The undo command surface rebuilds — app-owned rows and explicit toolbar targets over FocusedValues

Edit ▸ Undo/Redo become the app's own replaced rows and the board toolbar
pair takes explicit targets, both reading the focused session's
BoardUndoManager through FocusedValues.undoStack (board windows publish the
session's manager, card windows their own) — the nil-target route died with
the SwiftUI window latch, 13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules ▸ command surface,
re-ruled 2026-08-08. The rows enact the routing predicate themselves: text
focus routes ⌘Z to the first responder's own manager, title and enablement
included, re-derived at fire time with a beep for the stale window.
NativeHistoryProvider turns @Observable so both surfaces re-derive on stack
changes; a checkpoint-notification ticker covers plain text managers.
.responderAction leaves ToolbarItemSpec with its only user;
windowWillReturnUndoManager stays wired for AppKit's own asks.

Live-probed on the fixture board (21/21): the row retitles to "Undo Add
Lane" and crosses via real ⌘Z key events, ⇧⌘Z redoes via a window-server
chord, the toolbar pair validates and fires, search-field and body-editor
⌘Z stay text undo with board stacks untouched, and a card window crosses
its own stack with no fall-through. 2698 unit tests green.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_014PtZdPwqZuqEDLc6wZMtEy

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 **August 2026**
 
+Edit ▸ Undo, ⌘Z, and the toolbar's Undo and Redo buttons now work on board changes — they had been silently disabled.
+
 The board's symbol now appears in the title bar beside the board's name, in its chosen tint.
 
 The board's symbol can now wear a color: the symbol picker carries a row of tints below the glyphs, with None to clear it.

Kanban/App/BoardWindowHost.swift

@@ -236,6 +236,12 @@ struct BoardWindowHost: View {
             // purge-alert host, which the trash's two confirmed commands raise, and its search
             // field, which Edit ▸ Find focuses and the caret-chord commands yield to.
             .focusedSceneValue(\.boardStore, store)
+            // **What Edit ▸ Undo/Redo cross with this window in front** — the session's stack, which
+            // those rows now read for themselves (13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules ▸ the command-surface
+            // bullet, re-ruled 2026-08-08; `UndoCommands.swift`). Read afresh from the model rather
+            // than stored, for `windowUndoManager`'s reason exactly: a torn-down board answers
+            // nothing rather than a stack with no board behind it.
+            .focusedSceneValue(\.undoStack, appModel.session(for: ref)?.undoManager)
             .focusedSceneValue(\.boardSearch, boardSearch)
             // The window's identity beside its store — File ▸ Duplicate flushes a *session*, which
             // is keyed on the window rather than on the board it is showing.
@@ -709,11 +715,20 @@ struct BoardWindowHost: View {
             }
         }
 
-        // This window's answer to "what does ⌘Z act on" (13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules; 06 ▸ Undo
-        // routing) — the *session's* stack, read afresh on every ask so a torn-down board answers
-        // nothing rather than a stack with no board behind it. The Edit menu's Undo/Redo rows and
-        // the toolbar's pair are nil-target `undo:`/`redo:`, so this one line is what lights them
-        // up: `NSWindow` validates and crosses them against exactly this manager.
+        // This window's answer to "what does ⌘Z act on" (13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules; ▸ Undo routing)
+        // — the *session's* stack, read afresh on every ask so a torn-down board answers nothing
+        // rather than a stack with no board behind it.
+        //
+        // **It no longer lights the command surface**, and that sentence used to be this comment's
+        // whole point (13 ▸ Rules ▸ the command-surface bullet, re-ruled 2026-08-08): the Edit
+        // menu's rows and the toolbar's pair were nil-target `undo:`/`redo:` resolving through
+        // `NSWindow.undoManager`, which a SwiftUI window latches empty during creation, before this
+        // controller's delegate can install — so `windowWillReturnUndoManager` is never consulted
+        // and the surface validated against a stack nothing registers into. Both faces read the
+        // session's manager directly now: the rows through `FocusedValues.undoStack` published a few
+        // lines up in `body`, the toolbar pair through the explicit target `BoardToolbar` is handed
+        // below. This closure stays wired because it is still the right answer wherever *AppKit*
+        // asks a delegate for a manager.
         windowController.windowUndoManager = { appModel.session(for: ref)?.undoManager }
 
         // The window-title widget (03-board-ui.md § Board popover) — **board windows only**, which
@@ -750,7 +765,11 @@ struct BoardWindowHost: View {
             search: boardSearch,
             zoom: appModel.zoom,
             appearance: appModel.appearance,
-            session: appModel.dragSession
+            session: appModel.dragSession,
+            // The same manager the Edit menu's rows reach through the focus system — one object, two
+            // faces, which is what "the toolbar mirrors the menu" means for this pair now that
+            // neither of them goes through the responder chain (13 ▸ Rules, re-ruled 2026-08-08).
+            undo: appModel.session(for: ref)?.undoManager
         ))
     }
 

Kanban/App/CardWindowHost.swift

@@ -362,6 +362,13 @@ struct CardWindowHost: View {
             // item reaches the frontmost one's body surface through this, exactly as board-window
             // items reach their window's store (`FocusedBoardStoreKey`).
             .focusedSceneValue(\.cardBody, bodyPresentation)
+            // **This window's own stack, published for Edit ▸ Undo/Redo** — the second of 13's two
+            // levels reaching the menu (13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules ▸ two levels; ▸ the
+            // command-surface bullet, re-ruled 2026-08-08). One key serves both levels because a
+            // card window's manager is the same face type as a board session's, so which of them a
+            // row crosses is decided by which window is in front and by nothing else — no
+            // fall-through, as a property of the value rather than a rule (`UndoCommands.swift`).
+            .focusedSceneValue(\.undoStack, session.undo.manager)
             // View ▸ Raw Source (⌥⌘E) reaches the frontmost card window the same way, and Edit Body
             // reads it too — "View ▸ Edit Body (⌘E) disables while source mode is active"
             // (05-card-window.md ▸ Raw source outlet).
@@ -878,15 +885,22 @@ struct CardWindowHost: View {
 
         // **This window's own stack** (13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules ▸ two levels, re-ruled 2026-07-31 —
         // superseding the shared-stack wiring): "a card window owns its own stack for the session it
-        // represents ... and `window.undoManager` answers with it (standard per-window AppKit
-        // scoping)". ⌘Z with this window in front walks the gestures made *here*, newest first, and
-        // when they run out it beeps — "no fall-through: exhausting the window's stack ... never
-        // reaches board history" (06-history-undo.md ▸ Undo routing). What board history gets is the
-        // one coarse step this session registers when the window closes.
+        // represents". ⌘Z with this window in front walks the gestures made *here*, newest first,
+        // and when they run out it beeps — "no fall-through: exhausting the window's stack ... never
+        // reaches board history" (13 ▸ Undo routing). What board history gets is the one coarse step
+        // this session registers when the window closes.
         //
-        // The card's *text* surfaces are untouched by this — the body editor and the raw-source
-        // editor each vend their own manager to the responder chain, which is what keeps typing undo
-        // above either stack (06 ▸ Undo routing, unchanged).
+        // **The Edit menu does not arrive through here**, which is what the same rule's 2026-08-08
+        // re-ruling changed: `window.undoManager` is latched empty by SwiftUI before this
+        // controller's delegate installs, so the rows read this same manager through
+        // `FocusedValues.undoStack` instead (published in `body` above; `UndoCommands.swift`). The
+        // closure stays wired for AppKit's own asks, which is the one caller it always had a right
+        // to.
+        //
+        // The card's *text* surfaces are untouched by either wiring — the body editor and the
+        // raw-source editor each vend their own manager to the responder chain, and the rows route
+        // to the first responder's manager while one of them holds the keyboard, which is what keeps
+        // typing undo above either stack (13 ▸ Undo routing, unchanged).
         windowController.windowUndoManager = { [session] in session.undo.manager }
 
