更新日志

What's new

Settings: provider catalog no longer hits the network on open

Previously every visit to the Providers settings page forced a live fetch of the pi.dev model catalog — and since the SDK's directory request has no built-in timeout, a flaky network could leave the panel stuck on its loading spinner forever.

• The provider list now loads purely from local data: the SDK's built-in catalog plus the cached models-store.json. Opening settings is instant and works offline
• A new refresh button (top-right of the panel) explicitly fetches the latest catalog from pi.dev, with a 15s timeout fallback — on timeout it surfaces a clear "check your network" error instead of hanging
• After a successful refresh, the model picker's data is re-synced so new models show up in the composer right away
• The permission-gate switch in General settings now loads independently, no longer waiting on (or blocked by) the provider list

UI polish

• Removed raw filesystem-path tooltips that leaked on hover: subagent run rows, project sidebar items, and the compaction summary card
• Tamed markstream's default hover styles in rendered markdown — code-block header buttons, footnote links and mermaid controls no longer jump to mismatched colors; the overrides now match the app's design in both light and dark themes

Download

Platform	File
macOS (Apple Silicon)	pi-desktop-mac-arm64.dmg
macOS (Intel)	pi-desktop-mac-x64.dmg
Windows	pi-desktop-windows-x64.exe (installer) or pi-desktop-windows-x64.zip

macOS users can also brew install --cask jaxton07/tap/pi-desktop.

Ad-hoc signed (no Developer ID). On macOS, if Gatekeeper blocks the app, right-click it and choose Open (or run xattr -cr "/Applications/Pi Desktop.app" as a fallback). Windows may still show a SmartScreen prompt — click "More info" → "Run anyway".

Full Changelog: https://github.com/Jaxton07/pi-desktop/compare/v0.2.2...v0.2.3

What's new

Live activity indicator while tools run

The chat no longer looks frozen while the agent works. Previously, once the assistant's text appeared, the status row flipped to "Worked" and stayed silent during long-running tool calls (Bash commands, web fetches) and subagent fan-outs — even though work was still in progress.

• The Working status row now stays lit for as long as any tool or subagent is executing, with a live preview of the latest activity (tool name + arguments summary) next to it
• A single shimmer band sweeps from the Working label to the tool name; running tool calls inside the collapsed group get the same highlight
• Subagent runs render in real time: a row with a pulsing dot and the agent name appears the moment a subagent is dispatched, not just after it finishes

Layout fixes

• Long Bash commands are truncated to a single line again (with a fade at the end) — streamed arguments were never re-measured, which pushed rows past the chat width and caused a horizontal scrollbar
• The activity preview is now inline in the Working title row, so chat content no longer shifts up and down by a line as the preview appears and disappears

Download

Platform	File
macOS (Apple Silicon)	pi-desktop-mac-arm64.dmg
macOS (Intel)	pi-desktop-mac-x64.dmg
Windows	pi-desktop-windows-x64.exe (installer) or pi-desktop-windows-x64.zip

macOS users can also brew install --cask jaxton07/tap/pi-desktop.

Ad-hoc signed (no Developer ID). On macOS, if Gatekeeper blocks the app, right-click it and choose Open (or run xattr -cr "/Applications/Pi Desktop.app" as a fallback). Windows may still show a SmartScreen prompt — click "More info" → "Run anyway".

Full Changelog: https://github.com/Jaxton07/pi-desktop/compare/v0.2.1...v0.2.2

What's new

Install via Homebrew

macOS users can now install and upgrade with Homebrew:

brew install --cask jaxton07/tap/pi-desktop

The cask is updated automatically on every release. Apps installed through Homebrew don't carry the quarantine attribute, so they open right away despite the ad-hoc signature — no Gatekeeper workaround needed. Future upgrades are just brew upgrade.

Manual-download fallback for unsigned mac builds

macOS can no longer strand you on a broken auto-install. Because ad-hoc signed builds fail Squirrel's code-signature check during quitAndInstall (the update would silently never apply), the app now detects its signature at startup and adapts:

• Unsigned/ad-hoc builds: clicking the update button or "Check for updates" takes you straight to the GitHub release page to download the new version manually
• Builds that can self-install (Windows, and future properly signed mac builds): the in-app download progress and "Restart" pill flow is unchanged

Download

Platform	File
macOS (Apple Silicon)	pi-desktop-mac-arm64.dmg
macOS (Intel)	pi-desktop-mac-x64.dmg
Windows	pi-desktop-windows-x64.exe (installer) or pi-desktop-windows-x64.zip

macOS users can also brew install --cask jaxton07/tap/pi-desktop.

Ad-hoc signed (no Developer ID). On macOS, if Gatekeeper blocks the app, right-click it and choose Open (or run xattr -cr "/Applications/Pi Desktop.app" as a fallback). Windows may still show a SmartScreen prompt — click "More info" → "Run anyway".

