Scout 0.1.0 beta 3

Scout 0.1.0 beta 3 — 2026-10-20

This beta redesigns the search panel, changes the launch shortcut to
Ctrl+Space, and adds an optional, experimental multimodal content index.

Changes

• New shortcut. Press Ctrl+Space to open Scout. Ctrl+Alt+Space now
  previews the selected file. Profiles still using the old default move to
  Ctrl+Space automatically; custom shortcuts are kept.
• Split search panel. Results sit beside a preview of the selected item,
  with its path, evidence and Open / Quick look / Reveal actions. Text, source,
  PDF, image and Office previews appear inline.
• Refreshed Settings and dialogs that match the search panel, in light, dark
  and high-contrast themes.
• Multimodal add-on (experimental, off by default). Under Settings →
  Multimodal, Scout can install a separate local runtime and the EmbeddingGemma 2
  model to index the contents of folders you choose: documents, presentations,
  spreadsheets, code, images (with Windows OCR), audio and video. Matching
  evidence appears in previews. Content is processed only by the local worker;
  Laya never receives document bodies.
• Settings now save before indexing changes are applied, so folders no longer
  disappear when Settings is reopened during indexing.
• Fixed a crash when activating the folder picker, PDF previews that failed after
  a transient lock or failed navigation, and a launcher footer that could be cut
  off.
• Packaging verifies source membership, excludes private data, and checks the
  ZIP inventory and hashes before producing downloads.

Install or upgrade

Quit the running Scout, then run Scout-Setup.exe. It installs for your Windows
account without elevation and keeps your settings, pins, history and
workspaces. For the portable edition, extract all of Scout-win-x64.zip into a
fresh folder and run Scout.exe. SHA-256 checksum files accompany both
downloads.

Limitations

This is an unsigned, experimental beta with manual updates. Windows may show a
SmartScreen warning. A clean-machine install and uninstall test is still
outstanding. The multimodal add-on downloads several GB, has not passed an
independent retrieval-quality study, and has not been measured on 16 GB
hardware. Laya CPU ranking can exceed its two-second budget and fall back to
local results. Licenses are listed in docs/THIRD_PARTY.md inside the download.

Release verification

Built from source commit b81faabbbe6d9a192325863e7abb404ba4da9778 (tag
v0.1.0-beta.3) in a clean checkout.

• Release build: zero warnings or errors; 432/432 native checks and 24 packaging
  contract checks passed. Windows CI passed on the same commit, including an
  active Microsoft Defender scan of the package and installer.
• Published app: isolated desktop smoke test passed (rendering, scopes,
  selection, groups, calculator, web fallback and PDF/image/Office/text previews).
• App and Setup file versions: 0.1.0.3; the app embeds the source commit above.

Asset	Bytes	SHA-256
Scout-Setup.exe	59,210,419	6fe5fe10223cf4cfa3da3b6b9237e755d33e2e6e20e1963a0d472b7264aaff89
Scout-win-x64.zip	81,973,402	e1c1743074c8b51f524df61107b284b39da863eee6bcb617347993f661886c5e

Matching .sha256 files are attached. Local AI runtimes and models are optional
separate downloads.

Scout 0.1.0 beta 2

Scout 0.1.0 beta 2 — 2026-10-09

This beta adds a compact saved search index, folder/type filters, opt-in file-content
search and clearer indexing controls while preserving existing filename and
natural-language queries.

Changes

• Search folders, including empty folders: /folder projects. Filter files with
  /image holiday, /pdf roadmap and other types; enter / for the full list.
• One folder list now controls filename search and optional content search.
  Folder selection no longer freezes, and Settings scrolling is slower and more
  predictable. Each folder shows its indexing readiness.
• Completed indexing stays quiet in the launcher. Unreadable locations show a
  count and details in Settings rather than a generic attention warning.
• temp, tmp, generated pytest-of-* trees, dot-prefixed folders and existing
  dependency/build exclusions are skipped. Older cached entries from newly
  excluded folders are removed automatically on upgrade.
• File create/edit/rename/delete notifications update the index in the background.
  Startup and 30-minute reconciliation catch missed changes. Filename results are
  available before selected-folder content extraction finishes.
• Explicit local content modes support grep:"literal text" and regex:"pattern",
  combined with in:, ext:, size: and mtime:. Verified excerpts appear in
  previews. Content indexing is off by default, selected-folder only, and extracted
  document text stays local and is not sent to the model.
• Optional whole-disk filename indexing covers selected fixed drives with normal
  user permissions. It is off by default and independent of content search.
• Saved metadata now uses a compact, rebuildable base with incremental changes;
  SQLite remains authoritative for metadata, pins and personal activity.

