Release Notes

Tasks now receive a proportional fraction of the available step budget instead of a fixed step count, and the final step forces text-only output to guarantee structured JSON results.

• Introduced TASK_STEP_RATIO, getTaskMaxSteps, and makeLastStepTextOnly utilities in task.ts
• Overhauled wrapTaskResult to robustly extract and validate JSON from arbitrary output, handling nested objects, escaped quotes, and multiple JSON blocks
• Updated REPL and task tool to pass correct maxSteps and experimental_prepareStep options
• Expanded test coverage for result extraction edge cases

The auto-create threshold now accepts both fractional (0–1) and percentage (1–100) values, and pending specialist candidates are re-evaluated automatically when settings change.

• Added normalizeThreshold utility in config.ts that clamps values to the [0, 1] range regardless of input format
• Updated /agent-options threshold command to display both normalized and percentage values
• Refactored auto-creation logic into a reusable promoteCandidate helper
• Enabling auto-create now re-evaluates and promotes pending candidates above the threshold

A reusable Plan-Act-Critic (PAC) loop now wraps sub-agents, specialists, and cron job executions when critic mode is enabled. The critic verifies each agent’s work and retries on failure with targeted feedback.

• Extracted pac.ts module with runPACLoop() for consistent critic integration
• Sub-agents, specialists, and cron jobs all use the same PAC pipeline automatically
• On a FAIL verdict, the task is retried with the critic’s feedback (up to 2 retries)
• Compact critic verdicts — PASS and WARN are now single-line inline, reducing terminal noise while keeping full detail for FAIL

When a response hits the max-tokens limit and is cut off, Bernard automatically continues where it left off — up to 3 continuations — then recommends an optimal token limit based on actual usage.

• Seamless auto-continuation with no user intervention required
• Post-completion recommendation of the ideal max-tokens value (1.25× actual usage)
• Warning with /options max-tokens instructions if still incomplete after 3 continuations
• New /debug command — prints a diagnostic report (runtime, config, API key status, MCP servers, RAG stats) with no secrets leaked

Smarter specialist suggestions powered by token-based similarity scoring, plus a new auto-creation mode that saves high-confidence candidates without manual review.

• Jaccard similarity across name, description, system prompt, and guidelines (weighted)
• Candidates with >60% overlap are suppressed; partial overlaps suggest enhancing the existing specialist
• New /agent-options command to toggle auto-creation and set confidence threshold at runtime
• BERNARD_AUTO_CREATE_SPECIALISTS and BERNARD_AUTO_CREATE_THRESHOLD environment variables

Control how many tool-call iterations the agent can take per request, and benefit from step-by-step planning in every conversation — not just critic mode.

• BERNARD_MAX_STEPS environment variable (default 25) with runtime override via /options max-steps
• Sub-agents automatically receive 50% of the main agent’s step budget
• When the step limit is hit, Bernard offers to double it for the current session
• System prompt now includes a planning section by default, improving multi-step task execution

Bernard now has full temporal context — every user message carries an ISO 8601 timestamp, and the system prompt includes the current date and time.

• ISO 8601 timestamp prefixes on every user message for precise time context
• System prompt upgraded from “Today’s date” to “Current date and time”
• time tool output now includes seconds and timezone
• Bug fix: MCP URL transport correctly uses HTTP for non-SSE endpoints (was always defaulting to SSE)

Two new tools — file_read_lines and file_edit_lines — give Bernard precision file editing without shelling out to sed or awk.

• Line-based editing with replace, insert, delete, and append operations
• Atomic writes — all edits in a single call succeed or all fail
• Binary file detection and pagination for large files (50 MB cap)
• file_read_lines supports offset/limit for targeted reads across big files

Override the provider and model for any specialist, sub-agent, or task invocation. Set a default model on specialists at creation time, or pass an override at call time.

• Specialists store a default provider/model that is used every time they run
• Sub-agents and tasks accept per-invocation provider/model overrides
• Cross-provider safety — auto-resolves the default model when switching providers
• Model tags shown in /specialists listings

Tasks are now single-step: one LLM call with tool use, then structured output. Saved tasks can be invoked by ID, and the REPL shows tasks and routines separately.

