diff --git a/‎.changeset/22200-drafts-header-label.md‎
Lines changed: 14 additions & 0 deletions b/‎.changeset/22200-drafts-header-label.md‎
Lines changed: 14 additions & 0 deletions
diff --git a/‎content/docs/references/api/protocol.mdx‎
Lines changed: 2 additions & 1 deletion b/‎content/docs/references/api/protocol.mdx‎
Lines changed: 2 additions & 1 deletion
diff --git a/‎packages/metadata-protocol/src/protocol.ts‎
Lines changed: 9 additions & 3 deletions b/‎packages/metadata-protocol/src/protocol.ts‎
Lines changed: 9 additions & 3 deletions
diff --git a/‎packages/metadata-protocol/src/sys-metadata-repository-14938-list-drafts-updated-at.test.ts‎
Lines changed: 167 additions & 0 deletions b/‎packages/metadata-protocol/src/sys-metadata-repository-14938-list-drafts-updated-at.test.ts‎
Lines changed: 167 additions & 0 deletions
diff --git a/‎packages/metadata-protocol/src/sys-metadata-repository.ts‎
Lines changed: 44 additions & 0 deletions b/‎packages/metadata-protocol/src/sys-metadata-repository.ts‎
Lines changed: 44 additions & 0 deletions
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+---
+"@objectstack/spec": minor
+"@objectstack/metadata-protocol": minor
+---
+
+feat(spec,metadata-protocol): each `GET /meta/_drafts` row carries the draft body's own `label`, or `null`
+
+Clause-②: yes (widening)
+
+- **What a client can now read.** Every row of the pending-drafts list (`GET /api/v1/meta/_drafts`, the runtime's `GET /metadata/_drafts`, and the SDK's `client.meta.listDrafts()`) carries `label`: the draft body's own top-level `label`. This list is the only place a client finds an item that exists only as a draft, so before this such an item could be shown by its machine name alone (a draft permission set read `technician`, not "Technician").
+- **Its shape.** `I18nLabel | null`, required on the wire. It is carried as authored: a plain string, or an inline locale map (`{ en: …, 'zh-CN': … }`) on the types whose `label` is an `I18nLabel`. The route takes no locale, so the reader resolves a map the way it resolves every other `I18nLabel` (`resolveI18nLabel` in `@objectstack/spec/ui`).
+- **When it is `null`.** The body declares no `label`; it declares one `I18nLabelSchema` refuses (a row stored before its type's schema was enforced on save, or a row of a type with no registered schema); or its stored bytes do not parse, in which case the draft stays listed and every read of its body still fails. It is never the item name standing in for a missing label: a reader that wants a fallback chooses it, knowing the label is absent.
+- **Where it comes from.** `SysMetadataRepository.listDrafts` reads it off the `sys_metadata` row it already fetches, so there is no second query, and `ObjectStackProtocolImplementation.listDrafts` passes it through. Of the stored body, only this one member leaves; field definitions and every other body key stay off the header.
+- **Unchanged.** The other six members, the filters (`?packageId=`, `?type=`), the org scope, and the authoring gate on both routes.
@@ -2087,14 +2087,15 @@ Install package response
 
 | Property | Type | Required | Description |
 | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
-| **drafts** | `{ type: string; name: string; organizationId: string \| null; packageId: string \| null; … }[]` | ✅ | Every pending draft visible to the caller, one row per item. |
+| **drafts** | `{ type: string; name: string; label: string \| Record<string, string> \| null; organizationId: string \| null; … }[]` | ✅ | Every pending draft visible to the caller, one row per item. |
 
 ### Nested Shape: `ListDraftsResponse.drafts[number]`
 
 | Property | Type | Required | Description |
 | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
 | **type** | `string` | ✅ | Metadata type name (canonical singular). |
 | **name** | `string` | ✅ | Item name. |
+| **label** | `string \| Record<string, string> \| null` | ✅ | The draft body's own top-level `label`, as authored: a plain string or an inline locale map (`I18nLabel`), resolved by the reader. `null` when the body declares none, or none this shape admits — never the item name standing in for it. |
 | **organizationId** | `string \| null` | ✅ | Owning organization of the draft row, `null` for an environment-wide draft. |
 | **packageId** | `string \| null` | ✅ | Package the draft is bound to, `null` for a package-less draft. |
 | **updatedAt** | `string \| null` | ✅ | Last-touch timestamp of the draft row (ISO-8601 string), `null` when the row recorded none. |
 
