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KitTools Release Notes

Changelog and release history for the KitTools Claude Code plugin.

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1.6.4 — 2026-02-23

Added

  • Execution Notification System — Two-pronged notifications keep you informed during autonomous/guarded execution
    • macOS native alerts fire immediately on completions, failures, crashes, and pauses — no need to check manually
    • In-session notifications via a UserPromptSubmit hook surface a batched summary the next time you send a message to Claude
    • Nine notification points cover the full execution lifecycle: story pass, story failure, single-PRD complete, validation pause, epic PRD complete, between-PRD pause, all epic PRDs complete, dependency blocked, and crash
    • Crash detection — An atexit handler detects unexpected orchestrator exits, sets state to crashed, and sends both an OS alert and a file notification
  • Crashed status in execution-status — /kit-tools:execution-status now recognizes the crashed state with resume/reset actions (same options as stale state)

Changed

  • Distribution cleanup — Test files and dev dependencies removed from the shipped plugin. Only runtime files are included in installs.

1.6.3 — 2026-02-23

Fixed

  • Unique tmux session names — Autonomous execution now uses descriptive, per-feature session names (kit-exec-{feature}) instead of a single hardcoded name
    • Running multiple projects concurrently no longer risks killing each other’s tmux sessions
    • Session names are stored in the execution config so /kit-tools:execution-status can find the right session
    • Backwards compatible with older runs

1.6.2 — 2026-02-23

Added

  • New Skill: /kit-tools:execution-status — Check progress of autonomous execution from within Claude Code
    • Shows completion percentage, per-story status table, session stats (tokens, time elapsed)
    • Detects stale state when the orchestrator has crashed or exited
    • Offers contextual actions based on current state: pause, resume, attach to tmux, retry
    • Epic mode: shows per-PRD progress table

1.6.1 — 2026-02-23

Fixed

  • Autonomous execution launch — The orchestrator now launches in a detached tmux session instead of running in the background from within a Claude session
    • Fixes nested claude -p calls being blocked by Claude Code’s recursion prevention
    • If tmux is not installed, a copy-pasteable command is printed for running in a separate terminal
    • Pre-flight checks now verify tmux availability for autonomous/guarded modes
    • Monitoring commands (attach, tail log, check state, pause) reported after launch

1.6.0 — 2026-02-22

Added

  • Unit Test Suite — 75 tests for the execute orchestrator covering PRD parsing, story extraction, prompt building, and test command detection
  • File-Based Agent Results — Agents write structured JSON result files (.story-impl-result.json, .story-verify-result.json) instead of stdout parsing, eliminating ~33% false failure rate from LLM output formatting
  • Branch-per-Attempt Strategy — Each implementation attempt runs on a temporary branch; successful attempts merge, failed attempts are deleted cleanly (no more destructive git reset)
  • Patch-Based Retry Context — Failed attempt diffs are included in retry prompts so the agent takes a different approach
  • Token Estimation — Per-session input/output token tracking logged in execution state
  • Auto-Detect Test Command — Automatically finds the project’s test runner by checking package.json, pyproject.toml, pytest.ini, Makefile, and TESTING_GUIDE.md
  • Test Execution in Validation — /kit-tools:validate-feature now runs the project’s test suite; failed tests are logged as critical findings
  • Auto-Injected Test Criteria — /kit-tools:plan-feature automatically adds “Tests written/updated” and “Full test suite passes” criteria to every code story (doc/config-only stories are exempt)
  • Implementation Hints — Per-story hints flow from planning to implementation, reducing agent exploration time
    • plan-feature generates hints during refinement (key files, patterns, gotchas)
    • Implementer agent receives hints as part of its prompt
  • Pause on Critical Findings — Autonomous execution pauses when validation finds critical issues, creating a .pause_execution file referencing the findings. Resumes when the file is removed after review.

Changed

  • YAML Parsing — Replaced hand-rolled frontmatter parser with PyYAML for proper handling of lists, booleans, and edge cases
  • Verifier Independence — Verifier agent receives git-sourced file lists (git diff --name-only) instead of trusting implementer claims
  • Reference-Based Context — Agent prompts pass file paths instead of inlining full contents, reducing prompt size ~80% for large projects
  • Skill Structure — Four pipeline skills (execute-feature, plan-feature, validate-feature, complete-feature) split into SKILL.md (core workflow) + REFERENCE.md (detailed formats and examples), reducing context consumption significantly
  • PRD Template — Updated to v1.3.0 with Implementation Hints section and auto-injected test criteria

Deprecated

  • Stdout-based result parsing — Kept for backward compatibility but superseded by file-based JSON results
  • reset_to_commit() — Replaced by branch-per-attempt strategy

