diff --git a/docs/api-contract.json b/docs/api-contract.json
index 12cb37c8..c4f4e056 100644
--- a/docs/api-contract.json
+++ b/docs/api-contract.json
@@ -1507,6 +1507,7 @@
     "BrainyError",
     "DerivedArtifactMissingError",
     "GraphIndexNotReadyError",
+    "MetadataArrayTooLargeError",
     "MetadataIndexNotReadyError",
     "MigrationInProgressError",
     "ProtectedArtifactError",
diff --git a/src/brainy.ts b/src/brainy.ts
index 81250144..fe672305 100644
--- a/src/brainy.ts
+++ b/src/brainy.ts
@@ -8195,7 +8195,23 @@ export class Brainy<T = any> implements BrainyInterface<T> {
           // Rank by score (top offset+limit), then drop the offset — identical ordering
           // to a full `sort((a, b) => b.score - a.score)` + slice, but the native
           // `sort:topK` provider can compute only the page instead of the full sort.
-          if (results.length >= offset + limit) {
+          //
+          // ONLY when score IS the requested order. An explicit `orderBy` names a
+          // different ordering key, and this block cannot serve it: it ranks by
+          // score and CUTS the page, so the tail's `orderBy` sort below either
+          // never runs at all (the early return, when there is no `connected` /
+          // `fusion` work left) or runs over a page that score already chose —
+          // ordering eight rows relevance picked instead of the eight the field
+          // ordering asks for. Both readings were silent: `find({ query, where,
+          // orderBy })` answered in score order while `find({ where, orderBy })`
+          // answered in field order, and nothing said the request had been dropped.
+          //
+          // With `orderBy` present the candidate set falls through UNCUT to the
+          // tail, which orders it in full and pages that ordering — "page last",
+          // the graph-first law applied to ordering rather than to filtering. The
+          // set is bounded by the legs (the text matches inside the universe plus
+          // the beam walk's `limit * 2`), not by the store.
+          if (!params.orderBy && results.length >= offset + limit) {
             const k = offset + limit
             const order = rankIndicesByScore(results.map(r => r.score), k, true)
             results = reorderByIndices(results, order).slice(offset, k)
@@ -13013,7 +13029,7 @@ export class Brainy<T = any> implements BrainyInterface<T> {
       }
       return this._flushQueued
     }
-    return this.startFlushLeader()
+    return this.#startFlushLeader()
   }
 
   /**
@@ -13022,16 +13038,23 @@ export class Brainy<T = any> implements BrainyInterface<T> {
    * the ONE queued waiter (if any) is promoted. The `finally` callback returns
    * nothing on purpose: a callback that returned the promoted run's promise
    * would make the leader await its own follower.
+   *
+   * ECMAScript-private (`#`), not TypeScript `private`: `private` is erased at
+   * compile time, so the method would still land on the prototype — and the
+   * contract manifest reads the surface the BUILD exposes, so it would emit
+   * this as a contract door. A door is a promise every engine implementing the
+   * contract must keep; this is the flush gate's own bookkeeping. `#` keeps it
+   * off the prototype, where the emitter cannot see it.
    * @returns The leader's own promise, settling on its own body alone.
    */
-  private startFlushLeader(): Promise<void> {
+  #startFlushLeader(): Promise<void> {
     const run = this._runFlush()
     // `finally` and not `then`: a failed flush must still open the gate, or
     // one rejection would wedge every later flush behind a promise nobody
     // will ever settle.
     const gated: Promise<void> = run.finally(() => {
       if (this._flushInFlight === gated) this._flushInFlight = null
-      this.promoteQueuedFlush()
+      this.#promoteQueuedFlush()
     })
     this._flushInFlight = gated
     return gated
@@ -13042,9 +13065,12 @@ export class Brainy<T = any> implements BrainyInterface<T> {
    * leader and settle its deferred from that run. Never throws into the
    * leader's `finally`: a synchronous failure starting the promoted run is
    * reported to the waiter, which must be settled on every path.
+   *
+   * ECMAScript-private for the same reason as the leader starter above:
+   * internals are not doors.
    * @returns Nothing.
    */
-  private promoteQueuedFlush(): void {
+  #promoteQueuedFlush(): void {
     const settle = this._flushQueuedSettle
     if (!settle) return
     // Clear BEFORE starting, so the promoted run's own joiners queue afresh
@@ -13052,7 +13078,7 @@ export class Brainy<T = any> implements BrainyInterface<T> {
     this._flushQueued = null
     this._flushQueuedSettle = null
     try {
-      this.startFlushLeader().then(settle.resolve, settle.reject)
+      this.#startFlushLeader().then(settle.resolve, settle.reject)
     } catch (error) {
       settle.reject(error)
     }
@@ -20505,34 +20531,45 @@ export class Brainy<T = any> implements BrainyInterface<T> {
 
     // Phase 1: Flush ALL components in parallel to persist buffered data
     // This is critical when cor native providers buffer data in Rust memory
+    //
+    // READ-ONLY GUARD, applied to EVERY flush here. A flush is a write by
+    // definition, and a reader has nothing of its own to persist — but these
+    // calls were not conditional, so a read-only open → read → close REWROTE
+    // four files under `_system/`: the metadata field registry (whose flush()
+    // saves it unconditionally, "even with no dirty fields"), and the three
+    // type/subtype statistics files the storage adapter's count flush stamps.
+    // Every one of them was re-stamped on a session that committed nothing.
+    // A reader must leave `_system/` exactly as it found it — the same law the
+    // clean-shutdown marker already lives under (see the generation-store
+    // guard below and `Brainy.openReadOnly`).
     await Promise.all([
       // Flush HNSW dirty nodes (deferred persistence mode)
       (async () => {
-        if (this.index && typeof this.index.flush === 'function') {
+        if (this.index && !this.isReadOnly && typeof this.index.flush === 'function') {
           await this.index.flush()
         }
       })(),
       // Flush metadata index (field indexes + EntityIdMapper)
       (async () => {
-        if (this.metadataIndex && typeof this.metadataIndex.flush === 'function') {
+        if (this.metadataIndex && !this.isReadOnly && typeof this.metadataIndex.flush === 'function') {
           await this.metadataIndex.flush()
         }
       })(),
       // Flush graph adjacency index (LSM trees)
       (async () => {
-        if (this.graphIndex && typeof this.graphIndex.flush === 'function') {
+        if (this.graphIndex && !this.isReadOnly && typeof this.graphIndex.flush === 'function') {
           await this.graphIndex.flush()
         }
       })(),
       // Flush storage adapter counts
       (async () => {
-        if (this.storage && typeof this.storage.flushCounts === 'function') {
+        if (this.storage && !this.isReadOnly && typeof this.storage.flushCounts === 'function') {
           await this.storage.flushCounts()
         }
       })(),
       // Flush aggregation index state
       (async () => {
-        if (this._aggregationIndex) {
+        if (this._aggregationIndex && !this.isReadOnly) {
           await this._aggregationIndex.flush()
         }
       })(),
@@ -20581,21 +20618,37 @@ export class Brainy<T = any> implements BrainyInterface<T> {
 
     // Phase 2: Close components to release resources (timers, file handles)
     // Data is already safe on disk from Phase 1
+    //
+    // READ-ONLY GUARD, same law as Phase 1. Each of these closes is a WRITER:
+    // the graph index drains both LSM MemTables to SSTables and stamps its
+    // watermark, and the vector/metadata `close` hooks — optional doors the
+    // reference engine leaves unimplemented, but which a native provider fills
+    // in — persist their buffered state. None of that is a reader's to write.
+    //
+    // A reader still has to RELEASE what it holds, which is why this is a
+    // branch rather than a skip: `stopBackgroundFlush()` is the non-writing
+    // half of the graph index's close, clearing the auto-flush interval that
+    // would otherwise outlive the session. The optional hooks have no
+    // non-writing counterpart to call, and a provider that buffers nothing on
+    // a read-only open has nothing to release.
     await Promise.all([
       (async () => {
-        if (this.graphIndex && typeof this.graphIndex.close === 'function') {
+        if (!this.graphIndex) return
+        if (this.isReadOnly) {
+          this.graphIndex.stopBackgroundFlush()
+        } else if (typeof this.graphIndex.close === 'function') {
           await this.graphIndex.close()
         }
       })(),
       (async () => {
         const index = this.index as JsHnswVectorIndex & VectorIndexOptionalHooks
-        if (index && typeof index.close === 'function') {
+        if (index && !this.isReadOnly && typeof index.close === 'function') {
           await index.close()
         }
       })(),
       (async () => {
         const metadataIndex = this.metadataIndex as MetadataIndexManager & MetadataIndexOptionalHooks
-        if (metadataIndex && typeof metadataIndex.close === 'function') {
+        if (metadataIndex && !this.isReadOnly && typeof metadataIndex.close === 'function') {
           await metadataIndex.close()
         }
       })(),
diff --git a/src/errors/brainyError.ts b/src/errors/brainyError.ts
index a58236e3..4301d3f7 100644
--- a/src/errors/brainyError.ts
+++ b/src/errors/brainyError.ts
@@ -405,3 +405,68 @@ export class MigrationInProgressError extends BrainyError {
         }
     }
 }
+
+/**
+ * THE INDEXABLE-ARRAY BOUND. An array-valued metadata field indexes one posting
+ * per element, so an unbounded array is an unbounded write — a 384-float
+ * embedding parked in the metadata bag would mint 384 postings for one row.
+ * The bound exists to keep that out of the index.
+ *
+ * 64 is hardcoded on purpose (the zero-config law: no knob). It sits far above
+ * every legitimate multi-value field the engine has seen — tags, authors,
+ * categories, labels, participant lists — and far below any real embedding
+ * width, so the two populations do not overlap and no caller has to tune it.
+ *
+ * It replaces a limit of 10 that was applied SILENTLY: a row whose `tags` array
+ * held eleven entries had that field skipped entirely and dropped out of every
+ * filtered search on it, with no error, no warning and no way to tell the
+ * difference from "no row matches". A rule this consequential is a law with a
+ * name and a refusal, not a `continue`.
+ */
+export const MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH = 64
+
+/**
+ * A metadata field carries an array longer than {@link MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH}.
+ *
+ * Thrown at the WRITE door (`add` / `update` / `relate` / `updateRelation`), so
+ * the caller learns at the moment of writing that the field will not be
+ * searchable — rather than discovering it later as rows that quietly fail to
+ * match. Carries the field, its length and the bound so a handler can report
+ * or repair without parsing the message.
+ *
+ * The cure is one of: store the long array outside the indexed bag (`data`
+ * carries arbitrary content and is not indexed element-wise); pass an embedding
+ * as the first-class `vector` parameter, which is where a vector belongs; or
+ * shorten the field to the values that are actually queried.
+ */
+export class MetadataArrayTooLargeError extends BrainyError {
+    /** The metadata field whose array is too long (its full dotted address). */
+    public readonly field: string
+    /** How many elements that array holds. */
+    public readonly length: number
+    /** The bound it exceeded — {@link MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH}. */
+    public readonly limit: number
+
+    constructor(site: string, field: string, length: number, limit: number) {
+        super(
+            `${site}: metadata field '${field}' holds ${length} array elements, ` +
+                `over the ${limit}-element indexing bound. An array field indexes one ` +
+                `posting per element, so an unbounded array is an unbounded write. ` +
+                `This write is refused rather than indexed partially or skipped silently ` +
+                `— a skipped field drops the row out of every filtered search on '${field}' ` +
+                `with no way to tell that from "nothing matched". ` +
+                `Cures: put the long array in 'data' (stored, not indexed element-wise); ` +
+                `pass an embedding as the first-class 'vector' parameter; or keep only ` +
+                `the values you actually query in '${field}'.`,
+            'VALIDATION',
+            false
+        )
+        this.name = 'MetadataArrayTooLargeError'
+        this.field = field
+        this.length = length
+        this.limit = limit
+        if (Error.captureStackTrace) {
+            Error.captureStackTrace(this, MetadataArrayTooLargeError)
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/graph/graphAdjacencyIndex.ts b/src/graph/graphAdjacencyIndex.ts
index ebd3b90c..2c131a30 100644
--- a/src/graph/graphAdjacencyIndex.ts
+++ b/src/graph/graphAdjacencyIndex.ts
@@ -1105,13 +1105,31 @@ export class GraphAdjacencyIndex implements GraphIndexProvider {
   }
 
