Release notes

What changed in each Alayo Workbench release.

These notes also appear in the app’s “Check for Updates” prompt.

1.5.3

  • In-app updates: starting with this version, new versions download in the background and install when you quit Alayo Workbench, so it opens as the new version next time. This version itself still needs to be downloaded and installed from the website once. You can turn off “Download and install automatically” in Settings › General › Updates to be asked first; update checks send no identifiers
  • “Check for Updates” in About and “Check for Updates…” in the app menu now show results in a standard update window
  • About now includes “Open Source Licenses”: view the open source components Alayo Workbench uses and their full license texts, offline

1.5.2

  • Large groups: when you drag a folder with many files (more than 24) onto the canvas, the new group lands as a stack instead of spreading across the canvas. Select the stack and press Space (or right-click › Browse Contents) to browse all members in a grid next to it, and drag them out, into another group, or to Finder to copy
  • Groups now have “Display › Cards / Thumbnails” in the right-click menu: Thumbnails shows the group's files as small tiles for a more compact group; switching back to Cards keeps every card where it was
  • Simpler right-click menus: items are grouped by purpose with delete actions at the bottom; moving and copying to other spaces are combined under “Other Spaces ›”; items that don't apply to what you clicked are hidden
  • Canvas notices share one style: the close button is always on the right and multiple notices stack neatly; the trial days remaining now appear in the identity island at the top left
  • Interface wording now uses everyday terms, for example “Rename with AI”, “Details”, and “Archive”; undo history, the timeline, and command bar confirmations use the same words
  • Fixed: after switching between light and dark mode while Alayo was open, stacks and groups on the canvas could keep the old appearance's colors, making group names hard to read

1.5.1

  • Fixed: hovering an image in the Shelf to show its preview and then dragging it right away (or shortly after the preview closed) could crash Alayo Workbench; it no longer crashes
  • Right-click on empty canvas now offers “New File ›”: create an empty text or Markdown file in this space’s base folder; the card lands where you right-clicked and the file opens in its default app. ⌘Z moves the file to the Trash
  • Placement suggestions are now only made for existing groups and frameworks; loose cards with no suitable destination no longer get “new group” suggestions and are no longer reported as “no suitable group found”. When placement fails, the actual error is shown

1.5

  • Settings → AI Models has a new “AI content language” setting: switch your library’s AI content between Simplified Chinese and English. After you confirm, existing files are re-analyzed in the new language, and you can pause and resume at any time; existing group names, filenames, group summaries, and the summaries, notes, and tags you edited yourself are kept
  • When the system language is neither English nor Simplified Chinese (for example French, Japanese, or Traditional Chinese), the interface and AI-generated content now use English instead of Simplified Chinese

1.4

  • File lists show an icon for each file type: in the outline, search results, calendar lists, and the inspector’s group member and multi-selection lists, PDFs, text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, Markdown, plain text, code, and e-books each get their own icon
  • Markdown preview: a properties block at the top of a document (YAML front matter) is shown as a properties table instead of a divider followed by one large heading
  • Alayo AI credits: when you received no included credits, the app now gives the reason (this month’s trial credits are all claimed, your network has reached this month’s limit, or the license was bought at the standard price) instead of showing them as used up
  • New-file notices for monitored folders no longer include hidden files, files still downloading, or temporary and lock files

1.3.1

  • English interface: buttons and text that were cut off in the control island, inspector, audit and archive panels now use shorter labels, with the full description in a tooltip
  • With a group selected, the control island’s main button now reads Subdivide (the context menu still says Smart Subdivide This Group)
  • The inspector’s file type breakdown lists the two largest types plus a count of the rest; hover to see the full breakdown

