v0.81.5

🌟 Release Highlights

This release focuses on org-mode maturity, performance optimizations, and sandbox hardening — making gh aw update/upgrade --org more robust and production-ready while delivering meaningful speed improvements across the compiler and validator.

✨ What's New

• Action-pin mapping in aw.json (#41579) — Define action-pin overrides directly in your aw.json configuration, giving you centralized control over pinned action versions.

• manifest-version now optional in aw.yml (#41687) — Reduces boilerplate in new workflow files; the field is inferred when omitted.

• Non-TTY fallback for gh aw add wizard (#41717) — The interactive add wizard now gracefully falls back to text prompts in non-interactive environments (CI, scripts), unblocking automation pipelines.

• Org-mode improvements for update/upgrade --org (#41617, #41627, #41719) — Workflow-targeted updates, repo prefiltering, version-tag display, unified repo discovery, and per-repo confirmation prompts (with --yes for CI). The --org flag is now significantly more useful for managing fleets of repositories.

• Sandbox hardening at 50% baseline (#41786) — Half of all eligible agentic workflows now run with sandbox.agent.sudo: false, reducing the blast radius of runaway agent steps.

• Daily detection analysis report workflow (#41802) — New built-in workflow that generates automated detection analysis reports.

⚡ Performance

• Lazy-loaded embedded JSON datasets (#41587) — Embedded compile-time JSON is no longer loaded at startup, reducing memory footprint for CLI commands that do not compile.
• Lazy-loaded GitHub toolset permissions (#41755) — Loaded via sync.Once so permission data is only read when needed.
• Cached regexp in applySanitizePattern (#41762) — Eliminates repeated regex compilation on hot code paths.
• Faster ParseWorkflow (#41772) — Model-alias cycle detection overhead reduced.

🐛 Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Secret double-escape fix (#41801) — Custom MCP server env/header secrets are no longer double-escaped in generated lock files.
• Agent-supplied branch accepted in push_to_pull_request_branch (#41654) — Fixes a regression where agent-provided branch names were rejected.
• MODEL_NOT_SUPPORTED detection extended (#41792) — The pattern now catches 404 "Model not found" responses, improving resilience for unsupported model errors.
• Bundle manifest path resolution (#41790) — .github/ paths are now resolved as repo-root-relative in nested bundle manifests.
• MCP post-completion relaunch is non-fatal (#41713) — A failed MCP server relaunch after job completion no longer fails the workflow.
• PR Sous Chef cooldown (#41759) — Prevents back-to-back comments by enforcing a 30-minute cooldown.
• Harness exits cleanly (#41675) — Exits with code 0 when expected safe-outputs were already produced, even when subsequent steps encounter permission-denied errors.
• GH_AW_POLICY_STRICT enforced at runtime (#41682) — Non-strict compiled workflows now properly respect the strict policy flag at runtime.

📚 Documentation

• Blog: Custom Linters, Sergo, Linter Miner & LintMonster (#41663) — A new blog post walking through the custom linter ecosystem. Read it →
• gh aw env governance guide (#41758) — New documentation covering defaults and scope inheritance for environment configuration.

