Skip to content

v5.2.0 Apex

Choose a tag to compare

View all tags
@artifact-opensource artifact-opensource released this 10 Oct 11:22
· 107 commits to master since this release
v5.2.0
545d7e3

Release Notes - v5.2.0 Apex

Symbiote v5.2.0 - Admin-Grade Tools, Hardened Agent Loop, Windows-Native Execution

Date: October 10, 2026

This release covers everything from v5.1 onward: the self-improving Curator, persistent memory with Memograph, native browser control, a far more resilient agent loop, a rebuilt prompt-injection guard, and full-access admin tooling that works natively on Windows, Linux and macOS.

Highlights

  • Full-access admin agent. The tool sandbox is off by default. read, write, edit, exec and the new fs and hardware tools reach any path and any device on the machine. Set SYMBIOTE_SANDBOX=1 to restore owner/non-owner tiering.
  • Shell commands work on Windows. exec and background processes use PowerShell (pwsh, then powershell, then cmd) instead of assuming sh. Override with SYMBIOTE_SHELL.
  • Long tasks no longer stall or restart from scratch. Dropped streams are retried, hung tools time out, progress is saved every iteration, and the original task survives context compaction.
  • A prompt-injection guard that does not cry wolf. Source code and docs no longer trigger warnings, while genuine injection in web or MCP content is flagged with obfuscation-aware detection.

New Features

v5.1 - Curator tool-bug detection

  • Per-tool failure tracking over a sliding window of recent interactions
  • Minor bugs (a single failure) produce low-confidence retry/timeout proposals
  • Major bugs (repeated failures or a failure rate of 50% or more) produce high-confidence proposals to raise retries, extend timeouts or use a fallback tool, with a cooldown to avoid duplicates
  • Per-tool results are now actually delivered to the Curator after each turn, and interaction success reflects real tool outcomes

Memory and knowledge

  • Memograph integration with the embedded vector store: snapshots are imported with SHA-256 shard-hash verification that mirrors Memograph's own hashing
  • reseal tool in Memograph repairs snapshots whose hashes went stale after content edits, rewriting parent links and edges consistently
  • Skill-file ingestion into the vector store, plus a persona_digest tool for consolidating user context
  • Long-term retrieval in the loop: context dropped by truncation is preserved in the vector store and retrieved on later turns

Channels and interfaces

  • Channel-specific response formatting for CLI and Discord
  • Live CLI interrupts, queueing and steering during long-running turns
  • Native browser CUA driver (cua_screenshot, cua_click, cua_move, cua_type, cua_press, cua_scroll)
  • Refreshed CLI and TUI branding (Symbiote name, indigo theme, minimal layout)

Admin tools

  • fs: list, stat, mkdir, move, copy, delete, chmod, symlink, and search by file name or content, across the whole machine
  • hardware: CPU, memory, disks, GPU, network, USB, audio, camera, Bluetooth, displays, serial ports, battery, sensors and processes on Windows, Linux and macOS
  • read: reads any path, lists directories, streams files over 10 MB, returns hex dumps for binary files and raw bytes via encoding: base64|hex
  • write: appends, writes binary via base64, and no longer redirects paths to a temp folder
  • exec: default timeout raised from 30 s to 600 s
  • todo is now available in the gateway daemon

Agent Loop Reliability

  • Completion review runs only after real tool work and at most once per turn
  • Mid-stream connection drops (terminated, ECONNRESET, timeouts) are retried up to three times with backoff
  • A silent provider stream fails after 3 minutes and is retried (SYMBIOTE_STREAM_IDLE_MS)
  • A hung tool is cut off after 15 minutes (SYMBIOTE_TOOL_TIMEOUT_MS) and the loop continues
  • Progress is persisted after every iteration, so a failed turn no longer loses its tool work
  • Context compaction keeps the original request and never starts on an orphaned tool result
  • Per-iteration text replaces the old cumulative text, ending repeated narration in context and replies
  • Empty replies after tool work are nudged instead of ending the turn silently
  • Truncated tool-call JSON returns a clear error instead of running the tool with empty arguments
  • Oversized tool output keeps both head and tail, because errors usually appear at the end
  • A call that fails three times in a row is flagged so the model changes approach
  • Provider routing, fallback chains and session path resolution were hardened for long runs

Security

  • Prompt-injection detection uses weighted, word-boundary patterns with Unicode, zero-width, bidi and look-alike normalisation, and scans embedded base64
  • Output from local tools gets a single-line note for high-confidence hits; web, image, memory, MCP and unknown tools get a full untrusted-content banner
  • SYMBIOTE_INJECTION_GUARD accepts standard (default), strict or off
  • Bidi and invisible control characters are always stripped from tool results

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed every shell command failing on Windows because sh does not exist there
  • Fixed an over-broad self-kill guard that blocked ordinary commands mentioning the project name
  • Fixed false-positive injection warnings on most read and exec results
  • Fixed turns dying on a single dropped network connection
  • Fixed work being lost after a failed turn, which caused the agent to repeat earlier steps
  • Fixed the agent losing its task after context compaction
  • Fixed silent stops after tool-heavy runs
  • Fixed SessionManager defaulting to a legacy home directory instead of the workspace sessions directory
  • Fixed OpenRouter registration and authentication, plus provider fallback and routing
  • Fixed Discord message drops, silent stops and timeouts
  • Fixed stale to-do output in the CLI
  • Fixed duplicate daemon startup, stale daemon lock detection and daemon isolation on SIGTERM
  • Fixed the BLINK continuation loop and long-turn time limits
  • Fixed tool-success reporting, which always read as successful
  • Fixed a duplicate bin entry and leftover legacy names in the package manifest
  • Fixed the persisted SARSI identity on existing installs, which migrates to the current name on first load

Cleanup and Packaging

  • Naming is unified on symbiote across code, config, environment variables (SYMBIOTE_*), file names and docs
  • All runtime paths are project- or home-relative; hard-coded absolute and legacy paths are removed
  • .gitignore is rebuilt to cover secrets, runtime state, sessions, vector data, .json and .jsonl user data, backups, logs and build output
  • Installer scripts verify prerequisites and stop on failed steps; install.ps1 now checks exit codes
  • Clean rebuilds produce an output tree free of legacy names

Upgrade Notes

  • Rename any MACH6_* variables in your .env to SYMBIOTE_*
  • symbiote.json is the only config file name; the legacy ~/.mach6 home is no longer read
  • Admin access is the default. If you run Symbiote for other users, set SYMBIOTE_SANDBOX=1
  • Run symbiote restart after upgrading

Release Handoff

  • Suggested tag: v5.2.0
  • Suggested release title: v5.2.0 Apex
Assets 2
Loading