@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ import { deprecationReason, MarkdownError, renderBlocks, renderInline, splitEntr
 import { checkPage } from "./lib/page-checks.mjs";
 import { checkStacks } from "./checks.mjs";
 import { stackPageHtml } from "./lib/stack-page.mjs";
-import { licenceTerms, owes, parseStack, pickPath } from "./lib/stacks.mjs";
+import { licenceTerms, listStackFiles, owes, parseStack, pickPath } from "./lib/stacks.mjs";
 
 const __dirname = path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));
 const ROOT = path.resolve(__dirname, "..");
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@ const DIST = path.join(__dirname, "dist");
 const CONFIG_PATH = path.join(__dirname, "config.json");
 const VOCAB_PATH = path.join(__dirname, "license-vocabulary.json");
 const SPDX_ALLOWED_PATH = path.join(__dirname, "spdx-allowed.json");
-const STACKS = path.join(ROOT, "stacks");
 // Social preview image: a first-party screenshot of this site, kept with the
 // other first-party stills (the validator allows binaries there) and copied
 // into dist at build time.
@@ -401,15 +400,13 @@ function linkResolvers(entries, config, entryBase = "../") {
 
 /** Reads stacks/*.md, checks them (V15) and resolves each pick to its entry. */
 function loadStacks(entries, vocab, spdxAllowed) {
-  if (!fs.existsSync(STACKS)) return { stacks: [], errors: [] };
-  const files = fs
-    .readdirSync(STACKS)
-    .filter((n) => n.endsWith(".md") && n !== "README.md")
-    .sort()
-    .map((n) => ({ rel: `stacks/${n}`, text: fs.readFileSync(path.join(STACKS, n), "utf8") }));
+  const { files, stray } = listStackFiles(ROOT);
   const terms = licenceTerms(vocab, spdxAllowed);
   const byPath = new Map(entries.map((e) => [e.path, e]));
-  const errors = checkStacks(files, byPath, terms, new Date().toISOString().slice(0, 10));
+  const errors = [
+    ...stray.map((rel) => `${rel}: stacks live directly in stacks/; the build does not read subfolders`),
+    ...checkStacks(files, byPath, terms, new Date().toISOString().slice(0, 10)),
+  ];
   if (errors.length) return { stacks: [], errors };
   const stacks = files.map(({ rel, text }) => {
     const parsed = parseStack(text, { file: rel, terms });
 
@@ -332,6 +332,33 @@ eq("bare url stops at a code span", renderInline("https://a.test/x`y`", passLink
 throws("malformed escape is a link error", () => resolve("bad%E0.md"), 'link target "bad%E0.md" is malformed');
 eq("query on a relative link is kept", resolve("../../docs/provenance.md?plain=1").href, "https://github.com/o/r/blob/main/docs/provenance.md?plain=1");
 
