Release notes.

New features

• Context-window panel — see how much of the context window is in use for both terminal and chat agents.

Fixes

• Messages sent mid-turn now unqueue and appear where Claude actually read them, instead of out of place.

New features

• Harness is now Ness — the app has a new name and a new green identity across the app, site, and icons.
• Pick the app's accent color — a new Appearance setting lets you choose Nessie's colour, the app's primary color.
• Legacy config migration — Ness now offers to convert a repo's old .harness.json to .ness.json, and reads either file so existing per-repo configs keep working.

Improvements

• Wordmark lockup polish — the app mark now sits before the wordmark, with pixel-fixed titlebar clearance.
• The bundled MCP server is now named ness-control (previously harness-control); update any MCP client config that references it by name.

Fixes

• Existing installs keep decrypting saved tokens and secrets after the rename.
• Darkened the brand color ramp so it stays legible on light themes.
• The closed Quake-style terminal no longer casts a shadow over the app.
• The theme's accent color no longer gets overridden by Nessie's colour — they're independent settings again.
• Chat now keeps consistent Ness-branded chrome on tool calls from before the rename, even in old transcripts.
• Insight callouts no longer let long list content spill outside the card.

New features

• Tag other worktrees from the @ menu in Chat — type @ in a Chat tab to reference another worktree directly in your message.
• Auto permission mode in Chat — Claude Code's auto permission mode is now exposed as a toggle in Chat tabs.
• Open PRs in a Ness browser tab — a new setting opens pull requests inside a Ness browser tab instead of your external browser.
• Mobile: create worktrees and add tabs — the mobile client can now create worktrees and add tabs, with bigger, easier-to-tap approval buttons.
• CI-failure notifications in Chat — Chat now notifies you when a PR's CI checks go red.
• Fork a conversation into a new worktree — fork a Chat conversation into a brand-new worktree that continues from that point.
• Interrupt & send in Chat — send a new message to interrupt a response that's still streaming, instead of waiting for it to finish.
• Stale SSH remote upgrade prompt — Ness now offers an opt-in upgrade when a remote's harness-server is out of date.
• Better performance diagnostics — new renderer instrumentation catches GC pauses and rendering storms, making UI stutter easier to track down.

Improvements

• Automated kickoff prompts are labeled — kickoff prompts sent by another agent now show as automated turns in Chat instead of looking like something you typed.
• Sidebar collapse state persists per repo — collapsed/expanded state for each repo's worktree group is now remembered across restarts.
• Unified worktree list — the desktop sidebar and mobile worktree picker now share the same list, for more consistent behavior across both.
• Fixed a UI stutter in Chat caused by markdown re-rendering on every tool call.
• The performance profiler and duplicate git status reads no longer cause the lag they were meant to help diagnose.

Fixes

• Browser tabs can now be screenshotted and inspected even when they aren't the currently visible tab.
• Opening a worktree no longer resets its age, so it doesn't dodge cleanup by looking recently used.
• Mobile: idle chat tabs now wake up and show their full history instead of appearing empty.
• Sub-agents launched in the background now render correctly in Chat.
• Dropped SSH tunnels now recover automatically instead of crashing Ness or going silently dead.
• Worktrees no longer flash red while the auto-approver is still deciding on a tool call.
• Background git polling no longer contends with other git operations for the index lock.
• Fixed low-contrast code blocks in light theme.
• Fixed a race where a new worktree's kickoff prompt could get silently dropped during pane setup.
• Restarting Ness now resumes the correct Claude session after using /clear, instead of an old one.
• Claude's clarifying questions in Chat are now answerable instead of silently going unanswered.

Fixes

• Headless harness-server builds no longer fail to boot with a missing electron module error, fixing the "Add backend → SSH host" flow on v2.13.0 and v2.13.1. (thanks @blindpirate, #229)

Huge thanks to @blindpirate for their contributions to this release.

New features

• /model slash command — switch Claude models mid-conversation in Chat with a new /model slash command.
• Claude Opus 5 support — Opus 5 is now available in the model picker, with correct pricing.

Improvements

• Faster changed-files fallback — when live file-watching falls back to polling, the poll interval is now 30s instead of 60s, so the Changed Files panel catches up sooner.
• Staged/Unstaged headers always shown — the Changed Files panel now labels Staged and Unstaged sections even when only one is present, not just when both are mixed.

