v1.1.3

NetWatch v1.1.3

• Updated Electron, Axios, and supporting dependencies to address security vulnerabilities.
• Fixed remaining npm audit findings in fast-uri and Joi.

No feature or interface changes.

v1.1.2

NetWatch v1.1.2

Added

• Added optional Windows startup with normal or minimized-to-tray launch.
• Added Ctrl+K and / search shortcuts on Home, Discover, Settings, and search results.
• Added navigation history using mouse Back/Forward and Alt+Left/Alt+Right.
• Added copyable, privacy-respecting runtime diagnostics.

Changed

• Fixed the runtime status button so clicking it again closes the diagnostics panel.
• Improved detection and labeling of unavailable runtime services.
• Preserved title details and loading state while navigating backward and forward.
• Replaced shell-built renderer commands with isolated Electron utility processes.
• Improved startup-setting rollback when Windows login-item configuration fails.
• Updated release documentation.

v1.1.1

NetWatch v1.1.1

Added

• Added a cinematic Home layout for the Home screen with larger 16:9 backdrop cards.
• Added a compact layout button for switching between the standard and cinematic Home layouts.
• Home layout selection is remembered between launches.
• Added an X button to remove individual titles from Keep Watching. Removal updates the cache immediately.

Improved

• Removed the opaque strip beneath the Home search bar. Home banners can now scroll naturally behind the search bar.

Fixed

• When set to minimize to tray, closing from the player saves the current timestamp, exits playback, performs cleanup, and minimizes NetWatch instead of terminating the application.

Internal changes

• Refactored the Electron main.js process into smaller modules for the desktop shell, runtime, setup, settings, IPC, backend access, and WSL management.
• Split player session management into separate window, progress, and subtitle controllers.

v1.1.0

NetWatch 1.1.0

NetWatch 1.1.0 adds background operation, shared Keep Watching history, improved anime release matching, and the PC-side support required by NetWatch Android 1.0.0.

Background operation

• Added an optional Minimize to tray action for the main window's close button.
• Left-clicking the tray icon restores and focuses NetWatch.
• Right-clicking the tray icon opens a menu with Exit NetWatch, which closes the player, stops the remote gateway and backend, and terminates the application.
• Added On Close in Settings with Minimize to tray and Exit choices. Exit remains the default.
• Added single-instance handling so launching NetWatch again restores the existing window instead of starting another copy.

Keep Watching

• Added a Keep Watching row to Home with the normal title artwork and metadata, the last-watched date and time, and a purple playback-progress bar.
• Movies resume from the saved position. TV and anime resume the saved season and episode from the saved position.
• Resume automatically selects the first release allowed by the user's default quality setting. A 1080p limit will not select a 2160p release.
• Playback from the Windows and Android players updates the same history stored on the PC.
• New entries are recorded after 30 seconds of playback and are removed after reaching 95 percent.
• Added a Settings option for 1 to 20 cached titles. The default is 5.
• Disabling Keep Watching asks for confirmation and permanently deletes the saved history.
• History records contain only the catalog ID, title, season and episode when applicable, playback position and duration, and the last-updated time. Torrent names, release references, magnets, artwork, and full title metadata are not stored.

Anime release matching

• Added optional AniList identity matching while keeping TMDB as the catalog and metadata source.
• Added support for Romaji, English, native, and known alternate titles when searching indexers.
• Added installment matching for anime whose TMDB season numbering does not match release naming.
• Added support for season/episode, installment-local, and absolute episode numbering.
• Added a bounded recovery search when a release clearly links an alternate season coordinate to the requested absolute episode.
• Added support for anime films and OVAs. A one-episode OVA is handled as a movie; an OVA with multiple episodes is handled as TV.
• Matching remains limited to a confirmed title identity and episode coordinate so similarly named series, specials, recaps, packs, and unrelated releases are not accepted.
• AniList errors or rate limits do not block the existing TMDB-based fallback searches.
• Added bounded positive and negative AniList caches to reduce repeated lookups.

Settings and resource use

• Reorganized the Remote Access settings so status, network selection, port, actions, pairing, and paired devices use consistent alignment.
• Added Resource usage profiles:
  • Standard keeps the normal torrent concurrency, connection limits, 32 MiB range lookahead, and 8 GiB buffer ceiling.
  • Reduced lowers torrent concurrency and connection limits, uses a 16 MiB range lookahead, and lowers the buffer ceiling to 4 GiB.
• Changing the resource profile now confirms that streaming services will restart, applies the change, verifies VPN isolation, and restores the previous profile if startup fails.
• Added an in-app FlareSolverr switch. FlareSolverr remains off unless an indexer needs it.
• Stored desktop settings are validated and written atomically.

