Baton Changelog: Baton Desktop 0.2.0 — macOS (Apple Silicon) & Windows

0.2.0 marks the first official Windows (x64) release, reworks the workspace task model with parallel sub-tasks in temporary worktrees, launches the official Baton AI Cloud service, adds support for GPT-6.1-Sol and Sonnet 5.5, and brings extensive performance optimizations and design system consistency.

Windows First Release

Windows (x64) is now released alongside macOS (Apple Silicon) as a 0.2.0 stable build (Linux is not included in this release).

• Installation & System Integration:
  • Modern NSIS one-click installer: single-user installation without UAC elevation prompts, launching immediately upon completion with a Microsoft YaHei UI interface.
  • Automatically registers the baton:// protocol handler and thoroughly cleans up registry entries on uninstall.
  • High-resolution colored system tray icon customized for Windows (clearly visible on dark taskbars), supporting left-click to restore and focus the main window.
  • Window close protection: prompts a native confirmation dialog if background terminal jobs, AI generation, or scheduled tasks are still running (prompts only when terminals are actively busy; idle shells do not block closing).
  • Fixed Windows system notifications occasionally failing to activate or focus the application window when clicked.
  • Hardened workspace, dependency cleanup, and skill tool sandboxes against cross-drive (e.g. D:\) and UNC shared path traversal; unified the dangerous executable file denylist (.js, .vbe, .hta, .jar, .url, etc.) across link opening and tools.
• Modernized Terminal & Console Experience:
  • Full adaptation for Windows ConPTY character reflow; supports Ctrl+Shift+C and Ctrl+C (when text is selected) for copy, Ctrl+V/Ctrl+Shift+V for paste, and a right-click context menu (Copy/Paste/Select All).
  • Quick-launch commands submit with a standard carriage return (\r) instead of \n, fixing commands stalling in cmd/PowerShell without executing.
  • Accurately detects whether terminal tabs are running foreground processes to prevent false idle status and command overwrites; accurately tracks cmd working directory via OSC 7.
  • When focus is in the terminal, keyboard chords such as Ctrl+W (delete word), Ctrl+B, Ctrl+R (history search), Ctrl+_ (undo), and Ctrl+1/2/3 are forwarded directly to the terminal PTY instead of being intercepted by window accelerators.
  • Global screenshot hotkeys (F1/F3/Ctrl+Shift+X) are disabled by default on Windows to avoid conflicts with system Help and VS Code; in-app F1 screenshot shortcut remains available.
  • Hides the console window for all background AI child processes (Codex app-server, OpenCode serve, Cline/Grok ACP, Git, version checks, etc.) for quiet execution.
• Process Lifecycle & Tool Compatibility:
  • Agent termination and task cancellation use taskkill to terminate complete child process trees, preventing orphaned processes; fixed Project Run getting stuck in "running" state.
  • Added backoff retry logic for directory renames failing with EBUSY/EPERM due to Windows Defender real-time scanning locks; releases file watchers before deleting projects.
  • BYOK run_shell and start_process tools enforce UTF-8 encoding (chcp 65001), fixing broken quote escaping and garbled output; Git commits use argument arrays for multi-line messages; file edit tools (replace_in_file, etc.) support CRLF line endings.
  • Refactored Windows launcher scripts into .cmd shims to avoid PowerShell execution policy blocks and environment leakage; removed intrusive PATH modification; Node performs case-insensitive command lookups; OpenCode credentials resolve to the standard XDG directory; rejects Windows reserved device names (con, nul) or built-in commands as profile command names.
  • Injects host OS and cmd.exe syntax context into self-hosted model prompts so models avoid generating bash commands.
• Visuals & Typography:
  • Bundles Noto Color Emoji vector font (WOFF2) on Windows, replacing Segoe UI Emoji for consistent cross-platform emoji and space icon rendering.
  • Monospace code fonts fall back to Microsoft YaHei for Chinese characters, preventing fallback to SimSun.
  • Refactored the Windows window shell with a macOS-style layered backdrop (transparent top bar and rail over an opaque base), eliminating border flickering and seam artifacts during window resizing; uses overlay scrollbars to eliminate dialog layout asymmetry.

Workspace Tasks & Parallel Sub-tasks

• One-Workspace Multi-Task Model: Workspaces can host multiple sequential tasks, unified under a single state pipeline (running, needs review, failed); a permanent "Tasks" tab in the right sidebar displays current tasks, history, and "New task", carrying forward prior task summaries.
• Ask Task Progress: Task cards feature an "Ask progress" button that spins up an independent, lightweight, read-only session to inspect task status without interrupting the main task state or execution thread.
• Parallel Sub-Tasks in Temporary Worktrees: Primary agents can spawn concurrent sub-tasks in isolated temporary Git worktrees via host tools, safely merging results back into the primary workspace via three-way merge upon completion.
• Unified Multi-Runtime Tool Support: Injects native task control host tools for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and BYOK; provides matching workspace task tools for Grok, Cline, and OpenCode via the local MCP Gateway HTTP Bridge.

