Build the styling system and shared style editor

One style-editor component, anchor-agnostic: a background grid (None
well plus the 12 palette colors) and a curated symbol grid (the
pathfinder's five-dozen set, leading well removing the icon key for
the level default), selection-aware across cards, lanes, and the
board itself. Batch edits compute per-dimension state — uniform,
mixed (no well selected), or an off-palette value labeled verbatim
outside the grids — and choosing a well applies to the whole target
set as one write bracket, skipping no-ops per field. The popover
tracks its target set live per the freshly ratified rule: targets
re-resolve by UUID on every reload, a vanished target leaves the set,
an emptied set dismisses the editor, and nothing ever silently
retargets to the board. Anchors landing now: Board > Style
(Opt-Cmd-S) and the card/lane context menus, which also carry the
quick-style recents row (app-wide, persisted, capped at six, None
never recorded) and the lane's width control twinning the menu
chords. The styling system's other two renders arrive with it: a
lane's background paints the C7 top-edge band, the board's paints
the window content background — malformed values paint nothing and
stay byte-identical on disk. 31 new tests.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01SR4XGjmBE16ZUYWpfFHXwY

Kanban/App/AppModel.swift

@@ -50,6 +50,13 @@ public enum AppPreferences {
     public static func setLastCardWindowSize(_ size: CGSize) {
         UserDefaults.standard.set(NSStringFromSize(size), forKey: lastCardWindowSizeKey)
     }
+
+    /// The quick-style row's recently-used backgrounds — an array of palette names / hex strings,
+    /// most-recent-first (03-board-ui.md § Styling ▸ Controls: "Recents are app-wide and persist
+    /// app-side (user preference, never board data)"; 11-command-nexus.md files it under the
+    /// preferences that "need no UI"). Read and written by `StyleRecents`, which owns the list rule;
+    /// the key is declared here with its neighbours for `WindowID`'s reason.
+    public static let quickStyleBackgroundsKey = "quickStyleBackgrounds"
 }
 
 // MARK: - Launch failures
@@ -147,6 +154,12 @@ public final class AppModel {
     public let storeRegistry = BoardStoreRegistry()
     public let boardRegistry: BoardRegistry
 
+    /// The quick-style row's app-wide recents (03-board-ui.md § Styling ▸ Controls). Owned here for
+    /// the registries' reason — app-scoped, and a test holds its own rather than colliding with the
+    /// app's — and reached by the context menus through the environment, since a `BoardStore` is
+    /// board-scoped and this list deliberately is not.
+    public let styleRecents = StyleRecents()
+
     // MARK: Sessions
 
     /// One open board window and everything hanging off it.

Kanban/KanbanApp.swift

@@ -121,12 +121,13 @@ struct KanbanApp: App {
             .keyboardShortcut("o", modifiers: .command)
         }
 
-        // The Board menu (11-command-nexus.md), in its inventoried order — Rename precedes the
+        // The Board menu (11-command-nexus.md), in its inventoried order — Rename, then Style…,
-        // width pair, with Open Card, Style… and the Move items still owed. Its items act on the
+        // then the width pair, with Open Card and the Move items still owed. Its items act on the
         // frontmost board window, which they reach through the focus system rather than through the
         // app model — see `BoardCommands.swift`, which also owns their validation.
         CommandMenu("Board") {
             BoardRenameCommand()
+            BoardStyleCommand()
 
             Divider()
 

Kanban/LiveStore/BoardStore.swift

@@ -645,6 +645,153 @@ public final class BoardStore {
         }
     }
 
+    // MARK: - Styling
+
+    /// One item a style gesture is about to act on: where its `index.md` is, and what the two styled
+    /// keys currently say there.
+    ///
+    /// The editor reads these for its per-dimension current-value display (`StyleFieldState.resolve`)
+    /// and `applyStyle` reads the *same* values to decide what is a no-op, so the display and the
+    /// write can never disagree about what is already on disk. `id` is `nil` for the board root,
+    /// which has no `ItemID` by design (see `ItemID`'s doc comment).
+    public struct StyleSubject: Sendable, Equatable {
+        public let id: ItemID?
+        public let folder: URL
+        public let background: FieldValue<String>
+        public let icon: FieldValue<String>
+    }
+
+    /// The live items `target` names, in display order — lanes left to right, each lane's cards top
+    /// to bottom.
+    ///
+    /// **Vanished targets are simply absent**, ancestor walk included: a tombstoned card, a card
+    /// under a tombstoned lane, and an id that names nothing all contribute no subject, which is the
+    /// same silent skip `commitRename` gives a vanished rename target — "nothing is ever written into
+    /// a vanished folder". A style editor whose set has emptied dismisses (`StyleEditorSession`), so
+    /// an empty result is a frame's worth of nothing to show rather than a state to handle.
+    public func styleSubjects(of target: StyleTarget) -> [StyleSubject] {
+        switch target {
+        case .board:
+            return [StyleSubject(
+                id: nil,
+                folder: rootURL,
+                background: snapshot.background,
+                icon: snapshot.icon
+            )]
+
+        case let .items(ids):
+            var subjects: [StyleSubject] = []
+            for lane in snapshot.lanes where !lane.isDeleted {
+                let laneFolder = rootURL.appendingPathComponent(lane.id.rawValue)
+                if ids.contains(lane.id) {
+                    subjects.append(StyleSubject(
+                        id: lane.id,
+                        folder: laneFolder,
+                        background: lane.background,
+                        icon: lane.icon
+                    ))
+                }
+                for card in lane.cards where !card.isDeleted && ids.contains(card.id) {
+                    subjects.append(StyleSubject(
+                        id: card.id,
+                        folder: laneFolder.appendingPathComponent(card.id.rawValue),
+                        background: card.background,
+                        icon: card.icon
+                    ))
+                }
+            }
+            return subjects
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// Which level `target` sits at — the editor's symbol grid needs it for its leading well, "the
+    /// level's default symbol" (03-board-ui.md § Styling ▸ Controls).
+    ///
+    /// A set naming any card is a card set: 04-interactions.md's cards-XOR-lanes rule means a live
+    /// selection never mixes the two, so the branch below is a total answer rather than a policy —
+    /// and if a mixed set ever reached here, `doc.text` is the level whose default would actually be
+    /// removed by the leading well.
+    public func styleLevel(of target: StyleTarget) -> StyleLevel {
+        switch target {
+        case .board:
+            return .board
+        case let .items(ids):
+            let namesACard = snapshot.lanes.contains { lane in
+                !lane.isDeleted && lane.cards.contains { !$0.isDeleted && ids.contains($0.id) }
+            }
+            return namesACard ? .card : .lane
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// Writes a style gesture — the **one** commit point every anchor shares (03-board-ui.md §
+    /// Styling ▸ Controls: "One component, one behavior, three anchors"), and the quick-style recents
+    /// row with them.
+    ///
+    /// **One bracket, whatever the target set's size.** "Choosing a well applies to the whole
+    /// selection — one gesture, one commit on git boards" (§ Controls), so every target's `index.md`
+    /// is rewritten inside a single `performWrite`: the churn rounds back as one app-mediated reload,
+    /// and the auto-committer (m7) sees one operation rather than N.
+    ///
+    /// **No-ops are skipped per dimension and per target** — `setLaneWidth`'s rule, for its reason: a
+    /// well clicked twice, or a batch where half the cards are already that colour, must not stamp
+    /// `modified` or mint a commit on the items that were already right. A dimension whose value is
+    /// already what the gesture asks contributes nothing; a target both of whose dimensions are
+    /// no-ops is dropped entirely; and a gesture that changes nothing anywhere never opens the
+    /// bracket at all.
+    ///
+    /// **`iconColor` is not a parameter, and that is the design**: it is "resolved — schema yes,
+    /// control no" (§ Capabilities). The field renders when hand-written and the app offers no
+    /// control for it, so there is nothing here to pass.
+    ///
+    /// Failure is `performWrite`'s: the banner is posted before the rethrow, which is swallowed here
+    /// like every other gesture with no second thing to do. A batch that fails partway leaves the
+    /// targets written before it written — the Writer is "atomic per filesystem operation, not per
+    /// gesture" — and the reload shows the true state, which is the honest one.
+    public func applyStyle(to target: StyleTarget, background: StyleChange = .keep, icon: StyleChange = .keep) {
+        let edits: [(folder: URL, background: StyleChange, icon: StyleChange)] = styleSubjects(of: target)
+            .compactMap { subject in
+                let background = Self.effective(background, against: subject.background)
+                let icon = Self.effective(icon, against: subject.icon)
+                guard background != .keep || icon != .keep else { return nil }
+                return (folder: subject.folder, background: background, icon: icon)
+            }
+        guard !edits.isEmpty else { return }
+
+        try? performWrite { () throws(BoardWriteError) -> Void in
+            for edit in edits {
+                // `.style(title: nil)`: `updateIndex` enriches it off the document it reads, so a
+                // failure names the item by the title it still has (see `WriteOperation.style`).
+                try BoardWriter.updateIndex(inItemFolder: edit.folder, operation: .style(title: nil)) { document in
+                    Self.apply(edit.background, to: FrontmatterKeys.background, in: &document)
+                    Self.apply(edit.icon, to: FrontmatterKeys.icon, in: &document)
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// `change` narrowed against what is already on disk: `.keep` when it would write what is
+    /// already there.
+    ///
+    /// The comparison is against the **valid** reading, not the written text: a malformed value —
+    /// `background: [a, b]`, a sequence where a scalar belongs — is never equal to a palette name, so
+    /// choosing a well always replaces it, which is what "choosing any well replaces it" (§ Controls)
+    /// promises about a value the app could not read.
+    nonisolated static func effective(_ change: StyleChange, against field: FieldValue<String>) -> StyleChange {
+        switch change {
+        case .keep: .keep
+        case let .set(value): field.value == value ? .keep : .set(value)
+        case .remove: field.isMissing ? .keep : .remove
+        }
+    }
+
+    private static func apply(_ change: StyleChange, to key: String, in document: inout FrontmatterDocument) {
+        switch change {
+        case .keep: break
+        case let .set(value): document.set(key, to: .string(value))
+        case .remove: document.remove(key)
+        }
+    }
+
     // MARK: - Creation
 
     /// Creates a lane at the board's right end — File ▸ New Lane ⇧⌘N (11-command-nexus.md).

