feynman/CHANGELOG.md

CHANGELOG

Workspace lab notebook for long-running or resumable research work.

Use this file to track chronology, not release notes. Keep entries short, factual, and operational.

Entry template

YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM TZ — [slug or objective]

• Objective: ...
• Changed: ...
• Verified: ...
• Failed / learned: ...
• Blockers: ...
• Next: ...

2026-03-25 00:00 local — scaling-laws

• Objective: Set up a deep research workflow for scaling laws.
• Changed: Created plan artifact at outputs/.plans/scaling-laws.md; defined 4 disjoint researcher dimensions and acceptance criteria.
• Verified: Read CHANGELOG.md and checked prior memory for related plan scaling-laws-implications.
• Failed / learned: No prior run-specific changelog entries existed beyond the template.
• Blockers: Waiting for user confirmation before launching researcher round 1.
• Next: On confirmation, spawn 4 parallel researcher subagents and begin evidence collection.

2026-03-25 00:30 local — scaling-laws (T4 inference/time-scale pass)

• Objective: Complete T4 on inference/test-time scaling and reasoning-time compute, scoped to 2023–2026.
• Changed: Wrote notes/scaling-laws-research-inference.md; updated outputs/.plans/scaling-laws.md to mark T4 done and log the inference-scaling verification pass.
• Verified: Cross-read 13 primary/official sources covering Tree-of-Thoughts, PRMs, repeated sampling, compute-optimal test-time scaling, provable laws, o1, DeepSeek-R1, s1, verifier failures, Anthropic extended thinking, and OpenAI reasoning API docs.
• Failed / learned: OpenAI blog fetch for learning-to-reason-with-llms returned malformed content, so the note leans on the o1 system card and API docs instead of that blog post.
• Blockers: T2 and T5 remain open before final synthesis; no single unified law for inference-time scaling emerged from public sources.
• Next: Complete T5 implications synthesis, then reconcile T3/T4 with foundational T2 before drafting the cited brief.

2026-03-25 11:20 local — scaling-laws (T6 draft synthesis)

• Objective: Synthesize the four research notes into a single user-facing draft brief for the scaling-laws workflow.
• Changed: Wrote outputs/.drafts/scaling-laws-draft.md with an executive summary, curated reading list, qualitative meta-analysis, core-paper comparison table, explicit training-vs-inference distinction, and numbered inline citations with direct-URL sources.
• Verified: Cross-checked the draft against notes/scaling-laws-research-foundations.md, notes/scaling-laws-research-revisions.md, notes/scaling-laws-research-inference.md, and notes/scaling-laws-research-implications.md to ensure the brief explicitly states the literature is too heterogeneous for a pooled effect-size estimate.
• Failed / learned: The requested temp-run context.md and plan.md were absent, so the synthesis used outputs/.plans/scaling-laws.md plus the four note files as the working context.
• Blockers: Citation/claim verification pass still pending; this draft should be treated as pre-verification.
• Next: Run verifier/reviewer passes, then promote the draft into the final cited brief and provenance sidecar.

2026-03-25 11:28 local — scaling-laws (final brief + pdf)

• Objective: Deliver a paper guide and qualitative meta-analysis on AI scaling laws.
• Changed: Finalized outputs/scaling-laws.md and sidecar outputs/scaling-laws.provenance.md; rendered preview PDF at outputs/scaling-laws.pdf; updated plan ledger and verification log in outputs/.plans/scaling-laws.md.
• Verified: Ran a reviewer pass recorded in notes/scaling-laws-verification.md; spot-checked key primary papers via alpha-backed reads for Kaplan 2020, Chinchilla 2022, and Snell 2024; confirmed PDF render output exists.
• Failed / learned: A pooled statistical meta-analysis would be misleading because the literature mixes heterogeneous outcomes, scaling axes, and evaluation regimes; final deliverable uses a qualitative meta-analysis instead.
• Blockers: None for this brief.
• Next: If needed, extend into a narrower sub-survey (e.g. only pretraining laws, only inference-time scaling, or only post-Chinchilla data-quality revisions).

