feat: declare span/subtitle/borderless as dashboard-owned child tags

Move span, subtitle, break, and borderless tag resolution from global
cross-cutting into dashboard-specific context so these tags are only
consumed when the field is a dashboard child. Register them as
childOwnedPaths in renderer-validation-specs so the ownership model
drives unread-tag warnings correctly.

Signed-off-by: James Swirhun <james@credibledata.com>

Author: jswir

packages/malloy-render/src/component/renderer-validation-specs.ts

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ const BUILT_IN_RENDERER_VALIDATION_SPECS: Record<
 > = {
   dashboard: {
     renderer: 'dashboard',
-    childOwnedPaths: [['break']],
+    childOwnedPaths: [['break'], ['span'], ['subtitle'], ['borderless']],
   },
 };
 

packages/malloy-render/src/component/tag-configs.ts

@@ -347,38 +347,18 @@ export function resolveBuiltInTags(field: Field): void {
   const renderAs = field.renderAs();
   const tag = field.tag;
 
-  // Cross-cutting: resolve label and subtitle for all fields
+  // Cross-cutting: resolve label for all fields
   const customLabel = tag.text('label');
   if (customLabel !== undefined) {
     field.setResolvedLabel(customLabel);
   }
 
-  const subtitle = tag.text('subtitle');
-  if (subtitle !== undefined) {
-    field.setResolvedSubtitle(subtitle);
-  }
-
   // Cross-cutting: resolve column config for all fields
   const columnConfig = resolveColumnTags(field);
   if (columnConfig) {
     field.setColumnConfig(columnConfig);
   }
 
-  // Cross-cutting: resolve dashboard child-item properties at setup time
-  // so the dashboard component never reads tags at render time.
-  const spanVal = tag.numeric('span');
-  if (spanVal !== undefined) {
-    field.setResolvedSpan(spanVal);
-  }
-
-  if (tag.has('break')) {
-    field.setResolvedBreak(true);
-  }
-
-  if (tag.has('borderless')) {
-    field.setResolvedBorderless(true);
-  }
-
   // Touch size.height which is read by chart-layout-settings
   // (size and size.width are already read by validateFieldTags)
   const sizeTag = tag.tag('size');
@@ -405,6 +385,27 @@ export function resolveBuiltInTags(field: Field): void {
       break;
     case 'dashboard':
       field.setTagConfig(resolveDashboardTags(field));
+      // Resolve dashboard-owned child tags at setup time so the
+      // dashboard component never reads tags at render time.
+      if (field.isNest()) {
+        for (const child of field.fields) {
+          const childTag = child.tag;
+          const spanVal = childTag.numeric('span');
+          if (spanVal !== undefined) {
+            child.setResolvedSpan(spanVal);
+          }
+          const subtitle = childTag.text('subtitle');
+          if (subtitle !== undefined) {
+            child.setResolvedSubtitle(subtitle);
+          }
+          if (childTag.has('break')) {
+            child.setResolvedBreak(true);
+          }
+          if (childTag.has('borderless')) {
+            child.setResolvedBorderless(true);
+          }
+        }
+      }
       break;
   }
 }

packages/malloy-render/src/render-field-metadata.ts

@@ -446,19 +446,7 @@ export class RenderFieldMetadata {
       }
     }
 
-    // --- Dashboard item tags ---
-
-    const spanVal = tag.numeric('span');
-    if (spanVal !== undefined) {
-      if (!Number.isInteger(spanVal) || spanVal < 1 || spanVal > 12) {
-        log.error(
-          `Invalid # span on '${field.name}': expected an integer 1–12, got ${spanVal}. Fix: # span=6.`,
-          tag.tag('span')
-        );
-      }
-    }
-
-    // --- Dashboard view-level tags ---
+    // --- Dashboard tags (view-level + child item validation) ---
 
     if (tag.has('dashboard') && field.isNest()) {
       const dashboardTag = tag.tag('dashboard');
@@ -470,15 +458,6 @@ export class RenderFieldMetadata {
             dashboardTag?.tag('columns')
           );
         }
-        // Warn if children use # span inside a columns-mode dashboard
-        for (const child of field.fields) {
-          if (child.tag.numeric('span') !== undefined) {
-            log.warn(
-              `Invalid # span on '${child.name}': span is ignored when parent dashboard '${field.name}' uses columns mode. Fix: remove # span or remove dashboard.columns.`,
-              child.tag.tag('span')
-            );
-          }
-        }
       }
       const gapVal = dashboardTag?.numeric('gap');
       if (gapVal !== undefined && gapVal < 0) {
@@ -487,6 +466,25 @@ export class RenderFieldMetadata {
           dashboardTag?.tag('gap')
         );
       }
+
+      // Validate dashboard-owned child tags
+      for (const child of field.fields) {
+        const childSpan = child.tag.numeric('span');
+        if (childSpan !== undefined) {
+          if (!Number.isInteger(childSpan) || childSpan < 1 || childSpan > 12) {
+            log.error(
+              `Invalid # span on '${child.name}': expected an integer 1–12, got ${childSpan}. Fix: # span=6.`,
+              child.tag.tag('span')
+            );
+          }
+          if (columnsVal !== undefined) {
+            log.warn(
+              `Invalid # span on '${child.name}': span is ignored when parent dashboard '${field.name}' uses columns mode. Fix: remove # span or remove dashboard.columns.`,
+              child.tag.tag('span')
+            );
+          }
+        }
+      }
     }
 
     // --- Number verbose properties ---

test/src/render/render-validator.spec.ts

@@ -476,6 +476,27 @@ describe('render tag validation', () => {
       expectNoWarnings(logs);
     });
 
+    it('no warnings for # span, # subtitle, # borderless on dashboard child fields', async () => {
+      const logs = await getValidationLogs(`
+        source: s is duckdb.sql("SELECT 1 as a, 2 as b, 3 as c") extend {
+          # dashboard
+          view: q is {
+            group_by: grp is 'all'
+            aggregate:
+              # span=6
+              # subtitle="Total A"
+              a_total is a.sum()
+              # borderless
+              b_total is b.sum()
+              c_total is c.sum()
+          }
+        }
+        query: q is s -> q
+      `);
+      expectNoErrors(logs);
+      expectNoWarnings(logs);
+    });
+
     it('no warnings for # tooltip on chart child fields', async () => {
       const logs = await getValidationLogs(`
         source: s is duckdb.sql("SELECT 'A' as category, 1 as value, 'hello' as note") extend {
@@ -545,6 +566,22 @@ describe('render tag validation', () => {
       expect(warnings.some(w => w.message.includes('break'))).toBe(true);
     });
 
+    it('warns on # span outside dashboard context', async () => {
+      const logs = await getValidationLogs(`
+        source: s is duckdb.sql("SELECT 1 as a") extend {
+          view: q is {
+            aggregate:
+              # span=6
+              a_total is a.sum()
+          }
+        }
+        query: q is s -> q
+      `);
+      const warnings = logs.filter(l => l.severity === 'warn');
+      expect(warnings.length).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+      expect(warnings.some(w => w.message.includes('span'))).toBe(true);
+    });
+
     it('warns on # tooltip outside chart context', async () => {
       const logs = await getValidationLogs(`
         source: s is duckdb.sql("SELECT 'A' as category, 'hello' as note") extend {