Kanban/LiveStore/StyleModel.swift

@@ -0,0 +1,179 @@
+import Foundation
+
+/// The styling system's vocabulary — what a style gesture *is*, before any view or any write exists
+/// (03-board-ui.md § Styling). Three small value types, deliberately kept out of both the view layer
+/// and the Writer: the editor builds gestures out of them, `BoardStore.applyStyle` turns them into
+/// files, and every rule that can be stated without a screen or a disk is stated here where a test
+/// can reach it.
+
+// MARK: - What a gesture asks of one key
+
+/// What one style gesture asks of one frontmatter key.
+///
+/// **Three cases, because "leave it alone" and "there is no value" are different instructions.** A
+/// style editor always speaks about both dimensions at once — a click on a background well says
+/// nothing about the symbol — so `keep` is what the untouched dimension carries, and `remove` is
+/// what the two leading wells carry: "the None well … removes the `background` key" and the symbol
+/// grid's "leading well is the level's default symbol and removes the `icon` key" (03 § Styling ▸
+/// Controls). Writing `background: ""` instead would be a real (if blank) value and the exact
+/// mistake the remove-at-default family — the empty rename, the width landing on 1 — exists to
+/// avoid.
+///
+/// `set` carries the string that goes to frontmatter verbatim: a kebab-case palette name from the
+/// grid, or an SF Symbol name. Hex never arrives here from the app ("custom hex is not pickable
+/// in-app but stays fully honored from disk"), though nothing in the type forbids it.
+public enum StyleChange: Sendable, Equatable {
+    case keep
+    case set(String)
+    case remove
+}
+
+// MARK: - What a gesture is aimed at
+
+/// What a style edit acts on — "one component, one behavior, three anchors" needs exactly one
+/// vocabulary word for "who is being styled" (03-board-ui.md § Styling ▸ Controls).
+///
+/// **A set of items, or the board — never both, and never a mix of levels in spirit.** The editor is
+/// "selection-aware: it styles the selected cards or lane, and with nothing selected, the board", and
+/// 04-interactions.md's cards-XOR-lanes rule means a live selection is homogeneous by kind. Nothing
+/// here enforces that (a `Set<ItemID>` cannot), because the enforcement belongs to the selection
+/// model; what this type *does* guarantee is that a board target and an item target are structurally
+/// different things, which is what makes "it never silently retargets to the board" (§ Controls) a
+/// property of the code rather than a discipline.
+public enum StyleTarget: Sendable, Equatable {
+    case board
+    case items(Set<ItemID>)
+}
+
+/// Which level a target sits at — the one thing the editor needs beyond the values themselves,
+/// because the symbol grid's leading well is "the level's default symbol" (03 § Styling ▸ Controls)
+/// and the three defaults differ (§ Capabilities).
+public enum StyleLevel: Sendable, Equatable {
+    case board
+    case lane
+    case card
+}
+
+// MARK: - The current value across a target set
+
+/// What one style dimension currently reads across a whole target set — the editor's per-dimension
+/// display, and the whole of 03-board-ui.md § Styling ▸ Controls' batch rule: "a multi-selection
+/// shows per-dimension mixed state (no well selected, '—' where a value would read)".
+///
+/// Three states rather than an optional plus a flag, because the three mean genuinely different
+/// things to the grid: `unset` selects the leading well (None / the level default), `uniform`
+/// selects the matching well — or, when the value is off-palette, labels itself verbatim outside the
+/// grid — and `mixed` selects nothing at all.
+///
+/// **Deliberately a pure function of the fields.** It takes `FieldValue`s rather than a store so the
+/// interesting rules — what counts as agreement, what a malformed value reads as — are testable
+/// without a board on disk.
+public enum StyleFieldState: Sendable, Equatable {
+    /// No target carries the key. The leading well is the current value.
+    case unset
+    /// Every target carries the same value, written exactly this way.
+    case uniform(String)
+    /// The targets disagree. Nothing is selected; the display reads "—".
+    case mixed
+
+    /// The state of one dimension over `fields`, one per target, in any order.
+    ///
+    /// An **empty** list is `unset` rather than a fourth case: a target set with no live members is
+    /// about to dismiss the popover anyway (`StyleEditorSession.resolved(against:)`), and a frame
+    /// rendered with nothing selected is the honest thing to show in the meantime.
+    public static func resolve(_ fields: [FieldValue<String>]) -> StyleFieldState {
+        var iterator = fields.makeIterator()
+        guard let first = iterator.next() else { return .unset }
+        let firstText = written(first)
+        while let next = iterator.next() {
+            guard written(next) == firstText else { return .mixed }
+        }
+        guard let firstText else { return .unset }
+        return .uniform(firstText)
+    }
+
+    /// The value **as written on disk**, or `nil` when the key is absent.
+    ///
+    /// A malformed field — a sequence where a scalar belongs — reads as its raw text rather than as
+    /// nothing, which is what makes the off-palette display honest: "off-palette values display
+    /// leniently … labeled verbatim, outside the grids" (03 § Styling ▸ Controls) is about *what the
+    /// author wrote*, and a value the parser could not make a string of is exactly the case where
+    /// showing the bytes matters most. Agreement is judged on this same text, so two targets whose
+    /// `background` is malformed in the same way read as uniform — they do carry the same value.
+    public static func written(_ field: FieldValue<String>) -> String? {
+        switch field {
+        case .missing: nil
+        case let .valid(value): value
+        case let .malformed(raw): raw
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+// MARK: - The open Style… popover
+
+/// The Style… popover's live target — 03-board-ui.md § Styling ▸ Controls' settled lifecycle
+/// sentence, as a value: "The Style… popover tracks its target set live and dismisses when it
+/// empties … its target is the selection, re-resolved across reloads by 02-architecture.md's UUID
+/// rule — a member that vanishes or flips liveness leaves the set and the mixed-state display
+/// recomputes; a set emptied by a foreign reload dismisses the popover … it never silently retargets
+/// to the board".
+///
+/// **Held in `TransientBoardState`, not in a view**, and that is the whole design of it: the rule is
+/// a *reload* rule, and the container that re-grounds the selection, the drag, the pending cut and
+/// the rename editor on every applied snapshot is the one place a reload rule can be written once.
+/// The sibling it most resembles is `RenameEditor` — an item-referencing editor that a vanish
+/// discards — which is exactly the analogy the design draws ("the inline-rename discard applied
+/// here").
+///
+/// The two embedded anchors (the card window's Style section, the board popover's styling area) need
+/// none of this and get none: "the card sidebar dismisses with its card's window, and the board
+/// popover's target is the board itself".
+public struct StyleEditorSession: Sendable, Equatable {
+
+    /// Who is being styled. `let`, because a session never changes target — a session whose targets
+    /// all vanished is *gone*, not re-aimed.
+    public let target: StyleTarget
+
+    public init(target: StyleTarget) {
+        self.target = target
+    }
+
+    /// This session re-grounded on a freshly applied snapshot, or `nil` when it has nothing left to
+    /// style — which the presenting anchor reads as "dismiss".
+    ///
+    /// - **Items** are constrained through `ItemReferenceSet`, so liveness is **effective —
+    ///   ancestor-walked** for free: a card under a lane an agent just tombstoned renders nowhere and
+    ///   therefore leaves the set, exactly as it leaves the selection.
+    /// - **The board** never dismisses. It cannot vanish from its own snapshot, and a board target
+    ///   has no membership to lose ("a board-targeted editor has no vanish case").
+    ///
+    /// Nothing here can turn an item target into a board target: emptiness returns `nil`, and the
+    /// only way a board session exists is for one to have been opened that way.
+    public func resolved(against snapshot: BoardModel) -> StyleEditorSession? {
+        switch target {
+        case .board:
+            return self
+        case let .items(ids):
+            let live = ItemReferenceSet(ids: ids, liveness: .live).resolved(against: snapshot).ids
+            guard !live.isEmpty else { return nil }
+            return live == ids ? self : StyleEditorSession(target: .items(live))
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// The item the popover hangs off, or `nil` for the board window itself.
+    ///
+    /// **Derived, never stored.** Every candidate anchor — a card face, a lane header, the strip —
+    /// asks this one question of the current snapshot, so exactly one surface presents the popover
+    /// and the answer follows the target set across reloads: an anchor that vanishes hands the
+    /// popover to the next live target rather than taking it down with it (only an *emptied* set
+    /// dismisses). Display order — lanes left to right, cards top to bottom — is the tie-break, so
+    /// the popover lands on the first thing the user's eye would find.
+    public func presentationAnchor(in snapshot: BoardModel) -> ItemID? {
+        guard case let .items(ids) = target else { return nil }
+        for lane in snapshot.lanes where !lane.isDeleted {
+            if ids.contains(lane.id) { return lane.id }
+            if let card = lane.cards.first(where: { !$0.isDeleted && ids.contains($0.id) }) { return card.id }
+        }
+        return nil
+    }
+}

Kanban/LiveStore/StyleRecents.swift

@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+import Foundation
+import Observation
+import os
+
+/// The quick-style row's memory: the backgrounds this user has applied lately, most-recent-first
+/// (03-board-ui.md § Styling ▸ Controls — "Quick-style row, recents only … Recents are app-wide and
+/// persist app-side (user preference, never board data)").
+///
+/// ### Why it lives here, and not in the registry
+///
+/// `BoardRegistry`'s own doc names this type's contents as the example of what does *not* belong in
+/// it: "App-wide state that is not board-scoped — quick-style recents, the SSH host-key table, the
+/// last-used card-window size — lives *beside* this file, not in it" (02-architecture.md §
+/// Per-board app state). No board owns the list; styling one board's cards blue is what makes blue
+/// offer itself on the next board, which is the whole point of the row.
+///
+/// ### Two halves, so the rules are testable without a defaults domain
+///
+/// The list *rule* is `updated(_:with:cap:)` — a static pure function — and this object is its
+/// persistence and its observability. `@Observable` so every open context menu reorders the instant a
+/// colour is applied from anywhere; `defaults` injectable so a test drives a suite of its own rather
+/// than the user's.
+///
+/// ### What never enters the list
+///
+/// **The None well is not a colour.** It removes the `background` key, so there is nothing to
+/// remember and nothing a future row could offer — the recording call site simply never fires for it
+/// (see `StyleCommand.apply`). Empty strings are refused here too, belt over braces.
+@MainActor
+@Observable
+public final class StyleRecents {
+
+    /// How many the row keeps. Six is "capped ~6" from the milestone's shape and about what a
+    /// compact menu row carries without becoming a second palette — which is the one thing the
+    /// design says this row is not ("the pathfinder's second full-palette tier is gone").
+    public static let cap = 6
+
+    /// The recents, most-recent-first. Palette names or `#RRGGBB[AA]` hex — the same strings that go
+    /// to frontmatter, so a hand-written hex applied from a board's file could join the row without
+    /// any translation (nothing in-app can produce one today; § Controls' curated-in-app rule).
+    public private(set) var backgrounds: [String]
+
+    @ObservationIgnored
+    private let defaults: UserDefaults
+
+    private static let logger = Logger(subsystem: "dev.rzen.indie.Kanban", category: "style-recents")
+
+    /// - Parameter defaults: the domain to persist in. Injected for the reason `BoardRegistry` takes
+    ///   its storage URL: a test must be able to hold its own without touching the user's.
+    public init(defaults: UserDefaults = .standard) {
+        self.defaults = defaults
+        // Anything but an array of strings is treated as an empty list rather than as an error: this
+        // is a convenience, and a hand-edited or truncated preference must never be the reason a
+        // context menu cannot open (`BoardRegistry`'s "it never takes the app down", one scale down).
+        backgrounds = (defaults.array(forKey: AppPreferences.quickStyleBackgroundsKey) as? [String]) ?? []
+    }
+
+    /// Records `value` as the most recently used background and persists the new list.
+    ///
+    /// Move-to-front, deduped, capped — see `updated(_:with:cap:)` for the rule itself. Called on
+    /// **every** background application from every anchor (the editor's wells, the quick-style row),
+    /// which is what "recently used" has to mean for the row to be worth having; the write is
+    /// unconditional even when the value was already at the front, since re-persisting an identical
+    /// list is cheaper than deciding not to.
+    public func record(_ value: String) {
+        backgrounds = Self.updated(backgrounds, with: value)
+        defaults.set(backgrounds, forKey: AppPreferences.quickStyleBackgroundsKey)
+    }
+
+    /// The list rule, as a pure function: `value` to the front, its earlier occurrence removed, the
+    /// tail truncated to `cap`.
+    ///
+    /// An empty `value` returns the list unchanged. It is not a colour anyone applied — the two ways
+    /// to arrive at one would be a removal (which is the None well, and never recorded) or a
+    /// hand-written blank — and a blank swatch in the row would be an unclickable hole.
+    public static func updated(_ list: [String], with value: String, cap: Int = cap) -> [String] {
+        guard !value.isEmpty else { return list }
+        var updated = list.filter { $0 != value }
+        updated.insert(value, at: 0)
+        return Array(updated.prefix(cap))
+    }
+}

Kanban/LiveStore/TransientBoardState.swift

@@ -323,6 +323,18 @@ public final class TransientBoardState {
     /// out from under a commit that was about to read its draft.
     public private(set) var renameEditor: RenameEditor?
 