   /**
-   * Clean shutdown
+   * Stop the auto-flush interval WITHOUT writing anything.
+   *
+   * The non-writing half of {@link close}, for a shutdown that must leave the
+   * store byte-identical — a read-only brain's close. `close()` itself is a
+   * writer: it drains both LSM MemTables to SSTables and stamps the watermark,
+   * which is exactly right for a writer and forbidden for a reader. A reader
+   * still has to release this interval, though: it is the one piece of this
+   * index that outlives the close and could fire against a store the session no
+   * longer owns.
+   *
+   * @returns Nothing.
    */
-  async close(): Promise<void> {
+  stopBackgroundFlush(): void {
     if (this.flushTimer) {
       clearInterval(this.flushTimer)
       this.flushTimer = undefined
     }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Clean shutdown — drains both trees and stamps the watermark. THIS WRITES;
+   * a read-only brain must call {@link stopBackgroundFlush} instead.
+   */
+  async close(): Promise<void> {
+    this.stopBackgroundFlush()
 
     // Close both LSM-trees (will flush MemTables to SSTables)
     if (this.initialized) {
diff --git a/src/index.ts b/src/index.ts
index e946f15c..673e1e6f 100644
--- a/src/index.ts
+++ b/src/index.ts
@@ -203,7 +203,7 @@ export { EntityNotFoundError, RelationNotFoundError } from './errors/notFound.js
 
 // Base error + typed migration-lock error — thrown by any data-plane call while a
 // brain runs its one-time 7.x→8.0 upgrade; catch to answer HTTP 503 + Retry-After.
-export { BrainyError, MigrationInProgressError, GraphIndexNotReadyError, MetadataIndexNotReadyError, VectorIndexNotReadyError, ProtectedArtifactError, DerivedArtifactMissingError } from './errors/brainyError.js'
+export { BrainyError, MigrationInProgressError, GraphIndexNotReadyError, MetadataIndexNotReadyError, VectorIndexNotReadyError, ProtectedArtifactError, DerivedArtifactMissingError, MetadataArrayTooLargeError, MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH } from './errors/brainyError.js'
 export type { BrainyErrorType } from './errors/brainyError.js'
 
 // ============= 8.0 Db API — generational MVCC =============
diff --git a/src/utils/metadataIndex.ts b/src/utils/metadataIndex.ts
index a3aa7679..0a5aef75 100644
--- a/src/utils/metadataIndex.ts
+++ b/src/utils/metadataIndex.ts
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ import {
 import { EntityIdMapper } from './entityIdMapper.js'
 import { RoaringBitmap32, roaringLibraryInitialize } from './roaring/index.js'
 import { FieldTypeInference, FieldType } from './fieldTypeInference.js'
-import { BrainyError } from '../errors/brainyError.js'
+import { BrainyError, MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH } from '../errors/brainyError.js'
 
 /**
  * Fields whose values are stored in the sparse index as BUCKETED values
@@ -289,8 +289,10 @@ export class MetadataIndexManager implements MetadataIndexProvider {
       // No name-based exclude/allow lists — the field-addressing law: every
       // user field indexes, whatever its name ('content', 'data', 'id',
       // 'vector', … included). Bulk payloads are kept out by uniform value-
-      // SHAPE rules in extractIndexableFields (arrays >10 never become
-      // posting scalars; >100-char values index hashed), never by name.
+      // SHAPE rules in extractIndexableFields (arrays longer than
+      // MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH never become posting scalars, and the write
+      // door refuses them by name; >100-char values index hashed), never by
+      // field name.
     }
 
     // Initialize metadata cache with similar config to search cache
@@ -961,9 +963,41 @@ export class MetadataIndexManager implements MetadataIndexProvider {
   }
 
   /**
-   * Get IDs for a range using chunked sparse index with zone maps and roaring bitmaps
-   * Now fully lazy-loaded via UnifiedCache (no local sparseIndices Map)
-   * Normalize min/max for timestamp bucketing before comparison
+   * Get IDs for a range using the legacy chunked sparse index (zone maps +
+   * roaring bitmaps). Lazy-loaded via UnifiedCache.
+   *
+   * ORDER IS NOT A KEY. This path compares NORMALIZED values, and
+   * {@link normalizeValue} carries an escape hatch that is order-destroying by
+   * design: a string over 100 characters is replaced by {@link hashValue}'s
+   * digest so it can be used as a filesystem-safe key. Feeding that digest to
+   * an ORDERING comparison — which is what a `gte` / `lt` / `between` does —
+   * ranks rows by hash. The result is not empty and not an error: it is a
+   * confidently ordered wrong answer, and it disagrees with the column-store
+   * path (`getIdsForRange` above), which compares raw values and is correct.
+   *
+   * Two changes hold the line here:
+   *
+   * 1. THE BOUNDS ARE NEVER HASHED. They are normalized with `allowHash =
+   *    false`, so a long bound stays comparable instead of collapsing to a
+   *    digest. This alone fixes the common shape — a long bound queried
+   *    against ordinary short values, where the digest sorts below every
+   *    letter and `gte` therefore matched the entire store.
+   *
+   * 2. A HASHED KEY IS REFUSED, NEVER GUESSED. The persisted keys are whatever
+   *    the pre-7.20.0 writer normalized them to, so a field whose values ran
+   *    long is stored hashed and its order is simply not recoverable from this
+   *    index. Rather than compare digests, the query throws a typed
+   *    `BrainyError('INVALID_QUERY')` naming the field, the bound and the cure.
+   *    Loud beats wrong.
+   *
+   * KNOWN, NAMED DIVERGENCE. The persisted keys are also lower-cased and
+   * trimmed by `normalizeValue`, so this path's string ranges are
+   * CASE-INSENSITIVE where the column store's are not. That is a property of
+   * the bytes a pre-7.20.0 engine wrote, not of the comparison: the raw values
+   * are not in the index to compare. The bounds are normalized into the same
+   * case-folded space so the comparison is at least self-consistent, and the
+   * divergence disappears with the field itself once the column store adopts
+   * it. See the module note on `getIdsFromChunks` for the path's lifetime.
    */
   private async getIdsFromChunksForRange(
     field: string,
@@ -979,9 +1013,27 @@ export class MetadataIndexManager implements MetadataIndexProvider {
     }
 
     // Normalize min/max for consistent comparison with indexed values
-    // (indexed values are bucketed for timestamps, so we must bucket the query bounds too)
-    const normalizedMin = min !== undefined ? this.normalizeValue(min, field) : undefined
-    const normalizedMax = max !== undefined ? this.normalizeValue(max, field) : undefined
+    // (indexed values are bucketed for timestamps, so we must bucket the query
+    // bounds too) — but NEVER through the hash escape hatch, which would make
+    // the bound incomparable. See the doc comment above.
+    const normalizedMin = min !== undefined ? this.normalizeValue(min, field, false) : undefined
+    const normalizedMax = max !== undefined ? this.normalizeValue(max, field, false) : undefined
+
+    // REFUSE BEFORE SELECTING. Chunk selection itself orders values: it tests
+    // the bounds against each chunk's zone-map min/max. If those are hashes the
+    // selection is already meaningless — and its failure mode is an EMPTY
+    // answer (no chunk appears to overlap), which is the quietest wrong answer
+    // of all. So the key space is checked here, before a single chunk is
+    // chosen, and again per key below for a chunk whose zone map happens to
+    // read clean.
+    for (const chunkId of sparseIndex.getAllChunkIds()) {
+      const zoneMap = sparseIndex.getChunk(chunkId)?.zoneMap
+      for (const bound of [zoneMap?.min, zoneMap?.max]) {
+        if (typeof bound === 'string' && MetadataIndexManager.isHashedValue(bound)) {
+          throw MetadataIndexManager.rangeOverHashedIndex(field)
+        }
+      }
+    }
 
