diff --git a/‎.changeset/form-layout-view-container-ladder.md‎
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diff --git a/‎packages/lint/src/validate-form-layout.test.ts‎
Lines changed: 224 additions & 2 deletions b/‎packages/lint/src/validate-form-layout.test.ts‎
Lines changed: 224 additions & 2 deletions
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+---
+"@objectstack/lint": patch
+---
+
+fix(lint): `validateFormLayout` walks the view CONTAINER ladder, so both its rules stop reporting clean on every real app (#6251)
+
+`form-field-unknown` and `absolute-colspan-discouraged` read a `sections` array
+off the **`views[]` entry itself** and skipped everything else. But a `views[]`
+entry is a view CONTAINER, not a view: `ViewSchema` declares exactly `name` /
+`label` / `object` / `list` / `form` / `listViews` / `formViews`, and form
+sections live one level down, under `form` and each `formViews.<key>`. So the
+one shape the traversal read is the one shape strict `ViewSchema` **refuses** —
+measured, `unrecognized_keys` naming `sections` — and the shapes every app
+actually ships were never inspected at all.
+
+Measured on the three shipped example apps, before and after: `app-showcase`,
+`app-crm` and `app-todo` carry **0** form sites at the entry root and **14**
+under `form` / `formViews.<key>`. The old traversal therefore had nothing to
+read on any of them, and reported clean for that reason — the "ghost check"
+shape (#4984 / #5009): a rule that is green because it never read anything is
+worse than no rule, because it occupies the slot that would otherwise look
+empty.
+
+One broken form, three placements, before → after:
+
+| placement | before | after |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| `views[0].sections` (entry IS a bare form view) | reports | reports |
+| `views[0].form.sections` (container default form) | silent | reports |
+| `views[0].formViews.edit.sections` (named form view) | silent | reports |
+
+What changed, precisely:
+
+- The traversal is the one `validate-visibility-predicates.ts` landed in #6248
+  for the identical hole on the sibling rule — copied, not re-derived, so two
+  rules on one surface cannot drift apart about which forms exist. `list` /
+  `listViews.<key>` are `ObjectListViewSchema` and carry no `sections`, so they
+  are deliberately not walked; `objects[].views` stays out because
+  `object.zod.ts` tombstones that key by name.
+- The legacy `groups` bucket (`FormSectionSchema[]`, the documented alias of
+  `sections`) is read too. Measured: it is **not** folded into `sections` at
+  parse, so a `groups`-authored form was a second silent shape.
+- A finding names its sub-container — `view "contact_views" · formViews.create`
+  — because an artifact-emitted container carries neither `name` nor `object`,
+  and without it two forms under one view were indistinguishable.
+- A sub-container inherits the container's object binding when it declares no
+  `data.object` of its own, resolved through the same `objectName` → `object` →
+  `data.object` ladder the other view-walking rules in this package use.
+- A map-shaped `views` reports at the key it sits at (`views.contact_views.…`)
+  rather than a synthetic index, so a finding stays usable as an edit target.
+
+Both rules remain advisory `warning`s and their messages, hints and severities
+are unchanged. No new finding appeared on any example app, so nothing that was
+green goes red on existing metadata — what changes is that a form defect in the
+places apps actually put forms is now reported instead of silently passed.
@@ -1,11 +1,14 @@
 // Copyright (c) 2026 ObjectStack. Licensed under the Apache-2.0 license.
 
-import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest';
+import { describe, it, expect, vi } from 'vitest';
+import { defineStack, normalizeStackInput } from '@objectstack/spec';
 import {
   validateFormLayout,
   FORM_FIELD_UNKNOWN,
   FORM_COLSPAN_ABSOLUTE,
-} from './validate-form-layout';
+} from './validate-form-layout.js';
+
+type AnyRec = Record<string, unknown>;
 
 const objects = [
   { name: 'contract', fields: { name: {}, amount: {}, status: {}, notes: {} } },
@@ -112,3 +115,222 @@ describe('validateFormLayout (#2578)', () => {
     expect(validateFormLayout({ views: [], objects: [] })).toEqual([]);
   });
 });
+
+// ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+// #6251 — `views[]` is a view CONTAINER, and both rules above were unreachable
+// on the shape real apps actually ship.
+//
+// The measurement that opened the issue: one broken form, three placements.
+// Only the placement the strict schema REFUSES was being read, so an app whose
+// forms all live under `form` / `formViews.<key>` — i.e. every app — got a
+// clean report from a rule that had read nothing at all. That is the ghost
+// check #4984 / #5009 name: green because nothing was inspected.
+// ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+/** The one broken form, reused verbatim in every placement below. */
+const brokenForm = {
+  data: { provider: 'object', object: 'contract' },
+  sections: [{ columns: 2, fields: ['name', 'ghost_field'] }],
+};
+
+describe('#6251 — the view CONTAINER ladder', () => {
+  it('reports the SAME broken form in all three placements', () => {
+    const at = (view: AnyRec) =>
+      validateFormLayout({ objects, views: [view] }).map((f) => `${f.rule}@${f.path}`);
+
+    // (1) the entry IS a bare form view — the only shape read before #6251.
+    expect(at({ name: 'contract_form', ...brokenForm })).toEqual([
+      `${FORM_FIELD_UNKNOWN}@views[0].sections[0].fields[1]`,
+    ]);
+    // (2) the container's DEFAULT form.
+    expect(at({ name: 'contract_views', object: 'contract', form: brokenForm })).toEqual([
+      `${FORM_FIELD_UNKNOWN}@views[0].form.sections[0].fields[1]`,
+    ]);
+    // (3) a NAMED form view — where `os build` on app-showcase actually puts them.
+    expect(at({ name: 'contract_views', object: 'contract', formViews: { edit: brokenForm } })).toEqual([
+      `${FORM_FIELD_UNKNOWN}@views[0].formViews.edit.sections[0].fields[1]`,
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  it('names the sub-container in `where`, so two forms under one view are distinguishable', () => {
+    const findings = validateFormLayout({
+      objects,
+      views: [{
+        name: 'contract_views',
+        object: 'contract',
+        form: brokenForm,
+        formViews: { edit: brokenForm, create: brokenForm },
+      }],
+    });
+    expect(findings.map((f) => f.where)).toEqual([
+      'view "contract_views" · form',
+      'view "contract_views" · formViews.edit',
+      'view "contract_views" · formViews.create',
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  it('a sub-container INHERITS the container binding when it declares none', () => {
+    // The canonical container carries `object`; a `formViews.<key>` entry that
+    // omits its own `data.object` still renders against that object, so a
+    // dangling field reference there is as real as anywhere else.
+    const findings = validateFormLayout({
+      objects,
+      views: [{
+        name: 'contract_views',
+        object: 'contract',
+        formViews: { edit: { sections: [{ fields: ['ghost_inherited'] }] } },
+      }],
+    });
+    expect(findings.map((f) => f.rule)).toEqual([FORM_FIELD_UNKNOWN]);
+    expect(findings[0].message).toContain('ghost_inherited');
+    expect(findings[0].message).toContain('"contract"');
+  });
+
+  it('reads the legacy `groups` bucket too — measured NOT folded into `sections` at parse', () => {
+    const findings = validateFormLayout({
+      objects,
+      views: [{
+        name: 'contract_views',
+        object: 'contract',
+        form: { data: { object: 'contract' }, groups: [{ fields: ['name', { field: 'ghost_g', colSpan: 3 }] }] },
+      }],
+    });
+    expect(findings.map((f) => `${f.rule}@${f.path}`)).toEqual([
+      `${FORM_FIELD_UNKNOWN}@views[0].form.groups[0].fields[1]`,
+      `${FORM_COLSPAN_ABSOLUTE}@views[0].form.groups[0].fields[1].colSpan`,
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  it('reports a map-shaped `views` at the key it sits at, not a synthetic index', () => {
+    const findings = validateFormLayout({
+      objects,
+      views: { contract_views: { object: 'contract', formViews: { edit: brokenForm } } },
+    });
+    expect(findings.map((f) => f.path)).toEqual(['views.contract_views.formViews.edit.sections[0].fields[1]']);
+  });
+
+  // NEGATIVE polarity — this one cannot go red when the traversal is reverted
+  // (a narrower walk trivially satisfies "does not walk list views"). It is
+  // here to pin the SCHEMA fact, not the fix: `list` / `listViews.<key>` are
+  // `ObjectListViewSchema`, which declares no `sections`, so a `sections` key
+  // there is not a form and must not be judged as one.
+  it('does not walk `list` / `listViews.*` (they carry no sections by schema)', () => {
+    expect(validateFormLayout({
+      objects,
+      views: [{ name: 'contract_views', object: 'contract', list: brokenForm, listViews: { all: brokenForm } }],
+    })).toEqual([]);
+  });
+});
+
+// ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+// The anti-ghost pin: the rule must fire on a stack built through the REAL
+// authoring door, not only on a hand-shaped object literal.
+//
+// `cliTierFor` is exactly what `os validate` / `os compile` hand the registry:
+// `defineStack` (which Zod-PARSES) followed by `normalizeStackInput`. So a
+// fixture that survives it is a shape an author can really ship — and a rule
+// that reports on it is really reachable. Without this, "the fix works" could
+// still mean "the fix works on shapes the schema refuses", which is how this
+// rule was silently dead for four minor versions.
+// ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+/** `defineStack` warns on the D2 conversion channel; keep test output clean. */
+function quietly<T>(fn: () => T): { value?: T; error?: Error } {
+  const spy = vi.spyOn(console, 'warn').mockImplementation(() => {});
+  try {
+    return { value: fn() };
+  } catch (e) {
+    return { error: e as Error };
+  } finally {
+    spy.mockRestore();
+  }
+}
+
+const cliTierFor = (stack: AnyRec): AnyRec =>
+  normalizeStackInput(defineStack(stack as never) as unknown as AnyRec);
+
+describe('#6251 — reachable on a REAL parsed app stack', () => {
+  const manifest = {
+    id: 'com.example.formlayout',
+    namespace: 'fl',
+    version: '1.0.0',
+    type: 'app',
+    name: 'Form Layout Probe',
+    engines: { protocol: '^17' },
+  };
+
+  const data = { provider: 'object' as const, object: 'fl_contact' };
+
+  /**
+   * The container ladder copied from `examples/app-showcase/src/ui/views/
+   * contact.view.ts` — default `form` grouped into sections, plus a sparse
+   * `formViews.create` override — with one dangling field planted in each.
+   */
+  const appShape: AnyRec = {
+    manifest,
+    objects: [{
+      name: 'fl_contact',
+      label: 'Contact',
+      fields: {
+        name: { type: 'text', label: 'Name' },
+        email: { type: 'email', label: 'Email' },
+        phone: { type: 'phone', label: 'Phone' },
+      },
+    }],
+    views: [{
+      name: 'fl_contact',
+      object: 'fl_contact',
+      list: { label: 'Contacts', type: 'grid', data, columns: [{ field: 'name' }] },
+      form: {
+        type: 'simple',
+        data,
+        sections: [{ name: 'contact', label: 'Contact', columns: 2, fields: ['name', 'email', 'ghost_default'] }],
+      },
+      formViews: {
+        create: {
+          type: 'simple',
+          data,
+          title: 'New contact',
+          sections: [{ label: 'Who is this?', columns: 1, fields: ['name', { field: 'ghost_named', colSpan: 2 }] }],
+        },
+      },
+    }],
+  };
+
+  it('the fixture is a shape the strict schema ACCEPTS (so the pin is not testing a rejected stack)', () => {
+    const { error, value } = quietly(() => cliTierFor(structuredClone(appShape)));
+    expect(error).toBeUndefined();
+    // And it really is the container shape: no `sections` at the entry root.
+    const view = (value!.views as AnyRec[])[0];
+    expect(Object.keys(view).sort()).toEqual(['form', 'formViews', 'list', 'name', 'object']);
+    expect(view.sections).toBeUndefined();
+  });
+
+  it('reports every planted defect on that stack — this is the assertion #6251 exists for', () => {
+    const { value } = quietly(() => cliTierFor(structuredClone(appShape)));
+    expect(validateFormLayout(value!).map((f) => `${f.rule}@${f.path}`)).toEqual([
+      `${FORM_FIELD_UNKNOWN}@views[0].form.sections[0].fields[2]`,
+      `${FORM_FIELD_UNKNOWN}@views[0].formViews.create.sections[0].fields[1]`,
+      `${FORM_COLSPAN_ABSOLUTE}@views[0].formViews.create.sections[0].fields[1].colSpan`,
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  // EMPTY-GREEN, declared. Revert the container ladder and this test still
+  // passes — because nothing was read, not because nothing is wrong. It is kept
+  // (a false-positive guard is worth having) but it is only meaningful PAIRED
+  // with the test above, which proves on the same fixture family that the
+  // traversal does read these sites. If that one is ever weakened, this one
+  // stops guarding anything; do not treat it as independent cover.
+  it('a CLEAN app stack of the same shape reports nothing — the fix adds no false positives', () => {
+    const clean = structuredClone(appShape);
+    const view = (clean.views as AnyRec[])[0];
+    (view.form as AnyRec).sections = [{ name: 'contact', label: 'Contact', columns: 2, fields: ['name', 'email', 'phone'] }];
+    (view.formViews as AnyRec).create = {
+      type: 'simple', data, title: 'New contact',
+      sections: [{ label: 'Who is this?', columns: 1, fields: ['name', { field: 'email', span: 'full' }] }],
+    };
+    const { error, value } = quietly(() => cliTierFor(clean));
+    expect(error).toBeUndefined();
+    expect(validateFormLayout(value!)).toEqual([]);
+  });
+});