@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+---
+'@objectstack/core': minor
+'@objectstack/driver-sql': patch
+'@objectstack/service-analytics': patch
+---
+
+fix: the analytics native-SQL path answers a measure its response declares `number` as a number on every dialect, presented by the one rule `driver-sql`'s `aggregate()` applies, which `@objectstack/core` now exports as `AGGREGATE_ANSWER_KIND` and `presentAsNumber` (#20889)
+
+Clause-②: yes (widening)
+
+**New exports.** `@objectstack/core` exports two names, moved here unchanged
+from `@objectstack/driver-sql`, which now imports them instead of keeping them
+private:
+
+- `AGGREGATE_ANSWER_KIND`: what each declared aggregate function answers.
+  `count`, `count_distinct`, `sum` and `avg` answer `'number'`; `min` and `max`
+  answer `'column'`, a value of the aggregated column.
+- `presentAsNumber(value)`: the `'number'` presentation. A string `Number()`
+  reads as a number becomes that number. Any other value is returned as given:
+  a number, `null`, a boolean, empty or blank text, or text that reads as NaN.
+
+**What changed.** On PostgreSQL, `POST /api/v1/analytics/query` and
+`POST /api/v1/analytics/dataset/query` answered through `NativeSQLStrategy`
+returned count, count_distinct, sum, avg, and min / max over a numeric column
+as strings, such as `count: "2"` and
+`sum: "500.000000000000000000000000000000"`, while `fields[]` declared
+`number`. A dataset's `row_count` did the same, and a measure-scoped count
+mixed `"1"` with the number `0` in one column. SQLite answered numbers. The
+strategy now presents each measure column by its declared aggregate function,
+through the same table and presenter as `SqlDriver.aggregate()`. `min` / `max`
+are presented only when their column is declared numeric, so `max` over a text
+column, every dimension, and expression measures keep the value the database
+returned.
+
+**Precision.** The answer is one JS number, the policy `driver-sql`'s
+`aggregate()` already applies. A total that needs more digits than a double
+holds, such as `9007199254740993`, answers the nearest double
+(`9007199254740992`), which is also what SQLite and the engine path answer.
+
+**What did not move.** `@objectstack/driver-sql`'s behaviour is unchanged: its
+`aggregate()` reads the same table, and its read presenter calls the same
+function. The answers on SQLite are byte-identical. The arithmetic of the
+analytics native statement did not change either. On PostgreSQL its `sum` and
+`avg` still add exact decimals, so `0.1 + 0.2` answers `0.3` where the engine
+path answers `0.30000000000000004`.
@@ -56,6 +56,9 @@ export * from './utils/datetime.js';
 // runtime dependencies, and a copy per face is how one `sum` came to answer
 // two doubles.
 export * from './utils/compensated-sum.js';
+// [#20889] What an aggregate ANSWERS and its `'number'` presenter, moved from
+// `driver-sql` so the analytics native-SQL face presents with the same rule.
+export * from './utils/aggregate-answer.js';
 
 // Export the shared batched-write helper (framework#2678)
 export * from './utils/bulk-write.js';
 
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2026 ObjectStack. Licensed under the Apache-2.0 license.
+
+/**
+ * [#20889] `AGGREGATE_ANSWER_KIND` and `presentAsNumber` — what an aggregate
+ * ANSWERS, and the one `'number'` presenter every face that hands a SQL
+ * client's aggregate row to a caller applies: `driver-sql`'s own `aggregate()`
+ * (#20335) and `service-analytics`' native-SQL face (`NativeSQLStrategy`).
+ *
+ * The wire strings below are the values measured on live PostgreSQL 16.13
+ * through the analytics native-SQL path (node-postgres parses `bigint` and
+ * `numeric` to strings), and the large totals are the ones #20335 pinned at the
+ * driver door. Each face pins the same presentation through its own door, in
+ * its own package, on SQLite and PostgreSQL.
