beads/CHANGELOG.md

Changelog

All notable changes to the beads project will be documented in this file.

The format is based on Keep a Changelog, and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning.

[Unreleased]

Added

• Nix Flake Support: Declarative builds and installation via Nix
  • Multi-platform support (x86_64/aarch64 for Linux and macOS)
  • nix build to build the bd binary
  • nix run support for running bd directly without installation
  • Example flake input: inputs.beads.url = "github:steveyegge/beads"
  • Example usage: nix run github:steveyegge/beads -- ready --json

[0.9.2] - 2025-10-14

Added

• One-Command Dependency Creation: --deps flag for bd create (#18)
  • Create issues with dependencies in a single command
  • Format: --deps type:id or just --deps id (defaults to blocks)
  • Multiple dependencies: --deps discovered-from:bd-20,blocks:bd-15
  • Whitespace-tolerant parsing
  • Particularly useful for AI agents creating discovered-from issues
• External Reference Tracking: external_ref field for linking to external trackers
  • Link bd issues to GitHub, Jira, Linear, etc.
  • Example: bd create "Issue" --external-ref gh-42
  • bd update supports updating external references
  • Tracked in JSONL for git portability
• Metadata Storage: Internal metadata table for system state
  • Stores import hash for idempotent auto-import
  • Enables future extensibility for system preferences
  • Auto-migrates existing databases
• Windows Support: Complete Windows 11 build instructions (#10)
  • Tested with mingw-w64
  • Full CGo support documented
  • PATH setup instructions
• Go Extension Example: Complete working example of database extensions (#15)
  • Demonstrates custom table creation
  • Shows cross-layer queries joining with issues
  • Includes test suite and documentation
• Issue Type Display: bd list now shows issue type in output (#17)
  • Better visibility: bd-1 [P1] [bug] open
  • Helps distinguish bugs from features at a glance

Fixed

• Critical: Dependency tree deduplication for diamond dependencies (bd-85, #1)
  • Fixed infinite recursion in complex dependency graphs
  • Prevents duplicate nodes at same level
  • Handles multiple blockers correctly
• Critical: Hash-based auto-import replaces mtime comparison (bd-84)
  • Git pull updates mtime but may not change content
  • Now uses SHA256 hash to detect actual changes
  • Prevents unnecessary imports after git operations
• Critical: Parallel issue creation race condition (PR #8, bd-66)
  • Multiple processes could generate same ID
  • Replaced in-memory counter with atomic database counter
  • Syncs counters after import to prevent collisions
  • Comprehensive test coverage

Changed

• Auto-import now uses content hash instead of modification time
• Dependency tree visualization improved for complex graphs
• Better error messages for dependency operations

Community

• Merged PR #8: Parallel issue creation fix
• Merged PR #10: Windows build instructions
• Merged PR #12: Fix quickstart EXTENDING.md link
• Merged PR #14: Better enable Go extensions
• Merged PR #15: Complete Go extension example
• Merged PR #17: Show issue type in list output

[0.9.1] - 2025-10-14

Added

• Incremental JSONL Export: Major performance optimization
  • Dirty issue tracking system to only export changed issues
  • Auto-flush with 5-second debounce after CRUD operations
  • Automatic import when JSONL is newer than database
  • --no-auto-flush and --no-auto-import flags for manual control
  • Comprehensive test coverage for auto-flush/import
• ID Space Partitioning: Explicit ID assignment for parallel workers
  • bd create --id worker1-100 for controlling ID allocation
  • Enables multiple agents to work without conflicts
  • Documented in CLAUDE.md for agent workflows
• Auto-Migration System: Seamless database schema upgrades
  • Automatically adds dirty_issues table to existing databases
  • Silent migration on first access after upgrade
  • No manual intervention required

Fixed

• Critical: Race condition in dirty tracking (TOCTOU bug)
  • Could cause data loss during concurrent operations
  • Fixed by tracking specific exported IDs instead of clearing all
• Critical: Export with filters cleared all dirty issues
  • Status/priority filters would incorrectly mark non-matching issues as clean
  • Now only clears issues that were actually exported
• Bug: Malformed ID detection never worked
  • SQLite CAST returns 0 for invalid strings, not NULL
  • Now correctly detects non-numeric ID suffixes like "bd-abc"
  • No false positives on legitimate zero-prefixed IDs
• Bug: Inconsistent dependency dirty marking
  • Duplicated 20+ lines of code in AddDependency/RemoveDependency
  • Refactored to use shared markIssuesDirtyTx() helper
• Fixed unchecked error in import.go when unmarshaling JSON
• Fixed unchecked error returns in test cleanup code
• Removed duplicate test code in dependencies_test.go
• Fixed Go version in go.mod (was incorrectly set to 1.25.2)

