Changelog

All notable changes to the wintermute plugin. Each version here matches plugin.json, package.json and the plugin's entry in the root .github/plugin/marketplace.json.

For every agent or dashboard change, run npm run release:bump -- <version|patch|minor|major> from this plugin folder and replace the new section's TODO with release notes. Each section starts with a heading ## X.Y.Z — YYYY-MM-DD, the release's version and date, which release:bump writes. npm run validate and release:publish refuse a section that is empty or still has the TODO. Use stable SemVer; during 0.x, compatible fixes advance the patch, features and incompatible contracts advance the minor. Commit the version files and notes with the change.

After merging, run npm run release:publish -- --dry-run, then npm run release:publish, from clean main at origin/main. The publisher validates the package, creates and pushes the annotated wintermute-vX.Y.Z tag, then creates a GitHub Release from that section. It refuses existing tags and unfinished notes. The marketplace still follows main. See Releases for prerequisites, checks and recovery after a partial publish.

0.2.0 — 2026-10-22

The swarm-dashboard plugin is now wintermute: one plugin that ships the orchestrator agents and the swarm dashboard, released and updated together.

Added

• Six agents, in com.github.copilot/agents/: orchestrator, session-orchestrator, hands-on-orchestrator, hands-on-session-orchestrator, orchestrator-worker and session-worker. Before, they were loose files in ghcp/agents/ that you symlinked or copied into ~/.copilot/agents/.
• When a canvas opened by a newer installed plugin is served by an older running dashboard server, both the regular view and the cockpit show an out-of-date notice naming the running and installed versions and how to update the dashboard; the cockpit also reloads once when the UI fingerprint changes after reconnect, matching the regular view. The notice appears from 0.2.0 on; an older running dashboard from before 0.2.0 is replaced by the migration's app restart or extension reload in every open session (steps 4 and 5).
• This changelog.
• Dependency-free release commands to bump the three versions together and publish a guarded wintermute-vX.Y.Z tag and GitHub Release, with authentication and origin-repository preflight checks, a read-only dry run and offline tests.
• npm run validate also checks the six agents (each exists, its frontmatter follows a strict flat YAML subset and its decoded name matches the file name, and it starts the workers by their wintermute: IDs), that plugin.json has no agents field, that no copy of them stays in ghcp/agents/, and that this file has an entry for the current version.

Changed

• Plugin agents run under the ID wintermute:<agent>. The orchestrators now start their workers as wintermute:orchestrator-worker (task agent_type) and wintermute:session-worker (create_session kickoff.agent). To pick an orchestrator, choose it in the agent picker, or pass wintermute:orchestrator (or another wintermute: ID) where a tool or CLI flag takes an agent ID.
• The dashboard treats a top session as an orchestrator when its agent is wintermute:orchestrator, wintermute:session-orchestrator, wintermute:hands-on-orchestrator or wintermute:hands-on-session-orchestrator, and still when it is the bare name, so runs from before this release stay in History.

Unchanged

• The canvas is still swarm-dashboard. The shared server still uses port 7927 and reports "app": "swarm-dashboard", and run history stays in ~/.copilot/swarm-dashboard/.

Migration from swarm-dashboard and symlinked agents

Do these steps in order:

1. Remove the six agent symlinks or copies from ~/.copilot/agents/. The plugin's agents answer only to their wintermute: IDs. Old copies there stay separate agents under the bare names, with the same names in the agent picker, and run the old prompts, which start bare-named workers. Once your clone pulls this release, the symlinks also point at files that no longer exist. A bare name never resolves to a plugin agent, so the orchestrators start their workers by wintermute: IDs. To remove the old agents:

   for agent in orchestrator session-orchestrator hands-on-orchestrator hands-on-session-orchestrator orchestrator-worker session-worker; do
     rm -f ~/.copilot/agents/"$agent".agent.md
   done
   

2. Uninstall the old plugin. Two installed plugins that both register the swarm-dashboard canvas would clash:

   copilot plugin uninstall swarm-dashboard@ai-tools
   

3. Install the new one:

   copilot plugin install wintermute@ai-tools
   

4. Restart the Copilot app, or reload extensions in every open session. Any session that still runs the old extension can keep hosting the 0.1.x dashboard server on port 7927, and versions before 0.2.0 show no out-of-date notice. A session keeps the agents it started with until the app restarts, so if you only reload extensions, start a new session for orchestrator work.

5. Check that the port serves the new dashboard. With a dashboard canvas open:

   curl -s http://127.0.0.1:7927/api/health
   

   The answer must include "version":"0.2.0". If it shows an older version, a session still hosts the old server: restart the app.