Baton AI Cloud

• Zero-Config AI Without API Keys: Built-in official Baton AI Cloud provider enables out-of-the-box model access without personal API keys; supports switching between Global and China direct-connect acceleration lines; dynamically synchronizes available models from the cloud; provides friendly notices for insufficient balance and rate limits.
• Account Center Panel: Dedicated account view displaying email, avatar, connected line, credit balance, and expiration dates.

Scheduled Send

• Composer features a split send button supporting instant send or "Schedule send";
• Task scheduler automatically creates workspaces and dispatches tasks at designated times, restoring pending timers across application restarts;
• Scheduling dialog disables past dates and times (past time slots grayed out for today); time picker dropdown portals to the document body to prevent viewport clipping within dialogs.

Models & Runtimes

• Codex: Integrated GPT-6.1-Sol as the default model, bumping the codex runtime to 0.159.3.
• Claude: Integrated Sonnet 5.5 as the default model and updated claude-agent-sdk.
• Cline: Refreshed curated model catalog with support for new providers including Xiaomi and xAI.
• Catalog Snapshot: Synchronized and refreshed the models.dev catalog snapshot.

Interface & Design System

• New Workspace Composer: Replaces the floating dialog with a centered, in-pane persistent composer, with a docked tray for Local / Worktree mode and base branch selection, plus one-click cards for "Start from Issue" and "Start from PR"; placeholder reads "Describe what to do, @ to reference files, / for commands".
• GitHub Workflow Synchronized PR Merge: Directly promotes and highlights the Merge button for synchronized pull requests, supporting non-default merge methods.
• Control Sizing Tiers:
  • Systematic control height tiers: inline controls sm (24px), standalone buttons/dialog actions md (28px), form fields and toolbars lg (32px);
  • Standardized square icon buttons (IconButton) and icon sizes (14px inside buttons, 16px standalone); aligned auxiliary buttons beside inputs to 32px;
  • Extracted shared SearchField component aligning Archive and Requirements search styles; board "New task" button aligned to 28px.
• Reasoning Effort Controls: Slider width adjusted to 224px with maximum level labeled "xHigh"; level label and Auto/Manual toggle aligned compactly on one row; hovering step dots displays clear level tooltips below (Low/Medium/High/xHigh), removing redundant header preview text.
• Sidebar & Navigation: Main navigation buttons refined to 72px icon-only squares without text labels for a cleaner look; Select dropdowns wider than their triggers align to the left edge; menus use solid backgrounds and shadows; fixed asymmetric scrollbar padding on macOS with persistent classic bars.
• macOS Branded DMG Window: New 540x400 Retina branded DMG mounting window featuring a soft brand glow, drag-and-drop indicator arrow, and bilingual instructions.

Performance & Architecture

• Hot-Path Streaming & Persistence Optimizations:
  • Terminal tab runtime persistence (persistDetectedRuntime) updates only a single tab record row rather than rewriting the full workspace snapshot;
  • Tab index eviction reads a single column instead of scanning the full workspace store, significantly reducing SQLite I/O;
  • GitHub workflow status checks execute independent git commands in small concurrent waves, reducing main thread waiting time;
  • Elapsed-turn clock ticks entirely inside its own indicator component, preventing timer updates from triggering expensive re-renders of the full AI conversation view.
• Schema-Versioned SQLite Storage: Each database schema version uses an isolated SQLite database file (e.g. baton-v26.db) and automatically seeds data from previous versions during upgrades, preventing database corruption across version switches.
• Safe Workspace Archiving & Deletion: Before archiving or deleting a workspace, actively terminates running setup script process trees (such as npm install), eliminating "directory not empty" error loops caused by lingering file handles.
• Grok Mode Switching Fix: Fixed Grok (>=1.0.9) throwing BATON_AI_ASK_READONLY_UNAVAILABLE during Ask/Plan mode transitions by adopting the ACP session/set_mode protocol.
• Legacy Cleanup: Terminal Claude quick launch runs official claude --dangerously-skip-permissions directly, removing obsolete baton claude wrapper scripts; removed unused Claude Code Workbench IPC channels and provider CLI profiles; Doctor adds checks for Windows long path support.
• Build System & Unsigned Windows Release: Added explicit build support for unsigned Windows releases (ALLOW_UNSIGNED_WINDOWS_RELEASE=true) alongside complete Windows automated test suites.
• Release Infrastructure: Added release infrastructure support for introducing a new platform into an existing update channel (release backend bootstrap-target).

Baton will update automatically the next time you launch it, or you can download the latest version at hecara.com. On Windows, since this build is not code-signed yet, SmartScreen may display "Windows protected your PC"—click "More info" and select "Run anyway" to proceed.