Generated by 🚀 Release · 41.2 AIC · ⊞ 8.3K

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What's Changed

• Add action-pin mapping support in aw.json by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41579
• pkg/workflow: lazy-load embedded JSON datasets used only at compile-time paths by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41587
• feat: add XML markers, deduplication, labels, and release links to org runner PRs/issues by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41580
• fix: resource lifecycle and context propagation (lint-monster) by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41589
• Replace lint-monster path literals with repository constants in CLI/workflow codepaths by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41611
• [UX] Professionalize Architecture Guardian safe-output status messages by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41612
• [jsweep] Clean update_context_helpers.cjs by @github-actions[bot] in #41608
• fix: accept agent-supplied branch in push_to_pull_request_branch (fixes #41643) by @dsyme in #41654
• fix: replace deprecated gpt-5-mini with gpt-5.4-mini in daily-model-resolution workflow by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41625
• Enable sandbox.agent.sudo: false on 20 agentic workflows by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41628
• [docs] Update glossary - daily scan by @github-actions[bot] in #41657
• [spec-extractor] Update package specifications for agentdrain, cli, console, constants by @github-actions[bot] in #41653
• [code-scanning-fix] Fix js/http-to-file-access: validate Content-Type and size for LFS PDF download by @github-actions[bot] in #41635
• Update gh aw update --org to support workflow-targeted updates and repo prefiltering by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41617
• panicinlibrarycode: enforce FuncLit boundaries for init/doc panic exemptions by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41631
• [instructions] Sync instruction files with release 0.81.4 by @github-actions[bot] in #41644
• Replace AWF runtime Python patch with shared JavaScript helper by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41623
• Add blog post on custom linters, Sergo, Linter Miner, and LintMonster by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41663
• reduce instructions-janitor max lines target from 500 to 400 by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41673
• Retry one completed Copilot BYOK proxy auth failure as a fresh run by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41629
• Make manifest-version optional in aw.yml by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41687
• Harden API consumption log collection against continuation timeouts by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41676
• [spec-enforcer] Enforce specifications for setutil by @github-actions[bot] in #41684
• Refactor duplicated key sorting, engine env assembly, and engine max-* codemods by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41674
• fix(harness): exit 0 when expected safe-outputs already produced despite numerous permission-denied by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41675
• improve update/upgrade --org: version tags, current version display, unified repo discovery by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41627
• Fix go-logger preflight manifest generation failing on jq filter quoting by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41695
• fix(USE-001): add standardized error codes to pr_review_buffer and set_issue_type handlers by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41692
• Enforce GH_AW_POLICY_STRICT at runtime for non-strict compiled workflows by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41682
• parser: add schema validation tests for sandbox.agent.sudo (regression guard for #41679) by @dsyme with @Copilot in #41681
• logs: populate message field with actionable guidance when no runs found by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41693
• docs: resolve spec audit — pkg/intent spec, actionpins Mappings field, linters 4 new subpackages by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41723
• fix: post-completion MCP relaunch failure is non-fatal; audit-diff surfaces removed denied domains by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41713
• Normalize report-format guidance across non-compliant agentic workflows by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41728
• Harden Super Linter workflow against generated-summary linting and log artifact permission failures by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41729
• Ensure centralized status comments are reused via the standard update path by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41709
• chore(deps): bump golang.org/x/vuln to v1.5.0 by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41726
• [dead-code] chore: remove dead functions — 5 functions removed by @github-actions[bot] in #41731
• Make banner styling TTY-safe by unexporting BannerStyle and standardizing ShowWelcomeBanner by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41716
• Add per-repo confirmations for org-mode update/upgrade create actions, with --yes CI bypass by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41719
• feat(mattpocock-reviewer): mention @copilot in review comments by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41756
• Add governance guide for gh aw env defaults and scope inheritance by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41758
• fix(pr-sous-chef): prevent back-to-back comments and add 30-min cooldown by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41759
• Add non-TTY fallback for interactive add wizard (MultiSelect + text prompts) by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41717
• Preserve issue-intent label metadata in add_labels REST payload behind feature flag by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41725
• Reduce validation benchmark overhead by deduplicating Copilot permission tip emission by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41753
• refactor(workflow): split custom job builder module out of compiler_jobs.go by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41754
• feat: upgrade experiments_command.go manual tables to console.RenderTable() by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41718
• PR Sous Chef: require pr-finisher in Copilot nudge by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41768
• Fix daily-spdd-spec-planner tool denial limit exceeded by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41770
• fix(compile_stats): replace raw fmt.Fprintf sub-items with console helpers by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41764
• Align CLI help/grouping and flag semantics for command consistency by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41727
• Clarify workflow trigger selection and reporting patterns for agentic workflows by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41769
• Wrap bare error returns in buildActivationJob with context by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41763
• Use a named constant for the upgrade-org skills sparse-checkout path by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41774
• Refactor deploy --org to run through shared org runner by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41761
• Cache compiled regexp in applySanitizePattern by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41762
• PR Triage: include same-repo Copilot PRs in eligibility scope by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41783
• fix: extend MODEL_NOT_SUPPORTED_PATTERN to catch 404 standalone "Model not found" by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41792
• Lazy-load GitHub toolset permissions JSON via sync.Once by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41755
• perf(bench): isolate CompileMCPWorkflow benchmark from non-compilation overhead by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41782
• Add daily detection analysis report workflow by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41802
• ambient-context: compress shared prompts and fix tone conditional syntax by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41805
• Fix Copilot log parser for wireApi=responses format; surface tool response previews by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41767
• Reduce ParseWorkflow overhead by optimizing model-alias cycle detection by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41772
• Add runtime policy guard for create-pull-request safe outputs by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41771
• Migrate CLI stderr status output to stderr-aware pkg/console helpers across six commands by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41773
• chore(deps): bump charmbracelet/x/exp/golden pseudo-version (Jun 2 → Jun 22) by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41810
• fix: prevent double-escape of custom MCP server env/header secrets in generated lock files by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41801
• Raise agent sandbox hardening baseline to 50% of eligible workflows by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41786
• refactor(workflow): consolidate duplicate runtime action repo maps by @pelikhan with @Copilot in #41809
• [docs] Self-healing documentation fixes from issue analysis - 2026-06-27 by @github-actions[bot] in #41816
• fix: treat .github/ paths as repo-root-relative in nested bundle manifests by @mnkiefer with @Copilot in #41790

Full Changelog: v0.81.4...v0.81.5