Cobalt Cockpit v0.5.0 — release notes

Core plugin only. v0.5.0 adds an optional Sonnet-led profile and an optional per-session router. Both are off unless you choose them: the default profile is still OPUS_LED, and every new session starts with the router OFF.

What is new#

Sonnet-led profile (profile: SONNET_LED). Sonnet 5.5 is the main model at your own effort. Haiku 5.5 scouts and Sonnet 5.5 engineers as before. Opus 5.5 runs at High, and only as a read-only architect consultation that Cockpit admits on a ground that holds on evidence: an architectural change of observed spread or named in your prompt, security-sensitive files or wording, the same failure three times, your explicit request, or a release approval. Your request, a release approval and a change to security-sensitive files make the consultation mandatory: the task holds below 100% until Opus has answered and the main session has verified the answer.

Session router (/cockpit router). For one session you may select a lightweight classifier that recommends how to handle a new task: off (the default), nobodywho (the local decision router) or jev (the same router's TypeSafe JEV provider, an external API). It recommends and nothing more; Cockpit's rules decide. Details, measurements and the privacy boundary are in the README and delivery-v0.5.0-router.md.

Progress. A task that edits a second file with no plan gets one reminder to report its milestones. The progress tool's gate action can report several gates in one call.

The full list is in CHANGELOG.md.

Upgrading from 0.4.0#

claude plugin marketplace update cobalt-cockpit
claude plugin update cobalt-cockpit@cobalt-cockpit

Restart Claude Code and check /cockpit version. Settings, preferences and saved Run Ledgers are kept.

What you will notice without changing any option#

Your main model and the admission policy do not change. These do:

• /cockpit version prints one more line, ROUTER / OFF · deterministic policy only. There is a new /cockpit router command.
• Once per task, after the main session edits a second file without having declared a plan, one line reminding it to report progress is added to that edit's result. This also applies when orchestration is off.
• The progress tool accepts gates (several gates in one call), and the swarm tool lists a consult action, which is refused outside SONNET_LED.
• A new bundled agent, cobalt-cockpit:architect, appears in the agent list. Outside SONNET_LED it is an ordinary read-only helper.
• /ledger shows token usage by model tier where the host reports it.
• With orchestration on, a scoped helper's reads are checked more exactly. A ~ path is no longer treated as a directory inside the project (in 0.4.0 a helper that owned the project could read your home directory that way). A scoped helper's Glob or Grep pattern that is absolute, home-relative or climbs out with .. is refused: give the directory as path and a pattern relative to it. A helper that owns everything, including an unassigned one, is not affected. Grep and Glob with no path are checked against the working directory.

Nothing is sent anywhere new, and no router process starts, unless you select a router in a session.

Choosing the Sonnet-led profile#

Keep your other options. CLI values are strings:

printf '%s\n' '{"orchestration":"true","profile":"SONNET_LED"}' | claude plugin configure cobalt-cockpit@cobalt-cockpit --values-stdin

cobaltStrict already turns orchestration on, and it never names a model: strict mode with SONNET_LED keeps Sonnet as the main loop. Then:

1. Make Sonnet the session's model (/model sonnet) and choose its effort yourself (/effort medium is the recommended starting point). Cockpit never rewrites the main loop's effort.
2. Optionally set Sonnet's compaction window natively: /autocompact 400k.
3. Restart Claude Code. /cockpit version shows PROFILE / SONNET_LED · main claude-sonnet-5-5 · Opus on admission.

To check what is really running, look at the model named on the assistant's messages and at /cockpit version, not only at the model selector.

Using the router#

/cockpit router              show it, and choose in an interactive session
/cockpit router nobodywho    local
/cockpit router jev          TypeSafe API: sends a prompt excerpt off the machine
/cockpit router off

The choice lasts for the session. JEV works only if your decision router allows it; the README shows how to give Cockpit's JEV mode its own router configuration without enabling JEV for anything else on the machine.

Rolling back#

To return to the Opus-led behaviour, set the profile back and restart:

printf '%s\n' '{"profile":"OPUS_LED"}' | claude plugin configure cobalt-cockpit@cobalt-cockpit --values-stdin

To return to the 0.4.0 code, install that commit from a clone:

git clone https://github.com/echelong/cobalt-cockpit.git
git -C cobalt-cockpit checkout c736bee361173a05622ccf8acc6d78b425386ab4
claude --plugin-dir /path/to/cobalt-cockpit

Run Ledgers written by 0.5.0 load in 0.4.0: the new fields are optional and ignored there. The profile and routerConfigDir options are ignored by 0.4.0.

Verified for this release#

• Suite: 1098 tests, with a mutation check for each security-relevant fix. TypeScript, strict plugin validation and the public audit pass.
• Two independent reviews of the complete change set. Their findings, including four ways a mandatory Opus review could have been discharged without an answer from Opus, are fixed and listed in the changelog.
• Isolated live sessions on Claude Code 2.1.296 with one Cockpit loaded: Sonnet 5.5 at medium as the main loop, Haiku scouting, a Sonnet worker, an Opus architect at High that read its evidence and was verified, no Opus during ordinary work, and each router mode with its fallback. See delivery-v0.5.0-hardening.md and delivery-v0.5.0-router.md.

Known limits#

• Ground detection is lexical and by file name. A security-sensitive change described in unusual words, in a file with an ordinary name, raises no ground by itself.
• Progress reporting is the model's to make. The reminder is advice.
• A router's measured benefit over the rules is small once the rules go first, and the measurement is 56 synthetic tasks.
• If Opus is unavailable while a consultation is mandatory, the task stays below 100% and should be blocked with the reason.