Benchside 0.4.1

Benchside 0.4.1

This release improves faithful scientific recording, fixes the reviewed journal
and sharing issues, and publishes the Python package for pip/uv installation.

Available on PyPI and
GitHub Releases.
Local agents can run uv tool install benchside, or
python -m pip install benchside inside a persistent virtual environment, then
the appropriate bench setup command in SETUP.md.

Update every app sharing a notebook

All apps sharing a private notebook must use Benchside 0.4.1 or newer. Once
0.4.1 saves a notebook using the hypothesis-reviewer role or multiple disciplines,
older apps—including 0.4.0—refuse to open it and request an update. This prevents
older readers from treating newer records as damaged. Keep the existing notebook
and update each app; do not recreate or overwrite it to bypass that check.

Changes

• Research-role guidance better distinguishes supplied evidence, researcher
  decisions and suggestions. The supervisor supports exploratory discussions
  without requiring a hypothesis; focused hypothesis review remains separate.
• ODT/Markdown journal exports work for either format or both. Reading copies
  refresh once per command rather than after every event in that command.
• Survey answers that are blank or match sensitive-text checks are refused before
  sending, including older pending drafts. Ordinary answers still use the study
  participation agreement without a second approval.
• Full selected-conversation history is retained. At its notebook allowance,
  analysis pauses and explains alternatives; there is no automatic summarisation.
• Migration detects conflicting writes; malformed contributor identity files are
  preserved with a repair message. New notebook formats give older readers a
  clear update-required response.
• Local Claude Code setup checks linked settings before creating setup files or
  changing the storage preference. It preserves shared settings and explains
  manual options. Normal setup leaves unrelated linked settings alone.
• Python distributions include licence, Science Works maintainer attribution,
  source/support links and standalone setup instructions, retaining Rory's author
  credit. GitHub Trusted Publishing releases the Python package after clean wheel
  and source installation checks.

Known limits

The survey scanner currently also rejects full URLs and some local paths, even
when harmless. It cannot identify all confidential content; contextual review
remains necessary. Public-resource link handling is a separate proposed refinement.
Blank/invalid survey answers can still surface with a generic setup error in some
app paths. Receiver-side blank-answer enforcement is a separate deployment.

The core regression suite has 582 passing tests on Python 3.11 and 3.14. Package
tests exercise saved records and fresh-process restoration; they do not establish
live account-level persistence in every ChatGPT or Claude account. Installed-app
acceptance for this final build remains a separate check.

On 6 November 2026, fresh public PyPI installations through pip (Python 3.11)
and uv tool install (Python 3.14) passed the CLI, eight-role setup, private
save/restore, ODT/Markdown and sharing-off checks. No submissions were sent.
The public wheel and source archive checksums match the GitHub release assets.

See the review follow-up,
Python publishing procedure, and
successful publication run.

Downloads

• Claude: benchside-claude-plugin-0.4.1.zip (plugin) or benchside-claude-0.4.1.zip (custom skill).
• ChatGPT / OpenAI-compatible hosts: benchside-plugin-0.4.1.zip. Installation and storage tools must be available in the account.
• Local Python agents: uv tool install benchside or python -m pip install benchside in a persistent virtual environment, followed by the appropriate bench setup command. The wheel and source archive are also attached below.

Keep plugin ZIPs intact; GitHub’s automatically generated source-code archives are not plugin packages. Follow SETUP.md for setup and a save/restore check.