Release Notes

This page summarizes what changed in recent Feynman releases. GitHub releases use the same version-specific notes from the repository RELEASES.md file.

v0.3.4 - 2026-06-12

Research

  • Added feynman paper <id-or-title> for single-paper access resolution across OpenAlex, DOI, arXiv/alphaXiv, and Europe PMC, with optional source-specific text fetching and bounded artifacts that omit raw full-text bodies.
  • Added feynman rank <topic> with PaperRank scoring for read-first triage, transparent citation/method/reproducibility evidence, graph context, optional critique or model synthesis, bounded JSONL outputs, and provenance.
  • Added --reproduction-notes so completed reproduction outcomes are recorded separately from planned replication checks. When reproduction notes are supplied, PaperRank writes the reproduction ledger, notes template, and replication plan; ordinary read-first runs keep those extra artifacts out of the default output.

Model Catalog

  • Fixed research model selection so recommended/default model paths, stale settings, model lists, and explicit CLI overrides reject Pro-class model IDs and keep OpenAI-only installs on the newest available non-Pro GPT model exposed by Pi.
  • Added PaperRank model-selection provenance so CLI output, JSON output, generated synthesis Markdown, and rank provenance name the actual synthesis model and whether it came from the recommendation path or an explicit override.
  • Updated setup/configuration examples and the LiteLLM fallback prompt to avoid GPT-4-era and premium-tier defaults.

Pi Runtime

  • Refreshed the bundled Pi runtime packages to 0.79.10 and updated production dependency overrides so npm audit --omit=dev is clean after the refresh. This inherits Pi’s compaction-event context, exact-version update flow, nested-repo find fix, and OpenAI-compatible reasoning_details streaming fix.
  • Fixed session rename crashes when long slash-workflow names overflowed the custom header. Header workflow names are now clipped to their column in both wide and narrow layouts before descriptions are rendered.
  • Removed the old generative-ui, ui, and all-extras optional package/update targets. Optional packages now stay one-by-one and research-continuity focused.

v0.2.58 - 2026-05-16

Optional Packages

  • Added a hindsight optional preset that installs @luxusai/pi-hindsight, giving users a first-class path to Hindsight-backed research-continuity memory without adding it to the default install.
  • Added hindsight and pi-hindsight update aliases so feynman update hindsight resolves to the same package source.
  • Updated the package-stack and setup docs to show Hindsight as an optional memory surface and note that it requires a Hindsight server or Hindsight Cloud account.

Validation

  • Added regression coverage for the new optional preset, research-continuity package copy, removed bulk/UI presets, and update aliases.

v0.2.57 - 2026-05-15

Runtime Reliability

  • Fixed the interactive prompt input color on macOS/iTerm profiles where typed text inherited a black terminal foreground against Feynman’s dark editor background.
  • Applied the editor foreground/background patch through the shared Pi patch module so package-local installs and the vendored runtime archive stay in sync.

Validation

  • Added regression coverage for the patched Pi editor/theme source transformations, including idempotency.

v0.2.56 - 2026-05-13

Security

  • Updated the protobufjs dependency override from 7.5.5 to 7.5.8, which pulls in the patched @protobufjs/utf8 release and clears the current production audit advisory set.

Validation

  • Re-ran the root production audit after the override refresh and confirmed it reports zero vulnerabilities.

v0.2.55 - 2026-05-13

Model Catalog

  • Updated Feynman’s research model preference order so the newest available non-Pro OpenAI GPT model can be recommended, auto-selected, and surfaced ahead of older OpenAI GPT models.
  • Applied the same newest-available non-Pro GPT preference to OpenAI Codex when Pi exposes Codex directly.
  • Updated first-run/default setup preferences so OpenAI-only installs choose the newest available non-Pro OpenAI GPT model when available.

Validation

  • Added regression coverage for newest-available non-Pro OpenAI recommendation, model sorting, and default setup seeding.

v0.2.54 - 2026-05-11

Runtime Reliability

  • Fixed packed npm installs that hoist package dependencies outside Feynman’s package root. Feynman now falls back to its vendored .feynman/npm runtime workspace when resolving Pi, so feynman doctor and prompt launches work from a clean packed install.
  • Applied runtime node-module patches to both package-local dependencies and the vendored runtime workspace.

