v0.8.0

Highlights

• Loom is being renamed Orbit in the next release: the CLI, the desktop app, and the GitHub repo will all be called Orbit. Once that happens, this version will tell you where to get the new one
• Orbit has a Dashboard tab beside the notebook, built from widgets for plan progress, Galaxy jobs, results and history that you can arrange yourself
• When a Galaxy job or workflow finishes or fails, Loom now checks the outputs or starts investigating on its own instead of waiting to be asked. It stops after three automatic turns in a row and pauses when you hit Stop. It also reconnects to Galaxy by itself when the connection drops, polls less, shows progress on long waits, and no longer aborts a turn after the laptop sleeps
• Describe the analysis you want ("which genes changed in my RNA-seq?") and Loom looks for a community IWC workflow first, checks that its inputs match the data you have, and suggests a chain when one workflow isn't enough. Plans are now tagged by where the compute runs: [remote] for Galaxy, [hybrid], or [local] (older [galaxy] plans still work)
• Smaller Galaxy fixes: SRA downloads are batched into one job instead of one per accession, Galaxy datasets and histories are clickable links in the notebook and chat, and a large catalog of user-defined tools no longer floods the conversation
• Galaxy skill content now ships inside Loom, pinned to a commit of galaxyproject/agentic-plugins, so a fresh install has the full catalog with no network and no waiting. Preferences shows which repos are bundled and at which commit, and pointing a repo at a branch goes back to fetching it live. The failure-triage guidance is now a whole Foundry cast, with eleven more for finding, adapting and validating workflows. None of them enter the system prompt
• Your Galaxy API key is no longer sent along when a request is redirected to a different host

---

What's Changed

• Describe the installers we actually ship, and fix two silent misreports in the release skill by @dannon in #468
• Batch SRA imports before submitting Galaxy jobs by @nekrut in #495
• Fix Orbit watchdog aborts after system sleep by @nekrut in #493
• Automatically verify Galaxy outputs and investigate failures by @nekrut in #494
• Stop tracking the app/node_modules symlink by @dannon in #498
• Orbit dashboards: a user-defined Dashboard tab beside the notebook by @dannon in #472
• Recover MCP failures, reduce Galaxy polling, and show progress by @nekrut in #501
• Name the dataset by position in execution-after-approval by @guerler in #491
• Drop /review and /test from CLAUDE.md's command list by @dannon in #515
• Point the offline skill catalog at galaxy-skills' new skills/ layout by @dannon in #469
• fix: summarize oversized Galaxy user tool catalogs by @nekrut in #513
• Don't let the Galaxy API key follow a redirect to another host by @dannon in #471
• Get ready for the Orbit rename (0.8 compatibility layer) by @dannon in #504
• Make Galaxy artifacts clickable in notebooks and chat by @nekrut in #505
• Keep the exec-guard tests' fake home off macOS's /home automount by @dannon in #516
• deps: bump the npm-deps group across 2 directories with 18 updates by @dependabot[bot] in #517
• Vendor skill content from agentic-plugins at a pinned commit by @dannon in #470
• Turn off pi-mcp-adapter's unused mcpScript tool by @dannon in #518
• Default source_check off, and write web-search defaults where pi-web-access reads them by @dannon in #519
• Put tool-result hints in one table by @dannon in #520
• Add npm run measure:context by @dannon in #521
• Name the real IWC search tool in the prompt by @dannon in #523
• Find a community (IWC) workflow from a plain question by @dannon in #524
• Retire the [galaxy] routing tag in favour of [remote] by @dannon in #527

Full Changelog: v0.7.0...v0.8.0

v0.7.0

Highlights

• Loom now talks to Anthropic-compatible gateways -- an institutional proxy, LiteLLM in anthropic mode -- by picking an API shape next to the base URL, and a custom endpoint's model can be typed rather than only chosen from what it advertises, so a gateway that serves no model list is still usable. Custom endpoints also re-fetch their model list from the stored key, and a connection failure says what actually went wrong instead of "fetch failed"
• A finished Galaxy run can wake the agent and carry on by itself (opt-in), and job tracking got harder to fool: the poller reads the invocation's own state, refuses to be silenced, and leaves an audit row behind -- and a failed invocation points the agent at vendored Galaxy reference material instead of leaving it to guess
• The agent can no longer quietly mark a plan step done while Galaxy still says the run is in flight: a new evidence gate watches for that contradiction and records it, and the override is yours to give with a reason rather than something the model can grant itself
• Standing instructions in a LOOM.md file load into every conversation, so preferences you'd otherwise repeat every session stay put
• Provider setup stops losing things: the first-run screen keeps each provider's key with that provider instead of the one you last looked at, sign-in-capable providers are no longer treated as key-less, models too small to run Loom stay out of the picker, and a startup failure the brain already diagnosed is shown rather than retried into a generic crash box
• Orbit and safety polish: the classic Galaxy mark in the title bar, the chat pane takes its full width back when the artifact pane is hidden, the exec-guard approval prompt shows the whole command instead of its first 200 characters, two exec-guard gaps close (an alternate file-path spelling, and writes into Orbit's own analyses directory being denied outright), and WSL shows up as WSL in feedback reports
• pi moves to 0.85.1 and pi-mcp-adapter to 2.34.0, which lines up what a fresh install resolves with what we actually test -- a new install used to end up running two different versions of pi-ai side by side

