diff --git a/.changeset/10159-action-preview-reference-citation.md b/.changeset/10159-action-preview-reference-citation.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e2008fa28c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/10159-action-preview-reference-citation.md
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+---
+---
+
+Comment-only in `@object-ui/app-shell`: the docblock above `ActionPreview`'s `INHERITED_TARGET` quoted the action-param resolver as reading `referenceTo: param.reference ?? field.reference_to`. The resolver has read `field.reference` since objectui#6837 narrowed that read, and `reference_to` is a field-definition key `@objectstack/spec` refuses by name, so the comment pointed its reader at metadata the platform rejects. The quotation now matches the code, and a pin re-derives it from the docblock and requires it to occur, as whole tokens, in the resolver's comment-masked code.
+
+Declared as releasing nothing because the emit was measured rather than assumed: `INHERITED_TARGET` is not exported, so neither it nor its docblock reaches the emitted `ActionPreview.d.ts`; the emitted `.js` carries the comment, and no runtime token moved. No published behaviour changes (objectui#10159).
diff --git a/packages/app-shell/src/views/metadata-admin/previews/ActionPreview.tsx b/packages/app-shell/src/views/metadata-admin/previews/ActionPreview.tsx
index 447a4c857b..ff67f1a4eb 100644
--- a/packages/app-shell/src/views/metadata-admin/previews/ActionPreview.tsx
+++ b/packages/app-shell/src/views/metadata-admin/previews/ActionPreview.tsx
@@ -417,7 +417,7 @@ function DialogMock({ title, params, variant }: { title: string; params: ActionP
  * Stand-in target for a FIELD-BACKED picker. Not a real object name — only a
  * non-empty value, so `paramDegradesWithoutTarget` answers "a target exists".
  * The real one arrives from the bound field at runtime
- * (`resolveActionParams`: `referenceTo: param.reference ?? field.reference_to`).
+ * (`resolveActionParams`: `referenceTo: param.reference ?? field.reference`).
  */
 const INHERITED_TARGET = '(inherited from the bound field)';
 
diff --git a/packages/app-shell/src/views/metadata-admin/previews/__tests__/ActionPreview.inheritedTargetCitation-10159.test.ts b/packages/app-shell/src/views/metadata-admin/previews/__tests__/ActionPreview.inheritedTargetCitation-10159.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6f493b8569
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/app-shell/src/views/metadata-admin/previews/__tests__/ActionPreview.inheritedTargetCitation-10159.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,137 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2026 ObjectStack. Licensed under the Apache-2.0 license.
+
+/**
+ * objectui#10159 — the `INHERITED_TARGET` docblock quotes the resolver's read,
+ * and this file is what keeps it quoting a read that exists.
+ *
+ * ## The defect
+ *
+ * The docblock above `INHERITED_TARGET` in `ActionPreview` tells its reader
+ * where a field-backed picker's real target comes from at runtime, and it does
+ * so by QUOTING the resolver's expression. objectui#6837 narrowed that read in
+ * `resolveActionParam` to the one spelling the protocol declares,
+ * `field.reference`; the quotation was not narrowed with it and kept naming
+ * `field.reference_to`. That is more than a stale comment: `@objectstack/spec`
+ * refuses `reference_to` on a field definition BY NAME (`unrecognized_keys`,
+ * with the rename to `reference` as the suggestion), so a reader who took the
+ * comment at its word would author a key the platform rejects.
+ *
+ * ## Why the assertion is shaped this way
+ *
+ *  1. **The quotation is re-derived from the docblock, never transcribed
+ *     here.** A pin that restated the expected expression would be a second
+ *     copy of the claim, free to rot alongside the first. The only thing this
+ *     file knows is WHERE to look: the backtick span in that docblock that
+ *     starts `referenceTo:`.
+ *  2. **It is looked for in the resolver's CODE, with comments masked** by the
+ *     shared `scripts/js-comment-mask.mjs` — the resolver's own comments
+ *     discuss `reference_to` at length, and a match over raw text could be
+ *     satisfied by prose about a read rather than by the read.
+ *  3. **At a token boundary, not as a substring.** A plain `includes` would
+ *     accept a docblock quoting `field.reference` against code that reads
+ *     `field.reference_to` — this defect's mirror image. The DISCRIMINATOR case
+ *     pins that the boundary refuses a prefix.
+ *  4. **Whitespace is compared collapsed on both sides,** so re-wrapping the
+ *     docblock or re-formatting the code moves nothing; only a change of
+ *     tokens does.
+ *
+ * The CONTROL case proves the instrument is lit: the same reader, mask and
+ * boundary FIND every `referenceTo:` read the resolver really has. Without it
+ * the main assertion's red could mean a blind instrument as easily as a wrong
+ * quotation.
+ *
+ * Cited by content — symbol names and quoted strings — and never by line
+ * address (AGENTS.md #11): the absence of that discipline is how this
+ * quotation drifted without anyone seeing it.