Validation

  • Added regression coverage for packed-install Pi path resolution and vendored runtime patching.
  • Added an isolated packed-install E2E that installs the generated tarball into a clean prefix/home and launches Feynman from that install.

v0.2.53 - 2026-05-11

Runtime Reliability

  • Hardened alphaXiv search fallback again: if both the removed MCP search tools and discover_papers are unavailable, alpha search now falls back to the public alphaXiv fast REST search endpoint.
  • Patched the Pi extension loader to alias both @mariozechner/* and @earendil-works/* Pi runtime imports to Feynman’s already initialized bundled runtime, preventing mixed-namespace TUI/theme crashes when expanding tool output.
  • Applied the extension-loader patch to the vendored runtime archive path, not only the local development node_modules path.

Validation

  • Added regression coverage for upgrading the old discover_papers-only alphaXiv patch and for dual-namespace Pi runtime aliasing.

v0.2.52 - 2026-05-09

Runtime Reliability

  • Seed bundled runtime packages before package updates so missing undeclared extension dependencies such as typebox are repaired before extension load.
  • Include Pi’s typebox runtime package beside installed Pi packages when Feynman has to run npm directly.
  • Include the new @earendil-works/* Pi runtime package namespace beside the legacy @mariozechner/* namespace so updated Pi extensions such as pi-btw and pi-markdown-preview can load.
  • Patched alphaXiv search in the bundled alpha-hub runtime to fall back to the newer discover_papers MCP tool when alphaXiv no longer exposes the older search tool names.
  • Hardened model tool-call handling for common alias mistakes: search_web now maps to web_search, and bare fetch / WebFetch / read_url_content map to fetch_content with array URLs normalized.
  • Fixed the Windows docker probe in the research header so cmd.exe no longer emits localized mojibake from Unix-only /dev/null redirection.

Workflow Prompts

  • Added a shared tool-discipline block to every workflow prompt so lead agents see canonical tool names before workflow-specific instructions.

Validation

  • Added regression coverage for alphaXiv search fallback, Pi tool alias normalization, bundled runtime dependency installs, and prompt tool discipline.

v0.2.51 - 2026-05-09

Package Manager

  • Hardened Pi package installs and updates so peer-only Pi runtime packages are materialized into Feynman’s npm prefix beside installed Pi packages.
  • This prevents optional or legacy Pi packages from failing at extension load time when they import Pi runtime modules that npm did not install because Feynman uses legacy peer dependency mode.

Validation

  • Added package-manager coverage for installing Pi runtime peers beside Pi npm packages.

v0.2.50 - 2026-05-09

Skills Installer

  • Added an explicit Codex skills target for standalone skill installs: --codex on macOS/Linux and -Scope Codex on Windows.
  • Kept the existing default/user install behavior compatible while documenting the Codex, repo-local Claude/agent, and OpenCode target paths.

Validation

  • Added installer coverage for the Codex target and target-specific docs.

v0.2.49 - 2026-05-07

Website

  • Updated the website build stack to patched Astro 6/Vite 7.
  • Migrated docs content collections to Astro’s current content-layer config.

Validation

  • Website build, typecheck, lint, and production audit passed.
  • Root build, typecheck, full tests, package dry-run, native bundle build, and production audit passed after the website upgrade.

v0.2.48 - 2026-05-07

Fixes

  • Restored Node.js 24 support for the Feynman CLI and npm package.
  • Slimmed the default Pi package set to the core AI research essentials: alphaXiv access, subagents, document parsing, and web access.
  • Moved memory and session search out of the default install path so optional package failures cannot block first launch.
  • Kept session search gated to Node.js 22.x because its upstream sqlite dependency still depends on native prebuild coverage.
  • Upgraded the TypeScript toolchain to 6.0 and updated the build config for its explicit rootDir requirement.

Documentation

  • Updated package-stack, setup, install, and session-search docs to distinguish core researcher packages from optional extras.

Validation

  • Full local tests passed: 157/157.
  • Typecheck, root build, website build, native bundle build, production npm audit --omit=dev, and package dry-run passed.
  • Package dry-run verified the bundled runtime workspace excludes memory and session search by default.

v0.2.47 - 2026-05-07

Documentation

  • Clarified that Feynman’s package, extension, and skill wiring follows Pi’s upstream package model.
  • Linked the Hugging Face Hub API and environment-variable docs from the README and website docs.
  • Clarified that Hugging Face file reads refuse obvious model weights, archives, and dataset shards before download.

Validation

  • Tightened the Hugging Face binary-file refusal regression test.
  • Full local tests passed: 157/157.
  • Typecheck, root build, website build, and production npm audit --omit=dev passed.

v0.2.46 - 2026-05-07

Updates

  • Added the /recipe workflow for ranked ML training recipes backed by papers, datasets, docs, implementation paths, and verification status.
  • Added read-only Hugging Face Hub inspection tools for dataset metadata, repo file listing, and small text file reads. These support recipe and replication grounding without requiring Hub write access, and refuse obvious weight/archive/shard reads before download.
  • Updated /replicate so ML-heavy targets perform a recipe extraction pass before execution planning.