         windowController.onAttach = { window in

Kanban/App/UndoCommands.swift

@@ -0,0 +1,294 @@
+import AppKit
+import Observation
+import SwiftUI
+
+// MARK: - The focused stack
+
+/// **The stack the frontmost window's ⌘Z crosses**, published into the focus system by whichever
+/// host owns it: `BoardWindowHost` publishes its session's manager, `CardWindowHost` the window's own
+/// (`CardWindowUndo.manager`).
+///
+/// One key serves both levels, and that is the two-level model's own shape rather than a shortcut
+/// (13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules ▸ two levels, re-ruled 2026-07-31): a card window's stack is the *same*
+/// face type over the same seam, so a second key would only ask the rows to decide which of two
+/// answers is in front — which is exactly the question the focus system already answers. Crossing
+/// between the two levels is therefore impossible by construction here, which is 13 ▸ Undo routing's
+/// "no fall-through" holding as a fact about the value rather than as a rule someone applies.
+///
+/// `FocusedBoardStoreKey` is the precedent and its note carries over verbatim: `focusedSceneValue`
+/// rather than `focusedValue`, because the value is the *window's* and not any particular control's,
+/// so it stays available whatever inside the window holds the keyboard — which is precisely what a
+/// row that then routes on the first responder needs to read.
+struct FocusedUndoStackKey: FocusedValueKey {
+    typealias Value = BoardUndoManager
+}
+
+extension FocusedValues {
+    var undoStack: BoardUndoManager? {
+        get { self[FocusedUndoStackKey.self] }
+        set { self[FocusedUndoStackKey.self] = newValue }
+    }
+}
+
+// MARK: - Routing
+
+/// **What an Undo/Redo row answers with**, given the focused stack and what holds the keyboard —
+/// 13-native-undo.md ▸ Undo routing's predicate, relocated from the window delegate to the command
+/// layer (13 ▸ Rules ▸ the command-surface bullet, re-ruled 2026-08-08; the rule itself is
+/// unchanged, only where it is enacted).
+///
+/// ### Why the rule had to move
+///
+/// The predicate used to be the platform's to apply: the system's nil-target `undo:`/`redo:` rows
+/// resolve to `NSWindow`, which reads the manager its delegate hands back
+/// (`windowWillReturnUndoManager`, still wired in `HostedWindowController` and still the right answer
+/// wherever AppKit itself asks). On a SwiftUI window that hook is never consulted — `NSWindow` reads
+/// and **permanently latches** an undo manager of its own during window creation, before any app code
+/// can install a delegate (diagnosed 2026-08-07 by live probe) — so the whole command surface became
+/// the app's own, and the routing came with it.
+///
+/// ### Pure, and free of both windows and SwiftUI
+///
+/// Everything a row needs is two references it is handed. The first responder is the one part a test
+/// cannot conjure from the focus system, so it is a parameter rather than a read of `NSApp` — the
+/// same posture `BoardUndoRouting` takes one layer down, and the reason that enum's decision is
+/// reusable here verbatim rather than restated.
+@MainActor
+enum UndoCommandRouting {
+
+    /// The manager a row answers with — the focused stack, or, while a text surface holds the
+    /// keyboard, that responder's own manager.
+    ///
+    /// The text case is where its typing undo actually registered: an editor that vends a manager
+    /// through its delegate (`CardBodySurface`, `CardRawSourceView`) hands back that one, and a field
+    /// editor — which vends none — resolves up the responder chain to the window's latched manager,
+    /// which is exactly where AppKit put its typing undo. Either way the answer is the responder's,
+    /// which is what "a reflexive undo over a typo must never become a board-level restore"
+    /// (13 ▸ Undo routing) means once the app is the one choosing.
+    ///
+    /// `nil` where there is nothing to cross at all: no stack in front and no text surface focused, or
+    /// a text surface whose own manager is `nil` (a view in no window, with no delegate to ask). A row
+    /// over `nil` disables and keeps the bare verb.
+    static func routedManager(stack: BoardUndoManager?, firstResponder: NSResponder?) -> UndoManager? {
+        guard BoardUndoRouting.isTextEditing(firstResponder) else { return stack }
+        guard let text = firstResponder?.undoManager else { return nil }
+        return BoardUndoRouting.undoManager(isTextEditing: true, board: stack, textFallback: text)
+    }
+
+    // MARK: Titles
+
+    /// "Undo Move 3 Cards" — composed and localized by the platform over the bare 13-vocabulary
+    /// phrase, so the app never spells the verb (`BoardUndoManager.undoMenuItemTitle`).
+    ///
+    /// The trim is for the nameless case on a manager that is *not* this app's adapter: a plain
+    /// `NSUndoManager` — a text view's, a field editor's — composes `Undo %@` over an empty name and
+    /// leaves the trailing space standing. The bare verb is also the answer for no manager at all,
+    /// which is a row with nothing in front of it rather than a row that lost its name.
+    static func undoTitle(of manager: UndoManager?) -> String {
+        title(manager?.undoMenuItemTitle, bare: "Undo")
+    }
+
+    static func redoTitle(of manager: UndoManager?) -> String {
+        title(manager?.redoMenuItemTitle, bare: "Redo")
+    }
+
+    private static func title(_ composed: String?, bare: String) -> String {
+        let trimmed = composed?.trimmingCharacters(in: .whitespaces) ?? ""
+        return trimmed.isEmpty ? bare : trimmed
+    }
+
+    // MARK: Enablement
+
+    /// Whether the row is live — the routed manager's own answer, which for this app's adapter is
+    /// "steps, and no read-only lock" (`BoardUndoManager.canUndo`, where 13 ▸ Rules' lock clause
+    /// lives) and for a text manager is the editor's session. `false` with no manager, which is the
+    /// same disablement an empty stack gets: exhausting what the row reaches never reaches anything
+    /// else (13 ▸ Undo routing, no fall-through).
+    static func canUndo(_ manager: UndoManager?) -> Bool {
+        manager?.canUndo == true
+    }
+
+    static func canRedo(_ manager: UndoManager?) -> Bool {
+        manager?.canRedo == true
+    }
+}
+
+// MARK: - The revalidation ticker
+
+/// **What makes a rendered Undo/Redo row notice the world moved.**
+///
+/// The rows read three things that are not SwiftUI state: the routed manager's enablement, its
+/// composed title, and — through the first responder — which of the two it is routing to at all.
+/// `BoardUndoManager` re-derives from an `@Observable` provider, so a board or card step lands on the
+/// row for free; a *text* manager is a plain `NSUndoManager` with no observation in it, and neither
+/// is `NSApp.keyWindow?.firstResponder`. This is the subscription those two get.
+///
+/// A bumped counter rather than published state: nothing here knows what any row's answer is, only
+/// that it may have changed, and the rows are cheap to re-derive. Reading `revision` inside a row's
+/// `body` is what enrolls it.
+///
+/// ### The notifications, and why each one
+///
+/// `NSUndoManagerCheckpoint` with `object: nil` is the load-bearing one: it catches **every**
+/// manager's stack changes, which is how typing into a field editor retitles the row that is routing
+/// to it. The did-undo/did-redo pair covers a crossing that changes which direction is live, the
+/// `NSText` editing pair covers the field editor arriving and leaving, and `NSMenu`'s did-begin-
+/// tracking is a re-derive a moment before the Edit menu draws itself.
+///
+/// ### The known residual, which is cosmetic
+///
+/// Focus moving in or out of a text surface *without any typing* — clicking into an empty search
+/// field, tabbing away from an untouched one — bumps nothing, because AppKit posts no editing
+/// notification until an edit begins. A row rendered across that moment can therefore be titled or
+/// enabled off the stack it is no longer routing to. Behaviour stays correct regardless: the action
+/// re-derives the routed manager at fire time and beeps rather than crossing the wrong stack, which
+/// is 13 ▸ Undo routing's own answer for an exhausted focus.
+@MainActor
+@Observable
+final class UndoCommandTicker {
+
+    /// One instance, read by both rows: the rows differ in direction, never in when they are stale.
+    static let shared = UndoCommandTicker()
+
+    /// Bumped, never read for its value — a row reads it to subscribe, and the number itself means
+    /// nothing.
+    private(set) var revision = 0
+
+    private var observers: [any NSObjectProtocol] = []
+
+    private init() {
+        let names: [Notification.Name] = [
+            .NSUndoManagerCheckpoint,
+            .NSUndoManagerDidUndoChange,
+            .NSUndoManagerDidRedoChange,
+            NSText.didBeginEditingNotification,
+            NSText.didEndEditingNotification,
+            NSMenu.didBeginTrackingNotification,
+        ]
+        observers = names.map { name in
+            NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(forName: name, object: nil, queue: nil) { [weak self] _ in
+                // All six are posted on the main thread, and the synchronous path is the one that
+                // matters: a menu that has begun tracking is about to draw, so a hop onto the next
+                // turn would re-derive the row after the user is already looking at it. The
+                // asynchronous branch is the promise-keeping half, never the expected one.
+                if Thread.isMainThread {
+                    MainActor.assumeIsolated { self?.bump() }
+                } else {
+                    Task { @MainActor in self?.bump() }
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    private func bump() {
+        revision &+= 1
+    }
+}
+
+// MARK: - The rows
+
+/// **Edit ▸ Undo and Edit ▸ Redo, as the app's own rows** (13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules ▸ the
+/// command-surface bullet, ruled 2026-08-08).
+///
+/// `CommandGroup(replacing: .undoRedo)` takes the system's nil-target pair out of the menu, because
+/// on a SwiftUI window they are unreachable: `NSWindow` latches an empty undo manager of its own
+/// during window creation, before `HostedWindowController` can install the delegate that would have
+/// vended the board's, so `windowWillReturnUndoManager` is never consulted and the rows validate
+/// against a stack nothing ever registers into. Everything the pair used to get from the platform —
+/// enablement, the dynamic title, the crossing — the rows below now ask for by name, off the same
+/// `BoardUndoManager` that surface always meant to be reading.
+///
+/// The alternatives are recorded in 13 and both re-open decisions this app already made: registering
+/// steps into the latched manager needs an `NSUndoManager` substrate, which `HistoryStepOutcome
+/// .failed` rules out (`NativeHistoryProvider` ▸ two arrays), and intercepting nil-target `undo:`
+/// from the responder chain is preempted by `NSWindow` handling the action itself, ahead of its own
+/// delegate.
+struct UndoRedoCommands: Commands {
+
+    var body: some Commands {
+        CommandGroup(replacing: .undoRedo) {
+            UndoMenuRow()
+            RedoMenuRow()
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+/// Edit ▸ Undo (⌘Z).
+///
+/// **The whole row routes, not just its action** (13 ▸ Rules ▸ the command-surface bullet, re-ruled
+/// 2026-08-08). A row left titled and enabled off the board stack while a text field held the
+/// keyboard would fail in one of two ways, and both are worse than a re-derived title: enabled, it
+/// advertises a board step it will not cross once the action routes elsewhere; disabled — because
+/// the board stack happened to be empty — it *swallows* ⌘Z outright, since a menu item owns its key
+/// equivalent whether or not it is live and nothing downstream ever sees the chord. Routing title,
+/// enablement and action together is what keeps 13 ▸ Undo routing's no-fall-through honest from the
+/// user's side of the menu.
+private struct UndoMenuRow: View {
+
+    @FocusedValue(\.undoStack) private var stack
+
+    var body: some View {
+        // Read for the subscription, never for the value — see `UndoCommandTicker`, which is what
+        // makes a text manager's stack changes and a focus move reach a row that has already
+        // rendered. It has to be read *in* `body`, which is the only scope SwiftUI tracks.
+        let _ = UndoCommandTicker.shared.revision
+        let manager = UndoCommandRouting.routedManager(
+            stack: stack,
+            firstResponder: NSApp.keyWindow?.firstResponder
+        )
+        Button(UndoCommandRouting.undoTitle(of: manager)) {
+            cross()
+        }
+        .keyboardShortcut("z", modifiers: .command)
+        .disabled(!UndoCommandRouting.canUndo(manager))
+    }
+
+    /// **Routed again here**, rather than closing over what the row rendered with: focus and stacks
+    /// both move between a menu's display and its click, and the manager the crossing reaches must be
+    /// the one that holds the keyboard *now*. The beep is 13 ▸ Undo routing's "exhausting a focused
+    /// editor's stack beeps; it never reaches board history", answering the window where the row's
+    /// rendered enablement was a moment stale.
+    private func cross() {
+        let manager = UndoCommandRouting.routedManager(
+            stack: stack,
+            firstResponder: NSApp.keyWindow?.firstResponder
+        )
+        guard let manager, manager.canUndo else {
+            NSSound.beep()
+            return
+        }
+        manager.undo()
+    }
+}
+
+/// Edit ▸ Redo (⇧⌘Z) — `UndoMenuRow`'s twin in every respect, which is why its reasoning is not
+/// repeated here.
+private struct RedoMenuRow: View {
+
+    @FocusedValue(\.undoStack) private var stack
+
+    var body: some View {
+        let _ = UndoCommandTicker.shared.revision
+        let manager = UndoCommandRouting.routedManager(
+            stack: stack,
+            firstResponder: NSApp.keyWindow?.firstResponder
+        )
+        Button(UndoCommandRouting.redoTitle(of: manager)) {
+            cross()
+        }
+        .keyboardShortcut("z", modifiers: [.command, .shift])
+        .disabled(!UndoCommandRouting.canRedo(manager))
+    }
+
+    private func cross() {
+        let manager = UndoCommandRouting.routedManager(
+            stack: stack,
+            firstResponder: NSApp.keyWindow?.firstResponder
+        )
+        guard let manager, manager.canRedo else {
+            NSSound.beep()
+            return
+        }
+        manager.redo()
+    }
+}