2026-03-25 14:52 local — skills-only-install

• Objective: Let users download the Feynman research skills without installing the full terminal runtime.
• Changed: Added standalone skills-only installers at scripts/install/install-skills.sh and scripts/install/install-skills.ps1; synced website-public copies; documented user-level and repo-local install flows in README.md, website/src/content/docs/getting-started/installation.md, and website/src/pages/index.astro.
• Verified: Ran sh -n scripts/install/install-skills.sh; ran node scripts/sync-website-installers.mjs; ran cd website && npm run build; executed sh scripts/install/install-skills.sh --dir <tmp> and confirmed extracted SKILL.md files land in the target directory.
• Failed / learned: PowerShell installer behavior was not executed locally because PowerShell is not installed in this environment.
• Blockers: None for the Unix installer flow; Windows remains syntax-only by inspection.
• Next: If users want this exposed more prominently, add a dedicated docs/reference page and a homepage-specific skills-only CTA instead of a text link.

2026-03-26 18:08 PDT — installer-release-unification

• Objective: Remove the moving edge installer channel and unify installs on tagged releases only.
• Changed: Updated scripts/install/install.sh, scripts/install/install.ps1, scripts/install/install-skills.sh, and scripts/install/install-skills.ps1 so the default target is the latest tagged release, latest-version resolution uses public GitHub release pages instead of api.github.com, and explicit edge requests now fail with a removal message; removed the release-edge job from .github/workflows/publish.yml; updated README.md and website/src/content/docs/getting-started/installation.md; re-synced website/public/install*.
• Verified: Ran sh -n on the Unix installer copies; confirmed sh scripts/install/install.sh edge and sh scripts/install/install-skills.sh edge --dir <tmp> fail with the intended removal message; executed sh scripts/install/install.sh into temp dirs and confirmed the installed binary reports 0.2.14; executed sh scripts/install/install-skills.sh --dir <tmp> and confirmed extracted SKILL.md files; ran cd website && npm run build.
• Failed / learned: The install failure was caused by unauthenticated GitHub API rate limiting on the edge path, so renaming channels without removing the API dependency would not have fixed the root cause.
• Blockers: npm run build still emits a pre-existing duplicate-content warning for getting-started/installation; the build succeeds.
• Next: If desired, remove the now-unused stable alias too and clean up the duplicate docs-content warning separately.

2026-03-27 11:58 PDT — release-0.2.15

• Objective: Make the non-Anthropic subagent/auth fixes and contributor-guide updates releasable to tagged-install users instead of leaving them only on main.
• Changed: Bumped the package version from 0.2.14 to 0.2.15 in package.json and package-lock.json; updated pinned installer examples in README.md and website/src/content/docs/getting-started/installation.md; aligned the local-development docs example to the npm-based root workflow; added CONTRIBUTING.md plus the bundled skills/contributing/SKILL.md.
• Verified: Confirmed the publish workflow keys off package.json versus the currently published npm version; confirmed local npm test, npm run typecheck, and npm run build pass before the release bump.
• Failed / learned: The open subagent issue is fixed on main but still user-visible on tagged installs until a fresh release is cut.
• Blockers: Need the GitHub publish workflow to finish successfully before the issue can be honestly closed as released.
• Next: Push 0.2.15, monitor the publish workflow, then update and close the relevant GitHub issue/PR once the release is live.

2026-03-28 15:15 PDT — pi-subagents-agent-dir-compat

• Objective: Debug why tagged installs can still fail subagent/auth flows after 0.2.15 when users are not on Anthropic.
• Changed: Added scripts/lib/pi-subagents-patch.mjs plus type declarations and wired scripts/patch-embedded-pi.mjs to rewrite vendored pi-subagents runtime files so they resolve user-scoped paths from PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR instead of hardcoded ~/.pi/agent; added tests/pi-subagents-patch.test.ts.
• Verified: Materialized .feynman/npm, inspected the shipped pi-subagents@0.11.11 sources, confirmed the hardcoded ~/.pi/agent paths in index.ts, agents.ts, artifacts.ts, run-history.ts, skills.ts, and chain-clarify.ts; ran node scripts/patch-embedded-pi.mjs; ran npm test, npm run typecheck, and npm run build.
• Failed / learned: The earlier 0.2.15 fix only proved that Feynman exported PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR to the top-level Pi child; it did not cover vendored extension code that still hardcoded .pi paths internally.
• Blockers: Users still need a release containing this patch before tagged installs benefit from it.
• Next: Cut the next release and verify a tagged install exercises subagents without reading from ~/.pi/agent.