Documentation

  • Added website docs for the /recipe workflow and Hugging Face Hub tools.
  • Updated README, quickstart, command references, agent docs, replication docs, and package-stack docs for the new workflow and tools.

Validation

  • Added unit coverage for Hugging Face tool registration, endpoint formatting, auth headers, file listing limits, truncation, and binary-file refusal.
  • Full local tests passed: 157/157.
  • Typecheck, root build, website build, CLI help, and live Hugging Face endpoint smoke checks passed.

v0.2.45 - 2026-05-07

Updates

  • Updated the bundled Pi runtime packages to @mariozechner/pi-ai@0.73.0 and @mariozechner/pi-coding-agent@0.73.0.
  • Updated @clack/prompts to 1.3.0 for the setup/onboarding prompt surface.

Validation

  • Full local tests passed: 154/154.
  • Typecheck, root build, website build, feynman doctor, and production npm audit --omit=dev passed.
  • JSONL RPC smoke passed with get_state and a bash command returning FEYNMAN_RPC_OK.
  • Release CI published npm 0.2.45, built all native bundles, and created the GitHub release.

v0.2.44 - 2026-05-06

Fixes

  • Updated transitive dependency override pins to patched versions so production npm audit reports zero vulnerabilities.
  • This removes advisories in basic-ftp, fast-xml-parser, hono, and ip-address while keeping the dependency changes scoped to existing transitive packages.

Validation

  • Production npm audit --omit=dev passed with zero vulnerabilities.
  • Full local tests passed: 154/154.
  • Typecheck, root build, website build, and feynman doctor passed.

v0.2.43 - 2026-05-06

Fixes

  • Restricted .feynman/web-search.json permissions to user-only (0600) after Feynman writes web-search provider configuration.
  • This protects stored web-search API keys such as Exa, Perplexity, and Gemini keys from permissive local umasks.

Validation

  • Added POSIX regression coverage for saved web-search config permissions.
  • Full local tests passed: 154/154.
  • Typecheck and build passed.

v0.2.42 - 2026-05-06

Fixes

  • Fixed runtime RPC startup in projects with .feynman/settings.json package entries by patching Pi’s project npm install path to use peer-dependency-compatible installs.
  • This prevents project-scoped package sync from failing on packages such as @aliou/pi-processes before the RPC session can start.

Validation

  • Added regression coverage for the embedded Pi package-manager patch.
  • Real v0.2.41 release RPC testing reproduced the missing project-package install failure that this release fixes.

v0.2.41 - 2026-05-06

Fixes

  • Fixed startup package seeding so copied bundled packages are treated as satisfied instead of falling through to repeated global npm installs.
  • Seeded bundled packages before interactive setup reports missing packages, avoiding unnecessary first-run package prompts when the standalone bundle already has the runtime workspace.
  • Restricted supported Node.js runtimes to Node 20.19.x through Node 22.x because sqlite-backed Pi packages such as session search are not reliable under Node 24.
  • Updated release CI to build, test, publish, and package native bundles with Node 22.

Documentation

  • Added research-only biomedical literature review guidance with PICO/PICOS framing, evidence-type separation, privacy boundaries, and non-clinical-advice wording.
  • Updated npm install docs to show the new supported Node engine range.

Validation

  • Full local tests passed: 151/151.
  • Typecheck and root build passed.

v0.2.40 - 2026-04-19

Fixes

  • Fixed local-model web-search failures where a model calls non-existent search aliases such as google:search; Feynman now maps those aliases to Pi’s real web_search tool when it is available.
  • Granted the bundled researcher and verifier agents access to Pi web-access tools (web_search, fetch_content, and get_search_content) so their prompts and allowed tools match.
  • Made feynman doctor and feynman search status explicitly show when web-search.json has not been created and how to initialize it.
  • Stopped treating expired OAuth credentials as authenticated model availability, so doctor, model list, and onboarding guide users to re-login instead of failing later in chat.
  • Added a package-workspace setup lock so concurrent Feynman invocations do not race while restoring .feynman/npm.

Validation

  • Full local tests passed: 137/137.
  • Typecheck, build, vendored runtime regeneration, runtime archive inspection, sequential CLI smoke, and parallel CLI smoke passed.

v0.2.39 - 2026-04-19

Fixes

  • Fixed TUI-selected thinking/reasoning effort persistence. Feynman no longer passes an implicit --thinking medium on every launch, so thinking levels saved by Pi after Shift+Tab survive restarts.
  • Explicit --thinking <level> and FEYNMAN_THINKING=<level> still override the saved default for that launch.

