Shoggoth 4.1.0-beta.2 (beta)

This is a beta. Shoggoth is being tested and updated. Please wait until this version is out of beta. If you want a stable build, use Shoggoth 4.0.0.

Download Shoggoth-4.1.0-beta.2-x86_64.AppImage. Existing installs won't update to this beta by themselves. When the final 4.1.0 is out, this beta will be offered it.

What's new since 4.1.0-beta.1

• One model picker. The tube at the top of the chat opens the model list, with models from every engine. The slots wording and the separate drawer are gone.
• One sidebar. Chats scroll under a compact menu, and jobs fold away under them. Library is now Models, and the old Settings page is spread to where its options belong (model folder in Models, memory in Hardware, updates in Engines).
• Speed and tuning for every model. Each reply shows its speed in tokens a second, and every model shows whether it is tuned. Test speed measures a model without changing anything, and you can leave some graphics memory free for your desktop.
• Recommended picks. My tested picks show even before Lemonade is installed, and choosing one sets Lemonade up first. Large picks: Qwen3.8 Flash-Next (IQ3_S and IQ2_XS), Flash-Next Coder and Swift 1.5.
• Jobs and pictures. Start a job… is always under the message box, and models that can see pictures get an Add a picture… button.
• Creatures from the name. Every model is drawn from its name: the family sets the shape and colour, and bigger models are bigger, with more camera eyes and more hands holding pens, papers and keyboards. They now appear on every model card, recommended ones included.
• A tidier UI. One title per page, quieter links, fewer font weights, a model picker that explains itself when nothing is installed, and clearer Hardware, Engines, Tuning and Themes pages.
• Docs. A new README with a banner, and every screenshot retaken in the current UI.

Shoggoth 4.1.0-beta.1 (beta)

This is a beta. Shoggoth is being tested and updated, more updates incoming this week. Please wait until this version is out of beta. If you want a stable build, use Shoggoth 4.0.0.

Download Shoggoth-4.1.0-beta.1-x86_64.AppImage. Existing installs won't update to this beta by themselves. When the final 4.1.0 is out, this beta will be offered it.

What's new since 4.0.0

• Readable titles. Headings use Chakra Petch. The dot-matrix Doto font stays on the screens: the Hardware and Server benches, the Machine's displays and the request log.
• Calmer spacing. All spacing sits on a 4px grid. Library cards group their details, and the engine's name moves onto the Details row. The Server page's Copy buttons line up. Help's questions are one list.
• The wire no longer crosses the chat's title. It runs down the column's left margin and plugs into the model bar's lamp.
• The model bar fits on one line. It shows "Memory 128k" and a short status. Free memory steps aside while the model answers.
• The Machine: long model names get the full card width.
• Library: a model that fits but is crowded out of memory right now shows amber, not red, and stays in the recommendations.
• Server: the shelf shows the model's full name, and request cards use the Library's name. Send a test message no longer loads a model by itself.
• First run: Start chatting names and opens the model already in memory, otherwise the recommended one.
• Strata: a model you started yourself stays in the chat's list while Strata has freed its memory. Your next message wakes it.
• Fixes: a chat no longer sticks on "Working…" when it can't start. The "Model pictures are on" note moves to the Details panel.
• Docs: the README and the in-app guide are rewritten in plainer language, with new screenshots.

Shoggoth 4.0.0

Zest is now Shoggoth. Same app, new name, and a new look.

• Model pictures. Every model is drawn as a many-eyed creature made from its own numbers: eyes for how much it remembers, size for its parameters, skin for how tightly it's compressed, pens if it can use tools. The chat's model sits in a glass tube at the top of Chat. Click it to open the Machine, a drawer with a slot for each engine and a shelf of every model you have. Turn the pictures off under Settings › Look.
• Lab benches. Advanced › Hardware shows each graphics card as a machine on a bench, with a memory beaker, a heat gauge, a coil and a radio. Advanced › Server shows each app's request as a flask that fills as the model writes.
• New type (Doto, Inter, JetBrains Mono) and drawn icons in place of emoji.
• Fixes: a chat no longer sticks on "Working…" when it can't start; Send a test message uses the model in memory; graphics cards name the model on them.

Coming from Zest? Update from Settings as usual. On first start Shoggoth moves ~/.config/zest and ~/.local/share/zest to the new names and keeps your chats, skills, settings and keys. zest- keys and ZEST_* variables still work. Arch users: the AUR package is now shoggoth-appimage.

