Connector Control 1.4.0

Download: on a Mac, ConnectorControl_1.4.0.dmg; on a Windows PC, ConnectorControl-win-x64-Setup.exe (Intel and AMD) or ConnectorControl-win-arm64-Setup.exe (Arm). Everything else listed below (appcast.xml, the .nupkg packages, releases.*.json) is read by the apps' built-in updaters and never needs downloading.

macOS

• Opening a connector whose editor is already open brings that editor forward even if the
  connector was switched on or off in the meantime, rather than opening a second editor for
  it, as on Windows.
• Escape cancels every sheet in the Collections window, and the connector editor, as their
  Cancel buttons do.
• A connector editor left open in 1.3 that macOS reopens after the upgrade closes itself,
  rather than stand empty: it cannot say which collection it was editing.
• In the Collections window, a click on a connector's tick or row no longer leaves the focus
  ring around its box. The ring shows only when the keyboard moves focus to a row (Tab into
  the list, or Up and Down), as the Windows row's focus rectangle does.
• The app updates itself with Sparkle 2.10.0, up from 2.9.6, and the release's update feed is
  signed with the Sparkle 2.10.0 tools to match.

Windows

• The connector editor and the Collections window's dialogs open with the keyboard in their
  first text field, as on the Mac: the connector's name in the editor, the new collection's
  name in Subscribe.
• In the Collections window, Return on a collection in the sidebar makes it the active one,
  as a double-click does and as it already did on the Mac.
• Connectors arriving from a shared collection go through the same check as ones typed
  into the editor: a Server URL, header name, client ID or client secret containing
  & | < > ^ " or a space, or scopes containing any of those characters other than a
  space, is refused, because Claude Desktop hands the cmd /c npx launcher's arguments
  to cmd.exe unescaped. The Import sheet lists such a connector as skipped and names the
  field, and it stays out of the import and of later updates. A Mac writes bare npx,
  so the same document imports whole there.
• A connector launched through the command shell that uses ${COLLECTION_DIR} is
  cautioned when the folder that token stands for holds & | < > ^ " or a space, as an
  ordinary Windows folder name may: cmd.exe would read those as commands.
• The installer, the updater and the small launcher beside the app are built for the PC's
  own processor, so an Arm PC runs them natively instead of under x86 emulation. They
  come from Velopack 1.2.158, up from 1.2.0, and the app's update code moves with them.

