v0.6.2

Academic OS — local-first student dashboard.

Mac: download the DMG, drag to Applications, right-click → Open the first time.
Windows: download the zip, extract, run academic-os.exe inside.
Linux / Chromebook (Crostini): extract the tarball, run ./academic-os/academic-os.

v0.6.1

Academic OS — local-first student dashboard.

Mac: download the DMG, drag to Applications, right-click → Open the first time.
Windows: download the zip, extract, run academic-os.exe inside.
Linux / Chromebook (Crostini): extract the tarball, run ./academic-os/academic-os.

v0.6.0

Academic OS — local-first student dashboard.

Mac: download the DMG, drag to Applications, right-click → Open the first time.
Windows: download the zip, extract, run academic-os.exe inside.
Linux / Chromebook (Crostini): extract the tarball, run ./academic-os/academic-os.

v0.5.1

Academic OS v0.5.1

A small patch release with under-the-hood fixes. Update from Settings → Check for updates, or replace the app with the download below. Your data is preserved.

v0.5.0

Academic OS v0.5.0

The built-in assistant now knows your schedule.

What's new

Ask it what's due. The local AI now answers from your real data — your deadlines, your courses, this week's assignments and tasks. Ask "what should I focus on this week?" or "do I have anything due?" and it responds from what's actually in your app instead of guessing. Everything still runs on your own computer; nothing is sent anywhere.

A "what's new" note after each update. When a new version installs, a short card like this shows what changed, then gets out of your way.

What's improved

Sharper, more grounded answers from the built-in AI, and the same fast streaming replies in Chat. Under the hood, the assistant is told to stick to your real data and say "I don't have that" rather than inventing an assignment or a date.

Upgrading

If you're on v0.4.x, open Settings and Check for updates — it installs itself and reopens. On a fresh Mac, download the DMG below, drag it to Applications, and open it; it's signed and notarized, so no security warning. Windows and Linux: replace the folder as before. Your data is untouched.

v0.4.1

Academic OS v0.4.1

The update that updates itself — now signed, and security-hardened.

What's new

One-click updates (Mac). When a new version comes out, Settings shows an update button. Click it and the app downloads the new version, checks that it is genuinely signed by us, installs it, and reopens. About a minute, and your data is never touched. This release is the last one you install by hand.

The Mac app is now signed and notarized by Apple. No more "unverified developer" warning: download, open, done. Before installing an update the app also re-checks the signature of what it is about to run, so a tampered download can never replace it.

Chat answers appear as they are written. Instead of staring at a blank bubble for 20 seconds, the first words land in about a second and the reply streams in live, whether you use Ollama or the built-in local AI. The Stop button now truly stops the model instead of letting it keep computing in the background.

What's improved

The walkthrough grew to 18 steps and now covers one-click updates and the Secondaries column for pre-med, pre-dental, and pre-law tracks.

Under the hood, this release hardens the build pipeline: the bundled AI engine is checksum-verified before it ships, and the signing key is kept away from third-party build code.

Security hardening. A full internal security review led to a batch of fixes: web pages open in your browser can no longer reach the app's local endpoints, the built-in assistants now run with only the tools each one needs, and the automated scholarship scout can only read the pages it actually searched for. Calendar feed links, uploads, and the updater's own download were all tightened too. Your data stays exactly where it was: on your computer.

Upgrading

This one last time, by hand: download the DMG, drag to Applications. On Windows and Linux, replace the folder as before. From the next release on, Mac users update from inside the app.

v0.3.1

Academic OS v0.3.1

A polish release on top of v0.3.0.

What's new

The tour now covers the whole app. The first-run walkthrough grew from 13 to 17 steps. It now shows Courses and the GPA calculator, the Calendar, the essay editor and coach in Documents, archiving, and the Cmd-K search. Replay it anytime from Settings.

A Secondaries stage for professional tracks. If your track is pre-med, pre-dental, or pre-law, the application board gains a Secondaries column between Submitted and Interview, matching how those application cycles actually work. Everyone else keeps the five-column board.

Warmer light mode. The page background now fades from white into a soft cream. Dark mode is unchanged.

What's improved

The calendar looks like a calendar. Real gridlines between days, dimmed cells for the previous and next month, and a green ring around today.

