Make goal 4 ask for intuitive templates, and decide a selected row is fixed, not drawn

AGENTS.md

@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ In [docs/decisions.md](docs/decisions.md):
 - A selector is bracketed, and a dot inside it is literal
 - `parent` names the link column and the table alike
 - After a row, a path names a column or a linked table
-- Every reference path into one family selects the same rows, per render and group
+- A selected row is fixed, not drawn, and an unnamed read beside it is refused
 - 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

@@ -823,9 +823,12 @@ 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. **Text means what it says** — a format renders as written; only `{…}` varies,
+4. **Templates are intuitive, and text means what it says** — a template does what
-   random characters included (`{digits(3)}`). One spelling per result; the wrong
+   its writer expects on first reading. A format renders as written; only `{…}`
-   one is a load error naming the right one.
+   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.
 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

@@ -359,14 +359,22 @@ folder or another column name would be asking for a second spelling.
 today; admitting it later is additive, since a refused spelling gains a meaning and no
 accepted one changes, so the door stays open for the address records the plan describes.
 
-## Every reference path into one family selects the same rows, per render and group
+## A selected row is fixed, not drawn, and an unnamed read beside it is refused
 
-A selector pins rows for the render, and a read that draws freely before it could pin a
+Decided 2026-09-27 by the maintainer, for goal 4; valid while a selector names exactly one row.
-row the selector contradicts, so accepting both would make the result depend on which
+
-token rendered first. Requiring one selection per family per group is checkable at load
+- Selected rows never conflict: `{/misc.territory[SE].capital} / {/misc.territory[FI].capital}`
-with no data lookup beyond the selectors themselves, and the error names the rewrite.
+  renders `Stockholm / Helsinki`, and so may two items of one choice.
-Two selectors naming one row by key and by name compare equal, since the load check
+- What a path draws beneath a selected row is one draw per selection, shared by every
-resolves them.
+  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.
+
+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 parent row with no child row is a load error
 
@@ -409,8 +417,7 @@ row, and whatever they reach, do meet, and so does the format beside them. Two r
 meet unless they sit under different rows of one pinned table; pinning a row pins its
 ancestors too, so rows under different parents are alternatives as well. A table read
 whole draws its row apart from every pin, so the rows of one whole read are
-alternatives only to each other. A choice's items are not alternatives: two items
+alternatives only to each other.
-selecting different rows of one family are refused.
 
 ## A table never reaches its own family, by any route
 

family.go

@@ -84,7 +84,6 @@ func (r *tableRead) selected(t *table) (tableSel, bool) {
 // read one consistent draw: a table rendered whole beside a path into the family,
 // a table one read draws that another pins, and two reads pinning different rows.
 // The reads come sorted by group and path, so which pair is reported does not vary.
-// docs/decisions.md#every-reference-path-into-one-family-selects-the-same-rows-per-render-and-group
 func checkFamilies(reads []pathRead) error {
 	for i, r := range reads {
 		if r.tr == nil {

todo.md

@@ -47,11 +47,9 @@ This round, in order:
   where `NewTemplate` and `NewRecordTemplate` do not, and `List` claims to be every
   path `Fake` accepts, which a selector is too. Delete the dead `table.descends` and
   the redundant `string(key)` in `checkNoRepeatedItem`.
-- Keep only the standing choice in the decision "The rows of a table are alternatives",
+- Delete the decision "The rows of a table are alternatives": it defines `alternatives`,
-  a choice's items refused as alternatives, and give it the goal it serves: the rest
+  which its comment in `family.go` already does, and the README's "which pairs are
-  defines `alternatives`, which its comment in `family.go` already does, and the README's
+  weighed against each other" sends a reader to the log for that definition.
-  "which pairs are weighed against each other" sends a reader to the log for that
-  definition.
 - Run the nine-seat panel again and file what it names here.
 
 ### Data
@@ -59,6 +57,8 @@ This round, in order:
 Shape: T = table, t = template, c = choice. Read every factual list from a register
 by a `data-import/` script, as README goal 12 asks.
 
+- Strip the whitespace `data-import/territory.py` copies from its register:
+  `misc.territory[CW].capital` renders ` Willemstad`, with a leading space.
 - Place xlsx cells by their `r` reference in `data-import/xlsx.py`: a sheet omitting an
   empty cell shifts every later column left.
 - Spell `misc.creditcard`'s digit runs `{digits(n)}`, and refuse a repeat over a lone
@@ -171,6 +171,13 @@ by a `data-import/` script, as README goal 12 asks.
 
 ### Library and CLI
 
+- 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}`.
 - 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.
@@ -192,9 +199,6 @@ by a `data-import/` script, as README goal 12 asks.
   error names the category and the two columns but no row, so the author greps a
   register-sized file for the cell — and "name the fields you want instead" rewrites a
   cell that is not the one to fix.
-- Have the family fence offer only a rewrite that works: where the drawn table's rows select
-  more than one row of the family, every `write {/terr[NO].name}` it offers fails the same
-  way, so only the `drawGroup` it also names is left.
 - Spell a table one way across the family errors: `checkFamilyPair` names
   `drawn.category`, `pinRow` names `t.path` and `mustRow` panics with `t.category`, so one
   table is `territory` and `misc.territory`, and the short spelling names no file where two
@@ -214,6 +218,10 @@ 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 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