codewhale/CHANGELOG.md

Changelog

All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.

The format is based on Keep a Changelog, and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning.

Unreleased

Added

• Moonshot Kimi K2.7 Code model. The Moonshot/Kimi provider now defaults to kimi-k2.7-code, recognizes kimi/kimi-k2 aliases for that model, keeps explicit kimi-k2.6 selectable, and adds the OpenRouter moonshotai/kimi-k2.7-code registry row.
• Cursor-style activity metadata rows (#3146). Dense successful tool-run summaries now render as a single muted Explored ... / Updated metadata row, include short command-family labels for successful generic verifier groups, and keep keyboard/mouse expansion and detail inspection intact.
• Provider-wait observability (#3095). Footer stall reasons now name the active provider/model route, idle seconds vs stream budget, and whether a fanout plan is still at 0 running or dispatch is pending. Structured provider-wait incidents log once per turn from the main tick loop (not on every footer redraw).
• Interactive fanout launch gate (#3095). Direct sub-agent children queue behind a configurable semaphore ([subagents] interactive_max_launch, default 4) with a visible queued: waiting for an interactive fanout slot reason before their first model step.
• Goal lifecycle controls. /goal is now the primary command surface for session goals, with pause, resume, complete, blocked, and clear controls while /hunt remains a compatibility alias.
• Command-boundary ownership layers (#2888/#3055). Built-in slash command metadata now lives in commands/registry.rs, slash parsing in commands/parse.rs, and handlers under group-owned command areas, preserving the existing dispatch surface while reducing future commands/mod.rs churn.
• Approval-rule source metadata (#1186/#2971). Runtime API approval.required events now include optional matched_rule metadata when an execution-policy rule caused the prompt. Thanks @greyfreedom for the PR and @Ram9199 for the audit-semantics discussion.
• Localized tool-family labels (#2901). Tool activity labels for read, patch, run, find, delegate, fanout, RLM, verify, think, and generic tool work now route through the shipped locale tables. Thanks @gordonlu for the PR.
• Localized config section labels (#2918). The interactive config view now localizes section and session/saved scope labels while preserving English search terms. Thanks @gordonlu for the PR.
• Localized config editor labels (#2919). The config editor modal now localizes edit labels, default/unavailable placeholders, and effective currency hints. Thanks @gordonlu for the PR.
• Hotbar number-key dispatch (#3056). Bare 1-8 now trigger bound hotbar slots only when the composer is empty, while Alt+1-Alt+8 trigger slots regardless of composer text and overlays keep key ownership. Thanks @reidliu41 for the PR.

Fixed

• SSE data lines without spaces (#3152). Chat Completions, Responses, and Anthropic stream readers now accept both data: {...} and data:{...} SSE frames, matching the spec and preventing providers that omit the optional space from streaming empty output. Thanks @wgeeker for the PR.
• Runtime thread detail N+1 reads (#3141). get_thread_detail now scans persisted turn items once and groups them by turn instead of reading the items directory once per turn, preserving item order while keeping large thread detail loads responsive.
• Project-local hook trust boundary (#3140). .codewhale/hooks.toml is now loaded only after the workspace is trusted in user-owned config, matching the project-local MCP trust model while preserving the documented shell-command hook contract.
• Skill registry sync latency (#3139). /skills sync now syncs registry entries with bounded ordered concurrency, so network latency no longer stacks one skill at a time while output order stays deterministic.
• SiliconFlow China provider config (#2893/#2895). siliconflow-CN now reads its own [providers.siliconflow_cn] / [providers.siliconflow-CN] table and falls back to [providers.siliconflow] only for unset api_key/base_url/model fields. Thanks @Artenx for the report and @idling11 for the PR.
• Self-update download timeout (#3006). codewhale update now applies a five-minute HTTP client timeout so blocked or very slow GitHub release downloads fail instead of hanging indefinitely. Thanks @New2Niu for the PR.
• Legacy deepseek update migration (#2960/#3013/#3053). Running deepseek update or deepseek-tui update from a pre-rebrand install now returns copy-pasteable npm, Cargo, Homebrew, and manual-binary migration steps instead of trying to spawn a missing codewhale binary. README and rebrand docs now cover the same upgrade path. Thanks @jazzi and @tiangangQiu for the reports, @cyq1017 for the update-path PR, and @angus-guo for the README PR.
• Constitution trust wording (#2950/#3008). The base prompt now explains that "begins with an A" means a baseline of trust, not a literal output formatting rule. Thanks @cyq1017 for the PR.
• TUI provider-source recovery (#3007/#3011). Unsupported interactive providers now report whether the value came from --provider, environment, or config. Config-sourced unsupported providers fall back to DeepSeek without forwarding stale keyring secrets. Thanks @cyq1017 for the PR.
• Exec auto-model handoff (#3148). codewhale exec --model auto now survives the CLI/TUI boundary by honoring the CodeWhale model env alias and legacy DeepSeek model handoff before falling back to provider defaults. Thanks @hongchen1993 for the PR.
• macOS shortcut modifiers (#2938/#2943). Ctrl-like shortcuts that are reported as SUPER by macOS terminals now work for backgrounding tasks and sidebar-focus chords without rewriting clipboard shortcuts. Thanks @idling11 for the PR.
• TUI mouse-report leak (#3063/#3067). Strip raw SGR mouse coordinate tails from the composer even when use_mouse_capture is false, covering orphaned terminal reporting state after crashes or focus races.
• Interrupted sub-agent lifecycle (#3080). API-timeout interruptions now emit MailboxMessage::Interrupted, render terminal interrupted cards, and reconcile stale running fanout counts from manager snapshots.
• OpenAI Codex reasoning tiers. Switching from DeepSeek to openai-codex now normalizes stale reasoning state into Responses-compatible low/medium/high/xhigh tiers. Startup, /config, and the model picker now display Codex labels instead of leaking DeepSeek off/max names, while Codex still reports as a Responses payload provider. The Responses request builder also clamps legacy minimal input to low and has regression coverage that Codex requests use reasoning.effort, not DeepSeek thinking fields.
• OpenAI Codex context metadata (#3070). The gpt-5.5 default and CodeWhale aliases now use OpenAI's documented 1,050,000-token context window and 128,000 max-output metadata for context pressure, prompts, and doctor capability output.
• OpenRouter Nemotron 3 Ultra preset. The OpenRouter preset and model registry now emit nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b while keeping the old Ultra aliases compatible.
• OpenRouter auth after MiMo switches (#3064). Switching from Xiaomi MiMo to OpenRouter now has regression coverage for preflight key failures and Bearer auth header isolation before any request can be dispatched.
• Responses strict-tool schema compatibility (#3062/#3017/#1883). Responses function tools now preserve per-tool strict-mode compatibility, keep optional strict-schema fields nullable, and append deterministic constraint notes when root composition groups must be flattened for Responses.
• Runtime prompt autonomous loop guard (#3061). Runtime policy reference now explicitly forbids initiating new work when <runtime_prompt> is the only new turn content and no tool/sub-agent handoff is pending.
• Goal runtime status sync. Goal token budgets and active/paused/complete status now sync into the engine alongside the objective, and model-visible update_goal can only mark goals complete or blocked.

Contributors

• Devin session work on #3080/#3095 (PRs #3103, #3104, #3106) — Hunter Bown (maintainer integration/cherry-pick on codex/v0.8.59-release-ready).
• Nightt (@nightt5879) for the Responses strict-tool schema hardening in PR #3062.
• yekern (@yekern) for the #3061 runtime-prompt loop safety report and repro that shaped the dispatch guard.
• Paulo Aboim Pinto (@aboimpinto) for the staged command-boundary design and Layer 3 registry/parser extraction in PR #2888, plus the #2851/#2791/#2870 architecture stream that guided the grouped command areas in #3055.

0.8.58 - 2026-06-11

Added

• Native Anthropic provider. A dedicated Messages API adapter (/v1/messages with x-api-key auth) replaces OpenAI-dialect shims for Claude models: adaptive thinking with output_config.effort shaping, prompt-cache breakpoints (capped at 4, earliest dropped), signed-thinking replay via signature_delta, normalized cache-hit/miss usage telemetry, and SSE error envelopes. claude-opus-4-8, claude-sonnet-4-6, and claude-haiku-4-5 join the model registry; configure with ANTHROPIC_API_KEY (#3014).
• Hooks v2. tool_call_before hooks can now return a JSON decision — {"decision": "allow"|"deny"|"ask", "reason", "updatedInput", "additionalContext"} — with deny > ask > allow precedence across multiple hooks, last-writer-wins input rewriting, and concatenated context. Exit code 2 remains a legacy hard deny. Hooks support glob matchers and project-local .codewhale/hooks.toml (#3026).
• Clickable sidebar. Background-job rows show/cancel on click, the Ctrl+K hint row runs /jobs cancel-all, and agent rows open /subagents; row actions are built in the same pass as the rendered lines so a click can never target the wrong job (#3028).
• OSC 8 out-of-band hyperlink infrastructure with per-region open/close sequences that survive partial redraws (#3029).
• codewhale exec gains --allowed-tools, --disallowed-tools (deny wins), --max-turns, and --append-system-prompt (#3027).
• Constitution prompt source: YAML source-of-truth plus Python renderer for the system prompt, with the active prompt now served from constitution.md (#3015, renderer reconciliation still tracked).
• Agent-task issue template, labels, and runner protocol (#3021); remote smoke-test droplet loop hardening — gh CLI, swapfile, agent sessions (#3022).

Changed

• Sub-agent routing is provider-aware. DeepSeek ids are no longer hardcoded into model validation; routing works from per-provider big/cheap candidates, the network router is skipped when a provider has no cheap tier, and spawn-time model requests are validated against the active provider (#3018).
• Model-specific facts in the system prompt (context window, sub-agent pricing, thinking notes, architecture characteristics) are now templated per-model instead of hardcoded DeepSeek V4 claims, in both base.md and constitution.md (#3025).
• Provider capability lookups for Moonshot/OpenAI/Atlascloud resolve from per-model registry rows (bare and vendor-prefixed ids) instead of hardcoded 64K-era floors (#3023).
• Reasoning-effort now reaches Atlascloud (DeepSeek dialect), Moonshot (thinking enable/disable), and Ollama (think param) (#3024); Moonshot/ Kimi models joined the reasoning-content provider and model gates (#3016).
• Transcript polish: compact tool-call cells without boilerplate (#3031), internal turn/agent ids hidden behind stable labels (#3030), and Ctrl+B now backgrounds the running foreground shell directly instead of opening a menu (#3032).
• The Tasks sidebar separates "Model reasoning" from "Background commands", and auth list reports the same active-credential source as auth status for openai-codex.

Fixed

• TUI freeze under sub-agent load. Rapid AgentProgress events saturated the render loop and starved terminal input; progress-driven repaints are now throttled to one per 100ms (#3033).
• Hooks on Windows. Hook commands were passed to cmd /C through CRT-style argument quoting, which injected literal \" sequences that cmd.exe never unescapes — JSON decisions could not parse. Commands now reach cmd.exe verbatim via raw_arg.
• Codex Responses: assistant tool results are converted to function_call_output items (multi-turn tool calling previously broke), tool schemas are sanitized for the Responses API, and maximum effort maps to xhigh (#3019, #3017 — both partially; retry/backoff and per-tool strict mode remain open).
• Better tool-denial and provider error messages harvested from PR #2933 (#3020).

