What the composition parser must accept, and what belongs elsewhere

Summary

SPEC-168 D7 recorded four gaps between what native runes declare and what a composition can express. They block more runes than any reuse mechanism would unlock. Each was examined against the runes it blocks:

Two parser additions, two small template additions, and a routing table. No new content-model type is invented.

What the parser accepts today

• content.type must be sequence or sections (packages/runes/src/lib/composition.ts:1340-1352). The sections keys are type, sectionHeading, fields, preamble, sectionModel, emitTag, emitAttributes, headingExtract and knownSections (:1329-1339).
• A conditional model is rejected with a stated reason: "the template, not the model, is where an assembly varies" (:262-266).
• composedRuneConfig produces only modifiers, metaFields, blocks and provides (:1428-1455).
• each iterates a greedy field, a field with an itemModel and an emitTag, or sections (site/content/extend/rune-authoring/composed-runes.md, "each and $each").

Decisions

D1 — compositions accept a delimited model with fixed zones

The DelimitedModel type exists (packages/types/src/content-model.ts:169-188): a delimiter node, named zones each with a sequence of fields, an optional primary zone for input with no delimiter, and dynamicZones.

content:
  type: delimited
  delimiter: hr
  zones:
    - name: media
      fields:
        media: { match: any, optional: true, greedy: true }
    - name: content
      primary: true
      fields:
        eyebrow:  { match: paragraph, optional: true }
        headline: { match: heading }
        blurb:    { match: paragraph, optional: true }
        actions:  { match: list, optional: true, greedy: true }

{% section forward="split" %}
{% slot name="media" /%}

---

{% slot name="eyebrow" /%}
{% slot name="headline" /%}
{% slot name="blurb" /%}

{% actions %}{% slot name="actions" /%}{% /actions %}
{% /section %}

1. The slots are the union of the zones' fields. A field name used in two zones is an error at construction.
2. Only hr is accepted as the delimiter, which is all five runes use.
3. dynamicZones is rejected. Its zones have no fixed names, so a template has nothing to place. No measured rune uses it.
4. The composition consumes the delimiters; the template re-emits them where a placed primitive should split, as the composed realm already does with card. The --- in the template is unconditional, per SPEC-145 D17.

Why not let section split the content itself? It can: SPEC-160 D2 gives section --- zones. A composition that only needs the zones passes everything through one slot. A delimited model is for compositions that must address a field inside a zone: hero wraps its trailing list in {% actions %}, recipe places its ingredient and step lists, playlist extracts tracks. Those are the five measured runes.

This corrects SPEC-145 D18, which said recipe's "delimited/zoned model … [is] declarable in frontmatter". It was not: the parser rejected it. This decision makes the statement true.

D2 — when stays rejected; each conditional rune has a declarative form

The rejection's reason holds up. In all three runes that use a conditional model, the condition either can be absorbed into one model or is really a choice of assembly:

A function-form content model (contentModel: (attrs) => …) is evaluated with no attributes when a composition reads it (composition.ts:261), so it silently takes one branch. A composition definition cannot declare one, but the rule should be stated: a composition's content model does not depend on attribute values.

D3 — compositions accept implicitSection

implicitSection already exists on the sections model (packages/types/src/content-model.ts:160-166): when no section heading is found, all children become one section with the given attributes instead of preamble.

In a composition there is no emitTag, so the implicit section is an ordinary item of the sections slot, and its attributes supply the $each values:

content:
  type: sections
  sectionHeading: heading:2
  emitAttributes: { label: $heading }
  implicitSection: { attributes: { label: "" } }

The keys in implicitSection.attributes must be exactly the keys of emitAttributes, so $each is bound the same way for a real and an implicit section. This replaces itinerary's conditional model.

D4 — each iterates the items of a list field

Today each needs an itemModel with an emitTag to iterate a list's items. A list whose items need no extraction, where each item's content is placed as it is, has no way in.

content:
  type: sections
  sectionHeading: heading
  emitAttributes: { heading: $heading }
  preamble:
    header: { match: paragraph, optional: true, greedy: true }
    items:  { match: "list:ordered", optional: true }

{% group name="steps" layout="ladder" %}
{% slot name="items" each %}
{% section %}{% slot /%}{% /section %}
{% /slot %}
{% slot name="sections" each %}
{% section %}
### {% $each.heading %}

{% slot /%}
{% /section %}
{% /slot %}
{% /group %}

• A non-greedy field matching one list node may be placed with each. Each list item is one item. The bare {% slot /%} is the item's content, and $each exposes nothing. Naming $each.x on such a slot is the existing each-field-not-emitted error.
• steps then needs no conditional. An author writes either headings or an ordered list, and the template places both slots. The one not written is empty and renders nothing.
• An author who writes an ordered list and headings gets both, in source order. That is what they wrote, and steps today would have read only the headings.