Kanban/App/WindowToolbar.swift

@@ -64,10 +64,6 @@ struct ToolbarItemSpec {
         case button(isEnabled: () -> Bool, perform: () -> Void)
         /// A toggle showing on-state — Show Trash, Edit Body, Raw Source (03 ▸ Toolbar).
         case toggle(isEnabled: () -> Bool, isOn: () -> Bool, setOn: (Bool) -> Void)
-        /// An action sent up the responder chain with no target of our own — **Undo and Redo**, which
-        /// is how their menu rows work too, so "matching their menu items" is one mechanism rather
-        /// than two (03 ▸ Toolbar; 06-history-undo.md).
-        case responderAction(Selector)
         /// A search field in AppKit's own `NSSearchToolbarItem` — the board's search
         /// (03-board-ui.md ▸ Toolbar). The item owns the field's layout, so `focusedWidth` is a
         /// preference rather than a constraint: it is the width the field takes *when it has the
@@ -88,8 +84,8 @@ struct ToolbarItemSpec {
         /// `selected()` names the option index carrying the checkmark, read fresh whenever AppKit
         /// opens the menu rather than polled — the same freshness every other menu row in the app
         /// gets (`validateMenuItem(_:)`) — and `select(_:)` is a chosen row's whole action. The one
-        /// behavior with no `activate()` of its own: firing lives in the dropdown's rows, not in the
-        /// item itself, the way `responderAction`'s lives in the responder chain rather than here.
+        /// behavior with no `activate()` of its own: firing lives in the dropdown's rows rather than
+        /// in the item's primary action.
         case picker(
             options: [(title: String, symbol: String?)],
             selected: () -> Int?,
@@ -126,14 +122,14 @@ struct ToolbarItemSpec {
 
     // MARK: State
 
-    /// The item's live enablement. Responder-chain items and the search item answer `true`: the
-    /// first is validated by the chain itself (which is the point of it), and the second has no
-    /// enablement of its own.
+    /// The item's live enablement. The search item and the picker answer `true`: neither has an
+    /// enablement of its own — the field is a control rather than a command, and the picker's
+    /// choices are always available.
     var isEnabled: Bool {
         switch behavior {
         case let .button(isEnabled, _): isEnabled()
         case let .toggle(isEnabled, _, _): isEnabled()
-        case .responderAction, .searchField, .picker: true
+        case .searchField, .picker: true
         }
     }
 
@@ -141,7 +137,7 @@ struct ToolbarItemSpec {
     var isOn: Bool? {
         switch behavior {
         case let .toggle(_, isOn, _): isOn()
-        case .button, .responderAction, .searchField, .picker: nil
+        case .button, .searchField, .picker: nil
         }
     }
 
@@ -152,7 +148,7 @@ struct ToolbarItemSpec {
         switch behavior {
         case let .button(_, perform): perform()
         case let .toggle(_, isOn, setOn): setOn(!isOn())
-        case .responderAction, .searchField, .picker: break
+        case .searchField, .picker: break
         }
     }
 }
@@ -165,7 +161,9 @@ struct ToolbarItemSpec {
 /// ### Why `NSToolbar` rather than SwiftUI's `.toolbar(id:)`
 ///
 /// SwiftUI's customizable toolbar would answer most of 03's clauses, and it was the first choice.
-/// Four requirements sent this to AppKit instead, and each is normative rather than aesthetic:
+/// Four requirements sent this to AppKit instead, and each was normative rather than aesthetic. Three
+/// of them still hold; the fourth is kept below because a retired reason is worth more written down
+/// than deleted, and because the three that remain are what the answer now rests on:
 ///
 /// - **⌘F has to know whether the search item is installed.** "With the field removed from the
 ///   toolbar, invoking it surfaces the field transiently" (03) — a decision that needs to read the
@@ -173,12 +171,16 @@ struct ToolbarItemSpec {
 ///   delegate callbacks); SwiftUI's toolbar API has no such query, and reaching around it into the
 ///   `NSToolbar` it happens to own means matching identifiers SwiftUI derives rather than ones this
 ///   app spells.
-/// - **Undo and Redo have to reach the responder chain.** Their menu rows are the system's own —
-///   nil-target `undo:`/`redo:` — and "matching their menu items" (03) is literal here: a toolbar
-///   item with the same nil-target action validates and fires through exactly the same lookup, so
-///   the pair enables and disables with the menu rows by construction rather than by agreement,
-///   reading the board window's `BoardUndoManager` through `NSWindow`'s own validation
-///   (13-native-undo.md). A SwiftUI `Button` cannot express that.
+/// - ~~**Undo and Redo have to reach the responder chain.**~~ **Retired 2026-08-08** with the
+///   mechanism it named (13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules ▸ the command-surface bullet, re-ruled that day):
+///   the pair's nil-target `undo:`/`redo:` resolved to `NSWindow`, which reads the manager its
+///   delegate vends — and a SwiftUI window latches an empty manager of its own during creation,
+///   before `HostedWindowController` installs, so that route reached a stack nothing registers into.
+///   The pair now carries an **explicit target** over the focused session's `BoardUndoManager`
+///   (`BoardToolbar`), which is the same object the app's own Edit ▸ Undo/Redo rows read through the
+///   focus system — "matching their menu items" (03) by sharing the manager rather than by sharing a
+///   lookup. Nothing about that needs AppKit; the other three bullets are why this is still an
+///   `NSToolbar`.
 /// - **The search item is AppKit's own `NSSearchToolbarItem`**, hosting a real `NSSearchField` with
 ///   explicit first-responder control, settled in m5 for reasons `BoardSearchFieldController`
 ///   records (⌘F must focus it from a menu item; Escape in an empty field must hand the keyboard
@@ -304,8 +306,6 @@ final class WindowToolbarController: NSObject, NSToolbarDelegate {
             return makeButtonItem(spec)
         case .toggle:
             return makeToggleItem(spec)
-        case let .responderAction(selector):
-            return makeResponderItem(spec, selector: selector)
         case let .searchField(focusedWidth, make, install):
             return makeSearchItem(
                 spec,
@@ -333,19 +333,6 @@ final class WindowToolbarController: NSObject, NSToolbarDelegate {
         return item
     }
 
-    /// **Undo and Redo**: no target, so AppKit resolves and validates the action up the responder
-    /// chain — the same lookup their menu rows use, which is the whole of "matching their menu
-    /// items" (03 ▸ Toolbar). Deliberately *not* a `ValidatingToolbarItem`: the default validation
-    /// is precisely the behaviour wanted here.
-    private func makeResponderItem(_ spec: ToolbarItemSpec, selector: Selector) -> NSToolbarItem {
-        let item = NSToolbarItem(itemIdentifier: spec.identifier)
-        decorate(item, with: spec)
-        item.isBordered = true
-        item.target = nil
-        item.action = selector
-        return item
-    }
-
     /// A toggle button showing on-state. A hosted `NSButton` rather than a plain item because
     /// `NSToolbarItem` has no state of its own, and 03 asks for one explicitly ("Show Trash (toggle
     /// state matching the View menu checkmark)", "Edit Body is a single toggle button (on-state in