0.8.57 - 2026-06-10

Added

• Turns now survive system sleep. When the host suspends mid-stream, the connection used to die on wake with Stream read error: error decoding response body and the turn was lost (#2990). The engine now stamps stream progress with both monotonic and wall-clock time; a large divergence on a stream error identifies a sleep/wake cycle, and the request is silently re-issued (up to the existing 3-retry budget) instead of failing the turn.
• One-command release prep. ./scripts/release/prepare-release.sh X.Y.Z bumps the workspace version, every internal crate dependency pin, the npm wrapper, and the README install-tag examples, refreshes Cargo.lock, regenerates the embedded TUI changelog slice and web facts, and runs check-versions.sh — the v0.8.56 release needed nine follow-up commits for exactly these sync points.
• .github/CODEOWNERS and .github/dependabot.yml (weekly cargo + github-actions updates, monthly npm for web/).

Changed

• The changelog went on a diet. Root CHANGELOG.md now carries recent releases (v0.8.40+); older entries moved to docs/CHANGELOG_ARCHIVE.md. crates/tui/CHANGELOG.md — embedded into every binary for /change — is a generated 15-release slice (scripts/sync-changelog.sh), no longer a 357 KB manual byte-for-byte copy (~300 KB smaller binaries).
• GitHub Release bodies are generated from the tagged version's changelog section (scripts/release/generate-release-body.sh) instead of a hardcoded workflow blob with a hand-pasted contributor list.
• check-versions.sh now also gates web/lib/facts.generated.ts and the README install-tag examples; the CNB mirror pipeline validates the pushed tag against Cargo.toml before generating release notes.
• Docs reorganized: internal design notes moved under docs/rfcs/; stale internal docs (old audits, handoffs, region-specific VM notes) removed.
• Agent-facing polish: the system prompt environment block reports codewhale_version (was deepseek_version), the legacy .deepseek/instructions.md path is no longer advertised in the prompt (still honored for back-compat), and oversized instruction files are truncated with an explicit […truncated: N bytes omitted] marker instead of a bare ellipsis.

Fixed

• Docker images build again. The release docker job failed for v0.8.56 because the Dockerfile still copied the pre-rebrand deepseek / deepseek-tui binaries; they are now symlinks to the codewhale binaries inside the image, so legacy container entrypoints keep working.
• .devcontainer/devcontainer.json used the pre-rebrand container name, mount path, and deepseek remote user.
• Stale --bin deepseek examples, DeepSeek-TUI strings in /change output, and pre-rebrand doc comments.

Removed

• Unused dependencies: tracing-appender and zeroize (TUI crate), rustls (release crate); the orphaned vendor/schemaui-0.12.0 lockfile leftover and a machine-specific one-off scripts/verify_task.sh.

0.8.56 - 2026-06-09

Added

• Status picker localization. The status picker surface (7 MessageIds) is now localized across all supported locales (#2896, @gordonlu).
• Approval dialog localization. The approval dialog surface is now localized across 7 locales: English, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Portuguese, Spanish, and French (#2891, @gordonlu).
• Volcengine provider in TUI dispatcher. The codewhale / codewhale-tui CLI dispatcher now allows the Volcengine provider, so users can launch directly into a Volcengine-backed session (#2923, @hongchen1993).
• Dispatcher API-key preference. When a provider-specific API key is supplied via the CLI dispatcher, it is now preferred over the saved root key, fixing a regression where saved keys masked explicit CLI keys (#2928, @hongchen1993).
• Qwen 3.6 Plus model support. Added complete Qwen 3.6 Plus model resolution with dedicated version-bump tests (#2930, @idling11).
• Oversized paste spill. Pastes larger than ~10 KB are now written to .codewhale/pastes/ instead of being truncated or dropped, preserving the full content for the session (#2920, @sximelon).
• Cross-session prompt cache. Added a disk-backed cross-session prompt base-section cache so post-mode-flip and post-restart turns reuse the byte-stable prefix without rebuilding it from scratch.

Fixed

• Background shell routing. Shell commands expected to take >5 seconds are now automatically guided to background tasks instead of blocking the agent loop, with the task panel syncing immediately on cancel (#2947, #2941, @cyq1017, @idling11).
• allow_shell error naming. Shell-tool refusal errors now explicitly name allow_shell = false as the reason and suggest /config allow_shell true as the escape hatch (#2905, @cyq1017).
• Prefix-cache stability across mode flips. allow_shell is now decoupled from the static system-prompt prefix, so mode changes (Plan ↔ Agent ↔ YOLO) no longer rebuild the byte-stable message[0] and invalidate the DeepSeek prefix cache (#2949, @LeoAlex0).
• visibility="internal" explained. The Runtime Policy Reference section of the system prompt now explains the visibility="internal" attribute so models stop narrating their current mode between steps (#2951, @LeoAlex0).
• Bocha web search response handling. Updated response parsing for the Bocha search backend after an upstream API change (#2946, @h3c-hexin).
• PDF read hang. Full-PDF reads now use extract_text_by_pages to avoid a hang on large or complex PDFs (#2898, @idling11).
• 9 critical bugs. Fixed bugs across tools, client, and commands: stale ContentBlockStop cleanup, missing #[test] attribute, trailing-space restoration on English ApprovalField labels, and several correctness/stability issues (#2880, @HUQIANTAO).

Changed

• CNB shim cleanup. Removed deprecated deepseek shim references from the CNB mirror path.
• Style. Applied cargo fmt to crates/tools/src/file.rs.

0.8.55 - 2026-06-08

Added

• Together AI provider. Added Together AI as a first-class provider ([providers.together], TOGETHER_API_KEY/TOGETHER_BASE_URL/TOGETHER_MODEL) with default models deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4-Pro and deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4-Flash, TUI provider-picker/auth/capability support, and CLI auth list/auth status coverage.
• Model catalog updates. Added Qwen 3.7 Max (qwen/qwen3.7-max), MiniMax 2.7 (minimax/minimax-2.7), and NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra (nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra) on OpenRouter.
• OpenAI Codex (ChatGPT) provider — experimental. Added an openai-codex provider that reuses an existing ChatGPT/Codex CLI OAuth login. The access token is read and refreshed from ~/.codex/auth.json (no API key is stored), and requests use the OpenAI Responses API at /codex/responses with the chatgpt-account-id header and responses=experimental beta opt-in. Env overrides: OPENAI_CODEX_ACCESS_TOKEN/CODEX_ACCESS_TOKEN, OPENAI_CODEX_BASE_URL/CODEX_BASE_URL, OPENAI_CODEX_MODEL/CODEX_MODEL, OPENAI_CODEX_ACCOUNT_ID/CODEX_ACCOUNT_ID, OPENAI_CODEX_AUTH_FILE, CODEX_HOME. Default model gpt-5.5. The live Responses round-trip has not been exercised against the production backend in CI; treat as preview.

