SKATE v1.2.0

SKATE v1.2.0 makes long workshops easier to record, clean up, and explore—with local memory, clearer controls, and plenty of personality.

What’s new

Record a Meeting

• Open the recorder directly from the sidebar or a session.
• Create a new session from the recording dropdown.
• Save both WAV audio and a markdown transcript, with an audio download link in the saved note.
• Audio is saved before transcription begins, so it remains available if transcription fails.

Recording controls in the system tray

• Closing the desktop window hides SKATE while recording continues.
• The tray shows a skateboard when not recording and a red circle during recording.
• Hover for recording status, elapsed time, or transcription progress.
• Right-click Stop recording & save to finish without reopening the window.
• Keep SKATE running until Audio & transcript saved appears.

Better cleanup for long workshops

• Clean/Compress Notes processes the complete transcript in sections.
• Cloud cleanup handles up to three sections concurrently and shows completed-section progress.
• Stop cleanup cancels queued work while preserving the original note.
• Review and edit proposed notes before applying them. The original text is saved as an attachment.
• An optional Workshop focus helps distinguish relevant evidence from unrelated conversation.
• No AI mode uses improved local filtering; ambiguous content still needs human review.

A clearer graph as your vault grows

• All sessions opens with signals collapsed.
• Browse notes in pages of 80 and a selected note’s signals in pages of 40.
• Filter signals by type and search across the full selected scope.
• Fewer labels and a layout that settles reduce clutter and unnecessary processing.
• All notes and signals remain available.

Easier everyday controls

• Trash icons for notes and sessions, with restoration through the Trash page.
• Controls to remove saved API keys in Settings.
• Audio/video imports up to 2,048 MB by default, adjustable to 4,096 MB with faster-whisper.
• Long imported recordings transcribe locally in ten-minute sections.
• Print / Save PDF for notes and sessions.
• Skateboard themes, an interactive 3D board on Info, and a recording walkthrough.
• Updated explanations of SKATE’s typed knowledge graph, optional local vector search, and keyword retrieval.

Installation and updates

1. Download SKATE-Setup.exe from this release.
2. Finish saving any recording, then choose Exit SKATE from the tray.
3. Run the installer. It can update an existing installation in place; uninstalling first is normally unnecessary.
4. Launch SKATE again.

Your existing notes and settings remain in your local vault.

Testing and availability

160 automated tests passed. Real-device recording and installer upgrade testing continue.

SKATE remains free and open source under the MIT license. Local meeting recording and transcription require no cloud AI account. Optional cloud AI and voice providers may charge separately.

Full September update notes

You can’t vibe code personality.

SKATE v1.1.0

The v1.1 release of SKATE — Scalable Knowledge Architecture & Technology Engine: a local-first workshop operating system that turns live improvement workshops into governed organizational memory and traceable, ranked improvement actions.

Submitted to Orion Global Hackathon 2026 — Productivity & Enterprise Solutions.

New in v1.1

• Meeting recorder — any meeting app, no bot, nothing uploaded. Spotter Live now records what the PC hears (system audio + optional mic) via WASAPI loopback. Teams, Zoom, Meet, Webex — anything that plays sound — with no bot in the participant list and no calendar or tenant connection. Transcription runs fully on-device (faster-whisper) and the transcript lands in the selected session as a governed note. Phone and field recordings drag-and-drop in the same way.
• Attachments in notes. Ctrl+V a screenshot straight from the snipping tool, or drag files into a note. Attachments are stored in the session folder next to the notes that reference them, with a visual gallery under the editor and inline image rendering.
• The GRIND reads whole notes. Pain points described deep inside an unmarked note now reach the synthesis; explicitly marked signals (#P: etc.) still outrank inferred ones.
• Bounded AI payloads with relevance selection. One synthesis pass hands the model at most ~12K tokens whatever the vault holds. Long transcripts are sampled by relevance — marked lines, keyword-scored paragraphs, and each note's opening and closing survive, with [...] marking elisions — instead of being cut off at the top.
• Measured, not claimed. A reproducible benchmark harness ships in the repo: python tools/benchmark_retrieval.py reports retrieval quality with analytic chance baselines and an exact confidence interval (hit@1 0.90 vs 0.215 by chance — a 4.2× lift), and --scale shows the evidence payload staying flat (~2,257 tokens) from 25 to 800 notes.

Fixed since v1.0.0

• OneDrive-safe install. The launcher now probes for a writable vault location (Documents, OneDrive Documents, LocalAppData, home) instead of assuming one — fixes the startup crash on machines with OneDrive folder backup.
• Python no longer required up front. Start SKATE.bat finds a compatible installed Python (3.10+) or bootstraps a private CPython automatically — no admin rights, no manual install, no version guesswork.
• MCP checkboxes are safe to tick. Configuring MCP for Codex/ChatGPT desktop or Claude Desktop when that client isn't installed now exits quietly with a friendly message instead of an error box.
• Notes no longer grow blank lines. Fixed a Windows line-ending round-trip that doubled blank lines on every save.

Installation

Installer (recommended): download SKATE-Setup.exe below and run it. No Python needed. Tick the AI agent checkboxes to connect SKATE memory to Codex/ChatGPT desktop and Claude Desktop — the boxes are safe to tick even if a client isn't installed. A fictional demo vault (Harborlight) is included so everything works immediately.

From source: clone the repo and double-click Start SKATE.bat (Windows; Python is found or installed automatically). See the README for details.

Upgrading from v1.0.0: just run the new installer. Existing vaults are untouched — notes are plain Markdown files and the new launcher finds them where they already live.