@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+---
+'@objectstack/cloud-connection': patch
+'@objectstack/cli': patch
+---
+
+fix(cloud-connection,cli): the install-local ledger follows `OS_HOME`, so `os dev --fresh` and a second instance under another `OS_HOME` start without an earlier run's installs
+
+Clause-②: yes (widening)
+Metadata-protocol: none
+
+- **Now.** With no `storageDir`, the install-local ledger (`LocalManifestSource`, and so `MarketplaceInstallLocalPlugin`) lives at `$OS_HOME/installed-packages` when `OS_HOME` is set, and at `CWD/.objectstack/installed-packages` when it is not. Before, it was always the working directory, so `os dev --fresh` (a fresh `OS_HOME` and database) rehydrated a package an earlier run installed, and so did a second instance under another `OS_HOME`.
+- **Unchanged.** `os dev` without `OS_HOME` keeps the ledger in the project, beside its database. `os start` in project mode sets `OS_HOME` to `CWD/.objectstack`, which is the same directory as before. An explicit `storageDir` is used as given.
+- **Existing installs.** When the ledger moved (an `OS_HOME` other than `CWD/.objectstack`) and its new directory does not exist yet, the boot copies the `.json` files of the working-directory ledger into it once, and logs a warning naming both directories. The old files are left in place and are not read again; remove them. A copy that fails is logged as an error, and the next boot tries again. Under `os dev --fresh` nothing is copied.
+- **`os doctor`** reads the same directory the runtime does, `OS_HOME` included.
+- **The widening.** `@objectstack/cloud-connection` exports `resolveInstalledPackagesDir({ env?, cwd? })` (returns `{ dir, legacyDir }`), `INSTALLED_PACKAGES_HOME_SUBDIR`, and `LocalManifestSource.legacyDir` / `adoptLegacyEntries()`. `os doctor` takes the ledger directory from `resolveInstalledPackagesDir`; a `@objectstack/cloud-connection` without it is reported as a reader that does not declare the ledger directory. Align the two packages' versions.
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2026 ObjectStack. Licensed under the Apache-2.0 license.
+
+import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest';
+import { FRESH_HOME_CHANNEL_ENV as CONSUMER_SPELLING } from '@objectstack/cloud-connection';
+import { applyFreshHomeChannel, FRESH_HOME_CHANNEL_ENV } from './dev.js';
+
+/**
+ * #30217 — `os dev --fresh` tells its `serve` child which `OS_HOME` is the
+ * run's ephemeral one, so the install ledger there adopts nothing from the
+ * project's working-directory ledger and the run starts without an earlier
+ * run's installs. The parent owns the variable: without `--fresh` it is
+ * removed, so an inherited copy never speaks for this run.
+ */
+describe('#30217 `os dev` owns the fresh-home channel on its serve child', () => {
+  it('is spelled exactly as @objectstack/cloud-connection reads it', () => {
+    expect(FRESH_HOME_CHANNEL_ENV).toBe(CONSUMER_SPELLING);
+  });
+
+  it('names the ephemeral home under --fresh', () => {
+    const env: NodeJS.ProcessEnv = { OS_HOME: '/tmp/objectstack-dev-abc' };
+    applyFreshHomeChannel(env, '/tmp/objectstack-dev-abc');
+    expect(env[FRESH_HOME_CHANNEL_ENV]).toBe('/tmp/objectstack-dev-abc');
+  });
+
+  it('removes an inherited copy when the run is not --fresh', () => {
+    const env: NodeJS.ProcessEnv = { [FRESH_HOME_CHANNEL_ENV]: '/tmp/objectstack-dev-old' };
+    applyFreshHomeChannel(env, undefined);
+    expect(FRESH_HOME_CHANNEL_ENV in env).toBe(false);
+  });
+});
@@ -251,6 +251,28 @@ export function forwardSeedSettledToParent(msg: unknown): boolean {
   return true;
 }
 
