Checkwright v0.6.0

2026-07-18

Checkwright is the verification layer under agent orchestration, and this release extracts the stage cursor to a single source. The lifecycle stage a unit of work is in is now read from the evidence-stamp file’s last stamp — the one surface that already proved each stage was entered — and the queue header narrows to the iteration name alone. The redundant [stage:] header field and the queue-write that maintained it are retired. No gate landed or got stricter, so this is a behavior release; residual-field healing keeps a pre-upgrade header inert, so a clean upgrade reconciles nothing mechanically.

Tightened gates

None — no gate landed or got stricter. The stage-machine gates (check-stage-entry, check-stage-evidence, check-evidence-manifest) changed the surface they read — the queue header’s [stage:] field gives way to the state file’s last stamp — without tightening what a consistent tree must satisfy.

Renamed knobs

None — nothing was renamed or removed.

Behavior changes

The whole of this release lands here, the fixed section for what shifts that no gate scans.

• stage cursor — the lifecycle stage is now derived from the evidence-stamp file’s last data line (the shared lifecycle_current_stage / ek_state_stage adapters), not the queue header’s [stage:] field. Four readers move together: evidence-kit’s manifest coupling, lifecycle-kit’s entry and evidence gates, context-kit’s session-context hook, and delegation-kit’s statusline all read the stage from the state file. A consumer that scripted against [stage:] in the header reads the last stamp instead.
• enter-stage.sh — the flip dies: entering a stage no longer writes the queue, so the entry stamp is the sole transition, a departing session writes nothing, and no uncommitted stage state can strand a merge. Stage motion never touches the queue.
• queue header grammar — queue-kit retires the [stage:] field, narrowing the header to ## Iteration: <name>. The surviving name-axis readers strip an optional trailing bracketed field, so a pre-upgrade header still carrying [stage:] parses to the bare iteration name — the retire is blind-upgrade-safe.

Upgrading

Sync the vendored kit directories wholesale at v0.6.0 and regenerate the generated artifacts (the pre-commit hook and the graph projection), then run the full battery. Residual-field healing means a TASK-QUEUE.md header still carrying [stage:] needs no edit — it reads as the bare iteration name — though you may drop the field at leisure.

No allowed reds. The Tightened gates section is empty: a clean upgrade turns no gate red. The behavior changes above are declared for reading, not a mechanical scan. If a gate reds that this note does not name, the upgrade smoke was supposed to catch it first — open an issue, because that is a defect in the release rather than work for you.