@@ -83,6 +83,34 @@ function nestVariables(variables: Map<string, unknown>): Record<string, unknown>
   return vars;
 }
 
+/**
+ * The user who TRIGGERED the run — every step's submitter, whoever resumed the
+ * run onto it (`ApprovalEscalationSchema.notifySubmitter`: "Notify the
+ * original submitter on escalation").
+ *
+ * After an approval decision the engine runs the next segment as the DECIDER
+ * (`ResumeSignal.resumedBy`, ruling A on `FlowSchema.runAs`), so
+ * `context.userId` on a later step is the previous step's decider, never the
+ * submitter. The engine keeps who started the run on the same context: at the
+ * first switch it records `triggerUserId` (`null` when the trigger resolved no
+ * user) and every later switch keeps it, persisted through each pause. Absent,
+ * no switch happened and `userId` is still the trigger user. This is the
+ * engine's own reading, `runTriggerUserId` in `@objectstack/service-automation`'s
+ * `runtime-identity.ts`, mirrored here because this plugin deliberately does not
+ * depend on service-automation (as {@link nestVariables} mirrors its condition
+ * scope). The two-step pins in `later-step-original-submitter.integration.test.ts`
+ * run it against the real engine.
+ *
+ * ⛔ Not `triggerUserId ?? userId`: a recorded `null` means nobody triggered
+ * the run, and falling through would name the decider as its submitter.
+ */
+function runTriggerUser(context: { userId?: string; triggerUserId?: unknown } | undefined): string | null {
+  if (context && Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(context, 'triggerUserId')) {
+    return typeof context.triggerUserId === 'string' && context.triggerUserId !== '' ? context.triggerUserId : null;
+  }
+  return context?.userId ?? null;
+}
+
 /**
  * Register the `approval` node executor on the automation engine, plus the
  * `approval_revise` window the ADR-0044 send-back parks on. Idempotent at the
@@ -162,7 +190,10 @@ export function registerApprovalNode(
           flowName,
           flowLabel,
           nodeLabel: typeof node.label === 'string' ? node.label : undefined,
-          submitterId: context?.userId ?? null,
+          // The run's trigger user, not `context.userId`: after a decision
+          // that is the decider, who acts in this segment (the envelope below)
+          // but did not submit the run.
+          submitterId: runTriggerUser(context),
           record,
           organizationId: context?.organizationId ?? context?.tenantId ?? null,
           // #3447 P2: flow variables (nested, as CEL conditions see them) — the
 
@@ -3450,6 +3450,13 @@ export class ApprovalService implements IApprovalService {
       flowLabel?: string;
       /** Authored node label, snapshotted for inbox display. */
       nodeLabel?: string;
+      /**
+       * Who submitted the run this step belongs to — the approval node passes
+       * its trigger user. `null` is an answer: the trigger resolved no user, so
+       * the step has no submitter. Only an OMITTED value falls back to the
+       * acting context's user: on a later step that context is the previous
+       * step's decider, who did not submit the run.
+       */
       submitterId?: string | null;
       record?: any;
       organizationId?: string | null;
@@ -3730,12 +3737,13 @@ export class ApprovalService implements IApprovalService {
       const n = Array.isArray(prior) ? prior.length : 0;
       if (n > 0) configSnapshot.__round = n + 1;
     } catch { /* round display is best-effort */ }
+    const submitterId = input.submitterId !== undefined ? input.submitterId : (context.userId ?? null);
     const row: any = {
       id,
       process_name: processName,
       object_name: input.object,
       record_id: input.recordId,
-      submitter_id: input.submitterId ?? context.userId ?? null,
+      submitter_id: submitterId,
       status: 'pending',
       // [#23889] The display snapshots the approval lists show: the flow's and
       // the node's authored labels as the flow engine handed them over, and
@@ -3762,7 +3770,7 @@ export class ApprovalService implements IApprovalService {
     await this.engine.insert('sys_approval_action', await this.actionRow(row, {
       id: uid('aact'), request_id: id, organization_id: requestOrg,
       step_name: input.nodeId, step_index: 0, action: 'submit',
-      actor_id: input.submitterId ?? context.userId ?? null, comment: null, created_at: now,
+      actor_id: submitterId, comment: null, created_at: now,
     }), { context: SYSTEM_CTX });
 
     // [#22824] The request's display says why it is with the administrators:
 
@@ -206,8 +206,8 @@ describe('every step of an approval run names the run\'s original submitter (#24
   let now = Date.parse('2026-10-20T09:00:00.000Z');
   const emits: Emitted[] = [];
 
-  /** Start `flow` on a fresh deal as `userId`; answer the step it paused on. */
-  const submit = async (flow: string, key: string, amount = 100, userId: string | undefined = SUBMITTER): Promise<any> => {
+  /** Start `flow` on a fresh deal as `userId` (`null`: no user); answer the step it paused on. */
+  const submit = async (flow: string, key: string, amount = 100, userId: string | null = SUBMITTER): Promise<any> => {
     const record = { id: `D_${key}`, title: key, amount, organization_id: ORG };
     await engine.insert('crm_deal', record, { context: SYSTEM } as any);
     const run = await automation.execute(flow, {
@@ -316,7 +316,7 @@ describe('every step of an approval run names the run\'s original submitter (#24
   });
 
   it('a run whose trigger resolved no user opens its later step with no submitter, never the decider', async () => {
-    const step1 = await submit('deal_chain', 'userless', 5000, undefined);
+    const step1 = await submit('deal_chain', 'userless', 5000, null);
     expect(step1.submitter_id ?? null).toBeNull();
     await approve(step1, 'u_mgr');
     const step2 = await pendingOn('D_userless');