Downloads

macOS ships signed and notarized .dmg builds for both Apple Silicon (arm64) and Intel (x64). Linux ships .deb, .rpm and portable .zip for x64 and arm64. Windows ships a portable Orbit-win32-x64-0.7.0.zip -- unzip and run orbit.exe; there is no Setup.exe in this release, so ignore the installer instructions still in INSTALL.md.

---

What's Changed

• Stop Orbit treating sign-in-capable providers as key-less by @dannon in #438
• Automate dependency bumps, and catch stale local installs by @dannon in #437
• Add UDT-authoring eval scenarios for container choice and typed inputs by @dannon in #428
• Keep models too small for the baseline prompt out of the picker by @dannon in #422
• Re-fetch OpenAI-compatible models from the stored key by @dannon in #435
• Don't tell people to /compact when the model's window is the problem by @dannon in #427
• Flag WSL in the feedback sysinfo by @dannon in #436
• Add classic Galaxy-style Orbit logo by @nekrut in #442
• Give the chat pane its full width back when the artifact pane is hidden by @guerler in #443
• Use the classic Galaxy mark in Orbit's title bar by @dannon in #446
• Don't retry a startup failure the brain already diagnosed by @dannon in #448
• ci: bump the github-actions group across 1 directory with 6 updates by @dependabot[bot] in #444
• Show the whole command in the exec-guard approval prompt by @dannon in #411
• Stash the API key per provider on the first-run screen by @dannon in #412
• Add LOOM.md standing instructions by @dannon in #426
• Doc drift: routing tags, skills catalog, changelog, stale docstring by @dannon in #453
• Eval/clarifying question heuristic by @guerler in #450
• Poller: read the invocation's state, refuse to be silenced, and leave an audit row by @dannon in #452
• Land the evidence gate in warn mode, with a user-owned override by @dannon in #455
• Say what went wrong when an OpenAI-compatible endpoint won't connect by @dannon in #456
• Two exec-guard floors: the file_path spelling, and .loom writes in Orbit's own workspace by @dannon in #457
• Let a finished Galaxy run wake the agent (opt-in) by @nekrut in #416
• Vendor Foundry Galaxy reference, surface it on invocation failure, and gate contradicted completions by @dannon in #421
• deps: bump the npm-deps group across 2 directories with 26 updates by @dependabot[bot] in #458
• Add a CONTRIBUTING.md so there's one link to hand someone who wants to test or develop Loom by @dannon in #463
• Record tools validate what they record: anchor, server id, guarded write by @dannon in #462
• Let a custom endpoint say which wire format it speaks by @dannon in #464
• Move pi to 0.85.1 and pi-mcp-adapter to 2.34.0 by @dannon in #466

New Contributors

• @guerler made their first contribution in #443
• @dependabot[bot] made their first contribution in #444

