GitHub Release: Hmbown/Codewhale v0.9.6 (12.08.2026)

$ git clone https://github.com/Hmbown/Codewhale.git Clone

Codewhale is the public product from Shannon Labs. The codewhale

command, npm package, and release-asset names remain lowercase technical

identifiers. The legacy npm package deepseek-tui is deprecated and

receives no further releases. Users coming from v0.8.x legacy deepseek /

deepseek-tui names should migrate with docs/REBRAND.md.

Install

Recommended — npm (one command, both entrypoints)

npm install -g codewhale

The wrapper downloads the matched codewhale and codew command assets

from this Release. Both contain the same compiled runtime.

Docker / GHCR

docker run --rm -it \

  -e DEEPSEEK_API_KEY="$DEEPSEEK_API_KEY" \

  -v codewhale-home:/home/codewhale/.codewhale \

  ghcr.io/hmbown/codewhale:v0.9.6

The image exposes the same runtime as both codewhale and codew. The

latest tag is also updated on release.

Cargo (Linux / macOS)

cargo install codewhale-cli --locked

The Cargo package installs codewhale. Cargo cannot create a second command

alias from one binary target; users who want the shorter spelling can add a

codew symlink to that installed executable. The npm, Homebrew, archive,

shell-installer, and container channels install both command names directly.

Manual download — platform archives (recommended)

Each archive below contains the same runtime under the codewhale and

codew command names, plus an install script:

Unix (Linux / macOS):

tar xzf codewhale-<platform>.tar.gz

cd codewhale-<platform>

./install.sh

Windows:

• For the installer path, run CodeWhaleSetup.exe; it installs
  
  codewhale.exe and codew.exe under
  
  %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\CodeWhale\bin and adds that directory to the
  
  current-user PATH.


• Extract the archive for your machine: codewhale-windows-x64.zip or
  
  codewhale-windows-arm64.zip


• Run install.bat (copies to %USERPROFILE%\bin)


• Add %USERPROFILE%\bin to your PATH

The portable Windows archive skips the install script — extract and run from any directory. The NSIS installer is currently unsigned and may trigger Windows SmartScreen until a signing certificate is wired into the release pipeline.

Each platform also has bare, unarchived codewhale-<platform> and

codew-<platform> assets. The seven codewhale-tui-<platform> filenames

attached to v0.9.5 are byte-identical compatibility copies used only to let

already-installed v0.9.4 clients discover and cross this single-binary

transition; current installers do not expose a third runtime. The legacy npm

package deepseek-tui is deprecated and is not republished. For migration

from v0.8.x legacy binary names, see docs/REBRAND.md.

Verify (recommended)

Download the checksum manifests from this Release and verify:

# Linux — archive bundles

sha256sum -c codewhale-bundles-sha256.txt --ignore-missing



# Linux — individual binaries

sha256sum -c codewhale-artifacts-sha256.txt --ignore-missing



# macOS

shasum -a 256 -c codewhale-bundles-sha256.txt --ignore-missing

shasum -a 256 -c codewhale-artifacts-sha256.txt --ignore-missing

What's in v0.9.6

Codewhale v0.9.6 is a subtractive release: fewer runtime guards, one stable

prompt, truthful provider endings, and a smaller compaction path that preserves

the provider cache. The changes were grounded by matched Terminal-Bench 2.1

runs against Pi 0.8.41 and by dogfooding repeated manual compaction.

Added

• web_search defaults to Firecrawl Cloud without an API key; keyless requests
  
  are headerless and quota-bounded, while an optional user key raises limits.


• Green web builds on main now emit an actionable manual-deploy reminder, so
  
  site changes cannot quietly appear shipped while Cloudflare still serves an
  
  older revision.


• Mistral AI is a first-class provider route, including Codestral models,
  
  first-party reasoning support, authentication, picker entries, and aliases.


• Headless Bash can transfer explicitly requested persistent Unix services
  
  out of an exec run, with ownership and cleanup receipts.


• /remote-env opens hosted Work from the current GitHub or CNB branch tip and
  
  states exactly which unpushed, dirty, ignored, secret, and session state stays
  
  local.


• Linux ARM64 release and nightly assets are static musl builds with native
  
  launch checks.


• Maintainers can report observed daily active installs from the same anonymous,
  
  aggregate telemetry dataset; no additional client data is collected.


• Fleet-dispatched members under a read-only evidence (no-network) ceiling now
  
  keep the Web tool's read-only search and fetch actions — parity with an
  
  ordinary scout — while every reaching surface (web.run, fetch_url,
  
  github, MCP) stays denied and the sentinel-backed capability envelope
  
  remains the fail-closed backstop.


• /fleet setup can show an optional, deterministic, unratified role-to-model
  
  advisory built only from configured ready routes. Accept, edit, and reject
  
  all remain inside the existing human-reviewed profile save boundary; the
  
  advisory never launches a Fleet or writes a second configuration.


• /update checks for a newer Codewhale release and installs it from inside
  
  the TUI, while tui_help gives agents the same command and key map users see.


• Markdown file paths render as OSC 8 links where the terminal supports them,
  
  and every agent row can open that agent's transcript directly.


• ACP editor sessions can execute multi-round file, search, Git, patch, and
  
  explicitly enabled shell tool calls through the shared Runtime registry.
  
  Shell access requires both the client's terminal capability and Codewhale's
  
  headless shell opt-in, and cancellation stops an in-flight tool before the
  
  turn returns ().


• Lowercase read returns bounded typed PNG, JPEG, GIF, and WebP results to
  
  image-capable Chat, Responses, Anthropic, and ACP routes. Text-only routes
  
  receive an explicit omission receipt; image bytes never spill into ordinary
  
  transcript, export, compaction, or relay text.

