@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ What survives — and matters — from the four-phase picture:
 1. **Verify is the truth gate.** A verification step's recorded result (e.g. "port 80 responsive") is what
    distinguishes this model from traditional configuration management: the record captures verified facts, not just
    "success." Observations — point-in-time resource facts (`file.observe`, `git.observe`) — ride the trace as
-   results ([4](4-resource-management.md) §6.1).
+   results ([4](4-resource-management.md) §3, observations).
 2. **Every completed step can be undone.** The classical (A, C, S) tuple maps onto the landed compensable-action
    contract: forward method, `Compensate<Name>` companion, and the **receipt** as S — captured per dispatch, pushed
    on the recovery stack, unwound LIFO on failure ([2.2](2.2-phase-execution.md) owns the contract in full).
 
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ Both the event stream and the hook seam pre-date the control plane, and the firs
   `LifecycleHook`, and leave narration orthogonal.
 
 **Terminology.** `Observation` is a settled domain term — a point-in-time **resource fact** (`op.ObservationBase`, the
-result of an observe action; [`4-resource-management.md`](4-resource-management.md) §6.1). It is **not** the event
+result of an observe action; [`4-resource-management.md`](4-resource-management.md) §3, observations). It is **not** the event
 stream: observations flow *through* events as results, and the outbound structured channel is **events**, never
 "observations."
 
 
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 > **lifetime half is design that did not land as written**: the `LifetimeStateless` / `LifetimePhase` /
 > `LifetimeSession` taxonomy and the descriptor-based Registration Examples (`op.Announce(&…{})` / `InitAll`) have
 > no tree presence — the landed lifetime model is environment-scoped construction (a provider is built against its
-> `*op.RuntimeEnvironment` and cached on it; [4-resource-management.md](4-resource-management.md) §7), and
+> `*op.RuntimeEnvironment` and cached on it; [4-resource-management.md](4-resource-management.md) §8, provider lifecycle), and
 > registration is announce-with-metadata ([3-operation-namespaces.md](3-operation-namespaces.md),
 > [4.3](4.3-resource-registration.md)). **The full rewrite is recorded step-51 residual debt** (gate finding 1) —
 > read the lifetime sections below as an unrealized proposal until then.
 
@@ -140,7 +140,25 @@ configurable per runtime so a hermetic runtime renders without it.
 **`plan` is mandatory for planning and not pure** — `LoadDefinition` reads a graph from disk. Either the
 planning runtime admits `plan` on separate grounds, or that method moves out of the provider.
 
-## 6. Open questions
+## 6. The two dispatch stacks converge in `op.Convert`
+
+Distilled from the retired stack-comparison sketches (2026-08-20; their line-level stacks described a
+superseded shape — `NodeBuilder`/`task_builder.go` no longer exist — but the law they proved still holds and
+is worth keeping):
+
+**Both dispatch modes bottom out in `op.Convert`'s single seven-step cascade** (assignable/convertible →
+slice recursion → map recursion → `SourceConverter` → `TargetConverter` → registered resource construction →
+error). Immediate mode (`goReceiver.dispatch`) unpacks Starlark values to natural Go and converts per
+parameter inside `Method.Invoke`, at dispatch time. Plan mode (`ActionPlanner.Plan`) converts at
+slot-binding time. There is no duplicate type-matching anywhere — one cascade, two entry points.
+
+**The asymmetry that remains is deliberate**: plan mode converts at slot-fill so the catalog can intern
+resources before the node is sealed; immediate mode converts at dispatch because immediate receivers pass
+raw values and cataloged resources are a planning concern
+([4-resource-management.md](4-resource-management.md) §9 item 3). Same cascade, different timing — the
+timing difference *is* the plan/immediate distinction, seen from the converter.
+
+## 7. Open questions
 
 1. **Does `query` belong in immediate scope at all?** It is what makes planning non-hermetic today. Excluding it
    entirely is simpler than a policy dimension, at the cost of `file.exists` during planning.
 
@@ -2,7 +2,15 @@
 
 **Architecture document:** [4-resource-management.md](4-resource-management.md)
 
-**State:** rewritten 2026-07-22 (phase-8 step 51, slice 3). The migration-era body — string-parameter "today"
+**State:** rewritten 2026-07-22 (phase-8 step 51, slice 3); **revised 2026-08-20 onto the
+resource-construction rulings** ([plan](../plans/resource-construction.md), feature #581): §5 "The Catalog
+Travels with the Graph" added (intent-only claiming, git-model plan-space paths, rel identity with run-bound
+fsroot, mandatory serialized section with hard pre-flight, graph=intent/trace=observation); §4 rewritten to
+runtime-only shadowing with the two-path reconciler as §4.1 (absorbed from the retired
+catalog-reconciler-logic sketch); §1/§2 corrected — ordering is the promise's job, never URI matching;
+**Appendix A deleted as rejected** (products are runtime facts). The DESIGN is current; the TREE still
+carries pre-ruling behavior until #583–#586 land — the two red judgment pins
+(`catalog_contract_test.go`, `test_graph_catalog_contract.star`) measure that gap. The migration-era body — string-parameter "today"
 snapshots, per-method signature-migration tables, `Tombstone` recovery, the `RegisterConstructor` /
 `coerceSlotValue` coercion chain, the phase-by-phase bookkeeping — is replaced by the landed model: the catalog
 surface (tree-verified method by method), the `ResourceState` machine and behavior matrix (the 2026-07-14 rulings,
@@ -21,7 +29,7 @@ post-dispatch shadowing for monadic outputs) is named beside it.
 | `ResourceState` machine + behavior matrix + `VerifyExistence` pre-flight | Landed (steps 22/41; per-type rollout staged — `file` proven) |
 | Observations as results, never catalog members | Landed (ruled 2026-07-14; step 22) |
 | Receipts + recovery site (Tombstones retired) | Landed (steps 40/42; [3.5.4](3.5.4-file-provider.md)) |
-| Declared output specs (Appendix A) | **Not implemented** — preserved as design |
+| Declared output specs (former Appendix A) | **Rejected 2026-08-20** — removed; products are runtime facts |
 | Document rewrite onto the landed model | Complete 2026-07-22 (step 51 slice 3) |
 
