v0.4.1

Nexus v0.4.1 — Companion UI, Settings, and Reliability Hardening

v0.4.1 is the first stable follow-up to the v0.4 desktop companion awareness
foundation. It does not turn Nexus into an autonomous work agent and it does not
start the v0.5 desktop-pet window-control line. This release focuses on making
the companion surface, Settings, release checks, and privacy boundaries easier
to trust before the next product layer ships.

Highlights

• Companion UI source organization — the panel, composer, message, dial,
  collapsed, rhythm, motion, and visual-lock styles are split into focused
  source files so the companion surface can keep evolving without turning the
  main stylesheet into one large edit point.
• Settings surface hardening — Settings gets clearer source structure,
  source-only surface audits, and an explicit options architecture document so
  the Settings UI can follow the chat surface without hiding too much behavior
  in one component.
• Settings drawer performance guard — the Settings drawer entry stays lazy.
  Styles load as a dedicated CSS chunk and the lazy JS entry remains tiny, so
  opening Settings does not reintroduce raw CSS string injection or push large
  Settings rules onto the startup path.
• Image4 companion field guardrails — Image4 panel state, signal rendering,
  activity labels, composer state, visual rhythm, and color boundaries now have
  source-level contracts and tests.
• Custom companion-name wake word sync — companion-name changes now have a
  dedicated wake-word synchronization layer so future voice wake behavior can
  track user naming choices without importing app-level code into feature
  modules.
• Runtime privacy and redaction hardening — desktop context, message
  privacy, vault, support logs, runtime log sanitization, memory-vector support
  buffers, and network-error redaction are covered by stricter source-only
  audits.
• Release upload prep — docs/GITHUB_UPLOAD_PREP.md records the intended PR
  framing, review order, performance baseline, and verification commands for
  this large v0.4.1 review branch.

What Changed

UI and Settings

• Split the companion panel CSS into focused modules under
  src/app/styles/panel-companion*.css.
• Added the Image4 companion field, rhythm grid, signal, activity label, chat
  preview, companion state, and composer state modules.
• Added Settings surface reference docs, options architecture docs, and source
  audits for Settings, chat, composer, forms, focus management, streaming, and
  agent-activity surfaces.
• Kept local UI QA screenshots and metrics out of the repository through the
  docs/ui-qa/ ignore rule; source-backed review docs stay committed instead.

Performance

• Changed src/app/settingsDrawerEntry.ts so Settings styles are imported as
  normal lazy CSS resources rather than bundled as raw CSS strings in JavaScript.
• Expanded scripts/performance-baseline.mjs with separate budgets for:
  • total CSS
  • largest CSS chunk
  • initial CSS chunk
  • Settings drawer lazy CSS
  • Settings drawer lazy JS entry
• Added failure checks when the Settings lazy CSS or lazy JS entry disappears,
  because that usually means Settings styles moved back into the startup path.
• Updated docs/PACKAGE_STARTUP_OPTIMIZATION.md with the new baseline:
  Settings drawer lazy CSS at about 554 KB and Settings drawer lazy JS entry at
  about 0.1 KB.

Companion Awareness and Voice Boundaries

• Kept desktop companion awareness focused on coarse, privacy-bounded summaries.
• Preserved the v0.4 rule that time language should feel approximate and
  companion-like, not stopwatch-like.
• Added or tightened tests for coarse time labels, localized exact-time leak
  detection, check-in policy behavior, summary storage, and transparency view
  models.
• Added a companion wake-word synchronization layer for custom companion names.

Privacy, Security, and Release Checks

• Added runtime log sanitization and memory-vector support log buffering with
  redaction-focused tests.
• Split error-redaction audit phrases and rules into focused source files.
• Extended message privacy, desktop context privacy, vault security, and network
  error-redaction audits.
• Added or expanded source-only release, storage, IPC, architecture, and
  boundary audit fixture tests.
• Updated verify:pr so the new UI, privacy, performance, and release gates run
  together.

Still Out of Scope

v0.4.1 does not include:

• external proactive notifications
• message sending
• tool execution without explicit user action
• productivity scoring
• raw desktop activity timelines
• new sensing sources
• pet mouse-following, typing-following, or desktop-window control
• a new public release process beyond the v0.4.1 tag and GitHub Release

Those remain later v0.4.x or v0.5 work.

Distribution Notes

Until Nexus has signed installers and notarized macOS distribution, manual
installs may still show platform trust prompts:

• macOS may show Gatekeeper or quarantine warnings. If you intentionally
  downloaded Nexus from the official GitHub Release, remove quarantine only for
  that downloaded app bundle.
• Windows may show SmartScreen warnings because the installer is not yet backed
  by broad code-signing reputation.

Do not download installers from mirrors or reposted archives.

Verification

The local upload-prep checks for this branch passed before promotion to the
v0.4.1 candidate:

git diff --check
npm run source-size:audit
npm run performance:baseline
npm run distribution:audit
npm run verify:pr
npm audit --omit=dev

Before publishing the final GitHub Release, run the release gates on the final
pushed commit:

npm run verify:release
npm run prerelease-check -- v0.4.1
npm run package:dir:smoke