+    /// The open Style… popover's target, or `nil` when no popover is open (03-board-ui.md § Styling
+    /// ▸ Controls). See `StyleEditorSession` for the lifecycle it implements and why it lives here
+    /// rather than in a view.
+    ///
+    /// **Not an inline editor**, deliberately: it is not a title field, it does not hold the text
+    /// domain's keyboard, and `isEditingInline` must stay the answer to "may board commands run" —
+    /// Style… itself is *disabled* while an inline editor is open, so the two never coexist anyway.
+    ///
+    /// `private(set)` for `renameEditor`'s reason: its two transitions are the methods below, and a
+    /// session assignable from anywhere could be re-aimed behind the reload rule's back.
+    public private(set) var styleEditor: StyleEditorSession?
+
     /// Whether a title editor holds focus — 04-interactions.md's **focused-editor rule** as one
     /// boolean: "while an inline title editor — rename or the new-card placeholder — is focused,
     /// board-scoped menu commands (Delete, New Card, Paste, Move, Style, …) disable via menu
@@ -466,6 +478,26 @@ public final class TransientBoardState {
         renameEditor = nil
     }
 
+    // MARK: - The style editor's lifecycle
+
+    /// Opens the Style… popover on `target` — the menu item's call and both context menus'
+    /// (03-board-ui.md § Styling ▸ Controls).
+    ///
+    /// Replacing any session already open, for the inline editors' reason turned inside out: there is
+    /// one popover, so a second Style… is the first one being re-aimed by a fresh gesture. Unlike
+    /// `beginRename`/`beginPlaceholder` it does **not** clear the inline editors — it cannot coexist
+    /// with one (Style… disables while an editor is focused), so clearing them here would be a rule
+    /// about a state that menu validation already rules out.
+    public func beginStyleEditor(for target: StyleTarget) {
+        styleEditor = StyleEditorSession(target: target)
+    }
+
+    /// Closes the popover — the user dismissing it, and the anchor's response to a session the
+    /// reload rule emptied.
+    public func discardStyleEditor() {
+        styleEditor = nil
+    }
+
     // MARK: - Reload
 
     /// The one reload hook: re-grounds every piece of this container on a freshly applied snapshot.
@@ -508,6 +540,13 @@ public final class TransientBoardState {
     /// current universe does not have. It is not an `ItemReferenceSet` only because it is one
     /// optional rather than a set on a side — the rule it obeys is the same one.
     ///
+    /// **The style editor tracks its target set live** (03-board-ui.md § Styling ▸ Controls,
+    /// settled): a member that vanishes or flips liveness leaves the set — so the editor's
+    /// mixed-state display recomputes off the survivors — and a set emptied by a foreign reload
+    /// clears the session, which is how "the popover dismisses when it empties" reaches the screen.
+    /// It never becomes a board session on the way; `StyleEditorSession.resolved(against:)` owns
+    /// both halves.
+    ///
     /// `searchQuery` and `isTrashVisible` are deliberately not mentioned below. Neither references
     /// an item, so no snapshot can invalidate either — the query's *results* change with every
     /// snapshot, which is precisely why the results are not stored here.
@@ -516,6 +555,7 @@ public final class TransientBoardState {
         dragMembers = dragMembers.resolved(against: snapshot)
         pendingCut = pendingCut.resolved(against: snapshot)
         newCardPlaceholder = resolvedPlaceholder(against: snapshot)
+        styleEditor = styleEditor?.resolved(against: snapshot)
 
         // One universe computed once and asked three questions — the rename target's liveness, the
         // last-active lane's, and (via the placeholder above, which asks its own way) the anchor's.

Kanban/UI/Board/BoardCommands.swift

@@ -121,6 +121,48 @@ struct BoardRenameCommand: View {
     }
 }
 
+// MARK: - Style
+
+/// Board ▸ Style… (⌥⌘S) — the style editor's menu-bar anchor (11-command-nexus.md;
+/// 03-board-ui.md § Styling ▸ Controls).
+///
+/// **Selection-aware, with the board as the empty-selection case**: "Board window: selected cards or
+/// lane; nothing selected = the board". The item does not present anything itself — it opens the
+/// session (`TransientBoardState.beginStyleEditor`) and the board window's anchors decide which
+/// surface hosts the popover, which is what keeps the presentation attached to what is being styled
+/// rather than to the menu bar.
+///
+/// Validation is `acceptsBoardMutations` — the lock and the focused-editor rule, the latter naming
+/// Style in its own list of board-scoped commands (04-interactions.md ▸ Grammar) — plus one rule of
+/// its own: **a tombstoned selection disables it rather than falling through to the board.**
+/// Everything edit-shaped is disabled on tombstoned selections (04 ▸ The trash), and quietly
+/// restyling the board because the user had a trashed card selected would be the silent retarget
+/// 03 forbids.
+struct BoardStyleCommand: View {
+
+    @FocusedValue(\.boardStore) private var store
+
+    var body: some View {
+        Button("Style…") {
+            guard let store, let target = styleTarget else { return }
+            store.transient.beginStyleEditor(for: target)
+        }
+        .keyboardShortcut("s", modifiers: [.option, .command])
+        .disabled(styleTarget == nil)
+    }
+
+    private var styleTarget: StyleTarget? {
+        guard let store, store.acceptsBoardMutations else { return nil }
+        let selection = store.selection
+        guard !selection.isEmpty else { return .board }
+        guard selection.liveness == .live else { return nil }
+        // Re-resolved against the snapshot on the way in, so the session starts out holding only
+        // items that render — the same universe its own reload rule will hold it to.
+        let live = selection.resolved(against: store.snapshot).ids
+        return live.isEmpty ? nil : .items(live)
+    }
+}
+
 // MARK: - Lane width items
 
 /// Increase / Decrease Lane Width — **the width stepper's keyboard face** (03-board-ui.md § Lane,

Kanban/UI/Board/BoardView.swift

@@ -45,6 +45,10 @@ struct BoardView: View {
     /// needs the board's own window ref, which is the host's identity and not the board's.
     let openCard: (ItemID) -> Void
 
+    /// The app-wide quick-style recents, for the board-anchored style editor (03-board-ui.md §
+    /// Styling ▸ Controls).
+    @Environment(AppModel.self) private var appModel
+
     /// One resize at a time, per window. `@State` so it lives exactly as long as this board window's
     /// view does, which is the interaction's whole lifetime.
     @State private var resize = LaneResizeSession()
@@ -89,6 +93,12 @@ struct BoardView: View {
             .padding(spacing)
             .frame(maxWidth: .infinity, maxHeight: .infinity, alignment: .topLeading)
         }
+        .background(boardBackground)
+        // The board's own anchor for the Style… popover — the surface a board-targeted session hangs
+        // off, since the board has no item to attach to (`styleEditorPresentation`'s `nil` anchor).
+        .popover(isPresented: styleEditorPresentation(store, anchor: nil), arrowEdge: .top) {
+            StyleEditorPopover(store: store, recents: appModel.styleRecents)
+        }
         // The board is a focus target so the grammar keys reach it at all. The focus *ring* is off:
         // the strip is the window's content, not a control, and a rectangle around the whole board
         // would read as an error state.
@@ -105,6 +115,27 @@ struct BoardView: View {
         .onKeyPress(.escape) { handleEscape() }
     }
 
+    // MARK: - Styling
+
+    /// The board's `background`, painting "the board window's content background (the surface behind
+    /// and between lanes)" (03-board-ui.md § Styling ▸ Capabilities).
+    ///
+    /// Unlike the lane band and the card stripe this one is a **fill**, because at board level that
+    /// is what the design asks for — and it is why the board is the level 10-accessibility.md binds
+    /// its ≥ 4.5:1 rule to: text does sit on it. That runtime contrast computation (a hex background's
+    /// text colour, recomputed against the composited backdrop on appearance change) is not this
+    /// card's — what ships here is the palette path, whose twelve pairs are AA-verified at design
+    /// time.
+    ///
+    /// A value that resolves to nothing paints nothing, so the window keeps the standard background:
+    /// the same lenient degrade as the other two levels, and the bytes stay as written.
+    @ViewBuilder
+    private var boardBackground: some View {
+        if let color = Palette.color(for: store.snapshot.background) {
+            color
+        }
+    }
+
     // MARK: - Lanes
 
     /// One lane's strip slot, plus its trailing grab strip.

Kanban/UI/Board/LaneView.swift

@@ -32,17 +32,28 @@ struct LaneHeaderDrag {
 /// (`LaneReorderSession`). The one thing carved out of the drag region is the button, which sits in
 /// an overlay outside the gesture so a click on it can never be read as the beginning of a drag.
 ///
+/// ### The lane's one context menu
+///
+/// "The lane has one context menu (settled), invoked on the header or on lane empty space alike"
+/// (03-board-ui.md § Lane), so both surfaces attach the *same* `laneMenu`. It carries Style…, the
+/// quick-style recents row and the Width stepper today; Rename and Delete are m5's context-menus
+/// card, and their rows go into that same builder rather than into a second menu.
+///
 /// ### What is still a later card's
 ///
-/// The lane context menu (Rename, Style…, the quick-style recents row, the Width stepper, Delete),
+/// The search-aware filtering behind the count belongs to a later milestone. The card face is real
-/// the lane's own top-edge accent band, and the search-aware filtering behind the count all belong
+/// (`CardFaceView`); what it still owes is the cut treatment and the sole-selected card's attachment
-/// to later milestones. The card face is real (`CardFaceView`); what it still owes is the cut
+/// carousel.
-/// treatment and the sole-selected card's attachment carousel.
 struct LaneView: View {
 
     let store: BoardStore
     let lane: Lane
 
+    /// The app-wide quick-style recents (03-board-ui.md § Styling ▸ Controls — "never board data"),
+    /// read from the environment rather than threaded down the strip: the list belongs to the app,
+    /// not to this board, and every context menu in the window wants it.
+    @Environment(AppModel.self) private var appModel
+
     /// Interior masonry columns — the lane's width units, or the resize session's snapped count
     /// while this lane is being dragged. Passed in rather than read off `lane` so the live drag can
     /// override it (see `BoardView.laneSlot`).
@@ -61,12 +72,24 @@ struct LaneView: View {
     /// Spacing between cards, and between the interior columns.
     private let cardSpacing: CGFloat = 8
 
+    /// The lane plate's corner radius — shared by the selection treatment and the accent band, whose
+    /// top corners round to exactly this so the band reads as the lane's own edge.
+    private let cornerRadius: CGFloat = 10
+
+    /// C7 · full-column top edge (03-board-ui.md § Styling ▸ Capabilities).
+    private let bandHeight: CGFloat = 5
+
     var body: some View {
+        // `spacing: 0` and the padding moved inside: the accent band is **full-width** along the
+        // lane's top edge, so it must sit outside the content inset rather than in it.
+        VStack(alignment: .leading, spacing: 0) {
+            accentBand
             VStack(alignment: .leading, spacing: 8) {
                 header
                 cardStack
             }
             .padding(6)
+        }
         .background(selectionBackground)
         .overlay(selectionStroke)
     }
@@ -80,6 +103,82 @@ struct LaneView: View {
             .contentShape(Rectangle())
             .gesture(headerGesture)
             .overlay(alignment: .trailing) { newCardButton }
+            .contextMenu { laneMenu }
+            // The lane's half of the Style… popover. Anchored on the header because that is the
+            // lane's own furniture — `styleEditorPresentation` decides whether this lane is the
+            // session's presenting anchor at all.
+            .popover(isPresented: styleEditorPresentation(store, anchor: lane.id), arrowEdge: .bottom) {
+                StyleEditorPopover(store: store, recents: appModel.styleRecents)
+            }
+    }
+
+    /// The lane's colour as C7 — "a lane's color paints a full-width band along its top edge; the
+    /// surfaces themselves keep the standard chrome, so colored title text never sits on a colored
+    /// fill" (03-board-ui.md § Styling ▸ Capabilities, settled in the pathfinder's treatment
+    /// shootout).
+    ///
+    /// A value that resolves to nothing paints **no band**, and the bytes stay on disk exactly as
+    /// written — the card stripe's rule, for its reason: there is no sensible default colour for
+    /// "the author meant something we can't read", and a wrong colour is worse than none.
+    @ViewBuilder
+    private var accentBand: some View {
+        if let color = Palette.color(for: lane.background) {
+            UnevenRoundedRectangle(topLeadingRadius: cornerRadius, topTrailingRadius: cornerRadius)
+                .fill(color)
+                .frame(height: bandHeight)
+                .frame(maxWidth: .infinity)
+                // Decoration only: the header below it owns the lane's click and drag.
+                .allowsHitTesting(false)
+        }
+    }
+
+    // MARK: - The lane's one context menu
+
+    /// Rename, Style…, the quick-style recents row, the Width control, Delete (11-command-nexus.md ▸
+    /// Context menus) — the style trio and the width stepper today.
+    @ViewBuilder
+    private var laneMenu: some View {
+        // m5-context-menus: Rename (a twin of Board ▸ Rename) and Delete (a twin of File ▸ Delete)
+        // belong to the card that brings the selection model and the delete command; both are rows
+        // of *this* menu when they land, not of a second one.
+        StyleMenuItems(store: store, recents: appModel.styleRecents, target: styleTarget)
+
+        Divider()
+
+        widthControl
+    }
+
+    /// The width stepper — "the header context menu's Width control (stepper, uncapped) is the
+    /// precise control … it never touches the window, it **re-divides** the existing width across the
+    /// new unit total" (03-board-ui.md § Lane). A +/− pair rather than a slider or a fixed 1×/2×/3×
+    /// list, because the control is uncapped in one direction and floored at one unit in the other.
+    ///
+    /// **Single-lane by nature**, unlike the style entries above it: the design gives the batch to
+    /// the ⌥⌘→/⌥⌘← menu items and keeps the stepper on the lane whose menu is open.
+    private var widthControl: some View {
+        let units = LaneLayoutMath.displayUnits(of: lane)
+        return Section("Width — \(units)×") {
+            Button("Increase Width") {
+                store.setLaneWidth(lane.id, units: units + 1)
+            }
+            Button("Decrease Width") {
+                store.setLaneWidth(lane.id, units: units - 1)
+            }
+            // A one-unit lane cannot shrink (`width` is ≥ 1), and an item whose only outcome is a
+            // no-op reads better disabled than dead — `LaneWidthCommands`' rule, same floor.
+            .disabled(units <= 1)
+        }
+        .disabled(!store.acceptsBoardMutations)
+    }
+
+    /// What this lane's menu styles: the whole selection when this lane is part of it, else this lane
+    /// alone — standard macOS context-menu targeting (the pathfinder's `styleSelection`, kept).
+    /// Right-clicking something outside the selection acts on what was clicked.
+    private var styleTarget: StyleTarget {
+        guard store.selection.liveness == .live, store.selection.ids.contains(lane.id) else {
+            return .items([lane.id])
+        }
+        return .items(store.selection.ids)
     }
 
