feat: complete = TRUE fills absent cells with their meaning (#18)

Sparsification (cog_pipeline#64, SB194) stopped the corpus storing the wide
era's explicit zeros, which made absence ambiguous:

  <= FY2011  dense_source   absent => Census published $0
  >= FY2012  sparse_source  absent => not reported, unknown

A wide-era query whose cells were all $0 had begun returning nothing at all,
with no way to get them back -- strictly less than the reader exposed before,
which is why #64 filed this follow-on.

complete = TRUE fills the requested grid from `code_set` and stamps every row
with value_source: "reported", "census_zero" (amt 0), or "not_reported"
(amt NA). The NA is the point. Filling a modern absence with 0 would invent
data, which is exactly the error the representation contract exists to
prevent -- and it makes this strictly MORE informative than the
pre-sparsification corpus, which could not tell a published zero from an
unreported cell either.

Measured on the fixture, Broward County: FY2011 returns 28 reported + 16
census_zero; FY2019 returns 30 reported + 14 not_reported. The five
categories that walkthrough finding F-006 read as "retired at FY2012" now
report themselves correctly as census_zero before and not_reported after.

Scoping decisions, each of which would invent rows if taken loosely:

  - The grid is per government TYPE (code_set.type). Filling against the
    union of all types would give a county cells like "state IG transfer to
    school districts", indistinguishable from real census zeros.
  - NOT is_aggregate, mirroring spending_long/revenue_long. Without it the
    grid offers cells those views never return, so each would fill as a
    phantom $0.
  - Filling happens BEFORE per_capita and inflation, so a census_zero stays
    0 through both and a not_reported stays NA rather than becoming 0.

Two new views (36-representation, 37-code_set) are gated on the manifest
LISTING those tables, not on schema_version. Sparsification did not bump the
version -- the fixture this package shipped against until 2026-07-30 was
already v6 and carried neither table -- so a version gate would register a
view over a missing file and fail at CREATE VIEW time on exactly the corpora
the check exists to tolerate. with_corpus_missing_representation() models
that corpus and asserts the abort.

Refused where the fill would be guesswork, both classed
uscogdata_complete_unsupported: a recipe defines its own component codes and
never touches summary_categories; the intergovernmental leg deliberately
keeps aggregate rows (inst/sql/24-ig_long.sql) so its cells are not the ones
code_set describes.

Expected cell sets in the tests are computed from the corpus parquet
directly, never through the verb -- verifying what a filter does through
that same filter proves nothing.

Closes DoD 2, 3 and 4 of #18. DoD 5 (the cog-api follow-on) is filed
separately.

Suite: 658 pass / 0 fail / 3 skip (was 629/0/3). rcmdcheck clean.

NEWS.md

@@ -1,5 +1,37 @@
 # uscogdata 0.1.0 (development)
 
+## `complete = TRUE`: absent cells, labelled with why they are absent
+
+* `cog_spending()` and `cog_revenue()` gain `complete`, defaulting to `FALSE`
+  (today's behaviour). With `complete = TRUE` the requested grid is filled
+  from the corpus's `code_set` table and every row carries a new
+  `value_source` column:
+
+  | `value_source` | meaning | `amt_nominal` |
+  |---|---|---|
+  | `reported` | the corpus carries this cell | as published |
+  | `census_zero` | dense-source year (≤ FY2011), cell absent — Census published `$0` | `0` |
+  | `not_reported` | sparse-source year (≥ FY2012), cell absent — unknown | `NA` |
+
+  The `NA` is deliberate and is the whole point: filling a modern absence
+  with `0` would invent data, which is precisely the error the corpus's
+  representation contract exists to prevent.
+* This restores information the reader lost when the corpus was sparsified
+  (`SB194`, cog_pipeline#64) — a wide-era query whose cells were all `$0`
+  had begun returning nothing at all — and improves on what came before it,
+  since the pre-sparsification corpus could not distinguish a published zero
+  from an unreported cell either.
+* The grid is scoped to each government's **own type**, so a county is never
+  filled with cells only a state can report.
+* Needs a corpus published from 2026-07-29 onward (when `representation` and
+  `code_set` began shipping); aborts with class
+  `uscogdata_representation_unavailable` otherwise. Gated on the manifest
+  listing those tables rather than on `schema_version`, which was never
+  bumped for the change. Not available with `recipe` or
+  `expenditure_concept = "total"` — neither draws its cells from `code_set`.
+* `provenance$completion` reports `applied`, `rows_filled`, and the per-year
+  `absence_means` rule; `cog_explain()` prints a "Completion" section.
+
 ## Corpus-wide series breaks now reach users (`corpus_break_refs`)
 