0.8.54 - 2026-06-08

Added

• Benchmark harness runners. Added CodeWhale-native benchmark entry points for SWE-bench, Terminal-Bench, and PinchBench, plus a local PinchBench runner that can grade tool-use traces with an LLM judge.
• Direct MiMo benchmark routing. The benchmark runner now defaults to direct Xiaomi MiMo v2.5 Pro routing when configured, while keeping provider/model selection explicit.
• Added /restore list [N] so users can inspect more side-git rollback snapshots with UTC timestamps before choosing a restore point. Plain /restore now shows the 20 most recent snapshots, numeric restore targets can reach beyond that default listing up to a bounded index, and list requests above the visible cap fail explicitly instead of silently truncating.
• Added HarmonyOS/OpenHarmony support scaffolding: environment-driven OHOS_NATIVE_SDK setup scripts and compiler wrappers, platform docs, explicit Rustls ring-provider installation for the no-provider TLS build, and OHOS fallbacks for unsupported keyring, clipboard, sandbox, browser-open, TTY, execpolicy Starlark parsing, and self-update surfaces.
• Added scripts/release/check-ohos-deps.sh and wired it into CI/release preflight so the OpenHarmony target graph fails if unsupported nix, portable-pty, starlark, arboard, or keyring dependencies re-enter.
• Added .github/AUTHOR_MAP and a CI co-author credit check so harvested commits use GitHub-mappable numeric noreply identities instead of .local, placeholder, bot/tool, or raw third-party emails.
• Added a turn_end observer hook that fires after post-turn TUI state and token totals are updated. Hooks receive structured JSON with status, usage, totals, duration, tool count, and queued-message count on stdin; stdout is ignored and failures are warn-only (#1364, #2578).
• Added provider-scoped insecure_skip_tls_verify for private OpenAI-compatible gateways that cannot use a trusted CA bundle. The setting is disabled by default, applies only to the active LLM provider HTTP client, and is surfaced by codewhale doctor; SSL_CERT_FILE remains the preferred path for corporate or private CA roots. Thanks @wavezhang for the original #1893 direction.
• Added a default-disabled hard-compaction planner that can identify the summarizable middle of a long conversation while preserving the recent tail, existing tool-call/result pair guarantees, and working-set pinning. This harvests the safe planning layer from #2522 without enabling hard compaction or adding a message-rewrite execution path yet. Thanks @HUQIANTAO for the proposal.
• Added rich PlanArtifact support to update_plan: Plan mode can now carry grounded objectives, context, sources, critical files, constraints, verification, risks, and handoff notes through the transcript card, Plan confirmation prompt, /relay, fork-state, and saved-session replay.
• Added the first codewhale-whaleflow foundation crate with typed workflow config/IR validation and deterministic phase ordering tests. This preserves the WhaleFlow direction from #2482/#2486 without exposing a runtime workflow_run tool until cancellation, replay, and worktree semantics are release-safe. The foundation now includes explicit WorkflowSpec, WorkflowNode, branch/leaf/policy metadata structs, plus serializable branch, leaf, and control-node result records toward the #2668 TraceStore contract. It also adds a crate-local mock executor skeleton for Sequence, BranchSet, Leaf, Reduce, LoopUntil, Cond, Expand, BranchTournament, and ParetoFrontier control flow so #2669 can progress without spawning agents, applying worktrees, or exposing a workflow_run runtime tool yet. A first Starlark authoring layer now compiles fail-closed model-authored workflow files into that typed IR, with rlm_cache_change.star and issue_fix_tournament.star examples plus a one-pass repair for common ctx.* authoring aliases (#2670). Leaf, branch, and workflow execution results now carry deterministic token and cost telemetry fields that the mock executor can aggregate without live provider calls or runtime sub-agent fanout (#2486). The mock executor now carries crate-local cancellation and budget-exhaustion status markers so the branch/leaf runtime contract can be tested before live workflow execution is exposed (#2669). A crate-only replay executor now evaluates workflows from recorded leaf/control records, computes stable SHA-256 leaf input hashes, and marks missing records as replay_diverged instead of calling models again (#2673); the runtime replay command and live-provider replay fallback remain deferred. The crate also now has a model-agnostic role/capability registry with mock provider plumbing and fail-closed JSON repair parsing, so WhaleFlow can choose capable models for roles without hardcoding provider-specific runtime paths (#2672). The rlm_cache_change.star dogfood workflow now exercises candidate branches, LoopUntil verification, tournament selection, teacher review, and mock execution in CI-oriented crate tests (#2679). Leaf, branch, and workflow results now also carry separate ARMH/shared-memo and provider prompt-cache telemetry counters, with mock aggregation tests, so #2671 can progress without wiring live RLM calls or billing-affecting provider behavior yet. The Starlark and typed-IR gates now also reject unknown leaf dependencies, reducer inputs, and teacher-review candidates before mock execution or replay, keeping generated workflows fail-closed while runtime/worktree semantics stay deferred. TeacherReview now has serializable GEPA-style candidate artifacts for notes, workflow recipes, skills, regression tests, cache policy, branch heuristics, and Starlark authoring prompt patches, plus an offline helper that proposes candidates from recorded execution traces without promoting them or training model weights (#2674). StudentReplay results can now be stored on teacher candidates, and a deterministic PromotionGate compares baseline-vs-candidate replay deltas, required tests, policy violations, staleness, and cost constraints before marking a candidate promotable (#2675). The external-memory cutline now documents that Aleph-style memory stays optional, explicit, visible, and clear/export-capable for v0.9.0 rather than becoming a hidden default context substrate (#2677). A dedicated v0.9.0 release acceptance matrix now tracks provider, runtime, UI, WhaleFlow, Model Lab, remote-workbench, docs, rollback, and credit gates that must be checked or explicitly deferred before tagging (#2729). HarnessProfile docs now pin the v0.9.0 order: posture/schema/resolver/seed profiles/status display must precede evidence stores, promotion gates, or any automatic Harness Creator, with DeepSeek, MiMo, Arcee, and generic/HF/local posture expectations called out separately (#2728). Hugging Face / Model Lab and codebase_search release gates now explicitly ship only the provider/MCP/docs/design foundation in v0.9; native Hub search, model passports, Spaces/Jobs workflows, eval/export surfaces, and runtime codebase_search registration remain deferred (#2705, #2680, #2727). Remote workbench acceptance is also marked docs/setup-only for v0.9 so release notes do not imply a shipped VM or Telegram bridge runtime (#2724). Release-facing HarnessProfile docs now match the current implementation: v0.9 ships the typed schema/config foundation and defers runtime resolver, telemetry, seed-profile selection, and status-display behavior until later verified slices. config.example.toml includes a commented dormant harness-profile example, and README links point at the real acceptance matrix and HarnessProfile cutline docs. The release acceptance matrix now records evidence for already-landed gates: provider-registry drift checks, provider-scoped TLS skip verify, read-only GUI runtime/restore-point surfaces, VS Code Agent View branch visibility, WhaleFlow mock/runtime foundations, explicit external-memory boundaries, and docs alignment. Live workflow execution, provider calls, TraceStore writes, and mutation-oriented GUI endpoints remain deferred until their atomicity and replay contracts are tested. The rlm_cache_change.star dogfood workflow can now be replayed from recorded mock leaf/control records, and missing dogfood records produce ReplayDiverged instead of falling back to live execution (#2679). The UI/workflow UX rows now also distinguish shipped transcript tool-run collapse, sidebar detail popovers, and PlanArtifact review/handoff evidence from the deferred first-look/home redesign, and record focused slash-picker readability smoke coverage for visibility, selection, skill insertion, Esc priority, and stable composer height (#2692, #2694, #2691, #2713). Thanks @AdityaVG13 for the WhaleFlow draft and cost-tracking direction.
• Added a state-store v2 schema migration for WhaleFlow trace tables covering workflow, branch, leaf, control-node, and teacher-candidate runs. The migration creates persistence shape only; workflow execution and replay remain deferred until the runtime semantics are safe (#2668).
• Added an official VS Code extension Phase 0 scaffold with terminal launch, local runtime attach checks, status bar state, and a read-only Agent View preview backed by recent runtime thread summaries, plus a read-only GET /v1/snapshots endpoint for GUI clients to inspect side-git restore points. The extension now renders those restore points read-only in its Agent View, and thread summaries include read-only workspace, branch, current Git head, and dirty-state metadata so the VS Code Agent View can show when a thread or agent lane is on another branch or has changed worktree state. Agent View and restore-point data now auto-refresh on a configurable read-only interval so branch/workspace/status changes become visible without a manual refresh. Agent View refreshes keep thread branch/workspace rows independent from restore-point loading, so a snapshot-listing failure no longer clears already-available thread metadata. This answers the VS Code GUI lane without exposing chat webviews, inline edits, or retry/undo/restore runtime mutation endpoints yet (#461, #462, #480, #1217, #2341, #1584, #2327, #2580, #2808). Thanks @AiurArtanis for the Agent View prompt, @lbcheng888 for the earlier scaffold, @gaord for the GUI runtime API direction, @douglarek, @caeserchen, and @nightt5879 for the branch visibility trail, and @BigBenLabs, @lzx1545642258, @yangdaowan, @mangdehuang, @VerrPower, @hejia-v, @nasus9527, and @ygzhang-cn for the GUI/VS Code demand and validation trail.
• Added inline live-output refresh for background shell Exec cards keyed by the exact shell task id, so long-running commands can show bounded stdout/stderr tails without consuming deltas or matching by command text. Thanks @donglovejava for the live shell-output direction in #2048.
• Added a static prompt composer override for embedders that need to replace the byte-stable base/personality prompt segment while leaving mode metadata, approval policy, tool taxonomy, Context Management, and the Compaction Relay under CodeWhale's runtime prompt assembly. This refines the embedder prompt customization path from #2786 without weakening prompt-continuity safeguards. Thanks @h3c-hexin.
• Added POST /v1/sessions for runtime clients to save a completed thread as a managed session. The endpoint preserves thread title/model/mode/workspace metadata, maps missing threads to 404, and returns 409 instead of snapshotting queued or active turns.
• Added cost-estimate pricing for the Xiaomi MiMo primary chat models, which were previously unpriced: mimo-v2.5-pro / xiaomi/mimo-v2.5-pro reuse the DeepSeek V4-Pro rate table and mimo-v2.5 / xiaomi/mimo-v2.5 reuse the DeepSeek V4-Flash rates. Existing DeepSeek pricing is unchanged (#2731, #2750).
• Added a metadata-only codewhale-config provider registry with canonical lookup, alias-aware resolution, provider defaults, config-table keys, and API-key env candidates. Runtime routing remains unchanged and fallback providers stay dormant; this harvests the safe provider-trait foundation from #2479 toward #2075. Thanks @sximelon.
• Added optional [search].base_url / CODEWHALE_SEARCH_BASE_URL support for DuckDuckGo-compatible private search endpoints, while keeping DEEPSEEK_SEARCH_BASE_URL as a legacy alias. Custom endpoints are gated by their configured host, do not fall back to public Bing, and report the custom host as the result source for diagnostics (#2436, #2510).
• Added completion_sound = "file" with [notifications].sound_file so Windows users can play a custom WAV file for turn-completion sounds without changing the global Windows sound scheme (#2484, #2512).
• Added [tui].stream_chunk_timeout_secs and /config stream_chunk_timeout_secs so slow local or OpenAI-compatible model servers can extend the SSE idle timeout without mutating process environment. The legacy DEEPSEEK_STREAM_IDLE_TIMEOUT_SECS env var remains a fallback (#2365, #2507).
• Added dormant fallback_providers = [...] config parsing plus a provider-chain helper for future fallback routing. This preserves the requested contract without enabling silent runtime provider switches yet (#2574, #2777). Thanks @hsdbeebou for the request and @idling11 for the data-model draft.
• Added /hf with /huggingface alias for Hugging Face MCP status/setup helpers and /hf concepts provider/MCP/Hub guidance. The helper points users to Hugging Face's settings-generated MCP configuration and intentionally does not include Hub search, direct Hugging Face HTTP requests, or upload behavior (#2709, #2782). Thanks @idling11 for the original Hugging Face MCP draft.
• Added an in-process response cache for deterministic non-streaming, tool-free chat requests. The cache is keyed by provider, base URL, path suffix, API-key fingerprint, and final wire body, and zeroes usage on hits so local spend counters are not double-counted (#2501). Thanks @HUQIANTAO for the response-cache proposal and canonical-body key update.
• Added /sidebar so users can toggle, show, hide, and optionally persist the TUI sidebar from the command line instead of relying on copy-hostile sidebar state during long transcript work (#2766, #2788). Thanks @mo-vic for the detailed report and @aboimpinto for the fix.
• Added a pausable custom slash-command MVP: commands with pausable: true can pause before further tool execution, preserve the paused command while separate messages are handled, and resume only on explicit continue/resume wording. Harvested from #2732 with thanks to @aboimpinto.
• Added Sofya (provider = "sofya") as a search-tool backend with SOFYA_API_KEY fallback, while keeping Sofya scoped to web search rather than model-provider routing (#2790). Thanks @yusufgurdogan for the implementation.
• Added Xiaomi MiMo mode / XIAOMI_MIMO_MODE / MIMO_MODE selection for Token Plan region endpoints and pay-as-you-go routing, plus dedicated Token Plan env keys for tp-* subscriptions (#2621, #2627). Thanks @springeye for the request and @xyuai for the implementation.
• Added the first TUI hotbar action registry foundation so future UI controls can dispatch typed app actions instead of growing another command match surface (#2866). Thanks @reidliu41 for the implementation.
• Added the narrow multi-tab core and persistence foundation, including tab manager snapshots, delegation/group restore counters, mention parsing, cross-tab events, and corruption-tolerant persisted state, while leaving the broader collaboration UI wiring to follow-up work (#2864). Thanks @ljm3790865 for the tab-core implementation and #2753 direction.
• The VS Code Agent View now renders the runtime thread summary's Git head and dirty-worktree flag alongside branch metadata, keeping branch switches visible without adding retry/undo/restore mutation endpoints yet (#2580, #2862). Thanks @AiurArtanis and @nasus9527 for the IDE/agent-view requests and @gaord for the runtime metadata direction.

