v0.5.0

Theater v0.5.0

This release focuses on CI-readable run evidence, inspectable reusable suites,
safe runtime readiness checks, scenario preflight guardrails, and clearer HTTP
failure diagnostics.

Highlights

• Run reports now carry stable report identity fields, including Theater
  version and run identity, so CI projections can point back to the same
  canonical run document.
• theater run --summary-output <path> and
  theater report render --format summary-md produce a compact Markdown
  summary for CI job summaries without making the detailed Markdown report the
  machine-readable contract.
• theater libraries inspect explains selected repo-local library files,
  selected scenarios, contributed auth declarations, ignored unselected files,
  rejected entries, scenario input requirements, exports, call edges, and source
  locations.
• theater requirements inspect reports plugin host environment grants and
  selected HTTP auth slot requirements without printing secret values.
• Scenario preflight guardrails can reject unsafe resolved scenario inputs and
  constants before live scenario side effects begin.
• HTTP diagnostics now classify common failure categories and include redacted
  request fingerprints plus safe response metadata for faster triage.
• The JetBrains .thtr plugin is prepared for v0.5.0 and includes the native
  authoring updates for the shipped preflight syntax.

v0.4.0

Theater v0.4.0

This release focuses on integration-suite safety, CI ergonomics, deterministic
fixture data, and report diagnostics.

Highlights

• Repo-aware reusable scenarios can now contribute selected slot-backed HTTP
  auth declarations, reducing repeated flow-level auth registry entries without
  introducing static credential composition or generic imports.
• theater run can write JSON, JUnit, and Markdown sidecar artifacts from one
  execution while preserving the run status after artifact rendering succeeds.
• generate.date produces deterministic UTC date-only strings with the closed
  iso and basic format enum.
• Failed HTTP checks now include report-safe diagnostics with redacted request
  URLs, selected response metadata, and bounded response previews across JSON,
  text, Markdown, and JUnit projections.
• Exact matching item selection is documented and hardened: has item where
  asserts existence, while pick where selects exactly one item for later
  selector steps, exports, logs, and expectations.
• Local mock contract test guidance documents how downstream suites can keep
  local external-service substitutes aligned with client contracts before
  running full Theater local flows.
• The JetBrains .thtr plugin is prepared for v0.4.0 and includes completion
  and quick-documentation support for date generation.

Compatibility Notes

• Selected-library HTTP auth composition accepts only slot-backed auth entries.
  Static bearer tokens, basic credentials, and static API key values remain
  flow-owned or external configuration and are rejected when contributed by a
  selected library.
• run --format json, run --format junit, and report render remain
  compatible. Sidecar output flags are additive.
• generate.timestamp remains RFC3339-only. Date-only fixture values use the
  new generate.date generator.
• HTTP diagnostics are report-owned evidence. They are not action.http
  outputs and cannot be exported through scenario dataflow.
• pick where remains exact-one. It fails when zero or multiple items match.
• Cleanup hooks and preflight guardrails are documented as future contracts
  only; current YAML, .thtr, validation, runtime, report JSON, LSP, and native
  JetBrains support do not execute those features yet.

v0.3.0

Theater v0.3.0

This release improves Theater for source-controlled integration workflows.

Highlights

• Dynamic HTTP bearer auth slots let stages reuse named typed auth without repeating manual Authorization headers in every HTTP action.
• Plugin descriptor readiness mode lets theater validate and theater plugins doctor check plugin-backed structure without requiring runtime host environment secrets.
• theater report render converts saved theater run --format json output into compact JUnit or detailed Markdown CI artifacts without rerunning a stage.
• The JetBrains .thtr plugin understands the new bind auth syntax used for scenario-local HTTP auth slots.

Compatibility Notes

• theater run --format junit keeps its compact scenario-call JUnit behavior.
• Plugin runtime readiness and live runs remain strict for missing env_from_host values.
• Detailed Markdown reporting is opt-in through theater report render.
• Saved report JSON no longer serializes raw failure causes; reports keep the report-safe failure kind, phase, path, and summary.

