v0.16.0

✨ Highlights

Workflows only boot a preview when they ask for one

A session starts with just its code: bash, js and ai steps, follow-ups, the terminal and the IDE run in a lightweight container with the checkout and the project's tools, ready in about a second. The full environment with database and preview only starts at a ddev-start step, and from then on every step runs there. Restoring an archived session brings it back the way it was, with or without its preview.

Pick the database for generated environments

Projects without their own ddev config can choose MariaDB, MySQL or PostgreSQL and the version in the environment settings.

Sites can call their own preview URL

A server-rendered frontend that fetches data from its own preview URL, such as Nuxt in front of Craft, now reaches itself from inside the preview, just like it does locally with ddev. Projects no longer need a separate internal URL for this.

⚠️ Breaking changes

• Knecht needs Docker 28 or newer; the installer checks an existing Docker and stops on an older one.
• Workflows that use the database or the dev server without a ddev-start step need one now.
• Without a preview, steps use PHP 8.4 and Node 24 instead of the project's versions, and bun is not available.

🚀 New

• Project settings use a tab bar instead of a sidebar.
• Vite dev servers behind a project's own nginx accept the preview host.

🐛 Fixed

• Dashboard connections, live updates and terminals no longer drop while an environment starts, restores or stops.
• Restoring an archived session no longer reports a failure when it succeeded.
• Steps before a ddev-start step no longer leave a half-booted environment with a broken dev server behind.
• Projects whose dev server has no favicon no longer show a broken icon.

v0.15.1

🐛 Fixed

• Knecht installs on servers where uid 1000 is already taken

v0.15.1-rc.1

The installer now picks Knecht's uid on the first install: 8659, or the next free uid if that is taken too, and names the user holding it. It is written to .env as KNECHT_UID and reserved by the host user knecht; the state dirs belong to it, so it stays fixed from then on.

Instances installed before keep running as 1000 without any migration.

v0.15.0

✨ Highlights

Install on Debian and more Ubuntu releases

Knecht now installs on Debian 12 and 13 and on Ubuntu 22.04 and 26.04, next to Ubuntu 24.04, on amd64 and arm64. Run the same install command as root or through sudo bash, and the installer sets up Docker from the official repository for your release. Other Ubuntu and Debian releases install with a warning.

🐛 Fixed

• Release notes on the System page use the body font and title-sized section headings.

v0.14.0

✨ Highlights

Failed runs explain themselves

With an AI provider configured, Knecht looks into every failed run on its own. The project page's status card tells you the cause and a fix in a sentence or two, and links straight to the workflow steps involved.

DDEV comes with the update button

Your host now only needs Docker. Knecht brings its own ddev and prepares a new version on first boot, so fixes to the run environments arrive with the in-app update instead of a manual provisioning run. This release uses that right away: ddev 1.25.5 with PHP patched against PHP2Shell (CVE-2026-109618, CVE-2026-109619) in every version from 5.6 to 8.5.

🔧 Changed

• The dev server behind a preview uses the same dashboard login as the preview itself, so both behave alike. It doesn't use the auth key in the url anymore.
• The agent sandbox receives the AI key through Knecht's own config instead of ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY.
• Generated php-type projects no longer include WP-CLI, Drush 8, magerun or Symfony CLI.
• session.upload_progress.enabled is off in every PHP version of the run environments.

v0.14.0-rc.1

✨ Highlights

Failed runs explain themselves

With an AI provider configured, Knecht looks into every failed run on its own. The project page's status card tells you the cause and a fix in a sentence or two, and links straight to the workflow steps involved.

DDEV comes with the update button

Your host now only needs Docker. Knecht brings its own ddev and prepares a new version on first boot, so fixes to the run environments arrive with the in-app update instead of a manual provisioning run. This release uses that right away: ddev 1.25.5 with PHP patched against PHP2Shell (CVE-2026-109618, CVE-2026-109619) in every version from 5.6 to 8.5.

