Release 1.1.0 — one config file, and a process weight you choose

`project.yaml` at the repo root is now the single source of truth for a
project's configuration, replacing `production/stage.txt`,
`production/review-mode.txt` and `.claude/docs/technical-preferences.md` (all
three still read as a fallback; nothing is force-deleted).

**`modes.rigor` — one question instead of six.** `minimal`, `standard` or
`full` fronts six knobs: `modes.workflow`, `docs.density`, `qa.level`,
`modes.story_granularity`, `modes.review_mode` and `team.size`. It defaults to
`minimal`, which is a change from 1.0's behaviour: the heavier tier was
measured costing several times more to reach working code without producing a
better result, and returning nothing when a fresh developer inherited the
project. Pin `modes.rigor: standard` to keep 1.0's process level.

Also in this release:

- `/settings` to view or change any setting, and `project.local.yaml` for
  per-developer preferences that should not be committed.
- `system_overrides` to hold one system to a higher standard than the rest of
  the project, and `testing.strict` to set per test type whether missing
  evidence blocks a story or warns.
- A story that changes anything the player sees is not closed until the game
  has been launched, observed, and a screenshot retained in
  `production/qa/evidence/`. A parse check is not a run. This holds at every
  rigor level, including `minimal`, where automated tests are waived but the
  look is not.
- The code root is engine-specific and enforced as such: Godot `src/`, Unity
  `Assets/`, Unreal `Source/<Module>/`. Two of the three will not build a
  project laid out any other way.
- Migration tooling for existing projects: `.claude/scripts/migrate-v1-config.sh`
  converts a 1.0 layout, non-destructively by default, with a report to review
  before `--finalize` deletes anything.
- Ask-before-write holds regardless of personal automation settings.

Upgrading from 1.0 or earlier: see UPGRADING.md. Full list of changes:
CHANGELOG.md.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016xvzG3i7pWQg4LjyDwWMXd

