diff --git a/.changeset/dashboard-stageorder-doc-names-only-funnel.md b/.changeset/dashboard-stageorder-doc-names-only-funnel.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..2bffef75413
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/dashboard-stageorder-doc-names-only-funnel.md
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+---
+"@objectstack/spec": patch
+---
+
+docs(spec): `options.stageOrder` no longer documents a chart type that cannot be built, and says plainly that only `funnel` reads it (#17344)
+
+`DashboardWidgetOptionsSchema.stageOrder` is an ungated member of the open widget `options` bag, so its one sentence of prose is the whole author-time surface: nothing warns, nothing refuses, and a widget carrying the key renders with the authored order simply absent. That sentence said *"Explicit category order for ordered-sequence charts — `funnel` / `pyramid` stages above all"*, and it was wrong twice over.
+
+- **`pyramid` is not a widget type.** It was removed from `ChartTypeSchema` as a variant that only ever rendered as `funnel`, and `chart.test.ts` pins that refusal alongside its fallback-only siblings — so the headline example in the option's own documentation could not be authored at all.
+- **The plural framing promised more than the renderer delivers.** "ordered-sequence charts" and "stages above all" read as a statement about ordered marks generally. It is not one: `funnel` is the only type whose branch consults the forwarded order, measured against this repo's pinned objectui renderer.
+
+The corrected JSDoc and `.describe()` name `funnel` only, state outright that no other widget type reads the key, and send the other types to `sortBy` / `sortOrder`, which lower into the dataset query itself. The generated reference page (`content/docs/references/ui/dashboard.mdx`) is regenerated from the new `.describe()`.
+
+No schema shape changes: `stageOrder` still parses exactly as before, on every widget type. Whether the key should be *gated* to the type that honours it is ADR-0049 enforce-or-remove on an accepted key — a published-surface narrowing, and deliberately not this change; it stays open on #17344 together with the locale-dependent order/colour drop, which lives in the objectui renderer rather than here.
diff --git a/content/docs/references/ui/dashboard.mdx b/content/docs/references/ui/dashboard.mdx
index 4173838ab8f..7b0b1dcfd66 100644
--- a/content/docs/references/ui/dashboard.mdx
+++ b/content/docs/references/ui/dashboard.mdx
@@ -246,7 +246,7 @@ Dashboard header action
 | **sortBy** | `string` | optional | Dimension/measure name to order by |
 | **sortOrder** | `Enum<'asc' \| 'desc'>` | optional | Sort direction for sortBy |
 | **limit** | `integer` | optional | Max rows (applied after ordering) |
-| **stageOrder** | `(string \| number \| boolean)[]` | optional | Explicit category order for funnel/pyramid stages (stored values) |
+| **stageOrder** | `(string \| number \| boolean)[]` | optional | Explicit stage order for a funnel widget, as the dimension's stored values. `funnel` is the only widget type that reads it: on any other type the key parses and is never consulted, so order those with sortBy/sortOrder instead. There is no `pyramid` widget type — write `funnel`. |
 
 
 ---
@@ -263,7 +263,7 @@ Widget configuration — declared query keys + open renderer extras
 | **sortBy** | `string` | optional | Dimension/measure name to order by |
 | **sortOrder** | `Enum<'asc' \| 'desc'>` | optional | Sort direction for sortBy |
 | **limit** | `integer` | optional | Max rows (applied after ordering) |
-| **stageOrder** | `(string \| number \| boolean)[]` | optional | Explicit category order for funnel/pyramid stages (stored values) |
+| **stageOrder** | `(string \| number \| boolean)[]` | optional | Explicit stage order for a funnel widget, as the dimension's stored values. `funnel` is the only widget type that reads it: on any other type the key parses and is never consulted, so order those with sortBy/sortOrder instead. There is no `pyramid` widget type — write `funnel`. |
 
 
 ---
diff --git a/packages/spec/src/ui/dashboard.test.ts b/packages/spec/src/ui/dashboard.test.ts
index c65805ea319..71619cd54a2 100644
--- a/packages/spec/src/ui/dashboard.test.ts
+++ b/packages/spec/src/ui/dashboard.test.ts
@@ -14,7 +14,9 @@ import {
   GlobalFilterOptionsFromSchema,
   DATE_RANGE_PRESETS,
   DATE_RANGE_DEFAULT_RANGES,
+  DashboardWidgetOptionsSchema,
 } from './dashboard.zod';
+import { ChartTypeSchema } from './chart.zod';
 import { dashboardForm } from './dashboard.form';
 