Changed

• Removed the deprecated deepseek and deepseek-tui binary shims from the v0.9.0 Cargo crates and GitHub release artifact matrix. The canonical codewhale, codew, and codewhale-tui entry points remain, the private deprecated npm/deepseek-tui notice package stays unpublished, and DeepSeek provider/model/env/config compatibility remains first-class.
• Command-adjacent config persistence and auto model routing now live in neutral TUI modules instead of command-owned files, reducing command-boundary coupling while preserving current /config, /model, UI, runtime, and sub-agent behavior (#2871). Thanks @aboimpinto for landing this first staged command-boundary layer from the broader #2851/#2791 design direction.
• /config now reports the canonical ~/.codewhale/settings.toml path for TUI settings while still reading legacy DeepSeek-branded settings fallbacks and migrating them into the CodeWhale home on load.
• Provider switches now roll back transactionally when the first request to a newly selected provider fails authentication: CodeWhale restores the previous provider/model, model-ID passthrough, onboarding/API-key state, runtime config, persisted provider selection, and engine handle so users can return to DeepSeek after a failed Moonshot/Kimi switch (#2754, #2755). Thanks @Dr3259 for the Windows repro and @cyq1017 for the draft fix.
• PATCH /v1/threads/{id} can now update a thread's persisted workspace for GUI/runtime clients. Workspace changes reject active turns and evict idle cached engines so the next turn starts in the new workspace.
• Split web_run session/page cache state so cached page reads use shared page handles and do not serialize through the mutation path. The harvest also adds panic-safe state write-back and serializes cache-mutating unit tests so the global web cache remains stable under normal Cargo test parallelism.
• Appended volatile <turn_meta> blocks after user text in outgoing user message content arrays so provider prefix caches can keep matching the stable user-input prefix across date, route, and working-set changes.
• Projected mode, approval, and tool-taxonomy prompt metadata per request instead of mutating stored system prompts, keeping provider prefix-cache inputs byte-stable while preserving mode-specific instructions (#2687). Thanks @LeoAlex0 for the implementation.
• Softened contribution intake automation: external issues now receive a warm triage note and are never auto-closed by the contribution gate, while the PR gate copy makes clear that dry-run observations are about maintainer safety, not contributor quality.
• Added a PR gate marker guard so reopened unapproved PRs do not get duplicate intake comments, and clarified that PR reopening should happen after allowlist approval is merged.
• Ollama /model completions no longer show hosted DeepSeek API model IDs. The picker preserves the current or saved local Ollama tag, and users can still fetch installed model IDs through /models instead of relying on a stale static default (#2742). Thanks @reidliu41 for the focused report and draft fix.
• MCP runtime API tool listings and approval summaries no longer split underscored MCP server names at the first _. Tool-call routing already used the longest registered server name; the list endpoint now reuses that parser, and approval cards show the full MCP target route instead of a guessed server segment (#2744). Thanks @lioryx, @cyq1017, and @puneetdixit200 for the report and matching fixes.
• Documented the agent and sub-agent stewardship ethos so future automation preserves human issue intake, careful PR review, and contributor credit.
• Moved the TUI Starlark execpolicy parser and PTY support behind non-OHOS target dependencies so published OpenHarmony builds no longer pull nix 0.28 through rustyline or portable-pty.
• Explicit skills_dir configuration is now unioned with workspace skill discovery instead of being shadowed by workspace-local skills, and configured skills take precedence over global defaults when prompt space is constrained.
• Tool-agent sub-agent routing now inherits the parent session model, or an explicit tool-agent override, instead of hard-coding deepseek-v4-flash; the fast lane still disables thinking through provider-aware request shaping.
• Dense successful read/search/list tool runs now collapse into a single expandable transcript row by default, while running, failed, shell, patch, review, diff, and other risky tool cells remain visible. The setting tool_collapse = "compact" | "expanded" | "calm" controls the behavior.
• Pending-input preview rows now label delivery mode explicitly as steer pending, rejected steer, or queued follow-up, with wrapped continuation rows aligned under the label so busy-turn input state is easier to read (#2054).
• Editing a queued follow-up is now an explicit pending-input state. Pressing Esc while editing a queued follow-up restores the original queued message instead of cancelling the active turn or silently dropping the queued work (#2054).
• Approval prompts now render prominent command, directory, file, path, or target rows before falling back to raw JSON params. Shell approvals preserve long command tails, split common shell chains for review, and show compact printf > file previews while keeping intent summaries visible (#1991, #2269).
• Sidebar hover details now use row-level metadata for truncated Work, Tasks, and Agents rows. Mouse hover opens a bordered, wrapping popover with the full underlying row text, long turn/agent ids, and current sub-agent progress instead of repeating the already-ellipsized sidebar label (#2694, #2734).
• Sub-agents now preserve checkpoint metadata around long model calls. A per-step API timeout marks the child as interrupted with a continuable checkpoint instead of ending as a null failed result, and agent_eval can explicitly continue a live checkpointed interrupted child while normal completed/failed/cancelled follow-up behavior stays unchanged (#2029).
• Durable task recovery no longer requeues tasks that were running when the previous CodeWhale process exited. On restart those records are marked failed with a recovery note, and any running tool-call summaries are marked failed too, so stale shell/task state cannot silently become live work again (#1786).
• Auto-generated project instructions now reuse the bounded Project Context Pack data instead of running an unbounded summary/tree scan when no .codewhale/instructions.md file exists. The fallback keeps later top-level folders visible in noisy large workspaces while the dynamic <project_context_pack> marker remains controlled by its own setting (#697, #1827).
• Project context loading now uses a bounded process-local content-signature cache for repeated hot-path loads. The cache covers workspace/parent instructions, global AGENTS/WHALE fallbacks, repo constitution files, generated-context targets, trust markers, and trust config paths, and it stores post-load signatures so auto-generated context deletion/regeneration stays correct (#2636).
• Configuration docs now show the provider-local path_suffix escape hatch for OpenAI-compatible gateways that accept /chat/completions but reject /v1/chat/completions, while making clear that model listing and DeepSeek beta routes keep their built-in paths (#1874).
• The config crate now carries the v0.9 HarnessPosture data model: HarnessPosture, HarnessProfile, and typed posture/compaction/tool/safety enums. The schema rejects misspelled posture names or unknown profile keys instead of silently falling back to custom; a pure resolver can match provider/model routes for tests and future status plumbing, while runtime provider/model posture selection remains a follow-up (#2693, #2741, #2728).

Fixed

• Benchmark workspace copying. Fixed benchmark workspace file copying so local benchmark tasks can preserve their intended file layout during agent runs.
• MiMo default tests. Guarded Xiaomi MiMo default-model tests against ambient CI provider environment variables.
• Stream/body decode failures such as Stream read error: error decoding response body are now classified as recoverable network interruptions instead of generic internal errors, keeping the transcript and triage metadata aligned with the existing stream retry path (#2847). Thanks @qamranmushtaq-collab for the Windows/npx DeepSeek report.
• The TUI footer, /status, /mcp manager, and command-palette MCP entries now count trusted workspace-local .codewhale/mcp.json servers together with the global MCP config, matching codewhale mcp list for merged global + project setups (#2787). Thanks @yekern for the detailed reproduction.
• AltGr key chords in the composer no longer get swallowed by sidebar shortcuts on AZERTY and other international layouts, so characters such as @, #, $, !, and % can be entered normally (#2863, #2867). Thanks @ousamabenyounes for the fix and report.
• Sub-agent shell completions now refresh the workspace branch/status chip immediately, and /subagents plus the Agents sidebar show each sub-agent's current workspace branch when it is running in a child worktree.
• Authentication failures now include redacted request context such as provider, base URL authority, model, key source, key type, and key fingerprint, making stale provider, endpoint, or API-key state diagnosable without exposing the secret (#2665, #2792). Thanks @mvanhorn for the implementation.
• Browser-opening actions now compile on non-desktop targets by delegating the unsupported-platform error to the shared URL opener instead of hiding the TUI wrapper behind a narrower macOS/Linux/Windows cfg. Thanks @ci4ic4 for the NetBSD/pkgsrc packaging report and fix (#2789).
• MCP tool routing now preserves server names that contain underscores. parse_prefixed_name matches the qualified mcp_<server>_<tool> name against the set of registered server names and prefers the longest match, so tools on a server like my_db are reachable and an overlapping my / my_db pair routes correctly. Falls back to the legacy first-underscore split when no registered server matches (#2744).
• Schema-hydrated deferred tools no longer render as a completed run. The first use of a deferred tool returns a schema-hydration result instead of executing; the transcript and sidebar now show "tool loaded — retry required" via a dedicated hydrated status, so it is no longer indistinguishable from a real successful execution. A hydrated row also ranks with active work rather than completed successes (#2648).
• codewhale sessions now shows codewhale resume <session-id> in the footer instead of the invalid dispatcher command codewhale --resume <session-id> (#2758, #2760).
• TUI HTTP clients now install the Rustls ring crypto provider before building reqwest clients, covering engine, runtime API, tool, MCP, config, and skill download paths. This keeps the no-provider TLS build from panicking during tests or embedded startup paths that do not enter through the main binary.
• Prompt byte-stability tests now pin their temporary home and skills environment under the shared test-env lock so global skill directories cannot perturb deterministic prompt bytes during parallel test runs.

Community

Thanks to @sximelon for reporting and fixing the saved-session resume footer hint (#2758, #2760), @cyq1017 for the custom DuckDuckGo-compatible search endpoint, custom completion sound file support, restore-listing implementation, and pending-input delivery-mode label work (#2510, #2512, #2513, #2532, #2054), @Artenx for the private-search endpoint report (#2436), @LHqweasd for the Windows custom notification sound request (#2484), @wywsoor for the broader macOS/iTerm rollback UX report (#2494), @HUQIANTAO for the web_run lock-splitting work (#2502), turn-metadata prefix-cache stability work (#2517), and project-context cache direction (#2636), @xyuai for canonical CodeWhale settings-path migration work (#2730), @gaord for the runtime thread workspace update and completed-thread save APIs (#2640, #2639), @shenjackyuanjie for the HarmonyOS/OpenHarmony port and MatePad Edge validation trail (#2634), @ousamabenyounes for the AZERTY AltGr composer shortcut fix (#2863, #2867), @reidliu41 for the hotbar action-registry foundation (#2866), and @ljm3790865 for the multi-tab core/persistence foundation and broader collaboration direction (#2864, #2753), @aboimpinto for the direct command-support boundary cleanup in #2871 and the broader #2851/#2791 command-layer design direction, @idling11 for the PlanArtifact direction in Plan mode (#2733), the dense tool-call transcript collapse/sidebar detail direction (#2738, #2734, #2692, #2694), and the HarnessPosture config model for provider/model posture (#2741, #2693), and @h3c-hexin for the tool-agent model inheritance and configured skills_dir fixes (#2736, #2737), @AresNing for the turn-end observer hook work (#2578), and @tdccccc for the approval key-detail and shell-preview work (#1991, #2269). Thanks also to @qiyuanlicn for the checkpoint/resume report that shaped the sub-agent recovery slice (#2029), @bevis-wong for the long-running shell/task liveness report (#1786), @shuxiangxuebiancheng for the third-party OpenAI-compatible path report (#1874), @hongqitai and @cyq1017 for the follow-up path-suffix PR review trail (#2508, #2506), @NASLXTO and @wuxixing for the large-workspace startup reports (#697, #1827), and @linzhiqin2003 and @merchloubna70-dot for earlier context-cap and startup-diagnosis work that shaped this bounded fallback. Thanks also to @cyq1017 for the MCP underscore-server-name fix and Xiaomi MiMo pricing (#2747, #2744, #2750, #2731) and @puneetdixit200 for independently diagnosing and fixing the same MCP underscore issue (#2746, #2744), @mvanhorn for the hydrated deferred-tool render fix (#2757, #2648), and @xyuai for the Xiaomi MiMo Token Plan region documentation (#2756, #2735). Additional thanks to @Implementist for Plan prompt scrolling, wrapping, and display-width fixes, @jrcjrcc for the Windows sub-agent completion render-width fix, and @punkcanyang for the original /init implementation harvested through #2771/#2745.

0.8.53 - 2026-06-03

Added

• Hugging Face Inference Providers. Added huggingface as a native provider route (/provider huggingface). Supports HUGGINGFACE_API_KEY or HF_TOKEN for auth, HUGGINGFACE_BASE_URL and HUGGINGFACE_MODEL for overrides, and deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4-Pro / deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4-Flash as default models. Org-prefixed model IDs pass through.

Fixed

• Agent-mode shell error copy. The missing-tool error for shell tools now directs users to allow_shell = true instead of nudging toward YOLO mode. /config surfaces allow_shell in the Permissions section.
• Provider description. /provider command description is now neutral instead of recommending specific providers.

Community

Thanks to @xyuai for provider persistence, /logout scope clarification, provider picker key replacement, and MiMo auth cleanup work (#2714, #2715, #2717, #2718), and @RefuseOdd for configurable path_suffix support on OpenAI-compatible endpoints (#2558).

0.8.52 - 2026-06-03

Added

• SiliconFlow China region provider. Added the siliconflow-CN provider variant for the China regional endpoint, sharing the existing [providers.siliconflow] credentials and SILICONFLOW_API_KEY slot instead of creating a second credential namespace; the provider picker and registry docs now expose the regional route explicitly (#2588, #2615).
• Multimodal /attach image forwarding. Attached images are now sent as OpenAI-compatible image_url content blocks so multimodal providers can actually see image attachments (#2584, #2587, #2607).
• Sub-agent lifecycle hooks and runtime metadata. Sub-agent spawn/complete hook events, mode-change runtime messages, mode metadata on turns, localized context-inspector strings, and drag-to-resize sidebar width are included in this release slice.

Fixed

• Sub-agents now auto-cancel after stale heartbeats. Running sub-agents track manager-visible progress and are auto-cancelled after the configurable [subagents] heartbeat_timeout_secs window (default 300s), releasing their concurrency slot and unblocking parent turns that would otherwise wait forever (#2603, #2614, #2620).
• Work panel state survives transient lock misses. The sidebar caches the last successful Work summary so checklist and strategy progress no longer disappear into "Work state updating..." while the engine briefly owns the shared todo/plan locks (#2606, #2616).
• SiliconFlow-CN no longer breaks main. Filled the missing CLI provider exhaustiveness arms and removed the duplicate/unreachable TUI config arms left by the #2615 landing; direct auth now stores the China-region variant in the shared SiliconFlow provider table (#2616, #2618, #2619).
• v0.8.51 image-attach closure corrected. The /attach multimodal fix landed after the v0.8.51 tag, so this release is the first version that actually contains it for users installing from the published release line (#2584, #2607).
• Legacy SSE MCP reconnects are retryable again. Closed or reset POST /messages requests on stale legacy SSE sessions now trigger the same reconnect-and-retry path as closed SSE streams, removing a release-gate flake and matching the intended recovery behavior (#2597).
• Cache-hit cost accounting uses one telemetry source. Mixed DeepSeek prompt_cache_hit_tokens and OpenAI-style cached_tokens usage payloads no longer infer cache misses from the wrong hit count, avoiding inflated TUI cost estimates on cached DeepSeek turns (#2567, #2609).
• Cygwin/MSYS2 config paths honor exported $HOME. CodeWhale and legacy DeepSeek config roots now prefer a non-empty $HOME before falling back to the platform home resolver, while CODEWHALE_HOME remains the strongest explicit override (#2369, #2610).

