v0.8.61: community harvest + freeze fix + WhaleFlow foundation layer (WIP, for review)

[Hmbown]

v0.8.61 — community harvest + launch-blocker fix + WhaleFlow foundation layer

Draft / for review. This is the assembled v0.8.61 work on codex/v0.8.61 (28 commits over main). It is intentionally not merge-ready yet — the version bump is still a local working-tree change, and the new foundation modules are deliberately unwired (#![allow(dead_code)]) pending their follow-up wiring passes.

👏 New community contributors (6) — harvested with authorship preserved + credited on each PR

PR	Author	What
#3201	@mvanhorn	revive non-DeepSeek cost tracking → closes #3066
#3195	@cyq1017	telegram bridge keeps polling while turns stream (relates #2966)
#3220	@RobertEmprechtinger	cap mobile event history (freeze fix)
#3199	@gaord	PUT /v1/sessions engine-snapshot session save
#3197	@nightt5879	rename DEEPSEEK_BLUE → WHALE_ACCENT_PRIMARY (deprecated aliases kept) → closes #3069
#3221	@hongchen1993	exec honors DEEPSEEK_BASE_URL / DEEPSEEK_MODEL

(#3013 @cyq1017 verified already-implemented and credited.)

Launch blocker — sub-agent fanout freeze (#3216 / #2211)

• Mechanism fix: the turn loop now observes cancellation between tool batches, so a runaway agent_open fanout is promptly interruptible instead of wedging the TUI.
• Trigger fix: the base prompt no longer tells the model to spawn sub-agents "liberally" or advertises a 10/20 cap (the real effective launch limit is ~4); it now teaches deliberate, batch-and-poll fanout. (This was the "overlapping material" that drove the freeze.)
• Full nonblocking/durable fanout is the designed follow-up (see docs/V0_8_61_EXECUTION.md).

Quick-fix issues closed

#3012 (auto-load global ~/.codewhale/instructions.md), #3068 (legacy .deepseek/ path audit doc), #3208 (release-artifact docs), plus wave-1 #3214 (branch-hygiene tool), #3188 (git identity in TUI status), #3076 (neutral provider ordering).

WhaleFlow foundation layer (the spine)

The orchestration pattern = WhaleFlow ≈ ultracode, native to CodeWhale with heterogeneous-model workers. Ten additive, tested foundation modules, not yet wired:
worker_profile (per-role permissions + model route + non-escalating parent→child derivation, #3217/#3211/#3213/#414/#426/#1186), goal_loop (persistent-objective decision core, wired into the continuation hook, #3215), record_thread_goal_usage (durable per-goal accounting), model_registry (#3071/#3073), provider_readiness (#3083), context_budget (#3086), provider_adapter (#3084), resource_telemetry (#2666), theme_override (#3074), request_tuning (#3024).

Docs

docs/V0_8_61_RELEASE_TRIAGE.md, docs/V0_8_61_ISSUE_COVERAGE.md (all 84 milestone issues → disposition + plan), docs/V0_8_61_EXECUTION.md (12 workstream clusters + the WhaleFlow spine).

Verification

cargo test -p codewhale-tui --bins → 4812 pass / 0 fail; codewhale-config/-protocol/-cli/-whaleflow/-state green; cargo fmt --all --check + git diff --check clean; scripts/release/check-versions.sh OK. (CI will run the full release build on this PR.)

Not in this PR / follow-ups

• Version bump to 0.8.61 (kept as your local working-tree change).
• Wiring the foundations into live flows (the "make it real" passes).
• A 12-issue design batch (v0.8.61: Make multi-agent fanout durable and nonblocking before shipping swarm UX #3216/v0.8.61: Split sub-agents into a headless worker runtime with lightweight TUI projections #3096/v0.8.65 EPIC: Fleet execution substrate for profiled workers #3154/TUI-freeze-Windows-crossterm-poll #1812/v0.8.40: failed shell command can leave TUI feeling stuck with active task_shell_wait/background job state #1737/Work Queue Sync Lag & Shell PID Hang Causing Premature LIVE-State Exit During Long-Running Tasks #1786/v0.8.61: Default independent shell and verifier work to background jobs #3212/Track non-user cancellation reasons through engine call sites #1541/v0.8.61: Render tool work as expandable activity metadata rows #3146/Composer can accidentally enter queued-steer edit state without clear mode feedback #2054/v0.8.65: Cross-provider /model search using explicit route rows #3075/Hydrate model catalog metadata from provider APIs with offline cache and provenance #3072) is in progress to guide the next code waves.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[greptile-apps]

