Gas City v1.3.0

Highlights

• Packs v2 is now the default pack model: pack identity, locks, includes,
  overlays, registry metadata, and install/update flows are explicit instead
  of being inferred from hidden built-ins.
• gc init now starts new cities from the public gascity methodology pack,
  embedded in the release and installed through the normal pack machinery.
• Built-in packs are no longer implicit magic. Cities should import the packs
  they use, pin those imports in packs.lock.toml, and rely on gc doctor --fix to repair missing explicit imports.
• The pack registry command surface is available under gc pack registry ...,
  including publish-oriented commands for registry maintainers.
• Early access: the gascity-packs collection. gascity-packs is an
  opt-in pack collection composed via pack.toml [imports] — featuring
  gascity (planning/implementation, the bundled gc init default),
  gastown (multi-agent orchestration), and the early-access build-methodology
  packs compound-engineering (compound-build), gstack (gstack-build),
  and superpowers (superpowers-build). Add one with e.g.
  gc import add --name gc https://github.com/gastownhall/gascity-packs.git//gascity;
  see the Troubleshooting section and the gascity-packs README for details.
• Formulas v2 and drain are in the release path. The gascity pack uses
  formula execution through gc sling ... --on <formula> and drain-backed
  implementation workflows.
• Prompt and runtime hardening from the 1.3 cycle is included, including
  sanitized deferred reminder fields, supervisor secret environment handling,
  and managed Dolt/runtime reliability fixes.

Upgrading Notes

• Run gc doctor --fix once per existing city after upgrading. The 1.3
  doctor owns the breaking migrations for explicit provider catalogs and
  explicit pack imports/locks. The relevant checks are provider-catalog,
  builtin-pack-imports, and packv2-import-state.
• Provider references must be declared in [providers]. Cities that set
  workspace.provider or agent-level provider values now need matching
  [providers.<name>] entries. gc doctor --fix appends missing built-in
  aliases such as [providers.claude] base = "builtin:claude"; custom
  providers still require hand-authored provider tables.
• Built-in and gastown pack composition changed. Gas City no longer
  relies on implicit built-ins or per-city .gc/system/packs materialization.
  Existing workspace.includes = [".gc/system/packs/..."], legacy public
  gastown/maintenance import sources, superseded bundled pins, and stale
  locks are migrated to explicit pinned imports in pack.toml plus
  packs.lock.
• No control-dispatcher named session is generated. The control dispatcher
  serves entirely via demand-scaling of the core pack's core.control-dispatcher
  agent template (controller work routed through gc.routed_to = "core.control-dispatcher"), so the on-demand [[named_session]] alias older
  builds wrote is redundant. gc init no longer creates it, and gc doctor --fix (during a pack-layout migration) drops the stale alias from upgraded
  cities so its "backing template not found … disabled" warning stops firing.
• Generated configs no longer pin formula_v2. Formula v2 is on by
  default, so gc init omits the [daemon] formula_v2 line instead of writing
  the default value. An explicit formula_v2 = false (or the deprecated
  graph_workflows = false alias) is still honored and preserved on round-trip.
• gc session logs --tail N no longer renders blank. Every transcript
  entry that occupies a tail window now prints at least one line — a non-error
  tool_result shows tool_result: ok, and any otherwise non-rendering entry
  (empty text, thinking, or an unrecognized block) shows (no displayable content) — so a tail landing on such entries can no longer produce empty
  output.
• The built-in Claude provider no longer declares a fresh-start
  session_id_flag. Claude remains resume-capable, but Gas City now records
  the provider-created session key after startup instead of passing a
  preselected fresh-session ID.
• The gastown pack is now consumed from
  github.com/gastownhall/gascity-packs. The old checked-in
  examples/gastown/packs/gastown tree is gone. Move local customizations
  into an explicitly imported pack instead of editing .gc/system/packs or
  the retired vendored example path.
• Fallback agents were removed. Packs that previously depended on a
  fallback dog/worker must ship their own worker pool and formulas. Cross-pack
  agent name collisions are now hard errors.
• Public imports are intentionally small. Authored [imports.<binding>]
  tables expose source and optional version; older export,
  transitive, and shadow keys remain compatibility-only loader behavior,
  not public schema.
• Formula v2 targeted executions use convoy_id, not bead_id.
  Graph/formula v2 templates no longer receive {{bead_id}}; update them to
  use the reserved {{convoy_id}} variable for the input convoy. Formula v2
  rejects authored inputs named convoy_id or bead_id, and {{issue}}
  remains only a temporary compatibility alias that should be migrated too.

