2.0.0 - 2026-07-16

Release Notes

Added

• Added automatic, non-destructive Neon V2 → Silvervine migration for user
  config, cache, and log directories before logging starts.
• Added 2.x hook compatibility aliases: hooks receive both SILVERVINE_* and
  deprecated matching NEON_* context variables without overwriting explicit
  values.

Changed

• Renamed the product, repository, crate, library, binary, paths, user daemon,
  and current documentation from Neon to Silvervine for v2.0.0.
• Silvervine daemon migration starts the replacement registration before
  retiring the retained Neon V2 registration (neon.service or
  com.neon.tray), with rollback to the prior data and running state if
  retirement fails.
• Retired the Neon V1 Homebrew/AUR/deb sources. Their legacy migration paths
  and package-manager guidance remain supported; no Silvervine Homebrew tap is
  created.

Fixed

• Fixed macOS daemon IPC connections closing before clients could send their
  request when accepted sockets inherited nonblocking mode.
• Fixed macOS file-watcher events failing to match browser paths reported
  through canonical aliases such as /private/var versus /var.

Removed

• Removed the unsupported experimental VM/GPU bridge, including the
  neon stream command tree, neon doctor --bridge, libvirt dependencies,
  and bridge-specific daemon/tray integration. The research implementation is
  preserved on the experimental-bridge branch for contributors.
• Removed the bridge-only CDM provider abstraction and its redundant temporary
  copy of the cached Widevine payload during every browser patch.
• Removed the unsigned neon update self mechanism. Install updates through a
  supported package manager or GitHub Releases instead.

Install silvervine 2.0.0

Install prebuilt binaries via shell script

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/nicholasraimbault/silvervine/releases/download/v2.0.0/silvervine-installer.sh | sh

Download silvervine 2.0.0

File	Platform	Checksum
silvervine-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.xz	Apple Silicon macOS	checksum
silvervine-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.xz	Intel macOS	checksum
silvervine-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.xz	x64 MUSL Linux	checksum

2.0.0-rc.2 - 2026-05-17

Release Notes

A polish release: every change addresses a bug or UX failure surfaced
testing rc.1 on a real Linux install. No new features. Strongly
recommended for anyone running rc.1 — especially macOS users, where
rc.1 has a hard deadlock on the patch path.

Fixed

• macOS sudo neon patch deadlocks on the lockfile after a
  redundant osascript re-prompt (#30,
  reported by @yzaimoglu). The patch
  flow no longer re-escalates when geteuid() == 0, and the
  --as-root child skips the lockfile the parent already holds.
• neon doctor reported "patched" for browsers whose on-disk CDM
  was stale. Doctor now reads each bundle's
  WidevineCdm/manifest.json version, compares it to the cache, and
  surfaces an inline out-of-date warning (run "Patch Now").
• Daemon could enter a watcher → patch → pkexec re-prompt loop.
  drive_patch_flow now checks installed_cdm_version() vs the
  cached version up front and short-circuits browsers already at the
  cached version — no patcher invocation, no root escalation, no
  watcher refire.
• Tray "Update Widevine" only refreshed the cache. Now it also
  re-patches every detected browser, which is what users expect a
  button by that name to do.
• Every tray action was silent. PatchAll, PatchOne,
  UpdateWidevine, and the success branch of ToggleLaunchAtLogin now
  emit toast notifications.
• ~/.config/neon/config.toml carrying a legacy [reporting]
  block from v1 / rc.0 crashed the daemon on first launch of rc.1
  with an opaque StateCorrupted: TOML parse error. Config schema
  now silently drops deprecated top-level sections (typos in current
  sections still fail loudly).
• Migration silently misreported success when the elevated cleanup
  script failed. Paths now route to outcome.skipped with the
  failure reason rather than into outcome.removed.
• Watcher fired on the first event of a browser-update storm,
  patching on top of an in-flight bundle. Switched to trailing-edge
  debounce: the callback only fires after the install path has been
  quiet for the full debounce window.
• Widevine cache TOCTOU between target_dir.exists() and the
  staging→target rename let two concurrent neon invocations (CLI +
  daemon, double-clicked installer) corrupt the cache. New
  <cache>/download.lock serializes the slow path.
• platform::format_exit_status: replaces the opaque
  (exit None) error message on signal-killed escalation children
  with a readable killed by signal N.

