Backbone 0.3.0

Backbone 0.3.0 makes Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode the required set of CLIs, with a capability contract that says what each one supports, and adds owner-confirmed messages, steering, inbox-only agents, event subscriptions and shared skills.

Agents and CLIs

• A runtime capability contract lists every capability for every CLI. backbone doctor and the docs report it, including the CLI version each capability was verified on, and doctor compares it with the installed one.
• Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode are the required set. Gemini CLI, Deep Code and Aider get capabilities on demand, each recorded as supported or as a gap.
• backbone tell --steer gives a working agent guidance for its current task. backbone agent output reads a bounded tail of an agent's own transcript.
• Explicit restarts: backbone agent restart hands an agent over to a fresh session, now or later, on the same or another CLI. Agents start fresh and resume only on request.
• Fleet snapshots save the running agents and resume their exact sessions. fleet save --stop leaves starting, working, blocked and waiting agents running unless --force.
• Inbox-only agents are registered but never launched or typed into; escalations reach them through their inbox.
• backbone agent approve and deny answer more CLIs' dialogs. Provider failures read as blocked rather than idle.
• Backbone tells the owner when Claude Code's auto mode or Codex's automatic reviewer refuses an agent's action.
• Long-running agents are told their context size. Token usage is tracked per agent and CLI session.

Messages and events

• Owner-confirmed messages: a message the owner confirmed carries a signed marker the receiving agent can check with backbone message validate.
• Event subscriptions, with Gmail as the first inbound source.
• Queued messages that expire are reported to both sides. Delivery holds a queue behind an uncertain row instead of guessing.
• GitHub poll intake now announces newly opened pull requests.
• Owner confirmations stay valid after an agent is renamed. A restart during a subscription poll no longer re-sends the events that poll already handed out.

Setup and skills

• A shared skills store, given to each agent by tag at launch. backbone skills shows every skill by source.
• A user configuration directory for templates and policies.
• The setup playbook (backbone help setup) moves the agent's own session into Backbone instead of starting a second agent in the same folder.
• CLI output follows one presentation: clear tables, labeled details, and usable narrow-terminal output.

Breaking changes

• POST /api/plans/{name}/respond is removed and now answers 404. It had answered 409 and typed nothing since plan dialogs stopped taking typed answers.
• The github-app extra is gone; its dependency is part of the core install. An install command that still names the extra keeps working, with a warning from the installer.
• tmux copy mode with no viewer is reported as the delivery condition unattended_copy_mode.
• After upgrading, the first GitHub poll may repeat a notice for a pull request that a webhook already announced.

Install or upgrade:

uv tool install --upgrade agent-backbone==0.3.0

This remains a pre-1.0 project. See the bundled documentation with backbone docs and the setup guide.

Validation: 3,675 tests plus lint and formatting, and CI on Python 3.11 to 3.13. A release review with Codex gpt-6-astra at ultra ran in four passes, its findings fixed or answered. Greptile's review of the release found 13 defects in new features, all fixed before publishing (#448 to #452). The unpacked sdist and wheel were checked for private content, and the built wheel passed an isolated install check: start, status, doctor, the bundled help and docs, a shell agent and a delivered message. The published wheel matches the checked build: all 254 installed payload files are identical. Publishing does not imply a fresh live model-provider or Telegram end-to-end test.

Backbone 0.2.0

Backbone 0.2.0 brings the recent agent coordination, delivery reliability, diagnostics, and maintainability improvements into a stable package release.

• Swarm members and coordinators keep status reporting internal. The repository agent is responsible for human-facing progress reports.
• Message delivery handles busy agents, duplicate submissions, uncertain terminal outcomes, and stale GitHub notifications more reliably. Telegram explains when a message needs inspection before retrying.
• Agent startup and state inference use shared lifecycle and evidence rules. SQLite schema repair restores required indexes.
• Progress reports, report history, optional local voice summaries, and usage diagnostics are available through the documented interfaces.
• Shared services and CLI configuration loading have been simplified, with stronger module boundaries and validation.

Install or upgrade:

uv tool install --upgrade agent-backbone==0.2.0

This remains a pre-1.0 project. See the bundled documentation with backbone docs and the setup guide.

Validation: 2,037 tests plus lint and formatting, CI on Python 3.11–3.13, native Astra Ultra review, and isolated CLI/API/terminal checks from a fresh PyPI installation. The published wheel matches the tested candidate, and all 197 installed payload files were verified. Publishing does not imply a fresh live model-provider or Telegram end-to-end test.