v5.6.0

Highlights

• Removed per-call thinking. Concrete models must be provider/model:thinking; aliases may omit the suffix and inherit it from the target. Role-file thinking frontmatter is rejected.
• role is now a name string only. Role files provide defaults; per-call AgentOptions model, tools, skills, extensions, and contextFiles override them.
• Added terminal-run retention settings (retention.olderThanDays, retention.maxTerminalRuns) applied best-effort at session start to hard-terminal runs only.

Breaking changes

• Role objects, RoleOverride, ROLE_OVERRIDE_KEYS, and validateRoleOverride are removed. overrideSystemPrompt remains role-file only.
• Persisted legacy role objects are rejected as corrupt. Legacy role snapshots fold thinking into model.
• Removed the optional singleAgent workflow-catalog function from @piewf/subagents. Use core agent() and withWorktree() in workflow scripts.

Before:

agent(prompt, {
  role: { name: "reviewer", model: "anthropic/claude-fable-5", thinking: "high", tools: ["!*", "read"] },
})

After:

agent(prompt, {
  role: "reviewer",
  model: "anthropic/claude-fable-5:high",
  tools: ["!*", "read"],
})

Fixes

• Report failed ownership writes per run instead of crashing the host.
• Keep nested failedAt paths absolute and journal-consistent.
• Resolve real-session trace paths from the package root.

Documentation

• Documented agent session transitions and tightened the root README.

Verification

• npm run check
• Dry-run package inspection for all four publishable workspaces

Packages:

• pi-extensible-workflows@5.6.0
• @piewf/cli@5.6.0
• @piewf/herdr@5.6.0
• @piewf/subagents@5.6.0

Full changelog: v5.5.0...v5.6.0