diff --git a/‎.changeset/notify-zero-delivery-is-distinguishable.md‎
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diff --git a/‎content/docs/automation/flows.mdx‎
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diff --git a/‎packages/services/service-automation/src/builtin/notify-node.ts‎
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Lines changed: 48 additions & 3 deletions
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+---
+'@objectstack/service-automation': patch
+---
+
+`notify` now reports the recipients it addressed, so a run that notified nobody stops reading like a run that had nobody to notify
+
+A `notify` node whose delivery count came back zero contributed `acted: 0` and nothing else to the run summary. A flow whose only effect-bearing node is that one then folded to `selected: 0, acted: 0, unmeasured: 0` — byte for byte the summary of a run that had nothing to notify about, and of a run whose `notify` node never executed. The run read healthy, and the only trace was a log line.
+
+`emit()` returns `delivered: 0, enqueued: 0` on several paths, each after logging and nothing else: an audience that resolved to no recipient, a preference filter that suppressed every (recipient × channel) pair, a dedup hit, every enqueue failing. A stack with no messaging service installed lands in the same place. All of them were silent in the summary, so this is not one cause being fixed — it is the whole class becoming visible.
+
+The node now reports `selected` — the recipient entries it addressed — on every path that reaches a recipient list, alongside the `acted` / `unmeasuredEffect` rules it already had. Those two are unchanged, so a delivering run keeps its existing `acted` (inline) or `unmeasured` (outbox) reading and stays outside the broken-sweep filter; a zero-delivery run now reports `selected: N, acted: 0` with no `unmeasured`, which is the platform's declared "matched N, acted on none, and that zero is trustworthy" signature and puts the run **inside** `selected > 0 AND acted = 0 AND unmeasured = 0` — the filter that exists for exactly this, and whose first clause the old reading could never satisfy.
+
+The zero is deliberately NOT reported as `unmeasuredEffect`. That flag means the count is unknown; this count is known and it is zero, and claiming otherwise would take the run out of the very filter it belongs in.
+
+`selected` counts audience entries, not resolved users: the entry (`role:manager`, a bare id) is what the node has, since expansion happens inside the messaging service and is not reported back.
@@ -1060,6 +1060,7 @@ instead:
 | `connector_action` | `unmeasured` |
 | `script`, function declared pure (the default) | nothing — a registered function is **contractually pure**: data I/O stays on the flow graph, so every write it causes is a downstream node that counts itself |
 | `script`, function declared `effect: 'writes'` | `unmeasured` — the function said it writes where the platform cannot see, so the run says the count is incomplete |
+| `notify` | `selected`: the recipient entries the node addressed, always. Then `acted: <delivered>` when the messaging stack delivered inline and knows the outcome, or `unmeasured` when it handed the deliveries to the outbox and the dispatcher decides later. A notify that reached **nobody** — an audience that resolved to no recipient, a preference filter that suppressed every pair, a dedup hit, no messaging service installed — reports `selected: N, acted: 0` and no `unmeasured`, which is what puts it inside the broken-sweep filter instead of leaving it silent |
 
 The `script` row is a contract, not a measurement: nothing stops a registered
 function from writing, so an **undeclared** writer still makes its run report
@@ -1071,6 +1072,17 @@ every flow that calls any function, to cover the few that break the rule.
 `unmeasured` propagates through `subflow` and `map` roll-ups, so a parent whose
 child dispatched an uncountable effect knows its own `acted` is incomplete.
 
