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+# 2026.08.26.01
+
+A plugin can own a chat — its own directory, its own brief, its own history — and a dead commander watcher
+wakes itself up.
+
+22 commits. **No schema change** and **no dependency change**: nothing under `src/databases/**/schema.ts`
+moved and `bun.lock` is untouched. **Do not run `bun install`.**
+
+`bun db:push` stays a step because it is cheap and proves the database agrees with the code, but **it must
+report no changes to the platform's own tables.** A host with the `proxy-manager` plugin installed will see
+that plugin's three tables created — that is the plugin, not this release, and it is expected.
+
+## Why this one matters more than its size suggests
+
+**`officerdev` gained an export that a shipped plugin already imports.** The `proxy-manager` plugin in the
+catalogue imports `ChatHeader` from `officerdev`, which exists only from `2ed47fa6` — after the last
+release. On a host running `2026.08.25.01` the plugin installs, its frontend rebuild fails with
+`No matching export … for import "ChatHeader"`, and the SPA silently keeps its previous bundle: the plugin
+appears installed and its route redirects to home.
+
+That is exactly what happened on `fofos` tonight. **So this release is what makes that plugin installable
+anywhere**, and any host that has already installed it is in the broken state until this lands.
+
+## What is in it
+
+- **A plugin can declare a chat context.** `ChatPanelWrapper` takes `chatContext`, so a plugin's chats run
+  in `$DATA_PATH/<email>/plugins/<appName>/chats` — resolved server-side, never a path from the client.
+  `plugins` joins `commanders` as a sibling of `home` that a member OWNS, or their turn dies on its own
+  working directory (the `general_chat_sessions` failure, third time).
+- **A plugin briefs its chats with a file.** `plugins/<name>/chat/CLAUDE.md` is copied into that directory
+  on every chat that starts there, replacing per-turn prompt prefixes.
+- **A plugin can list its own chats** — `/chat/sessions?context=plugin&contextId=<appName>`.
+- **Sonnet is the default when nobody chose.** Every surface without a picker was running Opus, because the
+  fallback was the bare harness and bare means "whatever the CLI picks". A stored bare harness is now read
+  as unset, which is what made the change appear to do nothing on machines that had one.
+- **A chat's API key follows its holder, minus `admin`** — was `notify` only. Note this takes effect in
+  `officer-claude-code`, NOT `officer`.
+- **A locked screen persists sizes, not structure.** A plugin or core screen changing its layout now
+  reaches people who have already opened it, and the `appTypes` repair can no longer be written back as
+  though the user had chosen it.
+- **A dead commander watcher wakes its commander**, and the guard that was silently disabling that is
+  fixed — it asked about background tasks when it meant "is the agent mid-turn", and a commander's watcher
+  is itself a background task.
+- Theme browser and Spotlight keybindings; two `todo/` entries; the CLAUDE.md touchpoints audit.
+
+## Every host
+
+1. `git fetch origin --tags` then `git merge --ff-only deploy/2026.08.26.01`
+2. `bun db:push` — expect **no changes** to platform tables. If it wants to alter one, stop and report it.
+3. `bun run plugins:update`
+4. `pm2 restart officer`
+
+**`macbookpro`:** append `/opt/homebrew/bin` to PATH for the `bun` commands, run `pm2` separately. Asleep
+is a skip with a note, not a failure.
+
+## `officer-claude-code` is NOT restarted by this, and that is deliberate
+
+One change in here — the widened chat credential — lives in the agent sidecar rather than in `officer`, so
+step 4 does not activate it. **Do not restart `officer-claude-code` as part of the rollout.** It ends every
+live agent session on that host, including any agent running the rollout itself, and it is the owner's call
+when to take that. Say in the report that it is pending; do not do it.
+
+## Hosts
+
+- **`officer-dev`** — skip it. Restarting `officer` there ends the rollout. It already has this code.
+- **`edge-pertento-bridge`** — skipped, unchanged from last release. It is 300+ commits behind with **no
+  `roles` table**, and a plain `db:push` there would create a foreign key onto an empty table. Its catch-up
+  is a by-hand job the owner is doing separately. Do not contact it.
+- **`alpha`**, **`fofos`**, **`production-pertento-bridge`**, **`deadpool-rezio-bridge`** — the targets.
+- **`macbookpro`** — a target if it is awake.
+
+## What to check, this release
+
+**On `fofos` specifically**, because it is the reason for the release: after step 4, `/proxy-manager` should
+render rather than redirecting to home, and the log should say `[plugins] frontend built` with no
+`rebuild failed` line after it. If it still redirects, the bundle is stale — hard refresh before concluding
+anything.
+
+Everywhere else: a chat should default to **sonnet** rather than opus or fable in the model picker. That is
+the most visible change and the easiest to confirm.
+
+No direct SQL is needed on any host, and none is authorised.
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 9590bf06..be525dd8 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "officer",
-  "version": "2026.08.25.01",
+  "version": "2026.08.26.01",
   "private": true,
   "type": "module",
   "workspaces": [