Changelog
Every Botroost update, newest first. Updates install by themselves; Botroost shows the highlights after each one.
0.3.7
- Much smoother hub. Botroost now draws 30 frames per second by default (it was 10), in step with your display, and every animation runs on real time, so motion looks the same at any frame rate. Before, on battery or in Low Power Mode it could drop to a slideshow of 5 or even 2 frames per second.
- New frame-rate choices in Settings › General: Max (60 fps), Smooth (30, the default), Balanced (20) and Battery saver (10). If you never changed the old setting, you get Smooth automatically; if you had picked "Battery saver" you get the new Battery saver (10 fps).
- Gentler power saving: on battery Smooth eases to 20 fps (Max to 30), and Low Power Mode caps it at 15. Turn this off with "Use less power on battery".
- Botroost adapts to your Mac: if a display's frames ever cost too much (an older Mac, a very large display, a busy GPU), it lowers that display's frame rate a step (never below 15 fps) or renders slightly fewer pixels, and goes back to full quality as soon as there's room. On Apple Silicon it stays at full Retina sharpness and uses about 6–8% of one CPU core at 30 fps.
- Easier to quit: "Quit Botroost" (⌘Q) and a new "Restart Botroost" sit at the bottom of the menu bar menu, and ⌘Q also works in Botroost's windows. From Terminal:
broost quitandbroost restart. If Botroost ever stops responding,broost quitforce-quits it after a few seconds and puts your Dock back. - New option in Settings › General: "Show Botroost in the Dock". It also lists Botroost in the Force Quit window (⌥⌘⎋).
- The installer window now shows just Botroost and your Applications folder. First-launch help ("Open Anyway") is at botroost.com/#first-launch.
0.3.6
- New app icon, a matching "B" in the menu bar, and a drag-to-Applications installer window.
- Agents can stay lit for a whole task:
broost active <id> --until-offwhen the task starts andbroost active <id> offwhen it ends (HTTP:{"sticky":true}on/active). The orb no longer goes dark in the middle of a long step. As a safety net it turns off on its own after 6 hours (--for 2hto choose). Plainbroost active <id>works as before. - Each activation now belongs to one Mac. If your license came over to a new Mac with Migration Assistant or a backup, Botroost asks you to activate it there, with your key already filled in. If all your activations are in use, "Move to this Mac…" frees the old Mac's activation and activates this one (
broost license movedoes the same). - Clearer message when a key is already active on all of its Macs, and no more using two activations by activating from the app and
broostat the same moment. - Botroost no longer assumes you live in Austin. A new install starts from the main city of your Mac's time zone and asks you to confirm it or search for your own; existing installs that never picked a city move to their time-zone city too.
- The 24-hour clock now follows your Mac's own setting instead of °F/°C.
broost units 12h/24hchanges it;broost units C/Fno longer touches the clock. - The US market countdown knows the stock market's holidays and early closes for every year (it used to stop at 2027).
- Calendar plugin: recurring events, moved or cancelled occurrences, all-day events ("Today · all day") and events in other time zones now show correctly.
- Changes made with
broostand in Settings at the same moment no longer overwrite each other. - The three sample agents of a new install now step aside when your first real agent connects (ones you renamed or recolored stay).
- At most 48 agents: a 49th is refused with a clear message instead of crowding the hub.
broost token rotatereplaces the token your agents use for the local connection; the running app uses the new one right away. The Botroost data folder is now private to your user account, and plugin error files no longer keep API keys from web addresses.broost uninstallremoves Botroost cleanly: it shows what it will do first, puts your Dock and menu bar back, frees this Mac's activation and moves everything to the Trash (--keep-data,--keep-licenseto keep things).- The
broostcommand is no longer linked to a copy of the app running from the disk image. - Hiding the Dock or menu bar no longer freezes the hub while macOS asks for permission.
- Plugin status in Settings uses a symbol and words, not only color, and agent chips are labeled for VoiceOver.
broost locationchecks the coordinates and time zone before saving.- Setup guide (AGENTS.md) is now a template for extending Botroost with your own bots: a one-screen quick reference, a full local API reference with examples, and a step-by-step "your own panel" walkthrough.
