Use latest Claude Code and Codex releases

[raghubetina]

Accepted decision

On 2026-09-18 the owner approved using latest for both Claude Code and Codex in Drawing Board. Replace permanent exact third-party agent pins with the vendors' current public releases. For Claude this means the latest channel, not its delayed stable channel. Implementation is merged in #40, with the fresh Codespace installation receipt merged in #41. This does not change First Draft package release status.

• Install current public Claude Code and Codex releases when preparing a new Codespace.
• Allow their ordinary supported update paths; rerunning setup must not restore an obsolete hard-coded agent version.
• Record the actual installed versions in smoke/qualification output. Test the commands and Skill discovery Drawing Board uses rather than requiring one historical version number.
• Reserve a temporary exact pin for a demonstrated regression or an explicitly frozen experiment, with its reason recorded. Do not add a custom updater, release-approval process for every agent version, or an unconditional download on every Codespace resume.
• Keep First Draft CLI/Skill/service compatibility and language/database/image version policies separate. This decision does not unpin those components or authorize release of First Draft packages.

Related Service audit/documentation owners: https://github.com/firstdraft/firstdraft/issues/663 and https://github.com/firstdraft/firstdraft/issues/712.

Rationale and preceding behavior

The initial Drawing Board commit sought a reproducible colleague-testing environment. Agent versions in a test receipt remain useful, but indefinite client pins do not freeze the hosted model or service and impose upgrade friction.

An actual compatibility failure is already recorded: Codex 0.147.0 rejected the newer model before using a First Draft Skill or service. The 0.154.0 upgrade addressed that minimum-client requirement. Claude's native AGENTS.md discovery similarly postdated that pinned client; its separate discovery caveats still need qualification under Service #712.

At Drawing Board main aed9635a4dc191eb1f384e500c10648a5cec2215:

• .devcontainer/agent-versions.env selects Claude Code 2.1.226 and Codex 0.154.0.
• .devcontainer/setup-agents passes those exact versions to npm on setup.
• script/devcontainer-smoke requires exact version matches as well as exercising CLI flags/help, configuration, and Skill discovery.

The accepted tradeoff is receiving ordinary upstream changes and occasional regressions, rather than holding students on old clients until a Drawing Board release. Use actual test evidence to respond to breakage instead of treating a frozen CLI number as a compatibility guarantee.

Implementation and verification

• Update installation selectors and related checks/docs for latest public agent releases. Retain actual version receipts, normal executable/PATH checks, and the meaningful command/configuration/Skill smoke checks.
• Check first setup and setup reruns with the real Codespace home/config mounts. Preserve credentials, conversation state, and user configuration. Verify available vendor update behavior rather than claiming both tools auto-update identically.
• Qualify a fresh Codespace's installation and shared Skill discovery for both agents. Label authenticated model-turn or full Compilation evidence separately; successful --version/--help output does not prove them.
• Coordinate AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md discovery with Service #712. Selecting latest does not alone justify deleting the minimal CLAUDE.md import; test first-session and supported discovery behavior.
• Update the guide and qualification documentation at the observed boundary. Historical receipts keep the exact versions they actually tested.

Primary update guidance: Claude Code installation and updates, Codex update command.

Completion checkpoint — 2026-09-19

Drawing Board main is 3e4ba3d3b62de78642be2c46975ed2454c74130f, tree 1e42672cbe5aaebdcbbeb98857fccd3a24642d54. PR #41's exact-head hosted CI and independent documentation review passed; its implementation paths are unchanged from merged #40 at d2f488f.

A fresh Codespace at the correct merged source installed Claude 2.1.278 and Codex 0.155.1 through supported native/user-owned paths. Two full smokes passed, including all three Bash modes, effective Codex permissions, and both Skill catalogs. A complete setup rerun preserved six synthetic credential/conversation/unrelated-Skill files plus the initial Codex config and blank .env, including bytes, modes and ownership. No custom Claude settings file existed in this fresh fixture; earlier migration/rerun proof remains separately recorded. The fixture was shut down after evidence export.

The minimal CLAUDE.md import remains. First-session native instruction-discovery qualification belongs to firstdraft/firstdraft#712; latest client selection alone is not that proof. Real sign-in, authenticated model turns, Compilation and publication were not part of this installation observation. First Draft CLI0.2.2, Skills54294d6c and the image pin remain unchanged.

The earlier stale-source prebuild attempt and missing automatic successor are a separate operational investigation in #42. Manual refresh success does not diagnose that cause. No fixture remains active and no package, plugin, image or gist release occurred.

[raghubetina]

Implementation is ready for the coordinating task in draft PR #40, at one commit 39d29cbb8a63838df5c07aed367132694a1af5e3 (tree d94c7e80aecefd549719ee70709475c191ffc62e). Final-head hosted CI passed.

Official native installers select current public clients without the npm-prefix regression in interactive nvm shells. Fresh Claude defaults to latest while setup reruns preserve the user's existing channel. First Draft and runtime/image pins remain independent. Actual fixtures covered fresh installation, native updates, old npm-to-native migration, shared Skill catalogs, three Bash modes, and synthetic state/configuration preservation. The retained Codespace's corrected rebuild passed and the fixture is stopped.

This does not close the fresh-Codespace observation: a new GitHub Codespace at the corrected source has not been created, and -ic was exercised locally and in hosted container CI rather than directly in that Codespace. DIRECT_COMPILATION_PLAN.md retains this issue's assigned-fixture procedure and exact observed boundaries. Sign-in/model turns, first-session native instruction discovery, and Compilation remain separate. The minimal CLAUDE.md import remains. No merge or release was performed.

[raghubetina]

Source implementation merged in PR #40.

• Drawing Board main: d2f488f783dd98167c4ba65fb6a7937ddea92e53.
• Tree: d94c7e80aecefd549719ee70709475c191ffc62e, identical to the reviewed candidate and final tested head 39d29cbb8a63838df5c07aed367132694a1af5e3.
• Final candidate CI passed, including fresh native installation and repeated devcontainer smoke checks.

The source now selects current public agent releases using vendor installers and supported update commands, preserves existing user settings, and checks all three Bash modes. First Draft CLI/Skill and runtime/image compatibility pins are unchanged.

This issue remains open for the separately documented fresh GitHub Codespace observation at the corrected source. The corrected real Codespace rebuild, fresh local CODESPACES=true setup, and hosted container checks do not replace that observation. First-session instruction loading and authenticated model/Compilation flows retain their existing separate boundaries.

No package, image, plugin, deployment, or testing-gist publication was performed. PRs #37 and #38 remain separate.