🔒 fix!: refuse names that no longer reach their property

A rename did not actually take effect. @JsonProperty stopped the old name
from being *mapped*, but not from being *accepted*: unlike @JsonReadOnly,
whose JSON name goes into the blocked set, the old key fell through to the
unknown-key policy, and the default `allow` copied it onto the instance
untouched.

The value therefore landed on a declared property having skipped everything
declared for it:

  @JsonProperty('home_address') @JsonType(() => Addr) @ValidateNested()
  address!: Addr;

  toInstanceSync(Order, { address: { city: 'Paris' } })
    -> address is a plain object, instanceof Addr === false
    -> validateSync() returns []          <- nothing complains

A payload aimed at the previous version of a class was accepted in part, in
silence. Three routes led to the same hole, and all three are now closed:

- the property key of a field renamed with @JsonProperty
- the raw key of a field a naming strategy renders differently
  (`firstName` under snake_case)
- the property key of a field that is both renamed and @JsonReadOnly, which
  was still settable under its own key

Refused, not swallowed. A stale name is a mismatch with whatever produced
the payload, not a deliberate refusal like @JsonReadOnly, so it is kept in
its own map rather than lumped into `blocked`: under unknownKeys: 'error'
it is still reported, and the report now names the property it was reaching
for and what that property is called now.

  "ref" is not a JSON name for Order: property "ref" is mapped to
  "order_ref". Send that name, or add @JsonAlias("ref") to keep
  accepting this one.

@JsonAlias still keeps an old name working, and a key that some *other*
property legitimately answers to is still mapped to that property — both
asserted. The resolution happens once when the name map is built, which is
memoized per class and naming strategy, so deserialization is unchanged at
~45µs for 50 nested orders.

The behaviour this replaces was pinned by tests two commits ago, pending
this decision; those tests now assert the fix, and six more cover the
naming-strategy, read-only, alias and key-collision cases.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01SAcqrz3FcadkYr3xG32CjK
This commit is contained in:
Claude
2026-08-05 14:42:44 +00:00
parent 057f008ac0
commit 478f852b42
7 changed files with 186 additions and 76 deletions
+31 -15
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@@ -114,24 +114,40 @@ Also corrected in the same pass: the toolchain table is described as executed by
the oxc row — the only ✗ — cannot be, because oxc ships inside a native binary with no
standalone transform API. The claim now covers the three rows it actually covers.
### A sharp edge, now documented and pinned
### A rename now actually takes effect
The README, the landing page and two doc comments all said that once a property carries
`@JsonProperty`, its original name "is no longer accepted on input". It is no longer
*mapped* — but it is not rejected either. Unlike `@JsonReadOnly`, whose JSON name goes into
the blocked set, a renamed property's old key falls through to the unknown-key policy, and
the default `allow` copies it onto the instance untouched. The value lands on a declared
property having skipped everything declared for it: no `@JsonType` conversion, so
`@ValidateNested` then inspects a plain object with no model and reports nothing.
**Breaking.** The docs said that once a property carries `@JsonProperty`, its original name
"is no longer accepted on input". It stopped being *mapped*, but it was not refused: unlike
`@JsonReadOnly`, whose JSON name goes into the blocked set, a renamed property's old key fell
through to the unknown-key policy, and the default `allow` copied it onto the instance
untouched. The value landed on a declared property having skipped everything declared for it —
no `@JsonType` conversion, so `@ValidateNested` then inspected a plain object with no model and
reported nothing. A payload aimed at the previous version of a class was accepted in part, in
silence.
Blocking the old key would fix that, but it would also swallow the `unknownKeys: 'error'`
report a strict caller gets today, which is arguably the more useful signal. That decision
has not been made, so the behaviour is stated accurately everywhere it was previously stated
wrongly, and five tests in `mapping.test.ts` pin it — including the `strip` and `error`
policies and the `@JsonAlias` fix — so it cannot change by accident either way.
Names that no longer reach their property are now refused. That covers three routes to the
same hole:
Two reference entries were also imprecise: `@IsNotEmpty()` and `@IsEmpty()` read as
complements but are not (`[]` and `{}` pass both), and `unknownKeys` is deserialization-only.
- the property key of a field renamed with `@JsonProperty`
- the raw key of a field a naming strategy renders differently (`firstName` under `snake_case`)
- the property key of a field that is both renamed and `@JsonReadOnly`, which was still
settable under its own key
Refused, not silently swallowed. A stale name is a mismatch with whatever produced the payload
rather than a deliberate refusal like `@JsonReadOnly`, so `unknownKeys: 'error'` still reports
it — and now says which property it was reaching for and what that property is called now:
```
JsonMappingError: "ref" is not a JSON name for Order: property "ref" is mapped to
"order_ref". Send that name, or add @JsonAlias("ref") to keep accepting this one.
```
`@JsonAlias` remains the way to keep an old name working, and a key that some *other* property
legitimately answers to is still mapped to that property.
Two reference entries on the landing page were also imprecise: `@IsNotEmpty()` and `@IsEmpty()`
read as complements but are not (`[]` and `{}` pass both), and `unknownKeys` is
deserialization-only.
### Positioning