 * Four catalogued series breaks carry `fin_code = "ALL"` — caveats about the

R/complete.R

@@ -0,0 +1,148 @@
+# R/complete.R
+#
+# `complete = TRUE` on the money verbs. Fills the requested grid so that a
+# cell the corpus does not carry still appears, labelled with WHY it is
+# missing.
+#
+# The corpus stopped storing the wide era's explicit zeros
+# (cog_pipeline#64, series break SB194), which made absence ambiguous:
+#
+#   <= FY2011  dense_source   absent => Census published $0    (census_zero)
+#   >= FY2012  sparse_source  absent => not reported, unknown  (not_reported)
+#
+# Before sparsification a wide-era query whose cells were all $0 came back as
+# explicit $0 rows; afterwards it came back empty, with nothing to say which
+# of the two meanings applied. This restores that -- and improves on it,
+# because the pre-sparsification corpus could not distinguish the two either.
+#
+# `census_zero` fills carry `amt_nominal = 0`; `not_reported` fills carry NA.
+# That difference is the entire point: writing 0 into a modern absence would
+# invent data, which is the error the representation contract exists to stop.
+
+#' @noRd
+.abort_complete_unsupported <- function(reason, alternative) {
+  cli::cli_abort(c(
+    "{.code complete = TRUE} is not supported for this query.",
+    x = reason,
+    i = alternative
+  ), class = "uscogdata_complete_unsupported")
+}
+
+#' @noRd
+.require_representation <- function(con, manifest) {
+  needed <- c("representation.parquet", "code_set.parquet")
+  missing <- needed[!vapply(needed, function(f) .corpus_has_table(manifest, f),
+                            logical(1))]
+  if (length(missing) == 0L) return(invisible(TRUE))
+  cli::cli_abort(c(
+    "This corpus does not publish the representation contract.",
+    x = "Missing: {.file {missing}}.",
+    i = "{.code complete = TRUE} needs those tables to know whether an absent cell means Census published $0 or means the government did not report.",
+    i = "They ship with corpora published from 2026-07-29 onward; re-point {.envvar USCOGDATA_URL} at a current corpus, or omit {.code complete}."
+  ), class = "uscogdata_representation_unavailable")
+}
+
+#' The cells a government-year COULD carry: every code in force for that
+#' government's own type, mapped through `summary_categories`, restricted to
+#' the calling verb's flow prefixes and (when given) its category filter.
+#'
+#' Scoped by `govs_type` deliberately. Filling against the union of all types
+#' would invent cells that the government can never report -- a county row for
+#' "state IG transfer to school districts" -- and those inventions would then
+#' be indistinguishable from real census zeros.
+#'
+#' `NOT cs.is_aggregate` mirrors `spending_long` / `revenue_long`, which drop
+#' aggregate rows. Without it the grid would offer cells the verb structurally
+#' never returns, so every one of them would fill as a phantom $0.
+#' @noRd
+.completion_grid_sql <- function(subtype_col, govid, years, category,
+                                 flow_prefixes) {
+  category_pred <- if (is.null(category)) {
+    ""
+  } else {
+    sprintf("AND c.category IN (%s)", .sql_lit_chr(category))
+  }
+  sprintf(
+    "SELECT DISTINCT
+       cs.year,
+       x.canonical_govid,
+       x.gov_name,
+       c.%1$s AS subtype_value,
+       c.category,
+       r.absence_means
+     FROM code_set cs
+     JOIN canonical_fips_xwalk x ON x.govs_type = cs.type
+     JOIN summary_categories c   ON c.item_code = cs.item_code
+     JOIN representation r       ON r.year = cs.year
+     WHERE x.canonical_govid IN (%2$s)
+       AND cs.year IN (%3$s)
+       AND NOT cs.is_aggregate
+       AND LEFT(cs.item_code, 1) IN (%4$s)
+       AND c.category IS NOT NULL
+       AND c.%1$s IS NOT NULL
+       %5$s",
+    subtype_col, .sql_lit_chr(govid),
+    paste(as.integer(years), collapse = ","),
+    .sql_lit_chr(flow_prefixes), category_pred
+  )
+}
+
+#' Fill `result` out to the full grid, stamping `value_source` on every row.
+#'
+#' Returns the completed tibble with a `.completion` attribute carrying the
+#' provenance block. Reported rows are passed through untouched -- filling
+#' must never alter or drop what the corpus actually published.
+#' @noRd
+.complete_result <- function(result, con, subtype_col, govid, years, category,
+                             flow_prefixes) {
+  grid <- tibble::as_tibble(DBI::dbGetQuery(
+    con, .completion_grid_sql(subtype_col, govid, years, category, flow_prefixes)
+  ))
+
+  result$value_source <- rep("reported", nrow(result))
+  if (nrow(grid) == 0L) {
+    attr(result, ".completion") <- list(
+      applied = TRUE, rows_filled = 0L, absence_means = list()
+    )
+    return(result)
+  }
+
+  names(grid)[names(grid) == "subtype_value"] <- subtype_col
+  key <- function(d) {
+    paste(d$year, d$canonical_govid, d[[subtype_col]], d$category, sep = "\r")
+  }
+  missing <- grid[!key(grid) %in% key(result), , drop = FALSE]
+
+  if (nrow(missing) > 0L) {
+    filled <- tibble::tibble(
+      year            = as.integer(missing$year),
+      canonical_govid = as.character(missing$canonical_govid),
+      gov_name        = as.character(missing$gov_name),
+      category        = as.character(missing$category),
+      # census_zero is a value Census published; not_reported is unknown and
+      # must stay NA. Collapsing the two to 0 is the defect, not the fill.
+      amt_nominal     = ifelse(missing$absence_means == "census_zero",
+                               0, NA_real_),
+      codes_included  = NA_character_,
+      aggregate_fallback = NA,
+      value_source    = as.character(missing$absence_means)
+    )
+    filled[[subtype_col]] <- as.character(missing[[subtype_col]])
+    if ("notes" %in% names(result)) filled$notes <- NA_character_
+
+    result <- dplyr::bind_rows(result, filled)
+    result <- result[order(result$year, result$canonical_govid,
+                           result[[subtype_col]], result$category), ,
+                     drop = FALSE]
+  }
+
+  rules <- unique(grid[, c("year", "absence_means")])
+  attr(result, ".completion") <- list(
+    applied = TRUE,
+    rows_filled = nrow(missing),
+    absence_means = stats::setNames(
+      as.list(as.character(rules$absence_means)), as.character(rules$year)
+    )
+  )
+  result
+}

R/explain.R

@@ -118,6 +118,24 @@ cog_explain <- function(result, format = c("print", "list")) {
     cli::cli_ul(sugg_lines)
   }
 
+  if (isTRUE(prov$completion$applied)) {
+    cli::cli_h2("Completion")
+    cli::cli_text(
+      "Filled {prov$completion$rows_filled} absent cell(s) from the corpus code set."
+    )
+    rules <- prov$completion$absence_means
+    if (length(rules) > 0L) {
+      cli::cli_ul(vapply(names(rules), function(y) {
+        sprintf("%s: an absent cell means %s", y,
+                if (identical(rules[[y]], "census_zero")) {
+                  "Census published $0 (filled as 0)"
+                } else {
+                  "the government did not report (filled as NA, not 0)"
+                })
+      }, character(1)))
+    }
+  }
+
   if (length(prov$series_break_refs) > 0L) {
     cli::cli_h2("Series breaks")
     cli::cli_ul(.series_break_story_lines(prov$series_break_refs))

R/peers.R

@@ -133,7 +133,9 @@ cog_find_peers <- function(target_govid,
 #' [cog_find_peers()] result or a character vector of `canonical_govid`) and
 #' appends peer-distribution summary rows (`summary_p25`, `summary_p50`,
 #' `summary_p75`) so the result can be faceted by `role` in a single ggplot
-#' call.
+#' call. Those summary rows are quantiles **within each category**, not
+#' quantiles of each peer's total — see the `@return` section before summing
+#' them.
 #'
 #' @param target_govid Character scalar.
 #' @param peers A tibble from [cog_find_peers()] or a character vector of
@@ -155,6 +157,32 @@ cog_find_peers <- function(target_govid,
 #'   `attr(peers, "cohort_year")`; `NA` when `peers` was a bare character
 #'   vector). Provenance reports `verb = "cog_peer_compare"`, `peer_count`,
 #'   `cohort_year`, and `cohort_govids`.
+#'
+#'   **The `summary_*` rows are per-category quantiles: they are not additive.**
+#'   Each one is computed **within each `(year, spend_subtype,
+#'   category)` cell** across the peer set, so a `summary_p50` row is *the
+#'   median peer's value in that one category*, not *the value of the median
+#'   peer's total*. The median peer for Police and the median peer for Fire
+#'   are usually different governments, so summing `summary_*` rows across
+#'   categories does not give any peer's total and misstates the band it
+#'   appears to describe — measured at −32.7% to +251.0% across 24 years on
+#'   one cohort, with a sign flip at FY2012.
+#'
+#'   Facet by `role` **and** `category` (the documented use, and what the
+#'   rows are built for). For a genuine "median peer's total spending" line,
+#'   sum each peer's own categories first and take the quantile of those
+#'   per-government totals:
+#'
+#'   ```r
+#'   library(dplyr)
+#'   cmp |>
+#'     filter(role %in% c("target", "peer")) |>
+#'     group_by(year, role, canonical_govid) |>
+#'     summarise(total = sum(amt_per_capita_real, na.rm = TRUE), .groups = "drop") |>
+#'     filter(role == "peer") |>
+#'     group_by(year) |>
+#'     summarise(p50 = quantile(total, 0.5, na.rm = TRUE))
+#'   ```
 #' @export
 cog_peer_compare <- function(target_govid, peers, category, years,
                              per_capita = TRUE, adjust_to_year = NULL,

