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v1.7.0 — AKC is a cycle, not a harness

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@shimo4228 shimo4228 released this 11 Apr 08:08
· 138 commits to main since this release
v1.7.0
0263c7f

Conceptual repositioning

AKC is no longer described as a "self-improving harness." It is now a knowledge cycle for AI agents — one that grows with the people who shape it.

This is a positioning release. No code changes — but what AKC is changed.

See ADR-0009 for the full rationale.

Why

The "self-improving harness" framing created two persistent problems:

  1. Layer confusion — calling AKC a harness put it in the same conceptual layer as Everything Claude Code (ECC), making it look like a competitor when AKC actually runs on top of harnesses to keep them coherent over time.
  2. Two-pillar drift — presenting Security by Absence as a co-equal definitional element diluted the cycle, which is the actual contribution.

A third issue surfaced as the project matured: the cycle does not just improve the agent. It also changes the human running it. Curate and Promote sharpen judgment; Research develops intuition; Measure teaches what makes a good rule. None of this was articulated in the v1.6 README.

What changed

  • Tagline: "memory-centric, self-improving harness" → "knowledge cycle for AI agents — one that grows with the people who shape it"
  • "What is AKC?" rewritten — cycle is now the sole defining characteristic
  • Security by Absence — demoted from co-equal pillar to Design Principle #7. Still load-bearing, still in ADR-0001
  • Bidirectional growth — made explicit in README and tagline
  • New "Acknowledgments" section — explicit recognition of ECC as the practical foundation AKC grew out of
  • New "References" section — post-hoc theoretical resonances (Thompson's Mind in Life, Laukkonen et al.'s A Beautiful Loop)
  • ADR-0009 added with the full repositioning rationale
  • akc-cycle.md — Security by Absence section removed (it remains as ADR-0001 and Design Principle #7)
  • CITATION.cff abstract rewritten; harness keyword removed; bidirectional-growth and human-ai-collaboration added

What did NOT change

  • The six phases (Research → Extract → Curate → Promote → Measure → Maintain)
  • The cycle skills (search-first, learn-eval, skill-stocktake, rules-distill, skill-comply, context-sync)
  • ADRs 0001–0008
  • Schemas and reference implementation
  • Security by Absence as a load-bearing guarantee

Why a minor bump

Pure semver would call this a patch (docs only). v1.7.0 is a minor bump because the README is part of the project's identity contract — what AKC is changed in this release. The distinction matters for academic citation: work referencing v1.6 encounters the harness framing, while v1.7+ encounters the cycle framing.

🤖 Co-authored with Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context)

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