diff --git a/flex-config/gen/grouped-linemerge.lua b/flex-config/gen/grouped-linemerge.lua
new file mode 100644
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+++ b/flex-config/gen/grouped-linemerge.lua
@@ -0,0 +1,202 @@
+-- This config example file is released into the Public Domain.
+--
+-- 'grouped-linemerge' implemented as a PURE FLEX STYLE -- no C++ generalizer
+-- strategy, just osm2pgsql.run_sql() in process_gen(). It merges connected
+-- lines that share the same grouping columns into single (multi)lines, the
+-- equivalent of
+--
+--   SELECT cols..., (ST_Dump(ST_LineMerge(ST_Collect(geom)))).geom
+--     FROM roads GROUP BY cols...
+--
+-- built once and maintained incrementally on updates, using ordinary tile
+-- expiry as the "what changed" signal. A typical use is merging road segments
+-- that render identically (same name/ref/highway/layer) so labels and shields
+-- sit on the whole road instead of on each OSM way.
+--
+-- Workflow (same as any gen config -- run osm2pgsql-gen after osm2pgsql):
+--   Import:                 osm2pgsql -O flex -S grouped-linemerge.lua DATA.osm.pbf
+--   Build merged table:     osm2pgsql-gen -S grouped-linemerge.lua
+--   Apply an update:        osm2pgsql -a -O flex -S grouped-linemerge.lua CHANGES.osc.gz
+--   Update merged table:    osm2pgsql-gen -a -S grouped-linemerge.lua
+
+-- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- Configuration
+-- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+local SRC    = 'roads'         -- source table (one row per OSM way)
+local DEST   = 'roads_merged'  -- destination table (the merged lines)
+local EXPIRE = 'exp_roads'     -- tile-expire table (the change signal)
+local GEOM   = 'geom'          -- geometry column (same name in src and dest)
+local ZOOM   = 18              -- expire zoom; high so the changed regions are small
+-- Lines merge only when ALL of these columns are equal (NULLs compare equal):
+local GROUP  = { 'name', 'ref', 'highway', 'layer' }
+-- Optional pre-filter: lines not matching are excluded entirely.
+local WHERE  = 'name IS NOT NULL OR ref IS NOT NULL'
+
+-- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- Build the SQL fragments from the grouping columns (this is the only thing
+-- the C++ strategy did that wasn't already plain SQL -- and it's trivial here).
+-- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+local function join(sep, fn)
+    local t = {}
+    for _, c in ipairs(GROUP) do t[#t + 1] = fn(c) end
+    return table.concat(t, sep)
+end
+
+local V = {
+    src = SRC, dest = DEST, expire = EXPIRE, geom = GEOM, zoom = ZOOM,
+    where           = '(' .. WHERE .. ')',
+    group_cols      = join(', ',  function(c) return '"' .. c .. '"' end),
+    group_cols_l    = join(', ',  function(c) return 'l."' .. c .. '"' end),
+    group_cols_gk   = join(', ',  function(c) return '"' .. c .. '" AS "gk_' .. c .. '"' end),
+    group_cols_l_gk = join(', ',  function(c) return 'l."' .. c .. '" AS "gk_' .. c .. '"' end),
+    group_join      = join(' AND ', function(c) return 'l."' .. c .. '" IS NOT DISTINCT FROM n."gk_' .. c .. '"' end),
+    group_join_dn   = join(' AND ', function(c) return 'd."' .. c .. '" IS NOT DISTINCT FROM n."gk_' .. c .. '"' end),
+}
+
+local function sql(s)
+    return (s:gsub('{([%w_]+)}', function(k)
+        local v = V[k]
+        if v == nil then error("unknown template key '" .. k .. "'") end
+        return tostring(v)
+    end))
+end
+
+-- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- Tables (used by osm2pgsql on import; registered by osm2pgsql-gen)
+-- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+local exp_roads = osm2pgsql.define_expire_output({ table = EXPIRE, maxzoom = ZOOM })
+
+local roads = osm2pgsql.define_table({
+    name = SRC,
+    ids = { type = 'way', id_column = 'way_id' },
+    columns = {
+        { column = 'name', type = 'text' },
+        { column = 'ref', type = 'text' },
+        { column = 'highway', type = 'text' },
+        { column = 'layer', type = 'int' },
+        -- Any geometry change (add/modify/delete) expires the tiles it covers.
+        { column = GEOM, type = 'linestring', not_null = true,
+            expire = { { output = exp_roads } } },
+    }
+})
+
+osm2pgsql.define_table({
+    name = DEST,
+    columns = {
+        { column = 'name', type = 'text' },
+        { column = 'ref', type = 'text' },
+        { column = 'highway', type = 'text' },
+        { column = 'layer', type = 'int' },
+        { column = GEOM, type = 'linestring', not_null = true },
+    }
+})
+
+function osm2pgsql.process_way(object)
+    if not object.tags.highway then return end
+    roads:insert({
+        name = object.tags.name,
+        ref = object.tags.ref,
+        highway = object.tags.highway,
+        layer = tonumber(object.tags.layer),
+        geom = object:as_linestring(),
+    })
+end
+
+-- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- The generalization, in SQL. process_gen() runs in osm2pgsql-gen; it branches
+-- on osm2pgsql.mode ('create' for the full build, 'append' for updates).