Full Changelog: v0.6.0...v0.7.0

v0.6.0

What's Changed

• Match weak-tier model-id markers as whole tokens (fixes Gemini misclassification) by @ishinder in #352
• Add inline HTML previews to Orbit by @jgoecks in #359
• fix(orbit): cap footer status pill at 25% width; scroll long text within it by @nekrut in #370
• Re-sync the Notebook panel after notebook.md writes that bypass the watcher by @dannon in #363
• Orbit: Add light and dark appearance themes by @jgoecks in #366
• Auto-load notebook on Orbit startup by @jgoecks in #371
• Brand Orbit pane header by @jgoecks in #373
• Make Enter accept the highlighted slash command (fixes picker Enter) by @dannon in #364
• Surface the release URL when the update banner can't open a browser (#368) by @dannon in #372
• Fix GCC feedback: symlinked files in files tab + sticky Copy button (#353) by @jmchilton in #354
• Allowlist the Galaxy host in the bash sandbox when GALAXY_URL is scheme-less by @dannon in #365
• Dismiss the floating chat copy button on click-elsewhere and after copying by @dannon in #380
• Add the Agentic Science with Galaxy site (Orbit / Loom / Galaxy MCP) by @dannon in #382
• Make Galaxy MCP reconnect robust on resume / long idle by @dannon in #381
• Link the docs site from the top of the README by @dannon in #383
• Add FAQ + a 'Built on Galaxy' grounding section to the docs site by @dannon in #384
• Highlight user-defined tools + the 'still Galaxy, web-accessible' frame by @dannon in #385
• Deemphasize notebook.md in the hero tagline by @dannon in #386
• Reframe the hero tagline: lead with grounded Galaxy execution by @dannon in #387
• Stop the 'see it in action' demo box from resizing mid-play by @dannon in #388
• Fix routing-tag accuracy in the site Concepts doc by @dannon in #389
• Add [galaxy] to the routing-tag docs by @dannon in #390
• Stop the invocation poller from clobbering agent notebook writes by @dannon in #394
• Resolve pi extension paths without hardcoding one specifier by @dannon in #395
• Orbit as a Galaxy analysis workbench (standalone + Galaxy Interactive Tool) by @dannon in #330
• Add workflow-invocation guidance to the Galaxy context block by @dannon in #393
• Run smoke:pack in CI by @dannon in #398
• Dependency sweep: pi 0.83 and the 5-series models by @dannon in #396
• Drive OAuth sign-in off the provider registry by @dannon in #397
• Move pi to 0.84.1 and the mcp adapter to 2.21.2 by @dannon in #405
• Fix Orbit OAuth sign-in by @nekrut in #406
• CI: catch split pi dependencies before they reach runtime by @nekrut in #408
• Tell users to install uv instead of to reconnect by @nekrut in #409
• Give timed-out Galaxy calls advice that can work by @nekrut in #415
• Approve the install scripts npm now gates by @dannon in #423
• Poll Galaxy tool runs, not just workflow invocations by @nekrut in #414
• Sign the macOS bundle ourselves instead of via osxSign by @dannon in #425

New Contributors

• @ishinder made their first contribution in #352
• @jgoecks made their first contribution in #359
• @jmchilton made their first contribution in #354

Full Changelog: v0.5.1...v0.6.0

v0.5.1

Highlights

• Destructive Galaxy deletes now ask first: deleting or purging a history, dataset, or collection prompts for confirmation before anything is removed (and the web shell blocks it outright)
• Require the Galaxy MCP 1.9 server (up from 1.8): the agent can now work with Galaxy Pages -- creating, reading, and updating the notebook and report documents that pair an analysis with its narrative -- plus reliability fixes for workflow invocation and Galaxy auth
• The text-selection Copy button stays put within the chat panel instead of drifting into the sidebar on wide or scrollable messages

---

What's Changed

• Clamp the text-selection Copy button to the chat panel bounds by @dannon in #341
• Fold the v0.5.0 release lessons into the release skill by @dannon in #342
• Confirm before destructive Galaxy history delete/purge (#338) by @dannon in #344
• Gate dataset-level Galaxy delete/purge (follow-up to #338) by @dannon in #345
• Bump galaxy-mcp pin to >=1.9.0 for the Pages tools; cut 0.5.1 by @dannon in #346

Full Changelog: v0.5.0...v0.5.1

v0.5.0

Highlights

• Orbit now runs on Windows as a remote-only desktop build, and a containerized LOOM_MODE=remote web shell brings Orbit to the browser
• Galaxy data and jobs move faster: jobs run in the background by default and notify you when they finish, large local files upload over a native resumable path (no more MCP timeouts), and remote data is fetched server-side by URL instead of round-tripping through your machine
• Galaxy connection state is now reflected live in the footer, reconnects when your credentials change, and surfaces the connected user plus a history panel even for env-driven sessions
• The skills router is generated from skill frontmatter tags instead of a hardcoded list, and surfaces the udt-authoring skill for writing Galaxy user-defined tools
• Stability and polish: Orbit no longer crashes when reopened, opaque "unknown error" provider messages are humanized (and a transient API failure now flags that the task was left incomplete), plus File-pane and chat fixes -- the Copy button stays put mid-stream, relative images and .tabular/fastq datatypes preview correctly, and the active analysis directory persists across restarts

Windows: this release ships as a portable .zip (Orbit-win32-x64-0.5.0.zip) -- unzip and run orbit.exe. A signed Setup.exe installer is coming in a follow-up.

