Answer the step-up question at goal level: a path renders what every writer expects, so a link column steps up to its parent and may not end a path

AGENTS.md

@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ In [docs/decisions.md](docs/decisions.md):
 - `parent` names the link column and the table alike
 - After a row, a path names a column or a linked table
 - A selected row is fixed, not drawn, and an unnamed read beside it is refused
+- A link column after a row steps up to the parent row, and a path may not end on it
 - A parent row with no child row is a load error
 - The choice-of-rows fence guards a data file's root, and requires string fields
 - A table is a record of string columns

README.md

@@ -823,8 +823,9 @@ 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 renders what
-   every writer reading it would expect, judged by simulated writers from the Audience.
+4. **Templates are intuitive, and text means what it says** — a template, and every
+   path in it, 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

docs/decisions.md

@@ -380,6 +380,24 @@ exactly one row.
 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.
 
+## A link column after a row steps up to the parent row, and a path may not end on it
+
+Decided 2026-09-27 by the maintainer, for goal 4; valid while a link column holds the
+parent's key.
+
+- Where a segment follows, the link column's name reads the parent row, one level per
+  step, chained: `city[Oslo].country.name` renders `Norway`, and
+  `geo.SE.locality[Lund].municipality.region.name` Lund's region.
+- A path ending on it is refused, naming the parent's key column and the columns its
+  format reads: `city[Oslo].country` could be `NO` or `Norway`, so the error names
+  `city[Oslo].country.alpha2` and `city[Oslo].country.name`.
+- A route through another row is not a second spelling of a selection:
+  `city[Oslo].country.name` and `country[NO].name` both load, as `[1281]` and `[Lund]` do.
+
+Checked against three simulated template writers from the Audience: all three read the
+parent row where a segment followed, and they split between the code and the name where
+the path ended.
+
 ## A parent row with no child row is a load error
 
 A descendant is drawn inside the nearest pinned ancestor, so every ancestor row must

todo.md

@@ -172,14 +172,19 @@ by a `data-import/` script, as README goal 12 asks.
 
 ### Library and CLI
 
+- Step up from a row to its parent as the decision "A link column after a row steps up
+  to the parent row, and a path may not end on it" states: `city[Oslo].country.name` is
+  a load error today, and `city[Oslo].country` renders the cell `NO`. Correct the
+  README's `city[Oslo].country` example to match.
 - 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 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.
+  rewrite through each selection: beside `{/geo.SE.locality[Lund].name}`,
+  `{/geo.SE.municipality.name}` names none today, where
+  `{/geo.SE.locality[Lund].municipality.name}` holds once the step up above lands.
+  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.
@@ -220,24 +225,6 @@ by a `data-import/` script, as README goal 12 asks.
 
 ### Open questions to settle
 
-- Decide how a path steps from a row up to its parent row, one level per step, chained.
-  Three simulated template writers expected `{/geo.SE.locality[Lund].municipality.name}`
-  to read Lund's municipality; today it is a load error, since `.municipality` after a
-  row is the link column's cell, `city[Oslo].country` rendering `NO`. The options:
-  - The name means the parent row where a segment follows, and the cell where the path
-    ends. It gives a refused spelling a meaning, so a minor, and extends "After a row, a
-    path names a column or a linked table" from child tables to the parent.
-  - The name always means the parent row, rendering through its format where the path
-    ends: `city[Oslo].country` renders `Norway`, the cell stays reachable through the
-    parent's key column. A change
-    to what exists, so a major, and a record's `country` column then holds the key while
-    the path renders the name.
-  - Goal 4 refuses a path ending on the name, since a writer could expect the code or the
-    name, naming the parent's key column and `.name`. A major.
-
-  Each option gives `locality[Lund].municipality.name` and
-  `municipality[1281].name` one result, so goal 4's one spelling per result refuses one
-  of them, and the rewrite the selected-row item above names follows that choice.
 - 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