dmealing · Oct 6, 2026 · Oct 6, 2026 · Oct 6, 2026
diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ PyPI has had no product change since `0.25.0` — nothing is broken.
 - **Kotlin** — `codegen-kotlin` (KotlinPoet on JVM): entity + Exposed table + Spring controller + payload + relations + filter allowlist + validator + stored-proc + output-parser generators. `integration-tests-kotlin` runs the persistence-conformance corpus through Exposed against Testcontainers Postgres.
 
 **Cross-port conformance corpora** (every port runs the shared corpus):
-- Metamodel: `fixtures/conformance/` (363 fixtures; 26 shared corpora in total — per-corpus counts + the corpus x port matrix live in `docs/CONFORMANCE.md`). TS / C# / Java / Python all green.
+- Metamodel: `fixtures/conformance/` (364 fixtures; 26 shared corpora in total — per-corpus counts + the corpus x port matrix live in `docs/CONFORMANCE.md`). TS / C# / Java / Python all green.
 - Render: `fixtures/render-conformance/`. TS / C# / Java / Kotlin / Python byte-identical.
 - Persistence: `fixtures/persistence-conformance/`. **Query** scenarios run on every port (TS / C# / Java / Kotlin / Python), each provisioning its test DB by executing the committed, TS-produced `canonical/schema.postgres.sql` (Postgres only — Derby dropped for the cross-port query corpus, ADR-0015). The **migration** scenarios are exercised by **TS only** (TS owns schema migrations). **The corpus now gates WRITES, not just reads (SP-H):** an `op: roundtrip` scenario type INSERTs through each port's runtime/ORM write codec (NOT raw SQL), reads the row back, and asserts the wire-normalized value. The `AllTypes` entity (`roundtrip-all-types.yaml`) carries one field of **every** persistable `field.*` subtype — string/int/long/double/float/decimal/boolean/date/time/timestamp(+tz)/currency/enum/uuid/object — plus an **array-of-VO** `field.object @isArray @storage:jsonb` column (`labels`, written as 2-element / empty-`[]` / single-element arrays across the three rows) — so every subtype write+read (incl. the array-of-value-object jsonb codec) round-trips through every port against Testcontainers PG. (`field.byte`/`field.short`/`field.class` were cut as non-functional registration-only stubs — the matrix tracks only genuinely-supported subtypes; see `fixtures/registry-conformance/README.md` → "Per-subtype write-round-trip matrix".)
 - API-contract: `fixtures/api-contract-conformance/`. TS / C# / Java / Kotlin / Python all green — each port runs **two lanes**: a hand-rolled reference server AND its **generated** API artifact booted over HTTP (the deployed controller/routes; TS+C# full-stack vs Testcontainers PG, Java/Kotlin/Python generated controller + in-memory repo behind the consumer seam). The generated fan-out found 10 real deployment bugs golden snapshots missed. Two sub-corpora run the **generated lane only, on all five ports** — `write-through/` and `projection/` (F22: a view-only `object.projection` serves GET list + GET by id and answers every write verb with `405 {"error": "method_not_allowed"}`). That is deliberate, not a gap: what is under test is whether a port's GENERATOR emits those routes, and a hand-rolled reference server would answer every scenario by construction. The `m2m/` sub-corpus also gates **TPH x M:N together** (base-declared, subtype-declared, abstract-mid-declared, a non-subtype source onto a subtype TARGET, and the cross-subtype source id answering `200 []`) — the two corpora were originally built disjoint (`tph/` had no relationships, `m2m/` no discriminators), which is precisely how that defect class survived.

