DevDiff

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Changelog ​

All notable changes to the DevDiff workspace packages will be documented in this file.

[1.9.0] — 2026-08-22 · Full DevTools Suite, Universal MCP Server & VS Code Bundling Fixes ​

The v1.9.0 release delivers a complete programmatic DevTools suite for DevDiff Foundations in @eldrex/plugin-sdk, universal Model Context Protocol (MCP) server & multi-IDE installer across VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Antigravity, Claude Desktop, and JetBrains, and fixes VSIX module resolution, synchronous command registration, and side-by-side markdown rendering in the VS Code extension.

DevTools Suite (@eldrex/plugin-sdk) ​

  • Synthetic Diff & Context Generators: DevDiffDevTools.mockDiff() and DevDiffDevTools.mockContext() for zero-dependency unit tests without live git repos.
  • In-Memory Test Harness: DevDiffDevTools.createTestHarness() testing plugin activation, beforeAnalysis, afterAnalysis, error handling, and deactivation.
  • Plugin Manifest Validator: DevDiffDevTools.validatePlugin() verifying plugin schemas and SemVer constraints.
  • Performance Profiler: DevDiffDevTools.benchmarkPlugin() measuring execution duration (ms) and memory footprint.

Universal MCP Integration (@eldrex/mcp & @eldrex/cli) ​

  • Universal Config Generator (UniversalMCPConfig): 1-click configuration installer for VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Antigravity, Claude Desktop, and JetBrains.
  • Universal Server (DevDiffMCPServer): MCP server with 16 registered tools, SKILL.md loading, and self-testing diagnostics.
  • CLI Commands: devdiff mcp install, devdiff mcp status, devdiff mcp test, devdiff mcp serve.

VS Code Extension Enhancements (packages/vscode) ​

  • Standalone VSIX Bundling: Bundles all workspace dependencies into dist/extension.js with sourcemaps.
  • Synchronous Command Registration: Fixed command 'devdiff.generateDiagram' not found on early startup.
  • Rendered Markdown Previews: Automatically displays changelog and Project Summary documents with side-by-side rendered Markdown preview (markdown.showPreviewToSide).
  • DevTools Command Suite: Added devdiff.devtools.inspectContext, devdiff.devtools.exportPrompt, devdiff.devtools.testAI, and devdiff.devtools.mockDiff.

[1.8.0] — 2026-08-21 · Multi-Registry Extension Distribution, External Plugin Architecture & Documentation Overhaul ​

The v1.8.0 release establishes unified distribution across both the VS Code Marketplace and Open VSX Registry, cleanly decouples third-party plugins into standalone repositories, overhauls the documentation suite to human-craft engineering standards, and standardizes local release gate verification.

Multi-Registry Distribution ​

  • VS Code & Open VSX: Published and verified identical .vsix binaries across both the VS Code Marketplace (ebula.devdiff) and the Open VSX Registry (ebula/devdiff).
  • Editor Compatibility: Added clear installation instructions for VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, VSCodium, Gitpod, and Eclipse Theia.

External Plugin Architecture ​

  • Study Buddy Decoupling: Extracted Study Buddy into a dedicated external standalone repository (@eldrex/plugin-study-buddy at github.com/EldrexDelosReyesBula/devdiff-study-buddy).
  • Core Engine Integration: Refactored core explainCode engine to natively utilize ProgressiveExplainer across 5 skill levels.
  • Reference Examples: Embedded working reference plugin implementations in documentation and template repository.

Documentation & UI/UX Standards ​

  • Human-Craft Language: Refactored entire documentation portal to senior engineering standards, eliminating robotic jargon and emoji clutter.
  • Minimalist Dark Theme: Configured high-contrast dark Mermaid diagram theme matching modern IDE design systems.
  • Streamlined Navigation: Simplified sidebar navigation with clear, developer-friendly titles.

Repository Hygiene & Test Suite ​

  • Structured Test Hierarchy: Reorganized tests into structured test/e2e, test/stress, and test/performance directories.
  • Release Gate Scripts: Added root release gate shortcuts (pnpm gate and pnpm gate:ps).
  • Bundle Optimization: Minified VS Code extension bundle to 3.82 MB.
  • 100% Test Pass Rate: 38 test suites and 217 unit tests passing.

