Worklings 0.1.0-alpha.8

Apple Silicon prerelease (build 8). The combat update — the Cache Warren finally has teeth and a soundtrack.

What's new

• ⚔️ Distinct foes. Each encounter now fights differently: Snag grabs and snares your Agility, Flicker blurs and phases out of the way (then over-extends into an Unleash opening), and the Monolith mini-boss telegraphs a heavy Slam and hardens its armour at HP thresholds — on top of a new status-effect system.
• 🔊 Full combat audio. A driving dungeon soundtrack with a separate boss theme, a distinct cue for every action (hit, crit, slam, dodge, snare, telegraph…), a victory fanfare, and a mute toggle + volume slider in the paw menu.
• ✨ Combat feel. Fixed the combatants sliding sideways, and the action announcement now holds through the countdown and the swing so it reads.
• 🐾 Fight any foe. A per-foe picker under "Enter the Cache Warren" lets you take on each encounter (and the boss) directly.
• 🧱 Portable core. The game engine is now free of Apple-only frameworks — groundwork for future platforms.

Install

Unsigned-for-distribution alpha: on first launch, right-click the app and choose Open, then confirm — or use System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. Do not disable Gatekeeper globally.

Verify the download:

shasum -a 256 -c Worklings-0.1.0-alpha.8-macos-arm64.dmg.sha256

Worklings 0.1.0-alpha.7

Apple Silicon prerelease (build 7). Adds the first playable dungeon encounter — the Cache Warren vertical slice — end to end, from a deterministic combat engine to a juiced-up face-off arena.

What's new

• Enter the Cache Warren. A new paw-menu delve takes your Workling off the desktop and into a dungeon arena for its first fight — against a Dungeon Scamp — then returns it when the fight ends. Unlocks at level 3 once your Workling is cared for.
• A face-off arena. The Workling and its foe stand off over a painted cave backdrop with a drifting parallax atmosphere, posed beat by beat — striking, recoiling, bracing, unleashing — with real family sprites.
• Combat that reads and hits. A 3-2-1 countdown builds anticipation before each action; impact juice (shake, flash, rising damage numbers, crits) lands every hit; scene-setting narration now shows in a centered banner distinct from the combatants' speech bubbles, and each line holds long enough to read.
• A clean finish. The loser puffs away in smoke at the moment of defeat, and a winner-only Victory/Defeat screen shows the exit tier and XP earned.
• Under the hood. A seeded, fully deterministic combat engine (Strike / Brace / Signature, approaches, exit tiers, and reward write-back) with 633 automated checks.

Install

Unsigned-for-distribution alpha: on first launch, right-click the app and choose Open, then confirm — or use System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. Do not disable Gatekeeper globally.

Verify the download:

shasum -a 256 -c Worklings-0.1.0-alpha.7-macos-arm64.dmg.sha256

Worklings 0.1.0-alpha.6

Apple Silicon prerelease (build 6). Hardens the in-app tool connector after two rounds of audit, so wiring Worklings into Claude Code / Codex — and removing it — is safe end to end.

What's new

• Deleting the app leaves no errors. The hooks Worklings writes are now guarded, so if you drag the app to the Trash the leftover hook does nothing (no more "command not found" errors in your tools) instead of failing every turn. Cleaning up first is still tidier — see below.
• One-click removal + clear status. A new Disconnect All Tools removes every Worklings hook from both tools in one step (each config backed up first). The paw menu now distinguishes a live connection, one whose app has moved ("Reconnect — adapter moved", one click to repoint), and a config it can't read.
• Informed, per-tool consent. The first time you connect a tool, a dialog states exactly which file changes (backed up first), what Worklings receives (an activity kind, source, and time — never a prompt, diff, path, or any content), that it all stays on your Mac, and how to disconnect. Remembered per tool.
• Connecting is the opt-in. The old "Accept Work Tool Events" toggle is gone; connecting a tool is itself the opt-in, exactly like connecting a repo.
• Safer config writes. Backups and atomic writes now also survive another program editing the file at the same moment, and an unreadable config is never mistaken for "nothing connected."

Install

Unsigned-for-distribution alpha: on first launch, right-click the app and choose Open, then confirm — or use System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. Do not disable Gatekeeper globally.

To remove cleanly later, use Disconnect All Tools in the paw menu before deleting Worklings.

Verify the download:

shasum -a 256 -c Worklings-0.1.0-alpha.6-macos-arm64.dmg.sha256

Worklings 0.1.0-alpha.5

Apple Silicon prerelease (build 5). Brings activity awareness from your dev tools — Claude Code, Codex, and local git — plus a one-tap way to wire it up from the paw menu.