Full Changelog: https://github.com/Jaxton07/pi-desktop/compare/v0.2.0...v0.2.1

What's new

Splash screen: particle swarm with a ripple exit

A new startup experience in black-and-white matte minimalism:

• Idle: a swarm of 64 softly drifting particles (golden-angle spiral, procedurally generated) gathers around the "pi" wordmark, with gentle sonar ripples passing through — white rings on the ink swarm in light mode, ink rings on the glowing swarm in dark mode
• Exit: the wordmark lifts away, particles burst outward radially off the screen, and a dual ripple (main ring + a fainter echo ring) sweeps across the window. The screen settles to the pure theme color, then the workspace fades in — sequential, never overlapping
• Theme-aware from the very first frame: the resolved theme is passed from the main process to the renderer before first paint, so there's no white flash in dark mode
• Plays at most once per app run (reopening the window via macOS activate won't replay it), with a 2.5s minimum / 4.5s fallback duration, and degrades to a simple fade under prefers-reduced-motion

Dev-mode data isolation

Dev and preview builds now redirect PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR to ~/.pi/agent-dev/ (seeded once from your small config files), so development never writes to your real ~/.pi/agent/ sessions and settings.

Download

Platform	File
macOS (Apple Silicon)	pi-desktop-mac-arm64.dmg
macOS (Intel)	pi-desktop-mac-x64.dmg
Windows	pi-desktop-windows-x64.exe (installer) or pi-desktop-windows-x64.zip

Ad-hoc signed (no Developer ID). On macOS, if Gatekeeper blocks the app, right-click it and choose Open (or run xattr -cr "/Applications/Pi Desktop.app" as a fallback). Windows may still show a SmartScreen prompt — click "More info" → "Run anyway".

Full Changelog: https://github.com/Jaxton07/pi-desktop/compare/v0.1.9...v0.2.0

What's new

Smarter auto-update: no surprise downloads

The app no longer silently downloads new versions in the background. Updates are now fully user-controlled:

• When a new version is found, a light-blue update icon with a badge appears in the top bar — click it to start the download
• A progress ring shows while the update downloads
• Once downloaded, a "Restart" pill appears next to the update icon — click it to install and restart the app, so an update never interrupts a running task
• If a download fails, the update entry stays so you can simply click again to retry

Update UI polish

• Update indicators (icon, badge, progress ring, restart pill) now use a light-blue accent instead of purple

Download

Platform	File
macOS (Apple Silicon)	pi-desktop-mac-arm64.dmg
macOS (Intel)	pi-desktop-mac-x64.dmg
Windows	pi-desktop-windows-x64.exe (installer) or pi-desktop-windows-x64.zip

Ad-hoc signed (no Developer ID). On macOS, if Gatekeeper blocks the app, right-click it and choose Open (or run xattr -cr "/Applications/Pi Desktop.app" as a fallback). Windows may still show a SmartScreen prompt — click "More info" → "Run anyway".

Full Changelog: https://github.com/Jaxton07/pi-desktop/commits/v0.1.9

What's new

Todo tool & floating progress panel

Agents can now keep a visible task list while working on complex, multi-step jobs (long refactors, multi-file features, investigations):

• New todo tool lets the agent maintain a task list with the same full-replacement protocol as Claude Code — call with the complete updated list each time
• A compact pill floats at the top-right of the chat: completed count, the current in-progress task, and a thin progress bar
• Click the pill to expand the full list (pending / in-progress spinner / completed with strikethrough); expand and collapse use a smooth drawer animation, and the current task in the pill slides upward when it changes
• The panel is per-session and survives switching sessions

Task list survives context compaction

When the conversation history is compacted, the current task list is automatically re-injected into the agent's context on the next turn — the agent doesn't lose track of what it was doing. The panel data is also restored when reopening a session.

Chat polish

• Copy and fork buttons under assistant messages are now always visible (previously only on hover), with tighter spacing

Download

Platform	File
macOS (Apple Silicon)	pi-desktop-mac-arm64.dmg
macOS (Intel)	pi-desktop-mac-x64.dmg
Windows	pi-desktop-windows-x64.exe (installer) or pi-desktop-windows-x64.zip

Ad-hoc signed (no Developer ID). On macOS, if Gatekeeper blocks the app, right-click it and choose Open (or run xattr -cr "/Applications/Pi Desktop.app" as a fallback). Windows may still show a SmartScreen prompt — click "More info" → "Run anyway".

Full Changelog: https://github.com/Jaxton07/pi-desktop/commits/v0.1.8

What's new

Auto-update

The app now updates itself — no more re-downloading DMGs for every release:

• Checks for new versions in the background (10s after launch, then every 2 hours); updates download automatically
• A circular progress button appears in the tab bar while downloading — click Restart & install when it's ready
• Manual check available in Settings → About → Check for updates
• Updates install in-place without triggering Gatekeeper, so future releases skip macOS' download warnings entirely

Ad-hoc signing on macOS

Builds are now ad-hoc signed end-to-end. Gatekeeper no longer reports the app as "damaged" (which had no bypass and forced the xattr -cr terminal command after every install). Instead macOS shows the regular unidentified developer dialog, which is bypassable with a right-click → Open on first launch of each version.

