title: Agent Workbench v0.5.2 release notes
doc_type: release-notes
status: published
owner: platform
last_reviewed: 2026-07-12

Agent Workbench v0.5.2

Adds repo:///orientation, a compact first-read receipt that directs coding
agents to detailed status, scope, and overview resources only when needed.
Makes context_for_task continuations executable and selective, with public
arguments, decision reasons, expected evidence, intent-aware validation, and
stateless suppression of repeated guidance.
Improves first-read reliability and trust calibration so slow or unavailable
work is reported as bounded skipped, stale, degraded, or blocked evidence.
Extends workspace edit previews and applies to support safe creation of new
files as well as replacement of existing files.

Added the public repo:///orientation MCP resource with snapshot-aware reuse
guidance and links to repo:///status, repo:///scope, and
repo:///overview.
Added callable context_for_task continuation metadata with reason and
expected_evidence fields.
Added optional intent, changed_files, and satisfied_actions inputs so
callers can make task ownership explicit and omit unchanged recommendations
they already completed in the current task phase.
Added cross-client activation and compatibility coverage for Codex, Claude
Code, and Kiro guidance.
Added new-file support to the preview-token and workspace-edit flow while
retaining path, hash, token-expiry, and workspace-safety checks.

Claude Code activation now uses concise conditional skill guidance without
automatic SessionStart instruction injection.
Task context recommends graph navigation and validation only when explicit
task intent and available evidence make the action decision-relevant.
First-read resources bound hidden work and expose missing provider or graph
evidence instead of implying complete analysis.
First-read metadata now preserves truncation, row budgets, skipped roots, and
trust restrictions consistently across status and routing surfaces.
Package manifests, plugin manifests, install URLs, and runbooks now target
version 0.5.2.

Prevented generated continuations from exposing server-owned arguments or
tools that are unavailable through normal client schemas.
Prevented unrelated ranked symbols from causing references or impact
recommendations.
Preserved explicit validation as the primary recommendation when several
action candidates compete for the response budget.
Kept negated, conflicting, review-only, and otherwise ambiguous edit intent
neutral instead of promoting mutation or validation guidance.
Prevented unrelated SAM templates from influencing validation plans for
tasks outside the SAM files or project shape.
Reported changed-file diagnostics provider failures as limited evidence that
still needs verification instead of presenting them as a clean no-op.

Promoted the first-read reliability and adoption-flow contracts into the MCP
surface, runtime operations, graph store, coding-agent integration,
edit-and-validation-loop, and runtime contract documentation.
Closed Specs 036-038 and reconciled their archive, closure, and backlog
records without retaining active implementation packages.

Agent Workbench is not invoked automatically at session start; agents must
follow repository or provider guidance and use the packaged skill when the
task warrants repository analysis.
Persisted graph completion beyond the bounded first-pass warmup remains
future work under backlog item EB014.
Provider-history samples remain observational and too small to attribute
session-quality improvements solely to Agent Workbench adoption.
A combined navigation surface remains evidence-gated backlog work; it is not
included without a controlled comparison showing lower interaction cost and
equivalent evidence quality.