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -146,6 +146,21 @@ it until 1.1 ships._
   used to split it on commas, which left stray quotes in the items; TypeScript and Python
   already kept it whole. All three now agree, so a Java model that relied on the split (a
   comma-separated string where a list belongs) now reads one item, as the other ports always did.
+- **Python: a `::`-relative package is expanded against the declaring file's root package.**
+  An object that declares `"package": "::parts"` in a file whose root package is `beta::other`
+  now loads as `beta::other::parts`, the same as in TypeScript, C# and Java. The Python parser
+  used to keep the raw `::parts`, and the code that expanded it later used the merged root's
+  package, which is the first file's. The result differed only in a multi-file collection
+  whose files declare different root packages: there the node's `package`, its
+  `resolution_key()`, its canonical JSON and the address in a `metaobjects verify` field-lint
+  warning now carry the declaring file's package (`beta::other::parts::Gadget`, not
+  `acme::app::parts::Gadget`). Everything that loaded before still loads. A node's `package`
+  now holds the expanded form in a single-file model too, where it held `::parts` before.
+  Gated by the new `loader-relative-package-multi-root` conformance fixture and
+  `reference-field-missing-multi-root-package` in `fixtures/field-lint-conformance/`.
+- **Python: `MetaData.effective_package()`** returns the package a node resolves under, where
+  `package` is `None` for an object that inherits its file's root package. See
+  `docs/ports/python.md`, "Use".
 - **Python: the `@filter` desugar now matches TypeScript.** It recurses into `and` / `or`;
   previously it turned each list into an `in` clause on a field named `and` or `or`, so the
   clauses inside a composition were never checked. A dangling field reference inside an `or`

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
@@ -261,7 +261,7 @@ metaobjects/
 ├── CLAUDE.md                       # project instructions for Claude
 ├── spec/                           # canonical metamodel docs, ADRs, roadmap
 ├── fixtures/                       # 25 cross-language conformance corpora — the oracle
-│   ├── conformance/                # metamodel (loader + serializer + navigation), 363 fixtures
+│   ├── conformance/                # metamodel (loader + serializer + navigation), 364 fixtures
 │   ├── yaml-conformance/           # YAML authoring desugar
 │   ├── render-conformance/         # FR-004 byte-identical render oracle
 │   ├── verify-conformance/         # FR-004 template-drift gate

diff --git a/docs/CONFORMANCE.md b/docs/CONFORMANCE.md
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ regenerate with `ls -d fixtures/<corpus>/*/ | wc -l` for directory-shaped corpor
 
 | Corpus | Fixtures | TS | Java | Kotlin | C# | Python |
 |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
-| [`fixtures/conformance/`](../fixtures/conformance/) (metamodel) | 363 | ✓ | ✓ | inherits via `metadata-ktx` | ✓ | ✓ |
+| [`fixtures/conformance/`](../fixtures/conformance/) (metamodel) | 364 | ✓ | ✓ | inherits via `metadata-ktx` | ✓ | ✓ |
 | [`fixtures/yaml-conformance/`](../fixtures/yaml-conformance/) | 16 | 16 / 16 | 15 / 16 (1 ledgered: `yaml-quoted-leading-zero` — Java pipeline strips quotes off `"007"`) | inherits via Java | 15 / 16 (1 ledgered: `error-yaml-coerced-hex-in-string` — YamlDotNet doesn't coerce `0xFF`) | 16 / 16 |
 | [`fixtures/verify-conformance/`](../fixtures/verify-conformance/) | 31 | ✓ | ✓ | inherits via Java | ✓ | ✓ |
 | [`fixtures/verify-strict-conformance/`](../fixtures/verify-strict-conformance/) | 1 | ✓ | — | — | — | ✓ |
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ regenerate with `ls -d fixtures/<corpus>/*/ | wc -l` for directory-shaped corpor
 | [`fixtures/agent-context-conformance/`](../fixtures/agent-context-conformance/) | 4 | ✓ (the emitter is TS-owned) | — | — | — | — |
 | [`fixtures/metamodel-docs/`](../fixtures/metamodel-docs/) | 1 | ✓ (docs emit is TS-owned) | — | — | — | — |
 | [`fixtures/fmt-conformance/`](../fixtures/fmt-conformance/) (#304 — `meta fmt`) | 12 | ✓ (reference) | ✓ | inherits via Java | ✓ | ✓ |
-| [`fixtures/field-lint-conformance/`](../fixtures/field-lint-conformance/) (the `verify` field authoring lint) | 14 | ✓ (reference) | ✓ | inherits via Java | ✓ | ✓ |
+| [`fixtures/field-lint-conformance/`](../fixtures/field-lint-conformance/) (the `verify` field authoring lint) | 15 | ✓ (reference) | ✓ | inherits via Java | ✓ | ✓ |
 | [`fixtures/naming-conformance/`](../fixtures/naming-conformance/) | 8 cases | ✓ | ✓ | inherits via Java (`RouteNaming.pluralize`) | ✓ | ✓ |
 | [`fixtures/codegen-noop/`](../fixtures/codegen-noop/) (FR-044 — reporting vocabulary is inert) | 1 model pair (`reporting/with` vs `reporting/without`) | ✓ (codegen + migrate) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
 