Fixes

• Stale worktree badges are no longer deduped away — badge-relevant fields are now compared correctly when deciding whether a worktree list actually changed.
• A repo's worktree list is now preserved if a single git worktree list call fails, instead of being wiped out.
• File-watching now retries attaching after an initial failure, fixing a race where Changed Files could get stuck out of sync.
• Worktree branch labels now re-sync when HEAD changes, fixing branches that got stuck showing "rebasing N/M".

New features

• PRs assigned to you auto-show in Reviewing — pull requests where you're a requested reviewer now appear automatically in the sidebar's Reviewing group, no manual add required.
• Create a worktree from a PR by number — enter a PR number in the worktree creator to check out that PR directly. (thanks @ghale, #183)
• Customizable bottom launcher strip — the sidebar's bottom launcher strip is now customizable, with adaptive overflow when there isn't room for every icon.
• Per-commit right-click menu — right-click any commit for a new context menu; the first item copies the commit SHA. (thanks @tresat, #161)
• "Fork chat here" — right-click any message in Chat to fork the conversation into a new session starting from that point.
• Cursor Agent support — Cursor Agent is now available alongside Claude Code and other supported agents. (thanks @blindpirate, #207)
• GitHub API log viewer — a new debug view shows raw GitHub API request/response traffic, for diagnosing PR sync issues.
• Prevent system sleep while agents run — a new sidebar icon and hotkey block your Mac from sleeping while agents are working, with multiple modes and a popover that previews what each mode does.
• Unified find across chat and terminals — Cmd+F now opens the same find UI in both Chat and terminal tabs.
• Hotkeys to approve/deny tool use in Chat — approve or deny a pending tool-use request from the keyboard instead of clicking.
• "Ness" header pinned above the sidebar — the app title now stays pinned above the worktrees list.
• Worktree aliases — give any worktree a custom display name, settable from the UI or via new set_worktree_alias / clear_worktree_alias MCP tools.
• Option to disable auto-scroll in Chat — turn off automatic scroll-to-bottom while a response streams in.

Improvements

• Sidebar row layout overhaul — worktree rows now put their detail cluster (branch, PR status, etc.) on a second line for a cleaner, more readable layout.
• Command Center group collapse state persists — collapsed/expanded state for Command Center groups is now remembered across restarts. (thanks @tresat, #168)
• Collapsible insight callouts — insight panels now render as collapsible callouts instead of always-expanded blocks. (thanks @tresat, #199)
• Bulk worktree deletion feels instant — deleting many worktrees at once no longer blocks the UI while it works.
• More human-readable generated aliases — automatically generated worktree alias suggestions are now steered toward readable labels instead of terse slugs.

Fixes

• Agent-created shells now eagerly spawn their PTY, fixing a lag when an agent opens a new shell tab.
• Links clicked inside the app window now route to your default OS browser instead of navigating in place.
• The PR poller no longer stalls for every repo when a single repo's GitHub API call returns a 504.
• MCP bridge scripts no longer fill your disk via a runaway logging recursion.
• Shell tab IDs are sanitized and the hooks directory is created more defensively, fixing an ENOENT when a path contained separator characters.
• The auth-failure card in Chat now shows correctly when the error is nested inside the result or message payload.
• Removed extra clearance for the macOS traffic-light buttons while in fullscreen.
• Branch commits are now parsed using the correct record separator, fixing undefined rows in the commit list. (thanks @ljacomet, #163)

Huge thanks to @blindpirate, @ghale, @ljacomet, and @tresat for their contributions to this release.

Fixes

• Pinned react-icons to 5.6.0 — the dependency is now locked to an exact version, preventing icon regressions from automatic minor or patch upgrades.

New features

• ⌥-drag for text selection in terminals — hold ⌥ and drag to force a local text selection in mouse-aware terminal apps, so ⌘C copies the selected text as expected. (thanks @bz-canva, #178)
• Claude Fable 5 and Opus 4.8 — both new models are now available in the model picker.
• Smarter new-worktree dialog — the worktree creator now defaults to the active repository, uses keycap-chip hotkey badges, and reliably focuses the input field on open. (thanks @big-guy, #156)
• Color swatches for hex literals in Chat — hex color codes in Chat responses now show a small color swatch inline, making it easier to see colors at a glance.

Improvements

• Live file and diff refresh — file tabs and review diffs now update automatically when the underlying files change on disk, so you always see the latest content without a manual reload.
• Brand icons and prettier tool cards in Chat — tool call cards now show recognizable brand icons and render arguments in a more readable format.