Changed

• Version pins on builtin packs are honored: the binary only pre-seeds
  its embedded content at each pack's canonical pin. Previously the
  bundled synthetic cache served the running binary's embedded bytes for
  ANY commit pinned on a bundled source — editing the pin changed nothing.
  Now only the canonical pin (the one gc init writes) resolves from the
  embedded copy; a bundled source pinned at any other commit behaves
  exactly like a regular remote import: gc import install fetches that
  exact commit from git, validation uses the git checkout, and the cache
  slot uses the plain remote key. Cities on canonical pins keep working
  fully offline, including across binary upgrades that keep the pin
  constants; releases that bump a canonical pin migrate existing cities
  via gc doctor --fix (superseded canonical pins are rewritten to the
  current one).

• Builtin packs are no longer materialized into cities; they compose via
  pinned imports resolved from the user-global pack cache. The per-city
  .gc/system/packs tree is retired (and pruned on sight): gc init now
  writes pinned [imports.core]/[imports.bd] entries into pack.toml plus
  a matching packs.lock, and the gc binary self-heals the GC_HOME cache
  ($GC_HOME/cache/repos) with its own embedded content so the pins resolve
  offline. The builtin-pack-includes doctor check became
  builtin-pack-imports: it migrates legacy workspace.includes = [".gc/system/packs/..."] cities by stripping the includes, upserting the
  pinned imports (creating a minimal pack.toml for legacy cities), and
  refreshing packs.lock and the cache. The bd lifecycle script moved behind
  a stable per-city shim at .gc/scripts/gc-beads-bd.sh that execs the
  cache-resolved bundled script; provider normalization still recognizes
  the legacy materialized path. All repo-cache roots (packman install,
  config resolution, doctor) now uniformly resolve via GC_HOME instead of
  mixing $HOME/.gc and GC_HOME. gc rig add --include <builtin>
  canonicalizes to the bundled remote source and locks it. Migration:
  run gc doctor --fix once per existing city.

• The registry gascity planning pack is bundled and offered by the init
  wizard. gc init now offers gascity as a config template alongside
  minimal/gastown (also via --template gascity), wiring the pinned public
  import from gascity-packs the same way the gastown template does. The
  pack is embedded from the github.com/gastownhall/gascity-packs module
  root, so the pin resolves offline from the bundled synthetic cache.

• The bundled gastown pack is now a Go module dependency, not a checked-in
  copy. examples/gastown/packs/gastown is gone; the gc binary embeds the
  pack from github.com/gastownhall/gascity-packs (pinned in go.mod to the
  registry release commit), and the example city composes gastown through
  the pinned public registry import plus a committed packs.lock — the same
  shape gc init writes — resolved offline from the bundled synthetic
  cache. scripts/update-bundled-gastown-pack no longer writes a vendored
  tree; it bumps the go.mod pin, the PublicGastownPack* constants, and the
  example pins from the latest registry release, and --check verifies the
  pinned module content against the registry hash. The gastown integration
  tests in examples/gastown now run against the module-embedded bytes, so
  a runtime/pack mismatch fails in gascity CI.

• The bundled maintenance pack was folded into the core pack, and builtin
  packs compose only through explicit pinned imports. The bundled core
  pack carries the gc-* skills, default worker prompts, core formulas, the
  mechanical housekeeping orders that used to ship in the maintenance pack
  (gate-sweep, orphan-sweep, cross-rig-deps, order-tracking-sweep,
  spawn-storm-detect, prune-branches, wisp-compact, nudge-mail-sweep,
  nudge-on-route, cascade-nudge-on-blocker-close), the check-binaries doctor
  check, and the per-provider hook overlays. Config load no longer splices
  builtin packs into composition: gc init writes explicit [imports.core]
  and, for default bd-provider cities, [imports.bd] entries into
  pack.toml, plus a matching packs.lock. The fixable
  builtin-pack-imports doctor check repairs missing imports and migrates
  legacy workspace.includes = [".gc/system/packs/..."] cities by stripping
  those includes, adding the pinned imports, and pruning stale
  .gc/system/packs materialization. Migration: run gc doctor --fix
  once per existing city.

