v2.0.0

---

title: "v2.0.0"

v2.0.0

Summary

METHOD v2.0.0 is a major release that reshapes cycle naming, flattens
the design doc layout, adds semantic drift detection, introduces
human-in-the-loop verification gates, and hardens CI with a linter
and git hooks.

What Changed

• Flat design docs: docs/design/<LEGEND>_<slug>.md replaces nested
  directories. Legend-prefixed cycle names replace sequential numbers.
• Elevated signposts: PROCESS.md and RELEASE.md are now
  top-level signposts in docs/.
• Semantic drift matching: Three-tier matching (exact, semantic
  normalization, token similarity with stemming) replaces brittle
  exact-string-only matching.
• Human-in-the-loop gates: method close requires witness
  verification. Release runbook requires human attestation of human
  playback questions.
• New commands: method spike, method doctor --receipt.
• CI hardening: Biome linter, pre-commit hooks, audit + pack
  verification in CI.
• Retro overhaul: Focused prompts ("What surprised you?", "What
  would you do differently?") replace hollow template sections.

Why It Matters

The v1.0.0 cycle naming (sequential numbers) didn't scale for
concurrent users. The design doc nesting was unnecessary overhead.
The drift detector was brittle. The close flow lacked human
verification. This release fixes all of these while preserving
backward compatibility for legacy layouts.

Breaking Changes

• Cycle type no longer has a number field.
• Design docs are flat files, not directories.
• Cycle names use <LEGEND>_<slug>, not <NNNN>-<slug>.
• docs/method/process.md moved to docs/PROCESS.md.
• docs/method/release.md and release-runbook.md merged into
  docs/RELEASE.md.
• method close requires --witness-verified or interactive
  confirmation.
• MCP method_close requires witnessVerified: true.
• Retro template sections changed.
• Sponsors section removed from design doc scaffold.

Migration

1. Run method doctor to see legacy design doc warnings.
2. Run method repair --apply to flatten them automatically.
3. Update any scripts that reference docs/method/process.md or
   docs/method/release-runbook.md to use docs/PROCESS.md and
   docs/RELEASE.md.
4. Update any code that reads Cycle.number — it no longer exists.
5. Update MCP callers of method_close to pass witnessVerified: true.

Links

• CHANGELOG
• PROCESS
• RELEASE
• GUIDE

v1.0.0

---

title: "v1.0.0 Release Notes"

v1.0.0

First semver-major release of METHOD.

Published package name: @flyingrobots/method

Summary

METHOD now ships a repo-native review-state surface, tighter MCP/runtime
contracts, a deliberately slim packed package, and cleaner repo
self-discipline around release-ready truth. The release is major because
direct Workspace.closeCycle(...) callers must now pass an explicit
outcome. It also fixes a truthfulness bug in witness capture: close
packets now record the real drift report instead of silently falling
back to an empty placeholder when tsx is unavailable on PATH.

What Changed

• Review-state: method review-state and method_review_state now
  expose merge-readiness blockers, unresolved-thread counts, current-branch
  PR resolution, and check summaries without scraping forge output.
• Runtime hardening: several MCP and workspace surfaces now reject
  ambiguous or unsafe inputs more directly.
• Witness honesty: automated verification witnesses now capture the
  actual drift report for the active cycle instead of reporting No drift output captured. when the drift subprocess path is missing.
• Signposts: BEARING, VISION, and the generated reference docs
  have been refreshed to match the repo’s current post-v0.3.0 shape.
• Package contents: npm pack now ships the built runtime and
  essential metadata rather than the full source tree, tests, and
  internal docs.
• Package identity: the publishable npm package name is now the
  scoped @flyingrobots/method, avoiding collision with the existing
  unscoped method package.
• Repo discipline: the METHOD repo now documents and tests that
  open cycle packets on main are stop-and-repair defects, not normal
  release-prep exceptions.

Why It Matters

This release makes METHOD easier to trust as both a tool and a package.
Agents and humans can inspect review state natively, direct API callers
get a clearer close-cycle contract, the packed artifact behaves more
like an intentional distribution instead of a tarball of the whole repo,
and the repo that defines METHOD is less free to ignore METHOD on
itself.

Breaking Changes

Workspace.closeCycle(cycleName, completedDriftCheck, outcome) now
requires the outcome argument.

• Accepted values: hill-met, partial, not-met
• Affected callers: direct library consumers of Workspace
• Unaffected callers: CLI and MCP users already provide explicit
  outcomes through their existing interfaces

Migration

Required change

Update every direct Workspace.closeCycle(...) call to pass an
outcome.

Before:

await workspace.closeCycle('0033-bearing-truthfulness', true);

After:

await workspace.closeCycle('0033-bearing-truthfulness', true, 'hill-met');

Migration checklist

• Search for closeCycle( in downstream code.
• Add one of hill-met, partial, or not-met at each call site.
• Re-run your normal close-cycle tests or witness flow.
• If you wrap Workspace, update the wrapper signature so the new
  required argument is not silently dropped.

Legacy frontmatter note

If your repo has METHOD documents created before the current frontmatter
contract settled, plan a one-time cleanup before relying on richer
metadata-driven tooling. METHOD now repairs a missing document title
from the first Markdown heading on read, and backlog flows still infer
lane and legend from path or filename where appropriate, but it does not
silently rewrite every legacy document into the modern schema.

Links

• Internal release packet: docs/method/releases/v1.0.0/release.md
• Internal verification packet: docs/method/releases/v1.0.0/verification.md
• Changelog ledger: CHANGELOG.md

v0.3.0 — First Public Release

First public release of METHOD.

Summary

METHOD is a calm development method for a repo shared by a human and an agent. This release ships a working CLI, MCP server, GitHub adapter, drift detection, and full documentation — 29 development cycles and 127 tests.

Highlights

• CLI: 9 commands covering the full METHOD loop (method init → method sync ship)
• MCP Server: 8 tools for agent integration, workspace-agnostic
• GitHub Sync: Two-way synchronization with GitHub Issues
• Drift Detection: Near-miss hints for close-but-not-exact matches
• Configurable Paths: .method.json customizes the workspace layout
• Hybrid Signpost Generation: <!-- generate:NAME --> markers keep docs in sync with code
• Full OSS scaffolding: Apache 2.0, CONTRIBUTING, SECURITY, ARCHITECTURE

Install

git clone https://github.com/flyingrobots/method.git
cd method
npm install
npm run build
npm link  # optional: makes `method` available globally

See CHANGELOG.md for the full list and docs/releases/v0.3.0.md for detailed release notes.