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -0,0 +1,244 @@
+# Changelog
+
+What's new in Claude Code Game Studios, written for the people using it.
+
+See [UPGRADING.md](UPGRADING.md) for step-by-step upgrade instructions, and
+[docs/migration-guide-v1.1.md](docs/migration-guide-v1.1.md) if you have an
+existing project on the older config files.
+
+---
+
+## [1.1.0] — 2026-09-23
+
+**One config file, and a process weight you choose — one you can see and adjust,
+not a question you answer once at setup and forget.** A solo game jam and a
+studio production no longer have to carry the same overhead.
+
+### Added
+
+- **Ask-before-write now holds, whatever your personal settings say.** CCGS
+  sets Claude Code's permission mode to `default` in the project settings, so
+  every approval gate in the framework actually fires. If your own Claude Code
+  config runs in an auto-accept mode, that used to switch the whole
+  collaboration protocol off silently and agents would write files you never
+  approved. Override it in `.claude/settings.local.json` if you really want to,
+  but read `.claude/docs/setup-requirements.md` first.
+
+- **`project.yaml` — one place for your project's configuration.** Engine,
+  naming conventions, specialists and process settings all live here. It
+  replaces three separate files that used to hold this between them.
+
+- **`project.local.yaml` — your personal settings, not your team's.** Git
+  ignores it, so you can run leaner reviews or fewer confirmations on your own
+  machine without changing anything for anyone else.
+
+- **`modes.rigor` — one question instead of six.** Set `minimal`, `standard` or
+  `full` and it configures six underlying settings at once. You can still
+  override any single one; the rest stay where rigor put them.
+  - **`minimal`** — no design documents required, terse writing, light test
+    evidence. The fastest route from setup to running code.
+  - **`standard`** — 5 required design sections, balanced depth.
+  - **`full`** — all 8 design sections, thorough docs, full test evidence on
+    every story.
+
+- **Per-system exceptions.** One system can be held to a higher standard than
+  the rest of the project — your combat system can require the full treatment
+  while everything else stays light. Exceptions can only make requirements
+  stricter, never looser.
+
+- **A real jam path, not the full pipeline with switches turned off.**
+  `minimal` now rests on a one-page game brief with six fields, replacing the
+  30-section concept document, the systems breakdown and the per-system design
+  docs. Four steps to running code: pick your engine → write the brief →
+  `/create-stories` → `/dev-story`. On Godot, `/setup-engine` now also creates
+  the `project.godot` the engine needs to open what those steps produce — until
+  it did, the path delivered real source files with no project to load them, and
+  the claim above was not true. **Unity and Unreal projects must still be created
+  in their own editor first**; CCGS will not fabricate one, because it cannot
+  source what those files should contain.
+
+- **`modes.review_mode`** — how many director agents review your work.
+  **On the `team-*` orchestrators, `full` and `lean` currently behave the same.**
+  Those nine skills only ever call phase-gate reviewers, and `lean` is defined as
+  "skip the director gates that aren't phase gates" — so it has nothing to skip.
+  `solo` does differ: it turns director gates off entirely. Elsewhere (design and
+  architecture review) all three levels differ as described.
+- **`modes.automation`** — how often you're asked to confirm before something
+  happens. In `autonomous` mode, decisions are written to a log instead of
+  interrupting you. You can always list categories that must ask regardless.
+  **Four skills ignore this setting on purpose and always ask:** `/setup-engine`,
+  `/gate-check`, `/hotfix` and `/day-one-patch` — engine choice is a one-time
+  irreversible decision, a gate verdict nobody reads defeats the gate, and the
+  two release skills need explicit sign-off. See
+  `.claude/docs/automation-modes.md` for the full list and reasons.
+- **`qa.level`** — how much test evidence is required before a story is done.
+- **`docs.density`** — how deeply written sections go.
+- **`team.size`** — which agents take part by default. Affects review depth
+  only; it never changes what a story has to deliver.
+- **`testing.strict` per test type** — a logic story can block on a failing
+  test while a visual story stays advisory.
+
+- **`/settings`** — see your effective configuration, check one value, or
+  change it. `/settings --local` writes to your personal file. It warns you when
+  a change would be overridden by something else.
+
+- **`/start` rework** — asks everything it needs up front and writes a complete
+  config in one pass, instead of scattering questions across later steps.
+
+- **Migration tooling for existing projects.** A converter moves a v1.0 project
+  onto `project.yaml`. It previews by default, only deletes old files once it
+  has proved every value survived, and deletes nothing if anything is missing.
+  `/adopt` spots an older project and runs it for you, and you'll get a reminder
+  at session start if you have old config files and no `project.yaml`.
+
+- **Recommendations for how much process your project needs.** Describe the
+  game you're making and CCGS suggests a level, instead of asking you to guess
+  what "standard" means for a weekend jam versus a two-year production.
+
+### Changed
+
+- **Claude no longer starts the four risky commands by itself.** `/hotfix`,
+  `/day-one-patch`, `/dev-story` and `/story-done` now run only when you type
+  them. They bypass the sprint process, patch shipped builds, write game code
+  and close out stories — none of that should begin because a conversation
+  drifted near the topic. Everything else still gets suggested as before.
+- **Engine specialists can only hand work to their own sub-specialists.** The
+  Godot, Unity and Unreal specialists are now limited to the four
+  sub-specialists under each of them. Previously any of them could call any
+  agent in the studio. This was already the documented rule; now it is enforced
+  rather than trusted.
+- **Fifteen agents that never delegated no longer can.** They were carrying the
+  ability to spawn other agents and never using it.
+
+- **Light is now the default, not just the recommendation.** `modes.rigor`
+  defaults to `minimal` instead of `standard`, so a project that never opens
+  `/settings` gets the fast path: a one-page brief instead of a full design
+  pipeline, terse writing, light test evidence, no director review panels.
+  We changed this because we measured the old default. Built both ways, the
+  heavier tier cost several times more to reach working code, did not produce a
+  better result, and gave nothing back when someone else picked the project up.
