diff --git a/packages/cli/src/utils/artifact-packages.test.ts b/packages/cli/src/utils/artifact-packages.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ce32ab6093
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/cli/src/utils/artifact-packages.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,146 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2026 ObjectStack. Licensed under the Apache-2.0 license.
+
+/**
+ * [ADR-0130 D4 — #18204] The per-package leg's resolution context, asserted
+ * against the FUNCTION the commands call.
+ *
+ * `compile.ts` (step 3b-ii) and `lint.ts` both build one package's stack with
+ * {@link packageBodyAsStack}, handing it the artifact's own `packages[]` so a
+ * reference into a SIBLING package's object resolves (#16611). Two neighbours
+ * already measure parts of that, and neither covers what this file does:
+ *
+ *   - `packages/lint/src/validate-object-references.test.ts` runs the rule
+ *     against a local three-key REPLICA of this function's output. It stays
+ *     green if the CLI stops producing that shape — which is the only way this
+ *     defect can ever return.
+ *   - `test/build-multi-package-artifact.e2e.test.ts` runs the real command end
+ *     to end, and is the stronger reading — but it carries the `*.e2e` name, so
+ *     `OS_TEST_TIERS` puts it in the NIGHTLY population (`../../vitest-tiers.ts`)
+ *     and the merge queue never runs it. A regression lands green and is found
+ *     the next morning.
+ *
+ * So this file is the queue-tier half: the real `artifactPackages` +
+ * `packageBodyAsStack`, the real rule, and no replica anywhere in the chain.
+ *
+ * ## The two LEVELS, which is the card
+ *
+ * #18204 reported one reference accepted at the field level and the same name
+ * refused at the action-param level in the same build. That is what
+ * `@objectstack/cli@17.4.0` does — its `packageBodyAsStack(body)` takes no
+ * context argument at all, so the action-param site is judged against one
+ * package's objects while the field site is not judged at all by that release's
+ * rule. Both halves moved since; this pins them MOVED TOGETHER, because a
+ * platform that accepts `Field.lookup('x')` and refuses `reference: 'x'` on an
+ * action param is contradicting itself inside one command.
+ *
+ * ⛔ Not a "skip the site per package" pin. The dangling name is asserted
+ * present at BOTH levels in the same call, so a context that silences the
+ * ladder fails here exactly as loudly as a context that never arrives.
+ */
+
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
+import { validateObjectReferences } from '@objectstack/lint';
+
+import { artifactPackages, packageBodyAsStack } from './artifact-packages.js';
+
+/**
+ * A two-package artifact in the shape `composeStacks(…, { manifest: 'preserve' })`
+ * writes and `ObjectStackDefinitionSchema` parses: each entry's assembled body
+ * under `manifest`. Modelled on `examples/app-multi-package`, whose `orders`
+ * package reads `crm_account` out of its `core` sibling.
+ */
+const CORE_BODY = {
+  id: 'com.example.multi.core',
+  objects: [{ name: 'crm_account', fields: { name: { type: 'text' } } }],
+};
+
+const ORDERS_BODY = {
+  id: 'com.example.multi.orders',
+  dependencies: { 'com.example.multi.core': '^1.0.0' },
+  objects: [
+    {
+      name: 'crm_order',
+      fields: {
+        name: { type: 'text' },
+        // Level 1 — `Field.lookup()`'s target, accepted across packages by
+        // ADR-0130 §1.5.
+        account: { type: 'lookup', reference: 'crm_account' },
+        ghost: { type: 'lookup', reference: 'crm_nowhere' },
+      },
+      actions: [
+        {
+          name: 'link_account',
+          type: 'script',
+          locations: [],
+          params: [
+            // Level 2 — the record picker's search target, the card's level.
+            { name: 'account', type: 'lookup', reference: 'crm_account' },
+            { name: 'phantom', type: 'lookup', reference: 'crm_nowhere_param' },
+          ],
+          body: { language: 'js', source: 'return { ok: true };', capabilities: [] },
+        },
+      ],
+    },
+  ],
+};
+
+const ARTIFACT = {
+  manifest: { id: 'com.example.multi.core' },
+  objects: CORE_BODY.objects,
+  packages: [{ manifest: ORDERS_BODY }, { manifest: CORE_BODY }],
+} as Record<string, unknown>;
+
+/**
+ * Exactly what `compile.ts` step 3b-ii does for one entry.
+ *
+ * ⛔ `context` takes no DEFAULT: a default would be applied to the CONTROL
+ * leg's explicit `undefined` — the exact value the pre-#16611 call site passes
+ * — and that leg would silently measure the fixed shape and pass.
