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v2.5.1

Hmbown/Codewhalev2.5.1May 26, 2026by Lightheartdevs

AI Summary

This release focuses on recovery and stability for fresh installs and bootstrap processes, including resume support for partial downloads, increased timeouts for slow backends, and hardened lifecycle paths.

Key Highlights

  • Bootstrap downloads now preserve .part files and support resume on failure.
  • Hermes local-provider timeouts increased for slow time-to-first-token backends.
  • Lifecycle and reinstall paths hardened with better compose health checks and port reuse handling.
  • Dream Talk owner-portal work added including SSE streaming and mobile routing.

New Features

  • Streamed SSE replies and live status frames in Dream Talk
  • TTS streaming support
  • Mobile owner-card routing
  • Paperclip image/file attachment support
  • Install-context grounding

Full Release Notes

## Highlights

Dream Server 2.5.1 is the fresh-install and bootstrap-recovery patch release validated after the 2.5.0 audit hardening cycle.

- Bootstrap full-model downloads now preserve partial `.part` files, retry with resume support, keep failed status counters populated, cap progress display at 100%, and recover cleanly on the next `dream start`, `dream restart`, or reinstall.
- Hermes local-provider calls now use a longer request timeout for slow time-to-first-token backends, fixing the Strix Halo timeout cascade seen with 35B local inference.
- Dream Talk owner-portal work is included: streamed SSE replies, live status frames, TTS streaming, mobile owner-card routing, paperclip image/file attachments, and install-context grounding.
- Lifecycle and reinstall paths were hardened across compose health waits, delayed port reuse, model-swap container recreation, stale cloud compose-cache invalidation, bundled service CPU limits, and fallback model serving.
- LAN web guidance now points operators at the intended proxy surfaces instead of raw API ports or misplaced dashboard banners.
- Release documentation, forkability/runbook docs, AI-contribution policy, root security policy, branch hygiene guidance, and CLI roadmap were expanded for downstream operators.

## Validation Receipt

Primary fleet receipt: `/home/michael/dream-fleet-test/runs/2026-05-26T01-22-18Z`

- True fresh install on tower2, Strix Halo, Spark, and M5 MacBook Pro after nuking prior Dream Server containers, images, volumes, build cache, and stale model files.
- Install Green: all 4 hosts installed from public bootstrap.
- Product Green: core services, Hermes seeded echo, cloud contracts, dashboard, and UI checks passed.
- Lifecycle Green: all 4 hosts passed reinstall, restart, and doctor.
- Core capabilities passed on all 4 target-model hosts: chat, search, files, code, skills, model identity, and install context.
- Dream Talk probes passed where the Talk surface was available; unavailable Talk surfaces were skipped rather than treated as product failures.
- m5-mbp proved full-model capabilities for the first time after the bootstrap resume fix.
- Distro lab passed 10/10 Docker lanes and 5/5 Incus VM lanes.

Session summary: 11 fleet runs, 35+ commits, 7 issues filed, 6 resolved, 4 harness improvements, and zero product regressions.

## Known Follow-up

A follow-up Spark Talk probe after lifecycle churn surfaced a harness/sequencing issue, not a product regression. The release evidence distinguishes this from main-run product validation.

See `dream-server/CHANGELOG.md` for the full release notes and evidence trail.