objectstack-ai
diff --git a/‎.changeset/hook-condition-previous-binding.md‎
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diff --git a/‎examples/app-showcase/src/data/hooks/index.ts‎
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diff --git a/‎packages/objectql/src/engine.ts‎
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@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+---
+'@objectstack/objectql': minor
+---
+
+**A declarative hook `condition` can now express a TRANSITION: the CEL scope binds `previous` alongside `record` (#4784).**
+
+The condition gate evaluated against a single root — `{ record }`. Both published skill
+docs, however, taught the `previous` form: `objectstack-formula` §5 ("Update hook
+condition — `previous` vs `record`") gives
+`P\`previous.status != 'escalated' && record.status == 'escalated'\``, and its legacy
+migration table maps `OLD.x` → `previous.x` and `ISCHANGED(x)` → `previous.x != record.x`.
+Written into a hook, any of those aborted the expression with `No such key: previous`,
+which the gate swallowed into `false` — the hook simply never ran, leaving one WARN line.
+Declared ≠ delivered.
+
+It became load-bearing with #4770. `record` now means the record's **state** (stored ⊕
+payload), so `record.done == true` is true on *every* update of an already-done row — not
+only the one that completed it. `showcase_audit_task_completion`'s own description says
+"after a task transitions to done", and there was no way to write that. Now there is:
+
+```ts
+condition: P`previous.done != true && record.done == true`
+```
+
+`previous` is built exactly as the validation side builds it (#4649), through the shared
+`materializeDeclaredFields` helper, so one CEL expression means one thing on both
+surfaces:
+
+- **the stored pre-write row**, made **total over the object's DECLARED fields** — a
+  column the driver never returned reads as `null` instead of aborting the expression;
+- **declared fields only** — `previous.dnoe` stays unevaluable, so a typo is still
+  reported rather than quietly answered;
+- **copied, never mutated in place.** `ctx.previous` is the engine's own pre-image object,
+  observed by every after-hook; the materialised `null`s do not leak into it.
+
+**Where `previous` is NOT bound** — verbatim the rule `validation/rule-validator.ts`
+already applies, so referencing it there makes the condition unevaluable:
+
+- **insert events** (`beforeInsert` / `afterInsert`) — there is no prior state. Write
+  insert conditions over `record` alone.
+- **predicate (`multi: true`) bulk updates** — one write matches N rows and the hook fires
+  once, so there is no single prior record. Binding `{}` or `null` would answer
+  `previous.x == null` with a fabricated fact about rows nobody read.
+
+**Cost: none.** No new demand-driven fetch was introduced. `previous` rides on the prior
+row `engine.update` already reads whenever an afterUpdate hook is registered — the same
+one that feeds `ctx.previous` and record-change flow triggers. A condition that never
+mentions `previous` reads nothing extra, pinned by test.
+
+**What you may see after upgrading:** hooks whose condition referenced `previous` never
+fired before and start firing now. That is the declaration finally being honoured — review
+any hook carrying a `previous.*` condition before you upgrade.
+
+**Unchanged, deliberately:** a condition that is *still* unevaluable is logged at WARN and
+treated as `false`. Whether that should fail loudly instead is tracked separately.
@@ -38,13 +38,20 @@ export const NormalizeTaskTitleHook = {
   description: 'Trims leading/trailing whitespace from the task title before every write.',
 };
 
-/** afterUpdate (gated) — log a line whenever a task flips to done. */
+/**
+ * afterUpdate (gated) — log a line on the update that flips a task to done.
+ *
+ * The condition compares against `previous` on purpose (#4784). Since #4770
+ * `record` means the record's STATE, so `record.done == true` alone would audit
+ * every later edit of an already-done task — while this hook's own description
+ * says "transitions to done". The transition is the two-root form.
+ */
 export const AuditTaskCompletionHook = {
   name: 'showcase_audit_task_completion',
   label: 'Audit Task Completion',
   object: 'showcase_task',
   events: ['afterUpdate'] as LifecycleEvent[],
-  condition: "record.done == true",
+  condition: "previous.done != true && record.done == true",
   body: {
     language: 'js' as const,
     source: "var r = ctx.result || ctx.input || {}; ctx.log.info('task completed: ' + (r.title || r.id || 'unknown'));",
 
@@ -4495,6 +4495,18 @@ export class ObjectQL implements IObjectQLEngine {
            // record-change flow triggers work: their start-condition gate reads
            // `previous.*` (e.g. `status == "done" && previous.status != "done"`),
            // which silently fails when `previous` is absent.
+           //
+           // [#4784] It is ALSO what supplies the `previous` binding to a
+           // declarative hook `condition` (`hook-wrappers.ts`), which is how a
+           // TRANSITION is expressed there: `previous.done != true &&
+           // record.done == true`. Note this needs NO second demand-driven
+           // fetch — the existing gate already fetches whenever an afterUpdate
+           // hook exists, and afterUpdate is the event whose context carries
+           // `previous`. Deliberately: adding a "does the condition reference
+           // `previous`?" analysis on top would be dead code today. If this
+           // gate is ever NARROWED (e.g. scoped per object), hook conditions
+           // reading `previous` must be counted into the new demand test —
+           // pinned by `hook-condition-previous-scope.test.ts`.
            let priorRecord: Record<string, unknown> | null = null;
            const updateSchema = this._registry.getObject(object);
            const mediaValueShapeStrict = await this.mediaValueShapeStrictFor(updateSchema);