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STAGE 0.5.1

Released: 2026-07-22

STAGE 0.5.1 is a packaging and maintainer-documentation release. It does not change the 0.5 Practitioner Kernel, artifact schemas, project requirements, or visual-review authority model.

Why This Patch Exists​

The repository already distinguished the small Practitioner Kernel from its Maintainer Laboratory, but the local Codex marketplace pointed at the repository root. Installing 0.5.0 therefore copied roughly 68 MiB into Codex's cache, including Git history, a Python virtual environment, trials, tests, scripts, profiles, schemas, and maintainer documentation. The executable plugin content itself measured about 60 KiB.

This patch makes the distribution boundary match the method boundary:

  • plugin/ is the canonical installable package;
  • the package contains only metadata, skills, and skill-local references;
  • skills are self-contained and do not depend on maintainer documentation;
  • the marketplace points directly at the package subtree; and
  • automated checks guard package contents, upward references, and size.

ADR 0037 records the decision and its limits.

Practitioner Impact​

The install commands are unchanged:

codex plugin marketplace add .
codex plugin add stage-game-engineering@stage-local

Fresh installations cache the lean package rather than the repository laboratory. Existing tasks retain their loaded snapshot and must not be used to prove the new package is active.

The README now concentrates on the solo practitioner's direct change workflow. Repository gates, package refresh, release metadata, schemas, maps, and studies live in the dedicated maintainer guide.

Compatibility​

The plugin package version is 0.5.1; SPEC.md is method version 0.5. Project-map and case-study artifact versions 0.1 and 0.3 remain supported. No game-project artifact migration is required.

The package path is an implementation detail of this repository's Codex distribution. Plugin installation remains optional, and STAGE does not require games to copy this repository shape.

Verification​

The release is checked through:

  • the complete STAGE release gate;
  • direct Codex plugin validation;
  • direct validation of all three skill packages;
  • repository-local Markdown-link and project-map validation;
  • a package-boundary test with a 256 KiB ceiling; and
  • installation inspection confirming only .codex-plugin/ and skills/ are present in the cached package.

The old 0.5.0 cache is retained as measurement evidence until normal Codex cache cleanup; it is not part of the 0.5.1 package.

Limitations​

This patch proves the local package shape and installation behavior on the owner's current Codex environment. It does not establish that every agent platform should use the same package boundary, and it does not broaden STAGE's transferability or productivity claims.

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