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diff --git a/‎packages/cli/src/hook-body.ts‎
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diff --git a/‎packages/cli/src/lint/hook-body-lowering.test.ts‎
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diff --git a/‎packages/cli/src/utils/detect-free-identifiers.test.ts‎
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@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+---
+"@objectstack/cli": minor
+---
+
+fix(cli)!: `objectstack build` rebinds a hook handler's parameter to the sandbox's `ctx` instead of dropping it, and refuses the parameter lists it cannot rebind (#22837)
+
+Clause-②: yes (narrowing)
+
+The lowering ships a hook handler's statements as `body.source`, and the runtime runs a body as `(async (ctx) => { SOURCE })`, so `ctx` is the only name a body is given. The handler's parameter list was dropped. A handler written `async (hookCtx) => { hookCtx.input.note = … }`, or `async ({ input }) => { input.note = … }`, lowered at exit 0 with no warning, and its body threw `ReferenceError: 'hookCtx' is not defined` on every run. Measured through `bootStack`'s artifact door: REST answered `500 INTERNAL_ERROR` and stored nothing, while the same handler in-process answered `201`.
+
+The hook body extractor (`extractHookBody`) now re-emits the handler's one parameter as the body's first statement, `var hookCtx = ctx;` or `var { input } = ctx;`, so the handler's own code runs as written. Both boots of the door above now store the same row. `os lint` calls the same extractor, so it agrees.
+
+**BREAKING: what moves for consumers.**
+
+- **A hook handler whose parameter is not named `ctx`.** It was lowered to a body that failed in the sandbox. It is now lowered to a body that runs. A handler whose parameter is `ctx`, or that takes none, lowers byte-for-byte as before.
+- **A hook handler whose parameter list cannot be rebound.** This covers more than one parameter, a default value or a rest parameter on it, a destructuring pattern that binds the name `ctx`, a body that declares its own `ctx` with `let` / `const` / `class` / `function`, and a destructured `log` / `crypto` / `title` / `api` taken apart further than one plain name (capability inference cannot follow that). Such a handler was lowered to a body that failed, or that ran with a parameter the sandbox never bound. It is now bundled into the runtime module (`objectstack-runtime.*.mjs`), as `.sudo(` and `fetch(` already are, with a warning that names the hook and the parameter. `objectstack build` still exits 0, `objectstack build --strict-body` now fails on it (exit 1), and `os lint` reports `hook-body/bundled-fallback` at `hooks[i].handler`. A handler taking `(ctx, extra)` is refused even when `extra` is unused: an in-process hook handler is only ever called with the context.
+- **A hook handler reaching `ctx.provenance`, `ctx.ql` or `ctx.transaction`.** These are the rest of the in-process `HookContext` that the sandbox does not carry. A body reads `ctx.provenance` as `undefined`, so a guard on `ctx.provenance.flowRunId` evaluated as if the write had no origin. `ctx.ql` (the engine) and `ctx.transaction` (a driver handle) are live host objects the sandbox cannot hold. Such a handler is now bundled, with the same warning, build exit code, `--strict-body` failure and lint rule as above. `ctx.api.transaction(fn)`, `ctx.api.object(name)` and a field merely named `provenance`, `ql` or `transaction` read through `ctx.input` or `ctx.previous` are not refused.
+- **A member destructured in the parameter list now meets the refusal the body spelling meets.** `async ({ input, submitted }) => …` and `async ({ dispatch: { scope } }) => …` were lowered (and failed). They are now refused like `const { submitted } = ctx`.
+- **A method-shorthand handler with exactly one nested function** (`async handler(ctx) { … rows.map((r) => r.id) … }`) is now judged on the method rather than on the nested function. A method-body name that nested function closes over was reported as a free identifier, and the handler was bundled. It now lowers. A module-scope helper called outside the nested function went unreported, and the handler lowered and threw `ReferenceError`. It is now refused and bundled, like any other module-scope reference.
+- **The published `extractHookBody` (`@objectstack/cli/hook-body`) is the hook face.** Its signature is unchanged. An action's `(input, ctx)` target passed to it is refused for its second parameter, where `objectstack build` lowers it unchanged: an action body runs in its own `(input, ctx)` wrapper and gets no rebind.
+
+**The one-line fix**, for a refused handler you want shipped as a body: take the context as the one parameter (under any name, or destructured), drop the default, and read the member you need through `ctx.api` or `ctx.previous`. A handler you are content to run bundled needs no change.
+
+**Unchanged.** No spec key, export, type or stored shape moves, and `extractHookBody`'s published signature and refusal kinds are the same. The sandbox still marshals exactly what it did. An action target's lowering is unchanged. An in-process handler, a top-level `functions:` entry referenced by name, and a hook that carries an explicit `body` are not lowered here and are not judged.