     // Find candidate chunks using zone maps
     const candidateChunkIds = sparseIndex.findChunksForRange(normalizedMin, normalizedMax)
@@ -996,6 +1048,13 @@ export class MetadataIndexManager implements MetadataIndexProvider {
       const chunk = await this.chunkManager.loadChunk(field, chunkId)
       if (chunk) {
         for (const [value, bitmap] of chunk.entries) {
+          // A hashed key carries no order. Refuse the range rather than rank by
+          // digest — the whole answer is unsound, so failing on the first one
+          // is the honest outcome.
+          if (MetadataIndexManager.isHashedValue(value)) {
+            throw MetadataIndexManager.rangeOverHashedIndex(field)
+          }
+
           // Check if value is in range using numeric-aware comparison
           // (normalizeValue converts numbers to strings, so we must compare numerically)
           let inRange = true
@@ -1024,6 +1083,25 @@ export class MetadataIndexManager implements MetadataIndexProvider {
     return this.idMapper.intsIterableToUuids(allIntIds)
   }
 
+  /**
+   * The refusal a range query gets when the legacy sparse index holds hashed
+   * keys for the field. Names the field and the cure; never a wrong answer.
+   */
+  private static rangeOverHashedIndex(field: string): BrainyError {
+    return new BrainyError(
+      `Range query on field "${field}" cannot be served by the legacy sparse index: ` +
+        `its values were persisted as hashes (values over 100 characters are stored ` +
+        `hashed to stay within filesystem name limits), and a hash carries no order — ` +
+        `comparing them would return a confidently ordered wrong answer. ` +
+        `Equality (\`where: { ${field}: value }\`) still works on this index. ` +
+        `To range over this field, let the column store adopt it: run ` +
+        `brain.repairIndex({ rebuild: ['metadata'] }), which rebuilds the field into ` +
+        `the column store, where ranges compare raw values.`,
+      'INVALID_QUERY',
+      false
+    )
+  }
+
   /**
    * Get roaring bitmap for a field-value pair without converting to UUIDs
    * This is used for fast multi-field intersection queries using hardware-accelerated bitmap AND
@@ -1191,8 +1269,17 @@ export class MetadataIndexManager implements MetadataIndexProvider {
    * value-based detection (DuckDB-inspired). Analyzes actual data values, not names.
    *
    * NO FALLBACKS - Pure value-based detection only.
+   *
+   * @param value - The value to normalize.
+   * @param field - Optional field name (drives the per-field statistics strategy).
+   * @param allowHash - Whether the >100-character escape hatch may fire. TRUE
+   *   everywhere a normalized value is used as a KEY (equality postings, chunk
+   *   entries, filenames) — that is what the hash exists for. FALSE on the
+   *   ORDER-comparing path: a hash is deliberately order-destroying, so a
+   *   bound that hashes can only be compared as nonsense. See
+   *   {@link isHashedValue} and `getIdsFromChunksForRange`.
    */
-  private normalizeValue(value: any, field?: string): string {
+  private normalizeValue(value: any, field?: string, allowHash: boolean = true): string {
     if (value === null || value === undefined) return '__NULL__'
     if (typeof value === 'boolean') return value ? '__TRUE__' : '__FALSE__'
 
@@ -1250,21 +1337,34 @@ export class MetadataIndexManager implements MetadataIndexProvider {
     // Default normalization
     if (typeof value === 'number') return value.toString()
     if (Array.isArray(value)) {
-      const joined = value.map(v => this.normalizeValue(v, field)).join(',')
+      const joined = value.map(v => this.normalizeValue(v, field, allowHash)).join(',')
       // Hash very long array values to avoid filesystem limits
-      if (joined.length > 100) {
+      if (allowHash && joined.length > 100) {
         return this.hashValue(joined)
       }
       return joined
     }
     const stringValue = String(value).toLowerCase().trim()
     // Hash very long string values to avoid filesystem limits
-    if (stringValue.length > 100) {
+    if (allowHash && stringValue.length > 100) {
       return this.hashValue(stringValue)
     }
     return stringValue
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Is this normalized value a HASH rather than the value itself?
+   *
+   * {@link hashValue} is an escape hatch for filesystem name limits, and it is
+   * deliberately order-destroying: two values whose hashes compare one way
+   * routinely compare the other way themselves. Anything that ORDERS normalized
+   * values has to know when it is holding one, because comparing hashes yields
+   * a confident, wrong answer rather than an error.
+   */
+  private static isHashedValue(normalized: string): boolean {
+    return normalized.startsWith('__HASH_')
+  }
+
   /**
    * Create a short hash for long values to avoid filesystem filename limits
    */
@@ -1289,9 +1389,10 @@ export class MetadataIndexManager implements MetadataIndexProvider {
    *   'content', 'vector' in a bag are ordinary user fields)
    * - Record-frame plumbing (vector, connections, level, data, _rev, id)
    *   never indexes — that is namespace routing, not a name carve-out
-   * - Value-SHAPE rules apply uniformly to all names: arrays >10 never
-   *   become posting scalars; purely numeric key names (array indices)
-   *   skip; >100-char values index hashed (normalizeValue)
+   * - Value-SHAPE rules apply uniformly to all names: arrays longer than
+   *   MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH never become posting scalars (and say so —
+   *   the write door refuses them outright); purely numeric key names
+   *   (array indices) skip; >100-char values index hashed (normalizeValue)
    */
   private extractIndexableFields(data: any): Array<{ field: string, value: any }> {
     const fields: Array<{ field: string, value: any }> = []
@@ -1353,13 +1454,37 @@ export class MetadataIndexManager implements MetadataIndexProvider {
         // This catches vectors stored as objects: {0: 0.1, 1: 0.2, ...}
         if (/^\d+$/.test(key)) continue
 
-        // Skip large arrays (> 10 elements) - likely vectors or bulk data
-        if (Array.isArray(value) && value.length > 10) continue
+        // THE INDEXABLE-ARRAY BOUND ({@link MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH}). An
+        // array field mints one posting per element, so the index has always
+        // carried a ceiling — it was 10, and it was applied by this bare
+        // `continue`: an eleven-element `tags` array had its whole field
+        // skipped and the row dropped out of every filtered search on it, with
+        // no error, no warning, and nothing to distinguish that from "no row
+        // matches". The ceiling is not the defect; the silence was.
+        //
+        // The write door refuses this shape by name now
+        // (`MetadataArrayTooLargeError`, thrown from paramValidation's
+        // `rejectOversizeIndexArrays`), so a live add/update never reaches
+        // here over the bound. Reaching it means the row is ALREADY on disk —
+        // written by an older engine under the old rule — and this is a
+        // rebuild, a catch-up fold or a remove reading it back. Refusing there
+        // would make an existing store un-rebuildable, so the row is admitted
+        // and the skipped field is NARRATED instead. Never silent, either way.
+        if (Array.isArray(value) && value.length > MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH) {
+          prodLog.warn(
+            `[brainy] metadata field '${fullKey}' holds ${value.length} array elements, ` +
+            `over the ${MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH}-element indexing bound — the field is ` +
+            `NOT indexed for this row, so it will not match a where-clause on '${fullKey}'. ` +
+            `This row predates the bound (the write door refuses this shape now). ` +
+            `Move the long array into 'data', or pass an embedding as the 'vector' parameter.`
+          )
+          continue
+        }
 
         if (value && typeof value === 'object' && !Array.isArray(value)) {
           // Recurse into nested objects (but not arrays), keeping the frame
           extract(value, fullKey, frame)
-        } else if (Array.isArray(value) && value.length <= 10) {
+        } else if (Array.isArray(value)) {
           // Small arrays: index as multi-value field (all with same field name)
           // Example: tags: ["javascript", "node"] → field="tags", value="javascript" + field="tags", value="node"
           for (const item of value) {
diff --git a/src/utils/paramValidation.ts b/src/utils/paramValidation.ts
index 00790a4a..f1addb5b 100644
--- a/src/utils/paramValidation.ts
+++ b/src/utils/paramValidation.ts
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ import { findCallerLocation } from './callerLocation.js'
 import * as os from 'node:os'
 import * as fs from 'node:fs'
 import { parseFieldAddress, UnsupportedFindOptionError } from '../db/fieldAddressing.js'
+import { MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH, MetadataArrayTooLargeError } from '../errors/brainyError.js'
 
 const getSystemMemory = (): number => {
   if (os) {
@@ -538,8 +539,53 @@ function rejectForgedSystemKeys(metadata: Record<string, unknown> | undefined, s
   }
 }
 
