Insider Program — v0.4.2

Ship the Insider Program as a v0.4.2 release, ahead of the v0.5.0 breaking changes. This enables incremental testing of v0.5.0 work (.squad/ migration, GHE refactor, etc.) as it merges to dev.

What

Binary access model: Insider (continuous dev/nightly) or Release (stable).

• Regular: npx github:bradygaster/squad
• Insider: npx github:bradygaster/squad#insider

Architecture

• Separate insider branch (dev minus team state)
• Version format: v0.4.2-insider+{commit}
• Honor-system access + public list in CONTRIBUTORS.md
• [INSIDER] badge recognition

Implementation Checklist

Phase 0: Branching (~30 min)

• Create insider branch from dev
• Configure branch to exclude .ai-team/ state (via guard workflow)
• Push to GitHub

Phase 1: CI/CD (~1-2h)

• Add insider to squad-ci.yml branch triggers
• Add insider to squad-main-guard.yml protected branches
• Create squad-insider-release.yml workflow (auto-tag on insider push)
• Optional: Create squad-insider-sync.yml (auto-sync dev → insider)

Phase 2: Documentation (~1h)

• Create or update CONTRIBUTORS.md with [INSIDER] badge system
• Update README.md with insider install path
• Update CONTRIBUTING.md with insider program link
• Optional: Create docs/insider-program.md guide

Phase 3: CLI (~30 min)

• Update index.js help text to mention insider install path
• Defer squad --set-channel to v0.5.0

Phase 4: Community (async)

• Discord #squad-insiders channel
• Recruit initial cohort (5-10 testers)
• First insider publish

What's Deferred to v0.5.0

• .ai-team/ → .squad/ migration (ships with v0.5.0)
• Separate .squad-insider/ state directory (not needed for v0.4.2)
• squad --set-channel insider preference storage
• Workflow dual-path detection

Estimated Effort

3-4 hours engineering + async community setup.

Owner: Kobayashi (CI/CD + branch automation)
Related: Epic #91 (v0.5.0), #62 (CI/CD hardening)