v0.4.0-beta.2

qrate v0.4.0-beta.2

The first beta of the 0.4.0 line, replacing beta.1 an hour after it: that build shipped before the assistant's corrected prompt was pinned. The Open Project window is the centre of this round — it now scrolls, keeps its own menus, and tells you when an update is waiting. A new project opens onto a row you can type into, a file you pick for a row shows up in the preview straight away, and the details panel stops jumping about.

What is new

The Open Project window

• The recent projects list scrolls, with a scrollbar. A long history used to sit centred on the window — the top of it hidden behind the title bar, the bottom past the frame, and no way to reach either.
• The word qrate in the title bar is now a menu: New Project, Settings, Extensions and Help, without opening a project first.
• An update downloading in the background, or waiting for a restart, is visible here too. It was only ever shown on the main window, which is the one you have not opened yet.
• Spacing throughout the window is even, and the list runs to the bottom of the frame.

Starting a project

• A blank project now opens with a row in it. It used to open onto an empty grid, where the first row had to be found under the Insert menu before any metadata could be entered.

Files and previews

• Picking a file for a row shows that file immediately. The preview used to keep showing the row's old file until the project was closed and reopened.
• The first file you pick by hand in a project with no files folder sets the folder for the collection, so that file — and everything beside it — can be found from then on.
• The Details panel keeps its height when the bottom dock is opened or closed. The preview used to resize under the pointer every time.

Updating on Windows

• Installing an update no longer fails when qrate lives in Program Files. The installer now asks Windows for permission properly, instead of failing silently and relaunching the old version.

The built-in assistant

• Asked what files you have, the assistant answered with a listing of the folder it happens to be running in. It now answers from the project itself — the rows, their filename columns, and the media they link to.

For people who use their own AI agent

• The repository has a skills/ folder you can download: instructions that teach a coding agent to read the project open in qrate and hand findings back as drafts. It works with any agent, and nothing in it can change a cell — every proposal waits for you to accept it.

Downloads

• Windows: *-setup.exe (installer, asks for per-user or all-users) or
  *-x86_64.zip (portable). Deploying to managed machines? See Enterprise below.
• macOS: *-universal.dmg (Intel + Apple Silicon)
• Linux: *-x86_64-linux.tar.gz (Wayland + X11; needs a Vulkan driver)

Verify your download against SHA256SUMS.txt.

Enterprise (Windows)

*-x86_64.msi installs per-machine and is built for Group Policy Software
Installation, SCCM, and Intune — or a plain silent push:

msiexec /i qrate-0.4.0-beta.2-x86_64.msi /quiet /norestart

Upgrades in place on top of any earlier MSI install; downgrading is blocked.

File previews

PDF previews work out of the box everywhere — PDFium ships in every download.

Video previews and JPEG 2000/AVIF/HEIC need ffmpeg. It is bundled on Windows;
on macOS and Linux install it and qrate will find it on your PATH:

brew install ffmpeg          # macOS
sudo apt install ffmpeg      # Debian/Ubuntu

Without it those files fall back to a file-type icon; nothing else is affected.

Note

These builds are unsigned. This is about who Windows and macOS think
published the app, and is separate from the signature qrate checks on an update.

• Windows: SmartScreen may warn "unknown publisher" — click More info → Run anyway.
• macOS: right-click the app → Open the first time, or run
  xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/qrate.app".