Kanban/History/BoardUndoManager.swift

@@ -2,16 +2,25 @@ import AppKit
 
 // MARK: - BoardUndoManager
 
-/// What AppKit is handed for a board's windows: an `UndoManager` that owns no stack and answers
-/// every question from the session's `HistoryProviding`.
+/// The face a board's undo wears everywhere it is asked about: an `UndoManager` that owns no stack
+/// and answers every question from the session's `HistoryProviding`.
 ///
 /// ### Why an adapter exists at all
 ///
-/// The responder chain speaks one currency. `NSWindow` implements `undo:`/`redo:` and validates
-/// those menu items itself, reading `canUndo`, `canRedo` and `undoMenuItemTitle` off whatever
-/// `UndoManager` the window's delegate hands back (`windowWillReturnUndoManager(_:)`) — which is
-/// exactly how the system's Edit ▸ Undo row and the toolbar's nil-target pair (`BoardToolbar`) light
-/// up, disable and retitle with no code of the app's own.
+/// The command surface speaks one currency. Enablement, the composed menu title, and the crossing
+/// itself are all `UndoManager` questions — `canUndo`, `undoMenuItemTitle`, `undo()` — and every
+/// surface that offers ⌘Z asks them of *something*: the app's own Edit ▸ Undo/Redo rows read this
+/// object through `FocusedValues.undoStack` (`UndoCommands.swift`), the board toolbar's pair carries
+/// it as an explicit target (`BoardToolbar`), and AppKit itself still asks the window's delegate for
+/// it (`HostedWindowController.windowWillReturnUndoManager`, wired and correct wherever the platform
+/// is the one asking). One object answers all of them, which is what keeps them from disagreeing.
+///
+/// (Those first two used to be the same fact as the third: the rows and the toolbar pair were the
+/// system's nil-target `undo:`/`redo:`, validated by `NSWindow` against whatever its delegate vended.
+/// That route is unreachable on a SwiftUI window — the window latches an empty manager of its own
+/// during creation, before any delegate of ours installs — so the surface became the app's own,
+/// reading this object directly: 13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules ▸ the command-surface bullet, re-ruled
+/// 2026-08-08. What it reads did not change, only how it gets here.)
 ///
 /// The seam, though, must not be an `NSUndoManager`: a protocol that vended one could only ever have
 /// had a single implementation, and the substrate stays behind `HistoryProviding` so a future
@@ -50,9 +59,10 @@ import AppKit
 /// "Every read-only lock (vanished root, failed reload after wholesale ops, unwritable location)
 /// disables Undo/Redo with the other mutating commands; **the stack itself survives the lock and
 /// resumes when it clears**" (13 ▸ Rules). This is the right place for it and the only one: every
-/// surface that offers ⌘Z — the Edit menu's nil-target row, the toolbar pair, a card window's
-/// responder chain — validates through this object, so answering `false` here disables all of them
-/// at once, exactly as the lock's other victims disable through menu validation (02-architecture.md
+/// surface that offers ⌘Z — the Edit menu's own rows over the focused stack, the board toolbar's
+/// pair over the session's, a card window's over its own — validates through this object, so
+/// answering `false` here disables all of them at once, exactly as the lock's other victims disable
+/// through menu validation (02-architecture.md
 /// § "The lock's scope"). Putting it in the *provider* would have been the same answer in the wrong
 /// place: the stack is not the thing that is locked, the board is, and whatever provider a session
 /// binds — a future one included — must inherit the rule without reimplementing it.

Kanban/History/HistoryProviding.swift

@@ -279,8 +279,10 @@ public struct HistoryStep {
 ///   the seam is real", 12 — written when native undo was the free tier's; the proof it named was
 ///   two working substrates, which the pivot left standing and the 2026-08-08 excision then narrowed
 ///   back to one, `strategy/01-git-excision.md` — the seam itself is what stays proved either way).
-///   AppKit still needs an `UndoManager` to hand the responder chain; that adapter is
-///   `BoardUndoManager`, which sits *over* this protocol rather than inside it.
+///   The command surface still speaks `UndoManager` — the menu rows, the toolbar pair and AppKit's
+///   own asks all read one (13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules ▸ the command-surface bullet, re-ruled
+///   2026-08-08); that adapter is `BoardUndoManager`, which sits *over* this protocol rather than
+///   inside it.
 /// - **No persistence promise.** The native stack dies with the session (13); a git provider's once
 ///   survived relaunch because git does, before app-managed git was excised entirely (2026-08-08,
 ///   `strategy/01-git-excision.md`). Both were honest implementations of these seven members; only
@@ -326,7 +328,9 @@ public protocol HistoryProviding: AnyObject {
     func register(_ step: HistoryStep)
 
     /// Whether there is a step to cross. What the Edit menu's Undo row and the toolbar's Undo item
-    /// enable on, through the same responder-chain answer.
+    /// enable on — both of them through one `BoardUndoManager` over this seam, which is what keeps
+    /// the two surfaces from being two answers (13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules ▸ the command-surface
+    /// bullet, re-ruled 2026-08-08).
     var canUndo: Bool { get }
 
     var canRedo: Bool { get }

Kanban/History/NativeHistoryProvider.swift

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import Foundation
+import Observation
 
 // MARK: - NativeHistoryProvider
 
@@ -13,13 +14,16 @@ import Foundation
 /// ### Two arrays, and why not `NSUndoManager`
 ///
 /// This provider was an `NSUndoManager` for exactly one milestone, on the argument that the *command
-/// surface* is the platform's — Edit ▸ Undo and Edit ▸ Redo are the system's own nil-target
-/// `undo:`/`redo:` rows (11-command-nexus.md), the toolbar pair carries the same actions
-/// (`BoardToolbar`), and both light up, disable and **retitle** from whatever `UndoManager` the
-/// focused window hands back. All of that is still true, and none of it lives here: the retitling is
-/// `BoardUndoManager.undoMenuItemTitle` composing `undoMenuTitle(forUndoActionName:)` over the bare
-/// phrase this seam vends as a `String?`. The adapter is the `UndoManager`; the substrate never
-/// needed to be one.
+/// surface* is the platform's — Edit ▸ Undo and Edit ▸ Redo were the system's own nil-target
+/// `undo:`/`redo:` rows (11-command-nexus.md), the toolbar pair carried the same actions
+/// (`BoardToolbar`), and both lit up, disabled and **retitled** from whatever `UndoManager` the
+/// focused window handed back. The surface is the app's own now — replaced rows and explicit toolbar
+/// targets, reading the focused `BoardUndoManager` through `FocusedValues` (13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules
+/// ▸ the command-surface bullet, re-ruled 2026-08-08, the SwiftUI latch) — and the part of that
+/// argument this file rests on is untouched either way: none of it lives here, and the *vocabulary*
+/// is still the platform's, `BoardUndoManager.undoMenuItemTitle` composing
+/// `undoMenuTitle(forUndoActionName:)` over the bare phrase this seam vends as a `String?`. The
+/// adapter is the `UndoManager`; the substrate never needed to be one.
 ///
 /// What forced the change is the staleness milestone's third outcome. `HistoryStepOutcome.failed`
 /// means **the step stays put** — a disk error is retryable, so ⌘Z must still be able to reach the
@@ -51,7 +55,21 @@ import Foundation
 /// it until the session ends (`strandedSteps`; 13 ▸ Interaction with the trash, ruled 2026-07-31 —
 /// the skip-purge decoupling). Nothing can cross a stranded step and nothing can see one in the Edit
 /// menu; it is a hold outliving the history it belonged to.
+///
+/// ### Observable, because the command surface is the app's own now
+///
+/// The two stacks below back every `canUndo`, `canRedo` and `undoActionName` any surface reads, and
+/// since 2026-08-08 those surfaces are SwiftUI's and the toolbar's rather than `NSWindow`'s own
+/// validation (13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules ▸ the command-surface bullet, re-ruled that day: the Edit
+/// menu's rows read the focused `BoardUndoManager` through `FocusedValues`, and the toolbar pair
+/// carries explicit targets over the same object). Both want
+/// to re-derive when a step lands rather than when the user next moves the mouse, and both already
+/// know how: the menu rows are views, and `WindowToolbarController.trackValidationState` re-arms
+/// `withObservationTracking` over every predicate it was given. Making the *stacks* observed is what
+/// lets that machinery reach through the adapter — one macro here, and no notification of anyone's
+/// own anywhere above.
 @MainActor
+@Observable
 public final class NativeHistoryProvider: HistoryProviding {
 
     /// The two stacks, top last. Both hold steps oriented for crossing — see the type's note.

Kanban/KanbanApp.swift

@@ -221,11 +221,18 @@ struct KanbanApp: App {
             TrashCommands()
         }
 
+        // Edit ▸ Undo/Redo, replacing the system's own pair — **the command surface is the app's**
+        // (13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules, re-ruled 2026-08-08): the platform's nil-target rows resolve
+        // through `NSWindow.undoManager`, which a SwiftUI window latches empty before any delegate of
+        // ours can vend the board's, so the rows below read the focused session's stack themselves
+        // (`UndoCommands.swift`).
+        UndoRedoCommands()
+
         // The Edit menu: Find (⌘F), then its card-window stepping twins, placed after the standard
-        // Cut/Copy/Paste/Select All group, which is where macOS puts Find. Undo/Redo and the
-        // clipboard items are the system's and the board answers them as a responder
-        // (`ClipboardCommands.swift`) — a second item sharing one of those titles is what
-        // titles-are-API forbids.
+        // Cut/Copy/Paste/Select All group, which is where macOS puts Find. The clipboard items above
+        // them stay the system's, answered by the board as a responder (`ClipboardCommands.swift`) —
+        // a second item sharing one of those titles is what titles-are-API forbids. Undo and Redo
+        // were the system's too until the latch (the group just above).
         CommandGroup(after: .pasteboard) {
             FindCommand()
             FindSteppingCommands()