- Connecting agents now lives in one place: Settings › Connect agents (also in the menu bar as "Connect AI agents…"). Settings › Agents links there.
- Clearer setup wording: Botroost works with agents that can run commands or make local web requests on your Mac, like Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and your own scripts. Chat-only apps can't reach your Mac.
0.3.5
- Botroost can now open at login (on by default). Turn it on or off in the last setup step or in Settings › General.
- Uses less power: half the frame rate on battery, a gentle 2 fps in Low Power Mode, and no drawing at all while paused, while your screens sleep, or on a display that's fully covered. Turn it off with "Use less power on battery" in Settings › General. Frame-rate changes now apply right away.
- Pause now stays paused. Waking the Mac or uncovering the desktop no longer resumes the animation on its own.
- Setup asks before hiding the Dock: nothing changes until you click Start at the end of setup.
- If settings.json can't be read (for example after a hand edit with a typo), Botroost keeps a copy of your file, starts with default settings and shows you where the copy is. Before, your agents could be lost.
- Agents that connect while Settings or setup is open now stay. Before, closing the window could remove them.
- Fixed a crash at launch when the same agent was listed twice, and a crash when an agent was removed while Settings was open.
- Steadier memory use when agent colors change often.
- Stronger protection for the local connection your agents use, and for data plugins: plugins get a time limit and can only fetch web addresses, and text from plugins and feeds is always shown as plain text.
- Updating from 0.3.3: if macOS still needs your OK to read the license an older version saved in the Keychain, the activation window now explains it and asks once. No more surprise password prompt.
- Changing to a different license key no longer gives up your current one until the new key is accepted.
- Only one copy of Botroost runs at a time. Opening it again brings up the running one.
- Data plugins that print a lot of output no longer hang.
- The download now includes a short "Can't open Botroost? Read me" note, and the install help leads with the step that works on macOS 15 and later (System Settings › Privacy & Security › Open Anyway).
broost versionis new, andbroost statusnow works before activation and shows the version, whether the app is running and whether this Mac is activated.broost feed todoaccepts a plain-text list (one item per line) as well as JSON, and a file that isn't valid JSON gets a clear message instead of a raw error.- Setup's Agents step now points to the right step for connecting your agents.
0.3.4
- Automatic updates: Botroost checks botroost.com for a new version once a day and installs it by itself with a quick restart of the hub (never while Settings is open). Every update is signed and verified before it installs.
- "Check for Updates…" in the menu bar menu and in Settings › General, with "Check for updates automatically (daily)" and "Download and install updates automatically" (both on by default).
- Your license, settings and agents stay as they are across updates. The license now lives in your Botroost data folder (readable only by you) instead of the Keychain, so updates never ask for your keychain password. 0.3.4 moves it over on first launch; if macOS asks to allow access to "Botroost license" that one time, allow it.
- One-time step: 0.3.3 and earlier can't update themselves, so install 0.3.4 by hand once (replace Botroost in Applications). Every later version arrives automatically.
0.3.3
- Sharp rendering on every display: native resolution at 1x/2x/3x, adapts live to monitor plug/unplug and scaling changes, per-monitor sharpness, no stretching on any aspect ratio.
- Fixed the hub constantly refreshing: one persistent view per display, updates in place, reloads only after a real crash.
- Welcome step: removed the company-name quick add; added "Connect an agent" instructions with a copyable template (also in Settings › Agents).
- New "Hide the Dock while Botroost runs" option (on by default, restored on quit), plus an optional menu-bar auto-hide.
- The app installs/repairs the
broostcommand at ~/.local/bin/broost on launch. - Setup guide (AGENTS.md): generic example names, zsh-safe commands, a tip for remote agents to allow broost commands once.
0.3.2
- Style renamed to "Supernova".
- Tester build flavor that accepts Lemon Squeezy test-mode keys (never shipped to customers).
- All sales final: refund promises removed; a discreet note shown at activation.
- License activation through Lemon Squeezy; unlicensed apps show only the activation window.
- Automatic agent color matching (self-report, Grok Bot/JSON/YAML importers).
- SwiftUI Settings, 60-second onboarding, small-screen layouts, local HTTP API,
broostCLI, data providers and AGENTS.md guide.