Validation

  • Added regression coverage that Feynman only passes a launch thinking override when it was explicitly configured.
  • Full local tests passed: 126/126.
  • Typecheck and build passed.

v0.2.38 - 2026-04-19

Fixes

  • Fixed feynman update memory and feynman update session-search so friendly core-package aliases resolve to the correct npm package sources and use Feynman’s npm install path with peer-dependency compatibility flags.
  • Fixed feynman summarize ... --window-size ... and related summarize tuning flags when the flags appear after the source positional.
  • Fixed feynman setup preview so it actually runs the preview dependency check, matching the legacy --setup-preview alias.
  • Made optional generative-ui install/update failures degrade cleanly on macOS toolchains where upstream glimpseui cannot compile, without dumping thousands of Swift compiler lines.
  • Reduced deepresearch TUI redraw churn by freezing the Feynman header’s Last Activity snapshot during live streaming work instead of recomputing it every render.
  • Fixed bundled skills that referenced prompt templates through broken installed relative paths.
  • Fixed the embedded Pi patcher so repeated runtime preparation does not duplicate the TUI stdin error handler.

Documentation

  • Documented feynman setup preview.
  • Documented the existing Shift+Tab thinking-level hotkey and /hotkeys discovery path.

Validation

  • Full local tests passed: 124/124.
  • Typecheck, build, and clean website build passed.
  • Local CLI matrix passed for help, doctor, status, model list/tier, search status/set, alpha status, setup preview, packages list/install, and package update aliases.
  • End-to-end workflow runs completed for chat, summarize, review, compare, audit, draft, lit, deepresearch with confirmation, replicate, watch/jobs, log, and a bounded autoresearch loop.

v0.2.37 - 2026-04-19

Fixes

  • Hardened /deepresearch reviewer/audit fix handling so Feynman may only claim a patch landed after the edit/write tool succeeds and an explicit on-disk check proves the old unsupported content is gone and the corrected content exists.
  • Added provenance requirements for failed edit recovery so verification notes cannot mark an issue fixed before the final candidate actually reflects the fix.
  • Corrected MiniMax model preference casing to match Pi’s exposed model IDs.

Performance

  • Resolved preview/runtime executables in parallel before launching Pi, reducing synchronous startup work while preserving Windows, macOS, and Linux fallback behavior.

Fork Review

  • Scanned all public forks and selectively adopted the low-risk startup/model-test improvements. Rejected product-specific or bloated fork changes such as Claude CLI bypass mode, ValiChord, Overleaf export, and an external parallel-cli dependency.

Validation

  • Full local tests passed: 121/121.
  • Typecheck, build, local CLI doctor, and real one-shot launch smoke test passed.
  • Fork scan compared 676 accessible forks: 666 behind, 2 identical, 8 with unique commits inspected.

v0.2.36 - 2026-04-18

Fixes

  • Hardened /review so it writes a durable plan, evidence notes, and outputs/<slug>-review.md instead of stopping after a planning/narration response.
  • Added blocked-review fallback behavior for PDFs or external sources that cannot be parsed, so failed extraction still produces an explicit review artifact with Verification: BLOCKED.
  • Fixed subagent child-process spawning under Feynman’s Pi wrapper so writer/reviewer subagents no longer treat --mode as a module path.
  • Made optional package presets platform-aware so Linux users do not see or attempt to install the macOS-only generative-ui package.
  • Added the Release Notes entry to the website docs sidebar.

Documentation

  • Updated research review docs to describe the concrete output files and blocked-extraction behavior.
  • Updated package docs to clarify that memory and session search are core packages and generative-ui is macOS-only upstream.

Validation

  • Added regression coverage for the /review durable-artifact contract.
  • Added regression coverage for platform-aware optional presets and Feynman-aware subagent spawning.
  • Real installed-global review, package-list/install, subagent, and extension-load checks were run before release.

v0.2.35 - 2026-04-18

Fixes

  • Restored the /deepresearch confirmation gate: the workflow now writes outputs/.plans/<slug>.md, summarizes the plan, and waits for explicit user approval before searching, drafting, citing, or delivering final artifacts.
  • Changed top-level workflow invocation so feynman deepresearch ... behaves like the REPL workflow in a real terminal instead of forcing one-shot execution.
  • Added a Feynman wrapper around Pi’s CLI entrypoint so completed print-mode runs exit cleanly after Pi finishes.
  • Tightened direct-mode /deepresearch artifact paths so research notes and verification files are written under outputs/.drafts/.