2026-03-28 21:46 PDT — release-0.2.16

• Objective: Ship the vendored pi-subagents agent-dir compatibility fix to tagged installs.
• Changed: Bumped the package version from 0.2.15 to 0.2.16 in package.json and package-lock.json; updated pinned installer examples in README.md and website/src/content/docs/getting-started/installation.md.
• Verified: Re-ran npm test, npm run typecheck, and npm run build; ran cd website && npm run build; ran npm pack and confirmed the 0.2.16 tarball includes the new scripts/lib/pi-subagents-patch.* files.
• Failed / learned: An initial local build:native-bundle check failed because npm pack and build:native-bundle were run in parallel, and prepack intentionally removes dist/release; rerunning npm run build:native-bundle sequentially succeeded.
• Blockers: None in the repo; publishing still depends on the GitHub workflow running on the bumped version.
• Next: Push the 0.2.16 release bump and monitor npm/GitHub release publication.

2026-03-31 10:45 PDT — pi-maintenance-issues-prs

• Objective: Triage open Pi-related issues/PRs, fix the concrete package update regression, and refresh Pi dependencies against current upstream releases.
• Changed: Pinned direct package-manager operations (feynman update, feynman packages install) to Feynman's npm prefix by exporting FEYNMAN_NPM_PREFIX, NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX, and npm_config_prefix before invoking Pi's DefaultPackageManager; bumped @mariozechner/pi-ai and @mariozechner/pi-coding-agent from 0.62.0 to 0.64.0; adapted src/model/registry.ts to the new ModelRegistry.create(...) factory; integrated PR #15's /feynman-model command on top of current main.
• Verified: Ran npm test, npm run typecheck, and npm run build successfully after the dependency bump and PR integration; confirmed upstream pi-coding-agent@0.64.0 still uses npm install -g for user-scope package updates, so the Feynman-side prefix fix is still required.
• Failed / learned: PR #14 is a stale branch with no clean merge path against current main; the only user-facing delta is the ValiChord prompt/skill addition, and the branch also carries unrelated release churn plus demo-style material, so it was not merged in this pass.
• Blockers: None in the local repo state; remote merge/push still depends on repository credentials and branch policy.
• Next: If remote write access is available, commit and push the validated maintenance changes, then close issue #22 and resolve PR #15 as merged while leaving PR #14 unmerged pending a cleaned-up, non-promotional resubmission.

2026-03-31 12:05 PDT — pi-backlog-cleanup-round-2

• Objective: Finish the remaining high-confidence open tracker items after the Pi 0.64.0 upgrade instead of leaving the issue list half-reconciled.
• Changed: Added a Windows extension-loader patch helper so Feynman rewrites Pi extension imports to file:// URLs on Windows before interactive startup; added /commands, /tools, and /capabilities discovery commands and surfaced /hotkeys plus /service-tier in help metadata; added explicit service-tier support via feynman model tier, --service-tier, status/doctor output, and a provider-payload hook that passes service_tier only to supported OpenAI/OpenAI Codex/Anthropic models; added Exa provider recognition to Feynman's web-search status layer and vendored pi-web-access.
• Verified: Ran npm test, npm run typecheck, and npm run build; smoke-imported the modified vendored pi-web-access modules with node --import tsx.
• Failed / learned: The remaining ValiChord PR is still stale and mixes a real prompt/skill update with unrelated branch churn; it is a review/triage item, not a clean merge candidate.
• Blockers: No local build blockers remain; issue/PR closure still depends on the final push landing on main.
• Next: Push the verified cleanup commit, then close issues fixed by the dependency bump plus the new discoverability/service-tier/Windows patches, and close the stale ValiChord PR explicitly instead of leaving it open indefinitely.

