@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+---
+'@objectstack/plugin-approvals': patch
+---
+
+fix(plugin-approvals): the approval request page's highlights strip names the current step by its label, not the node id
+
+Clause-②: no
+
+- **The approvals get serves `current_step_label`.** `ApprovalRequestRow` declares it as the step's label under the `sys_approval_request` column's own name. Every door that serves a request now serves it with exactly `step_label`'s value: the get, the list, and the request that a decision, recall, send-back, resubmit, reassign, remind, info request or comment echoes back. `step_label` stays, with the same value, for the inbox and the emailed action-link pages. `current_step` stays the Approval node's machine id.
+- **The strip's step chip is the step's label.** `sys_approval_request_detail` lists `current_step_label` (the "Approval Step" field) where it listed `current_step`, so a request waiting on the `approve_step` node reads `Manager Review` there instead of `approve_step`. The request lists already showed this label.
+- **The object's `highlightFields` makes the same swap.** The page's Details tab is a bare `record:details` node, which draws the object's `highlightFields` minus the strip. A change to the strip alone would have moved `current_step` into that tab.
+- **When no label is stored.** The get serves the stored label, else the node label in the request's node-config snapshot, else the humanized node id (`approve_step` → `Approve Step`). A request the boot backfill has not labelled still shows a step chip. A request with no step serves neither field, and the strip draws no step chip.
+
+A patch: one served key that the contract already declares, and one entry in one platform object's field list and in its page. No export, type, accepted value or stored column changes.
@@ -1271,6 +1271,47 @@ describe('ApprovalService (node era)', () => {
     expect(req.step_label).toBe('Approve Step');     // from `approve_step`
   });
 
+  // [#24281] The record page's step chip lists `current_step_label`, a declared
+  // field of `sys_approval_request`, and the console reads the page's request
+  // through this get. So the get serves the step label under that name too,
+  // with exactly `step_label`'s value, while `current_step` stays the raw id.
+  describe('the get serves the step label as current_step_label, beside step_label', () => {
+    /** The id of the request an ordinary open answers (never an auto-outcome here). */
+    const openId = async (input: ReturnType<typeof openInput>): Promise<string> =>
+      ((await svc.openNodeRequest(input, CTX)) as { id: string }).id;
+    const stored = (id: string) => engine._tables['sys_approval_request'].find((r) => r.id === id)!;
+    const stepFields = (row: any) => ({
+      current_step_label: row?.current_step_label,
+      step_label: row?.step_label,
+      current_step: row?.current_step,
+    });
+
+    it('a labelled row serves its stored label', async () => {
+      const id = await openId(openInput(['u9'], { nodeLabel: 'Manager Review' }));
+      expect(stored(id).current_step_label).toBe('Manager Review');
+      expect(stepFields(await svc.getRequest(id, SYS))).toEqual({
+        current_step_label: 'Manager Review', step_label: 'Manager Review', current_step: 'approve_step',
+      });
+      // The list door builds its rows the same way.
+      const [listed] = await svc.listRequests({ status: 'pending' }, SYS);
+      expect(stepFields(listed)).toEqual(stepFields(await svc.getRequest(id, SYS)));
+    });
+
+    it('a row opened before the column serves the snapshot label, else the humanized machine id', async () => {
+      const snap = await openId(openInput(['u9'], { nodeLabel: 'Manager Review' }));
+      const bare = await openId(openInput(['u9'], { recordId: 'opp2' }));
+      // No stored label: the row the boot backfill has not reached.
+      stored(snap).current_step_label = null;
+      stored(bare).current_step_label = null;
+      expect(stepFields(await svc.getRequest(snap, SYS))).toEqual({
+        current_step_label: 'Manager Review', step_label: 'Manager Review', current_step: 'approve_step',
+      });
+      expect(stepFields(await svc.getRequest(bare, SYS))).toEqual({
+        current_step_label: 'Approve Step', step_label: 'Approve Step', current_step: 'approve_step',
+      });
+    });
+  });
+
   it('listRequests enriches record_title and submitter_name', async () => {
     engine._tables['opportunity'] = [{ id: 'opp1', name: 'Acme Renewal', amount: 100 }];
     engine._tables['sys_user'] = [{ id: 'u1', name: 'Ada Lovelace', email: 'ada@example.com' }];
 
@@ -1181,6 +1181,11 @@ function rowFromRequest(row: any): ApprovalRequestRow {
     submitted_at: row.created_at ?? undefined,
     process_label: labels.process_label,
     step_label: labels.current_step_label,
+    // [#24281] The same step label under the column's own name: a page bound
+    // to `sys_approval_request` names the object's declared fields, and
+    // `step_label` is not one, so the record page's step chip lists this.
+    // `step_label` stays for the inbox and the action-link pages.
+    current_step_label: labels.current_step_label,
     sla_due_at: slaDueAt(row.created_at, cfg),
     // ADR-0044 revision round (rides the config snapshot; absent ⇒ round 1).
     round: typeof cfg?.__round === 'number' ? cfg.__round : undefined,
@@ -3519,7 +3524,8 @@ export class ApprovalService implements IApprovalService {
     const processName = `flow:${input.flowName ?? input.nodeId}`;
     // Display labels also ride the config snapshot, where rows opened before
     // the `process_label` / `current_step_label` columns (#23889) carry them;
-    // `rowFromRequest` surfaces them as `process_label` / `step_label`.
+    // `rowFromRequest` surfaces them as `process_label` and as `step_label` /
+    // `current_step_label`.
     const configSnapshot: any = { ...input.config };
     if (input.flowLabel) configSnapshot.__flowLabel = input.flowLabel;
     if (input.nodeLabel) configSnapshot.__nodeLabel = input.nodeLabel;
 