@@ -22833,7 +22833,10 @@ export class ObjectStackProtocolImplementation implements
      * by `packageId` and/or `type`. The list reads of `getMetaItems` only see
      * the ACTIVE registry; this exposes what an AI authored but a human hasn't
      * published yet, so the console can show a "pending changes" surface and a
-     * just-built app package isn't displayed as empty. No body is returned.
+     * just-built app package isn't displayed as empty. No body is returned —
+     * only its own `label` ([#22200]), the one member a draft-only item can be
+     * shown by other than its machine name, passed through from
+     * {@link SysMetadataRepository.listDrafts} as the repository projects it.
      */
     async listDrafts(request?: {
         packageId?: string;
@@ -22843,6 +22846,8 @@ export class ObjectStackProtocolImplementation implements
         drafts: Array<{
             type: string;
             name: string;
+            /** The draft body's own top-level `label`, as authored; `null` when it declares none. */
+            label: I18nLabel | null;
             organizationId: string | null;
             packageId: string | null;
             updatedAt: string | null;
@@ -22909,8 +22914,9 @@ export class ObjectStackProtocolImplementation implements
      * ## Why the batch's existing enumeration cannot supply the bodies
      *
      * `listDrafts` — the read that DEFINES this batch — is a declared header
-     * projection: it maps rows to `(type, name, organizationId, packageId,
-     * updatedAt, updatedBy)` and drops `metadata` on purpose, because its other
+     * projection: it maps rows to `(type, name, label, organizationId,
+     * packageId, updatedAt, updatedBy)` and drops `metadata` on purpose — of the
+     * body only its own top-level `label` leaves ([#22200]) — because its other
      * caller is the console's "pending changes" list. Widening it would put
      * every draft BODY on that listing, and it would not even remove the guard
      * below: the doubles that lack `repo.get` stub `listDrafts` too, so a
 
@@ -66,7 +66,10 @@ import {
   assertEngineUpdateDispatch,
   assertEngineFindOnePredicate,
 } from '@objectstack/metadata-core';
+import { ListDraftsResponseSchema } from '@objectstack/spec/api';
+import { I18nLabelSchema } from '@objectstack/spec/ui';
 import { SysMetadataRepository } from './sys-metadata-repository.js';
+import { ObjectStackProtocolImplementation } from './protocol.js';
 