+ */
+
+import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest';
+import { AggregationFunction } from '@objectstack/spec/data';
+import { AGGREGATE_ANSWER_KIND, presentAsNumber } from './aggregate-answer';
+
+describe('[#20889] AGGREGATE_ANSWER_KIND — what each declared aggregate function answers', () => {
+  it('has exactly one row per declared aggregate function', () => {
+    expect(Object.keys(AGGREGATE_ANSWER_KIND).sort()).toEqual([...AggregationFunction.options].sort());
+  });
+
+  it('count, count_distinct, sum and avg answer a number; min and max answer a value of the column', () => {
+    expect(AGGREGATE_ANSWER_KIND).toEqual({
+      count: 'number',
+      count_distinct: 'number',
+      sum: 'number',
+      avg: 'number',
+      min: 'column',
+      max: 'column',
+    });
+  });
+});
+
+describe("[#20889] presentAsNumber — the 'number' presenter", () => {
+  it('turns the numeric text a SQL client hands back into the number it spells', () => {
+    // count / count_distinct (`bigint`), sum over an integer column (`bigint`).
+    expect(presentAsNumber('2')).toBe(2);
+    expect(presentAsNumber('11')).toBe(11);
+    // avg over an integer column (`numeric`, 16 places).
+    expect(presentAsNumber('3.5000000000000000')).toBe(3.5);
+    // sum / avg / min / max over the exact-decimal column (`numeric(65,30)`).
+    expect(presentAsNumber('500.000000000000000000000000000000')).toBe(500);
+    expect(presentAsNumber('20.500000000000000000000000000000')).toBe(20.5);
+    expect(presentAsNumber('0.125000000000000000000000000000')).toBe(0.125);
+    expect(presentAsNumber('-7.250000000000000000000000000000')).toBe(-7.25);
+  });
+
+  it('precision policy: a total a double cannot hold answers the nearest double, never a string', () => {
+    const big = presentAsNumber('9007199254740993.000000000000000000000000000000');
+    expect(typeof big).toBe('number');
+    expect(big).toBe(9007199254740992);
+    expect(big).toBe(Number('9007199254740993'));
+    const decimal = presentAsNumber('12345678901234567.123456789000000000000000000000');
+    expect(typeof decimal).toBe('number');
+    expect(decimal).toBe(12345678901234568);
+    expect(decimal).toBe(Number('12345678901234567.123456789'));
+  });
+
+  it('passes every value that is not numeric text through as given', () => {
+    expect(presentAsNumber(7)).toBe(7);
+    expect(presentAsNumber(0.30000000000000004)).toBe(0.30000000000000004);
+    expect(presentAsNumber(null)).toBeNull();
+    expect(presentAsNumber(undefined)).toBeUndefined();
+    expect(presentAsNumber(true)).toBe(true);
+    expect(presentAsNumber('')).toBe('');
+    expect(presentAsNumber('   ')).toBe('   ');
+    // PostgreSQL's `numeric` 'NaN', and text `Number()` cannot read, stay as written.
+    expect(presentAsNumber('NaN')).toBe('NaN');
+    expect(presentAsNumber('abc')).toBe('abc');
+    const date = new Date(0);
+    expect(presentAsNumber(date)).toBe(date);
+  });
+});
@@ -0,0 +1,120 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2026 ObjectStack. Licensed under the Apache-2.0 license.
+
+/**
+ * [#20889] What an aggregate ANSWERS, and the `'number'` presenter that gives a
+ * count or a total its type — defined once, for every face that hands a SQL
+ * client's aggregate row to a caller.
+ *
+ * ## Why it lives here
+ *
+ * Two faces run an aggregate statement on a SQL client and must present its
+ * answer the same way:
+ *
+ * - `@objectstack/driver-sql`'s native `aggregate()` (#20335), where this rule
+ *   was written: `aggregate()` reads {@link AGGREGATE_ANSWER_KIND} to choose
+ *   the result columns that take the `'number'` presentation, and
+ *   `presentReadValue`'s `'number'` arm is {@link presentAsNumber};
+ * - `@objectstack/service-analytics`' native-SQL face
+ *   (`NativeSQLStrategy.execute`), which runs its own statement through the
+ *   host's raw-SQL bridge — `engine.execute`, or an embedder's own
+ *   `executeRawSql` — and so never passes through the driver's `aggregate()`.
+ *   On PostgreSQL it answered `count: "2"` under a `fields[]` that declared
+ *   `number`.
+ *
+ * `service-analytics` holds `driver-sql` as a development dependency only — it
+ * is multi-driver, and its native path also runs over an embedder's raw SQL —
+ * and this is the package both already stand on, the reason `compensatedSum`
+ * lives here too. A second transcription is how a face comes to answer its own
+ * type again.