---

What's Changed

• Add LOOM_MODE=remote: containerized Orbit web shell by @dannon in #113
• feat(loom): backgrounded Galaxy jobs by default + notify on completion by @nekrut in #281
• Reflect the live Galaxy connection in the footer status (#284) by @dannon in #291
• Warn agents about the underscore-vs-pipe repeat-key trap (stopgap for #285) by @dannon in #295
• Treat .tabular and the fastq/interval datatypes as previewable text by @dannon in #296
• Follow-up to #281: guard the completion toast + fix the local-jobs guidance by @dannon in #293
• Surface the Galaxy history panel + open-history for env-driven sessions (#290) by @dannon in #294
• Native Windows (remote-only) Orbit desktop by @dannon in #197
• Render relative local images in the File pane markdown preview by @dannon in #292
• Stop the text-selection Copy button getting stranded mid-chat by @dannon in #300
• Native resumable upload for local files (fixes the #211 MCP timeout) by @dannon in #279
• Document WSLg GUI session gotcha for WSL2 installs by @dannon in #307
• Declare bash-sandbox runtime deps as deb recommends + name them on init failure by @dannon in #308
• Grade open models on decision correctness, not just plan shape by @dannon in #310
• Keep the chat pane title fully draggable (#315) by @dannon in #324
• Flag that a transient API error left the task incomplete (#316) by @dannon in #326
• Persist the active analysis directory across restarts by @dannon in #323
• Move the cursor within a wrapped chat message before Up/Down recall history by @dannon in #325
• Stop Orbit crashing on reopen from a duplicate IPC handler by @dannon in #327
• Only refresh the open file viewer when the open file changed on disk by @dannon in #328
• Prefer Galaxy server-side fetch-by-URL over local download then re-upload by @dannon in #303
• Steer Galaxy page content to Galaxy-Flavored Markdown (no ```txt fences) by @dannon in #309
• Galaxy: reconnect on credential change + show the connected user in the status tooltip by @dannon in #302
• Surface the udt-authoring skill in the skills router (+ eval) by @dannon in #329
• Humanize the opaque "An unknown error occurred" provider error by @dannon in #322
• Generate the skills router from frontmatter tags instead of hardcoding it by @dannon in #181
• Steer the agent off claiming a file save it didn't make (#320 angle 2) by @dannon in #334
• Keep the file-preview classifier out of electron's import path by @dannon in #336
• Ship Windows as a portable .zip; defer the Squirrel installer by @dannon in #337

Full Changelog: v0.4.1...v0.5.0

v0.4.1

Highlights

• Require the Galaxy MCP 1.8 server (up from 1.6): workflow runs now validate inputs against the tool's datatypes before submitting -- catching datatype and collection mismatches early -- with input templates and run guidance to go with them
• User-defined tools run again on Galaxy 26.0 servers

---

Full Changelog: v0.4.0...v0.4.1

v0.4.0

Highlights

• Export any conversation to Markdown, copy a single message, or select-and-copy straight from the chat
• A cold session can now discover and resume a Galaxy notebook, and Page sync round-trips through Galaxy-flavored Markdown
• Stuck "thinking" turns recover or abort cleanly, resumed sessions and single tool runs record their history correctly, and --print exits instead of hanging
• The terminal hides the model's thinking by default, /cost renders locally instead of billing the model, and /tester-id sets your tester ID without editing config
• Tighter safety: config.json API keys stay out of provider logs, out-of-workspace reads are gated, and retired models are gone from the picker

