Blobs 0.5.0

Blobs 0.5.0 — Production Release

Fast-build turn wins, sources on screen, Qwen2.5 0.5B in the list.

Performance

• Median turn time: 97.6s → 25.5-28.9s on 8GB emulator (3 independent captures)
• Prompt bound: real 6,000-character limit with history shedding before passage cuts
• Answer bound: 320 → 200 tokens for all modes (product owner decision 2026-10-25)
• Context capacity: fixed to prevent KV cache doubling per turn
• Turn attribution: every stage timed in native code (model load, template, tokenize, context prepare, prefill, grammar, sampler, first token)

Features

• Chat now shows retrieved sources on screen while the model writes
• Download list revision 2026102502 adds Qwen2.5 0.5B Q4_K_M for 2GB-class devices
• Per-stage native timings carried across JNI and written into device captures
• Prompt sheds retained history before cutting passages, so squeezed shelf still answers

Installation

1. Download app-release.apk below
2. Open on Android 9+ device (ARM64 or x86_64)
3. Allow installation from browser/file manager when prompted
4. Open Blobs, download recommended model, then download starter library
5. Ask your first question — works fully offline after setup

Upgrading from 0.4.0: installs in place, no data loss
Upgrading from 0.3.14 or older: export conversations first, uninstall, then install 0.5.0 (signing key changed in 0.4.0)

Verification

APK SHA-256: e3e1ab7a9677357405d8ab059b5dc1daff776f8d82dc6f0beb09856aec604b06

Certificate SHA-256: 77:81:8F:69:02:8E:7D:5E:7E:D1:C3:79:1E:1C:CF:91:63:62:06:9A:6A:3F:37:39:31:5F:80:B5:84:E3:F6:14

All CI checks passed: Android build, corpus tests (84 tests), documentation build, formatting standards.

What's New Since 0.4.0

68 commits including:

• Speed governor wave-a: per-stage native timings, fixed context capacity, bounded prompt and answer
• Offline research engine: fast-build, concurrent retrieval, sources on screen
• Download list revision 2026102502: Qwen2.5 0.5B Q4_K_M for 2GB-class devices
• Prompt bound increased to real 6,000 characters with history shedding
• Answer bound reduced 320 → 200 tokens for all modes
• Chat shows retrieved sources while model writes

Full Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for detailed technical notes.

Blobs 0.4.0

Blobs 0.4.0 ships the rebuilt library portfolio, the LFM2 1.2B model, and the first APK that trusts the v3 signed catalog.

Upgrading from 0.3.14

0.4.0 is signed with a new key; the 0.3.14 key is not recoverable. Android will not install this APK over 0.3.14 or older. Export the conversations you want to keep, uninstall Blobs, then install 0.4.0 fresh. Later updates install in place again.

What is in this release

• Nine reviewed libraries, each rebuilt from a pinned source, reviewed for content and rights, packaged, and published with retrieval cases:
  • Wikivoyage English travel guides (2026-09.5), 34,597 records — the starter library.
  • Practical how-to and repair questions from pinned Stack Exchange snapshots (2026-10.4), 189,294 and 78,626 records.
  • English Wikipedia Top 1M introductions (2026-04.5), 997,714 records.
  • English Wikisource history and primary texts (2026-09.3), four volumes, 622,014 records total.
  • Nairobi health places (2026-10.1), 200 named places.
• LFM2 1.2B Q4_K_M joins Qwen3.5 2B and Phi-4 Mini as an in-app choice. It is downloaded from Liquid AI's own repository at a pinned revision, and its LFM Open License 1.0 text ships in the app. Qwen3.5 2B remains the default.
• The catalog is compiled from reviewed supply admissions and signed with the v3 key. The app checks the signature before it offers a download, and the catalog now names only editions that passed the record, package, case, rights and digest gates.
• Chat reading and provenance: the transcript anchors at the turn you are reading, streaming follows only while you are at the live edge, and each finished turn keeps its passages, citations, elapsed time, and an expandable "How this answer was checked" chain. Blobs runs one local completion; the chain never invents reasoning.
• Runtime tuning: worker threads follow the device, prompt decoding is batched, and x86_64 builds use AVX2 paths selected at runtime. Emulator measurements are recorded in the changelog; they are not phone claims.
• Packaging safety: a library archive the app would refuse to install can no longer be built, and the packaging contract is tested directly against the Android validator.