Community

Thanks to @xyuai (#2587), @IcedOranges (#2584), @BH8GCJ (#2588), @shenjackyuanjie (#2618, #2619), @idling11 (#2606, #2616), @AresNing (#2578), @caiyilian (#2567), @buko (#2369), @gordonlu, @encyc, and @simuusang (#2603, #2620) for reports, patches, retesting, and release-stabilization signals that shaped this pass.

0.8.51 - 2026-06-02

Added

• Arcee AI as a direct provider. New [providers.arcee] config block and ARCEE_API_KEY / ARCEE_BASE_URL / ARCEE_MODEL environment variables, wired through CLI auth (codewhale auth set --provider arcee), the TUI provider picker, and the model registry. The default direct-API model is trinity-large-thinking (reasoning-capable, 262K context and 262K max output); trinity-large-preview (262K context, non-reasoning) and trinity-mini (128K context) are also selectable. OpenRouter's arcee-ai/trinity-large-thinking route remains separate.
• Arcee Cloudflare-WAF compatibility. The opening turn to the Arcee gateway uses a benign read-only tool surface (read_file, list_dir, file_search, grep_files, git_status, git_diff, checklist_write, update_plan) and splits example payloads such as python -c … out of the system prompt, so the WAF does not reject the first request; the full tool catalog stays reachable through tool-search. trinity-large-thinking's reasoning_content is recognized and replayed on tool-call turns.
• Expanded model catalog. Added context-window, max-output, and reasoning-capability metadata for additional model IDs, including qwen/qwen3.6-flash, qwen/qwen3.6-plus, qwen/qwen3.6-max-preview, and Xiaomi MiMo v2.5 chat/ASR/TTS variants; trinity-large-preview's context window was corrected to 262K.
• Provider-aware model picker. The picker groups models by provider, shows per-model hints, and remembers a saved model per provider.

Changed

• Auto-compaction is now percentage- and model-aware. The per-model threshold helper is compaction_threshold_for_model_at_percent(model, percent) (replacing the effort-based variant), and the default auto_compact_threshold_percent is 80%. Auto-compaction defaults on for models with a context window of 256K or smaller and stays opt-in for 1M-token models (e.g. DeepSeek V4) to protect prefix-cache economics, unless the user has explicitly set auto_compact.
• Clearer provider/gateway errors. HTTP error bodies are sanitized before display — HTML interstitials and Cloudflare "Access Denied" pages collapse to a one-line reason (with the ray/error ID) instead of dumping raw markup into the transcript — and 403s are split into authentication vs. authorization (gateway/WAF block) categories.
• The invalid-model error now names the active provider and lists Arcee among the options.

Removed

• The session "cycle" / checkpoint-restart system. Removed the /cycles, /cycle <n>, and /recall commands, the recall_archive tool, the cycle-handoff briefing prompt, the sidebar "cycles" lines, and the cycle_manager engine plumbing (EngineConfig.cycle, Event::CycleAdvanced, seam-manager cycle thresholds and flash briefings). Long sessions no longer auto-reset their context at a fixed token boundary — reclaim budget with /compact or model-aware auto-compaction instead. Existing on-disk cycle archives are left untouched but are no longer read or written.

Fixed

• Assistant turns no longer leave an orphaned role glyph (the stray "blue dot") when a turn streams only whitespace between reasoning and a tool call.
• Scrolling the mouse wheel over the right-hand sidebar no longer leaks into the transcript scroll.
• The sidebar hover tooltip now appears only for truncated lines, sits below the cursor, and uses a neutral surface color instead of the warning-orange highlight that overlapped neighbouring rows.
• Corrected the README's description of the Constitution (Article VII is the hierarchy itself; Article II's truth duty overrides even a user request) to match prompts/base.md.
• Repaired release-blocking unit and integration tests left failing by the cycle-removal and compaction-threshold refactors (relay instruction, model-reject message, compaction budget, mock-LLM threshold helper).
• Fixed DEC private-mode CSI fragment leakage into composer text after terminal resets, restoring clean prompt editing (#2592).
• The engine now recovers from turn-level panics instead of killing the main event loop, keeping the session alive through transient failures (#2583, #1269).
• Deeply nested files are now discoverable via @-mention and Ctrl+P file picker; the default walk depth was relaxed to handle monorepo layouts (#2488).
• Command-palette selection stays visible when scrolling through long lists instead of scrolling off-screen (#2590).
• exec_shell child processes now inherit .NET/NuGet and Windows app-data environment variables, fixing toolchain resolution on Windows (#1857).
• A warning is emitted when shell/sandbox config keys are nested under unknown top-level sections instead of being silently ignored (#2589).
• Diff-render now preserves leading whitespace in patch content lines, fixing an extra-space regression in PR previews (#2591). Thanks @zlh124.
• Model selection from the /model command now persists per-provider across restarts, with a warning when persistence fails.

Community

Thanks to @zlh124 (#2591) and @reidliu41 (#2601) for the fixes harvested into this release. Thanks also to @idling11 (#2602), @gordonlu (#2585), @cyq1017 (#2593), @xyuai (#2587, #2584), and @IcedOranges (#2584) for reports, drafts, and investigations that shaped this release cycle.

0.8.50 - 2026-06-02

Added

• Added a Windows NSIS installer release artifact and classroom/lab deployment checklist, harvested from #2045 for #1987. The release workflow now builds CodeWhaleSetup.exe from the canonical Windows binaries, and the installer adds/removes only the exact current-user PATH entry.
• Added deterministic session timestamps in session listings, receipt-export boundary docs, and current-model turn metadata for routed/auto sessions.
• Added exact AtlasCloud provider-hinted model ID pass-through for explicit vendor/model-id selections, harvested from #2569 without freezing a brittle provider catalog.
• Added Xiaomi MiMo speech/TTS support with a codewhale speech CLI command, tts tool alias, and config wiring for voice-design and voice-clone models, harvested from #2560.
• Added a three-zone immutable prefix diagnostic layer (FrozenPrefix Phase 2) that logs cache-prefix drift at debug level without blocking requests, harvested from #2514.
• Added a Cache Guard CI integration test suite simulating prefix-cache behaviour across nine scenarios, gated behind CODEWHALE_CACHE_GUARD=1, harvested from #2503.
• Added a plan-mode byte-stability invariant test verifying that the tool catalog head remains byte-identical across mode toggles, harvested from #2519.
• Localized all 15 /queue command messages across 7 shipped locales, harvested from #2568.
• Added localized FanoutCounts MessageId for i18n of the aggregate worker stats line in fanout cards, harvested from #2566.
• Added contribution gate CI workflows (PR gate, issue gate, contributor approval) with a dry-run mode, harvested from #2565.

Changed

• Hardened theme repainting and sidebar color use so theme switches do not leave stale Whale-dark panel colors behind.
• Made legacy config migration visible when CodeWhale copies old DeepSeek-era config into the CodeWhale config path.

Fixed

• Fixed /context to use the effective routed model for context-window budgeting, so DeepSeek V4 routes report the 1M-token window and legacy DeepSeek routes keep the 128K fallback.
• Fixed npm wrapper version output so --version prefers the installed binary version instead of stale package metadata when both are available.
• Fixed multiline composer arrow navigation so holding Up/Down at the first or last line no longer replaces the current draft with prompt history.
• Fixed foreground exec_shell output collection so timeout and inherited-pipe cleanup cannot wedge later tool calls behind the global tool lock.
• Clarified the English DeepSeek account-balance footer chip from bal to balance so it is less likely to be mistaken for session spend.
• Fixed truncated subagent tool calls and repeated truncated subagent responses so they return model-visible errors instead of silently failing.
• Moved Paste to the first position in the right-click context menu so users copying text from the output area can paste with a single left-click instead of navigating past cell-specific actions.

Community

Thanks to @ZhulongNT (#2045), @cyq1017 (#2521, #2536, #2537, #2559, #2562, #2563, #2564), @HUQIANTAO (#2527, #2519, #2503), @lucaszhu-hue (#2569), @idling11 (#2573), @encyc (#2514), @xyuai (#2560), @gordonlu (#2568, #2566), and @nightt5879 (#2565) for the work harvested into this release pass. Thanks also to issue reporters and verification helpers including @New2Niu (#2561), @buko (#2533, #2369), @wywsoor (#2494), @ctxyao (#2556), @Dr3259 (#2380), @caiyilian (#2567), and @chinaqy110 (#2571) for reports and acceptance details that shaped these fixes, plus the WeChat/Chinese UX reports relayed during the final triage pass.

0.8.49 - 2026-06-01

Added

• Added the missing [providers.moonshot] example block for Moonshot/Kimi, documented completion_sound, and refreshed the tool-surface docs for the current registry, including finance, web.run, git history tools, memory, OCR, and other registered tools.

Changed

• Hardened prefix-cache fingerprints to hash API-visible tool schema details, not just tool names, so schema and description drift invalidates cached prefixes before it can confuse model calls (#2264).
• Kept finance registered independently from web-search tools and prevented duplicate web/patch tool registration in agent and YOLO modes.

Fixed

• Fixed the DeepSeek V4-Pro cost estimate after the 2026-05-31 pricing cutoff: the post-promotion official rate remains one quarter of the original price, so CodeWhale no longer shows roughly 4x too much after June 1 (#2489).
• Fixed Kimi/Moonshot tool schema normalization by moving parent type fields into anyOf/oneOf items, with regression coverage for nested schema shapes that could otherwise still fail Kimi validation (#2438).
• Fixed raw ANSI/SGR fragments leaking into footer, shell-label, and sidebar activity text during active tool execution (#2481).
• Fixed [tui] config parsing when status_items is omitted, restoring the documented default footer order for older and hand-written configs (#2483).
• Fixed a shell env-scrubbing test so it does not depend on the user's default shell understanding POSIX parameter expansion.
• Removed stale qwen/qwen3.7-max references left in config.example.toml after the v0.8.48 preset removal.

Community

Thanks to @idling11 (#2480, #2485), @reidliu41 (#2493), @hongqitai (#2495), and @encyc (#2477) for the fixes and reliability work harvested into this release.

Thanks also to reporters and verification helpers whose issues shaped the release: @A-Corner (#2438), @taiwan988 (#2483), @AiurArtanis (#2489), and @Hmbown (#2481).

0.8.48 - 2026-05-31

Added

• Recent large OpenRouter model presets. Added completions, aliases, routing metadata, and docs for Arcee Trinity Large Thinking, MiniMax M3, Xiaomi MiMo v2.5, Qwen 3.6 open-weight models, Kimi K2.6, GLM 5.1, Tencent Hy3, Gemma 4, and Nemotron (#2461).
• Provider and web-search expansion. Added Xiaomi MiMo provider support, SiliconFlow, AtlasCloud static models, Volcengine Ark search, Baidu AI Search, provider-picker coverage, and richer custom-provider docs (#2246, #1868, #2421, #2429, #2371, #2394, #2287).
• Workflow and tool ergonomics. Added the external-tool abstraction, pluggable TUI tool registry, custom slash-command allowed-tools enforcement, opt-in Unix socket hook sink, message-submit transform hooks, tool-cache introspection, and cache warmup-key tracking (#2294, #2420, #2326, #2430, #2434, #2423, #2424).
• TUI workflow features. Added /purge, /hunt, thinking fold/unfold, terminal-transparent/Solarized Light/Claude themes, footer branch display, macOS notifications, intent summaries before approval prompts, and the mobile runtime smoke/QR workflow (#2387, #2306, #2385, #2276, #2270, #2267, #2347, #2260, #2389, #2403).
• Platform and localization coverage. Added RISC-V prebuilt-binary support, Vietnamese localization, Java/Vue language-server defaults, runtime event envelopes, task migration/env isolation fixes, and state-message parent IDs for future forks (#2383, #2358, #2367, #2252, #2272, #2308).

