Ota v1.6.13 Now available

v1.6.13 is a proof-surface release.

The problem was not just whether Ota could run a task. The harder platform question was whether humans, CI, and agents could see the same selected execution path before mutation, trust the same JSON contract after execution, and understand which runtime or toolchain actually owned a capability.

This release tightens those surfaces. Preview output became first-class, service readiness gained explicit foreground/background intent, JSON conformance moved closer to the release gate, and toolchain ownership became a contract boundary instead of shell setup convention.

v1.6.13 ships a broad set of readiness and execution-contract improvements:

1. First-class run previews: ota run <task> --dry-run now renders a shared RUN PREVIEW, and ota run <task> --dry-run --json emits the matching machine-readable preview payload.
2. Published run-preview JSON contracts: run-preview.json now covers single-target previews, blocked previews, aggregate members, and pre-preview errors, with end-to-end conformance against real command output.
3. Wider JSON contract hardening: clean, validate, env, doctor, check, receipt, up, and workspace command surfaces gained schema-backed coverage, and JSON conformance now participates in the canonical compatibility and release gates.
4. Explicit service-run behavior: ota up now has --attach, --detach, and --ready-timeout; default service proof runs prepare, verify, teardown, and return, while --detach intentionally keeps the proved workload running.
5. Stronger runtime-proof and readiness diagnostics: startup-exit failures are prioritized, loopback probes understand local aliases, workflow-surface retries use bounded budgets, and Windows crash codes get actionable explanations.
6. First shipped toolchain contract slices: toolchains.rust with provider: rustup, toolchains.node with provider: corepack, and toolchains.java with provider: sdkman make capability ownership explicit and reject duplicate ownership across toolchains, runtimes, and tools.
7. Platform and agent surface polish: the Ota repo contract moved further toward container-first readiness, cross-OS smoke coverage was added for the public binary surface, unsupported-toolchain diagnostics became more stable, and ota skills install --agent codex|claude became the first-party skill lifecycle path.

This release is about making proof surfaces legible. A selected task path should have a preview. A service run should state whether it is attached, detached, or proof-owned. A JSON command should stay inside its published envelope. A runtime capability should have one owner.

Use these docs to apply v1.6.13 patterns directly:

• Get Started: Install Ota and confirm the installed binary with ota --version.
• Contract reference: Contract for toolchains, runtimes, tools, services, and agent boundaries.
• Command reference: Commands for ota run --dry-run, ota up, ota doctor, and ota clean --json.
• JSON validation: JSON output for command envelopes and schema-backed automation.

v1.6.13 is live here: https://ota.run/releases/v1.6.13

If you already run Ota, verify quickly:

ota --versionota validateota doctorota run <task> --dry-run --json

If your repo depends on service readiness, container execution, or toolchain-owned runtimes, this release gives you clearer previews, stronger proof behavior, and more stable JSON contracts for automation.