+/**
+ * THE INDEXABLE-ARRAY BOUND, enforced at the write door.
+ *
+ * An array-valued metadata field indexes one posting per element, so the index
+ * has always carried a ceiling. It used to be 10, and it was applied by a bare
+ * `continue` deep inside field extraction: a row whose `tags` array held eleven
+ * entries had that field skipped entirely and dropped out of every filtered
+ * search on it — no error, no warning, and no way for the caller to tell the
+ * difference from "no row matches". Silence is the defect; the ceiling is not.
+ *
+ * The bound is now {@link MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH}, high enough that every
+ * legitimate multi-value field clears it, and it REFUSES here instead of
+ * dropping data downstream. Refusing at the write door is what makes it
+ * actionable: the caller learns at the moment of writing, with the field, the
+ * length and the bound in hand.
+ *
+ * Scope is the caller's own metadata bag — the values that become postings.
+ * Nested bags are walked, because a nested field indexes under its dotted
+ * address exactly like a top-level one. Arrays of OBJECTS are not walked: the
+ * index only ever makes postings from an array's scalar elements.
+ *
+ * @param metadata - The caller's metadata bag (undefined is fine).
+ * @param site - The write door's name, for the message ('add()', 'update()', …).
+ * @throws {MetadataArrayTooLargeError} Naming the field, its length and the bound.
+ */
+function rejectOversizeIndexArrays(metadata: Record<string, unknown> | undefined, site: string): void {
+  if (!metadata) return
+
+  const walk = (bag: Record<string, unknown>, prefix: string): void => {
+    for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(bag)) {
+      const address = prefix ? `${prefix}.${key}` : key
+      if (Array.isArray(value)) {
+        if (value.length > MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH) {
+          throw new MetadataArrayTooLargeError(site, address, value.length, MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH)
+        }
+      } else if (value && typeof value === 'object') {
+        walk(value as Record<string, unknown>, address)
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  walk(metadata, '')
+}
+
 export function validateAddParams(params: AddParams): void {
   rejectForgedSystemKeys(params.metadata as Record<string, unknown> | undefined, 'add()')
+  rejectOversizeIndexArrays(params.metadata as Record<string, unknown> | undefined, 'add()')
   // 'data' is ABSENT only when null/undefined — an empty string ('') is real
   // content (a legitimate empty file's first write) and must not be treated
   // as missing. Falsy-but-present values (0, false, '') all count as present;
@@ -608,6 +654,7 @@ export function validateAddParams(params: AddParams): void {
  */
 export function validateUpdateParams(params: UpdateParams): void {
   rejectForgedSystemKeys(params.metadata as Record<string, unknown> | undefined, 'update()')
+  rejectOversizeIndexArrays(params.metadata as Record<string, unknown> | undefined, 'update()')
   // Same absent-vs-empty distinction as validateAddParams: '' is a real new
   // value (e.g. truncating a file to empty content via overwrite), only
   // null/undefined means "no new data was given".
@@ -682,6 +729,7 @@ export function validateUpdateParams(params: UpdateParams): void {
  */
 export function validateRelateParams(params: RelateParams): void {
   rejectForgedSystemKeys(params.metadata as Record<string, unknown> | undefined, 'relate()')
+  rejectOversizeIndexArrays(params.metadata as Record<string, unknown> | undefined, 'relate()')
   // 8.0 verb-id contract (L.7): verb ids are UUIDs, generated by brainy.
   // RelateParams has no `id` field — an untyped caller passing one would
   // previously have it silently ignored (a generated UUID was used instead).
@@ -731,6 +779,7 @@ export function validateRelateParams(params: RelateParams): void {
  */
 export function validateUpdateRelationParams(params: UpdateRelationParams): void {
   rejectForgedSystemKeys(params.metadata as Record<string, unknown> | undefined, 'updateRelation()')
+  rejectOversizeIndexArrays(params.metadata as Record<string, unknown> | undefined, 'updateRelation()')
   if (!params.id) {
     throw new Error('id is required for updateRelation')
   }
diff --git a/tests/integration/find-orderby-every-path.test.ts b/tests/integration/find-orderby-every-path.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7637a79b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/integration/find-orderby-every-path.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,244 @@
+/**
+ * @module tests/integration/find-orderby-every-path
+ * @description `orderBy` IS THE ORDER — on every find() path, not just the
+ * metadata-only one.
+ *
+ * THE DEFECT. `find({ where, orderBy })` (metadata only) answered in field
+ * order. `find({ query, where, orderBy })` and `find({ vector, where, orderBy })`
+ * answered in SCORE order, silently: the vector/filter block ranked the fused
+ * candidates by score, cut the page, and returned early — the tail's `orderBy`
+ * sort sat below that early return and never ran. Nothing threw, nothing warned,
+ * and the two paths disagreed about what "ordered by rank" means. A caller
+ * paging `orderBy: 'rank', order: 'desc'` over a hybrid find got relevance
+ * order wearing an ordering request's clothes.
+ *
+ * Where `connected` or `fusion` kept the tail alive the defect changed shape
+ * rather than disappearing: the block had already CUT the page by score, so the
+ * tail ordered the rows relevance had chosen instead of the rows the ordering
+ * asks for — a correctly sorted page of the wrong rows.
+ *
+ * The early cut fires only once the candidate set reaches `offset + limit`
+ * rows, which is why small fixtures never saw it: below that threshold the
+ * block falls through and the tail's sort does apply. That is the whole shape
+ * of the bug — an ordering that is correct until there is enough data to matter.
+ *
+ * THE LAW. An explicit `orderBy` displaces score as the ordering key on every
+ * path. The candidate set the path produced is ordered IN FULL and the page is
+ * cut from that ordering — the graph-first law's "page last", applied to
+ * ordering rather than to filtering. Score-ranked early paging is for the
+ * default (no `orderBy`) case only, where score IS the requested order.
+ *
+ * THE PIN. Differential, against the metadata-only path — the one path that
+ * always honoured `orderBy`.
+ *
+ * WHAT THE DIFFERENTIAL CAN AND CANNOT CLAIM. `orderBy` orders the candidate
+ * set; it does not enlarge it. The hybrid legs are bounded by construction (the
+ * text leg and the beam walk each take `limit * 2`), so a differential against
+ * the metadata-only path — whose universe is every matching row — is only
+ * meaningful where those bounds provably cover the universe. The fixture is
+ * sized so they do (12 rows, `limit` 6 → a `limit * 2` = 12-row text leg), and
+ * the covering is ASSERTED from the leg's own output rather than assumed. This
+ * pin is about ordering, and it says nothing about recall.
+ */
+import { describe, it, expect, beforeAll } from 'vitest'
+import { Brainy } from '../../src/brainy'
+import { NounType, VerbType } from '../../src/types/graphTypes'
+import { resolveEntityId } from '../../src/utils/idNormalization'
+
+/** Embedding width of the default model — the row vectors must match it. */
+const DIM = 384
+
+/** A deterministic, per-row-distinct unit vector (no embedder in the fixture). */
+function seededVector(seed: number): number[] {
+  const v = new Array<number>(DIM)
+  for (let i = 0; i < DIM; i++) {
+    v[i] = Math.sin((i + 1) * 0.11 + seed * 0.37) * 0.5 + Math.cos((i + 1) * 0.05 + seed * 0.13) * 0.3
+  }
+  const magnitude = Math.sqrt(v.reduce((sum, x) => sum + x * x, 0))
+  return v.map((x) => x / magnitude)
+}
+
+/**
+ * Ranks, shuffled — so no scoring order can reproduce them by luck, and the
+ * ordering the pins assert is visibly not the insertion order either.
+ */
+const RANKS = [7, 3, 11, 1, 9, 5, 12, 2, 10, 4, 8, 6]
+const ROWS = RANKS.length
+/** The page size every pin uses: `limit * 2` covers the whole universe. */
+const LIMIT = 6
+/** The neighbour subset — the graph-first universe — and its own page size. */
+const NEIGHBOURS = 8
+const GRAPH_LIMIT = 4
+
+describe('find(): orderBy is the order on every path', () => {
+  let brain: Brainy<any>
+  const QUERY = 'orbital telemetry'
+  const anchor = 'ordering-anchor'
+  const neighbourIds: string[] = []
+
+  beforeAll(async () => {
+    brain = new Brainy({ requireSubtype: false, storage: { type: 'memory' } })
+    await brain.init()
+
+    let seed = 1
+    await brain.add({
+      id: anchor,
+      data: 'ground station anchor record',
+      type: NounType.Thing,
+      metadata: { lane: 'anchor', rank: 0 },
+      vector: seededVector(seed++)
+    })
+
+    for (let i = 0; i < ROWS; i++) {
+      const id = `row-${i}`
+      await brain.add({
+        id,
+        // EVERY row carries both query words, so the text leg reaches all of
+        // them and the hybrid candidate set covers the whole universe.
+        data: `orbital telemetry packet ${i} recorded downlink`,
+        type: NounType.Document,
+        metadata: { lane: 'alpha', rank: RANKS[i] },
+        vector: seededVector(seed++)
+      })
+      if (i < NEIGHBOURS) {
+        await brain.relate({ from: anchor, to: id, type: VerbType.RelatedTo })
+        neighbourIds.push(resolveEntityId(id))
+      }
+    }
+  })
+
+  it('the fixture: the hybrid candidate set covers the whole filter universe', async () => {
+    const universe: string[] = await (brain as any).filterIdsBelted({ lane: 'alpha' })
+    expect(universe).toHaveLength(ROWS)
+
+    // The text leg is bounded at `limit * 2`; the fixture is sized so that
+    // bound reaches every row in the universe. This is the precondition the
+    // differential below rests on — asserted from the leg itself.
+    const textScored = await (brain as any).executeTextSearchScored(QUERY, LIMIT * 2, universe)
+    expect(textScored).toHaveLength(ROWS)
+
+    // And the candidate set is large enough to trigger the score-ranked early
+    // cut this pin exists to keep out of an ordered query's way.
+    expect(ROWS).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(LIMIT)
+  })
+
+  it('metadata-only + orderBy: the reference ordering', async () => {
+    const rows = await brain.find({
+      where: { lane: 'alpha' },
+      orderBy: 'rank',
+      order: 'desc',
+      limit: LIMIT
+    } as any)
+    expect(rows.map((r: any) => r.metadata.rank)).toEqual([12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7])
+  })
+
+  it('hybrid (query + where) + orderBy: the same page as the metadata-only path', async () => {
+    const params = { where: { lane: 'alpha' }, orderBy: 'rank', order: 'desc' as const, limit: LIMIT }
+    const expected = await brain.find(params as any)
+    const actual = await brain.find({ ...params, query: QUERY } as any)
+
+    expect(actual).toHaveLength(expected.length)
+    expect(actual.map((r: any) => r.id)).toEqual(expected.map((r: any) => r.id))
+    expect(actual.map((r: any) => r.metadata.rank)).toEqual([12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7])
+  })
+
+  it('hybrid + orderBy asc: the ordering key is honoured in both directions', async () => {
+    const params = { where: { lane: 'alpha' }, orderBy: 'rank', order: 'asc' as const, limit: LIMIT }
+    const expected = await brain.find(params as any)
+    const actual = await brain.find({ ...params, query: QUERY } as any)
+
+    expect(actual.map((r: any) => r.id)).toEqual(expected.map((r: any) => r.id))
+    expect(actual.map((r: any) => r.metadata.rank)).toEqual([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6])
+  })
+
+  it('hybrid + orderBy + offset: page two is page two of the ORDERING', async () => {
+    const params = {
+      where: { lane: 'alpha' },
+      orderBy: 'rank',
+      order: 'desc' as const,
+      limit: LIMIT,
+      offset: LIMIT
+    }
+    const expected = await brain.find(params as any)
+    const actual = await brain.find({ ...params, query: QUERY } as any)
+
+    expect(actual).toHaveLength(LIMIT)
+    expect(actual.map((r: any) => r.id)).toEqual(expected.map((r: any) => r.id))
+    expect(actual.map((r: any) => r.metadata.rank)).toEqual([6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1])
+  })
+
+  it('hybrid + orderBy: paging walks the ordering monotonically, no row twice', async () => {
+    const seen: number[] = []
+    for (let offset = 0; offset < ROWS; offset += LIMIT) {
+      const page = await brain.find({
+        query: QUERY,
+        where: { lane: 'alpha' },
+        orderBy: 'rank',
+        order: 'desc',
+        limit: LIMIT,
+        offset
+      } as any)
+      seen.push(...page.map((r: any) => r.metadata.rank))
+    }
+    expect(seen).toHaveLength(ROWS)
+    expect(new Set(seen).size).toBe(ROWS)
+    // Strictly descending across every page boundary.
+    for (let i = 1; i < seen.length; i++) expect(seen[i]).toBeLessThan(seen[i - 1])
+  })
+
+  it('vector + where + orderBy: field order, not distance order', async () => {
+    // The beam walk takes `limit * 2` = the whole universe here, so the page is
+    // the true top of the ordering — which distance order cannot produce.
+    const rows = await brain.find({
+      vector: seededVector(1000),
+      where: { lane: 'alpha' },
+      orderBy: 'rank',
+      order: 'desc',
+      limit: LIMIT
+    } as any)
+    expect(rows.map((r: any) => r.metadata.rank)).toEqual([12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7])
+  })
+
+  it('graph-first (query + connected + where) + orderBy: the neighbour set, ordered', async () => {
+    const actual = await brain.find({
+      query: QUERY,
+      connected: { from: anchor, direction: 'out' as const },
+      where: { lane: 'alpha' },
+      orderBy: 'rank',
+      order: 'desc',
+      limit: GRAPH_LIMIT
+    } as any)
+
+    expect(actual).toHaveLength(GRAPH_LIMIT)
+    const neighbours = new Set(neighbourIds)
+    for (const r of actual) expect(neighbours.has(r.id)).toBe(true)
+
+    // The ordering covers the whole neighbour set, so the page holds the
+    // highest ranks AMONG THE NEIGHBOURS — not the ones the score ranking
+    // happened to surface first and the tail then sorted among themselves.
+    const expectedRanks = RANKS.slice(0, NEIGHBOURS)
+      .sort((a, b) => b - a)
+      .slice(0, GRAPH_LIMIT)
+    expect(expectedRanks).toEqual([12, 11, 9, 7])
+    expect(actual.map((r: any) => r.metadata.rank)).toEqual(expectedRanks)
+  })
+
+  it('fusion + orderBy: the ordering survives the fusion rescore', async () => {
+    const actual = await brain.find({
+      query: QUERY,
+      where: { lane: 'alpha' },
+      fusion: 'weighted',
+      orderBy: 'rank',
+      order: 'desc',
+      limit: LIMIT
+    } as any)
+    expect(actual.map((r: any) => r.metadata.rank)).toEqual([12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7])
+  })
+
+  it('no orderBy: score order still stands (the default is untouched)', async () => {
+    const rows = await brain.find({ query: QUERY, where: { lane: 'alpha' }, limit: LIMIT } as any)
+    expect(rows).toHaveLength(LIMIT)
+    const scores = rows.map((r: any) => r.score)
+    for (let i = 1; i < scores.length; i++) expect(scores[i]).toBeLessThanOrEqual(scores[i - 1])
+  })
+})
diff --git a/tests/integration/metadata-vector-exclusion.test.ts b/tests/integration/metadata-vector-exclusion.test.ts
index 9e11f9dc..0ca25388 100644
--- a/tests/integration/metadata-vector-exclusion.test.ts
+++ b/tests/integration/metadata-vector-exclusion.test.ts
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ import { describe, it, expect, beforeEach, afterEach } from 'vitest'
 import { Brainy } from '../../src/brainy.js'
 import { NounType } from '../../src/types/graphTypes.js'
 import { existsSync, rmSync } from 'fs'
+import { MetadataArrayTooLargeError, MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH } from '../../src/errors/brainyError.js'
 