Removed

• Qwen 3.7 Max OpenRouter preset. Removed from the model registry, docs, and examples. Qwen 3.7 Max is a hosted model, not open-source; the preset will return when an open-weight Qwen 3.7 release ships.

Changed

• Release hardening. CI now runs clippy/docs checks, web frontend lint and type checks, provider-registry drift checks, broader crate docs, and a large unit-test pass across core, MCP, TUI core, app-server, and web helpers (#2443, #2444, #2274, #2446-#2460, #2440, #2441, #2450, #2448, #2454).
• Prompt, context, and model routing behavior. Stabilized project-context pack ordering, exposed the auto route in turn metadata, allowed embedders to override or inline constitutional instructions, moved volatile environment context below the prompt boundary, and used the effective model for compaction budgeting (#2418, #2410, #2356, #2311, #2314, #2437).
• Execution policy foundation. Added typed ask-rule groundwork and kept task_shell_start gated behind allow_shell, preparing the permission UI path without broadening default shell access (#2404, #2384).

Fixed

• Windows and shell reliability. Suppressed alt-screen logging on Windows, added the Windows batch launcher path, kept task shell tools eagerly loaded, loaded exec-shell companion tools consistently, covered controlling-terminal behavior, and improved shell tool availability errors (#2259, #2295, #1861, #2271, #2331, #2414, #2412).
• Session and transcript durability. Fixed hidden-worktree discovery saturation, stalled in-progress turn recovery, session persistence truncation, cached-transcript user-message highlighting, large tool-output receipting, session-detail block serialization, and deterministic composer history flushing (#2273, #2329, #2283, #2395, #2386, #2297, #2265, #2375).
• Provider and UI polish. Accepted custom model IDs in /model for non-DeepSeek providers, fixed Feishu per-chat model switching, localized context-menu labels, updated terminal tab naming, kept picker selections visible, allowed slash-space composer messages, and improved PDF text cleanup (#2280, #2149, #2320, #2319, #2324, #2316, #2266).
• Security and dependency hygiene. Bumped tar and qs, trusted fake-IP placeholder ranges only when explicitly configured, decoded Bing result URL entities, fixed legacy MCP SSE connections, and replaced manual tool error display code with thiserror derives (#2364, #2425, #2355, #2245, #2301, #2442).

Community

Thanks to contributors whose PRs landed or were harvested in this release: @cy2311 (#1861), @LING71671 (#1902, #2287, #2292), @axobase001 (#1968, #2296, #2297, #2298), @dzyuan (#1993), @mvanhorn (#2107, #2236), @malsony (#2129), @gaord (#2133, #2265, #2285), @yuanchenglu (#2149), @idling11 (#2161, #2266, #2306), @h3c-hexin (#2245, #2311, #2313, #2314, #2354, #2355, #2356), @AdityaVG13 (#2246), @Sskift (#2248), @cyq1017 (#2252, #2332, #2375), @HUQIANTAO (#2257, #2267, #2283, #2384, #2385, #2389, #2403, #2440-#2458, #2460), @New2Niu (#2260), @AiurArtanis (#2270), @Lee-take (#2272), @nightt5879 (#2274, #2344, #2347, #2373), @AresNing (#2278, #2318/#2434), @AccMoment (#2281), @reidliu41 (#2291, #2316, #2324, #2357, #2366, #2386, #2431), @aboimpinto (#2290, #2294, #2295, #2326, #2433), @zhuangbiaowei (#2301), @donglovejava (#2302, #2329, #2330, #2331), @hongqitai (#2308, #2432), @zlh124 (#2319, #2320, #2325), @encyc (#2336, #2338), @Implementist (#2426/#2429, #2439), @lihuan215 (#2333/#2430), @LeoAlex0 (#2388, #2395), @jimmyzhuu (#2371), @rockyzhang (#2383), @mo-vic (#2387), @hufanexplore (#2367), @hoclaptrinh33 (#2358), and @BryonGo (#2437).

Thanks also to reporters and verification helpers whose issues, patches, screenshots, logs, or retest requests shaped this release: @buko (#2359, #2360, #2369, #2469), @yyyCode, @gaslebinh-glitch, @Dr3259, @lpeng1711694086-lang, @VerrPower, @yan-zay, @jretz, @Neo-millunnium, @caeserchen, @T-Phuong-Nguyen, @zhyuzhyu, @0gl20shk0sbt36, @hatakes, @goodvecn-dev, @bevis-wong, @PurplePulse, and @nbiish.

0.8.47 - 2026-05-26

Added

• Closed-loop verification gate, runtime goal tools, DuckDuckGo default web search, Xiaomi MiMo, global AGENTS.md fallback, /new, composer selection, transcript copy cleanup, CNB mirror support, and Docker toolbox docs shipped in the published v0.8.47 release.

Changed

• DeepSeek-first release framing, project-context logging, state-root migration, CodeWhale README paths, and reasoning-locale behavior were finalized for the v0.8.47 release.

Fixed

• Provider picker scrolling, auto model restore, cache-inspect hashing, insecure LAN provider guard, large tool-output compaction, queued-message ordering, shell/Yolo startup handling, Windows alt-screen logging, and tooltip contrast were fixed in the v0.8.47 release.

Community

Thanks to contributors credited in the v0.8.47 GitHub Release, including @Fire-dtx, @imkingjh999, @harvey2011888, @victorcheng2333, @IIzzaya, @PurplePulse, @cyq1017, @knqiufan, @Colorful-glassblock, @hongqitai, @EmiyaKiritsugu3, @aboimpinto, @HUQIANTAO, @mvanhorn, @LING71671, and @reidliu41.

0.8.46 - 2026-05-26

Added

• CODEWHALE_* env aliases. CODEWHALE_PROVIDER, CODEWHALE_MODEL, and CODEWHALE_BASE_URL are public product-scoped aliases that take precedence over the legacy DEEPSEEK_* forms. The DEEPSEEK_* names remain accepted for back-compat.
• Platform archive bundles. Release artifacts now ship as per-platform archives (tar.gz for Linux/macOS, .zip for Windows) containing both codewhale and codewhale-tui binaries plus an install script. No more downloading two loose files and guessing which ones to pick (#2193).
• Windows portable archive. codewhale-windows-x64-portable.zip ships the two binaries without an install script for USB-stick distribution (#2193).
• Web install download tile. The website install page now shows a platform-aware download tile with arch detection, SHA256 checksum display, and China mirror links, instead of burying the download behind the Cargo instructions (#2192).
• Whale dark palette refresh. Better contrast and layer separation across the TUI color scheme (#2197).
• Auto-collapse finished sub-agents. Completed sub-agent sessions now collapse automatically in the sidebar, reducing noise during long sessions (#2195).
• Shell-running status chip. A ⏳ shell running chip appears in the TUI footer while background shell tasks are active (#2194).
• Sandbox process hardening (Linux). PR_SET_DUMPABLE=0, NO_NEW_PRIVS, and RLIMIT_CORE=0 are applied at shell startup to harden child processes against inspection and privilege escalation (#2183).
• CONTRIBUTING.md cross-links. Issue and PR templates are now cross-linked from CONTRIBUTING.md to improve contributor onboarding (#2203).

Changed

• DeepSeek-first focus. v0.8.46 refocuses on delivering the highest-quality experience on DeepSeek first. Additional first-class provider paths are planned for v0.9.0 after the core DeepSeek workflow is solid.

Fixed

• Model name casing preserved. normalize_model_name_for_provider no longer lowercases user-set model names such as DeepSeek-V4-Flash, preventing API lookup failures on case-sensitive backends (#2109).
• Esc in model picker applies selection. Dismissing the model picker with Esc now applies the last-highlighted choice instead of reverting (#2196).
• Web install downloads both binaries. The install-binary.tsx snippet now fetches both codewhale and codewhale-tui, fixing the MISSING_COMPANION_BINARY trap on fresh npm installs (#2191).
• grep_files skips large directories. The pure-Rust search tool now skips known-large directories (.git, node_modules, target) before walking, preventing hangs on deep or slow filesystems.
• Version-update hint uses semver. The update notification in the footer now compares versions semantically instead of lexicographically, so 0.8.10 > 0.8.9 is recognized correctly.
• CVE-2026-8723 in feishu-bridge. Bumped qs to >=6.15.2 in the Feishu bridge integration (#2198).

Community

Thanks to new contributors whose PRs landed in this release: @donglovejava (#2154, #2163, #2166, #2167, #2168), @encyc (#2152), @saieswar237 (#2178), @sximelon (#2174), @nanookclaw (#2135), @Sskift (#2119), @xin1104 (#2105), @mrluanma (#2059), @Lellansin (#2055), @zhuangbiaowei (#2145), @aboimpinto (#1872), and continuing contributors @reidliu41, @cyq1017, @idling11, @h3c-hexin, @wdw8276, @zlh124, and @jeoor.

0.8.45 - 2026-05-25

Added

• RLM session objects. rlm_open can now load session:// refs, exposing the active prompt, history, and session data as symbolic objects inside RLM REPLs (#2047).
• Command palette voice input. The command palette can launch a configured speech-to-text helper and show footer status while transcription runs (#2047).
• Moonshot/Kimi provider. Moonshot/Kimi is now a first-class provider, including API-key auth, model completion, CLI auth, secret-store integration, and optional Kimi CLI credential reuse.
• Deterministic whale-species sub-agent names. Sub-agents now get stable, human-readable whale-species nicknames (e.g. "Beluga", "Orca") while preserving the raw agent ID in the popup (#2035, #2016).
• /balance command scaffold. Registered the /balance slash command as a placeholder for future provider billing queries (#2035, #2019).
• Readable /restore snapshot labels. Snapshot labels now include the originating user prompt so restore listings are easier to identify. Thanks @idling11 (#2111).
• Sidebar hover tooltips. Truncated Work and Tasks sidebar lines now expose their full text on hover. Thanks @idling11 (#2110).

Changed

• AGENTS.md is now maintainer-local. The project instructions file no longer ships as a tracked repo file; it lives in maintainer-local ignored state (#2047).

