@@ -0,0 +1,111 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2026 ObjectStack. Licensed under the Apache-2.0 license.
+
+/**
+ * [#25467 cut 17] The object-owner verdicts of
+ * `ObjectStackProtocolImplementation`: which contributor kind a stored object
+ * row registers as against the registry's owner of that name
+ * (`classifyObjectContribution`), and handing an adopted object's name from the
+ * `'sys_metadata'` sentinel owner to its rebound row
+ * (`releaseAdoptedObjectOwner`), moved out of `protocol.ts` whole.
+ *
+ * A MOVE, not a redesign. Each function below is the body of the
+ * `ObjectStackProtocolImplementation` method of the same name as it stood,
+ * re-indented one level and otherwise unedited: the same registry reads in the
+ * same order, the same verdicts, and the same logged line.
+ *
+ * ## How the moved bodies reach the class
+ *
+ * The shape #23050 set for `rest-server.ts` (its `data-action-routes.ts`
+ * header carries the full reasoning), as `protocol-batch-data.ts` applies it.
+ * The class keeps every method — the published `dist/*.d.ts` lists each one's
+ * name, docblock and declared signature — and each body is one literal of
+ * exactly the {@link ObjectOwnerHost} members that method reads, plus a
+ * `.call`. The engine is handed over as a getter, so the body reads the
+ * protocol's engine (and so its registry) at call time. Every other reader of
+ * these two methods keeps calling the class method.
+ *
+ * Neither body reads a module-level declaration of `protocol.ts`, and neither
+ * imports anything, so this module imports only the class type. Nothing
+ * re-exports this module, so the published surface does not move.
+ */
+
+import type { ObjectStackProtocolImplementation } from './protocol.js';
+
+/**
+ * The `ObjectStackProtocolImplementation` members the functions below read —
+ * every one of them, and no other; each function's `this` is the `Pick` of the
+ * members IT reads. Each is typed AS the class member (an indexed access on
+ * the class), so a change to a member's signature on the class is a change
+ * here too, and naming a member the class does not have is a compile error.
+ */
+export interface ObjectOwnerHost {
+    readonly engine: ObjectStackProtocolImplementation['engine'];
+}
+
+/** The body of `ObjectStackProtocolImplementation#classifyObjectContribution`; the method's docblock there is its contract. */
+export function classifyObjectContribution(
+    this: Pick<ObjectOwnerHost, 'engine'>,
+    name: string,
+    rowPackageId: string | null | undefined,
+):
+    | { kind: 'own' | 'overlay'; packageId: string }
+    | { kind: 'mismatch'; packageId: string; ownerPackageId: string } {
+    // `||`, not `??`: an empty-string binding is "no package", the same
+    // normalisation both hydration seams apply to `package_id`.
+    const binding = rowPackageId || '';
+    const registry: any = (this.engine as any)?.registry;
+    const owner = typeof registry?.getPackagedObjectOwner === 'function'
+        ? registry.getPackagedObjectOwner(name)
+        : undefined;
+    const ownerPackageId: unknown = owner?.packageId;
+    if (typeof ownerPackageId !== 'string' || ownerPackageId === '') {
+        // [#23416] No packaged owner: the runtime-authored one, if any.
+        const runtimeOwner = typeof registry?.getObjectOwner === 'function'
+            ? registry.getObjectOwner(name)
+            : undefined;
+        const runtimeOwnerPackageId: unknown = runtimeOwner?.packageId;
+        // [#23514] The `'sys_metadata'` sentinel owner is judged too: see the header.
+        if (
+            binding !== ''
+            && typeof runtimeOwnerPackageId === 'string'
+            && runtimeOwnerPackageId !== ''
+            && binding !== runtimeOwnerPackageId
+        ) {
+            return { kind: 'mismatch', packageId: binding, ownerPackageId: runtimeOwnerPackageId };
+        }
+        return { kind: 'own', packageId: binding || 'sys_metadata' };
+    }
+    if (binding !== '' && binding !== ownerPackageId) {
+        return { kind: 'mismatch', packageId: binding, ownerPackageId };
+    }
+    return { kind: 'overlay', packageId: binding || 'sys_metadata' };
+}
+
+/** The body of `ObjectStackProtocolImplementation#releaseAdoptedObjectOwner`; the method's docblock there is its contract. */
+export function releaseAdoptedObjectOwner(
+    this: Pick<ObjectOwnerHost, 'engine'>,
+    name: string, item: unknown, targetPackageId: string,
+): boolean {
+    const registry: any = (this.engine as any)?.registry;
+    if (typeof registry?.registerObject !== 'function') return false;
+    if (!item || typeof item !== 'object' || typeof (item as { name?: unknown }).name !== 'string') return false;
+    const owner: { packageId?: unknown } | undefined = typeof registry.getObjectOwner === 'function'
+        ? registry.getObjectOwner(name)
+        : undefined;
+    if (owner === undefined) return true;
+    if (owner.packageId !== 'sys_metadata' || typeof registry.unregisterObject !== 'function') return false;
+    try {
+        registry.unregisterObject(name);
+        return true;
+    } catch (err: any) {
+        console.error(
+            `[Protocol] reassignOrphanedMetadata: object '${name}' was adopted into package `
+            + `'${targetPackageId}' in sys_metadata, but the registry keeps its package-less definition `
+            + `(owner 'sys_metadata') until the next restart: ${err?.message ?? err}. Until then the data `
+            + `plane serves the pre-adoption definition, and a save of the object naming '${targetPackageId}' `
+            + 'answers success without going live. Fix: restart the server; the boot registers the object '
+            + `under '${targetPackageId}'.`,
+        );
+        return false;
+    }
+}
@@ -397,6 +397,8 @@ import { applySeedBodies, collectBatchPendingDeclarations } from './protocol-pub
 import { artifactLockLayerAt, lookupArtifactItem, shippedArtifactsOf, shippingPackagesOf } from './protocol-artifact-lookup.js';
 // [#25467 cut 16] The stored-overlay row reads: a type's active rows, their parsed entries, the names with a row of their own, and one item's rows.
 import { namesWithOwnStoredRow, readActiveOverlayRows, readItemActiveRows, storedOverlayEntries } from './protocol-stored-overlay-reads.js';
+// [#25467 cut 17] The object-owner verdicts: which contributor kind a stored object row registers as, and handing an adopted object's name to its rebound row.
+import { classifyObjectContribution, releaseAdoptedObjectOwner } from './protocol-object-owner.js';
 
