Conductor 0.1.40

[0.1.40] - 2026-09-23

Added

• Execution profiles and execution environment documents: decouple what an
  executable step needs from where it runs. Workflows declare logical profile
  names via workflow.defaults.execution.profile or per-step execution.profile
  on executable steps (agent, script, mcp, workflow). Environment documents
  (.conductor/environments/<name>.yaml discovered by walking from the workflow
  directory to the git root, or $CONDUCTOR_HOME/environments/<name>.yaml) map
  logical profile names to runner backends via whole-document shadowing without
  merging. CLI commands conductor run, conductor resume, and conductor validate accept --environment <name|PATH> to select an environment. Bare
  conductor validate uses a three-level check: zero I/O when profile references
  are absent, discovery and cross-checks when present, and explicit validation
  with a full Execution Resolution report table when passed --environment.
  Every run compiles a deterministic, run-invariant ResolvedRunManifest audit
  record recorded in workflow_started metadata. See docs/workflow-syntax.md
  (Execution Profiles) and docs/configuration.md (Execution Environments). (#527)
• dialog.conversation_prompt: instructions for the agent holding a dialog
  conversation, appended to the built-in dialog system prompt. Previously
  trigger_prompt was the only field on a dialog: block, and it reaches
  only the evaluator that decides whether to open the dialog, so a workflow
  author had no way to instruct the conversing agent.

Fixed

• Verbose logging and error reporting no longer crash a run when stderr is a
  non-blocking pipe: a full agent prompt (or any other large console panel)
  could exceed the OS pipe buffer and raise BlockingIOError under --web-bg,
  cron, or any other piped/non-interactive invocation, taking down an otherwise
  successful workflow. The write now blocks for the reader to drain the pipe
  instead of failing outright. (#543)
• Dialog mode no longer ends an interview on "ready for the next question":
  a trailing [READY_TO_CONTINUE] is withheld when the agent's message still
  asks or announces a question, the agent is told not to combine the two, and
  the continue prompt names the agent and says which replies end the dialog
  (yes, or a dismiss keyword; anything else is sent to the agent, and an
  empty reply re-asks). The opening banner lists every dismiss keyword, and
  dialog_completed carries agent_question_outstanding when a dialog closed
  under an unanswered question from the agent. On the web path the leave-dialog
  control and a dismiss keyword at the continue proposal both end the dialog as
  a dismissal, as on the terminal.

Changed

• Remote runner wire protocol lifted to conductor.runner.protocol: the
  serialized wire contract between the Conductor host and remote agent runtimes
  is now defined in the backend-neutral conductor.runner.protocol package.
  The runner /health endpoint additively advertises protocol_version for
  host-side version advertisement and warn-only compatibility checks.
  conductor.providers.aca_protocol is deprecated as a re-export shim that emits
  a DeprecationWarning on import and will be removed in a future major release. (#527)
• Copilot agent system prompts now use the SDK's native system channel instead
  of being prefixed to each dynamic user prompt, improving instruction role
  integrity and allowing static prompt prefixes to remain cacheable. (#545)
• Breaking (experimental claude-agent-sdk provider): an agent that omits
  tools: no longer receives the full Claude Code tool preset. The new
  runtime.provider.native_tools setting defaults to none — no built-in
  filesystem, shell, web or editing tools — including for the bare
  provider: claude-agent-sdk shorthand. Workflows that relied on omitting
  tools: to read files, run commands or edit code must now opt in explicitly
  with native_tools: claude_code; without it they still validate, but their
  agents run with no built-in tools. claude_code grants the full preset with
  automatic approval, and the run warns once that working_dir is not a
  sandbox. Under none, declared MCP servers stay usable through one
  server-scoped permission rule each (mcp__<server>__*). Server names are
  restricted to letters, digits, - and single _ characters so the rule
  matches the tool names the CLI actually generates; a name that cannot form a
  matching rule, and plugin subagents that would have no dispatch tool, are
  refused at conductor validate and at run time. An
  explicit tools: [] on an agent that would still get MCP servers, from the
  workflow or a plugin, is now refused by conductor run as well as by
  conductor validate, instead of running with those servers attached.
• The default development and CI test commands now run the isolated pytest
  suite in parallel, substantially reducing feedback time on multi-core
  machines. Set PYTEST_WORKERS=0 when a serial run is needed for debugging.