v2026.5.8 — Fleet Discipline + Release Hygiene

Tag: `v2026.5.8` · Released: 2026-05-18 · npm: `npm install -g [email protected]`

This release is the post-2026.5.7 hardening line. It focuses on fleet operations for small API plans, provider-aware behavior deployment, explicit repo-access checks, model-tier routing primitives, serve/daemon reliability, context parallelism controls, and default-install hygiene.

TL;DR

# Install
npm install -g [email protected]

# Inspect a machine/workspace for cockpit ingestion
aiwg status --export json

# Deploy fleet behavior policy where supported
aiwg use aiwg-fleet --provider openclaw

# Check repository read-scope assumptions before an agent relies on paths
aiwg repo-access

What's in the box

1. Fleet behavior and discipline

The new `aiwg-fleet` addon ships `quiet-bot` and `quiet-business-bot` behavior bundles. These capture mention-only / business-domain response policies for budget-sensitive bots and deploy natively where provider behavior artifacts are supported.

`aiwg-utils` also adds prompt-level discipline rules for the same fleet problem space:

• `escalation-discipline` — summarize and justify before moving above the default model tier; Tier 3 requires confirmation.
• `tool-quota` — stop retry/tool-call loops instead of spending through a small plan.
• `quiet-mode` — portable mention-only / low-noise behavior where native behavior support is unavailable.
• `respect-repo-access-manifest` — do not assume repository paths are readable until checked.

2. Status export for cockpits

`aiwg status` can now emit structured fleet payloads for external dashboards:

aiwg status --export json
aiwg status --export ndjson

The schema is documented in `docs/fleet/status-export-schema.md` and includes version, installed frameworks, provider deployments, recent activity, long-running operations, and health flags. The model stays pull-based and loopback/private-network friendly.

3. Repo-access preflight

`aiwg repo-access` makes read-scope assumptions explicit before an agent tries to follow paths that the active platform may not be able to read. The companion docs in `docs/security/repo-access-manifest.md` define the manifest contract and the safety model.

4. Model-tier routing primitive

The new model router types and helper support Tier 0-3 policy decisions with rationale and confirmation requirements. This is a primitive, not full deployment-time provider integration yet; `#1185` remains open for workspace-level tier config, `aiwg use` integration, and the ADR-level taxonomy.

5. Context parallelism caps

Provider-scoped max parallel subagent caps can now be declared in `.aiwg/aiwg.config`. Generated `AIWG.md` / `AGENTS.md` surfaces the cap, and RLM parallel defaults respect it. This keeps fan-out behavior visible and bounded in provider contexts where parallel subagents are expensive.

6. Serve and daemon reliability

The execution stack gained A2A terminal task-state observation, sandbox transport fixtures, PTY bridge resilience coverage, and daemon/serve gap-fill tests. These harden the mission-control and serve paths without making default CI depend on a live sandbox host.

7. Install hygiene

`better-sqlite3` and `@xenova/transformers` are now optional peers rather than default install dependencies. This removes deprecated native prebuild plumbing from the default install tree. The SQLite backend implementation suite now skips cleanly when `better-sqlite3` is absent, while factory/error-path coverage still runs.

8. Release-doc and docsite checks

The docsite release workflows now fail loudly on silent notify/deploy problems and verify the generated SPA section file for a release announcement instead of grepping the shell HTML. That makes missing release docs visible before publish promotion.

Verification

Release-readiness checks for this line:

npm run check:versions
npx tsc --noEmit
npm run test:ci

The latest post-fix Gitea CI run on `main` passed both Test and Build (`actions/runs/2333`, commit `530cf535`).

Compatibility

No breaking changes for normal CLI use. Optional native backends/features that directly need `better-sqlite3` or `@xenova/transformers` now require explicit installation by users who enable those paths.

Open tracker note: the only open `bug`-labelled issue at release time is `#1379`, an audit/epic for companion CLI workflow language. The first enforcement slice has landed; the remaining work is full inventory/remediation, so it does not block this patch release.