Both platforms

• New Collection, under the Collections window's sidebar +, makes an empty collection and
  leaves the active one as it was, so Claude's config is not touched. Before, it copied the
  active collection's connectors and switched to the copy. Add connectors with the list's +,
  then make the new collection active once it holds what you want.
• "Delete" is the one word for deleting: the selection bar's button and its question
  ("Delete “”?", "Delete 3 connectors?"), the published-file question and its
  button, the editor's Delete argument and Delete variable, "was deleted outside this
  editor", the Review sheet's Deleted group and the "deletes …" in a change summary
  all say Delete where they said Remove.
• In "Also delete from the folder?", asked by Stop Publishing and by Delete of a
  published collection, Return and Escape both answer Keep. Delete, shown as the
  destructive answer, needs a click; before, Return deleted the file, and on the Mac
  Escape did nothing.
• In the Collections window, clicking a connector's row opens its editor, and the
  pencil at the end of the row is gone, so what the connector runs has the room. A click
  on or beside a row's tick ticks it instead. The rows highlight under the pointer, and
  from the keyboard the arrow keys move between them, Return opens the editor and Space
  ticks.
• Profiles are now collections. Every profile you had is a collection with the same name
  and connectors, and the master list file is unchanged.
• Export writes a collection, or the connectors you tick, as a document. Import brings
  one in as copies into a collection of your own, and Subscribe keeps it as a read-only
  collection that follows the file. The Import sheet (a dialog on Windows, as every
  sheet named here is) says what will happen to each connector before anything does; a
  file it cannot read shows why, with no Import button.
• An imported name that is already taken can replace the old connector, keeping the
  secrets and paths you filled in, land beside it as <name> 2, or be left out. Copies
  arrive switched off, and the editor names the collection each came from and the day it
  arrived.
• A subscribed collection is read-only apart from your secrets, your paths and which
  connectors are on: its rows show a lock, the editor opens locked and says what you can
  change, and Add Connector is disabled. If the author changes or deletes a connector
  while its editor is open, Save refuses and says which, rather than write the old
  version back. Make Local Copy takes the whole collection into one of your own.
• A change at a subscribed collection's source arrives for review: Review & Apply shows the
  before and after of every connector, nothing lands until you apply it, and your filled
  values survive. Refresh re-reads at once, Locate finds the file on a new machine, and
  Stop Syncing makes the collection yours, after asking.
• A placeholder is a value a document asks each machine for; a connector waiting on one
  says "needs your value" or "needs your path", with the author's hint.
  ${COLLECTION_DIR} is the document's folder: where a subscribed collection found it, or
  the publish folder on the publishing machine. In a local collection this machine does
  not publish, the connector's row says it has no folder.
• Start Publishing writes a local collection's document to a folder in a repository or
  synced drive and rewrites it whenever what the collection runs changes; turning a
  connector on or off never republishes. Publishing Settings changes what a published
  collection shares. Deleting a published collection, or Stop Publishing in the
  Collections window, asks whether to delete the document too; Keep is the default.
• The Publish sheet lists every environment value, which travels as a hint unless you
  tick share value, and every argument that looks like a path on this machine, which
  travels as written unless you tick it to become a placeholder. The token, header value
  or client secret in a remote connector's Authentication fields always travels as a
  placeholder, and a preview shows every byte before it leaves, flagging any argument or
  shared value that looks like a credential, a header or URL query or fragment parameter
  named like a secret or holding one, a URL parameter whose name is itself a token, a URL
  path segment that looks like a key, and a URL with a user name or password in it. A
  value that only refers to a credential kept elsewhere (Bearer ${API_TOKEN},
  Bearer $API_TOKEN with the name in capitals, a placeholder) "refers to a credential",
  and a URL user with no password "names a user"; either one later given the credential
  itself waits for review. Each URL path segment and bare parameter is a line of its own,
  so a new one that looks like a key waits for review too.
  A header passed as an argument is read as a header, with or without a space after the
  colon (Authorization:Bearer …), so mcp-remote's --header "Authorization:${AUTH}"
  reads "refers to a credential".
• The sheet also lists every mark it could not place and every path this machine keeps
  back that the document would otherwise carry as written, a copy of a ticked path in any
  field included, all at once, each with its connector and field; Publish and Export wait
  until every one is ticked where it now sits, forgotten or released. The folder a
  collection publishes into never travels: Use ${COLLECTION_DIR} answers it by rewriting
  the connector.
• A path marked on your other machine, in a collection published from there, is kept back