Fixes

• Typing r, j, k, [, or ] while editing in the Monaco editor no longer gets intercepted by review-tab hotkeys.
• A corrupt config.json no longer silently resets all settings — Ness now recovers gracefully instead of losing your configuration. (thanks @big-guy, #151)
• WebSocket reconnects now apply the server's latest state snapshot before signalling reconnect, preventing stale UI after a connection drop. (thanks @blindpirate, #175)
• Ness no longer crashes when spawning a terminal process fails with ENOENT, and handles stale prunable worktrees more gracefully.
• The MCP dev-mode script path is now anchored to the app install location, fixing failures when Ness is launched from a non-standard working directory.
• API cost estimates for Opus 4.5 and later models were reported 3× too high — this is now corrected.

Huge thanks to @big-guy, @blindpirate, and @bz-canva for their contributions to this release.

New features

• Collapsible left and right sidebars — both sidebars collapse to a slim icon strip; the collapsed right strip exposes quick-action buttons for PRs, files, commits, and groups without reopening the panel. (thanks @big-guy, #111)
• UI size scaling — a new UI Size slider in Appearance settings scales all text and icons proportionally. Cmd+= / Cmd+- and View → Increase / Decrease / Reset UI Size work as shortcuts, and the settings panel previews the change live before you apply it. (thanks @big-guy, #91)
• Quake-style drop-down terminal overlay — summon a terminal from anywhere in the app with a hotkey; it slides down over the current view without disrupting your tab layout. (thanks @big-guy, #129)
• Inline tab renaming — rename any session or browser tab by double-clicking it, via a right-click context menu, or with the new Cmd+L shortcut. Tabs now sit alongside the toolbar in one row, with overflow chevrons when they don't all fit. (thanks @big-guy, #93)
• Review panel promoted to a tab — the PR diff viewer is now a first-class tab with a resizable file-browser-style tree, inline filtering, and a commit selector in the toolbar. (thanks @big-guy, #119)
• Word-wrap toggle in diff and file viewers — a toggle in both the diff viewer and the file viewer wraps long lines instead of scrolling horizontally. (thanks @tresat, #115)
• Create worktree from any existing branch — a new "Any Git Ref" tab in the worktree creator lets you check out an existing branch or ref, not just create a new one. (thanks @tresat, #113)
• PR approval button — when you're a requested reviewer, an Approve button now appears directly in the PR panel so you don't have to switch to GitHub.
• Richer PR picker in the new-worktree flow — the PR picker shows richer rows with assignees and labels, and a "Needs my review" filter so you can find your review queue instantly.
• Connect to a remote host via SSH — a new VSCode-style "Connect to remote host" flow bootstraps an SSH connection from within Ness without any manual setup.
• File search prefers changed files — the file picker now surfaces modified and new files at the top and shows each file's git status alongside its name.
• Settings UX overhaul — search across all settings, organized subsections per category, and hotkeys grouped together for easier scanning. (thanks @big-guy, #94)
• Per-worktree Scratchpad — each worktree has a Scratchpad section in the right panel for freeform notes. A non-empty scratchpad counts as a dirty change so you won't forget it.
• Rewind-to-here in Chat — right-click any message in a chat session to rewind the conversation to that point and try a different direction.
• Hold ⌘Q to Quit — Chrome-style quit protection: hold ⌘Q for a moment to confirm you really want to close. Configurable via a "Warn Before Quitting" setting. (thanks @big-guy, #130)
• Confirm before closing a running tab — Ness now asks for confirmation before closing a tab that still has an active process, so you can't accidentally kill a running Claude session. (thanks @big-guy, #148)
• More clickable links in terminals — file paths, commit SHAs, and vnc:// URLs are now clickable alongside http(s):// links. (thanks @big-guy, #139)
• Cyberfunk built-in theme — a new high-contrast neon color theme. (thanks @big-guy, #92)
• Configurable sidebar detail for worktree rows — choose how much information each worktree row shows in the sidebar; Cmd+I cycles through detail levels including a minimal "none" mode. (thanks @big-guy, #71)

Improvements

• Faster startup — shell tabs now initialize lazily, worktree SHAs are fetched in parallel, and pane initialization is staggered, significantly cutting the startup freeze on large workspaces. (thanks @big-guy, #118)
• Draggable title bar with always-visible title — the title bar is now fully draggable and always shows the window title, with a matching cap at the top of the sidebar. (thanks @big-guy, #126)
• Merged PR status preserved — worktrees whose PRs are merged now correctly move to the "Merged" group instead of falling back to "Active".
• Wakeup icon uses an alarm clock — the wakeup indicator now uses a distinct alarm clock icon to avoid confusion with the snooze icon. (thanks @tresat, #145)
• Wider path selector in the worktree creator — the path input now spans the full width of the edit area, making long paths easier to read and edit. (thanks @tresat, #150)
• Monaco font size and all icon sizes now scale correctly in lockstep with the UI size setting. (thanks @big-guy, #131)
• Keyboard shortcuts, tooltips, and app menus have been cleaned up and made more consistent throughout. (thanks @big-guy, #138)