+  It was not buying more; it was buying nothing we could detect. If your project
+  outgrows the light
+  path, `/help` and `/gate-check` will say so, and `/settings
+  modes.rigor=standard` is one command. Projects that already set `rigor`
+  explicitly are completely unaffected.
+- **Setup steers light by default.** `/start` now recommends the minimal,
+  guided path for new projects, so you land somewhere light and step up if you
+  need to.
+- **Setup asks about your game, not about the framework.** The question is
+  "what best describes what you're building?" — a game jam, a focused project,
+  something systems-heavy — rather than "how much process do you want?"
+- **Your process level is always visible.** The status line shows it next to
+  your project stage, e.g. `Concept · minimal`.
+- **Advice goes both ways.** `/help` can suggest tightening up as a project
+  grows, not just lightening up when you sound overwhelmed.
+- **Moving into Production offers a check-in** on whether the level you chose at
+  the start still fits. It's a suggestion — it never changes the verdict.
+- **`team.size: solo` is now `team.size: individual`**, so it isn't confused
+  with `review_mode: solo`, which means something different.
+- **Less of your session is spent on the framework itself.** Roughly 40% of the
+  per-turn overhead was removed, leaving more room for your actual game.
+- **Picking up after a `/clear` or `/compact` is more reliable.** Your session
+  checkpoint is now a defined part of your session notes rather than an
+  ever-growing file, so what comes back is the same every time and leaves far
+  more room for actual work. Older notes can be archived without losing
+  anything.
+
+### Fixed
+
+- **Unity and Unreal projects were silently skipping three commit and
+  session checks.** The hooks that look for hardcoded gameplay values,
+  unowned TODOs, undocumented gameplay systems and missing architecture
+  docs all searched `src/` — which is where Godot keeps code. Unity keeps
+  it in `Assets/` and Unreal in `Source/`, so on those engines the searches
+  matched nothing, every check quietly did nothing, and the result was
+  indistinguishable from a clean pass. They now resolve the code root from
+  your engine, and if they cannot work out where your code lives they say
+  so instead of reporting nothing found.
+
+- **Godot C# projects can now hand C# work to the C# specialist.** The Godot
+  specialist listed only three of its four sub-specialists, leaving
+  `godot-csharp-specialist` unreachable — even though setup routes every `.cs`
+  file to it. If you chose C# or Both, your game code had no specialist path.
+- **The rules badge in the README said 11. There are 13.**
+
+- **`/hotfix` now gets your approval before touching code.** It used to
+  implement the fix first and collect approvals afterwards.
+- **`/sprint-plan` no longer promises a review step that your settings skip.**
+  It now says which reviews run at which levels.
+- **`/story-done` can no longer close a story with failing acceptance criteria
+  in autonomous mode.** The safeguard existed but couldn't be reached.
+- **`/settings` no longer shows rigor-derived values as "locked"**, which read
+  as "you can't change this" when you can.
+- **`/design-system` no longer insists on 8 design sections** at levels that
+  require fewer.
+- **`/localize`** pointed at a command that doesn't exist.
+- **`/team-narrative`** ran two phases together with no checkpoint between them.
+- **Upgrade instructions no longer suggest a merge that conflicts on every
+  file** for projects that don't share history with the template.
+- **Upgrade instructions now tell you to check for your own customisations
+  first.** Replacing the framework overwrites your edits to any file it also
+  ships — agent definitions and hook registrations especially. The steps show
+  you how to find those before you start, and how to keep the ones you want.
+- **Re-running a review on unchanged work now offers to skip it** instead of
+  repeating the whole thing at full cost.
+- **Several documented settings quietly did nothing.** They looked correct and
+  matched nothing.
+- **Jam and prototype projects are no longer warned about design-document
+  sections they were never meant to write.** The check now respects the level
+  you picked.
+- **Two file checks were silently doing nothing on Windows.** They ran, found
+  nothing, and reported success. They now work.
+- **Passing a phase gate can actually advance your project stage.** `/gate-check`
+  reached the right verdict but couldn't record it.
+- **`/bug-report` can now run tests**, which it always said it would.
+- **Committing gameplay code no longer prints a wall of raw search output**
+  alongside the warning.
+- **The status line can show what you're working on** — the epic, feature and
+  task breadcrumb was described in the docs but never actually appeared.
+- **Fixed broken links** in the Unity reference documentation.
+
+### Removed
+
+- **The bundled example game and the sample session transcripts.** They
+  described a project that didn't match the current workflow. Both are
+  recoverable from git history if you want them.
+
+### Deprecated
+
+- `production/stage.txt`, `production/review-mode.txt` and
+  `.claude/docs/technical-preferences.md` are superseded by `project.yaml`.
+  **Nothing breaks if you keep them** — they're still read when `project.yaml`
+  doesn't have a value. Run the migration script with `--finalize` when you're
+  ready to retire the first two. The third is kept on purpose: it still holds
+  your Forbidden Patterns and Allowed Libraries, which have no `project.yaml`
+  equivalent yet.
+
+### Known limitations
+
+- **Windows is the verified platform.** Everything was checked on Windows.
+  macOS and Linux should work but haven't been confirmed.
+- **No Unity or Unreal project was compiled.** Configuration, routing and
+  documentation were verified for both engines, but nothing here builds or
+  launches a real project in either.
+- **Some engine reference details are marked unverified rather than guessed.**
+  Where a version number or API detail couldn't be confirmed from a real source,
+  it's flagged in place instead of filled in with something plausible. You'll
+  see the flag where it matters.
+
+### Settings that don't do anything yet
+
+These six are documented and accepted, but nothing reads them. **Setting one
+today has no effect.** `/settings` says so when you view or change one, so you
+won't configure something expecting a result:
+
+`accessibility.target` · `cadence.sprint_length` · `cadence.milestone_length` ·
+`strict_gate_checks` · `project.kind` · `features.token_budget_warn_at`
+
+---
+
+## Earlier releases
+
+For v1.0 and earlier, see the version history in
+[UPGRADING.md](UPGRADING.md) — each release has its own "What Changed" section
+written at the time it shipped.