Kanban/UI/Board/BoardToolbar.swift

@@ -34,23 +34,37 @@ extension NSToolbarItem.Identifier {
 /// "The board popover deliberately has **no toolbar item** — the window-title widget is its
 /// committed home" — so there is no Board Info entry here, and its absence is pinned by a test.
 ///
-/// ### Undo and Redo are the responder chain's, exactly as the menu's are
+/// ### Undo and Redo carry the session's own manager, exactly as the menu's rows do
 ///
-/// The app ships no Undo/Redo rows of its own: those are the standard Edit-menu items, nil-target
-/// `undo:`/`redo:` resolved up the responder chain (`KanbanApp.menuCommands`). The toolbar items
-/// carry the same actions with the same nil target, so "matching their menu items" (03) is not a
-/// predicate written here — it is literally the same validation. Both reach the board window, whose
-/// `windowWillReturnUndoManager` hands back the session's `BoardUndoManager`, and both therefore
-/// enable exactly when that board has a step to cross and no read-only lock stands
-/// (13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules). **Every board has undo**, so there is no substrate-shaped
-/// disablement to write: 03's parenthetical about boards without undo was 06's *git* substrate,
-/// which a board once bound by being in git mode — on any tier since 12-editions.md ▸ PIVOT
-/// 2026-08-07, and under a Pro subscription before it, until app-managed git left the app entirely
-/// (`strategy/01-git-excision.md`, 2026-08-08) and there stopped being a substrate to bind.
+/// **The command surface is the app's** (13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules ▸ the command-surface bullet,
+/// re-ruled 2026-08-08): Edit ▸ Undo/Redo are the app's own rows reading the focused session's
+/// `BoardUndoManager` through the focus system (`UndoCommands.swift`), and the two items below carry
+/// an explicit target over **that same manager** — the session's, handed in by the window's host
+/// (`BoardWindowHost.configureWindow`). "Matching their menu items" (03) is therefore one *object*
+/// rather than one lookup: enablement is `canUndo`/`canRedo` on both surfaces, so a step landing, an
+/// empty stack, and the read-only lock reach the pair and the rows together and cannot disagree
+/// (`BoardUndoManager` answers all three, and is the only place any of them is decided).
 ///
-/// Their labels are the design's one exception to the menu-title rule: `NSUndoManager` rewrites the
-/// *menu* titles as the stack changes ("Undo Move Card"), which a toolbar label does not track, so
-/// these two are built from static labels (`ToolbarItemSpec.staticLabel`).
+/// The pair was nil-target `undo:`/`redo:` until that re-ruling, resolving up the responder chain to
+/// the board window's `windowWillReturnUndoManager` — a route a SwiftUI window makes unreachable by
+/// latching an empty undo manager of its own before any delegate of ours installs (diagnosed
+/// 2026-08-07). Nothing about the *design* changed: the same manager, the same predicates, reached
+/// by being handed it instead of by looking it up.
+///
+/// **Every board has undo**, so there is no substrate-shaped disablement to write: 03's
+/// parenthetical about boards without undo was the *git* substrate, which a board once bound by being
+/// in git mode — on any tier since 12-editions.md ▸ PIVOT 2026-08-07, and under a Pro subscription
+/// before it, until app-managed git left the app entirely (`strategy/01-git-excision.md`,
+/// 2026-08-08) and there stopped being a substrate to bind.
+///
+/// **Toolbar clicks are never text-routed.** The menu rows route ⌘Z to the first responder's own
+/// manager while a text surface holds the keyboard (13 ▸ Undo routing); clicking a toolbar button is
+/// not a keystroke aimed at an editor, so these two act on the board stack unconditionally — which is
+/// also the only stack the item can see.
+///
+/// Their labels are the design's one exception to the menu-title rule: the *menu* titles are rewritten
+/// as the stack changes ("Undo Move Card"), which a toolbar label does not track, so these two are
+/// built from static labels (`ToolbarItemSpec.staticLabel`).
 @MainActor
 enum BoardToolbar {
 
@@ -78,12 +92,17 @@ enum BoardToolbar {
     ///     and `@Observable` so the picker's checkmark, read when its menu opens, is never stale.
     ///   - session: the app's drag session, for the same guard the menu rows carry
     ///     (`ZoomCommands.isEnabled`).
+    ///   - undo: **the board session's stack**, for the Undo/Redo pair — the same `BoardUndoManager`
+    ///     the Edit menu's rows read through the focus system (13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules ▸ the
+    ///     command-surface bullet, re-ruled 2026-08-08). `nil` for a window whose session has gone,
+    ///     which the pair reads as an empty stack: disabled, and crossing nothing.
     static func specs(
         store: BoardStore,
         search: BoardSearchPresentation,
         zoom: BoardZoomStore,
         appearance: AppearanceStore,
-        session: DragSession
+        session: DragSession,
+        undo: BoardUndoManager?
     ) -> [ToolbarItemSpec] {
         [
             .mirroring(
@@ -132,17 +151,28 @@ enum BoardToolbar {
                     perform: { [weak zoom] in zoom?.step(.out) }
                 )
             ),
+            // The one pair whose predicate is not a menu row's *expression* but the menu row's own
+            // object: `canUndo`/`canRedo` on the session's manager, which is where the empty stack
+            // and the read-only lock are both already decided (`BoardUndoManager`). Weak like every
+            // other capture here — production hands these app-lived objects, and a spec must not be
+            // what keeps a torn-down session's stack alive.
             .staticLabel(
                 "Undo",
                 identifier: .boardUndo,
                 symbol: "arrow.uturn.backward",
-                behavior: .responderAction(NSSelectorFromString("undo:"))
+                behavior: .button(
+                    isEnabled: { [weak undo] in undo?.canUndo == true },
+                    perform: { [weak undo] in undo?.undo() }
+                )
             ),
             .staticLabel(
                 "Redo",
                 identifier: .boardRedo,
                 symbol: "arrow.uturn.forward",
-                behavior: .responderAction(NSSelectorFromString("redo:"))
+                behavior: .button(
+                    isEnabled: { [weak undo] in undo?.canRedo == true },
+                    perform: { [weak undo] in undo?.redo() }
+                )
             ),
             .mirroring(
                 menuTitle: "Show Trash",
@@ -219,11 +249,19 @@ enum BoardToolbar {
         search: BoardSearchPresentation,
         zoom: BoardZoomStore,
         appearance: AppearanceStore,
-        session: DragSession
+        session: DragSession,
+        undo: BoardUndoManager?
     ) -> WindowToolbarController {
         let controller = WindowToolbarController(
             identifier: identifier,
-            specs: specs(store: store, search: search, zoom: zoom, appearance: appearance, session: session),
+            specs: specs(
+                store: store,
+                search: search,
+                zoom: zoom,
+                appearance: appearance,
+                session: session,
+                undo: undo
+            ),
             defaults: defaultItems
         )
         // Centered against the window, not a flexible-space sandwich (03 ▸ Toolbar's placement

KanbanTests/HistoryProviderTests.swift

@@ -600,28 +600,32 @@ struct BoardSessionHistoryTests {
 
 // MARK: - The command surface
 
-/// **What the Edit menu's Undo/Redo rows and the toolbar's pair actually do** — driven through the
-/// platform machinery they ride on rather than described (11-command-nexus.md ▸ Menu commands, the
-/// M− row; 03-board-ui.md ▸ Toolbar; 13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules).
+/// **What a window hands AppKit, and what the board toolbar's Undo/Redo pair reaches** — the two
+/// halves of the command surface that are still platform-shaped, driven through the machinery they
+/// ride on rather than described (03-board-ui.md ▸ Toolbar; 13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules).
 ///
-/// ### The app writes none of this, which is exactly why it is tested
+/// ### What this suite covers since the surface became the app's own
 ///
-/// There is no custom Undo/Redo menu code anywhere: the rows are the system's own nil-target
-/// `undo:`/`redo:`, and the toolbar's two items carry the same selectors with the same nil target
-/// (`BoardToolbar`). Every claim the design makes about them — they enable on a stack with steps,
-/// they dim under the read-only lock, the *menu* rows retitle themselves to "Undo Move 3 Cards"
-/// while the *toolbar* labels stay static — is therefore a claim about `NSWindow`'s own validation
-/// reading the manager this app's window delegate hands back. Nothing here would fail loudly if the
-/// wiring came undone; it would just quietly stop working, which is what these tests are for.
+/// **The rows are no longer here.** Edit ▸ Undo/Redo are `CommandGroup(replacing: .undoRedo)` rows
+/// the app writes and routes itself (13 ▸ Rules ▸ the command-surface bullet, re-ruled 2026-08-08;
+/// `UndoCommands.swift`, pinned by `UndoCommandsTests.swift`), because the nil-target route they used
+/// to ride is unreachable on a SwiftUI window: `NSWindow` latches an empty undo manager during
+/// creation, before `HostedWindowController` installs, so `windowWillReturnUndoManager` is never
+/// consulted for them. These tests never reproduced that — they attach the delegate before the
+/// window's first read, which is exactly the ordering a real SwiftUI window denies — and that is the
+/// diagnosis, not a gap to close: the hook works when it is asked, and the app stopped depending on
+/// it being asked.
 ///
-/// ### What a headless run can and cannot reach
+/// What is pinned below is therefore what remains true and load-bearing:
 ///
-/// `NSWindow.validateMenuItem(_:)` and `NSWindow.validateUserInterfaceItem(_:)` are the two methods
-/// AppKit calls once a nil-target lookup has resolved to the window, and both answer fully in a test
-/// process — which is the half this app owns and the half that can break. The lookup *itself*
-/// (`NSApp.target(forAction:to:from:)`) needs a **key window**, and a unit-test host has none, so
-/// "the board window is what the chain resolves to when it is key" is the one link these tests
-/// cannot close; it is standard responder-chain behaviour with no code of this app's in it.
+/// - **The delegate hook itself**, which stays wired because it is the right answer wherever *AppKit*
+///   asks a window's delegate for a manager (`HostedWindowController.windowWillReturnUndoManager`).
+///   `NSWindow.validateMenuItem(_:)` is the sharpest instrument a headless run has for reading what
+///   that hook returned — enablement, the lock, the composed title, the two levels — so the menu
+///   rows still appear here as the *probe*, not as the subject.
+/// - **The toolbar pair's explicit target** (`BoardToolbar`), which validates and fires against the
+///   session's `BoardUndoManager` directly. That path is the app's own end to end, and it is the one
+///   a headless run can close completely.
 @MainActor
 @Suite("History ▸ the command surface")
 struct UndoCommandSurfaceTests {
@@ -641,13 +645,17 @@ struct UndoCommandSurfaceTests {
         return (window, controller)
     }
 
+    /// A row carrying the platform's own `undo:`/`redo:`, used here as a **probe** rather than as a
+    /// shipped surface: validating one against the window is how a test reads back the manager
+    /// `windowWillReturnUndoManager` returned, title composition and all. The app's own rows carry no
+    /// selector at all (`UndoCommands.swift`).
     private func menuItem(_ selector: String) -> NSMenuItem {
         NSMenuItem(title: selector == "undo:" ? "Undo" : "Redo", action: NSSelectorFromString(selector), keyEquivalent: "")
     }
 
-    // MARK: The menu rows
+    // MARK: What the delegate hands back
 
-    @Test("The Edit menu's rows read the board's stack, and retitle themselves from its step names")
+    @Test("A window's delegate hands back the board's stack, titles composing from its step names")
     func theMenuRowsReadTheBoardsStack() {
         let provider = FakeHistoryProvider()
         let manager = BoardUndoManager(history: provider)
@@ -667,9 +675,10 @@ struct UndoCommandSurfaceTests {
         provider.canUndo = true
         provider.undoActionName = "Move 3 Cards"
 
