msd-core/docs/RELEASE-v1.40.0-rc.1.md

v1.40.0-rc.1 Release Notes

Pre-release candidate. Published to npm under the next tag.

npx @opengsd/get-shit-done-redux@next

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What's in this release

rc.1 opens the 1.40.0 train. The headline change is the skill-surface consolidation (#2790) and the new two-stage hierarchical namespace routing that sits on top of it (#2792) — together they drop the cold-start system-prompt overhead from ~2,150 tokens (86 flat skills) to ~120 tokens (6 namespace routers). The release also adds the read-side of the phase-lifecycle status-line, hardens multi-runtime installs, and clears a backlog of correctness fixes for Gemini, Copilot, Codex, and the canary publish workflow.

Added

• Six namespace meta-skills with keyword-tag descriptions — replace the flat 86-skill listing with a two-stage hierarchical routing layer. The model sees 6 namespace routers (gsd:workflow, gsd:project, gsd:review, gsd:context, gsd:manage, gsd:ideate) instead of 86 entries; selects a namespace, then routes to the sub-skill. Existing sub-skills are unchanged and still invocable directly. (#2792)

• /gsd-health --context utilization guard — context-window quality guard with two thresholds: 60 % warns ("consider /gsd-thread"), 70 % is critical ("reasoning quality may degrade"). Also exposed as gsd-tools validate context. (#2792)

• Phase-lifecycle status-line — read-side — parseStateMd() now reads four new STATE.md frontmatter fields: active_phase, next_action, next_phases, and progress. formatGsdState() gains scenes for in-flight, idle, and progress display. Write-side wiring follows in a later RC. (#2833)

• --minimal install flag (alias --core-only) — writes only the six core skills needed for the main workflow loop; no gsd-* subagents. Drops cold-start overhead from ~12k tokens to ~700. Useful for local LLMs with 32K–128K context. (#2762)

Changed

• Skill surface consolidated 86 → 59 commands/gsd/*.md entries — four new grouped skills replace clusters of micro-skills (capture, phase, config, workspace); six existing parents absorb wrap-up and sub-operations as flags (update --sync/--reapply, sketch --wrap-up, spike --wrap-up, map-codebase --fast/--query, code-review --fix, progress --do/--next). Zero functional loss — 31 micro-skills deleted, all behavior preserved via flags. (#2790)

• Canary release workflow now publishes from dev branch only — aligns with the branch→dist-tag policy (dev → @canary, main → @next/@latest). workflow_dispatch on main now completes build/test/dry-run validation but skips publish and tag. (#2868)

• PRs missing Closes #NNN are auto-closed — the Issue link required workflow now auto-closes any PR opened without a closing keyword, posting a comment that points to the contribution guide. (#2872)

Fixed

• Gemini slash commands now namespaced as /gsd:<cmd> instead of /gsd-<cmd> — Gemini CLI namespaces commands under gsd: so /gsd-plan-phase was unexecutable. The install path now converts every body-text reference via a roster-checked regex, consistently rewriting command files, agent bodies, and banners. (#2768, #2783)

• GSD slash-command namespace drift cleaned up across docs, workflows, and autocomplete — remaining stale /gsd:<cmd> references now use canonical /gsd-<cmd>; scripts/fix-slash-commands.cjs rewrites retired colon syntax. (#2858)

• SKILL.md description quoted for Copilot / Antigravity / Trae / CodeBuddy — descriptions starting with a YAML 1.2 flow indicator crashed gh-copilot's strict YAML loader. Six emission sites now wrap descriptions in yamlQuote(...). (#2876)

• gsd-tools invocations use the absolute installed path — bare gsd-tools … calls inside skill bodies relied on PATH resolution not guaranteed in every runtime; replaced with the absolute path emitted at install time. (#2851)

• Codex installer preserves trailing newline when stripping legacy hooks — the legacy-hook strip ran against files with no terminating newline at EOF, breaking downstream parsers. (#2866)

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What was in rc.7

RELEASE-v1.39.0-rc.7.md — first 1.39.0 RC to roll in post-rc.5 fixes from main. Includes the extractCurrentMilestone fenced-code-block fix (#2787), audit-uat frontmatter parse fix (#2788), skill description budget + lint gate (#2789), gsd-sdk workstream + binary-collision fixes (#2791), and nine additional correctness fixes across OpenCode, Codex, and Gemini runtimes.

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Installing the pre-release

# npm
npm install -g @opengsd/get-shit-done-redux@next

# npx (one-shot)
npx @opengsd/get-shit-done-redux@next

To pin to this exact RC:

npm install -g @opengsd/get-shit-done-redux@1.40.0-rc.1

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What's next

• Soak rc.1 against real installs across Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, Gemini, OpenCode, and Antigravity runtimes.
• Wire write-side phase-lifecycle status-line on top of the #2833 read-side.
• Run finalize on the release workflow to promote 1.40.0 to latest once the train has soaked.