Thinking Toolkit is instruction code: an agent reads its Markdown and may change its behavior accordingly. Treat updates with the same care as executable software updates.

• Stable installations use a copied, versioned release payload.
• Releases are immutable: their tag and attached assets cannot be replaced after publication.
• The release archive contains the skill payload, license, version marker, installer, and explicit updater. Repository tests and release tooling stay out.
• The skill never checks for updates while an agent is using it.
• Symlink installation is intentionally unsupported because it couples every installed agent to a mutable working tree.

With GitHub CLI installed, verify both the release and the downloaded asset:

gh release verify v1.0.0 --repo ponomr/thinking-toolkit
gh release verify-asset v1.0.0 thinking-toolkit-v1.0.0.tar.gz \
  --repo ponomr/thinking-toolkit

The release archive also ships with SHA256SUMS for environments that record or compare checksums. A checksum detects changed bytes; release verification also checks that the asset belongs to the published repository release.

Updates are always initiated by the user. update.py verifies the target release and asset, displays added, removed, and changed files, asks for confirmation, and preserves the previous installation as a rollback backup.

The protected main branch requires pull requests, linear history, resolved review conversations, and the validate status check. These rules also apply to administrators; force-push and branch deletion are disabled. Private vulnerability reporting and immutable releases are enabled at repository level. See MAINTAINING.md for the release checklist and the settings that must be re-verified after a repository transfer or recreation.

Use GitHub private vulnerability reporting for this repository. Do not publish exploit details in a public issue before a fix is available.