-        // 13's "the 06 vocabulary supplies menu titles ('Undo Move 3 Cards'), via NSUndoManager's
-        // dynamic retitling": the app never writes that string — the platform composes it from the
-        // bare phrase the seam vends, and validation is when it lands on the row.
+        // 13's "the vocabulary supplies menu titles ('Undo Move 3 Cards'), via dynamic retitling":
+        // the app never writes that string — the platform composes it from the bare phrase the seam
+        // vends (`BoardUndoManager.undoMenuItemTitle`), and this is where it lands. The app's own
+        // rows read the very same property, one step further out (`UndoCommandRouting.undoTitle`).
         #expect(window.validateMenuItem(undoRow))
         #expect(undoRow.title == "Undo Move 3 Cards")
         #expect(window.validateMenuItem(redoRow) == false)
@@ -752,8 +761,10 @@ struct UndoCommandSurfaceTests {
         #expect(boardWindow.validateMenuItem(boardRow))
         #expect(boardRow.title == "Undo Move 3 Cards")
 
-        // **No fall-through** (06-history-undo.md ▸ Undo routing): the card window's own stack is
-        // empty, so its row is disabled and ⌘Z beeps — it never reaches the board's step.
+        // **No fall-through** (13-native-undo.md ▸ Undo routing): the card window's own stack is
+        // empty, so its row is disabled and ⌘Z beeps — it never reaches the board's step. The rows
+        // enforce it the same way now, by reading one focused value that is one window's or the
+        // other's (`FocusedValues.undoStack`) and never both.
         #expect(cardWindow.validateMenuItem(cardRow) == false)
         #expect(cardRow.title == "Undo")
 
@@ -765,92 +776,93 @@ struct UndoCommandSurfaceTests {
 
     // MARK: The toolbar twins
 
-    @Test("The toolbar pair validates identically to the menu rows — and keeps its static labels")
-    func theToolbarPairMatchesTheMenuRows() throws {
+    /// A board toolbar wired the way `BoardWindowHost` wires one, over `undo`.
+    private func boardToolbar(store: BoardStore, undo: BoardUndoManager?) -> WindowToolbarController {
+        let domain = "dev.rzen.indie.Kanban.history-tests.\(UUID().uuidString)"
+        return BoardToolbar.controller(
+            store: store,
+            search: BoardSearchPresentation(),
+            zoom: BoardZoomStore(defaults: UserDefaults(suiteName: domain)!),
+            appearance: AppearanceStore(defaults: UserDefaults(suiteName: domain + ".appearance")!, apply: { _ in }),
+            session: DragSession(),
+            undo: undo
+        )
+    }
+
+    /// One real item, built by the real delegate.
+    private func toolbarItem(
+        _ controller: WindowToolbarController,
+        _ identifier: NSToolbarItem.Identifier
+    ) throws -> NSToolbarItem {
+        try #require(controller.toolbar(
+            controller.toolbar,
+            itemForItemIdentifier: identifier,
+            willBeInsertedIntoToolbar: true
+        ))
+    }
+
+    /// **The pair carries an explicit target now** (13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules ▸ the command-surface
+    /// bullet, re-ruled 2026-08-08) — the toolbar controller, over the session's `BoardUndoManager`,
+    /// where until that ruling both items carried nil targets and `undo:`/`redo:` selectors for the
+    /// responder chain to resolve.
+    ///
+    /// This replaces the pin that read the pair's validation *through the window* against the menu
+    /// rows'. The claim it was making — one answer on both surfaces — is unchanged and now stronger:
+    /// they are not two validations that agree, they are one object both of them read
+    /// (`bothSurfacesReadOneManager`).
+    @Test("The toolbar pair targets the session's stack — and keeps its static labels")
+    func theToolbarPairCarriesAnExplicitTarget() throws {
         let fixture = try makeBoard()
         defer { fixture.tearDown() }
         let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
-        let controller = BoardToolbar.controller(
-            store: store,
-            search: BoardSearchPresentation(),
-            zoom: BoardZoomStore(defaults: UserDefaults(suiteName: "dev.rzen.indie.Kanban.history-tests.\(UUID().uuidString)")!),
-            appearance: AppearanceStore(defaults: UserDefaults(suiteName: "dev.rzen.indie.Kanban.history-tests.\(UUID().uuidString)")!, apply: { _ in }),
-            session: DragSession()
-        )
         let provider = FakeHistoryProvider()
         let manager = BoardUndoManager(history: provider)
-        let (window, hosted) = hostedWindow(manager)
-        defer { hosted.detach() }
+        let controller = boardToolbar(store: store, undo: manager)
 
-        /// The real items, built by the real delegate — nil target, `undo:`/`redo:` actions.
-        func item(_ identifier: NSToolbarItem.Identifier) throws -> NSToolbarItem {
-            try #require(controller.toolbar(
-                controller.toolbar,
-                itemForItemIdentifier: identifier,
-                willBeInsertedIntoToolbar: true
-            ))
-        }
-        let undoItem = try item(.boardUndo)
-        let redoItem = try item(.boardRedo)
-        #expect(undoItem.target == nil, "nil target: the chain resolves it, exactly as the menu row's is")
-        #expect(redoItem.target == nil)
+        let undoItem = try toolbarItem(controller, .boardUndo)
+        let redoItem = try toolbarItem(controller, .boardRedo)
+        #expect(undoItem.target === controller, "the app's own target, not the responder chain's lookup")
+        #expect(redoItem.target === controller)
 
-        // `validateUserInterfaceItem` is what `NSToolbarItem.validate()` asks its resolved target,
-        // and `validateMenuItem` is what a menu row's asks — one predicate, two doors.
-        #expect(window.validateUserInterfaceItem(undoItem) == false)
-        #expect(window.validateUserInterfaceItem(redoItem) == false)
+        undoItem.validate()
+        redoItem.validate()
+        #expect(undoItem.isEnabled == false, "an empty stack dims it")
+        #expect(redoItem.isEnabled == false)
 
         provider.canUndo = true
         provider.undoActionName = "Move 3 Cards"
         provider.canRedo = true
         provider.redoActionName = "Rename Lane"
 
-        let undoRow = menuItem("undo:")
-        let redoRow = menuItem("redo:")
-        #expect(window.validateUserInterfaceItem(undoItem) == window.validateMenuItem(undoRow))
-        #expect(window.validateUserInterfaceItem(redoItem) == window.validateMenuItem(redoRow))
-        #expect(window.validateUserInterfaceItem(undoItem))
-        #expect(window.validateUserInterfaceItem(redoItem))
+        undoItem.validate()
+        redoItem.validate()
+        #expect(undoItem.isEnabled)
+        #expect(redoItem.isEnabled)
 
-        // 03's one exception to the label rule, proven rather than asserted: validation rewrote the
-        // *menu* row's title and left the toolbar item's label exactly where it was.
-        #expect(undoRow.title == "Undo Move 3 Cards")
+        // 03's one exception to the label rule, proven rather than asserted: the phrase the *menu*
+        // composes ("Undo Move 3 Cards") never reaches a toolbar label, whatever validation does.
+        #expect(manager.undoMenuItemTitle == "Undo Move 3 Cards")
         #expect(undoItem.label == "Undo")
         #expect(redoItem.label == "Redo")
         #expect(undoItem.paletteLabel == "Undo", "the customize palette shows the static label too")
     }
 
     @Test("A toolbar item's own validation lands on the board's answer, lock included")
-    func theToolbarItemValidatesThroughTheWindow() throws {
+    func theToolbarItemValidatesThroughTheManager() throws {
         final class Lock { var isOn = false }
         let lock = Lock()
         let fixture = try makeBoard()
         defer { fixture.tearDown() }
         let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
-        let zoomDomain = "dev.rzen.indie.Kanban.history-tests.\(UUID().uuidString)"
-        defer { UserDefaults.standard.removePersistentDomain(forName: zoomDomain) }
-        let toolbar = BoardToolbar.controller(
-            store: store,
-            search: BoardSearchPresentation(),
-            zoom: BoardZoomStore(defaults: UserDefaults(suiteName: zoomDomain)!),
-            appearance: AppearanceStore(defaults: UserDefaults(suiteName: zoomDomain + ".appearance")!, apply: { _ in }),
-            session: DragSession()
-        )
         let provider = FakeHistoryProvider()
         let manager = BoardUndoManager(history: provider, isReadOnly: { lock.isOn })
-        let (window, hosted) = hostedWindow(manager)
-        defer { hosted.detach() }
+        let controller = boardToolbar(store: store, undo: manager)
 
-        let item = try #require(toolbar.toolbar(
-            toolbar.toolbar,
-            itemForItemIdentifier: .boardUndo,
-            willBeInsertedIntoToolbar: true
-        ))
-        // The one link a headless run cannot make: `NSToolbarItem.validate()` resolves its target
-        // through the key window, and a test host has none. Standing the window in as the target is
-        // that lookup's *answer* — which is what nil-target means when a board window is key — so
-        // what this asserts is the item's own validation path, end to end from `validate()`.
-        item.target = window
+        let item = try toolbarItem(controller, .boardUndo)
+        // The link a headless run no longer has to fake: validation used to resolve a nil target
+        // through the key window, which a test host does not have, so the window stood in as the
+        // answer. The item is handed its target at construction now, so this is the shipped path
+        // end to end from `validate()`.
         #expect(item.autovalidates, "AppKit revalidates it on user events; the observation covers the rest")
 
         item.validate()
@@ -870,27 +882,67 @@ struct UndoCommandSurfaceTests {
         #expect(item.label == "Undo", "no crossing of validation ever moves the label")
     }
 