2026-04-09 09:37 PDT — windows-startup-import-specifiers

• Objective: Fix Windows startup failures where feynman exits before the Pi child process initializes.
• Changed: Converted the Node preload module paths passed via node --import in src/pi/launch.ts to file:// specifiers using a new toNodeImportSpecifier(...) helper in src/pi/runtime.ts; expanded scripts/patch-embedded-pi.mjs so it also patches the bundled workspace copy of Pi's extension loader when present.
• Verified: Added a regression test in tests/pi-runtime.test.ts covering absolute-path to file:// conversion for preload imports; ran npm test, npm run typecheck, and npm run build.
• Failed / learned: The raw Windows ERR_UNSUPPORTED_ESM_URL_SCHEME stack is more consistent with Node rejecting the child-process --import C:\\... preload before Pi starts than with a normal in-app extension load failure.
• Blockers: Windows runtime execution was not available locally, so the fix is verified by code path inspection and automated tests rather than an actual Windows shell run.
• Next: Ask the affected user to reinstall or update to the next published package once released, and confirm the Windows REPL now starts from a normal PowerShell session.

2026-04-09 11:02 PDT — tracker-hardening-pass

• Objective: Triage the open repo backlog, land the highest-signal fixes locally, and add guardrails against stale promotional workflow content.
• Changed: Hardened Windows launch paths in bin/feynman.js, scripts/build-native-bundle.mjs, and scripts/install/install.ps1; set npm prefix overrides earlier in scripts/patch-embedded-pi.mjs; added a pi-web-access runtime patch helper plus FEYNMAN_WEB_SEARCH_CONFIG env wiring so bundled web search reads the same ~/.feynman/web-search.json that doctor/status report; taught src/pi/web-access.ts to honor the legacy route key; fixed bundled skill references and expanded the skills-only installers/docs to ship the prompt and guidance files those skills reference; added regression tests for config paths, catalog snapshot edges, skill-path packaging, pi-web-access patching, and blocked promotional content.
• Verified: Ran npm test, npm run typecheck, and npm run build successfully after the full maintenance pass.
• Failed / learned: The skills-only install issue was not just docs drift; the shipped SKILL.md files referenced prompt paths that only made sense after installation, so the repo needed both path normalization and packaging changes.
• Blockers: Remote issue/PR closure and merge actions still depend on the final reviewed branch state being pushed.
• Next: Push the validated fixes, close the duplicate Windows/reporting issues they supersede, reject the promotional ValiChord PR explicitly, and then review whether the remaining docs-only or feature PRs should be merged separately.

2026-04-09 10:28 PDT — verification-and-security-pass

• Objective: Run a deeper install/security verification pass against the post-cleanup 0.2.17 tree instead of assuming the earlier targeted fixes covered the shipped artifacts.
• Changed: Reworked extensions/research-tools/header.ts to use @mariozechner/pi-tui width-aware helpers for truncation/wrapping so wide Unicode text does not overflow custom header rows; changed src/pi/launch.ts to stop mirroring child crash signals back onto the parent process and instead emit a conventional exit code; added FEYNMAN_INSTALL_SKILLS_ARCHIVE_URL overrides to the skills installers for pre-release smoke testing; aligned root and website dependency trees with patched transitive versions using npm overrides; fixed src/pi/web-access.ts so search status respects FEYNMAN_HOME semantics instead of hardcoding the current shell home directory; added tests/pi-launch.test.ts.
• Verified: Ran npm test, npm run typecheck, npm run build, cd website && npm run build, npm run build:native-bundle; smoke-tested scripts/install/install.sh against a locally served dist/release/feynman-0.2.17-darwin-arm64.tar.gz; smoke-tested scripts/install/install-skills.sh against a local source archive; confirmed installed feynman --version, feynman --help, feynman doctor, and packaged feynman search status work from the installed bundle; npm audit --omit=dev is clean in the root app and website after overrides.
• Failed / learned: The first packaged search status smoke test still showed the user home path because the native bundle had been built before the FEYNMAN_HOME path fix; rebuilding the native bundle resolved that mismatch.
• Blockers: PowerShell runtime was unavailable locally, so Windows installer execution remained code-path validated rather than actually executed.
• Next: Push the second-pass hardening commit, then keep issue #46 and issue #47 open until users on the affected Linux/CJK environments confirm whether the launcher/header fixes fully resolve them.

