v0.4.0

What's new in 0.4.0

Site footer

Every page now shows a footer with the copyright holder and the platform version — e.g. © 2026 Adam Marshall and bead v0.4.0. The copyright name is pulled automatically from the default author.

Author lifecycle

Authors now go through the same draft → staged → public pipeline as beads. Author files use the .draft.md / .staged.md / .public.md filename convention. Only public authors are included in production builds. New commands:

• bead author stage <slug>
• bead author retract <slug>
• bead author mark <status> <slug>

Changelog

Platform release notes live in changelog/ as first-class entries, with the same lifecycle as beads and authors. New commands:

• bead changelog new <version>
• bead changelog stage / retract / mark

Changelog entries can be published or kept private independently of the platform version bump.

Smarter releases

bead release now detects and reports three independent change categories:

• content — public beads changed
• authors — public author profiles changed
• platform — bead tool version changed, or changelog entries changed

The release manifest records which categories triggered the release, alongside beadVersion, deployedAuthors, and deployedChangelog. Use --dry-run to preview what would deploy and why.

Bug fix

The · middle-dot separator between bead metadata fields was rendering as literal text B7 due to a JavaScript string escape issue. Fixed.