v8.4.4

Charness v8.4.4

Summary

• Clarify when implementation can reuse applicable evidence, with verification
  scope routed to its owning contract and independent release proof preserved.
• Let review previews continue into live execution without reserving the live
  attempt; keep preview bytes intact and duplicate live execution refused.
• Preserve release advisory meaning: evidence limits and recommendations are no
  longer collectively described as confirmed inaccuracies.
• Use the length checker's own target universe for cheap staged checks, so
  evidence-only Python copies do not trigger an empty-universe failure.

Consumer evidence and limits

Installed-package alias spec-to-impl and existing-script CLI journeys pass their
frozen acceptance checks without operator rescue. Repeated-work results are
mixed: CLI executable repetition improves, while alias handoff repetition
increases. These bounded observations are not a general speed guarantee.
The comparison records the shared timeout deviation and exact package sources.

Update

Run charness update, then charness version. No command migration is required.
Update follows the managed branch, which may also contain post-release commits.

Evidence

See the repository's consumer comparison at
charness-artifacts/probe/2026-09-06-consumer-journeys/consumer-comparison.md
and the release critique for scope, findings and non-claims.

Derived claim surfaces

id: json-declaring-scripts
question: which repo-owned Python sources declare their own `--json` option
count: 0
items: []
scanned:
- scripts/**/*.py
- skills/**/scripts/**/*.py
- charness
unscanned:
- the exported `plugins/charness/**` mirror and `mutants/**`, which are generated
  copies of these same sources
- flag names composed at runtime from a variable rather than written as a string literal
- flags a wrapper forwards without declaring, which no parser in this tree names

id: charness-subcommands
question: which top-level subcommands the `charness` CLI declares
count: 12
items:
- capability
- catalog
- doctor
- goal
- init
- reset
- task
- tool
- uninstall
- update
- version
- worktree
scanned:
- charness
unscanned:
- nested subcommand groups such as `charness task run`, which are declared on their
  own subparser
- subcommands a host adapter adds outside this entrypoint

id: public-skills
question: which public skills this repo ships
count: 19
items:
- achieve
- announcement
- create-cli
- create-skill
- critique
- debug
- gather
- hitl
- hotl
- ideation
- impl
- issue
- narrative
- prove
- quality
- release
- retro
- setup
- spec
scanned:
- skills/public/*/SKILL.md
unscanned:
- support, profile, and integration skills, which are not part of the public surface
- skills a consuming repo installs from elsewhere

id: repo-shell-gates
question: which `check-*.sh` shell gates this repo ships
count: 8
items:
- check-docs.sh
- check-links-external.sh
- check-links-internal.sh
- check-markdown.sh
- check-python-lint.sh
- check-rust.sh
- check-secrets.sh
- check-shell.sh
scanned:
- scripts/**/check-*.sh
unscanned:
- Python gates under `scripts/`, which are far more numerous and are not this surface
- gates a consuming repo wires from its own tree