+/**
+ * The internal channel `@objectstack/cloud-connection` reads as
+ * `FRESH_HOME_CHANNEL_ENV` (#30217): the ephemeral `OS_HOME` a `--fresh` run
+ * created. Spelled here rather than imported because oclif loads every command
+ * module on every invocation; `dev-fresh-home-channel.test.ts` holds the two
+ * spellings equal.
+ */
+export const FRESH_HOME_CHANNEL_ENV = 'OS_INTERNAL_FRESH_HOME';
+
+/**
+ * Set or clear {@link FRESH_HOME_CHANNEL_ENV} on the serve child's env
+ * (#30217). Under `--fresh` it names the run's ephemeral `OS_HOME`, so the
+ * install ledger there adopts nothing from the project's working-directory
+ * ledger — a fresh run starts without an earlier run's installs. Otherwise it is
+ * removed: the parent owns the variable, so an inherited copy never speaks for
+ * a home this run did not create. Not an operator setting.
+ */
+export function applyFreshHomeChannel(childEnv: NodeJS.ProcessEnv, freshHome: string | undefined): void {
+  if (freshHome) childEnv[FRESH_HOME_CHANNEL_ENV] = freshHome;
+  else delete childEnv[FRESH_HOME_CHANNEL_ENV];
+}
+
 /**
  * Whether this `os dev` boot runs the watch-recompile loop (#20681).
  *
@@ -676,6 +698,9 @@ export default class Dev extends Command {
       //     (OS_HOME → <home>/data/objectstack.db, published as OS_DATABASE_URL),
       //   - the storage-service uploads root, published on the settings
       //     service's own env name OS_STORAGE_LOCAL_ROOT (#4968),
+      //   - the install-local ledger, which follows OS_HOME (#30217); the
+      //     child is told this home is ephemeral (applyFreshHomeChannel), so
+      //     it adopts nothing from the project's working-directory ledger,
       //   - any other state a plugin keys off OS_HOME.
       // In one sentence: framework-owned, OS_HOME-keyed state plus the env
       // channels this block publishes below. Auto-deleted on exit.
@@ -810,6 +835,7 @@ export default class Dev extends Command {
         ...(flags['database-auth-token'] ? { OS_DATABASE_AUTH_TOKEN: flags['database-auth-token'] } : {}),
         ...(flags['auth-secret'] ? { OS_AUTH_SECRET: flags['auth-secret'] } : {}),
       };
+      applyFreshHomeChannel(localEnv, freshHome);
       // The data key's file: the ONE answer `os start` takes too (#29934), so a
       // secret saved here reads back under `os start` over the same project —
       // and the file an earlier `os start` kept in the project is still read.
 
@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@
  *
  * ── What this file pins, honestly ────────────────────────────────────────
  *
- * Not a live defect. `DEFAULT_INSTALLED_PACKAGES_DIR` is an export of
+ * Not a live defect. The directory authority (`DEFAULT_INSTALLED_PACKAGES_DIR`,
+ * `resolveInstalledPackagesDir` since #30217) is an export of
  * `@objectstack/cloud-connection` in every version ever shipped, so the `??`
  * fallback this change deletes had never fired. What is being hardened is a
  * DIAGNOSIS BOUNDARY — the last cell of the edge #5644 carved. That issue
@@ -114,10 +115,10 @@ describe('installedPackageLedgerDirAuthorityMissingCheck — loaded but unrecogn
     expect(check.message).not.toContain('\n');
   });
 
-  it('names the received value when the export exists but is not a string', () => {
+  it('names the received value when the export exists but is not a function', () => {
     const check = installedPackageLedgerDirAuthorityMissingCheck(42);
 
-    expect(check.message).toContain('not a string');
+    expect(check.message).toContain('not a function');
     expect(check.message).toContain('got number: 42');
   });
 
@@ -136,7 +137,7 @@ describe('installedPackageLedgerDirAuthorityMissingCheck — loaded but unrecogn
     // it from the #5644 row one cell over. Without both, the reader's first
     // move would be to rebuild a package that builds and loads fine.
     expect(fix).toContain('IS installed here and it DID load');
-    expect(fix).toContain('authority on what the ledger directory is called');
+    expect(fix).toContain('authority on where the ledger directory is');
     // And it names the remedy: the two ends of this contract disagree.
     expect(fix).toContain('Align their versions');
   });
@@ -145,7 +146,7 @@ describe('installedPackageLedgerDirAuthorityMissingCheck — loaded but unrecogn
     const check = installedPackageLedgerDirAuthorityMissingCheck(undefined);
 
     // The one name doctor had for the ledger is the export that came back
-    // non-string. A path in the row — the old `??` guess included — would be
+    // as no function. A path in the row — the old `??` guess included — would be
     // doctor asserting what it cannot know (#5644's option-B rejection, one
     // cell over).
     expect(check.message).not.toContain('.objectstack');
@@ -182,7 +183,7 @@ describe('installedPackageLedgerSkippedEntriesCheck — names the directory it a
  *
  * Simulated through the loader seam, like the #5644 cause case next door: the
  * mock hands doctor a module that LOADED (`state: 'loaded'`) and carries no
- * `DEFAULT_INSTALLED_PACKAGES_DIR`. No preflight (`assertLedgerReaderIsBuilt`)
+ * `resolveInstalledPackagesDir`. No preflight (`assertLedgerReaderIsBuilt`)
  * in this describe, and that is not a rollback of #5612: nothing here reads
  * the real package at all — the seam is mocked — so there is no accident for
  * a preflight to catch.
@@ -271,7 +272,7 @@ describe('os doctor, end to end, against a reader that declares no ledger direct
   it('reports the named row and reads NO directory — guessed or otherwise', async () => {
     const ctorCalls: string[] = [];
     const fakeModule = {
-      // Deliberately NO `DEFAULT_INSTALLED_PACKAGES_DIR` — the state under test.
+      // Deliberately NO `resolveInstalledPackagesDir` — the state under test.
       LocalManifestSource: class {
         constructor(dir: string) {
           ctorCalls.push(dir);
@@ -312,13 +313,13 @@ describe('os doctor, end to end, against a reader that declares no ledger direct
     expect(verboseRun.exitCode).toBeUndefined();
   }, 120_000);
 
-  it('a non-string export is the same fact — never a path.join over it', async () => {
+  it('a non-function export is the same fact — never a call of it', async () => {
     const ctorCalls: string[] = [];
     const fakeModule = {
-      // Present, and not a string: the shape whose `path.join` throw the old
-      // code mis-reported through the config `catch` (see the function's
-      // header in doctor.ts).
-      DEFAULT_INSTALLED_PACKAGES_DIR: 42,
+      // Present, and not a function: the shape a bare call would throw on, which
+      // the old `path.join` over the string authority mis-reported through the
+      // config `catch` (see the function's header in doctor.ts).
+      resolveInstalledPackagesDir: 42,
       LocalManifestSource: class {
         constructor(dir: string) {
           ctorCalls.push(dir);
@@ -333,7 +334,7 @@ describe('os doctor, end to end, against a reader that declares no ledger direct
 
     expect(ctorCalls).toHaveLength(0);
     expect(run.out).toContain(AUTHORITY_HEADLINE);
-    expect(run.out).toContain('not a string');
+    expect(run.out).toContain('not a function');
     expect(run.out).toContain('got number: 42');
     expect(run.out).not.toContain(CLEAN_BILL);
     expect(run.out).not.toContain('invoice.code');
 
@@ -479,10 +479,10 @@ describe('os doctor, end to end, against an unreadable installed-package ledger'
     // installed-packages` here would move the literal into the test and pin
     // the row against the guess a second time — the defect, relocated.
     // Re-imported rather than read off `LEDGER_REL` for the same reason.
-    const { DEFAULT_INSTALLED_PACKAGES_DIR } = await import('@objectstack/cloud-connection');
+    const { resolveInstalledPackagesDir } = await import('@objectstack/cloud-connection');
     // `mkdtemp` makes this unique per run, which is what makes "the resolved
     // dir, not the literal" assertable at all: no literal can contain it.
-    const resolved = path.join(tmp, DEFAULT_INSTALLED_PACKAGES_DIR);
+    const resolved = resolveInstalledPackagesDir({ cwd: tmp }).dir;
 
     const run = await runDoctor(['--verbose']);
 
@@ -673,6 +673,34 @@ describe('os doctor, end to end, against an unreadable installed-package ledger'
     expect(verboseRun.out).toContain('Repair the JSON, or delete the file');
     expect(verboseRun.exitCode).toBeUndefined();
   }, 60_000);
+
+  it('reads the ledger under OS_HOME when OS_HOME is set — the directory the runtime reads (#30217)', async () => {
+    // The runtime's ledger follows OS_HOME. Doctor reading `<cwd>/.objectstack/
+    // installed-packages` here would report on a directory the runtime no
+    // longer reads, and stay silent about the one it does.
+    writeConfig();
+    const home = path.join(tmp, 'home');
+    const homeLedger = path.join(home, 'installed-packages');
+    fs.mkdirSync(homeLedger, { recursive: true });
+    fs.writeFileSync(path.join(homeLedger, 'billing.json'), JSON.stringify(globalUniqueEntry('billing')));
+    // A stale working-directory ledger beside it: not what the runtime reads.
+    fs.mkdirSync(ledgerPath(), { recursive: true });
+    fs.writeFileSync(path.join(ledgerPath(), 'stale.json'), '{"manifestId":"stale"');
+
+    const savedHome = process.env.OS_HOME;
+    process.env.OS_HOME = home;
+    let run: { out: string; exitCode: number | undefined };
+    try {
+      run = await runDoctor(['--verbose']);
+    } finally {
+      if (savedHome === undefined) delete process.env.OS_HOME;
+      else process.env.OS_HOME = savedHome;
+    }
+
+    expect(run.out).toContain("installed package 'billing'");
+    expect(run.out).not.toContain('stale.json');
+    expect(run.out).not.toContain(SKIPPED_HEADLINE);
+  }, 60_000);
 });
 
 /**