• The implicit fallback dog is gone, and the fallback agent field was
  removed. The gastown pack now owns its dog pool outright
  (agents/dog/, themed, with mol-shutdown-dance), and the dolt pack
  keeps its own dolt dog for Dolt maintenance formulas. The
  fallback-agent resolution mechanism (fallback = true, non-fallback
  wins, first-loaded wins) was removed: cross-pack agent name collisions
  are now hard errors, and a stale fallback key in a V2
  agents/<name>/agent.toml is ignored while a V1 inline [[agent]]
  entry fails the pack's unknown-key gate. External packs that relied on
  the bundled fallback dog must define their own worker pool (or route
  work to a pool they ship themselves).

Added

• Early access: the public gascity-packs collection. v1.3.0 ships the
  first early-access release of
  gascity-packs — an opt-in
  collection of Gas City packs composed via pack.toml [imports]. Add one
  with e.g.
  gc import add --name gc https://github.com/gastownhall/gascity-packs.git//gascity.
  Featured packs:

  • gascity — planning & implementation workflow pack; bundled in the
    release and the default gc init template (also --template gascity).
  • gastown — multi-agent orchestration / default coding workflow pack;
    bundled and offered by gc init (--template gastown).
  • compound-engineering (compound-build) — Every Inc.'s Compound
    Engineering methodology as a build factory: brainstorm/plan → persona-panel
    plan review → implement → wide reviewer-persona fanout → resolution.
  • gstack (gstack-build) — garrytan/gstack founder-style sprint:
    office-hours intake → multi-perspective plan review → staff review → QA →
    security → release readiness.
  • superpowers (superpowers-build) — Jesse Vincent's Superpowers skill
    library as a build factory: brainstorm → written-spec approval → per-task
    TDD → spec-compliance then code-quality review.
    gascity and gastown are in the supported registry; the three
    build-methodology packs (compound-engineering, gstack, superpowers) are
    early access and each import gascity as gc. See the gascity-packs README
    for the full list and import instructions.

• Formulas v2 and drain are the supported path for new graph
  workflows. The v2 compiler emits flat workflow graphs with
  controller-owned control/finalize beads, and drain is now the canonical
  fan-out primitive for scattering convoy members into per-item formula runs.
  The bundled gascity planning pack ships graph.v2 build and implementation
  formulas, including the mayor skill's documented gc sling ... --on <formula> launch flow and drain-based implement workflow, so new Gas City
  methodology workflows no longer need the legacy gc.output_json/tally fan-out
  pattern.

• Proxy-process workspace services now receive GC_SERVICE_SECRETS_DIR
  (<GC_SERVICE_STATE_ROOT>/secrets) in their environment, alongside the
  existing GC_SERVICE_* variables. The directory is scaffolded at 0700
  by the service state-root setup and is the sanctioned home for
  pack-managed credentials (bot tokens etc.), so pack services can rely on
  the explicit contract instead of deriving the path from
  GC_SERVICE_STATE_ROOT. See #3429.

• gc nudge drain --inject now prepends a one-line current-time stamp
  (operator-local + UTC + epoch) to its UserPromptSubmit hook output, giving
  agents a live clock in context every turn. The local zone follows the host
  (time.Local/$TZ) or the GC_OPERATOR_TZ override; disable with
  GC_INJECT_CLOCK=0. Folded into the existing nudge inject, so it adds zero
  extra hook subprocesses per turn. See #3036.

• The supervisor now merges a machine-local secrets file
  (${GC_HOME}/secrets.env, dotenv syntax) into the launchd plist / systemd
  unit environment on every service-file regeneration. This fixes provider
  credentials being dropped when gc start runs from a shell that did not
  export them (e.g. at login or after a reboot), which previously caused
  silent provider auth failures. Only keys already eligible for the supervisor
  environment are merged (provider credentials plus GC_SUPERVISOR_ENV
  opt-ins); a value exported in the calling shell still takes precedence, and
  GC_SUPERVISOR_OMIT_PROVIDER_CREDS=1 suppresses provider credentials from
  both sources.

