FlowState 0.2.5

A project no longer arrives assuming you write code.

Changed

Adding a project no longer picks a code editor for you. It used to assign
VS Code — or Xcode if the folder looked like an Xcode project — so every new
project came with a button for an application you might never use and might not
have installed. A project now starts with Finder, Terminal and Edit.

Choose a main app whenever you want one. Press Edit, and the first row lets
you pick any Mac application: an editor, a writing tool, a design app, or
nothing at all. Picking one adds its button to the project and switches it on
for Launch, so it opens the first time you try.

Launch starts with Terminal. It is the one thing any folder can offer
without assuming what the work is. Everything else you switch on yourself, and
the panel on the right of the Edit window shows exactly what will open.

Projects you have already set up keep the application they were using. Nothing
changes for them.

Installing

Open the disk image and drag FlowState to Applications, replacing the older
copy. macOS asks once to confirm an app downloaded from the internet — that is
normal for anything not from the App Store.

macOS 15 or later · Apple silicon and Intel · signed and notarized.

FlowState 0.2.4

Setting up a project has been rebuilt, after someone said it was a lot to
take in.

Changed

It is one page instead of three steps. General, Quick Access and Launch
are gone. Everything a project contains is in a single list, and Save is
always available — changing a project's name no longer means clicking
Continue twice.

A panel shows exactly what Launch will do, in the order it will happen,
updating as you edit. No more working out what Launch does by remembering
what you set on two other pages.

The switch for "open this with Launch" now sits on the thing it opens.
Previously some of those switches were on a separate page, greyed out, telling
you to go back to an earlier step to enable them.

Each website gets its own switch. A project with a handbook and a
submission portal can open one every time without opening both.

Rows show the real app and file icons instead of generic glyphs, so you
can see at a glance that you picked the right application.

Problems are explained in place. A bad web address is marked as you type,
and the reason Save is unavailable sits next to the button rather than
appearing as an alert after you press it.

Fixed

Applications added to a project were shown with a folder icon. An app
bundle is technically a folder, and FlowState was checking for that first.

Nothing you have already set up changes.

Installing

Open the disk image and drag FlowState to Applications, replacing the older
copy. macOS asks once to confirm an app downloaded from the internet — that is
normal for anything not from the App Store.

macOS 15 or later · Apple silicon and Intel · signed and notarized.

FlowState 0.2.3

Appearance Studio has been rebuilt, after someone tried it for the first time
and could not tell what any of its controls did.

Changed

Every option now shows you what it does. Colours, edges, spacing and
typefaces are chosen from small previews of your actual panel, rather than
from words like "Soft" and "Subtle" that only make sense once you already know
what they mean. Whatever you pick also explains itself on the page.

Surface and Glass depth are now one "See-through" slider, from Solid to
Clear. They were two controls for the same thing, and Glass depth ran
backwards — turning it up gave you less glass. It was also greyed out unless
Surface was set to Glass, which looked like something was broken.

Reveal speed tells you the actual time, so Calm and Snappy are 364 ms and
182 ms rather than adjectives.

New

• Typeface — Default, Rounded, or Mono for the whole panel.
• Accent palette — ten accent colours in one click, alongside the colour
  picker.
• Tint wash — an optional fade of your accent colour down the panel.
• Drop shadow — on or off.

Nothing you have already set up changes. Saved themes keep the look they were
saved with, and a fresh install looks exactly as it did before.

Installing

Open the disk image and drag FlowState to Applications, replacing the older
copy. macOS asks once to confirm an app downloaded from the internet — that is
normal for anything not from the App Store.

macOS 15 or later · Apple silicon and Intel · signed and notarized.

FlowState 0.2.2

One fix, found while trying to demonstrate the feature to a tester.

Fixed

Themes can be imported again. Exporting a theme produced a file that
Import would not let you select. The app declared its own file type in
code but never declared a filename extension for it, so Save wrote a
.flowtheme file and Import then filtered for a type nothing on disk
could match — a theme could be sent to someone and never opened.

Themes are JSON, so they are now saved and opened as plain .json
files. A theme exported by 0.2.1 is already JSON inside: rename it to
end in .json and this build will import it.

Clearer

Corners had a preset menu and a radius slider setting the same number,
with no indication of which one won. The slider stays; it can express
everything the presets could.

"Motion" is now "Animation speed", which is what it changes, and it says
that Reduce Motion in macOS overrides it.

Installing

Open the disk image and drag FlowState to Applications, replacing the
older copy. macOS asks once to confirm an app downloaded from the
internet — that is normal for anything not from the App Store.

macOS 15 or later · Apple silicon and Intel · signed and notarized.

FlowState 0.2.1

Fixes found in the first user testing session.

Fixed

Configuring a project now works. Choosing a primary application closed
the configuration window and discarded every unsaved edit, so a project
could not actually be set up. The working folder and quick-access pickers
had the same fault.

Clearer

Reveal delay said "Quick", "Balanced" and "Deliberate", which describe a
mood rather than a duration. It now says how long the pointer has to rest
at the screen edge, in seconds.

My Themes never explained what a theme is or where one comes from. It now
says that a theme is every appearance setting under one name, that saving
produces a .flowstatetheme file, and that Import opens one you have been
sent.

The Launch page now explains that it decides what the Launch button does,
using the application chosen in General and the items added in Quick
Access.

Window arrangement, hide delay, and the theme controls gained hover
explanations.

Installing

Open the disk image and drag FlowState to Applications, replacing the
older copy. macOS asks once to confirm an app downloaded from the
internet — that is normal for anything not from the App Store.

macOS 15 or later · Apple silicon and Intel · signed and notarized.

FlowState 0.2.0 — open beta

The first public beta of FlowState.

Free, with nothing to buy. Every feature is unlocked, there is no trial
countdown and no card to enter.

Installing

Open the disk image and drag FlowState to Applications. On first launch macOS
will ask you to confirm an app downloaded from the internet — that prompt is
normal for anything not from the App Store. Click Open.

FlowState has no Dock icon. Look for it in the menu bar.

Requirements

• macOS 15 Sequoia or later
• Apple silicon or Intel (universal)
• 2.7 MB download, 5.1 MB installed

Signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple. Both the disk image and the
app inside it carry stapled notarization tickets, so a first launch works with
no network connection.

Permissions

Both optional, both revocable in System Settings.

Accessibility lets FlowState move and resize windows. Decline it and
everything else still works — it simply stops rearranging anything.

Automation is requested only if you ask a workspace link to open in a new
Safari or Chrome window on your current desktop.

FlowState has no account, no analytics, no telemetry and no server. It makes no
network requests.

Feedback

The useful kind is what confused you, and whether you stopped using it after a
day. That is more valuable than a compliment.