[1.7.0] — 2026-08-16 · Agentic Platform, SKILL.md Context, Memory Controls & Network Firewall ​

The v1.7.0 release introduces Project Context resolution, Codebase Memory Management, Output Completeness Gates, SKILL.md Agent Integration, and the Network Transparency Firewall.

Trust, Privacy & Network Firewall ​

  • Network Firewall (NetworkGuardV2): Built-in 100+ domain blocklist across 5 categories (telemetry, analytics, errorTracking, advertising, cdn_unknown). Audits outbound requests into .devdiff/audit/network.log.
  • Plugin Auditing & Disclosure Reports: Plugin manifest permission auditor and system transparency disclosure reports (devdiff disclose) detailing network activity, plugin behavior, filesystem access, shell execution history, AI processing, privacy guarantees, and compliance status (GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2, CCPA).
  • CLI Commands: devdiff network watch, history, block, unblock, blocked, allowed, allow, disallow, export, audit, devdiff plugin audit, devdiff disclose.

Codebase Memory & Time Filters ​

  • Memory Management: Date range snapshot deletion (devdiff memory delete --from --to --dry-run), active range scoping (devdiff memory use), snapshot labeling (devdiff memory categorize), and storage deduplication (devdiff memory optimize).
  • Natural Time References: Resolves human time expressions (today, yesterday, this-week, date-range, since-initial, between-commits) into git revision ranges.
  • CLI Commands: devdiff memory list, delete, use, categorize, categories, optimize, status.

Project Context & Diff Fact-Checking ​

  • Workspace Context (UnifiedContext): Single source of truth knowledge resolution (SKILL.md → .devdiff/context.md → recursive tree scanner).
  • Context-Memory Sync: Timestamp-based auto-synchronization between persistent memory and SKILL.md updates.
  • Diff Fact-Checking (HallucinationGuard): Multi-stage verification checking AI outputs against diff file paths, casing conventions, anti-pattern rules, and hedging language.

Educational Explanations & Study Buddy Plugin ​

  • Standalone Plugin: Universal code explanation engine supporting ANY programming language across 5 progressive levels (beginner, student, developer, senior, architect).
  • Language Explainers: Specialized explainers for CSS/SCSS, JS/TS, Python, HTML, Rust, Go, plus universal fallback structural analyzer.
  • AI Router: Priority AI router (IDE Agent → Local Ollama → Cloud AI).
  • CLI Commands: devdiff study explain, devdiff study ask.

Output Validation & Completeness Gates ​

  • Completeness Validator: 6 structural checks for cut-offs, minimum length, intro-only text, ending punctuation, template indicators, and balanced code blocks.
  • Quality Gates: Multi-stage quality processor for AI outputs.
  • Never-Push-Incomplete: Throws errors to block git push/commit when generated output is cut off.

Agent Standards (SKILL.md & MCP) ​

  • SkillLoader: Loader, parser, auto-generator, and validator for 10-section SKILL.md files.
  • devdiff_read_skill: MCP tool registered in @eldrex/mcp server.
  • CLI Commands: devdiff skill generate, validate, preview.

[1.6.0] — 2026-08-08 · IDE-Native Reliability & Hardening ​

The IDE-Native Reliability & Hardening release pivots DevDiff to an IDE-native experience. Everything takes place inside VS Code, the CLI, and your custom SDK applications:

IDE-Native Architecture ​

  • 4 VS Code Sidebar Panels: Changelog Explorer, Q&A Chat Panel, Security & Compliance Panel, and Settings Panel.
  • @devdiff Chat Integration: Native VS Code chat participant (@devdiff) answering questions in <500ms using persistent memory.
  • IDEGuardian Performance Protection: Worker task execution, 256MB memory cap, 5s typing activity idle tracking, and 120s safety timeouts so DevDiff never freezes the editor.
  • Gutter Annotations & CodeLens: Inline ⚡ DevDiff: Explain Changes CodeLens triggers directly inside active file editors.