-    @Test("The pair's enablement is deliberately not a predicate of the toolbar's own")
-    func theSpecsAbstainFromEnablement() throws {
+    @Test("Clicking the item crosses the board's stack, through the target it was given")
+    func theToolbarItemCrossesTheStack() throws {
         let fixture = try makeBoard()
         defer { fixture.tearDown() }
         let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        let provider = FakeHistoryProvider()
+        provider.canUndo = true
+        provider.canRedo = true
+        let manager = BoardUndoManager(history: provider)
+        let controller = boardToolbar(store: store, undo: manager)
+
+        let undoItem = try toolbarItem(controller, .boardUndo)
+        let redoItem = try toolbarItem(controller, .boardRedo)
+        let target = try #require(undoItem.target as? NSObject)
+        let action = try #require(undoItem.action)
+
+        target.perform(action, with: undoItem)
+        #expect(provider.undoCount == 1, "the click reaches the session's stack, not a responder's")
+
+        let redoTarget = try #require(redoItem.target as? NSObject)
+        redoTarget.perform(try #require(redoItem.action), with: redoItem)
+        #expect(provider.redoCount == 1)
+    }
+
+    /// **One manager, two faces** — what "the toolbar mirrors the menu" means for this pair now that
+    /// neither of them goes through the responder chain (13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules ▸ the
+    /// command-surface bullet, re-ruled 2026-08-08; `BoardToolbar`'s header).
+    ///
+    /// This is where the retired `theSpecsAbstainFromEnablement` pin went. Its claim — that the pair
+    /// must never grow a second answer able to disagree with the menu's — is the same claim, made
+    /// the only way it can be now that the items *do* carry a predicate: the predicate and the row
+    /// are reading one object, so they cannot come apart.
+    @Test("The toolbar pair and the Edit menu's rows read one and the same manager")
+    func bothSurfacesReadOneManager() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        let provider = FakeHistoryProvider()
+        let manager = BoardUndoManager(history: provider)
         let specs = BoardToolbar.specs(
             store: store,
             search: BoardSearchPresentation(),
             zoom: BoardZoomStore(defaults: UserDefaults(suiteName: "dev.rzen.indie.Kanban.history-tests.\(UUID().uuidString)")!),
             appearance: AppearanceStore(defaults: UserDefaults(suiteName: "dev.rzen.indie.Kanban.history-tests.\(UUID().uuidString)")!, apply: { _ in }),
-            session: DragSession()
+            session: DragSession(),
+            undo: manager
         )
 
-        // Every other item mirrors its menu row's predicate; these two mirror the *mechanism*. A
-        // spec-level `isEnabled` here would be a second answer able to disagree with the responder
-        // chain's — and it would have to read a stack the toolbar has no route to, since the board's
-        // window is what owns that answer.
-        for identifier in [NSToolbarItem.Identifier.boardUndo, .boardRedo] {
-            let spec = try #require(specs.first { $0.identifier == identifier })
-            #expect(spec.isEnabled, "abstention, not enablement: AppKit's own validation decides")
-            #expect(spec.isOn == nil)
+        // The row's side of it, derived exactly as `UndoMenuRow` derives it: the focused stack, with
+        // nothing text-shaped holding the keyboard.
+        func rowIsEnabled() -> Bool {
+            UndoCommandRouting.canUndo(
+                UndoCommandRouting.routedManager(stack: manager, firstResponder: nil)
+            )
+        }
+
+        for state in [false, true, false] {
+            provider.canUndo = state
+            let spec = try #require(specs.first { $0.identifier == .boardUndo })
+            #expect(spec.isEnabled == state)
+            #expect(spec.isEnabled == rowIsEnabled(), "one object answers both surfaces")
         }
     }
 }

KanbanTests/ToolbarTests.swift

@@ -50,22 +50,46 @@ private func makeAppearance() -> AppearanceStore {
     return AppearanceStore(defaults: UserDefaults(suiteName: name)!, apply: { _ in })
 }
 
-/// The board catalog, with the three collaborators every test here supplies the same way: a fresh
-/// zoom store, a fresh appearance store, and a drag session with nothing in flight.
+/// The board catalog, with the four collaborators every test here supplies the same way: a fresh
+/// zoom store, a fresh appearance store, a drag session with nothing in flight, and no undo stack —
+/// which is the honest default for a suite whose subject is the *catalog*, and the Undo/Redo pair's
+/// own tests pass one (`undoPairCrossesTheSessionsStack`).
 @MainActor
 private func boardSpecs(
     store: BoardStore,
     search: BoardSearchPresentation = BoardSearchPresentation(),
     zoom: BoardZoomStore? = nil,
     appearance: AppearanceStore? = nil,
-    session: DragSession = DragSession()
+    session: DragSession = DragSession(),
+    undo: BoardUndoManager? = nil
 ) -> [ToolbarItemSpec] {
     BoardToolbar.specs(
         store: store,
         search: search,
         zoom: zoom ?? makeZoom(),
         appearance: appearance ?? makeAppearance(),
-        session: session
+        session: session,
+        undo: undo
+    )
+}
+
+/// A board stack with a real substrate behind it — the shape `BoardWindowHost` hands the toolbar
+/// (`AppModel`'s session composes exactly this pair).
+@MainActor
+private func makeUndo(isReadOnly: @escaping @MainActor () -> Bool = { false }) -> (BoardUndoManager, NativeHistoryProvider) {
+    let provider = NativeHistoryProvider()
+    return (BoardUndoManager(history: provider, isReadOnly: isReadOnly), provider)
+}
+
+/// One step that records its crossings — `HistoryProviderTests`' synthetic fixture, in the one shape
+/// this suite needs: what the toolbar pair must prove is that firing it *reaches* the stack, not what
+/// the stack then does to disk.
+@MainActor
+private func countingStep(_ name: String, crossings: @escaping @MainActor () -> Void) -> HistoryStep {
+    HistoryStep(
+        name: name,
+        undo: { _ in crossings(); return .applied },
+        redo: { _ in crossings(); return .applied }
     )
 }
 
@@ -240,17 +264,104 @@ struct BoardToolbarTests {
         #expect(specs.map(\.label) == [
             "New Card", "New Lane", "Zoom In", "Zoom Out", "Undo", "Redo", "Show Trash", "Appearance", "Search",
         ])
-        // The one exception 03 names: "the Undo/Redo toolbar items keep static labels —
-        // NSUndoManager rewrites their menu titles dynamically ('Undo Move Card…'), which a toolbar
-        // label doesn't track". They are also the two items with no action of their own: nil target,
-        // responder-chain selectors, "matching their menu items" by using the same lookup.
+        // The one exception 03 names: "the Undo/Redo toolbar items keep static labels — the menu
+        // titles are rewritten dynamically ('Undo Move Card…'), which a toolbar label doesn't
+        // track". They are ordinary buttons since the command surface became the app's own
+        // (13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules ▸ the command-surface bullet, re-ruled 2026-08-08) — the label
+        // exception survived the mechanism that motivated it, because it was never about *how* the
+        // item fires.
         for identifier in [NSToolbarItem.Identifier.boardUndo, .boardRedo] {
             let spec = try #require(specs.spec(identifier))
-            guard case let .responderAction(selector) = spec.behavior else {
-                Issue.record("\(identifier.rawValue) must reach the responder chain like its menu row")
+            guard case .button = spec.behavior else {
+                Issue.record("\(identifier.rawValue) must carry an explicit target over the session's stack")
                 return
             }
-            #expect(selector == NSSelectorFromString(spec.label.lowercased() + ":"))
+            #expect(spec.isOn == nil, "\(spec.label) is a push button, not a toggle")
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// **The pair's predicate is the menu rows' own object** (13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules ▸ the
+    /// command-surface bullet, re-ruled 2026-08-08): both surfaces read one `BoardUndoManager`, so
+    /// enablement here is `canUndo`/`canRedo` and nothing of the toolbar's own.
+    ///
+    /// This replaces the nil-target pin the pair carried until that re-ruling — the responder-chain
+    /// route it named is unreachable on a SwiftUI window, and what took its place is a predicate this
+    /// suite can read directly rather than one only `NSWindow` could answer.
+    @Test("Undo and Redo mirror the session's stack, and firing them crosses it")
+    func undoPairCrossesTheSessionsStack() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        let (manager, provider) = makeUndo()
+        let specs = boardSpecs(store: store, undo: manager)
+        let undo = try #require(specs.spec(.boardUndo))
+        let redo = try #require(specs.spec(.boardRedo))
+
+        #expect(!undo.isEnabled, "an empty stack dims it")
+        #expect(!redo.isEnabled)
+
+        var crossings: [String] = []
+        provider.register(countingStep("Move 3 Cards") { crossings.append("undo") })
+
+        #expect(undo.isEnabled, "a step on the stack lights it")
+        #expect(!redo.isEnabled, "and nothing has been crossed yet")
+
+        undo.activate()
+        #expect(crossings == ["undo"], "firing the item crosses the board's own stack")
+        #expect(!undo.isEnabled, "the stack is empty again")
+        #expect(redo.isEnabled, "and the crossed step is on the other one")
+
+        redo.activate()
+        #expect(crossings == ["undo", "undo"], "the synthetic step records both halves the same way")
+        #expect(undo.isEnabled)
+    }
+
+    /// The read-only lock disables the pair with every other mutating command, and it does it in the
+    /// one place it is decided — `BoardUndoManager.isReadOnly` (13-native-undo.md ▸ Rules ▸ locks;
+    /// 02-architecture.md § "The lock's scope"). The stack is untouched, which is why the items come
+    /// back when it clears.
+    @Test("The read-only lock dims the pair, steps and all")
+    func theLockDimsThePair() throws {
+        final class Lock { var isOn = false }
+        let lock = Lock()
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        let (manager, provider) = makeUndo(isReadOnly: { lock.isOn })
+        provider.register(countingStep("Move Card") {})
+        provider.register(countingStep("Rename Lane") {})
+        provider.undo()
+
+        let specs = boardSpecs(store: store, undo: manager)
+        let undo = try #require(specs.spec(.boardUndo))
+        let redo = try #require(specs.spec(.boardRedo))
+        #expect(undo.isEnabled)
+        #expect(redo.isEnabled)
+
+        lock.isOn = true
+        #expect(!undo.isEnabled, "disabled with every other mutating command")
+        #expect(!redo.isEnabled)
+        #expect(provider.canUndo, "an enablement answer, not a clearing — the stack survives")
+
+        lock.isOn = false
+        #expect(undo.isEnabled, "and resumes when the lock clears")
+        #expect(redo.isEnabled)
+    }
+
+    /// A window whose session has gone hands the catalog `nil`, and the pair reads that as an empty
+    /// stack rather than as an error — the same quiet the adapter gives a board with no provider
+    /// (`BoardUndoManager.history`).
+    @Test("With no stack in front the pair is dim, and firing it does nothing")
+    func theUndoPairAbstainsWithNoStack() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        let specs = boardSpecs(store: store, undo: nil)
+
+        for identifier in [NSToolbarItem.Identifier.boardUndo, .boardRedo] {
+            let spec = try #require(specs.spec(identifier))
+            #expect(!spec.isEnabled)
+            spec.activate()
         }
     }
 
