How we got here
The previous releases made routing advice and hook installation more visible, but they still left two operational questions open. First: does routing actually help inside a fixed 5h plan window, or does it only look cheaper in token equivalent dollars? Second: can a compiled ax binary install its hook SDK without depending on source files sitting beside it?
v0.35.0 answers both. The range adds a new `routing-impact` module and command family, then changes the build to generate and embed bundled hook assets. In parallel, Studio picked up a team metrics board and the installer became more graceful around IDE daemon state.
What changed
Routing gets an A/B receipt (#576): `ax routing impact` records paired work blocks with routing off and on, snapshots the Claude 5h quota window at each edge, and reports the result. The report keeps token-equivalent dollars as context, but the headline is plan-window utilization because that is the scarce resource on a fixed plan.
ax routing impact begin --arm=off --label=baseline
# work a comparable block
ax routing impact end
ax routing impact begin --arm=on --label=routed
# work the matched block
ax routing impact end
ax routing impact reportCompiled builds carry the SDK hooks (#574): the build now runs `scripts/gen-hooks-embed.ts` and includes a generated hook manifest, so `ax hooks` can install the bundled SDK hooks from the compiled binary. The hook guard names moved into a shared module, and the workspace tests cover both source and compiled layouts.
Studio gained a team metrics board (#567): the instrument shell now has a team metrics route and visualization layer, including the first `ax-for-teams` paywall shape. This is the early product surface for comparing team-level usage and outcomes rather than only local single-user runs.
Install and inspect paths were hardened: the IDE daemon model became doctor-aware and degrades more cleanly during install, while session inspect pagination stays anchored to the server window instead of drifting while a user pages through a large transcript.
Why it matters
Routing only earns a place in the workflow if it can prove it preserves scarce plan capacity without making the work worse. v0.35.0 gives that experiment a local receipt. At the same time, embedding hooks in the binary moves ax closer to a tool that can be installed and repaired from one artifact, which matters more as the hook layer becomes the front door for routing and guardrails.