Fixes

• Clicking a link in a mouse-aware terminal app (such as vim) no longer double-opens it. (thanks @big-guy, #132)
• Tab clicks in the right column no longer get swallowed by the title-bar drag region. (thanks @big-guy, #126)
• Hooks no longer replay the entire session history on boot, preventing a large I/O spike at startup. (thanks @big-guy, #144)
• Benign EIO / EPIPE pipe errors on dev server restart are now swallowed cleanly instead of surfacing as errors. (thanks @big-guy, #128)
• Splitting a Chat pane now correctly creates a new independent session instead of sharing the original session ID.
• Headless tarballs now correctly resolve their bundled MCP scripts regardless of install layout.

Huge thanks to @big-guy and @tresat for their contributions to this release.

New features

• Chat mode is now first-class — the interface formerly known as "JSON mode" is relaunched as Chat and promoted to a primary Claude interface, with an in-app announcements banner that surfaces release news and updates from within the app.
• Send on Enter in Chat — a new setting lets you send messages with Enter; the active hotkey is shown on the Send button and in the compose placeholder so you always know what to press.
• Clickable URLs, progress bars, and Cmd+F search in terminals — URLs in terminal output are now clickable, OSC 9;4 progress events display a progress bar in the tab, and Cmd+F opens an in-terminal search overlay. (thanks @big-guy, #58)
• System theme + custom themes from disk — Ness now follows your system light/dark preference automatically, and you can load fully custom themes from a JSON file on disk. (thanks @pgodschalk, #47)
• MCP create_worktree parity — the MCP tool for creating worktrees now supports the same options as the UI: PR creation, kickoff prompts, agent selection, and model choice.
• Reveal in Finder from the All Files panel — a new button lets you open any file in Finder without leaving the app. (thanks @big-guy, #51)
• Copy as JSON for built-in themes — built-in theme rows now have a Copy as JSON button, making it easy to use them as a starting point for a custom theme. (thanks @big-guy, #55)

Improvements

• Unified Chat composer — the chat compose area is now a single card for a cleaner, less cluttered look.
• In-progress git ops shown in the sidebar — detached worktrees now display what git operation is running so you know why they're busy. (thanks @big-guy, #63)
• GitHub API diagnostics — each GitHub API call now writes a line to the debug log and contributes to a HUD rate metric, making it easier to diagnose slow or failing PR fetches. (thanks @big-guy, #54)
• PR panel information layout — information in the PR right pane has been reorganized for easier scanning. (thanks @big-guy, #34)
• Improved gh CLI integration — GitHub auth via the gh CLI is more reliable across different shell setups. (thanks @ljacomet, #46)
• Persistent debug log — the debug log is now append-only across sessions and rotates at 10 MB, so crash forensics from before the most recent restart remain inspectable.
• Git branch in the sidebar title bar — dev builds now show the active git branch in the sidebar title for quick orientation. (thanks @big-guy, #67)
• Monaco recovery banner — if the built-in editor's language worker fails to initialize, Ness now logs a diagnostic and shows a recovery banner instead of silently degrading.

Fixes

• Chat mode auto-scroll is restored — the view now reliably follows streaming output and scrolls back down after you send a message.
• The empty-state flash in Chat is suppressed while conversation history is loading, so the panel no longer blinks on open.
• Long branch names in the sidebar title bar no longer overflow the sidebar edge.
• Multi-backend snapshot merging now handles per-slice state correctly, preventing stale data after reconnecting.
• Failed remote backends are now dropped from the registry so the saved-active backend falls back to local automatically.
• WebSocket reconnects now refresh the client ID and re-join all open terminals, restoring output delivery without a manual reload.
• Cross-fork pull requests are now correctly detected via SHA search, fixing missing PR status for upstream forks. (thanks @big-guy, #68)
• The terminal theme is now re-applied when you change the app theme, so terminal colors stay in sync. (thanks @big-guy, #62)
• The headless tarball now ships the correct platform-specific Claude binary so chat mode spawns correctly on all platforms.
• Sleeping chat tabs now wake correctly when you start typing and no longer re-sleep immediately after waking.

Huge thanks to @big-guy, @ljacomet, and @pgodschalk for their contributions to this release.

