Changelog

[1.0.0] Ember

Added

• JSONL transcript logs — session logs now capture Claude Code's structured JSONL transcripts (~/.claude/projects/) instead of raw PTY scrollback, producing clean readable User/Assistant conversation logs
• Transcript auto-discovery — daemon locates Claude Code's transcript files by matching session names and copies them to ~/.watchfire/logs/ alongside the existing .log file

Changed

• Log viewer — TUI and GUI now display formatted conversation transcripts (User/Assistant messages, tool call summaries) instead of garbled terminal output; falls back to PTY scrollback when no transcript is available

Fixed

• Agent restart loop — wildfire/start-all now stops after 3 consecutive restarts of the same task and transitions to chat mode, preventing infinite loops on rate limits, crashes, or auth expiry
• Sandbox blocks ~/Desktop projects (#17) — macOS Seatbelt sandbox no longer denies read access to protected directories (Desktop, Documents, Downloads, etc.) when the project is located inside one of them
• TUI task list scroll with 100+ tasks (#18) — fixed height accounting for section header blank lines and scroll indicators that caused the last few tasks to be invisible
• Install script "tmp_dir: unbound variable" (#20) — moved temp directory variable to global scope so the cleanup trap can access it after function returns
• Desktop always thinks CLI tools are outdated (#21) — version check now strips ANSI escape codes before parsing and logs the actual error when the CLI binary can't be executed
• Can't edit already created tasks in GUI (#23) — task editor no longer resets form contents when background polling refreshes the task list
• Duplicate terminal headers in GUI — Chat panel no longer accumulates repeated Claude Code banners when switching projects or during wildfire phase transitions; terminal is properly cleared before each new subscription, and raw output subscriptions use their own abort map instead of colliding with screen subscriptions

[0.9.0] Ember

Added

• Linux GUI — AppImage and .deb packages for x64 Linux, built in GitHub Actions on ubuntu-latest. Bundled CLI + daemon binaries installed to ~/.local/bin on first launch with pkexec fallback for admin privileges.
• Windows GUI — NSIS installer (Watchfire-Setup-x.y.z.exe) for x64 Windows, built in GitHub Actions on windows-latest. Bundled CLI + daemon binaries installed to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Watchfire on first launch with PowerShell elevation fallback.
• Cross-platform auto-update for GUI — electron-updater now checks latest-linux.yml (Linux) and latest.yml (Windows) in addition to latest-mac.yml (macOS). All three update manifests are generated and uploaded as release artifacts.
• Linux GUI CI verification — gui-build-linux job in CI workflow verifies Electron builds on ubuntu-latest on every PR.

Changed

• CLI installer is cross-platform — cli-installer.ts detects OS and uses platform-appropriate install directories (/usr/local/bin on macOS, ~/.local/bin on Linux, %LOCALAPPDATA%\Watchfire on Windows) with platform-specific privilege elevation (osascript, pkexec, PowerShell)
• Window chrome adapts to platform — macOS uses hiddenInset title bar with traffic lights; Linux and Windows use native window frames
• electron-builder.yml — added linux (AppImage + deb) and win (NSIS) targets with platform-specific extraResources for correct binary bundling (.exe on Windows)
• Release workflow — added build-gui-linux and build-gui-windows jobs; release job collects AppImage, deb, NSIS exe, and all update YAMLs as assets

[0.8.0] Ember

Fixed

• watchfire update now works on Windows — stopDaemonForUpdate uses Kill() instead of SIGTERM
• findDaemonBinary() handles Windows .exe extension correctly (was producing watchfire.exed)
• Build directory fallback uses platform-appropriate binary name

[0.7.0] Ember

Added

• Linux and Windows binaries in GitHub Releases — release workflow now builds amd64 + arm64 for darwin, linux, and windows (6 platform targets total)
• Cross-platform CI — CI workflow verifies builds on macOS, Linux, and Windows
• Install scripts — scripts/install.sh (macOS/Linux) and scripts/install.ps1 (Windows) for one-line installation from GitHub Releases
• No-CGO tray fallback — daemon runs headless when built without CGO (enables Linux/Windows cross-compilation)

