in Houdini 20.5.522, and older, i could add a properties dictionary for "promote", "shape..." and other parameters to be used in APEX autorig controller.

Currently, in 20.5.584, it doesn't work, it sees it only if it's provided over Base.skel.

so i wonder is that some new feature or to report it as bug?

Are you maybe setting the properties dict on as a detail attrib?