ctail 1.0.0

The first release of ctail as a native Mac app, and the first on the rewritten engine.

Get it: Mac App Store — free, with ctail Pro (unlimited files, all themes, the AI assistant) as a one-time in-app purchase. Requires macOS 13 Ventura or later; Apple silicon and Intel.

This release carries no downloadable binaries. The Mac app ships through the App Store, and the Linux and Windows edition on the same engine is still in development — until it lands, the previous cross-platform edition, 0.9.9, remains available.

What's new since 0.9.9

• A new engine, in Rust. Tail-first opens: the end of a multi-gigabyte file is on screen within milliseconds while line offsets index in the background. Memory does not grow with the file. Rotation and truncation are detected by inode and creation time, which also fixes false rotations on Linux.
• A native macOS app. Swift and AppKit around the engine — a real menu bar, native dialogs, Finder integration, sandboxed for the App Store with security-scoped bookmarks so files reopen after a relaunch.
• Search over the whole file, not just the window, with live counts, ↑/↓ across matches, and a filter mode.
• Highlighting rules and profiles compiled once in the engine, shared by every front end; 21 themes plus custom ones.
• AI assistant (Pro): explain a selection or the tail, or generate a highlighting profile — with your own OpenAI, Anthropic, GitHub Models or Copilot credentials. Nothing is sent unless you ask.
• Smooth scrolling in both directions; long lines scroll sideways, or wrap.
• Word wrap, line numbers, tabs with colours and renaming, session restore, a memory indicator in the status bar.

For users of 0.9.9

The Wails-based app will offer this release as an update. There is nothing to download here: on a Mac, install from the App Store; on Linux or Windows, stay on 0.9.9 until the new edition ships.