 interface Row {
   [k: string]: unknown;
@@ -107,6 +110,8 @@ const INVALID_INSTANT = new Date(NaN);
 const CONFORMS: { [K in keyof DraftHeader]: (value: DraftHeader[K]) => boolean } = {
   type: (v) => typeof v === 'string',
   name: (v) => typeof v === 'string',
+  // [#22200] The draft body's own label: an `I18nLabel` as authored, or `null`.
+  label: (v) => v === null || I18nLabelSchema.safeParse(v).success,
   organizationId: (v) => v === null || typeof v === 'string',
   packageId: (v) => v === null || typeof v === 'string',
   updatedAt: (v) => v === null || typeof v === 'string',
@@ -346,3 +351,165 @@ describe('#14938 — listDrafts emits canonical ISO text for updatedAt, whatever
     });
   });
 });
+
+/**
+ * [#22200] The `_drafts` header carries the draft body's own `label`.
+ *
+ * `GET /meta/_drafts` is the only list of draft-only items a client has, so a
+ * header without a label leaves such an item showable by its machine name
+ * alone — a permission set just created as a draft read `technician`, not
+ * "Technician". The label is read off the row `listDrafts` already holds (no
+ * second query), carried as authored, and `null` when the body declares none:
+ * ⛔ never the item name standing in for it.
+ *
+ * Shares this file's engine double rather than pinning a second one: the
+ * projection under test is the same `listDrafts` map, and the conformance
+ * table above now covers `label` on every case in the file.
+ */
+describe('#22200 — each listDrafts row carries the draft body\'s own label, or null', () => {
+  const HEADER_KEYS = ['label', 'name', 'organizationId', 'packageId', 'type', 'updatedAt', 'updatedBy'];
+
+  describe('§A drafts saved through the real write path', () => {
+    it('a draft whose body declares a label returns it', async () => {
+      const engine = makeFakeEngine();
+      const repo = makeRepo(engine);
+      await repo.put(
+        { org: 'env', type: 'view', name: 'repair_ticket_board' } as never,
+        { name: 'repair_ticket_board', label: 'Repair Ticket Board' },
+        { parentVersion: null, actor: 'usr_1', state: 'draft' } as never,
+      );
+      // Non-vacuity: the writer stored a DRAFT row whose body is serialized
+      // text, the shape the read below has to parse.
+      expect(engine.rows).toHaveLength(1);
+      expect(engine.rows[0]!.state).toBe('draft');
+      expect(typeof engine.rows[0]!.metadata).toBe('string');
+
+      const drafts = await repo.listDrafts();
+      expect(drafts).toHaveLength(1);
+      expect(drafts[0]!.label).toBe('Repair Ticket Board');
+      expectConformsToDeclaration(drafts);
+    });
+
+    it('a draft whose body declares none reads null — not its machine name', async () => {
+      const engine = makeFakeEngine();
+      const repo = makeRepo(engine);
+      await repo.put(
+        { org: 'env', type: 'view', name: 'repair_ticket_board' } as never,
+        { name: 'repair_ticket_board' },
+        { parentVersion: null, actor: 'usr_1', state: 'draft' } as never,
+      );
+
+      const drafts = await repo.listDrafts();
+      expect(drafts).toHaveLength(1);
+      expect(drafts[0]!.label).toBeNull();
+      expect(drafts[0]!.label).not.toBe(drafts[0]!.name);
+      expectConformsToDeclaration(drafts);
+    });
+  });
+
+  describe('§B the label is carried AS AUTHORED', () => {
+    it('an inline locale map (the `I18nLabel` form) is carried verbatim, not resolved to one locale', async () => {
+      // The route takes no locale, so resolving here would be the producer
+      // choosing a language for the reader.
+      const map = { en: 'Field Service', 'zh-CN': '现场服务' };
+      const engine = makeFakeEngine([
+        draftRow({ type: 'app', name: 'field_service', metadata: JSON.stringify({ name: 'field_service', label: map }) }),
+      ]);
+      const repo = makeRepo(engine);
+
+      const drafts = await repo.listDrafts();
+      expect(drafts[0]!.label).toEqual(map);
+      expectConformsToDeclaration(drafts);
+    });
+
+    it('reads a body the driver already materialised as an object (a JSON-column dialect)', async () => {
+      const engine = makeFakeEngine([draftRow({ metadata: { label: 'Cases' } })]);
+      const repo = makeRepo(engine);
+
+      expect(typeof engine.rows[0]!.metadata).toBe('object');
+
+      const drafts = await repo.listDrafts();
+      expect(drafts[0]!.label).toBe('Cases');
+      expectConformsToDeclaration(drafts);
+    });
+  });
+
+  describe('§C null is the declared "no label", never an invented one', () => {
+    it.each([
+      ['a number', 42],
+      ['the retired key-reference form', { key: 'views.case_grid.label', defaultValue: 'Cases' }],
+      ['an array', ['Cases']],
+    ])('a stored label the contract cannot carry (%s) reads null, and the draft is still listed', async (_shape, label) => {
+      const engine = makeFakeEngine([draftRow({ metadata: JSON.stringify({ label }) })]);
+      const repo = makeRepo(engine);
+
+      // Non-vacuity: the stored body really carries a `label` key.
+      expect(JSON.parse(engine.rows[0]!.metadata as string)).toHaveProperty('label');
+
+      const drafts = await repo.listDrafts();
+      expect(drafts).toHaveLength(1);
+      expect(drafts[0]!.label).toBeNull();
+      expectConformsToDeclaration(drafts);
+    });
+
+    it('stored bytes that do not parse read null rather than failing the whole listing', async () => {
+      const engine = makeFakeEngine([
+        draftRow({ name: 'torn_grid', metadata: '{"label":"Torn' }),
+        draftRow({ name: 'lead_grid', metadata: '{"label":"Leads"}' }),
+      ]);
+      const repo = makeRepo(engine);
+
+      expect(() => JSON.parse(engine.rows[0]!.metadata as string)).toThrow();
+
+      const drafts = await repo.listDrafts();
+      expect(drafts.map((d) => [d.name, d.label]).sort()).toEqual([
+        ['lead_grid', 'Leads'],
+        ['torn_grid', null],
+      ]);
+      expectConformsToDeclaration(drafts);
+    });
+  });
+
+  describe('§D the protocol passes it through, and the spec schema agrees', () => {
+    it('ObjectStackProtocolImplementation.listDrafts serves the label, and the response parses as ListDraftsResponseSchema, every member preserved', async () => {
+      const engine = makeFakeEngine([
+        draftRow({ type: 'permission', name: 'technician', metadata: JSON.stringify({ name: 'technician', label: 'Technician' }) }),
+        draftRow({ type: 'object', name: 'repairs_repair_ticket', metadata: JSON.stringify({ name: 'repairs_repair_ticket' }) }),
+      ]);
+      const protocol = new ObjectStackProtocolImplementation(engine as never);
+
+      const response = await protocol.listDrafts();
+      const byName = Object.fromEntries(response.drafts.map((d) => [d.name, d]));
+      expect(byName.technician!.label).toBe('Technician');
+      expect(byName.repairs_repair_ticket!.label).toBeNull();
+
+      const parsed = ListDraftsResponseSchema.safeParse(response);
+      expect(parsed.success).toBe(true);
+      if (parsed.success) expect(parsed.data).toEqual(response);
+    });
+
+    it('the label is the ONLY member read off the body — the header keys are exactly seven (#6599)', async () => {
+      const engine = makeFakeEngine([
+        draftRow({
+          type: 'object',
+          name: 'account',
+          metadata: JSON.stringify({
+            name: 'account',
+            label: 'Account',
+            description: 'internal pricing notes',
+            fields: { salary_grade: { type: 'select', label: 'Salary Grade' } },
+          }),
+        }),
+      ]);
+      const protocol = new ObjectStackProtocolImplementation(engine as never);
+
+      const response = await protocol.listDrafts();
+      expect(Object.keys(response.drafts[0]!).sort()).toEqual(HEADER_KEYS);
+      const wire = JSON.stringify(response);
+      for (const secret of ['internal pricing notes', 'salary_grade', 'Salary Grade', 'fields']) {
+        expect(wire).not.toContain(secret);
+      }
+      expect(response.drafts[0]!.label).toBe('Account');
+    });
+  });
+});
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@ import type {
 } from '@objectstack/metadata-core';
 import { DEFAULT_METADATA_TYPE_REGISTRY } from '@objectstack/spec/kernel';
 import { PLURAL_TO_SINGULAR, SINGULAR_TO_PLURAL } from '@objectstack/spec/shared';
+import { I18nLabelSchema, type I18nLabel } from '@objectstack/spec/ui';
 import type { IObjectQLEngine } from '@objectstack/core';
 // [#7682] The read-only-package predicate, imported rather than re-spelled —
 // the same function `saveMetaItem`'s ADR-0070 D1 gate and the `/packages`
@@ -195,6 +196,41 @@ function storedRowBody(row: any): Record<string, unknown> {
   return typeof row.metadata === 'string' ? JSON.parse(row.metadata) : (row.metadata ?? {});
 }
 
