v0.53.5

🌟 Release Highlights

This release focuses on reliability improvements for label-trigger workflows and GitHub App token handling, plus new capabilities for repo memory and the add_comment safe output tool.

✨ What's New

• GitHub Wiki backing for repo-memory — The repo-memory frontmatter now supports a wiki: true flag to use a repository's GitHub Wiki git backend as persistent memory storage, following GitHub Wiki markdown conventions. (#19800)

• Temporary ID support in add_comment — The add_comment safe output tool now accepts temporary_id, enabling cross-referencing of not-yet-created comments within the same workflow run. (#19737)

• /ace slash command workflow — A new built-in workflow responds to /ace in PR comments, generates ACE editor session URLs, and posts a reply linking teammates to a collaborative editing session. (#19741)

🐛 Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Label trigger shorthand now correctly filters by label name — Workflows using on: pull_request labeled my-label were firing on any labeled event due to a Go type mismatch ([]string vs []any). The activation job's if: clause now correctly includes the github.event.label.name condition. (#19824)

• Label trigger shorthand wires item_number for manual dispatch — The compiler now properly wires inputs.item_number as a fallback for entity number expressions in label-shorthand workflows, fixing empty PR/issue numbers on manual workflow_dispatch runs. (#19795)

• assign-to-agent auto-fallback for GitHub App tokens — The Copilot assignment API rejects GitHub App installation tokens, causing "not available as an assignee" failures. The fix auto-falls back to GH_AW_AGENT_TOKEN → GH_AW_GITHUB_TOKEN → GITHUB_TOKEN, while explicit github-token: overrides still take precedence. (#19796)

• MCP compile errors now surface Docker retry instructions — The compile MCP tool previously swallowed helpful guidance when Docker images weren't cached. Users now see actionable retry instructions instead of a bare "docker images not ready" message. (#19792)

• Allowed tool filter respected for mcp-servers section — The tools.allowed filter is now correctly applied when compiling MCP server tool configurations. (#19801)

• GH_AW_HOME defined once at job level — Eliminates repeated fallback macro expansion (\$\{GH_AW_HOME:-/opt/gh-aw}) across workflow steps by hoisting the variable definition to the job level. (#19823)

🌍 Community Contributions

A huge thank you to the community members who reported issues resolved in this release:

• @deyaaeldeen for Bug: Label trigger shorthand does not produce label filter condition in compiled workflow (#19770)
• @deyaaeldeen for Bug: workflow_dispatch item_number not wired into expression extraction for label trigger shorthand (#19773)
• @mason-tim for assign-to-agent fails with GitHub App tokens — Copilot assignment API requires a PAT (#19765)

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For complete details, see CHANGELOG.

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What's Changed

• Add /ace slash command workflow that posts ACE editor session links on PR comments by @Copilot in #19741
• [docs] docs: consolidate repetitive engine sections in engines.md by @github-actions[bot] in #19779
• [docs] Fix 3 tone issues in scratchpad specs (v3.7) by @github-actions[bot] in #19778
• [docs] Self-healing documentation fixes from issue analysis - 2026-03-05 by @github-actions[bot] in #19755
• [code-simplifier] refactor: simplify recent code changes for clarity and idiomaticity by @github-actions[bot] in #19753
• [dead-code] chore: remove dead functions — 8 functions removed by @github-actions[bot] in #19750
• [instructions] Sync github-agentic-workflows.md with release v0.40.1 by @github-actions[bot] in #19777
• Update action pin tests to match updated action_pins.json data by @Copilot in #19794
• fix: surface Docker image retry instructions in MCP compile error message by @Copilot in #19792
• chore(deps): bump dompurify from 3.3.0 to 3.3.2 in /docs in the npm_and_yarn group across 1 directory by @dependabot[bot] in #19791
• [docs] Update documentation for features from 2026-03-06 by @github-actions[bot] in #19805
• Fix: wire inputs.item_number fallback for label trigger shorthand workflows by @Copilot in #19795
• feat: add temporary ID support to add_comment tool by @Copilot in #19737
• Fix assign-to-agent failing with GitHub App tokens — auto-fallback to GH_AW_AGENT_TOKEN by @Copilot in #19796
• refactor: resolve 4 semantic function clustering findings by @Copilot in #19799
• Ensure allowed tool filter for mcp-servers section by @Copilot in #19801
• [docs] Update glossary - daily scan by @github-actions[bot] in #19822
• Add wiki flag to repo-memory frontmatter for GitHub Wiki git backing by @Copilot in #19800
• fix: label trigger shorthand missing label filter condition in compiled workflow by @Copilot in #19824
• ci: split CLI MCP Inspect GitHub matrix group, pin upload-artifact action by @Copilot in #19825
• [docs] Update glossary - daily scan by @github-actions[bot] in #19826
• [docs] Update glossary - daily scan by @github-actions[bot] in #19840

Full Changelog: v0.53.4...v0.53.5