Claude Code host: remaining work before 2.0 (#2438) #2469

Everything left before Claude Code support in Squad is done, from epic #2438. Phases 0, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are merged (#2445, #2450, #2463). Phase 1 is merged in #2451 except for the live golden trace.

Each item is marked Must (blocks calling Claude support done for 2.0), Should (strongly wanted for 2.0) or Later (can ship after 2.0).

1. Finish Phase 1: execution harness (#2441)

• Must 🟡 conflicts with dev resolved (2026-11-11), awaiting review and merge. Review and merge test(backend): run the golden trace live on the claude-agent-sdk harness (#2441) #2452: the G1–G9 golden trace, run live on claude-agent-sdk (tests, docs and matrix only; CI is green)
• Must Tick Claude host PR 2: Claude Agent SDK HarnessAdapter (#2438 Phase 1) #2441's checkboxes and close it; tick epic Phase 1
• Should Maintainers decide: pending approvals live in memory, and a harness restart cancels them and resumes the session. Does that meet "durable approval versions" (harness-adapters §15 item 6)? If not, persist pending approvals
• Should "Make @github/copilot-sdk an optional peer dependency" (epic Phase 1): filed as Make @github/copilot-sdk an optional peer dependency of squad-sdk (#2438) #2472

2. Bugs from the end-to-end run

• Must 🟡 fix in fix(claude): portable launch commands and host-aware init next steps (#2462, #2453) #2470 (CI green, awaiting merge): squad init commits machine-specific node paths into .mcp.json and .claude/settings.json #2462 squad init commits machine-specific node <abs path> launchers into .mcp.json and .claude/settings.json hooks, which breaks the repo for anyone else who clones it
• Must 🟡 fix in fix(claude): portable launch commands and host-aware init next steps (#2462, #2453) #2470 (CI green, awaiting merge): squad init --client claude tells Claude users to run copilot --agent squad #2453 squad init --client claude tells Claude users to run copilot --agent squad
• Should 🟡 fix in fix(claude): refresh members after routing, clearer health dirs, no retired logs, plugin validates clean (#2456, #2455, #2454, #2458) #2471: Claude member subagent descriptions are written before routing exists and stay vague #2456 Member subagent descriptions are written at cast time, before routing exists, and stay vague until squad upgrade
• Should 🟡 fix in fix(claude): refresh members after routing, clearer health dirs, no retired logs, plugin validates clean (#2456, #2455, #2454, #2458) #2471: Coordinator and Scribe's charter disagree on who writes session and orchestration logs #2454 The coordinator asks Scribe for session and orchestration logs, but Scribe's charter rules them out
• Should 🟡 fix in fix(claude): refresh members after routing, clearer health dirs, no retired logs, plugin validates clean (#2456, #2455, #2454, #2458) #2471: squad_state_health resolvedTeamDir reports the repo root, not the squad directory #2455 squad_state_health resolvedTeamDir reports the repo root, not .squad
• Should 🟡 fix in fix(claude): refresh members after routing, clearer health dirs, no retired logs, plugin validates clean (#2456, #2455, #2454, #2458) #2471: squad init --client claude also writes .copilot, .github and .vscode: intended? #2458 squad init --client claude also writes .copilot/, .github/ and .vscode/. Confirm it's intended and document it
• Later Squad stamps dates in UTC, so team files and logs show tomorrow's date in US evenings #2457 Dates are stamped in UTC (a day ahead in US evenings). Not Claude-specific

3. Plugin and dashboard hardening (after #2463)

• Must The plugin and marketplace pin 2.0.0-preview.4, which lacks the dashboard and hook commands. They must be regenerated against the CLI version that ships these features (open thread on feat(claude): Squad Claude Code plugin and team dashboard (#2443, #2459, #2460) #2463). This happens as part of the release, see §6
• Must Install the plugin for real from the GitHub marketplace on a clean machine; so far only --plugin-dir has been run. Depends on the regeneration above
• Should Test the Windows launcher's npx quoting
• Should 🟡 fix in fix(claude): refresh members after routing, clearer health dirs, no retired logs, plugin validates clean (#2456, #2455, #2454, #2458) #2471: Add frontmatter to the cli-wiring and retro-enforcement template skills (claude plugin validate warnings)
• Later Plugin icon
• Later Team dashboard as a canvas in the GitHub Copilot app #2461 Team dashboard as a canvas in the GitHub Copilot app

4. Phase 7: host-neutral canonical coordinator

• Must (decision) Decide ADR-003 (docs/specification/adr-003-host-neutral-canonical-coordinator.md, Proposed): does the canonical coordinator move from .github/agents/squad.agent.md to a host-neutral source? Also decide whether it gates 2.0 or follows it
• If accepted and it gates 2.0: implementation PR (about 4–6 h)

5. Review, test and docs loose ends

• Should Resolve or annotate the declined code-scanning threads on merged PRs: feat(claude): Claude projection v2: member subagents, skills, governance hooks, watch preset #2450 (hook launcher allowlist, hook-context text, member Tools allowlist) and feat(backend): claude-agent-sdk and copilot-sdk execution harnesses (#2441) #2451 (env allowlist for the Claude harness)
• Should Run the epic's Phase 1 evidence item against a direct Anthropic API, Bedrock or Vertex endpoint (not a Copilot bridge), and record the endpoint in the evidence string
• Later A live approval test for the Copilot harness (only plain turns have run live)
• Later Replace the fake claude binary in test/cli/watch-claude-preset.test.ts with live runs behind SQUAD_REAL_CLI_TESTS=1
• Later Run a real gh-aw workflow with engine: claude and engine.args: ["--agent", "squad"]
• Later Decide whether to stop projecting the template init-mode skill for Claude

Also found while working these

• The upgrade matrix's 1.0.1 and 1.1.0 release rows were silently skipping on dev: the fixture fetched assets from bradygaster/squad, which now returns 404. Fixed in fix(claude): portable launch commands and host-aware init next steps (#2462, #2453) #2470, which points them at github/squad and refolds the matrix

6. Release gate (not started)

• Must Agree the 2.0 release plan with Tamir: the version (another preview or 2.0), what ships in it, and who regenerates the plugin and marketplace against it. Nothing in this checklist starts the release process
• Must After the release: tick the epic's success criteria and close Epic: Claude Code as a first-class Squad 2.0 host, and the non-Copilot host that promotes the v0.2 profiles #2438

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