diff --git a/‎.changeset/refused-end-node-outcome.md‎
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diff --git a/‎packages/plugins/plugin-approvals/src/approval-service.ts‎
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diff --git a/‎packages/services/service-automation/src/builtin/screen-nodes.ts‎
Lines changed: 8 additions & 6 deletions b/‎packages/services/service-automation/src/builtin/screen-nodes.ts‎
Lines changed: 8 additions & 6 deletions
diff --git a/‎packages/services/service-automation/src/builtin/template.ts‎
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@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+---
+'@objectstack/service-automation': minor
+---
+
+Flow `end` nodes honour `outcome: 'refused'` — a terminal `refused` run, distinct from `failed`
+
+`packages/spec` has declared the shape since 17.4.0: an `end` node accepts
+`outcome: 'completed' | 'refused'`, a `refused` end requires a `message`,
+`ExecutionStatus` carries `refused`, and `ExecutionLog` / `AutomationResult` /
+the trigger response carry `refusalMessage`. The engine produced none of it —
+it returned on every `end` node without reading its config — so an author who
+wrote a refusal shipped a plain completion: the run recorded `completed`, the
+caller got the flow's `successMessage`, and the authored reason reached nobody.
+
+The `end` node now honours it:
+
+- **The run terminates `refused`.** A refusal is a *successful evaluation that
+  says no*, so the result is `success: true, status: 'refused'` with no `error`
+  and no `errorMessage` — and, deliberately, no `successMessage`: the flow's
+  completion toast is for a completion. All three terminal producers answer
+  identically (a triggered run, a resumed screen flow, and an attempt under
+  `errorHandling.strategy: 'retry'`, where a refusal also stops the ladder
+  rather than consuming retry budget).
+- **The `message` is rendered per record**, through the same interpolation a
+  `screen` node's `description` gets — one implementation (`interpolateText`),
+  never a second template engine — so `'Refused: {record.name} is a confirmed
+  duplicate'` reaches the caller naming the record.
+- **Both are persisted on the run.** `sys_automation_run.status` gains
+  `refused` and a new `refusal_message` column carries the rendered text; the
+  refusal is never folded into `error`, which would tell every reader the run
+  broke. `RunRecord` gains `refusalMessage` and `TerminalRunStatus` gains
+  `refused`, so history rows are written, aged and read back like any other
+  terminal.
+- **A refused run is never resumed.** It writes no continuation, so `resume`
+  answers `RUN_NOT_FOUND`.
+
+Untouched on purpose: a paused run still returns `silent` with no
+`successMessage`, and a plain `end` — or one declaring `outcome: 'completed'` —
+completes exactly as before.
+
+An `end` declaring `outcome: 'refused'` **inside a structured region** (a `loop`
+body, a `try`/`catch` region) is refused loudly rather than honoured: a refusal
+terminates the run and a region body cannot end one. Previously such a node was
+a silent no-op like every other `end` in a region, so nothing that ever worked
+stops working — put the refusing `end` on the top-level graph and route the
+region's exit to it.
@@ -354,13 +354,19 @@ type RunLiveness = 'terminal' | 'live';
  * `ExecutionStatus.options` and drives every member through the real sweep, so
  * the classification and the behaviour cannot drift apart either.
  *
- * ⛔ Terminality is NOT declared machine-readably anywhere today — `refused`'s
+ * ⛔ Terminality is NOT declared machine-readably in the SPEC — `refused`'s
  * terminality lives in a COMMENT beside the enum member, and a comment is not a
  * gate. The `TERMINAL_RUN_STATUSES` exported by `@objectstack/service-automation`
  * is a DIFFERENT vocabulary (which terminal states a run may be RECORDED in,
- * tied to `sys_automation_run.status`' options) that excludes `refused` on
- * purpose, and that package is only a devDependency here. Hence a local total
- * map rather than a shared import; see the card for the spec-level proposal.
+ * tied to `sys_automation_run.status`' options), and that package is only a
+ * devDependency here. Hence a local total map rather than a shared import; see
+ * the card for the spec-level proposal.
+ *
+ * [#15788] That list used to exclude `refused` on purpose — nothing could write
+ * the value — and now includes it, because the `end` executor produces it. The
+ * two vocabularies AGREE about `refused` today; they are still not the same
+ * question, so this map stays the authority for THIS sweep. ⛔ Do not replace it
+ * with an import on the strength of one member currently matching.
  *
  * `completed` is classified terminal alongside the failure states. The approval
  * node only writes a request row on the path where it also suspends the run,
 
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import type { PluginContext } from '@objectstack/core';
 import { defineActionDescriptor, ScreenConfigSchema, ScriptConfigSchema } from '@objectstack/spec/automation';
 import type { ScreenConfigParsed, ScriptConfigParsed } from '@objectstack/spec/automation';
 import type { AutomationEngine } from '../engine.js';
-import { interpolate } from './template.js';
+import { interpolate, interpolateText } from './template.js';
 import { parseNodeConfig } from './parse-config.js';
 import { judgeHeadlessScreen } from '../screen-input-contract.js';
 
@@ -163,11 +163,13 @@ export function registerScreenNodes(engine: AutomationEngine, ctx: PluginContext
         // variables here (the engine does NOT pre-interpolate node config) — so
         // a step's title/description/field-default/object-form-default can pull
         // from prior nodes (e.g. `{lead_record.company}`, `{account_id}`).
-        const interp = (v: unknown): string | undefined => {
-          if (v == null) return undefined;
-          const r = interpolate(v, variables, context);
-          return r == null ? undefined : String(r);
-        };
+        //
+        // [#15788] The body of this closure now lives in `template.ts` as
+        // {@link interpolateText}, because a second authored-text slot — the
+        // refusing `end` node's `message` (#14945 lane 2) — has to render
+        // through THE SAME implementation, not a copy of it. Same bytes in,
+        // same bytes out; the only change is where the four lines live.
+        const interp = (v: unknown): string | undefined => interpolateText(v, variables, context);
 
         // ── Object-form screen (master-detail wizards) ──────────────────────
         // When the step names an `objectName`, render that object's FULL
 
@@ -353,6 +353,36 @@ export function interpolateString(
     );
 }
 
+/**
+ * Render an authored TEXT slot — a screen `title` / `description`, an `end`
+ * node's refusal `message` — through {@link interpolate}, coerced to a string.
+ *
+ * [#15788] Hoisted out of `screen-nodes.ts`'s local `interp` closure so the
+ * refusing `end` node (#14945 lane 2) renders through the SAME implementation
+ * rather than a second one. The ruling's words are the requirement: the
+ * refusal message "goes through the same interpolation a screen `description`
+ * gets" — ⛔ never a second template engine. A second spelling would start
+ * byte-identical and drift on the first fix that landed in only one of them,
+ * and the drift would be invisible from either side: both would still
+ * substitute `{record.name}`.
+ *
+ * Absent in, absent out — a slot the author left unset renders nothing rather
+ * than the string `"undefined"`, and a whole-string token that resolved to
+ * `null` is the same "nothing" ({@link interpolateString} preserves the raw
+ * value for a single-token string, so an unresolved `{missing}` arrives here as
+ * `null`). Every other value is stringified exactly as an embedded
+ * substitution would be, which is what keeps ONE rendering for both slots.
+ */
+export function interpolateText(
+    value: unknown,
+    variables: VariableMap,
+    context: AutomationContext,
+): string | undefined {
+    if (value == null) return undefined;
+    const rendered = interpolate(value, variables, context);
+    return rendered == null ? undefined : String(rendered);
+}
+
 /**
  * Recursively interpolate template tokens in arbitrary JSON-like values.
  */