New features

• Snooze — snooze a worktree to keep it out of the way until you're ready to return to it. (thanks @big-guy, #28)
• Open PR as worktree — open any existing GitHub pull request directly as a new worktree, so you can pick up where another session left off without manual branch setup.
• Multi-backend support — connect a single Ness window to multiple backends — your local instance plus any number of remote Ness servers — and switch between them using the chip strip at the bottom of the sidebar.
• Merge button in the PR panel — merge your pull request directly from the Ness PR panel without switching to GitHub.
• Activity costs tab — view accumulated API costs broken down by activity directly in the activity panel.
• PR status for upstream forks — Ness now correctly tracks PR status when the pull request originates from an upstream fork, not just same-repo branches. (thanks @big-guy, #33)
• Release notes deep links in the updater — the in-app update notification now links directly to the relevant changelog section for each release. (thanks @big-guy, #35)

Improvements

• Middle-click to close tabs — middle-clicking a terminal tab now closes it, matching familiar browser behavior. (thanks @tresat, #40)
• Improved repository selection — the repository picker flow is smoother and easier to navigate. (thanks @ljacomet, #37)
• Hotkey badge readability — hotkey badges in tooltips and the onboarding quest card are easier to read. (thanks @big-guy, #29)

Fixes

• Duplicate Claude and Codex hook entries are no longer created when hooks are re-installed — existing entries are now matched by command substring before adding a new one. (thanks @big-guy, #43)
• Fixed the MCP worktree setup script failing in certain configurations. (thanks @ljacomet, #39)
• PR status is now preserved from cache when a GitHub API fetch fails, preventing status flickers. (thanks @big-guy, #32)
• Ness no longer errors when a remote snapshot contains state slices it doesn't recognise, making mixed-version setups more resilient during rolling updates.
• Fixed snooze not routing correctly to the backend in multi-backend setups.

Huge thanks to @big-guy, @ljacomet, and @tresat for their contributions to this release.

Fixes

• Ness now captures your login shell's PATH at startup and merges it into the app's environment, so the bundled Claude binary can find Homebrew, nvm, pyenv, and other tools regardless of how the app was launched.

Fixes

• Fixed worktree activity timestamps updating when nothing meaningful had changed, causing unnecessary background work.
• Restored TypeScript language features (type checking, hover types, autocompletion) in the built-in file editor.
• Fixed chat mode incorrectly showing a re-authentication prompt when Claude's reply happened to match the auth-required pattern.

New features

• Auto-sleep for idle chat tabs — chat tabs that have been inactive automatically suspend their Claude subprocess, reducing background resource usage. They resume instantly when you switch back.
• Rate limit display in chat mode — when Claude hits an API rate limit, the chat tab now shows the limit status and how long until it clears, instead of silently stalling.
• OAuth re-authentication in chat mode — if your Claude session expires mid-conversation, chat mode now prompts you to re-authenticate inline rather than requiring a manual restart.

Improvements

• Chat history loads on demand — opening a tab with a long conversation history is now fast; earlier messages load incrementally as you scroll up.
• Cost tracking streams incrementally — per-message cost estimates now update token-by-token during streaming rather than jumping at the end of a response.
• External links route to the viewing client — links that previously opened in your default browser now open in Ness's built-in viewer when one is available.

Fixes

• Chat mode now recovers automatically if the underlying Claude subprocess crashes, restarting it without requiring you to close and reopen the tab.
• Removed file tabs on Linux where they caused display issues.

New features

• Electron remote mode — the desktop app can now connect to a remote headless Ness server, giving you a native window backed by a backend running on another machine or in the cloud.
• Linux .deb package — Ness is now distributed as a .deb for Debian and Ubuntu, alongside the existing AppImage.
• Headless server CLI flags — the headless server now accepts command-line flags so you can configure port, data directory, and other options at startup without editing config files.

Improvements

• Update banner for .deb installs — Linux users who installed via .deb now see an in-app banner when a new version is available, since .deb packages don't auto-update.
• Headless version endpoint — the headless server now exposes a version endpoint so clients can verify they're talking to a compatible server before connecting.

Fixes

• Fixed terminal sessions hardcoding zsh instead of using your configured login shell.
• Fixed the web client failing to load in headless server tarballs due to an incorrect asset path.

