Pi Chat v0.5.2

Pi Chat v0.5.2

Productization release: one-file Setup, self-contained runtime, in-place Pi updates

Pi Chat v0.5.2 turns the previous developer-style install into a normal Windows application flow while keeping every authority boundary: Pi remains the sole authority for Runtime execution, Sessions, JSONL, Prompt delivery, retry, Steer, tools, models, and transcript state, and the Web core remains the only product surface.

Pi Chat Setup

PiChatSetup.exe is a single-file Windows installer (no Electron):

• Installs the compiled app into %LOCALAPPDATA%\PiChat\app.
• Downloads and SHA256-verifies a private Node.js 22 runtime into runtime\node — the user never needs a system Node, and nvm/PATH skew cannot affect the service.
• Detects an existing local Pi and uses it by default; when no Pi exists it installs a PiChat-managed Pi Runtime into Pi's own native ~/.pi/agent/install layout, sharing sessions, settings, skills, and credentials with the user's Pi CLI without duplication.
• Creates desktop and Start-menu shortcuts (PWA and Web views) and opens Pi Chat on completion.
• Registers a Windows uninstaller (Settings → Apps → Pi Chat → Uninstall) that removes the install root and shortcuts while deliberately preserving ~/.pi/agent user state.
• Falls back to the npmmirror mirror for Node.js and npm registry downloads so installs work on networks where nodejs.org or registry.npmjs.org are unreachable; checksum verification is unchanged.
• Refuses to install or upgrade while Pi Chat is running instead of failing on file locks mid-upgrade.

In-place Pi Runtime updates

The About panel can now upgrade Pi directly instead of linking to npm:

• Update checks remain explicit, read-only, and guarded by the local API authority.
• Managed installs install the pinned version into releases/<version>, then atomically switch the current-version pointer after the full lifecycle quiescence barrier.
• npm-global installs run an explicit npm install -g @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent@<version> after confirmation, keeping the user's Pi CLI and the Pi Chat engine in lockstep (the shared ~/.pi/agent state can never skew between versions); a failed upgrade rolls back to the previous version.
• Custom Pi entries are never modified; the UI only offers upgrade paths that apply to the detected install source.

Fixes

• Optimistic user prompts reconcile after Runtime settlement instead of lingering after the persisted echo becomes visible.
• Oversized Session JSONL files stay readable with a bounded recent-turn window across cold, bootstrap, hot-recovery, workspace, and read-only paths.
• npm-cli discovery covers npm bundled inside the Node.js installation directory (the common Windows layout).
• The Setup console wrapper forces a UTF-8 codepage so install messages render correctly on non-Chinese systems.