     private var headerContent: some View {
@@ -223,6 +322,9 @@ struct LaneView: View {
                 store.transient.beginPlaceholder(inLane: lane.id)
             }
             .onTapGesture { toggleLaneSelection() }
+            // The same menu the header carries — "one menu, invoked on the header or lane empty
+            // space alike" (03-board-ui.md § Lane, settled).
+            .contextMenu { laneMenu }
         }
     }
 
@@ -363,6 +465,9 @@ private struct CardFaceView: View {
     let card: Card
     let openCard: (ItemID) -> Void
 
+    /// The app-wide quick-style recents — see `LaneView`'s own note.
+    @Environment(AppModel.self) private var appModel
+
     /// The plate's corner radius — shared with the accent stripe, which rounds its left corners to
     /// exactly this so the stripe reads as part of the card's edge rather than a bar laid over it.
     private let cornerRadius: CGFloat = 8
@@ -396,6 +501,31 @@ private struct CardFaceView: View {
         // slow-second-click rename, no accidental edit on a hesitant click. Rename is Return or
         // Board ▸ Rename.
         .onTapGesture { store.select([card.id], liveness: .live) }
+        .contextMenu { cardMenu }
+        .popover(isPresented: styleEditorPresentation(store, anchor: card.id), arrowEdge: .bottom) {
+            StyleEditorPopover(store: store, recents: appModel.styleRecents)
+        }
+    }
+
+    // MARK: - Context menu
+
+    /// Open, Rename, Style…, the quick-style recents row, Delete (11-command-nexus.md ▸ Context
+    /// menus) — the style pair today.
+    @ViewBuilder
+    private var cardMenu: some View {
+        // m5-context-menus: Open (a twin of Board ▸ Open Card, always the clicked card alone —
+        // a card window is tied to one card), Rename, and Delete land with the selection-model and
+        // delete cards, as rows of this same menu.
+        StyleMenuItems(store: store, recents: appModel.styleRecents, target: styleTarget)
+    }
+
+    /// What this card's menu styles: the whole selection when this card is part of it, else this card
+    /// alone. Standard macOS — right-clicking outside the selection acts on what was clicked.
+    private var styleTarget: StyleTarget {
+        guard store.selection.liveness == .live, store.selection.ids.contains(card.id) else {
+            return .items([card.id])
+        }
+        return .items(store.selection.ids)
     }
 
     // MARK: - Title row

Kanban/UI/ItemSymbol.swift

@@ -32,6 +32,18 @@ enum ItemSymbol {
         return name
     }
 
+    /// The default for a level — the style editor's symbol grid needs the three defaults as a
+    /// function rather than as three constants, because its leading well is "the level's default
+    /// symbol" and the editor is one component serving all three (03-board-ui.md § Styling ▸
+    /// Controls).
+    static func `default`(for level: StyleLevel) -> String {
+        switch level {
+        case .board: board
+        case .lane: lane
+        case .card: card
+        }
+    }
+
     /// Whether the running system can draw `name` as an SF Symbol.
     ///
     /// Uncached deliberately. The lookup is a bundle-backed symbol resolution that AppKit itself

Kanban/UI/Palette.swift

@@ -63,9 +63,46 @@ enum Palette {
 }
 
 // The pathfinder's panel round-trip helpers (`NSColor.paletteHexString`, `Palette.name(forHex:)`)
-// and its swatch drawing are deliberately not ported yet: nothing writes a colour until the style
+// stay unported: they exist to turn a colour the *system picker* returned back into a palette name,
-// editor lands, and an unused writer is a claim about a surface that doesn't exist. The styling
+// and this app has no colour picker — "custom hex is not pickable in-app" (03 § Styling ▸ Controls)
-// card brings them back when the editor needs them.
+// makes the whole round trip a surface that doesn't exist. Its swatch drawing, on the other hand, is
+// below: a menu can only render `Image`/`Text`, so the quick-style row's dots have to be pictures.
+
+// MARK: - Menu swatches
+
+/// A colour value drawn as a picture, for the one surface that cannot take a SwiftUI shape: **menu
+/// items**. AppKit renders a menu row from its label's image and text, so the quick-style recents row
+/// (03-board-ui.md § Styling ▸ Controls) needs an `NSImage` per dot where the editor's own wells are
+/// ordinary views.
+enum PaletteSwatch {
+
+    /// A filled dot for `value` (a palette name or `#RRGGBB[AA]` hex), hairline-bordered.
+    ///
+    /// The border is not decoration: the background palette contains `chalk` (`#FFFFFF`), and an
+    /// unbordered white dot on a light menu is an invisible menu item — the same reason the editor's
+    /// wells are stroked (10-accessibility.md's contrast stance applied to the app's own chrome).
+    ///
+    /// A value that resolves to nothing draws the border alone rather than a guessed colour, matching
+    /// every other lenient rendering here: there is no colour, so show none.
+    static func circleImage(for value: String, diameter: CGFloat = 14) -> NSImage {
+        let color = Palette.nsColor(for: value)
+        return NSImage(size: NSSize(width: diameter, height: diameter), flipped: false) { rect in
+            let inset = rect.insetBy(dx: 0.5, dy: 0.5)
+            let path = NSBezierPath(ovalIn: inset)
+            // Under a translucent colour the menu's own backdrop would show through unevenly across
+            // appearances; filling the standard control backdrop first makes the dot composite the
+            // same way in light and dark. An opaque colour covers it completely.
+            NSColor.textBackgroundColor.setFill()
+            path.fill()
+            color?.setFill()
+            path.fill()
+            NSColor.separatorColor.setStroke()
+            path.lineWidth = 1
+            path.stroke()
+            return true
+        }
+    }
+}
 