  from every collection this machine publishes, and stays kept back once that machine drops
  the mark, stops publishing the collection or deletes it, even when the change arrives
  while this machine is off. Release it in this machine's Publish sheet to let it travel.
• A path you marked stays kept back until you release it, even after you forget its mark
  (Forget Mark takes the mark off the record, not the path off this machine's list), or
  the argument or the connector that held it is deleted and the sheet is published again
  with no row for it: put back later, it is refused and listed in the sheet. Before, that
  Publish forgot it, so the path travelled as written once it came back.
• A Release belongs to the collection it was given in. A collection made later under a
  deleted one's name, or renamed onto it, no longer inherits it: its sheet lists the path
  and Release answers it there. Before, the path travelled in the new collection unlisted.
• A publish that fails says so on the collection banner, with Choose Folder and Stop
  Publishing, and pressing Publish again retries the write at once. The banner goes if the
  collection stops publishing, or is deleted, on your other machine. A path marked for
  others to supply survives added, deleted or reordered arguments, an in-place
  correction and a connector rename; if the app can no longer place it, or the document
  would carry a kept-back path or the publish folder in another connector, publishing
  stops rather than write it, the document already in the folder is left as it was, and
  the banner names the connector to open Publishing Settings for.
• A publish that happens on its own no longer sends a connector you haven't reviewed, or a
  new credential in one you have. A connector added to a published collection, copied or
  imported into it, or added on your other machine, and a connector edited so it now holds
  something that looks like a credential, in an argument, a shared value, a header or its
  URL, hold the publish with "“” hasn’t been reviewed for publishing." or
  "“” may now carry a credential." and Publishing Settings; the folder keeps
  its document until you press Publish in the sheet, and automatic publishing then
  resumes. Publish reviews only what the sheet showed, so a connector that arrives while
  the sheet is open waits until the sheet is opened again. Other edits, renames and
  deletions publish on their own as before. Before, all of it was published on the next
  save without a preview.
• The Collections window lists every collection beside its connectors, and every control
  in it sits on what it acts on. The sidebar's + offers New Collection, Import ("Adds
  copies you own") and Subscribe ("Stays in sync, read-only"). The header shows the
  collection's name, an Active, Published or Subscribed pill where one applies, and a ⋯
  menu. Under the name it counts the collection's connectors, "14 connectors", and adds
  why a subscribed collection's source could not be read when that is so. The ⋯ lists
  only what applies to that collection: Make Active, Rename, Duplicate or Make Local
  Copy, Start Publishing or Publishing Settings and Stop Publishing, Show Published File
  or Show Source File, Refresh, Stop Syncing, Export All and Delete. The + beside the
  count, under the ⋯, adds a connector. Double-clicking a collection in the sidebar makes
  it active; double-clicking the active one does nothing.
• A change that alters nothing Claude runs, such as renaming or deleting a collection
  other than the active one, leaves Claude's config alone and raises no Restart Required.
• Each row says what its connector runs: a remote connector's host (with its scheme for
  one Claude reaches by URL alone, rather than through mcp-remote), or a local one's
  program, paths, URLs and package names. The column leaves out the values of flags named
  for secrets, KEY=value words, a URL's user and query, random-looking strings and
  anything it does not recognise. It is a best-effort mask, not a guarantee.
• Ticking rows fills the empty bar at the foot of the window with a selection bar. Copy
  to copies the ticked connectors into another local collection, or into a new one it
  asks you to name; a subscribed collection is listed but cannot take copies. The copies
  arrive switched off and record where they came from, and a name the destination
  already holds can replace the one there, land beside it as <name> 2, which is the
  default, or be left out. Replacing a connector in the active collection applies at
  once. Export writes the ticked connectors as a document.
• Delete takes out any number of ticked connectors at once. It asks first, naming the
  connector or the count, and says a copy remains in Backups; the connector editor no
  longer has a Delete button of its own.
• Duplicate copies a whole local collection into a new one exactly as it stands, each
  connector's switch included, without marking anything as imported. The copy does not
  become active, so Claude's config is unchanged.
• The popover (Mac) and flyout (Windows) now only run the active collection: they switch
  collections and turn connectors on and off. Adding and editing connectors moved to the
  Collections window, and the chip's menu lists the collections, then Manage Collections.
• The collection chip carries a chain when the collection you are in comes from a shared
  document, and an amber dot when that document has changes waiting. Its menu marks
  every subscribed collection too: on Windows with the chain and the dot; on the Mac
  with the chain as the row's icon and "· update available" after the name, since a