@@ -9,8 +9,9 @@
  *
  *  - `ApprovalService.openNodeRequest` writes `process_label` /
  *    `current_step_label` with it at open;
- *  - `rowFromRequest` serves `process_label` / `step_label` with it on the
- *    approvals door;
+ *  - `rowFromRequest` serves `process_label` and the step's label with it on
+ *    the approvals door, the step's under two names of one value: `step_label`
+ *    and the column's own `current_step_label`;
  *  - the boot backfill (`display-label-backfill.ts`) fills the two columns
  *    with it on a row written before they existed, and the action's
  *    `step_label` from the filled request.
 
@@ -165,6 +165,24 @@ describe('sys_approval_request detail page — the slot map', () => {
     expect(declared.filter((f: string) => !strip.includes(f))).toEqual(['record_id']);
   });
 
+  it('names the step by its label, current_step_label, in the strip and in the object\'s list alike', () => {
+    // `current_step` is the Approval node's machine id (`approve_step`);
+    // `current_step_label` is the step's label, a declared field the approvals
+    // get serves under that name (`approval-service.test.ts` pins the get). The
+    // object's list moves with the strip for the reason the flow chip's does.
+    const strip = SLOTS.highlights.properties.fields as string[];
+    const declared = SysApprovalRequest.highlightFields ?? [];
+    const fields = SysApprovalRequest.fields as AnyRec;
+    expect({ strip: strip.includes('current_step_label'), declared: declared.includes('current_step_label') })
+      .toEqual({ strip: true, declared: true });
+    expect({ strip: strip.includes('current_step'), declared: declared.includes('current_step') })
+      .toEqual({ strip: false, declared: false });
+    expect(fields.current_step_label).toMatchObject({ type: 'text', label: 'Approval Step' });
+    // Control: the machine id stays a declared field. It is dropped from the
+    // two lists, not from the object.
+    expect(fields.current_step).toMatchObject({ type: 'text' });
+  });
+
   it('tabs: Details is record:details, Timeline is sys_approval_action as a related list on request_id', () => {
     expect(TAB_ITEMS.map((t) => t.label?.en)).toEqual(['Details', 'Timeline']);
     expect(TAB_ITEMS[0].children).toEqual([{ type: 'record:details' }]);
 
@@ -62,11 +62,13 @@ export const SysApprovalRequest = ObjectSchema.create({
   nameField: 'display_title', // [ADR-0079] canonical primary-title pointer (mirrors deprecated displayNameField)
   titleFormat: '{process_name} · {record_id}',
   // [ADR-0085] The flow is named by its label, `process_label`, never by the
-  // machine source `process_name` (`flow:NAME`), as the request lists name it.
-  // The record page's highlights strip is this list minus `record_id`, and the
-  // page's bare `record:details` node draws this list minus the strip, so the
-  // two move together (`sys-approval-request.page.ts` says why).
-  highlightFields: ['process_label', 'object_name', 'record_id', 'status', 'current_step', 'submitter_id', 'updated_at'],
+  // machine source `process_name` (`flow:NAME`), and the step by its label,
+  // `current_step_label`, never by the node id `current_step`, as the request
+  // lists name them. The record page's highlights strip is this list minus
+  // `record_id`, and the page's bare `record:details` node draws this list
+  // minus the strip, so the two move together (`sys-approval-request.page.ts`
+  // says why).
+  highlightFields: ['process_label', 'object_name', 'record_id', 'status', 'current_step_label', 'submitter_id', 'updated_at'],
 
   // Curated built-in list views — render as segmented tabs in the console.
   // Filters use {current_user_id} substitution wired by the console.
 
@@ -44,6 +44,14 @@ import type { Page } from '@objectstack/spec/ui';
  *    snapshot's, else the humanized machine name. Where the chain yields
  *    nothing, the field has no value, the strip draws no Flow chip, and the
  *    record title still names `process_name`.
+ *  - The step chip is `current_step_label` (the "Approval Step" field), not
+ *    `current_step` (the Approval node's machine id, such as `approve_step`).
+ *    The approvals get serves it by the same chain: the stored label, else
+ *    the snapshot's `__nodeLabel`, else the humanized node id. A request with
+ *    no step at all serves neither field, and the strip draws no step chip.
+ *  - The Object chip is `object_name`, the target object's API name as
+ *    stored. The object declares no field that holds that object's label, so
+ *    the strip has none to list in its place.
  *  - `tabs` is authored: Details (`record:details`, a bare node: see the
  *    strip above) and Timeline — `sys_approval_action` as a
  *    related list keyed on `request_id`, newest first. The `tabs` slot is
@@ -80,7 +88,7 @@ export const SysApprovalRequestDetailPage: Page = {
     highlights: {
       type: 'record:highlights',
       properties: {
-        fields: ['process_label', 'object_name', 'status', 'current_step', 'submitter_id', 'updated_at'],
+        fields: ['process_label', 'object_name', 'status', 'current_step_label', 'submitter_id', 'updated_at'],
       },
     },