R/provenance.R

@@ -10,7 +10,8 @@
                               expenditure_concept_note = NA_character_,
                               expenditure_concept_direct_suppressed = FALSE,
                               harmonization = NULL, recipe = NULL,
-                              suggestions = list()) {
+                              suggestions = list(),
+                              completion = NULL) {
   manifest <- .uscogdata_env$manifest
 
   codes <- result[["codes_included"]]
@@ -126,6 +127,13 @@
     ),
     series_break_refs = break_refs,
     corpus_break_refs = corpus_refs,
+    # What `complete = TRUE` filled, and the rule it filled by. Always
+    # present so a consumer can read `completion$applied` without testing
+    # for the key -- an absent block and applied = FALSE would otherwise be
+    # indistinguishable from an older reader version.
+    completion = completion %||% list(
+      applied = FALSE, rows_filled = 0L, absence_means = list()
+    ),
     manifest = list(
       schema_version = as.integer(manifest$schema_version),
       pipeline_commit = manifest$pipeline_commit %||% NA_character_,

R/revenue.R

@@ -11,11 +11,13 @@
 #' @return Tibble with columns `year`, `canonical_govid`, `gov_name`,
 #'   `revenue_subtype`, `category`, `amt_nominal`, optional `amt_real`,
 #'   optional `amt_per_capita_nominal`, optional `amt_per_capita_real`,
-#'   optional `pop_source`, `codes_included`, `aggregate_fallback`, `notes`.
+#'   optional `pop_source`, `codes_included`, `aggregate_fallback`, `notes`,
+#'   and `value_source` when `complete = TRUE`.
 #' @export
 cog_revenue <- function(govid, years, category = NULL,
                         per_capita = FALSE, adjust_to_year = NULL,
-                        basis = c("harmonized", "raw"), recipe = NULL) {
+                        basis = c("harmonized", "raw"), recipe = NULL,
+                        complete = FALSE) {
   .verb_spendrev(
     verb           = "cog_revenue",
     view_base      = "revenue_annotated",
@@ -28,6 +30,7 @@ cog_revenue <- function(govid, years, category = NULL,
     per_capita     = per_capita,
     adjust_to_year = adjust_to_year,
     basis          = basis,
-    recipe         = recipe
+    recipe         = recipe,
+    complete       = complete
   )
 }

R/search.R

@@ -6,8 +6,11 @@
 #' the cross-vintage canonical-government registry. Operates in two modes:
 #'
 #' * **Utility mode** (single `name`, the original behavior): returns all
-#'   rows whose `gov_name` matches the regex case-insensitively, sorted by
-#'   `population_acs` descending. Useful for exploratory lookups.
+#'   rows whose `gov_name` contains `name` as a **literal, case-insensitive
+#'   substring**, sorted by `population_acs` descending. Useful for
+#'   exploratory lookups. Regex metacharacters in `name` are escaped, so a
+#'   government is findable by its own complete name even when that name
+#'   contains parentheses or a period.
 #' * **Basket mode** (`length(name) > 1`): resolves each input row to a
 #'   single canonical govid and returns a tibble in input order, suitable
 #'   for piping straight into [cog_spending()] / [cog_revenue()] /
@@ -19,7 +22,8 @@
 #' 1. Filter `canonical_fips_xwalk` by `state` and (if non-NA) `type`.
 #' 2. **Exact pass:** case-insensitive equality against `gov_name`.
 #'    Single hit -> resolved. Multiple -> step 4.
-#' 3. **Substring fallback:** case-insensitive regex against `gov_name`.
+#' 3. **Substring fallback:** case-insensitive literal substring against
+#'    `gov_name` (metacharacters escaped).
 #'    Single hit -> resolved (`match_method = "substring"`). Zero hits ->
 #'    `status = "no_match"`. Multiple hits -> step 4.
 #' 4. **Disambiguation:** if matches share one `govs_type`, pick the
@@ -48,7 +52,7 @@
 #'   [cog_spending()], [cog_revenue()].
 #' @examples
 #' \dontrun{
-#' # Utility mode — exploratory regex lookup
+#' # Utility mode — exploratory substring lookup
 #' cog_gov_search("broward", state = "FL")
 #'
 #' # Basket mode — resolve a known cohort
@@ -98,9 +102,16 @@ cog_gov_search <- function(name = NULL, state = NULL, type = NULL) {
     if (!is.character(name) || length(name) != 1L) {
       cli::cli_abort("`name` must be a length-1 character string.")
     }
+    # Escaped, so `name` is a literal case-insensitive substring -- the same
+    # treatment basket mode has always given it. Interpolating it raw made a
+    # government unfindable by its own name whenever that name contains a
+    # metacharacter (FREDONIA (BRISCOE) CITY), turned a bare "." into a
+    # match-everything wildcard, and let malformed pattern text reach the
+    # engine as an error -- which cog-api surfaced as a 500, reachable by
+    # typing a real name one character at a time (uscogdata#16, F-025).
     preds <- c(preds,
                sprintf("regexp_matches(gov_name, %s, 'i')",
-                       .sql_lit_chr(name)))
+                       .sql_lit_chr(.escape_regex(name))))
   }
   if (!is.null(state)) {
     st_fips <- .coerce_state_to_fips(state)
@@ -136,8 +147,9 @@ cog_gov_search <- function(name = NULL, state = NULL, type = NULL) {
 #' @noRd
 .escape_regex <- function(x) {
   # Backslash-escape POSIX regex metacharacters so `name` is treated as a
-  # literal substring in the DuckDB regexp_matches call (substring fallback
-  # only; utility-mode intentionally preserves regex behavior).
+  # literal substring in the DuckDB regexp_matches call. Used by BOTH modes:
+  # utility mode used to interpolate raw, which was a defect rather than a
+  # feature -- see the call site and uscogdata#16.
   gsub("([\\^$.|?*+(){}\\[\\]])", "\\\\\\1", x, perl = TRUE)
 }
 

R/spending.R

@@ -70,16 +70,42 @@
 #'   `provenance$expenditure_concept_direct_suppressed` is `TRUE` -- the
 #'   figure in those rows is the intergovernmental leg alone, not Direct +
 #'   IG.
+#' @param complete If `TRUE`, fill the requested grid so that a cell the
+#'   corpus does not carry still appears, labelled with **why** it is
+#'   missing, and add a `value_source` column to every row:
+#'
+#'   * `"reported"` — the corpus carries this cell.
+#'   * `"census_zero"` — dense-source year (`<= FY2011`), cell absent:
+#'     Census published `$0`. `amt_nominal` is `0`.
+#'   * `"not_reported"` — sparse-source year (`>= FY2012`), cell absent: the
+#'     government did not report, and the value is unknown. `amt_nominal` is
+#'     `NA`, **not** `0` — writing a zero there would invent data.
+#'
+#'   The grid comes from the corpus's `code_set` table, scoped to each
+#'   government's own type, so a county is never filled with cells only a
+#'   state can report. Reported rows are passed through untouched.
+#'
+#'   Defaults to `FALSE` (the historical behaviour: absent cells simply do
+#'   not appear). Needs a corpus published from 2026-07-29 onward, which is
+#'   when `representation`/`code_set` began shipping; aborts with class
+#'   `uscogdata_representation_unavailable` otherwise. Not available with
+#'   `recipe` or with `expenditure_concept = "total"` (class
+#'   `uscogdata_complete_unsupported`) — neither draws its cells from
+#'   `code_set`.
 #' @return Tibble with columns `year`, `canonical_govid`, `gov_name`,
 #'   `spend_subtype`, `category`, `amt_nominal`, optional `amt_real`,
 #'   optional `amt_per_capita_nominal`, optional `amt_per_capita_real`,
-#'   optional `pop_source`, `codes_included`, `aggregate_fallback`, `notes`.
-#'   Carries a `provenance` attribute matching `inst/schemas/provenance-v1.json`.
+#'   optional `pop_source`, `codes_included`, `aggregate_fallback`, `notes`,
+#'   and `value_source` when `complete = TRUE`.
+#'   Carries a `provenance` attribute matching `inst/schemas/provenance-v1.json`,
+#'   whose `completion` block reports `applied`, `rows_filled`, and the
+#'   per-year `absence_means` rule that was applied.
 #' @export
 cog_spending <- function(govid, years, category = NULL,
                          per_capita = FALSE, adjust_to_year = NULL,
                          basis = c("harmonized", "raw"), recipe = NULL,
-                         expenditure_concept = c("direct", "total")) {
+                         expenditure_concept = c("direct", "total"),
+                         complete = FALSE) {
   .verb_spendrev(
     verb          = "cog_spending",
     view_base     = "spending_annotated",
@@ -93,7 +119,8 @@ cog_spending <- function(govid, years, category = NULL,
     adjust_to_year = adjust_to_year,
     basis         = basis,
     recipe        = recipe,
-    expenditure_concept = expenditure_concept
+    expenditure_concept = expenditure_concept,
+    complete      = complete
   )
 }
 