+ *
+ * The table and its docblock below moved here from `driver-sql` unchanged, so
+ * they speak of `SqlDriver.aggregate` and `formatOutput` in that driver's
+ * voice.
+ */
+
+import type { AggregationFunction } from '@objectstack/spec/data';
+
+/**
+ * [#20335] What each declared aggregate function ANSWERS — a derived `number`,
+ * or a value OF the aggregated column — and therefore which read presentation
+ * {@link SqlDriver.aggregate} gives its result column.
+ *
+ * - `'number'` — `count`, `count_distinct`, `sum`, `avg`. A count or a total is
+ *   a number whatever the column held, and it is presented as one (`'number'`,
+ *   the presenter `formatOutput` applies to a numeric field on a `find()` row).
+ * - `'column'` — `min`, `max`. The answer is one of the column's own values, so
+ *   it takes that column's presentation ({@link SqlDriver.readPresentationKind}),
+ *   exactly as before this table existed.
+ *
+ * Why the `'number'` half needs presenting at all: the SQL client hands a
+ * result back as the wire type of the SQL expression, not as the platform's
+ * value type. Measured on live PostgreSQL 16.13 and MySQL 8.0.46 through this
+ * driver's own connections: node-postgres parses `bigint` (OID 20 — `count`,
+ * and `sum` over an integer column) and `numeric` (OID 1700 — `sum` / `avg`
+ * over the exact-decimal numeric family, `avg` over an integer column) to
+ * STRINGS (`"2"`, `"500.000000000000000000000000000000"`), and mysql2 does the
+ * same for `DECIMAL` (`SUM` / `AVG`; its `COUNT` arrives as a number). The
+ * engine's rows path (`objectql`'s `in-memory-aggregation.ts`) and SQLite answer
+ * numbers for the same query, so `having { n: { $in: [2] } }` kept c1, c2 on
+ * those and no group on PostgreSQL's native path.
+ *
+ * Keyed on the function the query ASKED for, never on whether a value looks
+ * numeric, and deliberately not gated by dialect: the presenter only rewrites a
+ * STRING, so a client that already answers a number (better-sqlite3, mysql2's
+ * `COUNT`) passes through untouched — measured byte-identical on SQLite — and
+ * no list of "string-answering dialects" exists to drift.
+ *
+ * ## The precision policy — one JS number, the loss declared
+ *
+ * The answer is `Number(text)`: an IEEE-754 double, on every dialect. A `sum` /
+ * `avg` over the exact-decimal column (`numeric(65,30)` / `DECIMAL(65,30)`)
+ * whose value needs more than a double's ~15-17 significant digits, or an
+ * integer at or above 2^53, is ROUNDED to the nearest double — declared, not
+ * silent: it is the same bound `formatOutput` already puts on a `find()` read of
+ * that column (#16318, `valueSchemaFor`'s `z.number().finite()`, ADR-0104 D1),
+ * and the bound the rows path has always had (`toNumber` sums JS doubles). A
+ * value-dependent type — a number when it fits, a string when it does not — was
+ * rejected: it would reopen this defect for exactly the large totals, where a
+ * `having` `$in` or a chart silently stops matching. Only a string `Number()`
+ * reads as NaN (PostgreSQL's `numeric` `'NaN'`) is left as written, the
+ * presenter's existing rule.
+ *
+ * A `Record` over `AggregationFunction` on purpose: a function that joins the
+ * declared vocabulary without an answer here fails `tsc` rather than reaching a
+ * caller unpresented.
+ */
+export const AGGREGATE_ANSWER_KIND: Readonly<Record<AggregationFunction, 'number' | 'column'>> = {
+  count: 'number',
+  count_distinct: 'number',
+  sum: 'number',
+  avg: 'number',
+  min: 'column',
+  max: 'column',
+};
+
+/**
+ * [#20335, #20889] The `'number'` presentation: a STRING `Number()` reads as a
+ * number becomes that number; every other value — a number, `null`, a boolean,
+ * empty or blank text, text `Number()` reads as NaN (PostgreSQL's `numeric`
+ * `'NaN'`) — is returned as given.
