The same rewording without a key breaks the binding

outcome

Execute the contrast to the keyed rewording: an unkeyed step is keyed by its skeleton, so the same rewording renames it and the handlers bound before it no longer cover the contract.

Examples

Given the {carrier: "Markdown"} carriers of a parent whose example space declares the Given steps {vocabulary: "a customer has a cart with {items:number} line items"}
Given a child example of that parent whose Given steps read {example: "a customer has a cart with {items: 2} line items"}
When the contracts are generated, the step lines are reworded by replacing {before: "a customer has a cart with"} with {after: "the cart holds"}, and the contracts are generated again
Then the first extraction finding's message contains {extractMessage: ""}
Then the child contract binds its first Given step as {bindingKey: "a customer has a cart with {items} line items"} and then as {rewordedBindingKey: "the cart holds {items} line items"}
Then the handlers bound to the first contract cover the second: {stillBound: false}

Verifier bindings

• test:protocol.step-keys.reworded-unkeyed-step-breaks · anchored · test anchor binding present · test/self-hosting-step-keys.test.ts:355

  External run evidence from test/self-hosting-step-keys.test.ts

  Test anchors: test:protocol.step-keys.conflicting-example-key-withheld, test:protocol.step-keys.gherkin-keyed-step-stays-bound, test:protocol.step-keys.key-equal-to-a-skeleton-withheld, test:protocol.step-keys.malformed-marker-refused, test:protocol.step-keys.renamed-key-breaks, test:protocol.step-keys.repeated-key-refused, test:protocol.step-keys.reworded-keyed-step-stays-bound, test:protocol.step-keys.reworded-unkeyed-step-breaks, test:protocol.step-keys.two-keys-on-one-step-refused, test:protocol.step-keys.typescript-keyed-step-imports-keyed. Specs verified by those bindings: spec:carrier.step-keys, spec:carrier.step-keys.conflicting-example-key-withheld, spec:carrier.step-keys.gherkin-keyed-step-stays-bound, spec:carrier.step-keys.key-equal-to-a-skeleton-withheld, spec:carrier.step-keys.malformed-marker-refused, spec:carrier.step-keys.renamed-key-breaks, spec:carrier.step-keys.repeated-key-refused, spec:carrier.step-keys.reworded-keyed-step-stays-bound, spec:carrier.step-keys.reworded-unkeyed-step-breaks, spec:carrier.step-keys.two-keys-on-one-step-refused, spec:carrier.step-keys.typescript-keyed-step-imports-keyed, spec:extraction.executable-contracts.

  Run 1: external run evidence from vitest 4.1.10

  Build: CI 380 · Branch: feature/roadmap-and-slices-v0 · Commit: 34909918bf0be0e849959644401797191cae379f · Start: 2026-10-22T17:40:31.456Z · Stop: 2026-10-22T17:42:16.171Z

  Name	Suite	Result	Duration
  executes the bound example against a fresh world	An example marker that disagrees with its vocabulary withholds the contract (spec:carrier.step-keys.conflicting-example-key-withheld)	passed	19.75 ms
  executes the bound example against a fresh world	A keyed Gherkin step keeps its binding across a rewording (spec:carrier.step-keys.gherkin-keyed-step-stays-bound)	passed	1271.8 ms
  executes the bound example against a fresh world	A step key equal to another step's skeleton withholds the contract (spec:carrier.step-keys.key-equal-to-a-skeleton-withheld)	passed	7.82 ms
  executes the bound example against a fresh world	A step marker whose key is off the grammar refuses the carrier (spec:carrier.step-keys.malformed-marker-refused)	passed	825.08 ms
  executes the bound example against a fresh world	Renaming a step key breaks the binding (spec:carrier.step-keys.renamed-key-breaks)	passed	728.09 ms
  executes the bound example against a fresh world	One key on two vocabulary steps refuses the carrier (spec:carrier.step-keys.repeated-key-refused)	passed	668.87 ms
  executes the bound example against a fresh world	A keyed step reworded in its vocabulary and its example keeps its binding (spec:carrier.step-keys.reworded-keyed-step-stays-bound)	passed	717.55 ms
  executes the bound example against a fresh world	The same rewording without a key breaks the binding (spec:carrier.step-keys.reworded-unkeyed-step-breaks)	passed	719.37 ms
  executes the bound example against a fresh world	Two keys on one step refuse the carrier (spec:carrier.step-keys.two-keys-on-one-step-refused)	passed	862.64 ms
  executes the bound example against a fresh world	A keyed TypeScript step keeps its key through import to Markdown (spec:carrier.step-keys.typescript-keyed-step-imports-keyed)	passed	701.64 ms

Requirement drawing

• Satisfying or referencing units: no recorded binding.

Decisions

No decision record named.

No implementation neighborhood recorded.

Runtime observation: not tracked.

Runtime observation: not tracked.

Build attestations: not tracked.

Deployments: not tracked.

Bills of materials: not tracked.