@@ -174,14 +174,15 @@
   // ⛔ Every package-root harness module is named here ONE BY ONE, because the
   // `include` above reaches `test/` and nothing else: a root module that is only
   // reachable through a test's import is in the program by accident and leaves
-  // it the moment that import goes. `vitest-filter-preflight.ts` (#17853) is the
-  // fourth for that reason, not because a test happens to import it.
+  // it the moment that import goes. `vitest-filter-preflight.ts` was the fourth
+  // for that reason; #17978 moved that module to
+  // `packages/qa/vitest-filter-preflight`, which type-checks it in its own
+  // program, so the entry leaves with the file rather than dangling here.
   "include": [
     "test/**/*",
     "vitest.config.ts",
     "vitest-tiers.ts",
-    "vitest-tiers.fixtures.ts",
-    "vitest-filter-preflight.ts"
+    "vitest-tiers.fixtures.ts"
   ],
   "exclude": ["node_modules", "dist"]
 }
@@ -644,7 +644,7 @@
 import { defineConfig } from 'vitest/config';
 import path from 'path';
 import { parseCLI } from 'vitest/node';
-import { runFilterPreflight } from './vitest-filter-preflight.js';
+import { runFilterPreflight } from '../qa/vitest-filter-preflight/src/index.js';
 import { integrationTestFiles, unitTestFiles } from './vitest-tiers.js';
 
 // The two tiers, DERIVED from what the files DO — never written down — over
@@ -656,18 +656,29 @@ import { integrationTestFiles, unitTestFiles } from './vitest-tiers.js';
 export const INTEGRATION_FILES = integrationTestFiles(__dirname);
 export const UNIT_FILES = unitTestFiles(__dirname, INTEGRATION_FILES);
 
-// #17853 — say so when a path named on the command line will run no tests. It
-// is invoked HERE, at config load, and ⛔ deliberately NOT as a `test.reporters`
-// entry: naming that option replaces vitest's own reporter defaulting instead
-// of extending it, which measurably changes a healthy run's output and would
-// drop the `github-actions` reporter in CI. `vitest-filter-preflight.ts` carries
-// both measurements. It reads the argv through vitest's own exported parser and
-// the SAME two derived arrays the projects below take as their `include` — ⛔
-// never a second derivation — and writes nothing whatever unless a named path
-// selects nothing.
+// #17853 / #17978 — say so when a path named on the command line will run no
+// tests. It is invoked HERE, at config load, and ⛔ deliberately NOT as a
+// `test.reporters` entry: naming that option replaces vitest's own reporter
+// defaulting instead of extending it, which measurably changes a healthy run's
+// output and would drop the `github-actions` reporter in CI. The ONE shared
+// transcription of vitest's `TestProject.filterFiles` —
+// `packages/qa/vitest-filter-preflight` — carries both measurements, and it is
+// imported by RELATIVE PATH rather than by its package name for a third measured
+// reason recorded in its header. It reads the argv through vitest's own exported
+// parser and the SAME two derived arrays the projects below take as their
+// `include` — ⛔ never a second derivation — and writes nothing whatever unless a
+// named path selects nothing.
+//
+// ⭐ This package is the ONE of the eight that needs no walked population: both
+// of its projects take an exact-path `include`, as a by-product of the tier walk
+// it already performs for unrelated reasons (#13504 / #14554). So it hands the
+// two arrays over directly and never calls `exactAndGlobPopulations`. That
+// asymmetry is exactly why a port of this package's former local copy could not
+// serve the other seven — #17978 carries the measurement.
 runFilterPreflight({
   argv: process.argv,
   root: __dirname,
+  packageName: '@objectstack/cli',
   populations: { unit: UNIT_FILES, integration: INTEGRATION_FILES },
   parse: parseCLI,
 });
 
@@ -3,6 +3,11 @@
 import { configDefaults, defineConfig } from 'vitest/config';
 import { readFileSync } from 'node:fs';
 import path from 'path';
+import { parseCLI } from 'vitest/node';
+import {
+  exactAndGlobPopulations,
+  runFilterPreflight,
+} from '../qa/vitest-filter-preflight/src/index.js';
 
 // #16466 -- two vitest projects, two turbo tasks. `repo` owns the tests that read
 // outside this package (the list is vitest.repo-tests.json, which
@@ -12,6 +17,33 @@ import path from 'path';
 // repo. `extends: true` keeps the root options (aliases included) on both.
 const REPO_TESTS: string[] = JSON.parse(readFileSync(path.join(__dirname, 'vitest.repo-tests.json'), 'utf8'));
 
+// #17853 / #17978 — say so when a path named on the command line will run no
+// tests. Invoked HERE, at config load, and ⛔ deliberately NOT as a
+// `test.reporters` entry: naming that option replaces vitest's own reporter
+// defaulting instead of extending it, which measurably changes a healthy run's
+// output and would drop the `github-actions` reporter in CI. The ONE shared
+// transcription of vitest's `TestProject.filterFiles` carries both measurements,
+// and it is imported by RELATIVE PATH rather than by its package name for a
+// third measured reason recorded in its header. It reads the argv through
+// vitest's own exported parser and writes nothing whatever unless a named path
+// selects nothing.
+//
+// `local` takes a GLOB `include`, so its population is derived as a deliberate
+// SUPERSET — every test file under this package, minus `REPO_TESTS` — which
+// makes a false accusation structurally impossible and leaves drift able only
+// to under-report. ⛔ Not a second run of vitest's own glob engine.
+runFilterPreflight({
+  argv: process.argv,
+  root: __dirname,
+  packageName: '@objectstack/core',
+  populations: exactAndGlobPopulations({
+    root: __dirname,
+    exact: { repo: REPO_TESTS },
+    globProject: 'local',
+  }),
+  parse: parseCLI,
+});
+
 export default defineConfig({
   test: {
     // Each project re-declares the root block's test options: a ROOT-level