• Reduced to maxSteps: 2 (one tool-use round + structured result)
• New taskId parameter — run saved task routines by ID or via /task-{id} in the REPL
• Separate display for tasks vs routines in the REPL
• Auto-context injection — working directory, available tools, memory, and RAG are included automatically

Tool-result summaries shown to the critic now use an adaptive 8000-char budget instead of a fixed 500-char slice, so the critic sees far more context before judging.

• Adaptive 8000-char budget with a 500-char floor per tool result
• Response truncation raised from 2000 to 4000 chars, args from 500 to 1000
• Truncation markers (...) added to tool results
• Critic prompt updated to not treat truncation as failure evidence

Agents no longer retry the exact same failed command, and external API mutations get a short delay before re-verification to account for eventual consistency.

• No retrying the exact same failed command across all agent types and cron jobs
• Wait 2–5s before re-verifying external API mutations

Candidates that have already been saved as specialists are automatically filtered out of future suggestions.

• Auto-marks candidates as accepted when a specialist is created by draft ID or name
• Defensive filtering at startup and in /candidates output

Critic mode now retries up to 2 times when it detects issues, feeding its verdict back to the agent for correction before giving up.

• Up to 2 automatic retries when critic returns WARN or FAIL
• Critic feedback is injected into conversation history so the agent can self-correct
• Improved verdict parsing using regex-based extraction
• REPL prompt now shows a diamond symbol instead of [CRITIC] label
• New parseCriticVerdict utility extracted to output module

Added /create-task guided creation command and refactored duplicate creation logic.

• New /create-task REPL command for guided task routine creation
• Refactored duplicate guided creation logic into a shared runGuidedCreation helper
• Help menu now lists /routines, /create-routine, and /create-task commands

Specialists are now automatically matched to user input using keyword scoring, with high-confidence matches auto-dispatched.

• Keyword-based scoring matches user input against saved specialists
• Scores ≥ 0.8 trigger automatic dispatch; 0.4–0.8 prompt for confirmation
• Match advisory injected into system prompt so the agent knows which specialists fit
• Stop-word filtering prevents common words from inflating scores

Tasks are isolated, focused executions that return structured JSON output. Unlike sub-agents (which return free-form text), tasks always produce a {status, output, details?} response — making them ideal for machine-readable results, routine chaining, and conditional branching.

• 5-step budget — tasks are meant to be quick and focused
• Structured JSON output — always returns {status: "success"|"error", output, details?}
• Completely isolated from the current session — no conversation history
• Available as both a tool and a command via /task
• Shared concurrency pool with sub-agents (4 slots max)

Specialists are reusable expert profiles — persistent personas with custom system prompts and behavioral guidelines that shape how a sub-agent approaches work. Unlike routines (which define what steps to follow), specialists define how to work.

• Each specialist run gets its own generateText loop with a 10-step budget
• One JSON file per specialist in ~/.local/share/bernard/specialists/
• Manage via /specialists or invoke directly with /{id}
• Up to 50 specialists with lowercase kebab-case IDs

Bernard automatically detects recurring delegation patterns in your conversations and suggests new specialists. Detection runs in the background when you exit a session or use /clear --save.

• Review pending suggestions with /candidates
• Each candidate includes a name, description, confidence score, and reasoning
• Accept or reject candidates conversationally
• Auto-dismissed after 30 days if not reviewed; up to 10 pending at a time

Critic mode adds planning, proactive scratch/memory usage, and post-response verification. Recommended for high-stakes work like deployments, git operations, and multi-file edits.

• Planning — writes a plan to scratch before multi-step tasks
• Proactive scratch — accumulates findings during complex work
• Verification — a critic agent reviews the work and prints a verdict (PASS / WARN / FAIL)

A fourth specialized domain in Bernard's RAG memory system, joining Tool Usage Patterns, User Preferences, and General Knowledge. Conversation summaries capture what was discussed, approaches taken, tools/specialists/routines used, and outcomes.

• Extracts high-level summaries of what was accomplished each session
• Helps identify recurring patterns across conversations
• All four domain extractors run in parallel — no extra latency
• Search returns up to 5 results per domain (20 total max), preventing any single domain from crowding out others