Assay 0.13.0

Assay 0.13.0

Assay 0.13.0 replaces the 0.6 built-in workflow/runtime stack with a smaller,
local-first project evidence workbench. The release contract is exactly
0.13.0+s4+l8+r3: package 0.13.0, manifest schema 4, layout 8, and systems
registry schema 3.

This note covers the full change set since v0.6.0. Intermediate 0.7–0.13
candidates were never released and have no compatibility contract.

Native Project work

• Project is a native schema-1 object. project/project.yaml (or
  .assay/project/project.yaml in overlay mode) is the sole Project id/name
  authority.
• Task provides durable bounded-work identity with readable
  task-0001-<slug> ids, a closed task.json envelope, reader-owned prd.md,
  optional checkpoint/design/research material, explicit lifecycle and archive,
  exact host-context bindings, typed lineage relationships, and partial-health
  listing. Task does not own dispatch, permissions, project acceptance, or
  host runtime state.
• Roadmap provides readable roadmap-0001-<slug> ids, reader-owned outcome
  prose, independent state and horizon, validated dependency/replacement graphs,
  explicit Task links, revisions, archive, and partial-health reads. Roadmap and
  Task lifecycle never propagate into each other.
• Spec provides readable spec-0001-<slug> ids, a closed schema-1 envelope,
  reader-owned specification prose, draft/active/retired lifecycle, explicit
  replacement and archive, and digest-bound promotion provenance from an
  Analysis or approved Task file. Activation validates structure; it is not
  approval or Project acceptance.
• Readable ids are allocated across live and archived records, tolerate
  duplicate titles, and remain stable when titles change.

External Plugin metadata, not execution

• The former built-in plugin runtime is replaced by schema-1 external Plugin
  metadata under .assay/external-plugins.json.
• plugin register, observe, list, check, disable, enable, and
  remove validate and record descriptors, exact payload integrity, requested
  host surfaces, grants, observations, and Assay-owned contribution state.
• Assay does not fetch, install, activate, execute, supervise, or uninstall
  external payloads. Host execution and host-owned state remain outside Assay.
• The repository includes a descriptor-only generic fixture and an unpublished,
  metadata-only Ponytail adapter. Neither package contains executable Ponytail
  or host payload code.

Source convergence

• External evidence is consistently a Source. Living and frozen modes share
  the sources/<alias>/ namespace, observation/manifests/captures ledger, and
  Source-bound Analysis flow.
• The former Reference and Absorb command families, public schemas, templates,
  and help entries are removed. Layout 8 has no references path and current
  Templates do not scaffold Reference/Absorb records.
• Source observations no longer contain Analysis lifecycle state. Analysis
  close does not rewrite an observation; derived history.md and persisted
  comparison files are removed, while source diff derives comparisons from
  immutable manifests.
• status reports local upstream movement without network access; --fetch is
  explicit. source sync and switch preserve unrecorded managed-checkout work
  by failing before a destructive refresh.
• Adopted Source material is tracked only through assay source adoption ....
  Definitions, inspections, evidence, decisions, baselines, and rollback
  receipts use the assay.source-adoption-*/v1 schema family and lazy
  .assay/source-adoptions/ store.
• The earlier internal Donor module, diagnostics, schema tokens, and loose-state
  path are removed. No dual reader or migration writer exists for those
  unpublished candidate records.
• Overlay-to-standalone conversion preflights and preserves the current Source
  ledger and Source adoption receipt store without taking ownership of target
  System code.

