Overview ​

ALP versioning tracks two independent axes:

• Specification (spec/01-overview) — the protocol grammar. Locked at 2.0.0 (Stable); strict semantic-versioning guarantees apply to implementations.
• Toolchain (@autonomous-lifecycle-protocol-alp/cli, @autonomous-lifecycle-protocol-alp/sdk, docs-site, integrations) — the implementation and packaging, released on its own cadence.

Looking Ahead: See ROADMAP_V17_V43.md for the strategic architecture roadmap spanning v17.0.0 (OpenTelemetry) to v43.0.0 (IDE Collaboration).

Toolchain ​

82.0.0 — Autonomous Reasoning Core ​

• Verifiable Reasoning Tree (VerifiableReasoningTree): Cryptographically verified chain-of-thought Merkle trees with SHA-256 step hashes and node provenance.
• Self-Reflection & Critique Engine (CritiqueEngine): Automated critique loops scoring correctness, security, and performance with automated spec refinements.
• Cross-Agent Task Negotiation (CrossAgentPlanner): Multi-agent task allocation engine using composite capability, cost, and risk scores.
• CLI & Tools: alp reason critique <file> and alp reason verify <chainId> subcommands.

81.0.0 — SHAM IDE & Parser Enhancements ​

• Real-Time Multiplayer CRDT Canvas: Connected node relations (CanvasEdge), SVG dependency edges, and live CRDT JSON snapshot exports.
• Wasm-Compiled AST Evaluator: Offline-first parsing covering all 50+ block types with sub-5ms latency and diagnostic rules.
• Autonomous Agent Copilot: Natural language workspace querying (queryWorkspace) and policy auto-generation (generatePolicyFromUsage).

80.0.0 — MCP Server & VS Code Extension Enhancements ​

• MCP Server: Integrated PolicyEnforcer & DocumentValidator, enriched alp_delegate tool schema (priority, tags, skills, dueDate, context), added MCP Prompts (alp_delegate_task, alp_review_workspace, alp_diagnose_failure), and virtual MCP Resources (alp://workspace, alp://graph, alp://policies, alp://events).
• VS Code Extension: PolicyEnforcer governance audits, !deprecated hint diagnostics, expanded TextMate block marker grammar (50+ types), and real-time workspace health status bar.

80.0.0 — Autonomous Orchestration ​

• Autonomy Controller: Fully autonomous multi-agent workflows with self-healing DAGs and self-modifying workflows.
• Workflow Mutator: Propose, apply, and rollback edits to running workflows with policy guardrails.
• Adaptive Engine: Real-time environment signal observation with auto-tuning of retry, circuit breaker, and pool parameters.
• Self-Healing: Automatic diagnosis and patching of common ALP specification errors.
• CLI: alp autonomy command group with run, heal, predict, observe, mutate, and decisions subcommands.
• MCP Tools: alp_autonomy_run, alp_autonomy_heal, alp_autonomy_predict.
• SDKs: AutonomyController, WorkflowMutator, AdaptiveEngine, EditProposal, SwarmRun in both TypeScript and Python SDKs.

80.0.0 — Intelligence Engine ​

• Intelligence Engine: AI-powered suggestions, diagnostics, predictions, and code review findings for .alp specs.
• CLI: alp intelligence command group with suggest, diagnose, predict, and review subcommands.
• MCP Tools: alp_intelligence_suggest, alp_intelligence_diagnose, alp_intelligence_predict, alp_intelligence_review.
• SDKs: IntelligenceEngine, SmartSuggestion, DiagnosisResult, PredictionResult, ReviewFinding in both TypeScript and Python SDKs.

40.0.0 — Native Desktop & SHAM IDE ​

• SHAM IDE: Cross-platform Electron desktop application for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Unified ALP experience with Monaco editor, integrated terminal, agent manager, and MCP tools browser.
• Version Unification: @autonomous-lifecycle-protocol-alp/parser, @autonomous-lifecycle-protocol-alp/sdk, and @autonomous-lifecycle-protocol-alp/cli bundled at the same version for a unified, faster, and error-free ALP experience.
• Cross-Platform Filesystem Access: Electron dialog and Node.js path for native filesystem interaction.
• Auto-Updater: Seamless distribution with electron-updater.
• Pro/Enterprise Licensing: Pro tier ($19/mo) with cloud sync and team collaboration. Enterprise tier with SSO/SAML, RBAC, and audit logging.

38.0.0 — Memory Mesh Engine & Governance ​

• Memory Mesh Engine (MemoryMeshEngine in TS & Python SDK): Cross-agent semantic memory sharing with decay scoring, memory node relationships, and distributed knowledge graph queries.
• Governance Engine (GovernanceEngine): Policy ballot voting and quorum checking with PolicyBallot, VoteValue, and GovernanceReport.
• CLI & Schema: alp memory-mesh CLI command and memory_mesh.schema.json protocol schema. Full Vitest (434 tests) & Pytest (579 tests) suite passing.