@@ -204,7 +204,7 @@ unit-test runners (`bun test`, `dotnet test`, `pytest`, `mvn test`) pull Docker.
 
 ## Fixture-to-doc mapping
 
-### `fixtures/conformance/` — metamodel loader + canonical serializer (363)
+### `fixtures/conformance/` — metamodel loader + canonical serializer (364)
 
 | Fixture prefix | Feature doc |
 |---|---|
@@ -399,7 +399,7 @@ own those two functions), and
 
 ## Orphaned fixtures (tested but not yet documented)
 
-The fixtures in the nine corpora mapped above (metamodel 363 + yaml 16 + verify 31
+The fixtures in the nine corpora mapped above (metamodel 364 + yaml 16 + verify 31
 + render 15 + persistence 39 + api-contract 61 + source-resolution 25 + scope 10 +
 dependency 23) each map to a feature doc. None are orphaned today. The remaining
 corpora in the totals table gate tooling contracts (registry manifests, provider

diff --git a/docs/features/cli.md b/docs/features/cli.md
@@ -139,10 +139,7 @@ Rules of the contract:
   | `metaobjects verify` | `--no-field-lint` | `META_NO_FIELD_LINT=1` |
 
   The codes and message text are identical in every port, gated by
-  [`fixtures/field-lint-conformance/`](../../fixtures/field-lint-conformance/README.md). In
-  Python, for a multi-file collection whose roots declare different packages, the address
-  printed for a `::`-relative package is expanded against the merged root's package and can
-  differ from the other ports.
+  [`fixtures/field-lint-conformance/`](../../fixtures/field-lint-conformance/README.md).
 
