v4.10.0 — Inspectable, durable, streaming

v4.10.0 — 2026-05-26

Aiden becomes inspectable, durable, and finally streams properly.

Spanning v4.9.1 → v4.10.0. The v4.9.2 / v4.9.3 / v4.9.4 hotfix series shipped to npm but never got dedicated GitHub releases; this entry covers everything since v4.9.1 plus the eleven v4.10 sprint slices.

Critical fix

• Streaming default restored at the wizard layer. DEFAULT_CONFIG.display.streaming now defaults to true — restoring what v4.1.4 attempted but couldn't operationally land. The pre-10.9 architecture had chatSession.ts runtime fallback at true (since v4.1.4) but the setup wizard wrote ...DEFAULT_CONFIG.display into config.yaml with streaming: false, so the runtime fallback never fired for any wizard-installed user. Every install since v4.0 silently received non-streaming. Users reported "Aiden feels slow" because they waited for full responses with no visible feedback. v4.10 fixes the wizard layer to match the runtime intent. Existing users with explicit streaming: false in their config keep their setting AND see a one-time per-session disclosure suggesting the flip. (Slice 10.9)

New features

• Durable Task object. Every user prompt now creates a persistent Task row with status / goal / traceIds back-reference. /tasks [active|completed|cancelled|failed|<N>] lists them; /adjust <task_id> cancel or /adjust <task_id> goal <new text> controls them. Lifecycle states: pending / active / completed / failed / cancelled. (Slice 10.8)
• Full trace persistence with rich schema. Every tool call, permission decision, task lifecycle event lands in a 21-column run_events ledger with (category, kind, name) taxonomy + per-run seq + payload truncation tracking + tool-call-id correlation. Eight indexes for cheap filtering. /trace recent slash command + model-facing trace_query tool with scope dispatch (current_run / current_session / run_id / session_id / last_hours / all) + filters (category / kind / name / tool_call_id). (Slices 10.2 / 10.2b / 10.2c / 10.2d)
• Scoped permission grants with audit. Once / Session (this <arg-kind>) / Always (this <arg-kind>) / Deny picker labels carry a dynamic qualifier showing what the scope actually covers (path / command / url / code / call). Per-project allowlists at <cwd>/.aiden/approvals.json shadow global ~/.aiden/approvals.json entries. Entries now persist createdAt + lastUsedAt timestamps; refresh-on-reuse keeps the audit trail accurate. REPL approval decisions now emit to run_events symmetric to the daemon path (category=approval kind=approval.decided). Smart-mode auto-allow / auto-deny paths now record the actual decided risk tier in onDecision callbacks, fixing audit-trail drift. (Slices 10.6 / 10.6c)
• Project memory namespace as first-class file. PROJECT.md travels with each project root, separate from global SOUL.md. Project-root detection cached at REPL boot and reused across the session. (Slices 10.1 / 10.1b)
• REPL crash survival. Process-level unhandledRejection + uncaughtException handlers installed at boot with survive-by-default semantics — log + render one dim line + keep the session alive. Asymmetric with the daemon path's fail-fast handlers (daemon has no user to recover; REPL does). (Slice 10.7)
• Eval harness v1. 20 contract tests under tests/v4/eval/ protecting v4.10 substrate from regression at the cross-slice level: streaming-end-to-end (mockProvider-backed real adapter contract), streaming-default-audit (pins the wizard default), trace-end-to-end (multi-turn session surface), tasks-end-to-end (full lifecycle + traceIds back-reference), permission-grants-end-to-end (scope semantics + audit symmetry). (Slice 10.9)

Fixed

• Bug D ghost-text cursor (third attempt that actually works). Ghost suggestion text moved out of the inline input line into the bottomContent tuple slot. Cursor now naturally lands right after the typed value because @inquirer/core's screen-manager owns positioning on content, not bottomContent. Two prior attempts (v4.9.2 Slice 2 inline cursorBackward; v4.9.6 same shape reframed) shipped INERT because the screen-manager's absolute cursorTo() overrode any inline escape. Slice 10.4's node-pty harness is the regression layer those attempts lacked. (Slice 10.5)
• /trace recent works between turns. Pre-10.2c the slash command read replParentRunRef.sessionId (turn-scoped, nulled post-turn) instead of chatSessionId (long-lived). Worked only mid-turn; reported "no active REPL session" between turns even though the chat was clearly alive. (Slice 10.2c)
• Channel isolation hardening. /channel telegram remove now prints a shell-cleanup hint disclosing that Aiden can't reach setx / ~/.bashrc-persisted env vars; also scans config.yaml for ${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN} references and warns when found. SIGINT/SIGTERM handlers now call channelManager.stopAll() with a 1s hard cap before process.exit, closing the Telegram polling-lock stale window. (Slice 10.7)
• Approval-prompt picker label accuracy. Pre-10.6c the labels read "Session" / "Always" — temporal-scope vocabulary — but the engine treats them as signature scopes (this tool + this primary arg). Users granted "Session" for file_write test3.txt and were surprised when file_write test4.txt re-prompted. Labels now carry a dynamic arg-kind qualifier: "Session (this path)" / "Always (this command)" etc. (Slice 10.6c)

Internal

• Status footer enhancements (Slice 10.3). REPL ergonomics polish.
• PTY test harness (Slice 10.4). tests/v4/harness/aidenTerm.ts + mockProvider.ts for terminal regression coverage — load-bearing for Slice 10.5 + Slice 10.9.
• REPL StderrSink drop (Slice 10.7a). Sub-slice ahead of full Slice 10.7 channel work.
• Symmetric-coverage source-contract guards. A new test pattern asserts that paired emit sites (REPL + daemon paths) both fire their categorized events. Catches the "missing emit at a site that should emit" regression class that grep-based audits silently pass.

Known limitations (deferred to v4.11)

• Mid-turn task abort. /adjust <id> cancel records intent but doesn't abort the in-flight agent loop; requires abort-signal-from-outside-the-turn plumbing.
• Live status-bar refresh during streaming. Needs the renderer-ownership refactor.
• Inline ghost text. Moved to footer for v4.10 — the inline form would require Aiden to own the final cursor position rather than @inquirer/core.
• Full task-kernel ledger (claim_lock, worker_pid, heartbeat). Slice 10.8 ships the lighter REPL-scoped Task object; the multi-worker daemon path picks up the heavier kernel.
• Cross-channel rendering coordination. Tasks are REPL-scoped this slice; Telegram / Discord task surfacing is v4.11+.

---