+ *
+ * It is the body of `driver-sql`'s `presentReadValue` `'number'` arm, moved
+ * here unchanged: the presenter `formatOutput` applies to a declared numeric
+ * column on a `find()` row (#16318), and the one {@link AGGREGATE_ANSWER_KIND}
+ * names for a count or a total. The answer is one JS double — the precision
+ * policy that table's docblock states.
+ *
+ * ⛔ Ask it by a column's DECLARED meaning — the aggregate function the query
+ * asked for, or a column declared numeric — never because a value looks
+ * numeric: a text column holding `'007'` is text.
+ */
+export function presentAsNumber(value: unknown): unknown {
+  // Only strings are repaired, exactly as in `formatOutput`: a fresh
+  // REAL/INTEGER column already yields a number, and genuinely
+  // non-numeric legacy junk is left intact rather than turned into NaN.
+  if (typeof value === 'string' && value.trim() !== '') {
+    const n = Number(value);
+    if (!Number.isNaN(n)) return n;
+  }
+  return value;
+}
@@ -21,6 +21,10 @@ import { parseAutonumberFormat, renderAutonumber, resolveAutonumberFormat, readA
 // "the protocol has no such function" refusal cannot drift from what
 // `AggregationNodeSchema.function` actually admits.
 import { AggregationFunction, emptyGroupValueFor } from '@objectstack/spec/data';
+// [#20335, #20889] What each aggregate function ANSWERS, and the `'number'`
+// presenter its counts and totals take — defined once in core, for this
+// driver's `aggregate()` and the analytics native-SQL face alike.
+import { AGGREGATE_ANSWER_KIND, presentAsNumber } from '@objectstack/core';
 import { STRUCTURED_JSON_TYPES, FILE_REFERENCE_TYPES, MULTI_OPTION_TYPES, NUMERIC_VALUE_TYPES, isMultiValueField } from '@objectstack/spec/data';
 // [#16318] The per-field-type physical representation of the NUMERIC family.
 // `os generate migration` reads the SAME table, in both of its formats — that
@@ -1524,63 +1528,11 @@ const SQL_AGGREGATE_FUNCTIONS: ReadonlyMap<string, SqlAggregateLowering> = new M
   ['count_distinct', { sql: 'count', distinct: true }],
 ]);
 
-/**
- * [#20335] What each declared aggregate function ANSWERS — a derived `number`,
- * or a value OF the aggregated column — and therefore which read presentation
- * {@link SqlDriver.aggregate} gives its result column.
- *
- * - `'number'` — `count`, `count_distinct`, `sum`, `avg`. A count or a total is
- *   a number whatever the column held, and it is presented as one (`'number'`,
- *   the presenter `formatOutput` applies to a numeric field on a `find()` row).
- * - `'column'` — `min`, `max`. The answer is one of the column's own values, so
- *   it takes that column's presentation ({@link SqlDriver.readPresentationKind}),
- *   exactly as before this table existed.
- *
- * Why the `'number'` half needs presenting at all: the SQL client hands a
- * result back as the wire type of the SQL expression, not as the platform's
- * value type. Measured on live PostgreSQL 16.13 and MySQL 8.0.46 through this
- * driver's own connections: node-postgres parses `bigint` (OID 20 — `count`,
- * and `sum` over an integer column) and `numeric` (OID 1700 — `sum` / `avg`
- * over the exact-decimal numeric family, `avg` over an integer column) to
- * STRINGS (`"2"`, `"500.000000000000000000000000000000"`), and mysql2 does the
- * same for `DECIMAL` (`SUM` / `AVG`; its `COUNT` arrives as a number). The
- * engine's rows path (`objectql`'s `in-memory-aggregation.ts`) and SQLite answer
- * numbers for the same query, so `having { n: { $in: [2] } }` kept c1, c2 on
- * those and no group on PostgreSQL's native path.
- *
- * Keyed on the function the query ASKED for, never on whether a value looks
- * numeric, and deliberately not gated by dialect: the presenter only rewrites a
- * STRING, so a client that already answers a number (better-sqlite3, mysql2's
- * `COUNT`) passes through untouched — measured byte-identical on SQLite — and
- * no list of "string-answering dialects" exists to drift.
