diff --git a/.changeset/24710-ownership-refusal-text-fresh-installs-only.md b/.changeset/24710-ownership-refusal-text-fresh-installs-only.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a8afad52c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/24710-ownership-refusal-text-fresh-installs-only.md
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+---
+'@objectstack/metadata-core': patch
+'@objectstack/metadata-protocol': patch
+---
+
+fix(metadata-core, metadata-protocol): two refusals say what 18.0 supports for a v17 database, not `os migrate organization-ownership`, which 18.0 refuses on every database
+
+Clause-②: no (text only: no refusal code, outcome, accept set or served shape moves)
+
+In 18.0, `os migrate organization-ownership` refuses plan and apply on every database (`NOT_IMPLEMENTED`): 18.0 supports fresh installs only. Two refusals still told the operator to run it, so following them led to a second refusal.
+
+- **`LEGACY_ORGANIZATION_ROWS_UNREADABLE`** (`LegacyOrganizationRowsUnreadable`, `@objectstack/metadata-core`). It used to close with "Run `os migrate organization-ownership` on this database first." This read runs on every SQL database, a fresh 18.0 one included, and several of its refusals are the driver's (a dialect it cannot name, no raw-SQL seam, a column list that is not a list or comes back empty). For those, the command was never the remedy. The message now closes: "A fresh 18.0 install holds no legacy organization rows: there, the cause is the one named above, and the fix is in the SQL driver or the caller that met it. A database that does hold them is a v17 one. 18.0 supports fresh installs only and does not upgrade a v17 database: keep a v17 database on a 17.x release until the 18.x release that carries the upgrade path."
+- **The seed refusal for a natural key held by a row with no organization** (`SeedLoaderService`, `@objectstack/metadata-protocol`). It used to close with "Attribute the unowned rows first (`os migrate organization-ownership`, then the same command with --apply), then re-run this seed". Even before 18.0, that bare `--apply` was refused, since the command requires `--plan-file`. The message now closes: "A row with no organization predates organization stamping, so it is a v17 database's. 18.0 supports fresh installs only and does not upgrade a v17 database: keep a v17 database on a 17.x release until the 18.x release that carries the upgrade path."
+- **Unchanged:** both refusal codes, "Nothing was listed or written.", the seed refusal's opening sentences (what was refused and why), its `errored` count, and the dropped record.
diff --git a/packages/metadata-core/src/legacy-organization-row.test.ts b/packages/metadata-core/src/legacy-organization-row.test.ts
index 56655f2519..ddff9cf119 100644
--- a/packages/metadata-core/src/legacy-organization-row.test.ts
+++ b/packages/metadata-core/src/legacy-organization-row.test.ts
@@ -115,6 +115,28 @@ describe('readLegacyOrganizationRows — fails closed', () => {
     await expect(readLegacyOrganizationRows({ dialectName: 'sqlite' })).rejects.toThrow(/no raw-SQL seam/);
   });
 
+  // What 18.0 supports, said to both readers: a driver-shaped refusal, which a
+  // fresh install meets too, and one only a database still carrying the
+  // column reaches. The ceremony 18.0 refuses is never the remedy.
+  it.each([
+    ['driver-shaped: no raw seam (any database, a fresh one included)', { dialectName: 'sqlite' }],
+    ['database-shaped: the column is on disk, the legacy select answered nothing', sqlDriver({ dialectName: 'sqlite', columns: V17_COLUMNS, rows: null })],
+  ])('the refusal says what 18.0 supports, never the ceremony (%s)', async (_label, driver) => {
+    const error = await readLegacyOrganizationRows(driver).then(() => null, (e: unknown) => e);
+    expect(error).toBeInstanceOf(LegacyOrganizationRowsUnreadable);
+    const refusal = error as LegacyOrganizationRowsUnreadable;
+    expect(refusal.code).toBe('LEGACY_ORGANIZATION_ROWS_UNREADABLE');
+    expect(refusal.message).toContain('Nothing was listed or written.');
+    expect(refusal.message).toContain(
+      'A fresh 18.0 install holds no legacy organization rows: there, the cause is the one named above, ' +
+        'and the fix is in the SQL driver or the caller that met it.',
+    );
+    expect(refusal.message).toMatch(
+      /A database that does hold them is a v17 one\. 18\.0 supports fresh installs only and does not upgrade a v17 database: keep a v17 database on a 17\.x release until the 18\.x release that carries the upgrade path\.$/,
+    );
+    expect(refusal.message).not.toContain('os migrate organization-ownership');
+  });
+
   it('a table outside the family is refused before anything runs', async () => {
     const driver = sqlDriver({ dialectName: 'sqlite', columns: V17_COLUMNS, rows: [] });
     await expect(readLegacyOrganizationRows(driver, 'sys_user')).rejects.toThrow(/not a sys_metadata-family table/);
diff --git a/packages/metadata-core/src/legacy-organization-row.ts b/packages/metadata-core/src/legacy-organization-row.ts
index 17c876ee18..e19b19399a 100644
--- a/packages/metadata-core/src/legacy-organization-row.ts
+++ b/packages/metadata-core/src/legacy-organization-row.ts
@@ -75,7 +75,10 @@ export class LegacyOrganizationRowsUnreadable extends Error {
