vibetunnel/CHANGELOG.md

Changelog

[1.0.0-beta.5] - upcoming

🎯 Reliability & Stability

• Fixed critical race condition in terminal output - Terminal sessions now handle high-volume output without corruption or out-of-order text.

🌏 International Input Support

• Fixed Japanese/CJK input duplication on iOS - Typing Japanese, Chinese, or Korean text on mobile browsers no longer produces duplicate characters. IME composition is now handled correctly.

⌨️ Enhanced Terminal Experience

• Shell aliases now work properly - Commands like claude, ll, and other custom aliases from your .zshrc/.bashrc are now recognized when launching terminals through VibeTunnel.
• Prevented recursive VibeTunnel sessions - Running vt inside a VibeTunnel session now shows a helpful error instead of creating confusing nested sessions.

🤖 Claude Code Integration

• Added Shift+Tab support - Full support for Claude Code's mode switching (regular/planning/autoaccept modes) on both desktop and mobile.
• Mobile quick keyboard enhancement - Added dedicated Shift+Tab button (⇤) to the mobile keyboard for easy mode switching.
• Fixed keyboard input conflicts - Typing in Monaco Editor or other code editors no longer triggers unintended shortcuts.

🧹 Code Quality

• Major codebase cleanup - Improved code organization and updated technical specifications for contributors.

[1.0.0-beta.4] - 2025-06-27

🔐 Security & Authentication

• Comprehensive authentication system - Choose between password-only, SSH key-only, both, or no authentication based on your security needs.
• Browser-based SSH key management - Generate, import, and manage Ed25519 SSH keys directly in your browser. Keys are encrypted and stored locally.
• 24-hour session tokens - Stay logged in longer with JWT-based authentication.
• macOS profile integration - See your system profile picture on the login screen.

🎨 Revolutionary UI Design

• Arc-style vertical tabs - Modern sidebar interface inspired by Arc browser makes better use of widescreen displays.
• Persistent session management - All active sessions visible at a glance in a resizable sidebar (240-600px).
• Mobile-optimized interface - Responsive design with slide-out sidebar and proper touch targets.
• Smooth animations - Polished transitions and no layout shifts for a premium feel.

📱 Mobile Terminal Excellence

• Dedicated terminal keyboard - Custom on-screen keyboard with Escape, Tab, arrows, function keys, and common terminal shortcuts (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+Z, etc.).
• Essential special characters - Quick access to pipes, backticks, tildes, and brackets without keyboard switching.
• Fixed wrapped URL detection - Long URLs that span multiple lines are now properly clickable on mobile.

⚡ Performance & Reliability

• Upgraded to Microsoft node-pty v1.1.0 - Latest terminal emulation library for better performance and compatibility.
• Fixed large paste operations - Paste massive logs or code files without the terminal hanging.
• Improved backpressure handling - Terminal gracefully manages data flow during high-volume operations.

🗂️ File Management

• Symlink support in file browser - Navigate through symbolic links with visual indicators showing link targets.
• Better directory detection - File browser correctly identifies whether symlinks point to files or directories.

🐛 Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Fixed session status detection - Terminal status (running/exited) now updates reliably.
• Eliminated double button rendering - UI cleanup for cleaner interface.
• Fixed Monaco editor integration - Code editing now works smoothly within VibeTunnel.
• Improved error handling - Better error messages and recovery from edge cases (including fixes for Terminal.app)
• Enhanced test infrastructure - Comprehensive test suite for improved stability.

🔧 Developer Experience

• No-auth mode for development - Run VibeTunnel without authentication for local development.
• Improved logging - Better debugging information for troubleshooting.
• Alias resolution for commands - Terminal commands resolve through proper shell initialization.

[1.0.0-beta.3] - 2025-06-23

There's too much to list! This is the version you've been waiting for.

• Redesigned, responsive, animated frontend.
• Improved terminal width spanning and layout optimization
• File-Picker to see files on-the-go.
• Creating new Terminals is now much more reliable.
• Added terminal font size adjustment in the settings dropdown
• Fresh new icon for Progressive Web App installations
• Refined bounce animations for a more subtle, professional feel
• Added retro CRT-style phosphor decay visual effect for closed terminals
• Fixed buffer aggregator message handling for smoother terminal updates
• Better support for shell aliases and improved debug logging
• Enhanced Unix socket server implementation for faster local communication
• Special handling for Warp terminal with custom enter key behavior
• New dock menu with quick actions when right-clicking the app icon
• More resilient vt command-line tool with better error handling
• Ensured vibetunnel server properly terminates when Mac app is killed

[1.0.0-beta.2] - 2025-06-19

🎨 Improvements

• Redesigned slick new web frontend
• Faster terminal rendering in the web frontend
• New Sessions spawn new Terminal windows. (This needs Applescript and Accessibility permissions)
• Enhanced font handling with system font priority
• Better async operations in PTY service for improved performance
• Improved window activation when showing the welcome and settings windows
• Preparations for Linux support

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Fixed window front order when dock icon is hidden
• Fixed PTY service enhancements with proper async operations
• Fixed race condition in session creation that caused frontend to open previous session

[1.0.0-beta.1] - 2025-06-17

🎉 First Public Beta Release

This is the first public beta release of VibeTunnel, ready for testing by early adopters.