Download

Platform	File
macOS (Apple Silicon)	pi-desktop-mac-arm64.dmg
macOS (Intel)	pi-desktop-mac-x64.dmg
Windows	pi-desktop-windows-x64.exe (installer) or pi-desktop-windows-x64.zip

Ad-hoc signed (no Developer ID). On macOS, if Gatekeeper blocks the app, right-click it and choose Open (or run xattr -cr "/Applications/Pi Desktop.app" as a fallback). Windows may still show a SmartScreen prompt — click "More info" → "Run anyway".

Full Changelog: https://github.com/Jaxton07/pi-desktop/commits/v0.1.7

What's new

Community package catalog in settings

The Extensions panel in Settings now has a Browse tab backed by the pi.dev package catalog (5,400+ extensions, skills, prompt templates and themes):

• Fuzzy search with type filters (extension / skill / prompt / theme), sorted by monthly downloads
• One-click Install from the panel, with installed/uninstalling states and inline two-step uninstall confirmation
• Installed extensions hot-reload into running sessions — no restart needed

Subagent run rows

When an extension delegates to subagents (e.g. pi-subagents), each subagent run now appears as its own row in the conversation instead of hiding inside the collapsed tool card:

• Working state with a pulsing dot animation, done/failed states on completion
• Click a finished subagent row to open its full session in a new tab
• Works for foreground, workflow and background (subagent_wait) runs, via a structural convention that any community extension can follow

Packaging

• Bundle the pi SDK docs/examples/README into the app (resources/pi-package), so agent tools can read them in packaged builds

The settings page now reflects what's actually running under the hood: a Skills panel and an Extensions panel that list everything loaded for your current project, an About page with version and runtime details, and per-session model memory so each tab keeps its own brain settings.

Highlights

• Settings show what's loaded — Skills lists every skill the current project loads (name, description, user vs. project scope, file path, manual-only trigger, load diagnostics). Extensions lists each loaded extension with its registered tools, commands, flags and shortcuts, plus a red summary of any that failed to load. Data comes from the active session's project, so switching projects shows a different set
• Model & thinking depth are per-session — each tab remembers its own model and thinking level; a new session starts from your global default instead of inheriting whichever session was active last
• About page — app version, Electron/Chromium/Node versions, platform and architecture, and a link to the repository. The help button in the sidebar now points at the same place
• Projects page ordering — manually added projects sort by add time (newest first), sessions you've merely used before sort by last activity behind them
• Tab close button polish — the × on the session capsule no longer sits on its own background chip; it blends into the capsule

Note: the MCP category stays a placeholder for now — the pi SDK doesn't support MCP yet, and the panel says so.

Download

Platform	File
macOS (Apple Silicon)	pi-desktop-mac-arm64.dmg
macOS (Intel)	pi-desktop-mac-x64.dmg
Windows	pi-desktop-windows-x64.exe (installer) or pi-desktop-windows-x64.zip

Builds are currently unsigned. On macOS, the first launch may show "Pi Desktop is damaged and can't be opened" — that's Gatekeeper blocking an unsigned download, not actual damage. Fix it by removing the quarantine flag: xattr -cr "/Applications/Pi Desktop.app", then open normally. On Windows, click "More info" → "Run anyway" when SmartScreen appears.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/Jaxton07/pi-desktop/compare/v0.1.4...v0.1.5

The agent can now show you images, on purpose: a built-in show_image tool lets the agent deliberately display images right in the conversation — only when you ask, or when a picture genuinely helps.

Highlights

• Agent-initiated image display (show_image) — reading an image with read shows it to the model, not to you. Now the agent can call the built-in show_image tool to display images inline in the chat, as a standalone message with a click-to-zoom lightbox. Discipline is baked into the tool description: it fires on explicit request or clear necessity, not for every image the agent reads
• Zero context cost — displayed images travel via the tool result's details channel (persisted to the session file for history replay) and never enter the model's context, so showing you a picture doesn't spend tokens. If the model needs to see the image itself, it uses read as before
• Image groups in one call — show_image({paths}) sends 1–9 images at once. Thumbnails auto-size by count (single image keeps its natural aspect ratio; groups render as one tidy row of squares that shrinks as the count grows)
• Forgiving paths — ~/... home paths, relative paths, and macOS screenshot names with narrow unicode spaces all resolve correctly on the first call
• Same trust level as read — the tool is read-only, allowed by default, and paths outside the project boundary escalate to an approval prompt

Download

Platform	File
macOS (Apple Silicon)	pi-desktop-mac-arm64.dmg
macOS (Intel)	pi-desktop-mac-x64.dmg
Windows	pi-desktop-windows-x64.exe (installer) or pi-desktop-windows-x64.zip

Builds are currently unsigned. On macOS, the first launch may show "Pi Desktop is damaged and can't be opened" — that's Gatekeeper blocking an unsigned download, not actual damage. Fix it by removing the quarantine flag: xattr -cr "/Applications/Pi Desktop.app", then open normally. On Windows, click "More info" → "Run anyway" when SmartScreen appears.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/Jaxton07/pi-desktop/compare/v0.1.3...v0.1.4