DA Vibe Manager 0.1.0b4

The fourth public beta of DA Vibe Manager, a package manager for vibe-coded apps: tell it what
you wish an open-source app could do, and an AI builds you a version that does it. Then it keeps
that app up to date like any other software, carrying your changes over to each new release.

Warning

Beta. Expect rough edges, and use it at your own risk. Read every command it asks to run,
and every change it hands you, before you say yes.

What's new in 0.1.0b4

A round of fixes to the window, from using it: things that got in the way of reading a build,
answering the assistant and changing settings.

• A build's buttons stay in view. A finished build's card is tall (what's new, what was tested,
  the checklist, screenshots), and Install was often out of sight below it. Now Try it
  first, Install and What changed? stay at the bottom of the view while any part of the
  card is on screen, in the chat and in My apps.
• The window opens at the size you left it. It is larger by default (540 × 880), never larger
  than your screen, and remembers the size you resize it to. A backup treats that as this computer's
  own, like where apps are installed.
• What you opened stays open. Expanding the steps list, a step's output, "What it got", "What
  was tested", an app's update schedule or its earlier builds used to collapse again at the next
  word the assistant wrote or the next step of a build. It stays open now.
• The chat stays where you're reading. A settings change or a background refresh no longer
  scrolls the chat to the end; only a new chat does. A settings field you are typing in (your API
  key, a mirror's address) is no longer wiped by a refresh behind it.
• Settings can't put you back on the setup screen. Saving an empty model under "Something else"
  used to throw you onto the first-run screen, and a memory limit that wasn't one (say, "lots")
  stayed in the running settings until it could do harm. A refused setting now changes nothing, and
  the install folder has to be a full path of its own.
• The box to write in asks the right thing. In a chat about improving an app it kept falling
  back to "Ask anything about your computer…" after each keystroke.
• Escape closes any dialog, wherever the focus is. Before, it only worked from a field inside it.
• "Something's wrong" after a try goes to the app's own chat (the one the build came from, or a
  new one about the app), with the panel closed so you can see it, instead of quietly filling the
  box of whatever chat happened to be open. It works from another chat just notes it.
• The window or the browser is a choice in Settings (Settings → This app), from the next
  start. Before, the browser could only be set from the command line.
• New chat from the tray says why when the assistant is busy, rather than doing nothing.
• A Podman command that takes too long can't hang the app any more. If the sandbox took too long
  to start, the app could wait forever on output something it had started still held open, leaving
  the status line on "Starting its sandbox…" for good. It now stops waiting.
• The gateway closes each outgoing connection of the sandbox's fully once it is done.

Install

Download DAVibeManager-0.1.0b4-x86_64.AppImage, make it executable and run it:

chmod +x DAVibeManager-0.1.0b4-x86_64.AppImage
./DAVibeManager-0.1.0b4-x86_64.AppImage

It needs x86-64 Linux: Ubuntu 24.04 / Mint 22, Debian 13, or a current Fedora, Arch, CachyOS or
Omarchy, with rootless Podman for the sandbox and WebKitGTK for its window:

Distribution
Ubuntu, Mint, Debian	sudo apt install podman gir1.2-webkit2-4.1
Fedora	sudo dnf install podman webkit2gtk4.1
Arch, CachyOS	sudo pacman -S podman passt webkit2gtk-4.1
Omarchy	sudo pacman -S podman passt (it has WebKitGTK)

If Podman is missing, the first screen offers to install it. You need a
NanoGPT API key; it goes to your system keyring and never into the
sandbox. The first start prepares the sandbox, which takes a few minutes and a few GB of disk.

Coming from an earlier beta: run the new AppImage in place of the old one (or let Gear Lever or
Shelly replace it). Your settings, apps, chats and sandbox carry on as they are; nothing in the
sandbox changed in this release, so it starts as it was.

The README says what it is; the
manual covers the rest.

Verify

sha256sum -c DAVibeManager-0.1.0b4-x86_64.AppImage.sha256

SHA-256: 61a82802188fdf4d9c4fcc9faa059c6d324b294df29146a43e92432f2a74f30e

The AppImage is reproducible: check out the v0.1.0b4 tag and run
packaging/build-appimage.sh build (rootless Podman) to get the same bytes. See
packaging/README.md.

Known limitations

• Building costs money, and nobody can tell how much until the AI has read the app's code:
  on a model paid per use, a few dollars for a simple fix, $50 or more for a big change. Ask it
  how big a change is first, and set a spending limit on your NanoGPT key.
• What you send the assistant could leave your computer. Its sandbox reaches public websites
  (it needs to, to download code and tools), and what a program there sends over HTTPS can't be
  seen from outside. The app keeps your data out of its own web searches, but treat command
  output and attached files you send as shared.
• Preparing the sandbox depends on Ubuntu's snapshot server, which can be slow: the first
  start can take well over a few minutes when it is. It waits out short outages and says what's
  happening; for longer ones, choose another package source in Settings.
• Changes to the desktop itself (the file manager, the panel) work less well than changes
  to an ordinary app, and need a rebuild with every update. Below the desktop (drivers, system
  services) it doesn't build at all.
• Built apps run on systems as new as Ubuntu 24.04 (the sandbox's base), and newer.
• A shared app's claim to be a newer version can't be verified, so updating from one is
  never chosen for you: take it when you know who sent it.
• The second opinions and the reviewer of shared apps are aids, not guarantees.
• NanoGPT is the only provider set up on the first screen. Linux and x86-64 only, and apps are
  delivered as AppImages, add-ons or source code: no Flatpaks yet.

Feedback

Bugs and ideas: issues. Security
problems: please report privately as described in
SECURITY.md, not in
an issue.

Licensed AGPL-3.0-or-later.