New features

• Tasks panel in chat mode — Claude's active to-do list is now visible as a side panel during chat sessions, so you can follow what it's working through without reading every message.
• Sub-agent nesting in chat mode — when Claude spawns sub-agents, their tool calls appear as collapsible nested groups in the chat UI, making multi-agent flows much easier to follow.
• Rich file viewers in chat mode — images, PDFs, and other files surfaced during a chat session now render inline rather than showing a raw path.
• Bundled Claude for chat mode — chat (json-mode) tabs now ship with a pinned Claude Code binary so the chat interface stays stable regardless of what version is on your PATH.
• Headless server tarballs — the Ness backend is now distributed as self-contained tarballs for Linux and macOS servers, so you can install it without npm or Electron.
• Browser control in headless mode — browser panes and Browser MCP tools now work in headless / server deployments, not just the desktop app.
• Remote file picker for opening repos — headless and web sessions now include a file-system picker for opening a repository, so you no longer need to type the full path manually.

Improvements

• Bash approval prompts show command + description — permission cards for shell commands now display the command and a plain-English description separately, making it easier to decide whether to approve.
• Auto-accept file edits in chat mode — chat sessions now accept file edits automatically by default, cutting down on approval clicks for routine coding tasks.
• Auto-growing compose bar — the chat compose bar now expands as you type (up to 8 lines), making longer prompts easier to write and review before sending.
• Scroll reliability in chat mode — scroll-stick behavior has been reworked so the view reliably follows the latest message during streaming and stays put when you scroll up to read earlier content.
• More comfortable chat density — spacing and layout in the chat UI have been tuned for a less cramped reading experience.
• Changed-files panel uses file watching — the panel now reacts to changes instantly via file-system events instead of polling, reducing CPU usage and making updates feel immediate.
• Multiple internal performance improvements reduce CPU usage and UI jank during active streaming sessions.

Fixes

• Fixed chat mode tabs not appearing in the activity timeline status aggregation.
• Fixed the chat view jumping away from the bottom when a thinking card expanded or collapsed mid-stream.
• Fixed the "thinking…" spinner disappearing briefly between multi-part streamed responses.
• Fixed shell activity detection not firing when a command timed out rather than completing normally.
• Fixed an unwanted horizontal scrollbar appearing in chat mode on narrow windows.

New features

• Cost meter — chat responses now show token usage and estimated cost inline, so you can track spend per message as you work.

Improvements

• GitHub Flavored Markdown — chat messages now render tables, task lists, strikethrough, and other GFM elements correctly.
• Syntax-highlighted diff cards — tool result cards that contain file diffs now display with full syntax highlighting, making it easier to read what Claude changed.
• Chat rendering performance — reduced layout work during streaming so long conversations stay smooth even as messages accumulate.

New features

• Native Claude chat — a built-in chat interface for Claude sessions with a compose bar, streaming responses, and inline tool call display. Switch any worktree to chat mode for a cleaner, more structured experience alongside the traditional terminal.
• Allow this session — a new option on permission approval cards lets you grant a one-off permission for the current session without permanently changing your settings.
• LiteLLM proxy support — configure a LiteLLM proxy endpoint in Settings to route Claude API calls through your own backend.
• Open debug log button — open Ness's debug log file directly from the UI for faster troubleshooting.
• Default tab type & swap — set your preferred default tab type (chat or terminal) per worktree, and swap an existing tab between modes at any time.

Improvements

• Partial message streaming — chat responses stream word-by-word as Claude generates them, so you see output the moment it arrives.
• Tool group auto-collapse — completed tool call groups fold up automatically, keeping the conversation readable as Claude works through multi-step tasks.
• Chat mode parity — auto-approve rules, permission-mode queuing, and all Claude launch flags now apply equally in chat mode and terminal mode.
• Chat compose bar received editing and layout improvements for a more polished feel.
• Mobile browser client now shows contextual callouts for features that work best on desktop.

Fixes

• Fixed shell-quoting for arguments passed to Claude in chat mode, preventing command parse errors on launch.

New features

• Web client — control Ness from any browser over a WebSocket connection. Installable as a PWA so it behaves like a native app on desktop or mobile.
• Mobile-optimized web client — the browser UI is fully adapted for phones and tablets, with proper terminal scroll, icon layout, and a full-screen right panel.
• Headless backend — the Ness backend can now run as a pure Node server with no Electron required, making server and CI deployments possible.
• Browser panes — open a live browser tab as a pane directly alongside your terminals, so you can see your running app without leaving the workspace.
• Browser MCP tools — Claude can click, type, and scroll in the browser pane with a visible cursor overlay, so you can watch it navigate your app in real time.
• Controller / spectator mode — terminal tabs now support a tmux-style controller/spectator split: one session drives input while others watch without interfering.
• Weekly activity wrap — a weekly summary of what each agent worked on, delivered automatically so you can review the week at a glance.
• New project flow — a guided flow for starting a brand-new project from within Ness, with branch naming and initial prompt setup.
• In-app issue reporting — report bugs directly from within Ness without switching to a browser.
• Dev server tracking — Ness detects dev servers started in worktree shells and lets you open them in a browser pane with one click.
• Hotkey rebinding from the cheat sheet — click any shortcut in the ? cheat sheet to rebind it on the spot.
• Claude TUI defaults to fullscreen — new Claude sessions launch in fullscreen TUI mode by default for a cleaner, distraction-free view.