 ## Document Discrepancies
@@ -31,7 +39,10 @@ proposal explicitly.
 
 ## Outstanding Work
 
-1. The staged per-type `Resolve`/`Exists` rollout (step 22's ledger).
-2. Remote-execution filesystem abstraction (open question §9.1).
+1. The resource-construction implementation, #583–#586: serialize + enforce the catalog section; rel
+   identity + authoring migration; plan-time claiming; run time consumes the catalog. The design in §5 leads
+   the tree until they land.
+2. The staged per-type `Resolve`/`Exists` rollout (step 22's ledger).
+3. Remote-execution filesystem abstraction (open question §10.1).
 Remaining step-51 slices are tracked in
 [step 51](../plans/extract-starlark-from-op/phase-8/steps/51-documentation-debt.md).
@@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ inline, so no data is lost at the node level.
 
 | Scheme | Form | URI Examples | Notes |
 |---|---|---|---|
-| `file` | Hierarchical | `file:///etc/foo`, `file:///usr/local/bin/jq` | [RFC 8089](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8089). Empty authority, absolute path. |
+| `file` | Opaque (catalog identity) / Hierarchical (rendered) | catalog: `file:etc/foo` — the slash-canonical **root-relative** path; rendered against a bound root: `file:///etc/foo` | **Amended 2026-08-20** ([resource-construction](../plans/resource-construction.md)): catalog identity is the rel — the fsroot is a run parameter, so no volume, home layout, or separator variance enters identity; a plan-authored leading slash anchors at the fsroot (git model) and normalizes away. The [RFC 8089](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8089) absolute form survives only as the *display/rendered* form once a run binds the root. |
 | `pkg` | Opaque | `pkg:brew/jq`, `pkg:deb/curl`, `pkg:winget/Microsoft/VSCode` | [purl](https://github.com/package-url/purl-spec)-compliant, **versionless** — the catalog URI omits `@version` (version is state, see [§3.4](3.4-platform-package-managers.md)). `Purl()` may append the requested `@version` for display, so `URI()`/`Purl()` converge only on the versionless coordinates. |
 | `svc` | Opaque | `svc:nginx`, `svc:postgresql` | Service name. Fragment reserved for future instance disambiguation (e.g., `svc:postgresql#port-5433`). |
 | `appnet` | Opaque | `appnet:https%3A//example.com/path` | Wraps an inner URI with targeted escaping (`#` and `?` escaped). Renamed from `net`. |
@@ -207,9 +207,11 @@ calls. Each type builds its URI from its own fields using whatever
 logic fits its scheme.
 
 ```go
-// file: RFC 8089 — hierarchical, empty authority, absolute path
+// file: catalog identity is the slash-canonical root-relative path (amended 2026-08-20 — the fsroot is a
+// run parameter, so identity carries no volume, home layout, or separator variance; the RFC 8089 absolute
+// form is the rendered form against a bound root, never the identity).
 func (r *Resource) buildURI() string {
-    return "file://" + r.SourcePath // SourcePath is always absolute
+    return "file:" + r.SourcePath.Rel() // rel is the half that serializes
 }
 
 // pkg: purl-compliant opaque URI — VERSIONLESS catalog identity.
 
@@ -520,7 +520,7 @@ runner and UI/API consumers.
 > `ControlPlane.Subscribe` / `emit` ([`2.7-control-plane.md`](2.7-control-plane.md), see its
 > [Framing](2.7-control-plane.md#framing-three-orthogonal-pieces)); the integration builds the event stream on **this**
 > spec, fed from a `LifecycleHook`, and splits it off the command surface. An observe action's `Observation` — a
-> resource fact ([`4-resource-management.md`](4-resource-management.md) §6.1) — rides this stream as an event
+> resource fact ([`4-resource-management.md`](4-resource-management.md) §3, observations) — rides this stream as an event
 > **result**; "observation" stays the resource-fact term, "events" is this channel. This §Telemetry pipeline is the
 > remote-transport instance of the app-agnostic eventing bus designed in
 > [`2.8-eventing-infrastructure.md`](2.8-eventing-infrastructure.md).