Anode v0.11.4

What's new in 0.11.4

This patch fixes bugs found after 0.11.3, one of them reported by an outside user (#57). No tools
or commands were added; there are still 41 tools.

• A long desktop action keeps its lease. Each action extended its owner's lease from when it
  started, so one that ran past the lease's lifetime, such as a steam_launch of up to 175 s under
  the default 120 s, ended with the lease expired, and another agent could take the desktop. An
  action now keeps the lease while it runs and leaves a full lifetime from when it ends.
• Desktop commands ask for a missing agent ID first. With Anode stopped, anode type hi without
  ANODE_AGENT_ID said "Anode is not running", then failed again for the ID once Anode was
  started. Commands that need the desktop lease now name the missing agent ID or lease token before
  they connect (exit 2).
• Scrolling waits for the screen to catch up. A wheel scroll or PageDown answered before a
  browser had drawn it, so the next screenshot could show the old page. Scrolls and PageUp,
  PageDown, Home and End now wait for the screen to settle, up to about 2.5 seconds, and say
  whether it settled; a reply of changing or unknown calls for a fresh screenshot.
• anode doctor warns when Windows signs local accounts in as Guest. With Windows' "Guest
  only" sharing model (ForceGuest = 1 under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa, set by
  some security suites and hardened images), the seat could never sign in, even with the password
  the lock screen accepts, while every doctor row read [ok] and the seat's error was only
  "extended reason 0". Doctor now has a Local account sign-in row that warns while it is set, a
  failed seat sign-in names it, and
  TROUBLESHOOTING
  explains how to check it. Anode never changes the setting.
  (#57)
• anode display says why it can't read the seat's status. With nothing to change, it exited 1
  and printed nothing when its status request failed. It now prints the reason on stderr.
• anode type, anode steam and anode gamepad refuse bad arguments before connecting. With
  Anode stopped, text too long for one call, a bad --exe, a gamepad --ms out of range or an
  unknown button answered "Anode is not running" (exit 1) instead of the real error (exit 2). An
  unknown gamepad button, axis or trigger is now refused at once, with the names that work, on the
  CLI and over MCP, where gamepad_tap and gamepad_set used to take the desktop lease first.
• A piped command no longer waits for Anode to exit. When Anode couldn't be started through the
  Task Scheduler, the daemon it started instead inherited the caller's handles, so a command such
  as anode lease acquire | Out-String waited until Anode itself exited, and
  anode browser --sign-in | Out-Host until the browser was closed. Both now start with no
  inherited or standard handles.
• A log line waits longer for other writers before it is dropped. When several Anode processes
  wrote to anode.log at once, a line waited only about 100 ms for the others; it now waits up to a
  second.
• New guide: keep working while Windows-MCP clicks.
  docs/WINDOWS-MCP.md runs
  CursorTouch's Windows-MCP inside the seat with anode run, so its clicks and typing stay off your
  desktop. Docs only.
• The skill asks before it installs anything. The anode-desktop skill and anode_guide show
  the user the exact install commands and wait for their yes. They download the installer from a
  named release, not latest, and check its SHA-256 before running it.

Known issues. A Chrome window's first observation can come back without the page, and the
page's controls sit deeper than the default maxDepth of 8: observe again with maxDepth 16. On
Windows' "Open File - Security Warning" dialog, invoke reports success without running anything:
focus the dialog with seat_window, then click. anode type has no option for a slower pace; use
seat_type with a larger perCharMs. anode.log grows until you delete it. Fixes are planned for
a later release.

Validation. The quick checks, the documentation check and Windows CI (build, packaging,
installation, distribution, and the environment self-test on a GitHub-hosted Windows runner) passed
on the release commit. The owner's live check, scripts\release-check.ps1 (native controls, Chrome
forms, real input, File Explorer and display changes on Windows 11), runs on the release commit
before it is tagged; its summary and coverage limits are in the
validation record.
Release builds include .NET 10.0.13, Microsoft's October security update.
See the changelog for every
change.

Install or upgrade

Download anode-windows-x64.zip for the portable executable, agent connector and docs. Release
builds include .NET 10.0.13; no SDK or runtime installation is needed.

For a per-user installation, download install.ps1 and run it in PowerShell:

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\install.ps1

It adds Anode to your PATH, the Start menu and Settings → Apps → Installed apps. For a first
installation, open a new terminal and run:

anode doctor | Out-Host
anode setup | Out-Host
anode configure | Out-Host
anode start --hidden | Out-Host
anode capabilities | Out-Host

configure finds installed Codex and Claude Code CLIs and backs up their settings. Restart the
agent afterward. Other MCP clients can launch anode.exe with the argument mcp.

Upgrading: save seat work, run anode quit (which closes every program in the seat), and close
agent sessions using Anode. Install 0.11.4, start Anode again and restart those agent sessions.
Run anode configure to refresh the installed skill.

Requires 64-bit Windows 10/11 Pro, Enterprise or Education, or Windows Server with a Remote Desktop
host. Windows Home is unsupported; ARM64 is not validated. setup asks for administrator permission
to enable Remote Desktop and child sessions and can restart Remote Desktop Services.

The installer verifies SHA256SUMS. Binaries and scripts remain unsigned, so Windows may display
a SmartScreen warning. Checksums detect corruption; build attestations identify the release
workflow. Anode is desktop isolation for trusted agents, not a security sandbox.

See installation, updates and removal,
agent configuration,
and the changelog.