Fixed

• Sub-agent completion handoff compatibility. Completion handoffs now use a chat-template-safe role and emit before terminal updates, fixing strict OpenAI-compatible/self-hosted backends and preserving transcript ordering. Thanks @h3c-hexin and @cyq1017 (#2057, #2120).
• Self-hosted context budgeting. Sub-500K self-hosted model windows now keep a usable input budget instead of disabling preflight compaction after output reservation underflow. Thanks @h3c-hexin (#2060).
• Goal prompts start actionable. Goal-start prompts now open in an actionable state instead of requiring an extra nudge. Thanks @cyq1017 (#2097).
• Composer session title display. The composer chrome shows the current session title again and avoids grayscale luma overflow in debug builds. Thanks @wdw8276 (#2108).
• Approval prompts use a one-step confirmation flow. Enter now commits the selected approval option directly, destructive warnings remain visible, and abort cancels the active turn instead of only denying the current tool call. Thanks @reidliu41 (#2143).
• Model picker selection survives Esc. Dismissing the model picker with Esc no longer loses the highlighted selection. Thanks @reidliu41 (#2056).
• Moonshot/Kimi sessions launch from the dispatcher. The codewhale wrapper now includes Moonshot/Kimi in the TUI provider allowlist, so codewhale --provider moonshot --model kimi-k2.6 reaches the TUI instead of stopping after config resolution.
• Slash recovery no longer restores command tails in the composer. Resuming a session or recovering from a crash no longer leaves stale slash-command text (e.g. /sessions) in the composer input (#2047, #2032).
• Remembered tool approvals now update the live active turn. When the "remember" checkbox is set on an approval dialog, the active turn's auto-approve flag flips immediately instead of waiting for the next turn. Thanks @gaord (#2047, #2041).
• YAML block scalars in SKILL.md frontmatter. Multi-line descriptions using > or | indicators are now parsed correctly — folded block scalars join non-empty lines with spaces, literal scalars preserve newlines, and all three chomping modes (strip/clip/keep) are supported. Thanks @zlh124 (#1908, #1907).
• User messages highlighted in the transcript. User-authored messages now render with a full-row background in the live TUI transcript, making it easier to scan prior turns. Assistant and system messages are unaffected. Thanks @reidliu41 (#1995, #1672).
• Cancellable list_dir and file_search. Long directory walks and file searches now respond to user cancel/stop requests with a 30-second fallback timeout, preventing the TUI from hanging on deep or slow filesystems (#2035).

Community

• README contributor acknowledgements resynced. The Thanks list now includes the latest contributor rows for @donglovejava, @encyc, @saieswar237, @sximelon, @nanookclaw, @Sskift, @xin1104, @mrluanma, @Lellansin, and @zhuangbiaowei, while preserving the existing @jeoor acknowledgement in the consolidated list.

0.8.44 - 2026-05-24

Added

• codew convenience alias. codew is a short-form command that silently forwards to codewhale. Six fewer keystrokes, same binary. Ships with the Rust codewhale-cli crate and the npm codewhale package (#2013).
• Session picker inline rename. Press r in the session picker (Ctrl+R) to rename the selected session inline. Type the new title, Enter to confirm, Esc to cancel (#1600).
• Plan detail display. The "Plan Confirmation" modal now shows the plan explanation and step list from update_plan so you can review what was proposed before accepting (#834).
• Agent team UX. Delegate cards in the transcript now show human-readable roles (scout, builder, reviewer, verifier, executor) and the completion summary instead of raw agent_xxx IDs (#1981).
• --continue / -c CLI flag. codewhale --continue resumes your most recent interactive session for the current workspace.

Changed

• App state migrates to ~/.codewhale/. New installs write product-owned state (config, sessions, tasks, skills, logs, etc.) under ~/.codewhale/. ~/.deepseek/ continues to work as a compatibility fallback — no data loss, no forced migration. CODEWHALE_HOME and CODEWHALE_CONFIG_PATH env vars are now supported alongside existing DEEPSEEK_* vars (#2011).
• Project config overlay prefers .codewhale/config.toml before .deepseek/config.toml. Both are read; the CodeWhale root takes precedence.
• Doctor reports active state root and whether legacy ~/.deepseek/ state is also present.
• README contributor acknowledgements are current for this release. Thanks @jeoor, @LING71671, and @ousamabenyounes for the fixes and reports now reflected in the public credits.
• Harvested-contribution credit audit completed. The README Thanks list now includes previously missed community helpers whose code, reports, or review notes were already credited in older changelog entries but not in the public contributor surface: @mvanhorn, @krisclarkdev, @tdccccc, @LittleBlacky, @AnaheimEX, @THatch26, @alvin1, @knqiufan, @IIzzaya, @duanchao-lab, @imkingjh999, @eng2007, @chennest, @kunpeng-ai-lab, @asdfg314284230, @maker316, @lalala-233, @muyuliyan, @czf0718, @MeAiRobot, @tiger-dog, @MMMarcinho, @lucaszhu-hue, @sandofree, @zhuangbiaowei, @NorethSea, @Jianfengwu2024, @Fire-dtx, @oooyuy92, @qinxianyuzou, @tyouter, @xulongzhe, @YaYII, @47Cid, and @JafarAkhondali.
• Harvest guidance now requires GitHub-visible attribution. Maintainer harvests should preserve the original commit author where possible or add Co-authored-by trailers from the original PR commits, in addition to the existing Harvested from PR #N by @handle trailer and changelog credit.
• Enter now steers when busy-waiting. When the model is busy but not actively streaming (waiting on tool results, sub-agents, or shell commands), pressing Enter tries to steer your message into the current turn instead of silently queueing it. During active streaming, Enter still queues to avoid interrupting in-flight reasoning (#2009).

Fixed

• /save no longer creates repo-local session_*.json. Default saves now go to the managed sessions directory instead of the current workspace. Explicit /save path/to/file.json exports still work as before (#2010).
• Boot-time session prune caps managed sessions at 50 on every startup, preventing unbounded growth of ~/.codewhale/sessions/.
• Checkpoint path resolution no longer hardcodes ~/.deepseek/ — uses the resolved session directory instead.
• Plain startup no longer auto-opens the session picker. codewhale and codew start in a fresh composer again even when saved sessions exist. Use /sessions, Ctrl+R, --resume, or --continue when you want to resume.
• Work sidebar now refreshes immediately after checklist_write, checklist_update, and update_plan tool calls, matching the existing todo_write behavior instead of relying on the 2.5s periodic poll (#1787).

0.8.43 - 2026-05-24

Fixed

• grep_files now respects the cancellation token. Long-running file searches cancel promptly instead of running to completion after the user aborts (#1839). Thanks @LING71671.
• npm installer stream-pause race condition fixed. The install script now pauses HTTP response streams immediately, preventing early data loss that caused "Invalid checksum manifest line" errors (#1860). Thanks @jeoor.
• Ctrl+Z restores the last cleared composer draft. Pressing Ctrl+Z in an empty composer recovers the text that was last cleared with Ctrl+U or Ctrl+S, matching the muscle memory users expect from other editors (#1911). Thanks @LING71671.
• Clipboard works on non-wlroots Wayland compositors. The Linux clipboard path now tries wl-copy before arboard, fixing silent copy failures on niri, River, cosmic-comp, and GNOME mutter (#1938). Thanks @ousamabenyounes.

Added

• /goal remains the persistent objective surface. Use /goal <objective> to set a goal and /goal done to mark it complete. Goal status appears in the Work sidebar with elapsed time, but it does not change Plan / Agent / YOLO mode or approval behavior. A tabbed Ralph-style Goal loop is deferred to v0.8.44 (#2007).
• Post-turn receipts cite evidence for every completed turn. When a turn finishes, a receipt line shows in the transcript tail with a summary of tool calls, file changes, and evidence that supports the agent's claims. Tool evidence is collected per-turn and flushed on new dispatch.
• Stall reason classification. When a turn has been running for more than 30 seconds, the footer now appends a classified reason: "waiting for model", "tools executing", "sub-agents working", "compacting context", or "waiting — no recent activity".
• Decision card widget for structured user input. When Brother Whale needs a choice, it surfaces a bordered card with numbered options, keyboard navigation (1-9 / j/k / arrows), and Enter/Esc to confirm or cancel.
• Tasks sidebar now shows fuller turn IDs and supports copy-to-clipboard. Turn ID prefixes are widened from 12 to 16 characters for disambiguation, background job status is presented as "X running, Y completed" instead of ambiguous "X active (Y running)", and y / Y yank affordances copy the current turn ID or full status line to the system clipboard (#1975).

Changed

• Contributor count and acknowledgement surfaces refreshed. The website fallback contributor count now reflects 98 live GitHub contributors (up from the stale 91). All three README translations (English, 中文, 日本語) now include 30+ previously unlisted contributors whose PRs were merged since April 2026.
• README and web surface rebrand refinements. Crate descriptions, npm package text, and website copy now consistently position CodeWhale as open-model-first and provider-spanning, with DeepSeek V4 as the first-class path.
• New contributor names added to README acknowledgements. Thanks to @Apeiron0w0, @aqilaziz, @ChaceLyee2101, @ComeFromTheMars, @CrepuscularIRIS, @dst1213, @eltociear, @fuleinist, @greyfreedom, @h3c-hexin, @heloanc, @hxy91819, @J3y0r, @JiarenWang, @jinpengxuan, @KhalidAlnujaidi, @laoye2020, @lbcheng888, @linzhiqin2003, @Liu-Vince, @lixiasky-back, @pengyou200902, @punkcanyang, @Rene-Kuhm, @SamhandsomeLee, @sockerch, @sternelee, @Wenjunyun123, @whtis, and @wuwuzhijing for the translations, typo fixes, docs polish, and small UX improvements that landed across the 0.8.42 → 0.8.43 cycle.

Security

• Thinking blocks can be collapsed/expanded via keyboard. Space on an empty composer toggles the focused thinking cell between collapsed and expanded, complementing the existing mouse right-click context menu (#1972).
• Sub-agent completion events no longer delayed to the next turn. The turn loop now drains late-arriving sub-agent completions at the final checkpoint before breaking, so child-agent sentinels surface immediately instead of appearing in the following turn (#1961).
• codewhale doctor now referenced correctly in SSE timeout errors. The error message shown when SSE streams fail to connect now points users to codewhale doctor (not the legacy deepseek doctor).

0.8.42 - 2026-05-24

Changed

• CodeWhale now ships with the Brother Whale agent identity prompt. The built-in system prompt frames the agent as trusted, calm, careful, and responsible, and adds the coordination principle that great intelligence creates spaces where future intelligences can work together.
• CodeWhale positioning is clarified as DeepSeek-first and open-model oriented. README, rebrand notes, crate metadata, and npm package text now describe CodeWhale as an agentic terminal for open source and open-weight coding models while preserving the official DeepSeek provider as first-class.
• Model auto-routing is documented separately from TUI modes. README and modes docs now reserve "mode" for Plan / Agent / YOLO, describe --model auto as model/thinking routing, and name the fast deepseek-v4-flash thinking-off seam as Fin.
• Rebrand shim docs now match the v0.8.x transition window. The npm and migration notes no longer imply the legacy deepseek-tui package/shims expired immediately after v0.8.41.

Fixed

• User-authored messages render as literal plain text. Leading whitespace, whitespace-only lines, repeated spaces, and Markdown-looking # / - text now survive in transcript history, while assistant messages still render Markdown normally.
• English turns stay English after localized context. The Brother Whale identity and base language rules no longer inject native-script examples into the English prompt path, and the prompt now calls out localized READMEs, issue text, file contents, and tool results as data rather than language signals.
• Stream decode failures no longer leave the turn visually stuck. The UI now marks an active turn failed and flushes live cells as soon as the engine emits a stream error, so the sidebar/footer recover without requiring Ctrl+C (#1960).
• RLM contexts now expose _ctx. Persistent RLM REPLs bind _ctx as a compatibility alias for the loaded source alongside _context and content, and the prompt/docs call out the exact names (#1962).
• handle_read is easier to recover from. The tool keeps accepting full var_handle objects directly, adds introspect: true for size/projection hints, and validation failures now include copy-pasteable examples (#1963).
• The help picker keeps the selected row visible while scrolling. /help now budgets against the real modal body height, wraps Up/Down navigation, and uses a stronger selected-row highlight (#1964).
• Unicode git_status paths stay readable. Chinese and other non-ASCII repository paths now survive status parsing and display cleanly (#1936, #1953).
• Project-local and configured skills appear in the slash menu. Workspace skills and configured skill directories now feed the command picker instead of only the bundled set (#1955, #1956).
• Repeated Tab mode switching no longer stacks composer-obscuring toasts. The mode-switch notification now deduplicates instead of accumulating rows over the composer (#1926, #1957).
• Local tool UX surfaces are clearer. github_close_pr now has the same guarded closure workflow as issue close, handle_read redirects artifact refs to retrieve_tool_result, Plan handoffs use plainer wording, and shell rows/sidebar tasks show the actual running command instead of placeholder labels.