Simpler Templates, manifest, and workspace index

• Built-in study, solve, and explore are one-shot Templates. A custom
  Template is an explicit YAML path with a closed schema; Template identity is
  not persisted or reloaded after expansion.
• Manifest schema 4 contains the literal framework version and exact layout-8
  resolver block. layout.entries stores only bounded paths expanded from the
  one-shot Template; fixed native/core paths are resolved rather than copied
  into the manifest.
• Retired manifest fields for minimum versions, Project identity, profiles or
  archetypes, capability modules, plugin declarations, and bindings are not
  accepted. External Plugin metadata has its own schema-1 store.
• Layout-8 path names describe the actual areas directly, including systems.
  No unpublished systems_contracts/systemsContracts alias remains.
• .assay/managed-files.json schema 1 is the independent no-clobber receipt for
  fixed core assets. It owns generator/asset identity, baseline hashes,
  protection, and executable metadata; the manifest does not.
• update reconciles only fixed core files. Template output and reader-owned
  Project artifacts remain outside managed overwrite behavior.
• Global workspace discovery is an explicit schema-1 index under
  ~/.assay/workspaces. Only workspace track, discover, and forget write
  it; lifecycle and read commands do not register, repair, or deduplicate
  workspaces implicitly. The former global projects store is not read or
  migrated.

Registry-canonical Systems

• .assay/systems-registry.json schema 3 is the sole Project-local System
  authority. The map key is the exact canonical selector; records hold only
  locator, lifecycle, VCS/version observations, and supersedes edges.
• Selectors are exact. Prefix fallback is removed.
• Assay does not create, parse, validate, refresh, move, or delete a
  system.yaml; such a file is ordinary System-owned content.
• system update --path changes only the registry locator. system archive --apply is a logical registry transition and never moves or deletes System
  bytes. The primary transition and supersedes graph remain registry operations.
• Standalone/overlay conversion preserves registered System content as opaque
  user/System bytes and rewrites only registry locators it owns.

Removed authorities and runtimes

• Native ADR is removed, including its index, commands, templates, provider
  responsibility, Source hints, and Intent-promotion target. Current normative
  contracts belong in native Specs; durable decisions and findings can remain
  in reader-owned Project prose, Analyses, and Knowledge.
• Iteration authority is removed: there is no layout path, command family, core
  API/type, template/profile module, status/check projection, Knowledge
  back-reference, conversion ownership, or root-discovery marker. Native Task
  owns bounded future work. solve attempts and explore trials remain
  Template-specific user work areas, not Iteration records.
• The native capability-module abstraction and product Intent are removed,
  including commands, manifest fields, archetype modules, scaffolds, gates,
  projections, events, capture/list/promotion/integrity, System authority,
  templates, zones, and conversion behavior. External descriptor capability
  requests remain opaque host metadata and grant no Assay authority. A manually
  created intent/ or .assay/intent/ directory is ordinary unowned content.
• The built-in Trellis runtime, protocols, channels, hooks, migrations, memory,
  plugin reconciliation, and execution surfaces are removed. Agent DAG,
  dispatch, permissions, and activation stay with the host; Relay retains its
  own fork/promotion semantics.
• Manual/freeform event commands and public event-append/capture exports are
  removed. Mutating core operations still append their automatic structured
  events internally.
• .assay/VERSION is removed. The exact framework version lives only in the
  schema-4 manifest envelope.
• There is no physical migration subsystem, native Intent compatibility layer,
  or host execution runtime hidden behind the retained commands.

Narrowed Analysis and Knowledge vocabularies

• analysis close --exit accepts exactly adopt, reject, or experiment;
  retired decision exits and ADR/Iteration coupling are absent.
• knowledge add accepts exactly pattern, guide, or troubleshooting;
  retired Knowledge types and Iteration back-references are absent.

Breaking cutover boundary

• Repository installation and the distributable core/CLI packages require
  Node.js >=22.13.0; repository workflows pin pnpm 11.3.0.
• Assay 0.13 reads only the exact current workspace tuple
  0.13.0+s4+l8; System operations additionally require registry r3.
• v0.6.0 workspaces and every unpublished intermediate candidate fail closed
  before semantic reads or writes. Core does not contain a legacy reader,
  in-place upgrader, dual writer, or downgrade path.
• Any retained workspace that must cross the boundary requires a separately
  reviewed external exact-pair cutover tool. This release does not claim that a
  real workspace migration was performed.
• Package metadata is set to 0.13.0. This repository note does not claim npm
  publication, tagging, deployment, or installation into a user environment.

Release verification

The repository release gate builds all packages, runs type checking, lint,
package tests, CLI smoke scenarios, disposable init/adopt flows, and the
committed public-example check. The public example is a sanitized generated
study workspace with no runtime ledgers or local systems registry.