   constructor(readonly table: string, detail: string) {
     super(
       `Could not tell ${table}'s legacy organization rows from the environment's: ${detail}. ` +
-        'Nothing was listed or written. Run `os migrate organization-ownership` on this database first.',
+        'Nothing was listed or written. A fresh 18.0 install holds no legacy organization rows: there, the ' +
+        'cause is the one named above, and the fix is in the SQL driver or the caller that met it. A database ' +
+        'that does hold them is a v17 one. 18.0 supports fresh installs only and does not upgrade a v17 ' +
+        'database: keep a v17 database on a 17.x release until the 18.x release that carries the upgrade path.',
     );
     this.name = 'LegacyOrganizationRowsUnreadable';
   }
diff --git a/packages/metadata-protocol/src/seed-loader-null-organization-holder.test.ts b/packages/metadata-protocol/src/seed-loader-null-organization-holder.test.ts
index e51405c1be..0278178435 100644
--- a/packages/metadata-protocol/src/seed-loader-null-organization-holder.test.ts
+++ b/packages/metadata-protocol/src/seed-loader-null-organization-holder.test.ts
@@ -135,6 +135,15 @@ describe('[#24301] a scoped load over a NULL-organization holder of a natural ke
     const [refusal] = refusalsOf(result);
     expect(refusal).toMatchObject({ sourceObject: 'tw_widget', targetField: 'sku', attemptedValue: 'W-HELD', recordIndex: 0 });
     expect(refusal.message).toContain("'w_unowned'");
+    // What 18.0 supports, never the ceremony it refuses; the first sentences
+    // (what was refused, and why) stay.
+    expect(refusal.message).toContain('which has no organization (organization_id is NULL)');
+    expect(refusal.message).toContain('decided by the organization-ownership ceremony, not by a seed load.');
+    expect(refusal.message).toMatch(
+      /A row with no organization predates organization stamping, so it is a v17 database's\. 18\.0 supports fresh installs only and does not upgrade a v17 database: keep a v17 database on a 17\.x release until the 18\.x release that carries the upgrade path\.$/,
+    );
+    expect(refusal.message).not.toContain('os migrate organization-ownership');
+    expect(refusal.message).not.toContain('--apply');
   });
 
   it("the organization's own row wins: a key held both by it and by an unowned row is matched, not refused", async () => {
diff --git a/packages/metadata-protocol/src/seed-loader.ts b/packages/metadata-protocol/src/seed-loader.ts
index 3963a4b46a..a1382d99c4 100644
--- a/packages/metadata-protocol/src/seed-loader.ts
+++ b/packages/metadata-protocol/src/seed-loader.ts
@@ -1848,9 +1848,10 @@ export class SeedLoaderService implements ISeedLoaderService {
               `which has no organization (organization_id is NULL), and this seed load writes for organization ` +
               `${config.organizationId}. Inserting the record would put a twin beside that row, and updating the ` +
               `row would hand it to this organization: which organization an unowned row belongs to is decided by ` +
-              `the organization-ownership ceremony, not by a seed load. Attribute the unowned rows first ` +
-              `(\`os migrate organization-ownership\`, then the same command with --apply), then re-run this seed: ` +
-              `the row is this organization's own by then, and the upsert matches it.`,
+              `the organization-ownership ceremony, not by a seed load. A row with no organization predates ` +
+              `organization stamping, so it is a v17 database's. 18.0 supports fresh installs only and does not ` +
+              `upgrade a v17 database: keep a v17 database on a 17.x release until the 18.x release that carries ` +
+              `the upgrade path.`,
           };
           errors.push(error);
           allErrors.push(error);
diff --git a/packages/runtime/src/seed-loader-null-organization-holder-real-driver.integration.test.ts b/packages/runtime/src/seed-loader-null-organization-holder-real-driver.integration.test.ts
index da4d020fb4..b8f361b1c7 100644
--- a/packages/runtime/src/seed-loader-null-organization-holder-real-driver.integration.test.ts
+++ b/packages/runtime/src/seed-loader-null-organization-holder-real-driver.integration.test.ts
@@ -209,10 +209,12 @@ describe('scoped seed load over NULL-organization holders (sqlite-file)', () =>
     expect(kickoff.targetObject).toBe('tw_event');
     expect(kickoff.targetField).toBe('subject');
     expect(kickoff.attemptedValue).toBe('Kickoff');
-    // The message names the key, the unowned holder and the remedy's command.
+    // The message names the key, the unowned holder and what 18.0 supports:
+    // never the ceremony 18.0 refuses.
     expect(kickoff.message).toContain('subject=Kickoff');
     expect(kickoff.message).toContain("'ev_kickoff'");
-    expect(kickoff.message).toContain('os migrate organization-ownership');
+    expect(kickoff.message).toContain('18.0 supports fresh installs only and does not upgrade a v17 database');
+    expect(kickoff.message).not.toContain('os migrate organization-ownership');
     expect(result.success).toBe(false);
     // Loud: said at `error`, once per dataset.
     const lines = logger.error.mock.calls.map((c) => String(c[0])).filter((m) => refusals.some((e) => m.includes(e.message)));