Files

File	Bytes	SHA-256
blobs-0.4.0.apk	31,215,434	5fb939c2531a8b6d166a7a00f26a4ce2ae64224353854f77af0d462b9faa3be4
blobs-0.4.0-offline-kit.zip	1,071,316,537	3cb766f65a68bc1caf066633d9f67866d9d6abed088b93e971b780a481bcf9fa
blobs-0.4.0-source.zip	17,692,931	1017d7ff94338db53b8bbbebc24b69a6bd25642929f56584ba0214af2414ae80

SHA256SUMS.txt (inside the kit) has SHA-256 25d38c53182dd8544e9869dedf84ab127613b61e4c485098849a19cc26255756.

Signing certificate SHA-256: 626e4f7f02a11f74ddcab001c79a340c1e47918184bab606946b20cb96a444e3 (CN=Blobs, O=Blobs).

Install

1. Install blobs-0.4.0.apk, or extract the offline kit and follow its INSTALL.md.
2. Open Blobs and download a model and the starter library. The app verifies each package before installing it.
3. Ask a question. Downloads need a connection once; chat, retrieval, reading and answers work offline afterwards.

For an air-gapped setup, use the offline kit: it contains the APK, the LFM2 GGUF model and the starter library. Extract it and run python blobs/android/tools/verify_release.py PATH_TO_KIT before copying anything to a phone; compare the printed SHA256SUMS.txt digest with the value above.

Device acceptance in this repository was performed on an Android 16 emulator. No phone-class device was available, so latency and memory figures remain emulator-only.

Blobs 0.3.14

Blobs 0.3.14 improves offline research and answer handling.

• Article names, requested sections, and comparison topics receive more relevant source coverage.
• Follow-up questions retain their conversation topic without repeating the current question in the model input.
• When the model input is too long, Blobs tries shorter context while preserving the full question and source IDs. Questions that still exceed the limit receive a specific explanation.
• Completed and length-limited answers validate original citation IDs before display cleanup. Every cited source must contribute lexical overlap. This check does not establish factual correctness.

Install the APK over the existing app to keep conversations and downloaded libraries. The signing certificate matches 0.3.13. Android 9+; ARM64 and x86_64.

The optional offline kit includes the APK, source, compact Qwen3 0.6B model, starter library, licenses, and verification instructions. Additional models and collections are available through user-requested downloads in the app.

Built from fe10eeea2f4a9e876f3867863a033e8d551d0bfb. Validation passed: Android build/lint, 55 JVM tests, 55 Android integration tests on Android 16/API 36 x86_64 with Google Play Services disabled, 98 corpus tests, and 27 packaging/tooling tests. A real-tokenizer overflow check preserved all four source IDs, and an airplane-mode chat through normal package import completed. These are functional checks, not a frontier-model quality comparison or physical-phone performance measurement.

Extract the complete offline kit and follow its VERIFY.md and INSTALL.md. Verify these digests against the files you download:

Offline kit SHA-256:
207a59ec9c1a0393d2d6f6de6dbebdf083ebc40ef567e206ed4024a153a9bdde
SHA256SUMS.txt SHA-256:
5ac6050f31a4dfad30b2c1bde811582f371046ac043a855e52163bb794a42a22

Blobs 0.3.13

Blobs is an offline Android research app compatible with GrapheneOS. No account, Play Store or Google Play Services is required.

• Research instructions now allow comparisons and synthesis to use the detail they need, instead of forcing every reply into three claims and 120 words. Source citations, evidence boundaries and the bounded native context remain in place.
• New public guides at https://nonomnonom.github.io/blobs/: first-run setup, choosing models, libraries, source reading, privacy and building from source.
• See ten native app screens in the new tour, enlarge them in the image viewer, and follow rendered setup/library/chat flowcharts.
• The documentation uses the app's artwork, local fonts and light/dark colors, with a compact Light/Dark/System control and working static search.
• The repository starts with an APK installation guide and light/dark brand artwork. Internal reviews and signing files remain outside public source delivery.

Install the APK, review the model recommended for your phone, then download the model and starter library inside Blobs. Twelve English libraries and three models are currently offered. Downloads and checking for new choices are user-started; chat, citations and source reading work offline after setup. Travel collections contain text guides, without offline maps or route calculation.