  macOS menu row draws one image. A collection with news says so above the connector
  list, with the button that answers it.
• Saving a connector that another local collection holds an identical copy of offers, in
  one checkbox, to apply the same change there too.
• The editor numbers its argument rows from 1, so a message naming "argument 2" points at
  the row marked 2; a screen reader names each field "Argument 2" and so on.
• Restoring a backup of Claude's configuration puts it back into the collection it was
  taken from, and makes that collection active. A backup from an earlier version carries
  no record, and goes into the active collection.
• Connectors found in Claude's configuration at launch are taken into the store only
  while the active collection is the one that file was written from, so a relaunch after
  another machine switched collections no longer pours one collection's connectors into
  another. Profiles have had that flaw since 1.1.
• A connector added to Claude's configuration outside the app, by an installer or a hand
  edit, while a subscribed collection is active goes into a local collection: the one
  Claude's configuration was last applied from if that is local, else the first local one
  by name, else a new, empty one named "Default" ("Default 2" and so on if that is
  taken). Before, it went into the subscribed collection, where it could be neither
  edited nor deleted, and the next Review & Apply deleted it from Claude. The notification
  names where it went; at launch, when nothing is notified, the banner does. The same
  holds when the collections file can't be read for a moment while the app is running, as
  when a sync tool is halfway through writing it.
• When the active collection has no connectors, the popover (Mac) and flyout (Windows) say
  "No connectors in “”." with a Manage Collections button beneath, which opens
  the Collections window on that collection. Before, they said "No connectors configured
  yet." and offered nothing.
• The Backups caption in Settings ▸ Storage names the three files backed up before every
  change: Claude’s config, the master list and collections.json. It said "Both config
  files".
• A backup that records no collection, such as the first-run original or one from an
  earlier version, is refused while a subscribed collection is active, before the
  confirmation: "“” is subscribed, so its connectors are the author’s. Make a local
  collection active, then restore." Before, it was restored into the subscribed collection,
  where its connectors could be neither edited nor deleted.
• Deleting the active collection makes the first local collection with connectors active,
  by name, and falls back to the first remaining collection by name only when there is
  none. Before, the first remaining collection by name took over even when it was
  subscribed or empty, which emptied Claude's config.
• Delete Collection asks "Delete Collection “”?" and says what goes with it: its
  connectors ("Its 3 connectors are deleted with it.", or "It has no connectors."), but not
  their copies in other collections, nor a subscribed collection's source file; the
  collection that becomes active, when it is the active one; and, when it held connectors,
  that a copy remains in Backups. Before, it said only "Its connector list is removed;
  backups keep prior states."
• A master list that can't be read is restored from its newest backup that can be, so
  every collection, subscription and published setting survives. It is still kept aside
  as mcps.corrupt.<time>.json, and the banner says "…and restored from the backup of
  ." Only when no backup can be read is it rebuilt from Claude's config, as
  before, which kept only the connectors Claude was running.
• Import's "Add to a collection" starts on the collection selected in the Collections
  window when that one is local, rather than always on the active collection, and its
  target picker ends with New Collection, which asks for a name and imports the copies
  into a new, empty local collection that does not become active. An empty name is refused,
  as Copy to ▸ New Collection refuses it, and the collection is made only when the import
  lands: a document that can no longer be read by then makes nothing, and the sheet says
  why.
• In a subscribed collection, a local server authored on the other platform is marked on
  its row; remote connectors cross either way.
• A folder the app watches — Claude's config folder, the master list's, or a subscribed
  collection's — that is deleted and recreated, or replaced wholesale by a sync client,
  is picked up again.
• Two backups taken in the same millisecond list, restore and prune newest first;
  before, the newer one could list below the older and be pruned in its place.
• A collections file with nothing in it, which a launch writes when nothing is
  published or subscribed, is read as empty. Before, it was taken for an unreadable
  file from the second launch on, and Publish and Subscribe refused with "Collections
  could not be saved: the collections file is unreadable."

Release pipeline

• Preview builds now ship both apps: a preview-<n> tag, or Actions ▸ Preview ▸ Run workflow, publishes a signed, notarized Mac DMG beside the signed Windows installers as one GitHub prerelease versioned 1.4.0-preview.<n>. Stable users see nothing: a prerelease is never releases/latest, so the Mac update feed is untouched. A Windows preview install updates itself to later previews and to the final release; a Mac preview is offered the final release when it ships.

Full changelog: v1.3.3...v1.4.0