@@ -292,7 +403,7 @@ struct BoardToolbarTests {
         defer { fixture.tearDown() }
         let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
         let search = BoardSearchPresentation()
-        let controller = BoardToolbar.controller(store: store, search: search, zoom: makeZoom(), appearance: makeAppearance(), session: DragSession())
+        let controller = BoardToolbar.controller(store: store, search: search, zoom: makeZoom(), appearance: makeAppearance(), session: DragSession(), undo: nil)
 
         // 03's three customization sentences: "right-click ▸ Customize Toolbar…, drag to rearrange,
         // system overflow and icon/text display options".
@@ -321,7 +432,7 @@ struct BoardToolbarTests {
         defer { fixture.tearDown() }
         let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
         let search = BoardSearchPresentation()
-        let controller = BoardToolbar.controller(store: store, search: search, zoom: makeZoom(), appearance: makeAppearance(), session: DragSession())
+        let controller = BoardToolbar.controller(store: store, search: search, zoom: makeZoom(), appearance: makeAppearance(), session: DragSession(), undo: nil)
 
         #expect(search.focusField == nil, "nothing to focus until the item exists")
 
@@ -356,7 +467,7 @@ struct BoardToolbarTests {
         let fixture = try makeBoard()
         defer { fixture.tearDown() }
         let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
-        let controller = BoardToolbar.controller(store: store, search: BoardSearchPresentation(), zoom: makeZoom(), appearance: makeAppearance(), session: DragSession())
+        let controller = BoardToolbar.controller(store: store, search: BoardSearchPresentation(), zoom: makeZoom(), appearance: makeAppearance(), session: DragSession(), undo: nil)
 
         let item = try #require(controller.toolbar(
             controller.toolbar,
@@ -390,7 +501,7 @@ struct BoardToolbarTests {
         defer { fixture.tearDown() }
         let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
         let search = BoardSearchPresentation()
-        let controller = BoardToolbar.controller(store: store, search: search, zoom: makeZoom(), appearance: makeAppearance(), session: DragSession())
+        let controller = BoardToolbar.controller(store: store, search: search, zoom: makeZoom(), appearance: makeAppearance(), session: DragSession(), undo: nil)
 
         _ = controller.toolbar(
             controller.toolbar,

KanbanTests/UndoCommandsTests.swift

@@ -0,0 +1,169 @@
+import AppKit
+import Testing
+@testable import Kanban
+
+// MARK: - Fixtures
+
+/// A board stack with a real substrate behind it — the pair a session composes (`AppModel`).
+@MainActor
+private func makeStack(isReadOnly: @escaping @MainActor () -> Bool = { false }) -> (BoardUndoManager, NativeHistoryProvider) {
+    let provider = NativeHistoryProvider()
+    return (BoardUndoManager(history: provider, isReadOnly: isReadOnly), provider)
+}
+
+/// A step that applies in both directions and does nothing else — this suite's subject is which
+/// manager a row *reaches*, never what crossing it does to disk.
+@MainActor
+private func step(_ name: String) -> HistoryStep {
+    HistoryStep(name: name, undo: { _ in .applied }, redo: { _ in .applied })
+}
+
+/// A text view's delegate vending a manager of its own — `CardBodySurface` and `CardRawSourceView`
+/// in one line, which is the shape 13-native-undo.md ▸ Undo routing calls "an editor's
+/// delegate-vended manager".
+@MainActor
+private final class UndoVendingDelegate: NSObject, NSTextViewDelegate {
+
+    let manager = UndoManager()
+
+    func undoManager(for view: NSTextView) -> UndoManager? { manager }
+}
+
+// MARK: - Routing
+
+/// **Which manager the app's own Undo/Redo rows answer with** (13-native-undo.md ▸ Undo routing, the
+/// predicate; ▸ Rules ▸ the command-surface bullet, re-ruled 2026-08-08 — the rule unchanged, its
+/// enactment moved from the window delegate to the command layer).
+///
+/// The decision is three lines that are invisible until they are wrong, which is `BoardUndoRouting`'s
+/// own reason for being a pure enum and this suite's for pinning every branch of the one above it.
+@MainActor
+@Suite("Undo commands ▸ routing")
+struct UndoCommandRoutingTests {
+
+    @Test("With nothing holding the keyboard, a row answers with the focused stack")
+    func noResponderAnswersTheStack() {
+        let (manager, _) = makeStack()
+
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.routedManager(stack: manager, firstResponder: nil) === manager)
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.routedManager(stack: nil, firstResponder: nil) == nil)
+    }
+
+    @Test("A responder that is not a text surface is not one — the stack answers")
+    func nonTextResponderAnswersTheStack() {
+        let (manager, _) = makeStack()
+
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.routedManager(stack: manager, firstResponder: NSResponder()) === manager)
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.routedManager(stack: manager, firstResponder: NSView()) === manager)
+        // A field that has focus without editing is the board's, not the field editor's: AppKit
+        // installs the field editor only when editing begins (`BoardUndoRouting.isTextEditing`).
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.routedManager(stack: manager, firstResponder: NSTextField()) === manager)
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.routedManager(stack: nil, firstResponder: NSView()) == nil)
+    }
+
+    @Test("An editor's own manager wins the keyboard, whatever the board stack holds")
+    func aFocusedEditorAnswersWithItsOwnManager() {
+        let (manager, provider) = makeStack()
+        provider.register(step("Move 3 Cards"))
+        let delegate = UndoVendingDelegate()
+        let editor = NSTextView()
+        editor.allowsUndo = true
+        editor.delegate = delegate
+
+        let routed = UndoCommandRouting.routedManager(stack: manager, firstResponder: editor)
+
+        #expect(routed === delegate.manager)
+        // **No fall-through** (13 ▸ Undo routing): the editor's stack is empty and the board's is
+        // not, and the row still answers with the editor's — "exhausting a focused editor's stack
+        // beeps; it never reaches board history". The row that renders over this is disabled, and
+        // the ⌘Z that fires against it beeps.
+        #expect(manager.canUndo, "the board has a step to cross, and the row will not cross it")
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.canUndo(routed) == false)
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.undoTitle(of: routed) == "Undo", "the editor's bare verb, not the board's phrase")
+    }
+
+    @Test("A text surface with no manager of its own answers nothing at all")
+    func aTextSurfaceWithNoManagerAnswersNil() {
+        let (manager, provider) = makeStack()
+        provider.register(step("Move 3 Cards"))
+        let editor = NSTextView()
+        editor.allowsUndo = true
+
+        // No delegate to vend one and no window to inherit one from: the responder chain ends here.
+        // `nil` rather than the board's stack, which is the same no-fall-through rule read from its
+        // other end — a text surface holding the keyboard is never a reason to reach past it.
+        #expect(editor.undoManager == nil)
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.routedManager(stack: manager, firstResponder: editor) == nil)
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.routedManager(stack: nil, firstResponder: editor) == nil)
+    }
+}
+
+// MARK: - Titles and enablement
+
+/// **What a rendered row says and whether it is live** — the two halves the rows route along with the
+/// action, because a row that advertised a step it would not cross, or swallowed ⌘Z while dimmed off
+/// the wrong stack, is exactly how no-fall-through fails from the user's side (13-native-undo.md
+/// ▸ Rules ▸ the command-surface bullet, re-ruled 2026-08-08).
+@MainActor
+@Suite("Undo commands ▸ titles and enablement")
+struct UndoCommandTitleTests {
+
+    @Test("No manager is the bare verb, disabled — a row with nothing in front of it")
+    func noManagerIsTheBareVerb() {
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.undoTitle(of: nil) == "Undo")
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.redoTitle(of: nil) == "Redo")
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.canUndo(nil) == false)
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.canRedo(nil) == false)
+    }
+
+    @Test("A named step composes the platform's title, and lights the row")
+    func aNamedStepComposesTheTitle() {
+        let (manager, provider) = makeStack()
+
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.undoTitle(of: manager) == "Undo", "an empty stack keeps the bare verb")
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.canUndo(manager) == false)
+
+        provider.register(step("Move 3 Cards"))
+
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.canUndo(manager))
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.undoTitle(of: manager) == "Undo Move 3 Cards")
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.canRedo(manager) == false, "nothing crossed yet")
+
+        provider.undo()
+
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.canUndo(manager) == false)
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.canRedo(manager))
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.redoTitle(of: manager) == "Redo Move 3 Cards")
+    }
+
+    /// The trim is why these helpers exist at all rather than the rows reading `undoMenuItemTitle`
+    /// directly: `BoardUndoManager` trims its own nameless composition, and a plain `NSUndoManager` —
+    /// a text view's, a field editor's — does not, leaving "Undo " with a trailing space on the row.
+    @Test("A nameless plain NSUndoManager still reads as the bare verb")
+    func aNamelessTextManagerTrimsToTheBareVerb() {
+        let text = UndoManager()
+
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.undoTitle(of: text) == "Undo")
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.redoTitle(of: text) == "Redo")
+    }
+
+    /// The read-only lock reaches the rows through the very object they read — one answer, wherever
+    /// it is asked from (13 ▸ Rules ▸ locks; `BoardUndoManager.canUndo`).
+    @Test("The read-only lock dims the row and leaves its name standing")
+    func theLockDimsTheRow() {
+        final class Lock { var isOn = false }
+        let lock = Lock()
+        let (manager, provider) = makeStack(isReadOnly: { lock.isOn })
+        provider.register(step("Move Card"))
+
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.canUndo(manager))
+
+        lock.isOn = true
+
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.canUndo(manager) == false)
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.undoTitle(of: manager) == "Undo Move Card", "the stack survives the lock")
+
+        lock.isOn = false
+        #expect(UndoCommandRouting.canUndo(manager), "and resumes when it clears")
+    }
+}