v1.16.25

apache/answerv1.16.25Oct 4, 2026by github-actions[bot]

Upgrading?

AI Summary

This release focuses on improving agent communication with a notification system featuring urgent and info tiers, an opt-in Comms Ledger for durable message records, and enhanced remote update timer management. It also adds new CLI commands for inbox management and conductor operations.

Key Highlights

  • Notification system with urgent (immediate) and info (batched) tiers
  • Comms Ledger (opt-in) for durable record of every finished agent turn
  • Remote update timer management with auto-installation and migration
  • Improved background task visibility in TUI
  • Inbox peek and stats commands for pending records

New Features

  • agent-deck conductor notify --tier urgent|info
  • agent-deck conductor outbox command
  • Reply tagging for senders with --no-tag option
  • agent-deck remote drain with incremental shipping
  • agent-deck inbox cursor command
  • Comms Ledger configuration [comms] ledger
  • remote list --check and TUI remote preview
  • update --check --json reporting

Full Release Notes

Agent Deck 1.16.25 is about who hears what, and when: agents talk to each other and to you with less noise, and remotes now look after their own updates.

- **Upgrading:** re-run `agent-deck conductor setup <name>` once per conductor to install the updated Telegram/Slack/Discord bridge. Remotes install or migrate their own update timer on their next update; nothing to do by hand.

### Added

- A conductor can message you from any turn with `agent-deck conductor notify --tier urgent|info`: urgent goes out at once, info is batched into a digest (every 30 min by default), and nothing is lost when the bridge or the chat platform is down (#2474).
- `agent-deck conductor outbox` lists and acknowledges what is waiting to reach you (#2474).
- Replies go back to whoever asked: a `session send` from one agent to another is tagged with the sender, and the answer lands in the sender's inbox and wakes it. Turn off with `[send] tag_sends = false` or `--no-tag` (#2475).
- `agent-deck remote drain` only ships what is new since the last drain and wakes the conductor for urgent items; `[remotes.<name>] talkback_interval_secs` runs it on a schedule, and a dead link raises one urgent alert instead of going silent (#2477).
- `agent-deck inbox cursor` shows where each remote drain left off (#2477).
- Comms Ledger (opt-in, off by default): a durable record of every finished agent turn behind `[comms] ledger`; see docs/comms.md (#2476).
- `remote list --check` and the TUI remote preview show each remote's update timer (installed, kind, active, last and next run); `remote update --install-timer` installs or migrates it over SSH (#2483).
- `update --check --json` reports the outcome of the controller's last update nudge to each remote (`remote_nudges`) (#2483).

### Changed

- Only a finished task, an error or a question to the parent counts as urgent; a plain reply or progress note is info and no longer wakes the parent (#2478).
- A child started with the identity block no longer gets the completion instruction twice in its launch message (#2474).

### Fixed

- Remotes keep their own daily update timer: it is installed or healed on its own, an old hand-made `agentdeck-autoupdate.timer` is migrated with backups instead of being reported as missing, and `[updates] manage_timer = false` turns this off (#2483, fixes #2472).
- A Claude session running a background Workflow, background agents, background shells or a Monitor now shows as running (with the task and progress in the TUI preview and in `--json` as `background_work`) instead of idle, and the sender of a send that started it gets the real result when it finishes (#2479, fixes #2473).
- Closing an event bus now stops and waits for its subscriptions first, fixing a data race that could hit a closed lock file and made CI flaky (#2485, fixes #2484).

Contributors: @asheshgoplani (all changes in this release).

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