- *
- * ## The precision policy — one JS number, the loss declared
- *
- * The answer is `Number(text)`: an IEEE-754 double, on every dialect. A `sum` /
- * `avg` over the exact-decimal column (`numeric(65,30)` / `DECIMAL(65,30)`)
- * whose value needs more than a double's ~15-17 significant digits, or an
- * integer at or above 2^53, is ROUNDED to the nearest double — declared, not
- * silent: it is the same bound `formatOutput` already puts on a `find()` read of
- * that column (#16318, `valueSchemaFor`'s `z.number().finite()`, ADR-0104 D1),
- * and the bound the rows path has always had (`toNumber` sums JS doubles). A
- * value-dependent type — a number when it fits, a string when it does not — was
- * rejected: it would reopen this defect for exactly the large totals, where a
- * `having` `$in` or a chart silently stops matching. Only a string `Number()`
- * reads as NaN (PostgreSQL's `numeric` `'NaN'`) is left as written, the
- * presenter's existing rule.
- *
- * A `Record` over `AggregationFunction` on purpose: a function that joins the
- * declared vocabulary without an answer here fails `tsc` rather than reaching a
- * caller unpresented.
- */
-const AGGREGATE_ANSWER_KIND: Readonly<Record<AggregationFunction, 'number' | 'column'>> = {
-  count: 'number',
-  count_distinct: 'number',
-  sum: 'number',
-  avg: 'number',
-  min: 'column',
-  max: 'column',
-};
+// [#20335, #20889] `AGGREGATE_ANSWER_KIND` — what each declared aggregate
+// function ANSWERS, and the one-double precision policy for that answer — lives
+// in `@objectstack/core` (`utils/aggregate-answer.ts`), imported above with its
+// `'number'` presenter, so the analytics native-SQL face presents a count or a
+// total with this driver's own rule.
 
 /**
  * [#20387] What each declared aggregate function ACCUMULATES IN on PostgreSQL
@@ -15496,16 +15448,11 @@ export class SqlDriver implements IDataDriver {
         return presentAuditTimestampOutput(value);
       case 'boolean':
         return Boolean(value);
-      case 'number': {
-        // Only strings are repaired, exactly as in `formatOutput`: a fresh
-        // REAL/INTEGER column already yields a number, and genuinely
-        // non-numeric legacy junk is left intact rather than turned into NaN.
-        if (typeof value === 'string' && value.trim() !== '') {
-          const n = Number(value);
-          if (!Number.isNaN(n)) return n;
-        }
-        return value;
-      }
+      case 'number':
+        // [#20889] The presenter lives in `@objectstack/core`, beside
+        // `AGGREGATE_ANSWER_KIND`, so the analytics native-SQL face presents
+        // a count or a total with this same function.
+        return presentAsNumber(value);
     }
   }
 
 
@@ -242,16 +242,17 @@ for (const cell of CELLS) {
         const before = { ...reads };
         const res = await query({ measures: ['row_count'], dimensions: ['title_dim'] });
         expect(res.status, JSON.stringify(res.body)).toBe(200);
-        const groups = (res.body.rows as Array<{ title_dim: string; row_count: number | string }>)
-          .map((r) => [r.title_dim, Number(r.row_count)] as const)
+        // [#20889] `row_count` is a JSON number on every dialect — never `"2"`.
+        const groups = (res.body.rows as Array<{ title_dim: string; row_count: unknown }>)
+          .map((r) => [r.title_dim, r.row_count] as const)
           .sort(([a], [b]) => a.localeCompare(b));
         expect(groups).toEqual([['x', 2], ['y', 1]]);
         expect(reads.rawSql - before.rawSql, 'the native strategy answered').toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(1);
 
         const joined = await query({ measures: ['row_count'], dimensions: ['acct_name'] });
         expect(joined.status, JSON.stringify(joined.body)).toBe(200);
-        const joinedGroups = (joined.body.rows as Array<{ acct_name: string; row_count: number | string }>)
-          .map((r) => [r.acct_name, Number(r.row_count)] as const)
+        const joinedGroups = (joined.body.rows as Array<{ acct_name: string; row_count: unknown }>)
+          .map((r) => [r.acct_name, r.row_count] as const)
           .sort(([a], [b]) => a.localeCompare(b));
         expect(joinedGroups).toEqual([['A', 2], ['B', 1]]);
       });