+-- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+function osm2pgsql.process_gen()
+    if osm2pgsql.mode == 'create' then
+        -- One global GROUP BY + ST_LineMerge over the whole source table.
+        osm2pgsql.run_sql({
+            description = 'grouped-linemerge: full rebuild',
+            transaction = true,
+            sql = {
+                sql('TRUNCATE {dest}'),
+                sql([[INSERT INTO {dest} ({group_cols}, "{geom}")
+ SELECT {group_cols}, (ST_Dump(ST_LineMerge(ST_Collect("{geom}")))).geom
+   FROM {src} WHERE {where} GROUP BY {group_cols}]]),
+            }
+        })
+        -- Functional endpoint indexes that make the incremental walk fast.
+        osm2pgsql.run_sql({
+            description = 'grouped-linemerge: endpoint indexes',
+            sql = {
+                sql([[CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS "{src}_glm_startpt"
+ ON {src} USING btree (ST_StartPoint("{geom}")) WHERE {where}]]),
+                sql([[CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS "{src}_glm_endpt"
+ ON {src} USING btree (ST_EndPoint("{geom}")) WHERE {where}]]),
+                sql('ANALYZE {dest}'),
+                sql('CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS "{dest}_glm_startpt" ON {dest} USING btree (ST_StartPoint("{geom}"))'),
+                sql('CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS "{dest}_glm_endpt"   ON {dest} USING btree (ST_EndPoint("{geom}"))'),
+            }
+        })
+    else
+        -- Incremental: consume the expired tiles, walk each affected connected
+        -- component out from there, and re-merge only those. Everything is one
+        -- run_sql with transaction=true so the ON COMMIT DROP temp tables
+        -- survive across the steps; if_has_rows makes it a no-op when nothing
+        -- expired.
+        osm2pgsql.run_sql({
+            description = 'grouped-linemerge: incremental update',
+            transaction = true,
+            if_has_rows = sql('SELECT 1 FROM {expire} WHERE zoom = {zoom} LIMIT 1'),
+            sql = {
+                -- 1. expired tiles -> changed-region envelopes
+                sql([[CREATE TEMP TABLE _glm_region ON COMMIT DROP AS
+ WITH expired AS (DELETE FROM {expire} WHERE zoom = {zoom} RETURNING x, y)
+ SELECT ST_TileEnvelope({zoom}, x, y) AS env FROM expired]]),
+                'ANALYZE _glm_region',
+                -- 2. walk: seed from lines in the region, flood shared endpoints
+                --    within the same grouping key (dedup on (group, point)).
+                sql([[CREATE TEMP TABLE _glm_nodes ON COMMIT DROP AS
+WITH RECURSIVE
+seeds AS (
+  SELECT {group_cols_l}, l."{geom}"
+    FROM _glm_region r
+    JOIN {src} l ON l."{geom}" && r.env AND ST_Intersects(l."{geom}", r.env)
+   WHERE {where}
+),
+nodes AS (
+  SELECT b.* FROM (
+    SELECT {group_cols_gk}, ST_StartPoint("{geom}") AS pt FROM seeds
+    UNION
+    SELECT {group_cols_gk}, ST_EndPoint("{geom}") FROM seeds
+  ) b
+  UNION
+  SELECT {group_cols_l_gk},
+    CASE WHEN ST_StartPoint(l."{geom}") = n.pt
+         THEN ST_EndPoint(l."{geom}") ELSE ST_StartPoint(l."{geom}") END
+    FROM nodes n
+    JOIN {src} l
+      ON {group_join}
+     AND ( ST_StartPoint(l."{geom}") = n.pt OR ST_EndPoint(l."{geom}") = n.pt )
+     AND {where}
+)
+SELECT * FROM nodes]]),
+                'ANALYZE _glm_nodes',
+                -- 3. collect the member lines of those components
+                sql([[CREATE TEMP TABLE _glm_ways ON COMMIT DROP AS
+SELECT DISTINCT ON (l.ctid) {group_cols_l}, l."{geom}"
+  FROM _glm_nodes n
+  JOIN {src} l
+    ON {group_join}
+   AND ( ST_StartPoint(l."{geom}") = n.pt OR ST_EndPoint(l."{geom}") = n.pt )
+   AND {where}
+ ORDER BY l.ctid]]),
+                -- 4a. delete stale outputs by reached node (exact endpoint)
+                sql([[DELETE FROM {dest} d USING _glm_nodes n
+ WHERE {group_join_dn}
+   AND ( ST_StartPoint(d."{geom}") = n.pt OR ST_EndPoint(d."{geom}") = n.pt )]]),
+                -- 4b. clean up components that vanished entirely (region pass)
+                sql([[DELETE FROM {dest} d USING _glm_region r
+ WHERE d."{geom}" && r.env AND ST_Intersects(d."{geom}", r.env)]]),
+                -- 5. regenerate the affected components
+                sql([[INSERT INTO {dest} ({group_cols}, "{geom}")
+ SELECT {group_cols}, (ST_Dump(ST_LineMerge(ST_Collect("{geom}")))).geom
+   FROM _glm_ways GROUP BY {group_cols}]]),
+            }
+        })
+    end
+end