatedItem`.
 - Delete the decision "The rows of a table are alternatives": it defines `alternatives`,
-  which its comment in `family.go` already does, and the README's "which pairs are
-  weighed against each other" sends a reader to the log for that definition.
+  which its comment in `family.go` already does. Point the README's "which pairs are
+  weighed against each other" at that comment's rule, stated in the README's Table
+  section, where it sends a reader to the log for the definition today.
 - Run the nine-seat panel again and file what it names here.
 
 ### Data
@@ -174,10 +175,11 @@ by a `data-import/` script, as README goal 12 asks.
 - Render selected rows as the decision "A selected row is fixed, not drawn, and an
   unnamed read beside it is refused" states: `New` refuses
   `{/misc.territory[SE].capital} / {/misc.territory[FI].capital}` today, and a choice
-  whose items select different rows. Have the refusal of an unnamed read name a
-  selected path that loads: beside `{/geo.SE.locality[Lund].name}`,
-  `{/geo.SE.municipality.name}` names none today, and the one that holds selects from
-  the top, `{/geo.SE.municipality[Lund].name}`.
+  whose items select different rows. Have the refusal of an unnamed read name the
+  rewrite through each selection, selecting an ancestor of the selected row by key:
+  beside `{/geo.SE.locality[Lund].name}`, `{/geo.SE.municipality.name}` names none
+  today, where `{/geo.SE.municipality[1281].name}` holds. Scope the README's "A reference
+  path into a category is held" to a path that selects no row.
 - Report the same error every load for a table with two bad options, and for a
   folder with two unnamed rows files: `readTableOptions` and `loadDir` return on the
   first in Go's map order.
@@ -218,10 +220,13 @@ by a `data-import/` script, as README goal 12 asks.
 
 ### Open questions to settle
 
-- Decide whether a path steps from a row up to its parent, so
-  `{/geo.SE.locality[Lund].municipality.name}` reads Lund's municipality: three simulated
-  template writers all expected it to, per goal 4, and today it fails with "municipality
-  is a column, and a cell holds no fields". Adding it only accepts a refused spelling.
+- Decide how a path steps from a row up to its parent row: three simulated template
+  writers expected `{/geo.SE.locality[Lund].municipality.name}` to read Lund's
+  municipality, which goal 4 asks for, but `.municipality` after a row is already the
+  link column's cell, `city[Oslo].country` rendering `NO`. So either the name means the
+  cell where it ends a path and the parent row where a segment follows, which the
+  decisions "One name, one meaning" and "`parent` names the link column and the table
+  alike" have to allow, or the step up takes a spelling of its own.
 - Decide whether a goal 5 violation joins the comprehension gate's exception list: the
   `{/sel}|{/sel}` panic waits behind the whole round at 5.9, and
   `{/geo.SE.locality}|{/geo.SE.municipality}` mispairs the shipped data meanwhile, though a