---

What's Changed

• Recombine the Intel mac build into the unified release matrix by @dannon in #170
• Keep tool detail in the feedback activity tail by @dannon in #167
• Stop the macOS top banners from clobbering the titlebar by @dannon in #173
• Fix the macOS app showing up as lowercase "orbit" by @dannon in #174
• Recover the UI when a provider call dies silently instead of hanging on "thinking" by @dannon in #195
• Stop the agent leaking ~/.loom/config.json API keys into provider logs by @dannon in #194
• Build linux-arm64 Orbit installers by @dannon in #177
• Note the .deb app-launcher refresh gotcha in INSTALL.md by @dannon in #179
• Make CLI startup Galaxy state coherent and stop leaking the welcome prompt by @dannon in #180
• Stop the agent over-claiming it compacted the conversation (#171) by @dannon in #182
• Answer tester-ID questions from config instead of Galaxy (#189) by @dannon in #191
• Warn when Galaxy is configured but uvx isn't installed by @dannon in #176
• docs: refresh RELEASING.md to match the current release matrix by @nekrut in #212
• Surface a clear message when Gemini is geo-blocked by @dannon in #192
• Fix SVG file previews vanishing after first paint by @dannon in #196
• Fix chat output running together between streamed segments by @dannon in #206
• Stop the live notebook excerpt from busting the system-prompt cache by @dannon in #204
• Show the working directory in the Orbit window title by @dannon in #193
• Stop dev (npm start) from poisoning the prod macOS Keychain item by @dannon in #203
• Show "What's new" on the first launch after an update by @dannon in #201
• Add a /release skill by @dannon in #205
• Update dependencies by @dannon in #243
• Add a Loom <-> Galaxy-flavored-markdown adapter for Pages sync by @dannon in #144
• Confirm feedback sends instead of silently closing the modal by @dannon in #213
• Humanize the context-overflow 400 instead of dumping it raw by @dannon in #214
• feat(orbit): Galaxy history link in the Activity tab by @nekrut in #240
• Fix #221: stop listing retired models in the picker by @dannon in #238
• Add getting-started README for the web dev server by @dannon in #241
• Let low-capability models approve local bash instead of hard-denying (#232) by @dannon in #246
• feat: chat export, clipboard markdown, and selection copy button by @mvdbeek in #244
• Keep the in-progress feedback draft when the modal is dismissed by @dannon in #255
• Add a /tester-id command so testers can set their ID without editing config.json by @dannon in #254
• Make aborting a stuck turn reliable and discoverable (#225) by @dannon in #248
• Declare libasound2 as a deb runtime dependency by @dannon in #251
• Chat export follow-ups: ordering, error dedup, and tool-record sync by @dannon in #257
• Gate out-of-workspace reads from safe bash enumeration commands by @dannon in #250
• Match the stated Node version to the engine requirement by @dannon in #274
• Document LAN access and security caveats for the web dev server by @dannon in #258
• Make /cost render locally instead of billing the model by @dannon in #276
• Hide the model's thinking in the terminal by default by @dannon in #256
• Stamp the host date into context so notebooks stop hallucinating one by @dannon in #278
• Close the notebook watcher on session shutdown so --print exits by @dannon in #275
• Let a cold session discover and resume a Galaxy notebook by @dannon in #252
• Upsert loom-session ledger blocks by id so resumed sessions don't double-write by @dannon in #277

New Contributors

• @mvdbeek made their first contribution in #244

Full Changelog: v0.3.1...v0.4.0

v0.3.1

What's Changed

• Support OpenAI-compatible custom LLM endpoints (with Jetstream preset) by @dannon in #145
• feat: cut per-turn context tokens (cache-stable prompt + /compact) by @nekrut in #154
• feat(orbit): context-window fill indicator in the footer by @nekrut in #164
• Decouple the Intel mac build from the release critical path by @dannon in #166
• Bump to 0.3.1 for release by @dannon in #169

Full Changelog: v0.3.0...v0.3.1

v0.3.0

What's Changed

• Add /orbit: hand the Loom CLI session off to the Orbit desktop app by @dannon in #141
• Don't gate every write when the analysis workspace lives under ~/.loom by @dannon in #157
• docs: guide agents to schema-first Galaxy tool calls by @dannon in #143
• feat: add Opus 4.8 to the model list by @nekrut in #155
• feedback: attach optional testerId to submissions by @nekrut in #158
• fix: correct Orbit's Opus pricing to $5/$25 by @dannon in #159
• chore: bump pi 0.75.4 -> 0.78.0 (Opus 4.8 in the registry + fixes) by @dannon in #162
• Loom CLI: update-available notice, --version fix, and loom update by @dannon in #160
• Orbit: macOS in-place auto-update + CI update-feed guards by @dannon in #161
• chore: cut 0.3.0 -- update mechanism (CLI notice + Orbit auto-update), Opus 4.8 + pi 0.78 by @dannon in #163

Full Changelog: v0.2.0...v0.3.0

v0.2.0

What's Changed

• docs: update install instructions for the signed v0.1.1 release by @dannon in #139
• docs: refresh stale Current-state bits (test count, alpha framing) by @dannon in #140
• Add a local-execution safety gate (exec-guard) by @dannon in #146
• Fix multi-slot prompt queue by @qchiujunhao in #147
• Bump bundled galaxy-mcp floor to >=1.6.0 by @dannon in #152
• Add beta feedback capture: "Send feedback" + /feedback -> capture worker by @dannon in #153
• Confine the agent's writes to the analysis directory by default; make the bash sandbox opt-in by @dannon in #151

Full Changelog: v0.1.1...v0.2.0