+/* deferred minors, batch B ------------------------------------------------- */
+import fsTest from "node:fs";
+import osTest from "node:os";
+import pathTest from "node:path";
+import { listStackFiles } from "./stacks.mjs";
+eq("short name OFL", namedLicence("An OFL font.", []), "OFL");
+eq("short name GPL", namedLicence("a GPL editor", []), "GPL");
+eq("short name CC BY", namedLicence("CC BY 4.0 music", []), "CC BY");
+eq("lower-case cc0", namedLicence("a cc0 pack", []), "CC0");
+eq("royalty free without the hyphen", namedLicence("royalty free loops", []), "royalty free");
+eq("hyphenated public-domain", namedLicence("Public-domain art", []), "public-domain");
+eq("short names match whole words only", namedLicence("Wolf sprites and a gplus icon.", []), null);
+eq("link targets are not scanned", parseStack(stackMd.replace("Five loops.", "Five loops, see [x](../catalog/MIT/x.md)."), { file: "stacks/s1.md", terms: ["MIT", "CC0"] }).sections[1].picks[0].why.includes("MIT"), true);
+eq("a byte-order mark is ignored", parseStack(`${stackMd}`, { file: "stacks/s1.md", terms: [] }).meta.id, "s1");
+eq("trailing spaces on the fences are ignored", parseStack(stackMd.replace("---\nid", "---  \nid").replace("\n---\n\n#", "\n---   \n\n#"), { file: "stacks/s1.md", terms: [] }).meta.id, "s1");
+const tmpRoot = fsTest.mkdtempSync(pathTest.join(osTest.tmpdir(), "stacks-"));
+fsTest.mkdirSync(pathTest.join(tmpRoot, "stacks", "drafts"), { recursive: true });
+for (const [f, t] of [["stacks/b.md", "B"], ["stacks/a.md", "A"], ["stacks/README.md", "R"], ["stacks/drafts/c.md", "C"]]) fsTest.writeFileSync(pathTest.join(tmpRoot, f), t);
+const listed = listStackFiles(tmpRoot);
+eq("listStackFiles reads the top level, sorted, without README", listed.files.map((f) => f.rel).join(","), "stacks/a.md,stacks/b.md");
+eq("listStackFiles reports nested files", listed.stray.join(","), "stacks/drafts/c.md");
+eq("listStackFiles keeps the text", listed.files[0].text, "A");
+eq("listStackFiles without a stacks folder", listStackFiles(pathTest.join(tmpRoot, "nope")).files.length, 0);
+fsTest.rmSync(tmpRoot, { recursive: true, force: true });
+const lfsCredit = llmsFullTxt({ entries: llmsEntries, site, categories: cats, bodies: new Map(), stacks: [{ meta: { id: "s2", title: "Make Y", task: "A task.", walked: "2026-09-01" }, picked: [{ need: "Art", entry: { ...base, id: "b1", name: "Beta" } }] }] });
+has("full carries the credit line text", lfsCredit, 'Credits to ship:\n- Beta: Art by "X" </script>');
+
 /* report (keep last) ------------------------------------------------------ */
 if (failures.length) {
   console.error(`lib.test failed (${failures.length}):`);
 
@@ -65,10 +65,12 @@ export function llmsFullTxt({ entries, site, categories, bodies, resolverFor, st
   if (stacks.length) {
     out.push(`\n## Starter stacks\n`);
     for (const s of stacks) {
-      const credits = owes(s.picked).credits.map((c) => c.entry.name);
+      const credits = owes(s.picked).credits.map(
+        (c) => `- ${c.entry.name}: ${c.line || "no canned credit line; see the entry page"}`
+      );
       const picks = s.picked.map((p) => `- ${p.need}: ${p.entry.name} (${entryPageUrl(site, p.entry.id)}); ${facts(p.entry)}`);
       out.push(
-        `### ${s.meta.title}\n\nPage: ${stackPageUrl(site, s.meta.id)}\nTask: ${s.meta.task}\nWalked: ${s.meta.walked}\n\n${picks.join("\n")}\n\nCredits to ship: ${credits.length ? credits.join(", ") : "none"}\n`
+        `### ${s.meta.title}\n\nPage: ${stackPageUrl(site, s.meta.id)}\nTask: ${s.meta.task}\nWalked: ${s.meta.walked}\n\n${picks.join("\n")}\n\nCredits to ship:${credits.length ? `\n${credits.join("\n")}` : " none"}\n`
       );
     }
   }
 
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
  * A stack names its picks; every licence fact on its page comes from the
  * picked entries at build time, so a stack cannot disagree with an entry.
  */
+import fs from "node:fs";
 import path from "node:path";
 import { unquoteScalar } from "./shared.mjs";
 
@@ -15,7 +16,19 @@ const REQUIRED = ["id", "title", "task", "walked"];
 const DATE_RE = /^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}$/;
 // - **Need:** [Entry name](path/to/entry.md). Why this pick.
 const PICK_RE = /^- \*\*([^*]+?):\*\* \[([^\]]+)\]\(([^)\s]+)\)\.\s+(\S.*)$/;
-const LICENCE_PHRASES = ["Creative Commons", "public domain", "royalty-free"];
+// Names and shorthands matched in any case, as whole words. The exact ids
+// from the vocabulary are matched case-sensitively in namedLicence.
+const LICENCE_PHRASES = [
+  "Creative Commons",
+  "public domain",
+  "public-domain",
+  "royalty-free",
+  "royalty free",
+  "CC BY",
+  "CC0",
+  "OFL",
+  "GPL",
+];
 // Vocabulary keys that are ordinary words, not licence names.
 const PLAIN_WORD_IDS = new Set(["custom", "unknown", "varies"]);
 
