v0.2.10

v0.2.10 is a focused polish release: it tightens how Kato reports
daemon/web liveness, makes expired web auth fail closed instead of leaving
stale live data on screen, smooths out repeated Sessions-page create actions,
and makes the split root test flow easier to read and debug.

Primary changes:

• changed daemon/web liveness reporting so stale daemon heartbeat now renders
  as unresponsive instead of still looking running, and kato web status
  now reports a definitively dead web process as stopped while keeping the
  last heartbeat only as diagnostic detail
• updated the compact web header to match that liveness wording and removed the
  separate HEARTBEAT row now that heartbeat freshness is folded into daemon
  state
• changed web auth-expiry handling so live/API polling treats 401 as an
  expired session, redirects the current tab to /login, and propagates that
  expiry across sibling tabs via BroadcastChannel with localStorage
  fallback
• kept page-route auth behavior distinct from API behavior: page requests still
  redirect to /login, while API/live routes now fail with 401 instead of
  quietly continuing with stale rendered data
• made the Sessions-page New capture and New recording popovers remember
  the last submitted workspace in browser storage and reuse it as the default
  next time, unless the current page filter already pins a workspace
• kept the remembered Sessions workspace behavior conservative by ignoring
  blank/stale stored ids and only updating the remembered default on actual
  create submission, not on canceled popover browsing
• improved the split root test workflow so deno task test and
  deno task test:coverage now run through scripts/run-root-test-slices.ts
  with structured per-slice summaries plus a combined summary, while keeping
  explicit test:parallel-safe and test:env entrypoints available

Upgrade notes:

• if you were scraping human-readable CLI status text, update for the wording
  change: stale daemon heartbeat is now unresponsive, and kato web status
  now says stopped with optional last heartbeat diagnostics instead of
  stale status; for automation, prefer JSON output over text parsing
• expired web auth is now intentionally fail-closed across tabs; once one tab
  detects expiry, sibling tabs should converge on /login instead of keeping
  stale live views open
• Sessions create popovers now default to the last successfully used workspace
  for that browser unless a page-level workspace filter is active

v0.2.9

v0.2.9 expands the browser-side operator workflow in two directions: richer
workspace labeling and a more durable, easier-to-scan Recordings page.

Primary changes:

• added optional workspace display labels that render as
  <alias> (<displayName>) across the web UI when a meaningful label is set
• added display-label entry during workspace registration from both the CLI and
  the Workspaces page
• added Workspaces-page editing for display labels plus per-workspace preferred
  usernames, while keeping username persistence in kato-user-config.yaml
• reformatted kato workspace list to show clearer per-workspace blocks and
  include display-label information
• changed the Recordings page to show the latest state per output file instead
  of expanding every recording cycle
• persisted the last successful write time for each recording cycle so
  Recordings recency survives daemon restarts and stale/live gaps instead of
  depending entirely on live daemon state
• added inline [stop] controls for engaged recording rows and [re-arm]
  controls for stopped rows on the Recordings page
• polished Recordings rows so file, timestamps, workspace, and session metadata
  render on separate lines with the filename de-emphasized
• made Recordings session titles clickable alongside the short id and renamed
  idle engaged rows to armed for recording with [disarm] actions
• sorted Recordings rows by most recent write, stop, or start activity instead
  of grouping them by state first
• made fresh web-created captures show as recording immediately after the
  initial snapshot write, even before daemon live-session state catches up
• fixed a daemon/web metadata race that could make a freshly created capture
  disappear from Sessions/Recordings until the next metadata reconciliation
• made Recordings-page Re-arm reuse the exact saved file, fail fast if the
  file is missing, and preserve write-policy denial as a distinct error
• enforced single-writer-per-file behavior when starting or restarting a
  recording, so an already-engaged writer on the same path is stopped first

Upgrade notes:

• the Recordings page is now a per-file status/control surface rather than a
  cycle-history view; older cycles remain persisted but are not each rendered
  as their own row
• Recordings recency no longer depends on matching live daemon status; last
  successful write times now keep per-file ordering stable across restarts
• Re-arm is intentionally conservative: it reopens the exact saved file and
  refuses to continue if that file no longer exists or no longer passes policy
• capture behavior remains fresh-file-only and does not reuse existing output
  files

v0.2.8

v0.2.8 adds the first browser-based workflow for starting and stopping
workspace-scoped recordings from the Sessions page.