 ### The prompt directory: `--prompts` everywhere (F101)
 

diff --git a/docs/ports/python.md b/docs/ports/python.md
@@ -437,6 +437,20 @@ name_field = [f for f in author.children() if f.name == "name"][0]
 print(name_field.get_meta_attr("maxLength"))   # -> 200
 ```
 
+To ask which package a node is in, call `effective_package()`. The `package` attribute holds
+only a package the node declares itself, so it is `None` on an object that inherits its
+file's root package:
+
+```python
+author.package              # -> None (declared no package of its own)
+author.effective_package()  # -> "myapp::library"
+author.resolution_key()     # -> "myapp::library::Author"
+```
+
+A `::`-relative package (`"package": "::parts"`) is expanded when the file is parsed, against
+that file's root package, so `package` on such a node is already the full
+`beta::other::parts`.
+
 ### Run-time validation
 
 `run_validators` checks a data mapping against an entity's metadata, with no generated

diff --git a/examples/showcase/site-payload.json b/examples/showcase/site-payload.json
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
     "metamodel": "1.1"
   },
   "counts": {
-    "fixtures": 363,
+    "fixtures": 364,
     "corpora": 26,
     "baseTypes": 17
   },

diff --git a/fixtures/conformance/loader-relative-package-multi-root/expected.json b/fixtures/conformance/loader-relative-package-multi-root/expected.json
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+{
+  "metadata.root": {
+    "package": "acme::app",
+    "children": [
+      {
+        "object.entity": {
+          "name": "Store",
+          "children": [
+            {
+              "field.long": {
+                "name": "id"
+              }
+            },
+            {
+              "identity.primary": {
+                "name": "pk",
+                "@fields": [
+                  "id"
+                ]
+              }
+            }
+          ]
+        }
+      },
+      {
+        "object.entity": {
+          "name": "Gadget",
+          "package": "beta::other::parts",
+          "children": [
+            {
+              "field.long": {
+                "name": "id"
+              }
+            },
+            {
+              "field.long": {
+                "name": "storeId"
+              }
+            },
+            {
+              "identity.primary": {
+                "name": "pk",
+                "@fields": [
+                  "id"
+                ]
+              }
+            },
+            {
+              "identity.reference": {
+                "name": "store_fk",
+                "@fields": [
+                  "storeId"
+                ],
+                "@references": "acme::app::Store"
+              }
+            }
+          ]
+        }
+      }
+    ]
+  }
+}
diff --git a/fixtures/conformance/loader-relative-package-multi-root/input/meta.app.json b/fixtures/conformance/loader-relative-package-multi-root/input/meta.app.json
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+{
+  "metadata.root": {
+    "package": "acme::app",
+    "children": [
+      {
+        "object.entity": {
+          "name": "Store",
+          "children": [
+            {
+              "field.long": {
+                "name": "id"
+              }
+            },
+            {
+              "identity.primary": {
+                "name": "pk",
+                "@fields": [
+                  "id"
+                ]
+              }
+            }
+          ]
+        }
+      }
+    ]
+  }
+}
diff --git a/fixtures/conformance/loader-relative-package-multi-root/input/meta.other.json b/fixtures/conformance/loader-relative-package-multi-root/input/meta.other.json
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+{
+  "metadata.root": {
+    "package": "beta::other",
+    "children": [
+      {
+        "object.entity": {
+          "name": "Gadget",
+          "package": "::parts",
+          "children": [
+            {
+              "field.long": {
+                "name": "id"
+              }
+            },
+            {
+              "field.long": {
+                "name": "storeId"
+              }
+            },
+            {
+              "identity.primary": {
+                "name": "pk",
+                "@fields": [
+                  "id"
+                ]
+              }
+            },
+            {
+              "identity.reference": {
+                "name": "store_fk",
+                "@fields": [
+                  "storeId"
+                ],
+                "@references": "acme::app::Store"
+              }
+            }
+          ]
+        }
+      }
+    ]
+  }
+}
diff --git a/fixtures/field-lint-conformance/README.md b/fixtures/field-lint-conformance/README.md
@@ -32,9 +32,8 @@ A runner does three things, in this order:
    `(code, path, message)`.
 
 `path` is the declaring object's resolution key (`<package>::<name>`), a dot, then the