Added

• Auto-discover Helium installed via the official apt repo (lands
  at /opt/helium on Debian / Ubuntu / Pop!_OS) in addition to the
  existing AUR path /opt/helium-browser-bin. Thanks to
  @PeterDrakulic (#3).

Performance

• Tray PatchAll / PatchOne reuse the daemon's shared browser list
  rather than running a fresh detect_browsers filesystem walk on
  every click.
• CDM cache: clean orphaned CRX3 archives after a successful
  extraction, and have prune sweep any stale ones left by older
  neon versions (each was ~5–7 MB; they piled up indefinitely).

Install neon 2.0.0-rc.2

Install prebuilt binaries via shell script

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/nicholasraimbault/neon/releases/download/v2.0.0-rc.2/neon-installer.sh | sh

Download neon 2.0.0-rc.2

File	Platform	Checksum
neon-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.xz	Apple Silicon macOS	checksum
neon-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.xz	Intel macOS	checksum
neon-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.xz	x64 MUSL Linux	checksum

2.0.0-rc.1 - 2026-05-13

Neon v2.0.0-rc.1 — Rust rewrite

Release candidate. Please file issues if you hit anything on the v1→v2 migration path before this promotes to v2.0.0.

What changed

v2 is a complete rewrite. The bash scripts (install.sh, fix-drm.sh, download-widevine.sh) and the Go/Swift tray apps are replaced by a single Rust binary (neon) with a structured CLI and a system tray daemon.

cargo install neon
# or grab a release artifact for your platform
neon setup           # non-interactive install
# or: neon init      # interactive wizard

Breaking changes

• CLI surface: bash install.sh → neon setup. bash fix-drm.sh → neon patch. neon-tray → neon (daemon mode auto-started by the user systemd unit).
• Install layout: /usr/lib/neon/ is no longer used by the new binary — it lives wherever cargo install or your package manager places it (typically ~/.cargo/bin or /usr/bin).
• Daemon: replaces v1's system-wide neon-fix-drm.{path,service} units with a per-user ~/.config/systemd/user/neon.service that also serves the tray.
• Tray: speaks SNI directly over D-Bus via ksni (Linux). No libayatana-appindicator3 runtime dep. Native support on KDE Plasma, sway/Hyprland + waybar, Quickshell-based shells (noctalia, Caelestia), Cinnamon. Vanilla GNOME still needs the AppIndicator extension.

v1 → v2 migration

neon setup automatically detects a legacy v1 install and surfaces the correct uninstall command for your distro:

• Arch (AUR): pacman -R neon-drm (or paru -R neon-drm / yay -R neon-drm).
• Debian / Ubuntu: dpkg -r neon-drm (or apt remove neon-drm).
• Fedora / RHEL: rpm -e neon-drm (or dnf remove neon-drm).

Run the suggested command, then re-run neon doctor — the legacy warning should clear.

Raw bash install (install.sh)? neon setup cleans it up automatically.

V3 streaming bridge (experimental, opt-in)

A new neon stream subcommand provisions a Windows IoT LTSC VM with GPU + TPM passthrough and streams the desktop back via Looking Glass for premium 4K HDR playback. Default builds don't include any V3 code; enable with:

cargo install neon --features experimental-bridge

Limitations: dual-GPU required (the passthrough GPU is unavailable to the host while V3 runs); HDR is tone-mapped to SDR for the Looking Glass copy. See ROADMAP.md.

Supported platforms

• Linux: tested on Arch (CachyOS). Debian and Fedora users — your feedback on the migration path is especially welcome; please open an issue if neon setup doesn't cleanly handle your v1 install.
• macOS: build + smoke-tested. The v1 xattr quirk that surfaced in #1 is moot under the new binary path.

Rolling back to v1

If v2 misbehaves and you need to fall back:

1. neon uninstall — removes the v2 daemon + config; leaves browsers patched.
2. Re-install v1 via your package manager (paru -S neon-drm, apt install neon-drm, etc.) or run bash install.sh from the v1.0.0 source tarball.
3. Open an issue with the neon doctor output (from before uninstalling, ideally) so we can fix the rc.

Credits

• @bfayers (#1) — caught the Mozilla widevine URL rotation + xattr -r regression in the v1 bash scripts.

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Full machine-readable changelog: CHANGELOG.md.