🔧 Changed

• The dev server behind a preview uses the same dashboard login as the preview itself, so both behave alike. It doesn't use the auth key in the url anymore.
• The agent sandbox receives the AI key through Knecht's own config instead of ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY.
• Generated php-type projects no longer include WP-CLI, Drush 8, magerun or Symfony CLI.
• session.upload_progress.enabled is off in every PHP version of the run environments.

v0.13.1

🐛 Fixed

• A failed boot stops its environment right away instead of idling until the reaper
• Dashboard pages update on their own instead of showing stale data until a reload
• Run overviews show when an environment is stopping, rebooting, restoring or archiving
• Projects show the right framework even when the ddev type is missing or generic

v0.13.0

✨ Highlights

Mailpit, Adminer and other environment tools from the run header

Every web tool your environment exposes opens at its own preview address, behind the dashboard login. Terminal, IDE and these tools sit as icon buttons next to the run menu, so you no longer dig through it to find them.

Sessions with a 14-day overview

The runs overview is now called Sessions and lives at /sessions. Four small charts show runs per day, success rate and median duration against the two weeks before, and how many runs a trigger started. Old run links from pull requests still open.

Search in the sidebar

Search sits under the logo on every page and still opens with Cmd+K. It finds projects, workflows and settings.

Cards or list, your choice

Projects and workflows can be shown as cards or as a list. Each page remembers the view and its filters between visits, and the KPI cards are gone to make room for the content.

🚀 New

• The preview, the run log and the follow-up chat can be resized by dragging.
• Project settings are split into Environment, Agent, Integrations and Advanced pages.
• Project automation only lists the workflows that project triggers.
• Release notes show highlights, sections and screenshots in the dashboard and on Discord.

🐛 Fixed

• A pull request step reuses the open PR for its branch instead of failing.
• Runs can no longer reach each other's environments over the network.
• A run's IDE is only reachable through the dashboard login.
• Code in a preview can no longer act on the dashboard with the viewer's login.
• Preview certificates are only requested for addresses that exist.
• A successful run shows Stopped or Archived once its environment is no longer up.
• Runs without a preview no longer show a Reboot card where the preview would be.

v0.13.0-rc.3

✨ Highlights

Mailpit, Adminer and other environment tools from the run header

Every web tool your environment exposes opens at its own preview address, behind the dashboard login. Terminal, IDE and these tools sit as icon buttons next to the run menu, so you no longer dig through it to find them.

Sessions with a 14-day overview

The runs overview is now called Sessions and lives at /sessions. Four small charts show runs per day, success rate and median duration against the two weeks before, and how many runs a trigger started. Old run links from pull requests still open.

Search in the sidebar

Search sits under the logo on every page and still opens with Cmd+K. It finds projects, workflows and settings.

Cards or list, your choice

Projects and workflows can be shown as cards or as a list. Each page remembers the view and its filters between visits, and the KPI cards are gone to make room for the content.

🚀 New

• The preview, the run log and the follow-up chat can be resized by dragging.
• Project settings are split into Environment, Agent, Integrations and Advanced pages.
• Project automation only lists the workflows that project triggers.
• Release notes show highlights, sections and screenshots in the dashboard and on Discord.

🐛 Fixed

• A pull request step reuses the open PR for its branch instead of failing.
• Runs can no longer reach each other's environments over the network.
• A run's IDE is only reachable through the dashboard login.
• Code in a preview can no longer act on the dashboard with the viewer's login.
• Preview certificates are only requested for addresses that exist.

v0.13.0-rc.2

✨ Highlights

Mailpit, Adminer and other environment tools from the run header

Every web tool your environment exposes opens at its own preview address, behind the dashboard login. Terminal, IDE and these tools sit as icon buttons next to the run menu, so you no longer dig through it to find them.

Sessions with a 14-day overview

The runs overview is now called Sessions and lives at /sessions. Four small charts show runs per day, success rate and median duration against the two weeks before, and how many runs a trigger started. Old run links from pull requests still open.

Search in the sidebar

Search sits under the logo on every page and still opens with Cmd+K. It finds projects, workflows and settings.

Cards or list, your choice

Projects and workflows can be shown as cards or as a list. Each page remembers the view and its filters between visits, and the KPI cards are gone to make room for the content.

🚀 New

• The preview, the run log and the follow-up chat can be resized by dragging.
• Project settings are split into Environment, Agent, Integrations and Advanced pages.
• Project automation only lists the workflows that project triggers.
• Release notes show highlights, sections and screenshots in the dashboard and on Discord.

🐛 Fixed

• A pull request step reuses the open PR for its branch instead of failing.
• Runs can no longer reach each other's environments over the network.
• A run's IDE is only reachable through the dashboard login.
• Code in a preview can no longer act on the dashboard with the viewer's login.
• Preview certificates are only requested for addresses that exist.