Improvements

• Experimental settings section — experimental features are now grouped under their own section in Settings so they're easier to find and harder to stumble into.
• harness-control tools in system prompt — Claude is told about the available MCP shell tools from the first message, so it can use them without extra prompting.
• MCP scope isolation — MCP tool calls are now scoped to the correct worktree context, preventing cross-worktree interference.
• Browser MCP accuracy — fixed HiDPI click offsets and reduced screenshot size by ~4× for faster transmission.
• Added error boundaries throughout the UI so a crash in one panel no longer takes down the whole app.

Fixes

• Fixed take-control state getting stuck after switching between controller and spectator modes.
• Web client HTML entry is now gated behind a ?token= query parameter, closing an unauthenticated access path.

Fixes

• Vertical split exit — fixed a bug where closing a vertical split pane could leave the layout in a broken state.
• Right panel header — cleaned up visual inconsistencies in the right panel header.

New features

• Commit & push status — the sidebar now shows whether each worktree has unpushed commits, so you always know what's waiting to land.
• Command palette recents — recently used worktrees and actions float to the top of the command palette for faster access.
• Commit view in the review panel — the PR review panel now includes a commit list alongside the diff so you can navigate changes commit by commit.
• Add-worktree hotkey — create a new worktree from the keyboard without reaching for the mouse.
• Ness system prompt — Claude sessions now start with workspace context baked in, so Claude understands your project setup from the first message.
• Claude settings sync — Claude Code settings are symlinked across all worktrees so configuration changes apply everywhere at once.

Improvements

• Settings panels are now organized into sub-menus for easier navigation.
• Split panes now support a vertical orientation in addition to the existing horizontal layout.

Fixes

• Fixed several UX rough edges in the changed-files panel.
• Fixed teleport incorrectly navigating to a merged branch instead of the target worktree.

New features

• Agent model selector — choose which Claude model powers each agent, so you can mix Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku across worktrees.
• Fuzzy file picker — jump to any file in the worktree instantly with a keyboard-driven fuzzy search.
• Performance monitor — track token usage and latency per agent with a live time-series chart.
• Hotkey cheat sheet — press ? to bring up a full reference of every keyboard shortcut.
• In-app PR review screen — browse pull request diffs and check CI status without leaving Ness.
• Codex support — run Codex-powered agents alongside Claude sessions in the same workspace.
• First-repo onboarding — new users see a guided setup flow before adding their first repository.

Improvements

• Hooks are now installed globally across all worktrees at once, rather than one at a time.
• Last-active timestamps are more precise with improved debounce tuning.

New features

• Configurable auto-updates — choose whether to install updates automatically or review them first.
• Right panel toolbar and port tracking for dev servers running in worktree shells.

Improvements

• Diff and file viewer overhauled for faster navigation. External links open in your default browser.
• Merged worktrees are visually dimmed. MCP initial prompts now forwarded correctly.

Fixes

• Fixed Monaco not recognizing .tsx/.jsx, a file-open race, and enabled Electron sandbox.

New features

• Automatic GitHub auth — if you have gh installed and logged in, Ness picks up your token automatically. No more pasting a PAT unless you want to.
• Line change counts — the changed-files panel now shows how many lines were added and removed per file.
• Colored repo names — each repo gets a distinct accent color in the sidebar for quick visual scanning.

Improvements

• Worktree deletion is now animated instead of snapping out of the list.

New features

• Per-repo project settings — configure auto-approved build commands per repository.
• Pending tool call display — see what Claude is asking permission for before you approve.
• Shell tab activity indicator and per-repo panel visibility toggles.

Improvements

• Hotkey badges appear app-wide and respect collapsed groups. Settings closes with Esc.
• Changed-files panel left-truncates long paths. Hooks restart preserves your Claude session.
• Terminal shows a loading indicator until the first byte arrives.

