Closes objectstack-ai/objectstack#3856.

The claim, confirmed

ActionRunner.executeScript read action.target || action.execute. Against @objectstack/spec 17 that fallback is unreachable — and by a stronger mechanism than objectstack#3856 assumed. #3742 dropped execute from parsed output; objectstack#3855 went further and tombstoned it, so the parser now rejects an authored execute with the rename prescription.

Verified empirically against the resolved 17.0.0-rc.0:

alias-only parse success: false
  error: execute: `execute` was removed in @objectstack/spec 17 (#3855) — use `target`.
         Rename the key; the value (a handler / flow / URL ref) is unchanged.
         Run `os migrate meta --from 16` to rewrite it automatically.
target-only parse success: true
  parsed keys: name, label, type, target, refreshAfter
  has execute on output: false

No parsed action can carry the key, so || could only ever yield target. Deleted rather than left as harmless residue: two handler slots is exactly what let one action run one script server-side and a different one client-side (objectstack#3713, where this renderer preferred the alias while the spec transform preferred target). A dead slot still reads as a live contract to the next maintainer.

The real finding: the type, not the fallback

objectstack#3856 asked whether a TypeScript reader here should already fail to compile, "because if it still compiles, something in objectui is reading a looser type than the spec's." It still compiled. Neither reader was typed against the spec's z.infer — both hand-declared the key:

ActionDef carries a [key: string]: any index signature, so removing the declaration produces no compile error there and stale hand-authored metadata (never parsed by the spec) still type-checks. Silently binding no handler is the objectstack#2169 "Mark Done does nothing" shape, so for that path executeScript now returns the rename prescription instead of a bare "No script provided" — the same reasoning the spec's own tombstone gives for keeping the removal audible. This is not a tolerant fallback: the script does not run.

Changes

• @object-ui/core — executeScript reads target only; ActionDef.execute removed; retired-key branch returns the rename prescription (ordered after the existing body branch, since a body action ignores target and "rename it" would be wrong advice there).
• @object-ui/types — ActionSchema.execute removed; target documented as the only handler slot.
• @object-ui/components — action:button, action:icon, action:menu, action:group stop forwarding execute into the runner.
• @object-ui/app-shell — Studio's ActionPreview drops ?? d.execute; previewing an alias-only draft as "bound" contradicted the parse that rejects it on save.
• Tests — the 18 execute:-authored actions across 6 suites move to target. The "should prefer canonical target over the deprecated execute alias" case becomes a regression test that the alias is not read and that the error prescribes the rename.

Grep is clean: no execute read on action metadata remains anywhere in packages/, apps/, or examples/. No docs, JSON, or example metadata authored the alias.

Verification

• pnpm type-check — 76/76 tasks pass.
• pnpm test — full suite green (action suites: 13 files / 204 tests).
• pnpm lint — 45/45, 0 errors.
• Compile channel probed both ways: execute on ActionSchema → TS2353; on ActionDef → still compiles (index signature), which is what the runtime prescription covers.

Requires @objectstack/spec 17. Metadata still on the alias is rewritten by os migrate meta --from 16.

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