# Lodestar 3.0.0

Release date: 2026-10-02.

Lodestar 3 brings project **Attention**, guided **Capture / link**, reviewed saves
and recovery into the native Loader and menu Manager. `work check` adds bounded
relevant context with explicit gaps and complete read instructions. Active
dependencies enter that context before general orientation, and optional
continuation associations preserve the approved intent hash. See
[operator recipes](../operator-recipes.md) for the usable paths.

Packages: `lodestar-agent-context@3.0.0` and the Windows portable
`Lodestar-3.0.0-win-x64.zip`. The [GitHub release](https://github.com/VerbalChainsaw/Lodestar/releases/tag/v3.0.0)
contains the versioned archives and their SHA-256 checksum inventory.

This major release adds a separate desktop Loader console and compatible menu
Manager around Lodestar's one-shot core. It gives a person a direct way to inspect
project context and make reviewed corrections without replacing the CLI or native
agent integration. Contract 5 and schema 5 remain unchanged, so existing schema-5 stores
need no 3.0 migration.

## What changed

- **Loader:** a dense graphite Windows console with typed project and record
  discovery, clear navigation, readable records and provenance, history, and a
  Health view that distinguishes observation from a requested doctor check.
- **Deliberate correction:** Review freezes the proposed change before Save.
  Checked writes use the core's basis and receipts; pending saves and recovery
  preserve the context needed after an interrupted response. Draft and runtime
  changes are checked before the write is sent.
- **Manager:** a compatible terminal menu for locating and reading records and
  opening the Loader against the same configured store.
- **Operator actions:** explicit project creation and reviewed notes, research,
  rejections, decisions and pending-item retirement. Research preserves supplied
  source text and its hash; it does not claim to have fetched the source. Loader
  searches across loaded records and shows when catalog coverage is partial.
- **Attention and capture:** inspect project work, pending items, acceptance and
  relevant-context gaps from one database snapshot. Save knowledge, research or
  a result, then review its mission or requirement association separately. A
  failed or canceled association retains the confirmed record. Manager's nested
  project jump preserves the draft's original binding until fresh review.
- **Plan and evidence:** `work check <intent-record-id>` projects a recorded plan,
  actual claims and current differences, with optional requirement hierarchy and
  a continuation action. Stale evidence and unmet outcomes remain visible.
  Readiness means the supplied mapping is ready for review, not that the CLI ran
  tests or proved the claims. See [intent and evidence](../intent-evidence.md).
- **Relevant context:** bring evidence and active dependencies into a bounded
  continuation, with explicit omitted content, unresolved reads and literal
  record/decision arguments. Native integration uses the same projection.
- **Large libraries and failures:** bounded continuation resumes a library read
  while its store identity and revision still match. Local diagnostics capture
  bounded operational failures without storing record contents as a general log.
- **Portable delivery:** a Windows archive provides configuration and launchers
  for Loader and Manager. Updates stage and validate a new bundle, retain the
  previous validated generation, and offer explicit recovery after interruption.
- **Actionable recovery:** a committed write whose response cannot be delivered
  retains its request and receipt identity. Manager and Loader preserve pending
  requests until receipt or exact-request recovery confirms the outcome. Partial
  searches and failed post-save refreshes remain visible with a specific next
  action. Setup separates warnings from CLI results and bounds runtime probes.
- **Validation and discovery:** build/update help probes use the same bounded
  process and typed-response rules as Setup. Limited pending reads carry only
  selected-record preconditions. Project discovery distinguishes unavailable Git,
  denied execution and interrupted processes, and root mappings retain path
  boundaries. Native generic commands honor validated string, boolean and safe
  integer enum choices and distinguish supplied search text from boolean flags;
  runtime generation validation agrees across consumers.
- **Resilient recovery:** replay and doctor validate stored receipt contents.
  Loader keeps malformed or mismatched recorded responses visible and preserves
  their bytes during verified exact-request recovery. Missing Manager journal
  evidence reports an unknown outcome with authoritative read instructions.
  Interrupted updates recover from validated state despite orphan candidate
  files, and refuse runtime moves while the application is in use.
- **Less repeated work:** decision preconditions reuse one validated scope scan
  within each operation; update inventory checks use indexed lookups. These
  changes preserve corruption checks and add no persistent cache or service.
- **Operator state:** record navigation preserves an independent project-root
  read. Capability refresh retains draft controls and rejects stale completions.
  A completed library refresh clears absent selected records and their edit basis.
- **Exact reads and evidence:** Loader and Manager preserve literal record IDs,
  queries and decision keys, including names beginning with a dash. Candidate
  promotion rejects a destination using the candidate's own ID. Superseded facts
  remain available in history and cannot establish current acceptance readiness.
- **Binding diagnostics:** configuration and runtime manifests reject duplicate
  decoded member names and malformed UTF-8, preserve the source bytes, and give
  a location and corrective action through the public error envelope. Existing
  ignored metadata remains compatible; meaningful numeric fields are checked
  without silently rounding their source values.
- **Boundary hardening:** existing reserved records cannot be overwritten by an
  ordinary replacement. Doctor and normalized reads agree on missing semantic
  metadata, and source-correction errors supply literal raw-read arguments.
  Operator and host readers reject malformed bytes, duplicate decoded members
  and a second or incomplete multiline protocol response without claiming a
  dispatched write failed. Update, recovery and retirement share the selected
  Loader/Manager process guard and give preservation and recovery instructions
  when process visibility is unavailable.
- **Operation cost:** dependency projections reuse successful and failed target
  reads while preserving each edge diagnostic. Recovery reuses the inventory
  digest computed under its existing reservation; migration indexes captured
  associations and before-images. Full image comparison, replay and corruption
  checks remain in place.

## Install and upgrade

The CLI package requires Node.js 24.15.0 or newer. Install or upgrade with
`npm install --global lodestar-agent-context@3.0.0`, then inspect
`lodestar setup --target all` before `lodestar setup --target all --apply`.
Do not run `lodestar init` against an existing store.

The Windows archive is framework-dependent and requires the .NET 10 Desktop
Runtime (x64), PowerShell 7, and Node.js 24.15.0 or newer. Extract the verified
archive and run `Install.cmd` for a per-user installation with Start Menu entries.
Owned installations upgrade through the next release's `Install.cmd`; interrupted
operations use `Install.ps1 -Mode Recover -Destination`.

For portable use, run `Setup.cmd`, then `Loader.cmd` or `Manager.cmd`. Setup
selects an existing store; new-store creation requires explicit
`-DatabasePath <absolute-new-path> -InitializeDatabase`. A later portable update
uses `Update.cmd "C:\path\to\existing app"` from a separately extracted release;
recovery uses `Update.ps1 -Mode Recover -Destination`. Opening either app does not
create a database. Configuration and the selected store are preserved outside
the immutable runtime manifest.

See the [installation guide](../installation.md#windows-loader-and-manager-per-user-installation)
for installation, portable use and recovery. The archive does not bundle its prerequisite
runtimes, add an automatic updater, or claim code signing.

## Compatibility

The 2.2.1 improvements to rejection advisories, limited-read `more` signals,
JSON help, and Git discovery errors remain included. Contract 5 and schema 5
are unchanged; an existing schema-5 database stays the same database. The
separate [2.2.1 release notes](v2.2.1.md) remain available for that update.