 describe('Metadata Vector Exclusion Fix', () => {
   let brainy: Brainy
@@ -155,29 +156,56 @@ describe('Metadata Vector Exclusion Fix', () => {
     expect(results[0].entity.metadata?.name).toBe('Bob')
   })
 
-  it('should skip indexing large arrays (>10 elements)', async () => {
-    // Add entity with a large array (not a vector, just bulk data).
+  it('should REFUSE an array over the indexing bound, by name', async () => {
+    // A large array (not a vector, just bulk data). This used to be SKIPPED in
+    // silence at a bound of 10 — the field simply vanished from the index and
+    // the row dropped out of every `where` on it, indistinguishably from "no
+    // row matches". The bound is now MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH and it REFUSES.
     const largeArray = Array.from({ length: 100 }, (_, i) => `item${i}`)
 
-    await brainy.add({
-      type: NounType.Document,
-      data: 'Doc with large array',
-      metadata: {
-        name: 'Doc with large array',
-        items: largeArray
-      }
-    })
+    const err = await brainy
+      .add({
+        type: NounType.Document,
+        data: 'Doc with large array',
+        metadata: {
+          name: 'Doc with large array',
+          items: largeArray
+        }
+      })
+      .catch((e: any) => e)
 
-    // Large arrays (> 10 elements) are deliberately skipped to avoid indexing
-    // bulk/vector-like payloads: 'items' must NOT appear, and the 100 elements
-    // must NOT have produced 100 indexed fields.
+    expect(err).toBeInstanceOf(MetadataArrayTooLargeError)
+    expect(err.field).toBe('items')
+    expect(err.length).toBe(100)
+    expect(err.limit).toBe(MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH)
+
+    // Nothing was indexed from the refused write — no 'items' field, and above
+    // all no per-element numeric fields (the original explosion class).
     const fields = await brainy.getAvailableFields()
     expect(fields).not.toContain('items')
     const numericFields = fields.filter(f => /(^|\.)\d+$/.test(f))
     expect(numericFields).toEqual([])
+  })
 
-    // The scalar 'name' field IS indexed.
-    expect(fields).toContain('name')
+  it('should index an array UP TO the bound — the old limit of 10 was the bug', async () => {
+    await brainy.add({
+      type: NounType.Document,
+      data: 'Doc with a long-but-legitimate tag list',
+      metadata: {
+        name: 'Doc with many tags',
+        items: Array.from({ length: MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH }, (_, i) => `item${i}`)
+      }
+    })
+
+    const fields = await brainy.getAvailableFields()
+    // The field IS indexed now, and still without per-element numeric fields.
+    expect(fields).toContain('items')
+    expect(fields.filter(f => /(^|\.)\d+$/.test(f))).toEqual([])
+
+    // And the eleventh element — the one the old bound silently dropped the
+    // whole field for — really is searchable.
+    const hits = await brainy.find({ where: { items: 'item10' } })
+    expect(hits.length).toBeGreaterThan(0)
   })
 
   it('should preserve HNSW vector search functionality', async () => {
diff --git a/tests/integration/readonly-close-no-marker.test.ts b/tests/integration/readonly-close-no-marker.test.ts
index 7bcf99df..ad9357db 100644
--- a/tests/integration/readonly-close-no-marker.test.ts
+++ b/tests/integration/readonly-close-no-marker.test.ts
@@ -149,12 +149,12 @@ describe('a read-only brain writes no clean-shutdown evidence', () => {
     brain = null
 
     // The FILE SET under `_system/` is unchanged — a reader creates and
-    // removes nothing. (Other files under `_system/` — e.g. the metadata
-    // field registry, which stamps its own `lastUpdated` on every persist —
-    // are a pre-existing, separate concern outside this fix's scope: this
-    // pin is specifically about the generation store's clean-shutdown
-    // evidence, not about every subsystem's close() being a true no-op for
-    // a reader.)
+    // removes nothing. This pin is specifically about the generation store's
+    // clean-shutdown evidence. The wider law — that a reader leaves EVERY
+    // file under `_system/` byte-identical, which this fix left open as a
+    // known residual (the metadata field registry and the three statistics
+    // files were still re-stamped by a reader's close) — is closed and pinned
+    // in `readonly-close-writes-nothing.test.ts`.
     const after = snapshotDir(systemDir())
     expect([...after.keys()].sort()).toEqual([...before.keys()].sort())
 
