PCS 0.9.13

PCS 0.9.13 patient conversation and reusable web sources

Built from the checksum-verified 0.9.12 Source and Windows packages. This release retains the pinned runtime, dependencies, native launchers and speech assets unchanged. No native Windows build or live API/audio acceptance is implied by offline testing.

OpenAI turn-taking

• The default now requests semantic VAD with low eagerness and host-owned response creation/cancellation. Settings → OpenAI turn completion also offers balanced semantic detection and a 1.5-second silence-based fallback. Both requested configuration and acknowledgement validation use the selected mode. Apply this setting on the next Start; there is no hidden reconnection/fallback that resends a user turn.
• A 0.4-second speech settling window joins speech that resumes before dispatch. Active speech and this window are checked again at the final transport boundary. Typed input with no pending speech is not deliberately delayed by that window. Original completed transcripts, meaningful short answers, Stop custody, cancellation identity and allowance checks are preserved.
• Playback yields immediately when provider speech detection reports that the user has started speaking. Unheard samples remain bounded in the existing queue and playback receipts stop advancing. A successfully empty utterance can resume those exact samples without another model response. Confirmed speech clears the old audio and uses the existing cancellation/truncation path. A semantic item can span a thinking pause, so elapsed time alone no longer establishes speech duration for that mode. This is not a guaranteed cough classifier. Recognition errors and real provider limits can still cause interruptions or waits.

Companion direction

• The default is a calm, capable adult peer: accuracy over agreement, fair evidence-backed disagreement, revisable judgments, and no routine approval-seeking or compulsory follow-up question. It should use the established conversation and execute clear authorized tool requests rather than repeatedly asking for a topic.
• Only exact previously shipped default personas migrate. Custom directions remain unchanged. Prompt checks verify the supplied instructions, not a guarantee that a live model will always follow them. Source-based quiz/study behavior explicitly preserves source terminology, organization and gaps; generated additions must be distinguished.

Saved web sources in Materials

• Open Materials → Reference notes → Saved web sources → Add from web, or ask during a cloud conversation with Search and Materials sharing enabled: “Find a public quiz about this topic and save the source to Materials.” The model can search, then submit a returned source address to the bounded capture tool. A routine search does not automatically save anything. Existing retained Wikipedia study notes remain separate.
• Supported capture is one public HTTPS static HTML, TXT or Markdown page, up to 2 MiB transferred and 240,000 text characters. Oversized sources are rejected rather than silently truncated. No JavaScript, interactive quiz execution, linked-page crawl, image extraction, authenticated download, PDF web import or access-control bypass is included. Some sites will refuse anonymous capture or require unsupported transfer encodings. The result is labelled static extracted text, not a certified complete guide or answer key.
• Saved source snapshots are encrypted in the vault, not inserted into personal memories. They retain source/final URLs, title, capture time, hashes, purpose and limitations. Up to 128 snapshots (including refreshed versions) can be retained. Read/find returns at most 6,000 characters per call. Full source content is not automatically appended to every prompt. Previously supplied passages can still accumulate in a live conversation; this release does not provide a new provider-context compactor or eliminate token limits.
• The UI supports inspection, use by reference, an explicitly saved bookmark/note, refresh, export and deletion. Refresh creates an immutable new snapshot when text changes; existing source/progress stays intact. Progress is not automatically graded, inferred, or moved to changed questions. Export is a confirmed unencrypted TXT download. Deletion requires stopping the conversation and removes only that snapshot/bookmark, not other revisions or old backups. Don’t-save mode blocks mutations/exports, and Local mode cannot fetch outside pages. Saved-source reads remain governed by Materials sharing. Lock/Stop/page ownership changes revoke pending access; network and writes retain cancellation ownership.
• The fetcher uses HTTPS-only, anonymous requests without proxy environment, cookies or API credentials; it validates every redirect and pins the actual TCP destination to public DNS-checked addresses while retaining the original TLS hostname. Source text is never executed as HTML in the UI or granted tool authority. These protections have offline regression coverage, not an independent security certification.

Backup and compatibility — important

• The first saved web snapshot marks the vault as requiring PCS 0.9.13 or newer. Older builds will reject that upgraded vault rather than ignore unknown records. This feature marker remains after deletion. Merely opening an older vault in 0.9.13 without saving a web source does not add it. There is no encryption-format migration.
• Web snapshots and bookmarks are included in encrypted vault backups. Original local Materials files still require their separate copy. Before upgrading, Quit PCS, back up the complete stopped data folder including Materials, retain the old installation and passphrase, and extract the new Windows ZIP into a fresh folder. Keep the pre-feature backup for rollback; later work will not appear in that older backup. Follow RESTORE_VAULT.md.

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