Primary changes:

• added New capture and New recording actions on the Sessions page with a
  workspace chooser popover
• made New recording create the output file immediately, including
  frontmatter when enabled, while conversation content begins on the next event
• added engaged-recording summaries on Sessions rows with deep links to the
  matching workspace and Recordings entry
• added inline [stop] controls for engaged recordings plus a session-level
  [stop all] control
• improved Sessions-page UX with clearer operator labels, button tooltips, and
  pending stop feedback

Upgrade notes:

• Sessions now exposes stop controls directly; stopping from the Sessions page
  only affects engaged recordings
• stopped recordings remain available through the Recordings page history view

v0.2.7

v0.2.7 is a small but useful ergonomics release: faster local web lifecycle
control, safer workspace bootstrap for shared repos, and a first pass at
website/brand groundwork.

Primary changes:

• added kato web restart so the local web console can be bounced with one
  command
• changed kato workspace register to restart the daemon automatically when
  registration expands allowedWriteRoots, with --no-restart available to
  opt out
• fixed the macOS-reported workspace register alias=<alias> compatibility
  bug by recognizing bare alias=... tokens instead of treating them as
  positional arguments
• changed kato workspace init to generate and write workspaceId
  immediately, reducing first-register churn in shared repos
• made Summary metrics clickable so Sessions, Recordings, and Workspaces are
  one click away
• added initial website/brand groundwork, including static logo/wordmark
  assets, asset helpers/redirects, and new planning/task-template docs for
  site work

Upgrade notes:

• if you previously relied on registering a workspace without restarting the
  daemon, use kato workspace register --no-restart to preserve that behavior
• new workspaces initialized with kato workspace init now get a committed
  workspaceId immediately; existing configs without one still backfill on
  first register
• kato web restart is now the quickest way to reload the local web operator
  console after config or code changes

Acknowledgements:

• this cut combined CLI/runtime tightening with website planning and continued
  iteration using Codex and CodeRabbit

v0.2.6

v0.2.6 turns the new binary distribution pipeline into a usable public release
path.

Primary changes:

• switched the npm wrapper package to @spectacular-voyage/kato
• added native-runner npm install smoke on Linux, Windows, macOS x64, and
  macOS arm64
• fixed packaged Windows kato start so the daemon launcher no longer passes
  an empty PowerShell ArgumentList
• added GitHub Release asset upload/update support to the manual release
  workflow so per-platform archives and checksums ship alongside npm packages

Upgrade notes:

• install or update with npm install -g @spectacular-voyage/kato
• npx @spectacular-voyage/kato@latest ... is now the zero-install path for
  one-off use
• Windows users should prefer v0.2.6 or later for packaged kato start

Acknowledgements:

• release hardening in this cut came from real Windows/npm smoke testing plus
  continued Codex and CodeRabbit iteration on the packaging flow

v0.2.3

Privacy-and-maintenance release that separates live session ingestion from
persisted twin history, moves twin management out of primary navigation, and
hardens the new web/runtime flows around snippet reveal and cleanup.

Highlights

• Sessions is now the live provider-session inventory, while persisted twin
  troubleshooting and cleanup now live under Maintenance.
• The top-level Twins page is gone; twin status, create/update actions, and
  per-row delete now live on the Maintenance page instead.
• Persisted metadata no longer stores snippets. Older sessions now use
  on-demand show snippet recovery, with revealed snippets cached locally for
  that operator afterward.
• Recordings now participates in the same snippet-reveal flow, so recording
  rows can recover snippets without reintroducing durable snippet storage.
• kato clean --twins now names the cleanup surface directly and supports an
  explicit --delete-metadata privacy option when twin metadata files should
  be removed too.

Notable Behavior Updates

• Live provider ingestion and command detection now remain independent from
  whether Kato is persisting twin history for that provider/session.
• Manual twin actions now mean exactly what they say:
  • create twin replays from provider source start and writes a full twin
  • update twin advances an existing twin, or falls back to create if the
    twin is missing
• Full-history capture and export can now replay provider source on demand
  when no twin exists, instead of depending on persisted twin history.
• Maintenance twin rows now derive state from actual persisted twin condition
  (current, behind source, no twin) instead of from reused Sessions-page
  heuristics.
• Snippet reveal failures now degrade cleanly to snippet unavailable instead
  of surfacing replay/read errors through the web UI.
• Summary wording now reflects twin generation semantics more explicitly, using
  labels such as generating, not generating, and
  No provider sessions are currently generating twins.