+<Callout type="warn">
+A `notify` node reports `selected` for the recipients it addressed **whether or
+not any of them were reached**, and that is deliberate: it is the only thing
+that separates a run which notified nobody from a run that had nobody to
+notify. Both used to fold to `selected: 0, acted: 0, unmeasured: 0` — the same
+triple a run with no `notify` node at all reports — so a flow that quietly
+stopped delivering read exactly like a healthy quiet day, and the broken-sweep
+filter could not match it because its first clause is `selected > 0`. The zero
+is reported as a **measured** zero, never as `unmeasured`: the count is known.
+</Callout>
+
 The same counts land on `sys_automation_run` as **queryable columns**
 (`selected_count`, `acted_count`, `skipped_count`, `unmeasured_count`, plus a
 `summary_json` breakdown), so a broken sweep is something you can query for
 
@@ -321,7 +321,13 @@ export function registerNotifyNode(engine: AutomationEngine, ctx: PluginContext)
                     // #4354 — nothing was delivered, and the run summary must say
                     // so: a nudge sweep whose messaging service is absent is
                     // precisely the "green but inert" case this counter exists for.
-                    metrics: { acted: 0 },
+                    //
+                    // `selected` is what makes that `acted: 0` READABLE — see the
+                    // block above `metrics` on the emit path below. Without it a
+                    // run whose notify reached nobody folds to
+                    // `selected: 0, acted: 0, unmeasured: 0`, which is the same
+                    // triple a run with no notify node at all reports.
+                    metrics: { selected: recipients.length, acted: 0 },
                 };
             }
 
@@ -439,9 +445,48 @@ export function registerNotifyNode(engine: AutomationEngine, ctx: PluginContext)
                     //
                     // Waiting for the real outcome is not on the table: a notify
                     // node must not block a flow on a downstream channel.
+                    //
+                    // ── `selected`: what makes a ZERO dispatch readable (#17123) ──
+                    //
+                    // `acted` and `unmeasuredEffect` above answer "what did this
+                    // node cause". Neither can answer "this node tried to notify
+                    // somebody and reached NOBODY", and that answer is the one an
+                    // operator needs: `emit()` has several paths that return
+                    // `delivered: 0, enqueued: 0` after logging a line and nothing
+                    // else — an audience that resolved to no recipient, a
+                    // preference filter that suppressed every (recipient x
+                    // channel) pair, a dedup hit, every enqueue failing. Each of
+                    // them lands here as `{ acted: 0 }`, and a run whose only
+                    // effect-bearing node is this one then folds to
+                    // `selected: 0, acted: 0, unmeasured: 0` — byte for byte the
+                    // summary of a run that had nothing to notify about, and of a
+                    // run whose notify node never executed at all.
+                    //
+                    // ⛔ The fix is NOT to report the zero as `unmeasuredEffect`.
+                    // That flag means "the count is unknown", and this count is
+                    // known and it is zero; claiming otherwise would take the run
+                    // OUT of the broken-sweep filter
+                    // (`selected > 0 AND acted = 0 AND unmeasured = 0`) — the
+                    // platform's own alarm for a green-but-inert sweep — on
+                    // precisely the run that should be inside it.
+                    //
+                    // So the node declares the other half of the pair instead, in
+                    // the key that already means it: `selected` is "records this
+                    // node READ or matched", and the recipients it addressed are
+                    // exactly that. Reporting it costs a delivering run nothing
+                    // (`acted`/`unmeasuredEffect` keep it out of the filter) and
+                    // buys the zero-delivery run its place inside it, which is
+                    // what makes the two runs read differently at all.
+                    //
+                    // It counts audience ENTRIES the node addressed, not resolved
+                    // users: the entry (`role:manager`, a bare id) is what this
+                    // node has: expansion happens inside the messaging service and
+                    // is not reported back. `selected` and `acted` are not
+                    // required to be commensurate anywhere else either — a
+                    // `get_record` selects ten and an update acts on three.
                     metrics: enqueued > 0
-                        ? { ...(delivered > 0 ? { acted: delivered } : {}), unmeasuredEffect: true }
-                        : { acted: delivered },
+                        ? { selected: recipients.length, ...(delivered > 0 ? { acted: delivered } : {}), unmeasuredEffect: true }
+                        : { selected: recipients.length, acted: delivered },
                 };
             } catch (err) {
                 return { success: false, error: `notify failed: ${(err as Error).message}` };