@@ -118,7 +145,8 @@ cog_spending <- function(govid, years, category = NULL,
                            govid, years, category,
                            per_capita, adjust_to_year,
                            basis = c("harmonized", "raw"), recipe = NULL,
-                           expenditure_concept = c("direct", "total")) {
+                           expenditure_concept = c("direct", "total"),
+                           complete = FALSE) {
   basis_explicit <- length(basis) == 1L
   basis <- match.arg(basis, c("harmonized", "raw"))
   # match.arg() itself throws a base `simpleError`, not an rlang-classed
@@ -165,12 +193,27 @@ cog_spending <- function(govid, years, category = NULL,
     )
   }
 
+  complete <- isTRUE(complete)
+  if (complete && !is.null(recipe)) {
+    .abort_complete_unsupported(
+      "A recipe defines its own component codes and never goes through `summary_categories`, so there is no grid to fill from.",
+      "Query the recipe without `complete`, or use a category query with `complete = TRUE`."
+    )
+  }
+  if (complete && identical(expenditure_concept, "total")) {
+    .abort_complete_unsupported(
+      "The intergovernmental leg deliberately keeps aggregate-flagged rows (see `inst/sql/24-ig_long.sql`), so its cells are not the ones `code_set` describes.",
+      "Use `expenditure_concept = \"direct\"` with `complete = TRUE`, or drop `complete`."
+    )
+  }
+
   years   <- as.integer(years)
   if (!is.null(adjust_to_year)) adjust_to_year <- as.integer(adjust_to_year)
 
   con <- .ensure_session()
   manifest <- .uscogdata_env$manifest
   scope <- .check_govids_in_scope(govid)
+  if (complete) .require_representation(con, manifest)
 
   resolved <- .resolve_basis(basis, basis_explicit, manifest)
 
@@ -201,6 +244,18 @@ cog_spending <- function(govid, years, category = NULL,
     result <- tibble::as_tibble(DBI::dbGetQuery(con, sql))
   }
 
+  # Fill BEFORE per_capita / inflation so the added cells get the same
+  # treatment as reported ones: a census_zero stays $0 per capita and in real
+  # dollars, and a not_reported stays NA through both rather than becoming a
+  # spurious 0.
+  completion <- list(applied = FALSE, rows_filled = 0L, absence_means = list())
+  if (complete) {
+    result <- .complete_result(result, con, subtype_col, govid, years,
+                               category, flow_prefixes)
+    completion <- attr(result, ".completion")
+    attr(result, ".completion") <- NULL
+  }
+
   if (per_capita) result <- .attach_per_capita(result, con, govid)
   if (!is.null(adjust_to_year)) {
     result <- .attach_real_dollars(result, adjust_to_year, per_capita)
@@ -309,7 +364,8 @@ cog_spending <- function(govid, years, category = NULL,
     expenditure_concept_direct_suppressed = direct_suppressed_flag,
     harmonization  = harmonization,
     recipe         = recipe_block,
-    suggestions    = suggestions
+    suggestions    = suggestions,
+    completion     = completion
   )
   prov$scope$govids_found   <- scope$found
   prov$scope$govids_missing <- scope$missing

R/views.R

@@ -32,6 +32,29 @@
   "45-ig_annotated_harmonized.sql"
 )
 
+# The representation contract (cog_pipeline#64): two parquet tables that say
+# what an ABSENT cell means in a given year. Gated on manifest PRESENCE, not
+# on schema_version, because the sparsification that introduced them did not
+# bump the version -- the pre-sparsification corpus this package shipped
+# against until 2026-07-30 was already schema v6 and carried neither table.
+# Keying off the version number would therefore register a view over a file
+# that does not exist and fail at CREATE VIEW time on exactly the corpora this
+# check exists to tolerate.
+.representation_view_files <- c(
+  "36-representation.sql" = "representation.parquet",
+  "37-code_set.sql"       = "code_set.parquet"
+)
+
+#' Does the mounted corpus publish `file` (e.g. "code_set.parquet")?
+#' Reads the manifest's metadata list rather than stat-ing the URL, so it
+#' works identically for a local fixture and a remote share.
+#' @noRd
+.corpus_has_table <- function(manifest, file) {
+  paths <- vapply(manifest$files$metadata %||% list(),
+                  function(f) as.character(f$path %||% ""), character(1))
+  file %in% basename(paths)
+}
+
 #' Register DuckDB views from inst/sql/ SQL files
 #' @noRd
 .register_views <- function(con, url, manifest) {
@@ -39,7 +62,10 @@
   files   <- sort(list.files(sql_dir, pattern = "\\.sql$", full.names = TRUE))
   schema_version <- suppressWarnings(as.integer(manifest$schema_version %||% 0L))
   for (f in files) {
-    if (basename(f) %in% .harmonization_view_files && schema_version < 5L) next
+    base <- basename(f)
+    if (base %in% .harmonization_view_files && schema_version < 5L) next
+    if (base %in% names(.representation_view_files) &&
+        !.corpus_has_table(manifest, .representation_view_files[[base]])) next
     sql <- paste(readLines(f, warn = FALSE), collapse = "\n")
     sql <- gsub("\\{url\\}", url, sql, fixed = FALSE)
     DBI::dbExecute(con, sql)

