v17.0.0

A review release. The brain format (version: 7), bf.yaml and the search and read reply schemas are unchanged. The command line is stricter, so input that was silently misread now fails, and failures that took down a whole brain are now contained.

Breaking changes

• Routine input. bf run ROUTINE passes piped input only with --stdin. It used to read any open standard input and failed after 10 seconds in agent shells that hold it open. bf run --hook EVENT still passes what Git pipes, such as the refs of a push.
• Repeated options. An option that takes one value may appear once: bf search launch --scope projects --scope concepts, a second --brain, --rel or --hook exits 2 naming it. The last value used to win, so the answer silently ignored the others. --sensor and --routine still repeat to select several programs.
• Routine arguments. bf run rejects an unknown option before --, such as --dryrun, with exit 2. It used to pass it to the routine, which then ran for real.
• Read relations. bf read PAGE --rel RELATION is invalid input (exit 2), as a page is recognizable before any brain is read.
• MCP arguments. Tool arguments are validated strictly: a limit of true or "5" is an error instead of a coerced value.
• Retrieval cases. A plain expect or forbid ref in bf eval names a file of the evaluated brain. A related brain's note at the same path used to satisfy it; name that note by its bf://NAME/... address.

Upgrade: run uv tool upgrade brain-framework (or update a brain's pin), then bf skills DIR; the skills now require Brain Framework 17. Add --stdin where a script pipes input into a direct bf run ROUTINE, and put -- before routine arguments that start with a dash. Re-copy the example git-history.py, prompt-context.py, session-context.py or weekly-review.py if your brain uses one. Then run bf validate and bf eval.

Added

• bf status lists each brain's attention: the scheduled programs that failed or are overdue or never succeeded, as the home page does. A brain reported "healthy": false with "problems": [] and left the reason to a scan of every source and routine.

Fixed

• Search keeps a function word written as an acronym. EU AI Act searched only act, and AI, IT or US dropped from any query, because they spell French or English function words. Lowercase function words and the habitual AND and OR still drop. The example prompt-context.py hook mirrors the rule.
• Searching a note's title finds the note before a section that mentions it: a section's note title and parents rank below a heading. Atlas next actions still finds that section.
• One unreadable folder, such as a source restored with another owner, no longer fails every search, status, validation and build of the brain: it is skipped and reported, and bf validate names it as an unreadable folder.
• Collection stops below the 100,000-entry scan limit of its source and fails like any other collection, so a growing window source can no longer make every search and read of the brain fail. A commit changing exactly as many records as the limit no longer leaves a pending transaction behind.
• An action routine's relative links and headings are checked before writing, like its metadata and relations: an action that bf validate rejects, such as one linking projects/x.md instead of ../../projects/x.md, is never written.
• bf validate reports every problem of a note, and links to a note it cannot parse are no longer reported as unresolved: one invalid date or undeclared relation hid the note's other problems and broke the links of other notes.
• A far-future stale_after, such as 9999-12-31T23:00:00Z, no longer crashes the home and projects pages in timezones east of UTC.
• bf mcp stops at once on SIGTERM or Ctrl-C with exit 130, instead of waiting for another input line.
• Reading a note alias named like a source, such as jira:ATL beside a jira source, no longer fails on another malformed record of that source or while a writer holds the brain.
• Filesystems reporting 64-bit hashed inode numbers, such as mergerfs, no longer fail every cache refresh with a traceback.
• A query starting with bf:, such as bf: how to configure sensors, searches its words instead of failing as an invalid address.
• The example git-history.py skips linked worktrees, which collected their repository's whole history again; records already collected stay. The example routine and session hook read a task's Markdown link as its label.
• The meeting-notes recipe has the agent draft GitHub issues for review instead of creating them from calendar text that anyone who invites you can write.

Changed

• Packaged skills no longer carry metadata.version, so a release changes a skill's files only when its content changes; .bf-skill.json still records the installing version.
• Adding broader or targets to a relation no longer rebuilds the search cache: relation pages read broader at query time, and collection and validation check targets.
• The schedule preview suggests --output ~/.config/bf-schedules, outside the brain, like the documentation: the generated files hold this machine's paths.
• The documentation states exact reads across brains as they behave: while a brain is unavailable, a found ref returns with a problems entry and a missing one fails as incomplete.