BasicShell 0.8.2

Download: BasicShell-0.8.2.zip, with BasicShell.app inside: unzip, move it to Applications. A release is the build with the agent tools (Settings › Agents, off until you turn it on); the plain build is ./build.sh from the source.

It is self-signed, not an Apple Developer ID, so the first time macOS refuses to open it: open it once, then System Settings › Privacy & Security › Open Anyway.

Requires: macOS 27 on Apple silicon.

Updates. BasicShell updates itself: BasicShell menu › Check for Updates…, and once a day by itself unless Settings › General turns that off. Update and Restart downloads the zip, checks it against its SHA-256 and the app in it against this app's identifier, then replaces the old app (which goes to the Trash) and opens the new one. Nothing is installed without your say.

New since 0.8.1

• Bitwarden no longer asks for Touch ID at every launch. An extension's popout that had opened as a tab (Bitwarden's "view item" from its autofill menu, an address with ?uilocation=popout) was written into the session and brought back at launch; with the vault locked it showed its lock screen, and Bitwarden asked for Touch ID at once, with nothing on screen to explain it. Such tabs are no longer saved, and one left in a session from before is skipped when it is read.
• A keyword can be refused. In the address field, going down to the plain "Search" row and then typing on (claude xyz) is now a search of the engine, and so is Backspace on a chip: it gives back the word you typed (claude, not its key) and keywords stay off for it until the field is emptied. Before, typing a space after claude always put the Claude chip back.
• The single-letter keywords are gone. Wikipedia is wiki, Maps is map, Reddit is rd (a single letter alone never opened a site anyway). A list you have already edited keeps its own keys; Settings › Search › Restore Built-in List brings these back.
• Settings no longer sinks under full screen. Opening Settings from the menu bar in BasicShell's full screen could cover the new window with the full-screen one for a quarter of a second, a flicker. The full-screen window now hides and shows the menu bar by the pointer only while it has the keyboard.

Known limits

• A keyword's prompt reaches Claude only if claude.ai still fills its box from ?q=; sources disagree, so cl hello may open an empty chat.
• Add as Search Engine… needs a search form that uses GET; one that posts is refused with a message.
• Not saved: DRM-protected video, live streams, video described by a DASH .mpd with segment templates, and the adaptive streams of YouTube.
• Passkeys and Apple Passwords need an Apple Developer ID and so don't work yet.
• Extensions run in the main profile only.

After updating, quit and reopen BasicShell if it did not restart itself, and start a new chat in your agent.

SHA-256: BasicShell-0.8.2.zip 0dcdaf9c8c1227253731d0ed9c124093da4eedf8306f9f60d083652ed80133b5