README.md

@@ -19,6 +19,27 @@ package implements.
 # pak::pkg_install("gitea.civilytics.org/Civilytics/uscogdata")
 ```
 
+## Amounts are in full US dollars
+
+Every amount column this package returns — `amt_nominal`, `amt_real`,
+`amt_per_capita_nominal`, `amt_per_capita_real` — is in **full US dollars**.
+
+The raw Census source files report **thousands of dollars**, and the corpus's
+own `amt` column preserves that. The verbs multiply by 1000 on the way out, so
+you never have to. The conversion is recorded in every result:
+
+```r
+r <- cog_spending("552025209777", 2020L)
+attr(r, "provenance")$transformations$units_conversion
+#> $applied TRUE  $source_unit "$1,000s (raw Census)"  $target_unit "$USD"  $multiplier 1000
+```
+
+**Do not multiply again.** If you have read elsewhere that COG amounts are in
+`$1,000s` — true of the raw corpus, and of `cog_explorer`'s conventions doc —
+that rule does not apply to anything a `cog_*()` verb hands you. Applying it
+twice overstates every figure by 1000x, and the result looks plausible rather
+than obviously wrong.
+
 ## Configuration
 
 - `USCOGDATA_URL` — corpus root URL (public Nextcloud share, trailing slash)

inst/schemas/provenance-v1.json

@@ -33,6 +33,15 @@
     "aggregate_fallback": { "type": ["object", "null"] },
     "transformations":{ "type": "object" },
     "series_break_refs": { "type": "array", "items": { "type": "string" } },
+    "completion": {
+      "type": "object",
+      "description": "What `complete = TRUE` filled. `applied` is FALSE on an ordinary query. `rows_filled` counts cells added to the requested grid, and `absence_means` maps each requested year to the meaning of an absent cell there ('census_zero' in a dense_source year, 'not_reported' in a sparse_source one). Filled rows carry `value_source` in the result: 'reported', 'census_zero' (amount 0 -- Census published $0), or 'not_reported' (amount NA -- unknown).",
+      "properties": {
+        "applied": { "type": "boolean" },
+        "rows_filled": { "type": "integer" },
+        "absence_means": { "type": "object" }
+      }
+    },
     "corpus_break_refs": {
       "type": "array",
       "items": { "type": "string" },

inst/sql/36-representation.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW representation AS
+SELECT *
+FROM read_parquet('{url}data/representation.parquet');

inst/sql/37-code_set.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW code_set AS
+SELECT *
+FROM read_parquet('{url}data/code_set.parquet');

man/cog_gov_search.Rd

@@ -32,8 +32,11 @@ the cross-vintage canonical-government registry. Operates in two modes:
 }
 \details{
 * **Utility mode** (single `name`, the original behavior): returns all
-  rows whose `gov_name` matches the regex case-insensitively, sorted by
-  `population_acs` descending. Useful for exploratory lookups.
+  rows whose `gov_name` contains `name` as a **literal, case-insensitive
+  substring**, sorted by `population_acs` descending. Useful for
+  exploratory lookups. Regex metacharacters in `name` are escaped, so a
+  government is findable by its own complete name even when that name
+  contains parentheses or a period.
 * **Basket mode** (`length(name) > 1`): resolves each input row to a
   single canonical govid and returns a tibble in input order, suitable
   for piping straight into [cog_spending()] / [cog_revenue()] /
@@ -45,7 +48,8 @@ the cross-vintage canonical-government registry. Operates in two modes:
 1. Filter `canonical_fips_xwalk` by `state` and (if non-NA) `type`.
 2. **Exact pass:** case-insensitive equality against `gov_name`.
    Single hit -> resolved. Multiple -> step 4.
-3. **Substring fallback:** case-insensitive regex against `gov_name`.
+3. **Substring fallback:** case-insensitive literal substring against
+   `gov_name` (metacharacters escaped).
    Single hit -> resolved (`match_method = "substring"`). Zero hits ->
    `status = "no_match"`. Multiple hits -> step 4.
 4. **Disambiguation:** if matches share one `govs_type`, pick the
@@ -58,7 +62,7 @@ inputs (`ambiguous` / `no_match`) appear only in the sidecar.
 }
 \examples{
 \dontrun{
-# Utility mode — exploratory regex lookup
+# Utility mode — exploratory substring lookup
 cog_gov_search("broward", state = "FL")
 
 # Basket mode — resolve a known cohort

man/cog_peer_compare.Rd

@@ -43,11 +43,39 @@ Tibble matching [cog_spending()]'s columns, plus a `role`
   `attr(peers, "cohort_year")`; `NA` when `peers` was a bare character
   vector). Provenance reports `verb = "cog_peer_compare"`, `peer_count`,
   `cohort_year`, and `cohort_govids`.
+
+  **The `summary_*` rows are per-category quantiles: they are not additive.**
+  Each one is computed **within each `(year, spend_subtype,
+  category)` cell** across the peer set, so a `summary_p50` row is *the
+  median peer's value in that one category*, not *the value of the median
+  peer's total*. The median peer for Police and the median peer for Fire
+  are usually different governments, so summing `summary_*` rows across
+  categories does not give any peer's total and misstates the band it
+  appears to describe — measured at −32.7% to +251.0% across 24 years on
+  one cohort, with a sign flip at FY2012.
+
+  Facet by `role` **and** `category` (the documented use, and what the
+  rows are built for). For a genuine "median peer's total spending" line,
+  sum each peer's own categories first and take the quantile of those
+  per-government totals:
+
+  ```r
+  library(dplyr)
+  cmp |>
+    filter(role %in% c("target", "peer")) |>
+    group_by(year, role, canonical_govid) |>
+    summarise(total = sum(amt_per_capita_real, na.rm = TRUE), .groups = "drop") |>
+    filter(role == "peer") |>
+    group_by(year) |>
+    summarise(p50 = quantile(total, 0.5, na.rm = TRUE))
+  ```
 }
 \description{
 Pulls spending for the target plus a peer set (either a
 [cog_find_peers()] result or a character vector of `canonical_govid`) and
 appends peer-distribution summary rows (`summary_p25`, `summary_p50`,
 `summary_p75`) so the result can be faceted by `role` in a single ggplot
-call.
+call. Those summary rows are quantiles **within each category**, not
+quantiles of each peer's total — see the `@return` section before summing
+them.
 }

man/cog_revenue.Rd

@@ -11,7 +11,8 @@ cog_revenue(
   per_capita = FALSE,
   adjust_to_year = NULL,
   basis = c("harmonized", "raw"),
-  recipe = NULL
+  recipe = NULL,
+  complete = FALSE
 )
 }
 \arguments{
@@ -55,12 +56,36 @@ argument is ignored and the result's provenance reports
 `basis = "recipe"` with an inert `harmonization` block (`applied =
 FALSE`, pointing at the `recipe` block instead) rather than a
 possibly-misleading `"harmonized"`/`"raw"` value.}
+
+\item{complete}{If `TRUE`, fill the requested grid so that a cell the
+  corpus does not carry still appears, labelled with **why** it is
+  missing, and add a `value_source` column to every row:
+
+  * `"reported"` — the corpus carries this cell.
+  * `"census_zero"` — dense-source year (`<= FY2011`), cell absent:
+    Census published `$0`. `amt_nominal` is `0`.
+  * `"not_reported"` — sparse-source year (`>= FY2012`), cell absent: the
+    government did not report, and the value is unknown. `amt_nominal` is
+    `NA`, **not** `0` — writing a zero there would invent data.
+