 extension Palette {
 

Kanban/UI/StyleEditor.swift

@@ -0,0 +1,561 @@
+import AppKit
+import SwiftUI
+
+/// **The one style editor** — "a background palette grid and a curated symbol grid — presented from
+/// three anchors" (03-board-ui.md § Styling ▸ Controls), plus the two small surfaces that stand
+/// beside it: the quick-style recents row the context menus carry, and the funnel every anchor's
+/// writes pass through.
+///
+/// This file is deliberately anchor-agnostic. It knows a `BoardStore`, a `StyleTarget` and the app's
+/// recents, and nothing at all about popovers, card-window sidebars or the board popover — which is
+/// what lets "one component, one behavior, three anchors" be a fact about the code rather than a
+/// promise. The Style… popover's *lifecycle* lives elsewhere for the same reason: it is a reload
+/// rule, and it belongs with the other reload rules (`StyleEditorSession`, `TransientBoardState`).
+
+// MARK: - The write funnel
+
+/// Where every style application from every anchor goes: the store's write, and the recents list
+/// that the write feeds.
+///
+/// **It exists so "updated on every background application from any anchor" is structural.** Two
+/// surfaces apply backgrounds — the editor's wells and the quick-style row — and the recents list is
+/// app-wide state a board store has no business knowing about (02-architecture.md § Per-board app
+/// state), so neither of them may be trusted to remember it and neither may be given the job alone.
+///
+/// **The None well never records.** It is a *removal* — `background` leaves the file — so there is no
+/// colour to remember; only `.set` reaches `StyleRecents.record`.
+@MainActor
+enum StyleCommand {
+    static func apply(
+        background: StyleChange = .keep,
+        icon: StyleChange = .keep,
+        to target: StyleTarget,
+        in store: BoardStore,
+        recents: StyleRecents
+    ) {
+        store.applyStyle(to: target, background: background, icon: icon)
+        if case let .set(value) = background {
+            recents.record(value)
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+// MARK: - The curated symbol set
+
+/// The symbol grid's contents — "a hand-picked set (roughly five dozen kanban-relevant SF Symbols)"
+/// (03-board-ui.md § Styling ▸ Controls).
+///
+/// The pathfinder's two quick-pick lists (card markers, container-like stages) and its browser
+/// fallback set are the seed, widened to one grid's worth: the rewrite has no full-catalog browser
+/// to fall back to — "no full-browser escape hatch in-app; the raw file is the escape hatch" — so
+/// this set has to stand alone for the common case, and it is grouped by what a board item *is*
+/// rather than alphabetically so scanning it works.
+///
+/// **Filtered through `ItemSymbol.exists` at read time**, for the same reason the renderer is
+/// lenient: symbol inventories grow per macOS release, and a name this OS does not know would draw
+/// an empty well. A curated list is a convenience, never a claim about the running system.
+enum CuratedSymbols {
+
+    /// Every well in the grid, in order. Deliberately a stored constant rather than a computed
+    /// property: the list is the design decision, and `available` is the only thing the OS gets a
+    /// say in.
+    static let all: [String] = [
+        // Status and flow
+        "flag", "flag.checkered", "star", "bolt", "checkmark.circle", "checkmark.seal",
+        "xmark.circle", "exclamationmark.triangle", "questionmark.circle", "circle",
+        "pause.circle", "play.circle",
+        // Time
+        "hourglass", "clock", "alarm", "calendar", "timer",
+        // Work and craft
+        "hammer", "wrench.and.screwdriver", "gearshape", "ant", "lightbulb", "paintbrush", "pencil",
+        // Documents
+        "doc.text", "doc.on.doc", "note.text", "list.bullet", "list.bullet.rectangle",
+        "checklist", "book", "bookmark",
+        // Containers and stages
+        "tray", "tray.full", "folder", "archivebox", "shippingbox", "square.stack",
+        // People and communication
+        "person", "person.2", "bubble.left", "bubble.left.and.bubble.right", "envelope", "megaphone",
+        // Data and systems
+        "chart.bar", "chart.pie", "chart.line.uptrend.xyaxis", "terminal", "network",
+        // Markers
+        "tag", "paperclip", "link", "pin", "target", "flame", "leaf", "sparkles", "heart",
+        // Motion
+        "arrow.triangle.branch", "arrow.triangle.2.circlepath", "arrow.up.arrow.down",
+        // Other
+        "lock", "key", "trash",
+    ]
+
+    /// The set this Mac can actually draw.
+    static var available: [String] { all.filter(ItemSymbol.exists) }
+}
+
+// MARK: - The editor
+
+/// The style editor: a background section and a symbol section, each a leading "no value" well
+/// followed by its grid, with the target set's current value stated beside the section title.
+///
+/// ### What it shows for a batch
+///
+/// Per dimension, `StyleFieldState`: every target agreeing shows that well selected, a disagreement
+/// shows nothing selected and reads "—" ("Mixed" to VoiceOver — 10-accessibility.md's
+/// never-colour-alone rule), and an off-palette value — a hand-written hex, an uncurated symbol —
+/// states itself verbatim beside the title, outside the grids, where "choosing any well replaces
+/// it".
+///
+/// ### Keyboard
+///
+/// "Inside the editor the grids are arrow-navigable and every well Tab-reachable" (§ Controls,
+/// 10-accessibility.md): every well is a focusable button, and each grid moves focus by one on
+/// ←/→ and by a row on ↑/↓.
+struct StyleEditorView: View {
+
+    let store: BoardStore
+    let recents: StyleRecents
+    let target: StyleTarget
+
+    /// Wells per row. Thirteen background wells (None + the twelve) fall as 7 + 6, which keeps the
+    /// popover narrow enough to sit beside a card without covering the lane it came from.
+    private let backgroundColumns = 7
+    private let symbolColumns = 8
+
+    var body: some View {
+        let subjects = store.styleSubjects(of: target)
+        let background = StyleFieldState.resolve(subjects.map(\.background))
+        let icon = StyleFieldState.resolve(subjects.map(\.icon))
+
+        VStack(alignment: .leading, spacing: 14) {
+            targetCaption(count: subjects.count)
+            backgroundSection(background)
+            Divider()
+            symbolSection(icon)
+        }
+        .padding(14)
+        .frame(width: 268)
+        // The read-only lock and the focused-editor rule disable every mutating surface, not only
+        // the menu items (02-architecture.md § The lock's scope) — an editor whose wells would be
+        // refused should not look available. The popover stays *open*: the lock is a condition the
+        // banner is already explaining, not a reason to yank a surface out from under the pointer.
+        .disabled(!store.acceptsBoardMutations)
+    }
+
+    /// Who is being styled — one quiet line, because a batch gesture with no statement of its scope
+    /// is the one place this editor could silently do more than the user meant.
+    private func targetCaption(count: Int) -> some View {
+        Text(caption(count: count))
+            .font(.caption)
+            .foregroundStyle(.secondary)
+    }
+
+    private func caption(count: Int) -> String {
+        switch store.styleLevel(of: target) {
+        case .board: "Board"
+        case .lane: count == 1 ? "Lane" : "\(count) lanes"
+        case .card: count == 1 ? "Card" : "\(count) cards"
+        }
+    }
+
+    // MARK: - Background
+
+    /// The twelve palette wells and their leading None (03-board-ui.md § Styling ▸ Controls:
+    /// "palette-only in-app … plus a leading **None** well that removes the `background` key").
+    private func backgroundSection(_ state: StyleFieldState) -> some View {
+        VStack(alignment: .leading, spacing: 8) {
+            sectionHeader("Background", current: backgroundCurrent(state))
+            StyleWellGrid(
+                wells: backgroundWells(state),
+                columns: backgroundColumns,
+                apply: { change in
+                    StyleCommand.apply(background: change, to: target, in: store, recents: recents)
+                }
+            )
+        }
+    }
+
+    private func backgroundWells(_ state: StyleFieldState) -> [StyleWell] {
+        var wells = [StyleWell(id: 0, face: .noValue, label: "None", change: .remove, isSelected: state == .unset)]
+        for (index, color) in Palette.backgrounds.enumerated() {
+            wells.append(StyleWell(
+                id: index + 1,
+                face: .color(color.name),
+                label: color.name,
+                change: .set(color.name),
+                isSelected: state == .uniform(color.name)
+            ))
+        }
+        return wells
+    }
+
+    /// What the background dimension currently reads — including the verbatim off-palette case, which
+    /// is exactly why this is a chip beside the title and not a highlighted well.
+    private func backgroundCurrent(_ state: StyleFieldState) -> CurrentValue {
+        switch state {
+        case .unset: CurrentValue(face: .noValue, text: "None")
+        case .mixed: CurrentValue(face: nil, text: "—", spoken: "Mixed")
+        case let .uniform(value): CurrentValue(face: .color(value), text: value)
+        }
+    }
+
+    // MARK: - Symbol
+
+    /// The curated grid and its leading default well — "its leading well is the level's default
+    /// symbol and removes the `icon` key" (§ Controls).
+    private func symbolSection(_ state: StyleFieldState) -> some View {
+        let level = store.styleLevel(of: target)
+        let fallback = ItemSymbol.default(for: level)
+        return VStack(alignment: .leading, spacing: 8) {
+            sectionHeader("Symbol", current: symbolCurrent(state, fallback: fallback))
+            ScrollView(.vertical) {
+                StyleWellGrid(
+                    wells: symbolWells(state, fallback: fallback),
+                    columns: symbolColumns,
+                    apply: { change in
+                        StyleCommand.apply(icon: change, to: target, in: store, recents: recents)
+                    }
+                )
+            }
+            // Eight rows or so before it scrolls: enough that the grid reads as a set rather than as
+            // a strip, short enough that the popover fits beside a card on a laptop screen.
+            .frame(maxHeight: 168)
+        }
+    }
+
+    private func symbolWells(_ state: StyleFieldState, fallback: String) -> [StyleWell] {
+        var wells = [StyleWell(
+            id: 0,
+            face: .defaultSymbol(fallback),
+            label: "Default (\(fallback))",
+            change: .remove,
+            isSelected: state == .unset
+        )]
+        for (index, name) in CuratedSymbols.available.enumerated() {
+            wells.append(StyleWell(
+                id: index + 1,
+                face: .symbol(name),
+                label: name,
+                change: .set(name),
+                isSelected: state == .uniform(name)
+            ))
+        }
+        return wells
+    }
+
+    private func symbolCurrent(_ state: StyleFieldState, fallback: String) -> CurrentValue {
+        switch state {
+        case .unset: CurrentValue(face: .defaultSymbol(fallback), text: "Default")
+        case .mixed: CurrentValue(face: nil, text: "—", spoken: "Mixed")
+        case let .uniform(value): CurrentValue(face: .symbol(value), text: value)
+        }
+    }
+
+    // MARK: - Section chrome
+
+    private func sectionHeader(_ title: String, current: CurrentValue) -> some View {
+        HStack(spacing: 6) {
+            Text(title)
+                .font(.subheadline.weight(.semibold))
+            Spacer(minLength: 8)
+            if let face = current.face {
+                StyleWellFace(face: face, size: 14)
+            }
+            Text(current.text)
+                .font(.caption)
+                .foregroundStyle(.secondary)
+                .lineLimit(1)
+                .truncationMode(.middle)
+        }
+        .accessibilityElement(children: .ignore)
+        .accessibilityLabel("\(title), \(current.spoken ?? current.text)")