+
+<!-- adr-0087: not-required (no-migration-prescription) a build-time verdict about handler code: the rebind makes a handler that failed in the sandbox run as written, and every refusal is of handler code the sandbox cannot run as written or of a parameter list the rebind cannot re-emit faithfully. No authorable key, spelling, export or stored shape moves, and no stored row is read, rewritten or converted. A refused handler keeps running bundled, so no consumer has to edit anything for its build to succeed, and the edit that makes it a body again is a change to handler code, which no ledger entry can derive. The other categories are closed on facts: the package publishes (not unpublished); no ADR-0087 id covers the lowering (not already-registered); and the change is a build verdict, not a declaration (not runtime-interface-only or type-surface-only). -->
@@ -169,8 +169,9 @@ The CLI builder **rejects** any source that uses:
 - references to identifiers from value-only top-level imports
 - `.sudo(` and `.create(` — members that are real on the **in-process** `ScopedContext` / `ObjectRepository` and absent from the VM's `ctx.api`, so lowering them would ship a body that `TypeError`s on its first run. Write `.insert({ ... })` instead of `.create({ ... })` — it is the only insert verb the `IScopedObjectRepository` contract declares — and reach for [`runAs: 'system'`](/docs/automation/hooks#elevation--runas) instead of `.sudo()`. `Object.create()` is a real sandbox global and is **not** affected.
 - `ctx.dispatch.scope` and `ctx.submitted` — context members the **in-process** `HookContext` carries and the body face deliberately does not: a body's `ctx.dispatch` is `{ mode, index }` only, and it has no `ctx.submitted`. Lowered, a write through `scope` `TypeError`s on its first run and a read of `submitted` sees `undefined`, so a guard on it evaluates as if nothing were submitted. For cross-dispatch work, do it once at `ctx.dispatch.index === 0` or keep the state in the record through `ctx.api`; to derive from a read-only field, read the stored row on `ctx.previous`. `ctx.dispatch.mode` / `ctx.dispatch.index`, and a field that merely happens to be named `scope` or `submitted` (`ctx.input.scope`), are **not** affected.
+- `ctx.provenance`, `ctx.ql` and `ctx.transaction` (hook handlers) — the rest of the in-process `HookContext` the body face does not carry. A body reads `ctx.provenance` as `undefined`, so a guard on `ctx.provenance.flowRunId` evaluates as if the write had no origin; `ctx.ql` (the engine) and `ctx.transaction` (a driver handle) are live host objects no copy into the sandbox can carry. Reach other objects through `ctx.api.object(name)`, and group writes with `ctx.api.transaction(fn)`, which is **not** affected. The enumeration behind this list is derived, not remembered: a test compares every member `HookContextSchema` declares against every member the sandbox marshals, and fails on one that is neither refused here nor recorded as a deliberate exception.
 
-Like `.sudo(` and `.create(`, these two refuse the **body**, not the handler: `objectstack build` bundles the handler into its runtime module (`objectstack-runtime.*.mjs`) instead and still exits 0 (with a warning naming the hook), `os lint` reports it as `hook-body/bundled-fallback`, and `objectstack build --strict-body` fails on it. The bundled handler runs in-process wherever that module is served beside `objectstack.json`; a deployment that serves the artifact alone has no function to bind the hook to, so it logs the hook as refused at boot and the hook never fires — build with `--strict-body` when the artifact must be body-only.
+Like `.sudo(` and `.create(`, these refuse the **body**, not the handler: `objectstack build` bundles the handler into its runtime module (`objectstack-runtime.*.mjs`) instead and still exits 0 (with a warning naming the hook), `os lint` reports it as `hook-body/bundled-fallback`, and `objectstack build --strict-body` fails on it. The bundled handler runs in-process wherever that module is served beside `objectstack.json`; a deployment that serves the artifact alone has no function to bind the hook to, so it logs the hook as refused at boot and the hook never fires — build with `--strict-body` when the artifact must be body-only.
 
 Need outbound HTTP? Define a **Connector recipe** as metadata and call it via `ctx.connector(...)`. (Connector spec is tracked separately and ships after L1+L2 stabilises.)
 
@@ -235,6 +236,8 @@ Because the existence check is advisory, and every write-side check here is lite
 
 Hooks mutate `ctx.input`/`ctx.result`; actions return their output value explicitly.