What's new

• Agent-tool activity. Claude Code and Codex feed the Workling real lifecycle events (work started / task completed / work ended, plus "awaiting input" for Claude). The adapters drain and discard the tool's payload without reading it — no prompt, diff, or path ever leaves the tool.
• One-tap in-app connector. "Connect Claude Code" / "Connect Codex" in the paw menu write the tool wiring for you — parsing and backing up your existing config, merging without disturbing your other keys or hooks, and offering a clean disconnect. No config-file editing. (Codex hooks need a one-time /hooks approval inside Codex to activate.)
• Local-git source. Commits in repos connected from the paw menu ("Connected Repos") earn milestone XP, watched in-app via FSEvents. Detection reads only commit SHAs and ancestry — never a message, diff, or path. Repeated commits the same day taper toward a daily cap.
• Reaction throttle. A burst of activity celebrates once instead of stuttering; XP still accrues per event.

Activity intake is off by default — enable "Accept Work Tool Events" in the paw menu.

Hardening

Three audit rounds. Never hang the app, brick a system, or wreck a git/Codex/Claude session: every git call is bounded and off the main thread; config writes are backed up, atomic, and refuse rather than overwrite unfamiliar structure; the connector owns only its own Worklings-namespaced hooks and cleans them up even after the app is moved; and release packaging is verified end-to-end.

Install

Unsigned-for-distribution alpha: on first launch, right-click the app and choose Open, then confirm — or use System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. Do not disable Gatekeeper globally.

Verify the download:
```
shasum -a 256 -c Worklings-0.1.0-alpha.5-macos-arm64.dmg.sha256
```

Worklings 0.1.0-alpha.4

Apple Silicon (arm64) prerelease. Requires macOS 14 or newer.

What's new

Progression system

• XP, levels, class, and class-weighted stat growth earned from real activity and care.
• A condition multiplier: XP accrues faster when your Workling's wellbeing is high — the coupling between caring for your pet and its progression. Now visible as a "Learning at N%" line under the XP bar.
• Care card split into Condition and Stats tabs, plus class selection.

Activity inbox (off by default)

• A new "Accept Work Tool Events" menu toggle opens a local, content-free channel that external dev tools can feed activity into. Validated so it can't be spoofed; nothing but event kind, source, and time is read. Groundwork for future Codex / Claude Code / git adapters.

Fixes

• Focus-session XP measured by real event timestamps; idle time no longer counts as focus; daily caps charged to the correct day; inbox drain moved off the main thread.

Install

The app is ad-hoc signed, not notarized, so first launch is blocked by Gatekeeper. Right-click the app and choose Open, or use System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.

Verify your download against the attached .sha256.

SHA-256: 3631542dbec548f83d28826c829fc9a0baf40c523db2ccaf1ae9ea2fe9e6987f

Worklings 0.1.0-alpha.3

Real activity awareness lands: dailyWake and a permission-free presence monitor now drive real reactions (not just simulated ones), with a two-tier away-Trust rate so a long absence never silently stops mattering. Also in this release:

• Log Work — the first self-reported activity source, with a fixed reward gated by a cooldown and a daily cap.
• Focus Session — the first real workStarted/workEnded trigger, driving the existing working-drain multiplier from a real action.
• Rename your Workling — via the paw menu or an inline pencil-icon editor in the care card.
• A persistent name pill below the pet, visible at all times.

Signing is ad-hoc, not notarized. First launch will likely be blocked by Gatekeeper — right-click the app and choose Open, or use System Settings > Privacy & Security > Open Anyway.

SHA-256: 26062175dc299bc48951a0543b8c2df6fe643f2739e7ba3ee5c98731c79f7765

Worklings 0.1.0-alpha.2

The first Worklings-branded prerelease. The previous v0.1.0-alpha.1 asset predates the rename and still installs Build Companion; this release replaces it as the supported download.

What's included

• Three selectable Workling families — Wildkin (moss-fox), Elemental (ember-newt), and Relicborn (keyback pangolin) — switchable from the menu bar without resetting care progress.
• Magical smoke transitions on launch, wake, tuck-away, and family switches, with an instant swap when Reduce Motion is on.
• Opt-in single-display idle roaming with walking frames and a pause control.
• Fullness, Energy, Happiness, and Trust needs with favourite food and play preferences, hover summaries, and a clickable care card.
• Versioned local JSON persistence with capped offline progression and automatic copy-forward of a legacy Build Companion save.

Requirements

• macOS 14 or newer, Apple Silicon (arm64).

Install

1. Download the .dmg and matching .dmg.sha256.
2. Optionally verify: shasum -a 256 --check Worklings-0.1.0-alpha.2-macos-arm64.dmg.sha256
3. Open the DMG and drag Worklings to Applications.
4. The app is ad-hoc signed, not notarized: open it from Finder's context menu and confirm Open, or use System Settings > Privacy & Security > Open Anyway. Do not disable Gatekeeper globally.

Upgrading from Build Companion: quit the old app, install Worklings, launch it once and confirm your pet's state was copied forward, then remove the old app.

SHA-256: ba0b05e2a5c5df0e23ceb831324f2555e5a78ba343fee216286883d14914b427

Build Companion 0.1.0-alpha.1

First experimental macOS alpha.

• Floating desktop companion with persistent needs and care interactions.
• Hover status, pet care card, and menu-bar controls.
• Apple Silicon and macOS 14 or newer.

This build is ad-hoc signed and is not Apple-notarized. Follow the README first-launch instructions. Pet balance and visuals remain experimental.