+  The grid comes from the corpus's `code_set` table, scoped to each
+  government's own type, so a county is never filled with cells only a
+  state can report. Reported rows are passed through untouched.
+
+  Defaults to `FALSE` (the historical behaviour: absent cells simply do
+  not appear). Needs a corpus published from 2026-07-29 onward, which is
+  when `representation`/`code_set` began shipping; aborts with class
+  `uscogdata_representation_unavailable` otherwise. Not available with
+  `recipe` or with `expenditure_concept = "total"` (class
+  `uscogdata_complete_unsupported`) — neither draws its cells from
+  `code_set`.}
 }
 \value{
 Tibble with columns `year`, `canonical_govid`, `gov_name`,
   `revenue_subtype`, `category`, `amt_nominal`, optional `amt_real`,
   optional `amt_per_capita_nominal`, optional `amt_per_capita_real`,
-  optional `pop_source`, `codes_included`, `aggregate_fallback`, `notes`.
+  optional `pop_source`, `codes_included`, `aggregate_fallback`, `notes`,
+  and `value_source` when `complete = TRUE`.
 }
 \description{
 Mirror of [cog_spending()] for revenue categories. One row per

man/cog_spending.Rd

@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@ cog_spending(
   adjust_to_year = NULL,
   basis = c("harmonized", "raw"),
   recipe = NULL,
-  expenditure_concept = c("direct", "total")
+  expenditure_concept = c("direct", "total"),
+  complete = FALSE
 )
 }
 \arguments{
@@ -85,13 +86,39 @@ component (when one exists), and
   `provenance$expenditure_concept_direct_suppressed` is `TRUE` -- the
   figure in those rows is the intergovernmental leg alone, not Direct +
   IG.}
+
+\item{complete}{If `TRUE`, fill the requested grid so that a cell the
+  corpus does not carry still appears, labelled with **why** it is
+  missing, and add a `value_source` column to every row:
+
+  * `"reported"` — the corpus carries this cell.
+  * `"census_zero"` — dense-source year (`<= FY2011`), cell absent:
+    Census published `$0`. `amt_nominal` is `0`.
+  * `"not_reported"` — sparse-source year (`>= FY2012`), cell absent: the
+    government did not report, and the value is unknown. `amt_nominal` is
+    `NA`, **not** `0` — writing a zero there would invent data.
+
+  The grid comes from the corpus's `code_set` table, scoped to each
+  government's own type, so a county is never filled with cells only a
+  state can report. Reported rows are passed through untouched.
+
+  Defaults to `FALSE` (the historical behaviour: absent cells simply do
+  not appear). Needs a corpus published from 2026-07-29 onward, which is
+  when `representation`/`code_set` began shipping; aborts with class
+  `uscogdata_representation_unavailable` otherwise. Not available with
+  `recipe` or with `expenditure_concept = "total"` (class
+  `uscogdata_complete_unsupported`) — neither draws its cells from
+  `code_set`.}
 }
 \value{
 Tibble with columns `year`, `canonical_govid`, `gov_name`,
   `spend_subtype`, `category`, `amt_nominal`, optional `amt_real`,
   optional `amt_per_capita_nominal`, optional `amt_per_capita_real`,
-  optional `pop_source`, `codes_included`, `aggregate_fallback`, `notes`.
-  Carries a `provenance` attribute matching `inst/schemas/provenance-v1.json`.
+  optional `pop_source`, `codes_included`, `aggregate_fallback`, `notes`,
+  and `value_source` when `complete = TRUE`.
+  Carries a `provenance` attribute matching `inst/schemas/provenance-v1.json`,
+  whose `completion` block reports `applied`, `rows_filled`, and the
+  per-year `absence_means` rule that was applied.
 }
 \description{
 One row per `(year, canonical_govid, spend_subtype, category)`. Amounts are

tests/testthat/helper-fixture.R

@@ -6,6 +6,33 @@ fixture_corpus_path <- function() {
   if (nzchar(p)) paste0(p, "/") else ""
 }
 
+# Path to a file in the SOURCE tree (README.md, man/*.Rd, vignettes/*.Rmd),
+# or "" when it isn't there.
+#
+# Tests that assert on documentation content have to read the sources, and the
+# sources only exist when the suite runs from a checkout. Under R CMD check the
+# suite runs from the INSTALLED package, where man/ and vignettes/ are not
+# shipped and `../../README.md` does not resolve -- so those tests must skip
+# rather than error. CI runs testthat::test_local() from the checkout BEFORE
+# rcmdcheck, so the assertions are still enforced on every push; this only
+# stops them from failing a context that structurally cannot satisfy them.
+source_tree_path <- function(...) {
+  p <- testthat::test_path("..", "..", ...)
+  if (file.exists(p)) p else ""
+}
+
+# Skip unless every named source file is present (see source_tree_path()).
+skip_if_no_source_tree <- function(...) {
+  paths <- vapply(list(...), function(rel) do.call(source_tree_path, as.list(rel)),
+                  character(1))
+  missing <- vapply(paths, function(p) !nzchar(p), logical(1))
+  testthat::skip_if(
+    any(missing),
+    "package source tree not available (running against the installed package)"
+  )
+  invisible(paths)
+}
+
 # Skip a test if no corpus is reachable (bundled fixture or explicit remote URL).
 skip_if_no_corpus <- function() {
   p <- fixture_corpus_path()
@@ -58,6 +85,42 @@ with_doctored_schema_version <- function(version, code) {
   force(code)
 }
 
+# Copy the bundled fixture to a temp dir with representation.parquet and
+# code_set.parquet removed (and dropped from the manifest's metadata list),
+# then run `code` against it. Models a corpus published BEFORE sparsification:
+# schema_version is left alone deliberately, because it was never bumped for
+# that change -- the pre-sparsification fixture this package shipped until
+# 2026-07-30 was schema v6 and carried neither table. Presence in the manifest
+# is therefore the only honest signal, and this helper is what proves the
+# package keys off it rather than off the version number.
+with_corpus_missing_representation <- function(code) {
+  src <- fixture_corpus_path()
+  tmp <- withr::local_tempdir(.local_envir = parent.frame())
+  file.copy(list.files(src, full.names = TRUE), tmp, recursive = TRUE)
+
+  dropped <- c("representation.parquet", "code_set.parquet")
+  file.remove(file.path(tmp, "data", dropped))
+
+  manifest_path <- file.path(tmp, "manifest.json")
+  m <- jsonlite::fromJSON(manifest_path, simplifyVector = FALSE)
+  m$files$metadata <- Filter(
+    function(f) !basename(f$path) %in% dropped, m$files$metadata
+  )
+  writeLines(
+    jsonlite::toJSON(m, auto_unbox = TRUE, pretty = TRUE, null = "null"),
+    manifest_path
+  )
+
+  old_url <- Sys.getenv("USCOGDATA_URL", unset = NA)
+  uscogdata:::cog_close()
+  Sys.setenv(USCOGDATA_URL = paste0(tmp, "/"))
+  on.exit({
+    uscogdata:::cog_close()
+    if (is.na(old_url)) Sys.unsetenv("USCOGDATA_URL") else Sys.setenv(USCOGDATA_URL = old_url)
+  }, add = TRUE)
+  force(code)
+}
+
 # Copy the bundled fixture to a temp dir with summary_categories.parquet
 # rewritten to drop every M/L (intergovernmental) row, then run `code`
 # against it with a clean session (mirrors with_fixture_corpus()/

tests/testthat/test-amount-units-documented.R

@@ -17,7 +17,16 @@
 # cog-api's llms.txt, which is silent on units).
 
 test_that("returned amounts are documented as full US dollars where readers meet the package", {
-  testthat::skip("Blocked on uscogdata#15 (finding F-004)")
+