This update retains the v0.3.12 signing certificate and updates it in place. Keep the app installed to preserve local data. SHA256SUMS.txt records the downloadable files; SIGNATURE.txt identifies the APK certificate.

Local validation: signed Gradle verify (formatting, lint, JVM tests, debug/release APKs and Android-test compilation), 49 Android integration tests on API 36/x86_64 with a 4 GB profile, 94 corpus tests, 27 release/tooling tests, APK signatures and 16 KB ZIP/ELF alignment. Documentation passed type, lint, formatting, production export, 28 light/dark browser states, three interaction cycles and four 200% text states. All 15 public asset URLs and the signed catalog were checked. Generated model answer wording was not graded.

Source commit: 9320175f06eaa0241eb2c3bda26730c3f09d0d84. An in-place upgrade from v0.3.12 retained setup progress. The source ZIP includes the application, corpus tooling and documentation website; it excludes signing keys, generated packages and local caches.

Blobs v0.3.12

Blobs is an offline Android app compatible with GrapheneOS. No account or Google Play Services is required.

• Download two new optional libraries inside Blobs: Bali travel guides (30 guides, 674 KB) and Practical living (four Appropedia articles, 81 KB).
• Reuse matching prompt tokens in the native llama.cpp runtime. Changed instructions and source text are recalculated from the first changed token. Stop retains completed prompt state when the runtime supports safe removal of unfinished generation.
• Prevent repeated source passages when regional and full libraries overlap.
• Shorter library summaries and offline CC BY-SA 3.0 notices.

Install the APK, then choose when to download a model and the starter library in the app. Optional libraries are available from Library. Bali contains text guides, without offline maps or route calculation.

This APK uses the same signing certificate as v0.3.11; it can update that version in place. Local validation passed: 37 JVM tests, 49 Android integration tests, 94 corpus tests and 27 tooling tests; release APK ZIP/ELF alignment and signatures verified. Cache lifecycle checks passed with Qwen3 0.6B and Gemma 4 E2B. Generated answer wording was not graded.

Source commit: 8bf12379f999d8ae041d38db55c890b37a5e3e33. SHA256SUMS.txt and SIGNATURE.txt identify the downloadable files. Models and library packages remain on Hugging Face.

Blobs 0.3.11

Blobs 0.3.11 brings the updated Blobs illustrations and a consistent chat-first experience across setup, conversations, Library, and Settings.

• Guided model and starter-library setup, with clearer download, pause, verification, installation, and recovery screens.
• Light/Dark/System previews, improved reading controls, and layouts refined for large text.
• Clearer source selection and saved-library controls, plus refreshed storage, conversation data, and About screens.
• Offline release kits can reuse an existing verified model/library edition independently of the app version.

Install blobs-0.3.11.apk, then download a model and the starter library inside the app. Optional collections are available in Library. Chat, retrieval, citations, and source reading work offline after setup. Blobs supports Android 9+ on ARM64 and x86_64, is compatible with GrapheneOS, and has no Google Play Services dependency.

Updating: install this APK over your existing Blobs installation. It uses the same signing certificate as 0.3.10. Existing model/library packages can stay installed.

For a portable copy of the APK and fallback files, extract blobs-0.3.11-offline-kit.zip and follow VERIFY.md and INSTALL.md. Guided first-run setup uses in-app downloads; later local imports are available in Library and Settings → Models. The kit includes the signed APK, compact Qwen fallback model, starter library, source archive, licenses, and checksums. Larger models and additional libraries remain on Hugging Face.

Validation passed: Gradle verify, debug/release lint, formatting, 33 JVM tests, 26 release-tool tests, APK signature and 16 KB ZIP/ELF alignment checks, complete offline-kit verification, and signed upgrade/launch on Android 16 x86_64. UI review covered light/dark and large text, with application-flow checks for drafts, navigation, source reading, and imports.