+/**
+ * [#22200] A draft row's own top-level `label`, for the `_drafts` header
+ * ({@link SysMetadataRepository.listDrafts}) — the ONE member that header
+ * reads off the stored body. The header stays a disclosure boundary (#6599):
+ * the label leaves, the body never does.
+ *
+ * Carried AS AUTHORED. Every registered metadata type that declares a display
+ * label spells it top-level `label`, as a plain string or an `I18nLabel` inline
+ * locale map; the route takes no locale to resolve a map with, so the reader
+ * resolves it. No ADR-0087 conversion rewrites a top-level `label`, so the
+ * stored spelling is already the canonical one.
+ *
+ * `null` — the declared "no label" — in three cases, and ⛔ never the item
+ * name, which would make "has a label" and "has none" one answer:
+ *   - the body declares none;
+ *   - it declares one `I18nLabelSchema` refuses (a row stored before its
+ *     type's schema was enforced on save, or a row of a type with no
+ *     registered schema). The declared field cannot carry it, and serving it
+ *     would hand the reader a shape its own type rules out;
+ *   - its stored bytes do not parse. {@link SysMetadataRepository.lockHead}
+ *     answers the same bytes the same way, for the same reason: a header
+ *     listing must not turn into a parse failure. The draft stays listed — and
+ *     so discardable — while every read of its body still fails loudly.
+ */
+function draftBodyLabel(row: any): I18nLabel | null {
+  let body: Record<string, unknown> | null;
+  try {
+    body = storedRowBody(row);
+  } catch {
+    return null;
+  }
+  const parsed = I18nLabelSchema.safeParse(body?.label);
+  return parsed.success ? parsed.data : null;
+}
+
 /**
  * Overlay-row lifecycle state.
  *
@@ -1331,6 +1367,12 @@ export class SysMetadataRepository implements MetadataRepository {
     Array<{
       type: string;
       name: string;
+      /**
+       * [#22200] The draft body's own top-level `label`, as authored — `null`
+       * when it declares none (see {@link draftBodyLabel}). For a draft-only
+       * item this header is the only place a client can find a label at all.
+       */
+      label: I18nLabel | null;
       /**
        * The scope the draft actually lives in — `null` for an env-wide draft,
        * a string for a per-org overlay draft. The `$or` below surfaces BOTH to
@@ -1350,6 +1392,8 @@ export class SysMetadataRepository implements MetadataRepository {
     return (rows as any[]).map((row) => ({
       type: row.type,
       name: row.name,
+      // [#22200] Off the row this read already holds — no second query.
+      label: draftBodyLabel(row),
       organizationId: row.organization_id ?? null,
       packageId: row.package_id ?? null,
       // [commit c383352cb] `updated_at` / `created_at` are the BUILTIN audit columns,