Changelog

Small hotfix: the tray "Check for Updates…" button errored out with "Cannot read properties of undefined." Background auto-update was never affected — only the manual button. Now fixed.

• Fix: the manual update check imported the updater the wrong way for the bundled build and got an empty reference. It now reuses the same working updater the background loop uses, and tells you whether an update is downloading, you're up to date, or you're running from source.
• Background auto-update (checks on launch + every 4 hours) worked all along — if you're on v0.6.1/v0.6.2, just launch Merlin and wait a few seconds for the update prompt.

Critical hotfix: the wizard himself was missing from every installer. Merlin's sprite art was never bundled into the published builds, so the character body never rendered — the chat worked, but Merlin was invisible. Now he shows up.

• Fix: the Microsoft Agent sprite packs are fetched at build time and were never included in the released builds — clippyjs requested the sprite map, got a 404, and drew nothing. The build pipeline now bundles the art before packaging.
• This affected every release to date — v0.6.2 is the first published build the character actually appears in.
• Already installed? Auto-update pulls this for you (NSIS install) — or grab it below.

Merlin can now update himself. Drops electron-updater in, wired to GitHub Releases — installed copies will quietly pull future patches in the background and ask before installing.

• Auto-update via electron-updater — checks on launch and every 4 hours, downloads in background, prompts before installing
• Tray "Check for Updates..." entry for manual checks (shows "you're up-to-date" when there's nothing new)
• Fix: hiding via tray now also clears a focused chat panel — the focus guard ("don't lose unsent text") was meant for LLM-driven hides, not explicit user requests

First versioned release shipped from the new automated pipeline. Marketing site goes live, a tip jar appears in three places, and the tray "Hide Merlin" finally hides the whole assistant — not just the sprite.

• Marketing site at merlinthewizard.org with quickstart, changelog, and download CTA
• Ko-fi support — floating overlay on the site, badge in the README, and a tray menu entry that opens the tip page
• Fix: tray icon click and "Hide Merlin" menu now hide the chat panel + speech bubble too (used to leave the panel orphaned on screen)
• Polished nav — animated purple→gold underline on hover, rotating star ✦ on the logo
• Release pipeline — tag-driven Windows build, NSIS + portable, stable artifact names (Merlin-Setup.exe / Merlin-Portable.exe) so download links never break across versions

Onboarding finally feels like onboarding. A guided wizard walks newcomers from install to first conversation without ever opening a config file.

• First-Time Setup Wizard — guided brain pick, key entry, voice choice, character selection
• Settings tabs — reorganized into Brain / Voice / Character / Hotkeys / Advanced
• Tray overhaul — clearer submenu hierarchy, current-selection indicators
• Fixes: voice latency when switching engines mid-conversation, character sprite flicker on resume

Picking a brain is no longer an act of faith. The Brain Setup Wizard tests your config end-to-end before letting Merlin loose.

• Brain Setup Wizard — connection test, model probe, friendly error messages
• Local-LLM controller — first-class Ollama support with model auto-detection
• Hermes Agent controller — self-hosted brain endpoint, custom system prompts
• Better streaming behaviour for slow local models

The cape now has pockets. v0.4 introduces a plugin API for adding new tools, brains, and behaviours without forking the repo.

• Extensions system — drop-in plugin loader for tools and characters
• Brain controller scaffolding — generic interface for new providers
• Chat panel: better message threading, copy buttons, code-block highlighting
• Minor styling fixes for high-DPI displays

Quality-of-life follow-up to the voice update. Switch ElevenLabs voices without leaving the tray.

• ElevenLabs voice picker in the tray Voice submenu
• Voice preview on hover (1-second sample)
• Fixes for voice-not-applied-until-restart bug

The biggest feature update since launch. Merlin gains a voice — three of them, actually — and learns to gesture along.

• ElevenLabs TTS — high-quality voices with multi-language support
• Audio-synced gestures — sprite animations match what's being said
• Stop control — interrupt Merlin mid-sentence (he won't take it personally)
• Whisper STT improvements: faster cold-start, smaller model option

Chat panel grew up. It now follows Merlin around the desktop instead of being pinned to a corner.

• Follow-Merlin panel — chat window snaps to wherever the sprite lives
• Animation polish: idle states, transitions between gestures
• State machine rewrite — fewer "Merlin is stuck thinking" moments

Merlin opens his eyes for the first time since 2009. Floats. Chats. Has opinions.

• Electron + React desktop shell
• clippyjs sprite engine with the original Merlin pose set
• Initial brain support: Anthropic, OpenRouter
• Tray icon with chat / quit / settings