diff --git a/tests/integration/readonly-close-writes-nothing.test.ts b/tests/integration/readonly-close-writes-nothing.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..701a1974
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/integration/readonly-close-writes-nothing.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,261 @@
+/**
+ * @module tests/integration/readonly-close-writes-nothing
+ * @description A READ-ONLY BRAIN LEAVES `_system/` BYTE-IDENTICAL — the WHOLE
+ * directory, not just the clean-shutdown marker.
+ *
+ * `readonly-close-no-marker` closed the marker half of this law and named the
+ * rest as a known, out-of-scope residual:
+ *
+ *   "Other files under `_system/` — e.g. the metadata field registry, which
+ *    stamps its own `lastUpdated` on every persist — are a pre-existing,
+ *    separate concern outside this fix's scope."
+ *
+ * This is that residual, closed. MEASURED on the base before the fix, a
+ * read-only open → read → close rewrote FOUR files:
+ *
+ *   _system/__metadata_field_registry__.json.gz
+ *   _system/type-statistics.json.gz
+ *   _system/subtype-statistics.json.gz
+ *   _system/verb-subtype-statistics.json.gz
+ *
+ * THE CAUSE was not the closes the marker fix guarded — it was Phase 1 of
+ * `closeDurableSteps`, where every component flush ran unconditionally. A flush
+ * is a write by definition: `MetadataIndexManager#flush()` saves the field
+ * registry "even with no dirty fields" (its own comment), and the storage
+ * adapter's count flush re-stamps the three statistics files. A session that
+ * committed nothing re-stamped all four. Phase 2's closes were ungated too —
+ * the graph index's close drains both LSM MemTables and stamps a watermark,
+ * and the optional vector/metadata `close` hooks (unimplemented in the
+ * reference engine, filled in by a native provider) persist buffered state.
+ *
+ * THE LAW. A reader writes nothing, anywhere under `_system/`, at open or at
+ * close. It still RELEASES what it holds: the graph index's auto-flush interval
+ * is cleared through `stopBackgroundFlush()`, the non-writing half of its
+ * close, so nothing outlives the session.
+ *
+ * WHY IT MATTERS beyond tidiness: `_system/` is where a store keeps its
+ * evidence about itself — what the writer committed, what the projections have
+ * seen. A reader that rewrites any of it is vouching for a state it only
+ * observed, and on shared or snapshot storage it mutates bytes another process
+ * owns.
+ */
+
+import { describe, it, expect, beforeEach, afterEach } from 'vitest'
+import { mkdtempSync, rmSync, readdirSync, readFileSync, statSync } from 'node:fs'
+import { createHash } from 'node:crypto'
+import { tmpdir } from 'node:os'
+import { join } from 'node:path'
+import { Brainy } from '../../src/brainy.js'
+import { NounType, VerbType } from '../../src/types/graphTypes.js'
+
+/** Recursively hash every regular file under `dir`, keyed by its path relative to `dir`. */
+function snapshotDir(dir: string): Map<string, string> {
+  const out = new Map<string, string>()
+  const walk = (rel: string): void => {
+    const abs = rel ? join(dir, rel) : dir
+    let entries: string[]
+    try {
+      entries = readdirSync(abs)
+    } catch {
+      return
+    }
+    for (const name of entries) {
+      const childRel = rel ? join(rel, name) : name
+      const childAbs = join(dir, childRel)
+      const st = statSync(childAbs)
+      if (st.isDirectory()) {
+        walk(childRel)
+      } else if (st.isFile()) {
+        out.set(childRel, createHash('sha256').update(readFileSync(childAbs)).digest('hex'))
+      }
+    }
+  }
+  walk('')
+  return out
+}
+
+/** Every path where `after` differs from `before`, labelled — the failure message. */
+function diff(before: Map<string, string>, after: Map<string, string>): string[] {
+  const lines: string[] = []
+  for (const [path, hash] of after) {
+    if (!before.has(path)) lines.push(`ADDED   ${path}`)
+    else if (before.get(path) !== hash) lines.push(`CHANGED ${path}`)
+  }
+  for (const path of before.keys()) if (!after.has(path)) lines.push(`REMOVED ${path}`)
+  return lines.sort()
+}
+
+describe('a read-only brain writes nothing under `_system/`', () => {
+  let dir: string
+  let brain: Brainy | null = null
+
+  beforeEach(() => {
+    dir = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), 'brainy-readonly-writes-'))
+  })
+
+  afterEach(async () => {
+    if (brain) {
+      try {
+        await brain.close()
+      } catch {
+        /* already closed */
+      }
+      brain = null
+    }
+    try {
+      rmSync(dir, { recursive: true, force: true })
+    } catch {
+      /* ignore */
+    }
+  })
+
+  const systemDir = () => join(dir, '_system')
+
+  /**
+   * A writer seeds a store with nouns, verbs and queryable metadata — enough
+   * that the field registry, the statistics files and the graph index all hold
+   * real content — then closes cleanly.
+   */
+  async function seedStore(): Promise<void> {
+    const writer = new Brainy({
+      requireSubtype: false,
+      storage: { type: 'filesystem', path: dir }
+    })
+    await writer.init()
+    for (let i = 0; i < 6; i++) {
+      await writer.add({
+        id: `seed-${i}`,
+        data: `seed entity ${i}`,
+        type: i % 2 === 0 ? NounType.Concept : NounType.Document,
+        metadata: { lane: i % 2 === 0 ? 'alpha' : 'beta', rank: i, tags: [`t${i}`, 'shared'] },
+        vector: []
+      })
+    }
+    for (let i = 1; i < 6; i++) {
+      await writer.relate({ from: 'seed-0', to: `seed-${i}`, type: VerbType.RelatedTo })
+    }
+    await writer.flush()
+    await writer.close()
+  }
+
+  it('open → read → close leaves every file under `_system/` byte-identical', async () => {
+    await seedStore()
+
+    const before = snapshotDir(systemDir())
+    expect(before.size, 'the writer left a populated `_system/`').toBeGreaterThan(0)
+
+    brain = await Brainy.openReadOnly({ storage: { type: 'filesystem', path: dir } })
+    expect(brain.isReadOnly).toBe(true)
+
+    // Exercise the read surface that drives each subsystem: statistics (counts),
+    // a metadata filter (field index + registry), a graph walk (adjacency), a
+    // vector search, and a direct get.
+    await brain.stats()
+    await brain.find({ where: { lane: 'alpha' }, limit: 10 } as any)
+    await brain.find({ where: { tags: 'shared' }, limit: 10 } as any)
+    await brain.find({ connected: { from: 'seed-0', direction: 'out' }, limit: 10 } as any)
+    await brain.get('seed-1')
+
+    await brain.close()
+    brain = null
+
+    const after = snapshotDir(systemDir())
+    const changes = diff(before, after)
+    expect(changes, `a reader modified \`_system/\`:\n${changes.join('\n')}`).toEqual([])
+  }, 120_000)
+
+  it('names the four files that used to change — the measured shape of the defect', async () => {
+    await seedStore()
+    const before = snapshotDir(systemDir())
+
+    // These are the exact paths the base rewrote. Naming them keeps the pin
+    // honest about what it caught: if a future change reintroduces the write,
+    // the test above fails and this one says which subsystem did it.
+    const previouslyRewritten = [
+      '__metadata_field_registry__.json.gz',
+      'type-statistics.json.gz',
+      'subtype-statistics.json.gz',
+      'verb-subtype-statistics.json.gz'
+    ]
+    for (const name of previouslyRewritten) {
+      expect(before.has(name), `fixture must contain ${name}`).toBe(true)
+    }
+
+    brain = await Brainy.openReadOnly({ storage: { type: 'filesystem', path: dir } })
+    await brain.stats()
+    await brain.find({ where: { lane: 'alpha' }, limit: 10 } as any)
+    await brain.close()
+    brain = null
+
+    const after = snapshotDir(systemDir())
+    for (const name of previouslyRewritten) {
+      expect(after.get(name), `${name} was rewritten by a reader`).toBe(before.get(name))
+    }
+  }, 120_000)
+
+  it('a reader that only opens and closes — touching nothing — writes nothing', async () => {
+    await seedStore()
+    const before = snapshotDir(systemDir())
+
+    brain = await Brainy.openReadOnly({ storage: { type: 'filesystem', path: dir } })
+    await brain.close()
+    brain = null
+
+    const changes = diff(before, snapshotDir(systemDir()))
+    expect(changes, `an idle reader modified \`_system/\`:\n${changes.join('\n')}`).toEqual([])
+  }, 120_000)
+
+  it('two readers in sequence each leave the store exactly as they found it', async () => {
+    await seedStore()
+    const before = snapshotDir(systemDir())
+
+    for (let i = 0; i < 2; i++) {
+      const reader = await Brainy.openReadOnly({ storage: { type: 'filesystem', path: dir } })
+      await reader.find({ where: { lane: 'beta' }, limit: 10 } as any)
+      await reader.close()
+      const changes = diff(before, snapshotDir(systemDir()))
+      expect(changes, `reader ${i + 1} modified \`_system/\`:\n${changes.join('\n')}`).toEqual([])
+    }
+  }, 120_000)
+
+  it('the store outside `_system/` is untouched too — a reader writes nowhere', async () => {
+    await seedStore()
+    const before = snapshotDir(dir)
+
+    brain = await Brainy.openReadOnly({ storage: { type: 'filesystem', path: dir } })
+    await brain.stats()
+    await brain.find({ where: { lane: 'alpha' }, limit: 10 } as any)
+    await brain.close()
+    brain = null
+
+    const changes = diff(before, snapshotDir(dir))
+    expect(changes, `a reader modified the store:\n${changes.join('\n')}`).toEqual([])
+  }, 120_000)
+
+  it('a WRITER still persists on close — the guard did not disarm the write path', async () => {
+    await seedStore()
+    const before = snapshotDir(systemDir())
+
+    const writer = new Brainy({ requireSubtype: false, storage: { type: 'filesystem', path: dir } })
+    await writer.init()
+    await writer.add({
+      id: 'after-reader',
+      data: 'a new row',
+      type: NounType.Concept,
+      metadata: { lane: 'gamma', rank: 99 },
+      vector: []
+    })
+    await writer.close()
+
+    // The writer's close DID move `_system/` — that is the whole point of the
+    // asymmetry, and the guard must not have flattened it.
+    expect(diff(before, snapshotDir(systemDir())).length).toBeGreaterThan(0)
+
+    // And the row is really there on the next open.
+    const reopened = new Brainy({ requireSubtype: false, storage: { type: 'filesystem', path: dir } })
+    await reopened.init()
+    brain = reopened
+    const hits = await reopened.find({ where: { lane: 'gamma' }, limit: 10 } as any)
+    expect(hits.length).toBe(1)
+  }, 120_000)
+})
diff --git a/tests/unit/utils/metadataIndex-array-bound.test.ts b/tests/unit/utils/metadataIndex-array-bound.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..cbbf6b63
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/unit/utils/metadataIndex-array-bound.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,242 @@
+/**
+ * @module tests/unit/utils/metadataIndex-array-bound
+ * @description THE INDEXABLE-ARRAY BOUND — a law with a name and a refusal,