• GC_DOLT_SYNC_PUSH_TIMEOUT_SECS configures the SQL-mode push wall-clock
  ceiling for gc dolt sync (default 1800s, replacing the prior fixed 120s
  that SIGKILLed large first pushes). Metadata queries keep their own 120s
  bound.

• ENOSPC pre-flight for managed Dolt (GC_DOLT_MIN_FREE_BYTES,
  GC_DOLT_WARN_FREE_BYTES): managed-Dolt startup and the store-maintenance
  compaction loop now check container free space via statvfs(2) before
  performing disk-growing operations. Below the critical floor (default
  500 MiB) startup is refused and compaction is skipped; below the soft floor
  (default 2 GiB) a gc.store.disk_warn event is emitted and operations
  proceed. Fails open on probe error and is disabled entirely when
  GC_DOLT_MIN_FREE_BYTES=0. Uses f_bavail (APFS-safe — excludes purgeable
  space). Addresses the root trigger of the 2026-06-01 fleet-drain incident.

Fixed

• The synthetic bundled-pack cache key now folds in the running binary's
  embedded-pack content hash, so two gc binaries with different bundled-pack
  content resolve to different cache directories instead of fighting over one.
  Previously the cache directory was keyed only on namespace+source+commit, so a
  version-skewed deploy (controller and agents on different gc builds) left
  both binaries materializing one shared directory in turn: each gc import install was promptly clobbered by the other binary, re-wedging every gc bd
  citywide with "bundled pack cache content hash does not match current binary"
  roughly hourly. With the content hash in the key, gc import install for a
  given binary sticks for that binary regardless of other versions running.
  Note: deploying a binary with changed bundled-pack content still requires a
  one-time gc import install (or bootstrap materialize) to populate the new
  cache directory; that install is now durable rather than transient (ga-s9p).

• Pool respawn after gc runtime drain-ack no longer waits up to a full patrol
  interval (default 60 s) before the replacement session starts. The async kill
  goroutine now pokes the controller once after the session is gone so Phase 2
  (finalize bead + spawn replacement) runs on the next event tick. Fixes the
  TestLifecycle_DrainAckResponsiveRespawn/prequeued_respawn_2364 Tier B
  nightly regression (ga-ryhnhd, #2364, #2251).

• gc dolt sync now emits per-mode diagnostics on push failure instead of a
  generic "push failed": a TIMEOUT message naming the ceiling and
  GC_DOLT_SYNC_PUSH_TIMEOUT_SECS on exit 124, the underlying exit code on
  other failures, and the underlying dolt stderr. The replayed stderr cannot
  leak GC_DOLT_PASSWORD: the password reaches dolt via the DOLT_CLI_PASSWORD
  environment variable, never as an argv flag. GC_DOLT_SYNC_PUSH_TIMEOUT_SECS
  rejects every numeric-zero form (0, 00, 000, ...) -- not just the
  literal 0 -- because GNU timeout treats a zero duration as "disable the
  timeout", which would push unbounded. A failure to create the stderr-capture
  temp file now degrades to a per-database error rather than aborting the whole
  run.

• Interactive gc session new tmux sessions now scroll tmux scrollback on the
  mouse wheel instead of leaking the wheel to the focused TUI (Claude Code's own
  history, a pager, or the shell). The gastown pack binds WheelUpPane→copy-mode
  and WheelDownPane→passthrough, and the runtime resolves interactive sessions
  to mouse-on across every create seam so tmux preserves the mouse on set at
  session create: the gc session new CLI — both the managed-deferred reconciler
  start (templateParamsToConfig, for session_origin=manual sessions) and the
  unmanaged direct start (workerSessionCreateHints) — plus the API
  provider/named paths (sessionCreateHints). Resume keeps mouse-on too
  (sessionResumeHints), so the wheel survives suspend/restart. Headless agent
  sessions stay mouse-off (controller-poll safety) — they resolve MouseOn from
  the agent template path (cfgAgent.MouseModeOn()), which is unchanged and has
  neither the manual/named interactive marker. Replaces the portharbour
  po-vtg2 city-local set-hook stopgap with the in-source fix. Refs: ga-c4w.