The whole pipeline fits on screen. Board columns now share the width equally, so all columns are visible at once with no sideways scrolling, even with six columns on a 13 inch laptop.

Study checkboxes tell the truth. Tasks you finished now show up checked instead of disappearing or rendering unchecked.

Upgrading

Replace the old app with the new one. Your data is preserved. The app is unsigned, so the first launch needs the usual step: on macOS right-click the app and choose Open (or use Privacy and Security, then Open Anyway); on Windows click "More info" then "Run anyway" on the SmartScreen warning.

v0.3.0

Academic OS v0.3.0

Everything since v0.2.0, covering the 0.2.1, 0.2.2 and 0.2.5 local builds.

What's new

GPA calculator. Courses now has a GPA panel using the 4.0 letter scale, weighted by credit hours. Each course takes a credit-hours value, and there is a per-course what-if: enter the grade you want and it tells you what you need on the final exam to get there.

Archiving for courses and applications. Finished a course, or gave up on an application? Archive it instead of deleting it. Archived items move to their own tab and can be restored at any time. They stop showing up in upcoming deadlines, due-soon lists, the Dashboard and the Calendar, so old work no longer clutters what you are actually doing this term.

Restoring from a backup. You can now restore a backup from Settings, not just create one. Before anything is overwritten, the app snapshots your current data, notes and agents into a pre-restore snapshot folder, keeping the three most recent. If a restore turns out to be the wrong one, the state you had before it is still on disk. There is also a preview step, so you can see what a restore will do before running it.

A guard against older app versions. Your data folder now records which version of the app wrote it. If you open it with an older app than the one that last touched it, the app refuses to write and shows a banner instead of silently saving in an old format.

Hardening batch. Security and reliability work across the whole app:

• Two-click confirmation on every delete. Deleting a course warns you it takes its assignments with it.
• Assistants can no longer be tricked into reading files outside the app's own folder, and your Canvas token is off-limits to them and excluded from backups.
• Settings, tokens and your profile are written crash-safe. A power cut or full disk can no longer wipe them.
• If the app's engine stops, you see a clear banner instead of pages that look empty.
• AI errors are written in plain English with a pointer to the fix, not raw error codes.
• Course names, assignment titles and due dates, and document titles and statuses are all editable after creation. Typos are no longer permanent.
• Essays link to the applications they belong to, from both sides.
• Clicking a deadline in the Calendar or Dashboard opens the exact card, and Cmd-K search finds your actual applications, courses and documents.
• Two default assistants (scholarship scout, deadline watcher) come pre-installed on a fresh setup.
• Documents accept file attachments: transcripts, certificates, PDFs, up to 25 MB each.

What's fixed

Chat worked on some machines and not others. On a fresh install without Ollama, the Chat tab had no model to talk to. It now falls back to the bundled AI, the same one the rest of the app already used.

Chat dropped your first message. On a new install with no conversation threads yet, sending a message did nothing and said nothing. Chat now creates the thread for you on the first message.

The bundled model rambled. Its default settings made it wander and add emoji, hashtags and stray symbols. It now runs with tighter settings and is told to answer in plain English.

Chat history was saved in the wrong folder. Threads were being written to a leftover path from another project instead of your Academic OS data folder. They now live with the rest of your data, which also means backups include them.

Messages sat off-center in Chat. The message area and the box you type in are now lined up.

The test suite wrote into real data. Running the tests could touch your actual data folder. Tests are now isolated to a temporary one.

Upgrading

Your existing data is preserved. You can replace the old app with the new one, and it will pick up where you left off.

The app is not signed, so your operating system will warn you the first time you open it.

On macOS: right-click (or Control-click) the app and choose Open, then confirm. If you do not get that option, open System Settings, go to Privacy and Security, scroll to the message about Academic OS being blocked, and choose Open Anyway.

On Windows: SmartScreen will show a blue warning. Click "More info", then "Run anyway".

You only need to do this once per installed version.

v0.2.0

Academic OS — local-first student dashboard.

Mac: download the DMG, drag to Applications, right-click → Open the first time.
Windows: download the zip, extract, run academic-os.exe inside.
Linux / Chromebook (Crostini): extract the tarball, run ./academic-os/academic-os.