37.0.0 — Macro Engine & Collaboration Engine ​

• Macro Engine (MacroEngine): Dynamic @macro object generation with parameterized templates and runtime expansion.
• Collaboration Engine (CollaborationEngine): Real-time multiplayer conflict resolution with operational transforms, presence tracking, and branch synchronization.
• CLI & Schema: alp macro and alp collab CLI commands with corresponding JSON schemas.

36.0.0 — Autonomous Swarm Marketplace & Skill Registry ​

• Swarm Marketplace Engine (SwarmMarketplaceEngine in TS & Python SDK): Agent skill registration, category discovery, skill invocation, rating, cost per call tracking, and audit logging.
• CLI & Schema: alp marketplace CLI command and swarm_marketplace.schema.json object validation. Full Vitest (434 tests) & Pytest (579 tests) suite passing.

35.0.0 — Decoupled Event Mesh ​

• Event Mesh Engine (EventMeshEngine): Asynchronous pub/sub event mesh topic routing and payload broadcasting across swarms.
• CLI & Schema: alp event-mesh CLI command and event_mesh.schema.json protocol schema.

34.0.0 — Code Transformation & Refactoring ​

• Code Transform Engine (CodeTransformEngine): Automated AST refactoring and source code migration rules.
• CLI & Schema: alp code-transform CLI command and code_transform.schema.json.

10.0.0 — Locked Grammar 3.0.0 (V6 — The Governance Era) ​

• Formal grammar bumped to 3.0.0: removed @type_definition (deprecated in v8, removed in v9) and added V5 governance objects (@policy, @timeline, @contract, @vault) as first-class block types. Promoted @type to explicit block status. repo, swarm, and package are now explicit. All parser/SDK version-negotiation references updated from 2.x to 3.x.
• Migration guide: docs-site/MIGRATION-v10.md.

9.0.0 — v9 Breaking Changes ​

• Removed deprecated @type_definition alias — @type is now the sole custom-type declaration (spec/11 §2.5).
• [!] (blocked) and [?] (human gate) status markers MUST carry a free-text reason; unannotated markers are a hard SyntaxError (promoted from v8 deprecation warning, spec/03 §4).

8.4.0 — Encrypted Secrets Vault (V5) ​

• @vault (spec/19, spec/03 §31): secrets sealed at rest with an age-style X25519 envelope + AES-256-GCM, recipient-scoped so only the matching private key unseals. recipients double as the registry trust root (spec/14 §4.2).
• New Vault engine in parser/src/vault.ts (Node built-in crypto) and sdk/python/alp_sdk/vault.py (optional cryptography dep, zero-dep fallback). set / get / list / rotate / audit APIs; parser/tests/vault.test.ts (8 cases) + sdk/python/tests/test_vault.py (8 cases, skip without cryptography).
• Fixed pre-existing missing signing imports in registry.py (2 registry test errors). Full Python suite: 179 pass.

8.3.0 — Contracts: Runtime Boundary Validation (V5) ​

• @contract (spec/18, spec/03 §29): least-privilege boundaries between two entities (agents/tasks/repos) with requires pre-conditions, allows / denies lists (glob .* deny patterns), and on_violation modes (deny/warn/log).
• ContractEngine.check(contractId, context) enforces boundaries at handoff points (task transfer, repo write, MCP tool call). New parser/src/contract.ts + sdk/python/alp_sdk/contract.py; parser/tests/contract.test.ts (9) + sdk/python/tests/test_contracts.py (9). Full Python suite: 171 pass.

8.2.0 — Scheduling Engine (V5) ​

• @timeline (spec/17, spec/03 §27): native scheduling without an external cron daemon. Standard 5-field cron expressions and one-shot ISO 8601 at triggers, evaluated by TimelineEngine.evaluate(now).
• New parser/src/schedule.ts + sdk/python/alp_sdk/schedule.py; parser/tests/schedule.test.ts (6) + sdk/python/tests/test_schedule.py (6). CLI alp schedule (list / next / enable / disable / --at). Full Python suite: 162 pass.

8.1.0 — Policy v2 (V5) ​

• @policy gains three extensions: allow_during time-windows (actions outside every declared UTC window are denied — time-scoped least-privilege), require_approval (matching actions escalate to human-in-the-loop instead of auto-blocking), and proposal blocks (signed, auditable action proposals verified against a trust root with MCP-enforcement audit trail).
• evaluate_proposal / evaluateProposal APIs; tests/test_policy_v2.py (6) + parser/tests/policy.test.ts v8.1.0 block (3). CLI alp policy gains --proposal <id> + --trust <pem>. Full Python suite: 156 pass.

