BioRouter v1.88.0

BioRouter v1.88.0 Release Notes

Release date: July 14, 2026

Repository: github.com/BaranziniLab/BioRouter

BioRouter v1.88.0 is a broad reliability, safety, performance, and interface
release across the desktop app, terminal UI, agent runtime, Agent Drafter,
headless server, and cross-platform distribution pipeline. It makes long-running
agent work more controllable, reports usage more honestly, brings generated
artifacts directly into chat, and gives every supported window size a complete,
calmer workspace.

There are no required configuration migrations. Existing settings, sessions,
extensions, skills, workflows, knowledge bases, and usage history are preserved.

Downloads

Platform	File	Install
macOS Apple Silicon	BioRouter-1.88.0-arm64.dmg	Open the DMG and drag BioRouter.app to /Applications
macOS Intel	BioRouter-1.88.0-x64.dmg	Open the DMG and drag BioRouter.app to /Applications
Windows x64	BioRouter-win32-x64-1.88.0.zip	Unzip and run BioRouter.exe
Linux desktop Debian / Ubuntu	biorouter_1.88.0_amd64.deb	sudo apt install ./biorouter_1.88.0_amd64.deb
Linux desktop Fedora / RHEL	BioRouter-1.88.0-1.x86_64.rpm	sudo dnf install ./BioRouter-1.88.0-1.x86_64.rpm
Linux CLI only Debian / Ubuntu	biorouter-cli_1.88.0_amd64.deb	sudo apt install ./biorouter-cli_1.88.0_amd64.deb
Linux CLI only Fedora / RHEL	biorouter-cli-1.88.0-1.x86_64.rpm	sudo dnf install ./biorouter-cli-1.88.0-1.x86_64.rpm
Headless Linux x64	biorouter-headless-linux-x64.tar.gz	Extract and follow docs/headless-linux.md

The macOS builds are signed and notarized with the UCSF Developer ID. The two
signed updater ZIPs and latest-mac.yml are also included for in-app updates.

Highlights

A steadier, more informative desktop

• Session history now appears immediately from a local cache and progressively
  reconciles with the daemon instead of blocking the view on a full fetch.
• Available updates live in a quiet sidebar action instead of interrupting work
  with a modal. macOS users on v1.86.0 or newer still get one-click restart and
  update.
• Generated file paths and supported URLs open directly in BioRouter's artifact
  preview, keeping the result and its originating conversation together.
• Editing a past message now creates one canonical divergence at the correct
  fork point, so branch lookup and replay remain consistent.
• Bundled tools have a clearer Capabilities surface in Settings, including
  permission inspection and configuration. Bundled local models also use names
  that distinguish the built-in Llama Server from Ollama.
• Usage Insights now includes durable per-model, per-day, cache-token, and
  month-to-date accounting. Partial or unknown pricing is labeled as incomplete
  rather than presented as a deceptively precise total.
• The home screen, Knowledge workspace, chat greetings, panels, tool cards,
  menus, tooltips, and compact window layouts were refined for quieter motion,
  complete controls, predictable wrapping, and responsive resizing. System
  Reduce Motion remains respected.

More controllable agent runs

• Per-reply wall-clock, token, and dollar budgets provide explicit limits for
  long agentic turns.
• Repetition, oscillation, repeated failures, and no-progress stalls are
  detected with staged soft-interrupt and hard-stop behavior instead of letting
  a loop run indefinitely.
• Reliable request-scoped cancellation, idempotent permission replies, and the
  restored soft-interrupt path make active work easier to stop without corrupting
  the session.
• Structured success checks, optional reflection and post-edit diagnostics,
  structured-output validation, persistent goals, living plans, active-work
  tracking, background subagent results, and shadow-git checkpoints improve
  recovery and make progress easier to inspect.
• Hooks can match tool input, rewrite requests before execution, block results
  afterward, and return aggregates. Permission rules can be scoped by directory
  and command prefix with clearer risk grades and call previews.
• Oversized messages and tool results use bounded previews and workspace-backed
  handles; context preparation now ranks injected material, preserves recent
  turns, validates compaction, and falls back progressively when a model window
  is exceeded.

Security and cross-platform hardening

• A central secret-redaction boundary and tool-output scanning reduce accidental
  credential, PII, and prompt-injection exposure.
• Shell execution uses an auditable command policy plus OS isolation: macOS
  Seatbelt and Linux Landlock/seccomp where available, with explicit behavior on
  Windows.
• ACP WebSocket authentication, app WebSocket origin checks, artifact-frame
  origins, rate limiting, secret comparison, Electron navigation, and external
  link handling were hardened.
• Shell working directories are validated before execution, Windows background
  processes receive graceful termination and PID-reuse protection, and native
  tests now preserve platform-specific paths, shells, hooks, and dependencies.
• One shared cross-compilation recipe now drives both CI and release builds.
  Cross-target Cargo outputs are isolated so simultaneous Linux and Windows
  builds cannot corrupt one another.

Faster chat, knowledge, and terminal rendering

• Desktop streaming batches text deltas to animation frames, and the terminal UI
  renders at a bounded frame rate instead of repainting for every token.
• Conversation repair and compaction avoid repeated full-history scans, while
  large transcripts share immutable data instead of copying it per turn.
• Knowledge search caches BM25 indexes and tree-sitter queries. MCP processes can
  be pooled across sessions, and desktop windows share a single daemon.
• Startup work for first-run skills and Soul installation moves to the
  background. Text-only replies skip unnecessary tool-response scans.
• The CLI/TUI keeps the v1.88.0 feature set aligned with desktop, including
  terminal chat, completion and model selection, usage reporting, diagnostics,
  web access, file-drop path handling, and biorouter doctor.

Agent Drafter and app SDK reliability

• The Agent Drafter contract is enforced throughout generation, validation,
  export, and runtime startup. Failures are visible, drag targets remain
  reachable, and generated apps are exercised by an executable smoke harness.
• The remediation work is grounded in a 100-app test drive and adds SDK
  integration, quality gates, standalone control-server hardening, safer app
  capabilities, and more dependable artifact previews.
• App SDK v2 and structured app output handling improve how generated tools
  declare capabilities, request permissions, and validate results.

Provider, model, and headless improvements

• GPT-5.6 model-family metadata is included, and each model carries its own
  context window so local and remote clients resolve capacity consistently.
• Cache-token capture and cache-aware pricing now cover Claude and Claude on
  Amazon Bedrock in addition to the broader usage-reporting pipeline.
• The browser-served headless package correctly rewrites code-split JavaScript,
  CSS, fonts, and other root-absolute assets when deployed behind a URL prefix.
• CLI-only and headless Linux distributions remain independent of Electron for
  server, HPC, container, and browser-only deployments.

Release verification

Before publication, the release artifacts are built from the v1.88.0 source and
run in their target environments. The gate covers:

• signed, notarized, and stapled Apple Silicon and Intel apps mounted from their
  DMGs, including packaged CLI/daemon version checks and desktop startup;
• Debian and RPM desktop installation, packaged CLI/daemon execution, and GUI
  startup under a virtual display;
• CLI-only Debian and RPM installation plus terminal entry-point checks;
• headless binary execution, browser bundle startup, health endpoint, and page
  fetch in a clean Linux container;
• Windows CLI, daemon, terminal entry point, and desktop startup on a native
  Windows GitHub-hosted runner;
• the complete desktop test suite, Rust CLI tests, version consistency, release
  architecture checks, and updater-manifest validation.

Upgrade notes

No configuration changes are required. macOS users on v1.86.0 or later can use
the in-app Restart & Update action. Everyone else can install the matching
package above over the current version.