0.83.1-alpha · core 2026-10-22

The helper read the same state file six times per transition. Every key cost its own python process, so a transition parsed the state six times and the mode policy was read in a seventh. The knobs now come from one parse, and the mode check moved into the query that needs it — the reason for a refusal is now written by one place instead of two.
The artifacts: manifest had two writers and the worker's entry was silently dropped. The helper writes the manifest in the state front-matter; a host prompt also tells the worker to append a block of its own (the research and explore tracks have no stelow advance to write it for them). The append landed AFTER the front-matter — a second artifacts: key, which is a duplicate key in YAML — and the helper read only the front-matter, so it never saw the worker's entry. The next advance rewrote the front-matter from the helper's own list and the worker's artifact vanished: the card lost it with no error anywhere. Every block is now read, wherever it is, and merged into one canonical list; the file carries exactly one artifacts: key afterwards.