Changed

• Export now tracks which specific issues were exported
• ClearDirtyIssuesByID() added (ClearDirtyIssues() deprecated with race warning)
• Dependency operations use shared dirty-marking helper (DRY)

Performance

• Incremental export: Only writes changed issues (vs full export)
• Regex caching in ID replacement: 1.9x performance improvement
• Automatic debounced flush prevents excessive I/O

[0.9.0] - 2025-10-12

Added

• Collision Resolution System: Automatic ID remapping for import collisions
  • Reference scoring algorithm to minimize updates during remapping
  • Word-boundary regex matching to prevent false replacements
  • Automatic updating of text references and dependencies
  • --resolve-collisions flag for safe branch merging
  • --dry-run flag to preview collision detection
• Export/Import with JSONL: Git-friendly text format
  • Dependencies embedded in JSONL for complete portability
  • Idempotent import (exact matches detected)
  • Collision detection (same ID, different content)
• Ready Work Algorithm: Find issues with no open blockers
  • bd ready command shows unblocked work
  • bd blocked command shows what's waiting
• Dependency Management: Four dependency types
  • blocks: Hard blocker (affects ready work)
  • related: Soft relationship
  • parent-child: Epic/subtask hierarchy
  • discovered-from: Track issues discovered during work
• Database Discovery: Auto-find database in project hierarchy
  • Walks up directory tree like git
  • Supports $BEADS_DB environment variable
  • Falls back to ~/.beads/default.db
• Comprehensive Documentation:
  • README.md with 900+ lines of examples and FAQs
  • CLAUDE.md for AI agent integration patterns
  • SECURITY.md with security policy and best practices
  • TEXT_FORMATS.md analyzing JSONL approach
  • EXTENDING.md for database extension patterns
  • GIT_WORKFLOW.md for git integration
• Examples: Real-world integration patterns
  • Python agent implementation
  • Bash agent script
  • Git hooks for automatic export/import
  • Branch merge workflow with collision resolution
  • Claude Desktop MCP integration (coming soon)

Changed

• Switched to JSONL as source of truth (from binary SQLite)
• SQLite database now acts as ephemeral cache
• Issue IDs generated with numerical max (not alphabetical)
• Export sorts issues by ID for consistent git diffs

Security

• SQL injection protection via allowlisted field names
• Input validation for all issue fields
• File path validation for database operations
• Warnings about not storing secrets in issues

[0.1.0] - Initial Development

Added

• Core issue tracking (create, update, list, show, close)
• SQLite storage backend
• Dependency tracking with cycle detection
• Label support
• Event audit trail
• Full-text search
• Statistics and reporting
• bd init for project initialization
• bd quickstart interactive tutorial

---

Version History

• 0.9.2 (2025-10-14): Community PRs, critical bug fixes, and --deps flag
• 0.9.1 (2025-10-14): Performance optimization and critical bug fixes
• 0.9.0 (2025-10-12): Pre-release polish and collision resolution
• 0.1.0: Initial development version

Upgrade Guide

Upgrading to 0.9.2

No breaking changes. All changes are backward compatible:

• --deps flag: Optional new feature for bd create
• external_ref: Optional field, existing issues unaffected
• Metadata table: Auto-migrates on first use
• Bug fixes: All critical fixes are transparent to users

Simply pull the latest version and rebuild:

go install github.com/steveyegge/beads/cmd/bd@latest
# or
git pull && go build -o bd ./cmd/bd

Upgrading to 0.9.1

No breaking changes. All changes are backward compatible:

• Auto-migration: The dirty_issues table is automatically added to existing databases
• Auto-flush/import: Enabled by default, improves workflow (can disable with flags if needed)
• ID partitioning: Optional feature, use --id flag only if needed for parallel workers

If you're upgrading from 0.9.0, simply pull the latest version. Your existing database will be automatically migrated on first use.

Upgrading to 0.9.0

No breaking changes. The JSONL export format is backward compatible.

If you have issues in your database:

1. Run bd export -o .beads/issues.jsonl to create the text file
2. Commit .beads/issues.jsonl to git
3. Add .beads/*.db to .gitignore

New collaborators can clone the repo and run:

bd import -i .beads/issues.jsonl

The SQLite database will be automatically populated from the JSONL file.

Future Releases

See open issues tagged with milestone markers for planned features in upcoming releases.

For version 1.0, see: bd dep tree bd-8 (the 1.0 milestone epic)