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[gemini-code-assist]

Code Review

This pull request introduces several core features and optimizations to CodeWhale, including a persistent goal loop orchestrator, a unified context-budget math module, and a nonblocking sub-agent fanout mechanism to prevent TUI freezes. It also adds a branch hygiene script for post-merge cleanup and expands pricing support for non-DeepSeek models. The code review highlights a few important issues: a portability bug on macOS in the branch hygiene script, performance overhead from string allocations during provider sorting, the use of unstable Rust let_chains in multiple files, and debug print noise in the main entry point.

Important

The consumer version of Gemini Code Assist on GitHub is being sunset. Starting June 18, 2026, new organization installations will be blocked, and all code review activity will officially cease on July 17, 2026.
For more details on the timeline and next steps, please review the Help Documentation.

[gemini-code-assist]

The sort -V (version sort) option is a GNU extension and is not supported by the default sort utility on macOS (BSD sort), which will cause this script to fail on macOS. Since Git has built-in version sorting support via --sort=version:refname, we can use that directly to ensure portability across all platforms.

Suggested change

	release_branch="$(git for-each-ref --format='%(refname:short)' 'refs/heads/codex/v*' \
	| sort -V | tail -n1 || true)"
	release_branch="$(git for-each-ref --sort=version:refname --format='%(refname:short)' 'refs/heads/codex/v*' \
	| tail -n1 || true)"

[gemini-code-assist]

Calling to_ascii_lowercase() on &str allocates a new String on every comparison. Since sort_by performs $O(N \log N)$ comparisons, this results in hundreds of unnecessary allocations. You can perform a zero-allocation case-insensitive comparison by comparing the byte iterators directly.

Suggested change

	pub fn providers_sorted_for_display() -> Vec<&'static dyn Provider> {
	let mut providers = all_providers().to_vec();
	providers.sort_by(|a, b| {
	a.display_name()
	.to_ascii_lowercase()
	.cmp(&b.display_name().to_ascii_lowercase())
	});
	providers
	}
	pub fn providers_sorted_for_display() -> Vec<&'static dyn Provider> {
	let mut providers = all_providers().to_vec();
	providers.sort_by(|a, b| {
	a.display_name()
	.bytes()
	.map(|b| b.to_ascii_lowercase())
	.cmp(b.display_name().bytes().map(|b| b.to_ascii_lowercase()))
	});
	providers
	}

[gemini-code-assist]

The let_chains feature is currently unstable in Rust and requires a nightly compiler. To ensure compatibility with stable Rust, use Option::is_some_and instead, which is stable since Rust 1.70.0.

    if budget.token_budget.is_some_and(|tokens| progress.tokens_used >= tokens) {
        return ContinuationDecision::Stop(StopReason::TokenBudget);
    }
    if budget.time_budget_seconds.is_some_and(|secs| progress.time_used_seconds >= secs) {
        return ContinuationDecision::Stop(StopReason::TimeBudget);
    }

[gemini-code-assist]

The let_chains feature is unstable in Rust. To ensure compatibility with stable Rust, use a nested if let block instead.

Suggested change

	if let Some(limit) = query.replay_limit
	&& backlog.len() > limit
	{
	backlog = backlog.split_off(backlog.len() - limit);
	}
	if let Some(limit) = query.replay_limit {
	if backlog.len() > limit {
	backlog = backlog.split_off(backlog.len() - limit);
	}
	}

[gemini-code-assist]

These eprintln! calls print debug noise to stderr in production. Additionally, the check should also honor CODEWHALE_BASE_URL as the primary environment variable, falling back to DEEPSEEK_BASE_URL for backward compatibility.

                let env_url = std::env::var("CODEWHALE_BASE_URL")
                    .or_else(|_| std::env::var("DEEPSEEK_BASE_URL"));
                if let Ok(env_url) = env_url {
                    let trimmed = env_url.trim();
                    if !trimmed.is_empty() {
                        config.base_url = Some(trimmed.to_string());
                    }
                }

[greptile-apps]

Too many files changed for review. (164 files found, 100 file limit)