+  # README and vignettes ship only in the source tree, not in the installed
+  # package, so these assertions cannot run under R CMD check -- CI's earlier
+  # testthat::test_local() step is what enforces them. See
+  # skip_if_no_source_tree() in helper-fixture.R.
+  docs <- skip_if_no_source_tree(
+    "README.md",
+    c("vignettes", "total-spending.Rmd"),
+    c("vignettes", "population-denominators.Rmd")
+  )
 
   says_units <- function(path) {
     txt <- paste(readLines(path, warn = FALSE), collapse = " ")
@@ -25,10 +34,7 @@ test_that("returned amounts are documented as full US dollars where readers meet
       grepl("\\$1,000s|thousands of dollars", txt, ignore.case = TRUE)
   }
 
-  expect_true(says_units(testthat::test_path("..", "..", "README.md")))
-  expect_true(says_units(testthat::test_path("..", "..", "vignettes", "total-spending.Rmd")))
-  expect_true(says_units(testthat::test_path("..", "..", "vignettes",
-                                             "population-denominators.Rmd")))
+  for (path in docs) expect_true(says_units(path))
 
   # Pin the documented claim to the actual behaviour, so the two cannot drift.
   # The expected raw amount is read straight from the corpus's parquet

tests/testthat/test-complete.R

@@ -0,0 +1,188 @@
+# tests/testthat/test-complete.R
+#
+# uscogdata#18. The published corpus no longer stores the wide era's explicit
+# zeros (cog_pipeline#64, series break SB194), so absence means two different
+# things:
+#
+#   <= FY2011 (dense_source) : cell absent => Census published $0
+#   >= FY2012 (sparse_source): cell absent => not reported, unknown
+#
+# `complete = TRUE` fills the requested grid from `code_set` and stamps every
+# row's `value_source` so the two are distinguishable. Expected row sets here
+# are built from the corpus parquet directly, never from the verb under test --
+# verifying what a filter does through that same filter proves nothing.
+
+# The (subtype, category) cells that SHOULD exist for one government-year:
+# every code in force for that government's type, mapped through
+# summary_categories, matching the verb's flow prefixes and excluding
+# aggregate-flagged codes (which spending_long/revenue_long drop).
+raw_expected_cells <- function(govid, year, prefixes, subtype_col) {
+  fx <- sub("/$", "", Sys.getenv("USCOGDATA_URL"))
+  q <- function(f) sprintf("read_parquet('%s/data/%s')", fx, f)
+  wt_raw_query(sprintf(
+    "SELECT DISTINCT c.%s AS subtype, c.category
+     FROM %s cs
+     JOIN %s x ON x.govs_type = cs.type
+     JOIN %s c ON c.item_code = cs.item_code
+     WHERE x.canonical_govid = '%s'
+       AND cs.year = %d
+       AND NOT cs.is_aggregate
+       AND LEFT(cs.item_code, 1) IN (%s)
+       AND c.category IS NOT NULL
+       AND c.%s IS NOT NULL",
+    subtype_col, q("code_set.parquet"), q("canonical_fips_xwalk.parquet"),
+    q("summary_categories.parquet"), govid, year,
+    paste0("'", prefixes, "'", collapse = ","), subtype_col
+  ))
+}
+
+test_that("complete = FALSE is the default and changes nothing", {
+  skip_if_no_corpus()
+  with_fixture_corpus({
+    plain <- cog_spending("121011212191", 2011L)
+    explicit <- cog_spending("121011212191", 2011L, complete = FALSE)
+    expect_equal(nrow(plain), nrow(explicit))
+    expect_false("value_source" %in% names(plain))
+  })
+})
+
+test_that("complete = TRUE round-trips a dense-source year to the pre-sparsification cells", {
+  skip_if_no_corpus()
+  with_fixture_corpus({
+    # FY2011 is dense_source: before sparsification this government carried a
+    # row for every code in force, most of them $0. complete = TRUE must
+    # reproduce that cell set exactly.
+    r <- cog_spending("121011212191", 2011L, complete = TRUE)
+    expected <- raw_expected_cells("121011212191", 2011L,
+                                   c("E", "F", "G"), "spend_subtype")
+
+    key <- function(sub, cat) paste(sub, cat, sep = "|")
+    expect_setequal(key(r$spend_subtype, r$category),
+                    key(expected$subtype, expected$category))
+    expect_gt(nrow(expected), 0L)
+
+    # Every filled cell in a dense-source year is a Census-published $0 --
+    # never "unknown", which is what the modern era's absences mean.
+    expect_setequal(unique(r$value_source), c("reported", "census_zero"))
+    expect_true(all(r$amt_nominal[r$value_source == "census_zero"] == 0))
+    expect_true(all(r$amt_nominal[r$value_source == "reported"] != 0))
+  })
+})
+
+test_that("complete = TRUE preserves the reported rows and their amounts exactly", {
+  skip_if_no_corpus()
+  with_fixture_corpus({
+    plain <- cog_spending("121011212191", 2011L)
+    full  <- cog_spending("121011212191", 2011L, complete = TRUE)
+
+    # Filling adds rows; it must never alter or drop one.
+    expect_gt(nrow(full), nrow(plain))
+    reported <- full[full$value_source == "reported", ]
+    expect_equal(nrow(reported), nrow(plain))
+    expect_equal(sum(reported$amt_nominal), sum(plain$amt_nominal))
+    # ... and the total is unchanged, because every added cell is $0.
+    expect_equal(sum(full$amt_nominal, na.rm = TRUE), sum(plain$amt_nominal))
+  })
+})
+
+test_that("a sparse-source year's absences are unknown, not zero", {
+  skip_if_no_corpus()
+  with_fixture_corpus({
+    # FY2019 is sparse_source: an absent cell means the government did not
+    # report, which is NOT a zero. Filling those with 0 would invent data --
+    # the exact error the representation contract exists to prevent.
+    r <- cog_spending("121011212191", 2019L, complete = TRUE)
+    filled <- r[r$value_source != "reported", ]
+    expect_gt(nrow(filled), 0L)
+    expect_true(all(filled$value_source == "not_reported"))
+    expect_true(all(is.na(filled$amt_nominal)))
+    expect_false(any(r$value_source == "census_zero"))
+  })
+})
+
+test_that("the fill is scoped to each government's own type", {
+  skip_if_no_corpus()
+  with_fixture_corpus({
+    # Filling against the union of all types would invent cells for codes a
+    # county can never report. Every filled category must be one that
+    # code_set puts in force for type 1 (county) specifically.
+    r <- cog_spending("121011212191", 2011L, complete = TRUE)
+    county_cells <- raw_expected_cells("121011212191", 2011L,
+                                       c("E", "F", "G"), "spend_subtype")
+    expect_true(all(r$category %in% county_cells$category))
+  })
+})
+
+test_that("complete = TRUE respects the category filter", {
+  skip_if_no_corpus()
+  with_fixture_corpus({
+    r <- cog_spending("121011212191", 2011L, category = "Police",
+                      complete = TRUE)
+    expect_true(all(r$category == "Police"))
+    expect_true("value_source" %in% names(r))
+  })
+})
+
+test_that("cog_revenue() completes on its own flow", {
+  skip_if_no_corpus()
+  with_fixture_corpus({
+    r <- cog_revenue("121011212191", 2011L, complete = TRUE)
+    expected <- raw_expected_cells("121011212191", 2011L,
+                                   c("T", "A", "U", "B", "C", "D"),
+                                   "revenue_subtype")
+    key <- function(sub, cat) paste(sub, cat, sep = "|")
+    expect_setequal(key(r$revenue_subtype, r$category),
+                    key(expected$subtype, expected$category))
+    expect_setequal(unique(r$value_source), c("reported", "census_zero"))