2026-04-09 10:36 PDT — remaining-tracker-triage-pass

• Objective: Reduce the remaining open tracker items by landing the lowest-risk missing docs/catalog updates and a targeted Cloud Code Assist compatibility patch instead of only hand-triaging them.
• Changed: Added MiniMax M2.7 recommendation preferences in src/model/catalog.ts; documented model switching, authenticated-provider visibility, and /feynman-model subagent overrides in website/src/content/docs/getting-started/configuration.md and website/src/content/docs/reference/slash-commands.md; added a runtime patch helper in scripts/lib/pi-google-legacy-schema-patch.mjs and wired scripts/patch-embedded-pi.mjs to normalize JSON Schema const into enum for the legacy parameters field used by Cloud Code Assist Claude models.
• Verified: Ran npm test, npm run typecheck, npm run build, and cd website && npm run build after the patch/helper/docs changes.
• Failed / learned: The MiniMax provider catalog in Pi already uses canonical IDs like MiniMax-M2.7, so the only failure during validation was a test assertion using the wrong casing rather than a runtime bug.
• Blockers: The Cloud Code Assist fix is validated by targeted patch tests and code-path review rather than an end-to-end Google account repro in this environment.
• Next: Push the tracker-triage commit, close the docs/MiniMax PRs as superseded by main, close the support-style model issues against the new docs, and decide whether the remaining feature requests should be left open or closed as not planned/upstream-dependent.

2026-04-10 10:22 PDT — web-access-stale-override-fix

• Objective: Fix the new ctx.modelRegistry.getApiKeyAndHeaders is not a function / stale search-filter.js report without reintroducing broad vendor drift.
• Changed: Removed the stale .feynman/vendor-overrides/pi-web-access/* files and removed syncVendorOverride from scripts/patch-embedded-pi.mjs; kept the targeted pi-web-access runtime config-path patch; added feynman search set <provider> [api-key] and feynman search clear commands with a shared save path in src/pi/web-access.ts.
• Verified: Ran npm test, npm run typecheck, npm run build; ran node scripts/patch-embedded-pi.mjs, confirmed the installed pi-web-access/index.ts has no search-filter / condense helper references, and smoke-imported ./.feynman/npm/node_modules/pi-web-access/index.ts; ran npm pack --dry-run and confirmed stale vendor-overrides files are no longer in the package tarball.
• Failed / learned: The public Linux installer Docker test was attempted but Docker Desktop became unresponsive even for simple docker run node:22-bookworm node -v commands; the earlier Linux npm-artifact container smoke remains valid, but this specific public-installer run is blocked by the local Docker daemon.
• Blockers: Issue #54 is too underspecified to fix directly without logs; public Linux installer behavior still needs a stable Docker daemon or a real Linux shell to reproduce the user's exact npm errors.
• Next: Push the stale-override fix, close PR #52 and PR #53 as superseded/merged-by-main once pushed, and ask for logs on issue #54 instead of guessing.

2026-04-10 10:49 PDT — rpc-and-website-verification-pass

• Objective: Exercise the Feynman wrapper's RPC mode and the website quality gates that were not fully covered by the prior passes.
• Changed: Added --mode <text|json|rpc> pass-through support in the Feynman wrapper and skipped terminal clearing in RPC mode; added @astrojs/check to the website dev dependencies, fixed React Refresh lint violations in the generated UI components by exporting only components, and added safe website dependency overrides for dev-audit findings.
• Verified: Ran a JSONL RPC smoke test through node bin/feynman.js --mode rpc with get_state; ran npm test, npm run typecheck, npm run build, cd website && npm run lint, cd website && npm run typecheck, cd website && npm run build, full root npm audit, full website npm audit, and npm run build:native-bundle.
• Failed / learned: Website typecheck was previously a no-op prompt because @astrojs/check was missing; installing it exposed dev-audit findings that needed explicit overrides before the full website audit was clean.
• Blockers: Docker Desktop remained unreliable after restart attempts, so this pass still does not include a second successful public-installer Linux Docker run.
• Next: Push the RPC/website verification commit and keep future Docker/public-installer validation separate from repo correctness unless Docker is stable.

