v1.8.2 - Local AI, MCP Tools & Editor Polish

[1.8.2] - 2026-06-14 - Local AI, MCP Tools & Editor Polish

Summary

• Run MidiPilot locally and free with Ollama. MidiPilot now has a first-class Ollama (local) provider - point it at your own Ollama install for a 100% local, private, no-API-key, no-cost copilot. (The provider first shipped quietly in 1.8.1.1; this release documents it and adds the polish below.) You install Ollama and pull a model yourself - no harder than getting a cloud API key - and the manual walks through it.
• More capable MCP / Agent tools. Two new tools - get_selection (read the current selection with per-event indices) and remove_track - plus clearer error messages for malformed tool calls. Both the in-app Agent and external MCP clients can now act on the selection directly (e.g. "delete every second selected note") and remove tracks.
• Modern grid snap. The Magnet tool can now hard-snap notes to the nearest grid line - including when drawing - like a DAW, with the previous behaviour kept as a "Legacy" option.

Full Changelog - Local AI

Added

• Modern grid snap (snap-to-grid when drawing notes). The Magnet tool now offers two behaviours, switchable under Settings -> Additional MIDI Settings: Modern (default) hard-snaps to the nearest grid line - including when drawing new notes, like a DAW - while Legacy keeps the old magnetic pull that only engaged within a few pixels of a grid line. Applies consistently to drawing, moving and resizing (all share one snap path). Works together with the Note Duration setting: the note's start snaps to the grid, its length follows the chosen duration.
• MCP server hardening + two new tools (shared with Agent Mode). The MCP tool set and the in-app Agent share the same definitions, so both gained:
  • get_selection - returns the user's currently selected events with full details and a 0-based index per event (the index delete_events_by_index expects). MCP clients previously only saw a selection count, never the events, so they couldn't act on specific selected notes; now they can.
  • remove_track - deletes a track and its events (guards the file's last track), the missing counterpart to create_track.
  • Argument validation: tool calls with a missing required parameter now return a clear "missing required parameter(s): X" error instead of a confusing tool-specific failure (e.g. a misnamed move_events_to_track argument used to report "Invalid target track index").
• Ollama (local) provider. Selectable in MidiPilot AI settings and in the chat-footer provider combo; auto-fills the base URL http://localhost:11434/v1 and needs no API key. Tool-capable models drive Agent Mode locally. Documented in the manual (MidiPilot -> Supported Providers -> Local AI with Ollama) and the README provider table.
• Installed-model picker for Ollama. The model refresh now queries Ollama's native /api/tags (instead of the OpenAI-compat /v1/models, which returns only model ids), so the dropdown lists your installed models with size badges (e.g. qwen3.6:latest (36.0B, 22.0 GB)), flags tool-capable models for Agent Mode, and skips embedding-only models.
• Ollama in Manage Favourites and Prompt Profiles. The favourites picker now has an Ollama tab, and Prompt Profiles can target Ollama models, so per-provider favourites and per-model system prompts work for local models too.

Fixed / Changed

• Model picker is no longer accidentally editable. The MidiPilot footer model selector was an editable combo, so clicking into it and typing replaced the label - and with the new size badges that label is "name (8.0B, 9.6 GB)", not the model id - which could be sent as a bogus model name. It is now read-only: pick from the list (long names elide with the size badge dropping first; the full name is in the dropdown and tooltip). Custom model names are still entered in Settings.
• Agent Mode can delete selected events by index. Added a delete_events_by_index tool (also exposed over the MCP server) that deletes specific events from the current selection by their 0-based index - e.g. "delete every second selected note" via indices [1,3,5,...]. This closes a parity gap: Simple Mode already had this, but the Agent only had range-based deletion, so it had to approximate selection-relative deletes by rewriting tick ranges - which capable models handled but smaller/local models often could not complete.
• Reasoning-effort control for local models. MidiPilot now sends a reasoning-effort value to Ollama on /v1, honouring the Thinking toggle (and defaulting to "low" when Thinking is off). Test Connection sends the same so it stays quick for any selected model.
• Clear "Ollama not reachable" message. A failed local connection used to say "check your internet connection" (which does not apply to localhost). It now states that the Ollama server isn't reachable and how to start it.