New features

• Split panes with Cmd+D — divide any terminal tab into side-by-side panes.
• MCP initial prompt — when Claude creates a worktree through the MCP server, it can pass a starting prompt so the new Claude session begins working immediately.

Improvements

• Command center got a visual refresh with better spacing and status indicators.
• Worktree setup and teardown lifecycle is now more robust, handling edge cases around failed dependency installs.

Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the auto-updater could hang on restart.

New features

• Built-in MCP server — Claude can create and manage worktrees directly through tool use.
• Command palette (Cmd+K) — quick-search worktrees, repos, and actions.
• PR reviews, syntax highlighting, and env var settings for Claude/shell sessions.

Improvements

• Faster new-worktree flow. Repo icons and branch names in tab headers. Cleanup filterable by repo.

New features

• Multi-repo in one window — add multiple git repositories to the sidebar. Each repo's worktrees are grouped under its own header.

Fixes

• Fixed auto-update hang caused by stuck PTY cleanup on app quit.
• Fixed status dots getting stuck on red (needs-approval) after the approval was already given.

New features

• Resizable panels — drag dividers between sidebar, terminal, and right panel.
• All-files browser — see every file in the worktree, not just changed files.
• Background update checks — periodic release checks, not just at launch.

Improvements

• Standardized right panel layout. File tabs show status dots. Draggable title bar.
• Left panel refreshes on window focus. New Claude loading animation.

New features

• Command center — a grid view showing every worktree at a glance with mini activity timelines.
• Send text to Claude — type or drag text into a running Claude terminal from elsewhere in the app.
• Remote teleport — jump to a running Claude session from external triggers.

Improvements

• Sidebar sorting now groups by activity status so the busiest worktrees float to the top.
• Activity stats are preserved for deleted worktrees so historical data isn't lost.

New features

• Draggable tabs + split-pane layout — rearrange terminal tabs by dragging, and split the workspace into a grid.
• Custom fonts — pick your preferred font family and size for the terminal and editor.
• Mass archive — bulk-delete worktrees older than a chosen age to reclaim disk space.
• GitHub connect prompt — onboarding now nudges you to connect GitHub when you open a PR for the first time.

Fixes

• Fixed Cmd+Up / Cmd+Down cycling through worktrees in an unexpected order.
• Fixed changing a setting unexpectedly restarting the active Claude session.

New features

• Onboarding quest — first-time users get starter prompts, a nudge to launch their first agent, and a parallelism quest to try running two Claudes at once.
• Activity view — see per-worktree status history over time so you can tell which agents were productive and which got stuck.
• Full-screen new-worktree flow — creating a worktree now walks you through branch naming and kickoff prompts in a focused view.
• "Continue" action — after a worktree's PR is merged, re-fork it in place to keep working on a follow-up.
• Local merge — merge a worktree branch locally when there's no open PR.

Improvements

• New worktrees open a shell tab alongside Claude automatically.
• Sidebar groups renamed from "No PR / Active PRs" to "Active / Open PRs" for clarity.

Fixes

• Fixed Claude session resume across app restarts — sessions now reconnect reliably instead of spawning duplicates.

New features

• Multiple Claude tabs per worktree — open a second (or third) Claude session in the same worktree when one isn't enough.
• Built-in worktree guide — new users see a short guide explaining what worktrees are and how Ness uses them.

Fixes

• Various UX tweaks and a fix for PTY sessions not resuming correctly.

New features

• 9 color themes — choose from dark, light, solarized, and more in Settings. The theme applies to the terminal, editor, and all UI chrome.

New features

• Persistent terminals — terminal tabs and scrollback history survive app restarts. No more losing context when you relaunch.
• Settings overhaul — two-column layout with sidebar navigation, hotkey rebinding UI, an updates panel, and a configurable Claude launch command.
• GitHub setup banner — on first launch, a banner walks you through pasting a GitHub token so PR status works immediately.
• Cmd+, opens Settings — standard macOS shortcut now works.

Features

• Parallel worktrees — sidebar of git worktrees, each with its own terminal tabs for Claude Code and raw shells.
• Reliable status detection — powered by Claude Code hooks, not output parsing. See at a glance which agents are working, waiting, or asking for permission.
• PR status panel — live PR state and CI checks per worktree, with quick links to GitHub.
• Changed files + inline diffs — review what Claude changed without leaving the app.
• Configurable hotkeys — Cmd+1–Cmd+9 to jump between worktrees, Cmd+T for a new tab, Cmd+Shift+G to open the PR.
• Worktree management — create and delete worktrees from the sidebar with dirty-change warnings.
• Auto-updater — updates delivered via GitHub Releases.