[0.6.0] Ember

Added

• watchfire chat CLI command — dedicated command to start an interactive chat session with full project context
• Cross-platform sandbox abstraction — shared SandboxPolicy with platform-specific backends: macOS Seatbelt, Linux Landlock (kernel 5.13+) / bubblewrap (fallback)
• Landlock sandbox (Linux) — zero-dependency kernel-based sandboxing using go-landlock, daemon re-invokes itself as helper to apply restrictions before exec
• Bubblewrap sandbox (Linux) — namespace-based isolation with read-only root, writable project dir, hidden credential dirs
• --sandbox <backend> and --no-sandbox CLI flags on run, chat, plan, generate, wildfire commands
• Sandbox backend configurable per-project (project.yaml) and globally (settings.yaml)
• System tray icon abstraction for Linux — setTrayIcon() helper dispatches between macOS template icons and Linux standard icons
• Windows build support — CLI and daemon compile and run on Windows (unsandboxed, no POSIX signal dependencies)
• Windows notifications — toast notifications via beeep library
• Platform-aware updater asset names — supports watchfire-<os>-<arch>[.exe] format

Fixed

• Agent chaining not stopping on auth (401) or rate-limit (429) errors — start-all/wildfire mode now checks for active issues before spawning the next agent
• Linux notification double-close bug — notify_linux.go now properly handles file close errors

Changed

• Default sandbox changed from "sandbox-exec" to "auto" — platform auto-detects best backend
• Sandbox setting priority: CLI flag > project setting > global default

[0.5.0] Ember

Added

• Integrated terminal in the GUI — footer bar that expands into a resizable bottom panel with tabbed shell sessions via node-pty, Cmd+` toggle, Nerd Font support
• Version display in system tray menu below "Watchfire Daemon" header for easy version identification

Fixed

• Status indicator dots in sidebar/dashboard now only pulse for projects with an autonomous agent (task, wildfire, start-all) — chat mode no longer triggers pulsing
• Dashboard project card X button overlapping chevron arrow on hover
• GUI crash ("Object has been destroyed") when PTY emits data after BrowserWindow is closed — onData/onExit callbacks now check isDestroyed() before sending IPC messages

[0.4.0] Ember

Fixed

• Daemon crash (exit code 2) when macOS notification fires outside .app bundle — hasAppBundle() pre-check and @try/@catch prevent NSInternalInconsistencyException
• Agent subprocess inheriting CLAUDECODE env var — stripped from child process environment to prevent Claude Code nesting issues
• Project color not updating in sidebar/dashboard after changing in settings — optimistic local store update now re-renders immediately
• Tasks not updating in GUI when chat agent creates them on disk — removed flawed shallow comparison that suppressed store updates from protobuf-es objects
• CLI wildfire/start-all crashing with "stream error: no agent running" during task transitions — stream errors are now handled gracefully in chaining mode
• System tray concurrent update crashes — serialized Cocoa API calls through a single goroutine with debouncing
• Agent manager deadlock when onChangeFn calls ListAgents() during state persist — moved callback to a goroutine

[0.3.0] Ember

Added

• Daemon health check (Ping RPC) for lightweight connection verification

Fixed

• Daemon startup race condition — daemon.yaml is now written only after the gRPC server is accepting connections, eliminating "connection refused" errors on startup
• GUI no longer shows "Failed to fetch" when starting tasks immediately after daemon launch
• TUI no longer shows "connection refused" on first connect attempt
• GUI settings page (and all views) no longer vanish during brief daemon disconnects — disconnect message now shows as an overlay
• CLI and GUI daemon startup now verify port readiness before proceeding

[0.2.0] Ember

Added

• Agent memory file (.watchfire/memory.md) — agents can persist project-specific knowledge (conventions, preferences, patterns) across sessions

Changed

• Removed configurable "default branch" setting — tasks now merge into whatever branch is currently checked out in the project root

Fixed

• macOS notifications now display the Watchfire icon instead of a generic system icon
• GUI terminal no longer duplicates output in an infinite loop when an agent stops

[0.1.3] Ember

Fixed

• Homebrew Cask download URL now includes -universal suffix to match the actual DMG release asset name, fixing brew install --cask watchfire
• GUI now polls tasks and agent status continuously so the interface updates when task files change
• GUI project settings color changes now apply immediately without needing a restart

[0.1.2] Ember

Fixed

• GUI auto-updater no longer fails with ENOENT: app-update.yml — the --prepackaged electron-builder flag skips generating this file; it is now created explicitly in the build workflow

[0.1.1] Ember

Fixed

• GUI now detects Homebrew-installed binaries in /opt/homebrew/bin/ on Apple Silicon Macs
• CLI installer checks both /opt/homebrew/bin and /usr/local/bin before prompting to install
• Daemon discovery finds watchfired in Homebrew prefix when Electron's PATH is limited

[0.1.0] Ember — Initial Release

Watchfire orchestrates coding agent sessions (starting with Claude Code) based on project specs and tasks. Define what you want built, break it into tasks (or have agents do it), and let agents work through them autonomously — with full visibility into what's happening. Or just turn on wildfire mode and let your agents do it all for you.