-identity name or the field name. In Python, for a multi-file collection whose roots declare
-different packages, the address printed for a `::`-relative package is expanded against the
-merged root's package and can differ from the other ports.
+identity name or the field name. A `::`-relative package is expanded against the declaring
+file's root package in every port (`reference-field-missing-multi-root-package`).
 
 ## The two halves read different things
 

diff --git a/fixtures/field-lint-conformance/reference-field-missing-multi-root-package/expected.json b/fixtures/field-lint-conformance/reference-field-missing-multi-root-package/expected.json
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+{
+  "findings": [
+    {
+      "code": "WARN_REFERENCE_FIELD_NOT_FOUND",
+      "path": "beta::other::parts::Gadget.store_fk",
+      "message": "identity.reference \"store_fk\" lists \"storeIdd\" in @fields, but beta::other::parts::Gadget has no field of that name, inherited and overlaid fields included. Nothing checks this at load, so the reference is built on a field that does not exist. Rename the entry to an existing field, or declare the field."
+    }
+  ]
+}
diff --git a/...res/field-lint-conformance/reference-field-missing-multi-root-package/input/meta.app.json b/...res/field-lint-conformance/reference-field-missing-multi-root-package/input/meta.app.json
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+{
+  "metadata.root": {
+    "package": "acme::app",
+    "children": [
+      {
+        "object.entity": {
+          "name": "Store",
+          "children": [
+            {
+              "field.long": {
+                "name": "id"
+              }
+            },
+            {
+              "identity.primary": {
+                "name": "pk",
+                "@fields": [
+                  "id"
+                ]
+              }
+            }
+          ]
+        }
+      }
+    ]
+  }
+}
diff --git a/...s/field-lint-conformance/reference-field-missing-multi-root-package/input/meta.other.json b/...s/field-lint-conformance/reference-field-missing-multi-root-package/input/meta.other.json
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+{
+  "metadata.root": {
+    "package": "beta::other",
+    "children": [
+      {
+        "object.entity": {
+          "name": "Gadget",
+          "package": "::parts",
+          "children": [
+            {
+              "field.long": {
+                "name": "id"
+              }
+            },
+            {
+              "field.long": {
+                "name": "storeId"
+              }
+            },
+            {
+              "identity.primary": {
+                "name": "pk",
+                "@fields": [
+                  "id"
+                ]
+              }
+            },
+            {
+              "identity.reference": {
+                "name": "store_fk",
+                "@fields": [
+                  "storeIdd"
+                ],
+                "@references": "acme::app::Store"
+              }
+            }
+          ]
+        }
+      }
+    ]
+  }
+}
diff --git a/server/python/src/metaobjects/field_lint.py b/server/python/src/metaobjects/field_lint.py
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
     IDENTITY_SUBTYPE_REFERENCE,
 )
 from metaobjects.meta.meta_data import MetaData
+from metaobjects.parser import expand_package_for_path
 from metaobjects.shared.base_types import (
     SUBTYPE_ROOT,
     TYPE_FIELD,
@@ -78,15 +79,10 @@ def lint_reference_fields(root: MetaData) -> list[FieldLintFinding]:
     out: list[FieldLintFinding] = []
     # OWN-ONLY (ADR-0039 sanctioned case): a root has no super, and its own children
     # are the declared objects.
-    root_pkg = root.package or ""
     for obj in root.own_children():
         if obj.type != TYPE_OBJECT:
             continue
-        own_pkg = obj.package
-        if own_pkg and own_pkg.startswith(PACKAGE_SEP) and root_pkg.strip() != "":
-            address = f"{root_pkg}{own_pkg}{PACKAGE_SEP}{obj.name}"
-        else:
-            address = obj.resolution_key()
+        address = obj.resolution_key()
         # RESOLVING: the effective field set — a field inherited through ``extends`` or
         # added by an overlay file is a field the object has.
         fields = {c.name for c in obj.children() if c.type == TYPE_FIELD}
@@ -185,8 +181,7 @@ def declared_duplicate_fields(content: str, format: str) -> list[FieldLintFindin
             # (a ``::``-prefixed one is relative to the root's), else the root's.
             raw_own_pkg = body.get(_KEY_PACKAGE)
             if isinstance(raw_own_pkg, str) and raw_own_pkg != "":
-                relative = root_pkg.strip() != "" and raw_own_pkg.startswith(PACKAGE_SEP)
-                pkg = root_pkg + raw_own_pkg if relative else raw_own_pkg
+                pkg = expand_package_for_path(root_pkg, raw_own_pkg)
             else:
                 pkg = root_pkg
             address = f"{pkg}{PACKAGE_SEP}{name}" if pkg != "" else name