[showcase][approvals] Approving an Invoice Dual Sign-off request strands its flow run — notify_cleared resolves {record.account.owner} to nothing (possible regression of #7381) #7524

Symptom

Approving any flow:showcase_invoice_signoff approval request records the decision correctly — the request re-reads status:'approved' and an approve action row is appended — but the approver receives HTTP 500 RESUME_FAILED and the backing flow run re-reads status:'failed'. The engine error is:

> Node 'notify_cleared' failed: notify: at least one recipient is required, but every recipient template resolved to nothing: {record.account.owner}

The boot log carries the matching [approvals] resume failed — the run is stranded ERROR. The invoice therefore never reaches end_ok, and the "Notify: Cleared" message the demo promises is never delivered. Deterministic for every invoice approval.

⚠️ Possible regression of #7381, which is closed as completed (fixed by PR #7395 — "unstrand the Invoice Dual Sign-off approval demo, and the second instance of the same hop"). The node, the template, the engine message and the stranded-run symptom are identical, and it reproduces on framework a86db175. Worth confirming whether the fix regressed, was never merged into this branch, or covered only the sibling instance.

Root cause

examples/app-showcase/src/automation/flows/index.ts — InvoiceDualSignoffFlow. The notify_cleared node declares recipients: ['{record.account.owner}'] while the flow's start node declares no config.expand, so record.account is the raw scalar FK id and the relation hop resolves to nothing. The engine's own diagnostic already names both candidate fixes: add the relation to the start node's config.expand so the engine hydrates it, or address a scalar the trigger record already carries.

Reproduction

1. Boot examples/app-showcase on framework a86db175.
2. Take any flow:showcase_invoice_signoff request — seeded INV-1008, or raise a fresh one by PATCHing a draft invoice to status:'sent'.
3. POST /api/v1/approvals/requests/…/approve as an entitled approver.

Observed: HTTP 500 RESUME_FAILED; sys_approval_request re-reads status:'approved' with the approve action row present; the flow run re-reads status:'failed'. Reproduced 2× on two separate invoices with a byte-identical error, plus the matching stranded-run ERROR in the boot log.

Source

Extracted from the QA run #7517 (framework a86db17, console 09987b6).