FormuLab v0.4.0 — First Public Preview

FormuLab v0.4.0 — First public preview

This is FormuLab's first public release. It exists to establish a real,
downloadable release for this project (a prerequisite for its pending
SignPath Foundation free code-signing application — see
docs/CODE_SIGNING_POLICY.md),
not as a claim that every feature below is production-hardened. Please read
the limitations section before relying on it for real work.

Supported platform: Windows x64 only, for this release. macOS and Linux
build configs exist in this repository but have not yet been independently
verified from a published release — they are not part of this preview.

⚠️ These installers are not code-signed

FormuLab has no code-signing certificate yet (no budget for one — see
docs/SIGNPATH_APPLICATION.md
for the free open-source signing program this project has applied to,
not-yet-approved). Windows SmartScreen will very likely show "Windows
protected your PC" the first time you run either installer — this is
expected, not a sign of tampering. Click More info → Run anyway if
you're satisfied the download is genuine (see checksum verification below).

Verify what you downloaded

Before running either installer, verify its SHA256 hash against
SHA256SUMS.txt (attached to this release):

Get-FileHash .\FormuLab_0.4.0_x64-setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256
Get-FileHash .\FormuLab_0.4.0_x64_en-US.msi -Algorithm SHA256

If a hash doesn't match SHA256SUMS.txt exactly, do not run the file —
open an issue or use the process in
SECURITY.md.

What's in this release

FormuLab is a local-first desktop workbench for chemical formulation
discovery, optimization, and cost management, built on Tauri 2 + React +
Rust. Implemented and covered by passing tests as of this release:

• Formulation Optimizer — linear-program (PuLP/CBC) cost-minimal
  material blending under active-content, stock, and usage constraints.
• Advanced Formulation Constraint Optimizer — mixed-integer solver over
  composition, functional-group, ratio, and conditional constraints, with
  soft-constraint relaxation, cost ceilings, multi-objective scoring, and
  named/comparable optimization scenarios.
• Material Substitution — scored one-to-one and multi-material
  substitution against real price/stock/supplier data with a live
  compatibility/safety re-check.
• Formulation Discovery — literature-driven candidate formulas from
  open-access sources (OpenAlex), with citations, feeding the optimizer.
• Formula Builder — versioned formulation workspace with an editable
  grid, water q.s., exact decimal arithmetic, four-level validation, and
  immutable versions with required change reasons.
• Compatibility and Safety engines — deterministic, versioned rule
  checking (never an LLM), with human-review-gated approval.
• Raw materials and costing — material master data, suppliers,
  append-only price history, inventory, landed cost, packaging BOMs, and
  immutable per-SKU cost snapshots.
• Laboratory Trials and Stability Studies — bench-execution records,
  shared test-definition/result system with replicate statistics and
  outlier flagging, trial comparison, configurable stability conditions,
  deterministic trend analysis (no automated shelf-life claims), and
  corrective actions.
• Kenya/EAC Regulatory Engine, Dossiers, Claims & Labels — deterministic
  regulatory classification across seven East African jurisdictions,
  per-version regulatory dossiers with an evidence matrix, and product
  claims/labels with formula-consistency checking — folding into a single
  Approval Readiness gate, never claiming legal compliance on its own.
• Design of Experiments — real experiment planning (9 of 11 named
  design types), randomized run generation, a deterministic OLS/ANOVA
  analysis engine fit to actually-recorded responses, and desirability
  ranking.
• Data Exchange Center — schema-driven CSV/Excel import/export across
  24 templates, with preview-before-commit and row-level validation.
• Notebooks — real .ipynb notebooks with local Python/R kernels,
  managed via a bundled uv sidecar.
• Data safety — local SQLite + JSONL provenance, standalone/automatic
  backup with verification, and a schema-migration framework with
  mandatory pre-migration backups.

Current limitations

• Unsigned installers — see the warning above.
• No automatic in-app updater yet. New versions are announced on this
  Releases page only; download and install manually. FormuLab's in-app
  update checker can notify you a new version exists, but it never
  downloads or installs anything on its own.
• Windows x64 only in this release, as stated above.
• A prior, since-removed "Chat + Agents" agent-runtime integration is no
  longer part of the app; formulation-related AI features (Formulation
  Discovery) call your configured LLM provider directly, without a
  separate agent runtime to connect to.
• See
  docs/architecture/IMPLEMENTATION_STATUS.md
  for the full, itemized "Not yet started" / "Partially done" state —
  this release does not claim feature-completeness against FormuLab's full
  specification, only that what's listed above is implemented and tested.

Before you upgrade later

Back up your data before installing any future FormuLab update over this
one. Settings → Diagnostics shows your exact data paths; FormuLab also
ships a standalone/automatic backup system — use it before any upgrade
until an automated pre-update backup step exists (Phase 12 roadmap item,
not yet built).

Privacy

FormuLab is local-first. Your workspace data, formulations, run history,
and provenance never leave your machine unless you explicitly export them.
The only network calls FormuLab's own code makes: your configured LLM
provider (only when you use it, with your own API key), an optional GitHub
release-metadata check for update notifications, OpenAlex for literature
search (Formulation Discovery only), and whatever URL you explicitly open
yourself. No telemetry, analytics, or crash reporting exists anywhere in
FormuLab's own source. Full detail, including where LLM API keys are
stored today (plain localStorage, not yet OS-keychain — disclosed
honestly, not glossed over):
docs/PRIVACY.md.

Reporting a security issue

See SECURITY.md
— GitHub's private vulnerability reporting is preferred. Please do not open
a public issue with exploit details.

Install & first launch

Windows — FormuLab_0.4.0_x64-setup.exe (NSIS) or
FormuLab_0.4.0_x64_en-US.msi (MSI):
SmartScreen shows "Windows protected your PC" → More info → Run
anyway. (Verify the SHA256 hash first — see above.)

No in-app auto-update — download new versions from this Releases page.

Build provenance

Built by GitHub Actions from commit
833e7ee9e82e854a4c163d7e93ac48fd6472e817,
workflow run
#31127313636
(.github/workflows/build.yml, Windows x64, GitHub-hosted runner).