Android support

• Added remote Keep Watching listing, resume, and playback-progress endpoints.
• Added automatic release selection with the PC's configured quality ceiling.
• Added artwork and subtitle proxying through the pinned remote gateway instead of exposing backend service ports.
• Added download speed, buffer state, and connected-peer data for the Android player's Network panel.
• Added ordered progress updates so delayed reports from an older playback session cannot overwrite newer history.
• Added torrent-session leases so one remote playback session cannot remove a torrent still used by another session.

Fixes and reliability

• Fixed production builds using development user-data and cache locations.
• Fixed transient backend or torrent-status interruptions ending an otherwise valid player preparation attempt.
• Fixed remote asset requests that could remain open after the phone disconnected or the backend response ended early.
• Added size limits and approved-path checks for artwork and subtitle responses sent through Remote Access.
• Added stricter validation for device names, playback requests, progress reports, catalog IDs, and release references.
• Limited metadata, AniList, and anime-identity caches to prevent unbounded memory or disk growth.
• Updated torrent-engine resource limits to follow the selected resource profile.
• Updated Remote Access, network security, packaging, and build documentation.

Repository

• Added Git LFS tracking for the bundled mpv.exe binary.
• Removed development-only test scripts, test suites, test dependencies, and player smoke hooks from the release source tree.
• Removed stale Android build instructions from the Windows repository and linked the separate Android repository instead.

Compatibility

• Windows 11 x64 23H2 or newer.
• NetWatch Android 1.0.0 requires this release or newer.
• Existing NetWatch settings, provider credentials, and runtime data are preserved during upgrade.

v1.0.9

NetWatch 1.0.9

• Added secure remote access for Android clients.
• Added QR code and manual pairing.
• Added pinned HTTPS connections over private IPv4 interfaces.
• Added remote catalog, search, playback, episode and subtitle APIs.
• Added session expiry, request limits and security diagnostics.
• Added remote access configuration to Settings.
• Updated application dependencies and runtime metadata.

v1.0.8

NetWatch v1.0.8

Security

• Hardened SubDL subtitle downloads against server-side request forgery.
• Added manual redirect validation for subtitle downloads.
• Added DNS pinning for validated subtitle download hosts.
• Prevented SubDL API credentials from being forwarded across redirect origins.
• Rejected private, loopback, and otherwise unsafe redirect destinations.
• Hardened torrent storage paths so runtime save directories are generated internally instead of being derived from request-controlled values.
• Added bounds and escaping for dynamic season and episode regex inputs.
• Replaced TMDB image filename regex validation with fixed length, character, and extension checks.
• Added CodeQL suppression for sanitized setup-state logging that does not expose credential values.

Fixed

• Fixed remaining unsafe redirect handling in SubDL download paths.
• Fixed CodeQL path-traversal findings by removing request-derived torrent save-directory names.
• Fixed regex-injection and regex-complexity findings in metadata handling.

Internal

• Added regression tests for private-address subtitle redirects.
• Added regression tests confirming SubDL credentials are stripped on cross-origin redirects.
• Added regression coverage for generated torrent save directories.
• Added metadata validation coverage for bounded season, episode, and image inputs.
• Application version updated to 1.0.8.
• Runtime marker updated to 1.0.8-pkg40.

v1.0.7

NetWatch 1.0.7

Changed

• Reorganized the VPN section in Settings for clearer grouping and alignment.
• Renamed the VPN Test action to Test connection.
• Simplified the README and supporting documentation to remove repeated explanations and unnecessary implementation detail.
• Consolidated native helper and mpv provenance documentation into their existing README files.
• Simplified packaging documentation.
• Simplified the network threat model while preserving the current security model.
• Updated documentation and release references for 1.0.7.

Cleanup

• Removed the top-level tests/ folder.
• Removed DESIGN_SYSTEM.md.
• Removed SECURITY_PATCH_NOTES.md.
• Removed packaging/write-sha256.js.
• Removed the obsolete release checklist from packaging/PACKAGING.md.
• Removed separate BUILD-PROVENANCE.md files after merging their useful content into the corresponding README files.
• Removed an unused duplicate NetWatch icon.
• Removed unused Electron helper/export code.
• Removed unused Python imports.
• Removed stale torrent compatibility fields with no remaining consumers.
• Removed an obsolete URL-validation compatibility wrapper.
• Removed stale signing logic from the prerequisite-helper build script.
• Removed stale development, candidate, and version-specific comments.
• Removed unused CSS left over from older UI and player implementations.
• Excluded backend test files and smoke-test scripts from packaged runtime/container build contexts while keeping the source files available for development.
• Normalized native Go helper builds with -buildvcs=false to avoid embedding stale local Git metadata.
• Corrected mpv runtime lookup documentation.