Daemon (watchfired)

The always-on backend that manages everything:

• Agent orchestration — Spawns coding agents in sandboxed PTYs with terminal emulation, one task per project, multiple projects in parallel
• Git worktree isolation — Each task runs in its own worktree (watchfire/<task_number>), auto-merged back on completion with conflict detection
• macOS sandbox — Agents run inside sandbox-exec with restricted filesystem/network access
• File watching — Real-time detection of task completion and phase signals via fsnotify, with polling fallback for reliability
• Session logs — Every agent session recorded to ~/.watchfire/logs/ with YAML metadata
• System tray — Menu bar icon showing daemon status, active agents with colored project dots, and quick stop/quit actions
• Secrets folder — .watchfire/secrets/instructions.md for providing agents with external service credentials and setup instructions, injected into the system prompt
• Issue detection — Monitors agent output for auth errors (401, expired tokens) and rate limits (429), with real-time notifications to clients
• gRPC + gRPC-Web — Single port serves both native gRPC (CLI/TUI) and gRPC-Web (Electron GUI)
• Auto-discovery — Writes connection info to ~/.watchfire/daemon.yaml so clients find it automatically

CLI (watchfire)

Project-scoped command-line interface:

• watchfire init — Initialize a project (git setup, .watchfire/ structure, .gitignore, interactive config)
• watchfire task add|list|edit|delete|restore — Full task CRUD with soft delete/restore
• watchfire definition — Edit project definition in $EDITOR
• watchfire settings — Configure project settings interactively
• watchfire agent start [task|all] — Start agent in chat, single-task, or run-all-ready mode
• watchfire agent wildfire — Autonomous three-phase loop: execute ready tasks → refine drafts → generate new tasks → repeat
• watchfire agent generate definition|tasks — One-shot generation commands
• watchfire daemon start|status|stop — Daemon lifecycle management
• watchfire update — Self-update from GitHub Releases
• Terminal attach — Raw PTY streaming with resize handling and Ctrl+C forwarding
• Self-healing project index — Auto-registers projects, updates moved paths, reactivates archived projects

TUI (watchfire with no args)

Interactive split-view terminal interface:

• Split layout — Task list (left) + agent terminal (right) with draggable divider
• Left panel tabs — Tasks (grouped by status), Definition (read-only + $EDITOR), Settings (inline form)
• Right panel tabs — Chat (live agent terminal), Logs (session history viewer)
• Agent modes — Chat, task, start-all, and wildfire with phase display (Execute/Refine/Generate)
• Issue banners — Auth required and rate limit detection with recovery guidance
• Keyboard navigation — Vim-style (j/k), arrows, tab switching (1/2/3), panel focus (Tab)
• Mouse support — Click to focus/select, scroll, drag divider to resize
• Task management — Add, edit, status transitions (draft/ready/done), soft delete — all from the keyboard
• Auto-reconnect — Reconnects to daemon on disconnect with status indicator
• Help overlay — Ctrl+h for full keybinding reference

GUI (Electron)

Multi-project desktop application:

• Dashboard — Project cards with task counts, status dots, active task display
• Project view — Tasks, Definition, Secrets, Trash, Settings tabs with collapsible right panel (Chat, Branches, Logs)
• Add Project wizard — Three-step flow: project info → git config → definition
• Branch management — View, merge, delete, and bulk-manage worktree branches
• Agent terminal — Live streaming via gRPC-Web with input support
• Global settings — Defaults, appearance (system/light/dark theme), agent path config, update preferences
• Daemon lifecycle — Auto-restarts daemon if it dies, handles binary updates gracefully

Agent Modes

Mode	Description
Chat	Free-form conversation with the agent at project root
Task	Work on a specific task in an isolated worktree
Start All	Run all ready tasks in sequence, one at a time
Wildfire	Fully autonomous loop: execute → refine → generate → repeat until done
Generate Definition	One-shot: agent analyzes codebase and writes project definition
Generate Tasks	One-shot: agent reads definition and creates task files

Task Lifecycle

draft → ready → done (success ✓ or failure ✗)

• Tasks are YAML files in .watchfire/tasks/
• Agents detect completion by writing status: done to the task file
• Daemon auto-merges the worktree branch, cleans up, and chains to the next task
• Merge conflicts abort the chain to prevent cascading failures

Build & Distribution

• macOS DMG — Universal binary (arm64 + amd64) with GUI, CLI, and daemon bundled
• Code signing & notarization — Developer ID certificate with hardened runtime
• Homebrew — brew tap watchfire/tap && brew install watchfire
• Auto-update — GUI via electron-updater, CLI via watchfire update, daemon checks on startup
• CI/CD — GitHub Actions: lint, test, build matrix (arm64/amd64), sign, notarize, draft release