+  })
+})
+
+test_that("provenance records the completion and its absence rule", {
+  skip_if_no_corpus()
+  with_fixture_corpus({
+    prov <- attr(cog_spending("121011212191", 2011L, complete = TRUE),
+                 "provenance")
+    expect_true(prov$completion$applied)
+    expect_equal(prov$completion$absence_means$`2011`, "census_zero")
+    expect_gt(prov$completion$rows_filled, 0L)
+
+    off <- attr(cog_spending("121011212191", 2011L), "provenance")
+    expect_false(off$completion$applied)
+    expect_equal(off$completion$rows_filled, 0L)
+  })
+})
+
+test_that("complete = TRUE is refused where the fill would be guesswork", {
+  skip_if_no_corpus()
+  with_fixture_corpus({
+    # A recipe defines its own component codes and does not go through
+    # summary_categories at all, so there is no grid to fill from.
+    expect_error(
+      cog_spending("121011212191", 2011L, recipe = "corrections_combined",
+                   complete = TRUE),
+      class = "uscogdata_complete_unsupported"
+    )
+    # The intergovernmental leg keeps aggregate rows by design
+    # (inst/sql/24-ig_long.sql), so its grid is not code_set's grid.
+    expect_error(
+      cog_spending("121011212191", 2011L, expenditure_concept = "total",
+                   complete = TRUE),
+      class = "uscogdata_complete_unsupported"
+    )
+  })
+})
+
+test_that("complete = TRUE aborts on a corpus with no representation contract", {
+  skip_if_no_corpus()
+  # A corpus published before sparsification carries neither table, so there
+  # is nothing to fill from and no rule saying what an absence means. That
+  # must abort rather than guess.
+  with_corpus_missing_representation({
+    expect_error(
+      cog_spending("121011212191", 2011L, complete = TRUE),
+      class = "uscogdata_representation_unavailable"
+    )
+    # ... while an ordinary query on the same corpus still works.
+    expect_gt(nrow(cog_spending("121011212191", 2011L)), 0L)
+  })
+})

tests/testthat/test-gov-search-literal-match.R

@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@
 # semantics, not a row the fix makes findable.
 
 test_that("cog_gov_search() matches name literally, not as an unescaped regex", {
-  testthat::skip("Blocked on uscogdata#16 (finding F-025)")
 
   # -- correctness (1): a government must be findable by its own exact name ---
   # FREDONIA (BRISCOE) CITY is real; today the parentheses are read as regex

tests/testthat/test-peer-summary-scope.R

@@ -13,10 +13,16 @@
 # is unaffected, so the fix is documentation: one sentence in @return.
 
 test_that("cog_peer_compare() documents that summary_* rows are per-category quantiles", {
-  testthat::skip("Blocked on uscogdata#14 (finding F-021)")
 
-  rd <- paste(readLines(testthat::test_path("..", "..", "man", "cog_peer_compare.Rd"),
-                        warn = FALSE), collapse = " ")
+  # man/ ships only in the source tree (the installed package carries a
+  # compiled help database instead), so the prose assertions below cannot run
+  # under R CMD check -- CI's earlier testthat::test_local() step enforces
+  # them. The numeric pin further down needs only the corpus, but it lives in
+  # the same test_that() as the sentence it protects, deliberately: they are
+  # one claim, and splitting them would let the prose drift while a separate
+  # test kept passing.
+  rd_path <- skip_if_no_source_tree(c("man", "cog_peer_compare.Rd"))
+  rd <- paste(readLines(rd_path, warn = FALSE), collapse = " ")
 
   # The @return section must say the quantile is computed within each cell...
   expect_match(rd, "within each|per-category|per category", ignore.case = TRUE)

tests/testthat/test-rollup.R

@@ -80,8 +80,11 @@ test_that("cog_geographic_rollup provenance reports the outer verb", {
 
 test_that("cog_geographic_rollup accepts data.frames per layer", {
   skip_if_no_corpus()
-  fl_state  <- cog_gov_search("^FLORIDA$", type = "state")
-  broward   <- cog_gov_search("^BROWARD COUNTY$", state = "FL", type = "county")
+  # Unanchored: utility mode matches literally now, so "^...$" would be
+  # searched for as characters rather than read as anchors (uscogdata#16).
+  # Both still resolve to exactly one row once scoped by type/state.
+  fl_state  <- cog_gov_search("FLORIDA", type = "state")
+  broward   <- cog_gov_search("BROWARD COUNTY", state = "FL", type = "county")
   r <- cog_geographic_rollup(
     govids = list(state = fl_state, county = broward),
     category = "Police", years = 2020L

tests/testthat/test-spending.R

@@ -98,7 +98,11 @@ test_that("cog_spending rejects invalid inputs", {
 
 test_that("cog_spending accepts a cog_gov_search result directly", {
   skip_if_no_corpus()
-  picks <- cog_gov_search("^BROWARD COUNTY$", state = "FL", type = "county")
+  # Unanchored: utility mode matches `name` as a literal substring now, so
+  # "^...$" would be searched for as those characters rather than read as
+  # anchors (uscogdata#16). Scoped by state and type, the bare name still
+  # resolves to exactly one row.
+  picks <- cog_gov_search("BROWARD COUNTY", state = "FL", type = "county")
   expect_gt(nrow(picks), 0L)
   r <- cog_spending(picks, 2020L, "Corrections")
   expect_equal(unique(r$canonical_govid), "121011212191")

vignettes/population-denominators.Rmd

@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@ knitr::opts_chunk$set(eval = FALSE, collapse = TRUE, comment = "#>")
 
 # Why per-year population matters
 
+A note on units first, since every figure below is a rate: the numerator is in **full US dollars**. The raw Census files report **thousands of dollars** and the corpus keeps them that way in its own `amt` column, but `cog_spending()` and `cog_revenue()` multiply by 1000 on the way out, so `amt_per_capita_nominal` is already dollars per person. Do not scale it again.
+
 Per-capita finance numbers divide each year's spending or revenue by a population denominator. The choice of denominator is a research decision, not an implementation detail: a 24-year corpus paired with a single 5-year ACS estimate produces biased per-capita values whose magnitude scales with each government's population change.
 
 `uscogdata` defaults to the **Census F-33 population value Census itself uses to compute its published per-capita tables.** That value is recorded on every COG row as `population`, with `popyear` indicating the vintage. For a city that grew from 200,000 to 300,000 between 2000 and 2023, this default reproduces the per-capita value Census published. A static ACS denominator would have understated 2000 per-capita by ~33%.

vignettes/total-spending.Rmd

@@ -29,6 +29,13 @@ controls which of these a query answers. This vignette walks through both
 questions with code that actually runs against the package's bundled fixture
 corpus, then explains why the second question refuses `"total"` outright.
 
+Before any of the numbers below: every amount column here — `amt_nominal`,
+`amt_real`, and their `amt_per_capita_*` counterparts — is in **full US
+dollars**. The raw Census files report **thousands of dollars** and the
+corpus preserves that in its own `amt` column, but the verbs multiply by 1000
+on the way out. So `amt_nominal = 1317000` means $1.317 million, not $1.317
+billion. Do not scale it again.
+
 ```{r}
 library(uscogdata)