 
+A hook handler's parameter does not have to be named `ctx`. The sandbox binds only `ctx`, so the build re-emits the handler's one parameter as the body's first statement: `async (hookCtx) => { … }` ships as `var hookCtx = ctx; …`, and `async ({ input, previous }) => { … }` as `var { input, previous } = ctx; …`. A handler whose parameter already is `ctx`, or that takes none, ships unchanged. What cannot be re-emitted that way is refused like a forbidden token — the handler is bundled, with a warning naming the parameter: more than one parameter (an in-process hook handler is only ever called with the context), a default value or a rest parameter on it, a pattern that binds the name `ctx` itself, a body that declares its own `ctx`, and a destructured `log` / `crypto` / `title` / `api` taken apart further than one plain name (capability inference cannot follow it). An action's `(input, ctx)` parameters are its own wrapper's and are left as they are.
+
 An action's `ctx` is **not** a hook's. `ctx.input` is the action's **params bag** — validated against its declared `params`, not a record. `ctx.record` is the record the dispatcher pre-fetched, and it is **read-only in effect**: the sandbox receives a plain snapshot and the runtime never writes it back, so `ctx.record.<field> = …` is discarded even for a perfectly valid field name. There is exactly one way an action body persists anything:
 
 ```js
 
@@ -5,12 +5,22 @@
  *
  * ## Why this entry exists (#15325)
  *
- * `extractHookBody` decides whether a hook or script action is still shippable
+ * `extractHookBody` decides whether a hook handler is still shippable
  * **body-only**: it peels the handler to its statements, refuses the forbidden
  * tokens, infers capabilities, and throws a `HookBodyExtractionError` carrying
  * `kind` / `freeIdentifiers` / `nodeOnlyIdentifiers`. `os build` applies it to
  * lower a handler, `os lint` calls the same function so its verdict cannot
- * drift from the build's. An app that wants to assert "my hooks are still
+ * drift from the build's.
+ *
+ * It is the HOOK face (#22837): the handler's one parameter is re-emitted as
+ * `var <param> = ctx;` ahead of the body, because a hook body runs with `ctx`
+ * bound and nothing else, and a parameter list that cannot be re-emitted that
+ * way (two parameters, a default, a rest parameter) is refused. A script
+ * action's `target` runs in a different wrapper, `(input, ctx)`, and the build
+ * lowers it without that rebind, so an `(input, ctx)` target passed here is
+ * refused for its second parameter where `os build` lowers it.
+ *
+ * An app that wants to assert "my hooks are still
  * metadata-only" — and to RUN the lowered `source` through the real QuickJS
  * runner in a test — needs this exact function, not a lookalike: a local
  * reimplementation passes its own tests while diverging from the rule the
 
@@ -364,6 +364,34 @@ describe('checkHookBodyLowering', () => {
     });
   });
 
+  // [#22837] The build lowers a hook handler and an action target in different
+  // faces: a hook's one parameter is rebound to the sandbox's `ctx`, an
+  // action's `(input, ctx)` is its own wrapper's binding list. Lint must judge
+  // each by the face the build uses, or it reports what the build never does.
+  describe('judges each callable in the face the build lowers it in (#22837)', () => {
+    it('says nothing about a hook handler whose parameter is renamed: the build rebinds it', () => {
+      const issues = checkHookBodyLowering({
+        hooks: [{ name: 'named', object: 'o', events: ['beforeInsert'], handler: async (hookCtx: any) => { hookCtx.input.n = 1; } }],
+      });
+      expect(issues).toEqual([]);
+    });
+
+    it('reports a two-parameter hook handler on the bundled-fallback rule, naming the parameters', () => {
+      const issues = checkHookBodyLowering({
+        hooks: [{ name: 'two', object: 'o', events: ['beforeInsert'], handler: async (ctx: any, extra: any) => { ctx.input.n = extra; } }],
+      });
+      expect(issues.map((i) => [i.rule, i.severity, i.path])).toEqual([[BUNDLED_FALLBACK_RULE, 'warning', 'hooks[0].handler']]);
+      expect(issues[0].message).toContain('(`ctx`, `extra`)');
+    });
+
+    it('says nothing about an `(input, ctx)` action target, which the action face lowers unchanged', () => {
+      const issues = checkHookBodyLowering({
+        actions: [{ name: 'a', target: async (input: any, ctx: any) => { await ctx.api.object('t').insert({ n: input.n }); } }],
+      });
+      expect(issues).toEqual([]);
+    });
+  });
+
   /**
    * The #3782 class: two surfaces disagreeing about what an author is told.
    * This rule and the build both call `extractHookBody` on the same normalized
 
@@ -89,14 +89,15 @@
  *
  * ## Parity
  *
- * This rule calls the SAME `extractHookBody` that `lowerCallables` calls, on
- * the same normalized input. It therefore cannot drift from what `os build`
- * would do to the same handler — the #3782 class (two surfaces disagreeing
- * about what an author is told) is closed by construction here, not by a
- * second implementation kept in sync by hand.