✨ What's Included

• Complete terminal session proxying to web browsers
• Support for multiple concurrent sessions
• Real-time terminal rendering with full TTY support
• Secure password-protected dashboard
• Tailscale and ngrok integration for remote access
• Automatic updates via Sparkle framework
• Native macOS menu bar application

🐛 Bug Fixes Since Internal Testing

• Fixed visible circle spacer in menu (now uses Color.clear)
• Removed development files from app bundle
• Enhanced build process with automatic cleanup
• Fixed Sparkle API compatibility for v2.7.0

📝 Notes

• This is a beta release - please report any issues on GitHub
• Auto-update functionality is fully enabled
• All core features are stable and ready for daily use

✨ What's New Since Internal Testing

• Improved stability and performance
• Enhanced error handling for edge cases
• Refined UI/UX based on internal feedback
• Better session cleanup and resource management
• Optimized for macOS Sonoma and Sequoia

🐛 Known Issues

• Occasional connection drops with certain terminal applications
• Performance optimization needed for very long sessions
• Some terminal escape sequences may not render perfectly

📝 Notes

• This is a beta release - please report any issues on GitHub
• Auto-update functionality is fully enabled
• All core features are stable and ready for daily use

[1.0.0] - 2025-06-16

🎉 Initial Release

VibeTunnel is a native macOS application that proxies terminal sessions to web browsers, allowing you to monitor and control terminals from any device.

✨ Core Features

Terminal Management

• Terminal Session Proxying - Run any command with vt prefix to make it accessible via web browser
• Multiple Concurrent Sessions - Support for multiple terminal sessions running simultaneously
• Session Recording - All sessions automatically recorded in asciinema format for later playback
• Full TTY Support - Proper handling of terminal control sequences, colors, and special characters
• Interactive Commands - Support for interactive applications like vim, htop, and more
• Shell Integration - Direct shell access with vt --shell or vt -i

Web Interface

• Browser-Based Dashboard - Access all terminal sessions at http://localhost:4020
• Real-time Terminal Rendering - Live terminal output using asciinema player
• WebSocket Streaming - Low-latency real-time updates for terminal I/O
• Mobile Responsive - Fully functional on phones, tablets, and desktop browsers
• Session Management UI - Create, view, kill, and manage sessions from the web interface

Security & Access Control

• Password Protection - Optional password authentication for dashboard access
• Keychain Integration - Secure password storage using macOS Keychain
• Access Modes - Choose between localhost-only, network, or secure tunneling
• Basic Authentication - HTTP Basic Auth support for network access

Remote Access Options

• Tailscale Integration - Access VibeTunnel through your Tailscale network
• ngrok Support - Built-in ngrok tunneling for public access with authentication
• Network Mode - Local network access with IP-based connections

macOS Integration

• Menu Bar Application - Lives in the system menu bar with optional dock mode
• Launch at Login - Automatic startup with macOS
• Auto Updates - Sparkle framework integration for seamless updates
• Native Swift/SwiftUI - Built with modern macOS technologies
• Universal Binary - Native support for both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs

CLI Tool (vt)

• Command Wrapper - Prefix any command with vt to tunnel it
• Claude Integration - Special support for AI assistants with vt --claude and vt --claude-yolo
• Direct Execution - Bypass shell with vt -S for direct command execution
• Automatic Installation - CLI tool automatically installed to /usr/local/bin

Server Implementation

• Dual Server Architecture - Choose between Rust (default) or Swift server backends
• High Performance - Rust server for efficient TTY forwarding and process management
• RESTful APIs - Clean API design for session management
• Health Monitoring - Built-in health check endpoints

Developer Features

• Server Console - Debug view showing server logs and diagnostics
• Configurable Ports - Change server port from default 4020
• Session Cleanup - Automatic cleanup of stale sessions on startup
• Comprehensive Logging - Detailed logs for debugging

🛠️ Technical Details

• Minimum macOS Version: 14.0 (Sonoma)
• Architecture: Universal Binary (Intel + Apple Silicon)
• Languages: Swift 6.0, Rust, TypeScript
• UI Framework: SwiftUI
• Web Technologies: TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, WebSockets
• Build System: Xcode, Swift Package Manager, Cargo, npm

📦 Installation

• Download DMG from GitHub releases
• Drag VibeTunnel to Applications folder
• Launch from Applications or Spotlight
• CLI tool (vt) automatically installed on first launch

🚀 Quick Start

# Monitor AI agents
vt claude

# Run development servers  
vt npm run dev

# Watch long-running processes
vt python train_model.py

# Open interactive shell
vt --shell

👥 Contributors

Created by:

• @badlogic - Mario Zechner
• @mitsuhiko - Armin Ronacher
• @steipete - Peter Steinberger

📄 License

VibeTunnel is open source software licensed under the MIT License.

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Version History

Pre-release Development

The project went through extensive development before the 1.0.0 release, including:

• Initial TTY forwarding implementation using Rust
• macOS app foundation with SwiftUI
• Integration of asciinema format for session recording
• Web frontend development with real-time terminal rendering
• Hummingbird HTTP server implementation
• ngrok integration for secure tunneling
• Sparkle framework integration for auto-updates
• Comprehensive testing and bug fixes
• UI/UX refinements and mobile optimizations