+ */
+
+import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest';
+import { existsSync, readFileSync } from 'node:fs';
+import path from 'node:path';
+import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
+// @ts-expect-error — plain-JS shared helper, intentionally untyped (`allowJs: false`)
+import { maskComments } from '../../../../../../../scripts/js-comment-mask.mjs';
+
+/** Local annotation, since the import above is untyped — the call site stays checked. */
+const mask: (source: string) => string = maskComments;
+
+/** Rooted on THIS file, never on `process.cwd()` (objectui#7799). */
+const repoRoot = path.resolve(path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)), '../../../../../../..');
+
+const PREVIEW = 'packages/app-shell/src/views/metadata-admin/previews/ActionPreview.tsx';
+const RESOLVER = 'packages/app-shell/src/utils/resolveActionParams.ts';
+
+/** Read a tracked file, and prove the read landed or every assertion on it is vacuous. */
+function read(rel: string): string {
+  const abs = path.join(repoRoot, rel);
+  expect(existsSync(abs), `source not found at ${abs}`).toBe(true);
+  const text = readFileSync(abs, 'utf8');
+  expect(text.length, `${rel} read back empty`).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+  return text;
+}
+
+const collapse = (s: string): string => s.replace(/\s+/g, ' ');
+
+/** The resolver's code, comments masked and whitespace collapsed. */
+function resolverCode(): string {
+  return collapse(mask(read(RESOLVER)));
+}
+
+/** The docblock directly above `const INHERITED_TARGET`, with its `*` gutters removed. */
+function inheritedTargetDocblock(): string {
+  const source = read(PREVIEW);
+  const at = source.indexOf('\nconst INHERITED_TARGET');
+  expect(at, '`const INHERITED_TARGET` not found — the docblock reader has nothing to read').toBeGreaterThan(-1);
+  const before = source.slice(0, at);
+  const opens = before.lastIndexOf('/**');
+  expect(opens, 'no docblock above `INHERITED_TARGET`').toBeGreaterThan(-1);
+  const block = before.slice(opens);
+  expect(block.trimEnd().endsWith('*/'), 'the block above `INHERITED_TARGET` is not a closed docblock').toBe(true);
+  return collapse(block.replace(/\n\s*\*(?!\/)/g, ' '));
+}
+
+/** Every backtick span in `text` that quotes a `referenceTo:` read. */
+function quotedReferenceToReads(text: string): string[] {
+  return [...text.matchAll(/`(referenceTo:[^`]*)`/g)].map((m) => collapse(m[1].trim()));
+}
+
+const escape = (s: string): string => s.replace(/[.*+?^${}()|[\]\\]/g, '\\$&');
+
+/** Whether `expr` occurs in `code` as whole tokens — not as the prefix of a longer identifier. */
+function occursAsTokens(expr: string, code: string): boolean {
+  return new RegExp(`(?<![\\w$])${escape(expr)}(?![\\w$])`).test(code);
+}
+
+describe('objectui#10159 — the `INHERITED_TARGET` docblock quotes the read the resolver performs', () => {
+  it('the docblock attributes exactly one `referenceTo:` read to `resolveActionParams`', () => {
+    // Landing proof: a reader that found the wrong block, or no quotation in
+    // it, would let the next case pass by checking nothing.
+    const block = inheritedTargetDocblock();
+    expect(block, 'the extracted block is not the `INHERITED_TARGET` docblock').toContain('bound field');
+    expect(block, 'the docblock no longer names the resolver this file reads').toContain('`resolveActionParams`');
+    expect(quotedReferenceToReads(block)).toHaveLength(1);
+  });
+
+  it('that quotation occurs in the resolver\'s code, as whole tokens', () => {
+    const [quoted] = quotedReferenceToReads(inheritedTargetDocblock());
+    expect(
+      occursAsTokens(quoted, resolverCode()),
+      `the docblock quotes \`${quoted}\`, which the resolver does not perform — quote the read it does`,
+    ).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it('CONTROL — the same reader, mask and boundary find every `referenceTo:` read the resolver has', () => {
+    const code = resolverCode();
+    const reads = [...code.matchAll(/referenceTo: [^,}]+/g)].map((m) => m[0].trim());
+    // A mask that blanked everything, or a wrong path, would leave nothing here.
+    expect(reads.length, 'no `referenceTo:` read survived the mask — the main case would be vacuous').toBeGreaterThan(0);
+    expect(reads.some((r) => r.startsWith('referenceTo: param.reference ??'))).toBe(true);
+    for (const r of reads) expect(occursAsTokens(r, code), r).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it('DISCRIMINATOR — the boundary refuses a prefix of a longer identifier', () => {
+    expect(occursAsTokens('field.reference', 'x = field.reference_to;')).toBe(false);
+    expect(occursAsTokens('field.reference', 'x = field.reference,')).toBe(true);
+    expect(occursAsTokens('field.reference_to', 'x = field.reference,')).toBe(false);
+  });
+});