Codewhale v0.9.11

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:v0.9.11

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, codew.exe, and codewhale.bat under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\CodeWhale\bin, adds that directory to the current-user PATH, and creates a Start Menu shortcut that prefers Windows Terminal (wt.exe) when it is installed.
• Extract the archive for your machine: codewhale-windows-x64.zip or codewhale-windows-arm64.zip
• Double-click codewhale.bat (not the raw .exe) to launch
• Run install.bat to copy the binaries and launcher to %USERPROFILE%\bin
• Add %USERPROFILE%\bin to your PATH

The portable Windows archive skips the install script — extract and run codewhale.bat 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 v0.9.11

Codewhale v0.9.11 tightens the long-running agent loop, makes workflow failures visible instead of successful-looking, adds an experimental vision-capable DeepSeek route, and prepares reproducible Codewhale-versus-Pi evaluation without publishing a result before a real run. The complete item-level change record is retained below the categorized release highlights.

Added

• Added first-party deepseek-v4-flash-vision-exp discovery and selection for DeepSeek, including the flash-vision alias, bundled offline metadata, registry and picker entries, and image-input capability on the chat route. Context and output limits inherit from V4 Flash until DeepSeek publishes distinct values; pricing remains unknown rather than guessed.
• Added a provider-controlled Codewhale-versus-Pi parity harness with three hermetic coding tasks, route and reasoning-effort receipts, doctor/dry-run modes, and bounded result artifacts. The repository ships the harness, not a benchmark verdict; comparable real runs remain an acceptance gate.
• Added portable, secret-free config export/import with a reviewable plan, explicit headless consent, backup and rollback, and idempotent re-import.
• Added bounded multi-file diagnostics through the existing model-facing lsp tool without increasing the tool-catalog count. Thanks to Isabel Wu (@wuisabel-gif) for PR #5524.
• Added portable presentation, media-attachment, and operation-digest facets to the command contract, then moved all seven utility handlers onto the contract-backed dispatch path. Thanks to Paulo Aboim Pinto (@aboimpinto) for PR #5525.

Changed

• Sub-agent, Fleet-worker, workflow-task, and thread-runtime model turns no longer inherit a hidden role-based step ceiling. An omitted or zero max_steps is unbounded; a positive user/config value remains an explicit cap and is still clamped to the runtime safety ceiling. Wall-clock, provider, heartbeat, cancellation, and admission safeguards are unchanged.
• /rc now mirrors one shared session rather than transferring terminal ownership: local and web prompts remain available while idle, approvals use first-decision-wins semantics, and transport/integrity failures remain fail-closed.
• The terminal status rows around the composer are now two stable bands: provider · model · thinking level is the persistent identity row below the composer in every phase, and a separate activity row above the composer carries the live phase, notices, and cost/metrics. Sending a prompt no longer relocates the route identity above the composer, and neither row ever duplicates it.
• The embedded local Web client now uses the current CWC Ocean hierarchy and readable control sizing, follows the shared Enter/Shift+Enter composer grammar, and chooses a provider plus model per new thread without mutating Runtime defaults. Exact image-input capability is labelled honestly; a vision-capable route does not imply that browser attachments exist.
• The runtime now has one authoritative model-turn loop. The placeholder crates/core engine tree is gone, while the active TUI loop and its extracted tool-call stages retain existing policy, hook, cancellation, and budget behavior. Thanks to Sun Zhenyuan (@bistack) for PR #5523.

Fixed

• Chat Completions streams now require terminal proof from [DONE]

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