+    }
+}
+
+// MARK: - Current value
+
+/// The current-value chip beside a section title: the one place an off-palette value is stated
+/// ("labeled verbatim, outside the grids"), and the one place a mixed batch reads "—".
+private struct CurrentValue {
+    let face: StyleWellFace.Face?
+    let text: String
+    /// What VoiceOver says when the written text would not do — "Mixed" for the em dash, which is a
+    /// glyph rather than a word (10-accessibility.md: a batch's mixed state "reads as 'mixed', never
+    /// conveyed by highlight alone").
+    var spoken: String?
+
+    init(face: StyleWellFace.Face?, text: String, spoken: String? = nil) {
+        self.face = face
+        self.text = text
+        self.spoken = spoken
+    }
+}
+
+// MARK: - Wells
+
+/// One well: what it draws, what it is called, and what clicking it asks of the frontmatter key.
+private struct StyleWell: Identifiable {
+    let id: Int
+    let face: StyleWellFace.Face
+    let label: String
+    let change: StyleChange
+    let isSelected: Bool
+}
+
+/// A well's face — a colour, a symbol, or one of the two "no value" leading wells.
+private struct StyleWellFace: View {
+
+    enum Face: Equatable {
+        /// The background grid's None well: a slashed empty swatch, Finder's own vocabulary for
+        /// "there isn't one".
+        case noValue
+        /// A palette name or a hand-written hex. An unresolvable value draws like `noValue` — the
+        /// renderer's lenient rule, which is what makes an off-palette chip honest about a value the
+        /// app cannot read.
+        case color(String)
+        case symbol(String)
+        /// The symbol grid's leading well: the level's default, drawn quieter than a chosen one so
+        /// "no symbol set" and "this symbol set" do not look alike.
+        case defaultSymbol(String)
+    }
+
+    let face: Face
+    var size: CGFloat = 20
+
+    var body: some View {
+        switch face {
+        case .noValue:
+            swatch(nil)
+        case let .color(value):
+            swatch(Palette.color(named: value))
+        case let .symbol(name):
+            glyph(name, tint: AnyShapeStyle(.primary))
+        case let .defaultSymbol(name):
+            glyph(name, tint: AnyShapeStyle(.secondary))
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// A colour well. **Always stroked**: `chalk` is `#FFFFFF` and an unbordered white swatch is an
+    /// invisible control on a light popover (10-accessibility.md's contrast stance turned on the
+    /// app's own chrome). A `nil` colour adds the diagonal strike that means "none".
+    private func swatch(_ color: Color?) -> some View {
+        RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: 4)
+            .fill(color ?? Color(nsColor: .textBackgroundColor))
+            .overlay { if color == nil { NoValueStrike().stroke(.secondary, lineWidth: 1) } }
+            .overlay(RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: 4).strokeBorder(.separator, lineWidth: 1))
+            .frame(width: size, height: size)
+    }
+
+    private func glyph(_ name: String, tint: AnyShapeStyle) -> some View {
+        Image(systemName: ItemSymbol.exists(name) ? name : "questionmark.square.dashed")
+            .imageScale(.medium)
+            .foregroundStyle(tint)
+            .frame(width: size, height: size)
+    }
+}
+
+/// The corner-to-corner slash on the None well — the pathfinder's swatch vocabulary, kept because it
+/// is also the system's (an empty colour well slashes in Finder's own tag editor).
+private struct NoValueStrike: Shape {
+    func path(in rect: CGRect) -> Path {
+        var path = Path()
+        path.move(to: CGPoint(x: rect.minX + 3, y: rect.maxY - 3))
+        path.addLine(to: CGPoint(x: rect.maxX - 3, y: rect.minY + 3))
+        return path
+    }
+}
+
+/// One grid of wells: Tab-reachable buttons, arrow-navigable as a grid (10-accessibility.md ▸ Style
+/// editor).
+///
+/// Focus is the grid's own state rather than the editor's, because the two grids are independently
+/// navigable and Tab is what crosses between them — which is exactly what the accessibility doc asks
+/// for ("the grids are arrow-navigable and every well Tab-reachable"). The arrow handler sits on the
+/// container: a focused `Button` does not consume arrow keys, so the press bubbles here, and moving
+/// focus is all it does — **selection is never implied by focus**, since a well's job is to write to
+/// disk and a stray arrow key must not restyle a board.
+private struct StyleWellGrid: View {
+
+    let wells: [StyleWell]
+    let columns: Int
+    let apply: (StyleChange) -> Void
+
+    @FocusState private var focused: Int?
+
+    var body: some View {
+        LazyVGrid(
+            columns: Array(repeating: GridItem(.flexible(minimum: 20), spacing: 6), count: columns),
+            spacing: 6
+        ) {
+            ForEach(wells) { well in
+                Button {
+                    apply(well.change)
+                } label: {
+                    StyleWellFace(face: well.face)
+                        .overlay(selectionRing(well.isSelected))
+                        .contentShape(Rectangle())
+                }
+                .buttonStyle(.plain)
+                .focusable()
+                .focused($focused, equals: well.id)
+                .help(well.label)
+                .accessibilityLabel(well.label)
+                .accessibilityAddTraits(well.isSelected ? [.isSelected] : [])
+            }
+        }
+        .onKeyPress(keys: [.leftArrow, .rightArrow, .upArrow, .downArrow], phases: .down) { press in
+            move(press.key)
+        }
+    }
+
+    private func selectionRing(_ isSelected: Bool) -> some View {
+        RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: 5)
+            .strokeBorder(isSelected ? AnyShapeStyle(Color.accentColor) : AnyShapeStyle(.clear), lineWidth: 2)
+            .padding(-2)
+    }
+
+    /// One step per press, clamped at the ends rather than wrapped: a grid whose last row is short
+    /// would wrap into a hole, and Finder's own icon grids clamp too.
+    private func move(_ key: KeyEquivalent) -> KeyPress.Result {
+        let delta: Int
+        switch key {
+        case .leftArrow: delta = -1
+        case .rightArrow: delta = 1
+        case .upArrow: delta = -columns
+        case .downArrow: delta = columns
+        default: return .ignored
+        }
+        let current = focused ?? 0
+        let next = min(max(0, current + delta), wells.count - 1)
+        focused = next
+        return .handled
+    }
+}
+
+// MARK: - Context-menu surfaces
+
+/// The two style entries every context menu carries — Style… and the quick-style recents row
+/// (11-command-nexus.md ▸ Context menus; 03-board-ui.md § Styling ▸ Controls).
+///
+/// One view for both menus because the entries are identical on a card and on a lane: only the
+/// *target* differs, and that is the caller's to compute (the clicked item, or the selection it
+/// belongs to).
+struct StyleMenuItems: View {
+
+    let store: BoardStore
+    let recents: StyleRecents
+    let target: StyleTarget
+
+    var body: some View {
+        Button("Style…") {
+            store.transient.beginStyleEditor(for: target)
+        }
+        .disabled(!store.acceptsBoardMutations)
+
+        QuickStyleRow(store: store, recents: recents, target: target)
+    }
+}
+
+/// The quick-style row: "one compact row of recently used backgrounds … one-click recolor for the
+/// common case; the pathfinder's second full-palette tier is gone" (03-board-ui.md § Styling ▸
+/// Controls).
+///
+/// A `.palette`-styled `Picker` is what macOS renders as a horizontal swatch strip inside a menu —
+/// the pathfinder's finding, and the only shape that puts colours in a menu row at all. AppKit draws
+/// a menu item from an image and a title, so the dots are `NSImage`s (`PaletteSwatch`) rather than
+/// SwiftUI shapes.
+///
+/// **Absent until it has something to offer.** A brand-new install has no recents, and an empty
+/// picker in a context menu is a row that looks broken.
+struct QuickStyleRow: View {
+
+    let store: BoardStore
+    let recents: StyleRecents
+    let target: StyleTarget
+
+    /// A sentinel for "the current value is not one of these", so a mixed batch — or a background
+    /// that has aged out of the recents — leaves the row unchecked rather than checking the wrong
+    /// dot. It is never a rendered option, so it can never be picked.
+    private enum Choice: Hashable {
+        case value(String)
+        case other
+    }
+
+    var body: some View {
+        if !recents.backgrounds.isEmpty {
+            Picker("Recent Colors", selection: selection) {
+                ForEach(recents.backgrounds, id: \.self) { name in
+                    Label {
+                        Text(name)
+                    } icon: {
+                        Image(nsImage: PaletteSwatch.circleImage(for: name))
+                    }
+                    .tag(Choice.value(name))
+                }
+            }
+            .pickerStyle(.palette)
+            .disabled(!store.acceptsBoardMutations)
+        }
+    }
+
+    private var selection: Binding<Choice> {
+        Binding(
+            get: {
+                let state = StyleFieldState.resolve(store.styleSubjects(of: target).map(\.background))
+                guard case let .uniform(value) = state, recents.backgrounds.contains(value) else { return .other }
+                return .value(value)
+            },
+            set: { picked in
+                guard case let .value(name) = picked else { return }
+                StyleCommand.apply(background: .set(name), to: target, in: store, recents: recents)
+            }
+        )
+    }
+}
+
+// MARK: - Presentation
+
+/// The Style… popover's content: the editor, aimed at **the session's own target set**.
+///
+/// Reading the target from the session rather than re-deriving it from the selection is what makes
+/// the settled lifecycle visible: the popover was aimed once, at what the gesture named, and from
+/// then on it follows *that* set as members vanish — a selection change behind an open popover must
+/// not silently re-aim it, and a right-click on an unselected card must keep styling that card.
+struct StyleEditorPopover: View {
+
+    let store: BoardStore
+    let recents: StyleRecents
+
+    var body: some View {
+        // Empty for the frame between a session ending and the popover's own dismissal landing —
+        // the binding is already `false`, so this is a formality rather than a state.
+        if let session = store.transient.styleEditor {
+            StyleEditorView(store: store, recents: recents, target: session.target)
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+/// Whether *this* anchor is the one showing the open Style… popover.
+///
+/// Every candidate surface — a card face, a lane header, the strip itself — binds its popover
+/// through this, and `StyleEditorSession.presentationAnchor(in:)` answers for exactly one of them.
+/// So the popover follows its target set across reloads (an anchor that vanishes hands it to the next
+/// live target) and only an *emptied* set takes it down, which is the settled lifecycle.
+///
+/// The setter is narrowed to this anchor's own dismissal: a session that has moved to another anchor
+/// must not be discarded by the surface it just left.
+@MainActor
+func styleEditorPresentation(_ store: BoardStore, anchor: ItemID?) -> Binding<Bool> {
+    Binding(
+        // Spelled with an explicit `guard let` rather than optional chaining: `nil == nil` is
+        // `true`, so a chained comparison would tell the board strip (whose anchor *is* `nil`) to
+        // present a popover nobody opened.
+        get: {
+            guard let session = store.transient.styleEditor else { return false }
+            return session.presentationAnchor(in: store.snapshot) == anchor
+        },
+        set: { presented in
+            guard !presented,
+                  let session = store.transient.styleEditor,
+                  session.presentationAnchor(in: store.snapshot) == anchor
+            else { return }
+            store.transient.discardStyleEditor()
+        }
+    )
+}