1.5.4 — 2026-02-19

Fixed

  • Hook path resolution — Project-level hook commands now use $CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR instead of relative paths
    • Previously, hooks used python3 kit_tools/hooks/... which breaks if shell CWD drifts during a session
    • Now uses python3 "$CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR/kit_tools/hooks/..." — resolves correctly regardless of CWD
    • Fixes an infinite loop scenario where a Stop hook file-not-found error re-triggers the Stop event
    • Existing projects: run /kit-tools:update-kit-tools to get the updated hook paths

1.5.3 — 2026-02-09

Added

  • Epic Chaining — Multi-PRD epics now execute automatically on a shared epic/[name] branch
    • PRD template gains epic, epic_seq, epic_final frontmatter fields
    • /kit-tools:execute-feature detects epic PRDs and offers sequential execution
    • Orchestrator chains PRDs: stories -> validate -> tag checkpoint -> archive -> next PRD
    • Hard dependency gate blocks execution if depends_on PRDs aren’t archived
    • Git tags mark each PRD checkpoint (e.g., oauth/oauth-schema-complete)
    • Resume support: skips already-completed PRDs on restart
    • Cross-PRD learnings carried forward to subsequent story prompts
  • Pause Between PRDs — Option to review after each PRD before continuing the epic
    • Recommended default for epic execution
  • Epic-Aware Completion — /kit-tools:complete-feature handles mid-epic and final-epic PRDs
    • Mid-epic: tag + archive only (no PR or artifact cleanup)
    • Final epic PRD: PR references all PRDs and checkpoint tags

Fixed

  • Verifier output parsing — Strips markdown code fences before parsing, fixing ~33% false failure rate when the verifier wraps output in triple backticks
    • Fallback verdict detection scans for pass/fail signals when the structured block is missing
    • Raw output logged on parse failure for diagnosis
  • Verification-only retry — When implementation succeeded but verifier parsing failed, retries now skip re-implementation and only re-run verification
  • Failure detail sanitization — Log entries no longer contain raw template content from session errors
  • Verifier template — Now explicitly instructs the LLM to output the structured block as plain text, not inside code fences

Changed

  • Orchestrator — Refactored into run_single_prd() and run_epic() with shared story execution loop
  • /kit-tools:plan-feature — Epic decomposition now sets chaining fields (epic, epic_seq, epic_final)
  • /kit-tools:execute-feature — Epic detection, dependency hard gate, epic/[name] branching, epic_prds config format

1.5.2 — 2026-02-07

Added

  • New Skill: /kit-tools:validate-feature — Full branch-level validation against PRD
    • Reviews entire branch diff (git diff main...HEAD) — all changes across the feature
    • Three independent review passes: code quality, security, and PRD compliance
    • Automatic fix loop (max 3 iterations) for critical findings
    • Autonomous mode: spawns a fixer agent; supervised mode: fixes inline
  • Dedicated Security Review Agent — Security gets focused attention in its own review pass
    • Covers injection vulns, auth gaps, secrets, input validation, insecure defaults, dependency risks
  • Dedicated Fix Agent — Targeted fixes for validation findings in autonomous mode
  • Automatic validation after execution — The orchestrator now spawns a validation session after all stories complete

Changed

  • Code quality validator — Narrowed to quality-only (security and intent alignment moved to dedicated agents)
  • /kit-tools:execute-feature — Completion messaging now directs to validate-feature
  • /kit-tools:complete-feature — Now cleans up execution artifacts, handles feature branch (PR/merge), and references validate-feature
  • /kit-tools:close-session and /kit-tools:checkpoint — Use inline quality checks for session-level diffs instead of the full feature validation
  • detect_phase_completion hook — Only suggests validate-feature when all PRD criteria are complete, not on every checkbox

Removed

  • /kit-tools:validate-phase — Replaced by validate-feature (branch-level validation)

1.5.1 — 2026-02-06

Added

  • New Skill: /kit-tools:sync-symlinks — Force-refresh skill symlinks after a plugin update
    • Reads installed_plugins.json to find the correct install path
    • Useful when skills appear stale after /plugin update

Fixed

  • sync_skill_symlinks hook — Now reads ~/.claude/plugins/installed_plugins.json as the source of truth for the plugin install path
    • Fixes issue where skill symlinks remained pointed at the previous version after a plugin update
    • $CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT can be stale after updates; the hook now bypasses it in favor of the authoritative JSON