Upgrade Notes

• Config keys were renamed:
  • globalAutoGenerateSnapshots -> globalAutoGenerateTwins
  • providerAutoGenerateSnapshots -> providerAutoGenerateTwins
• Old snapshot-generation keys are not supported for compatibility. Daemon
  startup will fail fast until the config is renamed.
• Web navigation changed:
  • use Sessions for routine live session inventory
  • use Maintenance for twin cleanup and troubleshooting
• Cleanup naming changed:
  • CLI --sessions cleanup language is replaced by --twins
  • default twin cleanup preserves metadata and rewrites it to canonical
    no-twin state
  • use --delete-metadata when privacy cleanup should also remove matching
    metadata files
• Snippets are no longer persisted in session metadata. Expect older rows to
  show show snippet until an operator explicitly reveals the label.

Release Packaging

• Source-only release (v0.2.3).
• Kato Web remains a local Deno/Fresh app managed through kato web ....
• Prebuilt binaries remain deferred to the distribution hardening track.

v0.2.2 Kato Web

Web-and-observability release that adds a local authenticated dashboard,
expands operator workflows, and hardens CI/testing around the larger surface
area.

Highlights

• New Kato Web local dashboard with authenticated Summary, Ingestion,
  Sessions, Recordings, Workspaces, Logs, Settings, and Maintenance pages.
• New kato web lifecycle commands: init, start, stop, and status,
  with explicit config bootstrap and startup acknowledgement handling.
• Live refresh now spans the main web surfaces, so daemon, session, recording,
  workspace, and log state updates without full-page reloads.
• User and workspace management are broader: settings now cover default
  username, workspace-specific username mappings, and exclude-me, while
  workspace registration can omit --alias and default to the folder name.
• Maintenance and observability are stronger: filtered operational/security log
  views, web-aware status reporting, recording activity rollups, and persisted
  session cleanup support even while the daemon is running.
• Test and CI coverage expanded significantly with more direct command/parser/
  runtime tests, parallel test execution, coverage artifact generation, and
  added CodeQL/OSV automation.

Notable Behavior Updates

• Kato Web is explicitly opt-in and credentialed: run kato web init before
  kato web start, and provide credentials during init.
• Authenticated web pages preserve existing query/filter semantics while
  polling in the background instead of switching to client-owned mutation
  flows.
• kato status now surfaces web runstate/version alongside daemon, workspace,
  memory, recent-error, and session data.
• The UI now distinguishes active ingestion, discovered session inventory, and
  recording activity more clearly across Summary, Ingestion, Sessions, and
  Recordings.
• clean --sessions no longer requires stopping the daemon first.

v0.2.1

• Username-aware output templating now supports {username} in both
  filenameTemplate and defaultOutputDir.
• New workspace toggle
  markdownFrontmatter.addParticipantUsernameToHeadings lets user-message
  headings use the resolved username instead of generic User.
• Frontmatter participants now emit plain usernames for user entries (for
  example djradon) instead of user.djradon.
• Windows daemon startup is more reliable via detached Start-Process launch
  semantics.
• Status marks stale daemons faster by tightening heartbeat staleness detection
  from 30s to 11s.
• Fatal daemon startup/runtime failures now emit clearer critical diagnostics to
  improve troubleshooting.

Initial Release

First release, delivered as a source-only cut.

Highlights

• CLI/daemon split is now in place, with cleaner lifecycle commands (start, stop, restart, status) and more reliable runtime boundaries.
• In-chat controls require workspace specification (via alias): ::capture-<alias>, ::record-<alias>, ::stop, and ::export-<alias>.
• Workspace-driven recording flow is established with alias registration and customizable workspace config at <workspace>/.kato-workspace-config.yaml.
• Export pipeline supports both markdown (with richer frontmatter) and JSONL for event-level workflows.
• Status and runtime observability are stronger, including surfaced recent errors and better stale-state/control healing behavior.
• Provider/session ingestion and recording durability were hardened across this release line, including snapshot/twin handling and broad test coverage improvements.

Notable Behavior Updates

• Runtime defaults to ~/.kato/daemon (global-first); use KATO_RUNTIME_DIR to opt into a specific runtime location.
• No implicit ./.kato fallback for runtime state.

Release Packaging

• Source-only release (v0.2.0).
• Prebuilt binaries are intentionally deferred to a follow-up hardening track.