A mapping key is a full node: it may carry &anchor and !tag properties and may itself be an *alias. Fixes: (1) anchor/alias name scanning now stops at the first non-name character per yaml_parser_scan_anchor, so *a: reads as alias 'a' plus a mapping indicator instead of name 'a:'; (2) the block-mapping parser enters on a leading node property or alias, attaches same-line key properties to the key node, and emits alias keys directly; (3) an anchor or tag at value position with no same-line node composes an empty (null) value carrying the property, so 'a: &anchor' registers the anchor; (4) the composer registers an anchor's resolved model value (an empty anchored scalar registers null); (5) implicit keys with trailing spaces before the colon are recognized.
Flips 10 official YAML test suite cases to passing (280/402), including G9HC now correctly rejected. 2SXE no longer false-rejects but still value-mismatches on compact-mapping interpretation (a separate gap), so it is reclassified in the manifest rather than removed. Updates the manifest, fixtures, counts, and roadmap.
Compose an empty scalar wherever a node is grammatically required but the next token is a structural indicator or line/stream end, mirroring libyaml's process_empty_scalar: after a tag or anchor property with no node, as an absent mapping value (block and flow), as an absent mapping key (both the plain ': v' form and the explicit '?' form), in flow empty key/value forms ({ : }, { , : v }), and for an indented block node following properties. Also fixes a pre-existing block-sequence bug that nested a sibling '-' as a child when only properties remained on the entry line.
Empty scalars resolve through the existing resolver against the empty string, so !!str yields the empty string, bare empty or !!null yields null, and an empty key yields the empty string.
Flips 20 official YAML test suite cases to passing (270/402). CT4Q no longer false-rejects but still value-mismatches on flow plain-scalar folding (a separate gap), so it is reclassified in the manifest rather than removed. Updates the gap manifest, fixtures, counts, and roadmap.
Rewrite literal (|) and folded (>) block scalar content to YAML 1.2 section 8.1: preserve interior blank lines, apply 8.1.3 line folding (a single break between equally indented non-empty lines folds to a space, while blank lines and more-indented lines keep their breaks), preserve tabs in content (only block-indentation columns are stripped), and support the + keep chomping indicator alongside clip and strip.
The block scalar is now scanned as a single unit (header line plus all content lines) with indentation auto-detection in Scanner.BlockScalar.swift, mirroring the reference scanner, instead of being reassembled from a lossy per-line token array.
Flips 24 official YAML test suite cases to passing (220/402). Updates the gap manifest, vendored fixtures, count assertions, and the conformance roadmap.
Add structured validation diagnostics, JSON and Yams comparison gates, and lazy token/event parsing so production behavior is measured without retaining full intermediate parser arrays.
