March 20, 2026

Tooling and Context Overhaul in Chalie

Tools have been refactored to be direct-invocation Python modules, eliminating tool directories, manifest files, and subprocess execution

Tools have been refactored to be direct-invocation Python modules, eliminating tool directories, manifest files, and subprocess execution.

Tool loading now relies on a declared TOOL_LIBRARY instead of runtime filesystem scanning, and the hot-reload scanner thread has been removed.

The tool capability model has been updated to a three-tier structure: Innate Skills, first-party Tools, and external Interfaces.

The previous embodiment download and sync system has been deleted as tools are now consolidated within the main repository.

Context assembly now uses a topic transcript table, built via an incremental compaction service, instead of a simple FIFO buffer.

Token usage limits are now calculated dynamically for all LLM providers, and the ACT orchestrator auto-calculates context budgets based on these limits.

A new block protocol (P5) introduced 11 new block type renderers for the frontend, and the brain dashboard login handling was redirected.

Fixes were implemented across the system, including restoring ACT narration on reboot and ensuring responses are properly routed from the digest worker to the frontend via the orchestrator.

  • Refactored tools to direct-invocation Python modules within backend/tools/

  • Replaced filesystem scanning for tools with a declared TOOL_LIBRARY dict.

  • Implemented a three-tier capability model: Innate Skills, Tools, Interfaces.

  • Introduced topic transcript table via incremental compaction service.

  • Added pre-flight token counting and auto-calculated context budgets for LLM providers.

  • Introduced P5 block protocol with 11 new block type renderers.