1.3

  • Drag a group into another group to make it a subgroup; drag a subgroup out to make it a standalone group, or into another group to move it there (still two levels deep)
  • A group can now hold cards and subgroups side by side; when subdividing by rule, files that fit no category stay in the original group instead of going into a separate “Uncategorized” subgroup
  • Resize a group by dragging its edges or corners; right-click and choose Fit Group to Content to snap the frame back to its contents
  • Right-click a group and choose Arrange Group Contents to tidy its cards and subgroups: Compact, By Name, By Type, or By Date Modified. With Auto Arrange on, the group rearranges when you change its width or when items move in or out
  • Dragging in and out of groups feels different: a card or subgroup near a group’s edge is pulled in and the frame responds; dragging out takes a short distance before the item lets go
  • Select cards and groups together and drag them into or out of a group in one go; Shift-clicking a group now selects the group itself

1.2

  • Search across spaces: while searching with ⌘F, matches in other spaces are counted below the search field; open the list to see them by space and jump straight to a file in its space. ⇧⌘F opens the list directly. Search now also matches the containing folder name
  • AI model settings: choose between Alayo AI and your own key as one global setting. Alayo AI shows included and purchased balances, and license holders can top up on alayo.ai
  • When an AI request fails, the reason is shown right in the command bar, group name suggestions, and group summaries; a notice appears during service maintenance
  • Adding files in bulk is faster: adding thousands of files at once shows progress and no longer freezes the window; spaces with 3,000 cards switch, zoom, drag, and marquee-select more smoothly
  • Fixed: when one file had several cards in the same space, Smart Organize could quit unexpectedly, and rule-based organizing, bucketing, and filing could silently do nothing
  • Fixed: Smart Subdivide inside a Framework now shows a proposal to review first; after stowing all groups, loose cards stay visible next to the tray
  • Updated welcome screen and About text

1.1

  • New Frameworks: put selected cards or groups into a staged Flow Framework, or convert an existing group; drag cards between stages, files without a stage wait in the unsorted lane, and every step can be undone
  • Calendar Framework: drag files onto a day in week or month view to schedule them; dates belong to this space's placement and never change the file itself
  • Framework columns can have destination folders. One Move Files entry in the detail island moves files by column or for the whole Framework, with each path reviewed before it runs and undo afterwards; destinations are only prefilled and nothing moves automatically
  • The command bar understands Frameworks: ask it to move files into a stage, sort them by rules, or have AI propose a column for each file from its content, then review each proposal before it applies
  • One file can have several cards on the same canvas: hold ⌥ while dragging a card to add another, and place each in a different Framework; locate or remove each one from the details
  • The inspector's group view lists member files, including in collapsed groups; nested groups dragged into a Framework are split into its lanes; fixed the inbox freezing with thousands of pending files

1.0.5

  • Canvas: fully enclose several groups with the marquee to select them as groups, whether collapsed or expanded; dragging any selected group or member moves them all together, members keep their groups, and one drag is one undo step
  • Canvas: groups and loose cards can be selected together and moved as one; a partial marquee still selects cards
  • Inspector: multi-selection lists groups and files in sections with their original names and type icons; the count is shown only in the header

1.0.4

  • Shelf: rest the pointer on a file to open a read-only preview beside the Shelf; move into it to read, leave to close. Missing or trashed files show the unavailable state
  • Space list: drag rows to reorder spaces within the open and archived sections; the switch menu and ⌘-number shortcuts follow the new order, which persists across restarts
  • Space list: hovering a row reveals an edit button that opens the space editor

1.0.3

  • Shelf: hold ⌥ while dragging a canvas card or shelf item to copy the placement and keep the source; a plain drag still moves it. Neither copies the file itself
  • Shelf items stay after dropping into WeChat, browser upload fields and similar targets; an item leaves the Shelf only once the file is confirmed at its new location, and items follow files renamed or moved in Finder
  • Undo, redo and history jumps verify each file's current location before restoring cards, showing missing instead of a stale path; rapid shortcuts run in order

1.0.2

  • Check for Updates now shows release notes: the update sheet lists changes by version, the About page mirrors them, and the banner gains a What's new button
  • The update sheet uses the island card style shared by other overlays; keyboard and accessibility input stay inside the sheet while it is open

1.0.1

  • Monitored folders can filter by file type (documents, images, …); the space editor moves to a side island
  • The inspector shows the full path and created/modified times; collapsible sections are unified
  • Fix SwiftPM build product paths

1.0

  • First public release of Alayo Workbench