@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
   "name": "osl-tasks",
   "displayName": "OSL task management",
   "description": "Task and project management for OpenSemanticLab, driven by the osw CLI and MCP server.",
-  "version": "2.8.1",
+  "version": "2.9.1",
   "author": {
     "name": "OpenSemanticLab"
   },
 
@@ -2,16 +2,17 @@
 # INTEGR_TEST_* secrets; where they are unavailable (e.g. forks), the
 # credential fixtures make the tests skip instead of fail.
 #
-# Runs on every pull request into main, so breaking changes surface before the
-# release job (gated separately by required review on the pypi environment)
-# ever starts. No push trigger: a push to main is already covered by the PR
-# that preceded it, so a second run would add nothing.
+# Runs on every pull request into main or stage, so breaking changes surface
+# before the release job (gated separately by required review on the pypi
+# environment) ever starts. stage collects reviewed pull requests before they
+# go to main together. No push trigger: a push to main is already covered by
+# the PR that preceded it, so a second run would add nothing.
 
 name: Integration
 
 on:
   pull_request:
-    branches: [main]
+    branches: [main, stage]
   workflow_dispatch:
 
 concurrency:
 
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ name: Main
 
 on:
   push:
-    branches: [main]
+    branches: [main, stage]
   pull_request:
     types: [opened, synchronize, reopened, ready_for_review]
   workflow_dispatch:
 
@@ -10,6 +10,32 @@
 
 <!-- version list -->
 
+## v2.9.1 (2026-11-06)
+
+### Bug Fixes
+
+- **core**: Resolve bare $refs before dropping schema definitions
+  ([#164](https://github.com/OpenSemanticLab/osw-python/pull/164),
+  [`d86ad31`](https://github.com/OpenSemanticLab/osw-python/commit/d86ad31b9531b027117707bfa159a36f8b5d0694))
+
+
+## v2.9.0 (2026-11-05)
+
+### Features
+
+- Make dask optional so osw imports without it
+  ([#219](https://github.com/OpenSemanticLab/osw-python/pull/219),
+  [`897df83`](https://github.com/OpenSemanticLab/osw-python/commit/897df832a132c653886af8089a0285f41e951e09))
+
+
+## v2.8.2 (2026-10-10)
+
+### Bug Fixes
+
+- Detect CharacteristicType from the opensemantic packages too
+  ([`f195a97`](https://github.com/OpenSemanticLab/osw-python/commit/f195a973b141cf830c65656ab946ca454e7309aa))
+
+
 ## v2.8.1 (2026-09-23)
 
 ### Bug Fixes
 
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ message: "If you use this software, please cite it as below."
 type: software
 title: "OpenSemanticWorld Python Package (osw-python)"
 # Managed by python-semantic-release (version_variables). Do not edit by hand.
-version: 2.8.1
+version: 2.9.1
 abstract: "Python toolset for data processing, queries, wikicode generation and page manipulation within OpenSemanticLab: work with OpenSemanticLab instances as typed pydantic entities, query with semantic search, generate models from wiki schemas, and write changes back."
 repository-code: "https://github.com/OpenSemanticLab/osw-python"
 url: "https://opensemanticlab.github.io/osw-python/"
 
@@ -66,8 +66,8 @@ excluded by default:
 
 Integration tests run against a live wiki and need credentials; tests
 whose credentials are missing skip instead of fail. CI runs them on every
-pull request into `main` (workflow `integration.yml`), so they gate the
-release rather than run after it.
+pull request into `main` or `stage` (workflow `integration.yml`), so they
+gate the release rather than run after it.
 
 === "make"
 
 
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ license-files = ["LICENSE.txt"]
 requires-python = ">=3.10,<3.14"
 # Managed by python-semantic-release (see [tool.semantic_release]). Do not
 # edit by hand; it is bumped automatically on merge to main.
-version = "2.8.1"
+version = "2.9.1"
 classifiers = [
     "Development Status :: 3 - Alpha",
     "Intended Audience :: Developers",
@@ -49,7 +49,6 @@ dependencies = [
     # used in custom_types.py on py3.10; was missing before (latent
     # ImportError on 3.10), surfaced by ty/deptry during the migration
     'backports.strenum; python_version < "3.11"',
-    "dask",
     "tqdm",
     "pybars3-wheel",
     # the osw CLI (src/osw/cli); a base dependency, not an extra, so `pip
@@ -73,6 +72,10 @@ Download = "https://pypi.org/project/osw/#files"
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
 wikitext = ["mwparserfromhell"]
+# Only osw.utils.util.async_parallelize needs it, and nothing in the package calls
+# that. Keeping it in the base dependencies made `import osw` impossible anywhere
+# dask is unavailable - notably Pyodide, which has no dask build.
+parallel = ["dask"]
 DB = [
     "psycopg2",
     "sqlalchemy",
@@ -108,7 +111,7 @@ workflow = [
     "anyio>=4.9,<4.14",
 ]
 tutorial = ["osw[dataimport]"]
-all = ["osw[dataimport,DB,UI,S3,wikitext,mcp]"]
+all = ["osw[dataimport,DB,UI,S3,wikitext,mcp,parallel]"]
 
 [project.scripts]
 # command-line access to a live OSL instance, built from the same
 