+ * This rule calls the SAME `extractLoweredBody` that `lowerCallables` calls, on
+ * the same normalized input and with the same face (`hook` for a hook handler,
+ * `action` for an action target — #22837 made the two lower differently). It
+ * therefore cannot drift from what `os build` would do to the same handler — the
+ * #3782 class (two surfaces disagreeing about what an author is told) is closed
+ * by construction here, not by a second implementation kept in sync by hand.
  */
 
-import { extractHookBody, HookBodyExtractionError } from '../utils/extract-hook-body.js';
+import { extractLoweredBody, HookBodyExtractionError, type LoweringFace } from '../utils/extract-hook-body.js';
 
 /** Mirrors `LintIssue` in `../commands/lint.ts` (structurally compatible). */
 export interface HookBodyLintIssue {
@@ -127,13 +128,13 @@ const isPlainObject = (v: unknown): v is Record<string, unknown> =>
 type AnyFn = (...args: unknown[]) => unknown;
 
 /**
- * Run `extractHookBody` over one callable and turn a refusal into an issue.
+ * Run `extractLoweredBody` over one callable and turn a refusal into an issue.
  * Returns `null` when the body extracts cleanly — i.e. the callable really does
  * ship as metadata.
  */
-function judge(fn: AnyFn, originLabel: string, path: string): HookBodyLintIssue | null {
+function judge(fn: AnyFn, originLabel: string, path: string, face: LoweringFace): HookBodyLintIssue | null {
   try {
-    extractHookBody(fn, originLabel);
+    extractLoweredBody(fn, originLabel, face);
     return null;
   } catch (err: unknown) {
     const kind = err instanceof HookBodyExtractionError ? err.kind : 'unknown';
@@ -240,7 +241,7 @@ export function checkHookBodyLowering(config: Record<string, unknown>): HookBody
       if (raw.body) return; // author supplied the body themselves
       const name =
         typeof raw.name === 'string' && raw.name.length > 0 ? raw.name : 'anon_hook';
-      const issue = judge(raw.handler as AnyFn, `hook '${name}'`, `hooks[${i}].handler`);
+      const issue = judge(raw.handler as AnyFn, `hook '${name}'`, `hooks[${i}].handler`, 'hook');
       if (issue) issues.push(issue);
     });
   }
@@ -258,6 +259,7 @@ export function checkHookBodyLowering(config: Record<string, unknown>): HookBody
         raw.target as AnyFn,
         `action '${baseName}'`,
         `${pathPrefix}[${i}].target`,
+        'action',
       );
       if (issue) issues.push(issue);
     });
 
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest';
 import {
   detectFreeIdentifiers,
   NODE_ONLY_GLOBALS,
+  parseFunction,
   SANDBOX_GLOBALS,
 } from './detect-free-identifiers.js';
 
@@ -153,6 +154,33 @@ describe('detectFreeIdentifiers (#1876 — body self-containment)', () => {
     });
   });
 
+  // [#22837] A method shorthand is not a statement, so the first wrap parsed it
+  // as a call and a block; with exactly ONE function nested in that block, the
+  // nested function was the only function-like node and was returned as the
+  // handler. Measured before the span check: both verdicts below were wrong.
+  describe('reads the handler itself, never a function nested in it (#22837)', () => {
+    const method = 'async h(ctx) { const k = 2; ctx.input.x = [1].map((i) => i * k); }';
+
+    it('a method local that one nested function closes over is bound, not free', () => {
+      expect(detectFreeIdentifiers(method).free).toEqual([]);
+    });
+
+    it('a module-scope helper called outside that nested function is free', () => {
+      const r = detectFreeIdentifiers('async h(ctx) { ctx.input.x = helper(ctx.input.n); [1].map((i) => i); }');
+      expect(r.free).toEqual(['helper']);
+    });
+
+    it('the node returned is the method, whose parameter list is the handler\'s', () => {
+      const fn = parseFunction(method);
+      expect(fn && fn.parameters.map((p) => p.getText())).toEqual(['ctx']);
+    });
+
+    it('CONTROL: an arrow and a function expression with one nested function were never affected', () => {
+      expect(parseFunction('async (ctx) => { [1].map((i) => i); }')?.parameters.map((p) => p.getText())).toEqual(['ctx']);
+      expect(parseFunction('async function (h) { [1].map((i) => i); }')?.parameters.map((p) => p.getText())).toEqual(['h']);
+    });
+  });
+
   it('never invents free vars for non-handler junk (conservative — caller won\'t block)', () => {
     // Whether or not TS error-recovers a node, the safe outcome is no free vars
     // so extraction is never blocked on garbage. (peelToBlockBody rejects such