Thanks

Thanks to cyq (@cyq1017) for the Unicode git_status, local/configured skill discovery, and mode-switch toast fixes in #1953, #1956, and #1957. Thanks to Reid (@reidliu41) for the help picker scrolling and selection fix in #1964.

0.8.41 - 2026-05-23

Changed

• Project renamed to codewhale. The canonical CLI dispatcher is now codewhale (was deepseek) and the TUI runtime is codewhale-tui (was deepseek-tui). The 14 workspace crates are renamed from deepseek-* / deepseek-tui-* to codewhale-* / codewhale-tui-*. The npm wrapper package is now codewhale (was deepseek-tui). See docs/REBRAND.md for migration notes.
• DeepSeek provider integration is unchanged. DEEPSEEK_* env vars, model IDs (deepseek-v4-pro, deepseek-v4-flash, the legacy deepseek-chat / deepseek-reasoner aliases), the https://api.deepseek.com host, and the ~/.deepseek/ config directory are all preserved.

Deprecated

• The deepseek and deepseek-tui binary names continue to ship as tiny shims that print a one-line warning and forward argv to the renamed binaries. They will be removed in v0.9.0.
• The deepseek-tui npm package continues to publish for one release cycle as a no-bin deprecation shim whose postinstall directs users to npm install -g codewhale. It will be removed in v0.9.0.

Fixed

• Windows CI spillover tests are isolated. Tool-result deduplication tests now use a temporary spillover root guarded by the existing global spillover mutex, removing the shared-state race that made Windows CI fail unrelated PRs (#1943).
• Terminated sub-agents keep agent_eval recoverable. Evaluating a completed child session now returns the available transcript result instead of losing the final output (#1738, #1928).
• Bare @/ completions no longer freeze the TUI. File-mention completion skips bare separator and dot tokens so Windows/WSL2 workspaces do not trigger an eager 4096-entry filesystem walk on the UI thread (#1921, #1929).
• Enter paths avoid synchronous UI-thread waits. Composer history writes, offline queue persistence, feedback URL launching, and clipboard fallback helpers now run off the hot Enter path where appropriate (#1927, #1931, #1940, #1941, #1944).
• tmux and screen sessions stop idling as terminal activity. Terminal multiplexers now force low-motion behavior and pin the fallback footer label so passive animations do not trip activity monitors (#1925, #1942).
• Composer sanitization catches OSC 8 and Kitty fragments. The input sanitizer now strips common hyperlink and keyboard-protocol fragments that leaked into drafts while preserving ordinary prose (#1915, #1933).
• The Work sidebar hides stale completed tasks. Terminal task records older than the current session and outside the recent-completion window no longer crowd active Work sidebar rows (#1913, #1930).
• V4 Pro pricing docs reflect permanent rates. The English, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese READMEs now describe the V4 Pro pricing change as permanent instead of temporary (#1923, #1932).

Thanks

Thanks to OpenWarp (@zerx-lab) for prioritizing codewhale support and collaborating on terminal-agent UX. Thanks to @leo119 for the update-command documentation lineage now preserved through the rename.

0.8.40 - 2026-05-21

Added

• Configurable sub-agent per-step API timeout. A new [subagents] api_timeout_secs setting in ~/.deepseek/config.toml controls how long each sub-agent step will wait on a DeepSeek create_message response before falling back. The value is clamped to 1..=1800; 0 or unset preserves the legacy 120-second default, so existing installs see no behavior change. Long-thinking children (e.g. heavy plan or review work behind agent_open) can extend the timeout without recompiling (#1806, #1808).
• Delegated file-write permissions for write-capable sub-agent roles. implementer and custom sub-agents may now run Suggest-level write tools (write_file, edit_file, apply_patch) without the parent runtime being auto-approved. Read-only stances (explore, plan, review, verifier) and the default general role still bounce approval-gated tools so they can't quietly mutate the workspace, and Required-level tools (shell, etc.) still need parent auto-approve regardless of role. Pick implementer (or pass an explicit custom allowlist) when the delegated task needs to land file changes (#1828, #1833).
• Experimental Fin fast-lane tool agents. tool_agent opens a durable child session on DeepSeek V4 Flash with thinking forced off for simple tool-bound work such as OCR, file/search lookups, fetches, and command probes. It uses the existing agent_eval / agent_close lifecycle and mailbox token-usage stream, so sub-agent cost accounting stays on the same path as normal agent_open sessions.

Fixed

• WSL2 and headless Linux startup no longer blocks on clipboard init. The TUI now defers clipboard initialization so machines without an X server can reach the first frame instead of hanging on a blank screen (#1773, #1772).
• Windows alt-screen output stays clean when RUST_LOG is set. Runtime tracing is routed away from the interactive buffer so logs no longer leak into the TUI display (#1774, #1776).
• OpenAI-compatible custom model names are preserved. Non-DeepSeek providers now pass explicit model names through instead of rewriting them to a DeepSeek default (#1714, #1740).
• Wanjie Ark is a first-class provider. --provider wanjie-ark, the TUI provider picker, deepseek auth, doctor, and config files now target Wanjie's OpenAI-compatible MaaS endpoint with pass-through model IDs and Wanjie-specific env vars.
• DeepSeek reasoning replay works through OpenAI-compatible endpoints. DeepSeek models selected under the generic openai provider now replay prior reasoning_content consistently and classify streamed reasoning the same way the replay path does (#1694, #1739, #1743).
• Thinking-only turns no longer disappear. If a clean turn ends with thinking but no final answer text, the UI now surfaces a clear status instead of silently ending the turn (#1727, #1742).
• Windows cmd /C preserves quoted shell arguments. Commands such as git commit -m "feat: complete sub-pages" now round-trip through the Windows shell wrapper without losing the quoted message (#1691, #1744).
• Home/End are line-local inside multiline composer drafts. The keys now jump to the current input line boundary before falling back to transcript navigation (#1748, #1749).
• Ctrl+C restores the canceled prompt reliably. Canceling a streaming turn puts the submitted prompt back in the composer and suppresses late stream events from drawing stale output (#1757, #1764).
• Compaction recovers from cache-aligned summary context overflow. When a cache-preserving summary request itself exceeds the provider context window, compaction retries with the bounded formatted summary path instead of failing with a 400 "compression command failed" style error.
• Terminal sub-agent sessions expose full transcript handles. Completed and canceled child agents now store the full child message transcript behind transcript_handle, so the parent can inspect details with handle_read instead of relying only on a lossy summary (#1738).
• Forked saved sessions now keep visible lineage. deepseek fork records the parent session id and fork-time message count in additive metadata, and session listings mark forked paths with their source id. This gives users a bounded branchable-conversation workflow while the larger visual tree browser stays scoped for a future release.
• Repeated shell wait rows collapse in the Tasks sidebar. Multiple live task_shell_wait polls for the same background job now render as one row with an explicit collapsed-wait count, reducing the stuck-task appearance tracked for v0.8.40 (#1737).
• Leaked mouse scroll reports no longer erase composer draft suffixes. If a terminal delivers raw SGR mouse bytes into the input stream, the sanitizer now strips only the mouse report and adjacent coordinate fragments instead of deleting legitimate draft text such as commit -m or numeric prompts (#1778).
• TUI runtime logs are separated per process and pruned on startup. Each session now writes ~/.deepseek/logs/tui-YYYY-MM-DD-PID.log, and startup removes stale TUI logs older than seven days by default. Set DEEPSEEK_LOG_RETENTION_DAYS to a positive day count to adjust retention (#1782, #1784).
• The offline eval harness preserves quoted Windows shell payloads. Its exec_shell step now uses the same single-payload shape as the runtime shell path, with raw cmd /C arguments on Windows so quoted commands remain intact (#1779).
• The Feishu/Lark bridge recovers better after restarts. It now reattaches to persisted active turns after the long-connection client starts, and text chunking no longer splits emoji or other multi-code-unit characters.
• RLM survives non-UTF-8 stdout. rlm_eval now decodes REPL stdout lossily instead of treating a single invalid byte as a fatal crash, so binary-adjacent diagnostics can still return a bounded result (#1815, #1819).
• Small UI/review reliability fixes landed with the stability branch. /clear now resets all displayed cost state, grayscale theme previews avoid luma overflow, /theme picker arrow navigation wraps at the list edges, and encoded JSON review output is parsed before display.
• New-file writes execute on the first Agent-mode call. write_file now stays preloaded in Agent mode, so creating a file no longer stops at the deferred-tool schema hydration message before the normal approval/execution path (#1825, #1841).
• Saved sessions keep the selected model mode. Changing from auto to a concrete model now updates existing session metadata, and resumed sessions recompute the auto flag from the saved model instead of falling back to the startup default.
• The /model picker persists thinking effort across restarts. Selecting Pro/Flash plus high/max/auto now writes both default_model and reasoning_effort to settings.toml, and startup restores the saved effort before falling back to config.toml.
• The footer water strip is visible by default again. fancy_animations now defaults to true, while NO_ANIMATIONS, SSH/Termius, VS Code, Ghostty, and legacy terminal overrides still disable the animated strip where it is known to flicker.
• Screenshots are readable without extra setup on macOS. image_ocr now uses the native Vision framework on macOS when Tesseract is absent, and read_file routes screenshot/image reads through the same OCR path. Pasted clipboard screenshots saved under ~/.deepseek/clipboard-images are trusted automatically for read-only tools.
• Auto-routing context no longer leaks hidden thinking. The model/router context summary now excludes ContentBlock::Thinking, so prior internal reasoning is not reintroduced as if it were visible user or assistant text.

Changed

• Slash-command autocomplete ranks exact alias matches first. Typing /q now surfaces /exit (whose alias q is an exact match) above /clear (which only matches by the longer pinyin alias qingping). Within each rank tier the menu still falls back to alphabetical name order for deterministic display (#1811).
• CNB mirror preflight covers stability-release branches. The CNB sync path now recognizes the v0.8.40 stability branch shape before release tags exist, making the Tencent Lighthouse/Lark deployment path easier to verify before publishing.

Thanks

Thanks to jayzhu (@zlh124) for the WSL2 startup report and clipboard-init fix in #1772/#1773. Thanks to Paulo Aboim Pinto (@aboimpinto) for the Windows alt-screen logging report and fix in #1774/#1776, and for the Home/End composer work in #1748/#1749, plus the per-process log filename follow-up in #1782/#1783. Thanks to Zhongyue Lin (@LeoLin990405) for the provider model passthrough, reasoning replay, thinking-only turn, and Windows quoting fixes in #1740, #1743, #1742, and #1744. Thanks to Nightt (@nightt5879) for the Ctrl+C prompt restore fix in #1764. Thanks to Ling (@LING71671; commits as www17 <ivonrust@gmail.com>) for the configurable sub-agent API timeout in #1808 and the Agent-mode write_file preload fix in #1841, harvested with 1..=1800 clamping and a fail-fast guard so a stray api_timeout_secs = 0 keeps the legacy 120-second default. Thanks to @knqiufan for the sub-agent file-write delegation work in #1833, harvested with structured approval- gate semantics (Implementer and Custom only, never Required-level tools) so write-capable children can actually land code without bypassing the Required approval class. Thanks to @IIzzaya for the exact-alias-first slash-completion ordering idea in #1811, landed with a focused regression test. Thanks to Bevis and the community reports that surfaced the compaction failure mode addressed in this release. Thanks to Reid (@reidliu41) for the grayscale theme overflow report and /theme picker edge-wrapping patch in #1814.

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Older releases (v0.8.39 and earlier) are archived in docs/CHANGELOG_ARCHIVE.md.