Codewhale v0.9.6

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 (#5225 by @rafaelcavalheri).
• 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"

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