KanbanTests/StyleModelTests.swift

@@ -0,0 +1,304 @@
+import Foundation
+import Testing
+@testable import Kanban
+
+/// The styling system's rules that need neither a screen nor (mostly) a disk: the per-dimension
+/// mixed state the editor displays, the Style… popover's live target set, the quick-style recents
+/// list, and the curated symbol grid (03-board-ui.md § Styling).
+///
+/// The popover half drives a **real store over a real temp board** for `TransientBoardStateTests`'
+/// reason — the lifecycle's contract includes being re-resolved by the store's reload path, and a
+/// suite that only called `resolved(against:)` by hand could pass with that wire cut.
+
+// MARK: - Fixtures
+
+private func tombstoned(order: String, title: String) -> String {
+    """
+    ---
+    schema: 1
+    title: \(title)
+    order: \(order)
+    deleted: 2026-03-03T09:00:00Z
+    ---
+    \(title) body.
+
+    """
+}
+
+@MainActor
+private func makeBoard() throws -> WriterFixture {
+    let fixture = try WriterFixture()
+    try fixture.item("", Item.board)
+    try fixture.item(Ident.lane1, Item.rich(order: "1024", title: "Todo"))
+    try fixture.item("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card1)", Item.rich(order: "1024", title: "First"))
+    try fixture.item("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card2)", Item.rich(order: "2048", title: "Second"))
+    try fixture.item(Ident.lane2, Item.rich(order: "2048", title: "Doing"))
+    try fixture.item("\(Ident.lane2)/\(Ident.card3)", Item.rich(order: "1024", title: "Third"))
+    return fixture
+}
+
+private let lane1 = ItemID(rawValue: Ident.lane1)
+private let lane2 = ItemID(rawValue: Ident.lane2)
+private let card1 = ItemID(rawValue: Ident.card1)
+private let card2 = ItemID(rawValue: Ident.card2)
+private let card3 = ItemID(rawValue: Ident.card3)
+private let card4 = ItemID(rawValue: Ident.card4)
+
+@MainActor
+private func reload(_ store: BoardStore) async {
+    store.handleWatcherEvent(.treeChanged(.foreign))
+    await store.awaitQuiescence()
+}
+
+// MARK: - Mixed state
+
+@Suite("Styling ▸ mixed state")
+struct StyleFieldStateTests {
+
+    @Test("Agreement reads uniform, disagreement reads mixed, absence reads unset")
+    func theThreeStates() {
+        #expect(StyleFieldState.resolve([]) == .unset)
+        #expect(StyleFieldState.resolve([.missing, .missing]) == .unset)
+        #expect(StyleFieldState.resolve([.valid("fern"), .valid("fern")]) == .uniform("fern"))
+        #expect(StyleFieldState.resolve([.valid("fern"), .valid("chalk")]) == .mixed)
+        // A set value and an absent one disagree: half the batch is coloured, which is exactly the
+        // case "—" exists for.
+        #expect(StyleFieldState.resolve([.valid("fern"), .missing]) == .mixed)
+    }
+
+    @Test("An off-palette value is uniform like any other — the display, not this rule, is what differs")
+    func offPaletteValuesAreOrdinary() {
+        let state = StyleFieldState.resolve([.valid("#112233AA"), .valid("#112233AA")])
+        #expect(state == .uniform("#112233AA"))
+        #expect(!Palette.backgrounds.contains { $0.name == "#112233AA" },
+                "it is the editor's verbatim chip that treats this specially, outside the grids")
+    }
+
+    @Test("A malformed value reads as the bytes on disk, and two of a kind agree")
+    func malformedValuesReadVerbatim() {
+        #expect(StyleFieldState.written(.malformed(raw: "[a, b]")) == "[a, b]")
+        #expect(StyleFieldState.written(.missing) == nil)
+        #expect(StyleFieldState.resolve([.malformed(raw: "[a, b]"), .malformed(raw: "[a, b]")]) == .uniform("[a, b]"))
+        #expect(StyleFieldState.resolve([.malformed(raw: "[a, b]"), .missing]) == .mixed)
+    }
+
+    @Test("Only a change that would rewrite the same bytes is skipped")
+    func noOpNarrowing() {
+        #expect(BoardStore.effective(.set("fern"), against: .valid("fern")) == .keep)
+        #expect(BoardStore.effective(.set("fern"), against: .valid("chalk")) == .set("fern"))
+        #expect(BoardStore.effective(.set("fern"), against: .missing) == .set("fern"))
+        // A malformed value is never equal to a palette name, so a well always replaces it.
+        #expect(BoardStore.effective(.set("fern"), against: .malformed(raw: "[a, b]")) == .set("fern"))
+        #expect(BoardStore.effective(.remove, against: .missing) == .keep)
+        #expect(BoardStore.effective(.remove, against: .valid("fern")) == .remove)
+        #expect(BoardStore.effective(.remove, against: .malformed(raw: "[a, b]")) == .remove)
+        #expect(BoardStore.effective(.keep, against: .valid("fern")) == .keep)
+    }
+}
+
+// MARK: - The popover's target
+
+@MainActor
+@Suite("Styling ▸ the Style… popover's target")
+struct StyleEditorSessionTests {
+
+    @Test("A vanished member leaves the set; the survivors keep the popover open")
+    func vanishedMemberLeavesTheSet() async throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        store.transient.beginStyleEditor(for: .items([card1, card2]))
+
+        try fixture.item("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card2)", tombstoned(order: "2048", title: "Second"))
+        await reload(store)
+
+        let session = try #require(store.transient.styleEditor)
+        #expect(session.target == .items([card1]))
+        // And the display recomputes off the survivors, which is the point of narrowing rather than
+        // dismissing.
+        #expect(store.styleSubjects(of: session.target).map(\.id) == [card1])
+    }
+
+    @Test("A set emptied by a foreign reload dismisses the popover")
+    func emptiedSetDismisses() async throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        store.transient.beginStyleEditor(for: .items([card3]))
+
+        try fixture.item(Ident.lane2, tombstoned(order: "2048", title: "Doing"))
+        await reload(store)
+
+        // The card's own flag never changed — its lane's did. Effective liveness is ancestor-walked,
+        // so the card renders nowhere and the session has nothing left to style.
+        #expect(store.transient.styleEditor == nil, "the editor is closed")
+    }
+
+    @Test("It never silently retargets to the board")
+    func neverRetargetsToTheBoard() async throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        store.transient.beginStyleEditor(for: .items([card1]))
+
+        try fixture.item("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card1)", tombstoned(order: "1024", title: "First"))
+        await reload(store)
+
+        #expect(store.transient.styleEditor?.target != .board)
+        #expect(store.transient.styleEditor == nil)
+    }
+
+    @Test("A board-targeted editor has no vanish case")
+    func boardSessionsSurvive() async throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        store.transient.beginStyleEditor(for: .board)
+
+        try fixture.item(Ident.lane1, tombstoned(order: "1024", title: "Todo"))
+        try fixture.item(Ident.lane2, tombstoned(order: "2048", title: "Doing"))
+        await reload(store)
+
+        #expect(store.transient.styleEditor?.target == .board)
+    }
+
+    @Test("An unknown id is gone from the start — a session of nothing but strangers closes")
+    func unknownIdsResolveAway() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+
+        let stranger = StyleEditorSession(target: .items([card4]))
+        #expect(stranger.resolved(against: store.snapshot) == nil)
+
+        let mixed = StyleEditorSession(target: .items([card4, card1]))
+        #expect(mixed.resolved(against: store.snapshot)?.target == .items([card1]))
+    }
+
+    @Test("The presenting anchor is the first live target in display order, board sessions none")
+    func anchorFollowsDisplayOrder() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+
+        #expect(StyleEditorSession(target: .board).presentationAnchor(in: store.snapshot) == nil)
+        #expect(StyleEditorSession(target: .items([card3, card2])).presentationAnchor(in: store.snapshot) == card2)
+        #expect(StyleEditorSession(target: .items([lane2, lane1])).presentationAnchor(in: store.snapshot) == lane1)
+        // A lane outranks a card in its own lane — a cards-XOR-lanes selection never mixes the two,
+        // but the walk has to be total.
+        #expect(StyleEditorSession(target: .items([card1, lane1])).presentationAnchor(in: store.snapshot) == lane1)
+    }
+
+    @Test("The style editor is not an inline editor")
+    func notAnInlineEditor() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+
+        store.transient.beginStyleEditor(for: .board)
+        // `isEditingInline` gates every board command; a popover that claimed the text domain would
+        // disable the very menu items that opened it.
+        #expect(!store.isEditingInline)
+        #expect(store.acceptsBoardMutations)
+
+        store.transient.discardStyleEditor()
+        #expect(store.transient.styleEditor == nil)
+    }
+}
+
+// MARK: - Recents
+
+@MainActor
+@Suite("Styling ▸ quick-style recents")
+struct StyleRecentsTests {
+
+    /// A defaults domain of this test's own — the list is a real user preference, and a suite that
+    /// wrote into `UserDefaults.standard` would be editing the developer's own quick-style row.
+    private func makeRecents() -> (recents: StyleRecents, teardown: () -> Void) {
+        let name = "StyleRecentsTests-\(UUID().uuidString)"
+        guard let defaults = UserDefaults(suiteName: name) else {
+            Issue.record("could not create a defaults suite")
+            return (StyleRecents(defaults: .standard), {})
+        }
+        return (StyleRecents(defaults: defaults), { defaults.removePersistentDomain(forName: name) })
+    }
+
+    @Test("Most-recent-first, deduped by move-to-front, capped")
+    func listRule() {
+        #expect(StyleRecents.updated([], with: "fern") == ["fern"])
+        #expect(StyleRecents.updated(["fern"], with: "chalk") == ["chalk", "fern"])
+        // A repeat is a move, never a second entry.
+        #expect(StyleRecents.updated(["chalk", "fern"], with: "fern") == ["fern", "chalk"])
+        #expect(StyleRecents.updated(["fern"], with: "fern") == ["fern"])
+
+        let full = ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f"]
+        #expect(StyleRecents.updated(full, with: "g", cap: 6) == ["g", "a", "b", "c", "d", "e"])
+        #expect(StyleRecents.updated(full, with: "g", cap: 6).count == 6)
+    }
+
+    @Test("An empty value is not a colour anyone applied")
+    func emptyValuesAreIgnored() {
+        // The None well is a *removal* — nothing to remember — and the call site never records for
+        // it; this is the belt behind that brace.
+        #expect(StyleRecents.updated(["fern"], with: "") == ["fern"])
+    }
+
+    @Test("Recording persists, and a fresh instance reads the same list back")
+    func recordingRoundTrips() throws {
+        let name = "StyleRecentsTests-\(UUID().uuidString)"
+        let store = try #require(UserDefaults(suiteName: name))
+        defer { store.removePersistentDomain(forName: name) }
+
+        let recents = StyleRecents(defaults: store)
+        recents.record("fern")
+        recents.record("chalk")
+        recents.record("fern")
+
+        #expect(recents.backgrounds == ["fern", "chalk"])
+        #expect(StyleRecents(defaults: store).backgrounds == ["fern", "chalk"])
+        #expect(store.array(forKey: AppPreferences.quickStyleBackgroundsKey) as? [String] == ["fern", "chalk"])
+    }
+
+    @Test("A garbage preference reads as an empty list rather than taking the row down")
+    func toleratesGarbage() throws {
+        let (recents, teardown) = makeRecents()
+        defer { teardown() }
+        #expect(recents.backgrounds.isEmpty, "a first launch has no recents and no row")
+
+        let name = "StyleRecentsTests-garbage-\(UUID().uuidString)"
+        let store = try #require(UserDefaults(suiteName: name))
+        defer { store.removePersistentDomain(forName: name) }
+        store.set(42, forKey: AppPreferences.quickStyleBackgroundsKey)
+        #expect(StyleRecents(defaults: store).backgrounds.isEmpty)
+    }
+}
+
+// MARK: - The curated grid
+
+@Suite("Styling ▸ the curated symbol grid")
+struct CuratedSymbolsTests {
+
+    @Test("Roughly five dozen symbols, no duplicates")
+    func shape() {
+        #expect(CuratedSymbols.all.count >= 55)
+        #expect(CuratedSymbols.all.count <= 72)
+        #expect(Set(CuratedSymbols.all).count == CuratedSymbols.all.count)
+    }
+
+    @Test("Every curated name is one this system can actually draw")
+    func everyNameResolves() {
+        // A curated list is a convenience, never a claim about the running OS — `available` filters
+        // it — but a name that fails here on the *deployment target* is a typo, not an inventory
+        // difference, and the grid would show an empty well.
+        let missing = CuratedSymbols.all.filter { !ItemSymbol.exists($0) }
+        #expect(missing.isEmpty, "unknown SF Symbol names: \(missing)")
+        #expect(CuratedSymbols.available.count == CuratedSymbols.all.count)
+    }
+
+    @Test("The level defaults are drawable too — they are the grid's leading well")
+    func levelDefaultsResolve() {
+        #expect(ItemSymbol.exists(ItemSymbol.board))
+        #expect(ItemSymbol.exists(ItemSymbol.lane))
+        #expect(ItemSymbol.exists(ItemSymbol.card))
+    }
+}