@@ -39,6 +39,15 @@
 from pyld import jsonld
 
 import osw.model.entity as model
+
+try:
+    # Characteristics of the released opensemantic packages derive from this
+    # class, not from the one in osw.model.entity.
+    from opensemantic.core.v1 import (
+        CharacteristicType as _OpensemanticCharacteristicType,
+    )
+except ImportError:  # pragma: no cover - optional dependency
+    _OpensemanticCharacteristicType = None
 from osw.defaults import params as default_params
 from osw.utils.code_postprocessing import (
     remove_constraints_from_forward_refs,
@@ -476,7 +485,29 @@ def register_schema(self, schema_registration: SchemaRegistration):
                     else:
                         result_array.append(subschema)
                 match.full_path.update_or_create(schema, result_array)
-            if "definitions" in schema:
+
+            all_refs_resolved = True
+            bare_ref_jsonpath_expr = parse("$..dollarref")
+            # pydantic only wraps a $ref in allOf when the field carries extra
+            #  metadata (e.g. Field(description=...)). A plain nested-model
+            #  field produces a bare {"$ref": ...} that is not reachable via
+            #  the "$..allOf" jsonpath above, so replace those local
+            #  definitions (#/definitions/...) with embedded definitions too,
+            #  to prevent a dangling ref once "definitions" is removed below
+            for match in bare_ref_jsonpath_expr.find(schema):
+                value = match.value
+                if value.startswith("#"):
+                    definition_jsonpath_expr = parse(
+                        value.replace("#", "$").replace("/", ".")
+                    )
+                    def_matches = definition_jsonpath_expr.find(schema)
+                    for def_match in def_matches:
+                        match.context.full_path.update_or_create(
+                            schema, def_match.value
+                        )
+                    if not def_matches:
+                        all_refs_resolved = False
+            if "definitions" in schema and all_refs_resolved:
                 del schema["definitions"]
 
             if "allOf" not in schema:
@@ -1788,12 +1819,15 @@ def __init__(self, **data):
             if self.change_id is None:
                 self.change_id = str(uuid4())
             for entity in self.entities:
-                if getattr(entity, "meta", None) is None:
-                    entity.meta = model.Meta()
-                if entity.meta.change_id is None:
-                    entity.meta.change_id = []
-                if self.change_id not in entity.meta.change_id:
-                    entity.meta.change_id.append(self.change_id)
+                try:
+                    if getattr(entity, "meta", None) is None:
+                        entity.meta = model.Meta()
+                    if entity.meta.change_id is None:
+                        entity.meta.change_id = []
+                    if self.change_id not in entity.meta.change_id:
+                        entity.meta.change_id.append(self.change_id)
+                except (ValueError, AttributeError):
+                    pass  # entity model doesn't have meta field
             if len(self.entities) > 5 and self.parallel is None:
                 self.parallel = True
             if self.parallel is None:
@@ -2058,10 +2092,18 @@ def store_entity_(
 
                 mode = AggregateGeneratedSchemasParamMode.ROOT_LEVEL
                 # Put generated schema in definitions section,
-                #  currently only enabled for Characteristics
-                if hasattr(model, "CharacteristicType") and isinstance(
-                    entity_, model.CharacteristicType
-                ):
+                #  currently only enabled for Characteristics. The class is
+                #  either the locally generated one or the one shipped by the
+                #  opensemantic packages, depending on where the model is from.
+                characteristic_types = tuple(
+                    t
+                    for t in (
+                        getattr(model, "CharacteristicType", None),
+                        _OpensemanticCharacteristicType,
+                    )
+                    if t is not None
+                )
+                if characteristic_types and isinstance(entity_, characteristic_types):
                     mode = AggregateGeneratedSchemasParamMode.DEFINITIONS_SECTION
 
                 new_schema = aggregate_generated_schemas(
 
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 name: osl-tasks
 description: Use when importing local todo or note files into an OpenSemanticLab (OSL) wiki as Task entities, or when listing, filtering and updating tasks that already live in OSL. Requires the `osw` CLI or the osw MCP server.
 metadata:
-  version: "2.8.1"
+  version: "2.9.1"
 ---
 
 # OSL task management
 
@@ -12,8 +12,6 @@
 from pathlib import Path
 from typing import IO, Callable, Dict, Iterable, List, Optional, Union
 
-import dask
-from dask.diagnostics import ProgressBar
 from tqdm.asyncio import tqdm
 
 _logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
@@ -585,7 +583,21 @@ def file_in_paths(
 
 
 def async_parallelize(func: Callable, iterable: Iterable, **kwargs):
-    """Work in progress"""
+    """Work in progress. Requires the optional ``parallel`` extra.
+
+    dask is imported here rather than at module scope because this is the only
+    thing in osw that uses it. At module scope it made ``import osw`` fail
+    outright wherever dask is unavailable - util.py is imported unconditionally
+    by core, wtsite and wiki_tools - which rules out Pyodide, where there is no
+    dask build at all.
+    """
+    # ty cannot resolve these: dask is the `parallel` extra and is deliberately
+    # absent from the dev environment, which is the condition this import exists to
+    # tolerate. Adding the extra to the dev group would make it resolve - that is what
+    # pyproject does for mcp - but it would install dask everywhere to type check the
+    # one place that is allowed to run without it.
+    import dask  # ty: ignore[unresolved-import]
+    from dask.diagnostics import ProgressBar  # ty: ignore[unresolved-import]
 
     async def inner(func_, iterable_, **kwargs_):
         async with AsyncMessageBuffer() as msg_buf:
@@ -646,6 +658,11 @@ def wrapped_function(*args, **kwargs):
     from datetime import datetime
     from time import sleep
 
+    # Only the demo helpers below use dask; see async_parallelize for why it is
+    # not imported at module scope. Needs the optional `parallel` extra.
+    import dask  # ty: ignore[unresolved-import]
+    from dask.diagnostics import ProgressBar  # ty: ignore[unresolved-import]
+
     print("Redirecting print messages to a buffer.")
     message_buffer = MessageBuffer()
     io_buffer = StringIO()