Install or upgrade

Download Scout-Setup.exe from the public beta release. Quit the running Scout,
then run Setup. It installs for your Windows account without elevation. Existing
settings, pins, history and workspaces are retained. The first upgraded startup
rebuilds the cache for the new exclusion rules; progress appears while it runs.

For the portable edition, extract all of Scout-win-x64.zip into a fresh folder
and run Scout.exe after quitting the old copy. SHA-256 checksum files accompany
both downloads. Press Ctrl+Alt+Space to open Scout; closing its panel leaves it
running in the tray.

Validation and limitations

The implementation passed 295 C# checks, desktop smoke checks and native folder
picker checks. Frozen comparison tests preserve results, recall and notices on
584 compatibility cases with identical candidate coverage. Package-specific
validation is recorded in INSTALLER.md.

This remains an unsigned Windows 11 x64 beta with manual updates. A clean-machine
Windows 11 installation/uninstallation test remains outstanding. Large imports
can delay updates, and whole-drive startup/crawl outliers remain. Some regex
constructs are unsupported and large content queries can return explicitly
labelled partial results. Content extraction is limited to supported text and
Office/OpenDocument files, 16 MiB per file and 64,000 characters; PDF contents and
OCR are not indexed.

The million-candidate search median improved about 24% in the prior paired
comparison, missing the 30% target. That synthetic measurement is not a claim
about every PC or whole-drive crawl speed. Local AI remains optional, with
separate runtime/model downloads and existing semantic-ranking limitations. CPU
ranking can exceed its two-second budget and abstain; local filename search
remains available.

Release verification

Built from source commit ff20acd33c4e1293966782ef68266edeb669ec6d on
feat/fsearch-index-redesign, tagged v0.1.0-beta.2. Private source main was not
merged for this release.

• Release build: zero warnings/errors; 295/295 C# checks passed.
• Python adapter: 13 checks passed; authenticated HTTP contract passed, with a
  recorded CPU deadline abstention (3,328 ms).
• Native folder picker: seven checks passed.
• Published app: isolated UI smoke and PDF/image/Office/text preview smoke passed.
• Portable ZIP: 517 files match the published tree byte for byte; private indexes,
  diagnostic data and model weights are absent. The app is self-contained.
• App and Setup file versions: 0.1.0.2; app embeds the source commit above.

Asset	Bytes	SHA-256
Scout-Setup.exe	58,989,323	6ceb14bcf34710e5bbdee205896468a530ca14094872a630c400c404cc8529ff
Scout-win-x64.zip	84,308,909	e6df5e8f10ad6091aa75fb3e8e7a560ca6717b32e067b4040aeda2ca674593e5

Matching .sha256 files are attached. Local AI runtime/models are optional separate downloads.

Scout 0.1.0 beta 1

Scout is an early-access Windows 11 x64 launcher for finding files, opening apps and links, and saving workspaces.

Install

1. Download Scout-Setup.exe and open it. Setup installs for your Windows account without admin access, adds Scout and Uninstall Scout to Start, and launches Scout when it finishes.
2. Press Ctrl+Alt+Space to open or hide Scout. Press Ctrl+Q to quit.

The installer is unsigned. Windows may show an unknown-publisher or SmartScreen warning. Check that the file came from this GitHub release and verify its SHA-256 checksum if you wish before choosing to proceed. The checksum is in Scout-Setup.exe.sha256.

Updates are manual: quit Scout and run the installer from a newer release. There is no automatic updater. Uninstall from Start or Windows Settings > Apps. Your settings and workspaces remain in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Scout after uninstall.

Portable option

Scout-win-x64.zip remains available if you prefer a portable copy. Extract the entire ZIP and run Scout.exe; its checksum is in Scout-win-x64.zip.sha256. To update a portable copy, quit Scout and replace its extracted application folder.

Local AI is optional and can be set up in Settings. Its runtime and model download require several GB; the current CPU experience is not recommended as the default on ordinary laptops.

Validation

The release build passed 182 C# checks. On a local non-admin Windows 11 Pro session, the final installer installed, launched Scout, created both Start menu shortcuts and the uninstall entry, and uninstalled cleanly. A direct Ctrl+Alt+Space check hid and reopened the installed app. The app's automated hotkey diagnostic timed out twice before passing on retry. A separate clean Windows setup was unavailable and was not tested for this beta.