2026-04-12 09:32 PDT — pi-0.66.1-upgrade-pass

• Objective: Update Feynman from Pi 0.64.0 to the current 0.66.1 packages and absorb any downstream SDK/runtime compatibility changes instead of leaving the repo pinned behind upstream.
• Changed: Bumped @mariozechner/pi-ai and @mariozechner/pi-coding-agent to 0.66.1 plus @companion-ai/alpha-hub to 0.1.3 in package.json and package-lock.json; updated extensions/research-tools.ts to stop listening for the removed session_switch extension event and rely on session_start, which now carries startup/reload/new/resume/fork reasons in Pi 0.66.x.
• Verified: Ran npm test, npm run typecheck, and npm run build successfully after the upgrade; smoke-ran node bin/feynman.js --version, node bin/feynman.js doctor, and node bin/feynman.js status successfully; checked upstream package diffs and confirmed the breaking change that affected this repo was the typed extension lifecycle change in pi-coding-agent, while pi-ai mainly brought refreshed provider/model catalog code including Bedrock/OpenAI provider updates and new generated model entries.
• Failed / learned: ctx7 resolved Pi correctly to /badlogic/pi-mono, but its docs snapshot was not release-note oriented; the concrete downstream-impact analysis came from the actual 0.64.0 → 0.66.1 package diffs and local validation, not from prose docs alone.
• Failed / learned: The first post-upgrade CLI smoke test failed before Feynman startup because @companion-ai/alpha-hub@0.1.2 shipped a zero-byte src/lib/auth.js; bumping to 0.1.3 fixed that adjacent runtime blocker.
• Blockers: npm install reports two high-severity vulnerabilities remain in the dependency tree; this pass focused on the Pi upgrade and did not remediate unrelated audit findings.
• Next: Push the Pi upgrade, then decide whether to layer the pending model-command fixes on top of this branch or land them separately to keep the dependency bump easy to review.

2026-04-12 13:00 PDT — model-command-and-bedrock-fix-pass

• Objective: Finish the remaining user-facing model-management regressions instead of stopping at the Pi dependency bump.
• Changed: Updated src/model/commands.ts so feynman model login <provider> resolves both OAuth and API-key providers; feynman model logout <provider> clears either auth mode; feynman model set accepts both provider/model and provider:model; ambiguous bare model IDs now prefer explicitly configured providers from auth storage; added an amazon-bedrock setup path that validates the AWS credential chain with the AWS SDK and stores Pi's <authenticated> sentinel so Bedrock models appear in model list; synced src/cli.ts, metadata/commands.mjs, README.md, and the website docs to the new behavior.
• Verified: Added regression tests in tests/model-harness.test.ts for provider:model, API-key provider resolution, and ambiguous bare-ID handling; ran npm test, npm run typecheck, npm run build, and cd website && npm run build; exercised command-level flows against throwaway FEYNMAN_HOME directories: interactive node bin/feynman.js model login google, node bin/feynman.js model set google:gemini-3-pro-preview, node bin/feynman.js model set gpt-5.4 with only OpenAI configured, and node bin/feynman.js model login amazon-bedrock; confirmed model list shows Bedrock models after the new setup path; ran a live one-shot prompt node bin/feynman.js --prompt "Reply with exactly OK" and got OK.
• Failed / learned: The website build still emits duplicate-id warnings for a handful of docs pages, but it completes successfully; those warnings predate this pass and were not introduced by the model-command edits.
• Blockers: The Bedrock path is verified with the current shell's AWS credential chain, not with a fresh machine lacking AWS config; broader upstream Pi behavior around IMDS/default-profile autodiscovery without the sentinel is still outside this repo.
• Next: Commit and push the combined Pi/model/docs maintenance branch, then decide whether to tackle the deeper search/deepresearch hang issues separately or leave them for focused repro work.