@@ -37,8 +50,9 @@ export function namedLicence(text, terms) {
   for (const t of terms) {
     if (new RegExp(`(^|[^\\w-])${escRe(t)}(?!\\w)`).test(text)) return t;
   }
-  const lower = text.toLowerCase();
-  for (const p of LICENCE_PHRASES) if (lower.includes(p.toLowerCase())) return p;
+  for (const p of LICENCE_PHRASES) {
+    if (new RegExp(`(^|[^\\w-])${escRe(p)}(?![\\w])`, "i").test(text)) return p;
+  }
   return null;
 }
 
@@ -55,16 +69,22 @@ export function pickPath(stackFile, href) {
 }
 
 export function parseStack(text, { file, terms = [] }) {
-  const lines = String(text).replace(/\r\n?/g, "\n").split("\n");
+  // A byte-order mark and trailing spaces are invisible in an editor; ignore both.
+  const lines = String(text)
+    .replace(/^/, "")
+    .replace(/\r\n?/g, "\n")
+    .split("\n")
+    .map((l) => l.replace(/\s+$/, ""));
   const fail = (i, msg) => {
     throw new StackError(`${file}:${i + 1}: ${msg}`);
   };
   if (lines[0] !== "---") fail(0, "a stack starts with frontmatter (---)");
   const end = lines.indexOf("---", 1);
   if (end === -1) fail(0, "frontmatter is not closed with ---");
   // Licence facts come only from the entries, so no prose in a stack may state one.
+  // Link targets are paths, not prose: "../catalog/x-cc0.md" states nothing.
   const noLicence = (i, text, what) => {
-    const named = namedLicence(text, terms);
+    const named = namedLicence(text.replace(/\]\([^)]*\)/g, "]"), terms);
     if (named) fail(i, `the ${what} names a licence ("${named}"); licence facts come from the entry`);
   };
   const meta = {};
@@ -165,3 +185,29 @@ export function copyAllText(owed) {
     .map((c) => c.line)
     .join("\n");
 }
+
+/**
+ * The stack files under <root>/stacks: `files` are the top-level .md files
+ * except README.md, sorted, as [{ rel, text }]; `stray` are .md files in
+ * subfolders, which the build does not read. Build and validator share this.
+ */
+export function listStackFiles(root) {
+  const dir = path.join(root, "stacks");
+  const files = [];
+  const stray = [];
+  if (!fs.existsSync(dir)) return { files, stray };
+  const walk = (d, rel) => {
+    for (const ent of fs.readdirSync(d, { withFileTypes: true })) {
+      const r = `${rel}/${ent.name}`;
+      if (ent.isDirectory()) walk(path.join(d, ent.name), r);
+      else if (ent.name.endsWith(".md") && ent.name !== "README.md") {
+        if (rel === "stacks") files.push({ rel: r, text: fs.readFileSync(path.join(d, ent.name), "utf8") });
+        else stray.push(r);
+      }
+    }
+  };
+  walk(dir, "stacks");
+  files.sort((a, b) => a.rel.localeCompare(b.rel));
+  stray.sort();
+  return { files, stray };
+}
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ import {
   checkTaxonomyValues,
   checkValueSpellings,
 } from "./checks.mjs";
-import { licenceTerms } from "./lib/stacks.mjs";
+import { licenceTerms, listStackFiles } from "./lib/stacks.mjs";
 
 const __dirname = path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));
 const ROOT = path.resolve(__dirname, "..");
@@ -344,10 +344,9 @@ function main() {
   errors.push(...checkPublisherConsistency(records));
   errors.push(...checkValueSpellings(records));
 
-  // V15: starter stacks. README.md in stacks/ is the directory's guide, not a stack.
-  const stackFiles = walkFiles(STACKS, [], (f) => f.endsWith(".md") && path.basename(f) !== "README.md").map(
-    (f) => ({ rel: relFromRoot(f), text: fs.readFileSync(f, "utf8") })
-  );
+  // V15: starter stacks. The build reads the same list (lib/stacks.mjs).
+  const { files: stackFiles, stray: strayStacks } = listStackFiles(ROOT);
+  for (const rel of strayStacks) errors.push(`${rel}: stacks live directly in stacks/; the build does not read subfolders`);
   for (const { rel, text } of stackFiles) if (hasEmoji(text)) errors.push(`${rel} contains emoji`);
   const entriesByPath = new Map(records.map(({ rel, meta }) => [rel, { id: String(meta.id), status: String(meta.status) }]));
   errors.push(...checkStacks(stackFiles, entriesByPath, licenceTerms(vocab, [...spdxAllowed]), today));