Changelog

v0.2.0

First published release. Stoat remains pre-1.0, for single-user Linux systems.

Declare project VMs in stoat.toml. stoat init, status, and ls --project
support project setup and inspection; up, down, apply, wait, and rm
can operate on every declared VM when called without a name.
Serve MCP directly with stoat mcp. The Go server replaces the Python
wrapper and adds guest file operations, package and service management,
background jobs, project tools, and client configuration helpers.
Control agent access per VM with none, observe, manage, and exec.
New VMs default to manage; an agent cannot raise its own access through
the MCP update tool.
Recipe manifests support typed parameters, secrets, outputs, and health
checks. Inspect them with stoat recipe show and wait for recipe health
with stoat wait --healthy.
Install remote recipes from Git, pin commits in stoat.lock, and share
declarations at project or global scope. The curated index lives in this
repository's index.toml.
Define guest OS behavior in TOML, with bundled Alpine, Arch, Debian, Fedora,
and Ubuntu definitions and user overrides under the Stoat data root.
Capture VM screens with stoat screenshot. JSON callers receive structured
results and stable error codes for QEMU, image, and configuration failures.

Installed Alpine VMs recover from the hidden boot-menu stall, mount their
work share correctly, and show the normal login banner. The XFCE recipe
installs the X server again.
Cloud recipe waits resolve from applied state. up --json waits for its
automatic apply and wraps recipe output as JSON events.
Missing required recipe secrets return invalid_spec. Legacy allow_exec
values stay consistent with the effective agent access level.
Project drift reports use catalog image names and normalize disk sizes.
The Nix package uses the current dependencies and reports v0.2.0.

JSON contract version is 3, independently of the CLI version.
recipe list --json returns roots and recipe entry objects; consumers
must read data.recipes[].name instead of treating entries as strings.
Replace Python MCP launch configurations with stoat mcp.
Existing allow_exec = true maps to exec; false maps to manage.
Existing local edits to bundled recipes are preserved during installation.
Review those copies separately when adopting the bundled recipe fixes.

VM execution requires an x86-64 Linux host with KVM. The arm64 CLI archive
is cross-compiled; the current qemu-system-x86_64 backend does not support
starting VMs on an arm64 host.
Debian cloud kernels lack the 9p module, so project shares are skipped on
Debian cloud VMs. Ubuntu cloud VMs support the project shares.
The intended up --json wait during disk installation still needs a
dedicated live test. Earlier live gates covered Alpine disk boot fixes,
Debian cloud MCP execution, and Debian/Ubuntu project workflows.