Changed

• Anonymous usage counting is on by default for fresh installs and disclosed in
  
  a native first-run Codewhale modal with an immediate opt-out. Prior declines
  
  remain off. Codewhale does not collect conversations, code, prompts, files,
  
  repo or branch names, credentials, model content, or per-turn activity
  
  timelines.


• Wide terminals use a responsive, full-screen ocean canvas with modest
  
  gutters: prose keeps a readable measure while tools, diffs, work surfaces,
  
  the composer, and status chrome can use the available width. Turn and major
  
  activity seams breathe without padding every call inside a tool group.


• Root CLI help describes product actions directly instead of exposing internal
  
  TUI/runtime layers.


• Bash action="wait" now blocks by default when a wait is requested; callers
  
  can still ask for a nonblocking snapshot, and persistent service ownership
  
  remains explicit.


• Compaction is one cache-stable summary request followed by one committed
  
  replacement summary and a bounded recent-message tail. Older saved sessions
  
  still restore.


• Ask, Work, Auto-Review, and Full Access share one stable base prompt. Modes
  
  continue to differ through permissions and the live tool catalog; the former
  
  Act label is now Work throughout the product and shipped locales.


• Full Access now auto-approves non-bypassable tools consistently, and the
  
  default choice shown on ordinary approval cards is configurable.


• Model, context-window, dispatch-name, and nested-agent spawn receipts report
  
  the route and limits actually used rather than silently substituting a
  
  guessed identity.


• Child-agent launches mint one immutable route receipt before admission and
  
  preserve it through status, interruption, completion, resume, Work Graph,
  
  and ledger projections, so provider/model attribution cannot drift ().
  
  


• 
  

  Step-budget exhaustion is a typed failure and cannot release a pending
  
  persistent service. Cancellation after terminal usage still charges the turn.

  
  


• 
  

  Deferred tools now preserve a completed result when a provider reuses its
  
  tool-call ID on the retry turn, preventing successful plugin calls from
  
  entering a repeated execution loop.

  
  


• 
  

  Website setup, provider, diagnostics, Fleet, and single-runtime claims now
  
  match the source candidate.

  
  


• 
  

  Opening the sub-agent register no longer hides the to-do list: the Agents
  
  panel shows the full register and the durable checklist together, and the
  
  register header is a two-way door that returns to Tasks on a second click.

  
  


• 
  

  The ⌥V / Alt+V details chord opens the selected work-surface row's own
  
  inspector instead of the transcript's nearest tool cell, so a selected
  
  to-do row shows its own content rather than the latest reasoning.

  
  


• 
  

  The first-run usage disclosure now asks a clear question — "Help improve
  
  Codewhale?" — with unambiguous "Yes, keep anonymous counts" / "No, turn off
  
  tracking" choices in every shipped locale, and states the persistent opt-out
  
  command. Consent semantics are unchanged: telemetry stays unarmed until a
  
  choice is made.

  
  


• 
  

  macOS screencapture screenshots referenced in a message are copied to a
  
  stable attachments directory the moment the message is received, and the
  
  reference is rewritten to the stable path, so the image still exists when
  
  the agent reads it. Only files under a screencapture "Temporary Items"
  
  directory are touched; copies are idempotent and a failed copy keeps the
  
  original reference.

  
  


• 
  

  Manual /compact during an active turn now queues even when the engine's
  
  bounded op mailbox is saturated. The request defers client-side, retries as
  
  mailbox slots free, and cannot latch as already running after it settles.

  
  


• 
  

  Interactive /load, startup --resume, and /resume picker paths preserve
  
  the persisted provider, endpoint, and model identity; picker resume also
  
  leaves a durable transcript receipt.

  
  


• 
  

  Relative mcp_config_path values no longer depend on the launch directory or
  
  silently load an empty server pool: Codewhale warns and falls back to the
  
  user-global MCP configuration. Explicit absolute paths remain authoritative.

  
  


• 
  

  Alibaba Model Studio qwen3.8-max and qwen3.8-max-preview still stream
  
  their current reasoning, but no longer replay historical reasoning_content
  
  that those routes do not accept. Historical reasoning replay is now gated by
  
  the exact provider/API/model contract, so unknown *-thinking lookalikes
  
  fail closed while documented Qwen, Kimi, DeepSeek, Mistral, Anthropic, and
  
  Responses continuity rules remain intact.

  
  


• 
  

  Compatibility File/patch calls retain optional content-hash guards when a
  
  caller supplies them. The new direct write and edit schemas do not expose
  
  hash or prior-read ceremony.

  
  


• 
  

  Shell previews hold back incomplete UTF-8 sequences instead of emitting
  
  replacement characters, and compaction receipts report token deltas.

  
  


• 
  

  Nested agents may narrow but can never widen their inherited depth budget
  
  ().

  
  


• 
  

  Container publication now assembles AMD64 and ARM64 images in parallel on
  
  native runners from the already-verified static release binaries, then
  
  publishes and checks one multi-architecture manifest. It no longer rebuilds
  
  both targets through the single long-running QEMU job that lost its runner.

  
  

Removed

• The no-progress guard, repeated-read guard, and injected tool-error strategy
  
  coaching. Productive polling, repeated inspection, and model-owned recovery
  
  are no longer interrupted by runtime heuristics.


• Never-wired decision-card, keybinding, hover, shell-execution, engine-op, and
  
  release-script paths were deleted so the supported runtime has one route for
  
  each behavior.

Contributors

• Xavier Pestel ().


• Ben Younes ().


• Rafael Cavalheri ().

See for older releases.