+ */
+const perPackageStack = (index: number, context: unknown) =>
+  packageBodyAsStack(artifactPackages(ARTIFACT)[index].body, context);
+
+describe('packageBodyAsStack — the per-package leg resolves a sibling package at BOTH reference levels (#18204)', () => {
+  it('CONTROL — with no context the SAME body errors at both levels, so the context is what does the work', () => {
+    // Without this leg a green assertion below is indistinguishable from a rule
+    // that stopped judging these sites at all.
+    const paths = validateObjectReferences(perPackageStack(0, undefined)).map((f) => f.path);
+    expect(paths).toEqual([
+      'objects[0].fields.account.reference',
+      'objects[0].fields.ghost.reference',
+      'objects[0].actions[0].params[0].reference',
+      'objects[0].actions[0].params[1].reference',
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  it('resolves the sibling\'s object at both levels, and still refuses a name no package provides', () => {
+    const findings = validateObjectReferences(perPackageStack(0, ARTIFACT.packages));
+    // One equality carries all four verdicts: `crm_account` is absent at BOTH
+    // levels (resolved through `packages[]`) and the two dangling names are
+    // present at BOTH levels (the refusal MOVED — it did not disappear).
+    expect(findings.map((f) => f.path)).toEqual([
+      'objects[0].fields.ghost.reference',
+      'objects[0].actions[0].params[1].reference',
+    ]);
+    expect(findings.map((f) => f.rule)).toEqual([
+      'object-reference-unknown',
+      'object-reference-unknown',
+    ]);
+    expect(findings.map((f) => f.severity)).toEqual(['error', 'error']);
+  });
+
+  it('judges the sibling from its own side unchanged', () => {
+    // The context widens what a package can RESOLVE, never what it JUDGES: the
+    // app package owns no reference, so it has nothing to report either way.
+    expect(validateObjectReferences(perPackageStack(1, ARTIFACT.packages))).toEqual([]);
+  });
+
+  it('hands the rule the artifact\'s own entries — the body of each package is under `manifest`', () => {
+    // The shape is the contract between this function and the rule: the rule
+    // reads `packages[].manifest.<collection>`, so a context reduced to some
+    // other entry shape resolves nothing while every type still checks.
+    const stack = perPackageStack(0, ARTIFACT.packages) as { packages?: unknown; manifest?: unknown };
+    expect(stack.packages).toBe(ARTIFACT.packages);
+    expect(stack.manifest).toBe(artifactPackages(ARTIFACT)[0].body);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/cli/test/build-multi-package-artifact.e2e.test.ts b/packages/cli/test/build-multi-package-artifact.e2e.test.ts
index ccc11753be..adb2703113 100644
--- a/packages/cli/test/build-multi-package-artifact.e2e.test.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/test/build-multi-package-artifact.e2e.test.ts
@@ -143,15 +143,31 @@ export default {
  * between the ruled fix and "skip the site per package".
  *
  * One fixture measures both, because the discriminating fact is WHICH of the
- * two lookups on `probe_order` is reported: `account` (a sibling provides it)
- * must not be, `ghost` (nothing provides it) must be. Dropping the `packages[]`
+ * lookups on `probe_order` is reported: `account` (a sibling provides it) must
+ * not be, `ghost` (nothing provides it) must be. Dropping the `packages[]`
  * pass-through reports both; dropping the judging reports neither.
  *
+ * ## Two LEVELS, one artifact, one verdict (#18204)
+ *
+ * `probe_order` carries the same pair of names twice: once as a field
+ * `reference` (`Field.lookup()`'s target) and once as an action param's
+ * record-picker `reference`. Both are resolved by the same ladder in
+ * `validate-object-references.ts` against the same set, and ADR-0130 §1.5
+ * accepts a cross-package lookup — so a build in which one level resolves a
+ * sibling's object and the other refuses it is the platform contradicting
+ * itself inside a single command. That contradiction SHIPPED: `@objectstack/
+ * cli@17.4.0` lowers a package body with `packageBodyAsStack(body)` and no
+ * context argument at all, which refuses the action-param reference while the
+ * field level — a site that release's rule did not yet walk — goes unjudged
+ * and therefore looks accepted. The equality below is what keeps the two
+ * levels from drifting apart again: it names the paths of BOTH refusals and,
+ * by their absence, BOTH resolutions.
+ *
  * ⚠️ The top level carries `probe_account`, so `objects` is PRESENT and
  * `authoringRuleUnionStack` folds nothing into it — it only ever fills ABSENT
  * keys, which `src/utils/stack-collections.test.ts` pins BY IDENTITY on exactly
  * this shape (a stack carrying both its collections and `packages[]`). So the
- * union run never sees `probe_order`'s fields, and this is a pin on
+ * union run never sees `probe_order`'s fields or actions, and this is a pin on
  * `compile.ts`'s half rather than a second copy of `packages/lint`'s rule test,
  * whose input is a local three-key REPLICA of `packageBodyAsStack`
  * (`perPackageStack`) and stays green if this command stops building that
@@ -160,8 +176,9 @@ export default {
  * ⭐ That last claim is MEASURED rather than argued. Three ablations, each
  * reddening THIS case alone and leaving the other six in this file green:
  *
- *   1. drop `packages[]` from `packageBodyAsStack` (the pre-#16611 shape) — the
- *      equality below receives BOTH paths, `account` first;
+ *   1. drop `packages[]` from `packageBodyAsStack` (the pre-#16611 shape, and
+ *      the one `@objectstack/cli@17.4.0` ships) — the equality below receives
+ *      all FOUR paths, `account` first;
  *   2. hand the per-package leg no `objects` at all, i.e. the "skip the site per
  *      package" option the ruling rejected — `os build` exits **0** with
  *      `success: true`, so the union run is NOT a second reporter for these
@@ -185,6 +202,16 @@ const probeOrder = {
     account: { type: 'lookup', label: 'Account', reference: 'probe_account' },
     ghost: { type: 'lookup', label: 'Ghost', reference: 'probe_nothing' },
   },
+  actions: [
+    {
+      name: 'probe_link', label: 'Link', type: 'script', locations: [],
+      params: [
+        { name: 'account', label: 'Account', type: 'lookup', reference: 'probe_account' },
+        { name: 'phantom', label: 'Phantom', type: 'lookup', reference: 'probe_nothing_param' },
+      ],
+      body: { language: 'js', source: 'return { ok: true };', capabilities: [] },
+    },
+  ],
 };
 
 export default {
@@ -289,7 +316,7 @@ describe('ADR-0130 D4 — `os build` emits one artifact carrying `packages[]`',
     expect(paths).toContain('packages.0.manifest.objects.0');
   }, 180_000);
 
-  it('resolves a SIBLING package\'s object on the per-package leg, and still errors on an artifact-wide dangling one', async () => {
+  it('resolves a SIBLING package\'s object on the per-package leg at BOTH reference levels, and still errors on an artifact-wide dangling one', async () => {
     const run = await runCli(['build', '--json'], dirs.refs);
     expect(run.code, `${run.stdout}\n${run.stderr}`).toBe(1);
     const payload = JSON.parse(run.stdout) as {
@@ -301,11 +328,29 @@ describe('ADR-0130 D4 — `os build` emits one artifact carrying `packages[]`',
     // is the only thing that distinguishes the two exits from outside.
     expect(payload.error).toBe('author-time rules failed for one or more packages');
     const refs = (payload.issues ?? []).filter((i) => i.rule === 'object-reference-unknown');
-    // Both directions in one equality: `ghost` is present (the leg still
-    // JUDGES) and `account` is absent (the leg RESOLVED it through the
-    // artifact's `packages[]`). A pass-through that went missing reports both.
-    expect(refs.map((i) => i.path)).toEqual(['objects[0].fields.ghost.reference']);
-    expect(refs[0].package).toBe('com.example.probe.orders');
+    // Every direction in ONE equality, over BOTH levels (#18204):
+    //
+    //   present — `fields.ghost` and `params[1]` (`probe_nothing_param`): the
+    //             leg still JUDGES both levels, so the refusal MOVED rather
+    //             than disappearing when the context was added;
+    //   absent  — `fields.account` and `params[0]`, both naming
+    //             `probe_account`: the leg RESOLVED that name through the
+    //             artifact's `packages[]` at the field level AND at the
+    //             action-param level, which is the agreement the two levels
+    //             owe each other.
+    //
+    // The order is the rule's own walk order (`validate-object-references.ts`:
+    // object fields, then global actions, then object-embedded actions), so an
+    // equality — not a `toContain` pair — is what keeps a silently dropped
+    // finding visible.
+    expect(refs.map((i) => i.path)).toEqual([
+      'objects[0].fields.ghost.reference',
+      'objects[0].actions[0].params[1].reference',
+    ]);
+    expect(refs.map((i) => i.package)).toEqual([
+      'com.example.probe.orders',
+      'com.example.probe.orders',
+    ]);
   }, 180_000);
 });