Troubleshooting (packs, imports, registry)

v1.3.0 changed pack composition: built-in/gastown packs are now consumed via
explicit pinned [imports] in pack.toml + packs.lock, served from a
content-hashed cache under ~/.gc/cache/repos/ (nothing is materialized into
.gc/system/packs anymore). Most upgrade issues are fixed by one command — run
it once per existing city after upgrading:

gc doctor --fix

It owns the mechanical migrations (provider-catalog, builtin-pack-imports,
packv2-import-state): it adds missing pinned imports, strips legacy
workspace.includes / [packs] surfaces, re-pins superseded canonical
versions, refreshes packs.lock + cache, and prunes leftover .gc/system/packs.

See also: docs/getting-started/troubleshooting.md,
docs/reference/system-packs.md, docs/guides/understanding-packs.md,
docs/guides/shareable-packs.md, docs/guides/registry-showcase.md,
docs/troubleshooting/gc-start-walkthrough.mdx, and the gc doctor /
gc import / gc pack registry references in docs/reference/cli.md.

Validation

• Preflight passed on origin/main at
  e02391fe7f0b4281cd10afc4f9293412467f529d; the release branch
  release/v1.3.0 was prepared from that SHA.
• Feature readiness was closed before starting the release branch, including
  the default gascity pack work, explicit built-in pack migration, Packs v2
  registry flow, Formulas v2/drain path, and prompt-safety fixes.
• Remaining release gates are still staged by the formula: local RC, Homebrew
  core readiness, remote RC, changelog promotion, final tag publication,
  GitHub release workflow verification, and Homebrew tap smoke.

Homebrew

• The gastownhall/gascity tap remains asset-based for existing users.
• Homebrew/core submission uses a separate source-built formula.
• Install from the tap with brew install gastownhall/gascity/gascity.

Contributors

Thanks to everyone who contributed to v1.3.0 (between v1.2.1 and v1.3.0):

@8888, @A3Ackerman, @McKean, @Perttulands, @Rome-1, @Wescome, @Wldc4rd, @alexcasper, @azanar, @benw5483, @bourgois, @boylec, @brandonmartin, @brian-amos-embedded, @coffeegoddd, @csells, @cstar, @curtisjm, @dcgas, @donbox, @duncan4123, @eric-jones, @eric-richardson1, @esciara, @hexsprite, @idvorkin-ai-tools, @itsthatriver, @iwata-1116, @jjgarzella, @johnzook, @jsgerman-oss, @julianknutsen, @kab0rn, @kevmoo, @lucasfuad, @lvanderbijl-kry, @mattiasw, @mike-matchpoint, @mikeakers, @myster-t, @nicholasspencer, @ooa-andera, @outdoorsea, @quad341, @realies, @reggieperry, @rileywhite, @rjgeng, @rogerluan, @sarendipitee, @scarson, @sfncore, @sjarmak, @steveyegge, @tesdal, @tim-white87, @vbtcl, @wynged

New Contributors

• @reggieperry made their first contribution in #2651
• @duncan4123 made their first contribution in #2377
• @kevmoo made their first contribution in #2682
• @jjgarzella made their first contribution in #2469
• @mike-matchpoint made their first contribution in #2712
• @alexcasper made their first contribution in #2733
• @8888 made their first contribution in #2676
• @Wldc4rd made their first contribution in #2721
• @curtisjm made their first contribution in #2824
• @Perttulands made their first contribution in #2677
• @rogerluan made their first contribution in #2653
• @idvorkin-ai-tools made their first contribution in #2854
• @Wescome made their first contribution in #2543
• @McKean made their first contribution in #2641
• @dcgas made their first contribution in #2939
• @cstar made their first contribution in #2925
• @brian-amos-embedded made their first contribution in #3025
• @jsgerman-oss made their first contribution in #3068
• @mikeakers made their first contribution in #3069
• @ooa-andera made their first contribution in #3112
• @coffeegoddd made their first contribution in #3240
• @benw5483 made their first contribution in #3276
• @nicholasspencer made their first contribution in #3278

Recommended Reading

• Installation guide
• Troubleshooting guide
• Understanding packs
• System packs reference
• CLI reference
• Config reference

Full Changelog: v1.2.1...v1.3.0