 /**
@@ -796,3 +798,81 @@ describe('#16458 — DashboardHeaderAction fields carry an item-level `title`',
     expect('columns' in parsed).toBe(false);
   });
 });
+
+
+/**
+ * `options.stageOrder` documented a chart type that cannot be built.
+ *
+ * The shipped prose is the whole surface here: `stageOrder` is an ungated
+ * member of the open `options` bag, so the one sentence an author reads before
+ * writing it is the only thing standing between them and a key that parses and
+ * does nothing. That sentence named `funnel` / `pyramid` "stages above all",
+ * and `pyramid` was removed from `ChartTypeSchema` as a variant that only ever
+ * rendered as `funnel` — so its headline example could not be authored at all,
+ * and its plural framing read as a promise about ordered marks generally.
+ *
+ * These pin the corrected prose against BOTH ways it can rot:
+ *  - the vocabulary moving under it (a `pyramid` re-admitted to the taxonomy
+ *    would make the sentence false in the other direction), and
+ *  - the sentence being trimmed back to the plural framing.
+ *
+ * The renderer half is deliberately NOT pinned here: which chart types consult
+ * the forwarded order is objectui's fact, measured against this repo's
+ * `.objectui-sha` pin and reported on the issue, not something `packages/spec`
+ * can assert.
+ */
+describe('DashboardWidgetOptions.stageOrder — the shipped doc string', () => {
+  const description = () => {
+    const d = (DashboardWidgetOptionsSchema as unknown as {
+      shape: { stageOrder: { description?: string } };
+    }).shape.stageOrder.description;
+    expect(typeof d).toBe('string');
+    return d as string;
+  };
+
+  it('names `funnel` and never `pyramid`', () => {
+    const d = description();
+    expect(d).toMatch(/funnel/);
+    expect(d).not.toMatch(/pyramid.*(is|are) (a|the) (chart|widget) type/i);
+    // The word may only appear as the correction that it does NOT exist.
+    expect(d).toMatch(/no `?pyramid`? widget type/i);
+  });
+
+  it('states plainly that no other widget type reads the key', () => {
+    const d = description();
+    expect(d).toMatch(/only widget type that reads it/);
+    // and points the other types at the keys that DO order them
+    expect(d).toMatch(/sortBy/);
+    expect(d).toMatch(/sortOrder/);
+  });
+
+  it('CONTROL — the taxonomy behind that prose: `funnel` parses, `pyramid` does not', () => {
+    expect(ChartTypeSchema.safeParse('funnel').success).toBe(true);
+    expect(ChartTypeSchema.safeParse('pyramid').success).toBe(false);
+    // dark control: a type that never existed refuses the same way, so the
+    // `pyramid` refusal above is not an artifact of how the probe is written
+    expect(ChartTypeSchema.safeParse('ziggurat').success).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it('CONTROL — a `funnel` widget carrying `stageOrder` still parses unchanged', () => {
+    const w = DashboardWidgetSchema.parse({
+      id: 'stage_funnel', type: 'funnel', dataset: 'contracts',
+      dimensions: ['status'], values: ['count'],
+      layout: { x: 0, y: 0, w: 6, h: 4 },
+      options: { stageOrder: ['draft', 'submitted', 'approved'] },
+    });
+    expect(w.options?.stageOrder).toEqual(['draft', 'submitted', 'approved']);
+  });
+
+  it('CONTROL — the key is still UNGATED: a non-funnel widget carrying it parses too', () => {
+    // This is finding 1 of the card, recorded as a fact rather than fixed:
+    // gating the key is a published-surface narrowing and is not this PR.
+    const w = DashboardWidgetSchema.parse({
+      id: 'stage_bars', type: 'horizontal-bar', dataset: 'contracts',
+      dimensions: ['status'], values: ['count'],
+      layout: { x: 0, y: 0, w: 6, h: 4 },
+      options: { stageOrder: ['draft', 'submitted', 'approved'] },
+    });
+    expect(w.options?.stageOrder).toEqual(['draft', 'submitted', 'approved']);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/spec/src/ui/dashboard.zod.ts b/packages/spec/src/ui/dashboard.zod.ts
index 4cd9d43e2e4..d7ba6af241f 100644
--- a/packages/spec/src/ui/dashboard.zod.ts
+++ b/packages/spec/src/ui/dashboard.zod.ts
@@ -255,15 +255,32 @@ export const DashboardWidgetOptionsSchema = lazySchema(() => z.object({
   limit: z.number().int().positive().optional().describe('Max rows (applied after ordering)'),
 
   /**
-   * Explicit category order for ordered-sequence charts — `funnel` / `pyramid`
-   * stages above all. Values are the dimension's STORED values (e.g.
-   * `['qualification', 'needs_analysis', 'proposal', 'negotiation']`), not
-   * display labels. Omit to let the renderer fall back to the dimension
-   * field's own picklist option order, which is the pipeline order an author
-   * already declared on the object.
+   * Explicit stage order for a `funnel` widget. Values are the dimension's
+   * STORED values (e.g. `['qualification', 'needs_analysis', 'proposal',
+   * 'negotiation']`), not display labels. Omit to let the renderer fall back
+   * to the dimension field's own picklist option order, which is the pipeline
+   * order an author already declared on the object.
+   *
+   * `funnel` is the ONLY widget `type` that reads this key. On every other
+   * type — `bar` / `horizontal-bar` / `column`, `line`, `area`, `pie`,
+   * `donut`, `treemap`, `sankey`, `radar`, `scatter`, `combo`, the tabular and
+   * single-value families — the key parses, is forwarded to the renderer, and
+   * no branch consults it: the rendered order stays whatever the analytics
+   * query returned. Order those with `sortBy` / `sortOrder`, which lower into
+   * the dataset query itself.
+   *
+   * There is no `pyramid` widget type. It was removed from `ChartTypeSchema`
+   * as a variant that only ever rendered as `funnel` (see the taxonomy NOTE at
+   * the foot of `chart.zod.ts`; `chart.test.ts` pins the refusal alongside its
+   * fallback-only siblings). Write `type: 'funnel'`.
    */
   stageOrder: z.array(z.union([z.string(), z.number(), z.boolean()])).optional()
-    .describe('Explicit category order for funnel/pyramid stages (stored values)'),
+    .describe(
+      'Explicit stage order for a funnel widget, as the dimension\'s stored values. '
+      + '`funnel` is the only widget type that reads it: on any other type the key '
+      + 'parses and is never consulted, so order those with sortBy/sortOrder instead. '
+      + 'There is no `pyramid` widget type — write `funnel`.',
+    ),
 }).passthrough().describe('Widget configuration — declared query keys + open renderer extras'));
 
 // ── `compareTo` convergence prescriptions (#5011) ────────────────────────────