8.0.0 — Production-Grade Era (V5), three breaking changes ​

1. @type is canonical — the plugin model collapsed to a single @type declaration (spec/11 §2.5); @type_definition retained as a deprecated alias for one major, removed in v9.
2. !assert is fail-closed (spec/16 §4) — a false or unparseable !assert raises DirectiveError, and unknown directives raise a hard SyntaxError instead of being silently ignored.
3. [!] / [?] must carry a reason (spec/03 §4) — unannotated markers emit a deprecation warning in v8 and become a hard error in v9.

• Migration guide: docs-site/MIGRATION-v8.md. All sub-packages bumped to 8.0.0.

7.2.0 — Policy Federation & Engine Parity ​

• policy_federation layering multi-source governance over the atomic PolicyEngine: PolicyFederation aggregates PolicySources (local, every member project, hosted-registry namespaces) into one effective decision where deny_* / strict from ANY source wins. Adds FederatedDecision + audit_trail. tests/test_policy_federation.py (12). Full Python suite: 150 pass.

7.1.0 — Observability Parity ​

• Python observ.py mirroring TS runtime primitives — RuntimeLog (append-only JSONL at .alp/.runtime/log.jsonl), best-effort / never-raises.

7.0.0 — Unified Execution Engine ​

• Python engine.py implementing all four spec/05 engines — LoopEngine (7 stages, checkpoint-per-iteration, event emitter), WorkflowEngine (retry strategies), ContextEngine, VerificationEngine.

6.5.0 — Plugin System (local + remote) ​

• Local plugin loading: file-level !import "plugins/x.alp" is resolved relative to the .alp/ workspace root (spec/11 §3.1), with circular-import detection and path-traversal guards.
• @plugin + @type_definition blocks register custom object types; custom block markers (e.g. @epic) parse and validate against their declared properties (required-field + unknown-property warnings, §4.1).
• Remote HTTPS imports (§3.2–3.4): HTTPS-only, .alp extension check, 1 MB size cap, 30 s timeout, on-disk cache under .alp/.cache/remote/<sha256>/ (24 h TTL, stale-on-error), and !integrity: sha256:… verification.
• Registry alias imports @ns/name@version (§3.5) resolve to a registry URL and reuse the same fetch/cache/integrity path.
• PluginResolver + RemoteFetcher added to both @autonomous-lifecycle-protocol-alp/parser and the Python alp_sdk, covered by parser/tests/{plugin,remote}.test.ts and sdk/python/tests/test_plugin.py.

6.4.0 — Python Engine Parity ​

• Python alp_sdk gains three engines mirroring @autonomous-lifecycle-protocol-alp/parser for full cross-SDK parity:
  • AlpGraph — DAG build, -> ref edge resolution, cycle detection, topological sort, impact/blocker queries.
  • MemoryStore — persistent scoped key-value memory backed by .alp/.memory.json.
  • PolicyEngine — evaluates path/command actions against declarative @policy objects (deny beats allow, enforcement: warn reports only).
• All three are exported from the alp_sdk top-level package and covered by tests/test_engines.py.

6.0.1 — 2026-07-18 ​

• Docs: Homepage "How it works" example now uses canonical, indentation-based .alp syntax (no braces), matching the real .alp/ example files.

6.0.0 — Integrations & CI hardening ​

• First-class agent-integration drop-ins: Cursor (.cursorrules), Claude Code / Cline (instructions.md), and GitHub Actions templates.
• Active CI workflow: TypeScript build + tests, Python SDK tests, and example-workspace validation.
• Documentation site restyle and expanded guides.

5.0.0 — SDK hardening & cross-SDK parity ​

• Official TypeScript and Python SDKs brought to parity.
• Registry signature verification available programmatically in both SDKs.

4.5.0 — Remote package verification & shared verifier ​

• Shared verification helper operating on a version's PackageVersionInfo + trust roots.
• Python RegistryClient.verify_remote parity with the TS CLI.

4.4.0 — Server-side signature enforcement ​

• Hosted registry enforces signatures on publish and verifies on install.

4.3.0 — Persistent signature trust roots ​

• .alprc trustedKeys for pinning maintainer keys.

4.2.0 — Registry package signing & supply-chain trust ​

• Signed registry packages and verification path.

4.1.0 — Per-namespace tokens + publish-time auth ​

• Registry hardening: per-namespace tokens, publish-time authentication.

4.0.0 — Cross-machine & cross-repository coordination ​

• Networked swarms, cross-repo @repo orchestration, and policy governance.

3.0.0 — Compliance suite ​

• Recursive SDK loader, CI hardening, and V2 docs.

Specification ​

The formal grammar is locked at 2.0.0; production implementations MUST honor its strict semantic-versioning guarantees.