1.5.0 — 2026-02-06

Added

  • Native Autonomous Execution — /kit-tools:execute-feature replaces the previous Ralph integration
    • Three execution modes: Supervised, Autonomous, and Guarded
    • Supervised: in-session with user review between stories
    • Autonomous: spawns independent claude -p sessions per story (unlimited retries by default)
    • Guarded: autonomous with human oversight on failures (3 retries default)
  • Story Implementer Agent — agents/story-implementer.md implements a single user story
    • Explores codebase, implements changes, self-verifies, commits
    • Structured output format for orchestrator parsing
  • Story Verifier Agent — agents/story-verifier.md independently verifies acceptance criteria
    • Skeptical assessment — reads actual code, doesn’t trust implementer claims
    • Runs typecheck/lint/tests as specified in criteria
  • Execution Orchestrator — scripts/execute_orchestrator.py manages multi-session execution
    • Spawns fresh Claude sessions per story (implementation + verification)
    • Pause/resume via touch kit_tools/.pause_execution
    • Dual-track state: PRD checkboxes + JSON sidecar
    • Execution log at kit_tools/EXECUTION_LOG.md
  • Git Branch Isolation — All execution happens on feature/[prd-name] branches
    • Failed retries reset working tree, never touch main
    • Branch ready for user review when all stories complete

Changed

  • PRD Template — ralph_ready field renamed to session_ready
  • /kit-tools:plan-feature — Removed Ralph references, uses session_ready and execute-feature
  • /kit-tools:complete-feature — Removed Ralph cleanup step, updated Related Skills

Removed

  • /kit-tools:export-ralph — Replaced by native execute-feature
  • /kit-tools:import-learnings — Learnings captured natively during execution

1.4.0 — 2025-02-02

Added

  • Epic Detection & Decomposition — /kit-tools:plan-feature now detects large features and decomposes them
    • Automatic detection of epic-sized scope (>7 stories, multiple subsystems, scope keywords)
    • Proposes breakdown into multiple focused PRDs
    • Tracks dependencies between related PRDs with depends_on field
  • Ralph-Ready Validation — /kit-tools:export-ralph validates PRD scope before export
    • Checks story count (target <=7), acceptance criteria count (target <=35)
    • Soft warning with strong recommendation if PRD exceeds limits
    • Suggests decomposition via plan-feature if PRD is too large
  • Senior Dev Persona — Skills now act as senior dev reviewers
    • Push back on scope creep and poorly-scoped PRDs
    • Ensure PRDs are set up for implementation success

Changed

  • PRD Template — Updated to v1.1.0 with new frontmatter fields
    • ralph_ready: true/false — Indicates if PRD is properly scoped
    • depends_on: [] — Array of feature names this PRD depends on
    • Added session-fit guidelines in template comments
  • /kit-tools:plan-feature — Enhanced with scope validation
    • Final scope check before generating PRD
    • Story count limits (5-7 ideal, 8+ triggers warning)
    • Acceptance criteria limits (3-5 per story, <=35 total)

1.3.0 — 2025-02-01

Added

  • PRD (Product Requirements Document) System — New workflow for feature planning
    • kit_tools/prd/ directory for PRD files with YAML frontmatter
    • kit_tools/prd/archive/ for completed PRDs
    • PRD template with user stories (US-XXX), acceptance criteria, functional requirements (FR-X)
  • New Skill: /kit-tools:complete-feature — Mark PRD as completed and archive it
  • New Skill: /kit-tools:export-ralph — Convert KitTools PRD to ralph’s prd.json format
  • New Skill: /kit-tools:import-learnings — Import ralph progress.txt learnings back to PRD

Changed

  • /kit-tools:plan-feature — Now generates PRDs (prd-[name].md) instead of FEATURE_TODO_*.md
    • User story format with acceptance criteria
    • Functional requirements in FR-X format
    • Implementation Notes section for capturing learnings
  • /kit-tools:start-session — Now checks kit_tools/prd/ for active features
  • /kit-tools:close-session — Prompts for Implementation Notes when working on a PRD
  • /kit-tools:checkpoint — Captures learnings to active PRD’s Implementation Notes

1.1.0 — 2025-01-28

Added

  • New Skill: /kit-tools:validate-phase — Code quality, security, and intent alignment validation
    • Three-pass review: quality & conventions, security, intent alignment
    • Findings written to persistent AUDIT_FINDINGS.md with unique IDs and severity tracking
  • New Agent: code-quality-validator.md — Prompt template for the validation subagent
  • New Template: AUDIT_FINDINGS.md — Persistent audit findings log
    • Status tracking (open / resolved / dismissed)
    • Severity levels (critical / warning / info)
  • New Hook: detect_phase_completion — Advisory hook for TODO task completions

Changed

  • /kit-tools:checkpoint — Added validation step for code changes
  • /kit-tools:close-session — Added validation step
  • /kit-tools:start-session — Reviews open audit findings

1.0.0 — 2025-01-27

Added

  • Initial public release
  • Core Skills: init-project, seed-project, migrate, start-session, close-session, checkpoint, plan-feature, sync-project, update-kit-tools
  • Automation Hooks: create_scratchpad, update_doc_timestamps, remind_scratchpad_before_compact, remind_close_session
  • Project Type Presets: API/Backend, Web App, Full Stack, CLI Tool, Library, Mobile, Custom
  • 25+ Documentation Templates across Core, API, Ops, UI, and Patterns categories

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