STAGE 0.5.6

Released: 2026-07-22

STAGE 0.5.6 keeps adopted project maps stable across ordinary product and verification work. It keeps the 0.5 Practitioner Kernel and all supported artifact schemas compatible.

Why This Patch Exists

Lanternworks exposed a maintenance inversion. Its concise human map and machine-readable manifest copied exact Unity test counts, source revisions, artifact hashes, and launch timings from the canonical verification guide. Normal product commits made those copies stale even though the operations, ownership boundaries, and evidence classes had not changed.

A project map should answer where work belongs, what can be run, what proves completion, and who owns the decision. It should not become a second ledger of historical invocations.

Changes

• Keep project maps focused on durable direction, vocabulary, ownership, architecture, operation contracts, evidence boundaries, and decision rights.
• Use available for a durable operation that can be exercised; use passed only in an intentionally revision-bound invocation record.
• Put exact counts, revisions, timestamps, artifact hashes, timings, and run outcomes in one canonical verification history or explicit audit/release record.
• Clarify that an ordinary test rerun or product commit does not require a map refresh unless a durable contract changed.
• Preserve revision-bound provenance in external audits and releases.
• Record the Lanternworks dogfood checkpoint that retained all 14 operation contracts while removing duplicated execution coordinates.

Practitioner Impact

Do not update STAGE.md after every green test run. Update it when direction, language, ownership, architecture, commands, readiness signals, evidence boundaries, risks, or decision rights change.

Keep exact execution history in one project-owned place. The filename and format are project choices; STAGE requires truthful provenance and claim scope, not a particular report document.

Compatibility

The plugin package version is 0.5.6; SPEC.md is method version 0.5. Project-map and case-study artifact versions 0.1 and 0.3 remain supported. No game-project migration is required.

Verification

The release is checked through:

• the complete STAGE release gate;
• direct Codex plugin and all skill-package validators;
• repository-local project-map, case-study, and Markdown-link validation;
• package self-containment and size checks;
• Lanternworks project-map validation after the maintenance dogfood; and
• a fresh local plugin installation reporting version 0.5.6.

Limitations

The maintenance failure and correction were observed in the same-owner Lanternworks dogfood project. This patch does not claim that every project needs a dedicated verification-history document or that map staleness has been measured under independent maintenance. It narrows duplicated authority; it does not replace revision-bound evidence.