Full Changelog: v0.2.0...v0.3.0

v0.2.0

v0.2.0

Theater v0.2.0 focuses on practical authoring ergonomics: safer plugin
contracts, plugin transforms in ordinary dataflow, direct act-scope exports and
a first-class coalesce fallback model for runtime configuration.

Highlights

• Runtime configuration can now stay declarative with coalesce(...) and
  explicit env("NAME") value sources instead of shell setup or synthetic
  action.generate bridges.
• Pure plugin transforms can be used in selector pipelines, so action outputs
  and existing refs can flow through domain-specific transforms without
  compatibility inventory wrappers.
• Plugin manifests and plugin process grants are safer for source control:
  host environment variables can be copied by name, scalar secrets can be
  redacted at the root value and dynamic bindings are handled more clearly.
• .thtr, YAML, LSP support, native JetBrains support and public docs were
  updated together for the new binding and dataflow surface.

New Features

• Added explicit plugin host environment grants.
  Plugin registry entries can now request named host environment variables for
  plugin processes without storing secret values in the registry file.
• Added root JSON Pointer support for plugin sensitive paths.
  Plugin manifests can mark scalar inputs or outputs as sensitive with the root
  pointer "".
• Added safer plugin validate-hook handling for dynamic bindings.
  Validate-time plugin hooks can distinguish static values from dynamic paths
  without receiving resolved runtime secrets.
• Added union value contracts for plugin transform inputs.
  Transform manifests can describe narrow accepted shapes such as string-or-
  object contracts instead of falling back to any.
• Added plugin transforms in selector pipelines.
  Selectors can apply pure plugin transforms after field(...), $ref,
  decode(...) and path(...).
• Added direct act exports from current act-scope values.
  Acts can export resolved property values with forms such as
  export token = $token instead of copying them through action.generate.
• Added canonical coalesce bindings.
  coalesce evaluates explicit candidates left to right and selects the first
  concrete value.
• Added typed missing handling for fallback.
  Only typed missing values are skipped; empty string, zero, false, null,
  empty objects and empty lists remain concrete values.
• Added explicit env value sources.
  env("NAME") reads a named host environment variable as a binding value.
  Unset variables resolve to typed missing; set-but-empty variables resolve to
  the concrete empty string.
• Added general property values.
  Act properties can now be ordinary bindings, including literals, refs,
  objects, lists, strings, generators, coalesce and env sources, while
  existing inventory properties remain supported.

Tooling

• Updated .thtr lowering, formatting, source mapping and diagnostics for
  coalesce(...), env("NAME"), selector transforms and act ref exports.
• Updated thtr-lsp completion and diagnostics for the new property value
  surface.
• Updated the native JetBrains plugin with property value completion and
  diagnostics for coalesce(...), env("NAME") and generator bindings.
• Added checked examples for runtime configuration, coalesce, act ref exports
  and plugin value contracts.
• Added docscheck unset-env support so runnable documentation examples can
  test fallback behavior independently of the developer or CI environment.

Fixes

• Plugin validate-hook diagnostics no longer expose resolved dynamic secret
  values.
• Plugin redaction paths now handle root scalar sensitive values.
• Selector and export validation now accounts for the new ref-derived and
  transform-derived dataflow paths.

Documentation

• Documented coalesce, typed missing and explicit env value sources in the
  YAML and Theater DSL references.
• Documented direct act ref exports and plugin transforms in selector
  pipelines.
• Expanded plugin reference material for host environment grants, scalar
  sensitive values, dynamic bindings and union transform contracts.
• Updated editor-tooling docs and examples index for the new authoring surface.

Compatibility Notes

• This is a pre-v1.0.0 feature release with public contract changes across
  .thtr, YAML, plugin manifests, validation and editor tooling.
• coalesce is value-level fallback only. It does not add truthiness, control
  flow, retries or fallback over arbitrary runtime errors.
• inventory.env(default: ...) was intentionally not added. Fallback belongs
  in the shared binding model through coalesce.
• env("NAME") values are treated as secret for diagnostics, debug snapshots
  and report previews because the variable name alone does not prove the value
  is safe to display.

Full Changelog

Full Changelog: v0.1.0...v0.2.0

v0.1.0

Full Changelog: https://github.com/alex-poliushkin/theater/commits/v0.1.0