Features

  • Added section-focused alpha_get_paper extraction with section / sections filters for abstract, introduction, methodology, experiments, results, discussion, limitations, and conclusion.
  • Added configurable /summarize context-window controls via flags and FEYNMAN_SUMMARIZE_* environment variables.

Documentation

  • Added public RELEASES.md and website release notes so each release has visible fix and feature history.
  • Updated deep research docs to describe the plan-confirmation workflow and current PDF-safety behavior.

Validation

  • Real installed-global REPL test: typed /deepresearch what is BM25, verified that only the plan existed before approval, then replied yes and verified final report, provenance, draft, cited draft, research notes, and verification artifacts.
  • Full local tests passed: 117/117.
  • Typecheck, build, website build, local pack, and local global install checks passed.

v0.2.34 - 2026-04-18

Fixes

  • Tightened /deepresearch so direct-mode research must use at least three distinct search terms or angles before drafting.
  • Required direct-mode /deepresearch to record the exact search terms in the direct research artifact.
  • Added regression coverage for the multi-query deep research contract.

Validation

  • Real RPC smoke test for /deepresearch what is BM25 completed and wrote the required plan, draft, cited draft, final report, and provenance artifacts.
  • Release CI published npm and native bundles for macOS arm64/x64, Linux x64, and Windows x64.

v0.2.33 - 2026-04-18

Fixes

  • Rewrote /deepresearch from a long protocol-style prompt into a shorter execution checklist so local models are less likely to echo instructions instead of doing work.
  • Made narrow direct-mode research complete without spawning verifier or reviewer subagents.
  • Avoided the crash-prone PDF parser path in /deepresearch unless PDF extraction is explicitly requested.

Validation

  • Real RPC /deepresearch what is BM25 completed with required artifacts and agent_end.
  • Full local tests, typecheck, build, audits, website build, and pack dry-run passed before release.

v0.2.32 - 2026-04-18

Fixes

  • Fixed Pi subagent parallel output propagation so top-level task output paths are honored.
  • Added foreground and async regression coverage for subagent output handoff behavior.
  • Hardened deep research prompts around durable artifacts and provenance.

v0.2.31 - 2026-04-17

Fixes

  • Fixed Feynman runtime auth environment propagation so launched Pi sessions can see the expected model provider credentials.
  • Revalidated setup and runtime startup paths after the auth fix.

v0.2.30 - 2026-04-17

Fixes

  • Fixed Pi subagent task output handling in the runtime patch layer.
  • Preserved bundled research-agent file handoffs for multi-agent workflows.

v0.2.29 - 2026-04-17

Maintenance

  • Updated bundled Pi runtime packages.
  • Rebuilt native release artifacts against the refreshed runtime package set.

v0.2.28 - 2026-04-17

Maintenance

  • Removed runtime hygiene extension bloat and kept the bundled runtime closer to upstream Pi behavior.
  • Reduced custom extension surface area to keep the research agent simpler.

v0.2.27 - 2026-04-17

Fixes

  • Added Pi event guards for workflow state transitions.
  • Improved workflow state tracking around long-running research operations.

v0.2.26 - 2026-04-17

Fixes

  • Switched research context hygiene onto Pi runtime hooks instead of extra custom runtime logic.
  • Improved compatibility with upstream Pi runtime behavior.

v0.2.25 - 2026-04-17

Fixes

  • Fixed workflow continuation and provider setup gaps.
  • Improved setup flow behavior for model-provider configuration.

v0.2.24 - 2026-04-16

Fixes

  • Linked bundled runtime dependencies for core Pi packages.
  • Addressed missing dependency errors for installed core packages.

v0.2.23 - 2026-04-16

Features

  • Added LM Studio setup support for local model workflows.
  • Added blocked-research artifact handling so interrupted runs keep useful state.

v0.2.22 - 2026-04-16

Features

  • Added first-class LM Studio setup.
  • Improved local model onboarding defaults.

v0.2.21 - 2026-04-16

Fixes

  • Fixed extension repair behavior.
  • Added the Opus 4.7 model overlay.

v0.2.20 - 2026-04-16

Release

  • Restored publish workflow behavior after a duplicate npm version blocked release.
  • Native bundles remained available through GitHub releases.

v0.2.19 - 2026-04-16

Fixes

  • Skipped release publication when the npm version already exists.
  • Prevented repeat publish attempts from failing the pipeline after npm publication succeeds.

v0.2.18 - 2026-04-16

Release

  • Prepared the release automation baseline used by the current npm and native-bundle pipeline.