Zephyrus 0.2.0 (pre-release)

Windows installer for Zephyrus, the Chromium browser with Zep, a built-in agent that does web tasks for you. Pre-release.

Install

1. Download Zephyrus-Setup-2026-11-04.exe below and run it.
2. The installer is not code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen shows "Unknown publisher". Choose More info, then Run anyway.
3. Zep needs your own model API key. Add it in the agent panel's settings; it is stored encrypted with the OS keystore.

SHA-256: 19ABB3CD85C5B7AB27F5E3F5036B5D6E8D5FDEBD0DC5A92EF75A21DF4A422212

What is new

• Chromium 156 (156.0.8078.80), up from 151.
• Shield DNS (off by default): when you turn it on, unfamiliar sites are also checked with Cloudflare and Quad9, and a known phishing or malware host is blocked before the page loads. Only the host name is sent. On fresh phishing links from OpenPhish and PhishTank it blocked 86% and 92% at first sight, where Google's Safe Browsing lists blocked 43% and 67%; on pages that really ask for a password the two are level. Those two feeds are read by the resolvers, which favours Shield DNS, so this is not a claim of being safer than Google or Brave.
• Ad blocker: procedural cosmetic filters (:has-text, :upward, :xpath, :matches-css and more) and $csp rules.
• New browser logo, rounded address bar and new tab search box, DuckDuckGo as the default search engine, a tonal-containers setting, and the AI Mode button removed.

Known issues

• Not code-signed and no auto-updater. The source for the Chromium 156 build is not on GitHub yet.
• Not yet tested by anyone on a clean install.
• Chromium's installer skips installing over the same version number without saying so. Uninstall an older Zephyrus build first.
• A horizontal-tabs layout glitch (last tab squeezed) was reported and could not be reproduced.
• Voice Lock is a lightweight matcher, not biometric security.

Source and build instructions: see the README.

Zephyrus 0.1.1 (pre-release)

Windows installer for Zephyrus, the Chromium browser with Zep, a built-in agent that does web tasks for you.

Install

1. Download Zephyrus-Setup-2026-10-30.exe below and run it.
2. The installer is not code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen shows "Unknown publisher". Choose More info, then Run anyway.
3. Zep needs your own model API key. Add it in the agent panel's settings; it is stored encrypted with the OS keystore.

SHA-256: AEB8C1EBB31C19F983B2E6BC360E55913ECB554EE24DD4360F1142FD1EA5CAD3

What is new

• Cloud agent: prompt and tool descriptions rewritten. Model replies that wrote a tool call as plain text fell from 22% to 0% on the benchmark; 37 of 37 benchmark tasks pass.
• Safety kernel: URLs are read the way Chromium reads them, non-web schemes are denied, more payment controls are recognised, and the "which one did you mean?" question no longer fires when clicking into one part of a date.
• Network: requests that carry page content or a key never follow redirects.
• Glance link previews, compact mode, the lens mascot skin, the Zep Search engine and the new first-run onboarding.

Known issues

• Not code-signed, no auto-updater, and the Chromium base (151) is past its support window.
• Chromium's installer skips installing over the same version number without saying so. Uninstall an older Zephyrus build first.
• One long agent task (finding a manager's extension in a staff directory) still fails about one run in three.
• Voice Lock is a lightweight matcher, not biometric security.

Source and build instructions: see the README.

Zephyrus 0.1.0 (hackathon build)

The Windows installer for Zephyrus, built for the AssemblyAI Voice Agent Hackathon.

Install: download Zephyrus-Setup-hackathon.exe and run it. Windows SmartScreen will warn that the publisher is unknown, because this build is not code-signed: choose "More info", then "Run anyway".

SHA-256: DE19732C691BDFCB4102B38B4786F80EADA31A403FC3AEEBD8FF02B6E8C3DEB2

What this build is

• Chromium 151.0.7922.171 fork, Windows x64, about 119 MB.
• Demo build: developer switches are on and the hosted key service is compiled in, so no provider key is inside the browser and nothing needs configuring. The default model is Claude Sonnet 5.5.
• Try it: open the agent panel and type a task, hold Ctrl+Shift+Space and speak it, or set up "Hey Zep" (the microphone icon next to the gear).

Honest limits: not code-signed, no updater, and the Chromium base is out of its support window. Fine for a hackathon, not for production.

Source (an overlay on upstream Chromium): this repository. Demo page: https://zephyrus-demo-proxy.vercel.app