Fixed

• Fixed the VPN Settings controls being visually scattered across the section.
• Fixed stale documentation references to removed files and outdated build behavior.
• Fixed native helper provenance builds depending on local Git checkout metadata.

v1.0.6

NetWatch 1.0.6

Changed

• OpenSubtitles is now optional during first-run setup.
• SubDL is now optional during first-run setup.
• OpenSubtitles and SubDL can be added or replaced later from Settings.
• Settings now shows whether API credentials are configured.
• TMDB API keys must be exactly 32 characters.
• Prowlarr API keys must be exactly 32 characters.
• OpenSubtitles API keys must be exactly 32 characters.
• SubDL API keys must be exactly 49 characters total.
• SubDL input now uses a fixed subdl_ prefix and accepts exactly 43 characters after it.
• Invalid credential lengths are rejected before provider validation.
• Optional subtitle providers now use a normal not configured state when no key is present.
• Missing subtitle credentials no longer block first-run completion.
• Tracks/subtitle UI now handles unconfigured online subtitle providers cleanly.
• Runtime marker updated to 1.0.6-pkg39.

Fixed

• Fixed first-run setup getting stuck on the Ready screen when Prowlarr was already configured and TMDB/subtitle credentials were validated afterward.
• Fixed optional subtitle credentials being treated as mandatory setup requirements.
• Fixed missing optional subtitle providers being reported as configuration failures.
• Fixed replacement API credentials potentially affecting an existing working configuration before validation.

Removed

• Removed SECURITY_PATCH_NOTES.md from the repository.

v1.0.5

NetWatch 1.0.5

Fixed

• Fixed buffering screen not appearing during large seeks.
• Fixed stream options possibly becoming unclickable after upgrading from 1.0.4.
• Fixed stale packaged runtime detection during upgrades.
• Fixed Prowlarr download URLs exposing API keys to the frontend.
• Fixed DNS rebinding gap in external URL validation.
• Fixed incomplete VPN kill-switch verification.
• Fixed unrestricted player/runtime IPC access between Electron windows.
• Fixed oversized and malformed torrent/search requests reaching backend services.
• Fixed unbounded remote response reads in subtitle and metadata downloads.
• Fixed subtitle cache memory limits.
• Fixed rate-limit bypasses on dynamic metadata routes.
• Fixed VPN peers being able to reach internal control ports inside the VPN namespace.
• Fixed swallowed torrent-engine errors that made debugging failures difficult.
• Replaced the remaining runtime assert guard with explicit error handling.

Removed

• Removed the obsolete /await-ready torrent endpoint.
• Removed unused torrent, metadata, Prowlarr, and subtitle compatibility code.
• Removed stale backend development and architecture references.

Changed

• Search results now use temporary backend release references instead of exposing provider download URLs.
• Player window now uses a restricted preload and sender-validated IPC.
• Added stricter validation for torrent hashes, search inputs, request sizes, and numeric limits.
• Added rate limiting to TMDB-backed metadata, season, and stream-option routes.
• Added explicit firewall rules blocking VPN-side access to ports 8000, 8081, 8191, and 9696.
• Improved VPN firewall verification to check the expected rules and ordering.
• NetWatch backend and torrent-engine containers now drop Linux capabilities and disallow privilege escalation.
• Updated security and network documentation to match the current runtime architecture.

Upgrade Notes

• Upgrading from 1.0.4 may require re-importing the WireGuard configuration once.

v1.0.4

v1.0.4

Hardens Windows prerequisite setup and improves compatibility with endpoint security software.

Changes

• Replaced the PowerShell-based WSL, Ubuntu, and Docker prerequisite flow with a fixed-purpose native Windows helper.
• Removed PowerShell from NetWatch's prerequisite installation path.
• Added installer heartbeat and interruption detection so blocked or terminated setup operations are reported instead of hanging or being mistaken for success.
• Added stronger Ubuntu provisioning checks to distinguish a registered distro from a fully initialized and usable installation.
• Added a safe recovery flow for incomplete Ubuntu first-run setup.
• Preserved NetWatch's existing UAC boundary: Setup remains unelevated and requests elevation only for required WSL machine servicing.
• Preserved Docker download restrictions and Windows signature verification before installation.
• Improved handling of partially completed prerequisite installations without automatically resetting or unregistering user data.
• Updated installer and security documentation for the native prerequisite architecture.

The new prerequisite flow was validated on a clean Windows system with Malwarebytes Real-Time and Exploit Protection enabled at aggressive detection settings.