@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+'@objectstack/plugin-sharing': patch
+'@objectstack/spec': patch
+---
+
+docs: the sharing-rule pass note and the `ISharingService.grant` contract say what a share on a public object does
+
+Clause-②: no
+Metadata-protocol: none
+
+A follow-up to the external-share change. The one-line `note` a sharing-rule pass carries when it skips recipients on a public object now also covers a record whose organization could not be resolved, which admits no recipient. The `ISharingService.grant` docblock no longer says a share on a public object enforces nothing: it is admitted for an `external` member of the record's organization.
@@ -137,6 +137,8 @@ Three write-time refusals so a persisted share always means something:
 
 1. **`recipientType` is narrowed to `user`** at the grant boundary; anything else → **400**. The `group` / `position` / `unit_and_subordinates` / `guest` values are not enforced by any gate today — persisting them is the ADR-0078 inert-metadata trap. The vocabulary is consolidated to one list in the contract; non-`user` principals become a documented *future direction* (delivered via rule materialisation, which already expands `team` / `business_unit` into per-user rows), not an accepted-but-ignored input on the manual surface.
 2. **`grant()` validates the object is in an enforcing posture** — `effectiveSharingModel` is `private` or `read` **and** the object has an `owner_id` field. Otherwise → **422** (`SHARING_NOT_ENABLED`): a share on a public / bypass / owner-less object enforces nothing. `controlled_by_parent` is refused explicitly (Salesforce parity — a detail record is not independently shareable; its access follows the master).
+
+   *Amended 2026-10-24 (ruling 6377844010 on objectstack-ai/objectstack#25549, letter A; landed in #25591).* An external principal meets an owner-only floor on every object (ruling 6355206139, letter B), so a share row on a public object IS consulted for that population. On an object whose effective model is `public` and whose `owner_id` is real (not a federated phantom anchor), `grant()` therefore admits a `user` recipient whose `sys_member.role` in the record's organization is exactly `external`; every other recipient keeps the 422. The verdict reads the object and the recipient's population, never the granter. A sharing rule materialises rows for its external recipients only and reports the skipped half in one line. `controlled_by_parent` stays refused for every recipient.
 3. **Manual and rule shares coexist by `source`.** The upsert key becomes `(object, record, recipient, source)` so a manual grant no longer clobbers a `source: 'rule'` row and vice versa. When multiple rows grant the same recipient, the widest `access_level` wins (Salesforce's RowCause model — grants are additive, never subtractive).
 
 ### D8 — Share-link re-share semantics are made explicit
 
@@ -395,7 +395,8 @@ export interface SharingRuleReconcilePassResult extends SharingRuleEvaluationRes
    * [#25549] One line, present only when the pass skipped recipients: the rule
    * is anchored on a public object, where a share reaches an `external` member
    * of the record's organization only, so no row was written for the internal
-   * recipients it expands to. The count is in the pass's log line.
+   * recipients it expands to, nor for any recipient on a record whose
+   * organization could not be resolved. The count is in the pass's log line.
    */
   note?: string;
 }
@@ -405,8 +406,9 @@ type RuleGrantOutcome = 'granted' | 'refused' | 'internal';
 
 /** [#25549] The pass's one-line note when it skipped internal recipients. */
 function internalHalfNote(object: string): string {
-  return `"${object}" has a public sharing model: rows were written for external recipients only; `
-    + 'the internal recipients this rule expands to already reach its records, so none was written for them';
+  return `"${object}" has a public sharing model: rows were written only for external members of each record's `
+    + 'organization; none for the other recipients this rule expands to (internal members already reach its '
+    + 'records, and a record whose organization could not be resolved admits no recipient)';
 }
 
 export interface SharingRuleServiceOptions {
 
@@ -192,8 +192,7 @@ const INERT_OBJECTS = Object.keys(INERT_SCHEMAS);
  * [#25549] The classes on which a RULE's pass still aborts. On the public one
  * (`whiteboard`) the grant service admits an `external` member of the record's
  * organization and refuses everyone else, so a rule pass there skips its
- * internal recipients and goes on — pinned below and in
- * `external-recipient-public-object.test.ts`.
+ * internal recipients and goes on — pinned below and in block 3 of this file.
  */
 const RULE_ABORTING_OBJECTS = INERT_OBJECTS.filter((o) => o !== 'whiteboard');
 
@@ -364,7 +363,7 @@ describe('[#8207] the sharing-rule evaluator can no longer materialise inert row
     // a skip the pass absorbs and reports, not an abort.
     const result = await rules.evaluateRule('share_whiteboard_gold', SYS);
     expect(result).toMatchObject({ matchedRecords: 1, expandedUsers: 1, grantsCreated: 0, grantsRefused: 0 });
-    expect(result.note).toMatch(/external recipients only/);
+    expect(result.note).toMatch(/written only for external members of each record's organization/);
     expect(engine._tables.sys_record_share ?? []).toHaveLength(0);
   });
 
@@ -555,8 +554,9 @@ describe('[#25549] a public object admits a share to an external member of the r
     // member, and the skip is neither a refusal nor an abort.
     expect(result).toMatchObject({ matchedRecords: 2, expandedUsers: 2, grantsCreated: 2, grantsRefused: 0 });
     expect(result.note).toBe(
-      '"board" has a public sharing model: rows were written for external recipients only; '
-        + 'the internal recipients this rule expands to already reach its records, so none was written for them',
+      '"board" has a public sharing model: rows were written only for external members of each record\'s '
+        + 'organization; none for the other recipients this rule expands to (internal members already reach its '
+        + 'records, and a record whose organization could not be resolved admits no recipient)',
     );
     expect((engine._tables.sys_record_share ?? []).map((r) => r.recipient_id)).toEqual(['usr_ext', 'usr_ext']);
     // The count reaches the log once per pass, not once per skipped grant.
 
@@ -399,9 +399,11 @@ export interface ISharingService {
    * recipient (`VALIDATION_FAILED` — other recipient types are not enforced by
    * any gate and are refused rather than persisted inert, ADR-0078), and an
    * object in an enforcing sharing posture (`SHARING_NOT_ENABLED` — a share on
-   * a public / bypass / owner-less / `controlled_by_parent` object enforces
-   * nothing). Upserts match on `(object, record, recipient, source)` so a
-   * manual grant never clobbers a rule-materialised row (D7).
+   * a bypass / owner-less / `controlled_by_parent` object enforces nothing; on
+   * a public object it is admitted only for a recipient who is an `external`
+   * member of the record's organization, since that population's owner-only
+   * floor consults it). Upserts match on `(object, record, recipient, source)`
+   * so a manual grant never clobbers a rule-materialised row (D7).
    */
   grant(input: GrantShareInput, context: ExecutionContext): Promise<RecordShare>;