KanbanTests/StyleWriteTests.swift

@@ -0,0 +1,349 @@
+import Foundation
+import Testing
+@testable import Kanban
+
+/// `BoardStore.applyStyle` — the one commit point every style anchor shares (03-board-ui.md §
+/// Styling ▸ Controls).
+///
+/// Like `LaneWidthWriteTests` and `InlineEditWriteTests`, these drive a real store over a real temp
+/// board and read the **raw bytes** back rather than the app's own read path: the claims are about
+/// the file — which key lands or leaves, what the stamps do, and everything else surviving
+/// byte-for-byte. `WriterFixture`, `Ident` and `Item` come from `WriterTestSupport.swift`.
+
+// MARK: - Fixtures
+
+/// An item index carrying whatever style keys a test needs, plus the usual unowned baggage: an
+/// unknown key with an inline comment, a `created` from before today, a foreign `modified-by`, and a
+/// body — all of which a style write has to leave exactly as it found them.
+private func styled(order: String, title: String, keys: [String] = []) -> String {
+    let extra = keys.map { "\($0)\n" }.joined()
+    return """
+    ---
+    schema: 1
+    title: \(title)
+    order: \(order)
+    \(extra)project: lanework       # agent overlay
+    created: 2026-01-01T09:00:00Z
+    modified: 2026-02-02T09:00:00Z
+    modified-by: claude
+    ---
+    \(title) body.
+
+    """
+}
+
+/// The board root's own `index.md` — styled like any other item (`StyleTarget.board`), and carrying
+/// an `iconColor` the app must never touch (schema yes, control no).
+private let boardIndex = """
+---
+schema: 1
+title: Board
+iconColor: carnation
+---
+Board description.
+
+"""
+
+/// Two live lanes with cards, an uneditable lane, and a tombstoned lane with a live card inside it —
+/// the ancestor-walk case.
+@MainActor
+private func makeBoard() throws -> WriterFixture {
+    let fixture = try WriterFixture()
+    try fixture.item("", boardIndex)
+    try fixture.item(Ident.lane1, styled(order: "1024", title: "Todo"))
+    try fixture.item("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card1)", styled(order: "1024", title: "First", keys: ["background: fern", "iconColor: chalk"]))
+    try fixture.item("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card2)", styled(order: "2048", title: "Second"))
+    try fixture.item(Ident.lane2, styled(order: "2048", title: "Doing", keys: ["background: chalk", "icon: tray"]))
+    try fixture.item("\(Ident.lane2)/\(Ident.card3)", styled(order: "1024", title: "Third", keys: ["deleted: 2026-03-03T09:00:00Z"]))
+    try fixture.item(Ident.lane3, Item.uneditable)
+    try fixture.item(Ident.lane4, styled(order: "4096", title: "Gone", keys: ["deleted: 2026-03-03T09:00:00Z"]))
+    try fixture.item("\(Ident.lane4)/\(Ident.card4)", styled(order: "1024", title: "Hidden"))
+    return fixture
+}
+
+private let lane1 = ItemID(rawValue: Ident.lane1)
+private let lane2 = ItemID(rawValue: Ident.lane2)
+private let lane3 = ItemID(rawValue: Ident.lane3)
+private let lane4 = ItemID(rawValue: Ident.lane4)
+private let card1 = ItemID(rawValue: Ident.card1)
+private let card2 = ItemID(rawValue: Ident.card2)
+private let card3 = ItemID(rawValue: Ident.card3)
+private let card4 = ItemID(rawValue: Ident.card4)
+
+/// The file's lines minus the ones a style write is *supposed* to change. `iconColor:` deliberately
+/// survives the filter — it is not `icon:`, and the app offers no control for it.
+private func untouchedLines(_ text: String) -> [Substring] {
+    text.split(separator: "\n", omittingEmptySubsequences: false).filter {
+        !$0.hasPrefix("modified") && !$0.hasPrefix("background:") && !$0.hasPrefix("icon:")
+    }
+}
+
+/// Counts the bracket calls a store makes, standing in for the watcher the registry wires up — the
+/// only way to assert "one gesture, one commit" from outside.
+@MainActor
+private final class BracketLog {
+    private(set) var begins = 0
+    private(set) var ends = 0
+
+    func attach(to store: BoardStore) {
+        store.watcherBrackets = (begin: { self.begins += 1 }, end: { self.ends += 1 })
+    }
+}
+
+private func load(_ fixture: WriterFixture) throws -> BoardModel {
+    try BoardLoader.load(boardRoot: fixture.root).model
+}
+
+private func card(_ id: ItemID, in model: BoardModel) -> Card? {
+    model.lanes.flatMap(\.cards).first { $0.id == id }
+}
+
+private func lane(_ id: ItemID, in model: BoardModel) -> Lane? {
+    model.lanes.first { $0.id == id }
+}
+
+// MARK: - Tests
+
+@MainActor
+@Suite("BoardStore ▸ applyStyle")
+struct StyleWriteTests {
+
+    @Test("Setting a background writes exactly that key, stamps, and touches nothing else")
+    func setsTheBackgroundKey() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        let before = try fixture.indexText("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card2)")
+
+        store.applyStyle(to: .items([card2]), background: .set("smokey-ocean"))
+
+        let after = try fixture.indexText("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card2)")
+        #expect(after.contains("background: smokey-ocean"))
+        #expect(!after.contains("icon:"), "the untouched dimension writes no key at all")
+        #expect(!after.contains("modified-by"), "an app-mediated write clears an external writer's attribution")
+        #expect(untouchedLines(after) == untouchedLines(before))
+
+        let written = try #require(card(card2, in: load(fixture)))
+        #expect(written.background == .valid("smokey-ocean"))
+        let modified = try #require(written.modified.value)
+        #expect(abs(modified.timeIntervalSinceNow) < 60)
+        #expect(store.banners.oneShots.isEmpty)
+    }
+
+    @Test("Both dimensions land in one rewrite, and iconColor is never touched")
+    func setsBothDimensionsAtOnce() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+
+        store.applyStyle(to: .items([card1]), background: .set("dark-teal"), icon: .set("flag"))
+
+        let after = try fixture.indexText("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card1)")
+        #expect(after.contains("background: dark-teal"))
+        #expect(after.contains("icon: flag"))
+        // "iconColor: resolved — schema yes, control no" (03 § Styling ▸ Capabilities): the field
+        // renders when hand-written and the app offers no control for it, so a style write must
+        // carry it through untouched like any unknown key.
+        #expect(after.contains("iconColor: chalk"))
+        #expect(!after.contains("background: fern"), "the old value is replaced, not duplicated")
+    }
+
+    @Test("The None and default wells remove their key rather than writing a blank value")
+    func removesTheKey() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+
+        store.applyStyle(to: .items([lane2]), background: .remove, icon: .remove)
+
+        let after = try fixture.indexText(Ident.lane2)
+        #expect(!after.contains("background"))
+        #expect(!after.contains("icon"))
+        #expect(!after.contains("\"\""), "a removal is a missing key, never an empty string")
+
+        let written = try #require(lane(lane2, in: load(fixture)))
+        #expect(written.background.isMissing)
+        #expect(written.icon.isMissing)
+    }
+
+    @Test("A batch rewrites every target inside a single bracket")
+    func batchesInOneBracket() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        let log = BracketLog()
+        log.attach(to: store)
+
+        // "Choosing a well applies to the whole selection — one gesture, one commit on git boards"
+        // (03 § Styling ▸ Controls): the churn has to round back as ONE app-mediated reload.
+        store.applyStyle(to: .items([card1, card2]), background: .set("light-cayenne"))
+
+        #expect(log.begins == 1)
+        #expect(log.ends == 1)
+        #expect(try fixture.indexText("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card1)").contains("background: light-cayenne"))
+        #expect(try fixture.indexText("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card2)").contains("background: light-cayenne"))
+    }
+
+    @Test("A value a target already carries writes nothing — per target and per dimension")
+    func skipsNoOps() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        let log = BracketLog()
+        log.attach(to: store)
+        let untouchedCard = try fixture.indexData("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card1)")
+
+        // `card1` is already `fern` and `card2` has no background at all: only the second file may
+        // move. A well clicked twice must not stamp `modified` or mint a commit on what was already
+        // right (`setLaneWidth`'s rule).
+        store.applyStyle(to: .items([card1, card2]), background: .set("fern"))
+
+        #expect(try fixture.indexData("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card1)") == untouchedCard)
+        #expect(try fixture.indexText("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card2)").contains("background: fern"))
+        #expect(log.begins == 1, "the batch still opens exactly one bracket for the target that moved")
+    }
+
+    @Test("A gesture that changes nothing anywhere opens no bracket at all")
+    func wholeGestureNoOpWritesNothing() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        let log = BracketLog()
+        log.attach(to: store)
+        let before = try fixture.indexData("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card1)")
+
+        // Both dimensions already read this way: `background: fern` is set and `icon` is absent, so
+        // the removal is a no-op too.
+        store.applyStyle(to: .items([card1]), background: .set("fern"), icon: .remove)
+
+        #expect(log.begins == 0)
+        #expect(try fixture.indexData("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card1)") == before)
+        #expect(try fixture.entryNames("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card1)") == ["index.md"], "no temp-file residue either")
+    }
+
+    @Test("A malformed value is replaced — choosing a well always wins")
+    func replacesAMalformedValue() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        try fixture.item("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card2)", styled(order: "2048", title: "Second", keys: ["background: [a, b]"]))
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        #expect(card(card2, in: store.snapshot)?.background == .malformed(raw: "[a, b]"))
+
+        store.applyStyle(to: .items([card2]), background: .set("shale"))
+
+        let after = try fixture.indexText("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card2)")
+        #expect(after.contains("background: shale"))
+        #expect(!after.contains("[a, b]"))
+    }
+
+    @Test("Board styling writes the board root's own index.md")
+    func stylesTheBoardRoot() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+
+        store.applyStyle(to: .board, background: .set("intense-cool-shale"), icon: .set("square.stack"))
+
+        let after = try fixture.indexText("")
+        #expect(after.contains("background: intense-cool-shale"))
+        #expect(after.contains("icon: square.stack"))
+        #expect(after.contains("iconColor: carnation"))
+        #expect(after.contains("Board description."))
+
+        let model = try load(fixture)
+        #expect(model.background == .valid("intense-cool-shale"))
+        // The lanes are none of a board-level gesture's business.
+        #expect(lane(lane1, in: model)?.background.isMissing == true)
+    }
+
+    @Test("Vanished, tombstoned and hidden targets are skipped silently")
+    func skipsTargetsThatRenderNowhere() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        let log = BracketLog()
+        log.attach(to: store)
+        let tombstoned = try fixture.indexData("\(Ident.lane2)/\(Ident.card3)")
+        let hidden = try fixture.indexData("\(Ident.lane4)/\(Ident.card4)")
+
+        // An id that names nothing, a tombstoned card, and a live card under a tombstoned lane —
+        // "nothing is ever written into a vanished folder", ancestor walk included.
+        store.applyStyle(
+            to: .items([ItemID(rawValue: Ident.indexless), card3, card4]),
+            background: .set("obsidian")
+        )
+
+        #expect(log.begins == 0)
+        #expect(try fixture.indexData("\(Ident.lane2)/\(Ident.card3)") == tombstoned)
+        #expect(try fixture.indexData("\(Ident.lane4)/\(Ident.card4)") == hidden)
+        #expect(store.banners.oneShots.isEmpty)
+    }
+
+    @Test("A readable-but-uneditable target refuses the write, banners it, and keeps its bytes")
+    func uneditableTargetBanners() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        let before = try fixture.indexData(Ident.lane3)
+
+        store.applyStyle(to: .items([lane3]), background: .set("fern"))
+
+        #expect(try fixture.indexData(Ident.lane3) == before)
+        #expect(store.banners.oneShots.count == 1)
+        let posted = try #require(store.banners.oneShots.first)
+        #expect(posted.error.operation == .style(title: "Odd"),
+                "the title is enriched off the document the write refused")
+        #expect(posted.error.reason == .uneditableFrontmatter(.keyWithoutOwnLine))
+        #expect(BannerCenter.headline(for: posted.error).hasPrefix("Couldn't restyle 'Odd' — "))
+    }
+
+    @Test("A read-only board refuses the write without a second banner")
+    func readOnlyBoardRefusesQuietly() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        store.enterVanishedRootLock()
+        let before = try fixture.indexData("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card1)")
+
+        store.applyStyle(to: .items([card1]), background: .set("obsidian"))
+
+        #expect(try fixture.indexData("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card1)") == before)
+        #expect(store.banners.oneShots.isEmpty, "the lock row is already standing")
+        #expect(store.bannerRows.contains { $0.id == "read-only-lock" })
+    }
+
+    // MARK: Subjects and levels
+
+    @Test("Subjects are the live targets in display order, with their current values")
+    func subjectsAreLiveTargetsInDisplayOrder() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+
+        let subjects = store.styleSubjects(of: .items([card2, card1, card3, lane1]))
+        #expect(subjects.map(\.id) == [lane1, card1, card2], "lane first, then its cards top to bottom")
+        #expect(subjects.map(\.background) == [.missing, .valid("fern"), .missing])
+        #expect(subjects.last?.folder.lastPathComponent == Ident.card2)
+
+        // The board is always exactly one subject, at the root.
+        let board = store.styleSubjects(of: .board)
+        #expect(board.count == 1)
+        let boardSubject = try #require(board.first)
+        #expect(boardSubject.id == nil, "a board root has no ItemID by design")
+        #expect(boardSubject.folder == fixture.root)
+    }
+
+    @Test("The level a target sits at decides the symbol grid's leading well")
+    func levelFollowsTheTarget() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+
+        #expect(store.styleLevel(of: .board) == .board)
+        #expect(store.styleLevel(of: .items([lane1, lane2])) == .lane)
+        #expect(store.styleLevel(of: .items([card1])) == .card)
+        #expect(ItemSymbol.default(for: store.styleLevel(of: .items([card1]))) == ItemSymbol.card)
+        #expect(ItemSymbol.default(for: store.styleLevel(of: .items([lane1]))) == ItemSymbol.lane)
+        #expect(ItemSymbol.default(for: .board) == ItemSymbol.board)
+    }
+}

README.md

@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ Lanework is in early development. This list tracks what has actually shipped and
 - **Card faces** — a card reads as a leading SF Symbol, its title (or a quiet untitled placeholder), and a quiet paperclip when it has attachments — title-only by design, no body excerpt. Colour is an edge accent rather than a fill: `background` paints a stripe down the card's left edge and `iconColor` tints the symbol, both written as a kebab-case palette name (12 icon tints, 12 backgrounds) or a `#RRGGBB[AA]` hex. Everything degrades rather than complains — an unreadable colour simply doesn't paint, and the value stays on disk exactly as written. Each card's snapshot carries its attachment names, listed flat and in Finder order (top-level files only; subfolders, hidden files, and symlinks are preserved but never surfaced).
 - **Creating and renaming** — New Card (⌘N) files into the selected card's lane immediately after it, a selected lane's bottom, or the last-active lane, opening a focused pseudo-card that exists nowhere on disk until its title commits (Return commits and re-selects the lane, ⌘↩ also opens the card window, Escape or clicking away discards, and a failed create discards rather than waiting for a card that can't arrive). Inline rename — Return on a card, Board ▸ Rename for either kind — tracks its target by UUID, so a foreign move mid-edit is invisible and a tombstone or deletion discards the edit silently; committing empty removes the `title` key rather than writing a blank one. New Lane is ⇧⌘N. Every mutating command disables while an editor holds the keyboard and under the read-only lock.
 
+- **Styling** — one style editor serves every anchor: a background grid of the twelve palette wells behind a leading None well that *removes* the key, and a curated grid of five dozen kanban-relevant SF Symbols behind a leading level-default well that does the same. It is selection-aware (the selected cards or lanes; the board with nothing selected) and states the current value per dimension across the whole target set — agreement selects a well, disagreement reads "—", and a hand-written hex or uncurated symbol states itself verbatim outside the grids, replaced by any well you choose. A batch applies as one bracketed commit that skips every target already carrying the value, and the open editor tracks its targets live: one deleted out from under it leaves the set, and the last one closes the editor rather than quietly retargeting the board. Reached from Board ▸ Style… (⌥⌘S) or a card's or lane's context menu, where a compact row of app-wide recent colours recolours in one click and a lane's menu also carries its width stepper. Colour renders at all three levels — a card's `background` as a left-edge stripe, a lane's as a full-width band along its top edge, the board's as the window's content background — each painting nothing at all when the value doesn't resolve, bytes on disk untouched.
+
 ## Development
 
 The Xcode project is generated — `project.yml` is the source of truth, not the `.xcodeproj`: