Issue #130 Fix default recursion skip, merge replacement, and relative path normalization

Co-authored-by: simbo1905 <simbo1905@60hertz.com>

Author: cursoragent

json-transforms/src/main/java/json/java21/transforms/TransformRunner.java

@@ -228,7 +228,8 @@ private static JsonValue applyMergeValueToMatched(JsonValue matched, TransformAs
                     final var applied = processTransform(obj, tov.compiled(), isDocumentRootForMatch);
                     yield applied.value();
                 }
-                yield matched;
+                // Merge-with-attributes replaces mismatched types (including primitive -> object).
+                yield tov.rawObject();
             }
         };
     }
@@ -240,7 +241,9 @@ private static JsonObject applyDefault(JsonObject source, Map<String, JsonValue>
             final var key = entry.getKey();
             final var tVal = entry.getValue();
 
-            if (recursedKeys.contains(key) && current.members().get(key) instanceof JsonObject && tVal instanceof JsonObject) {
+            // Mirror the reference implementation: nodes already recursed into are removed from the transform
+            // before default processing, so default must never re-process them.
+            if (recursedKeys.contains(key)) {
                 continue;
             }
 

json-transforms/src/main/java/json/java21/transforms/TransformSyntax.java

@@ -31,7 +31,14 @@ static String normalizePathString(String path) {
         if (trimmed.startsWith("@")) {
             return "$" + trimmed.substring(1);
         }
-        return trimmed;
+        if (trimmed.startsWith("$")) {
+            return trimmed;
+        }
+        if (trimmed.startsWith(".") || trimmed.startsWith("[")) {
+            return "$" + trimmed;
+        }
+        // Json.NET SelectTokens accepts bare property names; treat them as relative paths.
+        return "$." + trimmed;
     }
 }