# Aura v1.9.3

Aura v1.9.3 Patch Notes

Aura v1.9.3 is a major harness-quality release focused on smarter context, cleaner Worker behavior, better validation choices, and the first real live web research path.

This release strengthens the core Planner → Worker loop while adding a new read-only research lane for questions that need current external information.

Highlights

Live Web Research Drone

Aura can now route current-information questions through a built-in read-only web research drone.

Examples of things Aura can now handle more intelligently:

• Current schedules and live events
• Current docs and API references
• Recent releases and changelogs
• Pricing and provider information
• Error lookup and external references
• Current people, roles, and organizations

Pure research questions now stay out of Worker. Aura can answer from sourced research without trying to edit code.

Hybrid research-plus-code tasks are now Planner-guided. Aura should research first, then dispatch Worker only when there is a concrete coding objective.

Research Routing

Added a modular research routing layer:

• Research intent classification

• Research request normalization

• Web research drone adapter

• Research result normalization

• Research policy decisions for:

  • no research
  • answer-only research
  • research-then-worker tasks

This keeps web research from becoming an always-on distraction. Local repo tasks still stay local. Normal coding tasks still use the coding harness path.

Context Gearbox Improvements

The Context Gearbox was cleaned up and made more modular.

Changes include:

• Runtime prompt composition moved out of the old prompt file
• Context source registration centralized
• Compatibility preserved for existing prompt paths
• Context ledger metadata added
• Worker Log now surfaces compact context loading info
• Scoped context packs added for specific work areas

Aura now has a better internal “gearbox” for deciding which rules and context belong in a turn.

Scoped Coding Packs

Added focused context packs for specific task types:

• GUI rules
• Drone rules
• Provider rules
• Build pipeline rules
• Web research rules

These packs are loaded only when relevant, which helps keep prompts smaller, sharper, and less noisy.

Planner and Worker Quality Contracts

Added stronger contracts for the coding loop:

• Planner dispatch discipline
• Worker execution discipline
• Code quality expectations
• Validation selection behavior
• Receipt behavior

The goal is simple: Aura should stay scoped, avoid thrashing, validate the right things, and explain what happened cleanly.

Validation Selector

Added the first phase of a validation selector.

Aura can now choose more focused validation plans based on touched files and known mappings instead of blindly reaching for broad checks every time.

This helps make validation faster and more relevant.

Worker Log and Context Receipts

Worker Log now has better context visibility.

Aura can show compact context information such as:

• how many context sources loaded
• how many were skipped
• which scoped packs contributed

This gives better visibility into why Aura behaved a certain way without dumping raw internal machinery into chat.

Web Research Answer Formatting Fix

Fixed the web-research answer formatting path.

The read-only web research drone now produces answer_for_chat through the normalized research formatter, preventing a stale formatter name from breaking the direct drone run path.

Added focused test coverage for this path.

Drone UI Polish

Updated the drone toggle color direction so the drone controls visually match the rest of Aura’s active-control styling more cleanly.

Reliability and Test Coverage

Added and updated focused tests around:

• research intent routing
• pure research staying out of Worker
• hybrid research policy
• web research request/result normalization
• web research drone adapter behavior
• web research context pack loading
• direct run_read_only_drone web-research formatting
• validation selector behavior
• context source ordering

What This Means

Aura is now more than a repo only coding harness.

It can decide when the outside world matters, use a read-only research drone to gather current information, and keep Worker out of the wrong lane.

The core coding loop also got sharper:

• better scoped context
• stronger Planner/Worker contracts
• cleaner validation selection
• clearer Worker receipts
• less prompt noise
• better internal routing

Summary

Aura v1.9.3 improves the harness in three big ways:

1. Aura can now use live web research when a task actually needs current external information.
2. Aura’s internal context system is cleaner, more modular, and more visible.
3. Aura’s Planner/Worker loop has stronger quality rails and better validation behavior.

This is a major foundation release for faster, smarter, more reliable software work inside Aura.