+ * not a `continue`.
+ *
+ * THE DEFECT. An array-valued metadata field indexes one posting per element,
+ * so the index has always carried a ceiling. It was 10, and it was applied by a
+ * bare `continue` deep inside field extraction:
+ *
+ *     if (Array.isArray(value) && value.length > 10) continue
+ *
+ * A row whose `tags` array held ELEVEN entries therefore had that field skipped
+ * entirely — no posting, no error, no warning. The row then failed to match
+ * every filtered search on `tags`, including `{ tags: 'a-tag-it-really-has' }`,
+ * and the caller had no way to tell that from "no row matches". Eleven tags is
+ * not an exotic shape; the eleventh tag made the row invisible.
+ *
+ * THE LAW. Arrays of scalars index up to {@link MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH} = 64,
+ * hardcoded (the zero-config law: no knob), which clears every legitimate
+ * multi-value field and stays far below any embedding width. Above it the WRITE
+ * IS REFUSED by name — `MetadataArrayTooLargeError`, carrying the field, the
+ * length and the bound — at `add`, `update`, `relate` and `updateRelation`
+ * alike. Nothing is skipped in silence.
+ *
+ * THE ONE PLACE THE BOUND STILL SKIPS is a row already on disk, written by an
+ * older engine under the old rule and read back by a rebuild, a catch-up fold
+ * or a remove. Refusing there would make an existing store un-rebuildable — so
+ * the row is admitted and the skipped field is NARRATED. Both sides are pinned.
+ */
+import { describe, it, expect, beforeEach, vi, afterEach } from 'vitest'
+import { Brainy } from '../../../src/brainy'
+import { NounType, VerbType } from '../../../src/types/graphTypes'
+import { MetadataArrayTooLargeError, MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH } from '../../../src/errors/brainyError'
+import { resolveEntityId } from '../../../src/utils/idNormalization'
+import { prodLog } from '../../../src/utils/logger'
+
+/** `n` distinct scalar tags. */
+function tags(n: number, prefix = 't'): string[] {
+  return Array.from({ length: n }, (_, i) => `${prefix}${i}`)
+}
+
+describe('the indexable-array bound', () => {
+  let brain: Brainy<any>
+
+  beforeEach(async () => {
+    brain = new Brainy({ requireSubtype: false, storage: { type: 'memory' } })
+    await brain.init()
+  })
+
+  describe('BELOW the bound: the array indexes, every element of it', () => {
+    it('the eleven-element array that used to vanish is searchable', async () => {
+      // ELEVEN — one over the old silent limit, the whole shape of the defect.
+      await brain.add({
+        id: 'eleven',
+        data: 'a row with eleven tags',
+        type: NounType.Document,
+        metadata: { tags: tags(11) },
+        vector: []
+      })
+
+      // Every element is a posting, including the eleventh.
+      for (const tag of tags(11)) {
+        const hits = await brain.find({ where: { tags: tag }, limit: 10 } as any)
+        expect(hits.map((r: any) => r.id)).toContain(resolveEntityId('eleven'))
+      }
+    })
+
+    it('indexes right up to the bound — all 64 elements', async () => {
+      await brain.add({
+        id: 'at-bound',
+        data: 'a row at the bound',
+        type: NounType.Document,
+        metadata: { tags: tags(MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH) },
+        vector: []
+      })
+
+      // The first, the last, and one in the middle.
+      for (const tag of ['t0', `t${MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH - 1}`, 't31']) {
+        const hits = await brain.find({ where: { tags: tag }, limit: 10 } as any)
+        expect(hits.map((r: any) => r.id)).toContain(resolveEntityId('at-bound'))
+      }
+    })
+
+    it('a nested bag\'s array indexes under its dotted address', async () => {
+      await brain.add({
+        id: 'nested',
+        data: 'a row with a nested tag list',
+        type: NounType.Document,
+        metadata: { facets: { labels: tags(20, 'l') } },
+        vector: []
+      })
+      const hits = await brain.find({ where: { 'facets.labels': 'l19' }, limit: 10 } as any)
+      expect(hits.map((r: any) => r.id)).toContain(resolveEntityId('nested'))
+    })
+  })
+
+  describe('ABOVE the bound: the write is refused, by name', () => {
+    const OVER = MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH + 1
+
+    it('add() throws a typed error naming the field, the length and the bound', async () => {
+      const err = await brain
+        .add({
+          id: 'too-many',
+          data: 'a row with too many tags',
+          type: NounType.Document,
+          metadata: { tags: tags(OVER) },
+          vector: []
+        } as any)
+        .catch((e: any) => e)
+
+      expect(err).toBeInstanceOf(MetadataArrayTooLargeError)
+      expect(err.field).toBe('tags')
+      expect(err.length).toBe(OVER)
+      expect(err.limit).toBe(MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH)
+      expect(err.type).toBe('VALIDATION')
+      // The message carries all three, and names the cures.
+      expect(err.message).toContain('tags')
+      expect(err.message).toContain(String(OVER))
+      expect(err.message).toContain(String(MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH))
+      expect(err.message).toContain('vector')
+    })
+
+    it('the refused row is not written at all — no half-indexed ghost', async () => {
+      await expect(
+        brain.add({
+          id: 'refused',
+          data: 'refused',
+          type: NounType.Document,
+          metadata: { tags: tags(OVER) },
+          vector: []
+        } as any)
+      ).rejects.toBeInstanceOf(MetadataArrayTooLargeError)
+
+      expect(await brain.get('refused')).toBeNull()
+      const hits = await brain.find({ where: { tags: 't0' }, limit: 10 } as any)
+      expect(hits.map((r: any) => r.id)).not.toContain(resolveEntityId('refused'))
+    })
+
+    it('a 384-float embedding parked in the metadata bag is refused, not swallowed', async () => {
+      const err = await brain
+        .add({
+          id: 'bag-vector',
+          data: 'an embedding in the wrong place',
+          type: NounType.Document,
+          metadata: { embedding: Array.from({ length: 384 }, (_, i) => i / 384) },
+          vector: []
+        } as any)
+        .catch((e: any) => e)
+
+      expect(err).toBeInstanceOf(MetadataArrayTooLargeError)
+      expect(err.field).toBe('embedding')
+      expect(err.length).toBe(384)
+    })
+
+    it('update() refuses it too', async () => {
+      await brain.add({
+        id: 'grow',
+        data: 'starts small',
+        type: NounType.Document,
+        metadata: { tags: tags(3) },
+        vector: []
+      })
+      await expect(
+        brain.update({ id: 'grow', metadata: { tags: tags(OVER) } } as any)
+      ).rejects.toBeInstanceOf(MetadataArrayTooLargeError)
+
+      // And the row keeps the values it had.
+      const hits = await brain.find({ where: { tags: 't1' }, limit: 10 } as any)
+      expect(hits.map((r: any) => r.id)).toContain(resolveEntityId('grow'))
+    })
+
+    it('relate() refuses it on a verb\'s metadata', async () => {
+      await brain.add({ id: 'a', data: 'a', type: NounType.Thing, vector: [] })
+      await brain.add({ id: 'b', data: 'b', type: NounType.Thing, vector: [] })
+      await expect(
+        brain.relate({
+          from: 'a',
+          to: 'b',
+          type: VerbType.RelatedTo,
+          metadata: { tags: tags(OVER) }
+        } as any)
+      ).rejects.toBeInstanceOf(MetadataArrayTooLargeError)
+    })
+
+    it('a nested oversize array is refused under its dotted address', async () => {
+      const err = await brain
+        .add({
+          id: 'nested-over',
+          data: 'nested and too long',
+          type: NounType.Document,
+          metadata: { facets: { labels: tags(OVER, 'l') } },
+          vector: []
+        } as any)
+        .catch((e: any) => e)
+      expect(err).toBeInstanceOf(MetadataArrayTooLargeError)
+      expect(err.field).toBe('facets.labels')
+    })
+  })
+
+  describe('a row already on disk is admitted, and the skip is NARRATED', () => {
+    afterEach(() => {
+      vi.restoreAllMocks()
+    })
+
+    it('extraction over an old oversize row warns by field, length and bound', async () => {
+      const warn = vi.spyOn(prodLog, 'warn').mockImplementation(() => {})
+      const index = (brain as any).metadataIndex
+
+      // The shape an older engine persisted: the write door never saw it, so
+      // this reaches extraction directly — exactly as a rebuild or a remove
+      // reading the row back would.
+      const fields = index.extractIndexableFields({
+        metadata: { tags: tags(MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH + 5), keep: 'me' }
+      })
+
+      // The oversize field contributes nothing...
+      expect(fields.filter((f: any) => f.field === 'tags')).toHaveLength(0)
+      // ...the rest of the row indexes normally — the row is not rejected...
+      expect(fields.some((f: any) => f.field === 'keep' && f.value === 'me')).toBe(true)
+      // ...and the skip is said out loud, with everything needed to act on it.
+      expect(warn).toHaveBeenCalled()
+      const said = warn.mock.calls.map((c: any[]) => String(c[0])).join('\n')
+      expect(said).toContain('tags')
+      expect(said).toContain(String(MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH + 5))
+      expect(said).toContain(String(MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH))
+      expect(said).toContain('NOT indexed')
+    })
+
+    it('an at-bound row on disk is indexed in full and says nothing', async () => {
+      const warn = vi.spyOn(prodLog, 'warn').mockImplementation(() => {})
+      const index = (brain as any).metadataIndex
+
+      const fields = index.extractIndexableFields({
+        metadata: { tags: tags(MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH) }
+      })
+      expect(fields.filter((f: any) => f.field === 'tags')).toHaveLength(MAX_INDEXED_ARRAY_LENGTH)
+
+      const said = warn.mock.calls.map((c: any[]) => String(c[0])).join('\n')
+      expect(said).not.toContain('indexing bound')
+    })
+  })
+})
diff --git a/tests/unit/utils/metadataIndex-sparse-range-collation.test.ts b/tests/unit/utils/metadataIndex-sparse-range-collation.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d6d00568
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/unit/utils/metadataIndex-sparse-range-collation.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,258 @@
+/**
+ * @module tests/unit/utils/metadataIndex-sparse-range-collation
+ * @description RANGE QUERIES ON THE LEGACY SPARSE INDEX — order, or a refusal.
+ * Never a confidently ordered wrong answer.
+ *
+ * THE TWO RANGE PATHS. `getIdsForRange` routes a `gte` / `lt` / `between` two
+ * ways. The column store compares RAW values and is correct. The legacy sparse
+ * chunk index — the pre-7.20.0 fallback, still read for workspaces that have
+ * not been rebuilt — compared `normalizeValue()` output, and `normalizeValue`