Unified Design System & SDK ​

  • Adaptive Design System Tokens: Theme-adaptive VS Code colors, font tokens, and Codicon icons.
  • Build-Your-Own-Dashboard: SDK documentation and guides for developers building custom web dashboards, Slack integrations, or internal team tools.

Cross-Platform CLI Updates ​

  • Improved Windows Support: win32-shell.ts and windows-hardening.ts stabilize Windows execution, arg parsing, and shell command handling.
  • Config Command: New devdiff config set and devdiff config get commands to manage engine flags, scheduler settings, notification endpoints, cloud integrations, and memory policies.

[1.5.0] - 2026-08-07 (Persistent Codebase Memory & Universal Intelligence Release) ​

The v1.5.0 major release introduces persistent codebase memory, automated semantic versioning, universal project detection, SKILL.md knowledge base validation, developer sovereignty controls, natural changelogs, hardware-aware optimization, and 24/7 background operation scheduling.

Persistent Codebase Memory Engine ​

  • One-Time Full Scan: Scans codebase once and saves indexed snapshot (.devdiff/memory/codebase-index.json).
  • Sub-50ms Index Queries: Instant index-based lookup for time-range diffs, entity change histories, creation dates, purpose summaries, and dependencies.
  • Incremental Updates: Detects Git commit changes and updates only modified files incrementally in milliseconds.
  • Continuous Conversation Context: Resolves pronouns (it, this, that) automatically across multi-turn session chat history (.devdiff/memory/conversation-history.json).
  • Commands: devdiff memory init, devdiff memory status, devdiff memory rescan, devdiff memory clear-conversation, devdiff memory clear-all, devdiff ask "<question>".

Automated Semantic Versioning & Release ​

  • Automated SemVer Detection: Analyzes git diffs, export removals, function signature changes, SQL drops, and commit messages to calculate MAJOR, MINOR, or PATCH version bumps.
  • Keep a Changelog Formatting: Groups change entries into Added, Changed, Deprecated, Removed, Fixed, and Security.
  • One-Command Release: devdiff release bumps version, updates CHANGELOG.md, creates git tag, and pushes to remote.

Universal Language & Project Detection ​

  • Universal Project Detector: Analyzes single-file HTML/CSS/JS or Python scripts, static web apps, PWAs, Python projects, and generic repositories without requiring package.json.
  • Framework & Web API Scanning: Detects CDN frameworks (Tailwind, Bootstrap, Vue, React, Alpine, HTMX, jQuery, Google Fonts) and Web APIs (IndexedDB, localStorage, fetch, Web Speech, Vibration).

SKILL.md Knowledge Base System ​

  • Project Knowledge Base: Auto-generates .devdiff/SKILL.md covering 10 domain knowledge sections.
  • Commands: devdiff skill generate, devdiff skill validate.

Developer Sovereignty & Cloud Guard ​

  • Explicit Cloud Opt-In (CloudGuard): Environment API keys are detected but NEVER called automatically without explicit setup via devdiff auth add.
  • Flexible Engine Exclusions (FlexibleIgnore): Engine operational files are filtered dynamically; .devdiffignore is fully developer-controlled.
  • Natural Developer Changelogs (NaturalChangelogGenerator): Sanitizes AI-sounding hedging terms (appears to, seems to) into factual past-tense developer language.
  • Git Commit Guard (CommitGuard): Generated files are never auto-staged or committed without explicit developer commands.

Low-End Device Optimizer & 24/7 Scheduler ​

  • Hardware-Aware Memory Caps: RAM caps (128MB Low, 256MB Medium, 512MB High) and single-worker concurrency limits.
  • Battery & Thermal Throttling Guard: Pauses background tasks during high thermal states or battery discharge.
  • 24/7 Background Scheduler: Pre-configured background operational tasks (devdiff schedule list).

[1.0.6] - 2026-07-06 (Windows & Command Argument Hardening Release) ​

The Windows & Command Argument Hardening release resolves critical command execution, argument parsing, option ordering, and environment performance behaviors.