 /**
  * Canonical Zod schema per metadata type lives in
@@ -17515,35 +17517,12 @@ export class ObjectStackProtocolImplementation implements
     ):
         | { kind: 'own' | 'overlay'; packageId: string }
         | { kind: 'mismatch'; packageId: string; ownerPackageId: string } {
-        // `||`, not `??`: an empty-string binding is "no package", the same
-        // normalisation both hydration seams apply to `package_id`.
-        const binding = rowPackageId || '';
-        const registry: any = (this.engine as any)?.registry;
-        const owner = typeof registry?.getPackagedObjectOwner === 'function'
-            ? registry.getPackagedObjectOwner(name)
-            : undefined;
-        const ownerPackageId: unknown = owner?.packageId;
-        if (typeof ownerPackageId !== 'string' || ownerPackageId === '') {
-            // [#23416] No packaged owner: the runtime-authored one, if any.
-            const runtimeOwner = typeof registry?.getObjectOwner === 'function'
-                ? registry.getObjectOwner(name)
-                : undefined;
-            const runtimeOwnerPackageId: unknown = runtimeOwner?.packageId;
-            // [#23514] The `'sys_metadata'` sentinel owner is judged too: see the header.
-            if (
-                binding !== ''
-                && typeof runtimeOwnerPackageId === 'string'
-                && runtimeOwnerPackageId !== ''
-                && binding !== runtimeOwnerPackageId
-            ) {
-                return { kind: 'mismatch', packageId: binding, ownerPackageId: runtimeOwnerPackageId };
-            }
-            return { kind: 'own', packageId: binding || 'sys_metadata' };
-        }
-        if (binding !== '' && binding !== ownerPackageId) {
-            return { kind: 'mismatch', packageId: binding, ownerPackageId };
-        }
-        return { kind: 'overlay', packageId: binding || 'sys_metadata' };
+        // [#25467 cut 17] The body moved to `protocol-object-owner.ts` (see `ObjectOwnerHost`).
+        const readEngine = () => this.engine;
+        const host: ThisParameterType<typeof classifyObjectContribution> = {
+            get engine() { return readEngine(); },
+        };
+        return classifyObjectContribution.call(host, name, rowPackageId);
     }
 
     /**
@@ -26123,28 +26102,12 @@ export class ObjectStackProtocolImplementation implements
      * for a body with no name, which register nothing.
      */
     private releaseAdoptedObjectOwner(name: string, item: unknown, targetPackageId: string): boolean {
-        const registry: any = (this.engine as any)?.registry;
-        if (typeof registry?.registerObject !== 'function') return false;
-        if (!item || typeof item !== 'object' || typeof (item as { name?: unknown }).name !== 'string') return false;
-        const owner: { packageId?: unknown } | undefined = typeof registry.getObjectOwner === 'function'
-            ? registry.getObjectOwner(name)
-            : undefined;
-        if (owner === undefined) return true;
-        if (owner.packageId !== 'sys_metadata' || typeof registry.unregisterObject !== 'function') return false;
-        try {
-            registry.unregisterObject(name);
-            return true;
-        } catch (err: any) {
-            console.error(
-                `[Protocol] reassignOrphanedMetadata: object '${name}' was adopted into package `
-                + `'${targetPackageId}' in sys_metadata, but the registry keeps its package-less definition `
-                + `(owner 'sys_metadata') until the next restart: ${err?.message ?? err}. Until then the data `
-                + `plane serves the pre-adoption definition, and a save of the object naming '${targetPackageId}' `
-                + 'answers success without going live. Fix: restart the server; the boot registers the object '
-                + `under '${targetPackageId}'.`,
-            );
-            return false;
-        }
+        // [#25467 cut 17] The body moved to `protocol-object-owner.ts` (see `ObjectOwnerHost`).
+        const readEngine = () => this.engine;
+        const host: ThisParameterType<typeof releaseAdoptedObjectOwner> = {
+            get engine() { return readEngine(); },
+        };
+        return releaseAdoptedObjectOwner.call(host, name, item, targetPackageId);
     }
 
     // ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────