nWave Framework v4.2.1

Coming from 3.x? nWave 4 is a major release and a breaking change from 3.x. The old delivery runtime is removed, the 3.x delivery commands are replaced by the nwdes verbs, and Python 3.11 or newer is required. There is no converter for 3.x roadmaps or execution logs. Read the migration guide before you upgrade: https://github.com/nWave-ai/nWave/blob/main/docs/guides/migrating-from-3x.md.

nWave 4.2.1 is a patch release for 4.2.0. A root LLM on any host can now learn
to run several nwdes lanes in parallel. The commit hooks do less work, and
four nwdes checks no longer refuse good work.

What changed

• A skill for parallel lanes, on every host. The new skill nw-swarm tells
  a root LLM how to run several lanes at once: who writes trunk, how to brief a
  lane orchestrator, what to check each time the root wakes, how to compose and
  integrate one lane at a time, and the traps that cost time in practice. It
  also says what to do on a host that cannot message a running agent or start
  sub-agents. The new public agent nw-lane-orchestrator runs one lane end to
  end and never does role work. Both install with the other skills and agents.
  The project instructions of the Claude and Codex hosts name the skill, and
  nw-buddy routes to it.
• A lane agent cannot write the root checkout by a relative path. While
  lanes are live, a sub-agent that writes a relative path into the root checkout
  is refused with the path to use inside its lane. The root session is never
  refused. The guard applies only to a project whose .nwave/config.json
  declares lanes. It does not see writes made by a shell command.
• Four nwdes refusals are gone. A review no longer refuses for dirty paths
  outside the files it owns, for a review prompt that names an older commit
  (ReviewCommitMismatch), for a missing identity record (IdentityMissing),
  or for a fixed expectation set (ExpectationsFixed). A review close ignores the feature documents that
  nwdes writes itself, and a commit without an author is left to Git.
• The commit hooks run each gate once. The identity check and the test gate
  ran twice for one commit. They run once. The fast test gate runs at push
  only. The hook that rejects a placeholder identity
  stays at commit.
• The touched-file test selector follows helpers. When a helper under
  tests/ changes, the tests that import it, also through another helper, run
  at commit.
• Better messages. After a failed installation validation, the hint is
  nwave-ai install --restore. The reserved-name scan answers --help and a
  missing path with a message.

Upgrade

• Upgrade the nwave-ai package with the Python package manager that
  installed it, then rerun nwave-ai install --platform <host> for your host.
• A review that an earlier version refused for one of the four refusals above
  is accepted now. No record needs a change.

nWave Framework v4.2.1

Release Date: 2026-11-05

Promoted from: v4.2.1rc1

Full Changelog: v4.2.0...v4.2.1

Installation

uv (recommended):

uv tool install nwave-ai

pipx (fallback):

pipx install nwave-ai

Breaking Changes

0 changes

Features

5 changes

Bug Fixes

15 changes

Other Changes

16 changes

This repository's history is one commit per release, so individual changes are not listed here; the breaking changes are listed in the highlights above.

Migration decision SHA-256: 6765f9f515ca0b03f425b776fb81b5d4fc8619b4849f7730667ee4d90372ea65