Open Science v0.25.1
A maintenance release: protected notebook kernels now launch directly on Windows, file exports publish atomically with time-zone-safe package timestamps, generated image previews are restored, and a broad set of session, artifact, specialist, and provider fixes land throughout.
Open Science is an open-source, local-first AI research workbench for scientists and researchers. It enables reproducible, inspectable research across models with scientific AI agents, Python and R execution, scientific data connectors, and cross-platform support for macOS, Windows, and Linux.
v0.25.1 is a patch release with no new features. Windows kernels start under the network sandbox through the direct launch path instead of one that could leave them unprotected or failing to start. Exported files publish atomically — a failed or interrupted export can no longer leave a partial file behind — and package exports keep valid timestamps across time zones. Generated image previews render again, the Skill catalog detects and repairs its own inconsistencies, stale session-recovery combinations normalize on startup, and Claude usage statistics, CodeBuddy command handling, Specialist package recovery, artifact finalization retries, and persistence cleanup all get targeted fixes.
✨ Highlights
- Protected notebook kernels launch directly on Windows. Windows kernels start under the network sandbox without the indirect launch path that could leave them unprotected or failing to start. (#2081)
- File exports publish atomically. Exported files appear only once fully written, so a failed or interrupted export can no longer leave a partial file behind, and package exports keep valid timestamps across time zones. (#2070, #2072)
- Generated image previews are restored. Images the agent generates show their previews again instead of falling back to placeholders. (#2082)
- Skill catalog inconsistencies recover on their own. Settings detects and repairs catalog inconsistencies instead of leaving skills missing or duplicated. (#2080)
🐛 Bug Fixes
- Notebook and compute — session concurrency limits persist across restarts (#2077); artifact finalization recovery is retryable after a failed attempt (#2068); and stale runtime-selection contracts no longer block kernel startup. (#2073)
- Files and artifacts — PDF reading context keeps the logical file identity when the underlying file is replaced (#2094); and session detail edits no longer overwrite each other with stale data. (#2079)
- Sessions and persistence — stale session-recovery combinations are normalized on startup (#2092); Task turns are admitted before persistence so queued work is not dropped (#2078); and related data cleanup recovers and continues after a deletion failure. (#2074)
- Agents and providers — finalized Claude model-call usage is recovered into usage statistics (#2086); CodeBuddy preserves empty command arguments on Windows (#2089); and Specialist packages recover from interruptions with clear guidance about their source. (#2076)
- Workspace and settings — the app cleans up renderer lifecycle listeners that could accumulate over long sessions (#2083); and Skill catalog inconsistencies are detected and repaired automatically. (#2080)
📦 Install
Requirements: macOS 12+ (Apple Silicon or Intel), Linux x64, or Windows 10/11 x64. On first run, the onboarding wizard checks the environment and can install and configure an app-managed agent runtime. Once installed, the app can update itself in place.
Download the appropriate package from the Assets section below:
| Platform | Package |
|---|---|
| macOS (Apple Silicon) | DMG for ARM64 |
| macOS (Intel) | DMG for x64 |
| Linux | AppImage or Debian package for x64 |
| Windows | Installer for x64 |
macOS — first launch. Official release builds are Developer ID signed and notarized by Apple, so they open like other trusted applications. A locally built copy is not notarized and may require approval through macOS Privacy & Security.
Windows — first launch (unsigned build). No Authenticode certificate yet, so SmartScreen shows a bypassable "unrecognized app" prompt (More info → Run anyway). Verify that the package came from the official release page before continuing.
Build from source instead:
npm install
npm run build:mac # or: build:linux / build:win
🧭 What's in this release (maturity)
Unchanged from v0.25.0 — this patch ships fixes only. See the v0.25.0 release notes for the full capability maturity, known limitations, and roadmap posture.
🐢 Known Limitations
- Editable artifacts cover text formats. Markdown, plain text, scripts, and source code are editable as raw text; binary formats such as documents, images, and notebooks stay read-only, and editing always publishes new versions rather than rewriting history.
- Network sandboxing covers the app's notebook and compute runtimes, not the whole system. Processes you launch outside these runtimes are not subject to the domain allowlist. On Windows, the boundary applies only after the sandbox's one-time administrator setup; until then, notebook and compute code runs without it.
- Immutable file generations preserve earlier results, but deterministic reruns are still ahead. Captured generations are the groundwork; portable environment locks and full-fidelity session replay remain open.
- R is managed-only. A bring-your-own R interpreter path is not built yet.
- Remote compute is SSH-only. Slurm and cloud GPU submission are not built yet.
- Provider choice is per framework, not one unified gateway. The available protocol depends on the selected agent backend.
- Hot-switching applies only to registered compatible targets. Framework, auth-lane, wire-route, or unsafe capability changes still require a reconnect.
- Code reconstruction is LLM-generated. It does not replace deterministic reproduction.
- No hosted public specialist discovery commons. Specialist packages are portable across machines via import/export and the signed marketplace; what is not built yet is a hosted public discovery and forking hub.
- The task SDK is a first-generation surface. Task creation, polling, artifact retrieval, run progress, and cancellation work; broader orchestration remains open.
- Switching agent backends cannot transfer in-flight tool state. Existing conversation history can replay, but a running action is not migrated.
- Skills are local only. There is no shared public commons, cross-machine forking, or user-facing version pinning yet.
- The reviewer is opt-in and record-scoped. It does not replace domain-specific validation of citations, units, statistics, or methods.
- Scoped permissions cover allow-grants only. Directory-level file access control is not built yet; notebook network sandboxing is the first enforced network boundary.
- Windows builds are unsigned. SmartScreen may warn on first launch; official macOS builds are notarized.
- No local GPU compute backend.
- No multi-user real-time collaboration.
🙏 Acknowledgements
Thanks to @ewen-poch, @wen2zhou, @daanveer-tech, @justemu, and everyone in Discord, X, and Discussions.
Full Changelog: https://github.com/aipoch/open-science/commits/v0.25.1