Zest 3.4.3

Fixes startup in sandboxed environments (such as the AppImage catalog test): all bundled modules are now readable by other users, and Zest keeps running when its home folder can't be written.

Zest 3.4.2

• Update everything: one button on the Setup guide (Advanced > Setup guide) checks Zest, Lemonade and Pi, verifies each download and installs it. A new Zest is saved beside the current AppImage, with a restart button.
• My skills: skills you make yourself go in ~/.local/share/zest/skills/mine and show up on the Skills page. Skills left in skills-live are kept instead of deleted.
• Long chats: Lemonade's request timeout is raised from 10 minutes to a day, so long chats no longer fail with a curl timeout.

Zest 3.4.1

Themes, and a screenshot for every section of the README.

• Themes: open Advanced > Themes to change how Zest looks. Light Touch is the default (keycap buttons, a pressed-in reply box, a small lamp). Braun T3 and Teenage Engineering are full hardware looks, and twelve editor palettes use the same hardware in their colours: One Dark Pro, Dracula, Monokai Pro, Night Owl, SynthWave '84, Cobalt2, Nord, Gruvbox Dark, GitHub Dark and Light, Catppuccin Mocha and Latte.
• Nothing moves: every button, panel and menu stays the same size and in the same place in every theme. Your choice is remembered on this computer.
• Diagrams follow dark themes.
• Fresh Light Touch screenshots throughout the README, and a Themes section.

Make the AppImage executable and run it: chmod +x Zest-*-x86_64.AppImage && ./Zest-*-x86_64.AppImage.

Zest 3.4.0

Every chat is now a working session, in your home folder unless you choose another.

• Chat is co-work by default: a new chat can read and search files, edit them and run commands in a terminal, always asking before it changes anything. Give it a project folder, or leave it and it works in your home folder.
• It tells you where it is: the new-chat screen, the folder chip in the header and a note at the top of the conversation all say "home folder", with a link to choose a different one.
• Careful in your home folder: it starts on Ask first, the model is told to leave your files and settings alone unless asked and to put new files in a subfolder, and background jobs need a project folder.
• Header chips no longer overlap the title at medium window widths.

Make the AppImage executable and run it: chmod +x Zest-*-x86_64.AppImage && ./Zest-*-x86_64.AppImage.

Zest 3.3.1

Web search for the chat, with your own Brave or Tavily key, and a fix for opening an old Zest by mistake.

• Web search: the model can search the web, and every search asks first and shows the exact words. DuckDuckGo works with no key, but it often refuses automated searches, so Zest makes one request per search, never retries, and then tells you to get a free Brave Search or Tavily key. Choose the provider, paste the key and press Test search in the chat's Details panel (Web search). Keys stay on your computer. Search works in plain chats too, and can be switched off.
• No more old interface: launching Zest while an older version is still running used to just reopen the old one. Now the new version starts beside it on the next free port.

Make the AppImage executable and run it: chmod +x Zest-*-x86_64.AppImage && ./Zest-*-x86_64.AppImage.

Zest 3.3.0

A model bar in the chat, a calmer stream, a new lemon, and new type.

• Model bar: a bar under the chat's title shows the model, its context size (128k by default) and whether it is in memory, with Load, Unload and Reload. Sending a message to a model that isn't loaded loads it first, at that size. The Models page is now for downloading models and editing their settings.
• Chat stream fixes: thinking shows live and folds away, tool calls show while they are being written, and an answer that runs out of room says so and offers Continue. Long thinking no longer floods the page.
• Status strip: a little strip of 📖 🤔 ✍️ 🛠️ shows what the model is doing.
• New look: a new lemon icon, Young Serif and Nunito Sans (embedded, so nothing loads from the internet), and 16 px body text.
• README: fresh screenshots of the chat, working in a folder, Models, model settings and Server.

Make the AppImage executable and run it: chmod +x Zest-*-x86_64.AppImage && ./Zest-*-x86_64.AppImage.

Zest 3.2.0

A redesigned chat, background jobs, folder trust, and review of changes.

• Chat redesign: the chat view has been rebuilt.
• Jobs: longer tasks run as jobs.
• Folder trust: folders are trusted explicitly before the agent works in them, and it works on a copy you can review.
• Review: look over what the agent changed before it lands.

Make the AppImage executable and run it: chmod +x Zest-*-x86_64.AppImage && ./Zest-*-x86_64.AppImage.