D5 — a D15 template may cover several values

SPEC-145 D15 constraint 2 required templates and the selecting attribute's matches values to correspond one to one. symbol's kind has eight values and two assemblies. A template may therefore list several values:

{% template kind="class, interface, module" %}
	…groups and members…
{% /template %}

{% template kind="function, enum, type, hook, component" %}
	…a flat symbol…
{% /template %}

The constraint becomes: every value is covered by exactly one template, and every listed value is in matches. A value covered twice, or not at all, is the same error as before.

symbol then has one sections model at heading:3. In the grouped template each section is a group, and its members are a nested each at heading:4 (SPEC-165 D6). In the flat template the sections render as ordinary titled sections.

D6 — the generated config stays narrow; each missing feature has another home

composedRuneConfig emitting little is consistent with ADR-042 and ADR-043: a composed rune's output is primitives and vocabulary, so behaviour belongs to what it places. Each feature the measurement listed:

Nothing is added to composedRuneConfig by this spec.

Runes this unblocks, and what each still waits on

Not in scope

• custom content models (map, bento, storyboard, today's comparison). They stay native or move to primitives, as their own specs decide (SPEC-147 D3, SPEC-167).
• Structured data crossing a placed primitive (SPEC-146).
• Attribute presets and forward (SPEC-168).

Open questions

• D4's list-and-headings case. Rendering both is faithful to the source, but it is a change for an author who relied on steps ignoring the list. Whether to report it as a warning is open.
• Function-form models in native runes. D2's rule could also be a warning on native runes whose model depends on attributes, since such a rune cannot later become a composition. That is a policy question for ADR-044's tiers, not decided here.

Scheduling

• v0.42.0: D1 (WORK-646), D3 (WORK-647) and D4 (WORK-648). D1's composed hero fixture needs section's split and the actions primitive from SPEC-160, so it moves to WORK-654 in v0.43.0. WORK-646 proves the model over card instead. D4's steps fixture uses a plain container until SPEC-156's ladder exists.
• D4's example renders correctly only after ADR-046. It places each step with {% section %}{% slot /%}{% /section %}. Under section's current grammar, a step's text is a paragraph with no heading, so it renders as an eyebrow. ADR-046 anchors the grammar to the headline, so it becomes body (WORK-659, v0.43.0).
• Deferred: D5. Templates covering several values need templates as tags (SPEC-168 D9), which are not implemented. Its criterion stays open, and this spec can reach implemented only when D5 lands or is split out.

Acceptance Criteria

• A composition accepts type: delimited with delimiter: hr and fixed zones, honours primary for input with no delimiter, and places each zone field as a slot
• A field name in two zones, a delimiter other than hr, and dynamicZones are each construction errors with their own message
• A composed hero over section with a delimited model renders its media and content zones and wraps its actions list, asserted against a fixture
• A composition accepts implicitSection on a sections model; its attribute keys must equal emitAttributes' keys; with no section heading, all content becomes one item of the sections slot
• each on a non-greedy field matching one list iterates its items, with the bare slot as each item's content and no $each bindings
• A composed steps renders the same steps from headings and from an ordered list, with one model and no conditional
• A D15 {% template %} may list several values; every value is covered exactly once, reported both ways as before
• The error for a conditional content model names this spec's alternatives (implicit sections, list each, D15 templates)
• SPEC-145 D18's statement about recipe's delimited model and SPEC-145 D15's constraint 2 carry notes pointing here

References

• SPEC-168 D7: where these gaps were found.
• SPEC-145: D15 templates, D17 conditionals and delimiters, D18 recipe, D26 each, D27 item defaults.
• SPEC-156: the ladder, the home for sequence.
• SPEC-160: section zones (D2) and actions (D6).
• SPEC-165 D6: nested each, which symbol's members need.
• ADR-042, ADR-043: why the generated config stays narrow.