+ * carries an escape hatch that destroys order on purpose: a string over 100
+ * characters is replaced by a short hash so it can serve as a filesystem-safe
+ * key. Ordering hashes ranks rows by digest.
+ *
+ * THE DEFECT, IN TWO SHAPES.
+ *
+ * (a) A LONG BOUND against ordinary values. `where: { title: { gte: <a
+ *     120-character string> } }` collapsed the BOUND to `__HASH_…`, whose
+ *     leading underscores sort below every letter — so a bound that should
+ *     have excluded everything matched the entire field instead. This is the
+ *     shape that reaches a caller who never stored a long value at all.
+ *
+ * (b) LONG VALUES in the index. A field whose values ran long was persisted
+ *     hashed, so its order is not recoverable from this index at all. The old
+ *     code compared the digests anyway and returned a subset chosen by hash.
+ *
+ * THE LAW. Bounds are normalized WITHOUT the hash escape hatch, so a long
+ * bound stays comparable — (a) is simply fixed. Where the persisted KEY is a
+ * hash, the order does not exist to be computed, and the query throws a typed
+ * `BrainyError('INVALID_QUERY')` naming the field and the cure — (b) is
+ * refused by name. Loud beats wrong.
+ *
+ * THE FIXTURE is a genuine legacy index: it is written through the same
+ * `ChunkManager` / `SparseIndex` doors a pre-7.20.0 engine wrote through, with
+ * keys normalized exactly as that engine normalized them, into a field the
+ * column store does not serve. The chunk WRITE path was removed in 11be039, so
+ * this is the only way the shape the read path exists for can be built.
+ *
+ * NOT CLAIMED HERE. The persisted keys are also lower-cased and trimmed by
+ * `normalizeValue`, so this path's string ranges are case-INSENSITIVE where
+ * the column store's are not. The raw values are not in the index to compare —
+ * that divergence is a property of the bytes on disk and it ends when the
+ * column store adopts the field. It is named in `getIdsFromChunksForRange`'s
+ * doc comment rather than papered over.
+ */
+import { describe, it, expect, beforeEach } from 'vitest'
+import { Brainy } from '../../../src/brainy'
+import { NounType } from '../../../src/types/graphTypes'
+import { SparseIndex, ChunkManager } from '../../../src/utils/metadataIndexChunking'
+import { BrainyError } from '../../../src/errors/brainyError'
+
+/** The field the legacy index covers — deliberately never given to a row, so
+ *  the column store never learns it and the sparse fallback is the only path. */
+const FIELD = 'legacyTitle'
+
+/**
+ * Write a legacy sparse index for `field` exactly as a pre-7.20.0 engine did:
+ * one chunk, keys normalized through the index's own `normalizeValue`, ids as
+ * roaring bitmaps, a zone map and a bloom filter over the chunk.
+ *
+ * @param brain - The live brain whose metadata index gains the legacy field.
+ * @param field - Field name to index.
+ * @param valueToIds - Raw value → the entity ids that carried it.
+ */
+async function writeLegacySparseIndex(
+  brain: any,
+  field: string,
+  valueToIds: Array<[string, string[]]>
+): Promise<void> {
+  const index = brain.metadataIndex
+  const chunkManager: ChunkManager = index.chunkManager
+  const sparseIndex = new SparseIndex(field)
+
+  // The keys a pre-7.20.0 writer persisted: normalizeValue output, hash escape
+  // hatch and all. This is what makes the fixture the real shape.
+  const chunk = await chunkManager.createChunk(field)
+  for (const [value, ids] of valueToIds) {
+    const key = index.normalizeValue(value, field)
+    for (const id of ids) await chunkManager.addToChunk(chunk, key, id)
+  }
+  await chunkManager.saveChunk(chunk)
+
+  sparseIndex.registerChunk(
+    {
+      chunkId: chunk.chunkId,
+      field,
+      valueCount: chunk.entries.size,
+      idCount: Array.from(chunk.entries.values()).reduce((s: number, b: any) => s + b.size, 0),
+      zoneMap: (chunkManager as any).calculateZoneMap(chunk),
+      lastUpdated: Date.now(),
+      splitThreshold: 80,
+      mergeThreshold: 20
+    },
+    chunkManager.createBloomFilter(chunk)
+  )
+
+  await index.saveSparseIndex(field, sparseIndex)
+}
+
+/** A deterministic string of `n` characters starting with `lead`. */
+function longString(lead: string, n: number): string {
+  return lead + 'x'.repeat(n - lead.length)
+}
+
+describe('legacy sparse index: range queries order values, or refuse', () => {
+  let brain: Brainy<any>
+  let index: any
+  let ids: string[]
+
+  beforeEach(async () => {
+    brain = new Brainy({ requireSubtype: false, storage: { type: 'memory' } })
+    await brain.init()
+    index = (brain as any).metadataIndex
+
+    // Rows exist (so the id mapper can resolve them) but carry NO `legacyTitle`
+    // — the column store must not serve the field the pins query.
+    ids = []
+    for (let i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
+      const id = `row-${i}`
+      await brain.add({ id, data: `row ${i}`, type: NounType.Thing, metadata: { lane: 'a' }, vector: [] })
+      ids.push(id)
+    }
+    expect(index.columnStore.hasField(FIELD)).toBe(false)
+  })
+
+  describe('(a) a long BOUND against ordinary short values', () => {
+    // 'apple' < 'mango' < 'zebra', and every bound below is compared against
+    // these three raw keys.
+    beforeEach(async () => {
+      await writeLegacySparseIndex(brain, FIELD, [
+        ['apple', [ids[0]]],
+        ['mango', [ids[1]]],
+        ['zebra', [ids[2]]]
+      ])
+    })
+
+    it('the fixture: the values are stored raw, the long bound is what hashes', () => {
+      expect(index.normalizeValue('apple', FIELD)).toBe('apple')
+      // The bound is what the old code collapsed — and a digest sorts below
+      // every letter, which is exactly why `gte` matched everything.
+      const bound = longString('zzz', 120)
+      expect(index.normalizeValue(bound, FIELD)).toMatch(/^__HASH_/)
+      expect(index.normalizeValue(bound, FIELD) < 'apple').toBe(true)
+    })
+
+    it('gte a bound above every value matches NOTHING (it used to match all)', async () => {
+      const bound = longString('zzz', 120)
+      const matched = await index.getIdsForRange(FIELD, bound, undefined, true, true)
+      expect(matched).toEqual([])
+    })
+
+    it('lte a bound above every value matches EVERY value', async () => {
+      const bound = longString('zzz', 120)
+      const matched = await index.getIdsForRange(FIELD, undefined, bound, true, true)
+      expect(matched).toHaveLength(3)
+    })
+
+    it('gte a long bound below every value matches every value', async () => {
+      const bound = longString('aaa', 120)
+      const matched = await index.getIdsForRange(FIELD, bound, undefined, true, true)
+      expect(matched).toHaveLength(3)
+    })
+
+    it('a long bound orders BETWEEN the values, not below all of them', async () => {
+      // 'mmm…' sits between 'mango' and 'zebra'.
+      const bound = longString('mmm', 120)
+      const matched = await index.getIdsForRange(FIELD, bound, undefined, true, true)
+      expect(matched).toHaveLength(1)
+    })
+
+    it('short bounds are unchanged — the ordinary case still orders correctly', async () => {
+      expect(await index.getIdsForRange(FIELD, 'b', undefined, true, true)).toHaveLength(2)
+      expect(await index.getIdsForRange(FIELD, undefined, 'n', true, true)).toHaveLength(2)
+      expect(await index.getIdsForRange(FIELD, 'b', 'n', true, true)).toHaveLength(1)
+      // Strict bounds stay strict.
+      expect(await index.getIdsForRange(FIELD, 'mango', undefined, false, true)).toHaveLength(1)
+      expect(await index.getIdsForRange(FIELD, 'mango', undefined, true, true)).toHaveLength(2)
+    })
+  })
+
+  describe('(b) long VALUES — the index holds hashes, so the range is refused', () => {
+    beforeEach(async () => {
+      await writeLegacySparseIndex(brain, FIELD, [
+        [longString('alpha', 140), [ids[0]]],
+        [longString('mike', 140), [ids[1]]],
+        [longString('zulu', 140), [ids[2]]]
+      ])
+    })
+
+    it('the fixture: the persisted keys really are hashes', async () => {
+      const chunk = await index.chunkManager.loadChunk(FIELD, 0)
+      const keys = Array.from(chunk.entries.keys()) as string[]
+      expect(keys).toHaveLength(3)
+      for (const k of keys) expect(k).toMatch(/^__HASH_/)
+      // And their digest order is NOT their value order — the wrong answer the
+      // old code returned was wrong, not merely arbitrary.
+      const digestOrder = [...keys].sort()
+      const valueOrder = [
+        index.normalizeValue(longString('alpha', 140), FIELD),
+        index.normalizeValue(longString('mike', 140), FIELD),
+        index.normalizeValue(longString('zulu', 140), FIELD)
+      ]
+      expect(digestOrder).not.toEqual(valueOrder)
+    })
+
+    it('a range over the hashed field throws a typed refusal naming the field', async () => {
+      await expect(
+        index.getIdsForRange(FIELD, longString('mike', 140), undefined, true, true)
+      ).rejects.toThrow(BrainyError)
+
+      const err = await index
+        .getIdsForRange(FIELD, longString('mike', 140), undefined, true, true)
+        .catch((e: any) => e)
+      expect(err).toBeInstanceOf(BrainyError)
+      expect(err.type).toBe('INVALID_QUERY')
+      expect(err.message).toContain(FIELD)
+      expect(err.message).toContain('hash')
+      // The cure is named, not left to the caller to guess.
+      expect(err.message).toContain('repairIndex')
+    })
+
+    it('every range shape refuses — gte, lte and between alike', async () => {
+      const lo = longString('alpha', 140)
+      const hi = longString('zulu', 140)
+      for (const [min, max] of [
+        [lo, undefined],
+        [undefined, hi],
+        [lo, hi]
+      ] as Array<[any, any]>) {
+        const err = await index.getIdsForRange(FIELD, min, max, true, true).catch((e: any) => e)
+        expect(err).toBeInstanceOf(BrainyError)
+        expect(err.type).toBe('INVALID_QUERY')
+      }
+    })
+
+    it('EQUALITY still works on the hashed field — only ordering is refused', async () => {
+      const matched = await index.getIds(FIELD, longString('mike', 140))
+      expect(matched).toHaveLength(1)
+    })
+  })
+
+  describe('numeric ranges on the legacy path are untouched', () => {
+    beforeEach(async () => {
+      await writeLegacySparseIndex(brain, FIELD, [
+        ['5', [ids[0]]],
+        ['50', [ids[1]]],
+        ['500', [ids[2]]]
+      ])
+    })
+
+    it('numbers still compare numerically, not lexicographically', async () => {
+      // The whole point of compareNormalizedValues: "50" < "500" numerically
+      // even though "500" < "50" would hold as strings by prefix.
+      expect(await index.getIdsForRange(FIELD, 10, undefined, true, true)).toHaveLength(2)
+      expect(await index.getIdsForRange(FIELD, undefined, 100, true, true)).toHaveLength(2)
+      expect(await index.getIdsForRange(FIELD, 10, 100, true, true)).toHaveLength(1)
+    })
+  })
+})