SHA-256:

fc65ecd46f64745006cfffeb313f1fa69585afbfc607bb5a23c49594ea5fb630  blobs-0.3.11.apk
a751efb97b6c4bfd7c8f804eeba95140e27f78467502b9d20f68b615d1586567  blobs-0.3.11-source.zip
b08b0672f132affc0eaa93e77b83dc7dc99b9bdd6935288b34de4c204e12b956  blobs-0.3.11-offline-kit.zip

SHA-256 of SHA256SUMS.txt inside the offline kit:

3bddd20c7d9468902ea88e47cd6f2cb00cad81c52c16ebe5ea75ff74608c5afe

Blobs 0.3.10

Blobs 0.3.10 updates the bundled travel library listing to edition 2026-09.3 and includes the revised corpus validation, build profiling, and reproducible Hugging Face record-download instructions. Secondary SQLite indexes are built after record loading for future corpus builds. App/runtime checks focus on product flows and performance.

Install blobs-0.3.10.apk, then download a model and the starter library in the app. Optional travel guides are available in Library. Chat, retrieval, and source reading run offline after setup.

For air-gapped setup, download and extract blobs-0.3.10-offline-kit.zip. It includes the APK, compact Qwen fallback model, starter library, source, licenses, and verification instructions. Follow VERIFY.md and INSTALL.md inside the extracted folder. The ZIP preserves the complete kit directory, including its licenses subfolder. Larger models and optional libraries remain available through Hugging Face.

This release uses the same app signing certificate as v0.3.9.

Validation: corpus and release-tool tests, Gradle verify (formatting, lint, JVM tests, builds and instrumentation compilation), APK alignment/security checks, complete offline-kit verification, and signed APK installation and launch on Android 16 x86_64. The published travel package also passed the in-app download and installation flow in v0.3.9. No model-answer grading was used as a release gate.

SHA-256 of SHA256SUMS.txt inside the kit:
603cb66b03c6e1fe086f8ab13e20a042588ade47938243770fdc58f5bcf200b7

SHA-256 of blobs-0.3.10-offline-kit.zip:
428395e848b59b808862a54c5360c3b3778b8e71ffd8f761d002793653b9fcff

Blobs 0.3.9

Blobs 0.3.9 is an Android app for offline, source-grounded chat with downloadable models and libraries.

Install blobs-0.3.9.apk, then download a model and the starter library in the app. After setup, chat and search work offline. The attached package files also support air-gapped setup; see INSTALL.md and verify the published checksums before installing.

This release includes an English travel guide and separate U.S.-focused outdoor and emergency-preparedness libraries. Local conditions and official guidance can change; these snapshots are dated references, not live alerts or emergency services.

Android 9+ on ARM64 or x86_64. Model speed and memory use depend on the device.

Blobs v0.3.8

Blobs 0.3.8 is a signed Android release with improved source retrieval when multiple offline libraries are enabled.

Changes

• More specific evidence now ranks ahead of a generic one-word title for detailed questions.
• Multi-library retrieval now reranks up to 8 candidates per library instead of 12. In a matched Android 16 x86_64 emulator run across six installed libraries, median retrieval latency decreased 24% and p95 decreased 19%, with the expected source ranks unchanged. This is a result for the recorded emulator workload, not a prediction for every phone.
• Updated the in-app signed download list for this release. Existing model and library packages remain pinned to their immutable Hugging Face revision.

Offline use

Download the APK and the included Qwen 0.6B model and starter library, install the app, then complete setup. After those one-time files are installed, chat, retrieval, and citations work offline. Optional travel and safety libraries are available from the in-app Library screen.

Verification

• APK SHA-256: f4edf89e51242f279dc5d4652d914332b0e8137e808577be0a76e2c1f4affeb3
• Release inventory (SHA256SUMS.txt) SHA-256: c8142be877d9a480fc973de69bd792aa76137ece2815b62174214e0a2543667d
• Android 9+, ARM64 and x86_64; no Google Play Services required for core offline use.

Blobs v0.3.7

Blobs 0.3.7 improves source retrieval as more offline libraries are enabled.

• In a matched Android 16 x86_64 emulator benchmark with six libraries, expected source positions stayed unchanged and all six sources were retrieved. Median retrieval time moved from 945 ms to 426 ms; p95 moved from 1,246 ms to 564 ms. These measurements describe that emulator.
• The offline release kit includes the Android APK, Qwen 0.6B Q8, the starter library, source archive, and checksum verification files.
• The APK is signed with the same certificate as v0.3.6, so existing installations can update in place.
• Optional travel, emergency, outdoor-safety, camping, and backcountry libraries remain available from the in-app download list. Once packages are downloaded, chat and retrieval work offline.