Changelog

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